22 May 2007 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

22 May 2007 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Present: Fehrman, Chairman, Kraus, Sr., Ullrich, Morris, Cheek, and Lansing. (Stephanie Disbro covered minutes for Pickens)

Absent: Mitter Also Absent: Pickens, Auditor in Indy for Auditor’s training and Messmore, County Administrator.

Library Districts: Mary Alice Horton, Aurora and Sally Stenger, Lawrenceburg – passed out their annual report and asked for the Council’s blessing for this phase o f their request for a library tax to cover their capital projects fund. It goes to the state after this. Cheek motioned Morris 2nd All ayes- passed.

Sally Stenger asked for the Council to reappoint Julia Dickey to the Library Board. Kraus motioned Cheek 2nd – all ayes. Passed.

Sandy Karly and Becky Foster of PAWS passed out an update on PAWS funding for the new animal shelter with $450,000 remaining to raise of the $1.6 Million total thanks to an $800,000 matching grant from Lawrenceburg. The new website is www.pawsofdearborncounty.org.

Chuck Folop of the Dearborn County Clearinghouse requested $1,500 for 2 refrigerators that died in Lawrenceburg and Aurora. Cheek motioned and Lansing 2nd to approve $1,500 from the Benevolent Fund. All ayes passed.

Brett Fehrman and Bob Powell of Hillforest requested $5,000 from the benevolent fund toward their $44,000 total that they need to do maintenance repairs on the home. Ullrich motioned and ? 2nd. All ayes. Passed.

Ullrich stated specifically that he wanted CVTB (the tourism board) to match it.

Aaron Negangard- Prosecutor requested $5,000 from $21,000 available from the Diversion Fund (money that is not tax money- derived from other court fees) for “equipment.” No specifics were given or details on costs of these items that were not named. Kraus motioned and Lansing 2nd. All ayes. Passed.

GIS- Margaret Minzner requested $1998 from County General for mileage to get through the year. Cheek motioned and Ullrich 2nd. All ayes. Passed.

Highway and MVHA – Todd Listerman took about 10 minutes presenting and 15 minutes answering questions then Cheek motioned and Kraus 2nd to approve the following- all ayes -passed:

$50,000 for Wilson Creek repair and $45,000 for Collier Ridge geotech ($18K)and engineering design ($20-25K) were approved from Major Moves funding.

$75,000 concrete and $25,000 steel to repair small structures from Cum Bridge

$100,000 to do design work on bridges and small structures. ($50,000 of this goes to 3 that need work now according to recent inspections.)

Cheek asked Listerman about Dutch Hollow work and wanted him to see if Greg Platt would donate ROW to fix curves on the stretch they are about o repair up there. Listerman said he hadn’t asked Platt but remembered he personally wanted the road fixed for “whatever reason.” Listerman also said the hump at the other end where there was much more traffic needed repair also- and funds were limited.

Ullrich said a woman from Ennis Ridge had called to get the chip seal section fixed. It has a thin overlay on Ennis Ridge and then this chip seal deteriorated section up to Hyland Road. Listerman said it’s about in the middle of the chip seal list ranking.

Ralph Thompson- Commissioner- spoke about the need to look at the road funding- he gets lots of calls and it seems they have about $2million to do $20 million of work. He has told a lot of people that they are not going to get their roads fixed. They are not happy to hear that. But there is not enough money.

Listerman said if it weren’t for casino cash, he does not know what he’d do- as the fuel tax is not keeping up with needs.

Morris said that there has been a lot of progress in the county- she didn’t use to have snow plowed except for locals like Tidwell and Tucker doing it. Now the county does. And she has a nice surface on their road.

Cheek said they need to look at this at budget to reinforce road dollars- maybe cut some of the other things funded.

Budget hearings are set for August 20, 21, and 22 this year.

In answer to Lansing’s questions about the July meeting they were supposed to have for Vieste Fehrman told Council that both parties agreed it was not worth pursuing. There was $378,000 appropriated in the jail fund for them.

Thompson- Commissioner- got up then and recapped the discussions at the last commissioner meeting saying Messmore had read a prepared statement and commissioners voted to accept the termination pending the cost of terminating the project at their June 5 meeting. He gave them a copy of Vieste’s bill to look over. He said there were jail issues with PSA Dewberry quoting mostly from RQAW’s study that the county already had. He thinks we “need to do the job right and quit screwing around.”

Council said that they thought Chamber or EDI was contacting Purdue/IU Business schools to see if they would do this as a school project.

Thompson said he’d spent the day reviewing the jail/courthouse facilities today and those people are working in very tight spaces.

Fehrman said he thought he’d let the Commissioners wade through this Vieste agreement first and then Council would step in.

Thompson said it looks like they (Vieste) want to take all the money in the account.
Numbers mentioned were $117,000 plus another $92,000 plus $78,000 in the billing, which appears to be IN ADDITION to the $206,000 already paid out.

Fehrman said if they have given us say 3/5 ingredients of whatever finished project- we pay- but he doesn’t want to pay for lost work claims. Fehrman asked about London Witte’s contract. (I spoke up and told them London Witte’s contract specifically says they do not charge extra to come to meetings for the Council and public informational ones)

Thompson said most work he’s ever seen done- you get pay for work- not pay for time- in his business.

No action.

Cheek asked about Mitter’s status- and was told by Fehrman that he was taking a job in Indy- Hamilton County, IN. Nothing else was know specifically yet.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township