VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

AUGUST 15, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 15^th day of August, 2006 at 3:32 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with Vice President Bill Nix presiding.

Commissioner Nix: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County, August 15, 2006 at 3:32. First, introductions to my right.

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

Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

Commissioner Shetler: Tom Shetler, County Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

Commissioner Nix: If you’ll join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

Commissioner Nix: First item on the agenda is approval of the prior minutes.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: I second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: The next item is action items, County Auditor, permission to advertise notice of public hearing. This is a petition to vacate 15 feet of public utility easement at 501 Metro Avenue.

Madelyn Grayson: The advertisement date will be Friday, August 18^th, and the public hearing is scheduled for September 5^th.

Commissioner Nix: Okay. I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Next on the agenda is contracts, leases and agreements. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, the first contract is the Maternal Child Health Care Grant. This is similar to, actually it’s identical to a grant like that that we received in 2005, except the amount of it is slightly less, $142,067, instead of $151,135. It runs from October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007, and it’s satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Shetler: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: We have an existing agreement with Beam Longest to do some consultation work for construction specifications, John, for what project?

John Stoll: The supplemental agreement is for the Green River Road and Lynch Road intersection design project. The original agreement did not include any traffic signal design services. Once the project was designed, it basically required a total replacement of the traffic signal. So, that’s what the supplemental is for, to cover the–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: And it adds an additional $6,000 to the cost of the agreement, and its’ satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Shetler: John, I was out there today, and I noticed that we are doing, apparently, some shoulder type of work along Lynch Road, that would be east of Green River Road, that would be kind of like the right turn lane off of that far side there.

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Shetler: I guess, that’s all part of the whole improvements. For some reason, I had understood it to be more within the, I guess, the south side of Lynch Road where the majority of the work, or all of the work was going to be going.

John Stoll: There are turn lanes being added on the east, west and south legs of the intersection, and also a raised median being installed on the south leg. The traffic justified adding the turn lanes. So, in conjunction with the work on the Green River Road approach, it was, this was the appropriate time to go ahead and add the turn lanes on Lynch as well.

Commissioner Nix: I had spoken to Mr. Stoll the other day about the turn lane coming south on Green River into the–

John Stoll: Davis Lant Drive?

Commissioner Nix: –Davis Lant, that now that the light on Lynch is in place, that there won’t be any left turns into....that’s Davis Lant, is that correct?

John Stoll: Correct.

Commissioner Nix: The left turn would have to be done at the next, not intersection, but turn lane.

John Stoll: It actually lies immediately north of the bank–

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

John Stoll: –in the shopping center.

Commissioner Nix: Is there a name for that?

John Stoll: No, it’s a private access road.

Commissioner Nix: I was going to say, that left turn, right now there’s not really a left turn there at all, which, I guess, in just a few days that will go away. There will either be some delineator posts or–

John Stoll: We’ve got “No Left Turn” signs requested. I haven’t talked with the contractor as of yet as far as trying to see where he is in his schedule to try and block the left turns without having to go to the expense of adding the delineator posts.

Commissioner Nix: Right.

John Stoll: So, if they can give me an approximate schedule, their work might eliminate the need for delineators.

Commissioner Nix: Yeah, that would be great if they could do something temporarily. Then, also coming out of, from that drive, right turn only, then. There won’t be any left turn on to Green River headed south then?

John Stoll: Correct.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

John Stoll: And, the sign, the work order for the signs for no left turn for westbound traffic exiting Davis Lant Drive, and no left turn for southbound traffic on Green River to enter Davis Lant has been requested. I’m not sure if they’re up as of yet, but we’ve put in that work order. So, we’re trying to get that taken care of.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Shetler: How many feet further south will that island go beyond that Davis Lant Drive?

John Stoll: It will run to approximately the south line of Heritage Park Subdivision, because the settlement agreement didn’t allow for blocking the drive immediately north of the bank, we had to end up providing a small left turn lane. So, that way the people who are turning left into that drive wouldn’t be turning left out of a through lane on Green River. So, there’s probably a hundred foot left turn lane for southbound traffic, and the remainder of it will be left turn lane for northbound traffic, but the median runs that entire distance all the way down, approximately to that bank entrance.

Commissioner Nix: So, the median will probably go about as far as the hash marks are now, and then it would come into a left turn lane then, is that right?

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Nix: Because the hash marks go on beyond the delineator cones now.

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Shetler: Is there anything we can do, I think it’s, what, scheduled for completion, what, mid-October? Or early October?

John Stoll: It’s, I believe, late October.

Commissioner Shetler: Late October? Is there anything we can do to keep that thing moving and pushing it along? Because the traffic has really been getting backed up, and I don’t know if there’s any kind of road, you know, mitigation plans or anything we can do on it that would help facilitate that a little bit better.

John Stoll: At this point, since there was no incentive clause in it, there’s really nothing to force the contractor, but as he progresses with his work, if he gets portions of it done, we can at least get the existing through lanes that are closed opened back up.

Commissioner Shetler: Yeah, it’s really been tough on Lynch. It gets backed up almost to Oak Hill Road on some mornings. It’s been difficult.

John Stoll: We’ve gotten quite a few calls on it as well.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

Commissioner Shetler: Thanks.

Commissioner Nix: I didn’t know, if you can hold on just a second. Mr. Ziemer, do you have anything else at all?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, the next item on the agenda is–

Commissioner Shetler: I think–

Madelyn Grayson: Yeah, you didn’t approve it yet.

Commissioner Nix: I’m sorry.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, department heads. While you’re up there, save you a few steps.

John Stoll: I had two things, first, I’ve got a street plan for the extension of Stellar Drive. This is a road that runs east off of Schutte Road on the south side of the apartments that were constructed last year. The extension is just a little 175 foot extension of the existing asphalt road that they built last year. I’ve reviewed the plans and request that you approve the plans for this extension.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: The other item that I’ve got, I would like to request approval to go to County Council to transfer $40,000 from the Stockwell Road culvert account to the St. George Road bridge account. That account number is 2030-4355. The $40,000 is an estimate as far as design costs go for the rehab of that bridge. I would like to be able to get a design contract signed yet this year, which would allow us to get the project under construction early next year.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright, so moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: That’s all I had.

Commissioner Nix: Just real quick, on Stockwell, there was a little bit of an issue we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Has that been resolved? I think on something–

John Stoll: Some rip rap.

Commissioner Nix: Yeah.

John Stoll: It’s not been done as of yet. One of the guys in my office has been talking to the contractor. The transfer will still leave enough money in the account to take care of that, plus the remaining seeding that needed to be done to address the slopes. So, it’s in the process, but we’ve been holding off on the seeding side of it simply because it wouldn’t grow this time of year anyway.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Shetler: Let me revisit that St. George bridge, whereabouts is that located? Is that on Kentucky–

John Stoll: Yeah, it’s on the curve.

Commissioner Shetler: –and St. George, on the curve?

John Stoll: Uh-huh.

Commissioner Shetler: I know that since there’s been no engineering done you don’t know specifically the plans, how they would go about it, but would you have any idea of trying to close this thing down for a period of time while they work on it? Or will at least one lane remain open?

John Stoll: To do the overlay, it would be similar to what we did on Kentucky and Old State and close the bridge. We can squeeze the duration down as much as possible. Old State, I believe, was done in six weeks, and I believe it could have been done quicker, after seeing the progress of that job. So, to prevent having a joint right down the middle of the bridge, it really should be done in a single pour.

Commissioner Shetler: You’re thinking construction on this, would it take place next summer?

John Stoll: As early as possible.

Commissioner Shetler: Possibly? Okay, my only fear here is that Diamond Avenue’s next phase will be beginning not too awful far down the future, I think, probably spring time, maybe summer of ‘07?

John Stoll: I’m not aware of their schedules, but that’s something I can check into.

Commissioner Shetler: I think, yeah, we might. I’m a little concerned, because, you know, that is used a lot to get out through 41, for people who live there on the north side. The other alternative is to go down Stringtown and Diamond Avenue. If that’s pretty well botched, that would eliminate, you know, the one. So, we might want to look at that for the timing of it, if it’s at all possible here.

John Stoll: One of the reasons why I wanted to try and get it going as fast as possible, as early as possible next year, with the Oak Hill and Bergdolt project on the books, we didn’t want to have that going on at the same as this St. George Road bridge either. So, there’s a bunch of different projects trying to juggle schedules around.

Commissioner Shetler: We’re too progressive in this county.

Commissioner Nix: Hopefully, they won’t do anything more to 41 for right now either.

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Shetler: Thank you, John.

John Stoll: You’re welcome.

Commissioner Nix: For the time being. Thank you, John. Any other department heads?

Commissioner Nix: If not, is there any new business to come before the Commission?

Commissioner Nix: Any old business?

Commissioner Shetler: I do want to bring up, this might be a little bit underneath new business. Mike Duckworth is on vacation this week, we did meet prior to, but today we did have a news conference out at Scott School, and the purpose of it was to warn, and I would like to carry that forward and let the people out there know that school starts tomorrow. Beware, the Sheriff Department will be out in force to make sure that the safety of our children is first and foremost. We have 20 new signs that the ten county private and parochial Catholic schools that we have, that will be warning people that a school zone is coming up, so that they slow down. Because, one of the problems we have in the county is that most of the speed limits are between 40 and 45 miles an hour. You’ve got to reduce down to 20. In the city, you’re dealing with a 30 going down to a 20, and that’s not such an abrupt change in speed and stuff, but it is a pretty abrupt change when you’re going from 40 or 45.

Commissioner Nix: And these new signs are put out a little bit further out in the 40 or 45 mile an hour–

Commissioner Shetler: About a quarter mile or so out in front of it to warn people that they’re coming up. So, they’re bright, school bus yellow signs, and fairly large kind of “in your face” type of sign. So, no one has any excuses. The Sheriff Department has told us, that will be your warning.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Shetler: There will be tickets written. That is going to be your warning. So, anyway I wanted to caution people on that.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: Now is the time in the meeting if there’s any public comment. Anyone who wishes to address the board?

Commissioner Nix: If not, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent items.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Employment Changes:

Treasurer (1)                            Supt. Of Bldgs. (1)                    Commissioners (1)

County Clerk (1)                       Knight Assessor (1)                  VCCC (4)

Sheriff Office (2)                       Coroner (1)                               Circuit Court (5)

Travel Requests:

Center Assessor (1)                 Knight Assessor (1)                  Health Dept. (1)

Auditor: Submit A/P Vouchers: August 2006.

Purchasing: Monthly Report: June 2006 & Six Month Report.

Commissioners:

IBAP Gatekeeper Report: July 2006.

Vision-e Monthly Report: July 2006.

Department Head meeting notes: August 8, 2006.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer                           Supt. Of Bldgs.                         Veterans Service

Those in Attendance:

Bill Nix                                      Tom Shetler, Jr.                        Bill Fluty

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Madelyn Grayson                     John Stoll

Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Bill Nix, Vice President

Tom Shetler, Jr., Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson)