21 April 2015 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.
McHenry opened the meeting with a moment of silence for Mike Hall- he also said we will all miss Mike and that he has meant a lot to the county- he knew the answers for a lot of questions that no one else could answer. His visitation was tonight and McHenry had attended it before coming to the meeting.
OLD BUSINESS:
Future Road Name Change Discussion- Hardintown Area- Tabled due to Mike Hall’s Visitation this evening. Three members of the public still were allowed to speak as the tabling was done at the last meeting. They will attend the meeting when it happens. Barry Nanz was asking about who gets the abandoned property in a street vacation. He also asked about where the streets would be in this plan. He has the ability to get some fill to make his plots developable. Baudendistel said he should contact Planning and Zoning before the next meeting to get answers on that. The third person to speak owned a business there and was happy with the changes proposed. Tabled.
NEW BUSINESS:
Memorandum of Agreement with Health Dept. - McHenry said this was an old agreement and they wanted to do a new one. McHenry read the new one into the record. This allows the use of County facilities by the County Health Dept. Approved.
Roadside Littering in Dearborn County- Celeste Calvitto- Problem of roadside littering in Bright is obvious again. She said there is no shortage of people willing to help clean up- but wants to do it safely with road or lane closures during cleanup times. Also perhaps get some signs and a law with penalties. She is willing to donate $10,000 for signs on this. McHenry said that Listerman could put up more signs and thinks there is a state law on this already for up to $1000 fine. They can also get Community Corrections out there. Kraus, Jr. suggested using sheriff dept for traffic control. Doing it doing the week would avoid overtime pay for them and highway workers.
911 Shared Agency Agreement- This is due to the Spillman Technology that was recently purchased. It is shared with the cities also. Commissioners approved Jared Teaney of 911 to sign this.
ADMINISTRATOR2 – Terri Randall- she and Kraus Jr. were there to let them know what they want to do with GIS. She said this department works with many departments. Kraus Jr. was there to explain what they want. They thought the lead technician should report to Planning and Zoning and be supervised by the Planning Director. They said they were asking for a 4 year degree with 5 years experience. That would cost more. So they decided they need to lower the requirements to get someone in our price range. So an associates degree might be more appropriate. McCormack said that at any time the commissioners want to take that work back from him he’d be OK with that. If commissioners approve the job description and the PZ supervision they can then go thru HR and get this posted soon. Commissioners were pleased with the solution that the group has proposed and a team approach to get this solved. They plan to post this internally and for the public to apply. Commissioners approved the position of GIS lead technician as presented.
RFP is finished and will be distributed to 3-4 local landscapers per Randall. They have a short time to get their bids in. They will then advertise for Council money by the first of May.
AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington - Claims and April 7th Minutes were approved.
ATTORNEY: Andy Baudendistel: Spoke with Wally Lewis and Jack Prarat for auction. Still not finished.
Mike Hornbach and he met with Jeff Stratton to negotiate the new 10 year lease renewal for Aurora space. Purdue Extension has been there since 1917 in Aurora. By statute the county is required to provide this space. They pay $10,000 a year in rent. And they contribute $5,000 a year for utilities. Council will have to budget the money and it will be discussed at the May Council meeting.
Baudendistel said that on a personal note he wanted to add his 2 cents to what Shane had said about Mike Hall. Baudendistel said that h,e as well as Chris’s daughter Anna, knew Jason his son who had died in a traffic accident his freshman year. And that Jason got him his first job at the Tree House and he had worked for Mike's folks and later for Mike in the surveying business. He was like a father to Andy and in addition to other comments about Mike’s perfectionism in surveying and his support, he wanted everyone to remember his family in their prayers.
[NOTE: Mike Hall stands out as a shining example of what a public servant should be. In my 20 years of coming to county meetings, he was one of the few who was unafraid of stating his opinion and unafraid of listening to opposing viewpoints. When I disagreed with him publicly or privately, he never held a grudge and always treated me in a friendly and respectful manner. It’s a hard lesson for many public officials to learn, but for Mike it seemed to come naturally. Dearborn County has lost a valuable public servant. Rest in peace, Mike. Rest in peace.]
COMMISSIONER COMMENTS:
Lynch- said that on a happier note- he wanted to share some news about a business award ceremony on INDY which I didn't hear the rest of...
Little - said that the Mills open house was great and he asked about the dust potential there. They won’t have dust and if we see dust than they are losing money.
LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION- none
PUBLIC COMMENT- none
Meeting adjourned at 5:45 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
Michael S Hall