VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

APRIL 19, 2005

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 19^th day of April, 2005 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Suzanne Crouch presiding.

President Crouch: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Vanderburgh County Commissioners weekly meeting, April 19, 2005. I would like to start with introductions to my far right.

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

Commissioner Musgrave: Commissioner, Cheryl Musgrave.

Commissioner Nix: Commissioner, Bill Nix.

President Crouch: Commissioner, Suzanne Crouch.

Madelyn Grayson: Recording Secretary, Madelyn Grayson.

Bill Fluty: Auditor, Bill Fluty.

Jennifer Wigginton: Jennifer Wigginton, Superintendent of County Buildings.

President Crouch: Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Crouch: First item on our agenda is approval of prior minutes.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Our first action item, what we do at every meeting is we try to feature and highlight a commission or a board that this Commission makes appointments to. There are a lot of boards involved in county government and the operation of it, and one of the more high profile boards is the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau. We have with us today Joe Vezzoso, who is a board member, and who is going to apprise us of what’s going on with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Thank you, Joe.

Joe Vezzoso: Madam President and Commissioners, it’s a pleasure to be here. I would like to take a few moments to pass out some gifts, because I always think it’s good to hand out a gift before we start into deliberations.

Commissioner Musgrave: Alright. Thank you very much.

Joe Vezzoso: It’s indeed my pleasure to be here as a representative of the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and especially since I’m appointed from this body. It’s a pleasure to come before you and speak to you about what we do at the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau, so that you’re aware of what goes on and any ways that we may be able to assist the Commissioners in the future. I want to give you just a little bit of history for some of you that might not know the history behind the Convention Bureau. The Evansville Convention Bureau was actually formed out of the Evansville Chamber of Commerce back in 1977. Bill Brooks worked with the state legislators and formed the legislation to do the Innkeepers Tax and to form the Bureau. So, it actually started in 1977 under William Brooks, who remained a member of the commission up until the time of riverboat gaming. The first offices of the Evansville Convention Bureau were located at Bob Green’s Executive Inn. Within a few years they moved over to the Centre, and their offices remained in the Centre until about 1992 when Mr. Green built the annex building and invited the Convention Bureau to come over their rent free. The Centre needed the space, so, it was kind of a joint decision to move the operations over to Mr. Green’s annex building. We stayed there until 1996 when we had renovated the Pagoda on the riverfront and opened the Visitors Center, and we moved our offices to the Pagoda and have been there ever since. If you haven’t been to the Pagoda, which I think most of you have because you had a public coffee there. It’s an excellent facility, and, certainly we believe that facility improved the site of our riverfront. In 1993, ‘94, ‘95, the Convention Bureau was very heavily involved in the riverboat gaming legislation, and assisted the S committee in passing the referendum here in Vanderburgh County. The Evansville Convention Bureau is made up of seven commissioners. Two members are appointed by the County Council; Mr. David Dunn and Ms. Gloria Altman. Two members are appointed by this body, and that’s myself and Jeff Korb. Three members are appointed by the Mayor of the City of Evansville, and those members are Jim Brown, Mike Belwood and Ms. Bev Oswald. The commission is made up of, has to be made up of three hoteliers, one hotelier from each appointing body, and that’s myself, of course, David and Jim. Jim also serves as the representative from the riverboat gaming company, which is stated in state law. Funding for our commission comes from the Innkeepers Tax. The current Innkeepers Tax is at 6%, and is divided in the following manner; two and one half percent is for the operation of the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau and the promotion of Vanderburgh County’s tourism and convention business; two percent goes to offset the operation deficit at the Centre, about $750,000 per year; and one percent remains in the Tourism Capital Development Fund for other tourism related capital projects. The total operating budget for the year 2005 is $1,097,000. It is made up, and the funding comes from this source; $883,000 of that comes from the Innkeepers Tax, we get $212,000 that is generated from a portion of the admission tax from Casino Aztar. That fund, the Tourism Capital Development Fund has been used for the following items; the rehab at the Pagoda on the riverfront; the relocation of the museum’s train and construction of the transportation center; renovation of the Reitz Home carriage house, and the repainting of the Reitz Home; we assisted with completion of the third floor of the Signature School; at the time of construction of the new Centre we contributed a million and a half dollars; the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center we have assisted in paving the roads and additional parking lots. We were, we funded the new soccer complex. We have funded Burdette Park to some extent. Funding assistance for the African American Museum, and we just recently went before County Council and got approval for funding to assist the city with the docks for the LST 325, coming to Evansville in July of this year. This fund, the Tourism Capital Development Fund, has generated $6,800,000 since 1994. The total amount of projects funded has been about six and a half million. These amounts do not include the three and a half million that has been contributed to the operation of the Centre. The Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau is the sole provider for materials for Evansville and Vanderburgh County’s tourism and convention business. I have provided each of you a number of the printed materials that we have, included in that is our 2004 annual report, also our meeting planners guide, and then there is a new marketing, our 2005 marketing piece that has not been approved yet. It’s probably going to be approved next Tuesday. We provide grants for both special and matching for various non-profit organizations within Vanderburgh County. Some of the past grants include Friends of Angel Mounds, YMCA Evansville Half Marathon, Smoke on the Water: Evansville Professional Firefighters, Easter Seals of Southwestern Indiana, Mesker Park Botanic Gardens, Reitz Home Museum, Burdette Park, and other numerous groups. These people that might be presenting, there are brochures that need to be printed and we assist with the printing of that, or they might be starting up a new project that needs some funding for that, so, we assist with that. The Evansville Convention Bureau meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month. We meet at the Pagoda at 8:30 in the morning. I would invite any of you to come. Cheryl has been a number of times, and those of you who haven’t been, we would love to see you down there. It’s a fun board to serve on . I have had the privilege of serving on it for about 20 years. We, all of our commissioners are fairly lengthy in service on that board, and we take our task to heart, and we try to promote Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville and get convention and visitors and tourists to come to our community. We have seen a tremendous increase in our tourist business in the last three to four years. Aztar certainly has been a huge asset for us. It makes us a destination. With the addition of the new LST or the old LST to the riverfront, we’re going to have a lot of things for people to come to Evansville and see and do. Burdette Park is a huge asset. Our 4-H Center is a huge asset, and the crown of the whole thing is, of course, our Centre. When we bring people in here from Indianapolis that haven’t been to Southern Indiana in a number of years, and they see our state of the art convention center, I can tell you they’re duly impressed, and 95% of the time we sell those conventions. The unfortunate thing for us is that we are probably selling conventions now in 2008 and 2009. So, we really have to work out quite a number of years ahead of our own time. It is a privilege, and I do thank you for allowing me to serve, and at any time that I can be of service to any of you, I would be more than happy to. If any of you have questions, I would be glad to try to answer them.

President Crouch: You had mentioned in 1977 was when the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau was started up?

Joe Vezzoso: Yes.

President Crouch: There were others in the state at that time?

Joe Vezzoso: In the state of Indiana, ours is specific for Vanderburgh County. Our law falls outside the other laws of the state level. Actually, the Chamber of Commerce here was doing that type of business prior to ‘77, and I think Bill thought it was time that Evansville stepped up and had their own convention bureau that went out and solicited business. It started with a very small staff, only two people, to be honest with you. Currently we have five, seven people on staff full time. We also manage, for the state of Indiana, the Black River Welcome Center up on I-64. We’ve done that for about 12 years, which is an asset for us also. So, when you go by Black River you should know that it’s operated by us. The state pays us to do that, but we do manage that facility. Any other questions?

President Crouch: Questions?

Joe Vezzoso: Mr. Ziemer, I’ll be sure to bring you some candy over at your office. Sir, I’m sorry that I ignored you. Thank you all very much for having us.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: Thank you for coming.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda, Soil and Water Stewardship Week Proclamation. Commissioner Musgrave?

Commissioner Musgrave: I have a proclamation to read:

“Whereas fertile soil and clean water provide us with our daily sustenance; and Whereas effective conservation practices have helped provide us a rich standard of living; and Whereas our security depends upon healthy soil and clean water; and Whereas soil and water stewardship calls for each person to help conserve these precious resources; Therefore, we do hereby proclaim April 24-May 1, 2005 Soil and Water Stewardship Week.”

In witness whereof and we will sign below.

President Crouch: And that’s a motion?

Commissioner Musgrave: That is in the form of a motion.

Commissioner Nix: I second that motion.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Would you like to state your name and make a few comments for the record please.

Holly McCutchan: My name is Holly McCutchan, I’m a supervisor for Vanderburgh County Soil and Water Conservation District. I would like to thank you all for declaring that Soil Stewardship Week.

President Crouch: Do you have any special projects that you’ll be conducting?

Holly McCutchan: We are in the midst of doing a lot of education projects right now. We have Ag Days going on, Norma is doing that. We’re doing an Earth Day celebration at Daniel Wertz, that will be going on, and then we’re doing little local Earth Day celebrations and things. We had a soil contest, poster contest, we finished that up the first of March. So, it kind of extends it for all spring. We appreciate that.

Commissioner Musgrave: Who won the poster contest?

Holly McCutchan: I’m not for sure. They are still picking. So, once they win, they get a $50 bond and then that goes on to the state and they can actually go all the way up to national.

Commissioner Musgrave: That sounds wonderful. Did you bring some guests with you today?

Holly McCutchan: My son and his friend. They are doing homework.

President Crouch: Welcome.

Holly McCutchan: Thank you all very much.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: Thank you.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda, the Vanderburgh County Treasurer has some information for us regarding tax bill payment.

Jason Perry: We’re going to do our best with this easel.

Z. Tuley: Hi, I’m Z. Tuley, I’m the Vanderburgh County Treasurer. I wanted to give you all a display and a little presentation of the new design with the tax bills. I don’t have with me a comparison to show you the changes. I should of probably thought to bring the other one, but as we look at this....can you move this a little bit closer? I’m not very coordinated, that’s why we let him do this. There we go. This used to be the midsection right here. So, it was in the center, so, at the print shop when they went to fold and insert these bills into windows, the fold had to go this way in order for the address to appear in the window. This made everything a little more timely. So, that kind of sparred the thought of redesigning the bill. We have moved the November coupon from the bottom of the bill up to just below the spring tax bill. So, the midsection then was just moved down. There’s not any information missing from this bill from one year, to this year, or, yeah, to this year from last year. We didn’t omit anything that we hadn’t already put on to the other form. But, this year we did add something else. Next to, and this is chopped off a little bit, so that the actual form goes a little bit longer. Next to the address line, where this will now be in the window, you will find that there are peel and stick return address labels for the taxpayers to use. There will not be pre-printed envelopes enclosed for them. This was at a savings to the county, and I also thought it would make it a little more convenient. By the time you add all of the inserts, the tax bill, the envelopes, the postage went up and up and up, and actually what we did was we hit a higher bracket, just at the bottom of the next higher bracket in paying. So, we thought that this might work out real well. Also, on the tax bills, I wanted to point out that Integra Bank was the successful bidder for the cash management account and collection of our tax bills and processing the lock box. So, they are going to be picking up our mail. On the tax bill itself, it lets the taxpayers know that the Integra Bank is where you can pay, and there’s a list of their locations. It also has a phone number where they can call and ask for branch hours and so on and so forth. I strongly urge the taxpayers to use this method of payment. With this many available branch locations, surely to goodness this is close to their home, to and from their work, perhaps even close to them on their lunch hour to use the bank, rather than coming down here where parking is limited, you can get a ticket if you’re here for too long. Sometimes taxpayers are procrastinators and they wait till the last minute before they make their payment, so, sometimes the line is rather lengthy. At the Integra Bank location, if you would like to walk in the payment and have the cashier give you a receipt, they will do that. But, you don’t have to go into the bank. You can go through the drive through, so, if it’s raining or what have you and you don’t want to get out of the car, perhaps you are disabled and inconvenienced by getting out of your vehicle, you can simply go through the drive through. It’s not necessary to go inside. Taxpayers who prefer to pay on line, this is a way for the future here. We have it available on the website at www.vanderburghtreasurer.org, that’s all spelled out. That’s also noted here, in bold, on the tax bill. They can go on line, they click on the tax payments, and then they click on official payments, and they can use their credit card or their check card and pay that way. There is a service fee for doing it that way, but it will save you the gas at two dollars and whatever a gallon and the time and the trouble. Also we found this tool is very, very useful to those who hear it or see it on the news or in the news a little too late, our office is already closed, the post office is already closed in order for them to get a proper postmark. They can still go on line as long as the transaction is completed by midnight, they can accept, and we will accept this payment as timely and avoid a costlier penalty than the surcharge would be, I’m sure, to use it.

Commissioner Musgrave: What is the surcharge?

Z. Tuley: It varies by dollar amount. There is a table to go by, and if you log on it will inform you. You can also use the 800 number, if you don’t have a computer at home, and it works in the same fashion, and they will also let you know how much the service fee will be or surcharge. Taxpayers are welcome to pay in my office, however, I don’t recommend it, unless you have a problem or unless you have a question that you just can’t seem to get answered over the phone, or it’s too much detail to handle over the phone. We also accept partial payments that cannot be taken at the bank. You can do this in person in the office, or you can use the post office. If you mail in a partial payment, we will get it, it will not get processed at the bank. Partial payments are welcome in any dollar amount at any time. Now, I wanted to switch over to the form–

President Crouch: Mrs. Tuley, your room number in the Civic Center?

Z. Tuley: Oh, I’m sorry, room number 210. I had that written down and I failed to say that.

Commissioner Musgrave: While you’re getting the other form ready, when will these bills arrive in our mailboxes?

Z. Tuley: They are going to be mailed on Friday, I believe that’s the 22^nd. So, people can expect them in their mailbox on Monday.

Commissioner Nix: How many are you processing this year?

Z. Tuley: 98,000 plus? 98,000 plus. One of the other things that we’ve done in our office is created a slightly different in house bill. It has the same information that was on the regular bill as far as how you can pay. It has the bank locations on it. Previously this information was not, it wasn’t easy to give at the office, if you came in and got an in house printed bill. But, now if you get one you’re going to get the full sheet, it’s going to let you know your alternative methods of payment, rather than having to come back into the office. Or, if you simply didn’t get the bill because you purchased a house, but the previous owner perhaps got the tax bill, we can mail this to you and you can still use it to pay at the bank, because we now have a MICR line, so, that the bank is eligible to process this payment. It will be very, very convenient for the taxpayer to not have to run downtown. We have scanners in place to read this MICR now when someone brings in a tax bill and they want to pay here. This will not only, hopefully, speed up the processing end of the payment, but it will also ensure a more accurate payment, because it’s not having to be manually keyed. This is something that the printer will read and translate to the computer. On the new form here, the first time we mailed this out was last year, we did it as a pilot. Vanderburgh County is still the only county in the state of Indiana to perform this task. It was quite a task. My Chief Deputy and I decided that it needed a name. We got a little bit of an idea from the bankruptcy court that uses the basketball acronym of PACER, for Public Access of Court Electronic Records. So, we decided to choose our football team, and the acronym spells out COLTS. So, we will be referring to this as our COLTS form. I had a discussion with the author of the bill that created this form, this bill does not go into effect until the 2007 pay in 2008 tax year. However, I am going to go ahead and continue the process at this time. It is uncertain as to whether or not some suggestions to the law that I have made, I have suggested that they make some alternative items on here. Rather than having the percent difference, which is greatly affected by any change in the assessed value, I have asked that they remove that as part of the requirement. It will not be on the form this year. You can see it on here, this is the way it was displayed last year. We have the programming built in. We have the ability to see this, but it will not be printed, and it will not be mailed out, however, we haven’t decided what’s going to be, whether this is going to be revealed on the Internet or not. If it is, it will show that anytime you have a change in the assessed value, it greatly distorts this percentage difference. This percentage difference was intended so that when someone got their tax bill and it went from “x” dollar to “x” dollar, they would know the percentage of increase. But, if you change the AV, and the AV increases, then your assessed value went up that percent, plus the increase that your overall tax bill may have created, and it completely distorts the picture. Last year, and what I took to the legislators was an example of a farm where the farmer had bought, purchased a piece of equipment, which more than doubled his assessed value. It went from like $12,000 to $25,000 something. His increase percentage revealed down here a 500 and something percent increase. That’s not a true and accurate picture. That’s not the picture that the legislators were trying to display. So, I think that it just needs to be removed. If they can see from line to line exactly what taxing authority went up and went down in dollars and cents, if someone is curious enough to want to know the percentage, I think that they can figure it.

Commissioner Musgrave: What did the legislators intend with this form?

Z. Tuley: Well, they intended for it to reveal exactly why your taxes go up and who’s causing it. Or why your taxes may have decreased and who caused that. That was the intent of this form. So, that the taxpayer could be informed as to these things that they don’t really realize are causing their taxes, perhaps, to be driven. Welfare, in the past, was not revealed, how much it costs the counties to conduct the welfare. It was not revealed to the taxpayer how much the library causes taxes to increase or decrease, and parks and things of these natures were never revealed before. So, they thought that it would give them a whole and clearer picture as to what their money goes for, and where those increases or decreases are coming from. I have let the legislators know that if they go forward with the thought of trending, this form will become completely irrelevant. Anytime your going to mess with the AV, and have those changes, it’s going to distort these figures. You can still tell someone in dollars and cents what they paid last year, and what they’re paying this year, but it will have a distorted picture. I wanted everybody to know too that just like your tax bill, this is also on line on my website. There will be a new page displayed, and you will be able to see your tax bill, or what we call the breakdown. There will be two different buttons, side by side, and you’ll be able to click on the one that you’re wanting to look at.

Commissioner Musgrave: What address would someone go to to look at this?

Z. Tuley: It’s www.vanderburghtreasurer.org.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay, is the tax bill on there now?

Z. Tuley: The tax bill is on there now.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay, so, we don’t have to wait until Monday? We can go there right now?

Z. Tuley: You don’t have to wait until Monday. This form is not available on line yet. We know that it will be up no later than Monday. We’re not sure if it will be up before Monday, it could get real iffy.

President Crouch: Could we interrupt for a moment?

Z. Tuley: Sure.

President Crouch: I believe the governor is here, and we wanted him to come in.

Z. Tuley: Sure. Thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks, Z.

President Crouch: Thank you, Z.

Mitch Daniels: I’m ready to testify.

President Crouch: If you could approach the podium.

Mitch Daniels: But, first what is the subject matter?

President Crouch: State your name and address for the record, please. Please come to the podium.

Mitch Daniels: Am I going to be interrogated?

Commissioner Musgrave: Oh, yes. We have lots of questions.

Mitch Daniels: I just came by to thank everybody for their public service. I really don’t want to interrupt, and I apologize if I am.

President Crouch: Thank you for joining us.

Mitch Daniels: What is the subject of the afternoon?

President Crouch: I-69.

Mitch Daniels: Never heard of it. Have no idea what you’re talking about.

Commissioner Nix: We’re going to start on that real soon, right, Governor?

President Crouch: Starting in Evansville and working our way up?

Mitch Daniels: Well, that is the plan, as it happens. No, honestly, I didn’t want to interrupt, and I apologize to everybody here, but I just wanted to come by and pay my respects.

Commissioner Musgrave: Well, we appreciate you taking the time to come and see us, Governor–

Mitch Daniels: Good to see you again, Cheryl.

Commissioner Musgrave: –we were just talking about tax bills.

Mitch Daniels: Yeah.

Commissioner Musgrave: They are hitting the mail here on Monday.

Mitch Daniels: Well, all I can tell you is that you’re ahead of some places that I travel.

Z. Tuley: I can still send you one.

Mitch Daniels: I’ll just take it along with me.

President Crouch: That’s our County Treasurer, Z. Tuley.

Mitch Daniels: Well, let me not interrupt any further, but, sincerely say thanks to everybody for wrestling with the problems at the probably the most difficult, certainly the most personal level. As I’ve been traveling the state regularly, I’ve been trying to always remind people of how well served we tend to be at the local level, and how hard the jobs are, and how selfless your service and yours is.

President Crouch: Well, thank you for stopping by, and welcome to Evansville.

Mitch Daniels: With a lot of thanks, I’ll get out of your way. Thanks very much.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Mitch Daniels: Excuse me. Pardon me for interrupting.

Commissioner Musgrave: Were we done with the tax bills? Okay.

President Crouch: Z., do you have any closing comments? I apologize, and thank you for being gracious.

Z. Tuley: That’s fine. I would still be happy to send him a tax bill.

Commissioner Musgrave: Send him mine.

President Crouch: 98,000 of them.

Z. Tuley: Yes. There is one more thing that I wanted to say. Because of the varying AV’s with state assessed, personal property, and things of this nature, the only people that will be receiving this form in the mail are real estate and mobile homes. Because they have a more consistent AV. They will not be enclosed with the other entities.

Commissioner Musgrave: I did have one last question.

Z. Tuley: Sure.

Commissioner Musgrave: One which I know sparks all sorts of agony after tax bill due time for certain taxpayers. Would you please explain what happens if you fail to pay on time? Either one minute or one week or one year?

Z. Tuley: What happens is on May the 11^th there is a 10% penalty assessed to the tax bill, whatever that 10% works out to be. We do honor a post mark, but it has to be an official post mark, and it says so in the law. It does not give us any allowance for the history of the taxpayer to be taken into consideration that this is the only time that they have been late. The law does not allow for us to make any room for post meters, postage meters that are used in businesses. That’s not allowed to be taken into consideration at all. The 10% penalty goes on, it doesn’t matter if it’s one day or 100 days. You might not want to wait the 100 days if you haven’t paid last year, because then you could be in the line of fire for a tax sale list. But, I don’t have any leniency in that area at all.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, we can pay by mail, in person, on line, all those ways to pay–

Z. Tuley: All those ways to pay.

Commissioner Musgrave: –and at the bank.

Z. Tuley: So, bring me your money, avoid the 10% penalty. I’ve tried to make it convenient, and if anybody has any kind of suggestions or what have you....I have been asked to put a box out front like the Water Department. I actually explored that idea years ago. Because we have a deadline of May the 10^th, we would have to physically have someone remove those payments at midnight, which means hiring it done or what have you, and here we go more money again. So, we didn’t think that was a good idea, we thought the bank was a little more convenient.

Commissioner Nix: There’s enough ways to pay it.

Z. Tuley: Yeah. Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: Thank you for taking the time.

President Crouch: Thank you for your service.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda, ordinance regarding the sale of ephedrine products. Sheriff Brad Ellsworth is here to speak to us on that.

Brad Ellsworth: Good afternoon, Commission. I had talked to Commissioner Crouch this morning early about this ordinance, the proposed ordinance, and first would like to commend the Commission for taking a proactive approach to something that is such a horrific problem in our county. It’s been, we had methamphetamine problems here when they didn’t even know what it was in Indianapolis and other places. I can’t even really explain that, but it has not gotten any better over the years. The difference is that years ago when I worked narcotics, we had to get our crank from out west, where the Frankenstein labs, the beakers and the Bunsen burners, and now people have learned over the years how to make it in coolers and in the back seats of cars and trunks and it’s gotten much easier. If you saw the news this morning, we had one of the largest methamphetamine lab busts in our history. So, this is a welcome ordinance. For some reason, I don’t know the whole recipe myself, but ephedrine is the magic ingredient in methamphetamine. So, I think anything that we can do to control that, make that a little more scarce for these who would cook the stuff is something we need to do. It’s ruining families, it’s ruining lives, it’s ruining marriages, it is busting our budget. It’s probably one of the sole reasons that we have to build a $35 million jail on the north side of Evansville. It is greatly contributing to that jail overcrowding. That drug, as well as many others. So, I think it’s great. I would like to meet with the Commission, if we do the first reading today, meet with the Commission to talk about the things, like enforcement, the permit, those kind of things. My agency is extremely willing to work a little harder to see this happen. I know it’s going to cause more work for the retailers. I know it’s going to cause more work for our agency, but it’s a small price to pay. It’s going to be a little more inconvenient for the law abiding citizen that has a cold and just needs a Sudafed or an Actifed, but I think when they see what this is costing us everyday, that going to the counter and showing an I.D. for a pack of this is a small inconvenience on what the turn around and the pay off is going to be. So, again, your proactive approach is extremely welcome in the law enforcement community.

Commissioner Musgrave: Is the city pursuing this as well? Or will it only apply to the county?

Brad Ellsworth: Well, since it’s in the county, it should include every retailer in the city. I don’t know how many that is yet. That’s one of the things this week I’m going to start looking at and see, if we modeled this after the Terre Haute and Vigo County, and started looking at some of the procedures that they did, and implementing that and just how many we’re looking at in the permits. So, whoever you want to assign to that, I would be glad to meet with you and we’ll talk about some of the details.

President Crouch: Perhaps we could have the County Attorney maybe talk to you to kind of work out some of the initial–

Brad Ellsworth: Sure.

President Crouch: –and then we will be back for a second reading next week, and you can perhaps speak to us regarding those that you would recommend as Sheriff.

Brad Ellsworth: That would be great. Again, I thank you. This is a welcome surprise, quite honestly.

Commissioner Musgrave: Do you need a motion for first reading?

President Crouch: Yes. Do you have a comment, Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, only that I was going to tell Brad that, give me a call–

Brad Ellsworth: Sure.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: –and we’ll get together and we can look at them.

Brad Ellsworth: Will do. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion we do the first reading for the ordinance regarding sale of ephedrine products.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: Roll call vote. Commissioner Musgrave?

Commissioner Musgrave: Yes.

President Crouch: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Crouch: And I vote yes. We will have it scheduled for second reading next week.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda, contracts, agreements, leases, County Engineer.

John Stoll: I did some checking with Kieffer Brothers, who was the low bidder on the Lyle Road project, they provided all the paperwork that we needed. So, on that basis I was going to request that you award the Lyle Road project to Kieffer Brothers for the amount of $158,038.09. That would require the use of the money we encumbered from last year, which was slightly over $139,000, plus around $19,000 of 2005 Riverboat money.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll make that in the form of a motion.

President Crouch: I’ll second it for a vote. Now, so, you’re recommending that we spend $139,000 of the 2004 money that was encumbered, and then your recommending that we spend out of our Riverboat, $19,000 of this year’s money for that?

John Stoll: Right. I don’t have the exact figures, but that’s approximately what it was.

President Crouch: Comments, questions?

Commissioner Nix: I’m just curious, has there been any entertainment of possibly some monies being fronted by the owners of the property down there? Is that something that they would entertain at all?

John Stoll: I spoke to Gerald Jones yesterday, and he’s here, he could speak for himself, but when I spoke to him yesterday, he didn’t feel that was an equitable way of treating them down Lyle Road.

President Crouch: Have we asked property owners to contribute towards the pavement or the improvement of county roads in the past?

John Stoll: The only person I could think of that’s participated in the cost of an existing county road was out on Lutterbach Road last year, where we had a resident agree to pay for the resurfacing of the road. I shouldn’t say resurfacing, it changed the road from rock to a paved asphalt surface. But, that’s the only similar situation that I could think of on an existing county road. Now, in a Barrett Law situation, yes, the other residents have participated in that. But, those have always been roads that weren’t previously county accepted.

President Crouch: Any questions? This is a tough one, because it benefits so few people, but it’s also a project that has been lingering on for a long period of time. For that reason I will go ahead and vote for it, but I would hope that in the future we give very, very serious consideration to these projects before taking them on. All in favor?

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

President Crouch: Aye. Opposed?

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: When will that project begin?

John Stoll: It typically takes the contractor a week or so to get their construction bond and their certificate of insurance in to us, and then we would issue them a notice to proceed after that. So, I would say within the next week or two they could potentially start. Given the weather, I doubt if they start just yet, just because it’s all dirt work down there that they’ll have to do, so, they might wait until the dryer period. I’ll let you know when they do get ready.

President Crouch: Do you have any other items that you want to address at this time?

John Stoll: Yes, I need to go get those.

President Crouch: You need your props?

Madelyn Grayson: May I make a tape change real quick?

President Crouch: Please.

(Tape change)

John Stoll: The next thing that I have is a notice to bidders for contract number VC05-05-01, concrete repair of various roads in Vanderburgh County. This will be for street repairs in a number of subdivisions, as was presented on the preliminary road list last week. Those subdivisions and the streets that will be repaired are; Virginia Street, Ashmore Estates, Bob Court, Vogel Road, Eagle Crossing Subdivision, Blue Grass Farms Subdivision, Old State Subdivision, Green River Estates Subdivision, Whispering Hills Subdivision, excuse me, Brookview and Brookview Heights Subdivisions. We have sufficient funds, we think we can get all that work done. In the event that we have surplus monies, after all that is completed, then we can take a look at going in to Evergreen maybe later on this year. Evergreen has some significant costs ahead on it because there are some significant problems with those roads out there. But, if we have enough money we could maybe pursue that later, in late summer or early fall.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, we’ll be putting these out to bid this week?

John Stoll: Yes, it would be advertised this Friday and the following Friday, then we would open bids on May 10^th.

President Crouch: At 3:30?

John Stoll: Yes.

President Crouch: Evergreen Acres, if we don’t have sufficient funds to start that work this year, could we put that for priority, or at least top consideration for next year?

John Stoll: Yes. Yeah, we could just carry that over, similar to like on Harmony Way, that was originally on the paving list last year, but because the water line work prevented that, it just carried over to this year. We could do the same with Evergreen.

President Crouch: Motion for the concrete repair?

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have a request from Klenck Companies, Incorporated, and they are the contractor on the Schaeffer Road bridge project. They are requesting an extra five days of road closure on that project due to the rains we had. It just slowed down their progress. They were originally set up for 45 days of road closure, and they’re requesting an additional four. I would request approval of their four day request.

Commissioner Musgrave: Can we wait?

Commissioner Nix: Is this something we can put off until next week?

John Stoll: I’m not sure exactly when their 45 days of road closure is up. But, if you didn’t have a problem approving it retroactively, if that’s what it comes down to. I’m not sure if it’s up this week or next, but that’s the only issue. Other than that, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Commissioner Musgrave: They had 45 days worth of closure in their contract?

John Stoll: Correct.

Commissioner Musgrave: And they want five more?

John Stoll: Four more.

Commissioner Musgrave: Four more, why wasn’t this brought to our attention sooner?

John Stoll: They wrote us that letter, I don’t remember what the date is there, we got it a few days ago, I just hadn’t brought it before you as of yet.

Commissioner Nix: Let me take a look at it–

John Stoll: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: –and I can come back at the meeting next week. We could retroactively approve it next week.

John Stoll: We could delay it until next week, that’s not a problem.

Commissioner Nix: That’s fine.

John Stoll: The only issue, like I said, would be if their time expired during this week.

Commissioner Nix: Sure.

President Crouch: So, we will hold this?

Commissioner Musgrave: Do we need a motion to defer this until next week? That’s my motion.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I would like to request approval to go to County Council to transfer $25,000 from the Barton Road Culvert Account, which is 2030-4736, and $55,000 from the Burkhardt Bridge 290 Account, which is 2030-4408, to the Stockwell Road Culvert Account, and that is 2030-4735. That would cover change order costs we have seen on that project.

Commissioner Nix: I’ve looked those over and they look fine, they look acceptable.

Commissioner Musgrave: Do you want to make a motion?

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion to approve that, and transfer the funds.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: Commissioner Nix, would you be able to attend that Council meeting along with the County Engineer?

Commissioner Nix: Sure. That’s May the 4^th? Is that correct?

President Crouch: I think that’s correct.

John Stoll: That sounds right.

Commissioner Nix: Yeah, I’ve got it on my agenda already.

John Stoll: Okay. I have the change order for that as well here. The total change order cost right now is $74,997.62. The bulk of that is due to the railroad requiring us to leave all the steel sheeting in place upon completion of the project. That item in itself is adding $55,686.62 to the project cost. The rest of these items were over runs on rip rap, or asphalt, and like the rip rap we’ll be invoicing the city for that. So, we will get reimbursement on some of that, but the single biggest item on here is the railroad. We have in a letter requesting that they reconsider us, allowing us to remove the sheeting, knowing how things go with railroads, I suspect we won’t get any positive response on that, but if we do then we could get that adjusted downward from $55,000. As it stands right now, this will be the change order. So, I would request approval of this as well.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: I think we already had, didn’t we have a motion on that already?

President Crouch: Not for the change order, I don’t believe.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I would like to request your approval to work with Bernardin Lochmueller to get a contract put together for the feasibility study for the USI-Burdette Park bike path. They submitted some information that said that their proposed fee would be $14,000, and by doing that study they could define the path, the route for the bike path, which would in turn allow them to define the scope of work for the design contract much better at a later date.

President Crouch: Excuse me, this is money that’s in Burdette’s budget already?

John Stoll: Yes.

President Crouch: Okay.

John Stoll: I spoke to Steve Craig about it this morning, and he said that’s not a problem.

Commissioner Musgrave: This information would be required for the federal grant process anyway, wouldn’t it?

President Crouch: It would help, yes, to determine the cost more accurately.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay. Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: When I get a draft I’ll forward it to each of you. Next, I have a letter that we need to submit to the Water and Sewer Utility Department. This is on the Jobe’s Lane sewer project. They require that we submit a letter stating that we will repair any deficiencies in the sewer for a period of one year after acceptance of the sewer by the Water and Sewer Utility. They are requesting a statement that says that the sewers lie within public utility easements and street rights-of-way, and they wanted the value of the sewer which we determined based on the bid prices was $179,937.79. I need to submit this to them in conjunction with some other paperwork. Hopefully, we’ll get this on the agenda for the Utility Board to do the final accept this letter.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have a set of street plans that we’re requesting approval on. This is for Dawn Ridge Subdivision, which is at the intersection of Dogwood Drive and Boehne Camp Road. They will build one small cul-de-sac street, the remainder of the streets will front on either Boehne Camp or on Hogue Road. I’ve reviewed the plans and would recommend approval. One item of note is this set of inlets right here is a critical point, they need to make sure that they build that correctly. Otherwise, we would have a situation where the water could sheet across the road and end up on this person’s property. So, I would recommend approval subject to they will have to verify that they hit those elevations on the nose. If not, they will be tearing it out and starting over.

Commissioner Musgrave: Do you need that in the form of a motion?

President Crouch: Please.

Commissioner Musgrave: I make that in the form of a motion with the details as the engineer described.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: There’s the signature line there.

Commissioner Musgrave: Is that it?

John Stoll: The last item that I had was an update on where things stand with Oak Hill Road and St. George Road. Basically, after doing some checking with the consultants and contractors and reviewing the plans with Phil, we had come up with the best way of approaching the project is to close Oak Hill between St. George, between Rode and Keystone Hills Drive for a duration of approximately ten weeks. We’ve got it set up right now to close the road immediately after school lets out, and then have it opened up, Oak Hill opened up again by August 5^th, which would be just in advance of school reopening. The options that were looked at were the temporary traffic signals as was discussed before, which that in itself had some safety issues associated with it. If you put a traffic signal at the north end and the south end of the project, you’ve got all the driveways in between where somebody could turn out of the driveway, and if you’ve got two people turning out at the same time, you could have a head on accident situation in that. So, that wasn’t safe. It was costly. It was estimated to cost around $100,000 by the time we installed the temporary traffic signals, widened the pavement, put in barrier walls to separate the traffic from the construction workers, in order to try and keep those guys safe as well. So, that didn’t seem to be that much of a viable option. Nor did the temporary run around, because the temporary run around isn’t even a legitimate option for the west side of the road because there’s only, I don’t remember the exact dimension, 40 or 50 feet between the road and the houses on the west side of the road between Rode and St. George. So, if we went out and put 24 feet of pavement, temporary pavement out there, and offset that enough from our construction site, enough to allow the workers to work and motorists to continue through, all those people would walk out their front door and have a temporary road right out their front door step. So, that would not be safe, so, that was discarded immediately. We didn’t even try to run any costs on that. The other side of the road, while physically it would fit much better because the houses are set further back from the road, it had problems as well. There’s a lift station up near Keystone’s entrance, so, if we did a temporary run around we would have to leave Oak Hill Road, down around Rode Road, parallel our construction site, and then bring the temporary road back in to Oak Hill just south of the culvert that we’re replacing out there. So, we would still have a road closure period to deal with with that culvert replacement. Here again the costs were rather high, it was $200,000, and we would still have to deal with a road closure for the culvert. It didn’t seem to be that beneficial as well. So, all things considered, in order to allow the contractor to work efficiently and safely, the road closure seemed like the best bet. On the basis of going with the road closure, we could get the project out for bid, I’ll bring a notice to bidders to you next week on the 26^th for your signatures, which would mean that we would advertise it on the 29^th and the 5^th or 6^th, I don’t remember what the following Friday is. We could open bids on the 17^th, and then make an award on the 24^th, which would allow the contractor to get going as soon as school let out.

President Crouch: Then the road, if we did go in that direction then the road would be opened before school starts, is that correct?

John Stoll: The way we wrote the specs, we said no time extensions would be granted for the road closure period. We would allow them to place the final asphalt surface and the final striping during traffic, but they would have to flag traffic. But that would only be allowed during the hours of 8:30 to 2:30 to try and lessen any impacts to school traffic as well. So, the contractor may pursue an option like that, but it would be open to traffic.

Commissioner Nix: That’s just the final overlay and striping and that?

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Musgrave: What incentives or penalties will you put in the contract?

John Stoll: For closure beyond August 5^th it’s $1,000 a day liquidated damages that would be assessed. Likewise, for early completion it’s $1,000 bonus per day, per calendar day.

President Crouch: While I think cost is always a consideration, I believe that safety has to be the overriding factor in our road construction projects. I don’t believe that this Commission would want to sacrifice safety for the sake of convenience. So, I appreciate you looking at that, and will continue to move forward on that project.

John Stoll: We did go ahead and put in a requisition to buy the culvert structure. There was a six to eight week lead time for the manufacturer of the large culvert that we’ve got going in up near Keystone’s entrance, and, so, that wouldn’t delay, that structure itself wouldn’t delay things and cause the road closure to take longer, since we had an annual bid on that, we went ahead and wrote a requisition up, we’ll get a purchase order on that and get the manufacture of that under way. So, hopefully it will be ready by mid to late June. We might be able to save a little time on that as well.

Commissioner Nix: I didn’t know if you wanted to touch on the meeting next Monday evening.

President Crouch: There will be a meeting at Oak Hill Library–

Commissioner Nix: Oaklyn.

President Crouch: –Oaklyn Library, with the Oak Hill Neighborhood Association at 6:00. It will be an informational meeting to share with the residents and concerned parties the project and the details concerning it.

John Stoll: Right.

President Crouch: Any other questions? Any other items?

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks, John.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Crouch: Next department head, Burdette Park. Do we have anything? Nothing? County Highway?

Mike Duckworth: Good afternoon, President Crouch, members of the Commission. Mike Duckworth, County Highway Department. I just wanted to give you a brief update of our county pothole blitz. To this date we have had 128 calls, complaints about troubled areas. Forty three of those from the west side, 52 from the north side, and 33 from the east district. Of those 128, I would say that about 95% of those have been completed. We are still receiving calls, and we’ll continue to correct those situations until we get them done. Our blitz is through this week, but we will always have mix available, weather permitting, to fix any of those areas that we get complaints on. I would also tell you at this time, as we work through our county road hearings that we had, and looking toward how we’re going to utilize our resurfacing money, we’ve taken input from the citizens in each of the three districts, we’ve worked together with the County Engineer in determining their concerns, and we’ve put together, I would say John Stoll has put together a spread sheet that either indicates that it’s something that our department can repair, or it’s something that’s going to be under contract. For instance, as the projects that you’ve just passed in subdivisions for concrete street repair, whether it’s shoulder work or culvert work, or whatever the situation may be, and that report has and is being completed within I would say the next day or so. That then will be put on the county website, www.vanderburghgov.org, and on the right side of that column there will be an area referred to as news items, and underneath that area, county road hearings comments. For those folks that attended those meetings or have some interest in what those areas may mean or what repairs are going to be done in those areas. So, they can pull that up on the website, or, of course, at any time contact our office at 435-5777 to be updated as to what direction we’re going. At some point in time down the road, we’re going to have all that information available, and people will be able to go on line, make not only comments, but file complaints on line with us, and even further down the road be able to map our progress by looking at where our trucks are and what work is being done in the county. So, we’re real excited about that. I just returned from a three day event in Kansas City, it was the American Public Works Association Snow Conference, so, even now, today, when the weather is sun shining outside we are preparing and getting ready for the next snow season so that we can, we can attack snow events, so we can have clear, safe streets for our residents to travel on.

President Crouch: I believe that the Commission office, if I could have a motion for us to send a letter to everyone who attended the road hearings, notifying them that they can go to the website, and they can look to see if their comments or their concerns were adequately addressed on our end.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Mike Duckworth: That’s all I have.

President Crouch: Thank you very much.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks, Mike.

President Crouch: County Superintendent of Buildings.

Jennifer Wigginton: I have one item for approval, in regards to the adult probation and juvenile courts moving over to this building, moving their phone system. We got a quote from Cinergy to make those changes. The total amount is $6,217. One quote is to move all of the phones, and the other one is the ten new phones that they need.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: County Attorney.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Let’s see, I’ve got several items.

Madelyn Grayson: Mr. Ziemer, is your microphone on?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, it isn’t. We have a contract, just a second here, for electric services pursuant to the quote that Wortman Electric, or as to the quote for which Wortman Electric was the low quoter. I obtained a copy of the quote, and with that prepared an electric services agreement, of which I e-mailed you about.

President Crouch: Question–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: It is satisfactory for execution.

President Crouch: – does this Commission have an option if a low bidder, if someone comes in a low bid and they are responsive, do we have the option of denying or refusing that bid?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You have to accept the lowest, responsible and responsive bid. This bid, this was not a bid, it was quote, that’s different, it wasn’t advertised. Quotes were received by the manager, Steve Craig, he opened the quotes, he has the six quotes, this was the lowest quote and he advised the Commissioners of that at the last meeting. With that information we proceeded to prepare a contract.

President Crouch: Mr. Craig, how did the quotes come in? If you could comment on that. The timing of them.

Steve Craig: Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette. The quotes that we’d received, we had given them a deadline, and, I think the winner of the one, Mr. Wortman, was the second one that had came in out of the six that we got. They came in between the time of 3/18 and 4/1.

President Crouch: You’re satisfied that this is the most responsive and lowest quote?

Steve Craig: It’s the cheapest by the hour, and that’s what we were looking for.

Commissioner Nix: And, they met all the criteria, is that correct?

Steve Craig: Yes, sir.

Commissioner Nix: As far as what you were looking for?

Steve Craig: Yes, sir.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval of the contract.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Thank you.

Steve Craig: Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next item I have is the possible execution of a verified petition for rezoning of all but one lot of the eight, nineteen lots that make up the Plating Works Property. We’re prepared to go forward with the rezoning. The petition needs to be executed, and then, Madelyn we would propose to take that with us and we’ll make the copies to file with the Plan Commission and then get one back to you.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’m not sure whether you’re, the Commissioners are ready to go forward with this or not, but we did advise, I believe Kathryn from our office, I’m not sure who she discussed this with, but one of you, relative to the offering of sale of certificates for real estate for parcels that were not sold at either the August or February tax sales. We have the certificates in hand, and I have a resolution which could be adopted, if you’re ready to do so, but we need to know the date, time and place that you would propose to conduct those sales.

President Crouch: Do we have any advertising limitations?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: If it’s to, let’s see what’s spelled out here for advertising.

President Crouch: Would it be possible to defer this until next week?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Certainly it’s possible to defer it for several weeks.

President Crouch: Okay.

Commissioner Musgrave: As we’re deferring it, I remember that the county adopted something similar to the city’s neighborhood bill of rights, and it obligated us to inform neighborhood associations of tax sale properties. So, I just want to make sure that that base is touched as we go through this process. I move to defer this until next week. I think we could probably get the date, time and place down by then.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I e-mailed each Commissioner that the Vanderburgh County Democrat party, who is a tenant of the Old Courthouse, and has a lease that expires August 30, 2005, would like to extend that lease through July 31, 2005. I’ve prepared a third addendum to the lease for your execution, should you desire to do so.

President Crouch: That was April 30^th instead of August? I believe you said August.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The original lease expires April 30, 2005. This is to extend the termination date to July 31, 2005.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s all I have.

President Crouch: New business? Mr. Nix?

Commissioner Nix: I think we have someone here from Cinergy.

Joe Buck: I’m Joe Buck with Cinergy Communications. We have been working with Commissioner Nix and Jennifer on an expansion in the Old Courthouse of our power facilities, serving our communications site there in the Old Courthouse. Over the past several weeks, we originally received approval from Tammy McKinney back when she was taking Jennifer’s place, unfortunately, we were not able to come up with the nearly $200,000 in funds to do it. We now have that and went to do this work and found that we had not jumped through some, some of the Commission’s hoops that we needed to. This morning we’ve gone through the Metro Development group, received the approvals that we needed. We’ve worked with the city arborist to talk about the landscaping on the outside where we’re doing work. What we are doing is we are placing a second generator and a second air conditioning unit on the outside, and then redoing the electrical work on the inside, some of which to match the new electrical work that the Commission has done inside the Courthouse. Additionally, to put some additional power facilities in there that are metered strictly for our use, so that we’re not using the buildings power facilities. The position that we’re in right now is, approximately two weeks ago we had a major outage there that burned some of our transformers up, and we’re running on some emergency facilities right now. So, we’re in a position where we need to get this approved rather quickly in order to move forward.

Commissioner Nix: I’ve had a chance to look over the drawings, and I have no problem whatsoever with you proceeding as long as you secure the permits, the electrical and if there’s any other permits that you haven’t applied for.

Joe Buck: They have been applied for.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, okay. I make a motion that we approve this project.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Thank you for your patience.

Joe Buck: Thank you very much.

President Crouch: Any other new business?

President Crouch: Old business? Old Courthouse Foundation Board ordinance.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’ve been asked to review and prepare such documents as might be necessary to, in general, terminate the Old Courthouse Advisory Board, and to make changes in the articles of incorporation and by-laws of the Old Courthouse Foundation, Inc. In that connection I have sent to each of the Commissioners a proposed draft of an ordinance which would repeal the chapter that created the Old Courthouse Advisory Board, thereby terminating that board. There are members of that board, I assume, at least the ordinance provides for that, and I would assume that we would want to give some notification to the members of that board that the board they now serve on is being terminated, and thank them for their service, or whatever. Secondly, we need to, since the Old Courthouse Foundation, Inc. is a corporation, there is no ordinance that creates that, it’s an Indiana non-profit corporation, we have to deal with that as an Indiana non-profit corporation, and the only, and the change we propose to make is to include, within the purposes of the Old Courthouse Foundation, the general purposes of the terminated Vanderburgh Old Courthouse Advisory Board to make changes regarding the naming of the board of directors, the operation of the corporation, incorporating both the fundraising aspects that it now has, but adding operation and maintenance aspects, which it does not now have. To do that we will have to amend the articles of incorporation and the by-laws of the Old Courthouse Foundation, Inc. That will require getting the consent of the members of the Old Courthouse Foundation, Inc. I don’t know whether they have any members or not, but their articles of incorporation provide for members. If there are members, they would have to consent to any changes in the articles of incorporation. There’s another little wrinkle, there are by-laws for the Old Courthouse Foundation which provide for the way that members of the board of directors are to be appointed. I did not find, on reviewing the article of incorporation and all of the amendments of the articles of incorporation that there is any provision in the articles which authorizes the naming of the board of directors as it’s presently named. So, it’s high time then, perhaps, that the articles and the by-laws are amended to correct this. It’s not a major deficiency, the good people who serve on that board have been doing that, and pursuant to the by-laws of the corporation, but there was no provision in the articles of incorporation of the corporation to permit that. So, it’s a technical violation, but which should certainly be corrected. We, the board members are appointed by various entities, for example, well, I have that somewhere, I’ll just give you some examples; the Commissioners appoint one, then the Commissioners appoint three others; one from real estate, one from management, one from law; then one is appointed by the County Council; one is appointed by the City Council; one is appointed by the Mayor. Anyway, there is a total of 11 individuals. To make any change in the by-laws of that corporation will require the consent of a majority, no, excuse me, of 2/3 of the individuals on that board. So, that means that 8 of the 11 would have to agree to any changes that we’re proposing. So, these are the issues that....oh, and then I did supply each Commissioner with a copy of a proposed form of the by-laws, which we might present to these board members, and the members of the corporation to amend.

President Crouch: Thank you for that update.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You’re welcome.

President Crouch: Any other old business?

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll be meeting with a realtor to discuss, perhaps, getting the Evansville Plating Works under contract for sale, but, if I have a contract available for next week we’ll certainly go through the attorney. Maybe it won’t be ready next week. I will keep you informed.

President Crouch: Thank you. Any other old business?

President Crouch: Public comment. This is an opportunity for the public to comment to this Commission, provided they are brief, because we have our Area Plan meeting starting at 5:00.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me, Madam Chairman, President, if I may, I have another meeting that I have to be to at 5:00, which is also going to be attended by the Governor, and I would like to leave now and Kathryn Daniel is here and she’ll take my place for the remainder of this meeting.

Commissioner Musgrave: As long as you get I-69 started.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thank you.

President Crouch: Public comment.

Jerry Jones: Commissioners, this is Jerry Jones, 4039 Lyle Road. I want to thank you for your passage to get our road elevated. I’ve been coming down here about ten years, and before that my father, when he was alive, he tried, you know, and it will be self-rewarding now to know that we’ll have better police protection, fire, you know. One life, if you lose it back there because of an emergency, is far more worth than what these few dollars is going to cost. I thank you so much. Again, thanks. Appreciate it.

President Crouch: Thank you. Anyone else from the public?

Gerald Jones: Very briefly, Gerald Jones, 3919 Lyle Road. I want to echo the same thing my brother said. Thank you so much. We, years ago we were employees of Burdette Park. We worked there 12 years. I would like to give something back to the county. You’ve helped us. I’ve talked to Brad Ellsworth, I know you’re going to be short on employees, you can’t fund them, I would like to help him and volunteer my services out there. He’s looking into that. My wife is a heck of a hiker, she’s hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. She’s 2,160 miles from Georgia to Maine, and when you get ready for the Burdette Park-USI hiking trail, if she can, in any way, help you, or give you some ideas about the trail, please call us, we’ll look into that. But, I do, again, I want to express my sincere thanks to all of you. It’s a great day. One, I also got to meet the Governor. He’s a good guy, I believe, thank you.

President Crouch: Thank you. Consent items, if the Commission would entertain taking these all together. Oh, I’m sorry.

Roger Bass: Commissioners.

President Crouch: You’ve got to be quick.

Roger Bass: My name is Roger Bass, I live in Bohannon Estates Subdivision. We are petitioning the Vanderburgh County, the undersigned property owners of Bohannon Estates and property owners located on Boonville-New Harmony Road East hereby petition the Commissioners of Vanderburgh County to begin the measures necessary to procure Barrett Law funding for sanitary sewer systems. We have gone ahead with the road project, the surveying was done last week. John Stoll brought it up that it would be a good idea to see if there was any interest in the sanitary sewer systems before they did the road. So, I passed this petition around, and I’ve got it signed by 60%. So, I would just ask that you take it under advisement, or whatever you do to try to make it happen.

President Crouch: Mr. Stoll, is that–

John Stoll: This is the project that I e-mailed you about yesterday. The scope of the work basically would add on to what they’ve already proposed, which is the road work, as Mr. Bass discussed. I guess, the only unknown at this point would be whether or not they could all be lumped into the same project and same bond issue. Because I’m not sure from the Barrett Law prospective whether or not it has to be identical people being assessed identical amounts, but that’s something that Ted would have to look into at a later date, or Kathryn. But, basically, if it could, the neighborhood might save one bond issue cost if they could lump it all into one, of which that would be a pretty good size benefit to the neighborhood group. At this point, I guess, all you need to do is acknowledge that they are going to pursue the sanitary sewer project, and their next step would be the same as the road project and bring us back a set of plans and specs so that we can run a resolution through the meeting with a final cost estimate in it.

Commissioner Musgrave: But, it would be best if they got identical sets of neighbors wanting to do the identical things?

John Stoll: I’m not sure exactly how that would work. I don’t know if the same people that are on this petition match up to the same people who would have the assessments for the roads. But, worst case, I guess, it would be two separate bond issues, and two separate Barrett Laws basically running at the same time.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay.

President Crouch: And, we can ask the County Attorney to look at the legality of that. I’ll entertain a motion to take this under advisement to accept the petition from the neighbors.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Thank you, Mr. Bass, for waiting.

Roger Bass: Thank you.

President Crouch: Now, consent items.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval of the consent items as listed.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. We will start rezoning in ten minutes.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

         Employment Changes:

         County Clerk (1)             Pigeon Assessor (1)       Weights & Measures (2)

         Burdette Park (4)            Superior Court (1)

         Travel Requests:

         County Assessor (1)       County Engineer (1)       Health Department (3)

         SWCD (1)

         Department Head Reports:

         Burdette Park                 County Engineer             County Highway

         Ozone Officer                 Supt. Of Bldgs.               SWCD

         Veterans Service            CIO

         Commissioners:

         EARC: Monthly Report for March 2005

         Southwestern Indiana Regional Development Commission: Grantee

         Performance Report: Jobes Lane

         Vision-e: Monthly Report for March 2005

         Jail Construction Requisition No. 56: $71,200

         Those in Attendance:

         Suzanne Crouch             Cheryl Musgrave            Bill Nix

         Bill Fluty                          Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Jennifer Wigginton

         Madelyn Grayson           Joe Vezosso                   Holly McCutchan

         Z. Tuley                          Jason Perry                    Mitch Daniels

         Brad Ellsworth                John Stoll                        Mike Duckworth

         Steve Craig                     Joe Buck                         Jerry Jones

         Gerald Jones                  Roger Bass                     Kathryn Daniel

         Others Unidentified         Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Suzanne M. Crouch, President

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, Vice President

Bill Nix, Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.