VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

APRIL 11, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 11^th day of April, 2006 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.

President Musgrave: I want to call to order the April 11, 2006 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County. We’ll start with introductions to my right.

B.J. Farrell: B.J. Farrell, Superintendent of County Buildings.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Ted Ziemer, County Attorney.

Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

President Musgrave: Cheryl Musgrave, County Commissioner.

Commissioner Shetler: Tom Shetler, County Commissioner.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty–

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: I’m in a hurry today. Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

President Musgrave: Would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Musgrave: We have the minutes of the April 4^th Commission to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

President Musgrave: We would like to welcome Jo Anne Smith, the Director of 911, Central Dispatch, to give a presentation on the 211 service. I see that you have someone here to help you.

Jo Anne Smith: Yes. I would like to introduce Stephanie Norrick, she is with United Way. She is the person in charge of 211 in Vanderburgh County, and I am on their board. Each of the Commissioners should have a flyer with information, and I’m going to let Stephanie speak a little bit about 211. I was scheduled for this meeting, it happens to be National Telecommunicators Week, so we have to put a little plug in for 911 as well. So, this 211 is an enhancement to 911, because they do services, where we take care of public safety. So, I’ll let Stephanie take over now.

Stephanie Norrick: Thank you, Jo Anne. Thank you so much for inviting me here today to speak with you about 211. Just to give you a brief history, United Way offers First Call for Help, which is an information and referral call center. They’ve been offering it since 1986. What we do is we help people who are looking for information on, they need help with utilities, their rent, food, maybe they’re looking for after school programs, perhaps they just had a family member diagnosed with Multiple Scelrosis, they want information. So, they call us, and we provide them information about programs that are in the community. All of our calls are free and confidential. We do conduct follow up calls on a percentage of our calls to determine the effectiveness, make sure our information is accurate and that the callers are getting services. Right now First Call for Help serves eight counties in Indiana, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Posey, Gibson, Pike, Knox and Daviess County. We have over 700 agencies in our data base, consisting of over 1,600 programs, and those are almost all non-profits who are offering services for the community at large. We are a member of AIRS, which is the Alliance of Information Referral Systems. We are in an accreditation process, so, we will be an accredited information referral call center. We also have staff that are certified information referral specialists. What I’ve really come to talk to you today about is 211. 211 is an easy to remember three digit dialing code, similar to 911 and 411. 911 is for emergency services, 411 is to obtain information, 211 is for health and human services. So, what people can do is instead of remembering our seven digit phone number, 421-2800, or an 800 phone number, they just simply have to pick up the phone and dial 211. We offer quick access to health and human services, instead of trying to pick up the phone book, who can I call for this, or this or this? They just pick up the phone and dial 211. We recently celebrated our one year anniversary of being a 211 call center. 211 is live in Vanderburgh, Spencer and Warrick County. We are getting ready, on May 8^th, to announce that we are live in Posey County. We’re working with other counties to bring the service to our other counties as well. We are not just working on Southwestern Indiana for 211, we’re actually in a state-wide partnership called the Indiana 211 Partnership. What we are doing is bringing 211 to the entire state of Indiana. Currently over 60 percent of the Hoosier population have access to 211. That is over 43 counties, and is served by ten call centers in the state. When we are finished there will be 16 call centers in the state providing 211 service. Nationwide over 50 percent of the population have access, by calling 211. Atlanta United Way in 1996 was the first 211 call center in the country. So, we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in ten years with over 50 percent of the population having access. Our services have not changed at all. We are still an information referral call center. We just did a name change. We now refer to ourselves as United Way 211. Just to provide you with a brief statistic, in 2005 we answered over 22,000 calls, and that’s with myself as the director, two full time specialists, and two part time specialists. Our top five requests were for food, financial assistance, information, holiday assistance, and health and medical questions. As you see up there, you all have our take one cards, we have business cards, we have posters. Our services are offered, we can also do translations. If somebody calls us who does not speak English, we have a contract with a company called TeleInterpreters, and we do a three way phone call with them. So, we can also help people who do not speak English. That was a quick rundown. I wasn’t sure how much time I had.

President Musgrave: Oh, you’re fine.

Stephanie Norrick: So, now I just want to offer if you have any questions for me.

President Musgrave: I think it’s wonderful. You’re a United Way agency?

Stephanie Norrick: Yes.

President Musgrave: So, everyone’s United Way contributions helps fund this cost.

Stephanie Norrick: Actually, I am United Way.

President Musgrave: You are United Way?

Stephanie Norrick: Yes, I’m a United Way employee. This is just one of the programs that they offer for the community.

President Musgrave: Well, this sounds like a wonderful clearinghouse, something that’s much needed.

Stephanie Norrick: Yes.

President Musgrave: And you’ve only been in operation a year and you’ve already logged over 21,000 calls?

Stephanie Norrick: 22,000 calls.

President Musgrave: 22,000 calls?

Jo Anne Smith: 24 hours a day also.

Stephanie Norrick: Yes.

President Musgrave: 24 hours a day?

Stephanie Norrick: We are 24/7. After hours our calls go to an Indianapolis call center, as we work with the state-wide partnership. They have a copy of our data base. We all use the same data base. Our specialists are trained the exact same way. So, they are able to assist our callers who are calling after hours.

President Musgrave: I think that’s really terrific.

President Musgrave: I know that we have a proclamation to read as well.

Stephanie Norrick: Wonderful!

President Musgrave: Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: Thank you. Congratulations! I think you’re the first ones on this new form that we have here for proclamations. It’s very attractive.

“Whereas, the Central Dispatch System provides emergency dispatch to Vanderburgh County utilizing the latest technology, equipment and training available; and, Whereas, the changing environment of emergency response and the upgrade to new equipment requires a great deal of dedication to training and change; and, Whereas, the telecommunicators of the Centralized Dispatch for Evansville and Vanderburgh County have accepted the challenge of change and dedication; and, Whereas, in recognition of that dedication to the people they serve. Now, therefore, we the Vanderburgh County Commission, do proclaim the week of April the 9^th through the 15^th, 2006 as “Dispatcher’s Week” in Vanderburgh County.”

President Musgrave: So, we celebrate 911, National, is that telecommunications week?

Jo Anne Smith: National Telecommunicators Week.

President Musgrave: We can almost pronounce that. They ought to make it National 911 Week.

Jo Anne Smith: That would be much easier for me to say. I thank the Commission for that proclamation. I think that we all learned in this county in November that we can be very proud of the 911 dispatchers in this county.

President Musgrave: Indeed. So, now we have a new number.

Jo Anne Smith: Yes.

President Musgrave: Besides 911, which you call for emergencies, you can call 211 when you need other types of assistance, more food, social service related. I don’t want folks to get confused by that.

Jo Anne Smith: Yes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for both services, I think is a big accomplishment for our community.

President Musgrave: It is. Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you, Jo Anne.

President Musgrave: Burdette Park, Mr. Steve Craig. I understand that we have permission to award the spray park contract. The spray park is new this year, right?

Steve Craig: Yes, Ma’am. We had replaced our aging bumper boats, and we’re in the process of installing a new water park, or spray park in our water park. It will be back on the back part of the aquatic center. I was wanting to get permission to award project VC-04-2006, the spray park contract, to ECI Construction, Inc.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Tell us a little bit about the spray park. When will it be open? What will it have?

Steve Craig: It will be open May 26^th, that will be the first day the aquatic center opens for the 2006 season. It will contain 18 different spray features. We’re going to have some palm trees around it. We’re in the process of lining them up. We’ve put a new concession area back on the beach, and we’ve also put a new shade pavilion back there for the people that don’t want to have to be in the sun all the time. It was a little bit of a problem. It used to be that you done your aquatic center so that everybody was in the sun, but with the sun being detrimental to your skin, people are looking more for a shade area, and we’re going to provide that for the people this year at the Burdette aquatic center.

Commissioner Shetler: Steve, in addition to having a new attraction to the park, I understand this is going to be a bit of labor savings, cost savings, overall to the county? Can you explain that?

Steve Craig: Yes, before, when we had our bumper boats, we had personnel that were considered, they weren’t lifeguards, they were spray park attendants, and they didn’t have life guarding qualities, but what they do now, a spray park doesn’t actually need to have people that are on duty, such as lifeguards. So, we’re going to probably have ten or 12 less employees that we will not have to hire this summer. We’ll need less lifeguards is what we’ll need actually. It will be savings to the county.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright, thank you.

President Musgrave: Thank you very much. We look forward to the opening of the aquatic center and the new attraction at the spray park.

Steve Craig: I look forward to seeing you at the ribbon cutting.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Steve Craig: Thank you.

President Musgrave: In appropriate attire.

President Musgrave: Phil Lawrence, open bids for VC-9903-2006, Burdette Park food. So, we can eat while we’re at the spray park.

Phil Lawrence: While we’re spray parking and swimming. I would appreciate that shade park. I’ve got most of the color that I need.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to open the bids?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: While we are opening the bids we will move to contracts, agreements and leases.

President Musgrave: We have two, one for the Health Department, HIV substance abuse program grant, and the Sheriff Department, Family and Social Services contract amendment. Unless there is any discussion of these two, we could just–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me, do you not have a third? Superior Court ICJI Byrne Grant?

President Musgrave: I think that may be on the consent agenda.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Ah. Is it? Okay.

President Musgrave: Okay. Is there any discussion of these? Or is there a motion?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motions carry.

President Musgrave: Department head report, John Stoll, County Engineer.

John Stoll: I have three items. The first is a railroad grant reimbursement to submit to INDOT. This is for the amount of $101.38. This is for a grant that was prepared by EUTS, and it is for railroad pavement markings and signs. I request your approval to sign that.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: Next, I would like to request approval for you to go ahead and accept the proposal submitted by R.W. Armstrong last week for the various projects that we had out in the RFP. Their proposal was actually submitted 12 minutes late, at 3:42. The original RFP that I put together was incorrect. It called for a submittal deadline of 5:30, based on the old Commissioners meeting time, as opposed to what the meetings currently are. I just didn’t edit that in the old file. We had sent out a correction to say that they were due by 3:30, and in talking with the consultant, we weren’t able to verify that they ever did receive the correction with the corrected 3:30 meeting time. So, on that basis, since the original root of the problem was the fact that we sent out an incorrect RFP, I would like for you to go ahead and open that proposal and consider theirs. I’ve consulted with the County Attorney and he felt that since there was no actual bid price or anything like that included in the proposal itself that it was not a problem for you to go ahead with that.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Shetler: I’ll second, and in addition to that, I don’t think anything had been opened at that point in time either. So, it’s, you know, it wasn’t like there was anything revealed in any way, shape or form.

John Stoll: Right.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: The last item that I have is a request to go to County Council to appropriate $200,000 in the Baseline Road bridge account. This would be for the bridge over the CSX railroad. We don’t have an account number established as of yet, but we’ve submitted the paperwork to the Auditor’s office to get that established, otherwise I would tell you what the account number is at this time. But, I would like to go ahead and request that appropriation.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: That was for design, if I didn’t mention that previously. That’s all I have, unless you have any questions.

President Musgrave: No.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Musgrave: B.J. Farrell?

B.J. Farrell: As the Commissioners know, last Saturday we held our surplus sale at the Old Courthouse. I would like to report that we did collect over $900, which we have already quietused into the county General Fund. For all of those interested parties, we managed to find someone who had a need for the old Votomatics and all of the ballot boxes. So, we now have no more election equipment stored in the Old Courthouse. I do have two other items I would like to bring to the Commissioners. Last week I had asked for Council call for utilities for the Old Courthouse. I did have to adjust that appropriation request, due to a typo on it. I have submitted that, but I would like to ask Commissioners for approval to go ahead and go to Council and ask for that for the utility monies. I also received a letter from Artwork Unlimited wanting to install some off-on line switches in the Old Courthouse for the area of the sub-basement. I have reviewed this request with Mr. Nix, he feels that it is okay, and I would like to work with Mr. Wolter on getting this accomplished with the understanding that he does obtain the required permits and uses a licensed electrician.

President Musgrave: Do you want to put all of these in the consent agenda?

B.J. Farrell: Yes, I would like to ask that the consent agenda be amended to include these.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

B.J. Farrell: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Alright, I have down here Mr. Steve Craig, but I think he has already done his report. There is no other report, perhaps, from any other department head, except for the County Attorney, and I don’t know that you’re ready to–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’m not, but you might also want to give me permission to open the bid, the proposal of R.W. Armstrong, which is here from the County Engineer.

President Musgrave: Well, while you were concentrating, we did.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You did that? Okay, good.

President Musgrave: We’ll move on to the appointment.

Commissioner Nix: This is an appointment to the Common Wage Committee, and it’s Paul Sowders. This is for a project with the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility.

President Musgrave: Is there a second?

Commissioner Shetler: I’ll second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Is there any new business?

President Musgrave: Any old business?

President Musgrave: Any public comment? Any comment by a member of the public on an item?

President Musgrave: Is there a motion on the consent agenda?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: As amended?

Commissioner Shetler: Yes.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: I guess, we will just wait while the County Attorney finishes opening the bids.

B.J. Farrell: Commissioner, if I may? During my report I did neglect to thank Mike Duckworth and the crew that he sent to the Old Courthouse on Saturday to help us. We did have four employees from that department, and they did just an absolute, fantastic job of helping us get the items out and loaded into anyone’s car that had purchased those items, and just to help oversee the whole sale. I did want to thank Mr. Duckworth for that, as it was quite helpful.

President Musgrave: I know that we sent the bumper boats to be auctioned off. Is there any status on that?

B.J. Farrell: Wolfe’s did, and when I submitted those last week for acceptance, they did sell those boats for $100 each, and that was quite a surprise, you might say. They did comment that they would be willing to sell anything that the county would like to send their way. They will auction it off, and we would get our 60 percent, and that would be all it would be.

Commissioner Shetler: You know, that’s a good point, I was just, as you were saying about the County Garage people coming out, and then all the time and effort that the county put into probably setting things up, I’m wondering if we wouldn’t be better off looking at some how third partying this with an auction house of some sort, and then just take a net proceeds of the finished (Inaudible). I’m thinking, we probably have a lot of expenses involved (Inaudible).

B.J. Farrell: We do. On that particular day we had four people from the County Highway, myself, Marissa, and our two employees from the Old Courthouse there. As the doors opened at 8:00, and at 7:15 we had 35 people in line to enter the building. It was a very good suggestion on your part, Commissioner Shetler, because with the renovation that we hope to start doing at the Old Courthouse, we will not have the available storage space to store all of these items, as we do from sale to sale. So, that would be definitely something I would like to look into, to be able to send them to Wolfe’s on a regular basis, and as the sale is held, then we could pursue that.

Commissioner Shetler: Yeah, I think what we might want to do in that case is probably send out for requests from different auctioneers, and see what they might do for us. We did that at our business a couple of years ago, and they just simply come periodically, we call them up, they come maybe once every quarter, and it works out very well. It’s cut our expenses down tremendously, and whatever they get for it, we get a percentage back, and that’s that. I’m thinking too, as I’ve gone through the Coliseum and seeing in some of those rooms that are cluttered with a lot of old, the Courthouse, I think, has some rooms where there’s some clutter different places that we might, you know, maybe sometime do a spring or fall cleaning, and have an auctioneer just grab what they can, take it to their house, and maybe what we need to do is ask for some kind of pricing on that. Do you guys want to come up....is that, maybe initiate that from–

Commissioner Nix: I think it’s a good idea. Like you said, we do tie up a lot of labor and time, and it’s something that we have to do periodically to get rid of this stuff, and that might be another avenue to do that.

President Musgrave: Alright, so we’ll have Ms. Farrell make inquiries among the various auction houses here locally. Are you ready, Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I am.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: We have, the bids for Burdette Park are on about 75 different food items, and all of the bids were done individually for food items like Fritos, this much, hamburger, that much, and so forth. Some of the bidders bid on all of the items, one bidder bid on all of the items, the other three bidders only bid on certain of the items. So, if it would please the Commissioners, I’m going to suggest that the bid of CRS Corporation was for various pricing on various food items, that same thing applies to the separate bids of Weber Foods, Fischer Candy, and Sara Lee, and suggest that the Purchasing Agent review these food items, one against the other, and then report back at another meeting.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: I move to take the bids under advisement.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Then, I have a response to a request for proposal by R.W. Armstrong, and they are responding on our request for Baseline Road bridge, Cross Pointe Boulevard widening and extension, and all three phases of Green River Road widening. This is an additional response to be added to those read into the record last week.

President Musgrave: Is there any further business to be brought before the Commission? Is there a motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me, are you going to move to take–

President Musgrave: We already did.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You did that too? You’re very fast today.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll second that.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The meeting is adjourned. We will now immediately convene the Drainage Board for Tuesday, April 11^th.

(The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Employment Changes:

Burdette Park (5)                      Circuit Court (1)              Health Department (2)

Sheriff Office (3)                       VCCC (4)                        County Clerk (1)

Knight Assessor (1)                  Prosecutor (1)

Travel Requests:

Health Department (3)              Treasurer (1)

Auditor:

A/P Vouchers.

Financial Statement-March 2006.

Commissioners:

Request for Appropriation: County Council (Hillcrest Washington).

Revised Appropriation Request: (Utilities at Old Courthouse)

Letter from Artwork Unlimited: Permission to install switches at OCH.

Taxpayer comments on proposed smoking ordinance.

Taxpayer comments on proposed consolidation public hearings.

Vision-e monthly report- March 2006.

Department head meeting notes-April 4, 2006.

County Council: Request for Burdette passes for county employees.

German Township Assessor: Surplus letter: computer hard drive.

Legal Aid: Monthly report-March 2006.

Purchasing: Monthly report-March 2006.

Superior Court: ICJI Byrne grant ratification.

Department head meeting notes:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer                           Supt. Of Bldgs.                         Veterans Services

CIO

Those in attendance:

Cheryl Musgrave                      Bill Nix                                      Tom Shetler, Jr.

Bill Fluty                                    Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.                    B.J. Farrell

Madelyn Grayson                     Jo Anne Smith                          Stephanie Norrick

Steve Craig                               Phil Lawrence                           John Stoll

Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, President

Bill Nix, Vice President

Tom Shetler, Jr., Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.