VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 20^th day of February, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.

President Musgrave: I’m going to call to order the February 20, 2007 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County. I’ll start with introductions to my right.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

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

Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

President Musgrave: Cheryl Musgrave, Commissioner.

Commissioner Tornatta: Troy Tornatta, Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

President Musgrave: Will you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance?

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Musgrave: Our first action item is to welcome Vectren Conservation Connection, Mike Roeder. Welcome, Mr. Roeder.

Mike Roeder: Thank you. I’ll wait just a second till you get them all passed around. Thank you for the opportunity to come this afternoon before the Commission. I wanted to talk just a couple of minutes and answer any questions that you might have about our new program, Conservation Connection. For the utility business, this is something that is actually very exciting, a very different way that the company is doing business. If you’re, if you have the presentation there, it’s just four slides. If you go to the second slide, the change, where the real change is, in the past utilities on the natural gas side made their money by the number of deliveries of gas through the pipe to the home. The volumetric rate making. That’s the way rates have been made across the country for years. The change here is that now, it’s truly conservation and decoupling. In other words, the utility is now incented to have customers use less natural gas. So, that’s, you know, we believe that that’s a real win-win, it’s a win for the company, it’s a win for customers because the total bill can be lower. So, what is the Conservation Connection? Perhaps you’ve noticed some of the promotion on radio or television, but, what that is is providing the tools for our customers to help them use less of our product, less of the natural gas. Basically, the bottom line is those who use less will, obviously, lower their bills. This is an Indiana program, the third page. There are basically four key elements that we’re promoting; rebates and on-line audit tool are the primary, very visible components. Rebates on natural gas efficient appliances, everything from the furnace down to a programmable thermostat for the typical residential consumer. Then for commercial and small business there are rebates that are much larger. So, and then there’s an on-line audit tool that we have available to allow customers to see very detailed information. It’s more than just the ten tips on how to weatherize your home. It actually ties to our customers individual data. Any of you can go on-line and it would pull your home’s usage over the last 12 months. It would ask a series of questions one time, and once you do that, it will provide the tools to suggest what consumers can do, whether that’s just adding a programmable thermostat, or by the year of your furnace that you’ve entered, suggesting it may be time to consider that type of appliance upgrade. There’s also a Conservation Connection call center for those that are not, you know, web savvy, if you will, or those who just don’t like the internet. We’ve dedicated a group of call takers in our Evansville based call center to do nothing but help people with conservation. So, this is a separate phone number from our normal customer service line. It’s, again, a group dedicated solely to helping customers with conservation. Of course, we’ve been working aggressively with all of our employees throughout Indiana to help them, a), understand the program, and then, b), help them educate our customers. You know, if we’ve got a service tech in an older home re-lighting a furnace, you know, we’ve provided them with a truck pad that they can hand out on their way out. It doesn’t slow them down, but they may be able to say, “Hey, I noticed that your furnace is, you know, 30, 40 years old, here’s some folks who might be able to help you calculate whether it makes sense to get a new furnace.” Or, “I noticed that you didn’t have a programmable thermostat, if you’ll take this, here’s some information, a phone number, web site on how to get a rebate.” Basically, you would get it for free. The last slide that I have before you this afternoon, is just a little bit about the time line. Public education is underway. I mentioned television, there have been radio and newspaper. The other handout that you have before you was the insert that was in Thursday’s, last Thursday’s Evansville Courier. So, throughout Indiana we’ve been promoting this program as a way for our customers to use less natural gas. Rebate forms, basically, rebates were effective December 1^st. That’s when the IURC approved the program. So, rebates are available, again, at our Vectren.com website, and we also have this dedicated call center to help people with these rebates. The on-line audit tools are available, and, again, the phone number there, a separate phone number from our normal call center to help people with conservation. I would be glad to answer questions.

President Musgrave: Would you go ahead and read the phone number out?

Mike Roeder: Oh, sure. The separate Conservation Connection phone number is 866-240-8476.

President Musgrave: Commissioners, are there any questions? Are you going to give rebates on solar panel installations anytime soon do you think?

Mike Roeder: I don’t know about solar panels, but we are working on some electric demand side management programs. You may have heard of our Summer Cycler program that we currently have. We actually are working with the commission right now on additional electric incentives that we can offer customers, that help customers lower their bill and help make sure the utility is able to effectively stay in business and be competitive.

President Musgrave: Thank you very much for coming and sharing these conservation tips with us.

Mike Roeder: You’re welcome.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks.

President Musgrave: I would like to ask Dave Rector, Building Authority, to come forward and talk about the camera quote for Council chambers and jail expenditures from the contingency fund.

Dave Rector: Dave Rector, Building Authority. The first item that I would like to talk about is an additional camera for Council/Commissioner chambers here. We have a quote of $13,000, that includes the camera, multiplexing equipment with the fiber lines, installation, monitor and some other things. Would suggest that funding for this could come from our joint fund that we have with the Commissioners and the Building Authority. With a motion by this board to approve, I’ll take it to my board, and we could get that project underway.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve the camera.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Dave Rector: I have some additional items we would like to complete at the new jail, from contingency funds that I had e-mailed you. Direct wiring the t.v.’s in the eight man holding cells, changing out the auto faucets in the corrections, repairing a padded cell that you have a picture of there, trying a trial for water proofing of the two story chase, as you see a floor plan that they’re highlighted on, installing some additional cameras that we’ve identified some blind spots now, and, also to pay the contractor, general contractor for painting of the rec yard. All of those together approach $93,000, we have about $120,000 left in contingency. Sheriff Williams is also here if you have any questions regarding those.

Commissioner Nix: How many different cameras was that, as part of that?

Dave Rector: Sheriff?

Eric Williams: We’re estimating about 15.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

President Musgrave: For the record, he said about 15.

Commissioner Nix: I’ve had a chance to go over this with Mr. Rector, and I would make a motion that we approve these.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Dave Rector: Thank you, Commissioners.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Gary Heck from the Health Department is here with his community dental clinic year end report. Welcome, Mr. Heck.

Gary Heck: Gary Heck, Vanderburgh County Health Department. Thank you. This actually will include reports all the way through January 31^st, since we had those figures as well. We thought it was better to give you the full picture of where we stand. So, it will have those numbers in here as well. If I can direct your attention to the Power Point presentation. Next slide please. This is just a general preface that has all the little thank you’s and fine print that, oh, Happy Birthday, Mr. Ziemer, by the way. Mr. Ziemer, always insists that we have little disclaimers on why we do things, and that’s what this page is. Next page please. You won’t get a presentation from the Health Department without a reminder that you need to wash your hands before you do anything, and that includes brushing your teeth and flossing your teeth. The Surgeon General released a report in 2001 called, Oral Health in America, and this will give you just a little understanding of why oral health is so important. When you look at some of the little bullets down below, you’ll see that there is a couple of things that will jump out at you. One of them is that about 51 million hours of school are lost each year due to dental problems. Poor dental health is translated into pain, infection, dysfunction and poor performance in everything that you do. Next slide please. This particular program, this will give you kind of an overview of where we’ve come from, this project is under a two year grant funding, with three different partners. The funding sources are the Deaconess Health System, Vanderburgh County and St. Mary’s. We’ve listed the 2007 county officials and the Board of Health members, since this is a report that we’re bringing through to this year. Next slide please. The grant agreement called for the setting up of an advisory council that were appointed by various bodies. The Deaconess system has two appointees, the county had three, St. Mary’s had two, the First District Dental Society had four, and they have a retired dentist who also serves as an alternate. He’s also been a wealth of information and has helped us as we looked at what the fee structure might look like. The Board of Health has three appointees, and then they appoint a county member-at-large. The dentist from the dental clinic is also as a named member, and then we have some ex-officio observers as well. Next slide. You will recall that when this project started, the local area dentists did a lot of soliciting among their members, and they helped us furnish the actual operatories with much needed dental equipment. We were able, through the generous donation of Dr. Charles and Mary Jane Myrna, they were able, he’s a retired dentist from Illinois, and he furnished enough for us to put two of our operatories with complete equipment. Saved our budget tremendously. Next slide please. This is just another example of all of the donations. In the lower right hand screen is a panoramic x-ray unit that was donated by another local area dentist. The actual building that we’re in used to be a dentist’s office. There was dentist by the name of Bob Martin who practiced there for years, and our landlord, Southwestern Mental Health Center had converted it when they acquired the building to a general office setting, but they kept all of the dental channels in all the places. So, it was a very, I can’t say it was easy, but it was much easier to convert a former dental office to a dental office than it would be to try to start building from scratch, and it saved us an awful lot of money as well. This is the floor plan and it’s located at the corner of Southeast Fourth Street and Mulberry Street. It’s about a 1,600 square foot building, we have four operatories, we have two bitewing x-ray units, one panoramic x-ray unit, a laboratory, and a full reception and break area. This is an example of the dental software system that we use for, it does electronic scheduling, and you can have up to ten different operatories or ten different staff members with their individual schedules. It does charting of the patients mouth and teeth. It does billing, and it also keeps all the demographics for us. On June 23^rd we had our open house, all the elected officials and honored guests were there for the ribbon cutting. This is another view where you could see the crowd that was also in attendance. This is an article from the Courier & Press on the day after we opened, which was June 26^th, and it has our very first patient in place. Now we get into the real meat of the report, and that’s the numbers. Through January 31, 2007 we have seen 976 patients. We have an active patient load of 964, for a 98.77 percent effective rate. When you look at the gender, we’re almost evenly split between male and female. When you look at the marital status, we’re not so evenly split. Between 163 married folks, for 16.91 percent, to 801 single, for 83.9 percent. An insurance overview is kind of eye opening, in that of the 964 active patients we have 96 of them have insurance coverage through Medicaid, and none of the other patients have any kind of medical or dental coverage at all. If you look at the top four age demographic groups, and you’ll remember that our charge was to serve adults who are under served, in the 21 to 60 year old age groups, those four age groups, 814 of our 964 active patients, almost 85 percent, come from those four age groups. Everything we do at the Health Department seems to be based on a sliding fee scale. These are the household size and the percent of poverty level that an individual would have for income in order to qualify for the program. If you look at the bottom, under the dental pay category, even at the lowest pay category there is you pay five dollars per service, regardless of what our fees would be. You’ll see that, when we get into another slide, you’ll see the total number of patient visits that we have, but 1,275 of our patient visits, almost 76 percent, are covered at the very lowest level for fees that we have. Next slide please. When you look at the pay categories, we’ve had 1,687 total visits, and as we just mentioned, 1,276 of those visits are at the lowest possible category. We had 154 patient visits that paid at 100 percent, and you can see how we’re scattered in between for all of the other types of reimbursements. When you look at patient visits and services provided, of the 1,687 total visits, 968 were for first time patients. You’ll recall that we had 976 total patients, and 868 of them were actually seen and were provided some type of service. Then the remaining 719 visits were from patients who came back a second or third or multiple times. If you look at the 4,068 services that were provided over that time period, it averages to 2.41 per visit. So, people receive multiple services when they are in visiting in the office. When you look at the patient referral, one out of every five patients that’s seen at our dental clinic has been referred. The way Dentrix keeps track of referrals, when someone identifies themselves or brings in a formal referral on a written sheet of paper, we received 193 of those referrals, and when they’re either seen or an appointment is scheduled, they are listed on our report as being listed. So, 191 of the 193 referrals have either been seen or they have an appointment that’s already scheduled. That leaves us two that we are still trying to account for and find out where they are. That works out to almost a 99 percent rate, which is a pretty good rate by almost anybody’s standards. Next slide please. If you look at the statistics for the top five zip codes in Evansville, for the Vanderburgh County area, almost 73 percent of the patients come from these five zip codes. That’s 47714, 11, 13, 10, and 15. So, 706 of the 964 active patients come from those five zip code areas. When you look at the three areas, which could be outside of the county, and in this case outside of the state, 936 of the 964 active patients, or a little over 97 percent, come from Vanderburgh County, Warrick County, and then a combination of all the counties from Kentucky. Vanderburgh County accounts for 836 of the 964 patients, Warrick County accounts for 73 percent, or, excuse me, 73 patients, 7.57 percent, and Kentucky has 27 patients, 2.8 percent. You’ll recall that part of the grant funding agreement was that the referrals, since they’re coming from the hospitals who have a tri-state service area, they could be making referrals from anywhere their patients could come from, which could be Illinois, Indiana, or Kentucky. Next slide please. When you look at our total, if we were able to charge and collect 100 percent of what we provide in services, the over 4,000 services that we provided would account for $277,129. When you look at the adjustments, based on the patients on the sliding fee scale, you’ll see that $235,717.76 is adjusted because of where they fall on the sliding fee scale. So, over 85 percent of what the value for the services that we’ve provided go written off due to the sliding fee scale. If you look at the fee after that adjustment, it accounts for $41,411.24, which is 14.94 percent. We’ve actually collected and have received payment that shows up, and the only time we ever show the payment being collected and received is when it shows up through the Auditor’s office and the Treasurer’s office with actually being on, accounted for and in the bank. So, 77.65 percent, the $32,157 is collected and in the bank. We have an outstanding balance of $9,253. The vast majority of that we’re waiting on Medicaid claims to see whether or not they’ll be honored. Then we’ll make adjustments after that. Next slide please. If you look at the income after adjustments, and you compare it to the value, you’ll remember that we provided $277,129 worth of services. In the $32,157, excuse me, $32,157 that we actually have collected, is 11.60 percent of that $277,000. When we originally talked to the County Council and we looked at the plan, the best rates we’ve seen anywhere in the country were ten percent, where you would actually recover ten percent. So, we’re actually doing much better than any of those other rates. Of course, when you’re doing ten percent out of 100, you don’t stay in business real long unless you do have a subsidy coming from somewhere, or unless it’s a service that’s supported from other areas. If we are successful in collecting that other $9,200, then we would have almost a 15 percent collection rate, and reimbursement rate. Which would be really good, when you compare it to almost any other program that’s like this. If you look at our Medicaid experience, we opened the clinic on June 26^th, and one out of every four claims that we file has been denied for one of these seven reasons listed below. One of the largest is that the spend down is not met. If anybody is familiar with how Medicaid or things work, you can have an ability where you have to spend a certain amount of money out of your own pocket before Medicaid starts paying for bills. Depending upon what time of the month that you submit a claim, and whether the patient has already had other medical experiences somewhere and they’ve made those claim payments, you may or may not receive any reimbursement. In this particular case, we’ve lost 17 claims that way. We had two where the cap wasn’t met, the qualified Medicare beneficiary is three, and that basically means that they weren’t qualified and eligible, even though they showed up on our list as being eligible, they weren’t eligible for dental benefits. You’re allowed panoramic x-rays, that’s a full mouth x-ray, once every three years. We have seen six patients who we find out, after we provide the service, has already received those services within the last three years, and Medicaid has already paid for them some place else. The last two categories are services that we provide that aren’t covered under Medicaid. Next slide. This is probably the most telling of all of the data, starting in October of 2006 the advisory council asked us to start keeping a survey through either phone calls or patients of people who tried to come and get an appointment but we didn’t have the space or the things available for them. So, if you look at this, since October of 2006, there’s been a total of over 1,000 people that we weren’t able to see them because of just the fact that our schedule is full. When you look at the categories at the bottom, if they were in pain when they either called or stopped by, they were referred to our walk-in. We have two different types of schedules, on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays we have the equivalent of open scheduling. If you were to drive by the dental clinic starting about 6:30, you’ll see a line forming outside that’s like people buying tickets to go to a concert. People stand in line until they get the opportunity to present themselves and then they go through the triage application and then they see as many people as they can. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays are very, very busy days. The Tuesdays and Thursdays we schedule folks by appointment, because you still have to have a certain number of returning folks who have other procedures, and that’s also where we work in a lot of the extra referrals that come in from the other referring sources. So, if they either call or present themselves, and they say they’re in pain, we try to make sure that they get to that next available walk in opportunity. If they don’t have any pain, we at least keep track of those numbers. If they tried to come on a Tuesday or Thursday and all of our time slots were filled, we keep track of that. We had one person who just refused to wait. The last two are dental procedures that we don’t provide those services for, and they were referred to local folks who do those. Then the final slide is you can contact the dental clinic at 435-2450, that’s area code 812-435-2450. You can visit the Health Department’s website at www.vanderburghgov.org/health, and then you follow the navigational links by clicking on the community dental clinic link and it will take you to that page. I would be more than happy to answer any questions.

President Musgrave: Any questions?

Commissioner Nix: Just curious, on the Tuesday and Thursday appointments–

Gary Heck: Yes?

Commissioner Nix: –how far out are they booked? Is that a month?

Gary Heck: Well, at this point in time we’re scheduled through May 15^th.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, so, it’s a couple of months out then.

Gary Heck: A couple of months out.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Gary Heck: Then she maintains, our receptionist maintains a list that if we have a cancellation, and she’s got some folks on an on-call list, we constantly fill them. It’s like anything else, even though we give appointments, it’s similar to a block schedule. If you all have ever been to your own medical providers, and when they schedule, they, very few medical providers that I know of just schedule exactly who they think is going to be there and show up that day. They always have like an extra one or two. So, when the one or two doesn’t show, they’ve got somebody sitting there ready to go into the chair. It’s the same thing with block scheduling.

Commissioner Nix: You had mentioned the money that’s coming in from payments and that, is that, you’re comfortable with that and proportionately these groups between the county and Deaconess Health Systems and St. Mary’s supplements the balance then. Does that still seem to work?

Gary Heck: They supplement us at this point. When we go through the budget hearings this year is probably when we’ll have the big conversation with the County Council on how additional funding may look down the road. I would love to say that we could, you know, we’re going to collect a much higher percentage, but about the only way you can do that, I guess, if you look at your target population and you try to find or identify people, we don’t take any third part or any private insurance. So, the only option we have is the Medicaid or private pay, and those are kind of it at this point.

Commissioner Tornatta: Gary, I just, you know, any time this comes up, I would just like to say thanks for the job that you guys are doing in kind of getting the, just keeping the clinic going and keeping everybody involved. The Council did an outstanding, I think Royce and Lloyd Winnecke, did an outstanding job of getting things going. We appreciate just the support that CAGE gave and everybody gave. So, and thanks to the County Commissioners for just bringing the whole groups together. So, anyway, thanks for doing what you’re doing, and keep it up. We appreciate it.

Gary Heck: Well, you’re certainly welcome. I can tell you that we are meeting at our next county advisory committee meeting, the primary item on the agenda is looking at alternative funding. We’ve had several discussions, but we’re down to the point where we’ve looked and we’re trying to follow up on what we’ve been able to research. We have applied for three or four different grant fundings of different foundations. I can’t say that we’ve successfully landed one yet, but that doesn’t mean we don’t continue to try. So, thank you so much. It’s our pleasure.

President Musgrave: Thank you for coming.

President Musgrave: We move now to the final reading of ordinance CO.02-07-003, the creation of the Pigeon Creek Greenway Advisory Board. Do the Commissioners have any questions? Is there anyone here from the public who wishes to address this ordinance? I see no one. Is there a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Musgrave: And I vote yes. Show the ordinance as adopted.

President Musgrave: We move now to first reading of ordinance CO.02-07-004. It is an ordinance authorizing and establishing criteria for the use of county credit cards. These are credit cards issued in the name of the government. This concept was brought to us by Auditor, Bill Fluty, and recommended as an ordinance that we needed by the, I believe it was the State Board of Accounts. Has everyone had an opportunity to read it? Is there a motion to pass it on first reading?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Musgrave: And, I vote yes. We’ll have second reading next week.

President Musgrave: We have two items for permission to close the road. Is Steve Craig here on either one of those? For the Solarbron 10K race and the F.A.S.T. car club race?

Steve Craig: Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette. Joe Goebel of the car club F.A.S.T., or Fast Ford Speed Technology, it’s an antique car club, they are wanting to hold a sanctioned event on Nurrenbern Hill. The date which they are proposing to hold the climb is June 16, 2007. The event would be held on Nurrenbern Hill, due south of Burdette. The road would need to be closed off for a period of up to six hours. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to cause a problem, because we have the ability to send the cars through Burdette. So, the closed road is not really closed. If there would be any emergency vehicles, that’s not a problem either, they can close the event down in a matter of seconds and let people go through. I would like the Commissioners to give me permission to pursue this event in conjunction with the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau and F.A.S.T. Upon approval of the certificate of insurance, it will be submitted to Ted Ziemer, Vanderburgh County Attorney, no later than 30 days before the event. Upon Mr. Ziemer’s approval of the insurance certificate, the event would be held at the Nurrenbern Hill.

President Musgrave: Do you have any information on the Solarbron race? Or does anyone else here? I don’t have the dates of it.

Steve Craig: No, I do not.

Commissioner Nix: I think that was something that came in front of us last year. It sounds like the same item. I didn’t know if we maybe wanted to table that until we get some more information on that.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would just say, we can, my motion would be to approve the Solarbron, closing of the road for the Solarbron race, and closing of the Nurrenbern Road for the F.A.S.T. car club race.

Commissioner Nix: I’m fine with that too. Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: You don’t know the date on that, that we could announce?

Commissioner Nix: I do not.

President Musgrave: Maybe you could come back next week so we could announce that.

Commissioner Nix: I could do that. I guess, the other thing too, who would be responsible, we went through this last year, as far as notifying 911 and that type...we would need to have somebody set up to be able to do that, and then barricading and that, so. Okay, the County Highway will take care of that. On both of those then?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: The date of the race is May 12^th.

President Musgrave: Alright, thank you very much.

Steve Craig: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Mr. Acker is here to talk about permission to advertise repairs to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum roof.

Mark Acker: My leg’s not working real well. Mark Acker, Veterans Services of Vanderburgh County. We went before the County Council for approval of some appropriations for an immediate removal or extraction of the roof at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The scope of work has been completed, along with an analysis of the materials so that they are not hazardous and can be disposed of in a normal manner, as any other roofing project. So, I’m asking the Commissioners to allow to now be placed in bid, and, hopefully, get the project started sometime late March, early April, somewhere in there, the neighborhood that we can get it done.

Commissioner Nix: I guess, the way that this is worded, it’s really not repairs, it’s actually a new roof.

Mark Acker: It’s extracting or removal of the existing roof, which was not done on the previous installation. So, we’re going for brand new.

Commissioner Nix: Just for the record.

Mark Acker: Yes, it is a complete removal and replacement.

Commissioner Nix: I’ll make a motion that we approve to advertise for replacement of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum roof.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: I understand that this ad will run, is that twice, Marissa? And, that we will receive the bids on March 13^th?

Marissa Nichoalds: At the earliest.

President Musgrave: At the earliest. So, that ad will be–

Commissioner Nix: And we will be working with Purchasing on all the details?

President Musgrave: Oh, Purchasing is here. So, she–

Mark Acker: Purchasing, I hope will help us get that all sorted out with the Fair Labor Standards.

Commissioner Nix: Got ‘ya.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Mark Acker: Thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you, Mark.

President Musgrave: We move now to contracts, agreements and leases. We have several of them. Commissioners, if it’s alright, we could go one by one , I think. The Health Department diabetes grant one year extension. It serves to increase the amount of the grant by $10,000. Is there a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The perpetual easement for development of Cross Pointe Boulevard from Columbia Street to Oak Grove Road. Do you have anything to say about that, Mr. Ziemer?

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

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to adopt the easement?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: And this is, this is, they are granting the easement?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yeah, the limited partnership that now owns the property, Hirsch-Martin, is granting the easement to the county for the extension of Cross Pointe Boulevard from Columbia Street to Oak Grove Road. There is attached to the easement the legal description for that, plus a drawing showing how it will run. The easement does contain some provisions relative to commencement of the work, and completion of the work. If the work is not completed by December 31, 2008, the grantor would have an option, on 60 days notice, to terminate the easement. It’s, we’ve discussed that at length with the County Engineer, we will leave the, you know, it’s almost impossible that it wouldn’t be, and if we’re down to the end, everybody wants to get it done, and they are going to talk with us and allow us to extend. On their part did not want their real estate covered by an easement for five years, if the county wasn’t going to do anything. So, it makes sense. The second document is a document that allows them to move the shown intersection, on the easement it shows the intersection of Vogel Road with Cross Pointe Boulevard. They may want to move that a distance of 100 feet either north or south, or within a distance of 100 feet. If they give us notice to do that prior to the commencement of construction, it can be moved, at their total expense for redrawing it and any other expense, and donating the additional right-of-way that would be necessary by reason of that movement. They have signed both documents, the two agreements will have to be signed by the Commissioners, we can return one copy to them, and, the easement, Madelyn, will need to be recorded.

Madelyn Grayson: I will need those originals passed down here. I think they got stuck somewhere along the way.

President Musgrave: I’m just going to pass it all down to you. When you make the motion, make the motion for both the perpetual easement and the agreement with Hirsch-Martin, and I would just like to say that this is a day that I thought would come sooner, but I’m so happy that it’s finally here, and it represents a real milestone in the construction of this road, which I understand the bid documents will now commence to be written, and that, hopefully, we will be bidding out the construction of this portion of Cross Pointe Boulevard in the next couple of months, with the actual construction, hopefully, starting shortly thereafter. I know that many, many people put in quite a few hours, and I would like to thank them; Mr. Farney at Bernardin Lochmueller, our own County Engineer, who endured quite a lot of discussion on this point, and our attorney, the attorney for the Hirsch’s, the attorney for the Hirsch-Martin’s, and all of the above. I think that the community will be tremendously excited when these plans are finally revealed.

Commissioner Nix: I will amend my motion to include both of those.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

Madelyn Grayson: May we make a quick tape change, please?

President Musgrave: Oh, I forgot about your tape.

(Tape change)

President Musgrave: Contract with David Matthews, appraiser, for Hamilton Golf Course appraisal, is our next action item. This contract is for $5,000, and comes out of the Commissioners Riverboat funding line item as an economic development project. I ask permission for this appraisal to move forward so that the Hamilton Golf Course committee can consider it.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Purchasing–

Commissioner Tornatta: Do we have a list, real quick, do we have a list of that committee? That Hamilton Task Force?

President Musgrave: I know we can get one for you after the meeting.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay.

President Musgrave: Purchasing, Debbie Spalding is here to discuss crushed stone, sand and gravel, oil products and batteries.

Debbie Spalding: Yes, last meeting I was here and told you the results of the bid opening that we had with the Board of Public Works. So, today I’m here asking for your permission to award these on the county side. You should have a copy of the prices for each of these items, and, if we could just talk about the first one briefly. It was for crushed stone. We had one bidder again, just for your recollection, with Mulzer Stone. So, you have before you the actual prices of the different sizes of stones. When I looked at the prices from last year, there was almost across the board a six percent increase, just for your information, on these items.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion?

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Debbie Spalding: Then on the sand and gravel, APA-003-2007, again, there was only one bidder, Mulzer, and all of them were an approximately six percent increase, with the exception of the first item listed, the fill sand. It was noticed that it was a 22 percent increase from last year. So, in speaking with Kevin Winternheimer, the City Attorney for the Board of Public Works, he said it would be appropriate for me to call and ask them why the big increase. They explained that if we could pick up, the city and county could pick up sand at a different location, that they could get us a better price. So, the letter that’s attached to that shows you that we are now getting that fill sand for a price of $3.35 a ton, as opposed to $5.20 a ton. That price is a savings, even from last year where it was $4.25 a ton. So, instead of picking it up on Fulton Avenue, you would go to I-164 and Green River.

Commissioner Nix: I would say that on the county’s behalf, we need to look and see where we’re using it at, because of fuel costs and labor and all that, the increased cost at Fulton, for all practical purposes, probably works better for us, but the city might have a....we just need to look at that. Appreciate you pointing it out though.

Debbie Spalding: Okay.

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

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Debbie Spalding: The third item, annual price agreement 006-2007 for oil products, we did have four bidders. The chart that you have in front of you shows, the highlighted areas are, on that particular item, who was the low bid. The biggest portion on that list of what we buy is the 15W40 motor oil in the 55 gallon drum, and these estimated quantities were based on what the city and county used last year. This was not, I feel a better estimate than what we had been using. So, you see Busler’s was the low price on that, and when you multiply the quantity out by that price, it accounts for $25,000, basically, of the total bid, because we use such a big quantity of that. So, my recommendation would be to award the entire bid to Busler’s. They were the low bidder, and in speaking with Board of Public Works and other people in the County Highway, Mike Duckworth, it is less confusing to city departments if you order all the oil from one location. So, we would, again, I would recommend that we award that contract to Busler’s.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Debbie Spalding: The final annual price agreement was for automobile and small equipment batteries. Again, there were three, two bidders, Busler Enterprises was the apparent low bidder. This includes batteries for cars, trucks, golf carts, tractors, equipment such as that. So, I would ask for your approval to award that bid to Busler Enterprises.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Debbie Spalding: Thank you.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Thank you very much.

President Musgrave: We move now to department head reports, Steve Craig, from Burdette Park.

Steve Craig: Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette. At this time I would like to present to the Commissioners some letters of support for the Burdette Park-University of Southern Indiana pedestrian bicycle and nature trail project. This is a project linking two publicly owned facilities. It’s a 2.5 mile trail which will provide a natural scenic path for cyclists and pedestrians between $135, or 135 acre Vanderburgh County Burdette Park, which attracts nearly 200,000 visitors annually, and the University of Southern Indiana, which has over 10,000 students enrolled now. The trail location between Burdette Park and the university will provide access to the students and area residents wishing to use an alternative method of transportation, or simply to enjoy the trail as a place to exercise along its scenic route. I would also like to ask, at the present time, for area businesses and individuals that are interested in this pedestrian bike trail, that you still have time to write letters of support, and they can be sent to the Vanderburgh County Commissioners office at 1 NW Martin Luther King Boulevard. At this time I would like to present to the Commissioners these letters.

President Musgrave: Read off who they are.

Steve Craig: You want me to read off who they are from? Real quickly, from SIHE, Ray Hoops, no, this is from the University of Southern Indiana, excuse me, Ray Hoops; SIHE, Chris Melton, President; Congress of the United States, Brad Ellsworth; Senate, Vaneta Becker; Senate, Bob Deig; State of Indiana House of Representatives, Dennis Avery; State of Indiana House of Representatives, Suzanne Crouch; State of Indiana House of Representatives, Phil Hoy; State of Indiana House of Representatives, Trent Van Haaften; the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau, Marilee Fowler; Kristen Tucker from Evansville Business; Westside Improvement Association, DeAnna Outlaw, she’s the president; Dennis Feldhaus with the ONB Insurance Group; Jim Santory with CERM, the Consortium for Environmental Risk Management; Tom Effinger, Vice President of Environmental Management Consultants; Dennis Todd, the President of Air Quality Services, and we have several more that are still withstanding that are on their way.

President Musgrave: These letters will accompany our grant applications to the Congress, the U.S. Congress and to the State of Indiana, and perhaps any other applications for grants that we surface along the way. So, I would like to offer my thanks to those who have already written, and to those letters that we hope to receive, for their support of this important bike path. Commissioner?

Commissioner Tornatta: I do have a question, explain to me the American Discovery Trail? We talked about in the brochure, in the document going to the Congressman and the Senators 15 states consisting of 6,800 miles, I’m just curious about the connection.

Steve Craig: It’s a national trail that starts in California and goes to the east coast. When it gets to the Midwest it actually does a loop which comes through, we do have, I don’t have it with me, but we do have a map and it actually runs down Nurrenbern Road. It’s part of the American Discovery Trail. It’s the trail that separates here, it was taken from the east coast to the west coast when they were, you know, discovering or exploring across the United States. It’s very interesting. There’s people that’s actually walked it, road their bicycles, they drive it all the time, but I think it 6,800 miles, pushing 7,000 miles long, with both legs of it. But, Evansville, it goes up through Angel Mounds, we are on the Discovery Trail. It’s kind of unique that we have the O’Day Discovery Lodge and it is on the Discovery Trail, which is a national trail.

President Musgrave: Okay. Well, thank you, and I know the grant submittal that time is approaching rather soon. Do you have any other report from Burdette?

Steve Craig: No, just if you can come to the ground breaking that we’re going to have for the trail. It’s this Friday at 9:30?

President Musgrave: Yes, and for those members of the media we’ll be getting a press release out. We’re looking to break ground for that at 9:30 Friday, and hope to see you there.

Steve Craig: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Any other department heads? Mr. Duckworth, County Highway.

Mike Duckworth: Thank you, Commissioners, Mike Duckworth, County Highway. I feel privileged to be here celebrating Ted Ziemer’s birthday. I’m just really happy to be a part of that today. Maybe he’ll let me use his glasses when I get to be 75 or 80 or whatever it is. I’m here to thank you. Thank you, I appreciate that. I am here today to remind those watching and here in the audience today that our road hearing is tomorrow night at Helfrich Park school. It’s district three.

President Musgrave: The best side.

Mike Duckworth: We would really appreciate a little bit of an increase in our attendance. If we have two people it will be an increase in attendance. So, we want to invite everyone out to give us their thoughts and recommendations on conditions of their roads and what we can do to better transportation here in the county. So, we’re looking forward to that. We already have had some supervisors and some constituents e-mail us and send us some concerns, and we will have those ready for folks to look at. Eventually we will, after the 28^th, which is district two, and that will be the 28^th from 6:30 to 8:30 at Hamilton Golf Course, the club house there, after that meeting then we will bring the list to the Commissioners for them to prioritize. I wanted to announce that and ask folks to come if they have some concerns.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Mr. Stoll?

John Stoll: The first item I have is a request for approval on a notice to bidders for Kuebler Road bridge repairs. This would be contract number VC07-03-01. This is a project that we took bids on last fall and the bids came in over our budgets. The plans have since been revised and now we’re going to rebid in hopes of getting a bid we can award this time.

Commissioner Tornatta: Make a motion.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: Next I would like to request approval to go to County Council to appropriate $58,000 into University Parkway Bridge account, and $170,800 into University Parkway Road and Street Phase III account. This would cover the balance of the design from Marx Road on up to Diamond Avenue. Right now the consultant has been under contract to determine the alignment and make some plan changes, but they weren’t under contract to provide final, bid ready plans and specs. This will provide that once this funding is appropriated, and then the contract is signed once we get the money in place. So, I would just request your approval to go to County Council to make that appropriation request.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: For the record, I would like it to be noted that Mr. Stoll and I met with, I think, all the members of County Council over a period of a couple of weeks, and this request to go ahead and move forward on that design contract kind of came from them that we go ahead and make that effort now. They felt willing to do that. So, I hope that will be greeted with that familiarity when you arrive at Council to remind them of that.

John Stoll: I hope so too. The next item, I also have, the next item I have is also in regard to County Council. Last week I had requested to transfer $3,000 from our Mt. Pleasant Road and Street account to our Travel and Mileage account. Since then I would like to amend that request to increase it to a transfer of $4,500.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

John Stoll: Then, next, I have a change order on contract number VC06-10-03 . This was the Koressel Road Bridge rehab. This change order is for an increase of $5,821.85. This was due to some additional concrete patching that was needed on the piers, some additional rip rap that was needed, we had to make some alterations to the guardrail, and then there was some concrete pier protection that we had to add down at the base of the piers.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

John Stoll: The last item I have is three letters, one each to Congressman Ellsworth, Senator Bayh and Senator Lugar in regard to the fiscal year 2008 appropriations that will be requested. These letters are to request federal funds for the University Parkway project, the Burdette-USI bike path, and then the reverse 911 system. Basically, it needs to be submitted out to Washington by next Monday, so that’s why I have it here for your signatures today. So, I would request approval of those three letters.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

President Musgrave: Is there a second?

Commissioner Tornatta: No.

President Musgrave: I’ll second. All those in favor? Aye.

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

President Musgrave: Opposed?

Commissioner Tornatta: No.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Musgrave: Under new business, Mr. Troy Tornatta, I would like to appoint him to the dental clinic advisory board. Is there a motion?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Is there any other new business?

President Musgrave: Any old business?

President Musgrave: Any public comment? When you come to the microphone, please state your name and address.

Jerry Clark: Jerry Clark from Evansville. I’m the president of Beehive Diversity Group here in Evansville. I was a recent Leadership Evansville graduate of 2006. Our group is putting on a group project for ‘07. I submitted a letter, and I hope you have a copy of that that’s being distributed. Okay. Basically, our group project is called Evansville Youth Fest. It is designed to look at area youth from K to 12 and have them come to an event that will allow them an opportunity to learn more about and connect with the opportunity or different non-profit organizations in the city. It also, you know, we also found the need for more volunteers within these areas as well. So, you’ve got the non-profit organizations, you’ve got the youth, and you’ve got the parents all in one venue, learning more about the services that are out there that they could take advantage of. So, that’s the event that we’re trying to put on. In order to draw a number of the youths, we’re also looking to actually have one or two celebrities come down, maybe from the Indianapolis Colts or some other area, to help actually draw some of the youth to the actual event. We are looking for the county to donate the space for us at the Centre. I have checked on a couple of dates, we did an initial submission was for August the 25^th, but, in doing a little more research, we found that wasn’t a good day, because the youth are not allowed to take flyers home right after they get back to school. So, we actually moved that to September the 8^th instead. So, that day was open as well. As far as details are concerned, the event will be from 10:00 to 2:00, and September 8^th is on a Saturday. We’re asking for the actual time frame from 8:00 to 4:00 to allow for set up and tear down so people can get in and get out within an appropriate time frame. We are expecting between 40 and 60 organizations to be invited and attending that event, with an estimated 1,500 children and parents to attend as well. Also, eight foot tables and two chairs within each booth. We’re not asking for any skirts or anything like that, which would be additional accessories, just the bare minimum. We are asking for ½ of one of the exhibit halls, whether it’s A or B, which really equates to 17,500 feet. So, you know, that’s pretty much, you know, our request as a group.

Commissioner Nix: I wonder if we would be better off to maybe look at this before we make a decision today. It’s rather unusual and just getting this now I would rather take some time and look it over.

Jerry Clark: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: It’s a little different than what we normally do.

Jerry Clark: Okay, I’ve been trying to get on your agenda for a while.

Commissioner Tornatta: We can take it under advisement.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: I make that in a motion.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

Jerry Clark: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Consent agenda, we have a number of items on the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Musgrave?

President Musgrave: Yes, Ma’am.

Madelyn Grayson: I believe there’s an additional, there was a travel request by Soil and Water that was not on the agenda that was in the packet. So, I don’t know if that needs to be added.

President Musgrave: Where are they going?

Madelyn Grayson: March 14^th to a regional meeting.

President Musgrave: Will you make a motion to amend the consent agenda to include the SWCD regional meeting.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:30)

Additional public comment was heard by the Commissioners at the start of the February 20, 2007 Drainage Board meeting from 4:35 p.m. to 4:40 p.m.. The following comments are enclosed from the verbatim minutes of that Drainage Board meeting.

President Nix: Before we start with Drainage Board, we had one item on public comment. I’ll turn this back over to Commissioner Musgrave.

Commissioner Musgrave: Yes.

President Nix: From the past meeting.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’m sorry. I didn’t see that you wanted to speak. Could you state your name and address for the record?

William Rainey: My name is William Rainey. I live at 2005 Selzer Road. I did put my hand up, but I was not recognized, but, that’s okay.

Commissioner Musgrave: Sorry.

William Rainey: I won’t take but just a minute. On October of 2006 I had come before the County Commissioners with a petition signed by myself, the people on Selzer Road, the people on Outer Broadway and Short Selzer requesting that the County Commissioners come up with some kind of something to help us out with the problem of dogs running loose, people being bit, and just virtually all kinds of problems. I asked the County Commissioners to please come up with something to help us out. Pass a law or something. The Sheriff’s Department cannot help us. There is no laws in the county that says people have to keep their dogs on a leash or inside of a fenced yard. I have talked to the Sheriff’s Department several times. There’s still no law. I hate to bring this up, I’ve got a cousin that’s a Sheriff in Posey County, according to him, the whole county has a law, a leash law or fenced in law. All the dogs in that whole county have to be on a leash or fenced in. Why can’t Vanderburgh County do that? I mean, we’ve got 187,000 people walking around here in this county alone. We’re talking about this greenway coming up, I live on Selzer Road, Selzer Road butts into Burdette Park. We’re going to have people walking these trails, all these dogs that I’m talking about are within barking distance of that trail. I would hate to see that trail of laughter turn into a trail of tears, just because we’re not going to do something about animals running loose. I mean, it’s getting to be, the people that I’ve talked to out there where I’m at right now said, “We’re not going to call the Sheriff’s Department. We’re not going to bother them. We’re going to let the County Commissioners do something.” Well, I’ve had quite a few of them call me back and say, “Hey, Bill, have you heard anything yet?” No, I haven’t heard a thing. There’s been no motions made, nothing. It’s like we got dropped off the back side of the cliff. We would like to know, can something be done?

Commissioner Tornatta: Bill, let me jump in here just for a minute. I’ve had a conversation with Animal Control and with the Sheriff’s Department, and, so, there is some type of lien that they think that we should at least look into and address. I did look up some definitions and codes with the city, and I don’t know, and it’s something we can talk about up here, but, I think this was brought in October of 2006 to the Commission–

William Rainey: Yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: –and you’re probably right, we do need to address it and to look into some of the legal language and see what restraints there are from city to county. This might be another place where we can combine some of our language–

William Rainey: That would be fantastic.

Commissioner Tornatta: – to do that. So, if it’s just the same to you, I would like to take this up with our attorney, go over some of it, present it to our County Commissioners in an upcoming meeting, and then see if we can’t address the problem.

William Rainey: Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: When you came–

William Rainey: I would really appreciate it.

Commissioner Musgrave: –to speak to us in October, the city was in progress of adopting an ordinance–

William Rainey: Yeah.

Commissioner Musgrave: – and I read through part of that ordinance, and as it was proposed it was very, very strict, and very expensive, and I wanted to wait for that to play out. I believe that the ordinance they adopted was much less stringent and expensive than the one that they were proposing, but it was still very, very comprehensive. So, I was waiting for that process to go through, and I would certainly be interested in working as a team with the Commissioners to come up with something that will work well for all the residents of the county. This is a good opportunity to ask you to pull the city’s ordinance and take a look at that, Mr. Ziemer, and we’ll go from there.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Certainly.

William Rainey: Thank you very much.

Commissioner Musgrave: Thank you.

William Rainey: Appreciate it.

Commissioner Tornatta: You’re welcome.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’m going to turn this back over to Commissioner Nix.

William Rainey: I will be checking back with you.

Commissioner Tornatta: We’ll be here.

William Rainey: Thank you.

(Public comments ended at 4:40 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Employment Changes:

Health Department (1)              Public Defender (1)                  Sheriff (5)

County Clerk (2)                       Circuit Court (1)                        VCCC (2)

Travel Requests:

Health Department (2)              County Engineer (1)                 Treasurer (1)

County Highway (2)                  Commissioners (2)                   SWCD (1)

Commissioners:

Approval of the February 13, 2007 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Approval of the February 20, 2007 Executive Session Summary Minutes.

University Parkway Phases I & II Progress Update: Bernardin Lochmueller

Grant Payment to Brake Supply.

Knight Township Trustee Amendment to 2007 Poor Relief Standards.

AMR Financial and 2006 Fourth Quarter Reports.

Department Head Meeting Notes: February 13, 2007.

Treasurer:

Monthly Report: January 2007.

Year-to-Date Report, January 31, 2007.

Weights & Measures: Monthly Report: 1/15/07-2/15/07.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer