4 May 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

4 May 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

Real property endorsement fee- Baudendistel will have it at the next meeting. He was confused between this and the ordinance Hughes had proposed. Hughes added that his proposed ordinance would be discussed at the next PC meeting at 6 PM for an hour before the regular meeting.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Dearborn County Hospital reappointment- William Ritzmann’s term expires in June and the board requested his reappointment for 4 years. Commissioners approved.

2. Animal Control/PAWS Contract- Ewbank said that they have a contract that has been reviewed by legal counsel. The terms are pretty much agreed upon.
$60,000 for the rest of this year has been requested from Council. Sandy Carley requested permission to go to Council for this and Commissioners approved. Baudendistel made sure the commissioners knew there was a 360 day termination notice in the contract. He wanted them to know it was a much longer length of time than in a normal contract. The contract won’t be signed until Council approves the level of funding.

3. DCRSD- Steve Renihan- request to go to Council to get funding for the road to the sewer plant as it washed out due to the heavy rains. The estimate is a little high on this to be sure. Road pipe, ditch lines, additional culverts, etc. Listerman also went out to review it and give suggestions. Orschell noted this was a steep grade to access it. Hrezo explained that there was excessive water from the street above that is being diverted now. He also said they will be using bars and barriers to slow the water flow in the ditches too. Washed gravel also filled the catch basins. The road survived other heavy rains- particularly after the Highway dept fixed the flow from Timberview. Hughes asked if this would calculate into the user fees. Renihan said they are trying to avoid that. They are trying to add another 48 homes out in the area. that will help offset this cost. McHenry said- this is fixing something that you wish hadn’t happened – but it is what it is. The rainfall issue was not predictable. Commissioners approve DCRSD to seek money from Counsel for this purpose.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT- Todd Listerman- County Engineer gave the following report:

$12,441 contract for flashers at the schools was approved and it is reimburseable at 90% from the feds. Cornerstone Civil Group will be doing the oversight.

Annual operation report for local roads and streets were signed for the state. It shows all the money in each highway account. $615,000 + 133,000+ 2.1 mil+ 1.9 mil was available in the highway accounts at the beginning of the year.

Group 4 application for federal funds for Collier Ridge Bridge replacement was signed. This is in addition to the other money already approved. Commissioners approved Hughes signing it. This is thru INDOT and OKI.

Salt building goes up for rebid- to be opened Monday May 16th.

After looking at annual needs using 172 MvHA substitute account for improvements, Listerman requested they be able to re-stripe roads with 1000 vpd or more again. There are two roads that will not need that this year as they had recently been finished with striping. Hughes asked what the cost is for a private road- Listerman said the county budgets 8 cents this year due to gas prices also. Hughes asked if there was a policy on what would happen if a citizen would want to do it for a county road. Listerman said private costs would be about 15 cents a ft in his estimate. $115,000 for striping was approved for Listerman to seek at Council.

Requesting $25,000 from council for the fall to cover the 5 flashers at the elementary and intermediate schools. Commissioners approved going to Council. This is our 10% of the potential total cost on these.

3 tandems bought in 1997 and 3 mowing tractors about the same age. They want to replace one each for each of the next 3 years. Tandems estimate $170,000 and tractor is $65,000- both fully equipped. These tandems are Mack or Mack equivalent with auto transmission, fully equipped. The district 1 tandem only has 40,000 miles on it. It is in disrepair and it’s a hard truck to drive with a split shift transmission. They use the smaller trucks recently bought for the smaller subdivision streets. Hughes asked if we could use private mowers like the highway does. This is not something people have wanted to do in our smaller roadsides in the past. Listerman will check with the new commissioner in Franklin Cty who does highway work for a living. Commissioners approved Listerman seeking money for one tandem and one mower from Council. McHenry asked them to re-evaluate on that final truck with 40,000 miles in year 3.

Listerman is asking for $100,000 from Council for slip repair to bring the roads back to level prior to the heavy rains. This is not major repair like Collier Ridge. This is to get them navigable. A band-aid fix. Commissioners approved seeking this from Council. They will get geotech work and estimates on real fixes later. They will then prioritize this and see Council. 18 major slips now per Tim Grieve.

Bridge inspections are being done. 460 miles paved road and about 15 miles chip seal and 25 miles of gravel. To try to get road paved once every 24 years would cost 2.8 million a year. If we had a wheel tax dedicated to paving roads we’d get about $1million. That would paved or rejuvenate them once every 69 years. There is also a huge bridge repair need. Some have been repaired with stimulus money. The funding we receive doesn’t come close to funding what we need. He’s going to go to Council to get money sources for this. There was a time when the highway dept had about $7 million and spent about $3million- $1 million per district from the gaming money. Commissioners approved Listerman going to Council for this funding request for a road program and a bridge program.

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- claims approved- payroll, claims, and utilities. Pennington thanked them for allowing Rick Hartman to A/C the computer room- it’s at 65 degrees.

Pennington brought up the Sidwell claim and she had held it until the deliverables were obtained. Sidwell knows they are no longer using them and needed no more maintenance after it’s moved over, and they will not need the farmland software- the new company will provide this. The 3 days of training will be completed by the next meeting for the commissioners to sign the claim then and clear out the Sidwell account. There had been some trouble migrating files and Margaret Minzner handled that. They are onto the Beacon site. Hughes said it is pretty impressive to see what it can do. The training will have 12 trainees and Margaret and Ron will be able to help Sidwell’s trainer.

Pennington asked to open a discussion on the personnel policy. She is running into a situation. There is a sick leave donation program that we have. It is used for employee with critical need due to a serious illness or injury. She asked if maternity leave qualified for this. Ewbank noted how generous this policy is compared to industry standards. You could put a cap on how much an employee can receive. He would hate to lose the generous spirit. Hughes suggested surveying the dept. heads by the next commissioners meeting. Policy is that you can only receive a maximum of 60 days per year. They might use an appeal process for this too. This will be discussed next meeting.

ATTORNEY- Andy Baudendistel- Commended law enforcement and responders on the care at Salt Fork and SR 1 yesterday for the terrible accident.
Shumway bldg will be ready for next meeting.

COUNTY COORDINATOR- Bill Ewbank
1. Trending and New Construction- Tyler Technologies for $46,000 and is $15,000 less than last year due to lack of activity in construction. This is for Assessor’s office. Commissioners approved the contract for this.

2. Community Corrections grant acceptance- received notice $499,416 grant approved and letter of acceptance was signed. This is annual funding.

3. Emergency Mgmt- received info that they may need to declare emergency funds for flood damages to roads and repairs. Approved a declaration of emergency in case opportunity arises.

4. Letter of support was signed by commissioners for continued support for Whitewater Canal Byway . Same letter as last one- just continuing support.

5. Proclamation for May as Mental Health Awareness Month for children and Adolescents was signed by Commissioners.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
Shane McHenry- they can lease 6 vehicles and 2 aren’t here yet from Japan earthquake issues. They want to prepay the lease on the 2 not here yet to avoid the 2nd lease and increased costs. SBOA said they have to have commissioners know about this. OK with it.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 8:43PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township