19 November 2013 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

19 November 2013 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Liz Morris, Randy Lyness, Charlie Keyes, Maynard Barrett.

ABSENT: Bill Ullrich.

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

Aurora Public Library- Mary Alice Horton- board appointment Ralph Droege served since 2001without pay and asked not to be reappointed for personal reasons. She asked them to appoint Maureen Eller who was recommended by Ralph Droege. She meets all the requirements  of state statute and is willing to serve. Approved.

Karry Hollan- presented for the Clearinghouse, even though not on the agenda. She had permission to make her plea tonight. They serve Ohio Franklin, Switzerland, Ripley, and Dearborn. About half of their clients are from Dearborn. Thirty three years ago started by churches in the community. Food bank is 3 places and one clothing outlets. Many walk to get their food. They use churches. They serve 35-40 families a day. Closer to Christmas they get almost twice that. Pennington explained that they can’t decide until January as it has to be advertised. Morris has concerns about setting a precedent- they would have to give to all pantries.

Contributions can be mailed to:

Clearinghouse- PO Box 478, Aurora, IN 47001.

Email is clearinghousedearborn@yahoo.com

CVTB – Convention Visitors and Tourism Commission- Funding- No one showed up for this. Terri Randall and Maynard Barrott haven’t met with them yet. Tabled this until the December salary ordinance meeting. That Council meeting will be Dec 10^th at 6 PM. There are no additional appropriations at this meeting so it will still be short.

Superior Court 2- Sally Blankenship- sent a letter that she will be out of town. Changed her request to $12,000 ( from $20,000)for the tape drive. Barrett said that he was surprised she was still on a tape drive. They discussed whether she had cloud service. Passed for $12,000

Public Defender fees were not discussed.

Prosecutor- F. Aaron Negangard- Children’s Advocacy Center- needs an additional appropriation. It is renamed to include region 14 as well as region 15. They call is the regional Children’s Advocacy center of SE Indiana. This helps small counties that can’t afford these services on their own. When Seymour IN state police post merged with Versailles post they started using our facility too. So we serve all the way out to Bartholomew county. Dearborn County is by far the primary user of the facility. They get $70,000from state div of child services and L-bg gives $100,000. They are looking at adding satellite offices in Decatur etc. but those would be funded by those communities. He said there are people in the jail sitting there based on the work they have been able to do at the center. It also sometimes exonerates people unjustifiably accused is child custody cases etc. Those investigations are so much better that in the past, now that we have this facility. $25,000 a year is what the county gives them. Approved with motions by Lansing and Barrett.

Commissioners- Terri Randall-

Courthouse Project Update- John Maxwell to give a brief overview and open for questions. Commissioners had hired him to go over the various studies over the last 9 years. He liked the RQAW 2004 study that was originally done and said that at its 10 year projection it was close to where we are now for 2014. There is 16,000 usable square feet in the courthouse. They need about 20,000 more square ft. Maxwell will interview and get RFPs from architectural firms and select one to come back to council with. In the 2029 projection there is a 4^th court. They think that it can be avoided if we use a 2^nd and 3^rd magistrate. Randall said superior Court 2 is most critical needs over there. Lansing asked about the space vacated by probation. Randall said they decompress some of Blankenship’s issues. Kraus said we put $7million in the old building and we still have an old building. They are not setting any expectations about the cost or placement of the buildout space.

EMS training- Randall said that this training is required to be able to perform adequate services. The hospital  hired a certified trainer. Cost is $325 per student. They want the commissioners to support this one time training.

Transfer funds from Hoosier Square Project to Communications- Using the almost $7500 left in this account to cover the fiberoptics from Centurylink to EMA building. This eliminates the $500 per month fee there.

Redevelopment- Reclaim remaining balance- Denied as this was not advertized correctly

Redevelopment- Legal services- Denied also as it was not advertised correctly. Randall noted that they’d made a mistake on both of these items.

Emergency Management- Bill Black- Purchase vehicle- This is to replace a 2001 Durango with 100,000 miles and several items in need of repair. Looking at Tahoe possibly for under $30,000. Morris said SUVs coming out of sheriff dept should be OK. Even if have 100,000miles they will be 3-5 years old. Pennington to research county vehicles and this will be considered at Dec 10^th meeting.

Sheriff- Jail- Michael Kreinhop-  Part time special deputies- No show.

Coroner- Steve Callahan- had a lot of requests below. Questions form Council on why so many autopsies and why drug tests on all autopsies were part of the discussion.

Part time wages- approved $3,000 to Dec 31^st.

Autopsies- $5,000 approved to end of year. ( average $1,000 each)

Drug Testing- $2,000 approved- at 185 each

Communications- $1500 to end of year for 8 cells.

Misc. Operations- $1000 approved to end of year

Vehicle Maintenance- withdrawn- denied.

Cot and locking system- $12,470 approved- cheaper than originally proposed at last meeting.

Also informed Council of new rule requiring DNA and fingerprints for positive ID. Another unfunded state mandate.

Auditor- Gayle Pennington- minutes approved for budget hearing and budget adoption with Lansing abstaining on both and Barrett on one, as they were not there.

Health care premiums same and coverage enhanced with no change in deductibles for 2014.

Bonus checks went out for 2% raises that county didn’t get last year.

Kraus noted that Planning Dept has a part timer for 24 hours max per week and the money form St. Leon and W Harrison Plans will have to come in to pay for  ass’t planner.

Council ratified Kraus’s signature on the County health Dept grant that they get each year.

Public Comment- none

 Late Arrival- none

Meeting adjourned at 8:35 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township