13 January Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

13 January 2015 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing, Liz Morris, Randy Lyness, Charlie Keyes, Ryan Brandt, and Bill Ullrich. 

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

Commissioner Kevin Lynch was also present.

The meeting room was full tonight. 

REORGANIZATION: Election of President and Vice President- Dennis Kraus opened the meeting by asking to be excluded from any nominations for President  due to health reasons- his cardiologist said he didn’t need all this stress.

Ullrich nominated Lyness for for President. No other nominations. Lansing seconded.  Approved Lyness. Ullrich thanked Kraus for all his years of service. 

Lyness took over as President.

Lansing nominated  Kraus due to his years of experience and Ullrich seconded for Dennis Kraus to be VP. 

Appointment of Boards and Board Seats

Plan Commission- Dan Lansing

CVTB- Ryan Brandt

Community Corrections, and Juvenile Advisory Board- Liz Morris

SIRPC - Dennis Kraus

Dearborn County Economic Development - Randy Lyness

Solid Waste-Randy Lyness

Personnel Advisory Committee- Dennis Kraus and Randy Lyness

Community Mental Health- Charlie Keyes

Emergency Management Advisory- Bill Ullrich

PTABOA- Bill Hartwell

Alcohol Beverage Board- Glen Huismann

Park Board- Terry Stephens- Question regarding his political affiliation. Appointed until his affiliation could be verified. Brandt motioned and Lansing seconded. 

Security Committee for Courthouse - Bill Ullrich 

OKI- Mark McCormack

Health Dept- Dr Scudder - job requirements- Lyness said Council approved the funding already and so does this properly belong to the Personnel Advisory Committee? Or it could go to an executive session as it is for Dr Scudder to discuss an employee. That would require executive session advertising with 48 hours notice. Ullrich said they should schedule a session sooner rather than later. Randall said that the Commissioners are aware of this problem and it should go to Personnel Advisory Committee. Lyness will be out of town so other Council member will sit in for him at the PAC Committee. PAC will meet next Thursday Jan 22. Ryan Brandt will sit in for Lyness at that meeting. An executive session will need to be scheduled after that. And they will have to schedule a regular meeting after that. Tabled until PAC meets.

Highway Dept.- Tim Grieve- Wilmington Hills South- Asked to move money from 4916 account MvHA Substitute account. Found out the tube was installed incorrectly years ago and the culvert completely failed. The road is caving off on the side. There is only one way in and out of the subdivision. They are planning on using a re- line and using a caisson to extract the caved in material. They didn’t catch it soon enough to do a plastic liner. 30 ft deep and 142 ft long. They can’t dig it out due to the access issues for those 8 homes. Process takes about a week. They also will have to find a place to put the spoils also. $148,657. Grieve considered this to be a permanent fix. Ullrich motioned and Keyes seconded. Approved by Council.

Grieve thanked Council for putting the asphalt program into the budget in advance of the spring so he can get things done. 

Regional Sewer District- Steve Renihan- Stateline Road Project- passed out information to Council and asked for funding. They have commitments. $66,562.28 that will benefit about 20 homes. Some of these are on 1/4 acre lots and have no other options for septic. The reduced cost is due to Badinghaus opening  business there near Bond Rd.LMH will treat the sewage. Lynn's asked about the service lines thru the school area. Project ca grow thru Murray Drive and Justis Road. The project will go out to bid. Rennin said 4 homes want to hook up now. Once they get the lines out they send letters out to the homeowners in the area to see who wants to participate. Infrastructure costs are about $3,000 per home. And then grinder pump and lateral. Total about $9,000 per home. they generally get about 50% to sign up early on. They send a letter of encouragement to homes they know are having issues. They do NOT force them on. Council approved the funding transfer, after Morris motioned and Kraus seconded. Charlie Keyes abstained. No reason given.

Commissioners- Terri Randall- DISCUSSION OF PROPOSED COURTHOUSE ANNEX PROJECT- Randall said they ( Commissioner Lynch, Alyssa Pullman from Maxwell, and Scott, DLZ architect.) would be there to answer any questions. 

Morris said she wanted to have a recommendation from Commissioners first as to what building they wanted. 

Kraus said that the original letter from Maxwell said they needed 20,000s q ft and now we are looking at 45,000 sq ft. He wants to know why we are considering a bigger building? 

The architect (Scott) said that 24,000 sq ft are in 2 floors and the basement makes up the rest of the 37,000 sq ft. 

Ullrich asked about could that space be parking? There is  definite need for parking.

Keyes asked for the cost of the presentation.

Alissa Rullman said they have had no direction yet since the Nov meeting from the county.

Keyes said Commissioners need to decide. He also said he is not in favor of raising taxes to pay for this. He thinks we will be in trouble with people’s jobs now. 

Lyness said he thinks they are trying to work with us to see what we want. What if we get a group together to look at alternatives? 

Keyes agrees we need to improve the space- but he doesn’t want to run out of money. 

Ullrich said there are some real problems that need to be addressed. It will take time and more study. 

Kraus said Ripley County built a 42,000 sq ft building for $12million. 

Kevin Lynch- said maybe the Auditor, the President of Commission and Council get together and look at our financial situation. [NOTE: Why not do that publicly? And why not have some of the taxpayers involved? ] Initially it would be a good idea from a financial standpoint to understand where we are. 

Lansing said he wishes there were more than one option. 

Morris said that this could be the last big project that the County needs to address. Jail was considered the most important need first. Now we have Judge Blankenship working in an unsafe situation. This would set the county for the next 20 years. 

Ullrich said we have to keep the public safe too and also doesn’t want to raise taxes either. 

Brandt said we have spent $250,000 so far- should we spend more on plans? 

Lansing said- yes- if it saves $5 million. 

Kraus said for $250,000 we should have gotten options. 

Lyness said we shouldn’t slam anybody that did their best to give their design opinion. 

Kraus said we need to have people here at a public meeting like for the jail to work this out. 

Lyness said they will meet with Kevin and Gaye and Terri Randall and Alyssa and start to work on this. That is the next step. 

No public was asked to speak. Many left at this point.

 I passed out a 2 page document prior to the meeting on the Math of the proposals. Also not addressed. [NOTE: Several in this little group seems to have a conflict of interest.They work for or with Maxwell or have family that does.]

AUDITOR - Gayle Pennington- Salary Ordinance- This is the up to date version- and it needs all Council members’s signatures for DLGF and will be published in the paper and uploaded to the GATEWAY for internet access. Approved and signed after Kraus and Keyes motioned. 

Sept and Nov meeting minutes approved. November minutes were done in detail at Kraus’s request.

For the Council meeting schedule 2015 they will meet on the 4th Tuesday at 6:30 PM when they meet in May and Nov. and Aug 24-28 will be budget hearings.

PUBLIC:  

Richard Johnson- thinks we got a little snookered on that jail. And he wants to have people speak into the microphone so we can hear.

Christine Mueller- reminded them that I had given them a 2 page document to consider about the annex project. They said they had it and the moved to adjourn. [NOTE: No questions? Really? :-)]

Meeting adjourned at 7:30 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township