25 July 2017 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

 25 July 2017 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

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

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Sue Hayden, County Administrator

The meeting room was full of people.

Morris called for a moment of silence for Bill Ullrich’s wife’s passing.

She then read the Title VI statement as legally required.

HOSPITAL BONDS-  Dearborn County - Brad Ruwe with Dinsmore and Schoal and The CEO, CFO, and hospital attorney. The bonds were 30 year bonds with 3.6 million paid down. Proceeds from new issue of bonds will pay off the 2006 series of bonds. Two reasons for doing this. Letter of credit was provided by 5/3 bank in 2006 has become too expensive. That cost is passed along to the client which is DCH. Because interest rates are relatively low now and the hospital wants a fixed rate series of bonds now. The proposed series of 2017 bonds will have  reset of interest in 3 years. In this case the bonds will be held by the bank will hold these bonds themselves. They will negotiate the rate at that time. These are payable solely from hospital revenue. If Council approves this tonight they will go to Lawrenceburg as that is the city where they are located also. They do not have to go thru any other hoops for this. Under tax code there is something called a re- issuance. So now they technically they do not need to come back to Council at the 3 year interest reset date. The amortization is still April 2036. There is no financial obligation or risk to the county. Goodman motioned and Ullrich 2nd to reissue the bonds. All ayes. Passed.

PROSECUTOR  - Lynn Deddens- TABLED- she had asked to be excused for tonight.

Transfer funds

AURORA EMERGENCY RESCUE – Edward Opp- Discuss the status of EMS- Western side- Aurora, Dillsboro, Manchester, and Moores Hill all working together. They rely on paramedic truck from Lawrenceburg as an intercept. And want to upgrade their people for 24/7 service. Dearborn County spends $400,000 for EMS and the surrounding counties spend $1.2million. Lawrenceburg has a paramedic and Bright has just 1. Only Ripley County has paramedics of surrounding counties. He said the county was divided into regions when they did it with Terri Randall. This was to unify some of the individual units. App did not know how they could liquify some of their non-profits to do this- but they could explore this. It’s tough to draw everybody together. But for now this proposal would require $600,000 to get the paramedics started up. They do soft billing to insurance for insured patients. For $600,000 they could get a paramedic truck and more paramedics for Region 1. $376,000 is for a 24/7 paramedic on duty and the vehicle. The don’t interact with Sunman which covers a small part of the northern part of county. People and business coming in will look at our EMS and Fire Dept coverage. Insurance coverage for homeowners looks at this too as well does the insurance coverage for businesses. It’s all part of the infrastructure. They want future working meetings with all members go Region 1 and Council. Council wants a comprehensive county wide look. Jason covers the Region 2 area and the only area left out is Lawrenceburg which has their own dollars. We cannot compete with that. There is only one private transport which is Tri County and they are based in Batesville with a station in Greendale. Discussion on whose budget covers EMS services. Riverboat money does some of this as a set percentage. Region 2 and Lawrenceburg do not miss runs- but Region 1 does. They need help per Brandt. Morris kept wanting a comprehensive look at the whole county. Bright and L-bg have a medic and region 1 does not. Council made no decision. 

RECIND THE RIVERBOAT ORDINANCE- Morris said the SBOA has tried to be of assistance to the county and there are complex attempts to fix this- there are conflicting opinions on the state level on how to remedy this. They decided to TABLE this indefinitely. All ayes with Keyes Nay- he didn’t want it tabled but decided to let it go. Alan Weiss - Greendale Mayor said THANK YOU. 

AUDITOR – Gayle Pennington- St. Paul’s school in New Alsace is closed. So their money from tax money was voted to be moved to the General Fund now. 

PAC Committee heard from Commissioners that they vacated the adm secretary and promoted Sue Hayden to the administrators position. Approved.  

Minutes from June 27, 2017 approved. 

PUBLIC COMMENT- Jason - President from Bright EMS and their only paramedic- agreed with Ed Opp and also with Council that they get a comprehensive look at the whole county. They have worked hard with commissioners to get ideas to work together. He reminded them that the county pays each EMS unit the same $20,000. He said they combined fire and EMS to make it work. The fire dept money is key to this. He said they submitted a proposal to cover Bright and the northern part of the county. Average response time is 6 minutes but there is a wide range in those times depending on where the need is. They do run as far as East Central HS. Sunman staffs with just one person who waits for someone to come to make the run. Pay rate is $14 /hour now. This will not get people hired. Jason spoke at length about the issues of the time it takes to get to the patient. In the alliance they are required by the county to attend 3/4 of the alliance meetings. Paramedic services are not self sustaining. The ones in Hamilton County are using tax money. Billed $390,000 and collected $162,000. Medicare pays about $162 for a $1000 transport. Fuel and drugs are expenses too. Hospital used to give a basic supply in the black boxes with Epi pens- that discontinued when the Epi pen price went up so high. We are coming to the Council saying hear us- we are working for solutions. They all have different needs, but they all play the same game. 

Council said that their dedication and commitment is greatly appreciated. Jason said its a rewarding job. But stressful. They talked about a Public Safety LIT ( Local Income Tax)

Terri Randall- former county administrator- Even the municipalities are assigned a territory that goes beyond their city limits for example. There is only so much you can do to get to some of the rural areas in time. Commissioner Lynch and McHenry couldn’t be there. She said McHenry said the commissioners needed to work together with the alliance.   

ADJOURN- 7:50 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township