16 April 2013 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

 16 April 2013 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

Present: Shane McHenry, President, Art Little, and Kevin Lynch

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

[NOTE: There is a fair amount of business discussed at this meeting that was not on the agenda.]

Moment of silence for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing attack at the suggestion of Kevin Lynch.

OLD BUSINESS:

Surveyor- Dennis Kraus, Jr. Appointment of licensed surveyor- Baudendistel reviewed this with Mr Berger, the general Counsel for Association of Indiana counties. Kraus Sr. is not paid for this and so it doesn’t run into conflict with nepotism laws as he is not an employee. Commissioners approved Dennis Kraus Sr as the licensed surveyor.

NEW BUSINESS:

HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT: Todd Listerman, Highway Engineer:

Award bridge #102 to McAllister Excavation of Patriot $333,478.11 The high bid was $494,652. Approved fro McAllister Excavating.

Request to approach Council for annual line striping and bridge funding was approved by commissioners. Listerman has to ask for the line item. $110,000 is being requested for annual striping. Anything left over goes back into the highway account called MvHA substitute account. Last year the bid was at $87,000. Hoping to get it in that range again.

Kevin Lynch asked about what other dollars would be spent for the rest of the year. Listerman said we do this once a year in May. The only other items would be emergencies. Listerman said that he would prefer that it be earlier so they could get equipment ordered earlier. Lynch suggested they ask council about changing the timing of this request. Listerman said he is just asking now for funds that are already set up in these accounts in the budget. Lynch wants to know what requests are in the box. Grieve said that he is asking for additional appropriations to pave. There are no funds appropriated for that right now. Lynch doesn’t want to go to council over and over again. Lynch wants to be involved when they are doing the highway budget this year.

Listerman also requested to go to Council for bridge designs for box beams and 4 bridges. He wants to maintain the box beams for about 1/3 the cost of having to rebuild the bridges. These funds should come out of cum bridge fund. This is permission to put those line items into those accounts. This is for designs for $75,000. Then they can get $900,000 appropriated next year to do the projects if that money gets found for next year.

Gayle Pennington said she is doing a Budget 101 class for new officeholders and that will help them understand how this works.  Commissioners approved Listerman’s request to go to council for the bridge funds above.

INDOT will close SR 1 for slide repair.I 275 is official detour.  Unofficial local detour will be SawdonRridge to North Dearborn to McCann to old SR 1. This will get some money to replace any wear and tear on those roads from feds.

FYI: Bridge 138 trying to do a federal aid design. The condition of the bridge won’t allow us to do that. The property owner is allowing them to move his driveway and make it a culvert design. They are doing a revised cost and scope on this. Additional survey for driveway and railroad. $200,000 saved on construction but $10,000 more on design.

Tim Grieve, Highway Superintendent:

Request to approach Council for equipment and road improvements. They are cycling the snow plow trucks across 15 years. $340,000 is the number needed for five vehicles and two dump trucks. This money is already allocated- just asking for permission to spend it. Dump trucks will have some out of county bids as only one vendor is available in the county. Lischkge is the local vendor. Their service is also very good. Lynch wants to try to keep it in the county. Commissioners gave Grieve permission to seek equipment replacement funds from council.

Paving is an additional appropriation request. Grieve said he has no idea what money is available for that. Lynch thinks it is important to sit down with Council to see what funds are needed throughout the year. He is requesting $1million. Randall said that commissioners asked last year to see a 3-5 year plan. Historically looking back- perhaps we could see what is allocated on average. Lynch wants to normalize it rather than all these peaks and valleys in the spending on roads. Lynch said the state is pushing the wheel tax down our throat. They will penalize us if we don’t. $480,000 is at stake as a penalty. Commissioners gave permission to seek $1million for road paving.

ADMINISTRATOR: Teresa Randall:

Shumway and Votaw demolition etc. is behind schedule from weather issues. This will cause about 1 month of parking issues. She met with Hrezo and Maxwell to discuss that. End of June before parking is available. Hrezo is to get bid documents for next phase faster to help speed this up. She requested permission for phase 2 – fill and blacktop to authorize to proceed to the low bidder without entering into contract. The notice of award is first. Then the notice to proceed. Baudendistel warned them that there could be an issue with a conflict of interest. They will request a special meeting if this looks like it will hold up the project. Commissioners will have to decide this step- not have it done outside of a meeting.

ATC needs to know how much fill is needed and whether or not the brick can be used as fill. $675 is a not to exceed bid to analyze the brick. This is a standard geotech agreement. If they complete that work by the end of the week it keeps things on a better schedule. This is for the Shumway brick only- the Votaw brick had already been tested per Baudendistel. Commissioners approved the contract with ATC to test the brick.

Lynch and she continue to meet with EMS groups. They met with Sunman EMS in Ripley county and they have a larger area in Dearborn they cover compared to their area in Ripley County. Sunman’s agreement for 2 units at $40,000 total was approved by commissioners.

4H fencing at County Farm by the old Animal Control area- she has checked on getting jail road crews to help. The posts are the harder to remove. The 4 H kid who wants to do this is using it for animal fencing. The 4H is the recipient of this- not the kid himself per Baudendistel. Commissioners approved the ordinance transferring personal property valued at less than $5,000 to 4 H- specifically the fencing at posts at animal control at county farm.

May 9^th the bids are due on jail and alternate. One contractor may be low on base bid and one low on the alternate. They need to decide if the alternate is going to be considered. They want permission of up to the $800,000 to be advertised ahead of the Council meeting in May. If not it will delay the project by a month or more. The commissioners can still decide not to pursue the $800,000 request for the alternate even though it will be advertised. She asked for them to advertise for $1million for the alternate to be safe. Commissioners approved.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- April 2 minutes approved. Claims approved.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel – presented 2 ordinances at Council last week. Ordinance 1 transferred old jail bond funds to county general. Council approved. Commissioners also approved tonight. Ordinance 2 modified description requirements of the West Harrison TIF district to clarify those properties for the auditor’s office. This also states how to properly identify these in the future also for TIF districts. Council approved and tonight Commissioners approved.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Lynch reminded everyone of the candlelight vigil tonight at Newtown Park for Child Abuse at 7 PM.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION - none

PUBLIC COMMENT- none

Meeting adjourned at 6: 55PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township