20 JANUARY 2026 DEARBORN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING NOTES

 20 JANUARY 2026 DEARBORN COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING NOTES

 Livestreams can be found @

https://www.youtube.com/@DearbornCountyGov-47025/streams

Present: Jim Thatcher, President, Duane Bischoff, and Kevin Turner

Also present: Connie Fromhold, Auditor, Andy Baudendistel, Attorney, and Sue Hayden, Administrator

TITLE VI STATEMENT FOR COMPLIANCE was read by Baudendistel as legally required.

Baudendistel stated that there is nothing on solar farms tonight. That will be at Feb 23 Plan Commission Meeting, 

OLD BUSINESS

Property on Westside Dr., Aurora - Review Bid - $15,500  - only bid received which was the minimum bid. This can only be approved after a public meeting has been advertised. They will shoot for the February 17th meeting for this public hearing on the sale of this property. Commissioners will advertise for this public hearing.  

(Table both items below until February 17, 2026 meeting)- Approved to TABLE them. 

Use of "old County ROW" / Dog Ridge Rd. - Dennis Kraus, Jr., Surveyor 

Use of "old County ROW" / Old Houston Road off of Bloom Road - Sean York

NEW BUSINESS

Community Bridge - Tamara Taylor- organization that does fundraisers for non profits. Have done 3 fundraisers in past. This all goes to Jail Chemical Addiction program that Judge Sally McLaughlin started . Sept 19th is the next one on the George Street Bridge in Aurora. The Bridge will be closed for Friday night to Sunday morning. Commissioners approved closing the bridge without Thatcher’s vote as he abstained as he is on that Community Bridge Board. 

Agreed Termination of License Agreement for Secondary Helipad Site with St. Elizabeth- Baudendistel said that St E has another site behind Beacon Building there on Campus Dr. So they don’t need this site. Approved.

Bid Award 2026 Paving Beatty Road - County Engineer, Todd Listerman- January 14th received 2 bids. $364,862 O’Mara was lowest bid. Rice also bid. Approved O’Mara’s bid. Listerman said prices are coming down as the price of oil has gone down. 

ADMINISTRATOR – Sue Hayden

Farm Services Agency Committee Election- This is like the Conservancy District- she can be their proxy. There is only one candidate. Lisa Holman is candidate. Approved for Sue

Sue Hayden presented for For Gerry Bruns for Prayer on the Square this Friday the 23rd.  Approved

Sue Hayden presented for For Shane McHenry- Jail Medical Services - $237,794.99 from Quality Correctional Care- They have done this for a long time here. Approved.

AUDITOR – Connie Fromhold  -Claims/Payroll and January 6th Minutes- Approved

ATTORNEY – Andy Baudendistel-nothing more

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS: Kevin Turner- said 2 sheriffs deputies- Purceval and Lusby broke up dog fight and tracked them down and he wants do give them 

Bischoff- hot topic is the Solar farm issue- wants everybody to be civil as this moves forward.

LATE ARRIVAL INFORMATION: Andrea Sparks- Veterans Services. Standards have changed for accrediting Veterans service officers. They have to be accredited. Have to work 1000 hours a year- about 19 hours per week to stay accredited. Dave Currence is in compliance with these guidelines. Office hours have to be posted on the door and have to have. Dedicated private space to discuss finances etc. She went thru all the items and stated Dave is in compliance with these. He uses the Claims Management System. He is also able to look at all the service records. Training and testing- they have to attend 3 meetings in the district each year. Federal training is now annual and he will be doing that this year. New hires have 30 days and then 90 days to complete all training. Key performance indicators- Dave meets all of these too. If the service officer is not in compliance- they can lose their accreditation. She outlined how to remedy this - but says Dave will have no problem along these lines. Those are the new standards. She is pleased with what he does. He has the passion for this job.  

PUBLIC COMMENT: Anonymous man( said he wants to be anonymous) resident of Center township- SB 258- aims to move Fan Co  (First American Nuclear) closed fuel cycle nuclear energy park in the state. Transition from gas to nuclear. Moving from Washington State to Carmel IN. He addressed this to Mr Maxwell as well. 

ANONYMOUS - SB 54- also gets into solar. And he won’t discuss it, because the county attorney said they were not going to tonight. Bischoff said he thinks this bill will help them- the county-  control solar. 

ANONYMOUS- Port of Lawrenceburg- Baudendistel said the Port Authority has been dissolved. Baudendistel said that site is Lawrenceburg’s jurisdiction. 

ADJOURN- 6:35 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township