VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

MARCH 13, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 13^th day of March, 2007 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.

President Musgrave: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the March 13^th meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County. It is 3:30. I will start with introductions to my right.

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

Bill Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

Cheryl Musgrave: Cheryl Musgrave, County Commissioner.

Michael Isaacs: Michael Isaccs, Junior at Memorial. Go Tigers!

Troy 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: Let’s start with the bid opening for VC07-03-01, the Kuebler Road bridge rehabilitation. Is there a motion to open the bids?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: We move now to an item that was inadvertently left off the printed agenda. I would like to welcome Patty Avery and the Girls in Bloom for the update on their recent convention at the Centre. This is the only convention, I guess we would call it that, that is sponsored directly by the Commissioners. Mrs. Avery?

Patty Avery: Well, actually, I think convention is almost a good word now. When we ran the numbers, we had anticipated our largest ever attendance, and we surpassed even our own expectations. With girls, parents, educators, volunteers and presentors, we were nearly at 700. Yeah, not bad for an event that started with 100 girls the first year. As I said, this was our fourth event, and we had girls from Daviess and Henderson Counties in Kentucky, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Gibson, Posey, Dubois and Perry Counties in Indiana. A total of 64 schools were represented, including home schools. So, what we saw this year is, thanks to our media sponsors, obviously, a much greater penetration into the schools. Our core group continues to be the EVSC and the parochial schools in Vanderburgh County. As you’ll remember, of course, it’s fifth through eighth grade girls. Fifth graders were our largest number of attendees, 39 percent were fifth graders; 32 percent were sixth graders; and the remainder were seventh and eighth graders. So, we had just a wonderful, wonderful group. As we told you, they were going to get to do about everything under the sun, and they did. The Centre’s staff were tremendous. This was a day that, including our event, they had four events to manage that day, and we could not have asked for better help from them, including the fact that our attendance was so much higher than we had anticipated, we suddenly had to provide more lunches. We actually got down to the very last lunch, but everybody was okay. But, I just cannot applaud them enough for their tremendous help in setup. We utilized to the full extent those lovely screens that are now in. With each meeting room we were able to put up on each screen what was going to be taking place in that room. We really utilized our portion of the Centre to its full capacity. Again, we just, it was a wonderful, wonderful venue, and the staff were extremely supportive of us. We have several people with us today, you know, I gave you Girls in Bloom by the numbers, but we wanted to share with you from the girls point of view what their experience was. So, first I would like to introduce Amy LoBue, who came with us the day that we were here a few weeks ago.

Amy LoBue: Hi, I’m Amy LoBue. I brought two friends from our school, and we had a lot of fun. We went to a lot of events. We saw the UE girls, which I want to play on their soccer team when I get older. Then we also went to a GE science class. It was pretty cool. They showed us how to recognize a pin and every pin has a different formula of its own and everything like that. It was really fun. It was cool. I think every girl just had a lot of fun. Thanks for sponsoring it.

Patty Avery: As Amy mentioned, we had, in the wide variety of activities, we had an active session following lunch. Ann Topper, who was coordinating our program committe, in conjunction, of course, with the Governor’s In Shape Indiana, we made the period after lunch an active period, and UE came and participated with their dance team and the soccer team, and we had a lot of other terrific activities for the girls. From Cedar Hall, we had a large representation from Cedar Hall, and Karen Hellenberg, who is their student intern social worker this semester, is here to share.

Karen Hellenberg: Hi, I would just like to say that our girls and mothers had a very positive experience there. There was a great deal of vendors there. We had a lot of art involved. A lot of, even the parents were involved. For Cedar Hall, which, you know, is in a poverty area, it was just a breath of fresh air for a lot of the girls. We had a lot of parents that called that couldn’t make it because they had to work, but the students that we did have enjoyed it tremendously. I was really impressed, and we’re going to try to push it more next year for them. A lot of the parents said they were going to try and accommodate to go. So, that’s a big plus, I think. So, thank you for sponsoring that.

Patty Avery: Thank you. This year, for the first time, we had a large group from Perry Heights, and Dr. Debbie Dierlam is here with the Star Power girls.

Nicole Simmons: County Commissioners, I’m Nicole Simmons from Perry Heights, and I’m in sixth grade. Girls in Bloom was so important because it gives girls a chance to learn what we can do best in the world. Thank you for making this special day devoted to us so that we can learn more about ourselves. Can we please do it again next year? Thank you.

Melody Hart: Hi, I’m Melody Hart. I’m in the seventh grade at Perry Heights Middle School. Girls in Bloom was so important because I learned so much, had a chance to speak with many that I barely knew, and had fun doing it, each and every one of these. Thank you for making this day special, and it was a new experience to me, and a great one at that. There were so many choices and good opportunities. May we please do it again? I think everyone had good feedback and definitely got to experience either great memories or new experiences. For the record, we had 33 students.

Vickie Taylor: Hi, I’m Vickie Taylor from Perry Heights Middle School, I’m in the eighth grade. Dear County Commissioners, Girls in Bloom was important to me because it was a time for us girls to go and learn without boys being there and being under all the pressure. The experience at the Centre was fun for me and all of my friends that went. I had a lot of fun, because I could learn things I wanted to know and there wasn’t any boys to pressure me. Thank you for making this special day available for the girls in Evansville. It was very enjoyable for me, and I had a great time. Can we please do it again so us girls can have another day of fun and relaxation without having to worry about other problems at home? Thank you.

Patty Avery: As you can see, each girls experience was very individual and very personal. To me, I think that’s the strength of this program. As you know, our committe is all volunteer, and we’re all very busy women, but we all make time for it because we believe so passionately in giving girls the space that they referred to, space to grow, space to learn more about themselves. One of the most exciting things that we’re seeing develop now is the older girls coming back as volunteers. We got e-mails from girls who were too old to come, but said, “Can I please come volunteer?” Ann coordinated a large group from Sig school and other high schools, North High School participated, girls who have attended in the past and now want to make the experience available to younger girls. So, we’re watching our fifth through eighth grade event turn into a training ground now for older girls. As I’ve mentioned to you before, I think Girls in Bloom is a lovely example of partnerships, of bridging partnerships from government to the businesses that support it. We were able to offer the day again completely free of charge to the girls who participated, thanks to our sponsors. The universities support us with their knowledge base, it’s just an incredible example that frankly I think can only happen in Evansville, because of the wonderful mix that we have here. But, we came, as we said, to thank you very much for your support, and we’re all taking a deep breath and bracing ourselves to start planning for next year already. But, thank you so much.

President Musgrave: Thank you, and congratulations to the entire board, Dorie LoBue and others. Do you want to name any of the others?

Patty Avery: Well, Amy, Dorie is here, of course, and Ann Topper, we have a large committee, but all of us have day jobs. So, it’s hard for us to get away, but, again, thank you so much.

President Musgrave: We look forward to seeing you again next year.

Patty Avery: Thank you.

President Musgrave: For those who wonder what the Commissioners do for the boys, I’m still looking for somebody to come forward to do something for the boys in our community.

Commissioner Tornatta: Commissioner Nix has been in contact with me about wanting to work with that project.

President Musgrave: I would like to now welcome Mr. Jim Dittoe, Winning Communities presentation. Welcome.

Jim Dittoe: Thank you. Let me add some congratulations to that fine program there. Congratulations, girls. I like the way you’re selling for next year too. That was really great. A very important word was mentioned in the presentation and that’s partnership. That’s what we’re all about in Winning Communities. I put a brochure at your table place there, and, hopefully, you’ve heard about what we do. We provide partnership facilitation. We are an endorsed program of the Association of Indiana Counties, in fact, I’ll be meeting with David Bottorf on Thursday to do some more planning about how we can assist the counties in their planning. We provide facilitation services, not necessarily planning. Planning has a bad name, but we all plan. Some of us plan for the weekend, some of us plan to go to Florida, some of us plan to have people over in the evening, we all do that. But, when you talk about strategic planning, we kind of fall off to sleep. What we do is provide sort of a King Arthur round table, if you will, for members of the community from those organizations, to get everybody in a partnership. That’s why we’re called Winning Communities. It’s not planning communities, it’s winning, because what we do is provide a planning process, if you will, to move toward achievement. In fact, your association, I met with the executive committee about a month and a half ago and proposed two counties, Blackford County and Rush County, who has gone through the Winning Communities certification process, that’s outlined in your brochure there, steps one through 13. They got various organizations within the community together to provide as a steering committee. Then we had public meetings to determine the future. The people actually come up with the ideas. I help facilitate that process. So, when we met with your executive committee of the AIC, they were very enthused about what it is that Blackford County and Rush County did. Not what they said they were going to do, but what they actually accomplished. In fact, to hold their feet to the fire, they are now making this process a yearly type of thing. Now, not that you have to go through the whole planning process which takes several months, but there has to be a report given back in, so that the certification, meaning you’ve gone through the process, you’ve gotten people on the same page, you’ve stated your vision for the future, you’ve stated your goals, objectives and come up with an action plan, and then you actually do things within the community. Then the certification is awarded. We were going to make the award to the communities of Rush County and Blackford County on the 14^th, unfortunately, in Indianapolis we had 15 inches of snow at that time. So, that was postponed until two weeks from now on the 28^th. That is in conjunction with your legislative conference, which starts on Tuesday. Wednesday at the luncheon, when the General Assembly has been invited, and I believe the Lieutenant Governor is scheduled to be there also, the awards will be made to Blackford and Rush County as the first, quote unquote, certified Winning Communities. We hope we have the opportunity to talk to you about the plans that you might have for the community of Vanderburgh County. It’s outlined here, I just wanted to introduce the subject to you for your consideration. The idea behind it is that we are all faced with change, in fact, we have five “C’s” of a winning community. The first one is that change, and as Yogi Beara said, and he was a pretty good baseball player and a pretty good philosopher also, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.” That first part is related to change. Leaders help provide that direction and change. The second “C” is challenge, because the change causes us challenge. We are faced with a tremendous amount of change within our communities. We’re all challenged by that. Then the third “C” is concern. We pick up the newspaper, we see a certain issue, and we get concerned about that, that’s the cause of that challenge. But, that’s not enough, that’s like putting the newspaper down and moving to the sports page and seeing how the St. Louis Cardinals line up for this year, or what might be on television. The fourth “C” is the committment level, the fourth “C”, and that leads to the fifth “C” which is championship. So, you go from the change to challenge to concern to committment and then leading toward the championship. We help facilitate that process, and then leading toward, we hope, the certification of the communities. There’s a lot of growing interest throughout the state. In fact, I just had a call from the County Commissioners in Howard County as I was on the way down here to set up a meeting with them for next week. So, at some future date, I would be happy to sit down and chat with you and other members of the community. If you would like to act as a facilitator, like King Arthur did and bring people to the round table to kick this around, I would love to have that opportunity. I’ll pause there, as I know you have a large, large agenda, to see if you have any questions.

President Musgrave: Questions, Commissioners? Thank you, Mr. Dittoe. We have your contact information. Commissioners, if you should decide to undertake this program, please feel free to contact Mr. Dittoe and learn what further steps need to be taken. Or, if someone in the community is also interested in serving as project champion for this, please let us know.

Jim Dittoe: Right, I’ll be talking to other people in the community. Yes, sir?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Just one question, when it snowed 15 inches in Indianapolis, had you not planned for that?

Jim Dittoe: We used to be friends.

President Musgrave: There are a lot of people just like that around here.

Jim Dittoe: I know it, I know it, but if it weren’t for his lovely family, I don’t know if I’d have anything to do with him. Our daughters used to play together when we lived down here. Well, thank you very much. We do have a website, winningcommunities.com. There’s a newsletter, we’re coming up with a new edition of that, electronic newsletter, please sign up for that too. Thank you very much for your time.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

Jim Dittoe: Safe journeys.

President Musgrave: Next on our agenda is a presentation of the County Commissioners road hearings. We have held this three different times throughout the county, and this is the last rendition of that, and the last call for projects to be added to the list. I’m turning it over to Mr. Duckworth.

Mike Duckworth: Thank you, President Musgrave, Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. Mike Duckworth, Superintendent of the County Highway Department. Let me just kind of set this up by saying that over the last four to five weeks, we have kind of taken the show to the road, so to speak. We met in each of the three Commissioner districts to get information and complaints and concerns about the conditions of county roads. We have compiled that information, and we are to the point now where we need to prioritize that so that the Commissioners can look at our work and give us some direction as to where we go from here. Let me first start by saying, last year we paved approximately 35 miles of county roads, of the approximate 640 actual miles. As you can see, with this slide, that we were using a piece of equipment that was approximately 13 years of age, and since that time, thanks to the County Council and the Commissioners helping in that regard to get us this new paver. It’s a $236,000 front end assist state-of-the-art piece of equipment that we think will be not only safer, but enable us to do much better quality work on our roadways. I would say to you that, and I’m going to try and go through this as quickly as I can. In ‘05-‘06 we did approximately 64 miles of paved roads, resurface of roadways in our community. In ‘07 these are in red, if you can see that, the proposed roadways that have been explained to us that are in need of repair. Unfortunately, the increased cost in oil prices and the escalator clauses that cause product to go up may not enable us to do as much paving this year as we have in the past, but we’re going to see how this all turns out. I would start by saying, and I’m going to go through these roads as per your request and just try to go through them relatively quickly and just give you some idea about how much work that there is to be done. We’re going to start in district one, Durre Lane, Durree Lane runs between Fitzgerald, I’m sorry, from Fitzgerald to Peacock. It’s approximately seven tenths of a mile, estimated cost a little over $3,000. Peacock from Lynch to the dead end, .28 miles, estimated cost $12,196. Fitzgerald Lane, again in district one, from Lynch Road to the dead end, .37 miles, estimated cost $18,730. Colonial Gardens from Old Boonville Highway to the dead end, .43 miles, again a cost of about $18,730 miles. Some of these roads require a little more base, or possibly a little less material. We have had our supervisors and our staff do an extensive measurement and checking the conditions of these roadways and this is how we’ve come up with these estimated costs. Colonial, I’m sorry, Lynn Road from Pollack to Old Green River Road, two miles, $87,120. Kimber Lane, Columbia to the Lloyd Expressway, .17 miles, $7,400. Old Boonville Road off of Old Boonville Highway, you can see this is actually still a gravel road, .17 miles, a cost of $28,380. This summarizes, basically, the district one proposed roadways, 3.49 miles of requests, total cost a little under $173,000. Moving to district two, which is our largest district, and the district that we had the most requests in, Schlensker to, McCutchan Road from Schlensker to Baseline, 1.02 miles, $44,431 miles.

President Musgrave: Dollars.

Mike Duckworth: Staub Road from Mesker Park to the dead end....I’m sorry?

President Musgrave: Dollars.

Mike Duckworth: Dollars? What did I say?

President Musgrave: Miles.

Mike Duckworth: Miles? I’m sorry. Staub Road from Mesker Park to the dead end, .28 miles, $10,977. New Harmony Road from Highway 66 to Posey County Line, that is 5.59 miles, estimated cost of those repairs will be $415,057.50. That is quite an extensive piece of roadway, we may, due to the cost, that may be one that we want to look at in sectioning up over a couple of years. So, we’ll talk about that at a later time. Koressel from Upper Mount Vernon Road to New Harmony, 2.40 miles, estimated cost $94,089. Number Six School Road, and the lady that complained about this said it hadn’t been done in, I think, in excess of 12 years. You can see how it’s in great need, Highway 65 to Vienna Road, 2.54 miles, $110,642. Kissel from Fischer to Schaeffer, .42 miles, $16,456. Booker Road from Red Bank to dead end, .49 miles at $19,209. Carrington Drive from Mt. Pleasant to Berringer, .17 miles, $7,405. Volkman Road, Old State to Barton, 1.29 miles, $50,573. Trapp from Buente to Baseline, 1.30 miles, $216,700. Bixler from Nisbet to Woods, 1.48 miles, $44,800. Hillside, which was a project that we started last year, you can see this is just the base down, and John Stoll has a portion of this road that has a contract on it to take care of some visibility issues and some banking issues, but what’s remaining is .49 miles of surface material only, $34,927. Hepler Road from Baseline to 65, 1.3 miles, $102,960. Evergreen from Mallard to Hunter’s Green, .15 miles at $6,534. Terrace Green from Greenlake to the dead end, .65 miles, $28,314. Red Bank Road, Upper Mount Vernon to New Harmony, 2.02 miles, $87,991. Cypress Creek from Hillsdale to Live Oak, .19 miles at $7,448. Wyngate from Cypress Creek to the dead end, .17 miles, $7,361. Live Oak from Cypress Creek to dead end, .13 miles, $5,096. Vanness from Hogue to Upper Mount Vernon, .30 miles, including some intersection work at $13,068. Rode Road from Oak Hill to Cunningham, .47 miles at $18,425. That is the completion of the complaints that we’ve received from district two. I believe that total is $1.7 million in the grand total of the proposal.

Commissioner Nix: Mike, before you go on. There’s a couple that I wanted to ask you about, Trapp and Bixler. Could you look at the numbers on those again, just briefly before we move on. The amounts, the tonnage and the amounts look like they’re way off. I don’t know if that’s a typo.

Inaudible: Resurfacing.

Mike Duckworth: I think there’s quite a bit, what they figured into that was quite a bit of base work–

Commissioner Nix: Base and then surface both?

Mike Duckworth: Right.

Commissioner Nix: Okay, I’m sorry. Yeah, because that’s a pretty good chunk right there. Thank you.

Mike Duckworth: Moving on to the third district. Is this district three? Okay, Red Bank to the dead end, I’m sorry, Melody Lane from Red Bank to the dead end, .48 miles at $20,908. The other thing that I want to point out is some of these roadways are much wider than others and that can control the cost as well. Red Bank, Upper Mount Vernon from Red Bank to University, 2.75 miles at $119,790. Schmuck Road from Old Mount Vernon to Bayou Creek, 1.85 miles at $72,527. Locust Tree from Schutte to dead end, one tenth of a mile at $3,920. Mahrenholz Road from Schutte to Pruis, .30 miles, $11,761. Mahrenholz Avenue from Mahrenholz to dead end, .11 miles, $4,312. Upper West Terrace, and I know we’ve received a lot of calls from the West Terrace Subdivision and those roads have deteriorated, for some reason, much more in this last year. Because we looked at some of those last year and they weren’t in this bad of shape, but Upper West Terrace from Summerland to Key West, .83 miles at $36,154. Summerland from West Terrace to the dead end at .10 miles at $4,356. Key West from West Terrace to the dead end at .10 miles at $4,356. The third district a little bit over nine miles for $390,036. I don’t know that we’ve got the total of all three, but I’ve provided that information to you. This represents approximately $2.3 million in requests. It represents a little over 35 miles, which is basically what we did last year. I would tell you that due to some factors that I mentioned earlier, the reduction in amounts allocated by the Council, as well as the increased costs in oil and materials, that I cannot tell you that we would be able to do this much with this amount of funding. So, two things are going to have to happen, either we’re going to have to whittle it down and do some this year and some next year, or we would set the priorities up, see what we can do, and ask the Council to reconsider giving us more funds to do more.

Commissioner Nix: I know we’ve talked about this at length over the last three road hearings, and you and I have had quite a few conversations, one thing I haven’t asked you is any of this carry over from last year at all?

Mike Duckworth: Yes, it does.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Mike Duckworth: We have allocated, the Council has allocated about $1.3 million and we, no, that’s not what you’re question is?

Commissioner Nix: I’m sorry, go ahead with that and then I’ll clarify my answer.

Mike Duckworth: Okay, due to the previous practice of basically saving up the escalation clause till the end of the year, we found ourselves about $100,000 over budgeted. So, we utilized some of those funds out of ‘07 for the ‘06 paving that we did.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Mike Duckworth: Which put us another $100,000 behind.

Commissioner Nix: I’ll clear this up now.

Mike Duckworth: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: I guess, my question is without having last year’s list, were any of these roads on last year’s that we didn’t get to?

Mike Duckworth: The continuation of Hillside.

Commissioner Nix: That was one of them, okay.

Mike Duckworth: Vanness and Hogue--

Commissioner Nix: Hogue.

Mike Duckworth: We did a little bit of work there, but because of utility work, we stopped, and now we’ll go in after the utility work is continued and finished, we’ll go in and put the surface down.

Commissioner Nix: That’s what I remember. So, this is all pretty new? Or, most of it is pretty new?

Mike Duckworth: Most of it is new. Now, I will tell you that we continue to get calls about, you know, pot holes and this is the time of year that we do that, and we’ll be looking at doing and I know the Commissioners are considering doing a pothole blitz. We work on pot holes about every day. Especially this time of year. As we do our paving and we get more into it, we have to do less and less, but we’re always available, especially with the equipment that we have now. I would say to you that we’re not going to get it all in one year, but we, I think we have a good plan here so that over the next few years we can get most, if not all, of this done.

President Musgrave: Commissioners, we’re probably going to have to make some pretty serious cuts, we will definitely have to make some pretty serious cuts in the projects that he has brought forward to us, but I would like to discuss at some point whether that’s today, whether that’s next week after we gather more information, the possiblity of going for an additional appropriation. We asked for $1.1 million in our appropriation process, we received $900,000. I know that in the past several million dollars more a year in very flush years have been devoted to road paving. I don’t have all the facts now to tell you whether or not there’s even a possibility of additional funding that maybe is in, that we’ve received in revenue and haven’t appropriated. But, I think that those are facts we should have at our hand before we start discussing this. But, I still want the public to bring forward roads they didn’t hear you describe that they feel strongly need to be done, because I would like to have a complete list.

Mike Duckworth: There are some subdivisions in this county that are in dire need. They are not on this list, and the reason being that there is so much surface and sub work that needs to be done, and the roads need to be completely removed and redone because there are terrific voids in some of these areas that are under these roads. We put band-aid after band-aid, and, so, I refer to Mr. Stoll and he’s pretty well the expert on putting that plan together. He has a good plan about some other projects that he is contending with, and we worked pretty well together to put those things, to do the best that we can with the funds that we have, but I’ll let him talk a little bit about what his plans are, and then we’ll be glad to share any of those other concerns with the Commissioners.

Commissioner Nix: I would like to see that we table this for a week.

Commissioner Tornatta: Take it under advisement?

Commissioner Nix: Yeah, take it under advisement and then maybe, I don’t know if a week’s enough time, your paving season, I guess, I understand most of the batch plants are going to be open late March. I know we’ve seen a couple of pavers here, late March or so, so we’ve got about two weeks really to make up our minds. I would like to maybe see in two weeks we sit back down and–

Commissioner Tornatta: We don’t have a meeting that second week.

Commissioner Nix: In two weeks we do not have a meeting?

Madelyn Grayson: We do not have a meeting on March 27^th.

Commissioner Nix: Okay.

Madelyn Grayson: So, it will be April 3^rd. We have a meeting March 20^th and then it’s April 3^rd before the next meeting.

Commissioner Nix: Mike, do you, John, before you start, Mike, do you have an idea of when you’re going to get–

Mike Duckworth: I think that would be fine. Normally how we start our paving season, and with the new paver we’re going to be doing some training, and we will probably do that inside Burdette Park, and we know what needs to be done there. So, we can get the process started and we can, I think two weeks is fine, that gives us some opportunity to take more information and prioritize it and get it to you for–

Commissioner Tornatta: Three weeks.

Commissioner Nix: Three weeks.

Mike Duckworth: Yeah.

Commissioner Nix: That would work with what you’ve got planned?

Mike Duckworth: Right.

Commissioner Nix: And that will give us some time to drive these. I know we’ve had a chance to look at them, but this is the first time, I guess, all three of us have seen this complete list, and I appreciate the job you’ve done. One other thing too, and, I guess this is for the general public, if we don’t get to one of these roads this year, if the road is in need of repair, we’ll do what we can do, but next year it will be back on the list again. I think that’s important that we emphasize that.

Mike Duckworth: I also want to say to you that there is a difference in how we do pot holes. If it’s just a small pot hole, of course, we go out and we, if it’s a large area, we can cut that area out, and kind of, I don’t want to say put a band-aid, because it’s much more complicated than that, but we can cut the area out and put a little base down and then put some surface down to smooth it out until we can get to the total roadway. So, we do some of that as well. So, we’re not going to leave people with dangerous situations out there, anymore than we want to.

Commissioner Nix: And this is a little unique. This is the first year, I guess, in the three that I’ve been in office that we haven’t been able to really pretty well pave everything that’s been requested. But, there is considerably more here, and, of course, the cost, like you say.

Mike Duckworth: Well, it’s that popular road hearing show that you put together. As the one young lady said, it’s cool and neat and people like to come and give us their information.

President Musgrave: Yes, they do. Mr. Fluty, I will be asking you to sit down with me and go over the revenue that you see coming in, fund balances that are there, what you see is the picture, in case the Commissioners want to ask Council to appropriate additional funds.

Bill Fluty: Okay.

President Musgrave: So, I’ll look forward to that. Mr. Stoll, do you have good news for us?

John Stoll: No. Just like Mike, our budgets were reduced. Our contractual account, typically in past years we’ve requested $750,000, it was reduced to $500,000. Similar to what Mike was talking about, I know that we don’t have enough money to cover all the concrete repairs that have been requested through our office as of yet. So, here again, we’ll be in a position where we have to prioritize things. I don’t have all that, any pictures of the specific locations in this Power Point today, but I can get you the list. I know it included repairs in the Villas Subdivision, Old State Subdivision, Brookview, I just don’t have the entire list here handy. But, the needs exceed the budget on that as well. What we do have up here is a list of the projects that we had budgeted for in 2007. As you know, all the work that’s going on out on the east side TIF district projects; we’ve got Cross Pointe extension between Columbia Street and Oak Grove, and then the widening of Cross Pointe between Virginia and Columbia and between Oak Grove and Morgan. Those were preliminary estimates up there based on the consultants estimates back when the proposals were taken on those projects. They have not been updated as of yet, but they will need to be updated–

President Musgrave: Mr. Stoll, before you go on, would you explain why these funds are not available for the road paving that Mr. Duckworth just outlined?

John Stoll: These funds are only available within the Burkhardt tax increment financing district, which is roughly bounded by Green River Road, Millersburg Road, I-164 and the Lloyd Expressway. It goes outside those boundaries just a bit, but not a whole lot. The tax revenues from that district are captured and used to pay off the bond issue, and, basicaly, only projects within that district can be funded with that bond. So, that’s why these projects are able to be funded where the other ones are going to run short. When Cross Pointe is all said and done, we’ll have a five lane road with landscaped medians for the section, basically, from Columbia to Morgan. The section from Virginia to Columbia won’t have the median, but the rest of it will. So, it will be a nice road to move traffic out on the east side. The third project on this slide is Burkhardt Road right-of-way. That refers to the intersection improvement project at the intersection of Burkhardt and Virginia. That’s a federal aid project that’s been in the works for some time. We had it on hold for awhile pending what INDOT determined was needed to be done on the Burkhardt and Lloyd interchange. They have since put that project on hold, so we need to start pursuing our project again. It involves construction of dual left turn lanes on the Virginia Street approaches to the intersection, and lengthening the turn lanes on the Burkhardt approaches. The third one is Green River Road right-of-way, that will be used for the widening of Green River between Lynch and Millersburg. We’ve already purchased most of the right-of-way up to Hirsch Road and we’re just getting to the point where the right-of-way can start from Hirsch northward. In district two, here’s some bridge projects we’ve got in the works. The first one is St. Joe bridge number 1924, that is an existing twin culvert structure that is in need of replacement. It’s up near Nuebling Road. We will replace it with a single, probably concrete box structure. We’re working on that right now. The second one is St. Joe bridge number 1921, that’s located between Mill Road and Wimberg Road. We have since gotten the preliminary inspection report from the last bridge inventory, and now they’re saying that project can be pushed off to the future, and given the fact that we need to use those funds elsewhere, I would recommend that we postpone that and use those funds towards First Avenue, which is another project I’ll get to here in a minute. The third project is a project that was initiated from some of the road hearings last year. This is on Baseline Road. It would be the construction of a new bridge over the CSX railroad. This is about four tenths of a mile west of Highway 41. We’ve gotten some preliminary design done, and that project cost is going to go up. Some of the preliminary construction estimates were in the neighborhood of three and a half million. So, we’ll have to go back for an additional appropriation on that. The fourth one is out on Bromm Road. It’s an existing one lane culvert, we need to widen it to two lanes and replace the substandard structure that’s there. This was postponed for a couple of years while we got some right-of-way issues resolved. We finally have the property lines pin pointed well enough to know who we need to buy right-of-way from. So, that one is proceeding right now as well. The next project is another federal aid project. This is the intersection of Oak Hill and Bergdolt. It consists of the installation of a traffic signal and the addition of left turn lanes on Oak Hill at Bergdolt. That estimated cost of $150,000 was based upon the county’s 20 percent construction share. In the event that we can’t get this completed prior to the Green River project, this project will likely need to be postponed, because we can’t have this project going on at the same time as the Green River project. I don’t have all the final schedules as of yet, but that’s something I just want to make the public aware of. The next one is one Mike referred to a minute ago on Hillside. This is an existing one lane road with two 90 degree turns that, basically, align so that cars couldn’t pass safely. The project that we bid out was to widen the road to provide two lanes and to improve the two curves. The contract was awarded and we expect construction to begin once the asphalt plants begin work, functioning again. Once they start up–

President Musgrave: Will you hang on a second while she turns the tape over?

(Tape change)

President Musgrave: Are you ready?

John Stoll: Then the last one is another one of the TIF district projects. This is the widening of Green River between Heckel and Millersburg. There again, that was, I believe that’s an estimated right-of-way figure. We are getting to the point where we’ll start getting appraisals done, and start approaching the residents that will be affected by the project with right-of-way purchase offers. After the hearing tomorrow, then we can proceed with the right-of-way acquisition, which is the next step in this. This will result in Green River being five lanes between Heckel and Millersburg, and it will be four lanes from Lynch to Heckel. The last one is an on-going federal aid project at the Green River-Millersburg intersection. This ties into the rest of the Green River projects. This will result in the installation of a traffic signal at Millersburg Road and also the addition of turn lanes on the Millersburg approaches to Green River. That is an estimated local match since it is a federally funded project. Third district we have replacement of a culvert on Hogue Road. This is just east of Vanness. This ties into some of the work that Mike Duckworth was referring to a while ago. His paving on Vanness will tie into whatever we don’t pave, in conjunction with the replacement of this culvert. This last one is repairs to the settlement problems we keep battling on the north approach of the First Avenue bridge. Basically, what the consultants are going to recommend is bridging over the poor soils out there. That’s what’s causing the on-going settlement. They have indicated that the poor soils are to a depth that is too costly to excavate. So, they are going to recommend, basically, building a 45 foot bridge in advance of the main bridge. That cost will roughly double. The next one is the installation of a flashing warning light at the intersection of Red Bank and Upper Mount Vernon. When this project was originally initiated this was proposed to be a flashing yellow for Upper Mount Vernon and flashing red for Red Bank. Since then the MPO has done some new traffic counts that indicates that this needs to be changed to a four way stop. So, we’ll have the consultant modify his plans accordingly. The last one is University Parkway. This will be the local match, the 20 percent County share of the next phase of the project. That phase runs from Upper Mount Vernon Road to Marx Road. Right now we’ve got a right-of-way agreement that’s being reviewed by INDOT, and once that’s finally been reviewed and approved by INDOT, then we can proceed with right-of-way purchase. This probably won’t go out until the end of this year, would be a ballpark guess, but if we could secure the right-of-way quicker, then we could get it out for bid quicker. These are just project, pictures of the indivdual projects. This is looking out across the fields at the current dead end of Cross Pointe looking north towards Oak Grove and Morgan Avenue. This is part of the section of Cross Pointe that will be widened from three lanes to five lanes, between Virginia and Columbia. This is a section of Cross Pointe between Oak Grove and Morgan. This will be elevated and widened to five lanes. Basically, what’s out there will have to be totally reconstructed. There’s really no practical way of just widening this. This just shows the project limits for a portion of the Green River project. This is the Hirsch to Millersburg segment. This shows the existing north end of where the pavement transitions back to two lanes. I’m sorry, that was in front of the soccer complex looking south, that wasn’t down at Lynch. Here again, this shows the existing two lane road, no shoulders, for all practical purposes, and this will be widened to four and five lanes and elevated out of the 100 year flood plain. This is the intersection of Millersburg Road looking to the west. This is the federal aid project that’s been on-going, and here this afternoon I have some right-of-way purchase offers that I’m going to ask your approval on for this project. This is the Pigeon Creek bridge that will be reconstructed, actually not reconstructed, replaced as part of this project. The bridge will be elevated substantially, and it will be above the 100 year flood elevation when it’s all said and done. Here again, this is another shot of Green River just showing the two lane pavement. There’s that picture again. This is another shot of Green River-Millersburg, right now we had just the one flashing light, and it’s got, there’s been an accident problem out there that originally got this project on the books.

Commissioner Tornatta: Just, could you mention the informational meeting tomorrow?

John Stoll: Oh, yeah, tomorrow at 6:00 at Christian Fellowship Church there will be a meeting to go over the Green River Road project. It’s a public information meeting that basically will give a run down of what the scope of the project is, and then have the opportunity for individually affected property owners to meet with the consultants, so that way they can give specifics as far as how their property will be affected and what the road will look like in front of their properties. Pardon? I’ve got a few more. This is the twin culvert structure, this is the one that the consultants are now recommending that could be delayed for a couple of years on St. Joe. The same bridge there. This is a shot of the Baseline crossing that will be bridged over with the construction of this new railroad bridge. The same project. This is the one lane culvert out on Bromm Road that will be replaced with a two lane culvert. This is the existing stop controlled approach on Bergdolt to Oak Hill. This will be a traffic signal when this project is all said and done. This shows the area where Hillside is going to be rebuilt, basically, those two curves will be improved, lines of sight will be improved and the pavement will be widened to make it passable for two way traffic. These are just the two 90 degree turns. This is a culvert out on Boonville-New Harmony just east of Old State, you can barely see the end of the culvert, but it’s an existing corrugated metal pipe that needs replaced. That’s just showing Boonville-New Harmony as it passes over. This is the location of the culvert out at Hogue and Vanness. That’s just a shot of what would be replaced. This is the First Avenue bridge showing where the settlement problem exists over Pigeon Creek. It’s at the northwest corner. The County Highway Department has made numerous attempts to try and patch that until we can get a permanent fix in, but it seems like it’s been settling quite a bit faster as of late. This is the intersection of Red Bank and Upper Mount Vernon where the flashing light will be installed. This is University Parkway, that shows the entire balance of the project from Upper Mount Vernon to Diamond, but the next portion that will actually be constructed will just run from Upper Mount Vernon to Marx because insufficient funds exist to get it all the way finished. We will purchase the right-of-way for the remainder of the project, because the federal funding earmarks that came in will allow the county to purchase all of the right-of-way. We just can’t get the whole thing constructed at this point. That’s all.

President Musgrave: I won’t ask you what you do in your free time, or Mike, because it’s obvious that you don’t have any. But, Commissioners, again this is the last call for additional projects. Are there any other questions or comments? Okay, thank you.

President Musgrave: At this time, you’re not Marilee Fowler, Mr. Vezosso, but you are here with the resolution supporting the General Assembly bill to increase Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax. Welcome, Mr. Vezosso. You are the president of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, aren’t you?

Joe Vezosso: I am. Thank you very much, Madam President and fellow Commissioners. It’s a pleasure to be here. We’ve had the opportunity to meet with each of you individually and discuss the projects that were before you asking that you support a resolution to the Indiana General Assembly, and especially our delegation at the State House. Ours is a fun project, it’s a win-win for everyone. About a year ago we hired a consultant to come in and look at the county, city and Warrick County’s sports facilities and give us recommendations to improve our facilities so that we would have the ability to attract national tournaments into the Evansville area. To that end, the Hotel/Motel Association met and supported a resolution and asked that a bill be submitted to the state level for an increase in the Innkeepers Tax, and that that money be deposited in the Tourism Capital Development Fund, which is a brick and mortar fund that is used for brick and mortar projects that promotes tourism in Vanderburgh County. That all has to go through the County Council and they support the funding and they authorize the funding prior to the expenditures. So, we come before you to ask for your support with the resolution to our state elected officials, and if you would do that, we would greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions about the resolution, I would be glad to try to answer them.

President Musgrave: Commissioners, are there any questions?

Commissioner Nix: Do we want to read it into the record?

President Musgrave: Do you have a copy of it there?

Joe Vezosso: I do not have a copy of the resolution, Ma’am.

President Musgrave: Do you want to read it, Bill?

Commissioner Nix: Yeah, that’s fine. For the record, resolution supporting the General Assembly bill to increase Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax. The resolution number is, I don’t think we have that yet.

“Whereas, the Vanderburgh Convention and Visitors Commission supports a two percent increase in the Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax to be used for Capital Development projects; and, Whereas, the General Assembly is considering the passage of House Bill 1263 that would increase the Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax by two percent to support the Tourism Capital Improvement Fund; and, Whereas, the Vanderburgh County Commission supports the proposed two percent increase for the Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax as endorsed by the Vanderburgh Convention and Visitors Commission to be used for Capital Development projects. Now, Therefore, be it resolved that the County Commission hereby requests that the General Assembly pass legislation that will enable the Vanderburgh County Innkeepers Tax to be increased by two percent as endorsed by the Vanderburgh County/Evansville Convention and Visitors Commission.”

I’ve got the date of the 13^th of March, 2007 by the Vanderburgh County Commissioners.

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

Commissioner Nix: I make that motion, yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Joe Vezosso: Thank you very much, Commissioners. I would tell you that the bill has kind of been put on the back burner at the state level, but we hope to get it attached to someone else’s bill before the end of the session. We do appreciate it. I would tell you that the County Council also passed a similar resolution at their last meeting. So, thank you very much for your consideration and support.

President Musgrave: Before you leave, since Marilee is not here, are you here also to represent the Evansville Auditorium and Convention Centre booking policy?

Joe Vezosso: Yes, I am.

President Musgrave: Would you like to go ahead and address that now?

Joe Vezosso: I would, because it’s awful warm in this room, and I would like to be able to leave.

Commissioner Nix: We’re going to get that worked on after this meeting today.

Joe Vezosso: About a year ago, in cooperation with the County Commissioners and also with the Centre and the Convention Bureau, we brought in a consultant to look at the operations of the Centre, the sales operations of the Centre and the sales operations of the Convention Bureau, and to bring us together as a team and make it a conserted sales effort on the part of both of those organizations. In doing that, one of the recommendations of the consultant was that we come up with an agreement between the Centre and the Convention Bureau, that told each group the time frame that they were to sell the Centre in and how to go all about that. So, what we’ve done, we’ve come up with this agreement, and essentially what it says is that the Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau will be responsible for booking the Centre 18 months and out. So, in other words if you go 18 months out from today, that would be the responsibility of the Convention Bureau to sell that space over there. Eighteen months and under would be left to the sales staff of the Centre to sell that facility. So, if we’re looking at large conventions that normally book two to three years out, it really cuts back on the effort, because the Convention Bureau is going to be there anyway selling the whole community, as well as selling the Centre. So, it was kind of redundant to have both sales groups at the same trade show, selling the same thing. So, we feel that it’s a win-win for the Centre and the County, it’s a win-win for the Bureau, and we just whole heartedly endorse this. We ask that you all support this and execute this agreement between all the bodies. It’s not only the Commissioners, but we’re asking that the City, the Mayor’s office sign off on it, the County Council, the Bureau and the Centre. So, if you would support that, we would greatly appreciate it. If there’s any questions, I would be glad to try and answer them.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: I make a motion to accept the agreement.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Thank you and everyone for all the hard work. I know that this took months to negotiate, and represents the culmination of several years worth of desire in this regard. So, thank you.

Joe Vezosso: Thank you, Ma’am. I think it will be good for all of us. I wish it was cooler in here for you all, because you’ve got a long night ahead of you. But, I’m getting out of here. Thank you very much, Ma’am.

President Musgrave: Thank you.

President Musgrave: We move now to the final reading of vacation ordinance CO.V-02-07-001, the vacation of two public utility easements in Vanderburgh Industrial Park. Is there a motion to approve?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: Is there any public comment before I take the vote? Seeing none. 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.

President Musgrave: We move now to contracts, agreements and leases. I’m pleased to welcome several members of the County Prosecutor’s office. Doug Brown, and you’re here to discuss the new check recovery contract–

Doug Brown: I am.

President Musgrave: –and the procedure that’s involved with that.

Doug Brown: We’ve had a check recovery program in our office for approximately 16 years, and it’s been provided at no cost to both the county and the participants. The program has brought in less and less funds over the last few years. We looked at privatizing this three or four years ago, we did not. We actually contacted this company three or four years ago, American Corrective Counseling Services, we decided not to go at that time. But, the last two or three years we’re bringing in almost nothing. A lot of that is because big businesses like Wal-Mart, things of that nature are actually with these groups already, so they’re not going with us anymore. So, we looked at them again here in the last couple of months, and we decided that would be the way to go. We think we can serve the county much more efficiently, it’s a win-win for everybody. We will, hopefully, get more money into our office, we’ll collect more money for people in the county. That’s where we are. We submitted a contract for your approval, and we were asked to come and speak today. Cindy Wise is here. She can answer your questions. She has a Power Point presentation, or she can just briefly go through it, whichever your patience and your comfort level dictates.

President Musgrave: Well, I know the public will be interested in the change, so, perhaps you can hit the highlights–

Doug Brown: Okay.

President Musgrave: –of what the public will see for those inadvertently or undesirably receive a bad check, and for those who write one. If you can just hit the highlights.

Cindy Wise: Pardon, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you?

President Musgrave: Just hit the high points, if you would.

Cindy Wise: I will definitely hit the high points.

President Musgrave: Okay, thanks.

Cindy Wise: I have the presentation, unfortunately, it’s not as pretty as your Highway Department. Even with the dump truck his looks much better than mine. So, as he said, I’m Cindy Wise, and I’m with a company by the name of American Corrective Counseling Services. We are celebrating our 20^th year this year. We work with close to over 160 counties throughout the United States, doing their bad check restitution programs. We proposed it, like Mr. Brown said, several years ago, they’ve lost a lot of business that the businesses such as Wal-Mart....you can kind of click through there real quick, I can show you what businesses actually work with us, because of their trust in us. Wal-Mart used to use the local Prosecutor’s offices throughout the country and determined that they wanted one, unified system. This is actually our footprint, and we’re even stronger than that. That kind of gives you a feel for where we’re at throughout the country. We work with some of the largest counties in the United States. We work with Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston–

President Musgrave: Please just focus on what the public will see here.

Cindy Wise: What the public will see here is an increase in restitution. We have an excellent recovery ability. We work on behalf of the Prosecutor’s office. So, everything that we send out is reflective of their office, and everything that they’ve approved. So, they will see an increase in restitution, there will be revenue back to the Prosecutor’s office to support them on prosecuting those cases. We have a community relations effort, excuse me, that we provide, and that is going to be Collette Griffin. We actually go out and work with the community. We show them how to file with the program, we explain it to them so that they are not lost in the shuffle. Then, like I said, we do a lot of outreach as far as the chambers. We work very closely with Civic groups. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell as far as the differences you’re going to see, without going into detail about who we are. This gives you a great overview of what we do.

President Musgrave: Super. Mr. Brown, again, is there any additional charge to anyone, including the county or the folks who are collecting of the bad check?

Doug Brown: This is, there is no charge to the actual businesses using the program. The Prosecutor’s office will actually bring in a little more per bad check that is collected than we were presently. Actually, almost double. The only difference would be the people who are writing the bad checks now will be required to go through a program provided by this service, and this program has proven quite efficient as far as helping people manage their assets and not write bad checks in the future. So, hopefully, we will see less and less of that.

President Musgrave: What will the employee who has been funded by the county, or perhaps by a grant, I can’t remember which?

Doug Brown: Well, right, it’s always been a self-sufficient program. So, right now we have nobody. We’re having different people chip in.

President Musgrave: Oh, okay.

Doug Brown: We have one employee who’s kind of...it was a full time, it went to part time, and now we have someone who’s kind of chipping in. We’ll have to have an employee that will be a liasion with this group, but, generally, the revenue going in will probably go mostly to help fund a victims assistance person, because we’ve lost a lot of money in that area with grants drying up and just people’s salaries increasing. So, what was once a three person operation is a one to two person operation right now. So, that is where we are going to head, or direct this money. Thank you.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to approve the contract?

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Next on the agenda is the Matrix Integration engagement proposal for Courts technology. It’s my understanding that that is not ready?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No, that will be next week.

President Musgrave: Okay. We move forward to the Pedcor agreement regarding improvements on Green River Road. Mr. Stoll, are you still here? I think he’s stepped out. Oh, there you are. Sorry. Do you have any comments on this?

John Stoll: Basically, the agreement provides for one of two options to take place. Pedcor has to build a decel lane for their development or it will be built in conjunction with the county’s Green River Road project. If it’s done in that manner, then Pedcor will reimburse the county. But, the County Attorney spent quite a bit of time putting this together, and it looks like they have everything covered now.

President Musgrave: Is there a motion to approve?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: County Health Department, is it Varian agreement for lead detection instrument? I know that this has been reviewed. Are there any questions for the Health Department? I see them here.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The Verizon contract, E911 services. If there are no questions, is there a motion?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve contract.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: There’s a letter of support for University Parkway. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion that we approve.

President Musgrave: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: Okay, second. I’m on board now. Sorry.

President Musgrave: I’m sorry, what did you say?

Commissioner Tornatta: No, I’m on...I didn’t know how we were going through that. Yes.

President Musgrave: Oh, okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

President Musgrave: Letter of support for additional tornado sirens?

Commissioner Tornatta: Second, or, motion.

Commissioner Nix: I will second that.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Department head reports. Ms. Nichoalds, I understand you have an additional appropriation?

Marissa Nichoalds: Yes, I just have one appropriation request to go to Council next month. It’s for $245 to make a correction to an error in the salary ordinance.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

President Musgrave: County Attorney, you have a bid opening to report upon?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: On the bids received and opened this afternoon for the Kuebler Road bridge; Deig Brothers, $170,493.98; Gohmann Asphalt, $159,504; J.H. Rudolph, $105,291.40; Ragle, Inc., $121,756.60.

Commissioner Nix: I move we take the bids under advisement.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: Mr. Ziemer, would you turn your microphone off? All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Do you have more to report?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I do. Thank you. I have e-mailed the Commissioners, we received, actually only this morning, two...are we going to do the Superior contracts?

We’ve received requests from Chief Judge of the Superior Court that we approve two Superior Court Day Reporting Drug Court agreements. The situation is, the prior agreement was with Mike Collins, and it called for payment to him of $1,545 a month to perform that service. Mike Collins is going to be deployed to Iraq a little later this year, at which time we will need someone else to take over that service. So, the way the Courts and I have suggested we do this is that we have two agreements, one will be with Mr. Collins for the period from April 1^st through December 31^st, and the other one will be with Deputy Sheriff Shannon Henry for the same period. Instead of being paid a lump sum per month, they will each be paid for the hours they work at $27.27 per hour. So, part of those hours will be worked by Mike Collins, part of them will be worked by Shannon Henry. It’s believed that at the end of the period, on December 31^st, it will work out to approximately $1,545 a month, which is what we’ve been paying in the past. Judge Trockman did not get an opportunity to sign these today, but they’re here and if you approve them, we could sign them and then forward them to the Courts for approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: We have been negotiating with GAGE, which is Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville for what we were originally considering a grant, and for a variety of reasons GAGE would rather be in a position to perform services for the county, in return for a fee. The contract calls for the payment to GAGE of a fee of $150,000 in return for which GAGE will provide a whole list of services which are described in the contract, including some specifically designed to advance various projects particular to Vanderburgh County, as opposed to the City of Evansville. Though they are going to be providing services for both the City and the County, the contract is for one year. GAGE has appropriate insurance. This has been approved by Greg LaMar of the Metropolitan Development Department and also by the attorney for GAGE. It’s satisfactory for execution, should you decide to approve it.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Finally.

President Musgrave: Wait a minute.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, I’m sorry.

President Musgrave: I want to make some comments on the record about the GAGE contract. This is the successor for Evansville and Vanderburgh County to Vision-e, which many of you will recall, I guess, ceased to exist some time ago. This organization will now help us with our economic development efforts. As the appointee to that board I am happy to tell you that they’ve been working very hard already. The future looks very good. So, with that said, are there any other comments? All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Okay, you’ll recall that some time ago the State of Indiana offered to sell approximately 70 acres of surplus, state surplus property to Vanderburgh County. We have been negotiating with the state to provide us with assurances regarding the environmental condition of that property. The state has now indicated that, they forwarded to me a report from the Department of Natural Resources, issued in 1990, which they suggest we rely on to indicate that there are no environmental hazards there. It’s our opinion that that’s too long ago to be safely relied upon. Earlier Commissioner Nix has reviewed and suggested our entering into a contract for a phase one study of this real estate to be performed by Summit Environmental Services. I have reviewed that contract, If the Commissioners would approve that, Summit would provide the services for a fee of $1,850, which is pretty standard for a phase one environmental survey. The state also indicated that, you’ll recall that they were initially asking that we pay $50,000 for the property, and we have now negotiated them down to $10,000, and they say that with that great reduction in the price, they don’t feel they are in a position to pay the $1,800 for the phase one survey. So, we would recommend that we do have a survey done, and it’s probably appropriate that the county pay for that.

Commissioner Tornatta: I’ll make--

Commissioner Nix: Excuse me.

Commissioner Tornatta: Oh, go ahead. I’m sorry.

Commissioner Nix: In the e-mail that you’d sent earlier today there was something that someone had not completed. I don’t know if they didn’t have the insurance requirements?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Oh, yes. Thank you. I did check with Summit, their agreement doesn’t indicate anything about insurance. I’ve talked to their insurance agent, they will provide to the Commissioners office, it might already be there, certificates of insurance at levels which are satisfactory to me, showing that they have liability insurance to cover them while they’re on our property.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

Commissioner Tornatta: I would make a motion to proceed with the phase one.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: I’ll note that we are proceeding with this environmental review at the request of County Council. Any other comments? Are there, all those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: I think the heat is beginning to get to me. Anything else, Mr. Ziemer?

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: No.

President Musgrave: Are there any other department heads with a report? Mr. Stoll? This is your third visit to the podium today.

John Stoll: I’m getting my exercise today.

Commissioner Nix: He’s on a roll.

John Stoll: I’ve got a few items here. The first is a request for street plan approval for Preston Oaks Subdivision. This is located west of St. Joe and south of Lexington. It’s just a short extension of a cul-de-sac street. I’ve reviewed the plans, they’ve made the changes we’ve requested, so, I would recommend approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: The developer is also requesting a sidewalk waiver for that subdivision, and I would recommend that that be approved as well.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

John Stoll: Next, I’ve got some right-of-way purchase offers that are needed out at the Green River Road-Millersburg Road intersection project. The parcel numbers, the owners and the amounts are the following; parcel 11, Beck, $1,800; parcel 12, Melton, $170; parcel 13, Grammar, $30,700; parcel 15, Kassenbrock, $17,200; parcel 16, Hutchinson, $10,000; parcel 17, Oglesby, $2,900; parcel 19, Bass, $17,600; parcel 20, Kessler, $3,800; and parcel 24, Purdue, $850. I would request your approval so we can make those offers.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

John Stoll: Last, I have an IDEM permit for the Baseline Road bridge project. This needs the Commissioners signatures. This is the water quality permit that is required for this project.

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries.

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Musgrave: Alright, thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you, John.

President Musgrave: Any other department heads? Seeing none.

President Musgrave: We have a board appointment, the Coalition to End Homelessness. This is the financial advisor position. Mr. Andrew Smith has indicated a desire.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Is there any new business? In case I’ve told somebody I would bring up new business and I’ve forgotten it now, make sure you remind me of it.

President Musgrave: Any old business?

President Musgrave: Is there any public comment, besides the fact that it’s too hot in this room?

President Musgrave: Consent agenda, is there any additions or changes to the consent agenda?

Commissioner Nix: I have one change that was on my desk when I got here this afternoon. It’s for pay requisition number 84 for the new jail construction. It’s just a combination of a lot of things we’ve approved over the last couple of months, along with some release of some retention for some contractors out at the site. I would entertain, or I would make a motion that we approve this.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: The motion carries. Would you make a motion for the rest of the consent agenda?

Commissioner Nix: Yes, also I would like to move approval of the rest of the consent items.

Commissioner Tornatta: I’ll second that.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Musgrave: Motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Nix: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Musgrave: All those in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Pay Requisition No. 84: Jail Construction Project: $258,043.37

Evansville ARC: January 2007 Report of Activities.

Knight Township Fire Department Drawdown No. 17 of CDBG Funds.

Letter Appealing Township Assistance Denial.

Letters of Support for USI-Burdette Bike Path (4).

Letter from Senator Bob Deig regarding SB 491.

Complaint Letter on Old Henderson Road property.

Department Head Meeting Notes: February 27, 2006.

Employment Changes:

County Highway (1)           Sheriff Office (1)                    Circuit Court (1)

County Assessor (2)          Election Office (1)                  Treasurer (1)

Knight Assessor (2)           Recorder (1)

Travel Requests:

Health Department (11)     County Assessor (1)              Commissioners (3)

Auditor:

A/P Vouchers: March 2007.

Surplus Letter: phones.

County Assessor: Surplus Letter: scanner.

County Clerk:

Monthly Reports: December 2006 & January 2007.

Waiver of Fees/Not OT: Centre: May Primary Poll Worker Training @ the Centre.

Treasurer:

Monthly Report: February 2007.

Year-to-Date Investment Report: February 28, 2007.

County Engineer: Pay Request No. 19: Burkhardt-Green River TIF: $33,375.91

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer                           Supt. Of Bldgs.                         Veterans Services

Those in Attendance:

Cheryl Musgrave                      Bill Nix                                      Troy Tornatta

Bill Fluty                                    Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Marissa Nichoalds

Madelyn Grayson                     Patty Avery                               Amy LoBue

Karen Hellenberg                     Nicole Simmons                       Melody Hart

Vickie Taylor                             Jim Dittoe                                 Joe Vezosso

Doug Brown                              Cindy Wise                               John Stoll

Mike Duckworth                        Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, President

Bill Nix, Vice President

Troy Tornatta, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)