VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AUGUST 14, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 14^th day of August, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Bill Nix presiding.

President Nix: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County, August 14, 2007 at 3:30. I will start with introductions to my far right.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

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

Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

Commissioner Tornatta: Troy Tornatta, County Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

President Nix: If you would, join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Nix: The first action item is opening of bids of VC-30-2007. This is new weapons and accessories. I understand we would like, if everything is acceptable today, possibly get this approved so that we can get this sent off. So, if you want to go ahead with that Mr. Ziemer. The next action item is–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me. You want to have a motion and a second to authorize this.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, so moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Sorry.

President Nix: The first action item is a proclamation for Mr. Kevin Winternheimer who passed away last week. I’ve known Kevin for quite a few years. He and I served together on the Board of Public Works back in the early 2000's, and just a gentleman, and just a great guy, great personality. He always seemed like he had the right answer for everything. He’ll be sorely missed. I didn’t know if Commissioner Tornatta wanted to read the proclamation.

Commissioner Tornatta: Likewise, Kevin, he was probably one of the foremost minds in government, as far as just how things worked, and really did add a lot to whoever he touched. So, this proclamation;

“Whereas, Kevin Winternheimer served four city administrations and one county administration as a legal advisor; and, Whereas, Kevin Winternheimer gave nearly three decades of his life to serving the citizens of Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville by providing leadership in government; and, Whereas, Kevin Winternheimer provided legal counsel that enabled elected officials to represent their constituents and serve the citizens of Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville to the best of their ability; and, Whereas, Kevin Winternheimer passed away on Tuesday, August 7, 2007. Therefore, in honor of this dedicated public servant, Tuesday, August 14, 2007 is herewith proclaimed as Kevin Winternheimer day in Vanderburgh County, Indiana.”

President Nix: Thank you, Commissioner.

President Nix: The next action item is from the County Assessor. This is an update on the DLGF letter. Mr. Jonathan Weaver is here to address this. Good afternoon, or, yeah, good afternoon.

Jonathan Weaver: Good afternoon. Jonathan Weaver, Vanderburgh County Assessor. We received that letter. Last week we sent out our personal property and our real estate data to the DLGF. I’m expecting to hear back by Labor Day. I think that’s a reasonable amount of time. They said wait a couple of weeks. I guess, they announced last week also that Vanderburgh County doesn’t have to reassess. So, we’re very happy about that. We didn’t expect to be ordered to do that. So, this is where we stand.

President Nix: To the best of your knowledge then, do you feel like we’re in compliance at this time?

Jonathan Weaver: Yes.

President Nix: Okay.

Jonathan Weaver: Yes, we sent that off, and, again, we’ll hopefully hear by Labor Day.

President Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would like to just charge you with getting with the Township Assessors and then giving us an update periodically on how we think we’re going to get this big task done. I would like to know where we are in the process, so, if we need to intervene in any way, shape, or form, then we can be there to help.

Jonathan Weaver: Okay, thanks. We have 9,500 appeals. We eclipsed the 1,000 mark. I would like for them to speed it up.

Commissioner Tornatta: 10,000 mark? You said, 9,500?

Jonathan Weaver: Yeah.

Commissioner Tornatta: Oh, you got 1,000 done?

Jonathan Weaver: We’ve finished 1,000 of those 9,500.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, okay.

Jonathan Weaver: So, we have 8,500 to go.

Commissioner Tornatta: Sure.

Jonathan Weaver: You know, the taxpayer wants that corrected on their November bill. So, we need to pick up the pace a little bit. Hopefully, we can get that done. The commercial and industrial trending for 2007 pay ‘08 will be finished September 1^st, or there’s a $1,000 a day penalty in that contract. We hope to be sending the trending on September 17^th to the state. So, we’re hoping the townships step it up and finish the residential by that time.

President Nix: Any other questions? Appreciate your help on this. Like I say, if we can get an update every so often, it would help the Commission out tremendously.

Jonathan Weaver: Okay. Can I say one more thing?

President Nix: Sure.

Jonathan Weaver: We recently, today we received a letter from the Public Access Counselor from the Governor’s office, I guess, saying that we’ve denied access to public records. The offices involved; Knight Township, my office. We have done nothing wrong. We’ve given all the information we can to this attorney in town. You know, we burned a CD-ROM. So, you’ll be probably hearing about that over the next 24 hours.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay.

President Nix: Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: We need to go ahead and move that the proclamation for Kevin Winternheimer, for “Kevin Winternheimer Day”, be entered into the record.

President Nix: I second that. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

President Nix: Mr. Ziemer, do you have the bids ready for this?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I do. Excuse me, I do, but I’ve got a couple of questions. Where is Eric?

Eric Williams: Eric Williams, Vanderburgh County Sheriff.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Sheriff, the bid specifications indicate that we will be purchasing, let’s see, it doesn’t say how many, at least I don’t think it does of each of these?

Eric Williams: It does not. It’s a single item with a total quantity, but we wanted them to bid–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Total quantity is 140, is that–

Eric Williams: It’s probably right at 140. A lot of it was going to depend on how it came back in price.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, so, what we have is a price per weapon?

Eric Williams: Right.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: So, you would then go through these and decide how many?

Eric Williams: It would be very, very quickly to go through, and it will be a pretty easy decision to make. Basically, it’s budgetary, and there’s very little flexibility on quantities on those weapons right now. So, one to several hundreds and hundreds of them was going to be the same.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, my other question is, I understand the allowance they’re giving on trade-in’s for 6R Smith and Wesson, and Smith and Wesson, then it’s got a buy back price each?

Eric Williams: Correct.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: What is that?

Eric Williams: Basically, it works, and this to some may sound quirky, but to those of us in this field, we become very attached to our sidearm. It’s one of the most critical pieces of equipment we carry. So, as we, as law enforcement agencies, and this is what we do when we transition the weapon we’re currently carrying, we offer an opportunity for the deputy that had that weapon assigned to them for the last ten or 12 years to buy that weapon back at the same rate that they are going to pay the county for it. That way if the weapon transfers through a licensed gun dealer, and then they transfer it back to the deputy for his private ownership. The county’s net effect is they get the buy back price. The deputy basically gets first dibs to buy back his issued weapon.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, and the, we only have one bid, and I’m looking for the name of the–

Eric Williams: It’s probably Kiesler’s out of Louisville, Kentucky.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, Kiesler Police Supply. Okay, thank you. Commissioners, we do only have one bid from Kiesler Police Supply in Jeffersonville. Well, yes, and their bid consists of variously described weapons with a per each price, ranging from $424 for some Glocks. Then there is–

President Nix: I think he’s a novice.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Very much so.

Eric Williams: That would be Glocks 37's and 38's.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Right, exactly. Then there are trade in allowances for the 6R Smith and Wesson 5906 and Smith and Wesson 6906, and by back prices listed for those. Since there was only one bid, I won’t read those into the record, but, since there is only one bid, I think we could have the Sheriff look at these during the meeting, and then determine whether we want to award or not.

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. We will see you back here in just a little bit?

Eric Williams: Thank you all.

President Nix: Okay.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thanks.

President Nix: The next action item is the Youth Care Center update. I understand Mr. Phil Heston is here today representing Youth Care.

Phil Heston: Well, this is a surprise visit. You can tell I wore my walking shoes so that I can get out of here fast. I want to apologize, or ask for forgiveness to start with on behalf of the board of the directors of the Evansville Rescue Mission. Up until about four months or so ago, each of our monthly meetings we had been assured that everything was basically on a positive note as far as construction, staff, etcetera. It wasn’t. We were a little bit naive, and none of us individually spending a lot of time over there. This is approximate, but about three or four months ago, why Roger Mason, who you all know very well, was called on to help come back to the mission. Of course, I knew Roger because I’ve been on the board at the mission for over 30 years. Now, having said that, Roger jumped in and has put together a wonderful staff. Quite a number of them are behind us. The construction costs, when the board of the Evansville Rescue Mission voted, and I was one of them voting for it to go along with this situation, we were talking about $1,400,000 construction costs. The Rescue Mission put in $700,000, the county put in $700,000. We work in partnership. The construction costs are coming in at about $450,000 over budget. It’s almost obscene as far as the Mission is concerned, but we’ve dug deeply into endowment funds, things have been paid for. A man by the name of Dave Kishline on the board and I were called in, as you all very well know, some of the security issues over there weren’t on a positive basis, and the girls section wasn’t done. There was bids, we had been told to put the girls section back together it was going to cost maybe $35,000. We got bids about close to $120,000. Dave Kishline and I have been working on it. Those are just, most of those things you all know. Now, on a positive note, September 1 we are off and running. The girls section will be open, we’ll be open for business, it’s already staffed by our staff here, has been for a month or a month and a half. They’ve been doing other things and in training. The security is basically up to date. We found a lot of the door closures and different things were put on a very inferior quality. They’ve all been replaced. We’re feeling good about it. We have been checked, and have passed a recent, surprise inspection. Congratulations to our staff. Physically, come over September 1, but if you want to make a surprise visit and come over tomorrow, we’re close enough that we’re not going to be embarrassed. Thirty or 60 days ago, I’m going to use my walking shoes and get out of there. Dave Kishline was supposed to make this little presentation today on behalf of the Youth Care Center. I just heard he cut his hand. So, that left me. So, sorry you got stuck with me. But, if any questions that I can answer or try to answer, and I might have to turn right around to the staff and Roger and so on and see what they can do.

President Nix: Questions?

Commissioner Tornatta: I don’t, coming back from the Council, I wasn’t on board for this project. It wasn’t for any reason who was behind it, or who was working with it, but very rarely do you have a group that admits when they have maybe taken their eye off the ball. That’s very comforting that you guys were able to do that and then rectify the problem without coming by and crying foul to the county. I do appreciate that. I think Roger, although I don’t know Roger very well, I’ve followed him as he’s done things throughout our city and county, but very nice to have him back. He’s been out at Christian Fellowship Church, and that’s where I’ve been for a long time.

Phil Heston: I’ve been there since day one, by the way.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, and so you’ve got a good guy at the helm. It’s just nice to know that things are getting back in order, and that you guys took the responsibility to make things right.

Phil Heston: Well, we’ve got Brian Cook back with us. Brian worked at the Mission years ago, and his immediate presence, and he’s been back about three weeks, I and others have been working with him, and he’s coming on stream fast. I’m impressed. He’s a good listener. Then he’s a good talker, he speaks up on our behalf. So, it’s good. Good relationship.

Commissioner Tornatta: I’m glad, and I think the Judge is glad to see things underway. Obviously, the reason we want this to work is because we’re keeping families close to home, and we do want to see that. So, all I say, coming from a Council background is that if we can keep things as in order as we can financially, we’ll be backing it all the way.

Phil Heston: Well, and we’re probably looking at the original structure. There was an add-on for all this thing we’re off target on. But, there’s five or six million dollars worth of building there. It’s not just this add-on for what we’re doing now. So, it’s a total structure. We want it to work. Our Christian beliefs and preaching the Gospel message, which we will do, and we thank you for the contract and the opportunity, because the love and caring for these boys and what will be in a few days a girl or two or three or up to five, we’ll take care of them.

President Nix: Thank you very much.

Commissioner Tornatta: Thanks.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Heston.

President Nix: The next action item is Mr. Khris Seger on the PTABOA.

Khris Seger: Good afternoon.

President Nix: Good afternoon.

Khris Seger: My name is Khris Seger, and I’m the Commissioners appointment to the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals here in Vanderburgh County. For the last several years, I think three years now, I’ve been, had the honor of serving as the president of that board. I’m here today at your invitation to give you a little bit of a status update as to where the board stands now with regard to appeals and of progress of resolution of those appeals. Mr. Weaver was up here a moment ago and he touched on this briefly, and I’ll just re-state that, to date for 2006 we have roughly 9,500 property appeals, those including real property and personal property. Jonathan gave me an update earlier, and he mentioned it too, to the board or to the Commissioners here, that we are, we have seen through 1,050 appeals, approximately, that have seen resolution either by way of agreement with the townships and the taxpayers or have come to the Property Tax Board for review and for resolution. Briefly, I can give you a run down as to what the appeals breakdown is for the various townships. We’re looking at approximately 90 appeals in Armstrong Township, Center Township about 200, German we have 67, Union, 80 appeals, Perry we have 900, Scott Township we 137. Then the last two townships, Knight and Pigeon, which make up the majority of our appeals, for Knight we’ve got 4,363, and in Pigeon we have roughly 2,500 appeals. Now, I know that the County Assessor’s office is encouraging the townships to process these as quickly as possible, and too I know the townships are diligently working on getting those processed and to our desks for issuing notices and resolutions on those. Presently the townships are working to find agreement with the taxpayers. Where an agreement is reached, they pass that on to us and we issue a notice to the taxpayer of the changed assessment. Then in cases where we find that the taxpayer and the township cannot come to resolution, those are being forwarded on to our table, to the PTABOA for review and resolution. At this point we’re looking at about 207 that are pending pre-hearing with the County Assessor’s hearing officer, and processing about 25 of those a week. So, we’re ramping up as the appeals are being heard by both the township and the hearing officer of the county board. As I know Jonathan has expressed to the taxpayers and to the townships, I would like to express too that the board would like to see the taxpayers be proactive about their own appeals by getting evidence in to their township assessor and to the County Assessor’s office when those pre-hearing notices are sent out, so that we can process those and give due diligence to the taxpayers.

President Nix: Can you summarize, just kind of in a nutshell, when it gets to PTABOA how do you get to where, how do you end this, or how do you resolve it?

Khris Seger: Typically what happens when it comes to our desk we set a hearing, a pre-hearing, and then our hearing officer will meet with the taxpayer, collect evidence on those issues they’ve outlined in their appeal, and we’ll try to reach some agreement there. That hearing officer will make a recommendation to the board. Provided we can come to an agreement there, then we’ll issue a notice of change in assessment.

President Nix: What evidence is good to bring at one of these if someone is going to appeal this? Adjacent properties, what other items would there be?

Khris Seger: Any evidence that is going to support the value of the property. So, if it’s the neighboring assessments, the neighboring properties assessment, or perhaps a sale on similar properties, that’s all welcome. If they have an appraisal.

President Nix: Okay. Questions? Thank you very much, Mr. Seger.

Khris Seger: You’re welcome.

President Nix: I think Mr. Ziemer has some information, I guess, on the bids that we opened?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, thank you. Sheriff Williams has reviewed the bid of Kiesler Police Supply Company of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and finds it to be in order, and that it would meet the needs of the Sheriff’s Department. So, there is no legal reason why you could not accept this bid at this time.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to accept the bid.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. So moved.

President Nix: Next action item is Mr. Dennis Au from the Old Courthouse Foundation. Dennis is here to give us an update today on where we’re at with everything over at the Old Courthouse.

Dennis Au: I’m Dennis Au, the president of the Old Courthouse Foundation. Thank you for this opportunity to inform you of what we are doing with probably the most important architectural treasure in the county, the Old Courthouse. Probably the most exciting thing that we’ve been doing is we contracted with Veazey Parrott Durkin Shoulders of Evansville and Ratio Architects of Indianapolis to put together a master plan for the Old Courthouse. I have passed out a boiled down version of it for you here. The document is actually much longer. The Old Courthouse Foundation paid for this with our own money. There is no taxpayer funds involved in this. It cost about $25,000. For $25,000 the architects basically described the architectural needs of the Old Courthouse, existing conditions of the site, and of the building, the mechanicals and code considerations. They did, as you’ll see in the material that I passed out, they zoned the building according to historic importance. There are some areas of the Courthouse, obviously, like the attic and the sub-basement that have very little historic importance, and we would say that it’s almost a free for all zone. Yet, there are other areas, like the public corridors and the old superior courtroom which we believe demands careful consideration, if there are any plans for renovation. There’s some recommendations, and we’ve copied the recommendations, you have them in your hands. Then, the architects did do some prioritization of things that need to be done. We put this together because we feel that this will help encourage sensitive renovation in the future. It will encourage appropriate things to be done, and will help organize how it’s done one thing after another, so we don’t put the cart in front of the horse. And, so, that whatever is done is understood to be a part of a larger plan. Also, one of our hopes as a foundation is that we can raise some private and foundation money to help with the renovation of the Old Courthouse. Raising money without a plan is practically impossible. So, we felt that this is step number one in that direction. Moving on from that, we are in the initial stages of implementing part of this plan. Thanks to a $100,000 appropriation from the County, we are looking to renovate the Wedgewood Room. That’s the room that was used for receptions, weddings. Next week we have a meeting with the architects to discuss their proposal on how to move forward with this. We hope to have this on the fast track. We’re excited about this. Indeed one of our plans we’re excited about having, I’ll start with the Wedgewood Room, we hope that in any fund-raising efforts in the future, that we can bring people into an event in this room to show them how we can turn the Old Courthouse around into being one of the most attractive, important buildings in Vanderburgh County. Other counties, Allen County in specific, has in their renovation efforts, raised over half of the money they needed to renovate their courthouse from the private sector. So, that’s where we’re at at the moment. We’re just on the cusp of actually starting the renovation efforts, and we’re very excited about it.

President Nix: Questions?

Commissioner Tornatta: Everything sounds good.

President Nix: Mr. Au, I really appreciate your time on this. I know you’ve put a lot of time and effort into this, along with the other board members, and we really look forward to getting this thing kicked off. Is that meeting next week? Or is that this–

Marissa Nichoalds: A week from Thursday.

President Nix: A week from Thursday, okay.

Dennis Au: A week from Thursday.

President Nix: With the architects. Hopefully, we can get a bid package together and get the Wedgewood Room going at that time.

Dennis Au: Right, my heart is truly in this project.

President Nix: Yeah.

Dennis Au: Thank you for the opportunity.

Commissioner Tornatta: Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is the second and final reading, this is an amendment to chapter 1.14. This is enforcement of ordinances. At this time I would like to ask for public comment on this. If none, is there any questions or concerns from the board? I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: I second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

President Nix: Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: And I vote yes. It passes.

President Nix: The next action item is the closing documents for the Aabel’s Park Barrett Law bonds. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, thank you. Earlier, by e-mail, I sent each of the Commissioners and the Commissioners office various documents needed to finally close the bond issue for the Aabel’s Park Barrett Law project. You’ve had an opportunity to review those. In addition, there was one resolution not touched on in that e-mail, and that had to do with this, that Old National Bank, who is the purchaser of the bonds, in trying to develop re-purchase agreements deems it advisable that the principal payments be made semi-annually instead of annually, and then also they wish to obtain approval from the Commissioners for payment of the cost of issuance. I’ve provided you with a copy of that resolution, and, so, what I ask is that you approve all of the closing documents that were forwarded to you by e-mail, and the additional resolution.

President Nix: Questions from the board?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is resolution CR-, excuse me, CO.R-08-07-008, and this is approval of the Highway 41/Baseline Road TIF expansion. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thank you. As you know, we have been working on, with the County Redevelopment Commission, the establishment of a new University Parkway TIF and the expansion of the Highway 41/Baseline Road, or better some people know that better as the Azteca TIF. Resolutions establishing the new TIF and expanding the 41 TIF were adopted by the Redevelopment Commission. Subsequently, and in conjunction with the adoption of those resolutions, economic development plans for both areas were reviewed and approved. The declaratory resolutions were then submitted to the Area Plan Commission for review by the Plan Commission to see whether or not they were in accord with the development plan for Vanderburgh County. On August the 9^th the Area Plan Commission adopted two resolutions finding that the resolution regarding Highway 41/Baseline and the resolution of the Redevelopment Commission regarding University Parkway did, in fact, meet the development plan of Vanderburgh County. The next step in this process is then for the Commissioners to adopt resolutions approving the action of the Redevelopment Commission. You have copies of those resolutions before you, and, if you wish, they could be approved and signed today.

President Nix: Okay, I guess, do we want to go ahead and approve just, initially, the Highway 41/Baseline first? I guess, for the record?

Commissioner Tornatta: However you want to do it.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s fine.

President Nix: One at a time.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s fine. That one would be resolution number CO.R-08-02-008.

Commissioner Tornatta: O7.

President Nix: 07.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Wait a minute. That’s, seven is University Parkway. Eight is, Madelyn, have I got this right?

Commissioner Tornatta: No, no, you said 02-008.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, sorry.

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: We’ll approve resolution CO.R-08-07-008, approval of the Highway 41/Baseline TIF expansion.

President Nix: And, I second that. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

Commissioner Tornatta: Next, approval of the resolution CO.R-08-07-007, approval of the creation of the University Parkway TIF.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Well done.

Commissioner Tornatta: Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is the Auditor, permission to advertise notice of public hearing of vacation of Royal Oak Drive. The ad is dated 8/17 of ‘07, and the public hearing will be on 8/28.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me. I have reviewed the petition and accompanying documents files by Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates in connection with the vacation of Royal Oak Drive. They’ve sent the appropriate letters to all affected utilities. Vectren, EMC and Insight Communications indicated that they would need, for their purposes, to have easements retained for lines, poles, wires, piping, etcetera of Vectren, EMC and Insight Communications. I have worked with Bernardin Lochmueller to revise both the petition and the ordinance to provide for making the vacation subject to those easements, so, it’s satisfactory to go forward with at this time.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

President Nix: The next action item is the discussion of speed limit on Kissell Road. Is there anyone here today to address this? Please step forward and say your name and your address for the record, please.

Raven Brust: Hi, my name is Raven Brust. I live at 2800 Kissell Road. Okay, the reason I came today is because the speed limit, and, first of all, they just repaved that little road. It’s about .4 miles long, one lane, hilly. They’ve repaved it. It looks great, by the way. They put up speed limit signs. Well, I’ve lived there my whole life, pretty much, and the speed limit, we thought, was about 30. But, of course, we didn’t go down and look it up or anything. And, the speed limit sign that was put up, one at each end, was 35 miles an hour. Okay, when I called to check into that, they said that it had just been lowered from 45. I have some pictures here that I would like to show you, if you don’t mind. Okay, the pictures will tell you what the road looks like. Then, there’s a petition underneath that’s signed by everybody that lives on that road. So, you can see, if you look at the pictures, how narrow it is. I think it’s a safety issue to have the speed limit lowered down to 20. That’s what we would like to see it. Like I said, the reason for the concern is safety. The school bus will not go down that road. The Evansville-Vanderburgh County school bus will not go down that road because there is no place to turn around. They’re probably scared of meeting a car and not having a place to pull in. My children, as you see, there is no sidewalks, so, my kids have to walk to either end of that road to catch a bus. There are other kids on that road too. So, therefore, they’re walking in the road. I don’t think that’s very safe for them. I’m scared they’re going to get hit. The other option is that somebody take them, and I work, I can’t do that. There’s also hidden driveways in there. Teenagers seem to use that road as a cut off. They fly up and down it. My older daughter was hit pulling out of our driveway last year. The one car that hit her was totaled, and her car had extensive damage to it and was shoved into an embankment, which you can see in the pictures. There’s no place to pull off. If you meet a car there, you can’t just pull off the side of the road. You have to stop and back up. With the hills you come over, you can’t see what’s coming over it. If you do 35 somebody’s going to get hurt, if there’s a wreck. I’ve got a couple of, I mean, basically we want the speed limit lowered to 20. The other options that I thought of, which are not even feasible were, widening the road, which is going to cost a fortune, or putting sidewalks in, which would add to it too. But, we would just be happy if you would lower it down to 20 and put a few speed bumps if you want.

President Nix: I don’t think we–

Raven Brust: Any questions?

President Nix: –well, I don’t think we do speed bumps.

Raven Brust: Okay.

President Nix: I’ll have to say that. Okay, thank you very much. I would like for Mr. Mills to step forward. Oh, I’m sorry.

Commissioner Tornatta: I wanted to get that back to them, just so they had a chance to look at it before they came up. It was very nice of you to have those pictures.

Raven Brust: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: I’ve got, it looks like 17 family members–

Raven Brust: Uh-huh.

Commissioner Tornatta: –that signed this. How many are on the road?

Raven Brust: Actually, let’s see, two, four, six, eight, ten, 12, not counting children.

Commissioner Tornatta: There’s 12 houses?

Raven Brust: No, there’s only, what did I say, four houses? One, two, three, four, five, six houses on the road.

Commissioner Tornatta: And, everybody on the road signed this?

Raven Brust: Yes, and more.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay.

President Nix: Any other questions? Thank you. Mr. Mills, if you could step forward please. Good afternoon.

Brad Mills: Good afternoon. We did do a speed study out on Kissell Road, April 4^th of this year. The key factor that helped to determine what we should post a speed limit is the 85^th percentile speed. That speed, based on the information that was collected out there is 34.89 miles per hour. So, that would support a 35 mile an hour speed limit. One of the other things at, looking at the photographs that she brought in, one of the recommendations that is done for transportation nationwide to help with traffic calming is to narrow down a road so that people will be uncomfortable traveling at a higher rate of speed and slow down. So, the nature of the road being narrow is in itself a traffic calming type of situation. So, you all can post a speed limit at whatever you wish to post it. However, if you post it at 20 miles per hour, I mean, it’s a nice, straight, open road, if there’s no one on there to meet up on the roadway, they’re going to travel at whatever speed they’re comfortable. Unless you have enforcement out there and the Sheriff’s Department out there, then it’s really not going to solve that problem.

Commissioner Tornatta: Is it, it was just now posted, am I correct?

Unidentified: Yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, because I had one of your fellow neighbors inquire to me about there was not anything out there at the time. So, there is something out there at the time that was posted, right?

President Nix: Ms. Brust, if you could step back up please. I’m just curious, the signs were just put up in the last few days? The 35, is that correct?

Raven Brust: Actually, it’s been three weeks.

President Nix: Oh, they’ve been up for three weeks. Have you noticed any change at all?

Raven Brust: In the speed?

President Nix: In the traffic, the speed they’re driving now.

Raven Brust: No. I don’t meet a lot of cars, because I work 12 hour shifts. So, when I leave it’s live 5:00 a.m. in the morning, and when I come home it’s about 7:30-8:00. So, I personally myself have not seen any change in any kind of traffic. What I’m mainly concerned about is school starting and the teenagers that cut through. They fly.

President Nix: Okay, can we hold just a second and change the tape?

(Tape change)

President Nix: Okay. Mr. Mills?

Brad Mills: One other thing that we could do is allow the traffic to get accustomed to the posted speed limit for a couple of months, then we could go out and study it again. Then we would have some data to see how effective the posting has been. If it’s lowered it some, if they’re still traveling at the same speed, or even faster, posting it at a lower speed really is not going to solve your problem. But, we would be willing to go back out there, at your request, to study it again in a month or two and see what kind of effect we’ve had.

President Nix: Would you be acceptable, or would you be agreeable to that for the time being to see if that’s going to work?

Unidentified: (Inaudible)

President Nix: If you’re going to, you need to step up. Please say your name and address for the record.

Delbert Hozappel: Delbert Hozappel.

President Nix: I’m sorry. Go ahead now.

Delbert Hozappel: Delbert Hozappel.

President Nix: Okay, and what’s your address please?

Delbert Hozappel: 2810. I was the only house out there for years.

President Nix: 2810 Kissell Road?

Delbert Hozappel: Yes.

President Nix: Okay, thank you.

Delbert Hozappel: We have a problem, a lot of times in the winter they go sled riding on this hill, because a lot of cars can’t get up and down it. But, they fly up and down, like she says, when they come from Fischer Road they go pretty fast and they go down the hill and they come up. That’s fine, but you can’t see if anybody’s coming over the top of that hill from the other way. You cannot do 35 on that road. I’ve tried it, and it, you just can’t do it unless you come from one end.

President Nix: Okay, thank you.

Delbert Hozappel: Thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: There’s a set way that the city and the county, for that matter, goes about this process. One way is to do a study, and then do an 85 percent study on that. Now, the first thing that we do, what we did is, we did get a speed limit sign out there. I think that’s going to be very important. A, that tells people, even though there wasn’t a sign, it’s going to tell them that we are looking at that. It also lets our law enforcement go out there and enforce it. So, I think I know where the President of the Commission is going, and I think what we would like to do is to let that sit for a couple of months, review it at that point. If it’s set too high, he’ll have the data to be able to lower it, and that will protect us as a county. We also have law enforcement that we will let know that they can go out there and start to enforce the 35 mile an hour rate. I think you’ve seen it even along school zones, there have been a lot of people pulled over because they are not going by the 20 mile an hour school zone. So, I think we can do this a couple of different ways. I would like to keep consistent throughout the county how we do the process, and not just pick and choose where we’re going to throw out speed limit signs. So, hopefully, that will satisfy you for a period of time by which we can then rectify the problem, if there is truly a problem, in the near future.

Raven Brust: Okay, that’s okay, but can you give me a time line? When you’re going to do it? When you’re going to have the results? And when and what do we do if we’re not happy with them?

President Nix: Mr. Mills, I didn’t know if, you had mentioned something about a month or two. Do we want to wait a month and then take a look at it?

Brad Mills: Yes, I mean, we can do it in another month, would be fine, approximately.

President Nix: Okay.

Brad Mills: Depending upon what other traffic counts we’re doing, because we use the same pieces of equipment for our traffic count program. But, we would be happy to program it in in about a month–

President Nix: Okay.

Brad Mills: –and then come back and report to you and provide the information to her and to you as well.

President Nix: Could we communicate with the families that are involved here to maybe have them come back, with our findings at that time then? Would that be acceptable to you all then?

Raven Brust: That would be okay with me.

President Nix: Okay.

Raven Brust: Yeah, if I know when it is, I’ll be here.

President Nix: I guess, we just need to get your names and addresses. Well, we’ve got, I guess, we have those for the record, so.

Raven Brust: I have one question, and I don’t know if it’s more for you, if you have teenagers driving through there doing...thank you. If you have teenagers driving through there and they’re doing like 35 or 40, 35 is the speed limit, let’s make them speeding, 40, I don’t think you can go that fast down that road, but if they did, and the speed thing that you use picks up that they’re driving 40 miles an hour down there, does that study indicate that that road is sufficient for going 40 miles an hour? I mean, obviously, you can drive 40 miles an hour down it, but is it safe? Will your study tell me that it’s safe for my kids to be out on that road when it’s 35?

Brad Mills: Basically, what the study does is it records every single vehicle that passes over the piece of equipment that we have in the roadway, and it does not say that it’s safe for your child to be out on the road. It’s not safe for any child really to be out in the road. You don’t want your children out in the road, but it would tell you what the 85^th percentage of traffic speed would be, which typically is what would be an appropriate speed for that type of facility. If it was a four lane divided highway, of course, they’re going to be going very fast, it would show a higher speed. That would be more acceptable. If it was a very winding road, even if you had it set at 45 miles an hour, if it was unsafe to travel at that speed, traffic naturally will slow down. Of course, you will get few people that will go too fast, might have a nice sports car that can go 70 miles an hour, however, if it’s inappropriate for that, the average person, or the 85^th percentile, is what we use, person, would drive at an appropriate speed for the facility that they were on. Does that make sense? No?

Raven Brust: Yes, it makes sense, except that, again, teenagers are driving through there and they’re going to speed on through. So, when you do your study, if the average car, 85 percent of the traffic on that road goes 50, we’re just going to use that because it’s pretty outlandish, goes 50 miles an hour, if eight out of ten of those cars are driven by teenagers and goes 50 miles an hour, your study will show that that is a safe, not safe, forget the safe, but that is the average speed, and you would post it at that. Is that how it works? I mean, I know those are outlandish speed limits, but is that how it works?

Brad Mills: What we do is, we take all of the trips that are on the roadway. So, that would include, as you’re pointing out, teenagers that might be speeding. Let me just read through the numbers that we had for the study that we did in April. For 10 to zero miles per hour we had eight vehicles traveling through; 11 to 15 we had nine; 16 to 20 we had three; 21-25 miles an hour we had nine; 26 to 30 we had seven; 31 to 35 we had nine; 36 to 40 we had four; and 41 to 45 we had two. No vehicles were faster than that speed. So, we don’t really have anybody, based on this information, that anyone is driving over 45 miles per hour. So, the speed limit that we’re suggesting is at 35 miles per hour is the 85^th percentile of that. So, but, the majority of the trips were 35 miles per hour or less. We only had six cars that were over 35 miles per hour.

Commissioner Tornatta: And that was without a marked sign on the road.

Raven Brust: Yeah, you’re right.

Commissioner Tornatta: What we’re counting on is that sign is going to affect the traffic flow. If we give it a couple of months, do a study, maybe we’ll find out that we’re actually in compliance on the road.

Raven Brust: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay? But, thanks for the concern, and, I mean, we’ll have you back and review it.

Raven Brust: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay?

President Nix: Thank you.

Raven Brust: Thank you for explaining it all.

Brad Mills: Sure. You’re welcome.

President Nix: Next action item is contracts, agreements and leases. I guess, the first one is the Health Department. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, thank you. We have two grants for the Health Department. One is a bioterrorism grant, and it is an extension of a previous grant. The previous grant was $45,554. This amendment would increase the amount of that grant by $7,592, and extend the time for expenditure of the grant from August 31, 2007 through December, no, excuse me, from August 31, 2007 through October 31, 2007.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The second grant is for a local public health coordinator. Wait a minute, no, no, excuse me, the second grant is for the WIC program, and that’s Women’s, Infants, and Children’s program. The earlier grant ran from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007. This is now a new grant extending that from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008. This grant is for $418,516, whereas the earlier grant was for $407,161. This is a new grant for $418,000, and it is satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: While we’re dealing with the Health Department, can we check just the totals on our program, NaCO program?

President Nix: Do you have those handy?

Commissioner Tornatta: Our prescription drug program.

Gary Heck: Yes. Gary Heck, Vanderburgh County Health Department.

President Nix: Good afternoon.

Gary Heck: Good afternoon. Vanderburgh County, and this is as of July 30^th, that’s with three months one week reporting, we’ve had 8,427 utilizers, that’s county individuals who have attempted to purchase, or have purchased 17,605 different prescriptions. In 14,373 of those cases, the NaCO prescription drug discount plan was least expensive and saved money. That’s 81.64 percent. It saved $169,667.75, which is an average savings of $9.64. That is a percentage of savings of 21.77 percent. So, from a county perspective, it’s an excellent deal, and you certainly have gotten your money’s worth out of your membership with this program.

President Nix: About how many cards do you have out? Do you know that off hand, Mr. Heck?

Gary Heck: Well, I know that all together we had about 60, or excuse me, 37,000 cards, roughly, and about 90 percent of them are actually out in the hands of the pharmacies. We’ve had two pharmacies that ran through the first 500 they were given, and both of those received a second, and they went through those, and they’re on their third allotment. So, there’s two stores that are very, very active.

President Nix: Could you tell the public how these cards can be gotten?

Gary Heck: You can go to any pharmacy in Vanderburgh County and they have them at their prescription counter. That’s the easiest way. Of course, they are also available at about probably 20 additional sites. Originally Old National Bank branches had them, they were held at the Sheriff’s Command Post, they were held out at the Vanderburgh County Jail, they were held at Work One, they are all over the place, and they are all available at the Health Department’s website under the National Association of Counties cards.

Commissioner Tornatta: And, Tornatta Tire.

Gary Heck: Did I? Maybe I did bring you some.

Commissioner Tornatta: I got a pack.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I have a question.

Gary Heck: Sure.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I know that these are for folks that do not have insurance.

Gary Heck: These are for anybody.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: But, they cover uninsured, they cover, they don’t cover drugs that are covered by insurance, as I understand it.

Gary Heck: This particular program is good as long as you are a resident of Vanderburgh County. You can be a millionaire, and as long as your insurance plan doesn’t cover this particular prescription drug that you want to purchase–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s the question that’s been asked me, under the Medicare program, and supplemental plans, there’s that donut hole that you might have heard with regard to drug purchases. For example, I don’t know the exact numbers, but say it covers drug purchases up to $2,000, and then there’s a period from $2,000 to $4,000 where you have to pay it yourself, it’s not covered by the drug program. Then, after $4,000 it kicks back in again.

Gary Heck: Right.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: During that period from $2,000 to $4,000, would this program provide benefits?

Gary Heck: My understanding of it is you have the opportunity to use it that way, and it’s an individual person’s choice, because if they choose to use this card, that means that they’re spending less money, and it means their opportunity to get to the $4,000 where Medicaid picks up again–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Is slower.

Gary Heck: –is slower.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, I got ‘ya.

Gary Heck: So, if they know their own personal history, and that they’ll never get to that point anyway, then they certainly can choose to use the card.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I see.

Gary Heck: But, it becomes and individual case by case decision.

President Nix: But, at the same time, it never hurts to present the card every time you pick up a prescription.

Gary Heck: They do. They use it for pet prescriptions, it’s just amazing, well, you can see the number of folks that have saved money. It’s been a great program.

President Nix: Good.

Commissioner Tornatta: And, they will get the lowest price. No matter whether the card is the lowest price, they will tell them that the pharmacy might have the lowest price.

Gary Heck: Well, yeah, as Commissioner Tornatta said, let’s look up here real quick, in 18.36 percent of the time, 3,232 times the pharmacy had the cheaper price. So, that does happen. I mean, for instance there’s a pharmacy that sells prescriptions for four dollars, that might be cheaper than what you could get it under this program for. But, it’s a certain number of drugs. So, it’s a great program. You all did a great job when you selected to go with it.

Commissioner Tornatta: We would like to thank the Health Department for all the hard work they’ve put into this, and their board’s been behind it 100 percent, along with Sam and Doc, and, Gary, we appreciate all you’ve done in just getting the thing going. I think because we had a collaborative effort, especially with some city, or some County Council people, I think it really made it a positive, worthwhile product.

Gary Heck: Okay, and I didn’t give you any of the state wide numbers, but, I think we included those in the reports that we sent to you, and I’ll give you these so you can see how Vanderburgh County compares with the rest of the state.

Commissioner Tornatta: We are actually sixth in the nation on this program. Looking through the past, some of the past occurrences and what other state, actually counties in the United States have done, we’re sixth out of all the counties. So, we’re doing a bang up job on this program.

President Nix: Good. Thank you.

Gary Heck: Thank you.

President Nix: I guess, the next action item is Mercy Ambulance/AMR addendum. I guess, that’s not ready at this time.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s not.

President Nix: Okay. The next action item is County Highway and Garage, Ivy Tech Bookkeeper/Payroll assessment agreement.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: This would be an agreement between the County and Ivy Tech for providing assessment services for potential employees of the County Garage. Ivy Tech would charge $210 for potential employee assessment. An assessment would take place at Ivy Tech, and the time would involve four to six hours of the prospective employee’s time to be assessed. The expenditure is recommended by the County Highway Department, and I’m advised by Mr. Duckworth that he does have funds that have been appropriated to cover this cost.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would like to move approval.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you. The next action item is Superior Court agreement with VAF Financial, Incorporated for a copy machine lease.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, they wish, this is a copy/scanning machine, and the lease price for this would be $498.90 per month for 48 months. I had an original concern about the lease because it did not cover the event of non-appropriation of funds in any subsequent year of the 48 month period. I’m advised by the Superior Court drug program that the payment of these lease payments would be made out of user fees, which are collected by the program at the rate of $500 per participant in the program, and they would intend to use funds in that user fee account, which doesn’t require appropriation by the County Council to make these lease payments. Therefore, I withdrew any objection to the agreement, and it’s satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you. The next action item is Indiana Criminal Justice Institute grant award letter and drug and crime control division programs, certified assurances and special provisions. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay. This is a continuation of a grant program. I have reviewed the grants and it sets forth the grant amounts, and I find it satisfactory. The grant amount, federal portion, is $36,322, and the local match is $24,215, and I’m advised by Judge Trockman that that amount, the amount of the local match has been appropriated, and the grant will run through December 31^st of this year.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

President Nix: Department heads. Mr. Stoll?

John Stoll: The first item I have is a request to approve some right-of-way offers for the Green River Road-Millersburg Road project. The two parcels are; parcel five owned by Dean, and the offer amount would be $44,900, and parcel 22 owned by Heilman and the offer amount would be $41,600. Both of these are based on the appraisals that had been completed for this project.

President Nix: I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Next is a request for a right-of-way offer on the Green River Road project. This is parcel 25 owned by Jeffrey Head, and the offer amount is $1,500.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Next, I’ve got an amended right-of-way offer on the University Parkway project. The owner is Herschelman, and the offer amount is $135,200, which is a few hundred dollars less than the amount you had previously approved. They found that there was an error in the appraisal.

President Nix: We like less.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Then, next I have the Green River Road, IDEM Notice of Intent letter that needs to be signed and then submitted to IDEM notifying them of the land disturbing activities for that Green River Road widening.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Next, I have another right-of-way offer. This is for the Bromm Road culvert replacement project. The property owners name is Link, and the offer amount is $1,000.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: The last item I have is a set of amended plans for the Bohannon Estates Barrett Law project for the street repairs. As the contractor progressed with the construction, they had some conflicts with a water main. Basically, the water main wasn’t as deep as what it’s supposed to be. It has as little as 1.4 feet of cover in some locations. So, the engineer, Easley Engineering, had to go back and make some modifications in order to miss the water main, in order to avoid a costly and lengthy process of getting that water main relocated. In doing so, they have amended the plans to change the ditch grades and ditch side slopes for the ditches along Bohannon Drive. Basically, the ditch side slopes are being switched from four to one to three to one side slopes, and then the ditch grades will be shallowed up in order to provide some additional cover on the water main, as well as the water services across the road. It will also necessitate changing, I believe it is three culverts to 12 inch pipes, where they previously had shown 15 inch. But, all in all, based on the water main problems, it sounds like this is the only way we could avoid the relocation of the main. So, I would recommend approval of the plans as amended by Easley Engineering.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Appreciate your time on that the other day too, meeting with the families out there.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me. If we could at this time, there was, there’s a possibility that there’s someone in the audience who wants to speak about Bohannon Estates. I did e-mail the Commissioners about that. Do you want to see if–

President Nix: Is there anyone here? I wasn’t aware that they were going to show up.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, okay.

President Nix: Okay, thank you.

John Stoll: And, Justin Shofstall, Andy Easley and I met with four residents of Bohannon yesterday, and, I think that probably addressed their concerns as far as what could or couldn’t be done in regard to design changes that would also increase the costs.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thank you.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Nix: Anything else?

John Stoll: That’s it.

President Nix: Thank you, John.

President Nix: Any other department heads? Mr. Ziemer, do you have anything else?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes. You’ve also been apprised of this through communication from me, but just for the record, in April of 2006 the county sold a piece of real estate at 5000 Bayou Creek Road to an abutting land owner for the highest bid for that property, which was $2,000 plus the cost of advertising and related fees in connection with that transaction, for a total of $2,682.20. That sale was conducted pursuant to approval of the sale by the Indiana Housing Finance Administration. Subsequently we have been contacted by FEMA saying that the Indiana Housing Finance Authority had no right to permit us to sell that real estate. We have asked FEMA to supply us with documentation indicating that. They’ve been unable to do so, but they’ve indicated that if we don’t reacquire the property that the original grant funds of some $600,000 may have to be replaced. We also questioned that. Notwithstanding all of that, we did discuss this with the purchasers of the property, and they now feel that there’s such limited use of the property given the various grant restrictions that they’re willing to reconvey the property back to the county in return for being repaid their costs for the property plus six percent interest. That comes to $2,896.48, and we recommend that the county do reacquire this property from Mr. and Mrs. Riger. What we would like to ask is that you authorize the repurchase of the property for $2,896.48. The acceptance of a deed to that property from the Rigers.

Commissioner Tornatta: On legal counsel, I motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. I guess, one question, Mr. Fluty, I don’t know if you can help us with this, funds for that?

Bill Fluty: Okay, I’m ready. I talked to Ted, and, yes, it would be paid out of Judgements and Refunds. So, that’s not a problem.

President Nix: Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Then, the only other item I have is I was contacted some time ago by Evansville attorney, Paul Black, representing Wayne Fehd, who is the owner of some real estate out near the Kansas Road bridge. I’ve also advised you about this by e-mail. The Kansas Road bridge was vacated by the county, in my opinion, following all legal prescription in that regard. Nonetheless, as a result of that vacation and the condemnation of real estate of Mr. Fehd and others for the development of I-164, he now finds that he owns a piece of property which is landlocked. He cannot get to it, except on foot. He pays real estate tax on the property. He can’t farm it, because he can’t get to it. In addition, there is a SIGECO pole with wires on that property, if it fell there would be no way for SIGECO to get to that real estate to repair the pole and the fallen wires. Mr. Fehd is asking for whatever assistance the county might be able to provide to assist with this dilemma. Mr. Fehd is with us this morning, this afternoon, as well as his attorney, Mr. Black, and I believe they want to make a presentation.

Paul Black: Good afternoon.

President Nix: Can you hold just a second please? We need to change the tape again.

Paul Black: I’m not going to be that long.

(Tape change)

President Nix: Go ahead.

Paul Black: Thank you, members of the Commission. I want to begin by thanking Mr. Ziemer and the County Engineer, Mr. Stoll, for the work that they have done in assisting us to get to this particular point. Mr. Ziemer’s given you a pretty good background of how this happened. I want to put it in a little more perspective, if I can, for you, and I’ve got to do a lot of it based upon information that preceded my representation of the Fehd’s. This goes back some time to the I-164 condemnation that was coming through on the east side, which is almost the Warrick County line. John Carroll at that time was representing the Fehd’s in the condemnation proceeding, and the I-164 bisected a farm, a fairly large tract of farm. There were awards made as a result of it. It was mutually unsatisfactory to everybody. So, it was probably a pretty good award. At the time, the 40 acre tract, which is on the east side, north of what is Kansas, what used to be Kansas Road, was left severed by I-164. They were compensated for that. One of the reasons that they were compensated for the way that they were, and I’m comfortable in this, is that there was still access to the 40 acre tract , which is on the east side that’s the subject matter of what the dilemma is about. In 1990, actually it was started in 1986 and 1987, the County Commissioners began looking at vacating Kansas Road, which is on the south side of this 40 acre tract, and includes a bridge, which is right abutting the county line across what’s called Blue Creek?

Bonnie Fehd: Blue Grass.

Paul Black: Blue Grass Creek. Blue Grass Creek is not a legal ditch. It was not required by the county to be maintained or cleaned, and has not been. I want to get to that point in just a moment as to how that’s added to the problem. Mr. Ziemer is correct, we take no issue with the appropriateness of the condemnation, or, I’m sorry, of the vacation that occurred. Actually recorded in, and, Mr. Stoll, if I misspeak any of this, please feel free to correct me on this. You’ve done your homework on it. It was recorded in April of 1990. The earlier condemnation, or the earlier vacation was spoken to by the Fehd’s when they did notice of it, and I think this was reflected in the e-mail of Mr. Ziemer, where they indicated our, well, we don’t have any particular vacation problems, but we do have a bridge problem, because that’s an access. I would like to be able to see something done, had a proposal there, if you could put a couple of box cars, a couple of things, it would be absolutely no problem to fix it at that time. That went away, the vacation didn’t occur. It reappeared in 1990. It was, as far as we can tell properly advertised in the newspaper. It said that Mr. and Mrs. Fehd got notice of it. We can’t deny that they did. The net effect of what has happened is that the vacation of Kansas Road in 1990, and the bridge that went across it, there was no problem vis-a-vis those two things interlocking, which was the I-164 bisecting the farm, and the 40 acre tract there, until this creek that was not a county ditch, was not an official ditch began through certain processes of what’s the legal term, Ted, about creeks and things that flow down toward it.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: We have the county drainage engineer here, I mean, the County Surveyor here. What would that be, Mr. Jeffers?

Paul Black: Is that (Inaudible)? Whatever it is. The tree limbs and things that fell on it would come down, and finally destroyed this bridge. Now, this bridge is not exactly a work of art to begin with. It was one that wasn’t expect to last past about the mid 80's or late 80's at the very best. It has, since that time, destroyed the bridge. I want to tell you what we had done before we came before you and before we bothered Mr. Ziemer and the County Engineer, who have been marvelous in their response. There was, there still is a power easement that goes across that property. We worked, we attempted to work informally, and there’s also a petroleum line easement. We attempted to work with the owners of those easements to make, to see if there wasn’t some common ground where we all had something in common to preserve access to this particular parcel. We were met with, we weren’t met, and it was less than enthusiastically received. One of the things that we did do, and this has happened, Ted, since you and I have last talked, is that we did put Vectren on notice of the problem that they might have for access in case that cable came down across I-164 and they couldn’t get to it. Well, they have now gone in on foot and cut down the power line on the property. These poles now lie on that 40 acre tract and we can’t get to them to remove them either. They don’t care. I think they have re-routed that line. So, where at one point in time where we had hoped that the county might be able, through its influence with the power company, to be of assistance to us in replacing that, is probably removed. We’re probably the cause of it, because we went to them in the first place and asked them for the assistance, or alerted them to the problem. I want to cut to the chase. As far as we know, this is the only land, this is the only property in Vanderburgh County who by virtue of the facts that we’ve gone through has wound up with 40 acres of landlocked property that can’t be used for anything. It can’t be sold. It can’t even be crop insured, because it doesn’t have access. It can’t be farmed. They’re paying taxes on it every year, never missed a tax payment. It’s useless. Mr. Ziemer indicates in his e-mail, and I want to give Mr. Fehd a chance to fill in any blanks that I have his opinion, and I cannot seriously disagree with it. I may later on, and I reserve the right to do that, with all due respect. That we don’t have a gun to point to your head right now. What we’re looking for is assistance. We’ve looked for that, and I think we’ve been fairly hat in hand candid with everybody from this day forward, but there was some property to the north of that that a bridge was constructed some time ago to give access to another tract of land that was...what’s the name of it?

Wayne Fehd: Ziliak.

Paul Black: Ziliak, I don’t know if it was done in connection with that or not. We asked Mr. Stoll if he was aware of any other parcels where this had been the net result to a landowner in Vanderburgh County who’s continued to pay access. I think the answer, Ted, to that question was, no, I’m not aware of any other place. This is a unique situation. Now, as Mr. Ziemer will undoubtedly point out to you, and I think correctly so, is that we have to be very careful that we are not looking