Tuesday, July 19, 2011

19 July 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

19 July 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Jeff Hughes, President, Tom Orschell, and Shane McHenry
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Bill Ewbank, County Coordinator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

Hughes began with a moment of silence for the Hartman family.

OLD BUSINESS
:

Private real property rights preservation ordinance- Hughes wants to continue to table this. Tabled

Revised jail expansion project- tabled

North Dearborn Road Re-alignment east of Dover- commissioners said the property issues are solved.

Barnes & Thornburg Lobbyist proposal- Matt Morgan- attorney (Bob Grant spoke last meeting but was out of town) Hughes asked him to clarify what state lobbying the would provide as well. Morgan said that in previous days when earmarks were in they did it differently. Now that earmarks are out at the fed level, they do the federal state and executive branch to pursue grants. The state executive branch is still the arbiter of those grant funds. So the JAG and Byrne grants are administered by the state for the federal funds in those grants. [NOTE: These Justice Assistance Grants and the Byrne Grants have been granted to our Prosecutor’s Office for the SCU (Special Crimes unit)]They also do transportation funding lobbying for the county. They will focus on meeting with dept heads as needed for background on our needs, such as whether we have a shelf ready study for the road project done.
The terms of the agreement gives a 30–day termination clause. Commissioners felt that this was worthwhile to have someone on our side to help us get that money. Commissioners approved and signed the contract on a month to month basis for $5,000/month.

NEW BUSINESS:

Catch-a-ride discussion on fuel options- Shane McHenry said that he’d been approached by Mike Walterman of the Board of Directors of Catch a ride. They purchase fuel form Madison at their city garage and then they reimburse them. They used 250 gal/mo and pay pump price at Speedway of America. The Chief Deputy and Sheriff- Lusby and Kreinhop- were Ok with this idea. They also partner with Jennings county as well. They use New Horizons pump in Batesville. Commissioners seemed OK with the use of our county gas pumps and they will invoice the county for the additional costs with increased loads of gas being delivered. Andy Baudendistel will have to draw up an interlocal agreement per Gayle Pennington. Tabled until they can get some questions answered and the details worked out. They are trying to streamline costs to be able to afford more services. The bulk pricing may improve if this amount pushes us to a higher tier.

Lola Materna- PatientAssistant.com information- will come to August 2 meeting per Ewbank.

Margaret Minzner- GIS- 911 dispatching grant information and fee schedule- Charlie Ashley present also. There are a couple issues that are not making it work as well as it should there. There file needs centerline range helps if there is new construction that has a new address now. One vendor has a solution to interpolate between two address range- for $10,000 instead of $100,000. Hughes asked if it was just as effective and Margaret said yes. She passed out the proposal for this. This vendor also works with the neighboring counties so it gives us a regional map for dispatch as well. There is some money in GIS for this but she wants to get approval to meet with the Dearborn Community Foundation to seek a grant for this. Gayle Pennington said it was good to solve Ashley’s 911 problems and with the grant proposal and the price it would eliminate the need to go to Council for next year’s budget. It may remove some of the maintenance fee on the Emergitech contract that 911 currently pays. Hughes asked the Barnes and Thornburg rep- Matt Morgan- if they could help with this with the Byrnes and JAG grants. He had already written it down to look at. Commissioners approved going for the grant with the Dearborn County Foundation.

Margaret Minzner – gave out the latest stats for Beacon using the GIS services even during evening hours. The draft fee schedule for GIS was passed out to the commissioners. These fees would help to cover updates and maintenance. Online subscription fee would be there for enhanced data, imagery, and certain layers. The basics are open to public for free. The fees are nominal. There are fees to buy some of the data sets, map printing, and custom services, as well as shipping and handling. Gayle Pennington added that the team had worked hard on this and they tried to stay in line with other counties. They wanted to be affordable for the small appraisal and realtor businesses who weren’t part of a big conglomerate. As the GIS system grows and we are putting more into it, she doesn’t think the taxpayer needs to foot that bill for people wanting these services out of the county. There is a convenience to get data online. Plotters, software, etc will need to be paid for. She’s asking for Andy Baudendistel to draw up an ordinance to set up the GIS perpetuation fund. Commissioners approved Baudendistel‘s work and Tabled this until that is prepared for the next meeting.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer- not present- on vacation. Bill Ewbank presented the change order to the restoration to the George Street Bridge for $1800 for repairs to the pedestrian path railings caused by a snow plow hit. It is 80% reimbursable- Our cost is about $140. Approved.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- minutes and claims approved. McHenry talked about the interview room $11,639 claim and said that the sheriff was confident it was all working. So they approved the claim.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- approached by Sheriff’s dept and Dillsboro for sheriff to hold all evidence for them. McHenry wanted to be sure Dillsboro would pay for this. Their attorney- John Watson- will draw up the agreement so that the county will not incur legal expenses setting it up. There will be an interlocal agreement needed for this also per Pennington. McHenry said that we will be doing their evidence collection for them. Dillsboro will pay for those costs. Hughes thought this consolidation would be a good idea. McHenry said when you start talking about individual power things start going south real quick- look at dispatch, EMS, etc. Orschell said that one outside consultant is studying that already.

COUNTY COORDINATOR: Bill Ewbank- OKI Contract annual – the same as prior years essentially for $16,515. It is about $100 less than last year. Approved.

Update report for CAC (Child Advocacy Center) in Dillsboro was just dumped on him. Report, final inspection, certificate of accessability, and compliance with civil rights laws. Approved to sign.

Last Wed there was a power surge and it generated the fire alarm. Some damages to electronics damage for less than $100. May ask Lawrenceburg to pay as it is less than
If there is some storm damage to 33 severe weather alert sirens for $20,000 each. He wants to increase our insurance coverage for this for about $40. Approved the $40.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- McHenry asked about Willoughby Rd cul de sac. There are some drainage issues out there. He called them back about that after talking to Highway.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township

2 comments:

mrs dearborn said...

you got to be kidding me is it true the highway dept that they are hiring there friends and making them a foreman over the men thats been with them twenty years come on what wrong with that where the hell is the commissioners on this dont they have a set of rules they have to follow?

mrs dearborn said...

i have made my decision and i am going to stick with it no matter what you say.