VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

JULY 18, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 18^th day of July, 2006 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.

President Musgrave: Good afternoon. I want to call to order the meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County for July 18, 2006. It’s 3:30 in the afternoon. We will start with introductions.

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, County Commissioner.

Commissioner Shetler: Tom Shetler, County Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

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

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to approve the minutes of July 11^th?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: I wasn’t here.

President Musgrave: Oh, and I will second that. All those in favor?

Commissioner Nix: Aye.

President Musgrave: Aye. Abstain?

Commissioner Shetler: Aye.

President Musgrave: Okay. Show the motion as approved.

President Musgrave: We have several items on the action agenda. We will begin with the permission to open bids for VC06-07-01, intersection improvement Green River Road at Lynch Road. Mr. Stoll, you don’t have anything to say about these? Is there a motion to open the bids?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: We have an update today. Ms. Holly Dunn Pendleton, our appointee to the Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence is here to talk about the commission and Holly House, I believe. Holly? Do you prefer to be called Mrs. Pendleton, Mrs. Dunn Pendleton, or Holly?

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Holly.

President Musgrave: Holly, well, welcome, Holly. Congratulations on your prestigious national award, it was the Jefferson Award.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Yes, thank you very much.

President Musgrave: We’re pleased that you were recognized for your work on a national scale.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Thank you. I appreciate that. I was under the impression that I was here today to talk to Holly’s House. So, that’s what I was prepared to talk about, but I’m happy to talk about the commission as well.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: So, I’ll start with Holly’s House though. Let me introduce to you Detective Brian Turpin. He is the, basically, the founder of Holly’s House. He is the creator, the muse behind Holly’s House. He’s my partner in crime. I’m going to talk to you a little bit about the need for Holly’s House in Vanderburgh County. I’m also going to talk to you about our development of our board of directors, our capital campaign. So, currently there are 16 advocacy centers in the State of Indiana. Vanderburgh County is the largest county in the state without an advocacy center. The current conditions of where victims go to report intimate crimes, children that are sexually abused or neglected go to Child Protection Services, where they walk the length of a football field, through a lobby where people are waiting to get food stamps and other services, and they walk the length of a football field to the interview room where they are interviewed. Then, if they have to go to the restroom, they have to walk back the length of a football field to get to the restroom. So, this can be very difficult in trying to interview a child when it comes to an intimate crime. Adults currently go to the Police station, which is, in my opinion, a somewhat uncomfortable place. I don’t really like to go there, and I know victims don’t like to go there. It makes them feel like they’ve done something wrong. They are interviewed in a room the size of a closet. They also can encounter suspects at the Police station while they’re there. So, the conditions right now that victims go through is, needs to be improved. That’s hopefully what Holly’s House will do. We are currently developing our board of directors for Holly’s House. We have an interim board in place currently with five members? Or seven?

Brian Turpin: Seven.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Seven members of our interim board. We have started a capital campaign to raise money for Holly’s House. We’re hoping that these monies will be used for operating and renovation expenses, as we hope to have a building donated to us for Holly’s House. Holly’s House is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All of our monies will come from grant monies, community monies, and private donations for sustain ability. So, I’m going to let Brian talk to you a little bit about some statistics and things like that about Vanderburgh County.

Brian Turpin: Thank you for allowing us the time to do this. I just wanted to say that, you know, what she was saying about me being behind it and everything, it’s easy whenever you have someone like her in the community that everyone should look to as an example of how someone should overcome a traumatic event. I can’t think of anyone that’s overcame more than she has. Not only has she became a great citizen, but she’s went on to raise awareness, and she’s just an amazing person. So, we couldn’t find a better person to name an advocacy center like this after. One other thing that I wanted to touch on, from what she was saying, is if you’re sitting down in the lobby of the Police Department, and you’re waiting for me or one of the other sexual violence detectives to come talk to you about your case, and someone comes in, just parks out in front, goes in to pay their water bill here at the Civic Center, and they’re from your church, and they just stop and say, “Why are you here?” What are you going to tell them at that point? Your most private secret has been exposed. I mean, either your going to lie to them, make something up, and they’re going to know that your lying to them, because no one is going to be able to lie about something that deep. Or you’re going to tell them the truth about something that is just so intimate that you don’t want anyone else to know about. So, here in Vanderburgh County, I think it’s a lot more widespread than most people realize. We will, this year, we will wind up interviewing close to 400 adult victims of domestic and sexual violence. The Child Protective Services will interview, will conduct over 2,200 investigations of child abuse, child molesting, child neglect. When I say 2,200 investigations, don’t lock in to the number thinking that’s how many kids are being interviewed. Because there are often investigations that lead us to eight kids, instead of one. I mean, that’s a minimum of one kid per investigation. Next month I go to trial on two different cases where we have five victims. So, we actually had seven in one, but we charged five. So, that’s included in the last years stat of 2,200 investigations. I wanted to touch on some of the reasons why an advocacy center is important, other than just the privacy of the victim, and the comfort level of the victim. According to a Willemette University study, charges are filed nearly twice as often when the interview is conducted in a child advocacy center. Suspects are found guilty over twice as often, and there’s an increased number of plea agreements. So, if your kids have to go through the stress and trauma of trial, most of the time when I’m talking, people say, “Well, if they’re getting plea agreements, it must be watered down.” Well, since the kids are more comfortable, they’re giving better details, our cases are stronger. So, we don’t have to back down and offer a weaker plea agreement. So, the convicted people average sentences with 32 percent more time whenever the case was handled in a child advocacy center setting than in a regular setting. So, not only are we getting the plea agreements, not wasting court time, not putting people through the stress of trial, but they’re spending a lot more time in jail, and they are not able to reoffend while they are in jail. Also, another study done by the National Child Advocacy Center showed that over a thousand dollars per case was saved being handled inside the child advocacy center setting. Because it’s multi-disciplinary team approach, it’s been handled by us, Child Protective Services, and the Prosecutor’s all at once. So, there’s no duplication of tasks. An inter-agency agreement has been signed by the Sheriff, the Prosecutor, the Chief of Police, and the Vanderburgh County Director of Child Services, all agreeing and committing to using Holly’s House for forensic interviews of children. Albion Fellows Bacon Center has agreed to provide an advocate whenever there’s an adult sexual assault or domestic violence. So, we’re utilizing services that are already out there. We’re utilizing manpower that’s already out there. It’s just something that’s been a long time coming. For some reason we’re way behind the curve on this one. So, we’re doing everything we can to catch Evansville up to speed. Our best chance to get one up and running soon would be if the Library Board would donate the former North Park Library. We want the building either donated to Holly’s House through the Metropolitan Development, or leased to us for a dollar a year. They have the capability of doing it either way. The building is sitting vacant. The area of town, I grew up in North Park, I lived in North Park for most of my life. I lived in that library for most of my childhood. I can tell you right now, even though I love North Park, commercial growth in that area is pretty stagnant. If you drive down and see Mill Road office complex, that building has vacancy. The building across Commerce from the former North Park Library has been on the market for three years. What the Library Board is saying this building would sell for is not even realistic, because the building across the street has a lot more square footage, has been updated, has twice the parking, and they can’t sell for a hundred thousand less than what the North Park one is saying they are going to get for their library. So, what we would like is for them to either donate or lease that to us. We think we could get it up and running fairly soon. It’s a good location, because most people don’t know it’s there. It’s out of the way. Someone came to us and said we want you to put it in the VanAusdall and Farrar building on First Avenue, we’ll give that to you. It’s a high traffic area where people could drive by and see. That’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid.

President Musgrave: Lieutenant? You’re not here though today to ask us to endorse any particular location.

Brian Turpin: Sure.

President Musgrave: You’re just giving us a report, right?

Brian Turpin: Yes.

Commissioner Musgrave: Because I know that there’s a lot of issues about that building, and it’s value, and giving away taxpayer money to a non-profit. I don’t really want to go there today.

Brian Turpin: Sure. Right.

President Musgrave: But, I do want to ask a question.

Brian Turpin: Sure.

President Musgrave: I understand that Indianapolis has a similar location where victims are taken for interview, but they’ve also combined it with several other offices that are there, and in a friendly type of environment that you’ve been describing as your goal. Are you working with any other agencies to co-locate with you?

Brian Turpin: We have talked with Child Protective Services, the Department of Family and Children Services about possibly moving into a facility together. Right now that’s not going to work, because there’s so much change going on within their office, and they’re doubling their staff currently. So, that’s not working. The agencies that have signed the agreement have agreed to have people there, if not all the time, then when the children are being interviewed. That way we can go ahead and get, two minds are better than one. If two people are watching the interview, they’re going to think of something to ask that kid to unlock what happened to them that I’m going to think of. So, yeah–

President Musgrave: Do you have any questions?

Brian Turpin: –and, I’ve been to Marion County’s several times. So, I am familiar with that.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: We seem to be concentrating a lot on the criminal aspect, and I’m interested and concerned about that, because it’s important to put those guys behind bars, but I’m also concerned, today at Rotary at lunch sitting at one of the tables a guy was telling me about his daughter over in St. Louis who had been attacked, and that three and four days later is when it finally dawned on her what had happened. Is there counseling, is there things that, you’ve mentioned Albion Bacons, is there long term counseling that’s going to be going on? Or is just something that’s concentrating on the criminal element?

Brian Turpin: Normally we get them to Albion Fellows, and we also do referrals to the Lampion Center, which I don’t know if you all are familiar with them. But, as far as sexually based crimes, Holly could probably tell a little more.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: We really don’t want to duplicate any services that already exist in Vanderburgh County. So, those kind of resources already exist in Vanderburgh County. What Holly’s House will do will educate the victims and the victim’s families to let them know where they can go to get those services, or bring those people in to give them those services.

President Musgrave: Okay. Any other questions?

Commissioner Nix: Holly, you had mentioned something about a capital campaign, is there some place for people that are listening today, a place they can send money right now? Do you have some different , or like an internet site, or a mailing address?

Holly Dunn Pendleton: I do. I sure do. I have all of that.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: The internet site is www.hollyshouse.org. I also have some brochures that I brought with me today, and I’m happy to leave several, so people could pick those up if they like. Also, any donations right now are being sent to the Police station, in care of Brian, since we don’t have a location.

President Musgrave: It’s Lieutenant Brian Turpin?

Brian Turpin: Detective.

President Musgrave: I’m sorry.

Brian Turpin: That’s okay. You just bumped me up two pay levels.

President Musgrave: Well, I cannot make anything good happen as a result. Alright, well, thank you very much for coming. Thank you for your work on the commission, and I believe later on in our agenda today we might have one or two appointments to that commission so that you can further the work that you’re doing–

Holly Dunn Pendleton: That’s wonderful.

President Musgrave: –for the victims of these crimes, and maybe even prevent some.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Great. Thank you so much.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you for your work.

Holly Dunn Pendleton: Where would you like me to leave these brochures?

President Musgrave: Would you leave them here, and maybe a couple out there by the door, so that anybody who’s here might want to see them.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Next on the agenda we have Maddison Seib, the Health Department pandemic drill update. There’s a drill on Friday. Is Maddison Seib here? Oh, there you are. Okay. Go ahead and explain what a pandemic drill is for us.

Maddison Seib: Okay, I will. As you probably have heard in the news here recently, Health and Human Services and the Center of Disease Control are tracking a virus which would potentially cause the next pandemic. Pandemic means world wide. So, the world will be affected by this virus. History shows that we are overdue for our next pandemic. You’ve probably also heard in the news about the 1918 pandemic which had such an affect on everyone. Also, we had a lesser pandemic in the late ‘70's. No, I’m sorry, the late ‘60's, early ‘70's that didn’t have quite the same impact as the 1918 one. But, this one that they’re tracking right now called the Avian flu or the H5N1, they’re expecting to have the same type of impact on us as the 1918 one. The challenges that we face in regards to preparing for this and responding to it is going to be vastly different than any other disaster recovery or response that we’re going to have. Because, I’ve been told by my federal and state counterparts that we can expect no help whatsoever. So, when a pandemic occurs, we have to be locally prepared. We’re expecting, at any point in time during the pandemic that one third of our work force will be out, due to caring for a family member or themselves being sick. Of that one third, we’re also expecting half of them not to recover from the pandemic.

President Musgrave: Half of the one third?

Maddison Seib: Yes.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Maddison Seib: To ensure that the Vanderburgh County Health Department is prepared for a response to the pandemic, the Emergency Management Agency and the Health Department are preparing to assess our preparedness level by having a drill July 21^st at the Centre to simulate the receipt of the national stockpile and for disseminating those drugs to the general public.

President Musgrave: What time?

Maddison Seib: Volunteers will start processing at 8:00. These are the volunteers who are volunteering as medical staff within the clinic. We will open our doors at 9:00 to start processing people through the clinic. We’re expecting for it to take about a half an hour for someone to get completely through the clinic. We’re running it from 9:00 to noon.

President Musgrave: So, if you want to pretend to be a victim, you should come anytime between 9:00 and noon?

Maddison Seib: Yes.

President Musgrave: And, the volunteer medical staff who arrive at 8:00, and I assume you’ve contacted the medical community to get more volunteers to–

Maddison Seib: Yes, I have.

President Musgrave: Okay. So, this is basically to figure out how are you going to receive people who are afflicted?

Maddison Seib: The purpose is to, for people, to prevent the spread of the pandemic. So, it will be the dissemination to people who don’t have it yet. If someone shows up to the clinic showing signs or symptoms, they are going to be referred to their personal doctor, or to the hospital.

President Musgrave: Okay. So, this is just a drill.

Maddison Seib: This is just a drill.

President Musgrave: And sick people should not come expecting to be treated for anything?

Maddison Seib: Correct.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Maddison Seib: If you’re sick, stay home.

President Musgrave: Okay. Alright, so, July 21^st at the Centre.

Maddison Seib: Yes.

President Musgrave: 8:00 a.m. for medical volunteers.

Maddison Seib: Uh-huh.

President Musgrave: 9:00 a.m. to noon for patient volunteers.

Maddison Seib: Yes.

President Musgrave: Okay, well, I don’t like the statistics you’re putting out, and I certainly hope that they’re all wrong, that none of this is going to happen.

Maddison Seib: The Health and Human Services say that it is “when”, not “if” it is going to happen. So, we have to be prepared. Thank you.

President Musgrave: Thank you very much.

President Musgrave: Now, we have Kim Salmon from the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fair to do a presentation on the upcoming fair next week. I understand that you’ve brought some contestants in the fair. As a nine year 4-H’er myself–

Kim Salmon: Amen. Good for you. Good for you.

President Musgrave: – and one of my kids did it.

Kim Salmon: Here in the county, Cheryl? Were you here in Vanderburgh County?

President Musgrave: I was in Putnam County.

Kim Salmon: Far north.

Commissioner Nix: Where in the world is that at?

President Musgrave: It’s one of those places where they get more money than we do, I can tell you that.

Kim Salmon: Ah!!

Commissioner Nix: It’s north of here then, right?

President Musgrave: North of here, yeah.

Kim Salmon: What money you spend on our program here in Vanderburgh County is very appreciated. Our upcoming Vanderburgh County Fair, I’m a member of the board of directors for the fair. I’m also a 4-H leader, and I was a ten year member here in Vanderburgh County. Our fair will be the 24^th of July through the 29^th, of course, at our Vanderburgh County Fairgrounds. We brought three very active, young 4-H’ers that would like to say just a little bit about what’s important about their fair activities and being involved in 4-H.

Andrea Bittner: Hi, my name is Andrea Bittner, and I am a nine year 4-H member of the Armstrong Highlighters Club. I am actively involved with the animal part of 4-H. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to have animals to be part of our program. But, I do have one sheep and a handful of chickens. We work very hard throughout the year raising them and breeding them to a very special caliber that is competitive at our fair. This is a very rigorous week, because the animals are going to be taken from their natural environment that they’ve been living in so far. So, it’s actually very exciting and very competitive as well. We have very talented 4-H members in our area, and the animals are very competitive. So, it’s something that’s very rewarding and exciting for us.

Kelsey Salmon: I’m Kelsey Salmon, and I’m an eight year member of the (Inaudible) 4-H Club, six year member and president of the shooting sports club, and I’m also a member of Junior Leaders and Youth Council. My favorite part of the fair is working in the Junior Leader food booth with my friends. I’ve met so many new people in this program, and I like that we all get to work together to raise some money for the upcoming fair year. Junior Leaders and Youth Council also raise money for community service, such as; the Carver Children’s Organization, grants for money needed by 4-H’ers, nursing home visits, and the Food Bank in Vanderburgh County. Aside from Junior Leaders, I’m also taking 14 projects to the fair this year. Some of which are scrapbookking, sewing, foods, beekeeping, and I also show my cat. My favorite parts of the fair are the tractor pulls and the demolition derby. Every year my dad and I get front row seats in the grandstand for the Saturday night derby. This derby makes for a great and fun way to end the fair.

Amanda Salomon: My name is Amanda Saloman. I am also an eight year member of (Inaudible) 4-H Club. I am active in Junior Leaders also. I would like to speak about my favorite 4-H project, out of the three I take, which is sewing. I’ve been sewing for eight years now, and this year I made a wool coat. It’s just exciting. That’s all I have to say.

Kim Salmon: Now, I do want you to know that we’re not just a group of girls that get together. We do have young men that are in our 4-H Club membership, but they were unavailable. I think they’re all out getting, in the fields getting some of their things together. Just a couple of things I would like to share with you about our fair. We are very proud, in the past we’ve been a blue ribbon fair, judged by the Indiana State several times. We have, one of our, on Wednesday night our key entertainment is Keith Anderson, who is a country artist. Our fair admission is only five dollars, and that allows you to get in and see not only just the fair projects that you’re going to see from our youth, our very active youth, but also some of the other attractions at the fair, like Keith Anderson. We have a Tiny Tots program on Tuesday. We have Little Miss and Mister on Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday we have our wonderful tractor pull. We have everything from tractors coming out of the fields to the super souped up professionals. Then on Saturday we do have the demolition derby. We do appreciate your support in our fair, not just so much because it is an activity here in our county, but it is an opportunity for these youth to learn some leadership through whatever project, or their Junior Leader project. Of course, Cheryl, you would know about that as well. We do want your continued support, as far as, not only financial support, but your personal support as well.

President Musgrave: So, the fair opens Monday, what time?

Kim Salmon: I believe, it’s a good thing, 5:00?

Andrea Bittner: 7:00.

President Musgrave: Seven in the morning?

Kim Salmon: 7:00 p.m.

President Musgrave: 7:00 p.m., okay, so we can come out and do the rides starting on Monday?

Kim Salmon: Uh-huh.

President Musgrave: And then it closes Sunday afternoon, doesn’t it?

Kim Salmon: It closes Saturday evening.

President Musgrave: Saturday evening.

Kim Salmon: Okay, and the demolition derby usually is over about 11:30, a quarter to twelve, sometimes twelve. So, that’s about the end of it there. Most of the projects will be available for display, as well as other things that are open class. We have adults that are displaying.

President Musgrave: I was wondering, when is the open class?

Kim Salmon: Are you interested?

President Musgrave: I was kind of interested.

Kim Salmon: Okay, our open class exhibits come in on Sunday, before the fair from 1:00 to 4:00.

President Musgrave: I have some zinnias I’m thinking about bringing.

Kim Salmon: Alrighty. I wish I would have brought a different fair book, but I could get that information to you–

President Musgrave: Okay.

Kim Salmon: – so that you could get those zinnias in there.

President Musgrave: Alright.

Kim Salmon: See, once you’re in 4-H, you don’t get it out of your blood. See, you know what’s going on at our houses right now.

Commissioner Nix: When is the pig wrestling, that’s what I want to know?

Kim Salmon: We don’t have pig wrestling at our fair.

Commissioner Nix: You don’t?

Kim Salmon: That’s a Warrick County thing.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Kim Salmon: Warrick County, when they have their fair, it always rains. So, we really don’t have much pig wrestling. Now, we have frog jumping on Friday.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Kim Salmon: Our pig show is when, ladies, do you remember?

Andrea Bittner: They moved it.

Kim Salmon: And you’re not sure when it is? Okay. I believe it’s on...Tuesday is our pig show. And, they’re, hopefully, not wrestling.

Commissioner Nix: I go every year, but I’m going to be on vacation this year.

Kim Salmon: That’s okay. That’s okay.

President Musgrave: He’s going to miss all the fun. Alright, well, thank you very much for coming.

Kim Salmon: Thank you so much. We’ll leave a couple of our programs as well.

President Musgrave: I would really like to see one.

Kim Salmon: Thank you.

President Musgrave: Alright, thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks.

President Musgrave: Next is the Vanderburgh County Engineer, permission to award bid VC06-06-05, Aabel’s Park Subdivision Barrett Law sewer project. Mr. Stoll?

John Stoll: The request is to award the contract to BMB, Incorporated for the amount of $252,442.30. They provided the low bid on the project.

President Musgrave: Any questions? Or a motion?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Thank you, sir.

President Musgrave: Purchasing has a permission to advertise for bids for the storage building construction for the County Highway Department. Is Debbie Spalding here? I do not see her, but I say that we go ahead and combine that...oh, you’re not Debbie Spalding. Please state your name.

Ruth Ann Adams: Hi, my name is Ruth Ann Adams. Debbie wanted to just go ahead and say that this was it. There wasn’t nothing else. Okay?

President Musgrave: Okay. Thank you.

Ruth Ann Adams: You’re welcome.

President Musgrave: Commissioners, if we could combine this with the County Auditor’s permission to advertise notice of public hearing for the vacation of, is that Woehler Drive?

Madelyn Grayson: Yes.

President Musgrave: In Vanderburgh Industrial Park, with the advertisement dates of July 21, and a public hearing on August 1^st.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: We now move to the second and final reading of vacation ordinance CO.V-07-06-001, vacation of drainage easement at 7145 East Virginia. Is there any discussion of this? Is there a motion?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: This requires a roll call vote. So, I’ll call the roll. Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: Yes.

President Musgrave: And I vote yes. The motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me, just one minute. Madelyn? You do have, do you not, the drainage easement? The executed drainage easement for this?

Madelyn Grayson: Yes.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, thank you.

President Musgrave: We move now to ordinance CO.06-06-012, concerning abandoned vehicles. This is the second and final reading. Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: As you know, this is something the city has had for some time. It covers abandoned vehicles that are left sitting on property for a period of time. One thing I was a little disappointed in, and I think we’ll have to reach it from a different angle, from what I was advised by legal counsel, and that is, I was hoping to include boats into this as well. A lot of times out in the county areas, particularly those that are near the river areas and stuff, those roads, you’ll find a lot older, vacant boats that have been sitting around. The problem is, is that they can contain water after a period of time, and they become infested with mosquitos, and etcetera. So, there’s a lot of good health reasons, as well as an eyesore that we need to address. Plus, the county’s missing out on property tax revenues that when those boats are not being reissued year after year by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. So, that is something we’re going to take up at a later ordinance and to amend the junk ordinance or something that we have out there that’s very similar to that. So, I would be happy to entertain any questions.

Commissioner Nix: One of the questions I have, and I talked to Mr. Ziemer, I guess, late last week, if a person lives back in a lane where there’s an easement to get back, in other words, there’s a lot of areas on the west side, well, really, all over town, in the county, that if you live on a private lane, but it’s actually a lane where there’s six or seven homes back, and you can’t actually see the abandoned vehicle from the public roadway, I guess, that was a concern I had. That is addressed in this ordinance?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: It is. Yeah, abandoned vehicles on private property are addressed in there.

Commissioner Nix: Even though it’s not in visible view of a county road, if it’s an abandoned vehicle and someone can see it from a private lane, it’s still covered?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes, that’s correct.

Commissioner Nix: Like I say, there’s just a lot of communities, especially on the west and north side that have that situation. I just want to make sure that was covered.

Commissioner Shetler: Keep in mind, in most cases it’s revenue that we are missing because they’re not paying the excise tax, or keeping the plates and registrations up to date too.

President Musgrave: Okay, is there a motion to adopt the ordinance?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: This requires a roll call vote. Commissioner Shetler?

Commissioner Shetler: Yes.

President Musgrave: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Musgrave: And I vote yes. Show the motion as carried.

President Musgrave: We move now to contracts, agreements and leases. We have two. We could go ahead and take them as one motion. The County Engineer for the Oaklyn Library lease. I understand the County Attorney has finalized the insurance issues that were involved in that. Juvenile Court, the Youth Services Bureau contract. It’s for tracking of those under house arrest with a new system, from what I understand. There is funding in place for all of these. Is there a motion?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

President Musgrave: Department head reports. Dr. Joanne Alexandrovich from the Health Department here to give a report on the ozone alert.

Joanne Alexandrovich: Hi. Thanks for having me. I’m Joanne Alexandrovich, and I work with the Health Department. I’m here to discuss, we’ve been under an Air Quality Action Day, Ozone Alert since last Sunday. We, the Evansville EPA, the Health Department, and IDEM, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, call these Action Days because weather conditions are expected to enhance the build up of pollution levels. The number one reason we call the alerts is to let people know that air quality may reach unhealthy levels, or threaten their health. We go by the national standard, called the Air Quality Index, or AQI, set up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When our air quality is forecast to reach unhealthy for sensitive groups, orange levels USG, we’ll call an Air Quality Action Day. Currently now we’re on a day-to-day forecast mode. We forecast one day at a time. Our alert, our ozone alert is extended through Wednesday, tomorrow. We’ll decide tomorrow morning, by about 10:30. Our forecast call went for over an hour today, so, it starts at 10:00. So, maybe we’ll be done by 10:30 tomorrow, if we need to extend the alert to Thursday. Basically, what should people do when we call an Air Quality Action Day. The health message is that those people most sensitive to air pollution, such as those with respiratory or heart problems, children, older adults, and people who are active outdoors, should try to limit their exposure to outdoor air, or ambient air. During this heat wave, the best way to do it is to stay inside. If you’re a runner, if it’s an ozone problem, we suggest you run, perhaps early in the morning, or late in the evening when levels are lower. If you’re an outdoor worker, perhaps you can have a shorter shift. Anything you can do to reduce your exposure to higher levels for ozone, that happens between about 3:00 and 6:00, 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. Our second message that we make when we call an Air Quality Action Day is to ask everybody to do their share to help clean the air up. Basically, the most effective way to reduce your contribution to pollution levels is to drive less. Stay out of your car as much as possible. Do not idle. Also another good way to help the situation is try to conserve electricity. It’s difficult right now, when we need to run our air conditioners, to try and stay cool and avoid heat stroke problems, but if you can conserve electricity, that helps, perhaps keep the thermostat at 75, rather than 70, that can make a difference. Some people really like this one, I’ve seen t-shirts, basically you don’t have to mow your lawn, you’re having an Air Quality Alert. You know, honey, can’t do it. So, any kind of engine will produce pollution. So, if you can avoid it, we like that. Although we’ve been under these Ozone Action Days since Sunday, we have actually not reached the unhealthy for sensitive group levels, which I think is due primarily to huge reductions in emissions from area power plants over the last few years. With the high humidity we’re having, however, particle levels, PM2.5, fine particulate matter, is on the rise. There’s an AQI for PM2.5, Air Quality Index, and we might reach that in the coming days. So, tomorrow, especially during our forecast call, we’re probably going to be concentrating on that. It’s what makes it look so hazy and dirty out there is the fine particles. Our air quality forecasts are available readily. Airnow.gov.

President Musgrave: Can you say that again?

Joanne Alexandrovich: Airnow, a-i-r-n–o-w dot gov. It’s on the city-county website. You can navigate around a little bit through the Health Department, or the EPA. Near real time pollution data is available on IDEM’s website. They run the monitoring networks, and that’s at www.in.gov/idem, i-d-e-m. that’s all I had prepared. If anybody has any questions?

President Musgrave: No, thank you very much. My husband will appreciate the no grass mowing tomorrow rule. So, I’ll work on that.

Joanne Alexandrovich: Okay, thank you.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me. May I? I’m sorry. Joanne? I wanted to thank you for the help you gave us in researching California law and the toxic contaminant question. You were very good. You did that very promptly. Thanks a lot.

Joanne Alexandrovich: It was my pleasure. Through my work I have a lot of contacts with people around the country. So, that’s how I was able to do it so quickly.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Good. Thank you.

President Musgrave: It was impressive.

President Musgrave: John Stoll, agreement with CSX for review of Baseline bridge plans. I’m glad to hear that this project is moving along.

John Stoll: Based on what the consultant said, we should have some draft plans within the next couple of weeks too. So, that’s why it was important to move ahead with the agreement. That agreement has been reviewed by the County Attorney, and he had approved it for your signatures. Basically, it calls for the county to pay for any consultant review fees that CSX will incur through the review of our proposed plans, our plans for the proposed bridge over the Baseline Road tracks. The amount in the agreement is $10,000. So, we’ll have to pay that to CSX up front. Originally, they had estimated up to $25,000. So, we’re seeing a little bit less than what the original estimates were. This is for design only. Assuming they approve the plans and it goes to construction, they’ll follow it up with another agreement for construction later that will involve the payment for the flaggers and things like that.

Commissioner Nix: I guess, before I make a motion, I would like to ask one question.

Do we know about the boundaries of construction, or that should be coming in what, two, three weeks or so?

John Stoll: Yeah, as soon as they give us the draft set of plans we’ll have the construction limits pretty well hammered out.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Shetler: A question that I had, have we talked to the neighbors and stuff out there? Because I had spoken with some people at Azteca a couple of weeks ago and they didn’t seem to know, they were totally caught off guard on this. I didn’t know if we had–

Commissioner Nix: I had a meeting out there about probably two weeks ago with the Plant Manager, and he was somewhat familiar with it. Now, I don’t know about people that work for him. I asked that when we get to a point when we actually know the amount of space that’s going to be required for the project that we sit down with him and meet. He mentioned something about maybe bringing some of his, or one of his construction people in and talking about, you know, what they could do to work with us. Then, I think on the southwest side of the bridge, that’s owned by?

John Stoll: The website shows that it’s the County Redevelopment Authority that owns it. So, I’m assuming that there’s a lease agreement between the Redevelopment Authority and the county, but I haven’t had a chance to get that researched as of yet.

President Musgrave: I know that part of your conversation was attempting to keep this bridge on the south side, as much as possible, on Baseline.

Commissioner Nix: If at all, but I think we’re going to have some limitations with the substation, and, I mean, those are things we’re going to have to work around, whether we want to put retention in, or whether we want to go with slopes. Those are things that, I guess, we need before we take that next step.

Commissioner Shetler: Don’t get me wrong. They were very much in favor, but they just seemed to be caught a little bit in the dark on it. So, I didn’t know, you know, how much we had put out in preliminary information or anything like that.

John Stoll: I haven’t spoken with them personally, but once we get the plans then we’ll have a much better handle on what impact we’ll have to each of the properties.

Commissioner Nix: I think in our second, your road hearing out at, there was quite a few people that had input on what they, you know, something that they would like to see. So, to me, I spend a lot of time out in that area, I mean, it’s definitely a safety concern from the standpoint of when the trains, I mean, it’s something that we really need to get moving forward with.

President Musgrave: Would you like to make a motion?

Commissioner Nix: I will move approval of the plans, or agreement with CSX.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Any other items?

John Stoll: The only other thing I had was a reminder about the public information meeting on the University Parkway project. The meeting will be tomorrow at 6:00 at West Terrace School. This will be to discuss the changes in the plans that have occurred to bring it up to current standards so we can proceed to construction soon.

President Musgrave: Alright, so 6:00 tomorrow at West Terrace we’ll talk about University Parkway.

John Stoll: Correct.

President Musgrave: See you then.

John Stoll: That’s all I had.

President Musgrave: Okay.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Musgrave: I understand that there’s nothing to report from the County Highway or Superintendent of County Buildings.

President Musgrave: Do you have a report?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I do. You’ll recall that you asked me to obtain some requests for proposal to do cash advisory services and arbitrage rebate services in connection with the some $34 million dollars in outstanding bonds of Vanderburgh County. I have done that, and I would like to read the responses to the requests for proposal into the record, and then give you the responses in a sheet which summarizes them. Fifth Third Bank indicates they would do the cash advisory services for eight basis points. A basis point is a tenth of one percent. So, it’s eight tenths of one percent of the value annually. So, in the first year, if there were $34 million in bonds, the fee would be eight tenths of one percent of that value. They would provide the arbitrage rebate services, per calculation, at a rate of $3,500 to $5,500 per calculation. Generally, those calculations are done annually. Old National Trust responds that they would do the cash advisory services for one tenth of one percent of the value annually, ten basis points, and they would do the arbitrage rebate services for $5,000--

Madelyn Grayson: Can we switch the tape real quick?

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

Madelyn Grayson: Will you make sure your microphone is on?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, it’s not?

(Tape change)

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: You probably didn’t pick that up.

Madelyn Grayson: I think I can pick it up. You’ve got a booming voice.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I’ll give you the sheet. The Integra Bank response, well, here, let me finish with Old National, the arbitrage rebate services for Old National would be for $5,000, a lump sum payment for all calculations. So, if the bonds ran for five years, and you needed to do five years of calculations, it would be $5,000 covering all of those. Integra Bank indicates they would do the cash advisory services for eight basis points, or eight tenths of one percent of the value annually. That would include both the cash advisory services and the arbitrage rebate services. Umbaugh Associates, who were the financial advisors for the $28 million bond issue, indicate that they would do the cash advisory services for ten basis points, which is one tenth of one percent of the value annually. They would do the arbitrage rebate services at an hourly rate spelled out in their response, which would, I’m told, average between $1,500 and $3,000 a year for each year’s calculation. Finally, Hilliard and Lyons indicated they would do the cash advisory services for 15 basis points, that’s point one five percent of the value annually. They would do, actually, they’re contracting out, or they would contract out the arbitrage rebate services to RSM McClardy, Certified Public Accountants, and they would do that for point three five basis points, or point zero zero three five percent of the value annually. I haven’t made that computation, but they say in their response that that’s based on $1,200 per calculation. Which would be essentially $1,200 each bond year. So, those are the responses. I’m going to give to our corresponding secretary the actual responses, and I’ll give each of you and the Auditor a sheet, which I just summarized for you.

President Musgrave: Well, I would like to take a week to understand everything you’ve just told me. I mean, we can take action on this next week. If that’s alright with you?

Commissioner Shetler: Motion to take under advisement.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Okay. Anything else on your report, Mr. Ziemer?

Madelyn Grayson: Bid openings.

President Musgrave: You have a bid opening to report on.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Yes.

President Musgrave: And after that we’ll have Mr. Craig from Burdette Park.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: After that I actually have one other thing.

President Musgrave: Okay, he’ll have to wait.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Here, Madelyn. Do you want to pass those down to Madelyn?

Commissioner Nix: Sure.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, as to the bid opening, what did I do with it? Here, JBI Construction, this is for intersection improvements at Green River and Lynch Road, JBI Construction, $472,632.28; J.H. Rudolph and Company, $593,453.81. Finally, I have two contracts–

Commissioner Nix: We need to take those under advisement.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, I’m sorry.

Commissioner Nix: I would like to make a motion we take those bids under advisement.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Then there are two service agreements that I have reviewed for contractual services that are satisfactory for execution. I don’t know what your intention is about these.

President Musgrave: What are they?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: One is for contractual services of John Hoover, the other one are contractual services for Carla Hayden.

President Musgrave: Well, I think that it would be prudent to go ahead and approve those, in case we needed to actually use them in between meeting dates. So, I would ask for a motion to approve those service agreements.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Is there anything else, Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, that’s all.

President Musgrave: Mr. Craig, Burdette Park?

Steve Craig: Good afternoon. I’m Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette Park. I guess, my report is kind of bittersweet. I was coming here to report on our new Discovery, the Burdette Discovery Bicycle Trail in Vanderburgh County. It’s approximately 32 miles of paved roads that we are marking at the present time with two trail heads for a bicycle route for the people of the tri-state. Yesterday I was wanting to report that they started putting up the signs, but when I went down to look at them today, the signs all looked like this. What we’ve got is about 20 to 25 signs that lasted one night.

President Musgrave: Mr. Craig, show the people behind you as well.

Steve Craig: People spray painted them. They were put up yesterday, and they were painted last night. Any project that’s worthwhile like the Pigeon Creek Greenway, they’ve been plagued with vandalism. I guess, there’s some amazingly ignorant people in this world, and apparently right now we’re dealing with them. I would like to ask anybody out there in the public that sees anything going on, and in the Union Township bottoms, such as people spray painting signs, to try to get some identification. Police reports have been filed, and they’re going to have added cars watching the bottoms. We will get by this and the trail will be opened in a promptly manner. We’ve only been working on it a short time. It’s going to be a great asset to Vanderburgh County, and we will have a ribbon cutting in the near future. This might be a little clog in the wheel, but we will get beyond it.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: How about the big sign with all the information on it, did that get painted over too?

Steve Craig: No, they still have your disclaimer on there.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, alright.

Steve Craig: No, actually I’m picking it up tomorrow morning and we’re building a frame for it, but we will put them up.

President Musgrave: Maybe under plexiglass?

Steve Craig: It’s going to be, we’re going to look into a coating that if it does get painted that it can still be cleaned off.

President Musgrave: Well, you know, no matter how many times they paint over these signs, the bike trail is going to be there, and we’ll have flyers at the bike shops, we’ll have things on our website, there will be route notices out at Burdette. So, the bike path will be there, and we’ll be very proud of it. Hopefully, your suggestion that people help you watch to find the culprits will clear the matter up, and we won’t hear any more of it.

Steve Craig: Well, it will be easy to see them. They’ll be some cowardly person jumping out of a vehicle at night spray painting signs. So, if you see that, just report it to the Police Department.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Commissioner Shetler: Or a black mark on their finger, huh?

Steve Craig: That would be a tell tale sign too.

Commissioner Shetler: Yeah.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I have one, but my pen was leaking.

Steve Craig: We’re going to have to look into that, Ted. Where were you last night?

President Musgrave: I’m not sure he would admit that under any circumstances. Okay, have I missed any department heads who wanted to give a report? I see no one.

President Musgrave: We have board appointments. To the Domestic and Sexual Violence Commission, Joyce Schutz. Is that how you pronounce her name?

Marissa Nichoalds: Yes.

President Musgrave: And, did you have someone you wanted to name as your proxy as well?

Commissioner Shetler: I think we’d better check.

President Musgrave: Oh, check, okay. The Common Construction Wage Board. Mr. Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes, this is for a sump pump installation in mediation for the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Board, and that is Kristy Adams.

President Musgrave: Kristy Adams. Is there a motion to accept those two appointments?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

President Musgrave: New business, economic development workshop. I’ve been kicking around this idea for a while, and we’ve got some plans sketched out. We hope to hold, I hope that the Commissioners will join me in holding, and I’m here to ask your permission to do that, to hold a workshop on economic development on August 31^st, at the Centre, from 9:00 until 1:00. We’re looking at the possibility of holding a luncheon. The workshop would be free. The luncheon would not. We think the luncheon might cost around $17. We have already lined up a couple of speakers who are willing to come, as well as we’re asking, having inquiries made to the Lieutenant Governors office, and she might come down and speak at lunch time. This workshop would focus on the incentives that are available to businesses. Businesses that are already here, businesses that are coming. These are tax incentives. There’s a new program that the Governor put in place this year, with the help of the legislature that gives you a tax break on new equipment, or new real estate that you buy for an existing business, and there are also many other existing incentives, the sort that we have approved recently this year, and Commissions in years past have approved. But, I’ve discovered that a lot of people don’t know what these are. Our real estate and business and banking community need to understand them thoroughly as do I. So, the best way for me to learn is to hold a workshop and invite you all and have some good speakers to come there. I think that I might have some small expenses to cover. So, I would like your permission for the authority to expend about $1,000, I’m going to say $1,000, because I really think that that would be too much. So, your approval of the concept, the date, to use the Centre for free, and about $1,000 to cover any miscellaneous expenses that come up.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Then, there’s another project that I’ve been working on with help from several other departments. I’ve given you a couple of flowcharts that look like this. The one that’s mostly green, blue green, is the old. The one that’s mostly blue is the new. What this is is, I took a look at the way we have complaints for weeds in the county, and which departments handled the weed complaint, which ones went out there and looked at it, who cut it, who handled the paperwork, and there were too many hands on the process as it went through. I thought that we could streamline it a little bit. So, this proposed draft of streamlining this process, taking fewer cooks in the kitchen, as it were, is proposed. I know that Marissa Nichoalds has helped me set up a meeting, is that tomorrow?

Marissa Nichoalds: Tomorrow at 1:30.

President Musgrave: Tomorrow at 1:30 we’ll have the Building Commissioner, and his staff, the County Highway Supervisor, Mike Duckworth and his staff, the Auditor, I hope that you will come, and Marissa and I will be there to talk over this. But, basically, it takes, it leaves the complaint receipt with the Building Commission, where it is now, but it moves all the picture taking, and mowing and the letter sending to the Highway Department, with the people who are actually doing the work. I hope that the Highway Department and the Building Commission will be able to use the same complaint tracking software that I know that the Building Commission has been in the process of installing for quite sometime, so that everybody would be able to log on and see the complaint, but one department would be really in charge of seeing the complaint through the whole process, from the complaint the picture taking to the notification to the cutting it to the finally delivering the documents to the Auditor for filing for weed liens. That’s the plan. We’ll see if we can get that to work. It’s amazingly complex. It’s silly, isn’t it? Well, that’s all I have. Is there any other new business?

Commissioner Shetler: I think it’s an excellent idea to try to get things moving along. That’s probably the most disheartening part about the signs. Not only is it a safety factor, but we’re also talking about things that we’ve been trying to do, cleaning up Vanderburgh County, and not only make Vanderburgh County, but keeping it beautiful is, you know, what we’re trying to achieve here. Then, when you get people going out there with the graffiti and stuff, it just doesn’t make sense. But, I think you’ve come up with an excellent plan here, Cheryl, and it’s something that’s going to streamline it and get the job done, hopefully.

President Musgrave: Is there any old business?

President Musgrave: Is there any pubic comment? Any comment by the public on matters under the Commission’s authority? I see none.

President Musgrave: We have a long list of consent items. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Shetler: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Employment Changes:

County Highway (1)                  Superior Court (1)                     Prosecutor (2)

Sheriff Office (1)

County Assessor: Surplus letter: Lanier fax.

Commissioners:

Waivers for Fees at Centre: Health Department, Commissioners, CIO.

Vision-e Monthly Report: June 2006

Department Head meeting notes: July 11, 2006.

Weights and Measures: Monthly Report: June-July 2006.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer                           Supt. Of Bldgs.                         Veterans Service

Those in Attendance: