Agenda for June 5th Commissioners Meeting

AGENDA

DEARBORN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING

June 5, 2012

6:00 p.m., Commissioners Room

County Administration Building

215 B West High Street, Lawrenceburg, Indiana

I.              CALL TO ORDER 

II.            PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

III.           OLD BUSINESS

1.  Payroll Schedule Change

2.  Gary Hensley, Assessor

            Approval to send out Annual Trending RFP 

IV.          NEW BUSINESS

1.  Steve Renihan, Regional Sewer District

            1.  Mt. Tabor Allocations

            2.  OKI Ramifications

2.  Maintenance for Dearborn County Vehicles

3.  Mike Rozow – Dearborn County Economic Redevelopment Commission

            1.  Redirection of Funds

4.  Bill Black, Director of EMA

            1.  Signatures on EMPG Grant

            2.  Elected & Appointed Officials Workshop

5.  Dennis Kraus, Jr., Surveyor

            1.  Signatures on Council Ordinance 2012-001/Authority to sell Plat Books

6.  Ratify signatures on Adult Protective Services grant

V.            HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

A.  Highway Superintendent – Tim Greive

            1.  Updates 

B.  Highway Engineer – Todd Listerman

            1.  Updates / Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway 

VI.          ADMINISTRATOR –  Teresa Randall

1.  Hoosier Square Project Update

2.  Jail Expansion Architect RFP & Interview Process

3.  Fire & EMS Study Update

4.  Surplus Vehicle Auction                

VII.         AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington

1.  Claims/Minutes

2,  Consulting Services Agreement

 

VIII.        ATTORNEY – Andy Baudendistel

IX.          COMMISSIONER COMMENTS 

X.            LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION            

XI.          PUBLIC COMMENT

XII.          ADJOURN

WE CAN DO BETTER - PART 2

WE CAN DO BETTER 2

By Alan Miller, Candidate for Judge Superior Court II

Efficiency and Scheduling

There are problems within the county court system. In the next several weeks, I will post my proposals that outline how I think we can do better. 

Today, I will continue to discuss my proposals related to efficiency in the courts. 

General scheduling will be reevaluated 

It is not uncommon to see 20-30 people waiting for a hearing in Dearborn Superior Court II at any one time, especially on Tuesday mornings and afternoons. It is also not unusual to walk past the Superior II courtroom to find it is empty. While the cause of this inconsistency is not immediately apparent, it is evident that there needs to be a long, hard look at just how the court hearings are scheduled and whether scheduling can be done in a more consistent and efficient manner.

The busyness and overcrowding of the courtroom are often blamed on the smaller space in which this court must operate. Instead of seeking solutions to effectively utilize the existing space, this particular courtroom will soon be moved to a larger area within the courthouse. This move was made possible largely because of the continued and literal expansion of the criminal justice system, necessitating the purchase of an additional building adjacent to the courthouse.

Instead of blaming the problem on external factors outside the court’s control, one could have walked up a couple of flights of stairs to the admittedly larger, yet often uncrowded and organized courtroom of Judge Jon Cleary of the Dearborn Superior Court No. 1 to see that a court can be run efficiently. It is easier to compare the Superior Courts, given the similar caseloads and the types of cases handled. However, it is worth noting that even with the larger caseload and wide variety of issues handled on a day-to-day basis, the Dearborn Circuit Court, Judge James Humphrey presiding, is rarely lagging behind schedule or overcrowded.

There must be a complete reassessment of the court’s scheduling practices to ensure that the court is getting the most out of each and every day. Not only will I seek workable solutions to this problem, but I will also seek the advice of my fellow judges to get their input as to how best to utilize court time and space. 

This is the second part of my platform statement; a detailed proposal for how to improve our current justice system. It will be released over the next several months through facebook.com/makeitmiller2012 and makeitmiller2012.com. PLEASE feel free to forward this to your friends and family.
Thanks for your continued support!

Alan Miller

Jail Expansion Cost Depends Upon Council’s Choice of Financing

Jail Expansion Cost Depends Upon Council’s Choice of Financing

Assuming Interest at 4.75% per Colette Irwin-Knott of Umbaugh and Associates

Riverboat savings Balance is $19,015,443

The County Certified Net Assets Valuation is $2,337,154,108 for 2012. The debt limit is this number divided by 3 then times 2% which equals $15,581,027. This is the maximum the county can borrow- so if we use $9 million of this we have about $6.5 million left. The county report did not list our other current debts.  

Four scenarios were presented to Council. They vote on this at the June 19^th Council meeting.

Bond Issue   RBoat Savings   Interest 19 yrs   Total Cost

$0                   $9 million            $0                        $9 million

$3 million      $6 million             $1,300,800        $10,300,800

$6 million      $3 million              $2,599,600        $11,599,600

$9 million      $0                            $3,903.300        $12,903,300

Does a referendum apply to the total cost including interest payments?

There's Much for an Economist to Applaud in "Liberal" Indiana

There's Much for an Economist
To Applaud in 'Liberal' Indianareprinted with permission from Indiana Policy Review
by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D.

In May 1988, Professor James McGill Buchanan, the 1986 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, told the graduating class at Ball State University that he “had never been attracted to the romantic nonsense that government or politicians know what is best . . .” He encouraged the students to “nurture a skepticism uniquely Midwestern in its origins that questions the authority of politicians, governments and institutions.”

Although Dr. Buchanan cautioned against a skepticism that rejected authority because it was authority, he urged the audience to embrace a wisdom that combined “radicalism and conservatism.”

Buchanan is today an active and vigorous 92 years old. As with any great scholar his thinking plants seeds that bear fruit later on. Although it has taken me 24 years to articulate it, let me list four things classical liberals (aka libertarians) love about Indiana.

1. It’s OK to make a fortune in Indiana: such folks are respected and admired. Especially those who made community contributions. In addition to providing employment to Hoosiers, the Ball’s of Muncie, the Goodrich’s of Winchester and Indianapolis, the Miller’s of Columbus, the Hulman’s of Terre Haute, the Lilly’s of Indianapolis, among others, have founded or contributed to parks, foundations, schools, hospitals in their hometowns and throughout the state.
2. Such civic engagement is shared by wide swaths of the Indiana population. When confronted with a local problem, a human need, a potential community embellishment or a cultural opportunity, Hoosiers of all stripes don't look to the government as the first and natural source of support. Rather, they organize their friends and neighbors to solve the problems and make the improvements. From Sunday school classes serving food at a homeless shelter to civic clubs maintaining a local park, Hoosier are a model of De Tocqueville’ dictum that “the health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.” A corollary of this is a suspicion of playing the federal-aid game. An August 1940 story in Life magazine on Elwood, Indiana, the hometown of that year’s Republican presidential candidate, made a number of unflattering comments about the community. It also attributed the construction of the local public swimming pool in Calloway Park to Franklin Roosevelt’s Work Progress Commission (WPA). An Elwood resident’s letter to the editor corrected this by pointing out the city paid for the pool’s construction before Roosevelt was in office.
3. Hoosiers insist upon a capable but frugal government. The first instinct when government budgets are out of balance is to look for ways to cut spending not raise taxes. Hoosiers are suspicious of tax and spend schemes—and this is bipartisan. In my local community individual United Auto Worker Democrats have been the most persistent fiscal hawks. Republican Governor Daniels quite rightly claims he balanced the budget with the help of Democrats in the Legislature; but also recall Democratic Governor Evan Bayh received an “A” rating for fiscal prudence from libertarian Cato Institute in 1992.
4. Finally the Indianapolis 500 — here is a public spectacle that includes over 300,000 plus people from all age groups and classes. It is a local economic development-tourism office dream of an event that generates a large economic impact, yet to the best of this author’s knowledge does not receive any direct fiscal support from the city or the state. Yes, the local government plays an important role but its role is to facilitate the event (traffic control, police services) not manage or direct it. And I bet this is part of what Professor Buchanan admires about we Hoosiers: we are skeptical but not cynical about the role of government.

Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar with the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, is a professor of economics at Ball State University. Contact him at editor@inpolicy.org.

WE CAN DO BETTER

WE CAN DO BETTER

Part 1

By Alan Miller, Candidate for Judge Superior Court II

There are problems within the county court system. In the next several weeks, I will post my proposals that outline how I think we can do better. 

Efficiency and Timeliness 

One of the primary problems with the Dearborn Superior Court II is inefficiency. It is not unusual to wait 10, 20, sometimes 30 minutes or more for a hearing. This sort of delay is a regular occurrence for this particular court; one that you do not often see in Dearborn Superior Court No. 1 or Dearborn Circuit Court.  

It is also not unusual to be made to wait outside the courtroom due to overcrowding inside. Cases in this court can drag on for months and sometimes years. It is not unusual to wait days, weeks and sometimes months for a decision from the court.

These inefficiencies result in increased operating expenses for the court--- increased supplies and staffing costs among them. This does not take into consideration the lost wages, vacation time, and transportation costs lost by those appearing before the Court. 

There are fixes to this problem: some easy and some not. In any event, there has been minimal effort to address these issues internally.  

Here is how I think we can do better. 

Court starts on time 

Currently, the court’s schedule generally begins at 9:00 a.m. Often times, however, court will not actually begin until 9:15 or 9:30. Not only is this disrespectful of the individuals who appear before the court, this also puts the remainder of the day’s schedule behind, creating undue stress on those appearing before the court. 

Court starts earlier  

As judge, not only will I appear in court promptly at the assigned time, I would also like to begin court at 8:00 a.m., similar to what is already done in Dearborn Circuit Court. This change recognizes the fact that emergency matters can and often times do present themselves during the course of a given day, thus allowing the court time to deal with such issues. 

Parties must appear on time 

Currently, it is not unusual for attorneys and other parties to come to court late. While this is understandable in some instances, in others, there is simply no explanation provided. On some occasions, court can grind to a halt while an attorney or party is located. This too is disrespectful of the court’s time, as well as the time of others waiting to appear before the court. If an attorney or party is more than 10 minutes late for their hearing, their case will be moved to the end of the morning’s docket. If a spot opens up earlier, the court will hear their case earlier. The daily goal of the court will be to keep the court’s docket moving along and avoiding unnecessary delay as much as possible. 

Decisions will be made in a timely manner 

Often times, decisions are delayed for days, weeks, and sometimes months. This occurs even where there are agreements between the parties, only needing a judge’s signature for approval. While each and every decision a judge makes should be deliberate and in accordance with the law, the task of making the decision should be done in a timely manner. A basketball referee does not reflect on his decision for days and weeks on end after blowing the whistle. He or she makes the call and moves on to the next decision. While the decisions made by a judge are far more important, the basic idea remains the same. 

If elected, I will make decisions in a timely manner, keeping in mind that delaying a decision places undue stress on the parties waiting for the ruling, as well as the court’s docket.

This is the first part of my platform statement; a detailed proposal for how to improve our current justice system. It will be released over the next several months through facebook.com/makeitmiller2012 and makeitmiller2012.com. PLEASE feel free to forward this to your friends and family.
Thanks for your continued support!

Alan Miller

GETTING TO KNOW ALAN MILLER- CANDIDATE FOR JUDGE SUPERIOR COURT 2

Alan Miller Brief Biography

Alan is a life-long resident of Dearborn County. Alan was raised in Greendale by his parents, Norman (Alan) and Anna Miller. His parents taught him the value of working hard and striving to achieve through one’s hard work.

Norman served in the United States Air Force following his graduation from Lawrenceburg High School. Following his military service, Norman worked his way up the ladder at Aurora Casket Company. Over the past 30 years, Norman went from a maintenance man at the Conwell Street Plant to his current position as plant manager at both the Conwell Street and Aurora plants, all despite never having received a college degree. Anna was born and raised in Texas where she met Norman while he was stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene. She worked and paid her own way through nursing school by waitressing and collecting tips in a jar. She came to Dearborn County where she was employed at Dearborn County Hospital for 30 years. Norman and Anna have been married for 35 years.

The Miller family roots in Dearborn County can be traced back to the Civil War. Alan’s greatgrandparents, Charlotte and Perry Miller, lived on their family farm in Aurora. His grandmother, Betty Miller, worked in the Lawrenceburg Community School Corporation as a teacher’s aide and as an employee at Ames, Lorey’s, and Wal-Mart.

Alan attended St. Lawrence Catholic School as well as the schools in the Lawrenceburg Community

School District. He is a graduate of Lawrenceburg High School, where he sang in the Tiger Pizazz show choir and lettered in tennis and baseball. Alan continued his education at Indiana University in

Bloomington where he participated in the Singing Hoosiers choir and continued his life-long passion for IU basketball. Alan is also an avid Reds fan.

Alan pursued his lifelong dream of becoming an attorney by enrolling at the Chase College of Law at

Northern Kentucky University. After graduating from law school and passing the bar, Alan joined Zerbe Zerbe & Garner in Lawrenceburg. Alan concentrated his practice in all areas of law, including family law, wills, small claims and landlord/tenant disputes. Shortly thereafter, Alan became partner and since then, has successfully continued to build his small business, focusing his practice in the areas of criminal defense and bankruptcy. Through his practice, he has learned how to not only manage a business with efficiency, but how to work with the people of Southeastern Indiana to reach resolutions.

Alan believes in the importance of family. He lives in Aurora with his wife of 5 years, Kyle (Thayer).

Kyle grew up in Farmer’s Retreat. She graduated from South Dearborn High School and attended Ball State University on scholarship. She is currently a teacher at Moores Hill Elementary. They recently welcome their first child, daughter Ryan, to their family in March 2012.

Alan is an active member of the community and believes in the importance of giving back. He volunteers his time to such organizations as the Kiwanis Club and Southeast Indiana Legal Volunteers. He also volunteers with the Heart House Homeless Shelter, where he is currently serving as Vice-President of the Board of Directors. In 2012, Alan was unanimously elected by his peers to serve as President of the Dearborn-Ohio County Bar Association. He previously held the positions of Secretary-Treasurer and Vice President in the Bar Association. As President, Alan has worked in coordination with Community Helping Hands, a local charity, to solicit donations of food items to benefit local food pantries. He is also currently working with Lawrenceburg Community School Corporation and Big Brothers/Big Sisters to incorporate local attorneys into an existing mentoring program for high school students.

Alan is running for Judge of Dearborn County Superior Court 2

22 May 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

22 May 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

[NOTE: This 3 hour meeting had 3 items that were NOT on the agenda. See those marked with asterisks.  One of those items was the jail funding. Two of the 3 items were tabled until the June 19^th meeting.]

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

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall, County Administrator

****This item was not on the agenda:  Request for part time help from users fees- 4 employees- no more than 20 hours per week to do drug testing. This is for probation and community corrections fees. Council approved.

SURVEYOR- Dennis Kraus, Jr.- fee schedule for sale of plat books- these are the one formerly sold by County Extension.  Commissioners have not been asked about this. He will break even- no profit- selling them for $16.00 for these. He has already purchased them and has about 50 of them. Council sets the fee and then commissioners approve the ordinance. Hughes motioned and Ullrich 2nded to accept the $16 fee ordinance.

SHERIFF-Mike Kreinhop- Gasoline – the county uses  8,500 gal/mo for $30,000 a month. What’s left in the fund and need $175,000 to finish out the year. Gas is running about $3.53/gal. 7 of the 19 dept’s in the county reimburse. There is a key for each officer and so they can tell how much each officer is using. Discussion concerned the usage of county vehicles and being sure there isn’t personal use. Kreinhop says officers have cut driving time to help with this cost. Morris agrees with Kraus to cut the request to $125,000 to try to contain the costs. Morris  motioned for $125,000 and Messmore 2^nd to approve. Passed

Approval to hire replacement deputy sheriff- this was due to one who is leaving. This is because of a medical condition that makes him unable to return to law enforcement work. He is hiring at lower salary for the new officer- saving about $10,000 a year. He said counties of our size have 35 patrol officers and we have 28. Barrett motioned and Lansing 2^nd- approved.

JAIL- Mike Kreinhop- inmate meals- needs an additional $100,000 for the rest of the year. They use about $35,000 per month for 800 meals a day. They have $239,000 balance presently. Morris motioned and Barrett 2^nd to approve Passed.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS INDIANA- Gregory Townsend-Betsy Hensley presented for Greg. Jacob Eldry a youth in the program for 4 years was with her. They requested $1500 from the Youth Fund to go to Terre Haute for the Special Olympics. Jacob spoke and told the board what Special Olympics has meant to him. Ullrich motioned and Lansing 2^nd to approve the $1500.

HIGHWAY- Todd Listerman and Tim Greive-

Equipment- $420,000- they are using a life cycle schedule set up since 2007. Grieve said they need to keep the fleet current and are keeping the costs staggered. 2 trucks and a mowing tractor. They need a $220,000 tandem like last years. The trucks are 11-12 years old. They also need a single axle. The mowing tractor is a John Deere. The tandems are 1997 with 320,000 miles.  They might do some internet auctions to get more bidders. They think the total value of these old items is under $20,000. They estimate $425,000 of equipment a year. They expect most of these last 10-12 years or so. Discussion regarding how to fund these needs and which funds to use.

They have not paved a county road in THREE YEARS! A road normally lasts 24 years. That would take $2.6 million annually to pave a road once every 24 years.  That does not include gravel roads. Listerman said they have been using millings on gravel roads to help there. We have all but one through gravel road with milling son them. This is to help flatten them also.

Listerman has locked in prices on salt for last year. They have a surplus in the salt building from last winter as it was so mild. This winter we will experience that savings in 2013.

Resurface- $1,300,000- Weisburg, Lake Tambo, and Benning

Slip repair- $775,000- West Laughery, Hogan Hill, North Dearborn Rd-FEMA will give them about $262,000 back on each of these. They are 75/25%. Stateline slip is a federal project. They are hoping to have that in construction for next year.

Lower Dillsboro Bridge replacement- $300,000-

Line striping- $100,000-

Ullrich proposed  and motioned to approve all of the above out of growth and development fund. Messmore 2nded. Approved.

Grieve went over the fact that they will be back with a calculated plan to move forward and keep out roads in good shape.

Listerman said the new bill has passed that says you can spend property taxes on roads. They did cap this. They can use wheel tax or general fund or out of property and income taxes. The state “helped” by pushing this back down to the locals, he said.

We are up to 22 bridges that need to be replaced at a cost of over $10.5 million. He is not in favor of increased taxes, but the state is sending the funding issue back to the counties.

Listerman went over bridge needs of $2.2million that are critical in the next budget. Some box beam bridge structures were put in without covers by doing them in house in the county and so they will need to be replaced EARLIER than usual. Usually they last 75 years – and these are only lasting 20.

VETERAN’S OFFICE- Mike Burgess- Soldier Burial fund- He thinks he will need an additional $30,000 to finish the year, this buries the veterans and their spouses and some headstones. This number is in keeping with the last couple of years. This is $1100 for each vet and includes the spouse in that number. Counties can vary this number. Morris motioned and Barrett 2^nd – Passed.

Burgess also asked for Veterans transportation increase because of increased transport costs – he needs $5,000. Ullrich motioned and Messmore 2^nd to approve.

PROSECUTOR- Aaron Negangard- Professional Witness fees- $15,000 a large majority of these fees are for AIG Laboratory fees- drug tests for drinking or drugged drivers. These are from accident cases primarily. Often times opiate addicts can pass a field sobriety test. They used to use the state dept of toxicology. They have problems with them and they have come under scrutiny. Turnaround was too long – sometimes months and now it’s 2 weeks. The $180 fee is paid by the arrested person. Sometimes these are not paid and this $15,000 is to cover that and upcoming cases. With an upcoming murder case and has an upcoming attempted murder on a child with a defense of insanity. He needs the professional witness fees to be replenished for this. State dept of toxicology did not charge- but they have become unreliable. Maybe the state will privatize this with a new governor Negangard said. Ullrich motioned to approve and Morris 2^nd. One Nay from Lansing- Passed.

COMMISSIONERS- Jeff Hughes- Hoosier Square Building- Terri Randall, County Administrator, presented several issues that needed to be “fixed” in that building. They want to replace the French drain system with a $30,000 regraded lot to a sump pump to get it out to the city drain. This should be a permanent fix (except for maintenance of the sump pump.) The stairwell to the basement of the building meets code but is inadequate for the foot traffic load now. (8 inch wide tread.) Because someone fell and due to potential insurance liability, she got a quote of $20,000 to do this. When Indicom went to install their phones and computers. They need to get the fiberoptic cable to them they need to go to CSX to get a right of way for the county. They installed wireless system for about $5,000 to work for now. She estimates $65,000 to do all three of the above items. Randall intends to try to get state help to get the ROW without fee perhaps. Ullrich suggested an extra handrail and non-skid strips for now. Randall chose to skip that and just go for construction in a few weeks. Morris motioned and  Messmore 2nded to approve to put these three items out for bid. They will be $65,000 or less. Passed.

****JAIL FUNDING PRESENTATION – not on the agenda-but Randall went through the history of the jail project and went on to discuss the funding options. The construction manager was considered crucial because they are the ones watching the project. They selected Maxwell Construction along with Integrus Architect as consultant. They had a dynamic meeting and went to RQAW and asked all the questions. Jeff Lyness of Maxwell Construction then spoke: They formulated a budget.  Even though working with RQAW- Commissioners insisted on putting this architect out to bid on May 22. They are going thru the budget and geotech borings went out to bid and that is starting and also doing borings on Votaw and Shumway lots. They are preparing the RFQs for the architect selection process and doing it similarly to  the process they used to select the construction managers. They will visit 2 jails in Bartholomew and Brown counties that are similar to our design. He thinks the current design or a modified version of this will keep the jail officer staff neutral (number-wise) They will be looking at the kitchen and the HVAC for example to see about improved efficiencies to reduce costs. Video visitation is an option. This is a revenue source option. The project will be open to all workers- union and non-union. They want to get it in for $9.3 million. Kraus reminded him the sally port was removed from the plan to keep costs down.

Terri Randall went over the timeline for the construction. Project goes out for bid in Jan 2013. Construction begins Feb 2013 and completes in June 2014. Randall said “we” are going to push to get the actual costs etc.

Collette from Umbaugh and Associates went over updated numbers.  The valuation for the county is $2.3 billion. This gives a debt limit of $15 million. The county receives about $14million from Riverboat Revenue per year. The project could be paid in full from the Riverboat Savings fund. They could borrow $6 million and pay $3 million form Riverboat savings. They could borrow $3million and pay $6 million out of Riverboat Savings. Or they could borrow it all. There are bond issuance fees. There is about $19 million in Riverboat Savings. The bonds are paid out over 19 years. You get a lower interest rate if you back them up with taxes. The courthouse bonds of about $600,000 per year were paid out of Riverboat funds. The different scenarios have annual bond payments of $220 million to $440 million. Borrowing it all puts us slightly over the courthouse bond payments of over $680,000 a year. She figured these rates of 4.75 %. Cash payments mean savings in interest. You also don’t have the bond issue cost of $150,000. If you use cash reserves you will deplete savings by nearly 50%. Borrowing would sustain our cash reserves however. Using one of the other 2 options would help mitigate negatives from both options.

Council wants to have another meeting on June 19^th to have time to digest this. Then they may vote.

Jim Hughes read a statement that said he was looking for more creative solutions besides just building the jail. Questions around why the jail is so crowded. Incarceration, rehabilitation, community corrections, and Jcap programs are options. On the other hand we have serious road issues. We have only so much money to spend and tax revenues are dwindling. We have to create a better working environment for everyone in Dearborn county. He believes that the people have a right to vote on such a large obligation.  He moved to have the jail put on the ballot in the form of a referendum. Dan Lansing 2nded it to get a vote. He and Hughes voted aye and the rest of council voted nay. The board said they’d already done this before.

****Not on the agenda- Steve Walker- Park Board- gave their budget report. He requested that Council release $31,750 from Park Board Land Acquisition account. This money was already approved by Council previously as required for a match for a grant. Kraus Sr. went on complaining about several flaws he saw in the land. Morris read their previous statement that they had committed to matching the grant to purchase this land. Messmore asked if there was a way to achieve this tonight. Walker talked about the land on county farm having to be out of conservation easements before they can use those parts of the 300 acres. He also said the location of this piece is crucial to other pieces they have including Gladys Russell Park. They also have issues with trying to get any land. He answered other questions from the board.  Messmore noted they have a matching grant from DCF. This Lattire Rd. land is 13.5 acres. This puts them close to Gladys Russell. A lot of educational possibilities there- also more advanced Scouting camping activities. The Park board thinks they will not take on the shared private bridge (with adjoining owner)but will access on foot or by vehicle over the dry ford. The unanimous opinion of the Park Board is that it is a viable property. Council tabled this until June 19^th meeting to be advertised.  

AUDITOR- Gayle Pennington- July 1^st puts new nepotism rules into effect. She has a resolution regarding these new rules. This resolution establishes policy that corresponds to the state law. Passed.

Board approved Feb minutes.

10 EMTs have been certified at $250 each at Margaret Mary Hospital. Council appropriated this before- Approved to pay.

Council asked questions regarding budget – they want a list of all the additional each dept has been granted this year. Pennington will get that together for them.

Lawrenceburg Lions Club wants $1000 for Aurora Farmers Fair for the clown for the children – approved out of Youth services with Messmore saying nay.

Two last minute changes to Cum Courthouse funds in budget last year- $16,000+ was appropriated tonight because the state didn’t allow them in the budget approval. This comes out of Riverboat Revenue contingency fund.

2006 reassessment fund was cut out of the PTA BOA  and there were some issues- they advertised this and put $10,000 back in there.

[NOTE: COUNCIL has been written up by the SBOA for using Riverboat Revenue for charitable causes. Tonight they passed 2 items- special Olympics and the clown for Farmers Fair that add to that same problem. Council has not addressed the SBOA write-up in a public meeting.]

Meeting adjourned at 9:35

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

15 May 2012 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

15 May 2012 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Jeff Hughes, President, Tom Orschell, and Shane McHenry

Also present:  Teresa Randall, County Administrator, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

ABSENT: Gayle Pennington, Auditor (at conference) Margaret Minzner took minutes in her place.

Meeting was preceded by an executive session- no decisions- just gave some direction to County Administrator per Hughes.

OLD BUSINESS:

Payroll schedule change – tabled for June 5 meeting

NEW BUSINESS:

Appointments for Lawrenceburg Township Trustee Advisory Board Vacancy- Jerome Gilb – former township trustee, was appointed to fill that spot.

Carla Burkhart- Life Time Resources- CDBG(Community Development Block Grant) Owner Occupied Rehab Award corrective actions- cancelled at her request.

Gary Hensley, Assessor- approval to send out annual trending RFP- tabled for further information- until 2^nd June meeting.

Margaret Minzner- Automatic vehicle Location grant- for sheriff’s dept and first responder agencies. She wants to submit to the June round of the Dearborn Community Foundation. 911 communications would be the applicant for this grant. They are regional and the other towns in the county are interested in partnering on this. Charlie Ashley is fine with 911 being applicant. The deadline is June 5^th. The dispatch map is provided to each responder and reporting software is included and allows for GPS location of cars in the field. McHenry supported this. Dispatch can live track a pursuit for example. He thinks it could be extremely helpful. Approved to allow 911 to submit an AVL grant to the DC Foundation.

Data sharing agreement with the state- Minzner said we have done this in the past and it was administered through Homeland security. 86 of the state’s counties do this. They allow $2000 annually for the next 3 years to each count and our vendors costs are less than this. If we do this in house- we can get the entire $2000 in house. Some vendors charge about half this and we could use the rest. Approved to sign the agreement for data sharing with the state.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT:

Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer- Two copies of material on the Lower Dillsboro Bridge that he’s going to Council about next week. He’ll get Gayle’s signature when she returns.

The North Dearborn project was awarded to O’Mara as low bidder. We can use credits for our 20% on this project. He doesn’t yet know what our actual monetary costs will be on that.

He was working with Hrezo to purchase a wash pump from a defunct car wash facility to construct a truck wash facility at the Randall Avenue facility. Total cost is $11,520. This gets plans and he’ll work with Maxwell to get firm costs to go to the Dearborn Community Foundation on this. This is particularly important for the salt trucks to keep them well maintained. The only cost to the county is the design. The Foundation will hopefully pay the construction. This keeps us Environmental and EPA compliant.  Grieve also noted that it will clean other county vehicles- for animal control and sheriff too. TABLED- the commissioners wanted to see if they can do design in house.

Hughes said someone had concerns about the project going on Stateline. This is by Skyline. Access will be maintained to all businesses while this is going on. These people can come to Todd and he’ll show this.

Orschell said they’d had questions on Stateline speed limits. Max speeds are 30 mph in urbanized and 55 in rural areas. We use road and conditions and use an 85 percentile study of the people driving the road. He detailed how they do this. The highest speed limit on a county road is 50 mph. Sometimes it’s an enforcement issue when there is excessive speed. They could use radar speed trailer to help with compliance. Hughes talked about issues of accident spots on Stateline. The sheriff has the trailer and the highway dept suggests spots at times.

Tim Grieve, Highway Superintendent- had some flood issue problems at Salt Fork and Stateline. They are trying to jet out the culverts that jammed. This area is part of Listerman’s realignment problem so it needs to be fixed until that can be accomplished. 

New tractor is out and working well. Orschell noted they’d fixed the problem by Tom Stone’s house where the sewer went through.

They are fixing a culvert issue by the Davis property due to a large pipe the county installed above it. It’s off ROW and so he was informing the county they were going to perform labor there and no material costs. It’s about a half day job to realign the creek. This will keep access during emergency access if the bridge goes out. That will be part of the agreement that they sign now. Andy Baudendistel will work up something on that.

ADMINISTRATOR: Teresa Randall- Additional Appropriation request to Council for Hoosier Square- some items they did not anticipate. Hughes approved her to go and commissioners ratified her request. They need to install an appropriate storm drain. They want to fix it permanently- Maxwell Construction will do it for $25,000 and a sump pump will be installed. The staircase needs to be replaced to the lower level and they will not accommodate heavier foot traffic. It DOES meet code as is. Code is the very least you can get by with.  They need wider treads. An employee fell down these stairs when they first moved in. They have a $20,000 bid from Maxwell for this. There is a wiring problem for fiberoptics to run overhead over CSX railroad. [Note: Whose fiberoptic cable are they extending?]They think it may take about $15,000 to get it there per her discussions with Jeff Bittner. Fiberoptics is needed for the internet issues and wireless is unreliable there. This total request for Hoosier was about $65,000. [NOTE: Maxwell constructed the original Hoosier Square building.] Commissioners ratified Hughes’s signature to go to Council for this request.

Certificate of Substantial Completion- Hoosier Square- this is needed to get the final permit for occupancy. There are 2-3 very minor items that they are fixing now. This does not take the contractor off the hook for completing these items. Commissioners signed this form. There is also a handrail on outside steps to put up- but the contracts with contractors hold them to finishing these items per Teresa Randall and Joe Mrak of RQAW.

Votaw Shumway Building demolitions- she did not get the grant form City of L-bg on this. They still have money on this form Lawrenceburg city. “Maxwell has graciously helped me on this” to get the costs of gravel parking areas done. There is savings to get both buildings done at one time. Hughes said they need to get bids on this. She said absolutely. Baudendistel reminded her that the county surveyor said there is ROWs there to be aware of.

EMS Study from Duncan and Associates which will be presented on May 24^th at 6:30 PM at the Dearborn Emergency Management Building. This has been published.

Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway Grant- On Sept 20^th 2011the County agreed to sponsor the grant for them. She thinks the commissioners didn’t realize they were actually administering the grant. It’s a federal highway 80/20 project per Todd Listerman.  Whitewater Canal Scenic Byways name is not on these documents. There are costs to the county to administer this. One concern is that we are spending highway road and bridge money for some studies for things that are not roads and bridges. This year INDOT stated  that if you have an active project you may not be able to apply for other projects. This could disallow us from other funds we are applying for. Collier Ridge is coming up for us next.  Franklin County Commissioners were the last sponsor for a previous project they had. This raised a flag that maybe this is not something we want to be a sponsor for, because they have an audit that has to get done on this and they hav eto get Whitewater to get that done too. This really is NOT a grant – it is federal aid. This is a worthy project and a wonderful organization per Randall. BUT she wants then to know whether we want to proceed with this knowing it is different from what we signed up for initially. INDOT was not sure if this would affect our other projects in the queue.

A spokeswoman ( Candy) for Whitewater said this is NOT money that would be used for roads or bridges. The audit requested by Franklin County was sent in April. She sent that to INDOT and they said that they can ask for audit and they have all the paperwork in Franklin. INDOT attorney, Whitewater’s attorney also concurred that this was an expense that Franklin County would incur. This is TEA funding is Transportation Enhancement Funding. She also gave them the bank statement showing that they will upfront all the money- not Dearborn County. They will agree to sign a contract detailing all this. Commissioners said they will do some more evaluation and then decide later. Listerman said he wanted them to make sure any administration costs with the auditor of highway dept would be paid for by Whitewater Canal Scenic Byways. Randall said they can bring those costs to the next meeting. They will work with Andy Baudendistel on this too.

AUDITOR: Margaret Minzner presented in Pennington’s absence. Claims signed.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- agreement with HVL POA and Sheriff’s Dept was signed. Commissioners now signed it. This stays in effect until a new sheriff is elected. They are also looking into what vehicles they will be leasing form the county. Sheriff caught this and Jack Prarat worked with Andy on this.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Hughes- appreciated everyone who participated in primary elections and congratulated the victors.

He has also talked to Maximus about finding some solutions to cost issues in the jail. This would not be bricks and mortar issues.

Orschell said that he attended an awards ceremony at the middle school up in ST Leon won this- for doing a mapping of the Greendale Cemetery. Art Wenzel and Margaret Minzner helped with it.  Art said it was fun and they were good kids.

McHenry- the sheriff said they purchased an 8x10 dog kennel for the new canine to store oil, fluids etc. Randall reminded him they have to have hazardous chemical lists.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- Art Wenzel said there were 7 kids from Destination Imagination who helped do this. They helped catalog the old graves that were moved from Lawrenceburg’s old 1802 cemetery to Newtown Park and then to Greendale Cemetery. They go to Nationals with this. There may be something in the paper about this.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 AM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

Agenda May 15th 9 AM Commissioners Meeting

AGENDA

DEARBORN COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING

May 15, 2012

9:00 a.m., Commissioners Room

County Administration Building

215 B West High Street, Lawrenceburg, Indiana 

EXECUTIVE SESSION – PENDING LITIGATION 

I.              CALL TO ORDER 

II.             PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 

III.            OLD BUSINESS

1.  Payroll Schedule Change – Tabled Until June 5 Meeting 

IV.           NEW BUSINESS

1.  Appointment for Lawrenceburg Township Trustee Advisory Board Vacancy

2.  Carla Burkhart – Life Time Resources

            CDBG Owner Occupied Rehab Award Corrective Actions

3.  Gary Hensley, Assessor

            Approval to send out Annual Trending RFP

4.  Margaret Minzner

            1.  Automatic Vehicle Location Grant

            2.  Data Sharing Agreement with State 

V.            HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

A.  Highway Superintendent – Tim Greive

            1.  Updates 

B.  Highway Engineer – Todd Listerman

            1.  Updates 

VI.           ADMINISTRATOR –  Teresa Randall

1.  Additional Appropriation Request for Council

2.  Certificate of Completion – Hoosier Square

3.  Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway Grant

                               

VII.          AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington

1.  Claims/Minutes 

VIII.         ATTORNEY – Andy Baudendistel 

IX.           COMMISSIONER COMMENTS 

X.            LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION 

          

            XI             PUBLIC COMMENT

XII.           ADJOURN