3 MARCH 2026 DEARBORN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING NOTES

 3 MARCH 2026 DEARBORN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING NOTES

  Livestreams can be found @

https://www.youtube.com/@DearbornCountyGov-47025/streams

Video failed at 9 minutes but audio works.

Present: Jim Thatcher, President, Duane Bischoff, and Kevin Turner

Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, and Sue Hayden, Administrator

TITLE VI STATEMENT FOR COMPLIANCE was read by Baudendistel as legally required.

OLD BUSINESS (tabled until March 17, 2026)

Use of "old County ROW" / Dog Ridge Rd. - Dennis Kraus, Jr., Surveyor 

Use of "old County ROW" / Old Houston Road off of Bloom Road - Sean York

NEW BUSINESS

Travel Advisories - Jason Sullivan, EMA/EMS Director- Feb 26th 7011AM and March 1-March 2 advisories lifted- Approved. 

Circuit Probation Grant- Juvenile Problem Solving Court for $16,000- Approved.

ADMINISTRATOR - Sue Hayden

AUDITOR – Connie Fromhold  -Claims/Payroll and February 17th and 24th Minutes- Approved

Ratify Signature of CommissionerThatcher - Riverboat Revenue Fire and EMS Revenue Sharing Contracts- Connie Fromhold- Approved

Kevin  and Duane- Get community more involved in the Solar - get Nicole to report to them 2nd meeting of every month Approved.

ATTORNEY – Andy Baudendistel-nothing 

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS:

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION: Todd Listerman- INDOT closing SR 1 south of Cook Rd sometime this month.This is for when PNS closes. Using an unofficial detour. So they can track any damages due to the excess traffic. INDOT video tapes the official detour. There will be NO TRUCK signs on the unofficial detour. Sawdon Ridge, North Dearborn, McCann, North Gaynor and Sawmill.- Approved to restrict trucks for 60 days from when SR 1 closes. 

Also doing bridge on Yorkridge in May. Also in the summer SR 1 has 2 small structures north of Dover to do. 

PUBLIC COMMENT: Bobby Rauen- Thanked them for supporting the moratorium on Solar Farms. Have about 2300 petitioners now. People have faith in him to led this. Part of this is to have a Citizen Advisory Board to participate in the ordinance revisions. He talked about how his group has done a lot of research already. This could take more than a year- should not rush this. There seems to be resistance to having a Citizens Advisory Board involved. 

Baudendistel also noted the plan commission is in charge of how that is set up. Will we have a meeting that is open to the public or with less public officials it may not be open to the public.

Rauen- What would your recommendation to get the public involved?

Baudendistel- Thinks everyone is taking a step back to catch a breath and there is no meeting items on March agenda. 

Thatcher- Nicole did indicate she would take input from the community. We will be monitoring this to when they bring a report to us on the 2nd meeting of every month. 

Rauen- Can we get a March meeting with PC to just address this idea of citizens advisory committee.

Turner- We cannot just mark up to Denny like we’re on the yellow brick road- but individually we can talk to him. 

Duane said- they  would see if they can reschedule March to get Andy there.

Sam Mortenson - learning on Planning and Zoning. Asked who is in charge of the group? 

Baudendistel clarified that the PC can legally create the citizen Advisory Committee. The PC is in charge of creating the ordinance revisions and then sending on to the Commissioners for approval. Commissioners could recommend to PC. So the PC has to decide about that Citizen Advisory Committee/Board. They can do this without Commissioner approval. 

Sam Mortenson- Are the Commissioners able to recommend this citizen advisory  board? 

Baudendistel Yes. 

Kevin Turner- reflected on what was done with etc EMS LIT group. Try talking with all sides to see how this will work.

Denny Kraus Jr. and Nicole Daily just showed up to the meeting. They both said that they were hearing that PC was being discussed on Solar ordinance. 

Denny Kraus Jr- Said this was up to them PC to decide. 

Nicole Daily said she wanted to present this to the PC first. 

Denny Kraus Jr- He is not saying he doesn’t want public participation.

Duane Bischoff -asked about anything that was his big before?

Both Denny and Nicole talked about several items this big.

Bischoff asked about being able to reduce the conversation to representatives versus a roomful of them. He also asked about the comments on social media to get input. 

Nicole Daily - There are people being afraid to speak from the other side calling some the Manchester Mafia. We are trying to steer away from that. Don’t want people to be afraid to come forward. 

Bischoff- Well then they won’t come to a public meeting either. 

Daily- But they will send an email.  

Thatcher- the decision rests with PC. They will talk to Nicole Daily.

Baudendistel- I know there is concern about only 12 months. But we already have a baseline ordinance on both solar and Data Centers. We are not starting from scratch.He s not concerned as we have really good start.

Kraus Jr. - I welcome the recommendations, but we ask that you let su do our work.

 Bischoff- get 2-3 from the Solar group- find others that are not necessarily pro solar- to do this.

Kraus, Jr- It won’t be simple. Another county did not recommend the citizen advisory group. Try to do it on your own. We are not going to make everybody happy. There are companies all the time. 

Turner- People still ticked off on.  group that had to decide on the LIT money.

Commissioners decided to monitor the progress as discussed earlier and let the PC do their job. 

Thatcher- If any one else steps forward, I am going to shoot them. I am only kidding. Is there any other public comment?Tried  to adjourn.

Chris Mueller- Only have a short comment- If you want a model of Citizens Advisory Committee -you can look at the Master Plan from 2004- the way that board was decided, was not by just using people that had done research. They picked people from each of the townships in the county to sit on other to try to get a cross-section of everybody in the county. There were people who were really interested in the master plan and also people who were just representing their townships and maybe had 2 from more populated areas. 

Thatcher -All right - thank you- anyone else? Asked for adjournment. 

ADJOURN- 9:15 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township