VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

DECEMBER 11, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 11^th day of December, 2007 at 3:31 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Bill Nix presiding.

President Nix: I would like to call to order the Vanderburgh, the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County, December 11, 2007 at, it’s 3:31. I will start to my far right with introductions.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

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

Commissioner Korb: Jeff Korb, County Commissioner.

President Nix: Bill Nix, Commissioner.

Commissioner Tornatta: Troy Tornatta, Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

President Nix: Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Nix: Good afternoon. I guess, the first action item is to open quotes for printing and mailing of the 2008 tax bills. Do you have those? I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

President Nix: The first action item, we’re going to go out of sequence here just a little bit. We’ve got a proclamation for the University of Evansville Remembrance Day. This is the plane crash of December 13^th, was it December 13^th?

Commissioner Tornatta: December 13, 1977.

President Nix: ‘77. Commissioner Tornatta, if you could read that for me, please.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, in the audience with us, and if they want to come up, Athletics Director, John Stanley, for the University of Evansville; former President Wallace Graves; and City Councilman Jeff Kniese. Guys, if you will just stand at the podium, or hang out around there, we’ll read this proclamation. If you have any comments, we would gladly like to hear about it, but then we’ll sign this and get each of you a proclamation to take with you.

“Whereas, on December 13, 1977 a tragic plane crash claimed the lives of the University of Evansville men’s basketball team, coaches, faculty and supporters. Whereas, thirty years ago to this day, Vanderburgh County lost 29 community leaders, grandfathers, husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and friends. Whereas, we honor the families of the victims, as well as the entire University of Evansville family for their resolve in the light of this catastrophic event. Whereas, we thank all the first responders and rescue workers who will still carry the memories of that foggy Tuesday night. Whereas, we recognize former President Wallace Graves, former players and coaches, the NCAA, concerned universities, numerous charity events and a robust passion for Purple Aces basketball by the whole community. Whereas, the University of Evansville will hold an anniversary memorial service at noon on Thursday, December 13^th at Neu Chapel on the UE campus, and conclude at nearby Memorial Plaza. Therefore, be it proclaimed, December 13, 2007 to be the “University of Evansville Day of Remembrance” in Vanderburgh County, Indiana.”

President Nix: And, that is in the form of a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you. Gentlemen?

John Stanley: I’m John Stanley, the Athletic Director at U of E. This is my first year of doing this, so, I will defer to the gentlemen who were intimately involved in it, to a degree. But, I’ve lived in Evansville my whole life, and I’m very grateful that you would take the time to do this proclamation on behalf of the University of Evansville. It’s a wonderful place to work, and has had great leadership over the years. I happened to be living in Evansville in Melody Hills at the time that this tragedy occurred, and to this day when I go past the monument at the University of Evansville, it causes, evokes emotion for me. I think much like people that may go to the Vietnam Wall that have been in Vietnam, when you go by there and see that you have memories of sorrow and all kinds of emotions. It means a lot. It still does to the University. It’s very much intertwined in our history, and the people that work with me at the University will be very grateful that you chose to give us this honor. As you know, Dr. Graves had been the President there at the time, and I would like to ask if he would like to make a few comments. But, we thank you very much on behalf of the University.

Wallace Graves: Thank you. Just let me add a word of appreciation for this thoughtful citation. In many ways it doesn’t seem 30 years ago that this tragedy occurred. The University understands that it was a heartbreaking experience, not only for the people of the Evansville University campus, but also for the people of the City of Evansville and the entire tri-state. In fact, wherever I’ve traveled in the world in the days since that fateful night, people, once they find that I’m from Evansville, are in almost any case anxious to know how we’re doing. They have suffered in various ways with us. So, this is an occasion that we are very much appreciative of. We will try to live up to the high expectations of this fine Council. Thank you.

Jeff Kniese: Good afternoon. My name is Jeff Kniese. My brother, Mark, was on that plane. As you can probably imagine this is a very difficult time for not only my family, but very close friends. This is difficult for me, but I felt the need to come up here and at least thank the Commissioners. I want to thank Commissioner Korb for his nice comments in the newspaper last Sunday. The University has done an excellent job reaching out to the families. This time of year is never, never easy, but with the community’s support, and we have a tremendous network of friends and family and our strong belief in the Lord has gotten us through so much. It is just very, very difficult, as you can imagine, happening a few weeks before Christmas, for this to happen, and we still stay in contact with a lot of the families. So, I apologize for kind of stumbling up here at the microphone, but even though it’s been 30 years, it’s still not easy for me, or my family, or anybody to kind of go through the wave of emotions that come over you when you lose a family member as close as the one I lost. So, thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: If you will come up here, I would like to present each of you with a proclamation. Just let it be known that the hearts of Vanderburgh County always remembers that incident, and we use it to further our county in a positive way. Thank you for showing up today.

President Nix: The next action item is the Evansville ARC quarterly presentation. Here today with us is Amy Mangold, Laurie Seals, and Deidra Conner.

Amy Mangold: Hi, I’m Amy Mangold. I’m the Director of Development at Evansville ARC. First and foremost we would really like to express our appreciation for your long standing support of Evansville ARC. We are very grateful for that. As an overview, Evansville ARC has been serving individuals with disabilities within our community since 1954. We do that at two facilities: the Virginia Street facility, the training center, and ARC Industries out on Kotter Avenue. We do through a variety of programs, including our inclusive daycare center, Successful Transitions which assists high school students and their families, individuals with severe and profound disabilities. We also provide work services, and we also provide programs which connect individuals with disabilities with recreational, social and volunteer opportunities within our community. We will provide to you a sheet that outlines all of our services and programs, just for your information, if you would like to learn a little bit more. We normally during our quarterly update like to highlight a program and service. I would like to introduce Laurie Seals, our director of our Child Life Center. She has been the director for about three years. Our program has really grown and has really, really flourished under Laurie’s leadership. She would like to give you an update on the Child Life Center, and also provide a testimonial from one of the parents.

President Nix: Thank you, Amy.

Laurie Seals: As Amy said, and I apologize for my voice, I’m losing it. So, bear with me. Our agency has been in this community since 1954. The roots of our agency started with children. So, much of what you see today, in terms of our services provided, spring out from the children’s services that were started in the ‘50's. ARC has always had best practices woven through its mission. I’m fortunate to be a part of an agency that is always wanting to provide quality services to all of its individuals. One of the best practices that kind of came down the pike in the early ‘90's was something called inclusion. That was a theory that is definitely in the heart of most schools now that you see. So, children with and without disabilities are able to come together in an educational setting and learn alongside of one another without feeling like I’m different than the other child and whatnot. So, in 1993, the Child Life Center was born, and it is an inclusive childcare facility serving children six weeks to six years. We have a longstanding partnership with the EVSC, where we provide therapeutic instruction to children three to five years of age through the school year. Children who qualify under these services can receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, vision, whatever they need while at our program. In terms of numbers served, we served 149 children last year. Of those children, and that’s inclusion, so it’s children with and without disabilities, of the children that had disabilities, 50 percent of our kiddos either had a reduction in special ed services or they had an elimination of special ed services. That speaks volumes to early intervention. Many of the children that we can reach at an early age may not need special ed services by the time that they reach school age. Just some other quick statistics, 40 percent of the kiddos that we served last year were considered low income. In terms of our teachers, we provided over 188,000 direct service hours to our clients that we serve. Our facility is NAEYC accredited through the National Association for the Education of Young Children. We are, obviously, we’re state licensed. We are a level four, which is the highest rating on the local 4C’s paths to quality. We received the 2007 Courier and Press Reader’s Choice Platinum Award this year, and most recently were awarded the 2007 Indiana Youth Institute Youth Investment Award for quality youth programming. I had had a parent that was supposed to come with me, and she actually sounds worse than I do today. So, she has actually sent an e-mail, and we can pass that around, and some photos of her daughter. Allyson Parker is a student in our program. She is three years old. She’s been with us since an infant. She was born three months premature. You can see some pictures of her on her birthday. She is little, but mighty, and is a testament to why she has thrived so well all these years, because this child has just a determination like no other. Her parents will tell you that they searched high and low for a place to put Allyson, because they both work, and they needed quality child care. A place that they knew that she would be cared for in an appropriate manner. I will tell you that Allyson ironically has not needed any special ed services. To be born at 27 weeks gestation is a rare find not to need special ed services. Mom will also tell you that a lot of that is in part, she thinks, to being in our environment, because children in that inclusive environment receive developmental instruction while they’re there. So, we may be intending that instruction for a child that has a specific disability, but everyone benefits from it. So, on behalf of Allyson and all the children that we serve, and on behalf of our teachers, we certainly thank you for your support.

President Nix: Thank you, Laurie.

Laurie Seals: Thank you.

Deidra Conner: I just want one minute. I know we’re somewhat pressed for time, but I just want to take a few minutes to personally say thank you as the President of Evansville ARC. My name is Deidra Conner. To let you know, on behalf of the staff, the management team, our board, the clients and children and families that we serve, your financial support means so much to us. More than you will know. And your demonstration that people with developmental disabilities are an important part of our community. That’s really what we feel with your financial support and your moral support. I also wanted to let you know that, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, the Vanderburgh County Commissioners are one of our longest standing supporters. We received our first grant in 1964 for $6,000, and we have had continuous financial support since that time. So, 43 years, if my math is correct. So, you are a very important part of our history. Our successes are your successes. We feel very strongly that your partnership truly is a partnership to change lives like Allyson’s. So, thank you very, very much. I did want to leave with you, not only our summary of programs and services, but we do have the history of Evansville ARC that was written by my predecessor several years ago. And since you’re such a big part of our history, we have a copy for each of you. So, a little light reading for you over the holidays. But, genuinely and sincerely, thank you very much. Do you have any questions about Child Life Center?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, just a comment. I know that you’re in the midst of completion of your capital fund campaign.

Deidra Conner: Yes.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: And you’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars yet outstanding on your total goal. So, it would not be amiss if anybody watching this on television or anybody here today would see fit to make a year end tax deductible Christmas gift to ARC to help them meet that goal.

Deidra Conner: That would be awesome. I didn’t know if I could say that. Just as a little background–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You couldn’t, but I can.

President Nix: I want to know how much money you paid him to say that. That’s what I want to know.

Deidra Conner: He was quoted in the paper yesterday as being part of that capital campaign, so, I think he’s trying to step it up a notch. Just a little history, that’s another part of Vanderburgh County’s commitment to us, back in the late ‘50's Vanderburgh County help fund the building of our training center at 615 West Virginia. It was designed with a parking deck on the roof. Unfortunately, the roof has leaked from day one, as some former board members know. So, we are currently in the midst of a capital campaign to repair that roof, get new parking, and fix the rain damage. So, you can visit www.evansvillearc.org to learn more. Or call us at 428-4500. We do sincerely appreciate your generous support.

President Nix: Deidra, I just, sitting on the board over there, I feel privileged to be part of that, and for what ARC does for the community. I know, from time to time it’s very enlightening just to walk through there and see what goes on at the facility over there. I think you need to have an open house sometime down there. I don’t know as far as the general public, I don’t know how that would work, but something like that just to see what you all do over there.

Deidra Conner: Okay.

President Nix: It’s fantastic. It’s a great group of people.

Deidra Conner: We would love to have all of you come by if you haven’t come by and help us spread the word. It is an amazing place, and not because of me, not because of the staff, because of the individuals there with disabilities who want exactly what you and I want, to work, to be independent, to live in this community as fully and independently as they can. They’re amazing individuals who we have more in common with than we have differences. So, come by any time.

President Nix: Thank you.

Deidra Conner: Any questions?

President Nix: Questions?

Commissioner Korb: No, thank you.

President Nix: Thank you very much.

Deidra Conner: Thank you. I am leaving these behind.

President Nix: I’ve got one. I do have one.

Deidra Conner: Have you read it?

President Nix: Yes, I have.

Commissioner Tornatta: Liar.

Commissioner Korb: Are there a lot of pictures in it, Bill?

President Nix: No.

Commissioner Korb: Okay.

President Nix: The next action item is a proclamation, let’s just step back for a minute. We lost, the County lost one of our own here just a few weeks ago. The County Highway Department, he worked on the Bridge Crew. Mr. Duckworth is here to speak on behalf of one that we’ve lost. Mike?

Mike Duckworth: Thank you, President Nix and members of the Commission. I’m Mike Duckworth, Superintendent of the County Highway Department. Today I’m here to help recognize a man that worked for the County Highway Department for approximately 18 years. As County residents and City residents drive throughout the community they’ll notice that they have safe bridges to drive over, and whenever we have tornados or other critical events, trees down, those kinds of things, many times we take for granted the work that our county employees do. Back in, I would say August, we found out that Ron Allega, one of the members of our Bridge Crew had contracted cancer. After a strong, but short battle, he passed away on November 26^th. We have with us today Ron’s wife, Candy, his brother, Ray, his supervisor, if you’ll stand please, Mark Taylor, and one of his co-workers, Jim Brandle. I would like for Candy and the family to come forward at this time. I believe Commissioner Tornatta has a presentation of a proclamation, which I have a presentation after that please.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay. Thank you all for coming.

“Whereas, Ron Allega was an employee of the Vanderburgh County Bridge Crew, as a part of the Vanderburgh County Highway Department. Whereas, Ron Allega served as a County employee for 17 years, from 1990 to 2007. Whereas, Ron Allega was a dependable county employee, a loving husband, father and neighbor, not to mention one of the most loyal IU fans of all time. Whereas, Ron Allega contributed to the County and its residents to improve the overall quality of life. Whereas, Ron Allega passed away on Monday, November 26, 2007. Therefore, in honor of this dedicated public servant, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 is herewith proclaimed as “Ron Allega Day” in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Executed this 11^th day of December, 2007 by the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County.”

President Nix: And that is in the form of a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: It is.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: As you mentioned, Ron was a big IU basketball fan. On October 9^th, with the help of Pat Shoulders, who is an IU trustee and a member of Mr. Ziemer’s law firm, we were able to get Ron a seat next to Calvin Samson, the IU basketball coach, at the IU Alumni luncheon. I have a picture that I took of the two of them that I want to present to Candy, and then there’s a card and something that the guys and gals of the department wanted to give to the family. I would like to present that to them at this time. Then, I think you have the proclamation to give to them as well.

Commissioner Tornatta: Marissa’s got it.

Candy Allega: Thank you.

President Nix: We’ll have that here in just a minute.

Candy Allega: I just wanted to say that Ron really loved his job. He loved working for Vanderburgh County, and that’s one of the things that he missed the most, through his illness was the guys. I just want to say thank you.

President Nix: Thank you.

Candy Allega: He would love this, and we appreciate it. Okay.

President Nix: Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: I think Marissa went, we had the proclamation framed, and I think she’s bringing it out at this time for, you can give it to the Commissioners to present to the family at this time.

Candy Allega: Thank you.

President Nix: Thank you. Hang in there.

Candy Allega: I love it. Thank you.

Commissioner Korb: Thank you very much.

Mike Duckworth: Thanks, Commissioners, we appreciate it very much.

President Nix: Thank you, Mike.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Do you want the bid?

President Nix: Yeah, let’s go ahead with the bids on the printing and mailing of the 2008 tax bills.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, for printing and mailing the 2008 tax bills, we just have one bid. That is from Work Flow One. For printing it’s $50,800. For mailing it was $46,800. In their bid document they show a total of what should be the total of these two items as $100,600, but it’s actually $97,600. I made that change in the bid document.

President Nix: Okay, is that, that would be a lump sum bid then for that amount?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes.

President Nix: Okay. Are we going to take this under advisement today?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes.

President Nix: I didn’t know if that was something that needed to get out.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to take it under advisement.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is permission to award tax sales quote.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: This was presented to you at the last meeting. I don’t know if you have questions. I’ll just briefly tell you there were three quotes, one from Dimmett Auction Services for a $20,000 fee for conducting the auction, and $15,000 for advertising. Another bid from Sohn Associates Limited, fixing advertising expenses of $3,077.30, and a commission of either two percent of the value of the property sold, or $3,750, whichever was greater. Then, a quote from F.C. Tucker Auctions for expenses of $2,000 to $2,500 per auction, with their proposal recommending that we hold three different auctions in order to reoffer properties that did not sell at a prior auction. Their commission would be a 70 percent, seven percent, excuse me, buyer’s premium, that means that contrary to the Sohn commission, which would be charged against whatever the bid was, the F.C. Tucker commission would be added to the amount of the bid. So, if the property sold for $1,000, it would actually sell for $1,070, with that amount to be paid by the successful bidder. In the case of Sohn, if a property sold for $1,000, the commission would be $20, and that would be paid out of the $1,000.

President Nix: Okay.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Those were the three quotes that were received. I will say that to do just a preliminary comparison, we did get figures for properties sold at tax sale in 2004, 2005 and 2006. I’m not going to go through all of those, but I will say that the year when the most value was received was in 2006 when we sold land with a value of $154,000, and improvements with a value of $592,000, and that would be a total of $746,000. The commission for Dimmett on that sale would have been $20,000, the commission of Sohn on that sale would have been $14,860, the commission of F.C. Tucker would have been no cost to the County, because you would have added seven percent of $746,000 to the sale price to be paid by the purchasers. Those are the three quotes and its your pleasure.

Commissioner Korb: The recommendation was, I think, to go with Sohn, is that correct?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I don’t think we made a firm recommendation. What we tried to do was point out pluses and minuses to all of them. Obviously, in one respect it’s a plus that Tucker is going to charge a seven percent buyer’s premium, however, it’s not known what effect that would have on the saleability of these properties. F.C. Tucker was going to have three sales with $2,500 advertising per auction. Sohn was going to have one sale for $3,077 for advertising, and, of course, as I said, the two percent commission. We did check with Sohn, and they indicated that if there was a need for a subsequent sale they would hold it on the same terms. So, it’s again, it’s the Commissioner’s decision.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Tornatta: Oh, I was trying to find out, did we ever, Debbie, did you find out anything about the increased advertising? Or was that going to be sufficient advertising it at $3,000? You’re giving me the blank look.

Debbie Spalding: Yeah, that blank look was I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to be looking into that.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Turn yours off, I’ll turn mine on. These things really work well. We did check with Sohn advertising, their break down is the Evansville Courier, $877, American Classifieds, $280, color post cards to be mailed out on the prospective properties, $343, mailing, $123, signs on various properties, $1,453, an advertisement on the Sohn website, no charge. That’s how they came up with their figure. We do not have a breakdown on how F.C. Tucker would spend their money, nor do I think we have a breakdown on how Dimmett would spend their money.

President Nix: I guess, the problem I have with Tucker’s is that with an inflated, if somebody’s going in knowing they’re going to have to pay seven percent more than what the, I don’t know if you would call it market value, or whatever that number would be, I just have a concern that that would hamper some people from purchasing these properties. So, I think Tucker, I just have a concern with that.

Commissioner Korb: And Sohn has got a great reputation in Evansville in terms of auctioning, that’s basically their primary business, of whether, you know, it’s articles of furniture or estates or whatever. So, unless there’s further discussion, I would move that we accept Sohn as the auctioneer for these surplus properties.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is permission to advertise the contract for annual adjustments and trending services. Ms. Debbie Spalding is here to speak to this. Or, excuse me, Jonathan Weaver. Debbie, you’re getting named all over the place today here.

Jonathan Weaver: What’s up, guys? Jonathan Weaver, Vanderburgh County Assessor.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Maybe, let me help Jonathan a little bit, if I may. Under the new trending guidelines, it’s recommended by the DLGF that the various assessors in the state, in the 92 counties of the state, employ the services of certified appraisers, and there are certain requirements that they have to meet and so forth to assist them with trending services regarding with the various assessments. Last year a contract of that nature was entered into between the county and who?

Jonathan Weaver: Chuck Simons.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Right.

Jonathan Weaver: At A&S.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: As it turned out, I think, you were very satisfied with the services provided. It was all done on a timely basis.

Jonathan Weaver: Right.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: However, the Indiana statute, in this regard, provides that you must bid that contract annually, regardless of any satisfaction you had with anybody else. Simon can certainly bid again this time, as well as other people who perform those services. What, I did e-mail you earlier today is a copy of a generic form of contract, which we would, it’s like last year’s contract, taking the names of the parties and the prices out of it. It will form the basis for quotes to be received to perform these services for 2008. We believe that contract, and we’ve run it through DLGF, which is also a requirement, that they approve the contract. They have approved the contract that I developed on behalf of the Assessor. So, we recommend that the County authorize advertising for bids for these services, using as the specs for those bids the generic trending services agreement that I have prepared and sent you copies of.

President Nix: Mr. Weaver, do you have any other comments at all?

Jonathan Weaver: No, just asking for your permission to bid it out.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Jonathan Weaver: Thank you.

President Nix: Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is first and final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-017. This is a property tax rebate ordinance. At this time I would like to ask for public comment. Seeing none.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: I guess, we need to waive–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes. We’ve devised this, if there’s no objection, to be done at one meeting. We need a unanimous vote to waive second reading of the ordinance, following which, if we obtain that, we need a unanimous vote to approve the ordinance on first reading.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to waive the second reading of CO.12-07-017.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: And, I vote yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve the final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-017.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: And, I vote yes. It passes.

Commissioner Korb: I’m sorry. I was having a senior moment there.

President Nix: The next action item is first and final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-018. This is a correction ordinance. I would ask for public comment at this time. Seeing none. Mr. Ziemer, do you want to address this?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Only to say that I want to commend our Recording Secretary, Madelyn Grayson, for working so hard, very early in 2007 to put together a whole, I mean pages, of comments that she had regarding the various ordinances in the Code of Ordinance of Vanderburgh County with respect to misspellings, words in the wrong place, sentences that didn’t end properly, and then in the case of the street ordinance, for example, many, many streets that were not included in the ordinance that needed to be included. So, with that information we’ve gone through and prepared what we call an omnibus ordinance to correct all of the various ordinances in which defects were found. There were some on that vast list that we did not correct, because we need input from the various departments involved. We’ll receive that later, we expect, and at that time we would prepare other amended ordinances.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to waive the second reading of CO.12-07-018.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: I vote yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve the final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-018.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: And I vote yes. It passes.

President Nix: The next action item is first and final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-019. This is a benefits continuation. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The, as you know, when there is a so-called “qualifying event” regarding a county employee, one of which is the death of a county employee, they are entitled to maintain their health benefits under the COBRA medical premium plan. It is felt that it would be helpful to the employees of Vanderburgh County, at a time of stress like that it’s difficult for the family perhaps to know in the first month following the death exactly what they want to do or how even to understand this process. So, it was suggested that the county pay the first month’s COBRA medical premium for employees of the county in the event of their death. Then, should they elect to continue COBRA, they, of course, would then assume medical premiums for the second and all subsequent months, following all the applicable laws and guidelines regarding COBRA. That’s what this ordinance does. Oh, and, excuse me, it’s effective November 1, 2007.

President Nix: Is there any public comment? Seeing none. I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to waive the second reading of the ordinance CO.12-07-019.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: And I vote yes. It passes. Excuse me.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve the final reading of ordinance CO.12-07-019.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

President Nix: And, I vote yes. It passes.

President Nix: The next action item is Legal Aid office modification request. This was tabled from a meeting we had back in November. Mr. Dave Rector from the Building Authority is here today to address this.

Dave Rector: Good afternoon, gentlemen, Dave Rector, Building Authority. Believe it or not, I am looking at a new system that everybody can stay on at the same time. At the last meeting you mentioned–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: If you did that, we might consider naming this room after you.

Dave Rector: Thank you very much, Counselor. You had requested that I determine the city’s interest in participating in this modification for Legal Aid. Since that time I have, and the Mayor said that he would concur with whatever decision you all make regarding this matter.

President Nix: So, I guess, we’re down to a vote to either–

Dave Rector: Yes, we are.

President Nix: –allow this or not to allow it. Commissioners, any questions?

Commissioner Korb: This is what we’d talked about before, wasn’t it, Dave? On the first floor?

Dave Rector: Yes, it is, for Legal Aid, with them taking over the “old media room”, and bringing her lobby, the front entrance out a little bit further.

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Korb: I so move.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you very much.

Dave Rector: Thank you, gentlemen.

President Nix: The quicker you get on these buttons the better.

Dave Rector: Just don’t get the plaque ready yet.

President Nix: Okay.

President Nix: The next action item is contracts, agreements and leases. Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The first item is an affiliation agreement between the State University of New York for that university to send an intern to Evansville, Indiana or Vanderburgh County, Indiana to work with the Indiana Department of Health as an intern through, I think, June of 2008. The affiliation agreement spells out the provisions under which that student would come here. There’s no cost to Vanderburgh County. All cost is underwritten by the State University of New York. It’s satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is an inter-local agreement between, actually it’s between Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville, if approved, to be executed by the Commissioners of Vanderburgh County, by the County Council of Vanderburgh County, by the City Council for the City of Evansville, by the Board of Works for the City of Evansville and by the Mayor. This agreement would provide for the County Garage to do paving of parking lots for three city fire houses. In return for that, the city would reimburse the county its costs for doing the paving with its employees, and in addition the city would reimburse the supplier of the asphalt and so forth the total cost of that. Mr. Duckworth, the Superintendent of County Highways has had figured into the charges not only the equipment, but also the time of the employees who will be working on this, their FICA charges and so forth. After, if this is approved by the county, it will then be forwarded to the city for other appropriate approvals. It is satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

President Nix: Comments, Mr. Duckworth?

Mike Duckworth: I just, and this has taken a lot of work between the city fire department and myself in trying to get through all the entities as Ted indicated. All the funding bodies, including the Safety Board and the Works Board and our County Council and now, of course, you. I would just say that for this, the money that we’re being reimbursed, the $18,750, we have asked the County Council to hold that money so we could turn around and do our 24 miles of curb road street sweeping in exchange for that. So, it’s kind of a win-win situation. They get some paving at a lesser cost. We get, eventually the dollars to do our street sweeping. It helps us be more efficient and spread some of our expertise and use of our equipment into the city. So, that’s our request at this time.

President Nix: And this was monies that was before taken out of Solid Waste, and now we’re not doing that anymore?

Mike Duckworth: That’s right.

President Nix: It’s just a trade off.

Mike Duckworth: That’s exactly right.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would, I just saw Councilwoman Leader. We would like to thank her for coming to our meeting. I didn’t know if, has there been anything from the County Council that would, Mike, if you could just come up to the podium please?

Madelyn Grayson: May we make a quick tape change?

(Tape change)

Donna Leader: Good afternoon, everyone, Donna Leader, County Council.

President Nix: You didn’t know you were going to get called on this evening, did you?

Donna Leader: I didn’t. Thanks a lot.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You sure look nice today.

Donna Leader: Thank you. I’ve been at a Christmas party. That isn’t, Mike, it’s me. Thank you, I’m celebrating Christmas. Mr. Duckworth just shared with me the same document that you have. At our request, from our Council meeting a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed this at length at our meeting. Obviously, cooperation between the city and the county is critical, and I personally, I can only speak for myself, because we’ll see this, we’ll address this tomorrow morning, but I feel like it’s an equitable agreement. We just had asked for details, because we felt that it was a business proposition, and we wished to see hour for hour trade off against trade off. I feel it’s equitable. I will vote for it. Are there any other questions? Thank you.

President Nix: Thanks.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would like to make a motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: Thank you.

President Nix: Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is an agreement between the county and the YMCA for subsidizing of memberships of county employees with the YMCA. The agreement is identical to last year’s except that the YMCA charges for each category of membership have gone up two dollars per membership. However, the county’s subsidy continues to remain $11 per month per membership. This is satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Korb: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: For some years the county has been leasing farm property from Wayne Fehd for use, I think, by the Sheriff. I’m not exactly sure what it is used for.

President Nix: That’s the training center.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, for the training center. The lease is $350 a year, and Mr. Fehd has the right to the crops there, and he maintains insurance naming the county. It’s been felt that the lease should be for one year terms, since nobody really knows from now until December, for example, of 2008 whether there may be some other purpose for this land, and maybe it won’t be available for leasing. So, it doesn’t hurt anything, I think, to do it on an annual basis. It also gives the county the right to change the rental terms, should they decide to do that for some future year.

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Korb: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is software agreement for the Vanderburgh County Recorder. This agreement was actually entered into on June 27, 2007, and inadvertently, it was not forwarded at that time to the Commissioners for approval and execution. The, we’ve had an opportunity in our office to review the agreement. We had a couple of minor changes we wanted to suggest. We did suggest those to Mrs. Smith, who was able to work wonders with the Fidlar Company, and they immediately agreed to the items that we requested. The document does require signatures on various pages, which I have explained in the e-mail, and they are probably properly marked, should you determine to approve this. The County Recorder, Betty Knight-Smith, and her Chief Deputy, Rick Davis, are here should you have any questions.

Betty Knight-Smith: Actually, I didn’t know that we needed to take it to the County Commissioners, because it had never been done. It wasn’t done before me.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Right.

Betty Knight-Smith: It wasn’t that we were trying to keep it away from ‘ya, but I called the State Board of Accounts, and they said that it would be good if they would sign it. It’s one of the best programs, matter of fact, Fidlar picked up 13 new counties after June. So, is there any questions?

Commissioner Korb: My understanding is that this doesn’t cost us anything? You’re paying for this out of your own department, is that correct?

Betty Knight-Smith: Yes. Yes.

Commissioner Korb: So, nothing’s changed from day one when the county, and it was way before your time, obviously, executed an agreement with this company?

Betty Knight-Smith: It’s always been.

Commissioner Korb: So, all you’re asking for is signatures?

Betty Knight-Smith: Uh-huh.

Commissioner Korb: Okay.

President Nix: In your budget, when you go to Council every year, you budget for this software then, as part of your budget?

Betty Knight-Smith: No, sir. We are the only department, or only office in Vanderburgh County in the State of Indiana that is self supporting. The money that we receive is for copies that we sell. When I came in, my predecessor took in $37,000 for a year. The next year I took in $47,000. I watched what was going on, we were buying too much paper, and I put counters on everything, with the help of Fidlar. They worked it out with me, and the next year we took in $194,000. Right now I have over a million dollars in my Perpetuation account. When I came in we had $300,000. So, I’m really proud of the work we’ve done, and I don’t think it’s ever been done before. So, the county needed some money, so, I just got this today, I gave them $182,000 to go in for the 2008 budget. The way we could do that, because actually we are not supposed to spend it for anything other than for our office. So, what I did, is I paid for their social security, paid for their PERF, and paid for their insurance. That freed up money that they’ve always done. Any questions?

President Nix: Betty, do you think you could have a training course and get the rest of the department heads on this same track?

Betty Knight-Smith: Well, one of the things about it, I get here at 6:00 in the morning, and I’m a firm believer that you’re supposed to be on time. So, I go to the Post Office, get the mail, open it and lay it on their desks, and I’m there. So, I think we run a good office and it’s the first time we’ve ever earned that kind of money.

Commissioner Korb: The more immediate need we have is a Coroner’s truck. How about helping us out with that? I would move that we sign this document.

Betty Knight-Smith: Thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you, Betty.

Betty Knight-Smith: Thank you.

President Nix: Appreciate your work.

Commissioner Korb: Think about that truck for the Coroner’s office now. Any color you want, we don’t care.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is a lease-purchase, various documents in connection with the lease-purchase of the 911 service from AT&T for Central Dispatch. You will recall that, and I have e-mailed you extensively regarding this, but I want to summarize very quickly. In October of this year, at your regular meeting, you did approve the acquisition of the 911 services for Central Dispatch for a ten year period at a total of $2,289,175, payable in 40 installments of $77,053.63 each. Subsequent to that, AT&T Capital, which is the financing arm of AT&T sent us documents to formalize the lease-purchase arrangement, under which we are leasing the 911 service for the ten year period for four quarterly, or, I mean, 40 quarterly installment rental payments of $77,053.63. There were various documents which we have reviewed carefully. We’ve recommended various changes in the documents, all of which were made by AT&T Capital. We believe, at this point, the documents are satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Korb: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The last agreement, that might not be the last, yeah, the last agreement I have today is an addendum to the grant agreement for the dental clinic. We have had a grant agreement, under the terms of which St. Mary’s Hospital and Deaconess Hospital each very generously made grants of $240,000 each to the dental clinic. Those grants expire December 31, 2007. New grant arrangements have been made with those two hospitals. Now they are reduced to $35,000 each for the year 2008, and the obvious reason for the decrease is that the initial payments were for start up and getting the project going. It’s now operating in full swing, and I think very successfully, and the hospital grants have now been reduced to $35,000 each. The project continues to receive $80,000 worth of funding from County Council for calendar year 2008. There were other minor changes in the agreement which we’ve made and recommend, and it is satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Korb: So, the 205, the $205,000, Ted, was for start up costs?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, plus operations during the first two years. Now, we’re in the third year, and great.

Commissioner Korb: Okay, thanks. Move to accept.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I have one more item that’s not on the agenda, if I may? On September 18, 2007 the Commissioners approved, on first reading, an ordinance providing for traffic signage in subdivisions. After that first reading we were instructed to meet with members of the Evansville Homebuilder’s Association, the Area Plan Commission, the County Engineer’s office, and work out some concerns that we had on the parts of various parties with the form of that ordinance. Those meetings have taken place, and I think maybe the last meeting was last Friday or sometime very recently, and as of that meeting, the, it’s believed that resolution has been reached. However, that was not done in time to have a revised ordinance present here today. So, what we’re recommending is this, if the Commissioners do nothing today, under the planning ordinance the original form of the ordinance that was read on first reading would become law. We don’t want that to happen, because the parties all agree that there are changes they want to see made in that. So, we’re recommending that the Commissioners refer this ordinance back to the Area Plan Commission for further consideration, following which the final form of that ordinance will be drafted for me to review as County Attorney, and, hopefully, to bring back for final approval. Blaine Oliver is here from the Plan Commission, I see Bill Pedtke is here, John Stoll is here should you have any questions about this.

Blaine Oliver: I couldn’t have said it better myself, Counselor.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, you probably could have.

President Nix: You’re a lot cheaper than he is, though.

Blaine Oliver: This is true.

Commissioner Tornatta: No offense.

President Nix: Hopefully, none taken.

Commissioner Korb: Commissioners, Bill, how do you feel about this?

Bill Pedtke: Good afternoon, Bill Pedtke with the Builder’s Association. I want to thank the Commissioners. I think this is the right thing to do to refile this, and we’re moving forward with our discussions. I think we’re really close to having something that protects the developers interests, the homeowners interests, and the county’s interests altogether. We just need a little bit more time. I think this action today would get us that.

Commissioner Korb: Great. So moved.

Blaine Oliver: That’s our recommendation. I just e-mailed Bill a new copy, or a new draft of the amendment. So, we’re getting close, I think, and give us a little bit more time and we’ll take this back to Area Plan Commission in January, and, hopefully bring it back to you after that.

Commissioner Korb: Great.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, a motion’s on the floor, but I would just like to say aside from this, I think that it would be important for this Commission to have any other issues that are coming before the Homebuilder’s Association submitted to us. If those are in a, if you can submit them in some type of written form, if issues are coming up that you foresee. We would get a chance to look at them and get back to you and do some of this same dialogue and try and address these issues as we have. I think it’s been good dialogue. From what I’ve heard, a lot of good stuff’s come out, and the back and forth has been very healthy. So, if that’s okay, take it back to your board that we would like to welcome any of those comments brought back to us.

Bill Pedtke: We appreciate that.

Commissioner Tornatta: And, I’ll second.

President Nix: Okay, a motion has been made and seconded. All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. I will say, I met with the homebuilders, what, a couple of months ago? John and I, John Stoll and I went out and sat down and they’ve got a lot of issues that they would like to bring in front of us. So, I think we could probably, we want to pick the ones, I guess, prioritize those instead of just the whole laundry list, because–

Bill Pedtke: Roll with it.

President Nix: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Ziemer, do you have anything else?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No.

President Nix: Thank you very much.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You’re welcome.

President Nix: The next action item is the discussion of the Green River Road project. Mr. Stoll, do you want to step forward? Or, I didn’t know if you had any comments on this. Maybe we can have some discussion on it then.

John Stoll: As a result of the concerns about closing the road, you had asked us to take a look at the alternatives on trying to keep the road open. In conjunction with that, we’ve had DLZ, who’s doing the design between Lynch and Heckel, and then Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates, who’s doing the design between Heckel and Millersburg, do some cost evaluations. DLZ’s was a little more complex because they had the Pigeon Creek bridge to deal with. They basically came up with four alternatives to keep the road open that varied in cost from $2.8 million to $5.2 million. The lowest cost of those was the one we are currently looking at and evaluating. It basically consists of constructing an entirely new temporary road parallel to and east of Green River Road, and also a temporary bridge across Pigeon Creek that would allow the road to remain open to traffic. That would then tie into the section Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates is designing, which they feel can be done with some widening, as opposed to construction of an entirely new roadway. Like I said, DLZ’s section was estimated to be about $2.8 million in cost, the Bernardin Lochmueller section was approximately a million fifty thousand in cost. Then there’s also a third project that Clark Dietz has been working on, which is the Green River-Millersburg intersection. I don’t have a specific cost estimate as far as construction costs associated with that staying open, but all things totaled, you could pretty much be assured we’re in the four million dollar range to keep the road open to traffic. In conjunction with that too, the consultants did some estimates of user costs associated with using the detour, and there’s a lot of assumptions they have to make to try and come up with a number, but their most recent estimate was in the neighborhood of $11 million in user costs. In user costs I mean travel time and the, travel time and travel distance associated with using the signed detour. The assumptions that they would have to make to split it all up were; how much traffic would assume to go to Oak Hill Road, even though we wouldn’t sign that as a detour route, and then how much of the traffic would use the originally anticipated detour which would have been 164. So, they made some assumptions splitting the traffic and things like that, but their last estimate was in the neighborhood of $11 million. So, all things considered, their user costs was $11 million, but the county’s detour costs to build the temporary roads necessary to keep the road open to traffic were four million. So, user costs were exceeding the county’s construction costs. So, once we had those numbers, then the County Attorney was working with the bond attorneys and accountants to determine where we could actually get that money and not have to worry about delaying or eliminating other projects. In conjunction with that, Ted can elaborate on this, because I’m not familiar with all the language, but, basically, it was a bond anticipation note where we could get additional money borrowed now that would fund these extra costs, if you chose to pursue that route.

President Nix: Okay, thank you, Mr. Stoll. Mr. Ziemer, do you want to add anything to that?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, I don’t think so. I mean, John’s covered it very well. We could talk at some length about bond anticipation notes versus additional bonds. I think what we will finally recommend will be perhaps a mixture of bond anticipation note and some minimal additional bond issue, so that we have some flexibility. But, we’re satisfied that given the TIF revenues available we should be able to have more than the estimated costs of leaving Green River Road open during the construction.

President Nix: Okay, and, I guess, just to, you know, we’ve been looking at this project the last couple of years now, probably two, longer than this, but the Commissioners, I guess, just trying to put a pencil to this thing. Early on when we discussed this it didn’t look like there was going to be funding available to keep it open. There’s some pretty big hurdles to get around when you start talking about temporary bridges and temporary roads, and then the elevation change between the new road, which is considerably lower than the, excuse me, the old road which is considerably lower than the new road. So, I guess, that all said, with Mr. Ziemer and Mr. Stoll’s work in this, I’ve always said that if we if had the money, we didn’t feel early on that we would have the money to do it. So, my concern was that we needed to get this road done, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any other projects in the county to do that. I know we’ve talked about Baseline Road, the Baseline Road bridge and a couple of other projects, I was not comfortable at all sacrificing anything else to do that, but if we feel comfortable that we can move forward with this thing, and, in fact, build this thing and keep it open, and still do these other projects in the county. I think that’s something that’s very, very important that we do. Now, I don’t know if we’re, I guess, we’re close to some kind of agreement with DLZ and Bernardin as far as whether we want to pull the trigger on this thing and make it happen, is that correct?

John Stoll: I’ve received a draft agreement, supplemental agreement from DLZ, and I’ve received one from Clark Dietz. Bernardin Lochmueller hasn’t finalized theirs as of yet, but all three supplemental agreements, to make all these design changes will probably be in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $400,000. The vast majority of that deals with the temporary road and temporary bridge, that’s the highest cost items associated with this. I don’t have agreements here in hand ready for you to sign today, but I could have those by next week’s meeting it looks like.

Commissioner Korb: So, your recommendation is to do it?

John Stoll: If the money’s there, the one big unknown that’s always been on my side was the funding. Basically, without this extra money that the bond attorneys and accountants have come up with, we were right at the maximum that was available in the previous bond issue from June of ‘06. So, there wasn’t any money to play with postponing or eliminating other projects. In doing this evaluation, I took the estimates the consultants had provided from, some of them date back to December of last year, and I got estimates in January of last year and March of last year. I marked all of those up ten percent to try and anticipate the construction cost increases that we all keep seeing, and then added in the detour costs. Those were the numbers that I gave to Ted. So, here again, we’re kind of betting everything on the fact that these estimates are accurate, even adding the contingencies on top of it. So, if the actual estimates come in higher, once the consultants get their final designs done and have actual quantities on everything, we could see some higher costs, but it sounds like there should be some cushion in the monies that they can borrow ahead on. So, it sounds like it should work.

Commissioner Korb: How far back has this pushed the project start up date?

John Stoll: I would say from spring of next to year, to probably around fall of next year. In DLZ’s preliminary contract they had a date of October would be when the plans would be ready for bidding. I’m checking with them to see if we can maybe back that up a little bit so we don’t lose all of 2008 construction. I don’t have a response as of yet, but I just sent them some comments yesterday.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: It was originally June that they were projecting, weren’t they?

John Stoll: They were projecting the final plans would be done and in the county’s hands in June. Then, all the construction documents and bid documents would be ready by October.

President Nix: John, I’m just curious, the Green River Road-Morgan Avenue, of course, the city, state and the county have all got some participation in that, does that still look to go next year? Do you know that for right now?

John Stoll: As far as I know. They were, INDOT was requesting the county sign an agreement for the $500,000 the county agreed to participate in that project. The form of their agreement wasn’t really very relevant to the fact the county was just writing them a check, and that was it. There was all kinds of language in there that I thought was unnecessary, and so did Ted. So, right now, we don’t have that agreement finalized, but it’s my understanding that they still want to try and pursue that project in the spring, summer of next year.

President Nix: Okay, so that, if in fact this was pushed back a little bit, that might help that whole situation out when you’re looking at Green River as a whole, possibly?

John Stoll: Right. Given the fact that a temporary road would have to built, and a temporary bridge, I would say traffic would still be running on Green River as it stands right now through some time in ‘09, until all the temporary widening was done. From the county’s side of things, the benefit we would see is it would give us the opportunity to get the Oak Hill and Bergdolt project done prior to that. I know we’ve all received plenty of comments about the need for getting that traffic signal out there.

President Nix: The other draw back of putting in, leaving it open is it will extend the overall construction schedule somewhat, because all the work has to be done, put the roads in, take them out, and the routing and all that. So, I mean, we’re looking at a longer project to do. It’s going to be more inconvenience, but at the same time, if it’s successful, that would be less inconvenience.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, I would just like to thank, John, you and your staff for thinking outside the box and kind of working with this Commission to address some of these issues. And, of course, Ted Ziemer was pretty instrumental in talking to the bond people and getting some of that information, because, obviously, the challenge was to prove where the money was. We were able to chase that money down and get the project done, which, i