16 September 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

16 September 2014 Dearborn County Commissioners Meeting Notes

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

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.

ABSENT:Teresa Randall, County Administrator.

OLD BUSINESS: none

NEW BUSINESS:

Clerk of Courts – Rick Probst

Public Notice of Polling Place Locations- This is required by law. 45 precincts in 35 locations. Only change is the 3 Sparta site are in the senior center in Moores Hill. Approved.

DOXPOP Contract Approval- Allows Doxpop to make court cases and court schedules to be available to the public. The contractor pays for it by charging attorney’s offices access fees. No cost to the county. Juvenile cases and social security and financial info is not published under privacy rules. Our three judges have signed off. 88 counties currently have their info accessible on the internet. So far the scanned files won’t be accessible yet was stated in response to McHenry’s question about what is available online in this proposal.  I asked why the probable cause affidavits and other items that are public record if you walk in and ask for it are not able to be available online on Doxpop in Dearborn County yet. Baudendistel explained somewhat tactfully that this is a first step and the next things would be to see what is allowable and then the judges and commissioners have to agree on that.  [NOTE: Reading between the lines-it seems there is not complete agreement with all judges on this open and transparent possibility.]

Commissioners approved Doxpop contract for the first step of limited access to some court documents.

Planning and Zoning – Mark McCormack

Zoning Map Update (Amendment)- R to B-1 zone change for Badinghaus on the old church property on Stateline Road . McCormack gave the background and went over the maps and area. See the notes from the previous 2 Plan Commission meetings on this blog for more details from their public hearings. He went over the restrictions suggested by the Plan Commission. He also went over the 5 findings necessary for approving a zone change. There were some neighbors at this meeting also. The written commitment excluded 8 uses in the B-1 zone change. They were excluded to get rid of certain nuisances associated with these uses that would conflict with residential uses in the area already.

Mike Hall- surveyor for the project spoke on behalf of Badinghaus. He said they did not want any restrictions in the original request. He went over the current use proposed and how it would benefit the tax base and the community. Traffic would be far less than the previous church had. He is making custom cabinets there.

PUBLIC  COMMENT:
Doug Denmure- attorney for the applicant spoke in favor of the project. He felt like they had made a lot of progress in their negotiations getting the zone change approved so far.

Shirley Gardner- noted that noise is an issue as some people complained about church singing and the insulation in the building is not enough to cover that noise. Badinghaus has a 30x50 ft building that he works in now with more ground- why is he moving from that? There were supposed to be other retail businesses to go in there and have heard nothing about them. Quiet tenants won’t go there with the noise in this business. So what kind will go there? Everyone in the neighborhood except for one person was at the other meetings and we all had the same concerns. She talked about the traffic concerns there also and the number of wrecks into the adjoining property’s and their fences.

Dan Badinghaus- lives on 7 acres on top of a hill. Has himself and 3 other employees. Access issues.

END PUBLIC COMMENT

Baudendistel did not have the ordinance prepared yet but they would be able to approve it with written commitments at their next meeting. The applicant wants to be able to start site plan review even though the ordinance for the zone change is not prepared and signed yet.

Lynch motioned and Little 2nded it to approve the zone change contingent upon the written commitments for R to B-1 for the Badinghaus property. In response to my question about the 5 crtiteria needing to be addressed in the motion,  Baudendistel said that the reasonable regard to section 540 and the 5 criteria for a zone change will be in the written ordinance. 

Plat & Right-of-Way Vacation in Hogan Township for Wilmington. This was addressed in detail in the August Plan Commission meeting- see notes on this blog. Dennis Kraus, Jr. was the surveyor for this application. Mark McCormack gave an overview of the properties involved.

PUBLIC COMMENT:

Kraus, Jr.- gave some more info.

Priscilla Probst- lived in Wilmington all her life. She protests the part about access to the cemetery there. She wants it to be left open- the same as it has been since the 1800s. She thinks there should remain 2 accesses to the cemetery. She likes the town to remain historical. Baudendistel said that the cemetery association can maintain that access on the 20 ft portion they will still have.

Jason Probst- caretaker of cemetery. There is a power line there so there is nothing to gain by changing this. He is on cemetery board- and 4 of the 5 members don’t want this access changed. He is speaking for the cemetery. It is only Water St that he is objecting to. The alley way is OK to change.

McCormack said the 50 ft ROW won’t probably be needed to access the cemetery- they are often one lane roads. Baudendistel said that vacations have no affect on the easements of record per IN code.

END PUBLIC COMMENT

McHenry asked about why the owners wanted to vacate the cemetery part. Kraus Jr. said that they figured it might as well be vacated too since it won’t ever be a road. McHenry said that he prefers to see the cemetery part be left alone. There is a way for the property to be deeded all to the cemetery separate from this vacation process. It would be a private agreement with the owners. Setbacks increase with this in place.

Lynch motioned to table until the owners requesting can be present. Commissioners agreed to TABLE.

Zoning Text Amendment- two items: Mark McCormack- Both were unanimous recommendations related to keeping of animals. This was approved years ago also- but commissioners wanted the animal control ordinance finished first. Since it is finally done they revisited it and proposed the text which now is before you.

Article 10, Section 1010 – Principally Permitted Uses (Residential Districts)

Article 27 – Definitions for Domesticated, Household Pets; Undomesticated, Non-Household Animals; Keeping of Animals

Public comment opened and closed with no more comments. As McHenry noted- most people have their heads down and/or are sleeping. Laughter.

Commissioners approved both text amendments.

Health Department – Mary Calhoun- grant request to go before Council- Mike Hankins- $74,914 grant total for 2 combined grants. No match required.This saves us money in the general fund per Pennington. Local Health Maintenance Fund and the Indiana Local Health Dept Trust Account is what these are from.

Final Jail Project Draw Down Appropriation for Council- Approved for Randall to go to Council for this.

AUDITOR: Gayle Pennington- Claims approved.

ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel – nothing more

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS- Lynch apologized for being late. Was in Indy for meeting. Staff member form Coats office came down. Lobbyist Barnes and Thornburg sponsored events with 10 state senators regarding riverboat revenue. Last week Terri Randall and he attended Barnes and Thornburg even and shared a meal with speaker Bozeman and tell our Dearborn County story. They continue to do a nice job for us as lobbysists.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION-none

PUBLIC COMMENT-none

Meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township