Milan Clerk-Treasurer asks for Marshal to resign at July meeting
Milan had a packed room for their July regular meeting. At issue was unkempt properties and much more.
Town Clerk Treasurer Melissa Teer, stood and addressed the Council, saying she was speaking in the capacity of a resident. “I have concerns along with a lot of other people that I’ve talked to that I want to bring to the forefront here,” she began.
She said there has been a steady decline in the overall appearance and upkeep in the town. “I attribute this decline to neglect of duties of Chief Philip (Terry) Wilson.” (Who serves as the town’s marshal). What she had done previous to the meeting was take multiple photos of properties in Milan and post them on Facebook. She asked residents to come to this particular meeting and make their voices heard.
Teer said of Marshal Wilson, she’s personally witnessed a failure to respond to Ripley County Dispatch, him being unreachable by police radio, disregarding traffic violations, has no animal control, and overall lack of active patrolling. (She was called down by a board member, Drew Olman, telling her to stay on topic). As her name was called several times, she continued, saying the Marshal has not been filing police reports.
Teer said due to the failure of the Marshal to carry out his duties as she outlined, she called for him to resign.
Teer went on to address the vacant, deteoriating, blighted properties in the town. She said this impacts property value, puts financial strain on public revenue, and is an issue of crime and safety, community wellbeing, health and environmental impacts.
“I’m discouraged with your lack of professionalism,” Olman said, as he addressed Teer. “You could have come to us at any time and talked about your concerns.” He didn’t think she should have done it in a public forum.
Chris Kelly spoke up and was asked to leave the town meeting. “This whole town is in chaos.” He said the Marshal wasn’t doing his job. He told the board members he appreciated them, but when it came to Marshal Wilson, he said it was time for him to move on. Kelly said he had initially come to the meeting on another matter but jumped in the fray as the marshal’s position was challenged.
While John said he appreciated everyone coming, he said he wondered where all the concerned citizens have been?
A Milan resident said she was attacked in her own home and couldn’t get the needed service from town police. She said she felt that people were just getting fed up. She said she hadn’t been to meetings before due to caring for her mother but felt the need to do so now.
Another Milan resident said she did her part in cleaning up her property, but where was the town? She felt they also had a duty to help. She talked about overgrown weeds and more. Pictures that were taken by Teer were offensive to a resident as she spoke to the town. She talked about the “service” and “attitude” regarding elected officials. She noted that some of the places do look awful, but why did Teer take the photos and put them on Facebook? “All you’ve done is tick people off and got more drama. Why isn’t the town business open on Friday?” she asked.
During the meeting people spoke out, back and forth, some for and some against what Teer brought before the board. Some felt it needed to be said, and others thought it was done in the wrong way.
A lot of people had something to say and didn’t mind voicing their opinions. Others would chime in with those who were more vocal. At times the chatter in the room was distracting, and on the YouTube video one could barely make out who was saying what. It became a jumbled back and forth that was soon wrangled by the Council.
In other business, Pastor of the Milan Baptist Church, Harris Long, addressed the Council concerning the food and fireworks on July 3. He said it would have been nice if he had been notified about this since it interfered with their annual event. He said they usually have the church’s Ice Cream Social that date around the same time. “I will work with people…if they had showed me the courtesy…” He said no one stopped by to talk about this. He said a police officer did have the time to stop and talk about a tree that was down but couldn’t help with other needs.
He spoke about the recycling/trash situation. He said he’s called them 15 times in the past three years. A lady responded to Rev. Long apologizing for the lack of communication and promised to work more closely with him in the future.
Editor’s Note: There were a lot of moving parts to the town meeting. To view the entire meeting go to Milan Indiana Town Council meeting July 14, 2025, YouTube. Government entities are required by law to live- stream their public meetings as of July 1, 2025. This alleviates the problem of any misunderstanding and/or communication between government agencies and media trying to cover their meetings. I’ve been to multiple meetings where someone has made a statement only to ask for it not to be printed in the newspaper. Public meetings are just that. They belong to the public. I encourage citizens to hold elected officials accountable and not only listen to these meetings but take part when they feel something isn’t right. Then, if it still doesn’t get changed, just vote.
