6 April 2021 DEARBORN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING NOTES
Present: Jim Thatcher, President, Art Little, and Rick Probst
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, and Sue Hayden, Administrator
TITLE VI STATEMENT FOR COMPLIANCE was read by Baudendistel as legally required.
OLD BUSINESS
Ordinance Re-establishig Cum Cap Development Fund- The Ordinance was approved with Probst voting NAY for and increase to 0.025/ $100 of assessed value. No further discussion.
NEW BUSINESS
Fire Monitoring System Bid Update- Amy Phillips- YES Home Executive Director - not asking for any money but they wanted to have the County be aware of the change they needed to make. This is because it is County Property. Still operating at !00% capacity. Had a 17 year old who came back to YES Home as a safe place. She had been on the streets for about 5 weeks. Now they are getting her on track for college etc. They have 9 full time and 7 part time at the YES Home. Commissioners approved the Fire System update.
North Dearborn Water Company presentation - Looking for SRF funds. They constructed a well field and plant out on the Whitewater aquifer in 1995. the treatment plant needs to be constructed. With the funds that were available in March. This will be a 1000gal / min treatment plant and it will upgrade the wells to do this. They will create a loop in the northern side of the county that gets a network North of I-74. The cost is 2.5 million and 1/2 million of non- construction. They are almost shovel ready. Public hearing in May and go to bid in July pending finding when plans are complete. Have to get 18 easements for the ,wins and an archeology study. One small wetland area and most is Ag land. Treatment site will go one the same site. 400,000 gal per day nor and this will get it to 1.4 million gal per day. This will service the development for the area. They can fund 10% of the project directly. The county will get funds first.They got stimulus money in 2008 and they had competed that project in 15 months. He can bring in more details for these lines. He asks the commissioners to consider them for part of the grant coming to the county. What other counties are involved. Franklin County- would be the other to benefit along SR 1 there to for their potential light industry. Ripley probably not so much. They buy water from Greendale, Tri Township and ____. They provide 70% of their own. October 2021 and finish in October of 2022 is the timeline. The large farms for sale up there on the edge of the county is what is driving the construction. When they built the tank in New Alsace they got on the list for grants because they were READY. Thatcher suggested they have a conversation with planning and coming also. The repairs for the current plant would make it out of commission for a few months They have the property near it for the new plant. Gary Gaynor is utility supt. - he says that the building materials cost have escalated in price. If money is an issue they could do the plant and wells and wait n the transmission lines. So there is a plan B. The treatment plant is OK for maybe 3 years- but he cannot wait for it to fail and be in trouble. Commissioners took under advisement.
Transfer of Tax Sale Certificates to City of Aurora Resolution- Derrick Walker- city manager- property on 138 Conwell less than 0.1 acre - owes $28,000 taxes
311 5th street .12 acre 13,500 owes over 11,000 taxes
Market St about .5 acre - assessed at 5200 and owes about 2500 taxes.
No taxes paid on any of these for quite a while. No incentive for contractors to take over these lots. String together about a dozen properties and provide some incentives to get things done. Working with Redevelopment on this as infill residential housing.
If the properties are not redeemed in 120 days then these properties transfer to Aurora.
Highway Engineer Todd Listerman:
TriTownship Water Reimbursable Utility Agreement- Bridge #108 Harrison Brookville Road- County received federal funds a few years back - this is a federal aid project. Intersection gets shifted to the west and the water line has to be encased as it is going to be under the new road. Amount is $41,065 to install the casing and should be 80/20 federal aid. This is a not to exceed amount. Commissioners approved the agreement. This is fiscal year 2023 money.
Contract Agreement 2021 Chip Seal - Fog Seal Subdivision Project- Contract already awarded to O’Mara. This is just paperwork for this work that was bid last fall . $324,105 is chip seal/fog seal. This will extend the life of the roads in the subdivisions.
Contract Agreement 2021 County Road Paving - $1,988,339- with 50% by state with Community Crossing grant program. Approved.
Contract Agreement 2021 Chip-Seal - Fog Seal Project- This is for main through roads. Cost is $1,095,552 with Paul Rohe Company. The roads are listed in the contract. If they carry more than 500 vehicles per day they will get striped as they are new and black. Approved.
SR 46 Unofficial Local Detour Agreement- for the roadwork being done this year along SR 46 between SR 1 and Chappelow Ridge Rd. INDOT will help to reimburse us for those routes the locals use. The state uses i-74 down to US 52. They identified the roads likely to be used for the INDOT agreement. Approved the SR46 unofficial detour.
Signatures for Annual Highway Operational Report- Prepared and ready to submit to the state. Commissioners signed. $9.712 million total spent $6 million matched grants and $3 million tax revenue.
Slips cost is over $300,000. Don’t want to build along hillsides and next to creeks. Listerman leverages a lot of our funds to get the extra funds from the state.
Request to go to Council for Funding BR #44 Turkey Pointe ($1.5 million) and SS #121 Alan’s Branch ($590,000) - there is funding available in the MVHA has $2.7 million in it currently and wants to ask Council to seek the funding. Approved and be sure to get the notices in per Probst.
BR #64 Design Supplemental #1 (increased by $233,000)- Sneakville Rd. They were able to keep the Bridge in the same location. The 80/20 contract updates the existing contract. This total is $304,700 NOT TO EXCEED for the alternative selected. Approved.
Ordinance for the American Rescue Plan Money- TABLED- they need more information.
ADMINISTRATOR – Sue Hayden- several concerned citizens on the Landfill that Rumpke is building contacted her. Doug Baer is reaching out to Rumpke. IDEM has confirmed that there are no plans to move into the INDIANA sites. There is nothing more we can do on this as Ohio is not under our jurisdiction.
Sue is a grandma- Thatcher congratulated her.
AUDITOR – Connie Fromhold -Claims/Payroll and March 15th Minutes approved
TIF Management Review- Fromhold- Commissioners acknowledged that they have reviewed it. No approvals needed. This gives receipts, disbursements, etc. It gets uploaded to the Gateway.
Probst wants Listerman to get a chip seal fog seal and or resurface on the Aurora Industrial Park road. Wants to present that to DC Redevelopment Commission as a project option.
ATTORNEY – Andy Baudendistel- 65.911 acres on hospital campus and 0.91 acres in Bright - there is an INDFOT encroachment issue which costs less that $200 to do. There is an easement on LMU utility portion too.
The counties get to decide what to do about masks etc in the county now.- Eliason noted the uptick in the past 7 days. Will be going to vaccines to over 1800 a week. Also having a mass vaccination even coming, Got a few Johnson and Johnson in also. Wearing of masks strongly encouraged. Restaurants and bars still have to have local distancing. If we go out of blue we will require a step back to limiting sizes and capacities. Businesses can require you to wear masks to enter their businesses. We are still in blue range now. Things can change quickly though. 8500 people fully vaccinated here. We might be about 50% immune here including some natural immunity. About half the county still has no immunity. We need to continue to vaccinate. They are filling all the slots for the vaccine. Usually giving 1500 a week. Getting easier to get appointments. Event Center is DONATING their space for this - Probst wanted to be sure to give them credit for that. Lots of volunteers and have had no problem keeping the staffed.
Children 16 and over can get the Pfizer vaccine. We don’t have that vaccine in the county site yet. Thatcher appreciated all they gave done.
Proclamation prepared by Baudendistel- Buildings opened to any public but must wear masks and maintain social distancing. Symptomatic people can be refused entry. Any business can continue to require tasks and social distancing of 6 ft are still required. If the blue level is exceeded the county will require different rules and capacities. Strongly encourage all eligible citizens to be vaccinated. Monitoring until the conditions are no longer necessary. Approved and signed. Proclamation published in its entirety also today on Dearborn County Public Forum blog
COMMISSIONER COMMENTS-
Probst- thanks to maintenance the grounds look great. Earlier in the meeting h wanted to clarify that the tax increase approved is a property tax increase. ( He voted NAY) Also encouraged turnout for the mass vaccine event on Saturday.
Little- hoped that the spring break mixing won’t make our numbers for COVID worse.
Thatcher- 13950 Wilson Creek Road i( Old bank building) is Saturday is the Mass Vaccine Site for COVID. 8:30 -6.
LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION - none
PUBLIC COMMENT- Jessica from Soil and Water - they did not get their grant they applied for. They will reapply this fall. Annual meeting - Rocky Schroeder is new board member. Someone stole their truck’s catalytic converter. Hoping this won’t happen again. Board suggested they move the truck to a home site each night to avoid it again.
ADJOURN- 10:35 AM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
