15 May 2025 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Doug Baker, Tim Doll, Mark Dole, and Glenn Wright.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor
THIS MEETING IS TRANSCRIBED FROM THE YOU TUBE VIDEO THAT THE COUNCIL NOW RECORDS AT THEIR MEETINGS.DCRSD AND COUNCIL BOTH MET AT 5 PM ON THURSDAY MAY 15, 2025. Looking at one of the discussions below- it's unfortunate that DCRSD and DCRC board members were not at this meeting.
Title VI Statement read as legally required
PARK BOARD- Stellar Grant for Bright Meadows-$1,000,000 maximum amount if another million is raised to match it.
DCRSD- Replacement for Sewer Board, Bill Shelton resigned.- Jeff Bittner was appointed to DCRSD- Approved.
ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
JUVENILE CENTER- $750 (1001) Inmate Meals- Approved
PLANNING AND ZONING- $2,025 (1001) Comprehensive Plan Advertising- Nicole Daily is using this for WSCH ads and possible interviews with her throughout the year for getting the word out on Comprehensive Plan Update. Mark Dole asked her to consider using the Beacon instead of the Register, because The Beacon ( for FREE) goes into every house in the country. They will also use the County website and Facebook page. [NOTE: Not every house in the county receives the Beacon, even though subscribing is free. It’s unfortunate that the County Government does NOT support their local newspaper. And in this meeting, we have another example of that coming from Council.]
TREASURER- $2,229 (1001) Copier- Approved
PARK BOARD- $130,000 (1179) $133,333 (1001) Bright Park Improvements Stellar Grant Match. Ralph and Nicole Daily from Planning and Zoning presented. Perleberg from One Dearborn also present. There was a long discussion on this clarifying for Council how the match works and where the sources of grants and funding are being sought. This money is all being targeted for Bright Meadows Park. So far they have raised about $600,000. $100,000 is from DC Redevelopment Commission discretionary funds, $50,000 from DC Community Foundation, ?? Amount Dunevant Family, and CVTB Tourism Board $120,000-
More discussion on if $2million in work is really needed, what happens if the study and design cannot all be done, will there be restrooms. What entrances to park are changing, and what about any restrictions the school put on the park land they donated to Bright. There is $8million being possible for the county from Stellar. $1 million is the Bright Park option. HWC is teh outside consultant Park Board is using.
$130,000 fund 1179- Approved with 3 NAYS- Lansing, Wright, and Kraus, Sr. Morris broke the tie for Approval.
$133,333 1001- no motion- FAILED
Council approved matching the rest of the grant contingent on Park Board raising the finds by August 1, 2025 deadline. 3 NAYS- Lansing, Wright, and Kraus, Sr. Morris broke the tie for approval.
HEALTH-$630 (1159) to correct employer portion of PERF. Approved
CIRCUIT COURT- $10,000 (1238) Drug Court- Approved
SUPERIOR COURT PROBATION- $8241 (2101) Probation Officer moved up on pay scale.Approved
SUPERIOR COURT II- $3,768 (4913) Intern position- Approved
DEARBORN COUNTY REDEVELOPMENT- $100,000 (4931) Donation to Park Board- Glenn Wright asked if the current DCRC board ( new members ) voted on this? Connie said it was voted on a while ago, not sure if they did.
This brought up questions about money DCRedevelopment Commission owes to the Dearborn County Sewer District. Considering the $100,000 pledged to Park for the Stellar Grant- Glenn Wright asked about the $1.382 million that DCRSD helped the DCRC with when they did not have enough money to extend sewer to West Harrison and Whitewater Mills Project. Dan Lansing said- yeah we ran a sewer line down there.
Jim Thatcher stated they had thoroughly researched and could find no agreement or contract or supporting documentation on this.
Glenn Wright referred them to the Nov 23, 2010 document he had for the Council Meeting. There should be Official Council Minutes to match up to the Council Notes from blog.
Here is the section of the Nov 23, 2010 County Council Notes from the Dearborn County Blog referring to Council and DCRC discussion on that day:
West Harrison TIF District- $1,382,000 to serve this area to help promote industry there. This will take it to Harrison. They are NOT going to force people on. They expect to have a payback over a 40 year period. They have an interlocal agreement with Harrison and they will charge the same rate that they charge to West Harrison. There are several businesses in the area that will look up.
Dennis Kraus Sr asked if the taxpayers should be paying so that others will do better financially.
Mike Rozow for Redevelopment Commission- Rozow said they have a company with 140 jobs lined up already that is relocating to Indiana from out of state. This will cause a domino effect if we move forward this evening. Rozow said he wasn’t sure he’d answered Kraus’s question. He did say that he thought that in years to come perhaps people will say that we did this right.
Council members discussed that they’d set the wheels in motion on this to get more jobs to see it through.
Messmore tried several times to make a motion during this interchange.
Kraus asked what’s to stop someone from putting a huge residential development up there.
McCormack said there is almost no residential zoning up there. All ayes passed.
Andy Baudendistel said they are asking the wrong people and instead should be looking to get money from the city of Harrison. He referred to some agreements DCRSD had with Harrison. [NOTE: That interlocal is a separate issue relating to the maintenance of sewer lines and the small percentage of income from Harrison sewer treatment for the maintenance of those lines.]
Liz Morris said the site for the mill was not shovel ready. The Council had given $4 million (way before this mill came up) to DCRSD to solve septic issues in the county. DCRSD agreed to release some to them for the mill project to proceed.
Dan Lansing said- we were going to get St. Leon Sewer to cover it. And Dan and Liz both remembered that St Leon did not have enough sewer capacity for it at the time.
[NOTE: What seems to be lost in this entire issue is that DCRC now has TIF money and is ABLE to pay back the favor- but instead they are using money to help secure other grants, Bright Meadows in this case. They forgot that there are issues that got put on the back burner ( like Moores Hill) that could now be done if that money is returned to DCRSD coffers. DC Redevelopment Commission has a responsibility to help the county entities that helped DCRC secure a major player in their TIF funding. Instead we hear excuses and fabrication. They need to just do the right thing.]
Approved $100,000 out of DCRC discretionary fund for Stellar Grant Match for Bright Meadows Park with Wright voting NAY.
VINCE KARSTETER- 911 FEES- This discussion involved the 3 mayors of the 3 cities who were present, though Karsteter did the presentation. They had numbers and data concerning what they said was an oversized percentage of the 911 fees that the cities have to pay that are not covered by 911 fees on phone bills. $980,000 total and the cities pay nearly $560,000 of that, though their population total is only 13,000 of the 50,000 in the county. This presentation will be presented to Commissioners at their meeting as they are the ones who contract - not Council.
AUDITOR-
Salary Ordinance-Approved and Signed
Minutes- Approved
Wright asked what the limits were for requiring bids. Baudendistel told him it was $25,000 and up. For purchasing services and for purchasing supplies.
Meeting adjourned at 6:30m PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
