14 May 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
Title VI Statement read as legally required
Transfers:
Circuit Probation- $8,000 from 2151.32300 to 2151.45100 for Vehicle Purchase.
Additional Appropriations:
Park- Gene Cleary & Tim Greive
Bright Meadows Park Trail-$220,000 (1179 Park & Recreation) TABLED- Still looking for grants per Tim Doll
Juvenile Center- Overtime $53,483 (1001 County General)- I came in after this item- not sure if approved or not.
Highway- Todd Listerman- included discussions of all the issues with the creeks and rainfall issues and the roadways, hills, and bridges. There is enough money to cover this from 7303 account. $2.89 million out of Transportation Infrastructure. Coming back in August for $450.000.00 Bridge #64 and #33 $450,000 will come out of Transportation Infrastructure.
Bridge #87 Johnson Fork, $1,050,000- Johnson Fork will be close for a couple months for this.Hopefully for this year. Approved.
(Erosion Stabilization and Rehabilitation 7303.41500 Transportation Infrastructure)
Bridge #58 Wilson Creek Rd, $650,000- very deteriorated and will cut out 6-8 ft of the existing deck. To be done this year. Approved.
(Rehabilitation, Coping Repair and Erosion Control 7303.41500 Transportation Infrastructure)
Bridge #50 Geiger Rd, $190,000- working on last piece of ROW to be acquired. Owner is elderly and getting its signed per Baudendistel. Construction only. Approved.
(Scour Correction & Guardrail 7303.41500 Transportation Infrastructure)
Bridge #215 Brush Fork Rd, $1,550,000- cost went up about 10% on this. Plans all done. ROW secured. Will let it in the fall. Relocating utilities in winter. Construction in 2025. Closed 4-5 months. Only access will be off Sawdon Ridge then. No match on this. Approved.
(Replacement- 1001 General)- $2.285 million total.
Bridge # 68, York Ridge Rd, $160,000- Chaining the bridge showed decking starting to delaminate. They will fix joints also- and then decide what the deck will be made. This cost is for design only. The overlay should last about 20 years. Looking at close to $1million for all this. TOTAL replacement would be $3-4 million and will last 75 years. But the cost and time of closure would be greater too. State switched over from latex overlays to micro silica. They do hydro- demolition to avoid jack hammering everything and only replaces the bad areas. Approved.
(Design, Rehabilitation and Deck Overlay- 1001 General)
Small Structure #213 on Lower Dillsboro Rd.- $575,000- The other one there was funded last night per Listerman- due to storm issue. Waiting on last ROW signature. First repair all the issues before trying to go for Community Crossings funds to pave Lower Dillsboro from Chesterville to Aurora in 2027. Approved.
(Replace Small Structure- (1001 General)
Subdivision Paving, $1,000,000- these need to be maintained to keep them in good condition also. This will get maybe about 4 miles done. Looking at age, houses, and condition to prioritize. Looking at some 36 years old. Using county money for subdivisions and state matches and Community Crossings for the collectors etc.Listerman wanted to have the conversation with the council about setting this up. Using millings when state roads are redoing highways in the past. There used to be a lot more gravel roads. Now about 20 miles of gravel left to be paved when possible. Cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Dole asked when they would get out done if they gave the money. Probably for next year. TABLED for now. Dole - Want a list for the roads and criteria. Don’t care where they are- but need the plan.
(Paving-7303.41500 Transportation Infrastructure)
Highway- Tim Greive
2 Single Axel Trucks, Equipped for Multi-Seasonal Use-$415,000 (1176- Unrestricted Highway)- Still hard to get trucks even after COVID. Can get 2 more with same price as January if buy in July. Some have 300,000 miles on them. We have 24 trucks many 20 years. Want 4 going into the winter. Approved.
North Hogan Rd Slip (Crider Hill)-$1,800,550 (4916 Riverboat) 1,060 linear feet- one of the biggest we have. Does not qualify for funding. Can’t keep guardrail on it anymore. This is adjacent to North Hogan and fits into other projects that are fixed in the area. The new bridge would be in and go to Community Crossings for the paving. Approved.
Grieve needs money at next meeting for NCRS grant but Liz Morris signed for the grant.Committing to our 25%. 75% comes back. Will need this in the fall. Commissioners already signed.
Grieve had one more thing- talked to Andy Baudendistel. It’s land needed along the Randall Ave property for the Highway Garage to be MS4 compliant. They need to get 2 appraisals. 10 acres to the west of the garage. Council needs to adopt a resolution to say they are interested in the property and would be limited to the average of the 2 appraisals. They will have to relocate the Jamison Rd site as it is too close to the creek there. No decision yet.
Surveyor-
MS4 Educational Funds $2,000, (1001 General/4914 Riverboat)- take from County General. Approved.
GPS Equipment- $41,127 (1202 Surveyor Perpetuation Fund)- can’t be fixed- Approved.
Clerk-Ballot set-up, $7,200 (1001 General/4914 Riverboat)- take from County General- spent because of so many precinct committeemen on the ballot.
Glenn Wright- Question about card slot versus Ballot slot on election day. What happens to the ballot if put in the card slot? - no answer as Wendy Beatty not here.
Building Department-Bill Shelton
Printer/Copier/Scanner-$5,000 (1001 General/4914 Riverboat)- Use Office Shop - have free ink and maintain. Approved.
Commissioners-
EMS LIT- $184,012 Appropriate Remainder for 12th month (1236 EMS LIT)- This is a correction only. Approved.
Auditor-Connie Fromhold
JAVS Video Recording-$30,000 (1001 General/4914 Riverboat)- TABLE until Connie comes back from the auditors conference next week. Get 3 quotes.
Minutes & Salary Ordinance- Auditor Fromhold- Approved minutes and anything that was changed on salaries- as housekeeping.
There is $36,000 to roll back not County General from COVID time. Approved to move back.
Health First Fund - Doug Baer, Health Dept- move forward to readjust finds and do part time this year. Cap on what you can pay and it comes out of their grant funding. Looking at $26-28/hr. It would be 28 hours per week. Need Council approval. This is for Field Staff. Most is in septic and soils but there are others. Need more as county is growing. Approved.
Late Arrival- Andy Baudendistel Attorney- Dillsboro $18,000+ and Moores Hill $4,001.80 sent their 911 money in already So they have their one year interlocal cooperation agreements to be signed. Still have to get St Leon. Continuing to work on this- But this is to keep 2024 paperwork straight. Others are for 3 years. These are just annual. Approved to sign.
FOLLOWING IS A DISCUSSION RE: DILLSBORO EMS ISSUES INITIATED BY GLENN WRIGHT
Glenn Wright- asked if LIT money had been distributed- Yes- 1st month. Asked if any oversight?
Baudendistel- each unit is to provide financials annually and schedule meeting with the county administrator.
Wright- said he’d heard there were thing like TVs and recliners purchased for EMS
Kevin Turner- asked if he could find out where the TV’s and recliners were being purchased.
Kevin Turner- said they (who is they?) had met with Dillsboro and it went flat and wants to try to schedule something with Harry after the meeting. Harry Witteride asked if they were to meet with Fire Dept. or him. He wants to meet with Harry.
Thatcher said that he, Jason?, and Drew?. Wants an open discussion with them. To try to meet next Wednesday to try to put Dillsboro back on line. [NOTE: Perhaps this meeting needs to be public, considering the recent issues there.]
Glenn Wright- asked about dispatch being cancelled.
Steve Gemmer- Shane McHenry called the day of the eclipse( April 8, 2024) and admitted that 3 officers were there. One out back and 2 in the building. And he also admitted that he did not stop this on the day after the No trespass order issued. It wasn’t until Jan 12th that he got rid of the no trespassing order. And just so you know we are still trying to get records together that the people that were not authorized to be there destroyed. So Workers comp wants last years records and we don’t have them We are dealing with some other issues. There are also legal investigations going on, now criminal… On the 12th we were told that you would work with us. We had people lined up to do it. And 5 days later you pulled them. So we lost 4 more people because of that. I’d like to know why it was OK to make. a contract with an unauthorized board? That you won’t make with the authorized board. There were no stipulations on the unauthorized board. From what I understand this has been going on for 10 years- the mess. That is why I got involved. I kept getting that I was lied to by several people and it did not make sense. And they kept changing the story. So I went straight to sources to try and look into it. Alan Goodman told me he couldn’t talk about it- that it was criminal. We agreed to do it month to month for a short time with no payment. And that is NOT what happened. Five days later after we put all that together and we scrambled so we could do it, without telling anybody they took dispatch away. How we found out was when Auroras showed up in Dillsboro. This man and that man lied to us too many times. They are not going to be the ones we are going to deal with. I’m just being honest with you.
Mark Dole- This is not a Council issue anyway- we funded and gave the money to the Commissioners - so your issue is with the Commissioners.
Steve Gemmer- It is your issue - because Glenn and Dennis wanted to table this because there were other issues involved and wanted it tabled till we could get it straightened out. Because now you are asking the people of Dillsboro to pay this LIT ( Local income tax) money- you are asking the people of Dillsboro to do all this but get we do not have any representation. And do you realize how much money we have wasted- $110,000 that insurance is looking at paying, money stolen out of the bank. There was damage done to our building and damage to a lot if stuff. All because the deputy sheriff decided to give a no trespassing order to him ( Harry Witteride) If that wouldn’t have happened we wouldn’t be here right now. And that is a fact.
Liz Morris- that you for your comments.
Glen Wright- here’s the issue Liz- we are expected to make wise financial decisions with the taxpayers money. How can some people in a group make a presentation to the Council know these things and not let the Council know?
Morris- I think those are pretty strong accusations.
Wright- I think there are things that were not told to the Council that night.
Morris- that would be surprising to me- but I don’t think we need to go down this path tonight. There is nothing. That we can do about it.
Wright- So we are just going to sweep it under the rug?
Morris- I’m not sweeping anything under the rug.
Wright -You sure are
Morris- Actions were taken - there are contracts with the different departments people are involved with the distribution of funds, but I think we are beyond our scope.
Wright- In order for us to make a valid decision - like we have done with everything else tonight - we need to have all he info presented to us that is known by that committee or group. For example Mr Grieve presented info about the trucks he was asking for. The same thing should have been done with the Dillsboro EMS. We should have known these things were going on. I feel there are members of this Council and also the group that came up with this, that knew these things were going on but they did not tell us.
Morris- Those are pretty strong accusations.
Tim Doll- I’ll speak to that because I was part of the group as was Mr Turner. That group was tasked with finding the most equitable way to distribute those funds. That group was made up of individuals, I don’t know what they knew because of all the different backgrounds. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I did not withhold any information at that meeting. What we had was a spreadsheet and explained what we did and how we landed there. Then those funds were requested by the commissioners so they could distribute them. So that group of citizens and elected officials worked together- and it was a group- to come up with a best recommendation and this body moved forward with that and made a motion exactly as that spreadsheet shows. And that’s exactly what has happened with those funds since then, Glenn. So when you sit up here and make accusations about any one of us personally…
Wright- I’m not making accusations. I’m just saying someone had to know. No one knew that the sheriff’s deputies had been to Dillsboro EMS?
Kevin Turner- Mr Wright- there is somethings that you can learn if you are there At that time I was not a law enforcement officer. So as far as who got the trespass for what wherever, I did not have access for any sort of database system to look any of that up. I did not know anything was going on with that. Other than rumors and innuendoes. And then when the changeover or takeover happened I was not involved in the fire dept or EMS at that point. I did not know till well after it happened. Did not know that they disputed things until well after it happened. Did not know that attorneys and bank accounts frozen. Did not know that until well after it happened. Now that I am a law enforcement officer again I do have access to law enforcement databases, but I don’t search for stuff that is going on with Dillsboro EMS, because that is not my purview. I work for Ohio County Sheriff’s Dept.I don’t know who the heck was trespassing and as far as that is concerned that is an issue best taken up with the sheriff and his deputies and if his deputies acted inappropriately he has to discipline them. That is up to the Merit Board and the sheriff and all that. If it’s criminal it has to be take to the prosecutors office and she would have filed charges on them for official misconduct or something like that. If that was what happened. As for saying things are hidden from you. This group is just about the money That is the lane we stay in.
Morris- this group has done a great deal of research on their own time and I thought it was rather extensive and I was appreciative about the responses and amount of territories. I think what Council did on that evening was the appropriate thing action to take at that time. As far as I am conceded that issue is not on our agenda and there has been enough discussion, so I’ll call for an adjournment.
Two nays to motion to adjourn were Glenn Wright and Dennis Kraus Sr. Meeting adjourned.
Adjournment- 6:55PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
