17 January 2006 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

17 January 2006 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

Present: Benning, President, Hughes, and Fox.
Also Present: Pickens, Auditor, Ewbank, Att’y, and Messmore, Administrator.

1. Fox submitted the bid from All American Vending, which was approved.

2. Don Ritchey from Suscom and Susquehannah Communications and Rusty Robertson of Comcast submitted the transfer of the franchise to Comcast under the same conditions as with Suscom. Franchise ran till 2011. Commissioners Ok’d the resolution. Robertson also made them aware of the senate bill that will remove local control of cable franchises.

3. Mike Heffelmire from the County Farm Board presented a review of the county farm lease. Bill Meyers who farmed the land for 14 years is resigning. John Seubert’s bid to pay $1850 twice a year to lease the ground for 5 years was approved by the farm board. Commissioners accepted this recommendation.
Heffelmire also stated the Boards position on the Youth Complex lease, which expires in July 2006. 4H and Scouts use the facility and have a building there. The Farm Board hopes they continue the lease for the youth in July.

4. Todd Listerman- County Engineer and Transportation Director- presented the application for the Triple Whipple funding. Commissioners signed. They are asking for $1,315,600 out of the total price of $1,644,500. County’s 20% is $328,900. Of that the county will pay 80% and Ohio County 20%.

Listerman is going to Council next Tues to get them to transfer the White’s Hill excess to the Stephens and Stateline intersection project. Commissioners approved Listerman putting out RFPs for the design. Listerman will put out an update letter to the HVL POA at the request of the commissioners. County pays for turn lanes and Sugar Ridge pays for the light.

George St. Bridge #159- Commissioners approved using our consultants to design the sidewalk side of the bridge at $7500 through James Barker Engineer to be reimbursed by Aurora. Listerman will write the supplemental to the original agreement with Aurora to reflect this.

5. Mike Hall -Surveyor presented a request for commissioners to take in an extra 10 ft perimeter to the cemetery on the Tanner Creek Properties Land behind Steak and Shake on US 50. (There are graves outside the original deed lines) Ewbank noted that the county has an implied easement to this property until the roadway to it is constructed during the development. Accepted.

6. Commissioners reappointed Jim Deaton to the BZA.

7. Cary Pickens presented the interlocal agreement with the lobbyists, which was signed.
Commissioners also signed the 2006 IN Lobby Registration Commission Statement.
The certification for the covered bridge in Guilford was signed. This brings in “a few bucks” per Pickens.

8. Ewbank presented the ordinance regulating parking in the county ROW, that was reviewed by Sheriff Lusby as well. There are $10-25 fines plus court costs. Parking is permitted OFF road in the ROW for a max of 30 minutes. After being published weekly for 2 weeks the ordinance will be in effect.

9. Hughes brought up several items for discussion:

Item 1- Ordinance enacting County Commissioners directing authority over the GIS coordinator. Messmore stated that he’s drafting a letter to the Plan Commission to get dialog started on this. Hughes is looking over Messmore’s letter.

Item 2- Resolutions to delete the parent tract language from the Subdivision Control Ordinance after 30 days, contingent on the planning commission not presenting a recommendation.
Mike Hall (surveyor and Plan Commission member) spoke up on this noting that Travis Miller’s resignation and the time it will take to fill that position will delay this process. Hughes noted that it was about 2 months ago that they had requested the PC look into this. [NOTE: There seems to be a disconnect between commissioners and PC on the lines of authority here. The Plan Commission has to have a PUBLIC HEARING in order to make a recommendation to commissioners for an ordinance change. Commissioners shouldn’t override this step. Another point seems to be that the Plan Commission was not in favor of changing this language- as it has been discussed AT LENGTH by the previous Planning Director Jeff Hayes. They also found that the language makes it easier to perform the staff analysis for in-house land transactions that don’t require a trip to the Plan Commission meeting. Lastly, there is a concern that subdivisions are being proposed in a piecemeal, unplanned fashion that strips out roadways in a manner that would lead to safety issues with numerous curb cuts. Perhaps Hughes did not understand what the PC was saying during their administrative discussions on this as he is relatively new to the board.]

Item 3- Repeal Article 20- section 2000through 2085 of the DC Zoning Ordinance- (Sign Ordinance) Ewbank informed the board that this would be an AMENDMENT, not a repeal of the sign ordinance, but they should wait till the suit is settled and the language the plaintiff requested is submitted for this. This is a result of the White vs. DC Commissioners suit concerning first amendment rights. (Sign on Barber Road)

Meeting adjourned 6:50 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township