21 September 2010 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

21 September 2010 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Ralph Thompson, President, Tom Orschell, and Jeff Hughes
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Bill Ewbank, County Coordinator, and Jack Gay, Attorney.
Commissioner candidate, Shane McHenry, was present.

OLD BUSINESS:
Tucker Development – Seldom Seen 1,2, and 3/Old Orchard- remains tabled.

DCRSD Appointments- continued tabled since 7/20

Animal Control Fees- tabled since 7/20- Jack Gay researched possible conflicts with state law. He’s comfortable that it does not conflict as written. Commissioners APPROVED the new ordinance and resolution for license fees and signed it.

Brett Dodd- RQAW- Pre-design contract- tabled from 9/7. Gay received language from Brett Dodd. Owner shall be owner of all drawings by architect and a complete set of as built drawings will be transferred to owner and not to be sold or transferred to anyone else. Hughes said this was for the jail and for $20 million. He thinks that they should get more firms involved before accepting. Orschell said he was comfortable with RQAW and outlined several reasons including charette results. $90,000 approved by commissioners Orschell and Thompson with Hughes voting Nay for Pre-Design contract with RQAW.

NEW BUSINESS:

Mark McCormack- Planning Director- proposed changes to Article 4 and 7 of the County Subdivision Ordinance- this is regarding removal of letters of letters of credit and the items of infrastructure that these bonds will now cover. They also included the certificates and performance guarantee standards to get them relieved when the work is completed to county standards. The county auditor, engineer, and plan commission will all get monthly reports on these performance guarantees, so that all involved are notified. Hughes wanted to be sure that this would eliminate what happened in Sugar Ridge. Jack Gay assured commissioners that this put sound financial backing to these projects. Gay wanted to remove BANK bonds- not sure what that would be. He also suggested some language changes to the certificates. He wanted to remove the words indicating discretion of the inspector- there are standards to meet, so discretion should be removed. He suggests sending it back to P&Z for one more crack. Inspection should also mean they approve or disapprove it. Commissioners cannot modify these documents- so if changes needed it goes back to PC. Commissioners sent this back to PC. McCormack thinks the PC will approve their requested changes and have it back next month.

DCRSD- West Harrison TIF District- Steve Renihan- asked commissioners to grant permission to go to Council with Alternative 4 and 4a to sewer West Harrison. The alternative to go to Harrison picks up more potential customers to help pay it off. Cost is $1,364,799.71. Folks do not HAVE to hook on due to county ordinance, but many will choose to hook on.
Commissioners approved DCRSD to seek this money from Council for this purpose. The DCRSD has the ability to sign contract with West Harrison for this as they are a separate entity from the county. The only reason they have to ask the county today is that they are seeking funding from the county.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT- Todd Listerman- gave a 10- minute report.

Met with AAA Striping for areas around East Central and will be completed today.

Line striping contract will be finished next week for the rest of the county with 3,000 vpd traffic count. This eliminated some of the roads previously done. Hopes funding next year will go back to 1,000 vpd. Now the rules changed and feds only require striping for 6,000 vpd this year.

Old SR 1 from Dover to Gaynor has started with millings and chip seal. Rohe Paving got this and other roads on this chip seal list.

Randall Avenue upgrades for the Highway Dept had two quotes for 3 of the four contracts and one for the fourth:
Floor drains- Cook Mechanical- $81,600, Maxwell $61,400.
Electrical upgrades- Glenwood $47,000, Maxwell- $26.945
Mechanical work- Cook Mechanical- $32,100, Maxwell- $22,695
General remodeling- Maxwell- $82,900.
Maxwell was lowest on all and has all the work. They were approved by commissioners to hire. Work to be completed in 60 days.

Ford has trucks for Woody Sander- with a step up truck with rebates on Chrome package and Haag. The numbers are $27,000+ range. He was approved to decide.

ANIMAL CONTROL- Marlene Underwood- was out of town yesterday. Not present today. Thompson said they were proceeding with ACOS as stated in last meeting.

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- Minutes approved. Claims approved.

ATTORNEY- Jack Gay- Problems between Fehrman and Scudder have been resolved.

COUNTY COORDINATOR- Bill Ewbank -270-300 West High Street properties need appraisals. Ewbank has been approved to seek those.

Surplus property sale has removed almost all those items for about $40-50,000. Ewbank would like to see these properties moved faster, especially vehicles. He wants to seek out a public surplus auction site and start using this once all county depts have had an opportunity to use it. Commissioners agreed to allow Ewbank to do this. Once this valuable floor space has been recovered and the 20 skid pallets of records were destroyed. He says more records need to be stored. He thinks they can use the water rescue area to store this until time for destruction again. He thinks he can secure this area for this. Approved.

COMMISSIONERS:

Jeff Hughes- any more research on road blocks? Jack Gay authorized to do this for public hearing on November 3rd.

Tom Orschell- Jim Olsen form Jefferson County and asked if they could have Bridge 55- Collier Ridge bridge. They would disassemble it for $1 and would need proper waivers. Gay was approved to work on that.
Asked Brett Dodd to get the pre-design teams to work with sheriff etc. That is in the works, per Dodd, and he intends to recheck with the sheriff etc on needs.

Ralph Thompson- Burn Ban issue was raised by Bill Black. Fire Chiefs can do that. He asked Jack Gay to further review that.
Gay is also to have a list of unresolved issues by next meeting.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Howard Luke- on the issue of the fire hydrant, he is representing his son in law due to his depression. There was no permit for the fire hydrant within 3 ft of the pavement which was a safety hazard. Average cost of fire hydrant was $600. The cost was much higher- he questioned this cost. Listerman will give him a copy of the bill the water company submitted for repair. There is a permit utilities get to be sure they don’t damage roads. There is no other reason for this permit. Luke didn’t know why his son in law was responsible for unpermitted hydrant repair.
The state police were called and no report exists. There was a car in the right of way- actually on the road, illegally parked, with no lights. How can he be held responsible? His son in law was backing up as the hill was too slick as he was sanding it during a snow storm and hit that car. This was an incident prior to Listerman being hired here. Listerman will get him a copy of that accident report.
Other incident- his brakes failed and he was not even in the vehicle at the time. He was out helping another vehicle. He was supposed to be in control of his truck. Listerman was not in charge at this time either. He was unaware of brake failure. There are other incidents with Mr Ken Griffin and Listerman does not want to go into personnel issues at a public meeting. There was another incident where he would have to back up over half a mile. He hit a barn on a private driveway when he chose to do that as there was no turn around. Mr Griffin’s dismissal was for a host of reasons per Thompson.
Gay said they had abandoned the process as they did not use appeals process in a timely manner. Luke questioned if he could hire an attorney and sue the county. The commissioners said he can have an attorney at any time. The COUNTY process is over, however. Luke asked if Ewbank told him appeals were over and to get on with his life. Ewbank said he did give him that personal advice.
Listerman said the county had decided to terminate Griffin and the document was signed in the presence of Listerman, Grieve, and Pickens. Luke asked who gave them the authority to dismiss Griffin. They can hire and fire anyone at will? asked Luke. Yes, within the proper procedures.
Luke said he didn’t want to cost the county money, but that they will probably seek an attorney.
Cathy Albert- a company has been contacting people out in their area on Collier and on Kaiser getting timber. They are using the small concrete bridge on Kaiser loaded with timber. She was advised to get with the sheriff to enforce this. Listerman also spoke with 2 residents about this concern. He will also talk to the sheriff again. Cathy provided the name of the company to Listerman.
Cathy Albert- still was asking about the Collier Ridge bridge. She was also asking about the small concrete one above the Collier ridge Bridge. Orschell was concerned about the narrowness and curve on that. It is also a weight limited bridge and is structurally inadequate for width as well. Orschell was saying that they should perhaps fix both bridges and realign the road to fix both. If they leave it as a service bridge just for 5 homes it will last longer. It doesn’t meet today’s standards for a main road though.

Meeting adjourned at 10:30 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township