25 May 2021 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Kevin Turner, Tim Doll, Alan Goodman, and Glenn Wright.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor
TITLE VI STATEMENT FOR COMPLIANCE- was read by Baudendistel as legally required
NEW BUSINESS:
LAWRENCEBURG CONSERVANCY DISTRICT- Request for budget funding. Richard Butler- the Conservancy lawyer- asking for help to cover expenses. The walls and gates and 159 relief wells for hydrostatic pressure. These are connected by underground pumps as well. FEMA regulates the systems and where you can build or not. The Army Corps of Engineers built it and regulate it. After Katrina $125 billion in damages. So then they require us to certify to them that our flood protection is good to go. $900,000 in red last year. The area we protect has a lot of tax base for the county.
Introduce themselves ad are coming to them during budget tie and see if we can get help funding our infrastructure.
MikeNoel who is chairman of Conservancy - invited everyone to come to their meetings on the 3rd Thursday of every month.
Glen Wright asked for sources of funding- Butler said that the Conservancy didn’t have enough money until after the Riverboat. They wanted to locate on property owned by Conservancy. They worked a deal to pay their rent to L-bg and thus to fund Conservancy. $1,650,000 to $1.7 million rent. Lawrenceburg put lots of money into this over the years now- too much to tax the few landowners there. Government doesn’t require flood insurance. No decision needed.
ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
JUVENILE CENTER
Overtime- $11,885 - short on part timers to work at $12/hr on weekends mostly. Using their regular staff to do overtime. Average daily population is about 6 there. Some are from other counties. They could accommodate 10-12. COVID as affected them as they have only 3 beds for quarantine. They have 2 educators for these kids. Approved.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
RACES Equipment Purchase- $ 20,000 (amateur radio group under EMA)- Jason Sullivan- these volunteers provide ham radio- and are volunteers. They have been trying to outfit the trailer they inherited from Health Dept. and need that money. Currently they are using a 1975 van that requires transmission fluid with every move. This is back up for our regular systems. These guys also directly connect to weather systems etc. Some of our 800 system goes down from time to time. Walls, cabinets, and desks ned to outfit it. They don’t have 3 bids yet. TABLED until Jason can get 3 bids for this.
Equipment Repair- $ 1,536- bill from Motorola for programming of the radios. He had a grant and this bill showed up later. TABLED- McHenry said he would take care of that.
PROSECUTOR
Employee retirement payout- $11,409 & $16,496- Lynn Deddens said there were unanticipated early retirements. They found out they liked retirement during COVID. Some people in the system are stepping into these spots. Approved.
BUILDING COMMISSIONER
Part-time Building Inspector- Will be a full time here and will use current Part-time money for Secretary- $40,520- Bill Shelton - they have increased work load and they also are taking back building inspection for Lawrenceburg as Fryman retired. They get $100,000 from permits from Lawrenceburg for this. A veteran and licensed master plumber (Brian) is looking at this inspector position. He won’t need county health insurance as he uses VA insurance. He needs the additional secretary also. There are a lot of new projects and expansions. Also he has a succession plan for his staff that is getting close to retirement. Approved.
CLERK
Computer/Maintenance Repairs- $5,200- Gayle Pennington- state mandated that they go on to Odyssey in 2017. They are all mostly Windows 7 and 8. At the end of this year Windows 8 will not be supported after this year and 7 is already not supported. She said no support for security or updates. She wants to get 4 tonight and get the other 4 at the end of the year after budget. She will get it back on a rotation after this. 2 are 8 and the rest are 7. Her deputy is on Windows 10. This is a privacy issue having secure software. Approved for 4 computers out of County General. The computers come thru Midwest Data. They can be frugal.
HIGHWAY
Todd Listerman passed out the bridge priority list. The top 2 are in process and completely funded- He will be asking for under $700,000 for one other project in another year. $2.7 million was total project cost on that. Priority list is determined by urgency depending on the sufficiency of the bridge. This is part of inspections ratings done every 2 years. Some are yearly because they are in poor condition.
Replacement Small Structure #121 Alans Branch Rd- $590,000- This is around the corner on Chesterville. Dead end road with 6 homes. Another temporary runaround. There will be two 6-hour shutdowns of electric for this project. The contractor will supply generators if property owners need for they freezers/refrigerators. The electric lines are too close to bridge structure. Approved out of Fund 4916.
Replacement Bridge #44 Turkey Point Rd- over 20 ft long - $1,500,000- Have to build a temporary runaround for that project. They are using 2 tank cars from One Mile Rd project. They bury them in the road and run over them. Turkey Point is a bridge and One Mile was a culvert. Alans Branch is a box structure. Turkey Point is for 7-8 houses and a county park access. Morris was having trouble with the high costs. Approved from Riverboat Revenue.
Listerman updates: Bridge 72 will be coming in at budget. Alos ROW for Station Hollow. Trying for ROW on Lower Dillsboro and Hueseman Rd. Hoping to have at budget. Mt Pleasant and Chesterville are Community Crossing.
CORONER
Cameron McCreary - Coroner- 72 cases this year so far. Estimate 150 plus by end of year. Autopsied 26. Also covers Ohio County at times and get reimbursed by them. They have mutual aid agreements with Ohio and Franklin and Ripley County. COVID cases are mostly handled by hospitals when they are admitted and pass away. He works a full time job as did previous coroners. He uses deputies more as he is taking time to learn his job.
Part-time wages- $26,912- Approved $15,000
New response vehicle- $37,573- current one is 2008 Ford F250 with about 30,000 miles on it. A Dodge Durango from 2004 is the one they want to replace and is unsafe. Compressor to load went out and ha a new compressor last year. With St E’s there is no longer a pathologist at the societal here. So they transport to Hamilton County- Blue Ash. TABLED until budget.
Equipment for new Vehicle-$57,098- want a power lift cot made by Striker to outfit this vehicle. This is to eliminate back injuries. People are getting bigger. TABLED until budget.
Discussion about how much they need that 2nd vehicle and not wanting to spend so much money.
911 COMMUNICATIONS
Replacement of 3 Consoles and 6 chairs- $ 73,069 - Jared Teaney- thanked Council members who came to see what they do. This is replacing the remaining 3 that were not replaced in 2018. Nothing more this year. A radio project probably some later year. Doll toured the 911 center- noted that the newer consoles were preferred. It’s an ergonomic desk and a CPU cabinet. These people sit there for 12 hour shifts. Approved out of Public Safety LIT fund.
SHERIFF
Body Cams for Deputies- $62,077- Shane McHenry- the body Cam project 23 units. The state allocated some money for a grant program. They will do 50% of the cost of the camera only. $36,000 for cameras so $18,000 from grant. Watchguard cameras are in the cars so he is using the same company. He’s not been a big fan of these cameras in the past, but talking to others in other departments, he finds that complaints have decreased in those cases. Morris praised McHenry for being generous with the commissary funds and so she’s comfortable with this request. That’s why he is paying for Jason Sullivan’s radio issues. Approved up to the $62,077 and if the grant comes in that will decrease that.
HEALTH
Supplement for Employee- $2,419- Dr Steve Eliason - one employee put in a lot of extra hours during COVID and she had flex time versus the other employees that had comp time. This would be compensation for the extra time she put in. Approved out of Health Fund.
Alan Goodman commended Eliason for the time he has put in and that he had come in at the beginning of COVID. He said it was the result of a lot of people’s efforts.
PARK BOARD
Miscellaneous Operating costs- $ 4,000- Jim RedElk for additional collection and disposal of trash and additional cans. Approved out of County General
Park Supplies- $6,000- for new signs and cooking grills - Glenn Wright gave him some ideas for picnic tables from FFA at East Central and welding with Jason at IVY tech for grills. Approved from 1179 fund.
Park Improvements- $5,500 & $16,000- info kiosks and culvert type improvements and a new privy near the disk golf course. Approved from County Farm Fund DEARBORN COUNTY
DEARBORN COUNTY REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT
Engineering Services- $90,000 and Easements-$50,000 - Steve Renihan and Bob Hrezo passed out info on the Guilford Project. The OCRA grant for the project if they build a plant there in Guilford. They could get up to $700,000 for the project. But that only goes to the 64 homes in that grant. Because of the income survey in that area it should be a high priority project for that grant. They have to have the easements in hand before they approve the grant. In any event - with or without great both of these items are needed. They also have the option of going thru Greendale. The Greendale option allows more homes along SR 1 and Salt Fork.Going thru Perfects lift station to Lawrenceburg is option 3. This would put a big load on that lift station. It would involve interlocal agreements with Lawrenceburg. They do not have their own crews they have to subcontract all these jobs. Greendale would be a better option because of these considerations. The OCRA grant can also work with the Greendale option. If more development comes in then the developers would have to pay for sewer plant expansions. They collected over $108,000 in revenue with a $29,000 loss. State board of accounts charged them $10,000????
They look to be in the black soon. Sewer procedures and processes were explained to the board. Getting new customers with new builds needing sewers. $5500 hookups and customer also buys a grinder pump. Have to pay for install of lateral to the road. They still do not compel people to hookup. But if septic fails people have the option of sewer. Many sewer hookup have been loans as they have set up sewer in some depressed areas. Approved out of 4917 Regional Sewer Development for $140,000.
Wright asked about whether this plant only option if it would cover more development on Yorkridge. (Because people were concerned about that in years past)With OCRA they can only upsize it a bit to 150 homes. 64 in Guilford plus along roads is 135. Plus there is more development on the way to Greendale with Casey Knigga’s site. It depends on what Greendale’s lines can hold and capacity too.
DEARBORN SUPERIOR COURT II
Mental Health Evaluations- $25,000- Judge McLaughlin said that they have had to have more and more of these evaluations in order to be in a prison-type area for rehabilitation. She said Shane McHenry can attest to this increased need lately.Council approved out of County General.
PLANNING & ZONING TRANSFERS
Planning Consultant DAAP Student- $2,340 (Dillsboro Interlocal)
Computer replacement- $1,000 (Dillsboro Interlocal)
Code Enforcement Officer- $6,000 (Aurora City Interlocal)
Approved all three
MAINTENANCE
Part-time-$5,383- Leah presented for them - has plenty now but traditionally he runs out so he knows he will need this. Approved.
CONVENTION AND VISITORS CENTER
$350,000- Leah Presented for them- This is Innkeepers tax that belongs to them. Approved. Nay for Wright and Kraus
This board is subject to SBOA for audit. They also must be submitting their budget to Council at budget time. That budget needs to be adequate. CVTB is planning to buy their building.
AUDITOR-
Feb 23, 2021 Minutes- approved
TIF Management Report- passed to board
Aurora Library Board Appointment- Jascia Redwine Robinson to replace Mary Fields, who is moving out of the library district. Approved
Salary Ordinance to extinguish COVID pay. Approved.
$20,000 NTE County General from Baker Tilly Consultant for the $9 million- Approved.
1181 transfer fees - $2000 for individual licenses for Connie and Leah- approved
$7500 High Point Health Sale - for fencing in basement of courthouse to keep all the info- for 75 years - 2095. Approved.
Replace a retiree- to hire 1st of June-$2830 approved
PUBLIC COMMENT- none
LATE ARRIVAL-none
ADJOURN-7:55 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
