18 October 2011 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

18 October 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:

Private Real Property Rights Preservation Ordinance- Hughes asked to table this again. Tabled.

Revised Jail Expansion Project- Orschell- pre design phase is complete and will be presented to Commissioners at the Nov 1st meeting. Tabled until then.

Sick Time Donation- SueEllen said the committee has met and looked over all the departments input. They suggest that donated leave can be used after 12 weeks of sick and comp time are all used up. Approval of the donated leave would go for a max of 20 work days and would go in front of the personnel advisory board. The committee did not want to make any changes to the rest of the policy- just the donated time. The old policy had max of 60 days donated. The advisory Board was almost ready to get rid of the donated time as it has been abused so much. Hughes noted the lengthy discussion and said that this was the alternative to doing away with the policy entirely. McHenry thought this was a good alternative. Commissioners approved the recommendations of the Human Resource Director.

Building Commissioner – Bill Shelton- added to agenda by Hughes who forgot to put him on Late Arrivals. Crawl space drainage issue and the contractor won’t come back to fix it. Tey are looking for advice and help from the commissioners and the county attorney. The footer drainpipe is at the same level as the crawl space. The footer is sitting in the water as well. It’s not even a year old. The contractor lives in Greencastle. The excavator says, yes, there is a problem, but he won’t fix it. There are mold issues and the water is sitting on top of the plastic. It won’t pass the final inspection and there is no certificate of occupancy, though the resident is living in the house. Commissioners wanted bill Shelton to meet with Baudendistel to see what their legal options are and report at Nov 1st meeting.

Unnecessary Regulations Discussion- Hughes- Commissioners did not address this item.

NEW BUSINESS:

Mark McCormack Planning and Zoning:

Vacate ROW at West Street and two Alleys in Hardinsburg- petitioner was Terry Cornett represented by Dennis Kraus, Jr., Surveyor. The Plan Commission forwarded a unanimous favorable recommendation for this. There was no one here in protest. There had been an issue with one adjoiner , Travis Chrisman, that they believe has been resolved. Mr. Cornett was alright with the revision as requested by Chrisman on the West Street vacation. They also accommodated the Conservancy requirements. Some of the improvements to the levee are outside the area owned by the Conservancy district. Richard Butler, the attorney for the conservancy district was OK with the plans, except for this small piece of property about 16 ft long. They TABLED this until the drawings could be revised to each party’s satisfaction.

Proposed changes to the Dearborn County Zoning Ordinance Article 1 Section 160- there will be several revisions to reflect the state law changes in future months. For this they are adding one sentence that shows that waivers can have written commitments. This is just to show that as a possibility. Hughes asked about waivers vs. variances as Ken Nelson had mentioned at the PC meeting. McCormack noted that variances are granted by BZA and Waivers are granted by Plan Commission. Commissioners approved the amendment to Article 1 section 160.

McCormack said that street vacations would be covered by Commissioners and plat vacations by PC in the revised ordinances soon also.

Parks Board – 4H Shooting Range- Bill Ewbank spoke with Jim Red Elk. Park Board and 4 H met and are in the process of drafting a legal memorandum of understanding. He said that Commissioners should ask to see the MOU between 4H and Parks board and that these groups are handling this between the boards as they should. Bill Ewbank was directed to advise Park Board to allow Commissioners to review that MOU.

John Hoskins - Residents Improvement of York Avenue in Center Township- west of Aurora in Langley Heights. This is the only access to his property other than private ROW. He and other property owners will improve it by removing some dirt and adding gravel. This is not the area in contestation up in Langley Heights. This is in farming area. Todd Listerman and Tim Grieve looked over it. It’s an unmaintained ROW and he wants to build a drive access on this. He had asked Hoskins to appear at Commissioners to be sure the County approves. This goes in front of an existing house. Listerman will work with him and be sure it is done to our specifications. Commissioners were happy to allow this and motioned and approved this project.

Sandy Carley of PAWS- request to go to Council to review the 97 account with $119,000+ in it from PAWS and other donations for the shelter to be built. There were several organizations that contributed to this. They have accounted for this in all their budgets. The PAWS organization is asking for all of this to be turned over to them for the new shelter. Bill Ewbank said that In 2008 the resolution was specific to donate this to the shelter as designed by Darryl Sears. The county could continue that fund if they were to get more donations, but that could be stopped now that PAWS is in charge and can get their own donations. Baudendistel said the commissioners could pass a resolution to release that money to PAWS. Carley said there is $30,000 donated by Council that was merged with this fund a few years back. Commissioners will pass a resolution dissolving the fund and distributing it to PAWS. Then PAWS will go to Council also with this on Nov 22. Sandy said there is a lot of incoming animals right now.

Margaret Minzner GIS- Data Sharing MOUs (memorandum of understandings)- Switzerland County is sharing with us and wants us to share with them. Margaret recommended drsawing up MOUS with our other neighboring counties at the same time- Franklin, Ohio, Ripley County. This will get the regional map up and running. All approved including the Switzerland County agreement, Franklin, Ohio, and Ripley counties. Commissioners signed all 4.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer gave the following report:
Salt Building is complete our on Randall and 2,000 tons are being delivered now. More will be ordered late. Dearborn County Foundation ribbon cutting ceremony for this new building.
Received the radar speed trailer donated by Community Foundation also. They will get it into use soon.

Last property owner for Lower Dillsboro Road- meeting to get that in order by end of the year.
Also getting the last parcel for Bridge 34 resolved.

Tim Grieve- got quotes for truck chassis only. 5 quotes- and high is $127,500 and low is $109,910. $122,000+ is the Mack bid- in the middle of the road. Mack is a local dealer and has been responsive. Total cost $122,556 Grieve was approved to use his best judgment on this purchase from Lischge.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- claims approved. Approved the JUNE 21st Commissioner meeting minutes.

There is a federal stipulation for HR called E-verify for illegal aliens. There is an amendment for the SRI service agreement and they have verified all their employees under this service agreement. Commissioners will have Baudendistel review it before they sign it. All potential employees have to go through this verification process. The county is compliant in this.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- just some paperwork with some issues on boundaries- signed. This was unclear as to what it was!

COUNTY COORDINATOR: Bill Ewbank- meeting with INDOT on Nov 3rd 9 am or Nov 9th at 1 PM on transportation improvements in the county. Will set date and get back with commissioners.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Shane McHenry said the CAC (Child Advocacy Center)- asked to have Barnes and Thornburg assist CAC for grants and go after funding for them. Approved. Bill Ewbank is to send email to them and if there are additional fees to get back to Shane.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- State is passing a law going away with Level 1,2,3 emergencies per EMA- Bill Black.

Bill Black EMA - Reverse 911 system- grant funded and we haven’t done this yet- and funding is drying up. We looked at Code Red a few years ago and the quote is $25,000 and after the first year it’s $35,000. This is a warning system on cell phones etc for severe weather. Sheriff was in favor. This also would be useful to notify people in an area when there has been a burglary or shooting. We no longer have control over cable TV for this. Comcast turned this off. Switzerland County uses this system. No point in getting a grant for just one year if we can’t sustain it. Hughes wants to coordinate it with region. Hamilton County has a different system. This would be run from the dispatch center and web based. Charlie Ashley 911 coordinator was in agreement to try this. Bill was given permission to move forward on this.

Orschell advised Commissioners that Ginny Daum was recovering from a cancer operation- they will send a card.

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 10:35 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township