1 April 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

1 April 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Shane McHenry, President, Art Little, and Kevin Lynch

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Teresa Randall, County Administrator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

OLD BUSINESS: none

NEW BUSINESS:

911 Charley Ashley- National Telecommunications Week Proclamation is April 13-19. Commissioners approved the proclamation.

Building Dept- Bill Shelton- Request to approach Council with computer needs- the two secretary’s computers  are 6-7 years old - $2700 needed approximately to include software and installation from Midwest Data. Approved to approach Council.

Clerk of Courts- Rick Probst- Election- wanted to go over election material with the two new commissioners. 1-4 in the afternoons for early voting April 8 from M-F and a couple Saturdays at the end of the month and early May. Not on Good Friday.

$150 inspectors and $100 for judges and poll clerks. 45 precincts at 35 locations. State will purge the election rolls this summer to clean up registered voters list.

Primary in 2012 there were 13,000 voters. They have prepared 24000 ballots for the primary. There are 55 different ballots depending on who can vote and for what (as in school board elections etc,)  

CHECK THE COUNTY WEBSITE or call the Clerk for further info.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer – Signatures for Stateline Road slip project- things are moving along and expect an August letting to get constructed yet this year. The commissioners signed the title sheet. There were design exceptions and they can’t design the full 8 ft. shoulder width. It is already preapproved by INDOT. The commissioners signed the acknowledgement of the design exception for this project.

Collier Ridge Bridge is scheduled to let tomorrow- should have the low bidder tomorrow.

Maxwell Construction- Brad Rullman- change order- $22,516.93 for Queen City Mechanical. This was to accommodate the chemicals in evidence processing area. They need chemically resistant countertops, sink, and disposal area. There were additional water lines for the emergency shower etc.  They also needed a dilution tank under the slab. There are some commitments from the sheriff’s office to get some funding for this. ( but there is no money yet) Commissioners approved the change order. There should still be $180,000 for unforeseen contingencies. Addition is about 70% complete. We’ve spent around $70,000 on change orders so far. They have also saved some money. There were $400,000 gross in contingencies so far- (but over $300,000 in savings apparently on other items to balance it off.) Commissioners approved the change order. Lynch was over there Thursday and Rullman offered to have the commissioners tour anytime.

Purdue Extension- Mike Hornbach- Cooperative Extension Centennial resolution- 100 years nationwide. Dearborn County started in 1917 – 3 years after the national start date with the signing of the Smith Lever Act in 1914. They still celebrate with the nation. This act brought the research education of land grant universities to the rural parts of the county. The clover emblem was adopted in 1924 for 4-H for youth programs. Local and online learning networks are also available. 4 H, master gardeners , and cooperative extension homemakers etc. are all volunteers they recognize. Hornbach read the entire proclamation at McHenry’s request. Commissioners approved the resolution recognizing the Centennial of the Cooperative Extension.

ADMINISTRATOR: Teresa Randall- had a couple informational items- DLGF sent out an email update of statewide assessors congratulating Dearborn County assessor for submitting their report first in the state.

Ready and Resilient Counties Prepared- is another announcement and she will get the word out to media on these items.

Follow up on jail contingency- to clarify- she has been very very tight with the budget and this particular item was very important and was recently raised so that we could save money in the future. Prosecutor and sheriff have committed funds to this and they will seek enough to cover this extra cost.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- minutes of March 18 approved. McHenry let Baudendistel know he needed to get with Startman to get the county accepted into the Port authority.

Claims paid. SRI will conduct certificate sale for taxed at 10 today.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- Proposed Animal Control Ordinance- He has found this more difficult to get this put together as there is no real guidance in the statute. He would like to have it for the next meeting. Since this affects more people – he thinks it might be good to post it on the website for the public to view in advance. They have removed the blanket pit bulls are dangerous or vicious dogs designation. They will also have something added in for dealing with feral cats. There are no interlocals for the cities and towns to pay into this coverage by the county. Baudendistel said that we should at least have interlocals in place so as not to run afoul of any city ordinances on enforcement. Large animals and small animals definition is an issue. Exotic animals also might need to be defined. They will have to register the animals in the new ordinance so that their location is known. He was hoping for a public comment place. McHenry wanted to have Baudendistel and see what the city code enforcement officers have on record. The ordinance is no more restrictive than before. It does allow enforcement in dog bite cases, for example.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Lynch said McMillin and Frye have been out in the county and updating people on the recent session. Tomorrow at Reds game – Nick Goepper is throwing out the first pitch and that’s pretty exciting.

Little thanked Grieve and crew for great job this winter.

McHenry- said that he discussed with Pennington that there were some properties that owed $15,000 in back taxes that Moores Hill is interested in acquiring for future expansion. Manchester St and 350 is where both are located. Approx 2 acres. Glen Wright said they are about 1 acre each, they both front on 350. At one time Hedrick and Butler were going to put a subdivision out there. If the county is familiar with that area.  Moores Hill has no immediate plans for this. McHenry thought maybe the county should pull and hold those for the future. Randall said that they are about to get their comp plan done. Perhaps there is a plan for it there. Wright said that it has gone thru 2 tax sales. Guinevere Emery asked him to come here in case there were any questions about it. It is a good location- but no one has picked it up. He thinks it would be a good idea to get it off our tax rolls. Pennington said that if gov’t owns it we don’t make future taxes on it. McHenry said they should leave it on the tax sale. If it doesn’t sell then they can revisit.  If they get it for free they didn’t see a problem per Wright.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- Glen Wright said- Casey Finnegan stopped by the office and some elderly have also called in. This company has said they will get them property info for $89 and this is essentially a scam. He is getting the word out that this info is available online and thru doxpop- the online company they use- and they can get copies for $1 per page at the recorder’s office. It is a waste of money. They are seeking out people with new warranty deeds to scam. He said that he can make a list of people who are getting this contact from the scammer so doxpop can investigate them.

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 9:30 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township