Huntingburg City Council approves wheel tax ordinance amendment, greenlights utility purchases

The Huntingburg City Council approved an amended wheel tax ordinance at its recent meeting.

City Attorney Phil Schneider explained that the original draft of Ordinance Number 2026-28, introduced at the previous meeting, would have inadvertently increased excise wheel taxes on some motor vehicles by up to $10 in certain cases. The amended version was revised to track exactly what the county currently charges.

Schneider told the council the amount would track with what the county is already doing. “This would just redistribute some of those funds now to the city,” he added.

Councilman Steve McPherron sought clarification before the vote. “So it’s not an increase, we’re just getting it sent here instead of the county?” he asked. Schneider confirmed that was correct.

Under the amended ordinance, the wheel tax — applied to heavier vehicles — was set at $25 for buses, recreational vehicles, semi-trailers, trailers with a declared gross weight of more than 9,000 pounds, and trucks and tractors with a declared weight of more than 11,000 pounds but less than 78,000 pounds. Trucks and tractors with a declared gross weight of 78,000 pounds or more were set at $40, matching the county’s existing structure.

For the motor vehicle excise tax, which applies to passenger vehicles and passenger-type trailers, the council approved a rate equal to 10% of the state excise tax value, with a minimum of $8. This covered passenger vehicles, collector vehicles, trailers, motorcycles, and motor-driven cycles, among others.

Mayor Neil Elkins noted the urgency of the vote. “To be eligible for state funding on the CCMG (Community Crossings Grants) and the lane miles, we have to hit the minimum,” he said, adding that the state does not consider the city as having a wheel tax unless a specific ordinance outlines the city’s portion of the distribution. The council voted 5-0 to adopt the amended ordinance.

In utility department reports, Energy Superintendent John Reutepohler updated the council on a busy month for both the gas and electric departments.

On the gas side, four new services were added, with four additional applications received. Crews are racing to finish valve inspections in the Jasper and Ireland areas and gas meter changeouts before winter, when the work gets harder. Ninety meters have been changed out since the last meeting, leaving approximately 100 remaining.

On the electric side, the department completed the transition to Sensus Smart meters — a project that began two and a half years ago. The department also replaced three primary poles on East 3rd Street and East Sunset, along with three secondary poles.

Reutepohler congratulated two of the department’s apprentices for advancing to the final year of their apprenticeship program, which qualifies them to work on energized primary lines carrying over 7,000 volts.

The council approved three purchasing items for the electric department. A quote for approximately 13,000 feet of underground primary wire from Brownstown was approved at a not-to-exceed price of $13,500. A pole purchase from Thomason Lumber — the lowest of three bids at $19,672 — was also approved for 30-foot and 40-foot wooden poles. Finally, the council approved the purchase of four transformers from Brownstown at $38,436.40 to support two new three-story buildings expected to come online early next year.

Councilman McPherron commended the electric department’s track record.

Water Superintendent Jerry Austin reported on a range of distribution and infrastructure activities completed during the month.

A water main break at 13th and Jacobs Court was repaired with a stainless steel repair clamp, causing minimal disruption to service.

The department also completed meter replacements at Southridge High School, which required rebuilding a large portion of the meter vault due to differences in the new meter’s lay length, and at Farbest. With those two replacements, Austin was able to report the city meter system replacement project is now completeed and all the city’s meters are from a single supplier.

Austin explained the replacement program began under former superintendent Gary Meyerholtz.

The department also continued work on its lead and copper service line survey, with fewer than 200 unknowns remaining. During a water main project along Main Street, more than 86 lead service lines were replaced. “Anytime we find them, we don’t leave them in the ground,” Austin said. “We remove them immediately and take care of the problem.”

The council also approved a right-of-way easement for Patoka Water, granting a 16-foot-wide permanent easement and a 20-foot-wide temporary construction easement to allow the relocation of a metering vault at the water treatment facility. The existing vault, aging and prone to flooding from a high water table, will be moved approximately 500 feet east. The city expects to incur some costs related to relocating its SCADA monitoring equipment as part of the project.

Austin noted an added benefit of the vault relocation — the opportunity to connect the facility to generator power from the high service pump building, eliminating the need for manual intervention during power outages.

“Anytime the electric goes out, we lose our Patoka pit controls,” Austin said. “Somebody physically has to go out there… and someone has to stay there with it and monitor it until that power’s back on.”

The easement motion passed unanimously.

Austin also updated the council on paving tied to recent utility repairs. Several utility cut patches around town were on a fast-moving paving schedule, including the intersections at Eighth and Van Buren and Seventh and Van Buren.

Austin also detailed a repair at Hickory and Maple, a chronic trouble spot where the water main has broken three times in as many years. When crews dug up the intersection to replace the line, they found 15 repair clamps packed into just 60 feet of pipe — evidence of decades of patchwork on a section of main set directly into bedrock, where sharp rock had worn through the pipe walls over time. Crews installed an inline valve at the site to limit outages for nearby residents the next time work is needed in the area.

Other larger repairs — including breaks near Short Fourth and Van Buren, and on Fifth Street between Walnut and Geiger — were contracted out rather than handled in-house, given their size. Street Superintendent Jason Stramm has submitted a new list of roads the city plans to pursue for Community Crossing Grant funding next year, with priority given to completing any outstanding water main, service line, or lead line work before those roads are repaved.

Austin also said, as confirmed by Mayor Elkins, that Van Buren between Seventh and Eighth Street is expected to be repaved later this year, likely around November.