12 March 2024 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes
Present: Liz Morris, President, Dennis Kraus, Sr., Dan Lansing, Kevin Turner, Tim Doll, Mark Dole, and Glenn Wright.
Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor
Commissioners Thatcher and Goodman were also present
Marc Emral- Register and Tamara Taylor- Beacon were present.
WCPO reporter and cameraman were present
Title VI Statement read as legally required
Glenn Wright asked them to video record this meeting as the public is here and they are working and many cannot get to these meetings. We have some pretty volatile issues in the county same as the country has. I have had a lot of the public asking questions. They can use the recording that this fellow (WCPO) is making tonight and post it on the internet.Turner and Doll don’t disagree about Council doing that. But it cannot help tonight as they have no way to do it. What about how the Commissioners do it? They had no idea how the Commissioners do it. The audio recording is available on request per Fromhold. WCPO is recording tonight. WCPO said they will NOT provide a copy of their video. Baudendistel said that the Council meetings are recorded but the video is not set up for tonight’s meeting. The Board voted to look into these meetings being recorded. [NOTE: Commissioners have recorded meetings to post on You Tube so it has been tested out. Apparently, no one wanted to acknowledge that ability tonight, perhaps because it will be Council’s responsibility to decide and set it up when they think it’s time to do so.The state is requiring it in 2025.]
Public Library Board Appointment- Dama Ewbank- Approved
ADDITIONALS:
LAWRENCEBURG LIBRARY- Jake Moore- need to replace the chillers and LED lighting put in at both libraries. Spent more than $100,000 maintaining this last year. No cost to the county- this is covered by their library funding. $1,034,805 Energy Savings Project. Approved.
COUNCIL- Saint Elizabeth $250,000 (4915)- EG McLaughlin is asking for the 1st of the 4 payments out of Riverboat Revenue. (Total $1million) This was set at budget. Approved.
911- $ 185,328- Employees – 2 additional salaries (4933)- Jared Teaney- adding 2 additional full time employees. New agreements will provide the additional funding for this request. 911 and Commissioners support this. Baudendistel - Dillsboro, Moores Hill, and St. Leon interlocal agreements are all executed except these 3 so far. These are to make sure we have 3 people on call all the time. The county will be bringing in half a million more than the previous year. Getting the cell phone 911 fee increased will help to reduce the amounts charged to the cities and towns for this 911 service. They have the ability to increase the fee but they have not increased it more than 10cents since it’s inception. Approved the 2 new employees cost.
Superior Court II- Employee retiring additional funds needed for training new employee. $9,508 (1001) - Leah Bailey said this is to train the new employee replacing one who left. Approved.
Superior Court Probation- $5,668 Employee Salary (2101 user fees)- new employee has a doctorate so they needed to increase the salary per the schedule. Approved. $13,656 Employee Salary (4906 A&D Program)Part time employee went to full time. Approved. This money is coming out of the user fees from Probation- not taxes.
Circuit Court-$20,000 Drug Court-Juvenile Probation Solving (1237)- Judge Aaron Negangard- This is from the opioid drug settlement. Approved.
Circuit Court/ Juvenile Center- $15,000 Education Services (1001/4914)- Judge Negangard -Passed a binder around.- mental health assessment program DMHA- $250,000 grant for multi systemic therapy. So child and parent are in therapy together. Planning grant for Juvenile diversion also. Juvenile center was more like a babysitter- and he brought someone in from St Joseph County to help evaluate. Music lessons. Physical fitness . Learning a skill. We had to convert this to a contracted position. Thru an LLC. Partnered with IVY Tech for internships part time to provide without increasing costs. The $15,000 will help pay for counselors and outdoor equipment and followup with mentors. Prosocial activity from time they get up to going to bed. Mr. Lawrence is also providing chaplain services. The whole cost is over $50,000. Asking for $15,000 towards that. Max capacity is 20 kids in Juvenile Center. Last year we had 10 or more. Less from our county and more from other counties. They get $150/day from outsiders. $15,000 approved out of County General
Juvenile Center- Judge Negangard presented $1,500 Bio-hazard clean up. (1001/4914) and $16,500 Equipment Repair ( Maxwell’s estimate) (1001/4914) for damage done by one of the local inmates of Juvenile Center. Total is $18,000 for this damage out of County General- two doors had holes knocked through them. Approved.
Auditor- $10,500 for onboarding software. (1001/4914)- all electronic- Will be $5500 per year after this. This is for HR dept. Approved.
Health-$18,791.55 to correct state funded budget (1161)- Leah Bailey - presented- Approved.
HIGHWAY-Listerman is at Road School at Purdue- Leah Bailey presented $362,006 Community Crossings Grant match (1001/4914) This is to allow Todd to capture an addition half a million $s. Approved
$116,000 used Loader to replace existing one (1176)- Tim Grieve- this is for a used Case wheel loader. Has 2000 hours. It’s an ODOT return. Immaculate. New ones would be $250,000. Approved.
Park- $220,000 funds to pave Bright Meadows walking path. (1179)- Gene Cleary- steward for the Bright Park. Current are 5 ft wide. Wants it o be 8 ft wide so people can pass each other. Some are uneven and in need of repair. Park closed Nov -April. Someone clears the parking lot free of charge. Lived in Yorkville and have outdoor space. Here in Bright this gives outdoor space.He’s seen 175 people there at a time. Grieve got the quotes. The Park Board approved. The trail is 3,700 linear feet. Less than a mile. Lansing asked if they had applied for grants as Greendale has two paths that way. No they had not. Wright wants to know the priority level for this project. Grieve asked what it costs to pave a county road per mile. Council members were trying to figure out how to do this more cheaply. The number on a quote was $196,000. So less than $220,000. Wright said that there are a lot of “tourists" there with out of state plates in the parking lot. Wright asked what if you run out of money? Cleary said- you don’t spend any if you don’t have any. The funding comes from a percentage - 1% of Riverboat revenue. Morris said Gladys Russell has had a lot of money spent there- it’s really nice. Council decided to wait another meeting so they can explore some grant opportunities. TABLED to look for grants. Lansing will see what Greendale used for grants and let Morris know. Grieve said County mows the parks in summer.
5 minute break 6:10 PM at Wright’s request
Commissioner- EMS LIT ( Local Income Tax) Distribution-$2,024,132 (1236)- Alan Goodman presented along with Tim Doll. Hold questions until the end of the presentation. The group- Tim Doll, Kevin Turner Shane McHenry and Jared Teaney, Kevin Haviland ( ManchesterEMS ), and a nurse ( couldn’t hear name) with Bright EMS. Hired Hanifan and Associates met with all stakeholders and collected data.
Tim Doll compiled the spreadsheet with Jared Teaney and KevinTurner’s help. Holding back $200,000 from the $3million. This leaves $2.8 million to work with. Made a verbal commitment to get squads to Aurora and Bright. This leaves $2.2 million. For 2024. There are a number of ways to apportion the funds. Need, population, call volume, and make up of the dept. Grants can be gotten for equipment but not for people and staff. They took the Dillsboro funds out until they can provide their services. Those funds were split unevenly (80/20) with Aurora and Moores Hill who will be covering Dillsboro as they work on their issues. The spread sheet was thoroughly explained by Doll.
Goodman- said that they have a small fund out of the Commissioners for St. Leon and Jim Thatcher is working with Dillsboro. 2 people were true volunteers on their committee. One from Bright and one from Manchester. These were very dedicated. Kevin Haviland ( who could not make its tonight) would adjust his work schedule. The volunteer system is dedicated. We have less and less volunteers available. Morris appreciated all the work they all did.
Wright pointed out Aurora EMS last fall - They had raised $100,000 for the unit. The unit is $300,000. As I look through your numbers I see Aurora EMS 23.9% responses. Goodman said Wright should volunteer to help with these committees instead of picking it apart at the end. Wright said he wasn’t invited. Goodman said he just came- wasn’t asked either. Turner explained how he had done the overlays to get to Bright’s figures. Wright then talked about how his personal property taxes and LIT went up. He shows how some people are paying these taxes in St Leon and are getting no EMS services. Wright explained several land types around them county and showed that people are having issues with property taxes and now LIT taxes on income too.
Kevin Turner did a brief recap of EMS history ending with trying to provide public safety that the residents deserve. We had to find a way to get squads out and this plan is for one year to work towards something sustainable for 20 years. No one wants to throw another tax on people but this is the equitable best thing we could come up with for now.
Morris - we already enacted LIT. 2.5% is the max allowed for LIT by the state. We are at 1.2%.
Wright agrees with them importance of volunteers. His mother helped establish Ohio and Switzerland Co EMS. McHenry said we have addressed all these issues. St Leon will have better EMS and get transport especially with the school up there. Doll said we should not have to depend on volunteers - we should provide this round the clock from paid staffing. Goodman said they are looking at chase cars to get care in some cases. Chase cars are essentially first responders with equipped cars and trained. Goodman said this is just for 2024. We have to continue working on this for 2025 and beyond. This will change per Dole when we get more information for next year. The committee worked tirelessly for a short term solution for now. Goodman said the Commissioners will go to work with Dillsboro. On a monthly basis the money can return to Dillsboro if they get things worked out. Lansing asked about St. Leon- and he said they were trying to get them money from that fund to fund their first responder there. They cannot transport. They do not have an amount for St Leon as St Leon is having trouble knowing what money they should ask for. [NOTE: If they had their funding- could they get an ambulance?]
Dillsboro resident- 51 years old- woman- I did not catch her name- I cannot name people. We have had funds coming up missing since 2021.This squad has fallen down. As a wife and and EMT that I was- I am disheartened. People only want to listen to one side- we cannot tell that story because it is under investigation. We came here last week for a 9 am meeting with Commissioners. My son was really badly hurt and I know the importance of EMS. Sugar looks like salt, and salt looks like sugar. She pointedly looked at Office holders and told them they were not going to destroy Dillsboro etc….
Harry Witteride- Capt of Dillsboro Emergency Unit - And he doesn’t like funds being sent to other Units. If they had the money they could get the training. [NOTE: There is a catch -22 in this idea of Dillsboro getting settled. If they don’t get their finding - how do they get their paid people? It is not clear how they will be able to fix their issues.]
[NOTE: The spreadsheet was thorough and it would have been helpful for copies to be available to look at in addition to the overhead screen which had to be scrolled across. They covered various data points to try to arrive at a fair set of criteria to distribute the LOIT income for EMS. There are 3 cities in South and the Northern areas are more scattered with small towns except for Bright/HVL which is not incorporated as a unit. The 3 cities have a lot of experience and funding they have used to get good coverage for EMS. They have advanced with volunteers and paid staffing. Some use part time staffing that are paid. The northern part of the county and SW section have relied on towns and help outside the county to help cover their runs. Some of that LOIT funding may be used for that coverage perhaps???And when we look at the whole picture it may require combining some units to get coverage??? These officials have their work cut out for them - The bright spot in all this is that at least EMS units can’t be sold to outside investors. ]
The Council voted to approve the LOIT spreadsheet distribution and the only caveat is Dillsboro’s money comes back from Aurora and Moores Hill should Dillsboro get its contract renewed. Two Nays from Wright and Kraus, Sr. Approved.
AUDITOR-
Minutes Approved from previous meeting
Salary Ordinance- Approved
Redevelopment TIF Report- was acknowledged as received from Fromhold.
Late Arrival none
Meeting adjourned at 7:15 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
