Wednesday, May 24, 2006

23 May 2006 County Council Meeting Notes

Dearborn County Council Plays the Money Game for 5 ¼ Hour Meeting

23 May 2006 County Council Meeting Notes

Present:
Charlie Fehrman, Chairman, Mark Mitter, Liz Morris, Dennis Kraus, and Bo Lansing.
Absent: Bill Ullrich and Tom Cheek
Also present: Cary Pickens, Auditor, and Bryan Messmore, Administrator

There were no uniformed officers present at this meeting.

Register Publications covered the meeting also.

1. Dearborn Highland Arts Council- Marilyn Bowers- Approved $1000 from Youth Services for Gateway to the Arts to subsidize classes for children and a parent.

2. Sunman Dearborn Summer Art- 2 week program- Ruth Ann Batta- Approved $1000 from Youth services.

3. Library Capital projects- Sally Stenger from L-bg and Mary Alice Horton from Aurora- received their annual approval on a 3-year plan.
Pat Ritzmann was also appointed for 4 years to the L-bg Library Board.

4. Prosecutor’s Office- Aaron Negangard- presented the Sheriff/Prosecutor’s Office booklet on Law and Order published recently in the local newspaper from discretionary funds.


Recovered $15,000 in seized assets from drug busts.
They need a fund to put money from the mayor’s for office supplies travel and conference expenses on the Special crimes Unit – Reimbursed to County General.
Requested $10,000 in investigational funds for a murder trial- Granted from riverboat fund.

5. Planning Dept- Mark McCormack- Requested $18,000 in litigation expenses- Tabled to allow to get this at later meeting.
$3958.60 approved out of contingency fund to cover current expenses for legals.

6. Margaret Minzer and Dennis Kraus, Jr. presentation on GIS status – see commissioner meeting notes in early May for details. Council advised Minzer to develop a wish list with subsets for budget hearings.
Kraus Jr. was approved to use $60,000 of his $80,000 corner perpetuation fund to use GPS to locate section corner markers.

7. Health Dept.- Doug Baer and Terry Miller- Public Health Coordinator- requested Identicard system credentialing equipment for $10,000. Tabled.

8. Charlie Fehrman announced that PSEG is appealing their taxes and if they win there will be a 10% reduction in the budget- across the board.

9. DCRSD- Sewer Board- Mike Hankins accompanied by John Maxwell and Brett Fehrman- asked for $4.4 million for SDRSD membership and expansion and $1.5 million for St. Leon expansion projects supposedly for TIF areas primarily.
Hankins comments:
In 2003 DCRSD got $125,000 from County and $100,000 from DC Foundation as seed money for 370 sewer hookups.
In 2005 DCRSD changed boundaries to take in the entire county not currently serviced.
This year with Woolpert study DCRSD discussed the ability to own part of a sewer treatment plant and want to join SDRSD. Initially SDRSD had some members who were skeptical about the county treating wastewater. Now the skepticism has waned.
The other site is in St. Leon where 2 TIFs need treatment. We need funding to treat sewage in the TIFs in the northern part of the county- to be shovel ready.
The first sewer construction is Stewart St and Cole Lane to be bid and finished this summer.
We can eventually get pipe, collect fees, and repay the county.
Lawrenceburg says if we put in $1mil they will loan $5 mil.
Mitter asked when revenue stream might start to come back to county. Hankins said there are 1250 customers we have to serve,
Mitter- 36 months or more?
No real answer.
Priority is West Aurora. VRUC is an issue. Pernod Ricard seat may be open- they do 1 mil gpd. County could own Pernod Ricard’s share and new company could pay county for the sewage treatment.
Pernod Ricard can assign capacity to purchaser or divide it equally among the shareholders of SDRSD or buy it or…
Two primary objectives: Gain treatment capacity and enter interlocal agreement to expand St. Leon plant.
SDRSD treats 10 mil gpd.
Buy in to St. Leon would not be equity so we do not inherit debts.
Mitter asked how $4.4 mil was determined at SDRSD – Answer was it was the same numbers that VRUC was given a couple years ago.
Woolpert Study data will have another report in July from all the entities showing assets and liabilities.
Question asked: Growth and Development Fund has slightly over $5mil. If we use 80% of that fund what about other county projects?
Charlie Fehrman sees it as a way to get MORE money to fund jail and gov’t building remodeling for office space.
Hankins sees a 10-15 year payback time. Pickens said TIFs can then bond out and pay bonds back on sewers.
Kraus- before we spend $4.4 mil we should have a full board here.
Ask Ewbank to draw up the interlocal agreement with DCRSD and the County and vote at later meeting. They need $1.5 mil for St. Leon too. Will set meeting in June for this (CURRENTLY THIS IS SET FOR JUNE 21st at 5:30 PM)


10. Lusby- Sheriff- needs $150,000 to cover inmates for the year. Currently owes Ripley County $50,000.
Council approved $90,000 to cover till August and tabled $60,000 all from Riverboat Revenue.
Lusby requested $50,000 for vehicle maintenance- Approved $25,000 and tabled $25,000
Lusby said commissary money under Indianan code can be used for a variety of expenses related to the jail- supplies, education cell phones, advertising, promoting sheriff’s offices, etc. They get about $3-5,000 a month. Pickens suggested they have Ewbank research and put it in resolution form for the next meeting. Approved Ewbank doing that.

11. Juvenile Dept.- Scott – Approved $6500 from riverboat revenue for DVR Recorder, travel, and residential supplies.
Overtime pay- will get ruling on how this works during sick or vacation weeks- Approved $3,000 tabled $3,000.
Part time youth attendant- Approved $10,000 and tabled $10,000.
All the above is out of county general.
Might look into commissary fund for some educational expenses here.
$5700 for computers from a grant will not be turned over to county general until they see if they get a grant to complete the project. This eliminates asking for it back.

12. Charlie Ashley- 911- approved $50,000 from relocation fund for 911 out of $300,000 in the 911 fund.

13. Todd Listerman – County Engineer and Transportation Director – discussed cross training both the bridge laborers and highway laborers to have CDL licenses to be truck ready for snow plowing etc. Advantage was in long snow periods with tired drivers- having more shifts. Also noted that all other counties do this with staff. “We’re the only ones around here without all CDL licensed staff!”
Mitter asked what happens if they can’t or won’t get CDL? Listerman said we’d have to evaluate the worker- we are eliminating the other position- so they have to have this training. They will be paid nearly $1,000 extra a year in salary- and the county is providing and paying for training.
Costs are covered with the elimination of 2 laborer positions that were not refilled.
Looking for summer intern for $8,000 and $11,000 for eng services contract.
Also wants $6,000 for charts software that tracks manpower, equipment, and material for future decisions. 15 counties use this and love it- locally Franklin, Ripley, and Decatur do. Annual fees after the first full year are $1500/year.
Safety training equipment - $19,500 requested.
Insurance agencies should reflect reduction in WC with this also.
HIGHWAY DEPT IS BEING REORGANIZED. There will no longer be D-1,2,3- but all Dearborn County. Listerman mentioned the elimination of the former highway director position (Mike Davis) and will get an ass’t to oversee just the highway crew at a reduced salary with a new job description. Salary similar to his surveyor/ass’t eng salary (Seiler). Bryan Messmore is working with him on this.
By August he hopes to have it all consolidated.
Council approved moving the above-mentioned funds to the appropriate accounts for Listerman’s work.
Salary ordinance was amended to include the additional CDL pay for the laborers. ($2862)
Bell’s Branch was funded $45,000 from Cum bridge for design of project. Cum bridge fund as $582,000 in it. Shared costs with Ohio County.

From the new MVH sub fund- formerly the 147 fund- now the 172 fund:
Total available is $1,767,847.98
Approved $15,000 to remove underground tank in D-2 garage for IDEM violation.
Approved $200,000 for Stateline and Stephens construction
Approved $160,000 for line striping- TWICE WHAT WAS ASKED- to add the white lines on the sides also- per Liz Morris and Mike Davis requests.
Approved $200,000 for 2 trucks
DID NOT APPROVE THE ENTIRE ROAD PAVING LIST:
Listerman tried to get the entire list approved per commissioner wishes and also stating that these roads had such thin bottom coats that they would not hold up. Numerous questions regarding the paving done on these in the first place- when and how approved. Listerman stated they were before his time- was going on what he could see in records and was told.
Council instead decided to approve topcoats for those road that were currently paved at 18 ft or greater width. That is # 2,6,7,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 on the paving list.
Those numbers correspond to these roads: Blue Creek, Huseman, Ireland, Probst (may include Water St to FD), Sawdon Ridge, Schwipps, Stewart, Voltz, wedge/levels Sawdon and Stewart, driveways on these roads, line striping for Huseman and Sawdon Ridge.
Roads eliminated from the list due to insufficient pavement width include: Ashe, Ester Ridge, Fox, Grimsley, Kuebel, McManaman, Pollard, Rice.

14. Bill Black- EMA- requested $5600 for siren maintenance and equipment repair. Approved from Riverboat.

15. Don Townsend -Building Dept.- gave a detailed accounting of services and fees and appealed for a full time inspector. Council approved $16,108 base salary plus the benefits for ’06 remainder. Salary for full year would be $27,615 plus benefits. Townsend intends to offer the job to the part timer.

Townsend’s comments included:
We have the only certified inspectors in the county. Do inspections for everyone – approximately 12,000 inspections a year with 4 full time and 1 part timer. Fees increased by $26,000 this year so far. Argosy’s expansion will probably add about $50,000 in fees.
There are 1485 proposed residences in approved subdivisions this year and 1406 proposed condo units. Fisher Homes has 36 condos signed for so far and 4 buildings. They build as they get sign ups.
In 2005 they took in $331,160 in fees and they project over $500,000 in 2006.
There are 900 units proposed by Fisher homes on the intersection of SR1, Ridge and
Oberting.
Hilsinger’s property above Steak and Shake is coming together as well.

15. Coroner’s request for vehicle maintenance. Approved $1500 to replace discretionary fund borrowed and deny $3500.

16. Solid Waste needed a resolution signed by council so they can do their own PERF now that County no longer does their payroll. Approved.

17. Cum Courthouse ($248,216) and Cum Cap ($505313) approved to spend the amount that was OK’d at budget – but not advertised.

18. Messmore asked for another $15,000 to finish up insurance assessment needs of the county. (Total so far is about $30,000) Thinks this is a good use of tax dollars, as it hasn’t been done before. The current company has service issues with getting the entire inventory done, it seems. As the insurance companies bid each year they will UPDATE THIS RECORD. By August budget they will have a price for insurance as it is bid in June. $15,000 approved.

Messmore is setting up financial consultant interviews to do strategy, capital management, and a fiscal model. Cheek and Ullrich will sit in on that process.
Messmore wants seed money to match for federal highway projects- so they can get better responses. Wants Council to consider this.

19. Council mentioned asking Ripley County to help with badges for Health dept request. Better than the whole $10,000 expense.

20. PTBOA Board appointments for tax assessment appeals were Ken Madden and Mark Neff. Approved.

21. Chamber of Commerce letter representing the Redevelopment Commission asked for TIF fees of $18,000 att’y fees, $5,000 CPA, $1,000 local att’y fees (Butler) for a total of $24,000. They are going to have someone come in just to manage the TIF districts to be sure they are figured out. (Original TIF wasn’t filed properly and so now dollars were recaptured yet.) This item will be advertised and they will come to ask for it in person in June.

22. New Horizons didn’t get their annual $10,000 form Council Benevolent Fund and so it was approved for $10,000 from discretionary fund.

23. Stephanie Disbro off for 6 weeks medical leave. Approved $1,000 for additional help during that time.

The next meeting is a special meeting to be advertised for June 21st at 5:30 PM

Meeting adjourned at 12:45 AM 24 May 2006 (YAWN)

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township

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