7 November 2012 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

7 November 2012 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

NOTE: JAIL PROJECT ISSUES UNDER COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR SECTION BELOW

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

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

Orschell congratulated Kevin Lynch and Art Little who wasn’t here. And Phil Darling who ran a heck of a campaign and it was a clean campaign. Kevin and Phil thanked him.

OLD BUSINESS:

OKI Funding Contract/Agreement (originally tabled until November)- Terri wants to table that until January when  the new commissioners come in. Tabled until January.

NEW BUSINESS:

Ratify signature on vehicle title transferring ownership to the city of Lawrenceburg of a seized vehicle from the SCU (Special Crimes Unit). It was officially transferred from the Prosecutor’s office to Lawrenceburg. There was no explanation of why Lawrenceburg gets the vehicle.

Property in Villages of Sugar Ridge LLC that no one owns/not sold at tax sale- Gayle said it may have been on tax sale twice. It is a catch basin and no one owns it- the county highway will be willing to maintain it along with their culverts per Tim Grieve. The commissioners could offer the other property surrounding it for sale at a commissioner’s sale per Pennington. If commissioners direct them to have a sale along then they advertise and it would happen around February. Baudendistel was directed to check into the Macke property and see who owned it. IC code- 36-1-11 applies to this per Pennington. No other action.

Knights of Columbus 1231 requesting to use Court House Square- Friday January 18^th at 11 AM. Commissioners approved their use as they have always been civil when they used it in the past.

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer- supplemental for Stateline Slip project. $149,400 supplemental received for fed aid on Stateline slips which brings the total there to $230,054.40. Commissioners signed the contract for the aid.

Notice of award for Bridge 34 Short Ridge to  Holman Excavating Versailles$482,193.20. Other bids were higher : Mcallister 497,179.00, O Mara $ 550,770, and  Senesis ( sp ?) from West Chester $ 580,863.95

A  change order for $2854.56 deducted from Bridge on Lower Dillsboro #224 for total  292,317.66 was approved and signed.

$3139.75 change order for another catch basin for project on North Dearborn Road and will be recovered 80/20 was approved and signed.

Annual fuel, aggregate, and asphalt bids are out and will be presented at first meeting in December.

Documents had to all be redone for Tucker ROW around the wishing well area. Baudendistel said there were issues over land ownership changes and they need to get the full recorded documents. He said they’d met with Tucker over 2 months ago. Orschell thought Bright Lions were going to move it and raise funds for that. That was over 2 years ago. Terri Randall found out it wasn’t finalized under the last administrator. Hughes wants a timeline to explain why this hasn’t happened yet. They will get the documents.

Tim Grieve, Highway Superintendent- New tractor machete mower delivered tomorrow. There is a lot of work ready for it.

Paving contract pretty close to finished. Paint contractor fro lines had to come back to paint Weisberg. Chip seal on old SR 1 turned out well. All FEMA projects packaged for $290,000 and hope to get that refunded back in the spring to move forward on more slips.

ADMINISTRATOR: Teresa Randall

Bill Black, who couldn’t be here wants the approval of a grant and proclamation and Baudendistel had reviewed the grant and said it was approved by the State Attorney General’s office. This grant allowed Black to replace a printer/copier. $4,054.00. Grant was signed.

The Proclamation was for the Winter Weather Preparedness Week beginning November 11th that is done annually. The entire list of aid received for winter weather issues and the years they received it were read into the record by Randall. This was to make citizens aware so they could prepare for winter weather conditions.

Office Moves- business to business department relocation. RQAW had done a number of space needs studies. The original cost was over $283,000 from RQAW. They scaled this back to be no cost in the Adm. Building. [NOTE: Actually there is cost but it’s supposedly cost they have to do for maintenance anyway. There may be additional cost as they get used to their new spaces and see what they need.] They wanted to put like departments together. She presented her recommendation for this after meeting with all the departments. This was to improve customer service with one stop shopping. They want to combine Planning, Environmental, Highway, and Building Inspector. They need to replace ceiling tiles and carpet and tile. Move Coroner to jail. And install a hand sink for the nurses for shot clinic. They get a bigger waiting area for health dept clients. Planning and Zoning does not move. Building dept moves to Health dept area on 3^rd floor.  Surveyors office will be vacated and left open.  Surveyor moves. Environmental goes behind the old surveyor office. Sewer board moves to the area with environmental dept. Human resources will move to 3^rd floor also.

First floor that had building dept there has handicapped access and so it’s great for Health Dept. and Dr.Scudder will have an office in there. Food Inspector will be there also. The surveyor will have space there also. Randall said the departments are on board with these changes and understand why they need to move.  

Shane McHenry passed a copy of the floor plan sketch to the media in the audience so we could see the proposal. Commissioners gave her authority to move forward with the move to be completed thru Dec and January with Maintenance.

Votaw and Shumway Building Updates- Last Tuesday there was a meeting with Council and Commissioners to discuss what to do with these as there is not enough money to demolish both and do parking lots. Hrezo  rep was here with these numbers also. $110,000 soft costs.

Demo Votaw only $129,861 and reduce to parking lot adds additional $19,000 for gravel finish. $161,000 total if paved as she thought they wanted. If they add Shumway they add 87,000 to gravel but 134,000 total is the most the county would be out if both were demolished, paved and landscaped. Lawrenceburg’s money does the rest. Indiana Landmarks said they could get grant money to get it into a holding position if they wanted to hold Shumway Building. There would be drainage issues if they only demolished Votaw and then Shumway is a low spot for water to go to and they’d have to redrain area. That’s a cost too. They kept going around and around about these numbers and came up with needing about $4,000 to get both down that they didn’t have.

I asked if they could go to Council for the rainy day fund money and not re-advertise. Pennington said they have to advertise for the taxpayers for all funds. I told her they used to do this a lot- under her predecessor.Commissioners decided to table this until the next November meeting.

Jail project Update from Mark Van Allen from Rosser International. The jail committee has been meeting and sticking to their mission. He went over the plans and has met with sheriff’s staff. Remodeling 12 rooms on second floor into 2. Making flexible space for the county for the future needs. Always working with Maxwell- the construction manager. He showed a slide with this info:

Base bid -144 beds

Alt 1 -176 beds

Altr2-  208 beds

Eventual build out with new recreation – 240 beds

It’s been a collaborative effort with lots of discussion per Mark.  [NOTE: This looks like an expansion of the project. How did we get from a base of 144 bed addition to these other alternates? Are we trying gto go back to original plans and if so how does THAT fit in to the $9.1-9.3 million budget?]

Terri said the fees for Rosser have already been contracted. She is asking for approval for the fees for what they have done so far. She said that Maxwell has also been working.  She wants to come back with a full budget and recommended final design to get their approval. She used the term working in good faith several times. If they approve then they can go to council with a final money request. She will be on vacation at next meeting. She wants a special meeting on November 26^th in the morning.

*****At this point Orshell speaks : Due to outcome of election Orschell wants to have the new commissioners weigh in. He is not comfortable with voting on these things that would bind the new commissioners going forward. He thinks that they might have some different ideas. McHenry said he respectfully disagrees. Shane said Orschell worked hard on the jail- it’s really HIS project!!! Orschell reiterated his feelings on this and stuck to his premise that it wouldn’t be right to vote on changes to t his project.****

[NOTE: Orschell is correct. The jail project is growing at meetings outside the normal public viewing times. There are two new commissioners coming in and ethically it wouldn’t be right to saddle them with something they might not have agreed to. Art Little has not been to any of these meetings, nor was he present tonight. Both he and Lynch- who is up to speed- need to be consulted on this. As it is a huge expense it wouldn’t be right to make a decision on this until both are up to speed and better yet, legally sworn in as commissioners.]

Chairman Hughes abstained but other two commissioners approved the schematic so that Rosser could get paid. Orschell was OK with that as it was for work already completed.

Hughes said he disagreed with Shane McHenry and he respects Orschell for his decision. From experience he understands where Tom is coming from. He cited White’s Hill project that he inherited when he was first elected.

Commissioners decided to have meeting Nov 26^th with understanding that Orschell will not vote on extra funding beyond the budgeted amount of $9.1-9.3 million for the jail.

[NOTE: How can they meet to do anything extra? Hughes always abstains on jail expenditures. And if Orschell isn’t voting either, there will be no decision.]

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- certified Purdue Ext and their educators. Grant award from Criminal Justice Institute that they get every year for their victims of crime- she signed off on also.

Claims signed. And Oct minutes approved.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel- none

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Hughes congratulated all commissioner candidates on a clean campaign. Orschell joked that the outcome wasn’t right though. And Lynch said it looked right from where he was sitting!

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township