Present: Thompson, President, Hughes, and Orschell.
Also present: Pickens, Auditor, Witte, Attorney, and Messmore, Departing Administrator.
[NOTE: The county attorney and the administrator now sit at the side table, where they can give advice, when solicited, from the microphone placed there. For those who asked, there are no police officers REQUIRED to be at these meetings.]
OLD BUSINESS:
Margaret Minzner- GIS Data Sharing agreement was reviewed and was approved to sign once she locates the original and not a photocopy.
Bright Fire District remains tabled.
Contract for PAWS Animal Shelter - Witte reviewed the old copy, found errors, and then reviewed the corrected copy. Commissioners approved the contract. Hughes then asked if the building dept was handling the construction mgmt. Thompson said that was what they’d agreed to do, thus saving money for the animal shelter.
NEW BUSINESS:
Bill Black- Emergency Mgmt- got the level 2 snow emergency signed from the ice/snow storm. He noted he’d be back for tonight’s storm also- Level 1 or 2 would be declared soon.
McCormack- Planning and Zoning – proposed amendments to zoning code was tabled
FORMALLY per Witte’s suggestion so they would not have to readvertise. It will be heard at the next meeting. (McCormack had a family emergency to attend to out of town.)
Lifetime Housing Group signature for DNR was tabled- they had sent in an old agreement from last year and the commissioners weren’t sure what they needed.
Highway Dept- Todd Listerman-
[NOTE: This was listed as Updates on the agenda- instead it turned into a 35- minute report and approvals for expenditures. This should be clear on the agenda as to what will be discussed, particularly if expenditures of taxpayer money and new projects are being approved.]
1. George Street Bridge Design is 80-90% complete with Barker Design on widening the sidewalk to accommodate the walking trail. We pay $7500 and Aurora reimburses us. Commissioners approved with the stipulation that Aurora is to reimburse the $7500 to the county.
2. The federal economic stimulus package will be looking for dedicated infrastructure projects. Listerman was at a meeting with INDOT and these projects have to be on the federal aid system. The roads should be major collectors and above. They have to have contracts developed for these projects so they are “shelf ready.” By Feb 20th . [NOTE: Is shelf ready anything like shovel ready?] Listerman came up with 5 projects that could be used for this and needs $13,000 for Barth and Associates to get the contract documents ready by Feb 20th. There is a risk that none will be chosen- but these are 100% federal stimulus and not 80/20. Of the package a certain amount HAS to be dedicated to local projects and so those counties that can get these ready will have an edge. The projects are Old US 52 resurface- $600,000; Yorkridge resurface- $1.3 million, Weisburg resurface- $1million, the hills on Stateline Pribble and Kaiser- resurface- $650,000 and chip seal fog seal on sections of North Dearborn and North Hogan- $725,000. Total $4.275 million. Striping, wedging, leveling etc are also allowed.
Commissioners approved the expenditure of $13,000 from the design account for contracts to be written for potential 5 projects.
3. House bills have been introduced to redirect funding from toll roads back to locals maybe. This is the old Major Moves- that stopped after 2 years. Pickens said- “that is a stinking idea”- it’s just a band-aid and then it goes away again. They need to solve the funding problem.
4. The salt contracts are high and in an effort to lower process and get sufficient amounts, political subdivisions and maybe INDOT in the area are looking at consolidating and getting bids as a larger group. Listerman ordered and received another 500 tons of salt from Peru by barge.
Hughes stated at this point that he wanted to go on record that he wasn’t in favor of the economic stimulus package, but if it goes through, he is all for it. [NOTE: I guess he was referring back to #2 above.]
5. Listerman introduced Andy Patel (sp?) form Beam Longest and Neff- who requested money to rescope the project on Stateline from 200 ft S of Salt Fork to 200 ft N or Jamison as a locally funded project. He was finally pinned down to an estimate not to exceed $5,000. The original work on this was form 1999 and a little more in 2001. Pickens said Dick Robertson was with Beam Longest and Neff then and was doing what Andy is doing now and the project stopped because there was no money. [NOTE: Remember- Robertson was with Level 5 Engineering and working with Vieste with the NW Quad/jail campus project.]
Commissioner Thompson asked Patel how long it would take- 2 days tops, 2 guys per day at $100/hr each- so 32 hours total= $3200. Commissioners approved with a limit of $5,000.
Pickens- Commissioners approved the addendum for the SRI contract for tax sales. EMS contracts for Moores Hill (2), St, Leon (1), and Dillsboro (2) - were approved- at $20,000 per ambulance. Claims and minutes approved.
Witte- Attorney- Ongoing state tax appeal is in the attorney general’s hands at no cost to the county now as he handles this at the state tax appeals. Witte also met with Ewbank and he brought him up to date on the county legal affairs and pending litigation. There are 2 cases closing out- and Witte recommended they let Ewbank finish those. Approved.
Hughes- said the county administrator has a lot of transitional things- lots of things that he’s on and several citizens want a day-to-day person there to contact…
Orschell said he thought it was time to go in a new direction.
Hughes said he had tried to get an executive session, but they couldn’t get the notice to the paper in time.
Thompson – said that a working session would be adequate to get the type of position- adm or coordinator- job description. He said that Messmore’s position is finished this week.
HUGHES MOTIONED TO REAPPOINT MESSMORE. The motion died for lack of a second.
[NOTE: Apparently Messmore was allowed to work this week in Feb because the month extension was made at the Jan 6 meeting and they interpreted a month to mean till Feb 6.]
Hughes asked who OK’d a $35 million master plan? (as he waved some colored paperwork) Pickens said Tom went with him to Indy. Thompson said- there were no approvals- they are meeting with judges tomorrow. Pickens said $35 million is the high side of the options proposed. RQAW gave them – for free- [NOTE: Be careful- nothing is free- they EXPECT to get the contract and now have an inside track.] 3 copies to look at. Brett Dodd of RQAW threw out some ideas in INDY and there is NO CONTRACT at this point. Hughes said- this was a red flag- seeing this $35 million plan. [NOTE: Interesting how worked up he is at this and get the millions that Vieste proposed was hard to get to the light of day under his watch.]
Orschell- He met with Gary Theurer of Bright FD- Bischoff gave him a list of possible grants that might be available for them. Orschell has had a LOT of negative phone calls on the $2.3 million budget- he thinks it’s too much- too quick- and wants to find a better way. Orschell said maybe a flat fee per house/business. He has trouble taxing ag lands for this service. He said he couldn’t get to a decision by March like they requested. He wants to see the public opinion and suggested maybe using CH 5 to do a poll on it.
Thompson noted that the Bright Beacon was not public notice legally and he is trying to get 2 public hearings- one at the Bright firehouse and one at the county bldg. He said Pete Resnick (adm of DC Hospital) is in favor of supporting paramedics. He too has gotten negative comments.
Pickens said their CPA has never given him corrected numbers on eth taxes.
Orschell said Bright wants a used sheriff’s vehicle and he will check with Lusby about that.
No public wished to speak tonight.
Meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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