Noting the town may not have full sovereignty on the Harrison County side of its borders, Milltown Town Councilwoman Jean Melton made her concerns known at the council’s meeting on May 8.

“I would like to make the council aware that…Harrison County has an ordinance that does not allow the subdivision of ‘rural’ property without a variance being passed,” she said.

Melton, who said she was encouraged by an individual that “the town should take control of their own planning within the corporation,” explained that is not only burdensome to property owners wanting to sell sections of their land, but also the town.

“The thing is, we have 20% capacity at our new sewer plant. We’re looking to grow our town and increase our tax base, and this is going to be very prohibitive if we can’t do that,” she said.

Resident Bill Byrd said he doesn’t believe such an ordinance by Harrison County is legal.

“I don’t think they can do that to our town. We’re incorporated and we’re self-governing,” he said.

“Well, we don’t have an ordinance that says that, though,” Melton replied. “We don’t have an ordinance that says that properties can be divided within the town of Milltown.”

The council is to provide its attorney, Greg Reger, with a copy of the Harrison County ordinance for review.

The meeting was the first for Reger, whom the council voted 2-0 (Councilman Justin Barnes was absent) to hire earlier that evening. He succeeds David Hutson, who resigned earlier this year.

Reger, who also serves as the attorney for the Crawford County Council, practices with the law firm Lorch Naville Ward in New Albany. He noted that Lorch Naville Ward is in the process of hiring Hutson, which will help with the transition.

Reger will be paid $150 per hour, half rate for travel, and the IRS rate for mileage. He said that should work out to about the same amount the town paid Hutson, who billed the town a flat rate.

The council also approved Police Chief Jimmie Vincent’s request to move the town’s email to the state system offered through the Indiana Office of Technology. Vincent said the town can get five email addresses with the milltown.in.gov domain for $630 per year.

“That includes all the storage that we’ll need. We can back up records, where now we don’t. We just have paper copies,” he said. “I really think that’s something we need to look at.”

Council president Jerry Mackey noted the town is having problems with its current email, as the account is locked and the provider hasn’t been able to unlock it. Vincent said if there are any issues with the in.gov emails, the town would be able to call the IOT for assistance.

“Another thing that they offered us was a website,” Vincent said, adding the cost would be $100 per month.

The council, however, decided against the website for the time being.

In another matter, the council voted 2-0 to reimburse Joyce Young of the Events Committee $261.52 for out-of-pocket expenses related to the town’s Easter egg hunt.

The town council’s next regular meeting will be Monday, June 12, at 7 p.m. at the town hall.