25 May 2004 Council Meeting

Present: Charlie Fehrman, Chairman, Bill Ullrich, Bo Lansing, Tom Cheek, Mark Mitter, and Dennis Kraus. Absent: Aaron Negangard and Cary Pickens, Auditor. (Helen covering minutes for Pickens)

1. Lorie Howard- County Administrator- absent due to illness. Her items were: $60 inadvertently left off when OKI was paid. Cheek motioned, Kraus 2nd. Passed
Harrison EMS contractual amounts for county coverage - $34,000. Cheek motioned, Mitter 2nd to Table for more clarification.

2. Library Capital Projects – Sally Stegner and Mary Alice Horton- Resolution signed for the annual review of their 3-year plan to show continued county support. Cheek motioned, Ullrich 2nd - signed resolution.

3. RSVP- Mary Lewis, program director, and Jack Kennedy, treasurer – primary funding sources for RSVP are Cities, County, Grants, and Federal Funding. Requesting $6,000. They presented their budget and gave short presentation of all the programs they help. RSVP volunteers donated 56,000 hours to the community last year.
Cheek motioned, Lansing 2nd - $6,000 approved.

4. Gladys Russell Park – Steve Walker – Culmination of several years attempts to get water to the park. Now need $27,500 extra to accommodate a second plan because of ROW difficulties with one citizen. North Dearborn Water to upgrade their piping to accommodate the park needs. Kraus motioned. Ullrich 2nd - $27,500 granted out of fund 126 Park Board funds. Verification of the original denial of ROW and documentation of services rendered from the water company are required before payment. (Give to auditor)

5. Aurora Farmer’s Fair – George Feustel – Requested $9,000 from Youth funds. Cheek motioned, Kraus 2nd – FAILED. Eliminated the uneducational elements and granted $3,500 for Grandpa Cratchit (sp?) event. Mitter motioned, Cheek 2nd. OK’d.

6. HVL Parking lot for sports complex – Craig Lysne and Bob Will- Cut the request to $15,000 for paving of a second lot. Cheek motioned, Ullrich 2nd, OK’d.

7. 911 Communications- Charlie Ashley - Grant $101,000 from 911 fund, grant $7500 for equipment repair, grant $12,000 for phones, and table the $2500 for dishes to add to the tower until results of Lorie Howard’s negotiations with tower company are completed. Ullrich motioned, Cheek 2nd, OK’d.

8. Highway Dept.- Mike Davis- updated Council on roadwork.
Requested 203 Fund- $36,000 for East Laughery slip repair in house. Cheek motioned, Mitter 2nd, OK’d.
Tabled from last month- requested $40,000 from cum bridge. Cheek motioned, Ullrich 2nd. Kraus NAY- Passed.
Insurance requested out of highway budget- $81,000 per half year. (property and equipment ins) Tabled till June.
Equipment repairs- $7500 granted- Cheek motioned, Lansing 2nd. OK’d. (Kraus – nay)
$10,000 Truck repairs. Lansing motioned, Mitter 2nd, OK’d.
$5,000 for tires, $2,000 for hardware and tools, $400 drug testing, $1500 cell phones (7). Cheek motioned, Mitter 2nd. OK’d.
Uniforms tabled until they get details on contractual arrangement.
Davis- FYI told them Triple Whipple is being revived with Rising Sun possibly. It’s county’s bridge so expenses would fall in county hands.

9. Jail- Dave Lusby- $80,000 for medical for inmates and $100,000 for meals. Kraus motioned, Cheek, 2nd. OK’d.

10. Building Dept.- Jim Smith presenting for Al Werner - $10,000 for part time help coverage for Don Townsend. Ullrich motioned, Lansing 2nd. OK’d with Kraus abstaining because he missed part of the discussion.

12. Prerogative of the Chair-
Solid Waste Bins will not be lease to own arrangement- IDEM would not allow that- they will still honor the loan payback. Loan signed for UCB Bank. (from April)
Loan signed for Welfare Office with UCB also. (from April)
Gov’t Financial Services contract for $6,500 with Frank Cummings signed. Kraus motioned, Lansing 2nd. Signed.
Budget hearings- dept. heads will have to be there for their budget hearings.
Minutes approved with minor correction. Negangard’s Senator Byrd comment had been eliminated. Cheek – in jest- said he wanted it included.
Mitter (who is also Plan Commission Chairman) informed the council that a new attorney for the Rollander Development was present Monday at the Plan Commission, indicating that the Health Board must have spoken with their attorney about deciding who he was working for. [Note: Richard Butler, previously Rollander’s attorney and Health Board attorney had sued the county for Rollander]

Meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township

24 May 2004 Plan Commission Meeting Summary

Present members were: Mike Hall, Nick Held, Patrick de Maynadier, Karen Shell, Tarry Feiss, Roger Woodfill, and Dave Schmidtgoesling. Absent: Rick Pope

Two subdivisions were denied at the 24 May 2004 Plan Commission meeting. Each took over 2 hours of discussion at the public hearing.

The 26-lot Golf View Acres Subdivision (29 acres) on Soaphill Road in Manchester Township submitted by Rollander Enterprises was denied. Several attempts to pass it with various conditions failed. This was tabled from April's meeting and still had another 2+ hours discussion at this meeting.

Fox Hole Estates (7 lots - 38.644 acres) on North Dearborn Rd in Kelso) with owner Everett Fox Jr. was tabled by the applicant until June.

The 187-lot (69.369 acres) Heritage Ridge Subdivision by Welsh Development owned by B&Z Development in Miller Township on Stateline Road was denied.
[NOTE:Jeff Hayes- form Planning Director of Dearborn County who revised our zoning ordinances - presented for the applicant.]
Sewer issues were the problem the first time this property was presented several years ago. Road issues with Stateline predominated the discussion this time, as did the single access point for 187 lots. Other issues included drainage and sewer capacity questions and requested variances. Most of the opponents to the subdivision were from the adjoining Hidden Valley Lake community and submitted 268 petitions opposing the development citing negative impacts on their community. High density seemed to be the issue for them.
[NOTE: Sugar Ridge Planned Unit Development with 315 units is across the street from this property now. The impact to Stateline from Sugar Ridge will be significant. Adding another 187 units would further increase this impact of development. Stateline is not slated for further road work this year.]
Denial was unanimous.

Meeting adjourned at 12:30 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township

Notes from 17 May 2004 Commissioner Meeting

Present: Vera Benning, Acting President, and Dan Batta. Absent: Karen Shell
Present also: Cary Pickens, Auditor, Lisa Lehner, County Attorney, and Lorie Howard, County Administrator.

This meeting resembled a working meeting.

The main items of interest included:

1. Discussion concerning the inspections of road paving and how they were being accomplished. Mike Davis, Hwy Director, replied that there were bonds in place and if anything went wrong in a year it would be fixed under warranty. Implication seemed to be that there was no need to inspect as long as the bond was in place. This seemed to contradict the plan earlier that he was going to see to it that inspections of the work would be done by the Hwy Dept. There were also questions regarding the density gauges that HC Nutting Co. would be using to check the roadwork. The county had owned one of these in years past, but it seems there is no one certified (engineering wise) to use it.
A lengthy discussion on a $0.39 O-ring problem with some of the county’s caterpillar equipment finally concluded when it was determined that the problem was fixed!!

2. Lorie Howard is incorporating more specific language into the paving bid templates so that when they are converted to contracts they will serve the county’s needs better.

3. Owner of a landlocked piece of property is seeking an easement and neighbor involved wants the county to get the easement rather than just a private agreement with the landowner. The two landowners are Ullrich and Knopf (sp?)

4. Vera Benning wanted to table the item on destruction of old trial records from the courthouse until she heard from Judge Humphrey. Lusby and Pennington were in charge of the records and the Records Destruction Committee met concerning these. There was concern that there wouldn’t be adequate supervision at the actual shredding to be certain nothing needed was shredded. They need to get extra appropriations to shred them. (approximately $3200 –3300)

5. Bid documents for jail expansion strategy and architectural design are being written up under the supervision of the county administrator. (Lorie Howard) The team of individuals from the courthouse and community corrections staff are helping design these documents.

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
LAwrenceburg Township

3 May 2004 Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Karen Shell, President, Vera Benning, and Dan Batta, Cary Pickens, Auditor, and Lisa Lehner, Attorney.
Lorie Howard, County Administrator was on vacation.

1. Economic Development Initiative – Bill Ritzmann- Gave a presentation outline the background and history of the group. They wish to form a public-private partnership for the purpose of promoting economic development in Dearborn County. Their projected annual budget is $250 to 300,000.
They have committed pledges from over thirty businesses for $135,000 a year for three years. The list includes banks, surveyors, realtors, the hospital, IVY Tech, homebuilders and construction related companies, Perfect North Slopes, telecommunication companies, road paving companies, electrical companies, engineering companies, computer companies, WSCH, developers, and a law office [Note: Wood Lamping, and Lehner Law Office- and Lisa Lehner ALSO functions as the County’s attorney. This could present some ethical issues and conflict of interest, if Lisa has to advise the commissioners regarding their agreements with the initiative and the money going from the county to that entity.]
They have committed public funding of $100,000 a year for three years from Lawrenceburg. This brings the annual total to $235,000. To meet a $300,000 annual budget requires an additional $65,000 to date. They intend to include all cities, towns and villages in the public sector.
Ritzmann asked the county to contribute the $25,000 that they have already earmarked from the Economic Development budget and also use the money they had in the chamber and the Visitor and Tourism Bureau earmarked for economic development, thus using no new money. [NOTE: It was unclear here if the $25,000 was the entire county share per year or if there was more under the chamber and CVTB budgets. It would seem that the other towns and cities should have something left to contribute if they want to be part of the initiative.]Discussion from the commissioners included:
Dan Batta: The bottom line is that progress requires change but that change isn’t always progress. Concerned that everyone will want THEIR proposal pushed. More details are needed so that everyone understands what it is that you will be doing. You need to create this entity so that it is safe to express your opinions. When you have a marketing effort like this you have to have something to market. I think you will be coming back to us for that- for infrastructure or other needs to get ready for businesses to come in. In order to promote something, we have to have something to promote. This will be the challenge.
Ritzmann – We understand and accept that challenge.
Karen Shell - Taxpayers need help – we can’t stay a bedroom community forever. The person you hire will have to know what to do- they will have the answers. It should be someone from outside the county so that it is not political.
Vera Benning – We need to make a motion today to show approval to amend the contracts with CVTB, Chamber, and the Economic Redevelopment Commission to transfer that money to this initiative.

Lisa Lehner restated Benning’s motion for the record and Dan Batta 2nded it. Motion passed.
Dan Batta- You need to make sure that the private dollars that are donated are for the community and not used as leverage to get their own way.

2. Animal Control- Cheryl Lohmiller – gave brief report on the shelter’s adoptions and current status of repairs to the trailer. Currently there are 57 dogs and 40 cats at the shelter.

3. Emergency Management- Bill Black – Starting the new Certification program with 14 people tomorrow night. They received a $50,000 check for the 800 MgHz system. Passed out the GIS information sheet and has $47,000 for a new flyover of the county that will cover 100% of the costs. Only 30 counties in the state have 100% coverage of these costs. He is communicating with Planning, assessors , Highway, and the Soil and Water district to coordinate needs to get the right pictures.
There was some discussion over the moving of recycle bins to heir lot- EMS doesn’t want there to be any dumping there. He will check with BJ Ault to see if it’s a temporary need due to L-bg’s construction.

4. Transportation- Mike Davis – Finishing up the slip on Pinhook Rd. this week. White’s Hill realignment – will work around the one property that has ROW issues because it’s in court till the fall. June 2 was to be start date for the project and closed to local traffic. Commissioners pushed to make someone ACCOUNTABLE for the work during this project. Davis decided that Tim Moore will be supervising all the work and HC Nutting will report to him. Per Cary Pickens- council earmarked $1.2 million for this project. There was a later problem brought out- Mark Seiler came in with the bad news- LMS won’t have their bond for 45-60 days, thus delaying their startup time. [Note: Bonds are supposed to be part of the bid process- so if their bid was accepted, it should mean a bond was in place.]
A meeting Wednesday night from 6:30-8:30 at the North Dearborn Library will cover the public inputr for the realignment of North Dearborn Rd. from McCann to Dover.
The slips on Wilson Creek and East Laughery are getting too severe to let go. He is trying to get funding from Council to fix these. More funding issues with the Triple Whipple Bridge and the Ohio Cty portions.
INDOT plans to redo the intersection with Georgetown and SR1 and also the Bridge near Salt Fork. Davis wants to coordinate with state work on Georgetown to fix the little bridge and the hill to HVL.

5. YES Home – Cathy Piche and Susan Craig – application approved for the county to be the pass through on a $30,000 grant for IHFA to get a feasibility study done on the uses besides just transitional apartments for the first floor. Karen Shell was authorized by the commissioners to sign off on this when it is ready.

6. Septic waste- Dan Goodman- has a septic tank cleaning company and nowhere in the county to dump the waste. SDRSD (Dennis Feichtner) said they can’t dump county waste there because the county doesn’t pay into the district as a user. Commissioners were of the opinion that it would be the responsibility of the septic owners to pay the $50 fee or whatever SDRSD assessed for the dumping. Goodman will check with the County Sewer Board.

7. County Att’y- Lisa Lehner- introduced Elaine Korb as the new law clerk in their office.

8. County Auditor – Cary Pickens- Minutes approved and claims paid.

9. County Commissioners – Karen Shell- Travis Miller requested an old Sheriff’s vehicle to use for the Planning Dept. Approved by commissioners.
The county engineer ad includes the concept that the engineer must be a PE with IN residency and and IN license in order to qualify for the $20,000 stipend from the state.

10. Public Comment – Chris Mueller- reported to the commissioners that the GIS issue and the transportation assessment information needed attention. Council funded the study, they funded the dedicated computer for the information, they funded the GPS equipment for the highway department to keep information up to date. BUT they did not approve a GIS intern to enter the data this summer. This means that the information stops at last June. Karen Shell will speak with Charlie Fehrman regarding this.

Meeting adjourned 11:15 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township