NEW PALESTINE — After months of abstaining on a vote which would have helped reject or accept a multi-million bond measure for a $63 million high-end apartment complex, council member Brandee Bastin changed her mind and cast a deciding thumbs up.
Bastin’s “yes” for the bond ordinance resurrected an apartment complex project which had died two weeks ago after the developer, Becovic Management Group of Indiana, pulled out following another delay on the bond measure vote. Up until Wednesday’s vote, the council had struggled bitterly on the bond issue for many months being unable to get enough votes to either officially pass the measure or completely reject it.
During the most recent council meeting, Bastin told the standing-room-only crowd as well as her fellow council members she had abstained from voting on the bond issue for so long due to the fact her employer, Hancock Regional Hospital, had owned the land to be sold to the developer.
However, Bastin learned this week that the final two parcels HRH had owned were officially sold, removing any possible conflict of interest in her mind.
“I’ve not come into this decision lightly,” Bastin said. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this.”
Once Bastin learned her employer, HRH, no longer owned any land inside the town’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) area, Bastin said she felt free and clear to place a vote, one which helped the bond measure pass.
“Our legal council advised me Monday that, according to Beacon (property search) public records, that no part of the TIF allocation area belongs to Hancock Regional Hospital,” Bastin said. “My statement from day one was that as long as there was ownership there, there was a conflict of interest and I would not vote.”
The bond measure ended up passing 3-1 with one council member abstaining. Council President Clint Bledsoe, who noted he was in favor of the apartment complex, just not the bond, voted against the bond ordinance. Bastin, along with council members Bill Niemier and Chris Lytle, voted in favor of the measure, which lowered the bond from an original $5 million to $3.9 million.
Council member Angie Fahrnow elected to abstain from the bond vote, stating she was not against the complex but didn’t feel the process for which the bond was determined was either fair or honest.
“I have issues with the way it was all handled and the way the deal was done,” Fahrnow said. “I didn’t agree on how the business was handled.”
Fahrnow then shifted the focus away from the bond ordinance and put it on Niemier, who is a real estate attorney for a developer who owns land in the town’s TIF area. Fahrnow stated Niemier had no right to be on the town’s Planning Commission when his employer was splitting up land (not related to the apartment complex) for development in the area, nor did she want Niemier on the town’s Redevelopment Commission.
Niemier, who has the legal right to vote on all the issues brought before the boards he is on, said that he didn’t vote on the rezoning of his boss’s property, which Fahrnow has accused him of. He also eventually appeased Fahrnow and stepped down from the Planning Commission. However, he remains an active member of the RDC and has voted on measures which Fahrnow believes he should not.
“When my boss came in to active the TIF in those areas that he owns, I did vote on that because I don’t have a financial interest on that, and I told her that at the time of the vote,” Niemier said after the meeting. “But, those issues and that vote have nothing to do with the bond for the apartment complex and, plus, it was 5-0 and had I abstained, it still would have passed.”
During her statement at the council meeting before the bond vote, Fahrnow also accused Niemier of handling all the correspondences concerning the bond and then not sharing the information with the council. However, all bond paperwork has been available to all council members before each of the votes. Plus, the council has made available for all council members the people who worked on the deal, including the bond.
It was Fahrnow, Niemier noted after the meeting, who contacted Becovic on her own several weeks ago and talked with him about lowering the bond from the original $5 million to $3.9 million and altering the original plans, not Niemier.
Before the vote, Fahrnow also questioned Lytle, who attended the meeting via zoom, asking him if he had a meeting agenda and if he had read the agenda and the paperwork associated with the meeting.
At that point, the town’s attorney interrupted Fahrnow, telling her there was a motion on the floor and that her questioning was not relevant to the vote. Fahrnow then told the attorney to “be silent.” That prompted Niemier to remind Fahrnow the apartment project has been the main topic for the council for over a year and council members didn’t need to be interrogated on if they’d read the paperwork.
Niemier’s comments prompted Bledsoe to interrupt the word-scuffle and call for the vote.
After the meeting, Niemier said that Becovic is all-in on the project and will withdrawal his plans to pull out now that the bond measure has passed.
“He came back and told us, if the measure was approved tonight (Wednesay), he’s in and, if not, he’s 100% out,” Niemier said. “This really was do or die.”
Town manager Jim Robinson had reached out to Becovic over the past several days despite the deal being off the table and told him he thought the council should take one final swing at passing the measure.
“I think we had a foul tip on that third strike swing two weeks ago and it kind of felt like the council should go at it at least one more time after spending a whole year on this project,” Robinson said. “There were some things to shore up with the legal description on that property that, once handled by HRH officials, it helped Brandee feel better about stepping up and having the confidence to vote without any conflict.”
Why that part of the process wasn’t addressed far earlier to avoid months of bickering and indecision among the council is not known, Niemier said. However, he noted it’s good to have the issue behind the council because he feels the project is what is best for the community and county.
Officials with New Palestine say they expect construction to start sometime in the spring of 2024 after months of design and engineering work.
