26 May 2020 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Kevin Turner, Tim Doll, Alan Goodman, and Bill Ullrich.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor and Leah Bailey, Comptroller
Title VI Statement read as legally required
NEW BUSINESS:
PARK BOARD APPOINTMENT- Amy Slone for Democratic nominee, for Council appointment to the Dearborn County Park Board was approved by Council retroactive to March. She has attended several of the meetings and will be an asset to the board.
Library Board asked to appoint Dama Ewbank to replace Pat Ritzmann who is stepping down. Approved
Dan Lansing will be County Council appointment to Greendale Economic Development Board. Approved.
ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS:
AUDITOR- Connie Fromhold
Human Resource Consultant -$15,000- Fromhold is only asking in case the Covid-19 requires it for help with problems due to that. These can be reimbursable if used strictly for Covid issues. They think this is on a reimbursable grant fund basis. There is $1.6 million available and none used yet. This is in the same item for the budget issues related to Covid reduced income from taxes etc. Approved.
Declared Emergency Fund- $50,000- This is to cover PPE and other items that might be needed. Approved. All receipts etc needed to justify these expenses.
CORONER- Steve Callahan- Leah Bailey presented for Coroner. All these are relate to the Covid expenses. There was also a bad run of dope running through. But most of this request was due to Covid. All 3 requests below were approved.
Drug Testing- $5,000
Autopsies- $5,000
Part-time- $10,765
SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT-Jon Winkler- not present- They got 3 quotes now but Winkler not here to present. This was advertised at the highest quote of $52,250. There was one $24,984 quote in November. There was one in the $45,000 range.
Jail Repair-$52,250 council approved up tp $25,000 for this item.
SURVEYOR-
GIS Equipment Replacement- $33,000- This was out of his dept. fund- Approved.
BUILDING DEPT
Transfer from Weights and Measures to Building Dept for part time. Approved.
CONVENTION & VISITORS CENTER-
Tourism Projects- $1,800,000 - Council approved $1.4 million which is what they have now. CVTB now gets their money from the state directly on this now.
PLANNING & ZONING- Mark McCormack- not present- Council approved all below items. The Aurora and Dillsboro items are in their funds to Planning Dept.. The legal services are from County General.
Legal Retainer-$1,705
Legal Services- $4,000
Aurora City Planning Enforcement-$400
Aurora City Planning Enforcement-$7,700
Dillsboro Planning-$9,275
PARK BOARD- Jim RedElk not present- Approved all items below.
Pedestrian Bridge Repair- $4,000
Pickup Truck Aluminum Dump Body Bed- $9,000
Playground Mulch Guilford- $3,000
HIGHWAY- Tim Greive presented-
NRCS grant to fix Union Ridge and North Hogan Roads
Slip repair 25/75 match $1,185,703.60 All money up front and then get reimbursed $889,277.70. Usually get money back 2 weeks after finished. Taking it all out of Growth and Development Fund to make accounting easier. Approved. North Hogan is the detour for the SR 350 work.
Slip Repair County Farm- $120,000- Tim Grieve presented- already fixing 4 slips on Georgetown and so he needs more money for this slip. Approved- out of County General.
Bridge Replacement Bridge #5 $175,000 (Transfer)- Todd Listerman presented- out of Transportation and Infrastructure Fund to go after federal aid funds. This will go in as 80/20 and estimate from 2014 hopefully will hold up. $1.2 million Came back as $1.5 million. We have to come up with extra $300,000. Listerman explained a lot of the money issues with Covid losses in tax income too. Jamison Road Bridge was out of county funds only as it didn’t qualify for these funds. Hoping to get things on the books and get a good price. $560,000 for Bridge #5 was approved. They will be raising the road about 4 ft. to avoid flood closures also.
Bridge # 87 Repair Scour $ 150,000 (Transfer)- Listerman said the water on Johnson Fork is causing this issue. They are being allowed to change the course of the water for this to keep it from undermining the pier. Approved the transfer from the Infrastructure account.
CLERK/ELECTION- Gayle Pennington not present- asked to be tabled- TABLED.
DS450 High Throughput Scanner & Tabulator $50,000
COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS- Steve Kelly not present- Leah Bailey presented.
Part-time to Full time- $19,500 User Fees & $8,000 Pre-Trial Grant - approved informally thru PAC ( Personnel Advisory)- Approved.
ENERGY AUDIT- Jim Thatcher, Commissioner- presented the energy audit that they have been working on for the past several months. They put out an RFP and chose Johnson Melloh out of the 2 responses. They felt his company gave some often best possible solutions and made 3-4 trips from Indy. Their engineers went light by light thru the campus. They did check with their there clients and took a trip to North Vernon and they were happy with their work also. Costs were broken out so that we can pick projects that we want. They have a lot of experience and they did stop to talk with Judge Humphrey so that his courtroom would have a certain look. They recommend LED fixtures. Smart fixture options for daylight harvesting. Lights will dim if sunlight is present to the level needed. They will have motion detectors to turn lights off when no one is present. Window replacements in Courthouse- broken seals and affecting heat and cold air flow. Aging mechanical equipment- so they identified these items as well. Some are 24 years old. Some 35 years etc. Need a plan for replacement. Preventive maintenance. Large water heater in jail has electrolysis issues causing valves to be replaced. Need to get one platform to manage the buildings. Geothermal systems to replace boilers and chillers in part of campus. Water costs also due to $89,000/ year for water in jail. Also mor reissues with excess toilet flushing on the jail due to boredom etc.
Thatcher passed out a spreadsheet that showed how 3 projects could save money. Use Cum Courthouse $1.6 million to get geothermal or something started to start using some savings to offset that cost for future projects.
This was just part of his job as commissioner to help them plan.
Council questions centered on trying to get a priority list. They cannot do it all. They want Eric Hartman to weigh in on these items. Council took the information under advisement.
AURORA EMERGENCY RESCUE, INC- Edward Opp- LIT- Trying to hire another full time person to get 24/7 coverage same as last year. Aurora was able to facilitate the request.( Aurora get LIT money also) Since he was too late last year he wanted to get it done in time this year. This needs to go to the county Local income tax Council and he has till July 1st. He was here to let Council know that he is going to apply to them. LIT Council will meet after July 1st.
AUDITOR: Three sets of Minutes approved.
PUBLIC COMMENT: none
ADJOURN: 8:04 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
