3 April 2007 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

3 April 2007 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Hughes, President, Fox, and Thompson.

Also Present: Pickens, Auditor, Ewbank, Attorney, and Messmore, Administrator.
Dick Robertson, Vieste/Level 5 Engineering was in attendance.
A uniformed police officer was also present.

1. CASA- Citizens Against Substance Abuse- Donna Thacker read the proclamation for the Too Smart To Start Alcohol Awareness Program proclaiming April as Alcohol Awareness Month. Commissioners signed the proclamation. [NOTE: Several Interesting points in the proclamation such as- children will see 100,000 beer commercials before they reach age 18.]

2. INDOT- Brandy Fishvogt (local plan coordinator Seymour District) and Cathy Eaton (Seymour office INDOT) – delivered the news that they have been mandated by the Fed Hwy to get all state projects fiscally constrained. INDOT is changing the way they do business. At the local annual development meeting on May 22- they will be going through the project lists heavily. Counties are going to have to enter into a contract on each project with a timeline and scope to keep costs from escalating. Projects will be evaluated in today’s dollars and then INDOT will calculate the future costs per the timeline.
There are $131 million projects “programmed” and only $20 million available – statewide to 2009. They need info on each project and are looking to see what can be eliminated. Elimination means funding is lost. She said one project on the list has $1 funding- so it won’t be considered. They are no longer allowing $1 as placeholders. This is for G3,G4 and Transportation Enhancement funds outside the urban areas. MPO operates inside urban area. (even though whole county is part of it)
Dick Robertson spoke up at this point on the $1 placeholder and said- it has a DES number! Cathy Eaton said- but it’s not funded. Robertson said- No not yet. [NOTE: This $1 is in reference to the placeholder and DES number assigned to the North Dearborn Road realignment project. It seems late in the process for INDOT to be giving the county this “bad news.” Didn’t we have the funding in place?]Projects are granted as first come first served. Listerman asked to get with Brandy Fishvogt on projects already to be let. Eaton noted that we have to settle all this BEFORE a call is made for future projects.

3. Old Business- Tax payments by credit card. Gayle Pennington was not present- Ewbank presented the reviewed and amended contract for Certified IT, LLC and commissioners signed it. Pennington will be bonded for this and insured. (See notes on last meeting for details on how this will work at tax time)

4. Transportation Dept- Todd Listerman:

1.Old project on Whites Hill has an outstanding claim for $4200 for O’Mara for the difference in cost of a 10 in vs. an 8 in pipe replaced there under negotiations after it was broken in construction of the road. St. Leon is to reimburse the county for this cost minus any costs they incurred for supervising the installation. [NOTE: So will their supervisory costs equal or exceed this amount?]
The leftover funding in this project went to the Stateline Stephens intersection project. Ewbank said the contract was a good faith effort to resolve s bad situation. Hughes was part of negotiations and will go with Listerman to St, Leon to see what supervisory costs were.
Pickens said they better look for backup in case Council doesn’t fund it. You can’t keep going to Council for things missed in contracts.
Listerman said he’d go to the 147 account. Ewbank offered to talk to St, Leon’s attorney if needed- though he was sure it would be unneeded. Listerman approved to check with St. Leon for supervisory costs and then to go to Council for the funding.

2. Collier Ridge Slip is working its way up the road. It will take about $35-45K to stabilize the additional 300 ft of embankment. Will put a slotted drain in and more baskets on the hillside- should fix it for a number of years. Wilson Creek should take about $40K to fix that slip by Jacobsen’s. Commissioners approved Collier Ridge work.

3. The updated signal plans for Stateline and Stephens will be coordinated with Macke- the Sugar Ridge developer. The developer will then go to bid for installation costs- their part of the project.

4. Fox asked if they can approach Council to chip seal the through rods that have heavy traffic at times – even those with few homes.
Listerman said there are 19.6 miles of chip seal roads at $16-20K per mile- so costs would be in the $180-200K range.
Thompson said it doesn’t hurt to ask, but gets the feeling that we’re pushing the upper limits of what Council can fund. Listerman will see how to prioritize those roads. Fox and Thompson agreed that at least it may get them funded for the next year. Hughes would rather blacktop. Fox and Thompson approved Listerman to ask Council and Hughes voted Nay.

5. Listerman dropped off the right of entry order with the property owner on Wilson Creek for the slip fix. Owner is looking it over.

5. Hughes presented the Lifetime Resources grant modifications and 90 day extension for their Housing Community Dev. Grant. Approved and signed.

6. Claims- Thompson moved to approve all claims except for # 101624- London Witte for $22,500. He had no problem with the claim and thought the itemization was well done. Pickens was concerned because he thought the check was mailed on Friday because it was a contracted claim. [NOTE: They mail checks ahead of commissioner approval?] Fox conferred in a whisper back and forth with Ewbank during this exchange [NOTE: This needs to be audible to the audience as it's a public meeting] and lots of paper was being passed around the commissioners.
Thompson said he wasn’t comfortable making the motion on that particular claim as it was before his term as commissioner.
Pickens said- is it because of the deferred payment on the original contract? Thompson said yes. Fox asked if there was anything wrong with the billing or itemization. Thompson said- no that was OK. Fox and Hughes approved the London Witte claim with Thompson abstaining.
[NOTE: What happened to the Vieste claim for $67K+ and the PSA Dewberry Claim for $11K+? Those were not mentioned in any of this approval.]

Minutes approved with corrections.

7. Messmore presented 4 additional claims from Vieste before the Stop Work Order. Thompson asked Messmore to give them individual copies of these claims to review. Messmore said they could have them before they left tonight. Fox agreed that would be better. Tabled these claims to allow time for review. No one was passed the claims then.
[NOTE: Pickens informed me that I needed to fill out a separate request for public records forms each time I want these Vieste project claims. He has 7 days to fulfill that request and was willing to take it by email. I needed to know what I was asking for specifically so I asked Messmore after the meeting in his office if those claims were new or were they the old ones. I specifically asked about the $67K and $11K etc. He and Robertson said they were the March 1-31 claims.]

Messmore also detailed the alleged animal abuse situation over the weekend and wasn’t sure why the state police were involved. Lohmiller and Lusby will fill out incident reports for the animal shelter and the sheriff’s dept.
Also mentioned the car wrecking into the jail and that the building withstood the hit.

Fox mentioned the claims earlier from Bryan and Higgins (London Witte) and that they all need better access to them. Pickens said if there’s even one problem- we hold them.

8. Ewbank – no new lawsuits.
The Anchor Glass bankruptcy was filed in FL court and the fed judge will decide if the real estate lien was filed before the bankruptcy was filed.

Thompson asked if they’d gotten the letter from Frank Kramer (of Ewbank and Kramer) on a tort claim. Ewbank hadn’t seen it and noted it was reserving the right to sue. No other details mentioned.

9. Hughes said PAWS was doing a business gathering and needed a rep on Apr 11th from 11:30-1. They also need a Council rep. Fox will be off that day and said he’d represent commissioners.

Meeting adjourned at 8 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township