7 June 2011 Dearborn county Commissioner Meeting Notes

7 June 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.

Hughes asked for moment of silence for Mr. Pickett who passed away. He worked in the highway dept.

PUBLIC HEARING FOR COLLIER RIDGE BRIDGE # 55- 1 hour

Marty Hon- said he lives outside Dillsboro- doesn't want to give too much information on himself- and passed out information to the Commissioner. Hughes and he have been talking for over a year and Hughes has been beating him up over getting a quality product. All this is – is a steel bridge and a new pier. There is no realignment etc in this. He has 2 contractors and their prices. He proposes having our bridge crew do it. He says Jim Brickner has built a lot of bridges and they are still standing. He says the pier might cost $30,000. It all has to be bid out- regardless of which direction you go. He thinks that Council can look at this. He knows there will be a little bit of work down there- add guardrails and chevron signs. I never mentioned this before- I kept it close to the vest until it was time to get right down to it.
Orschell said he didn’t see any engineering costs there. Hon said it was included. Our bridge is $264,000. Because the contractors cost a fair amount, he thinks the bridge crew would be better option. He’s not going to get into the curves and all that- because he doesn’t do all that. Hughes said- someone has to engineer the pier. McHenry said- you think our guys can do this? Hon said- I KNOW that Brickner can do this. I learned a lot from him and Larry (Smith) in my years here.
Kraus said- he wants only one option- and we fund it or we don’t. Hughes asked Orschell what he thought. Orschell said we spent $22,000 for a study on this bridge. American Structurepoint gave us 3 alternatives and the one that puts it back here is substandard. I think we owe it to the county to follow our expert’s opinions that we paid for. McHenry added that it would be substandard. Hughes said there are a lot of roads that are substandard. This goes to Bonnell. Cars get bigger. They thanked Hon for his presentation.
Cathy Albert- Murphy Creek Lane off Collier Ridge. She apologized for the neighbors not being there- as they were pretty tired of coming to meetings for nothing. She asked if someone had been interested in the bridge. Mike from Structurepoint said someone had called but had not called back- and the bridge is listed on the county website if someone wants it. She talked to all Council members except Jim Hughes in the last 2 weeks. They were patient and open- minded. She agrees with Orschell’s comment about consultants. She said if you get 5 consultants you’d get 3 different opinions. She wants to get someone who won’t necessarily be bidding on this bridge for a comparison. She also went on asking Hon about costs included- like demolition- which isn’t in his bid. She talked to Jim Barker again today. He’s done historic bridges for 35 years. She said he’s done Pribble Bridge. (Not historic) She wants Barker to come down and do the objective comparison. The county requested $2.7 million. Our share is $400,000. She thinks 20% is $600,000. She requests they look at this as a possibility before deciding. This other version won’t take some farm property from a resident. Competition needs to be done. She assured Mart Hon there was nothing against him- but she wants a detailed alternative. Barker’s fee would be $1600. The residents won’t pay for this- they already paid for a pier study. The county would have to pay for it.
Orschell said she wants to have it built where it is. He said that SUBSTANDARD stands out- because of the alignment. Albert said that she’d give them Barker’s number. Barker said for her to tell the commissioners that lawsuits have not been filed on these bridges. Orschell said he talked to Barker a year ago- and Barker was very concerned about the alignment on that bridge. Albert said that’s not what she understood. Orschell read to her the insurance company’s statement- Nate Peterman- the county’s carrier. It showed that it would not be the thing to do- it increased risks. Orschell said- when you have the opportunity to fix something and make it right- you do that. We don’t have the money to fix anything. But when we do have it we should take that. It’s the commissioner’s job to do this.
Albert went on and on about how long it will take this way. And said that was their issue all along. What happens when an act of God closes that road down? `
Dennis Kraus Sir – Pres of Council- he has talked to Council after hearing from Ms Albert. He said that four others said that they would not fund anything substandard. Albert said- that why go further- if Council made the decision? Kraus said- there was no meeting- so there was no council decision.
Orschell said Alignment C impacts too many property owners. D is substandard, and I keep tripping over that one word. It has to be cost effective and best safest option. I respect that this decision is emotional for some residents. He wants B-2 as his alternative. Baudendistel gave the legal opinion on Orschell’s request as to why C and B-2 were possible as they were not substandard. They fit rural collector roads. He said the county needs to protect itself from future liability issues. Hon questioned if the board of commissioners requested Baudendistel’s letter. Answer was that it Orschell.
Listerman gave opinion at Commissioner’s request. He said we are restricted to $100,000 to do county project and not bid it. This includes all the materials etc. If we were to do Hon’s bridge it goes over the $100,000 limit. We do maintenance work activities- but not things like this. All our projects are under $100,000.
Hughes went on about money etc. McHenry said substandard and liability issues made up his mind. He said he understands their aggravation and he appreciates Hon helping with an alternative. He understands the emotion of it. Albert said it’s not emotional- it’s frustrating. McHenry said that was an emotion. Hughes was worried about property being taken. Albert said no one had talked to the property owners. Listerman said that Mr. Cain understood that the alignment would take the house. Albert said that he didn’t want his property taken.

Orschell motioned and McHenry 2nd to proceed with Option B-2 and American Structurepoint. Passed. Orschell also said he appreciated the frustration and also said he appreciated Ms Albert’s time and input. She thanked him for saying that.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Private Real Property Rights Preservation ordinance- tabled. Hughes hadn’t talked to McCormack yet.

2. Animal Control PAWS Contract- attorney revising their contract. Council will fund it thru the balance of 2011. No action.

3. Nolte Road ROW- Dennis Kraus, Sr. presented the plans. His son was on vacation this week- so he was covering. This is the public hearing on this and it has been advertised per Baudendistel. Matt McLeod- one of landowners- non –resident. Also his friend and non- resident landowner- Bob Hader. There are 5 owners. The land is rough. The road is named after Mr. Nolte. Built in 1865 proceeds from Bells Branch. It was more or less a creek bed. Hasn’t been maintained since about 1969. We have gated and provided keys to people who use that road. All the other landowners are non- residents, except for Grays on the corner. Are you opening the road to public access? Do we have to remove the gates? The Larson estate has access. But we don’t want it open to the public. Larsons just want to provide assurances to potential buyer that they have access. Listerman gave the background and said this will assure that all parcels have frontage on a ROW- they are not land-locked. Tabled until Baudendistel prepares the ordinance for the approval of an apparent ROW for Nolte Rd.

4. Bill Black EMA- grant signatures- annual for half of their salaries for 2010 to be reimbursed. Approximately $39,129. Approved and signed.
He is still working on district administrator grant. State has some more requirements and management of that grant will be over in the year.
If you see something- say something- a new state program.
They have 50 weather alert radios for people who need them. They are available at the office.

NEW BUSINESS:

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer- wanted Chapel Thorne 0.17 and Canterbury Court for 0.16 miles accepted off Yorkridge. Approved.

Bridge off Ester Ridge- less than half acre needed. Low price consultant $25,305 for United Consultants. He will get contract for Baudendistel to review. OK to draw up contract.

Received a $7790 grant from Lawrenceburg Foundation for radar speed trailer with flashing speed warning. This can be used by the police. It was written by Todd and Ron Barnhardt of Planning and Zoning. He said Ron gets most of the credit.

At INDOT today Listerman presented for additional funding for Collier Ridge Bridge. And Council has funded the match. They said our schedule is for April 2013 letting. They gave positive comments on this.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- minutes approved for Apr 14th. Claims approved. Claim still held for Sidwell- will be covered under Ewbank.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- clarified the sick leave donation policy. It’s just a memorandum to clarify- it is not changing the policy. Commissioners approved the memorandum and signed it.

Baudendistel gave them ordinances on the government website and an interlocal agreement with Lawrenceburg on the Shumway Building that will be ready for next meeting.

COUNTY COORDINATOR: Bill Ewbank-

IT Alternatives report- we have 2 vendors for maintenance purposes and wanted more time to research this further. He will have it done before Oct 1st. Orschell joked- what year?

Letter of engagement with Umbaugh- so that they can get safe but improved rates. $5,000 covers this till the end of the year. They anticipate this will pay for itself by the higher interest rate. Even 1% gets $150,000 more. Commissioners approved.

Dearborn Foundation approved- $58,500 for Dearborn County comprehensive Fire and emergency Services Study. Dr Eric Kelley of Ball State for James Duncan and Associates, Inc. will be doing the study for this amount of money. Approved. Planning and Zoning staff- Ashley Newnam and Mark McCormack prepared the grant.

Margaret Minzner presented materials for Sidwell’s last remaining invoice on the GIS work. They eliminated 2 parts of the contract that they didn’t need and were not delivered. $7,806 is due. It was direct deposited to Sidwell’s account. Joyce West is the GIS account manager.She spoke: There was significant work for the farmland assessment layer- and you have deleted it all. What were billed to date were actual services performed and delivered. There should be no deductions for the $12,000+ bill that you have withheld since April 2010. We have not charged interest for this being held. There was discussion on travel expenses, training etc. Pennington was going to discuss some of this with Baudendistel as she wasn’t sure some of these are in the contract. West said that invoices for travel have to be done afterwards as those expenses aren’t predicable. She hopes to be paid for all the work they have done and delivered to Dearborn County. She hopes this database serves us well and we add to this as we grow. She noted that we could have used this at several points in tonight’s meeting.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
Orschell said good employees don’t get paid for unused sick days- seems like we are penalizing them. He wants to look into that a bit.

McHenry wants Baudendistel to draft a letter to Frick and Assoc lobbyists to put an end to that. OK’d to draft letter.

McHenry complimented highway dept and staff.

Bond Counsel- Hughes wants to have someone come in and look at this option. They need an answer on the referendum issue. He talked to the lawyer for IN assoc of counties- Rick hall of barnes and Thornburgh. If it’s over $12 million you have to go to referendum. It has to go to Council too. Bill Ewbank to set this up.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- Minzner reported that at the next Commissioners meeting she will demo the GIS website for people to see. They will have some upcoming workshops too.

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township