Wednesday, November 30, 2016

DC Redevelopment Meeting Dec 8 moved to 9 AM

PUBLIC NOTICE
Executive Session & Meeting

The Dearborn County Redevelopment Commission 
has called an Executive Session for 
Thursday, December 8, 2016 at 8:00 a.m.
A public meeting will take place at 9:00 a.m.


The Executive Session has been called for the purpose of discussing strategy with the respect to the purchase or lease of real property by the governing body up to the time a contract or option to purchase or lease is executed by the parties.
This is classified confidential by state and federal statutes.  
IC 5-14-1.5-6.1(b) (2) (D)


These meetings will take place at the
Dearborn County Administration Building, 
3rd Floor Commissioner’s Room,
215 B West High Street,

Lawrenceburg, IN  47025

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

COUNTY PROSECUTOR WILL SERVE AS STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL CHIEF DEPUTY


COUNTY PROSECUTOR WILL SERVE AS STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL CHIEF DEPUTY


http://www.thedcregister.com/news-latest/county-prosecutor-will-serve-state-attorney-general-chief-deputy

22 November 2016 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

 22 November 2016 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Charlie Keyes, Ryan Brandt, Alan Goodman, and Bill Ullrich. 
ABSENT: Dennis Kraus, Sr. 
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall, County Administrator
Liz Morris read the title VI statement as legally required.
PROSECUTOR- Aaron Negangard- Personnel- Thanked the Council - Negangard this will be his last meeting  with Council. He has been named Chief deputy for Attorney General - elect, Curtis Hill, starting Jan 9th. Hopes to take what he has learned as a prosecutor to the state. Liz Morris thanked him for his years of service too. She noted that she took his position on Council years ago. 
Wayne County’s Adult Protective Services region needed help and with two additional personnel from them Negangard feels he can do a better job serving 10 counties with personnel for Adult Protective Services than the 5 counties he now serves. Two individuals will be added based on the grant for $125,094. Needs approval from Council to bring those two people on. They will be employees of Dearborn Ohio County prosecutor’s office. In the past the county had to supply some of the overage. He said this will not be the case. There will be a tsunami of elderly people by 2030 and need people to deal with that issue. It may grow out of the prosecutor’s office. When the money goes- these positions go. They will be hired knowing this. PAC- Personnel Advisory Committee recommended this be approved. This is a 2 year period grant. Wayne County is needing help- which is why we are gaining those 5 counties in their region. This may change coming out of next year’s legislative session. Council approved with Lansing motioning and Ullrich 2nding.
PARK BOARD- Jim Red Elk- Park Board Appointment- appointed again by Council.
Playground Improvements- $2200 . This is for playground equipment repairs and swings. Material costs included are $1635.08. Local citizen - Celeste Calvitto- wrote check for $3500 for Park Foundation to fund this and the sign refinishing for $1300. So no county money needed. 
Parking lot for disc golf etc.is $7700, split rail fence and gate $4500, picnic shelter $7000 for total $19,200. Approved with Brandt motion and Lansing 2nd. Out of fund 179- non-reverting Capital Account.
County Farm Improvements- Refinishing signs- $1300- also covered by Celeste Calvitto’s check for $3500 
Vandalism is improving due to the video monitoring system. Council thanked Celeste for her donation. Council approved the donation. 
JAIL- Sheriff Kreinhop- Inmate Medical Care- $15,000. This will cover to the end of the year. The bulk of the budget cover Advanced Correctional Healthcare. Dentist and Mental Health therapist gets covered. They make every effort to have the courts release inmates on their own recognizance with known medical issues on non- violent cases etc. Brandt motioned and Goodman 2nd. Approved out of Riverboat

COMMISSIONERS- Terri Randall- Request draw for Courthouse Annex Project. After looking at funds that mature in January with Council president and Auditor- she revised the request to  $1.4 million draw down tonight. Come back in January for about $3 million on the CD that is coming due for the county so they can get that interest. Keyes asked for more input. She said they get projections that are ball park numbers from Maxwell. These are only projections and we have contracts to pay. Keyes said maybe we should have more meetings perhaps so we get more interest rather than taking too much out at once. Ullrich motioned and Goodman 2nd. Approved. Lansing NAY.

REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT- Steve Renihan- Wilson Creek Project $84,670.26 for extension on Wilson Creek. They have been working with Lawrenceburg city interlocal agreement. They are also looking to work with them on Guilford area. Olen Clawson from Lawrenceburg Municipal Utilities spoke said he sees a real need for cooperation to solve these issues. Morris said these projects get cost prohibited due to the lower density in the county. Clawson said this is their first attempt at a cooperative venture for these 14 homes. There are 7 homes that want to hook on right away. This system is voluntary hook-up like all county ones. Clawson said that eventually the county will need to get all hooked up to make the system work correctly and size the flows appropriately on the lines. Utility Board is fully aware of this concept per Clawson. With a 4th port on the Ohio this may lead to more development and need for sewers. Randall asked about the rates - county rates would be the same as Lawrenceburg rates. Rider associated with the rates for these homes to help repay the $85,000 charged. Greendale Aurora and Lawrenceburg have different rates now. As customers get added to the system rates can change. Try to get to an average rate for all residential customers. Brandt motioned and Goodman 2nd. Approved. 
In 2017- the DCRSD Board will be funded by their receipts. There may be some situations that require the Council to revisit that. 

SUPERIOR COURT PROBATION/COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS- Steve Kelly - Grant to expand the veterans regional court for Judge Cleary for a diversion program. 
Kristy Alig salary- switch salary to be paid for by the Veteran’s Court Grant. If the grant does not renew in September she will go back on the county payroll. Brandt motioned and Ullrich 2nd. Approved.

Kayla Griffin salary- promoted to case manager and getting rid of her old position. Found that they did not expand as much as projected by criminal code changes. This saves $30,600. Lansing motioned and Goodman 2nd. Approved. 

AUDITOR-  Gayle Pennington- Maintenance -Utilities- There is $35,000 in COIT to pay for this. This is needed for December. Balance will be small in COIT after this. Lansing motioned and Ullrich 2nd . Approved. 

SIRPC appointment- Dennis Kraus agrees to serve still- Brandt motioned and Goodman 2nd. He was reappointed. 

2017 Meeting dates- Jan 24, May 23, Aug 28-Sept 1 Budget, and Nov 28th. These 4 are mandated by the state. More will be added as needed. Approved. 

2017 Salary Ordinance- finished based on the budget. Ullrich motioned and Goodman 2nd. Approved. 

Minutes from the July 26 meeting were approved. Both budget hearing and adoption 3 weeks later Oct 21 minutes were approved. Council members missing abstained from voting. 

Ullrich said that Morris and he discussed the warning sirens briefly. He thought that that discussion needed to be continued as noted in the local paper with Dillsboro. They will put this on the agenda for January. The municipalities may need to fund these. Randall said that the commissioners have received some calls on this. She talked to Jason Sullivan and Commissioner McHenry. They will be putting out a press release. They have Sullivan and Teaney to do research on this. Nothing has changed yet- the broken sirens have been broken for over a year. Morris said they need facts on these sirens. EMA is for the whole county- the cities don’t have these mandates. Randall said- Let the experts work on this. Check with other counties. Morris feels that reverse 911 on the cells is good.  

Brandt wished everyone a happy thanksgiving.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

Monday, November 21, 2016

AGENDA Nov 22 Council Meeting


AGENDA
DEARBORN COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
6:30 p.m., Commissioners Room
County Administration Building
215 B West High Street, Lawrenceburg, Indiana


CALL TO ORDER:

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE


PROSECUTOR – Aaron Negangard
Personnel

PARK BOARD – Jim Red Elk
Park Board Appointment
Playground improvements
CF improvements
Refinishing signs

JAIL – Sheriff Kreinhop
Inmate Medical Care

COMMISSIONERS – Terri Randall
Request draw for Courthouse Annex Project

REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT – Steve Renihan
Wilson Creek Project

SUPERIOR COURT PROBATION / COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS – Steve Kelly
Kristy Alig salary
Kayla Griffin salary


AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington
Maintenance - Utilities
SIRPC - appointment
2017 Meeting dates
2017 Salary Ordinance
Minutes




ADJOURN

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

15 November 2016 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

15 November 2016 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Meeting changed to 9 AM from 5 PM due to conflicts with time this evening.

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

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, and Terri Randall, Administrator

Baudendistel read the Title VI statement as legally required.

OLD BUSINESS: none

NEW BUSINESS: McHenry said they had one more Port Authority Board appointment and Terri Randall was appointed.

John Engel- citizen - issue with Woliung Road  1 mile east of Weisburg and a washout there on first bend on the road going down the hill. Several near miss accidents there. Asking to be put on the list to have this looked at. McHenry sent that to Grieve right then.
Has issues with trying to fence repair and using another road with gate that prevents him from easily trying around back there. McHenry said he would need to talk to Listerman about this. Baudendistel said there is current litigation pending until February for a court date regarding access there. Three surveyors with different opinions of that access and ROW. This has been going on for a long time. McHenry took his phone number and he will get this looked at and McHenry will call him with a definitive answer. He asked for  a few days to get this worked out. Mrs Engel and he agreed to that. He did not want to be trespassing. 

ADMINISTRATOR- Terri Randall- Permission to go to council for another annex draw down. See will be arriving next week. More parking lot will be taken up. Wants to ask for $4.5 million. The next meting is in January. Bills are increasing and needs this much to get them thru May. Approved to ask Council for the draw down.  

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- Claims and Nov 1 minutes approved. 

ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- none except- Go Tigers! (For LHS)

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

LATE ARRIVAL- none

Meeting Adjourned at 9:15 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Change of Time for Commissioners Nov 15 meeting to 9 AM


PUBLIC NOTICE OF
COMMISSIONERS MEETING TIME CHANGE
Date of Notice: November 9, 2016

The Dearborn County Board of Commissioners’ regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 15, 2016 has been moved to a 9 a.m. start time (previously 5 p.m.).

Dearborn County Commissioners will meet at:
9 a.m. on Tuesday, September 15, 2016
Dearborn County Administration Building (Commissioners Room – 3rd Floor)
215B West High Street

Lawrenceburg, IN 47025

Welcome to the New, Populist Republican Party

Welcome to the New,
Populist Republican Party

Reprinted with permisson of IPR

by Andrea Neal


Mike Pence hit the nail on the head. On Sept. 8, while speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, he declared that the spirit of 1980 was back and that Donald Trump would win the White House. While others jeered, Pence predicted that the same forces that powered the Reagan revolution — working-class voters, union members, evangelicals — would align behind Trump and create a winning coalition.

The party of Reagan has returned just as Pence described it: populist at its core and motivated by economics of the working class. Exit polls showed Trump captured 50 percent of the union vote in the Midwestern Rust Belt, which Democrats assumed belonged to them. “His message resonated with the working man and woman,” said Maria Bartiromo, anchor and analyst for the Fox Business Network.

Political strategist Bill Burton, in an interview before Election Day, put it this way: “A large number of Americans … feel that politics is different now. It’s not right versus left the way it used to be. It’s really people versus powerful.”

This is not the first time a candidate has tapped into the concerns and dreams of the common folk, while the privileged class failed to notice. During the election of 1892, farmers in the West and South faced plummeting cotton prices and drought. Instead of helping, the big banks charged them higher interest rates. The People’s Party, also called the Populist Party, organized in St. Louis to represent farmers and the working poor against the interests of railroads, bankers, corporations and politicians tied to them.

The preamble of the Populist platform that year said, “We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the Congress … The people are demoralized.” Trump’s campaign stump speech, in which he advocated for more jobs and the end of harmful trade deals, was uncannily similar.

The Populists did surprisingly well in 1892, with James Weaver winning more than 1 million popular votes, and several Populist members elected to Congress. (In the presidential race, Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent President Benjamin Harrison.)

Over the next four years, the Democratic Party realigned itself to absorb the Populists and motley Republicans who disagreed with their party on the gold standard. Although the establishment candidate (Republican William McKinley) won the 1896 election, William Jennings Bryan commanded the farm vote and engaged millions of voters in the political process.

Similarly in the 1930s Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran on behalf of the “forgotten man” and campaigned against what he termed economic royalists — the corporations, banks and big industries that were perceived to be ripping off the working class.

In an article last year analyzing the candidacies of Trump and Bernie Sanders, the news magazine The Week defined populism this way: “Broadly speaking, it’s the belief that the will of ordinary citizens should prevail over that of a privileged elite. Throughout American history, movements based on anti-elitism have repeatedly sprung up on both the left and right, often stoked by charismatic firebrands who harnessed the resentment of marginalized people.”

Trump used his acceptance speech early today to reach out again to the marginalized, saying, “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.” He could have taken the words right out of FDR’s mouth.

A populist message took Trump to the White House because citizens had begun to see government as part of the privileged elite. Hillary Clinton reinforced that image in the final days of her campaign when she summoned rap singers, celebrities and basketball stars to the dais instead of ordinary citizens.

Again, Mike Pence predicted this months ago. The Bushes, Romneys and other establishment Republicans can move out of the way. They’ve been replaced by the new Republican-Populist Party.

Andrea Neal, columnist for the Indiana Policy Review, is the former editorial page editor of the Indianapolis Star and a longtime observer of national and state politics. 

Friday, November 04, 2016

Politics and the Third Commandment



Politics and the Third Commandment

By Donna Volmerding
republished with permission from IPR


Particularly in this election year, Christians are having discussions about the candidate whom they think is the better one, and the philosophy and ideology that they believe is best for America and shows God’s love the best.

In C.S. Lewis’ "Meditation on the Third Commandment," he discussed the “growing desire for a Christian ‘party,’ a Christian ‘front’ or a Christian ‘platform’ in politics.” He expounds by saying:

“Nearly all parties agree in professing ends which we admit to be desirable — security, a living wage, and the best adjustment between the claims of order and freedom. What distinguishes one party from another is the championship of means. We do not dispute whether the citizens are to be made happy, but whether an egalitarian or a hierarchical State, whether capitalism or socialism, whether despotism or democracy is most likely to make them so.”

We do not have a Christian party in America, and most Americans would not want one. (I haven’t found anyone who would.) First, our kingdom is not of this world. While we certainly are commanded to make this world as good as we can for ourselves, our families and our neighbors, it is not the final resting place for Christians. It is a stepping-off point.

Second, there is so much disagreement among Christians about what ideology or system of government truly serves God’s ends the best. As Lewis stated, some Christians believe that no one can be trusted with more than minimum power over others, some that an authoritarian state better promotes the Christian life, and some demand a Left revolution and redistribution of wealth.

Third, our Constitution was wisely based on a government with deep Christian influence and thought but one that allows freedom of religion. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Political science professors at the University of Houston collected 15,000 writings from the founding era, isolating 3,154 direct quotes made by the Founding Fathers. This is the breakdown of the source of those quotes: Baron Charles de Montesquieu, 8.3 percent; Sir William Blackstone, 7.9 percent; and John Locke, 2.9 percent. Most interestingly, the researchers discovered that the Founding Fathers quoted directly from the Bible 34 percent of the time. Blackstone, a brilliant 18th-century English judge, author, professor and lecturer of law at Oxford University, used the Bible to arrive at his conclusions.

Quotes from our Founding Fathers: 
  • Benjamin Franklin — “The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: ‘that God governs in the affairs of men.’ And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” (June 28, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention when the delegates were deadlocked) “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”
  • George Washington —  “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. … Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. … It is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible.” 
  • John Adams —“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
  • James Madison — “We have staked the future of all of our political institutions … upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
In 1800, Congress approved the use of the Capitol as a church building for Christian worship services. As president, Thomas Jefferson attended these services and employed the military band to play for them at taxpayer expense.

John Quincy Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of Christianity with the principles of civil government.”

The influence of Scripture is evident in the Supreme Court building, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress.

Author Jerry Newcombe says that “Without exception, the constitutions of all 50 states refer to ‘the Almighty God of the universe, the Author and Sustainer of our liberty.’”

Almost every Ivy League school was established primarily to train ministers of the gospel. Harvard College’s first presidents insisted that there could be no true knowledge or wisdom without Jesus Christ.

In 1892, the Supreme Court stated that “Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise … our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian … This is a religious people … this is a Christian nation.” (Holy Trinity Church vs. U.S.)

Because of their understanding of the Bible and laws based on Judeo-Christian principles, our Founding Fathers gave us several invaluable gifts — a comprehension of the importance of limited government because of man’s fallibility, laws based on a wise understanding of Who gives us our freedoms, and the right of conscience with freedom of religion.

Can there be any doubt, even among those who profess a strong central government as the ideal, that our Constitution gave us the greatest, richest, most free, most powerful nation that ever existed? It is certainly one that has been exceedingly blessed by God. It would be a travesty to deny the wisdom and discernment of the Founding Fathers and trample the documents they produced.

As C.S. Lewis explained, “By the natural light He has shown us what means are lawful: to find out which one is efficacious He has given us brains. The rest He has left to us.”

Donna Volmerding, a member of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, is editor of The Fort Wayne Lutheran magazine.

 
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The Indiana Policy Review Foundation exists solely to conduct and distribute research on Indiana issues. Nothing written here is to be construed as reflecting the views of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before the legislature or to further any political campaign.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

1 November 2016 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

1 November 2016 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

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

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, and Terri Randall, Administrator

I was not able o be present at the meeting - these notes are a summary of what transpired this morning,

A moment of silence was requested for Phil Weaver who recently passed away.

OLD BUSINESS:

NEW BUSINESS:
Petition to Vacate  Portion of Bell Arbor Road- Archie Crouch Land Consultants- discussion on the bus turnaround was resolved. The vacation is almost entirely on one property. Approved.

HIGHWAY DEPT. Todd, Listerman, County Engineer
Design Contracts Bridge 87, Bridge 88, Bridge 215- About $30,000 was approved to work on issues of deck repair and scouring.

Railroad Agreement Bridge 138-The county saved about $1/2 million by creating another RR Crossing. This required the county assuming liability insurancee for the new crossing costing about $3,000 annually. Approved.

DCH Board of Trustees Appointment for Robert Morehead- Approved.


ADMINISTRATOR- Terri Randall- going to Council on Nov 22 to get another drawdown for the Annex project because Council doesn’t meet again until January. Approved to go to Council.

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- Claims and minutes approved. 

ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- none

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Lynch spoke about the I-74 Study and the final results would be out soon.
Little spoke abut what a nice day it was. 

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

LATE ARRIVAL- none

Meeting Adjourned 

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township