5 July 2006 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

5 July 2006 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

Present: Hughes, President, Benning, and Fox
Also present: Pickens, Auditor, Ewbank, Attorney, and Messmore, Administrator.

No uniformed police officer was present.

1. Mike Hankins DCRSD Chairman- gave a 3-minute update on the County Sewer status. Brett Fehrman accompanied Hankins. Hankins stated the Woolpert Study phase 1 was completed and expected a final in mid August to early September. It will include a sanitary sewer map. Bids will be opened for Cole Lane and Stewart St. July 28th.

Greendale’s contract offer which “started out as a business deal and turned into a political football” will be the subject of the entire July 6 DCRSD meeting. Hankins disagrees that this is a no- brainer and thinks that it will take a lot of brainpower to decide. He recommends that they stick with the strategic plan with Woolpert. [NOTE: Woolpert’s draft plan- Phase 1 has not been made public. They were sent back with changes to be made. The strategic plan is thus a combination of Woolpert’s ideas and also the DCRSD board’s. It would be interesting to see if that plan matches the County Comp plan.] They are also working with St. Leon and expect spillover business and housing from the Greensburg Honda plant. They received a pool of money from Council of $4.5 mil.

2. Transportation- Todd Listerman- Listerman will be on vacation the week of July 17th.
Commissioners signed Listerman’s bond for being director of Highway dept.

There is a public meeting July 26th at Seymour INDOT office – 1:30 –3 and repeated at 5:30 – 7 to go over Major Moves and what it does for existing projects. Listerman thinks SR56 is the only one that will move up the list as a result of the money. He’s still trying to get federal aid set up for Wilson Creek, North Dearborn, and Stateline.

IAC wants a separate county account set up to handle all Major Moves money so that they can pursue getting it annually instead of a 2-year one-time event.
By law Major Moves can be spent on any MVH use- but they are encouraged to spend it on economic development and capacity/safety projects. Pickens will set up account.

Triple Whipple received an additional $673,000 from INDOT. Construction set for next summer and will be part of pedestrian connection from Rising Sun to Aurora.

HVL-Stateline intersection plans just arrived on his desk last Friday. If OK he will have bids by end of August and construction in Sept.

Cranes Run Road (off Pinhook) was approved to be maintained officially at .95 miles, cutting off the last 0.1 miles that was a driveway to the old homestead at the end of the road. A culvert and cul de sac will be added at county expense. The road is gravel- 12 ft. wide. The owner at the end is deceased and the land is owned as Bernard Holthaus Trust.
Fox and Hughes approved- Benning abstained. She had asked for names of owners on the road and said she hadn’t seen it before tonight.

Hughes asked about flashing lights at Bright Schools under the Safer Routes to School act- and Listerman informed him that it was for pedestrian traffic and areas with sidewalks.
July 26th is the public meeting for the US 50 Corridor land uses and access points study by ME. (doing the accesses from Stateline to SR 62 along US 50) 6-8 PM LHS Cafeteria.

3. Old Business- Hughes asked if tree prices were checked on County Farm. Fox indicated that the prices were accurate in his and forester’s opinions.

4. Meeting with Dan Gieringer – Harrison Mayor is July 6 at 4:30 PM to discuss county responsibilities on paving State Street.

5. Claims and minutes were signed including the set with the November 15th amendment on DCRSD formation as a regional sewer district.

6. Bryan Messmore- Administrator – Manchester EMS signed for $12,000 same as the others.

William Powers reappointed to Library Board by Commissioners.

The US 50 Gateway Meeting will be July 26th from 6-8 PM at Lawrenceburg High School Cafeteria. They have studied over 400 access points from Stateline to Sr62 and are expecting businesses etc to respond to their recommendations that night. These are also on the county planning website at www.dearborncounty.org/planning

Messmore went into some detail about getting $30,000 a year to spend on a financial services resource partnership with Vieste,LLC – Level 5 Engineering and London Witte (the financial side). (Messmore thought they were INDY –based.) Messmore says it is the county’s role to coordinate activities and wants to consolidate info and services so as not to be duplicating. He also mentioned that the Redevelopment Commission is using this group. The group feels that they do not want to take money from the county general funds but wan to be part of what’s happening here to take advantage of the opportunities that will come with economic development.
Hughes said private entities want to come here and Messmore said that this company will help bring those private entities in to pay for infrastructure. [NOTE: Isn’t that what the TIF was for?]
Fox said we might as well look at their contract and review it. He planned on checking with Charlie Fehrman who was also at the interview with this company.
Messmore said these people can be the in house managers for the jailhouse project too. [NOTE: That’s one way they get extra fees???]
He also said DCRSD and DCEDI can use them to partner up. They do economic development modeling, look at return on investments, I-74 corridor, review current financial management system and reports, and available to consult. They will partner to provide us with long term financing. Fox said – this is one stop shopping. [NOTE: Did we find them or did they find us? Is this a competitive arrangement or a closed shop?]

7. Art Little – Bright Firehouse – stated they went to the firehouse and talked to see what the immediate needs for the EMS and fire were. They also went to see John Maxwell about plans for a new firehouse. Little stated there were 10,000 people in Miller township he thought- with all the building since the census. (He added about 1500 people to the 2000 census figures) Benning asked if they incorporated would that help pay for this? Little said that would put the costs on the residents of Bright rather than spread over the entire county. Messmore noted that he’d sought out Susan Craig at SIRDC and found a grant source to help cover 24 hr EMS coverage.

8. Ewbank- Attorney- After publication the Building Ordinance will be in effect. Homeland Security checked it out – took 6 months.

9. Hughes- Wants to discuss future funding with Council at budget time regarding $25,000 per EMS unit instead of $12,000.
The Shumway Building- now owned by Fortune Mgmt- will be appraised twice and get an average of the two for purchase price to see if it is more suitable that the old I&M building for moving the 4 offices in. (Planning, Hwy, Health, and Building) It was believed they would get an additional 5000 sq ft at same price. [NOTE: How would they know that without an appraisal? Doesn’t the county already own I&M building? ]

10. Benning- noted that with the Honda facility we would need more sewers, more houses, more recreation, more entertainment, more transportation, etc.

Passed out the Comcast letter on a rate increase.

Notified Commissioners of Chateau Pomije being under new ownership and that they all were invited to meet the new owner as they opened the new sport’s bar.

Answered an email from Chet Wolgamot to Bryan Messmore concerning incorrect meeting dates on the website.

Messmore also noted that there is a Hazard Mitigation Plan Steering Committee July 18th. Bill Black is attending for the county.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township