PIERCETON — Pierceton Town Council saw no major new business at last night’s monthly council meeting, Aug. 14. The meeting managed to get heated as residents brought forward complaints, leading to the council advising the issue go through Pierceton Police Department.

The first complaints came from organizers of Pierceton Days, including organizer Kim Rose. Rose had taken issue with how traffic and street closures were being handled by town marshal Tim Sammons. Sammons was absent from the meeting due to being out of town.

Rose’s main complaint was she felt Sammons was not properly doing his job in handling traffic before and during Pierceton Days, although she praised other officers. “Tim’s the only one, the boys are just working…He is the head of our police.”

Rose’s statements indicated that she felt the way issues were handled reflected poorly on the event. “Pierceton Days represents, besides just a carnival uptown, it’s our churches, it’s our Boy Scouts, our Girl Scouts, our veterans. Besides the people, it raises money for all of these clubs.”

The council advised that the solution for future years is to better arrange street closures, vendor parking and traffic control in advance. Rose wanted to continue the discussion at a time when Tim Sammons was present.

A resident, identified only as Annie, was back again to try and take care of complaints about a go kart track on her property. She had attended the May meeting as well. Argument started when members of Annie’s household made distasteful accusations against Pierceton Police Officer Jim Bumbaugh regarding him filming their children while they were riding go karts.

Bumbaugh remained calm through the accusations and explained that he was at the residence on yet another complaint of the family riding go karts. He explained he was merely capturing video to show to the town marshal when he returns from vacation. The video was recorded on his police department issued cell phone.

The neighbor who had made the complaint, Roger, was also in attendance at the meeting. He stated that the issue has been ongoing, ranging from the go karts getting too close to a property line fence, the kids going too fast resulting in a torn up lot and the noise level.

A battle of he-said-she-said ensued, with both sides claiming the other was irrational.

The board, after clarifying that Officer Bumbaugh was in the right to record the incident no matter the age of the children, told the group they would no longer hear the complaints and they were handing it over to the police department. Officer Bumbaugh received the names and numbers of those involved to contact them at a later date after Officer Sammons had a chance to review what he had recorded.

In other business:

• The board clarified for concerned residents that the letters sent out regarding the unsafe building ordinance were courtesy letters and were not warning of law enforcement. As long as progress is being seen on dilapidated buildings, the board said they are content.
• Fire Chief Gordon Baker announced the Fire Prevention Open House, 5-8 p.m. Oct. 13.
• The next standard meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m.