9 March 2023 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus. Sr., Dan Lansing, Kevin Turner, Tim Doll, Alan Goodman, and Glenn Wright.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor
Title VI Statement read as legally required
Transfers:
Highway- New line item needed for 7303.41500 for transferring $100,000 into small structure
inventory.Leah Bailey presented- Approved.
Council- Transfer $4,000,000 from County General (1001) to Rainy Day (1186)- Baudendistel- Resolution to transfer this $4million to Rainy Day Fund. This Fund has been decimated in past years and this will help shore it up. Morris said she thinks a county this size needs this. Approved.
Commissioner- transfer $5,000 from Workers Compensation (13600) to Economic Development (36200)- Sue Hayden presented- this is making up for what he should have done in August. This is to get them from $15,000 to $20,000. It’s been a good 4-5 years and no increase. She said Mike Perleberg has been doing a fabulous job. Approved.
ADDITIONALS:
SUPERIOR COURT II- $8,914 Staff training and replacement
(1001.11297.000.028 & 1001.11060.000-028)Judge McLaughlin presented- we had to play out sick time and vacation time due to staff member leaving. Approved
CLERK- $1,872 Salary (1001.11242.000.001)- Gayle Pennington- just moving existing money within her budget and she’s bringing up employees to First Deputy pay grade.Approved.
COUNTY COUNCIL- $3,000 Travel & Mileage (1001.33300.000.011)- this is for IN County Council Association which is more active. This would have money available to make meetings and training sessions. Approved.
CIRCUIT COURT PROBATION- $840 (2102.17200.000.034) Needed for PERF.- Leah Bailey presented. This is needed for PERF. Approved.
PLANNING & ZONING- $5,700 Part-time for summer (4939 Dillsboro Planning Fund)- Leah Bailey presented- This is coming out of the contract that we have with Dillsboro. Kevin Turner abstained as he is now town manager of Dillsboro. Summer help. Approved
AUDITOR- Book Scanning, $27,000 (8950 ARP)- Connie Fromhold- Auditor. The come in and pick up the old books Approved.
COMMISSIONER-
CDL training for Highway workers $50,000 County General (1001)- Time Grieve, Hwy Supt. and Jim Thatcher presented. Currently HWY is having trouble getting people to be hired. They have 6 openings currently and 2 more in July. They want to provide the CDL training. $5,610 for each 3 wk class. They will sign an agreement with the county for 3 years for up to $6,000 to obtain the CDL.If they leave the first year therapy it all back. If leave after 2 years they pay back 2/3 and so on. They need the CDL to plow in winter too. They will re run ad telling applicants about the CDL license help. Approved.
Hogan Water Corporation project-$1,112,763 (ARP 8950) Julie Moore - Board on Hogan Water. In addition to Dan we have Mike McCabe and Shelly Hamilton also here as Board Members.Purchased a new piping station and installed. Completed a Master Plan with GRW of Indianapolis. Hired Jody Blasdel as consultant to help them as he has over 40 years experience. GRW also worked for Aurora who supplies water to Hogan. The project was cut down to fit this amount. They raised rates about a year ago. $51.49 is their current base rate. And it’s one of the highest rate in the state of Indiana. The Board members stepped up or they might have ended up in receivership. They have 500 customers which is about 1500 people. Step 1 is to identify leaks as they have 55% in lost water. Replace non- working valves to properly flush system. They want to replace meters with a radio read meter system. This will help see lost water. They have a booster station - but if power goes out they lose water. They need a generator for that. They do not have a water tower. Water Sewer and broadband are the 3 buckets for ARP money to be used for. Council was glad they could help them. Approved. Baudendistel said they are working with Baker Tilly on the agreements. Commissioners will finalize at March 21st meeting, They are good to go and sign the contracts now for the work.
Highway Supervisor- Extra $10,000 for supervising Parks Dept- Thatcher said the entire Park Board resigned and now they worked had to get a full Park Board. Tim Grieve has experience with managing parks in West Chester OH. Thatcher wants to keep this in house. This would be a supplement to Tim’s salary to try for a year to see how this works. The members of the previous board was doing all the maintenance in the Parks.Now they will be advisory members and have maintenance done by Grieve. Grieve spoke about bringing the Park back into the county to insure the work is done, and get it under our insurance too. He asked about Guilford Park being in the flood plain and how long that will last with all the flooding. Council decided that was a discussion for another time. Approved.
Baudendistel said that Judge Negangard has appointed Gene Cleary as R and Dan Valas ( of Great Crescent Brewery) as D for the last two Park Board spots.
AUDITOR-
Minutes Approved
Health Grant $152,471.02- No county match for Tobacco Prevention and Cessation- Approved
Salary Ordinance- Leah Bailey presented- Signed.
LATE ARRIVAL- none
PUBLIC COMMENT- Grieve its receiving an award from Soil and Water in the large number of grants he has gotten for the county.
ADJOURNMENT- 5:52 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
