Four candidates seek three Bargersville Town Council seats

The race for Bargersville Town Council features three incumbents taking on a challenger for three seats.

Challenger Roger Hitz will take on three incumbents in the race: Ruth Ann Moore, Susie Qualls and James Rumell II, all of whom are finishing their first term on the council.

The winners of the primary election on May 2 will move on to the general election on Nov. 7. They will face Blythe Potter, owner of Bargersville Wellness, who has filed to run as a Democrat.

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To help voters make their decision in the primary, the Daily Journal asked the candidates questions about their experience and priorities.

Here’s what they said, edited for length and clarity:

Why are you running for this office?

Hitz: I ran before and I’m retired now and have the time to dedicate to the town and I just want to get involved in town government. The first time I ran was in 2019. The reasons haven’t changed too much. I wanted to cut out the wasteful spending. One of the big things was we spent $60,000 for a logo that nobody knows what it is.

Moore: There’s still stuff coming we’re working on, and I still want to see it to fruition. We’re getting close to having (Kephart) Park done, at least first phase of it. When we started three years ago, we were thinking a lot about I-69 and what the ramifications of that would be, but so far we haven’t done a whole lot because it’s not done yet. We’ll see what will be built there and have a part in that. It should be through Johnson County this year, and then it should be going gangbusters out there.

Qualls: I decided to run for reelection because we accomplished a lot in our first term. The council has accomplished a lot, but there’s more to be done and I want to see it through. It’s important to continue progress. We completed the police station and will complete Kephart Park. We implemented two river districts, implemented the Unified Development Ordinance.

Infrastructure-wise, there will be a new water tower at Stones Crossing (Road). We started downtown revitalization in the same area with the plaza project. I would like to continue with economic development and bring more business into Bargersville. I would like to see the continuation of downtown revitalization with new businesses downtown and the development of I-69 and (County Road) 144.

Rumell: I think we’ve had some good strides. I think we currently have a good council, we’ve got our new police department and connectivity with all of Bargersville with walking trails. Revitalizing downtown and the I-69 exit will be another place we’re working on getting developed. That will happen in the next year or two will start taking shape. I think development is starting to go in very good directions. I think it’s a unique time to shape Bargersville it’s a popular place.

I’ve lived in Bargersville about 30 years. Both my kids went through the Center Grove school system, I served as president of the police commission, I served a two-year board term after I was appointed by the town council, I served on the Plan Commission and zoning and Board of Zoning Appeals. I’ve always served the community and that’s why I think my time was ready to run for council.

What are your top priorities if you’re elected?

Hitz: One would be infrastructure with the roads. With all the new housing development and I-69 coming in, the roads are outdated and traffic needs to be updated. They’ve been approving new housing additions the last several years and increasing traffic but the roads haven’t changed. 144 needs to be four to five lanes while the other roads need to be widened.

Moore: We’ve got a lot of old infrastructure in Bargersville that we’ve started to update. If the street needs to be repaved and the piping under it is 50 to 60 years old, we should dig it up and make it right before wasting money on paving. The new water tower coming in at Stones Crossing is a big project for us, and continuing to work on parks and trails. We hired a new parks director in January; she’s a big asset to us and helps us get things done.

Qualls: One of my top priorities for the town is to continue to always look at growth potential and economic development along the I-69, 144 corridor. We have (State Road) 135 downtown. We look at infrastructure and how our utilities play to those areas. We continue to look at safety and quality of life for our residents and provide amenities for our residents. Parks, trails, those things provide a good quality of life. I want to increase local restaurants and businesses; those play into factoring for quality of life, and good health care, accessible health care.

Rumell: To continue work with the police department, support them and work with them, work with their budgets as far as public amenities. We have the new parks department to work and continue to find new ways to make sure the parks inventory is where it should be for the population. As far as development, we have to have good responsible development, with the right mixture of housing and business conducive to the community.

How would you balance development and tradition?

Hitz: I’d like to slow down a little bit the multi-home developments and keep it rural and single-family homes. With 144 and I-69 there’s going to be (development) and I want to try and keep commercial development localized near intersections.

Moore: It’s hard, I’ve lived here 40-something years and have a vested interest in town. I like the small town feel, but we can’t stop the growth. We have to balance homes and businesses. It can’t be all houses, we want places for people to go, and things to do. We have trails and parks, we built a new police station for safety to just try and grow it right. Controlled growth is what we should do. We do traffic studies to see if the roads will support that growth and if our schools can support that growth.

Qualls: Try and make the balance and don’t approve just anything that comes through. Look at what’s best for the community and keep it authentic as to what we are, as best you can. With green space, it’s how much green space? If you’re talking about businesses, what type of quality of jobs do they bring? We would love for our residents to live here, work here and enjoy where they’re living, basically. Our great school systems also provide that for the community, we have great schools here in the community and expanding on what they have and school collaboration is a great thing, too.

Rumell: I think we embrace our roots and continue to intertwine that together. We have a good mixture of both and we’re not forgetting our roots. We have a farmers market, we’re doing a plaza downtown to keep it with the agricultural roots. We’ll have stage seating down and area for families, and it will be called Umbarger Plaza, because Umbarger was part of the ag history of Bargersville.

Is infrastructure keeping up with growth?

Hitz: The sewer system needs to be connected to the I-69 area so that area can develop. Developers want to develop that area and have been working on plans for several years, but without a sewer system out there, they can’t do it. And the roads (need to be widened).

Moore: We’re building a new water tower to support growth. We’re constantly upgrading our lift stations. Any time there’s underground piping, that sort of thing, we don’t just fix it, we replace it so it doesn’t have to be done for another 50 years. We go with bigger pipe to accommodate future growth, There’s no use taking our eight-inch pipe and replacing it with another eight-inch pipe. We should replace it with a 10- or 12-inch pipe.

Qualls: I’ll reference the water tower. We have great utility employees that work hard, stay ahead of it and compared to other communities we do very, very well. We’re utilizing the READI grant and Community Crossings grants to help with providing funding for the infrastructure needed. We look out for opportunities that are available.

Rumell: I do think we’re preparing with infrastructure. We work with the county, we make sure the budget is there for road repair. We try and use our dollars in the appropriate manner to get ready for new traffic. Working with the county is important for interlocal agreements, roundabouts and things like that and is important budgetary-wise for projects. We work with as many grants as we can get.

Are town employee salaries adequate?

Hitz: The town employees are well behind other municipalities in their salaries and especially the utility employees. The utilities make the biggest majority of the money for the town but the employees are well under the average of other locations in the area. Not necessarily any one particular location, but the average salary for workers in Central Indiana.

Moore: We just recently worked on that and we feel as the council, the employees are pretty well paid and have an excellent benefits package. We may not pay the most among surrounding areas, but they have the benefits. The insurance is excellent, there’s lots of paid time off. We feel they have good employee packages.

Qualls: We work hard at doing that, especially with police officers. We do salary ordinance evaluations every year and make sure we’re competitive salary-wise. We want to keep our employees.

Rumell: We actually put a (Human Resources department) in place and we use studies. We have a good HR department that looks at salaries and if we’re paying good wages. We’re always trying to be ahead of that curve as far as pay. It’s very important we’re paying our employees what the market is.

Are parks and library services keeping up with town growth?

Hitz: We need a library, there isn’t one now. The closest one is up at Smith Valley Road and (State Road) 135, but we need one in Bargersville. As far as the parks, most of the parks are located near old downtown but there’s nothing out in the western part of the town. Residents in new housing additions would like a dog park.

Moore: We’re working on a little downtown park and we’re always building trails. We want as much connectivity as we can get. When we get done with a couple of the developments coming, (you’ll be able to) walk all the way from Walnut Grove Elementary School to downtown Bargersville because of the trails. Kephart Park was a big project for us this past year. It’s something we promised the citizens of Bargersville six to eight years ago.

Qualls: I’m always a big advocate for trails, parks and acquiring more land for parks and amenities. I always think trails and connectivity are so important within our community. I think we have talked with (Johnson County Public Library Executive Director) Lisa Lintner in the past about library services they can provide to our community and I think it’s something we can look at in the future.

Rumell: We did a parks evaluation and we’re definitely behind the curve with parks inventory. We did a study and we need more acreage but we’re working on that. That’s why we hired a parks director and created a parks department. There’s so much development going on right now and I want to see something from the library, like family events and services, and a place people can go use the internet with books and great programs for kids. I’d like to have a community center and maybe the library could be part of that.

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