Wednesday, September 16, 2009

15 September 2009 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

15 September 2009 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

Present: Thompson, President, Orschell, and Hughes
Also present: Pickens, Auditor, and Witte, Attorney

OLD BUSINESS

County Campus plan remained tabled.

County Website discussion continued with a presentation form David and Brian Wyly. David is a web designer and owns Reaction PC Services in Bright. Brian is a graduate student and works at XU. He has 8 years experience as a web developer. Their resume includes Bright FD (David is a volunteer with FD and did the site for them), RJ Reynolds, Skyline Chili, and Scots Lawn Care web sites. No decision.

Policy on euthanization for animal control remains tabled.

Hogan Water Corp remains tabled, as Witte has not heard anything more from them or SEIRPC.
East Fork Road was discussed regarding the possibility of making small parking lots at the church. The state has not returned Listerman’s calls yet. Witte noted a definite liability on opening the road as it was previously stated that it was unsafe. “Negligent design or maintenance” would be an issue if sued. They also discussed opening it once a year with a gate and traffic control at the site at that time as an option. Tabled.

YES HOME lease given to board to review. Tabled.

Computer purchases for 911 were approved at $25 each for Ashley and Teaney. Computers are 10 years old.

Ginny Daum was tabled again as Doug Baer (Health Dept) had indicated the position went away when the funding went away.

NEW BUSINESS
Lifetime Housing- Commissioners signed the sub-recipient agreement to cover the individual grants when they come in.

Julie Hammond- Dearborn County Large Animal Rescue- stated that they are an all-volunteer organization and will help outside the county. Only one other in the state in Elkhart County. N KY has one, Hamilton County does not. They have all their equipment in a trailer and can lift up to 40,000 lbs max. They were registered under Spoiled Acres first. Training began in April and she hopes to have a member of each FD trained eventually. No county money is involved. Commissioners thanked her.

Dale Wirthlin and Chris Southern- Tronitech- Data Storage and Retrieval- gave a powerpoint presentation of their company’s background ( since 1974) and expertise. Their main office is in Cincinnati, with offices in the tristates as well. Cloud computing with shared applications was demonstrated as a means of lowering expenses by multi- tenant applications at a shared data center. They are secure, we are not locked into a contract – just annual agreements, the data is not stored in proprietary form but in pdf files. They use microfilm also as it has a 500 year life. Cost is absorbed into a predictable monthly subscription rate. Thompson to meet with them to get data size in 2 weeks to get pricing. No decision.

Highway Dept- Todd Listerman gave a 30-minute update:

Commissioners signed a right of entry agreement with Aurora Lumber to let bids for destroying, temp storage, and rebuilding new storage on their property. They are improving the intersection and creating the beginnings of an access road to the businesses on the south side of US 50.

Three change orders were signed for work that is completed on the three bridges- Sagamaw, Johnson Fork, and Salt For. The total price for rehabbing these 3 including extras was $308,106.30 which is less than the $360,000 estimated. Change orders were $6,523.79 for modified latex concrete, $21,202.50 for box beam repairs and $2,664.00 for expansion joint extensions.

Commissioners approved use of time and materials to repair riprap in Guilford Park for the Park Board. Park Board will pay and Council has allotted funds for this.

Over 7 miles of roads were redone with millings from SR 46 and old US52. Chip seal will go over these by the end of October. (Mosmeier, Ester Ridge, Graf, Tangaman, and Ennis Ridge)

Indiana News had an article showing the crisis in funding local roads. Listerman noted that BMV and State Police are raiding our MVHA continuously. $80 million goes to State police (school traffic safety, forensic lab, and operations) and $31 million to BMV for operations. Assembly does not want to increase the state gas tax, so this trend will continue to erode local street funds.

Listerman said he would be happy to go over the website for highway with the potential webmasters.

Lake Dilldear work is finished and Collier Ridge still waiting on REMC to move poles.

Attorney- Witte- said that when Cary Pickens wondered if it would be snowing before it is finished- he wasn’t sure if he was referring to the road millings or Listerman’s report!

Witte had commissioners sign the letter officially offering Rack a price for the Industrial Park property. They have 3-5 days to respond.

Large Animal Rescue will not incur county liability as they are not paying for it- it is volunteer.
Witte is still in the midst of contacting DNR on Hartford ROW.

Witte has filed all reports on torts and litigation to date with Sarah Wurtz or SDOA for their audit.

In the DC Hosp suit mentioned last week- the county insurance does NOT cover the county as they have an exclusion for hospitals under the policy. He will contact Resnick at DCH about this. He noted the circumstances would be difficult in a jury trial.

Woodland Hills Nursing Home has filed a tax appeal going back to 2001 to be tax exempt as they treat indigent patients. Tax assessor requested his help and commissioners approved- as he is beyond his retainer for this.

Jury trial starts in Oct for 3 weeks. He will miss the Oct 6 meeting and has McGill covering the Oct 20 one. He will fine a sub for Oct 6 which is a 9 AM meeting.

Auditor- Claims and Minutes signed. $40,000 to Bright Fire EMS as contract signed.

Hughes- asked about Aurora and Bldg Insp combining- and Witte said this was very preliminary in discussion phase.

Orschell – gave a brief recap of the safety meetings with Bill black and dept personnel. They have discussed evacuations and sign ins for guests to the buildings etc.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Cliff Eibeck asked again about the 2nd meeting being the morning one. Thompson said they are still checking the schedule for Nov on- Oct stays as is with OCT 6 being a MORNING
MEETING at 9 AM.

Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township

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