7 November 2007 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

7 November 2007 Dearborn County Commissioner Meeting Notes

Present: Hughes, Chairman, Fox, and Thompson
Also present: Pickens, Auditor, and Messmore, Administrator. Frank Kramer attended for Bob Ewbank, Attorney.
A uniformed police officer was present.

Kuebel Road concerns remain tabled.

Judge Sally Blankenship expressed about 8 concerns about the current court facilities including:

Probation facilities, which are not set up for confidential interviews.

Restroom facilities where the public and prisoners getting drug tests share the same facility

Courtroom not big enough for jury trial – and when using the commissioner’s room for jury trials there are no facilities to sequester the jurors as needed.

Grand jury investigations can be overheard by health dept office

On heavily docketed days, witnesses don’t fit in court and halls are clogged

Only one EXIT- concerned about fire code

No spare room for attorneys to meet with client in dissolution cases.

Mainly concerned with the IMPRESSION we give- we are behind the times with inadequate facilities.

Blankenship asked commissioners what they wanted her to do. Hughes said we were looking into it but didn’t have a solution yet. Maybe move that court offsite. Blankenship said maybe probation could do that but court needed to be in the building. She said she’s always worked well with everyone in the past. Thompson said- there is nothing you can do yet. We are looking at RQAW and video arraignment. It’s not just you- there are many offices with needs there.

Blankenship said the court has the ability to ORDER some of this and she didn’t want it to come to that. She said we could get a local contractor to build something over in the parking lot area. She noted it would take TWO YEARS to get this done, even if we started now. NO DECISION.

Barth Engineering- John Graf presented the Collier Ridge report. The final thought on these 4 alternatives was to go to Council and get $500,000 to phase in the fix as in Option 3.

Alternative 1 completely realigns Collier Ridge to a new roadway with a new RR crossing and a new Bridge to Bonnell for a total cost of $4.705 million.

Alternative 2 moves Collier Ridge, requires 2 new bridges, and has better site distance at Bonnell. It’s better safety-wise. Total cost $3.325 million.

The 3rd option realigns they road closer to the original bed except near the RR and bridge area requiring those to be built. Its advantage is that it can be phased with the first phase costing about $500,000. Total cost of 3 is $2.93 million.

Option 4 reroutes the road over the hill to meet Bonnell much further down. It requires 2 new bridges. Cost is $4.06 million.

There was much discussion of needing more soil samples to determine actual costs as this is still unknown strata. Graf said they recommend Alt 2 and then 3, in that order. Alternative 2 has better safety and goes behind the barn and house. It also has less grade. Alternative 3 can be phased in but requires taking the house. It gives access to the lower area and existing bridge.

Thompson kept asking about timing on each project. There were concerns about road closing and safety in the construction and pre-construction times. Neighbors are pushing for concrete barriers to be put on the edge to prevent anyone going over the side in bad weather. [NOTE: Perhaps it should be closed for those times.] There are issues with costs of barriers and equipment to place them. There are issues with flagging costs at $800 per day for some of the construction if railroad is involved. The current iron bridge has about a 5-year life expectancy and a 10-ton load limit. The other bridge has 18 years.

Federal aid could be used on Option 2. Local money has to be used on Option 3 because of the grade. It is clear that federal money is several years out IF it could even be captured. Listerman was told to get the barrier options and blind spot option specified and bring all to the Nov 20 meeting for a decision. Next step is to get soil borings and go to Council to seek funding.

Moores Hill Town Board request for use of HWY Dept frequency- no one showed up.

Sandy Leptak- Health Dept- informed commissioners that Dr Frable had resigned last year for health reasons and Dr Eliason was filling out his term Commissioners are open to reappoint him for a 4 –year term in January.

Vital records fee increases will be sent to Ewbank for ordinance requirements to take effect in January. Birth and Death certificates will be $10, Paternity affidavits $15. Affidavit of amendment will be $5.

Commissioners ratified the Lifting of the No Burn Ban.

Med Ben meeting will be Wed Nov 14 per Messmore.

The 2008 Holiday calendar was approved with 2 changes: To get a 4-day weekend employees will be off Dec 25-6 and Dec 31- Jan 1.

Sheriff Lusby opened 3 bids for food service: US Foods, Ellenbee Leggett, and Gordon. He will come back with recommendations next meeting.

Todd Listerman, Transportation Director, gave a 5- minute report. He will get other options to the concrete barriers and look at owning vs. leasing.
The HVL manager verified that Kathy Court, Par Dr, and Golfview were privately maintained by HVL and so commissioners voted to remove them from county maintenance lists.

Certified letters were sent to property owners on private drives to see if they will dedicate appropriate land for 50 ft of ROW to stay on county maintenance. They have until Nov 16 to respond. He will get list to commissioners after that.

Pickens- Auditor- Claims approved (did this include a $25,000+ payment to London Witte per newspaper listing?)

Pickens was approved to sign for the $75,000 stopgap on the health insurance.

Commissioners re-signed the Harrison contracts as the original was “lost”

Pickens brought up the State Board of Accounts write-up on the county payroll being non-compliant with state code. This has been ongoing but apparently the past year resulted in 2 cases where employees quit and were paid for work NOT done. There was no accrued sick or vacation pay to cover the days paid. There were several employees and Sheriff Lusby spoke also trying to find a way to not “hold back a week’s pay.”

Lusby said this only became a problem with direct deposit. He used to hold back checks on employees who hadn’t worked the days he had pre-certified and then have a check re-issued. He also did this to assure employees returned county property when they quit. County could file civil suit to get their money back or criminal charges if the employee won’t refund the pay.

Thompson asked- How does that get us into compliance?

Lusby said he feels bad that they might be taking money from employees that worked here before 1985. (Employees keep insisting they were docked a week’s pay when they started to work. They have no records to show this)

Pickens replied- we are not taking any money- we are just paying them post working rather than pre-working. Thompson reiterated this. Lusby said he would work on a way to help cushion the blow. Some of the highway is paid 2 weeks behind. (How did THEY get on that schedule?)

What is supposed to happen in the 1st payroll in January is that they will be paid one week’s pay. After that the payroll will have two week’s pay in it. The week they GET their check will be paid in the following payroll- continuously. At the end of their work for the county, there will be a paycheck that comes after they quit. It is easy to track this as each paycheck will show what time period is being paid.

It was very apparent that commissioners didn’t want to vote on this at this time- though it is also clear that payroll will have to change. Pickens gave them 3 months to prepare for it with notices in October. He also is doing it at the beginning of the month and many household bills are due at the end of the month. They also will be getting paid for 4 days holiday pay that was NOT WORKED at the end of Dec- early Jan. NO DECISION yet on whether they will phase it over 5 payrolls.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township