VANDERBURGH COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
SPECIAL MEETING
MAY 11, 2006
The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in special session this 11th day of May, 2006 at 9:32 a.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Cheryl Musgrave presiding.
Call to Order |
President Musgrave: Call to order the May 11th special meeting of the Board of Commissioners. We’ll start with introductions.
Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Ted Ziemer, County Attorney.
Commissioner Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.
President Musgrave: Cheryl Musgrave, County Commissioner.
Commissioner Shetler: Tom Shetler, County Commissioner.
Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.
Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.
Award Engineering Design Agreement: Baseline Road Bridge: American Consulting |
President Musgrave: There’s only one item on today’s agenda, and that is the approval of the engineering contract for the bridge over Baseline Road. Is there a recommendation from the engineer?
John Stoll: Yes, I would recommend that you approve the contract with American Consulting. It’s for an amount of $198,800. This will cover the design, as well as the right-of-way. The prices for the right-of-way are based on the assumption that four right-of-way parcels will be in there. So, adjustments could be necessary, if there are more than four parcels affected. But, right now they assumed four, and that’s how the numbers were arrived at. So, I would recommend that the contract be approved. It has been reviewed by the County Attorney, and everything’s okay.
President Musgrave: Mr. Ziemer, you reviewed the contract, with the exception of the possibility of additional right-of-way purchase, was there any reason to believe that this contract would exceed the amount so stated?
Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: None that I saw.
President Musgrave: Okay.
Commissioner Shetler: Okay, the appropriation we received from County Council was $200,000?
John Stoll: Yes.
Commissioner Shetler: And this is $198,800?
John Stoll: Correct.
Commissioner Shetler: Did that appropriation also include the right-of-way buy as well? Or was that just engineering?
John Stoll: That was just engineering. We will have to go back for additional appropriations for the actual right-of-way purchases, the construction costs and any fees associated with CSX review. We’ll probably have to get that filed here shortly, in order to make sure that CSX conducts their review in a timely manner. So, there will be additional appropriations. All we’ve covered to this point is the engineering side of things.
Commissioner Shetler: The $198,800 though, includes some right-of-way buying?
John Stoll: That includes the preparation of legal descriptions, appraisals, and right-of-way buying services–
Commissioner Shetler: Not the actual purchase itself?
John Stoll: –not the parcels, correct.
Commissioner Shetler: Okay, alright. So, we don’t have a whole lot of give in there, but we have some.
John Stoll: Right. If additional parcels were acquired, we would have to go back and get additional appropriations. They, I don’t remember exactly what the fees were per parcel, but they would be adjusted at the same per parcel price that’s in the agreement that you have before you.
Commissioner Shetler: Alright.
President Musgrave: Does the contract include the notice to proceed? Is that given today as well?
John Stoll: I’ll give it, and mail a copy of the agreement to the consultant as soon as it’s signed and notarized.
President Musgrave: I know in their presentation they made a lot of reference to a railroad underpass project that they had, was that Ft. Wayne?
John Stoll: I can’t remember what town. I know it was in northern Indiana.
President Musgrave: But, they’re experiencing fast tracking. The railroad underpass was one of the key things in my mind that I’m looking for them to achieve in this, fast tracking, getting this thing so that we can bid it out for construction. I think it was October, November that they were looking to be done with their drawings and all the stuff we needed to go out for the bid.
John Stoll: I know it was later this year. I can’t remember the specific month. And, here again, like all projects, it will probably hinge more on right-of-way and utilities than anything. If that goes smoothly, then they should be able to hit those target dates that they had established.
President Musgrave: Okay.
Commissioner Shetler: John, we put requests out for several, on different projects, but, on this specific project, about how many engineering firms did we actually hear from?
John Stoll: I thought there were about ten. I don’t remember the exact number. It was probably eight or ten.
Commissioner Shetler: American Consulting, their $198,800, that fee, when all is considered, is that more towards the bottom of the fees that we received, or towards the top or about average?
John Stoll: I would say it’s about average. The proposals themselves did not establish a price for their services. We got the prices through the interview process. I would say they were probably in the middle of the pack as far as the prices go, based on what we heard from the presentations.
Commissioner Shetler: And we’ve had other experience with American Consulting in the past? Other projects that they’ve done?
John Stoll: Yes.
Commissioner Shetler: Okay. Could you cite those?
John Stoll: I was going to say, they did the inspection, construction inspection on the Mt. Pleasant Road project, they did the design on the Stockwell Road culvert and, the culvert under Stockwell Road and underneath Norfolk Southern Railroad, and they also did the construction inspection on the Burkhardt and Morgan intersection project several years back.
Commissioner Shetler: Alright, and the experience working with them was?
John Stoll: We had a positive experience on each of those projects.
Commissioner Shetler: Alright.
Commissioner Nix: We’ve had a couple of architectural projects that we’ve worked with them on too, and had good luck with them on that, so.
Commissioner Shetler: Alright, thank you. I’ll move that we accept the contract.
Commissioner Nix: Second.
President Musgrave: All those in favor?
Commissioners: Aye.
President Musgrave: The motion carries. Commissioner Shetler, I know you wanted to touch on the dates of the smoking hearing.
Update on Smoking Ban Ordinance Public Hearings |
Commissioner Shetler: Yeah, not any new business, but just to reiterate what we’ve spoken about in the past, the smoking ordinance hearing will be held here in the City Council chambers, again, I think that was the 18th, that being a Thursday evening from 5:00 to 7:00. That will be conducted by the city. I believe Steve Bagbey, the City Councilman in the second ward will be officiating at that meeting. Then we’ll somehow get incorporated with our people here as well. The 23rd, the meeting will be held at the 4-H Center. Have we decided which room?
President Musgrave: The auditorium.
Commissioner Shetler: It will be in the auditorium? Okay. That meeting will be from 6:00 to 8:00 to give us enough time, because that’s a Tuesday evening, and give us enough time to leave our Commission meeting and go to the hearing. That meeting will be conducted by the Commissioners. So, I’m expecting a good turn out. I’m expecting a lot of questions, and people that are concerned about it on both sides of the issue. As you know, I went to Lexington on the inter-city visit with the Chamber this past couple of days, and you would have thought that I had written the script, because every one of the groups, the first things nearly out of their mouth was the most positive things happening to Lexington-Fayette County today is a result of our smoking ban, this or that, and then someone else would come in and say the best thing we’ve done is the smoking ban, someone else would come in, the smoking ban is a good thing, look at doing that in your community. I can’t tell you how positive that reaction was time and time again. So, there was few hiccups when they first began the process, but it’s been smooth sailing since, and businesses are rallying around it.
President Musgrave: I did give a presentation at the Evansville Bar Association’s mock trial law day, and the room was full of about 250 students from area high schools, and Dennis Beadels, as you know he’s the superintendent of some department at the EVSC, asked the students to stand if they favored the smoking ordinance as proposed. It was my estimation that roughly 90 percent of the students in the room, and these are our future, stood to express their support for this. So, I want to also say that if you’re not able to come to either of the two meetings that Commissioner Shetler referenced, we have been receiving a lot of e-mail. We welcome your e-mail here at commissioners@vanderburghgov.org. We have been including those in the official minutes of the Commission meeting for the past several weeks. We would encourage you to write us a letter. We would like all of your comments in writing, if you don’t have e-mail. You are also welcome to attend our regular Commission meeting and come up during the public comment time, if you are not able to attend the two meetings that Commissioner Shetler outlined. Commissioner Nix, do you have anything further?
Commissioner Nix: No.
President Musgrave: Is there a motion to adjourn?
Commissioner Nix: Motion to adjourn.
Commissioner Shetler: Second.
President Musgrave: All those in favor?
Commissioners: Aye.
(The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 a.m.)
Those in Attendance:
Cheryl Musgrave Bill Nix Tom Shetler, Jr.
Bill Fluty Ted C. Ziemer, Jr. Madelyn Grayson
John Stoll Others Unidentified Members of Media
VANDERBURGH COUNTY
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, President
Bill Nix, Vice President
Tom Shetler, Jr., Member
Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.