21 February 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

21 February 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Jim Hughes, Liz Morris, Maynard Barrett, Bryan Messmore, and Bill Ullrich.
Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor

ABSENT: Bill Ewbank, Acting County Administrator

Hoosier Hills Literacy League- Laura Priebe- Black White Read Literacy Program is for Dearborn County only but they serve 5 counties in our area. Black Beauty for kids and Great Gatsby- for adults are two books being encouraged this year. Kids can get a free book each month in this program. They are planning a quilt program for kids aged 10-17. They are seeking funding for that program. This is the first time they have requested funding. They are active in GED also. 7-10% of adults can’t read above a 3rd grade level in the 5 county area. Council approved $1,000 for them to provide a match for that amount.

Sheriff Mike Kreinhop- Road sergeant-$ 1493 to bring his salary up in line for his rank and service time. Council approved this out of Riverboat as Pennington recommended not approving anything out of County General at this time.

Patrol K-9- tabled at Kreinhop’s request.

Approval to hire replacement of part time civil process server and a full time jail officer. These are current positions and there are salary ordinances already in place for them. Council committee on this recommended approving. These positions were advertised for other county employees to apply. Council approved and Bill Ullrich abstained.

Gayle Pennington read the Solid Waste District letter listing all the amounts that the sheriff has recycled.

Health Dept- Doug Baer- tabled. No one was here from the health dept.

Commissioners- Bill Ewbank- 2012 Workers Comp- Pennington presented in Ewbank’s absence. Approval to transfer $10,000 to worker’s comp and an additional $1130. This is because our rates went up. Council okayed.

Jail Expansion Project- Tom Orschell asked for $72,000- For construction manager for $50,000, $5,000 for Umbaugh to do some work on the numbers, and $12,000 for some soil testing and a cushion of $5,000. Ullrich said they are going in the right direction. It’s a reasonable number. Barrett motioned to approve and Morris 2nded from riverboat revenue. Four ayes and 2 nays (Hughes and Lansing)

Parks and Recreation- Steve Walker-Timber Salvage- storm damage and wanted to get a portable sawmill to come in and create materials at 23 cents a board foot to use for bathroom building. Requesting $2100 for this. They will air dry it and store it in one of their sheds. Approved.

Mowing- Commissioners approved the old highway building and YES home and animal control center request for parks to mow. $7,700 is the additional needed for mowing including more land at Bright Parks. His former contract was for $17,000. $1500 for animal control and $2700 for YES Home. So $6200 would be the cost minus the Animal Control. Approved $6200 for Parks mowing as detailed above.

Flood Damage Repair- Guilford Park- the rainfall resulted in extensive damage there. Terry put together a list of what was needed. $9,000 was needed. Kraus said that was justified. He asked if they’d thought about a levee around part of this park. They thought about elevating an old fort there and helping deflect some of the water there. Ohio Valley gas is working on a pipeline near there and they may be able to restore some things to the park’s advantage. Approved $9,000. Walker also left a CD of the flood damage.

Auditor- Gayle Pennington- minutes from Dec 20, 2011 and January 2012 meeting were approved. Other housekeeping requests from Pennington were to clean up requests that were appropriated from another fund per DLGF as they weren’t advertised out of the appropriate funds. Council decided to table and wait for documentation from DLGF via Pennington. This will come via mail. Assessor – PTABOA Superior Court 2- Computer Maintenance and Repair Clerk- CSI Support Contract were also to be revoted appropriations.

CVTB contract with county- needs council to sign off on as the commissioner already had. This is an administrative contract- approved.

Highway – Tim Greive- had a shortfall in the budget- DLGF cut $132,000 from budget. MVHA has $400,000 in it. Approved transfer of funds to keep highway operational.
Issue on North Dearborn Road on Dover Hill. $300,000 estimated to repair this slip. FEMA won’t cover this. He’ll be coming back in the future for funding this. Soil baling is what they might use and some wire baskets.

Surveyor- Dennis Kraus, Jr.- passed out estimates for restoring the old county survey books that are deteriorating. The old auditor plats were stored in the auditor’s office. The rag paper on these is falling apart. Some of the survey books are around 1860s. Cost will be over $100,000. Asking Council to approve and support a grant application to the Dearborn County Foundation. Even if they get partial they will do it in pieces. Approved for supporting the grant application.

Pennington wanted to set budget hearing dates. Set for September 4-7 right after Labor Day.

Lansing addressed the Council. He wants to kick the can on the jail expansion a little longer because he sees 30% less revenue when Ohio boat comes in and now KY is looking for casinos. This will also affect our revenue stream. We used to get $12 million. We’re in a good spot now- and he’d hate to see us get stuck in a hole. He’d like to extend it a bit to see how things work out. If we use 30% less revenue- then 30% less people and hopefully 30% less arrests perhaps. Perhaps the jail needs upgraded- but having a hard time pounding 9 million there. He does not want to spend our savings. If someone told you you’d have 30% less revenue would you be running out and putting an addition on your house? Kraus wants and ordinance to say the savings can only be used for capital projects and infrastructure only- never for salaries. Morris said an ordinance can always be changed. Kraus also said there is a double standard the sheriff’s dept goes one way and then the rest of the county. Sheriff dept got $3,000 raises!

Lansing would like to see 7 votes needed to spend the savings again. Kraus agreed he’d like to have that as an ordinance. Lansing went on- we need to see the train coming on down the tracks. Barrett said we spend thousands from riverboat every month. How do you decide? Ullrich said- Dan was talking about the savings portion of riverboat- not the other parts of it.

Lansing made a motion to change the vote back to 7 votes. Hughes 2nded. 3 ayes- Kraus, Lansing and Hughes. 4 nayes Ullrich, Messmore, Barrett, and Morris. The Riverboat Savings will still be accessed by simple majority. Motion failed to pass to change it back.

Meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township