3 November 2010 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

3 November 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.

An Executive Session preceded this meeting with a discussion of real estate property. Tabled this issue pending questions.

OLD BUSINESS:

Tucker Development- tabled

DCRSD appointments- address Steve Renihan’s term and reappointment- Renihan should have been reappointed in January of 2010. Commissioners agreed to reappoint him now.
Hughes wanted to appoint Robert Liske ( sp?). Boundary issue rules were changed so others can be appointed. No one seconded that motion. There was a concern over a possible conflict of interest.
Orschell wanted to appoint Todd Listerman to DCRSD board. Hughes thought Listerman had his hands full with highway dept. Thompson seconded and Listerman was appointed with Hughes voting Nay.

NEW BUSINESS:

Charity Road Block Ordinance-

Sheriff Lusby was concerned because whenever road blocks occur in the county they get calls and complaints about it. Complaints range from annoyance to safety issues. The safety issues are the biggest concerns.

Peggy Waltz from Bright Lions- they have been doing road blocks for 35 years. They use these funds for charitable purposes and for scholarships. People can drive by if they don’t want to contribute.

Tom Wayne- safety issues with adults and YOUNG KIDS out in the street. Wants these organizations to be able to raise funds.

Thompson said in Mason – they put up signs ahead of the event. He asked Sheriff Lusby for suggestions. Lusby liked the signs and agreed that kids under 16 or so shouldn’t be doing this. Adult supervision is necessary. Definitely use stricter guidelines. Traffic back-up is an issue. Safety vests maybe. Maybe county should require a permit, with a clause that says the county is not liable for accidents.

Mike Kreinhop- giving indication of the charity collected for, people may be more tolerant. Times should be restricted to less busy times. Locations may need to be changed to something less busy. [NOTE: That might defeat the purpose as the busy intersection means more cars to collect money from.]

Jack Gay- County attorney- said that he has considered this since June. Many of these ideas were put into the ordinance. Problem with permitting is who will issue the permit and inspect it. You also would have a liability issue. If someone came to me with a claim as a lawyer- I’d look for who is responsible. That would be the county. He has prepared an ordinance prohibiting it. It is up to commissioners to decide whether to enact it.

Orschell- told the Lions Club that this is not to pick on them. He said there are a lot more groups taking advantage of that intersection. Can’t see who to put in charge of the permits and inspections.

Hughes said it comes to the kids out there and the safety issues are a concern. Said when the road is redone- this will probably prohibit it anyway. Terrifies people to see someone get hurt.
Orschell thinks they need to pass the ordinance. He would hate to see people get hurt. It’s only a matter of time before that will happen. [NOTE: There are other high volume areas that are safer to collect charitable funds- Walmart, Krogers, and other businesses that allow it in their parking lot, and even putting cans in banks or other business establishments.]

Thompson read the ordinance into the record. Fines are $100 for first offense and more.
Orschell motioned to approve the Road Block ban ordinance. Hughes seconded all ayes approved. Ordinance will be redrafted and d brought to next meeting for signatures.

RQAW- Brett Dodd Pre-design update on jail- he presented materials showing the existing space and evaluated the space. This states we are about 20,000 sq ft shy of what is needed. There are some other significant operational issues as well. 12,000 sq ft of this 20,000 sq ft is in one area- housing of inmates. It is nearly impossible to do separation of different classes of inmates. The second issue is with kitchen space and laundry. Intake and processing is significantly undersized. Patrol issues and training area have been taken over by 911 dispatch etc. Summary page states 62,000 sq ft. we need 90,000 sq ft today. That is not projected into the future needs.
Some spaces actually have more space than needed. This helped improve the overall rating of the facility. The arrangement of these spaces may be part of the problem with trying to borrow space. Wants to come back in December with more data.
Orschell said they are having contraband issues because of some of these space issues and mixing up different populations. Dodd said they are trying to keep felons away from someone who ran thru a stop sign for example.

DCRSD –Dearborn County Regional sewer District- Request to go to Council for Guilford Study- for an engineering study. Health Dept has listed this as having major potential septic health issues. Commissioners approved DCRSD to seek Council funding for this study.
Hoosier Square Purchase- see note above- Tabled after executive session.

HIGHWAY DEPT- Todd Listerman- gave a17 minute report:

Has been working to assure that all our signs and markings are meeting reflectivity standards by Indiana Code. By next meeting he will have this ordinance prepared to be adopted. Asking permission for Jack Gay to look over the draft ordinance and modify as necessary. Ok’d for Gay to review.

Working with OKI- MPO to get funding for George Street Bridge. 80/20 federal funding. Commissioners signed supplemental 2 as it relates to state and federal INDOT TE and OKI TE funds.

Orschell asked about portable flashing speed limit signs a couple meetings ago. Wants to see if he can get a grant to get 1 or 2 of those signs. They cost about $10,000 apiece. Hughes said this may be a good place to cut. Too expensive. He could see if he could rent Lawrenceburg’s. That’s why he’s looking for grants.

Holt Road may be able to be awarded in early December.

Annual material bids for stone, asphalt etc. will be ready for December approval.

Bridge 102- North Dearborn Road east of Creekside- got $69440American Consulting, $86,000 Structurepoint and $37,400 for Barth and associates. Barth and Associates was approved. $350-400,000 possible cost of structure.

Bridge 24 – Cold Springs Road by Chipman road- will be a federal aid project- as it will cost about $900,000. Has 4 consultants submitting proposals for this.

Salt structures- has been working with Hrezo Engineering for these buildings and also they will ALSO look at total property at Randall Avenue topography, utilities etc, and help the county come up with a master plan so that we can have a cleaning facility and capture the waste appropriately before it goes to Aurora sewer. $20,400 to do this and funds are allocated for this. Approved.

Has been speaking with county attorney. Since 2000 the county has been in a lawsuit over Willoughby Road. They have come to a consensus. Surveyor has produced a new plat. This means we will have to vacate the 1999 plat of ROW, so that we can approve the new ROW as approved by property owners.

No news from OKI and state on flashing lights for schools.

Still working on the message boards for US 50 from INDOT and OKI.

INDOT also getting on the new status of classification for Collier Ridge Road. He will follow up on that.

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- minutes and claims approved. Orschell abstained from claims approval as he had not had time to review them.

ATTORNEY- Jack Gay- nothing to add.

COUNTY COORDINATOR- Bill Ewbank- Harrison OH Fire protection/EMS Renewal for 3 years for administration of services in northeastern Dearborn County. Annual possibilities to renegotiate. Thirty days notice to terminate. Thus the county is not obligated beyond a year. We do not have a dept to provide coverage in this area. Harrison Chief was present in case questions arose- none did. Approved the agreement. Chief presented the map of the service area.

Thompson asked if Ewbank had done any work on surveying needs in the county- for county wide coverage with EMS. Ewbank said he has not found someone to do the survey work yet.

Tornado spotted and the courthouse evacuated properly last week.

COMMISSIONERS:

Jeff Hughes- issue with Langley Heights.

Tom Orschell- any problem with a county employee blood drive? No problem. Listerman said it has been done at least once in the past. Hoxworth set up here for a 3 hour period here in the Commissioners room. Bill Ewbank will check on this.

Ralph Thompson- still some issues with sound system.

Thompson also had residents of Langley Heights with issues – confused with what was vacated. He re-read the description into the record. Gay said some of the pieces are necessary to get to the Aurora property up there. Thompson said we need to look at these again and perhaps write a letter to let them know what parts of York were vacated. ( By John Moore and Pat Kern) Sheriff wanted some clarification also, as did Bestway and Rumpke for garbage removal. County attorney to write a letter to let these entities know and the residents what is vacated. They will investigate what happened to pieces of Gibson and Chambers.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- Bill Black wants to cease being the agent for Homeland security IDHS (Ind Dept of Homeland Security) and have the District 9 administrator takeover these duties. Black said that the grants management people will find a replacement- once we send them his letter. There are a lot more requirements and paperwork and it’s not affecting our grants. We’ve done it for several years now and it’s time for others to take it over. This was just informational to commissioners. They have no action to take. This will eliminate the county being the pass through agent for these grants.

PUBLIC COMMENT-Cathy Albert- Collier Ridge. Wanted to know how much money is going to be spent on the preliminary costs of the 3 bridges he talked about tonight. Todd said still in process of getting proposals on Bridge 24 ( 100% local dollars), Bridge 138 will have preliminary design with 100% local dollars so that we can be ready when INDOT has some money. There are 17 bridges in this county needing to be ready. Albert noted this money will be spent HOPING we get money. She is still dissatisfied with Collier Ridge Bridge plans. Orschell said that these bridges have to be fixed- and if we can’t get the funding, then we will have to do it ourselves. The plans are useful- it just depends on how and when we get funding. She thinks it’s ridiculous – for the amount of money for the jail project and these bridges…. She asked what they’d do with the old bridge. Thompson said the county coordinator is trying to see if we can sell the bridge. she will look over the 13 alternates with Art Wenzel, deputy surveyor after the meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 8: 55PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township