VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

DECEMBER 18, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 18^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: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the Vanderburgh County Commissioners meeting, December 18, 2007 at 3:31. I will ask for introductions to my far right.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

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

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: I forgot to mention we do have a couple of shadows here today from....if you want to introduce yourselves.

Taylor Speciale: I’m Taylor Speciale from Harrison High School.

Katie Clevidence: I’m Katie Clevidence from Harrison High School.

President Nix: Go Warriors, right?

President Nix: The first action item is open quotes VC07-12-01. This is the Hogue Road culvert 587 rehabilitation.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to open.

President Nix: I second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

President Nix: I would like to make an announcement today that the rezoning for 7801 Old State Road has been continued and will not be heard today. So, if anyone in the audience is here for that, it doesn’t appear there is.

President Nix: The first, or the second action item is permission to award printing and mailing of 2008 tax bills. Ms. Debbie Spalding is here to address this.

Debbie Spalding: Good afternoon. On November 28^th we sent out requests to six vendors for the 2008 tax bills. This is for the printing and the mailing of those forms. We received a response from only one vendor. That was Work Flow One. This company has done this service for the past several years. So, it would be our recommendation, the County Treasurer Z. Tuley and myself, that we would award this to Work Flow One. The amount of the contract was, it’s for 150,000 tax bills, and the amount of the printing was $50,800, and the mailing was quoted as $46,800. So, the total bid would be for $97,800, $600, excuse me.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would like to make a motion to accept the recommendation of the Purchasing Department.

President Nix: I second that. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Debbie Spalding: Thank you.

President Nix: We are joined by Commissioner Korb. Glad to see you could make it.

Commissioner Korb: I was out talking to Santa Claus in the parking lot, asking for a new PA system here.

Dave Rector: It’s being reviewed.

Commissioner Korb: He started laughing really hard.

President Nix: The next action item is discussion of litigation with regard to contracts of the new jail and possible direction to the County Attorney for filing suit. Commissioner Tornatta, if you wanted to address this first.

Commissioner Tornatta: I really don’t, no, I mean, I think we’ve talked about this several times. I was on the County Council when all this, a lot of the issue in question was about, and, of course, the Council set the parameters of the project at $35 million, and that was what came from that body. The Commissioners body at that point was to set up how the process was to go and to maintain that process. So, coming to this body this year, obviously, the jail was already built, it was built on time and to my estimation we felt that, or from what I’ve heard it’s been a good project. So, I stand on those merits, and there was some money left over. So, under budget and on time, and I think that that’s kind of where I side on it. So, I really don’t see any reason to move forward.

Commissioner Korb: Well, and I respect the fact, Commissioner Tornatta, that it was done on time, and came in under budget, but there were also some structural errors along the way, and they basically had opportunities to make those corrections and they have not done that. There were some work orders that weren’t fulfilled, and to be honest with you we tried to handle this outside of the court system, and they did not respond. They acted like, hey, there’s no blame to be passed along here. It’s like, that’s not the case. We’ve got, with the help of Mr. Rector, a long list of things that needed to be addressed and they simply were not. I think that they were basically saying, hey, we’re not going to help you. So, they’ve forced our hand on this. So, again, I’m tickled pink it came under budget and it’s working out well, but it still wasn’t done the way a normal contract should be run. So, that’s the reason why we’re doing this.

President Nix: Okay, I guess, I’ll put my two cents worth in. Over the last three years, and more so over the last year and a half, Mr. Rector and I have sat down and went through quite a few items that were in question, engineering concerns that we had. We came up with a pretty good list of things. We thought that there were some deficiencies out there, it wasn’t necessarily in the quality of the work, but it was more along the lines of things that took place that probably shouldn’t have taken place. I just, you know, I questioned that as I came in office three years ago, and we’ve been tracking it ever since. We just feel like there’s some monies that are owed to the county. We tried, once again, to settle this out of court, just in meetings that we’ve had with the design group and Mr. Rector and myself, and have not been able to come to any kind of understanding or an amount that we’ve agreed upon. So, I feel like it’s imperative that we move forward with either, and I think the first step would be mediation and/or litigation. This would be through United, let me get the exact name of the company, United Consulting Engineers and Architects. So, I would entertain a motion to that effect.

Commissioner Korb: So moved.

President Nix: Excuse me, excuse me, a second.

Commissioner Tornatta: Mr. Korb, with all due respect to you, I mean, where were the change orders approved?

Commissioner Korb: I’m going to defer to Mr. Nix on that, because of the fact that–

Commissioner Tornatta: I mean, the change orders were approved in this body right here. I mean, I can understand there’s a lot of discontent in that the object of the process was to move this jail forward. However, that’s the time, if there were an issue, to address an issue. Two years down the road, it has been water under the bridge, and time that, I don’t think we’ve done that on any project that I know of. Here we are trying to address some of these issues two years down the road. I know that, I’ve talked to the parties, they have been involved, they have been talking. Now, I really, I don’t know where the communication gap between this office and the principals involved, but I know that I have talked to those principals many times, and they are interested in making sure that it’s a complete project. They also know that they were supposed to build a $35 million project, and they were supposed to do it on time, and they were under budget.

President Nix: Well, Commissioner, to answer that, this isn’t something that’s just surfaced over the last few weeks or few months. This is something that Mr. Rector and I have been working on since the day I took office, or a day or two afterwards. I’d had some concerns, I guess, even before taking office of some of the things I had heard that were happening as far as their change orders and that. A lot of them are authorized on-site, early on they were done that way. We would give them, we’d given the engineering firm a directive that they would not be done that way after January 1^st, or January 2^nd or 3^rd of ‘05. For a while that continued. I wasn’t happy with the way it materialized. As of just two weeks ago the County Council approved a $20,000 change order for a ventilation problem that had been occurring since the jail had been opened that we got no results from the engineering firm. We got some responses, but they weren’t adequate in the fact that we needed to have this thing fixed and needed it fixed now, because that area could not be utilized for what it was built for. So, this isn’t anything that’s happened just in the last few weeks. This has been an on-going thing. As far as the change orders, there were numerous, once again I want to emphasize this, there were numerous change orders authorized on the job site prior to January 1, 2005 that we still feel like are in question, and from 2005 to today there was numerous change orders. We had sat down and talked to our counsel about this in late 2005, I don’t have the exact dates here in front of us, and because of the timeliness of this job, and because we felt like we needed to keep it on schedule, we were advised by our counsel not to pursue anything, but to just track everything and document all this. So, that’s why, I mean, this isn’t a process that can be remedied, if you will, over night. This has been a long process to get to this point. So, once again, I want to emphasize the fact, and the Council, I think it was, I don’t have a verbatim, in the Council minutes a few weeks ago they authorized out of a $371,000 change order, $20,000 for design deficiency. I don’t remember which Councilmember asked, we are going to go back to the engineering firm for compensation for this. You know, this is one of many things that I feel like we need to look at.

Commissioner Tornatta: I guess, as I’ve been brought into this process, I see that there was a Commission that drew up the contract in 2000, 2001. In 2004 there was a Commission change, and I truly believe that they weren’t satisfied with the contract as it stood. It might be told interpretation by Council, and of course by the different band of Commissioners, but my question is, did this company represent itself well with the contract that they had in front of them. Not the contract that maybe that the Commission in 2004 wanted to see that contractor have.

Commissioner Korb: Well, I don’t think that, Commissioner Tornatta, that we’re talking about a difference in the contract. We’re talking about a responsibility to living up within that contract. Before you try to make this into some sort of political football, it’s not. It’s business. I mean–

Commissioner Tornatta: It’s not business.

Commissioner Korb: It most certainly is.

Commissioner Tornatta: Then we have to watch things as they go, and we can’t sit and wait for things to happen.

Commissioner Korb: And I don’t have a problem with that. Here’s my problem. We build a jail out in the middle of a corn field, for goodness sakes, and that was a Commission a Democrat Commission that did that, and we’re not looking at this, this is a Republican decision or a Democrat decision, Troy. It is a decision of how the taxpayers need to have their tax dollars utilized without, obviously they had, the company that did this, and, again, this is the great thing about involving the Building Authority. That is about as non-politicized position as it possibly can be. We have given the contractor every opportunity to step forward and say, you know what, yeah, we’ll take some ownership of that, and they have not done that. That is what is at question here. It’s not whether the contract came in on time or under budget. It’s that we have some deficiencies in there. Mr. Nix who has got great experience with Industrial Contractors who does this type of work all the time, as compared to Commissioners that had no idea what was going on at the job site. That’s what’s at issue here. It’s not an issue of this is a political thing, because it’s not. If you’re wanting to turn it into that, stop it, because it’s not going to work that way.

President Nix: Well, let me--

Commissioner Tornatta: Leading me into whether it’s political football or not is not the case. We do know there was an administration change, we do know that the problems started at the administration change–

Commissioner Korb: Sure.

Commissioner Tornatta: –and we do know that problems were not stopped during that administration.

Commissioner Korb: Okay, and–

Commissioner Tornatta: So, that is the important part, and I say that if you don’t stop it while it’s happening, and you don’t stop it while you see things that are happening, I’m sorry, but I think that is not the best way to go. To let it go further down the road, and then try and throw this back on them, I think is the problem.

Commissioner Korb: That does not give the contractor–

Commissioner Tornatta: It is not political football.

Commissioner Korb: –a free pass. Sorry.

President Nix: Hang on, hang on, guys. Mr. Rector and I met with the design firm about, and, once again, I should have had these dates in front of me, but, I don’t, made them aware of our concerns. We had quite a few documented things that we really had some serious concerns about during this process. We had probably an hour and a half meeting with them down in room 318, never got a response from them at all. They just, we never ever were given any kind of, we’re sorry that’s the way it is, or, I mean, they were made aware of this early on that we had some concerns about this. We voiced our concerns in some progress meetings that we had. So, and, the issue of it being a $35 million project and it came in on time and under budget, that is true, but if the county has spent money that they shouldn’t have spent because of errors and omissions and design problems, then that’s money that the county should get back. I mean, it’s like you can’t compare the two between on time and under budget and what the county really should have got for their money, because we, I feel like we could have saved some money out there because of this. So, I just feel, like I say, Mr. Rector and I have been working on this a long time, we’ve had numerous meetings with the design firm, and we just have not been able to come up with any kind of what we feel like is a fair settlement.

Commissioner Tornatta: I will say this, I appreciate the job that you and Mr. Rector have done to address the problem. My point is clearly that it’s, we’re coming in at a different time, we’re looking at, in my opinion, some of the things that have been done I’ve looked at, we started out what we thought was $1.2 million in errors and omissions, that number turned into about $200,000. Then I’ve heard $400,000, but I know we got it down to $200,000, and we still had money, we were still under budget $500,000. So, I mean, when I look at everything, and, we, I’ve heard it from each one of us, we say it’s a good building. It’s really doing the purpose. We’ve had some issue out there, but I had issue with a house that I built. So, I mean, you work that out. But, I think, as I’ve heard, this company’s willing to do something. They’re not willing to buy the building back.

President Nix: And we haven’t asked them to do that.

Commissioner Korb: Not even close. I move we go ahead and go forward with–

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me, if I could? Just for the record, I would like your motion to specifically direct the County Attorney to, I mean, if this is what you intend to do, to conduct mediation to the extent required under the terms of the contract, and then proceed with litigation to settle claims that the county believes are due it under the terms of the contract.

Commissioner Korb: Do I have to remember all that to make it a motion?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, you can say I move what he said.

Commissioner Korb: I move what he said.

President Nix: I second. All in favor? Aye.

Commissioner Korb: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign.

Commissioner Tornatta: No. Aye.

Jack Waldroup: Excuse me?

President Nix: Yes, sir?

Jack Waldroup: Can I address just briefly?

President Nix: Yes, sure.

Jack Waldroup: Jack Waldroup, United Consulting Engineers.

President Nix: Hit the button there, Jack. There you go.

Jack Waldroup: I talk loud enough. Sorry about that. Briefly, I know there’s been some negotiations going on with Mr. Nix and, I think, Mr. Rector’s sat in on them, and we appreciate that. We are willing to continue to negotiate. I think that there’s been some communication today that we are willing to continue this. As far as us not answering any of the questions, of the 118 problems that you brought to Dave, or Mr. Rector, I don’t know if we answered all 118 of them, but it wasn’t like we didn’t, that we haven’t been down here to meet.

President Nix: No, Mr. Waldroup, and I agree with that. The meetings have gone well. No, I was referring to a meeting we had probably two and a half years ago. It was after that meeting there was no response. But, since then–

Jack Waldroup: They did eventually.

President Nix: –when we’ve sat down, no, we’ve had many, many talks, conferences back and forth.

Jack Waldroup: Right.

President Nix: In person meetings and teleconferences and that type of thing. So, it’s not, I didn’t mean for it to be that way at all. I’m just saying the initial meeting that we had two and a half years ago when we met with your firm, so.

Jack Waldroup: Okay.

President Nix: And, let me clear one thing up too, we’ve got a good job out there. I don’t want the public to think that the building’s going to fall down or anything like that. It’s just that there’s some issues that we really felt that the county should not have had to pay for. That’s really the issue.

Jack Waldroup: Well, and as you well know being in the construction business, when you get that many different contractors together, and they all come up with different ideas. You know, and our job will be the next one we do. You know, you know that, you’re in the business, Commissioner. So, there’s changes made. Did we do a perfect job? I doubt it. We haven’t did one yet.

President Nix: There’s no such thing.

Jack Waldroup: Bingo, but, you know, we have admitted there have been some problems, you know, I’ve talked to my boss and we have admitted there are some. But, I’ll just put it, we’re still willing to negotiate. We’ve been doing business in Vanderburgh County for 25 years, and we would like to continue to do business, you know, we don’t want to leave with a sour taste in our mouth. If you guys want to move forward this way, we’ll be there.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Waldroup.

Jack Waldroup: Thank you. You all have a Merry Christmas.

President Nix: You do the same.

President Nix: The next action item is a request to rename this particular room, this conference room. I didn’t know, Mr. Rector, do you want to step forward and maybe address this?

Dave Rector: Good afternoon, Commissioners, Dave Rector of the Building Authority. Some time ago, after the death of Kevin Winternheimer, County and City Attorney, we had a request from City Council President, Keith Jarboe, to rename the chamber here the “Kevin Winternheimer Council Chambers”. I took it to our Board of Directors. That type of thing had come up once before at the Centre with the Bill Brooks Exhibition Hall. They wanted to make sure since some other bodies had met in here, the Commissioners and the County Council that it had the support of everyone. Last night the City Council passed a resolution requesting us to rename it the “Kevin Winternheimer Council Chambers”. It’s up to this board today representing the County if you all would like to do that. If so, I’ll take it back to my board, and then if there’s firm confirmation on all parties we would rename it the “Kevin Winternheimer Council Chambers” in honor of Kevin. I know everyone thought a lot of him, and he was a terrific municipal attorney, and I think that’s the reason for it, to honor him.

Commissioner Tornatta: Dave, would it be the council chambers, or just chamber? I’ve got “Kevin Winternheimer Chamber” on here.

Dave Rector: The resolution from the city was a little bit different than, I agree with what you’re saying, but I think they were calling it council chambers, weren’t they?

President Nix: Yeah, the “Kevin Winternheimer Council Chambers”.

Commissioner Tornatta: That’s what it says on theirs, I’ve got something different on mine.

President Nix: Yeah, on the agenda. The resolution says “Kevin Winternheimer Council Chambers”?

Dave Rector: That was their resolution last evening, yes.

President Nix: Okay. Questions?

Commissioner Tornatta: Go ahead.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The only comment I would have is that these do happen to be the Council chambers, they’re also the Commissioners chambers–

Commissioner Tornatta: The APC Board chambers.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: –the County Council chambers, and I think maybe just to call it “Kevin Winternheimer Room”, or the “Kevin Winternheimer Chambers”--

Commissioner Tornatta: Chambers, right.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: –without identifying, the Council may meet somewhere else someday.

Dave Rector: The complexity of this request, I think, was a good thing everybody was wanting to do, and that’s where it got bogged down is, what were we going to call it and how was it going to be referred to? I just have before you the City Council resolution.

Commissioner Tornatta: That’s been approved, obviously?

President Nix: Yeah, last night.

Dave Rector: Yeah.

President Nix: It was approved at last night’s meeting.

Dave Rector: And, if you’re wanting something different, I can talk with President Jarboe again, and then when I have a board meeting this week, I can say, you know, what do we want to name it? I don’t think anybody’s hung up on Council Chambers.

Commissioner Tornatta: No, and I’m ready to go ahead with it. I just, I just think if you make it as neutral as possible, you just open it up to all the groups. I think that we have ten groups that come in here, the ABC Board sometimes comes in here, the PTABOA Board.

Dave Rector: The “Kevin Winternheimer Room”.

Commissioner Tornatta: Or Chambers, “The Kevin Winternheimer Chambers”, I think is fine.

Dave Rector: Chambers.

Commissioner Tornatta: I think just take the Council out of it since there’s several different places, or offices that come in here.

President Nix: Would that be agreeable, Commissioner?

Commissioner Korb: Yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: We’ll have to do a resolution, will we not?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, we would, but you can do this by vote, actually. I don’t think you have to have an official resolution with a number. If you just want to vote to recommend to the Building Authority that name change, you can do that.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, I make a motion to, if we can, get it worked out and name it the “Kevin Winternheimer Chambers”.

Dave Rector: I’ll take that back to President Jarboe, and to my board. I guess, it falls to my board ultimately to title it.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay.

Dave Rector: I’m sure they’ll appreciate that opportunity.

President Nix: Then award the prize. There’s been a motion on the floor.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: A motion has been made and seconded. All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Dave Rector: Thank you.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Rector.

President Nix: I would like to back up here. The rezoning for 7801 Old State Road has been continued and will not be heard today. If there’s anyone here for that today, it will not be heard. I know a few people stepped in after the meeting started, so. Okay.

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

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, our first contract is a contract for a renovation of the Wedgewood Room in the Old Courthouse by Lichtenberger Construction for the amount of their bid in the sum of $351,576. It’s in all respects satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next document is an agreement to provide service to the mail machine, an electronic scale for the Purdue Extension Agent. It’s a one year agreement for $620. It’s also appropriate for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next document is a licensing agreement to be entered into between Vanderburgh County on behalf of the Vanderburgh County Assessor with Assessment Software Solutions, Inc. for the provision of software needed for the maintenance of the various records in the County Assessor’s office. The cost of the agreement is $18,500, which has been appropriated, and it is appropriate for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

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 a contract to be entered into between the county and Clark Dietz for maintenance of traffic on Green River Road at Millersburg Road. The cost of the agreement is $12,800, and it’s satisfactory for execution from a legal perspective.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is between Vanderburgh County Commissioners on behalf of the Vanderburgh County Board of Health for a revised agreement in principle for the Indiana Medicaid Transportation grant. You signed a former copy of this agreement. It has now been revised. The revisions are satisfactory. The only new provision contained in the revised agreement is that the State OMPP will be reimbursing the Vanderburgh County Health Department, St. Mary’s Hospital, Deaconess Hospital and Welborn Clinic for costs they incur with their software vendors to provide the necessary data. The total amount that they have available for that is $100,000. They would not provide more than $30,000 cost for any one entity. Gary Heck of the Vanderburgh County Board of Health believes that the cost to the Health Department would be substantially less than $30,000. It’s satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is a third amendment to the grant agreement from the Indiana State Department of Health to the Vanderburgh County Department of Health, or the Vanderburgh County Commissioners on behalf of the County Department of Health, adding an additional $5,000 to the grant, making it $35,000. It will run, it does run from March 20, 2005 through March 29, 2008. It’s satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: And that’s diabetes, is that correct?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I beg your pardon?

Commissioner Tornatta: Is that the Diabetes Grant?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, it is.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

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 the contract to be entered into between the Vanderburgh County Commissioners and WNIN for the televising of the meetings of the Commission. The cost of the agreement is identical to that of last year, in all respects, and it’s satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Next is a Byrne Justice Assistance Grant for the drug program of the Superior Court. This is for 2008. Previously the Commission approved the grant proposal for this in the amount of $104,212, with the amount of the grant to be $52,106. That has now been reduced to $48,429, that’s the amount of the grant, and then the courts will need to come up with a matching grant of $48,429, which has been appropriated and the funds are available. This is satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: What is this? That’s all that are on the agenda. Now, I have some separate items if you want me to go ahead?

President Nix: You had e-mailed us in the last day three or four, is that part of this?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah.

President Nix: Okay, alright.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, I’ll go ahead now with those that didn’t get to you in time to be on the agenda. The first one is an agreement with Hamrick’s Towing. It will be a towing contract for 2008. We had a contract with Hamrick Towing for 2007. That agreement provided that it could be renewed for a period of one year under the same terms and provisions of the 2007 agreement. It’s contemplated that sometime during 2008 there will be, right now there is no other contractor, to our knowledge, who can meet the specifications for this bid. But, it’s contemplated that sometime around mid 2008 there will be at least one other contractor who could bid on this. So, this would be an agreement for one year under the same terms as the 2007 agreement, and possibly, well, then it would be rebid at the end of 2008.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The next agreement is between the Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency and an individual named John Pease, who by the way is a volunteer with the Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency. There is a need to do construction and reconstruction of the Emergency Management, what is it, the Mobile Emergency Management facility. Mr. Pease, under this agreement, would agree to do that for a cost of $35 per hour, maximum amount of his billing would be $5,000. In addition to doing the construction and reconstruction, he would also agree to maintain the reconstructed facility in the same condition for six months after it is completed. If you approve this today, it is subject to his insurer providing us with a certificate of insurance that’s satisfactory to the County Attorney. I’ve talked to the insurer, they tell me they will be providing us with a certificate of insurance. If you wish to go forward with this, you would approve it, execute it, but we would have Madelyn hold it in the file until we receive the certificate of insurance, then it could be presented to Mr. Pease for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would approve that subject to the insurance clearance.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Alright, then, actually I have two agreements here between Vanderburgh County and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff. One is for the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s operation of the Community Corrections facility. This would be an agreement for the calendar year 2008. It’s identical to the agreement for 2007, including the charges for that service, and it’s satisfactory for execution, if you want to do that one.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: And, the second and final agreement that I have today is between Vanderburgh County and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff for compensation to be paid to the Sheriff in 2008 in lieu of statutory fees. This agreement also is identical to the 2007 agreement, except the amount of the fees have been increased from $83,418 in 2007 to $85,921 in 2008. It is satisfactory for execution.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

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

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Ziemer.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Would you like to do bids?

President Nix: Oh, certainly.

Commissioner Korb: I thought you said that’s all you had. You lied.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Well, this is what you have.

Commissioner Korb: I see.

President Nix: Go ahead.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Alright, I have opened the bids for the, what is it, the Hogue Road culvert construction. I have two bids. One is from Deig Brothers Construction, the amount of the bid is $108,994. The second bid is from CCC of Evansville, and their bid is $100,671.06.

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.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: That’s it.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Ziemer.

President Nix: The next action item is department head reports. Mr. Stoll?

John Stoll: First I’ve got a pipe acceptance request for Section One of Centerra Ridge Subdivision. There’s a total of 1,500 linear feet of pipe located outside of the street rights-of-way. The developer has paid the two dollar a foot acceptance fee, so, I would request that you would accept these pipes for maintenance.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Then, next, I have a street acceptance request for Section One of the Glenns Subdivision. The streets are 654 feet of Mariner Drive, 250 feet of Wolters Drive, and 329 feet of Bronson Lane.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to accept.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

John Stoll: The next street acceptance request is for Section One of William Hirsch Subdivision. This is 375 feet of Hirschland Drive.

Commissioner Korb: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: The next street acceptance is for Section One of Heritage Park Subdivision. This is for 1,345 feet of Davis Lant Drive, and 355 feet of Cullen Avenue.

Commissioner Korb: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

John Stoll: Next, I have a supplemental agreement for the Cross Pointe Boulevard design. This is with Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates, and the supplemental agreement is for an increase of $68,000. This supplemental agreement will cover design revisions to eliminate a raised median that was originally proposed for the section between Oak Grove and Morgan. It covers design changes for the storm sewer outlet at the Norfolk Southern right-of-way. It also covers some sanitary sewer design, due to the conflicts with sanitary sewers in the segment between Oak Grove and Morgan Avenue.

Commissioner Tornatta: When do we, how far are we from completion on the right-of-way?

John Stoll: We still have, I would guess five or six parcels that still have to be secured. I would still consider the railroad to be the main potential problem that’s out there. We have met with most of the property owners as of late, and it sounds like we’re making some progress on getting those resolved. But, I haven’t gotten any updates from the consultant in regard to the railroad lately. So, if we can’t get this out for bid in February, it will probably be more a result of the railroad than anything.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, okay. Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Then the next supplemental agreement is for Green River Road. This is the contract with DLZ, and this is supplemental agreement number five. This is for an increase of $163,100. The scope of work on this supplemental agreement is to do the studies, which have already been done for determining various options for keeping the road open to traffic, then it provides the design of the temporary road and temporary bridge needed to keep the road open. It also provides for additional utility coordination in order to make that happen. I would request that this supplemental agreement be approved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, just before they approve that, I just want to say that this group really did get on the mark, and by the time we had asked for that they had four scenarios back at us, and really did their job to get this stuff rolling. So, motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Then, next, I have a contract with the Schneider Corporation for design work on the Broadway Avenue bridge number 271. This is a bridge, as well as a culvert at Johnson Lane. This is the one where, I know Commissioner Korb wasn’t with the Commissioners at that time, but we had some residents, it was probably about a year ago who came to the meeting concerned about drainage problems. This was one of the areas that was cited as causing some of their drainage problems. Basically, there’s a culvert under Johnson Lane that has been extended and tied to a bridge under Broadway Avenue. Nobody seems to know who constructed this connecting structure, but based on some preliminary hydraulic studies, it is a restriction to the flow out there. This contract with Schneider would do the preliminary hydraulic studies needed in order to size the structures, and then at a later date we’ll have to come back with a supplemental agreement to get the final design plans. But, I would request your approval of this contract.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you. Before you go on, Mr. Stoll. On that, I think it needs to be clear that this is the start of helping that situation out there. This will not remediate all the problems that the residents out there have. I think that needs to be clear that this isn’t a cure all here, but this is something we can start with that hopefully will help, start helping in the process.

John Stoll: We’ll also have to deal with the County Attorney in regard to legal issues, as far as who is really obligated to deal with city structures. Like you said, the channels themselves don’t appear to be large enough to handle the flows to keep the flood waters down. So, there’s a number of issues. This is just one component, like you said.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: The next item I have is a time extension request on contract VC07-10-01. This is the St. Joseph Avenue bridge number 1924 replacement. The original completion date for this contract was December 31^st, but the precast box culvert that is going to be installed at this location has just now been finished. Given the time of year, the contractor was concerned that they wouldn’t have enough decent weather to actually do the project. So, they are requesting somewhat of an open ended extension to where once they get a window of time to go out and do the project, they would still be under the terms of the contract for their, they would have 28 days to complete it. But, I don’t have a specific start and end date at this point. But, I would prefer to go ahead and grant their extension, because we really don’t want them to go out and close the road right now and then run into bad weather and have the road down for a longer period of time. So, I want to request that their time extension be granted.

Commissioner Tornatta: Well, I don’t like open ended extensions, but I would grant them a time extension. Any time?

President Nix: Do you have a recommendation on a time frame?

John Stoll: By the end of March? If not, if we don’t get a window of time, I could come back then and request a new extension. They have 28 days to complete it.

Commissioner Tornatta: Who’s the contractor?

John Stoll: CCC of Evansville.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay. Any issues?

John Stoll: None.

Commissioner Tornatta: Where have they been on time issues in the past?

John Stoll: They are just wrapping up the Bromm Road culvert project.

President Nix: We’ve got them on some rehab projects in the last year or two.

John Stoll: Yeah.

President Nix: I think they’ve done us a good job.

Commissioner Korb: It sounds like this is out of their control? They were waiting for the box culvert?

John Stoll: The box culvert was actually ordered by the county. We typically order those in advance in order to try and get them in the production schedule, and it also saves us a little money on the mark up, so it’s not passed through the contractors’ contract. So, we set it up to order the box. It just now is getting finished. So, the fact that the box culvert has not been available has not been the contractors fault.

President Nix: Is, what’s the duration of the job, in your estimation?

John Stoll: The contract as it’s written allows them to have 28 days of road closure.

President Nix: We’re giving them a real good time of year to start too.

John Stoll: That’s another concern as far as having asphalt to go out there and patch it. That’s why, a ballpark guess, I would say end of March, maybe they would have suitable weather to where they could get asphalt again.

President Nix: Is there any, I’m not familiar with that exact structure, but is there any problem with leaving this thing open for a while and then maybe looking at spring?

Commissioner Tornatta: Or maybe summer–

President Nix: Right.

Commissioner Tornatta: –during summer when school’s out. That road always has a problem, which part is it?

John Stoll: This is the twin culvert structure up, it’s just a little bit south of Nuebling. It’s about a mile south of Baseline. It’s over a legal drain. I didn’t speak to the contractor as far as specific windows of time when they thought they might be able to get it done, if we postponed it to when we definitely should have good weather.

Commissioner Tornatta: You said St. George?

President Nix: St. Joe.

John Stoll: St. Joseph.

Commissioner Tornatta: St. Joseph, okay.

President Nix: Do you want to talk to the contractor and get back with us?

John Stoll: Sure.

President Nix: See what they think? I mean, I, you know, I agree with Commissioner Tornatta, just leaving it open ended, I would rather come up with something that’s a little bit more definite.

John Stoll: In the meantime, I think their concern was making sure they weren’t assessed any liquidated damages, since their completion date is the 31^st.

Commissioner Tornatta: Right. I think we could, we would grant doing an extension. I just, to have it open ended, I think puts us, I think we should have a closure date, even if they had to come back and ask for another extension.

President Nix: Can we hold a minute and change the tape please?

(Tape change)

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: I can check on that and let them know that the time extension will be granted, but we just need more specifics as far as content.

Commissioner Tornatta: Ted, do we have to grant something today, since it is the 31^st in question?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I don’t understand what the significance of the 31^st is?

John Stoll: That was their contractual completion date. The way the contract was written liquidated damages would be assessed if they weren’t finished by the 31^st.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I think, Commissioner Tornatta, what I would suggest is that you vote today to grant an extension for a period of time to be set at your first meeting in January.

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

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: The last item I have is a follow up to an approval that you made last week. It’s on the Keith Singer right-of-way parcel on the University Parkway project. You had approved increasing that from $950 to $3,000. In order to get that processed through the federal aid money that is being used to purchase this right-of-way, I just needed you to sign an alternate form. So, I would just request that you sign the form that’s been submitted by Bernardin Lochmueller Associates, so that way we can be sure that we’ll get the federal reimbursement on that right-of-way parcel.

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

President Nix: I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Korb: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: You just gave us a raise.

Commissioner Korb: You did.

Commissioner Tornatta: You gave me a raise.

President Nix: Is that it, Mr. Stoll? Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: John? What about the culvert on Green River Road that we’re waiting for INDOT to give us a revised agreement for that, have we heard anything else on that?

John Stoll: I have not heard anything. I’m not, Bill Jeffers, I don’t know if the County Surveyor has heard anything new. Have you heard anything, Bill? The last feedback I got was that everybody agreed that the scope of the contract was too extreme for what we were trying to do, but I have not seen any revisions.

Bill Jeffers: The only thing I’ve heard is that the Department of Natural Resources called and wondered if there was any federal money involved. I told them not from the county’s end of it. It was bridge funds and drainage funds. That’s all I’ve heard.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: It would just be a shame to lose the benefit of that $500,000 for the culvert. That doesn’t mean we should sign any kind of agreement that they put in front of us. Clearly, what they did put in front of us was inadequate, but we ought to be talking to somebody about this.

John Stoll: I can check with INDOT again.

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

John Stoll: And see what they have to say.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Thank you.

John Stoll: You’re welcome.

President Nix: I guess, along with that, to make sure we coordinate, that’s all part of the big picture, the whole project, I guess. So, they’re, the two will be coordinated, I guess, that goes without saying, so.

John Stoll: They were originally looking at a spring bid letting on their project, but I don’t know with this issue not being resolved whether or not that would postpone anything on their end or not.

President Nix: It might help move things along if we could check with them.

Commissioner Tornatta: Ted, just real quick, if you were the attorney for CCC, and I assume you’re not, would you be, would you feel comfortable with us putting that motion out there and requesting that something be amended in January? Or would you rather have something signed saying that that was the case?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: What are you going to sign? Something that says exactly what we said here today?

Commissioner Tornatta: Well, I didn’t know if we needed, do we need to sign that and send that to them? We otherwise had a paper that we had to sign.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, I suggest that the minutes of this meeting will show the resolution of the Commissioners–

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: –and we have agreed to extend it, and we’re going to extend it to a period of time to be agreed to in January.

John Stoll: If that’s not signed, it’s no problem. I can go ahead and talk to the contractor and we’ll get something worked out and we’ll let you know in January.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, thanks.

John Stoll: Sure.

President Nix: Thanks, John. Mr. Ziemer, you’re back on here. Are you through with us?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’m totally through with you.

President Nix: Thank you. Any other department heads? Seeing none.

President Nix: We’ll go to the next action item which is board appointments. Commissioner Korb?

Commissioner Korb: We have been working on reappointing and appointing board members for the public. A lot of those terms expire on various committees, such as Domestic and Sexual Violence, Legal Aid, Alcoholic Beverage. In trying to fill these positions, Mr. Nix has asked me to contact current members who are serving on boards, and directors and what not. So, we’ve been doing that. This is a partial list so far. So, I would move that, I guess, this is in the form of a motion, since I’ve never done this before?

President Nix: Yes, sir.

Commissioner Korb: Would move that the following appointments be made. Do you want to do that individually or collectively?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Well, you can do it collectively, unless somebody would have an objection to any one of them, then you would have to deal with that separately.

President Nix: Okay, just go through them, and if we want to object to any of them, then we can.

Commissioner Korb: That would be fine. Building Authority Board of Trustees, Steve Sweeney; Domestic and Sexual Violence, Lori Hahn; Legal Aid, Jim Martin of the Sheriff’s Department; Alcoholic Beverage, Frank Daugul; Area Plan Commission, Bill Pedtke; Convention and Visitors Bureau, Greg Gee will be the hotelier representative and Joe Vezosso will be switching off from the hotelier position, because he’s no longer in the hotel business. The Board of Health, Dr. Mark Wohlford, who is an oral surgeon here in Evansville. Economic Development Coalition, Marco DeLucio; Emergency Management Association, Sheriff Williams; HVAC, Bob Crow; Polling Place Advisory Council is Connie Carrier, Tony Bushrod, Marissa Nichoalds, Roberta Heimann, Ken Lefler, and PTABOA, Paul Farmer. The Redevelopment Commission is Dave Abbott, Bob Musgrave, Tim Deisher, Pam Martin.

President Nix: Is that in the form of a motion?

Commissioner Korb: It is.

Commissioner Tornatta: I’ll second it.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. Thank you.

President Nix: Is there any new business to come before the board? Seeing none.

President Nix: Any old business?

Commissioner Tornatta: Kind of under old business. We did talk, did get confirmation from USI that they were interested in their graduates program looking at the Old Courthouse. So, between now and the first of the year, I think they start about two and half weeks, three weeks in, we need some type of program by which we would like them to assess and to give us some information. So, if we could put that in some form of a composite sketch of what we want to see out of the group. They could kind of run with it from there. But, they’re going to have two or three, as many as, well, as many groups as he devises that he has with class members. They’re also looking at the Marketing Department as well, kind of chipping in. So, we should have a nice group of fresh minds looking at the project.

President Nix: Commissioner?

Commissioner Korb: I’m confused. What are we talking about here?

Commissioner Tornatta: The Old Courthouse–

Commissioner Korb: USI students?

President Nix: The feasibility of uses for the Old Courthouse, just uses.

Commissioner Korb: Got it. Okay.

President Nix: This was discussed, you brought this up at a meeting a couple of weeks back.

Commissioner Tornatta: Right, and the one thing that we would like to do is just set some of our parameters for stuff we would like them to address, and if they have anything outside of that, as well as working with the Old Courthouse Foundation and any measures that we would like to do there. We would like to have our first informative meeting at the Courthouse. So, it opens up to just another way of doing a project.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Commissioner Tornatta, the one thing I might suggest in the charge to the architect, in his contract for work at the Old Courthouse, one of the things they are doing is reviewing and suggesting possible additional uses for the Courthouse. So, I think this group ought to meet with the architect as well.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, and if we can start to kind of develop some of those ideas and put it in a, eventually have a little binder, and then I told the professor that I would come before those kids, and any of the Commissioners that would like to come there could talk to them, tell them some of their concerns and some direction.

President Nix: I believe tomorrow, Commissioner Korb, you’re going to be at the Old Courthouse meeting at 11:30 to, I guess, discuss kick off of the Wedgewood project, and then a possible marketing of the Old Courthouse?

Commissioner Korb: Right. What we’ve talked about, and I’ve sent the e-mail out and everybody received one. We’ll be meeting with the Old Courthouse Foundation Board of Directors to discuss the possibility of, the necessity of trying to lease the rest of the spaces inside that building in contracting with a commercial realtor to lease those spaces. As Commissioner Nix and Tornatta both pointed out to me, really that’s going to be the Foundation’s call, not the Commissioner’s call. So, in terms of a cost factor, the only time there is a cost is if indeed the space is let. Marketing the building, the Wedgewood Room and the other rooms that we have in that building are fine, but I really think that because we already have the gas and the electric on in the building and the lights are all on, we need to lease as much of that space as we possibly can. We’re not in the real estate business as county office holders, that’s what real estate agents do, and would encourage them to do that. So, that will be what we present tomorrow to the Board of Directors.

Commissioner Tornatta: Do we have anybody in mind?

Commissioner Korb: No, really, I’ve given them three names, Tucker Real Estate, Woodward Commercial Real Estate and Summit. All three of those companies have got presence downtown. When you sign a contract like that you ask them to list the spaces for six months, or however long, and I don’t mind rotating it around at all. I don’t have a preference, except that they should be a commercial.

President Nix: The other thing to this, these guys are multi-list realtors. So, this, basically, if you give it to one, it opens the doors for a lot of different realty companies to be able to–

Commissioner Korb: Absolutely. That’s the thing that we’ve talked about as Commissioners is taking some of the politics out of it if we can. Again, we just want to lease the space. So, I’ve encouraged the Foundation to negotiate the deal of what the percentage is and that type of thing, and have also encouraged them to take a look at redoing our lease, because it’s extremely ambiguous, and frustrating for the tenants.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I beg your pardon?

Commissioner Korb: If you wrote that–

Commissioner Tornatta: He’s just an attorney.

President Nix: We’ll talk about that some time.

Commissioner Korb: We still love you.

Commissioner Tornatta: That’s a joke.

Commissioner Korb: Yeah, so, anyway, that’s not a directive from the Commissioners at all. That’s just a suggestion for the Old Courthouse Foundation, because at the end of the day, they’re the ones paying the bills, not us. We’re just trying to help them along with that.

President Nix: We do pay some of the bills over there, so.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, we do.

Commissioner Korb: Yeah, okay, we pay some of the bills there.

President Nix: Yeah, right.

Commissioner Tornatta: The majority.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Just a question. We have been leasing space there for some time, and, well, everybody that has space in the Old Courthouse now leases it without benefit of a realtor, so no commission or anything is paid–

Commissioner Korb: True.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: –on that. Are you, will the contract cover all space in the Old Courthouse? Or will the Commissioners be able to continue to lease space?

President Nix: I would like to see that if we have an opportunity to lease space on our own, we do it, as we have been all along. If they find people to lease the space, they get the commission.

Commissioner Tornatta: Yeah, I would just like to request that, I mean, we’ve been talking about this, I think these are good points, but the one thing that I would like to look at is maybe we give this class that we’re talking about as a, it’s a semester class, so we would be done by May, maybe we let that amount of time go and let these guys see if they can come up with something outside the box before we get anybody involved, since we’ve gone this long. See if they can come up with any additional ideas. Then, at that point, if the recommendation from all places is that we get some outside contract, I think the thing that we’re going to find is these individuals that would push, whether it be Summit or any of these places, we don’t have that place up to the technology that most of these offices need to run their business, in some cases. So, that’s probably one of the recommendations that we’re going to get. We’re going to have to address that, or they’re not going to be able to put anybody in. So, I think it could be a frustrating issue. So, let’s get some ideas from some of these people is my request, and then past that, maybe we do hire somebody or acquire the services.

President Nix: I think this, tomorrow is just to look and see if the board would be interested.

Commissioner Korb: That’s all it is. I think we run that by the board, and I’m happy to have students come out and do a work study or whatever they want to do, but really we have a responsibility to lease that space. I appreciate the fact that up until now it’s been leased by itself, which is fine, but we’re still running below a hundred, we’re running what, at 60 percent capacity of the building? My thought is, okay, why are we just satisfied with just 60 percent of letting out that space? That makes no sense, it makes no business sense. The recommendation that I will give the foundation tomorrow is, with respect to what you’re saying, Troy, which is right, you just lease it as is. Any improvements would be up to the tenant coming in, and that way the county is not out additional money for upgrading the facility, which is basically what we’re after. So, but again, I mean, you all give me the guidance, I don’t care, if you want to say wait until May, fine, we can do that. But, still, at some point in time, we have to realize to market the facility, to lease the space we need people that do that for a living, that would be licensed realtors.

President Nix: I would like to see what the board would consider first.

Commissioner Korb: Sure.

President Nix: Then, you know, our plan for the last couple of years sitting on that board is that we get the Wedgewood Room complete, let the public know what the rest of the building can look like from an architectural standpoint, because we’ve taken care of the mechanical and electrical and roofing and windows and that. From that point then, we’ve got quite a few options we can look at, build outs and that type of thing, but we want to stay with the theme of the Wedgewood Room, the historic part of that throughout the whole process. So, I think we need to go at this fairly easy until we really come up with a good plan.

Commissioner Tornatta: What is our rent per square foot at this point?

Marissa Nichoalds: It varies. Usually around eight to ten dollars per square foot.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, so, I mean, we’re fairly low, but with the amenities we have in there, I think that’s one of the reasons we are as low as we are. So, anyway, just when you’re telling them, explaining some of these ideas for USI, this would be a graduate course, so this would be people who might even be out in the field that are going back to try and potentially pick up masters classes and whatever. So, these might be professionals that would be looking to give us some ideas as well.

President Nix: Thank you, gentlemen. Any other old business? Seeing none.

President Nix: Now is the time for public comment. Anyone who would like to address the board for anything relating to Commission business? Seeing none.

President Nix: I will entertain a motion to approve the consent items. I think we’ve got one additional item to add to that, and that is?

Marissa Nichoalds: It’s a surplus request for the County Highway.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Korb: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Opposed same sign. I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Korb: So moved. Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of December 11, 2007 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Approval of December 18, 2007 Executive Session Summary Minutes.

Kraftwerks, Inc.: 2007 Craft Show Financial Report and Payment.

J.L. Crane Proposal for Work at 102 Read Street.

Department Head Meeting Notes: December 11, 2007.

Employment Changes:

Commissioners (1)                   Health Department (1)              Superior Court (1)

German Assessor (2)               Circuit Court (1)                        County Council (1)

Travel Requests:                   County Assessor (1)                 SWCD (1)

County Engineer:

Pay Request No. 42 for Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.