9 March 2026 Dearborn County Redevelopment Meeting Notes
Present: Jim Deaton, Chairman, Dennis Kraus,Jr.,Tom Tepe, Trevor Bischoff, Jordan Hoffman, Jim Mansfield, Doug Baker, and (OPEN POSITION- non- voting school board member)
Also present: Sue Hayden, county administrator and minute taker, Connie Fromhold, Auditor and DCRC treasurer.
ABSENT: Anthony Smart, attorney
Also present: Marc Emral, Register Publications and Danessa Mortenson, video recording.
Title VI statement read as legally required.
Election of Officers -2026- Deaton said - This has been put off for 2 months. (There were 2 special meetings in February and both presidential elections were tied as one member was absent each time.)
Mansfield and Tepe nominated Deaton Chairman- 4 votes
Hoffman and Bischoff nominated Bischoff for Chairman - 3 votes Deaton is Chairman
Bischoff vs Mansfield- for Vice Chairman (Deaton voted for Bischoff) 5 for Bischoff - Vice Chairman
Kraus Jr for Treasurer- all ayes.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Approval of Minutes: January 12, February 3 and February 25- All Approved,.
Claims: Register Publications $644.40 for land disposition ads Total $644.40- Approved,
Financials Reviewed - no comments
Old Business:
TWG Development project update- Perleberg- Update- Nov 2025-this was TWG for property on SR 48 on Wilson Creek and SR 48. They received their tax agreement- will start on this in Sept with 180 day period.
Mowing services for 2026- Drake Landscaping and mowing was the only bid receive. They also put the bush hogging for the TWG site should it be needed.( $450 each for 2 times.) Approved
New Business:
Dearborn County Park Board request for funding assistance for Bright Meadows Park- had been approached for this before.- Nicole Daily Planning Director presented the request-and Gene Cleary for Park Board.They were chosen for a portion of the Stellar Pathways program. This allows up to a $1million match. The plans are indoor packet. IDNR approved the Master Plan for the Parks. They have. List of all the wants. It depends on what is able with the funding raised. Walking trail, Pickle ball and basket ball courts, inclusion playground, fitness center with UC and National Fitness Campaign, and ampitheater to bring back the Bright Festival to 4th Park. Request is for $100,000 from DCRC. They have raised $450,000. They are going to dig into their funding to raise more.
Application due August 1. Have to have guaranteed funding by that date. Construction will start in 2028. Looking at Bench sales for sponsorships. Looking at moving the asphalt costs to keep from having that take so much of the costs. Trying to remove access areas where drainage is an issue also.
Many questions regarding different ways to raise the funds.Questions about if Council will give them their ask $204,00 also. Also asked if the township trustee could be a source of funds as Dillsboro Park gets funds from township trustee. Council meeting is next week.
Beaton- said they had talked about this before- $250,000 pledged to Fire depot in Bright did not happen. Is this an important enough project to get into our unrestricted account cash for the Bright Park. DCRC already gave them $100,000 and this is an ask for an additional $100,000. Mansfield as Bright resident is all in favor of this. It’s used a lot. Thinks we tend to not spend the money when we can and this is a way to do this. Kraus agreed that it is used a lot. Hoffman opposed. Approved
2026 West Harrison farming- Original agreement per Deaton- Rented for $75/acre. TABLED for the attorney to negotiate not farming this year with Tom Stone.
Marketing services for DCRC Randall Ave. 1.0-acre property- Chris Powell has approached them to represent them for this property. He also represents about 100 acres Rack Property.Perleberg said appraisals were done in 2023-2024.No bidders when it went for sale before. $53,000 average of 2 appraisals. $2500 would be his fee for it. This would help with signage for all the property. $2.6million for the 100 acres in back - about $20,000/acre. Approved for Powell to list the 1 acre property for $59,900 for 1 year.
Bayer Becker Report: Mark Rosenberger:
West Harrison I-74 EB Ramp- Nothing to report
West Harrison Moore Drive and Railroad Crossing- wants to get this out to bid -Approved
Downtown Bright infrastructure- Back in July- had a task 6A for inclusion of a detention facility- It has been sitting there- has not gone further. Kraus,Jr. Was directed to have the county attorney- not DCRC attorney to help with this. He has not gotten back to Kraus on this.
Still issues with the pavement. Trying to get more land and to get more drawings to see how to do drainage issue. This is still 6a. Detention and drainage cannot be fixed yet. No pavement should continue until the drainage is fixed. Approved to update the Bright infrastructure project. Rosenberger will have the cost update for the next meeting- for 6a and 6b. Kraus will get with Andy Baudendistel this week.
One Dearborn Report:Mike Perleberg
READI 2.0 grant update- got final approval and need grant agreement to be finished by Anthony Smart.
REDI Cincinnati SSG Site Analysis for I-74 West Harrison Business Park site- no feedback on that yet. Will share when they get some.
ATTORNEY’S REPORT- not present.
OTHER BUSINESS Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) presentation- Mr Lawson- (Josh and Dan ?) with DLG Development. (?)GM Development is Craig Barks. They are BOT Facilitators. You are still fully involved in the decisions.
Allows private public partnership. IC 5-25 exists.And resolution has to be made to adopt that. Put out RFQ for BOT. They came from Morgan County. This is a qualifications selection process. You enter a scoping agreement. This allows you to look at a lot of options. It’s incumbent on the team you select. You get a contractual guaranteed price by code out of this. The is like a dating period. Of you are comfortable- you have an open public hearing. It’s not real till that is signed.
Pros are real guaranteed max price. Cannot get change orders by law. You may have engineers or contractors your trust. You know everything before you sign a contract. You know yeti teams and prices.
Cons- The law does not say anything about open book accounting. You have to ask for this. It does not say what happens with savings. You should say savings come back to your community. There are multiple companies that do this. Some will not want to charge a rate for that.
They do not force trade partners into a low bid process. They can leverage relationships with trade partners.
RFQ goes to the public- and look for the team.
Resolution to RFQ to Scoping.
The development team can bring financing to the table. They can also purchase land under the BOT.
Flexibility to do things that public process cannot do…..gave an auction example. Police stations, fire stations, parks and recreation are the majority of things they have done. They left their cards with the board members.
PUBLIC COMMENT: none
ADJOURNED 6:25 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
