VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

MARCH 15, 2005

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 15^th day of March, 2005 at 3:30 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Suzanne Crouch presiding.

President Crouch: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Vanderburgh County Commission meeting of March 15^th. I would like to call the meeting to order. We will start with introductions to my far right.

Kathryn Daniel: Kathryn Daniel from the office of the County Attorney.

Commissioner Musgrave: County Commissioner, Cheryl Musgrave.

Commissioner Nix: County Commissioner, Bill Nix.

President Crouch: County Commissioner, Suzanne Crouch.

Madelyn Grayson: Recording Secretary, Madelyn Grayson.

Bill Fluty: Auditor, Bill Fluty.

Jennifer Wigginton: Superintendent of County Buildings, Jennifer Wigginton.

President Crouch: Please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Crouch: Our first order of business is approval of prior minutes.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Our first action item, every week we try to feature a board or a commission that is sponsored by the County Commissioners, or that we make appointments to. This week it is our pleasure and honor to have a presentation by Girls in Bloom, which is an organization that sponsors an event for young girls in the grades of fifth through eighth grade. This is sponsored by the County Commissioners, and has been for the last two years. Thank you, and welcome.

Patty Avery: Thank you for having us. I’m Patty Avery. It’s been my pleasure to serve as director of Girls in Bloom these last two years. I would first like to introduce the committee members who have joined us today; Dorie LoBue, Lu Porter, Rakhi Agarwal. We have a special guest from Cedar Hall with us. We wanted to begin this presentation first by thanking you for your endorsement, your support, and your ownership of this event. Girls in Bloom started in 2003 when a group of women came together to discuss what we could do to build self esteem in young women. The history of the event is that it was an effort of the Commission office as part of National County Government Week in 2004. Last April we had a really exciting day with about 200 girls, parents, presenters, performers at the Old Courthouse. Well, the event went so well, and we got such good feedback that we felt that we needed to brace for growth. We asked last fall if we could possibly use the Centre. The Commission granted us that request, and just a couple of weeks ago we had about 400, we had nearly 400 people in attendance. So, we basically doubled in size from last year. Without the use of the Centre, that would have been, I can’t imagine trying to manage that many people at the Old Courthouse. It was an absolutely wonderful venue. Actually, yesterday a presenter said to me, the girls felt so important being at the Centre. So, that was a tremendous gift to the young women of our community. As you’ll see in the schedule in your packets, we presented ten programs an hour for the girls and one for the parents. So, our committee worked very hard, and scheduled, as I said, eleven workshops an hour. So, there was not a lack of anything to do that day. We received excellent coverage from the media. You may have seen some of our television coverage, and the beautiful article in the Courier and Press, the morning after the event. Again, your support was critical. You didn’t just provide us the use of the Centre as a county event. You also provided the infrastructure of your office. Elizabeth, your intern, was a tremendous help. She fielded phone calls, she answered e-mails, and she handled our pre-registrations. So, she was an outstanding help. As well, in your packets I’ve provided you a list of the many area businesses and organizations that came together to underwrite this event. Again, we saw an outstanding increase from last year, and we were able to provide complimentary lunches to all of the girls and their mothers, when the girls qualified for free and reduced lunch at school. As well, we underwrote part of the cost of the lunch for all of the girls to keep the day an accessible day out for mothers and daughters. Our steering committee as well grew dramatically. The committee members are listed on the final page. I also took the liberty of listing our employers and supporting organizations. Because, without the flexibility that they give us it would have been an even greater challenge to pull over. Now, I would like to introduce Rakhi Agarwal, she’s been on our committee for two years. She was a presenter both last year and this year.

Rakhi Agarwal: Thank you, Patty. I would again like to voice Patty’s opinion and cannot stress enough of the fact that without your support this would not have been possible. Thank you so much and we look forward to your support every year coming forward. From a presenter’s point of view, all I would like to say is that the most important thing that I got from the show, like doing that, being a presenter at Girls in Bloom was the parents making comments that this fair gives the girls an opportunity to call something their own, and something to look forward to for the upcoming year. It gives them an opportunity to come out of their comfort zone and try something new. I thought that was very important, because, I mean, I had also heard girls make comments like, “Oh, my God, this is so cool!”, “I didn’t know what to do. I know what I can do now, where to go if I need to learn music, or if I need to do art, or if I need to do a different form of dance.” Like we had workshops of every different kinds to steer the girls in the right direction to give them a point of where they can start thinking in the future about what they like and what they want to do. Also, the mom’s were more enthusiastic this year. We did see participation from dads too this year, which was very nice, because the whole idea was to get the girls their niche along with the help of their parents there. So, Girls in Bloom gave them an opportunity to come together along with their parents and enjoy it, and learn, make this as a learning day together, which they will cherish throughout their lives. I thought this would not have been possible without your great support. So, thank you so much.

Patty Avery: One of the schools that has participated both years is Cedar Hall. We have a guest today, Christina Jacob, and she’s going to introduce her guest from Cedar Hall.

Christina Jacob: Hi, my name is Christina Jacob, and I’m a social worker at Cedar Hall Elementary School. I would like to welcome, this is Arielle, she’s one of our fifth grade students, and her grandmother, Shirley. This year we did have a lot more grandmothers participate. We do have several students who do live with their grandparents. Girls in Bloom has been very kind to us the last two years. We have a free and reduced rate of 86% at Cedar Hall School. So, they’ve always kind of allowed us that little leeway with providing lunch and activities for our students. We usually take a busload of our parents and kids over every year. This year it was interesting, our kids stopped us in the hallways, even before we advertised Girls in Bloom this year and said when is it going to be again? Can I have a permission slip? I want to go again. So, that was very exciting for us to see. Many times our kids don’t have the opportunities unless we do bring them into the school to, you know, be a part of art and music and poetry and those types of things, theater and that type. So, it was a real fun experience for our kiddos. So, Arielle, do you want to say something you liked about the program? What was your favorite thing?

Arielle Powell: I liked it all.

Christina Jacob: Oh, okay. Well, what did you participate in? Which classes?

Arielle Powell: Arranging, flower arranging, CPR, scrapbookking, designing a dream-who wants to be millionaire.

Christina Jacob: Did you learn some things that you can take home with you while you were in there?

Arielle Powell: Oh, I learned how to write a checkbook.

Christina Jacob: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: That will come in handy one of these days.

Christina Jacob: I’d better watch my purse on the way out. No. Shirley, do you want to say something?

Shirley Swan: Yes, this is my first time ever doing anything like this. I really enjoyed it. I thought I was going to be bored. I thought I was going to be there for maybe an hour and be wanting to leave, but I enjoyed every bit of it. I mean, everything that we done, it was really interesting. I would be glad to go back again next year.

Christina Jacob: Alright, thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thanks.

President Crouch: Thank you very much.

Patty Avery: You can imagine how gratifying it was for all of us, all day long, to hear the girls and their parents and their grandparents, and their big sisters and aunts when they came out of the sessions, and they would say things like, I learned to write a checkbook. I learned to... we built the seminars around focus groups that we held in the schools, so, we had our vision for the event. But, this year we actually shifted a little bit to take in some of the things that the girls wanted. They wanted career planning. They wanted financial planning. You’ll see on the list University of Evansville provided us some tremendous resources in that regard. Where else could the girls have had a day with university professors, with artistic professionals, with creative craft designers, with drama coaches, with music coaches. Only in Evansville. A couple of nights before the program, as I was laying out the final program, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the resources in our community, and the uniqueness of our community. When people say things about, oh, Evansville, I say, no, no, you don’t get it. You don’t get it. I think Girls in Bloom is an absolutely wonderful, unique expression of thinking outside the box. Of those public-private partnerships that we all talk about developing. It’s the result of government’s involvement, it’s a result of the school corporation, area business stepping up to the plate and saying, sure, we’ll give a buck or two to help with this. And area not-for-profits lending their expertise. Again, I just extend to you our deepest thanks. Arielle’s experience was repeated hundreds of times over that day, thanks to you and thanks to the use of the Centre. We fully anticipate that we will continue to grow. I don’t know if we’re ready to double yet again, but we do anticipate further growth, because all of the girls that have now gone back to their schools and the buzz is growing. We’re already getting phone calls saying what can I do to help next year. So, we would ask for your continued involvement. The committee greatly enjoyed working with Suzanne’s leadership. We look forward to continuing that. It was a tremendous year, and I think Girls in Bloom 2006 will be another outstanding experience. So, thank you very, very much.

President Crouch: Thank you. Comments?

Commissioner Musgrave: Well, Patty, I think that you deserve a lot of the credit too. So, thank you for what you have done for the entire group and the entire board of directors as well.

President Crouch: I do echo Commissioner Musgrave’s comments. There were so many volunteers that gave, some who are sitting in the audience, that gave of their time. Without the time and energy of the adult volunteers this never would have happened. So, our hat’s off to you. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of it.

Commissioner Nix: I would like to make a motion. I make a motion that we approve the County Commissioners continue ownership and support of Girls in Bloom.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. I just might point out that no resources, money resources, were utilized for this event and this activity. It was solely the resources of the volunteers and of the community. The County Commissioners did provide support through their intern, but I just want to point that out, that we did not commit any county dollars to that. So, it’s a wonderful, wonderful event and opportunity. I agree with Mrs. Avery that it’s an example of how government and the public and private sector can work together for the betterment of the community. Thank you for your leadership. Next item on our agenda. Thank you all for coming. Now that you know what it takes to be millionaire, maybe you can conduct some workshops here in county government. Thank you.

President Crouch: Our next item, County Engineer open quotes for VC05-03-02.

John Stoll: These bids will need to be postponed until next week. We had omitted the provisions about the drug testing requirements for the contractors in our contract documents. This afternoon we called the three contractors, four of them, I can’t remember exactly how many, but we notified the contractors that we would postpone the bid opening until next week to allow us to put together an addendum stating that they had to comply with the ordinance that the county had adopted. Then we’ll have the bids resubmitted again next week.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to resubmit bids next week? Or just postpone it?

John Stoll: Just defer it until next week.

Commissioner Musgrave: Defer it till next week.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Crouch: Next item, Purchasing open bids for VC-07.

Phil Lawrence: Yes, these are the annual....I started speaking before I got here. Madam Chairman, these are the annual bids for Burdette Park t-shirts, which is also the pricing that we use throughout the city and the county for all t-shirts purchased this year. I think she’s got a bunch. I’ll come over and help you, if you don’t mind, so that we can move the process a little faster.

President Crouch: Motion?

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to open the bids.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. We’ll move on and come back to that item at a later time.

President Crouch: The next item, contracts, agreements and leases. First is the Co-Op Extension Service with Purdue University. This is similar to what we’ve had in the past. The funding is in place.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move to adopt, execute the contract with Cooperative Extension Service.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Next item travel ordinance, second and final reading.

Commissioner Musgrave: We sent the travel ordinance around to everyone, and got no comments except for one who said that it was just fine. So, with that, I move that we adopt the travel ordinance on it’s second and final reading.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: Roll call vote, Commissioner Musgrave?

Commissioner Musgrave: Yes.

President Crouch: Commissioner Nix?

Commissioner Nix: Yes.

President Crouch: And I vote yes. So ordered.

President Crouch: Next item, County Assessor, requesting permission to advertise the 2005 PTABOA appeals.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Health Department, waiver of rental fees for the Centre. This is for the employee health fair that the Health Department will be conducting for us.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll second. Do we need to say anything about overtime?

President Crouch: I don’t believe they requested it.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay, second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda, this is the time when department heads that have business that require the action of the Commission will come forward. Our first is Burdette Park.

Steve Craig: Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette Park. I have a project request from the FY ‘06 appropriation committee for the Burdette Park-University of Southern Indiana pedestrian bike and nature trail. This project extends from the USI campus to Burdette Park in western Vanderburgh County and will be a part of the American Discovery Trail. At this time I have a letter of support that I’m wanting to send to Senator Bayh, Senator Lugar, and Representative Hostettler. I’m requesting that the Commissioners sign this letter and send it to them in support.

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion that we approve the letter.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. You want us to sign it right now?

Steve Craig: Yes, Ma’am.

President Crouch: Okay.

Steve Craig: Madelyn, she’ll get you a copy.

President Crouch: Next item, County Highway Superintendent.

Mike Duckworth: Good afternoon, President Crouch, members of the Commission. Mike Duckworth, County Highway Superintendent. Just as we’re sneaking up on spring, we’re still talking about snow. I wanted to, first of all, advise the Commission, and those in attendance that our brine production system is operative, and we have tested it and it’s working fine. So, we do have another alternative to pre-wetting and pre-treating roadways if we’re going to get any ice or snow in the remaining part of the year or next year. I have provided to you electronically, as well as a printed out list of a proposed snow route, which includes district one, district two, and district three. You have that in your packets. We asked and received several comments via e-mail and telephone calls from area residents. Some very good suggestions. In fact, from the time that we started the process until today, we have made multiple changes in this, due to citizens concerns. I think that tells us that we’re on the right track in meeting the needs of our residents. Also, in my early meetings this morning, Commissioner Musgrave did mention one area that was omitted, and I didn’t know if you wanted to go ahead and mention that at this time.

Commissioner Musgrave: Right, I would like to, when we do the motion to adopt this, to add West Terrace Drive from Peerless Road to the dead end. It’s about, I don’t know, a quarter mile? Half mile?

Mike Duckworth: At the most, right.

Commissioner Musgrave: Not very far, but West Terrace School is on that road. I think that’s important.

Mike Duckworth: I agree. One of the things that we tried to accomplish in this snow route priority is to connect not only our fire and emergency, but to be a good neighbor with our school corporation so that the bus routes could be out there, the busses could be out there as well. So, with that in mind, I would ask at this point in time for the Commission to adopt the county snow routes. What that means is, this will be the routes that my department will tackle first. With this we will ask the County Attorney, Ted Ziemer, to adopt and to put together an ordinance that would, at some point in time in the near future be adopted by this Commission. We will also look into having signage designating these areas as designated snow routes. So, we still have a little work to do. But, this is the first step, and I would ask for your approval on this.

Commissioner Nix: You’re still working with Mr. Ziemer then, as far as getting these to line up with (Inaudible).

Mike Duckworth: Exactly, if you’ll see the second sheet that we have here, they basically are intersecting roadways where the city and county come together. Mr. Ziemer and I are having a continuing dialog, and we are going to see where it’s most germane for us to take care of certain stretches of city roads and then take care of county roads, to save on fuel, and just as a convenience to not going over the top of each other. So, we will meet, we will work those together and we will make an addendum to this ordinance.

Commissioner Musgrave: I would like to make a motion that we adopt the snow routes with the one addition earlier described, and that you work with the County Attorney to get the formal ordinance written.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Mike Duckworth: That’s all I have. Thank you.

President Crouch: Thank you, Mr. Duckworth.

President Crouch: Next, County Engineer.

John Stoll: The first item I have is in regard to the Stockwell Road project. As you recall, last week a request was submitted by the contractor on the project to have a 15 day time extension for road closure on Stockwell. That matter was deferred until this week to give Bill and I a chance to go out to the job site and meet with everybody. Last Wednesday Bill, and I, and Duane Gilles from the Water Department, and Scott York from Ragle Contracting all met out there. We went over the project schedules as far as what work Ragle needed to complete, as well as what work the Water Department needed to complete. Based on that meeting, the schedule worked out to where Ragle needed until this Friday to complete the concrete wingwalls and headwalls in the culvert. Then, the Water Department could reconnect the water main, and then Ragle could get back in on Monday and Tuesday and complete the paving to allow the project to get back, to allow Stockwell Road to get opened back up again. So, on the basis of that meeting, rather than the seven day time extension request for closure that I recommended last week, I’m now going to recommend an eight day extension, which would allow the road to be closed through next Tuesday.

Commissioner Nix: I visited the site this morning too, took a look at it, and it looks like they’re making real good progress now. They are pouring the last wingwall, I guess, this afternoon. I talked to Mr. York this morning for a few minutes, and looks like we’re on schedule for that completion, if the weather holds for us. It looks like, right now, we should be alright.

Commissioner Musgrave: Is Mr. York here today?

John Stoll: Yes, he is.

Commissioner Musgrave: I would like to ask him a question. I had earlier asked the County Engineer to give me a timeline of the contacts that he had made with the various utilities, including the City Water Department, to get the work done. He supplied a pretty impressive list, and I was just wondering what contacts did you make in order to get them there on time?

Scott York: Well, obviously, I don’t have the list in front of me, but we had correspondence before the first of this year. I spoke to them at the beginning of this year. John and I both met with them, I think it was the end of January, the first of February, and had a pretty impressive game plan that they, unfortunately, didn’t follow through with. So, once the project was started, both myself and some of John’s staff had contacts with them once again, and there were just deadlines that they didn’t meet.

Commissioner Nix: After our meeting last Tuesday, John and I went downstairs and talked to Harry Lawson. I don’t know that Harry was completely up to speed with the project, but Wednesday morning early Duane Gilles called me and got the ball rolling. I think it was more of a communication problem within the Waterworks themselves, but, I guess, in the future if we could be notified of these things ahead of time we probably could help that situation out tremendously. Maybe he didn’t notify Mr. Stoll, and if we could, I think we can help internally in doing that. Once Duane got out on the site, we pretty well had all our answers answered and we were on our way. But, it took that initial visit to Harry to get that done. So, but, like I say, in the future, if we could get just a little bit more of a heads up, I think we could help the situation out better.

John Stoll: Okay.

Commissioner Nix: What this was doing, basically, was impeding them from starting work on the left side of the road, because this main’s pretty well right in the way. They took the liberty to go ahead and put material over the top of it so they could work, to go ahead and keep working. Then it will have to be unearthed now for the Water Department to come in and do their thing. That way, the other thing that concerned me some too was the fact that the Water Department talked about maybe doing this a couple of weeks down the road, which would close the road again. We don’t need to do that. We need to get this done, and get the road opened back up.

Commissioner Musgrave: Is this a typical situation where the Water Department, when another utility holds up a public works project?

John Stoll: We routinely have utility conflicts to try to get worked out. Like I probably told each of you, we’ve tried to get the water and sewer relocation plans included in part of our project, so, that way we would set up an agreement with the Water and Sewer Department to where they would reimburse us at the completion of the project. That’s allowed us to at least control when and how things take place, which in turn helps the contractor get the job done. With electric and telephone we don’t have that option. Like for example, Mt. Pleasant, until the contractor got started on that bridge, there were some conflicts with some SBC lines that weren’t resolved until they were actually out on the job site digging. Much like Ragle was on Stockwell. So, utility conflicts are a routine thing. If possible the designers try to design around it, or to minimize the conflicts, but that’s not always possible. In this case we had gas, water, electric, and sanitary sewer all within the limits of the project, and with the new culvert going in there was really no viable way of designing around it. The culvert only could go in this one spot basically. So, it’s a routine conflict and a routine problem we have to try to get worked out.

Commissioner Musgrave: But, in this case it was a government owned entity, the City Water Department, that is causing you to ask for another eight days from the county in order to meet your project. Have either of you ever told the utility board about this? Written a letter, asked for government projects like this to be given priority?

John Stoll: I have not. Most of our correspondence is usually with the staff of the Water and Sewer Department, as opposed to going to the utility board.

Commissioner Musgrave: Well, I wonder if they’re aware.

Commissioner Nix: I would say this. Once the proper people knew about what was going on, we got all the response we needed to get the thing done. So, I don’t know if it was just an internal communication problem that the Water Department was having. I understand there was a vacation and there was a sickness on a couple of people that were involved with the project early on, which hampered, somewhat, the progress of them getting out and taking care of this.

Commissioner Musgrave: I guess, I just feel for the business owners there–

Commissioner Nix: Right.

Commissioner Musgrave: –whom another week is a hardship. I guess, I would ask you to talk to someone in the utility to see if we can’t be a priority. If government projects can’t have more priority with the government water utility. Perhaps we can’t get that sort of distinction in the privately owned utilities, but I’m not sure why the city water couldn’t give government projects more priority than this. Because I noticed in your timeline, was it SBC that moved their line a year ago?

John Stoll: It was Vectren.

Commissioner Musgrave: Vectren.

John Stoll: And they moved a pole. They had a relocation on this one particular pole set up way back in, I believe it was 2003, if I remember correctly, but, anyway, it was Vectren that did that. Even that though, the pole that was moved, while it was moved northeast of the, north of the northeast wingwall in the project, there were still conflicts that the contractor had to work around because of the overhead utility line. So, there’s no good way to get a job site free and clear of all utilities.

President Crouch: I guess, I would rather that we become, perhaps, a little more involved rather than asking you. While I believe that you command the utmost respect, I think there’s a point in time where the Commissioners need to be involved. I would urge you and other department heads to call upon us when you feel that time is critical. Because when Commissioner Nix got involved, things started to happen. So, don’t hesitate to call us and involve us whenever we can help to move a project along.

John Stoll: You’ll probably get that opportunity soon, because we’ve got the St. George Road and Oak Hill Road plans are under review right now for utility conflicts.

Commissioner Musgrave: Well, that’s okay.

Commissioner Nix: Maybe that might be a good time to just sit down with all the utility entities, water, sewer, cable, electric, gas and all of them. I know, it sounds to me like if this took place early on in this project here (Inaudible) very far.

John Stoll: Last probably November or December on a pre-construction meeting, we knew the utilities were out there, and contacts were made, it’s just unfortunate that the relocations didn’t occur until they were already on the job site.

President Crouch: Will you involve one of the Commissioners–

John Stoll: Sure.

President Crouch: –if you feel it will help the project? Or any projects in the future?

John Stoll: Sure.

President Crouch: I’m sure that any of us would be happy to attend a meeting, or make a phone call, or appear in an office.

Commissioner Nix: Let me emphasize too, that, like I say, once Harry and Duane got involved, everything just got taken care of. So, like I say, we’re on track now.

John Stoll: I’ll let you know.

President Crouch: Mr. Bassemier, did you care, have any comment?

John Bassemier: I’m John Bassemier, with Bassemier’s Fireplace Patio & Spas. I got involved a little bit late, because I had no idea the closing of Stockwell Road, which is not that major a roadway to me, would have such an impact on the businesses in the neighborhood. I agree with everything that everybody has said up here in the last few minutes on this project. The one thing that I would add as a business person and a contractor, is that there be a punch list before you let the contracts, so, that you all know and you can check off of your punch list all of the items that have been done. Because Ragle told me, and, by the way, Ragle was really hustling there today. There were nine people working very hard and very fast, and I appreciate the input of the Commissioners here. But, I just think, before you let it go, just make sure, if SBC was in on this a year ago, where was the Waterworks, and where was the sanitary sewer people? So, that’s my only comment. I’m very satisfied with the way that things have moved on in the last week or so. But, I just think you just need a little check off list and say, yeah, we can let this one go, we’re ready. Thank you.

President Crouch: Thank you.

Commissioner Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: One thing in regard to that, on this project we were kind of under the gun, because FEMA was going to go publish those floodplain maps that were going to raise the flood elevations on the whole east side. So, even though we knew the conflicts had not been resolved, we’ve been waiting for FEMA, hopefully, FEMA wasn’t, hoping that FEMA would not publish the maps and allow us to get this project finished. So, that way the whole east side would not have to start paying for flood insurance that they shouldn’t have to pay for. Going back to when the project was initiated, Roger Lehman’s office estimated that there was probably half a billion dollars worth of property improvements that was affected by this. The flood insurance premiums, he estimated, would affect probably 75% to 80% of those properties. Which in turn would lead to thousands and thousands of dollars of flood insurance. So, we were pushing the project ahead to try and avoid them publishing the maps that would have those adverse impacts on the whole east side.

President Crouch: This is mainly a county project, is that not correct?

John Stoll: Right. The dollar amount of the contract, the construction part was $956,000. I believe the city’s portion of that is around $55,000. So, the bulk of it is coming out of the Cum Bridge Fund.

Commissioner Musgrave: The FEMA flood maps would have also prevented further development out there. Or development that would have to be raised above the flood plain, costing a great deal more.

John Stoll: Correct.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, it’s a pretty important project. So, that, I guess, that’s why I’m even more stunned that the Water Department just didn’t get their part of the job done in time.

John Stoll: With the deadlines that we were trying to hit, they were originally telling us that these maps would have been published a year and a half ago. I think they’ve been giving us the benefit of trying to get the project completed. But, we couldn’t really wait any longer, which, in turn affected what Mr. Bassemier was talking about, that the things were not relocated prior to the bid opening.

President Crouch: When we talk about economic development, we never think about this being a very important part of it, but, in essence, if we had not moved forward on this project we would not have protected our tax base. So, there is many different facets to economic development.

Commissioner Musgrave: Well–

Commissioner Nix: I would like to make a motion that we extend the street closing of Stockwell Road until, let’s see, next Tuesday would be the–

John Stoll: 22^nd.

Commissioner Nix: –22nd, and let’s just say that it will be open by 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday the 22^nd.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Thank you.

John Stoll: Hopefully the weather holds so we won’t have to deal with it again. The next item that I have is a street plan approval request. This is for section three of McCutchan Estates Subdivision. This is located out adjacent to the other phases of McCutchan Estates. One of the ways to get into it is a road that’s been brought up several times in the past few years where McCutchan Place, it’s a private road, comes in off of Petersburg, and eventually ties in to these roads that are being constructed as part of this subdivision. I’ve reviewed the plans, and I would recommend the plans be approved by the Commissioners. The changes that I’d requested have been made by the consultant.

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion that we approve.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: The next set of plans that I’m requesting approval on is section seven of Cross Pointe Subdivision. This is located north of Virginia Street and will entail an extension of Columbia Street west off of Cross Pointe, and will extend Cross Pointe by a couple of hundred feet. Then also construct this road over here on the west side of the site, which is Buente West Court. Here again, the consultant has made the changes that I had requested. I would recommend approval of the subdivision plan, the street plan I should say. One thing that I would like to point out is the design is basically designed to the minimums allowable by the drainage ordinance. So, it’s going to take some finesse by the contractor to build it according to these plans. But, it will meet the minimums required. The streets are planned to be asphalt, curb and gutter. They will construct sidewalks out in this sub.

Commissioner Musgrave: Is this the edge of the road where it narrows?

John Stoll: No, the edges are over here.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay.

John Stoll: As you head north on Cross Pointe, at Columbia Street, they’ll have a left turn lane to head west on Columbia. Then this will be a through lane, which will eventually go north once Cross Pointe’s extended further.

Commissioner Nix: I make a motion that we approve.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Another request in regard to McCutchan Estates that was made by the developer. They have requested a sidewalk waiver for section three of this subdivision. I would recommend approval of the sidewalk waiver. Because of the grades I am not too confident that they would make ADA compliant sidewalks. So, on that basis I would recommend approval of their sidewalk waiver request.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have a notice of intent for storm water run off associated with construction activity for the Mt. Pleasant Road project. I talked to representatives of Morley and Associates last week, and we found that this was never submitted. We just need to get this in to IDEM for their review. All the other steps were taken. The plans were submitted to SWCD for review. The public notice was published. This was just the one thing that was omitted. So, I would request that the Commissioners approve this.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have an agreement between Vanderburgh County and Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates for design of bridge deck repairs on Kentucky Avenue, the Kentucky Avenue Bridge over Little Pigeon Creek. This agreement is for $22,200. I’ve had Ted review it, and the changes that Ted had requested, which were primarily insurance changes have been made. Even though he’s not here, he did say it was okay for the Commissioners to proceed with signing off on this agreement. So, I would recommend this be approved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have another agreement between the county and Bernardin Lochmueller. This is for the design of deck repairs on the Old State bridge over the CSX railroad. This is north of Mt. Pleasant Road. This agreement is for $22,200. Here again, it’s had the changes made that Ted had requested. So, I would request the Commissioners approve this agreement as well.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

John Stoll: Next, I have a page that was not signed out of the agreement that I presented last week. I did not flag it with a post-it note, but this is a certificate that was part of the construction inspection agreement for Lynch Road between the county and Bernardin Lochmueller. The agreement was approved last week. It was for $574,156. It’s just that I had omitted these two pages, and I would request the Commissioners sign these.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: Next, I have interlocal agreements between Vanderburgh County and Warrick County for the construction of Lynch Road. This agreement assigns Vanderburgh County as being the lead agency on the project. Which means we’ll do the coordination with INDOT and with Bernardin Lochmueller. It requires that Warrick County pay their share of the costs, which we’ve estimated the split is 66% for Vanderburgh County, and 34% for Warrick County. However, those percentages will be adjusted once the bids are received. So, we’ve tried to address all the different aspects of the projects to make sure each county pays their fair share. I’ve worked with Ted Ziemer on this, as well as Warrick County’s attorney, Doug Welp. They have both reviewed and approved this. I’ve forwarded a copy to Jeff Ahlers, because this agreement will also require approval by County Council. I haven’t heard back from him as of yet, but he does have the agreement. So, on the basis of Ted was okay with it, Doug Welp was okay with it, I would request the Commissioners approve this, and then I can get it to Warrick County so their Commissioners can approve it tomorrow as well.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, I had an inquiry from a Warrick County Commissioner a few weeks ago asking if the Lynch Road project could be one project rather than two. This is the answer to that. It will be one project.

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Musgrave: No stopping and starting of construction.

John Stoll: Right.

Commissioner Musgrave: Just one seamless project.

John Stoll: One continuous project, and it’s a single bid by INDOT. The way we set up the agreement, the Warrick County share will be, they’ll issue a check for their 20% share, we’ll issue a check for our 20% share, but since we’re lead agency, we’ll submit all that to INDOT. So, it was all set up to address those things, and make sure it’s all just done as one, rather than having, actually, there’s three contracts in this single project.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, you’ll be done when?

John Stoll: They put 200 work days in the contract. So, that will take it out until sometime late summer, fall of 2006.

Commissioner Nix: What part will the Warrick engineer have, and what part will you have in this? Will you work together? Or are you taking the lead on this?

John Stoll: We will work together. One of the provisions in that agreement was that if the need for change orders arises, we’ll have to work it out as far as making sure that if it’s something that affects the Warrick County portion of the project, they’ll have to approve it, prior to us going to INDOT and working through all of the change orders. So, we’ve tried to address it to where anything that affects each county, the appropriate people with each county will deal with that situation. The next item I have is a claim voucher for the Jobe’s Lane water and sewer project. This voucher is to be submitted to the state, and this will reimburse Vanderburgh County with $25,906.65. I would request the Commissioners sign off on this so that we can proceed with getting the state share of this project back.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

Commissioner Musgrave: Does that get quietused into the General Fund, or back into a particular fund?

President Crouch: It will go to the fund.

John Stoll: I believe that was all paid out of the Riverboat Infrastructure Fund. So, that’s where we would put it back. Next, I would like to request approval to go to County Council to get an appropriation for $575,000 in the St. George-Oak Hill Road, for the St. George-Oak Hill Road project. We’ve got a culvert, two culverts in that project, so, the project could be funded out of the Cum Bridge Fund. This would replace some Local Road and Street Funds.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: The last thing that I have is a travel request that I didn’t get submitted with the consent agenda. This is for Pat Seib to attend road school. He’ll take a county vehicle, so, the request is for parking, per diem, gas and a hotel.

Commissioner Nix: Move approval.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

John Stoll: That’s all I have, unless you have any questions for me.

Commissioner Nix: You’ve been busy.

John Stoll: I was going to say, that’s probably enough, you’ve heard enough from me already.

President Crouch: Thank you, Mr. Stoll. We’ll change the tape at this moment.

(Tape change)

President Crouch: We will go to our bid opening. I will turn this over to our County Attorney.

Kathryn Daniel: If I may, it came to my attention that upon the first publication for these bids, it said bids would be opened in room 307. I don’t know if that’s of concern to the Commissioners. Maybe somebody should check and make sure that there were no additional bids submitted in that room–

Phil Lawrence: I’ll go check.

Kathryn Daniel: –before we read.

President Crouch: Then we’ll move on.

President Crouch: Superintendent of County Buildings.

Jennifer Wigginton: I have a lease for acceptance for the Wedgewood Hall for November 5^th, regular rental rate, the only change was she was informed of the lease in 2004, which did not include the 25% catering fees. So, I okayed that with Ted Ziemer to cross that out and waive that.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: New business? Oh, County Attorney. I’m sorry. It doesn’t matter who it is.

Commissioner Nix: It’s not Ted.

Kathryn Daniel: I noticed that the German and Pigeon Trustee items had been moved down to the consent items. That was the only thing that we had. So, we don’t have a report at this time.

President Crouch: Thank you.

President Crouch: New business?

Commissioner Musgrave: I don’t think so.

President Crouch: Old business? Legislative updates, University Parkway, we’ve received notice that the county did qualify fora three million dollar request in the T-21 Highway Bill that was submitted by Representative Hostettler. We now are making application, and need to lobby Senators Lugar and Bayh for the ‘06 appropriations funding, to ensure that that money stays in place, and perhaps it’s added to. In addition we did get from Burdette Park the request for funding for the bike and walking paths between USI and Burdette. So, we need to lobby our Senators and Representative very aggressively to ensure that we get our funding.

Commissioner Musgrave: Well, we asked for 14.4 million in the original bill, and what came out of the House was three million dollars, which is still a wonderful thing. I’m told that this is the first baby step for the University Parkway to get this funding. Now, it has to survive the Senate. You’re right, we have to do everything we possibly can to convince the Senators, not only in our own state, but other states to leave that three million dollars in there. So, I would ask anybody with influence with our Senators to send letters, call them, let them know how important University Parkway is to this whole region, and to keep that funding in there, keep it alive.

President Crouch: I might also note that our County Engineer, Mr. Stoll, indicated this is the first time that he knows that we have received funding through this process. So, let’s hope that’s the beginning of many more successful efforts.

Commissioner Musgrave: Great.

President Crouch: Thank you. Next item under old business, Indiana House Bill 1113.

Commissioner Musgrave: Yes, I received an e-mail from Dave Bottorff, who’s the Executive Director of the Association of Indiana Counties. He was urging all the counties to support this House Bill 1113. What it does is it requires more fees, let me read this here:

“It provides a collection of a ten dollar service fee in civil actions for each defendant added, and each single additional defendant named, other than the first named defendant.”

So, it would increase the small claims service fee from five dollars to ten dollars, and 100% of those fees would be deposited into the General Fund. The intention of this was to cover the postage costs for the notification that must be done in these cases. So, I have listened to past Commission meetings over the last decade where postage is a continuing concern. So, I would ask the Commission to approve a motion to support House Bill 1113, or anything that it turns into. As you know, sometimes these bills can move and morph into some other number, as this works it’s way through the Indiana legislature, and hope that it continues to work it’s way through.

President Crouch: Is that a motion?

Commissioner Musgrave: That’s a motion.

Commissioner Nix: I second that motion.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. Any other old business?

President Crouch: We’re now ready to move back to our bid opening.

Kathryn Daniel: Siegel’s out of Evansville submitted a bid for $4,005. Chips, Incorporated out of Ft. Branch, Indiana submitted a bid for $4,115.26. Pro Mark submitted no bid. Southwest Graphics and Apparel, Incorporated submitted a bid for $3,825.26. They are also in Evansville.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to take bids under advisement.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered.

President Crouch: Next item on our agenda is public comment. At this point in time if anyone in the audience, any of the four of you that are still remaining care to comment on any issue, this is your opportunity to do so. Seeing none.

President Crouch: We will move on to our consent items.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move approval of the consent items.

Commissioner Nix: Second.

President Crouch: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Crouch: So ordered. This meeting stands adjourned, and we will be convening rezoning, or having our rezoning meeting at 5:00.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:22 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

         Employment Changes:

         Public Defender (1)                  Circuit Court (1)              Auditor (1)

         Sheriff Department (1)              County Clerk (1)             VCCC (3)

         Burdette Park 2)

         Travel Requests:

         Knight Assessor (1)        Health Department (3)    County Engineer (1)

         Weights & Measures (1)

         Knight Township Assessor: Surplus equipment letter.

         German Township Trustee: 2005 poor relief standards.

         Pigeon Township Trustee: 2005 poor relief standards.

         Auditor: A/P Voucher.

         Commissioners:

         Energy Systems Group: Pay application #9: $137,936.10

         Energy Systems Group: Pay application #10: $87,143

         Department Head Reports:

         Burdette Park                 County Engineer             County Highway

         Ozone Officer                 SWCD                            Veterans Service

         CIO

         Those in Attendance:

         Suzanne Crouch             Cheryl Musgrave            Bill Nix

         Bill Fluty                          Kathryn Daniel                Jennifer Wigginton

         Madelyn Grayson           Patty Avery                     Rakhi Agarwal

         Christina Jacob               Arielle Powell                  Shirley Swan

         John Stoll                        Scott York                       John Bassemier

         Steve Craig                     Mike Duckworth              Others Unidentified

         Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Suzanne M. Crouch, President

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, Vice President

Bill Nix, Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.