20 April 2010 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

20 April 2010 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Ralph Thompson, President, Tom Orschell, and Jeff Hughes
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, and Mike Witte, Attorney.

Executive session on Sugar Ridge Litigation preceded this meeting- no action taken from that meeting.

OLD BUSINESS:

Ordinance on fee for tax list- continued TABLED from 3/16/10

Corporate Cost Solutions tabled from 4/6/10- Ewbank spoke with the rep Friday and is not sure when he can get back to presentation regarding audit for workers Comp rates. Tabled indefinitely and Ewbank will research more companies to do this in Indiana.

NEW BUSINESS

Commissioners signed SE Regional Community Corrections State funding for $499,417.

Sheriff Lusby – Jail railing and recording proposal- Tabled and will handle executive session due to security reasons.

Jackie LeBerth- SE Indiana Small Business Development Center- funded in part by Small Business Adm, State, and Chambers and other business groups. Gives free counseling to existing businesses and start-ups. Made materials available to commissioners. This is free. In this region there were over 2000 small businesses that took advantage of their services. Can do a 15-20 min presentation on 2009 stats at some future date

Bill Black EMA- Grant signatures- $50,000 for District Coordinator and another for $38,432.46 for reimbursement for last year’s wages. This is straight to the county- not the district. This was cut back from last year. Commissioners signed both.

RQAW- Charette report- Charettes were held Saturday April 10th. Brett Dodd presented results. Stakeholders were all present- about 30 people total. Total report passed to Commissioners. Candid input and historical plans. Getting priorities was a major step. Options were also discussed. Some people toured courthouse during lunch to clarify issues. Each of the 3 teams had very similar solutions and priorities. Consensus reached and adjourned around 2 PM. PRIORITIES were a big step. Solving jail problems top priority. Probation issues 2nd- esp drug testing restrooms. Civil rights being compromised would be a legal issue. Rest were of lower priority.

Conclusion- Phase it by priority as we can afford it.

Phase 1- Add 200 beds in the dormitory style. Kitchen, laundry, and training rooms etc. on first level. The dormitory on the 2nd level. Renovate existing intake-booking area

Buy or lease Hoosier Square for probation depts. A soft renovation of Courthouse- trying to address fire marshall issues in basement. Need space for attorney conferencing. Maybe move archive storage to adm basement to free up basement courthouse space.

In the future to address courthouse issues- would expand courthouse and build new juvenile center near the EMA site. May have to relocate EMA in future. Also need to get more parking space. Shumway Building wasn’t favored by any of the teams to any great extent. So that is taken out of the equation. Dodd is worried about cramming all of community corrections in with probation in Hoosier Square. May want to add Community Corrections to the Courthouse addition ultimately.

Cost- Top down is to see what we have and fit costs. Bottom up is to see what these items cost. No design done at all yet. Mean is about $50million with range of $14-16million. 5-7% cost of materials is expected in the near future. Addition is about $10million for dormitory. Soft costs- Renovations and connectors and demolition- no elevators- can be 15-35%. They assigned it at 28%. Hoosier Square acquisition may be lowered if L-bg helps. Overall mean cost $21 million +or- 2 million. Bonds coming off can be used without impacting taxes. Timeline typically 6-8 month design, 1 month bid and 14-16 month construction. So if decision made- 2 years to occupy building. Hoosier Square could proceed quickly to take some pressure off courthouse. Some companies will build you a jail and lease it to you and at end of lease you own the building. Bonds and cash also can be used. See what the county can afford. Then let RQAW know.

Hughes said there is a tax impact- bonds coming off would lowered taxes if we didn’t renew them. TABLED to allow commissioners to review the material. Dodd will be called back to answer questions. Orschell asked about how lease experience could be checked out. Dodd said Harrison County does a lot. Leasing is a temporary solution. Long term goal is to reconsolidate. Dodd seems to like the advantages of the lease arrangement on jails- he spoke of the advantages. Thompson thanked RQAW for sticking thru us for this long and arduous process. Orschell also thanked all dept heads who took time to meet on this.

Council President told Thompson to get appraisals on Hoosier Square Building. Commissioners approved.

DCRSD- Steve Renihan – Funding change for High Ridge Estates. Bob Hrezo Engineering present as well. Need a safety rail on the High Ridge plant required by OSHA- was not included in original design, High Ridge now operational. Several items need to be fixed to correct infiltration problems. TVing the system found a crack in the system. $44,954 is total for change orders to date. Goal is to FIX problems and High Ridge was number 1 priority from Health Dept. Renihan said DCRSD is going to bid out engineering on all projects in the future. He commended Hrezo for helping them fix the problems as he came in partway thru the project. Commissioners approved going to Council for additional $17,554 for High Ridge changes.

Funding for Huseman Road- pictures of untreated waste from septic and a quasi system put in by developer in the 1970s. A home at 10391 Huseman burned down and they couldn’t rebuild because lot too small for septic system. Many lots too small for septic. Can put gravity or forced main. Don’t want to put a package plant to have a lot out there. Engineer found the low pressure forced main to be most cost effective at $856,504. Health Dept sending a letter out to 36 residents there. Commissioners consider asking health dept to wait as we have a potential fix. These problems exist mostly in the low income areas, Renihan said- you just don’t see these problems in the high income areas of the county. Have to be able to do it in a way for those folks to afford it over a long period of time. County employees are volunteering to go out and survey for possible low income grants. Commissioners approved DCRSD to approach Council for $860,000 for Huseman Rd.

Animal Control- Marlene Underwood, Lisa Wittenstrom, and Lisa Harrison – took in 88 dogs 45 cats. 41 dogs adopted and 10 cats plus 19 cats at Petsmart. 16 dogs and 1 cat returned to owner. 14 dogs and 10 cats euthanized for health or temper.

Currently -65 dogs and 60 cats. Had to buy a new washing machine. Had to patch holes in floor under washing machine.

On call rotation schedule in use for 4.5 years. For 8 years prior to that no one was on call. Each takes a week at a time – which includes 10 days work in am row. Worked well when we had 4 officers. With 3 this is wearing them down. They propose a 4 week rotation and one week with no one on call. Orschell said they could discuss this at the working session on animal Control this afternoon. Thompson said in his experience they need the 4th. They also suggested closing on Sunday – except for staff feeding and cleaning. Still on call at home. Also closed on Wed to the public to do testing etc. That’s the catch-up day. They still do emergency calls that day. Commissioners approved the Sunday closure.

Highway Dept.- Todd Listerman- 30 minute report- O’Mara pavers finished Yorkridge mainline paving. Approaches and stone work on edges will be done next. Trying to start North Dearborn and North Hogan to start June 1 to avoid school busses. Has to be approved by Federal highway adm. These should easily finish these by fall.

Collier Ridge Bridge at INDOT meeting. INDOT suggested splitting it in 2 for bridge funding and the road funding for approaches. Applications will be submitted by May 21 and find out in June for road funds and find out 29 of April for bridge. It would still take 3 years- to construct. If we don’t get it Hughes wanted to know if they’d talked to E&H bridge decking and classify it as an emergency. That could cost $300-500,000. Drew Barth took a quick look and gave an evaluation- he recommended a new structure rather than repair over the narrow bridge- plus more inspection costs on old bridges. He would get a proposal together if they wanted to pay for this. That’s normally around $10,000 on a fracture critical bridge. Commissioners and Listerman plan to look at ALL options. He may be able to use the decking for other structures in the county by doubling it up. Commissioners wanted drew Barth to get the letter to them with his recommendations.

Going to May Council and will transfer money out of 172 account for over $300,000 for millings to do roads.
Has about $350,000 left to spend this year and wants to spend it on equipment needs- 2 one ton dump bed snow plow- about a ford F550 size to handle the subdivisions up in the Bright area. This will give us a full fleet back. Garage staff extends the life of all vehicles. The one ton would not require a CDL and they could hire part timers to run them. Narrower sub’n streets are better with these. Wants to ask for $150,000 for this. Hughes voted nay – passed.
Striping requirements changed to 6000 vpd and centerlines only on 3000 vpd. Only 3 qualify- Old US 52, Stateline- only the main section in Bright and Jamison to W Harrison. Can give commissioners numbers on roads and costs to decide what we want to do. Can’t do $100,000 of striping like we used to do. If we go to 3000 vpd and this would add Wilson Creek, Georgetown, and Cole. He doesn’t see any roads being resurfaced this year with budget constraints.

Auditor- Claims and Minutes- Pennington- minutes corrected and approved. Claims signed. Hughes abstained as he hadn’t reviewed all the claims. West Harrison EMS contract will be reviewed with Witte first as it covers more than a year.

Attorney- Witte- no new litigation or tort claims. Recommended no action on Sugar Ridge from executive session at this time.

Temporary lease agreements for all private locations used for elections for insurance carrier. Ewbank said the poll workers are covered as employees for that day as we pay them. But insurance company suggested the lease arrangement would cover them for sure. Witte to research and give advice by the main election- not by the primary per commissioner’s motion.

County Coordinator- Bill Ewbank- Commissioners approved Incident report- reviewed by attorney and safety committee. These forms will be in every county vehicle and workspace. This form also covers non-vehicle incidents. Witte developed it from their research. This does not replace existing supervisory or police reports.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- Cathy Albert- regarding Collier Road Bridge was worried about cost increases as the time to build the bridge goes out 3 years. Commissioners were told by INDOT they could only ask for $1million. Two other neighbors reiterated concerns about how long it will take, costs, emergency services, and wanting a cheaper repair and not a replacement. Listerman and commissioners explained their prospects and will be going to Council the end of May.

NEXT MEETING MAY 5 as May 4 is Election Day.

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township