5 April 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

5 April 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes Present: Jeff Hughes, President, Tom Orschell, and Shane McHenry Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, Bill Ewbank, County Coordinator, and, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney. OLD BUSINESS: Purchasing agent ordinance- discussed at the last 2 commissioners meetings. What was in place is 25K for supplies and unlimited for services. . In place since 6/25/98. Also – agreements or contracts couldn’t last more than 1 year was added later. Baudendistel was directed to draft it using 25 K limit for supplies and for services. Ewbank suggested they also specify that the law specifies who is in charge when the dept.head is unavailable. He will work with Baudendistel on the draft. Tabled till next meeting. NEW BUSINESS: Discussion on private web link policy – Hughes brought this up he doesn’t want to advertize or play favorites with individuals on their sites. Orschell cited that the county websites had Perfect North Slopes, Hollywood Casino, The Lawrenceburg Speedway, the Register, The journal Press, Eagle Radio WSCH, and the Dearborn County Public Forum links on them. Other commissioners agreed. Discussion about Facebook usage during county time centered on having the dept heads control this. Baudendistel will bring a resolution to the next meeting limiting links to gov’t only ones. Discussion on return of investment for Chamber Administrative Agreement- Mike Rozow showed us all his Butler T-shirt – first in our hearts if not first in the nation and he said he was class of 1969. This is his 3rd year on Econ Development Initiative and Redevelopment Commission. One is for product development and the other to finance it. Maynard Barrett is the non- voting person from Council who sits on Redevelopment. They hired Paul Kunkel- civil engineer- from Cinti State and Ivy Tech long distance learning for his degree in Business Administration. They helped St. Leon with Jim Kinnett as their consultant working on an outline of where they want business to go. They are also in the SEI growth alliance. They have been concentrating also on the West Harrison site. Because of the sensitive nature of talking about some of these projects, they have not come to Commissioners with plans before. They have 3 companies right now- Project Fortis from Boone County ( sp?) 3 new jobs in 3 years 6.2 mil – 6200-100,000 sq ft bldg- closing on it Apr 14. Project Hirlinger- 140 new jobs (120 immediately)- 18 mil over 3 years. Project Bessle (sp?)- 75 new jobs- 500 possible- east coast from NJ- $8 mill – 8,000-100,000 sq ft. they want to move 5 other of their businesses to Dearborn County. $ 32,550,000 investment over 3 years. Fortis will be in Greendale and Bessle will be in Lawrenceburg, so no county investment. Meeting with a 4th company- on a consolidation/expansion. Not talking further about that at this point. Orschell glad the county committed to sewer the Harrison TIF. Hirlinger got a $150,000 L-bg match for the county’s money. $4million payroll a year and so $750,000 for the county coffers. It was asked how shovel ready was defined. Kinnett said there was a lot of paperwork involved. It was noted that the utilities and infrastructure need to really be there- as most want to have them already in place. Cindy Luchow asked about the types of companies that are coming in. Rozow noted that a lot of these are bringing jobs into the area- especially the Bessle project. Greg Townsend- Nolte Road ROW- has listed 177 acres in Farmers Retreat from the Larson estate. Mark Gindler representing a NC buyer and they need verification of the ROW. Nolte Road- pavement ends and gravel begins and there are two gates along this road. Other owners are from Cincinnati. He brought in 1875 atlas, assessor records etc. In some of the deeds Nolte Road is mentioned. Potential buyer won’t place a bid unless he has documentation of legal access to the property. Descendents in North Dakota told him he could cut the locks off the gates to access. Other property owner was not happy about that. Kraus Jr told him the county maintained it to the end of the pavement. Listerman email said 0.07 mile with a gate at 250 ft. past end of pavement. Wenzel talked to owner. There was no vacation of the old road. He needs to hire a surveyor and an attorney to have an official access easement recorded. Gayle Pennington told him the minutes are in auditor’s office. Orschell said he would get with Art Wenzel and get back to him (Greg Townsend) Investment Policy- Umbaugh and Associates– these resolutions were developed after the presentation to Council and Commissioners previously. The County is having trouble finding safe and decent rates for county funds due to banking rules since the economic meltdown.. Baudendistel read both resolutions into the public record and commissioners approved both. Treasurer Barb Kaffenberger was present for this. Resolution CDAR- 5-13-9-5 and 5.3 allows the county to invest public money in these CDAR funds per state laws. Resolution Hoosier Fund- allows interlocal agreement to invest public funds in additional investment options. US Bank as custodian. Treasurer also involved. Medical Reserve Corps – Resolution- determining which dept will house the MRC, i.e. MRC is under the Health Board and Ginny Daum in charge. HIGHWAY DEPT- Todd Listerman- no updates-Listerman not present. AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- Congressional School Fund was turned over to the state in Dec 2009 and this is the last annual report to sign on this as those funds are dissolved. Commissioners approved and signed the $0 balance report. St. Leon EMS $24,000 contract signed. Claims and March 1st minutes and March 15th signed. In the maintenance dept- the assessors and GIS servers have been added to this room. Even with the exhaust fan servers go down due to heat. It will take $6-7,000 to cool this room. Pennington doesn’t think that the maintenance dept should have to foot the entire bill. She will approach Council to get funding reimbursed to Rick Hartman for that dept. Cum Courthouse might be able to be used for this. Commissioners approved this as an emergency situation. Payment voucher for lobbyist services- John Frick and Associates- Pickens signed this contract thru most of 2011 from 2009. An intern sends the laws related to us – no real personal touch per McHenry. Maynard Barrett gets some emails from them for Council. Pennington has not received the ones that used to go to Pickens. It costs $6,000 per month. They are checking into this!!! Commissioners said that we have 2 lobbysists- this one and Lewes and Kappes. Barnes and Thornburgh are no longer lobbyists. ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- 2 new tort claims received. He also said he won’t be able to go to PAWS shelter this week. Orschell will relay his regrets to PAWS. COUNTY COORDINATOR- Bill Ewbank- request for Lifetime Resources to get an extension of 3 months for an owner occupied Community Development Block Grant for rehab for Dearborn County. They have some staffing issues due to some leaving for health reasons. Commissioners approved the extension. Assessor sent a message for new construction bids- CLT Tyler Tech for $46,000 which is $15,000 less than previous one. Resolution with Listerman and McCormack on the Happy Hollow ROW property differences. They will meet with Commissioners when that happens. May have it for an afternoon special meeting after a regular meeting. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Orschell recognized Johnnie Stegemiller, a nurse with Health dept who retired. LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- John Moore discussed land between him and Mr Kerns in Langley Heights. Moore says it devalues his property the way the county worked it. Roger Woodfill, surveyor, looked at it. Woodfill joked that he had forgotten to wear his Purdue T-shirt- as an aside to Rozow’s Butler Univ one earlier. Woodfill went on to say he wrote a letter Sept 10 and again in March suggesting a better way to vacate the streets in Langley Heights. He suggested full 50 ft ROWs. It was platted in 1890s in horse and buggy days. Vacating existing lots lines and redraw the entire plat and all sign off on this plat. There were no monuments, iron pins up there when he investigated. He wanted commissioners to do the plat and get it to modern day standards. Moore did note that other property and other neighbors are in court he thinks over it. Why is Kern a developer who doesn’t live here get favored over a resident who lives here? Orschell is in favor of taking a 2nd look. Hughes said he didn’t vote for the original ROW decision. They will look into it. Orschell will get with County Surveyor and Art Wenzel. He and Shane will make a site visit as well. Bill Ewbank will coordinate that. PUBLIC COMMENT Phil Darling-Guilford- asked how much we pay Lewes and Kappes lobbyists- answer was about $28,000 a year. He stressed that he was glad as a taxpayer to see that we were getting this changed. Cindy Luchow- noted there was a lot of property at the base of Pribble Road for sale. She noted how much cleaner it was now that the correctional dept cleaned it up. Ewbank said that the road crews from Community Corrections are getting out again as its spring again. Meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM Christine Brauer Mueller Lawrenceburg Township