VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 24^th day of November, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Troy Tornatta presiding.

President Tornatta: Alright, welcome to our Board of Commissioners meeting, November 24, 2009. It is 5:00 in room 301. Attendance roll call, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Here.

President Tornatta: Okay, Danny T. Thomas, come on up, buddy. We want to hear about what you got going, but, before that, could you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Danny Thomas: Okay.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

Danny Thomas: Thank you.

President Tornatta: How are ya?

Danny Thomas: I’m doing okay. How about you?

President Tornatta: Good. Tell us about Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Boxing.

Danny Thomas: Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Boxing and Kickboxing is located at 962 Adams, right here in Evansville, Indiana. I’ve had the gym open for about ten years. What I’m trying to do is keep a bunch of the kids off of the streets, give them something positive to do. Hopefully, one day, you know, that one of these guys will become a world champion. Like Tom Johnson, he became a world champion. Bones Adams he ended up becoming a world champion. My son, he just fought Friday night in St. Louis, he knocked the guy out, it was six and two in the first round in a minute and 49 seconds. You know, I’m just trying to do all I can do to try and help these young kids nowadays and get them off the streets and give them something positive to do. I’m open Monday through Friday from eight in the morning till eight at night, and Saturdays from eight to four. I teach boxing, kickboxing, weight gain, weight loss and body tone.

President Tornatta: That’s great. Now tell us what you do with a kid, he comes in there, he’s looking for some type of direction, and then kind of follow us from when he comes in there to where you hope he’s going to be later on down the road.

Danny Thomas: Well, when a kid comes to the gym, I usually ask him about, you know, if he’s in school, or how he’s doing in school, because, you know, the main thing is education. You know, the only way I’m really going to be able to teach someone if they are going to stay focused on what’s going on in front of them, you know. So, I mean, you know, it’s been helping a lot of kids out with their education in school, because what happens is they learn to listen, instead of talking so much, you know. I had a lot of kids that’s done won the Golden Glove tournaments, Junior Golden Gloves, Junior Olympics, Silver Gloves, just about every tournament there is, state champions, USA/BFA state champions. I had one guy that tried out for the 2008 Olympic boxing team. He got ranked number four as a heavyweight.

President Tornatta: That’s great. Do you guys do any fundraising?

Danny Thomas: No, I just basically do it myself, really, you know. I mean, I just dedicate myself to it, you know, it’s almost just like I done dedicated my whole life to these kids, you know. I mean, I’m there from eight in the morning till eight at night. So, that don’t really give me a life, you know. I really don’t have a life outside the gym, because I just dedicate myself to the gym to try to help these kids out and lead them in the right direction. I mean, you know, the way the world is today, somebody’s got to try to do something to try to help them out, and I’ll give it 110 percent.

President Tornatta: Danny, who did you bring with you today?

Danny Thomas: I brung my son with me today.

President Tornatta: If they want to come up here and just say your name on the record.

Danny Thomas: John Richards, Alex Mullen, Caleb Guard, his dad, Matt Guard. I thought me and my son was the only two father and son combination here, but we got Matt and Caleb as a father son combination too.

President Tornatta: If everyone would just come up here and state your name, and then if you’re going to school where you go to school.

David Thomas: David Thomas.

John Richards: John Richards.

Alex Mullen: Alex Mullen, SMS, South Middle School.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Caleb Guard: Caleb Guard, Glenwood Middle School.

Matt Guard: And, Matt Guard.

President Tornatta: Okay. Well, Danny, thank you for coming out here. Any questions, Lloyd?

Commissioner Winnecke: No, I’m grateful that not everyone that comes before us wears boxing gloves.

Danny Thomas: Well, what we was going to do is put on just a little, quick demonstration for you guys, you know, if you didn’t mind.

President Tornatta: I’ve got no problem with it. Just don’t break anything.

Danny Thomas: Alright, let me grab my mitts.

Commissioner Winnecke: Or anybody.

President Tornatta: If you want to step right here in the middle, let’s do that.

Commissioner Winnecke: That’s our ring, right here.

President Tornatta: That’s right.

Danny Thomas: Alright, do a (Inaudible.) He just won by a knock out.

President Tornatta: Alright. I could see that.

Danny Thomas: He was in St. Louis. Throw a four punch combination straight. Good, good. Same thing, four punch combination. Good.

President Tornatta: Alright.

Danny Thomas: Same thing, four punch combination (Inaudible).

President Tornatta: There you go.

Danny Thomas: That’s the next world champion. Same thing. Good job.

President Tornatta: Alright. Very good.

(Applause)

Danny Thomas: Appreciate you guys having us here and letting us put on a small demonstration about what we do at the gym. These guys right here I’m looking forward to them being world champions real soon.

President Tornatta: That sounds good.

Danny Thomas: I’m trying to get a fight scheduled down here for my son, to fight for the WBF Intercontinental title.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Danny Thomas: So, hopefully, we’ll be doing that real soon. We had it scheduled for October 17^th, but the guy he was going to fight got cut over his eye. So, they say he got cut.

Commissioner Winnecke: Likely story.

President Tornatta: Stand in front of that mic so we can hear everything your saying, because this is pretty interesting.

Danny Thomas: Yeah, hopefully, we were supposed to have had him fought here in Evansville, October 17^th, my son was going to fight for the WBF Intercontinental title, and I was going to fight too, fight my last fight, I was going to retire after this one here. I was supposed to retire after the last one, but I knocked the guy out. So, I figured I would get a little stiffer competition. But, anyway, we’re trying to get something scheduled, re-scheduled back here in Evansville so that my son can fight right here in Evansville and fight for the WBF Intercontinental title. It’s going to happen. We’re going to make it happen.

President Tornatta: Tell us again how to get in touch with you if anybody wants to try and beef up their boxing skills.

Danny Thomas: I’m at 962 Adams, on the corner of Kentucky and Adams, right off of Washington Avenue and Kentucky, right in back of the Old National Bank. My telephone number is 471-4177. I’m there from eight in the morning till eight at night, and Saturdays from eight till four.

President Tornatta: Okay. Well, one of the main reasons I wanted you to come out here and talk is because there is a lot of youth that need direction and need a person to look up to, and, obviously, your young man is trying to be that person as well, but you’re trying to lead these kids in a positive direction, and I think that’s, you know, my hats are off to you and all of your staff that help you.

Danny Thomas: Well, I appreciate it, and I appreciate everything that you guys are doing right here in Evansville.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Danny Thomas: I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Danny Thomas: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Danny.

Danny Thomas: Alright, thank you.

President Tornatta: Thank you all. Okay, you never know what you’re going to see at a County Commissioners meeting.

President Tornatta: Permission to open bids for VC09-12-02, Burdette Park bike path and pedestrian and nature trail.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

President Tornatta: Second. Questions? Roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: Alright, action items, Treasurer in-house printing project. Rick?

Rick Davis: Good afternoon. I feel better in front of you now after seeing them. I wouldn’t stand a chance with any of those guys.

President Tornatta: Rick, we asked you to come back. I know we’ve had some talks, communicated with Commissioner, the Commissioners in our last meeting about getting you to just discuss some different things. Kind of tell us what your plan is now, moving forward, and then will we have a decision at a later date?

Rick Davis: Okay. Generally, I proposed to you guys that we print our bills in-house at the Vanderburgh County Treasurer’s office. Currently it’s bid out. A company in South Carolina has printed the bills the last few years. Last year’s, or actually I should say this year’s bills came in at $46,300. I’ve presented to you guys a business plan last week showing that we could do the same job with purchasing some capital up front in year one, with a significant savings in year two through five. What I would like to do, at this point, is, I’ve basically done a feasibility study to see if it’s within our grasp to do such a thing. I do believe it is. I would really love for you to put a Request for Proposal out so that we can get proposals in from vendors to buy some of the capital required to do this job. I would like to do it as soon as we can, because we do want to get the equipment in. Some of this equipment is very complex, and it takes up to eight weeks to make and be delivered and set up. So, at this time, I humbly request that you do a Request for Proposal for an in-house printing project for the Vanderburgh County Treasurer’s office.

President Tornatta: Okay. I, as we talked, obviously I still feel there’s some more questions that need to be answered, but, after we talked, I think you understand, and I understand that we have to get those numbers in and get some hard numbers to really navigate through. One question I did have, Vernon, can I borrow you for a minute?

Vernon Stevens: Certainly.

President Tornatta: You kind of helped Rick to develop some of the numbers that he’s brought to us. Can you go over with me the longevity of like a folder. I know we talked about a folder/inserter envelope machine?

Vernon Stevens: Sure.

President Tornatta: Oh, introduce yourself.

Vernon Stevens: I’m Vernon Stevens with Southern Business Machines.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Vernon Stevens: A folder/inserter basically, with longevity built into it, and for what his estimated volume on it, should have a longevity of about seven years.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Vernon Stevens: At the end of seven years, not necessarily is it an obsolete piece of equipment, but new technology may deem that it be replaced at that point.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright. Let me see here, okay, and then talking about the printing, you obviously helped him with the printing side of it too. How long on a printing machine, as far as, I know Xerox is the name, but whatever we’re going to present, what’s the lifetime experience of a machine like that?

Vernon Stevens: We’re estimating these printers are going to have at least a five year, with the rating that we placed on them. Each printer has built into it an obsolescence for volume rating, and we know of the estimated volume that he’s going to be running, these printers that we’re projecting should be five years at a minimum.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright. Any questions?

Commissioner Winnecke: Just maybe a couple of observations, if I may.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: One, I think Rick has done a really nice job in presenting a lot of detail to us. I’ve read this several times since you presented it to us last week. I don’t know why we wouldn’t take it to the next step, which would be to go out for RFP. You know, at that point, if we get the numbers back and there are still questions we will certainly have that opportunity to get those answered at that time. But, I think, based on the due diligence that Rick has done to this point, we should proceed with approving a request for RFP’s.

President Tornatta: I’ll second your motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: I’ll make that in the form of a motion.

President Tornatta: Alright, a motion and a second. Other discussion? If not, roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: Then, at that time, Rick, we’ll come back and circle the wagons and see how the, I’m really concerned and just want to, you know, Vernon, I’m sure we’ll be using your skills later, but just want to see where the time cuts are and what we think we’re going to make back on our investment, so to speak.

Rick Davis: Absolutely. It is very complex. I understand your trepidation going forward, but there are many webinars that can be, just, we can take a webinar where you can come in and view how the product works, maybe we can get a demo set up somehow. It might ease some of the concerns you have. I totally understand, and this is very complex, that’s why we only had one vendor bid last year. So, I totally understand that. I would like to thank Southern Business Machines. They and Pitney Bowes and Van Ausdall Farrar all worked very closely with me on this project. They’ve brought these total up in public, where their competitors could potentially see them. That took a lot of gumption on their behalf. So, I really appreciate the amount of time and effort they’ve put into this project so that we could get something positive for the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County in the end. It’s been very beneficial. I couldn’t have done it without them.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright, thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Rick.

President Tornatta: Polling Place Advisory Board update. Tony?

Tony Bushrod: I’m Anthony Bushrod, Co-Manager of the Vanderburgh County Voter Registration Office. The reason I’m here tonight is to make you all aware that there’s been some things that have been annexed from the county into the city, and those need to be re-assigned city polling places. According to state statute that’s something that is the responsibility of the Commissioners. Just wanted to make you aware of it. Connie Carrier and myself, we got together and pulled information together, we have to get it all on paper and get you all’s approval on it, and then submit it to the Election Division, or even the Election Commission to get final approval. Then thataway we can do the rest of our job as far as moving the people in from the county precincts into the city. There’s two areas involved, one of them is what they call Pig 3 which is down by the LST, and that’s going into the city. The City Council assigned that Common Council 4. So, that can be put into like 4-2. Then the Knight area, which the City Council put into Common Council Third Ward. That can stay where it is and just rename the precinct 3-1. The Knight area you’re talking less than 600 people. The Pig Out area you’re talking like less than 20.

President Tornatta: Okay. Will you bring us a recommendation of the polling places and where people would vote?

Tony Bushrod: Right.

President Tornatta: At a subsequent meeting?

Tony Bushrod: Yeah.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Tony Bushrod: I just wanted to make you aware that we do need to get it done.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Tony Bushrod: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Tony, what’s your time line on getting approval for that?

Tony Bushrod: We would like to get it this year, before the end of the year. We have to have it done before, you know, the primary in May of 2010.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right. Okay, thanks.

President Tornatta: Thank you, Tony.

Tony Bushrod: Uh-huh.

President Tornatta: Approval of suggested Burdette Park rates for 2010-11. Steve?

Steve Craig: Steve Craig, Manager of Burdette Park. I had sent these to you for you to take a look at. It’s kind of self explanatory. Last year we did a pretty thorough overview of all of our pricing and that, and we made adjustments on them last year. We actually lowered some of the buildings, gave special rates during other times. I didn’t want to raise them too much, if at all, because of, the first thing that came to my mind was that we have the rate raised on our part time account for the minimum wage went from $5.85 two years ago to $7.25. So, the building part of them we did, or I did suggest a two percent increase in our buildings, but as far as the rates go for our services, I had put in that no increase for them at all for this year, and that includes the Aquatic Center, the miniature golf, the Pavilion picnic package, camping. I did not put any of them in for that. I do seek your input into them. If you would like to make adjustments we can go back. It’s not something that has to be done tonight, but we do need to get it done before the end of the year.

President Tornatta: I would like to have the chance to just go over some of these like we did last year with you. I know Commissioner Melcher, who’s mom passed away just recently, and that’s why he’s not here, would probably at least like to give you a shout on this. I know he’s been pre-occupied here lately. So, if we could just postpone the setting of these numbers until maybe the 8th’s meeting, because at that point it should be pretty easy to–

Steve Craig: And that’s fine, and if each Commissioner would like to get a hold of me, if they’ve got any questions or suggestions, I would appreciate that. Then we can go over them from there. If there’s any questions on why they’re where they’re at I can sit down and explain to you. Like I said, we did quite an adjustment last year. We do have until the last meeting of the year to set them, so we’re not in a problem at this time.

President Tornatta: Go ahead.

Commissioner Winnecke: Steve, just real quickly, and I will give you a buzz to chat with you privately about it, but I was a little, you’re proposing these prices through 2012, is that right?

Steve Craig: Just, the only one that goes through 2012 is the Discovery Lodge. We rent it out two years. The rest of them are for 2010 into 2011.

Commissioner Winnecke: Oh, I see that.

Steve Craig: The two year one is for the Discovery Lodge only. That’s the way it reads.

Commissioner Winnecke: But the same header is on all three pages. That’s what confused me. Okay, I’m good. Thanks.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Steve Craig: Okay?

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Steve Craig: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright.

President Tornatta: Permission to advertise and seek bids for trending services.

Commissioner Winnecke: Is there anyone to speak to that?

President Tornatta: Actually, I don’t, it was sent to us. So, I didn’t know if you had any questions.

Commissioner Winnecke: No, I just thought someone would....I’ll move that we advertise and seek bids for trending services.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: First reading of CO.11-09-018, amendment to fair housing ordinance. Additional changes to this ordinance to meet HUD requirements requested by the Human Relations Commission. David?

David Kent: Good afternoon, gentlemen. David Kent, attorney for the Human Relations Commission. The, HUD provides funding to the Human Relations Commission, and after we amended the ordinance, I believe, in September, they came back with two additional changes. They’re pretty minor. Specifically, in section one what we’re amending is we’re removing the term that the Commission may award reasonable attorney fees and costs. It did say against the prevailing party, or for the prevailing party. They felt that that was a bit chilling and that they wanted that to be just the respondent by virtue of the fact that we have to do investigation before they even get to a hearing. So, there has to be a determination of probably cause. Then, secondly, on the section two on 9.04.100 (A), they changed the word “of” to “or”. The very first “or”. It did say that there had to be the occurrence of the termination of the discriminating, now they want it both ways, the occurrence or the terminating of the offending action. Those are required by HUD to obtain our funding.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move that we approve on first reading as recommended.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Discussion? If not, roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

David Kent: Thank you, gentlemen.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, David.

President Tornatta: Contracts, agreements and leases, County Commissioners Old Courthouse lease agreement with Jesika Ellis, Jenny E. Smith and Valda Alsop. Agreement to be entered between the Commissioners and these three for the artist’s studio in suite 107. Tenants have the right to tear down two drywall partitions in the space at the tenants expense.

Commissioner Winnecke: Just to, for the record, since we are televised, those walls do not have any historic value–

President Tornatta: Correct.

Commissioner Winnecke: –to the building or the room. Mr. President, I’ll move approval.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: County Treasurer, vendor services agreement with American Financial Credit Services. Vendor services agreement to be entered between the Commissioners on behalf of the County Treasurer and American Financial Credit Services, AFCS for collection of delinquent personal property taxes. Rick?

Rick Davis: Yes, I’ve been working with County Attorney, Ted Ziemer. I’m very excited by this. Our current vendor is American Financial Credit Services, and they have been with us since March of ‘06. In that time they have handled our delinquent personal property taxes. Personal property taxes include things like RV’s and if you own a business, the equipment that is inside the business. For example, I think Whirlpool, I think they pay $400,000 on their building, and they pay $1.2 million on the equipment inside the building, that’s personal property. If someone becomes delinquent, they’re more than a year behind, after sending notices in the mail, we turn it over to the collections agent. This company has 54 counties in the State of Indiana, and since 2006 they have brought in two million dollars to the county, actually in excess of two million. When I came in they told me that the original contract was a 25 percent fee to the delinquent taxpayer. That fee went up to 27 percent at the beginning of this year. I felt that was a little high. They may be delinquent taxpayers, and we want them to pay on time, but my philosophy is they’re our delinquent taxpayers. So, I renegotiated this contract with AFCS after another vendor approached me about taking over this job. Nearly 80 percent of our delinquent taxpayers fall in a category where they will only be charged a ten percent penalty. That’s a significant savings, going from 27 percent to ten percent. Then there’s a sliding scale where some of them have a 15 percent fee, and some of them have a 25 percent fee. But, as I said, almost 80 percent of our delinquent taxpayers only have a ten percent fee. On top of that, we get one of their employees in our office for one week when the certifieds go out, and that’s when the phones start ringing the most, people call up and have questions about the delinquent bill they’re getting in the mail, or they may contest something saying they have paid the bill. AFCS is going to have an employee in our office for one week after that mailing comes out when we get the most calls, and they will be fielding questions from the taxpayers at that point. We can just transfer them over to them and they can handle the account from there out. That’s an extremely beneficial service to the county.

President Tornatta: Questions?

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move approval of the agreement with American Financial Credit Services as recommended by the County Treasurer.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

Rick Davis: Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alrighty, department head reports. Let me start with Chris.

Chris Walsh: Good evening. Chris Walsh, Vanderburgh County Highway Department. I wanted to bring a paving update. As you may know we started to get the snow plows and the big box spreaders on. We finished with 22 and a half miles. It was one mile less than what I had initially planned on doing. A couple of things resulted because of that. One was the Baseline Road was in such bad shape, John Stoll had contacted me, his department was out of money to award a project and we felt like it was an emergency basis. I have some pictures of it here. So, my department went over and we paved from Baseline to that bridge and did a lot of repair work. But, at this point, I really need to convert over, I would like to encumber the money for Waterworks Road, which is the one road that I had left. Which if I would have done that would have run me over my 25 miles. So, I’m kind of asking that we could do that.

President Tornatta: Okay. Bill, do we encumber the money here, or is that County Council?

Bill Fluty: Well, he can have a purchase order or a contract in place and that will move the money forward into next year.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Chris Walsh: But, you can see the condition of the road was terrible. It was, we felt like it was an emergency basis and we had to. Actually, in the long run we wound up saving some money, because if John would have had to contract that out it would have been quite a bit more.

President Tornatta: Well, I drove down it, it was a lot nicer to say the least.

Chris Walsh: Yeah. Now, we’re not done, we’re still patching and doing some things, and then I’ll put that Waterworks Road onto next year, in addition to next year’s list.

President Tornatta: Okay. Then, give us the two minute rundown of the rodeo.

Chris Walsh: The rodeo went real well. You know, my concern was that they would buy into it, the drivers and that, into the idea of the competition and that, and they did. It turned out extremely well. I would like to have a couple of them come up and maybe get, I have some certificates that I would like to maybe–

President Tornatta: We’ll do that on the 8^th.

Chris Walsh: Okay. I’ll see if I can get them up here.

President Tornatta: I was out there and it was a difficult course. The guys knew it.

Chris Walsh: I have some slides, maybe at that meeting I could bring up and we could show them to you a little bit.

President Tornatta: Okay, that would be good.

Chris Walsh: Then, I would like to individually talk to you maybe about next year expanding it a little bit and trying to grow it.

President Tornatta: We’re potentially looking at other counties, some cities, anybody who has an interest in it. The one thing that I think we all agree that it does is that it hones the skills–

Chris Walsh: It does.

President Tornatta: – and it makes them think about those skills when they are out on the beat.

Chris Walsh: It humbled some drivers who have 25 and 30 years experience and thought, initially, that this would just be a piece of cake to go through, and they found out pretty quickly that it isn’t. So, the competition kind of stepped up immediately.

President Tornatta: It’s a great training exercise.

Chris Walsh: It really was.

President Tornatta: Appreciate you getting that going. Any other questions? Okay, thank you.

Chris Walsh: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thanks, Chris.

President Tornatta: David?

David Miller: I have a few additional matters. One is an interlocal governmental agreement between the county and DMD for the investment of economic development funds. This is just like the one last year, it’s just a continuation of the current arrangement. It limits the payment to ten checks a year. We need the Commissioners approval on that and signatures.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move approval.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

David Miller: The second thing that I have is a proposed lease of suite 107 in the Old Courthouse. It’s a lease to Jesika Ellis, Jenny Smith and Valda Alsop for an artists studio in that suite.

President Tornatta: And we approved that in another, under the contracts. Sorry, we stole your thunder.

David Miller: Oh, that’s okay. You already approved it. Well, you better sign off then. Finally, I have opened the bids on the bike path, pedestrian and nature trail. The following bidders submitted bids. The bids need to be examined, of course, to determine if everything is in the packet that is required to be in there. ARC Construction bids $330,154.06; BMB, Inc. bids $280,800; J.H. Rudolph and Company bids $253,444; Deig Brothers Lumber and Construction bids $245,660.86; and Ragle Construction of Newburgh bids $235,646.84.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move that we take those under advisement.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: And, we have one other item, Lloyd, that Grammar settlement agreement.

David Miller: Yes, the Grammar settlement agreement is here for your signature. This settles a dispute on the Green River Road project for $5,000 for damage to trees in the temporary easement.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move approval.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Seeing none. Oh, sorry.

David Miller: Go ahead.

President Tornatta: Roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Melcher: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 3-0)

David Miller: I have one other item, it’s been brought to my attention, and I believe to each of your attention that there’s going to be some need for infrastructure improvement at the EVSC site for the new North High School. There’s going to be a necessity for improvements on Pike Road and on Baseline.

President Tornatta: Peck.

David Miller: Peck Road?

President Tornatta: Peck, uh-huh.

David Miller: The Vanderburgh County Redevelopment Commission is meeting on December the 12^th to begin the amendment process so that TIF funds can be used for that purpose. Mr. Ziemer and I were talking about it earlier today and he indicated that you might want to give encouragement to the Redevelopment Commission to proceed with that process.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move that we do that. I do think it’s important to get a handle on what those transportation improvements would be. I’m not opposed to, in theory, using TIF funds to make those, but I would like to know specifically what that amount is.

President Tornatta: It is and it isn’t in the preliminary stages. They just opened up their bids. That allowed EVSC to see what monies they had to work with. Obviously, the promise from me as a Commissioner is that we will work with EVSC the best we can to try and get their needs met, but also honoring the fact that we have constituents out there that we’re pulling from the same pot of money. So, we are in negotiations, just preliminarily, to talk about some of the issues at hand. No decisions have been made, but we do have, I think we were able to get some type of idea that it would be in the $250,000 to $260,000, or $450,000 to $460,000 range for what they wanted, minus right-of-way. So, just bringing that to the forefront, but haven’t got any firm numbers as of yet.

Commissioner Winnecke: So, do we need a motion to send this to the Redevelopment Commission?

David Miller: No, no, no. The Redevelopment Commission has the original jurisdiction over the matter.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right.

David Miller: It was my understanding that we just wanted to bring it to the public’s attention at this time.

President Tornatta: Okay.

David Miller: That’s all I have.

President Tornatta: Okay.

President Tornatta: Any new business? Oh, filling in for John Stoll, Patrick Seib.

Patrick Seib: Good evening. Patrick Seib, Assistant County Engineer. The only item that I have tonight is to recommend approval for a time extension on contract VC09-06-01, that’s the concrete repair of various roads. JBI Construction, the contractor, has requested an extension to December 25^th. This is due to inclement weather that they experienced back in October.

President Tornatta: They may not work Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Patrick Seib: We hope they can get it done by then.

President Tornatta: So, let’s make that the 23^rd, how about that? Okay.

Commissioner Winnecke: Mr. President, I’ll move approval.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. Discussion? I’m serious about the 23^rd.

Patrick Seib: If that’s the way you want to approve it.

President Tornatta: Okay, they’re not going to throw up roadblocks in front of somebody’s Christmas. So, anyway, roll call vote.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

Patrick Seib: That’s all I have unless you have any other questions.

President Tornatta: Okay. Alright, thanks.

Patrick Seib: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Any new business?

Commissioner Winnecke: Patrick? Excuse me, are you going to hang around for Drainage Board?

Patrick Seib: I can if you want me to.

President Tornatta: Yeah, it will be a quick one.

Commissioner Winnecke: I don’t know.

President Tornatta: Okay. Under new business, one of the things we try and do is to push our vendors to find efficiencies and opportunities for the county to not spend as much money, or to get rebates. We were able to do that. Old National Insurance was able to, on our property and casualty side, give us a return investment of $13,860.11. So, I’ll turn that over to the Auditor’s office, if we have a motion to accept that reimbursement.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

President Tornatta: Second. A motion and a second. There should be no discussion. So, roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: Any old business?

President Tornatta: Any public comment? Come on up.

Philip Austin: Good evening. My name is Philip Austin. I’m not familiar with your format here, I haven’t attended before. I guess, this is under public comment.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Philip Austin: Specifically I would like to address the intersection of North Green River Road and English Way.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Philip Austin: Millersburg Road has a new light, that project is moving right on, it’s soon to be finished at that intersection, which is a separate contract from south of there. English Way, I live on that street, we had a concrete street before this started all the way to the edge of the drive lanes of Green River Road.

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: They had to come back across the right-of-way, and maybe some more, I’m not sure, but several feet from Green River Road was removed and I understand that. This is being replaced with blacktop from several feet, I’m guessing 30-40 feet from Green River Road into the subdivision with blacktop that we used to have concrete. I called the County Engineer to see what was going on there and after a couple of calls and he talked to someone, whoever I spoke with, that the reason they are using blacktop is because it’s cheaper. That’s pretty obvious when you look at it, it looks cheaper. We felt like we had concrete when the project came, why can’t we have concrete out to the drive lanes of Green River Road when they leave? There is about 35 private drives in this project, that’s not an exact number, but close to that from Lynch to Millersburg, and regardless of the surface of their driveway when the project started, 80 to 90 percent of them was some kind of rock, (Inaudible), gravel, whatever, no curb, no nothing, and that’s fine, it was a county road. They all have new concrete drives with curbs and the concrete goes into their property reasonable amounts to connect with what they had. If they had a concrete drive, I think there’s five out of 30 some had concrete drives, so those were met back to their old drive with concrete. But, when we get to this one only thing, it can’t be concrete, it has to be blacktop, and I don’t understand why. The reason I didn’t know what that was going to be to say well, why didn’t you....excuse me, say something prior to this, the project’s moving right along, I did not know they were not going to put concrete back without some lengthy detailed study of the plan at the Old Courthouse. I’ve been there several times just to look, to see kind of what to expect.

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: I didn’t know to look at that, but they, just last Thursday or Friday, I guess, were paving on the lanes or whatever, right in that immediate area they had a half a load or a truckload of blacktop left at the end of the day, and they just kind of made an approach, they are going to have to fill that in with that blacktop in the next few days or weeks, whatever it is. So, there’s very little finished surface, of any kind, now. So, I wanted to address this before they get the blacktop finished and it’s kind of a moot point after that, I think, and it may be right now.

President Tornatta: Patrick, could you address this or take this back to someone to address this? I don’t particularly know how the decision was made to go from one surface to another, but maybe you could help explain.

Patrick Seib: I was not involved in that decision. I know that that was, the design was through a private consultant. I don’t know how far back in English Way the asphalt is going. I would have a reasonable assumption that the pavement that we’re putting in is going to withstand the traffic. I’m not sure if it’s not a functionality concern that you have?

Philip Austin: Probably not, but I think it degrades from the neighborhood to have the cheap blacktop. That’s their words, not mine.

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: Replace the concrete that was there, so that it all looks the same. As the street comes off of Green River, as you turn off of Green River, about the end of the Green River right-of-way is a boulevard. So, there’s one lane going out of the subdivision and one coming in with a boulevard in between. Well, as they broke the concrete up to do what they had to do with the sewers, one of those lanes goes farther than the other. So, now we don’t have a match of across the line of the street–

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: –even with that, so here we’ve got one that goes this far and another one that goes ten or fifteen feet farther, and then we come to concrete like we had before. So, it may be just a cosmetic, appearance kind of thing from an engineer’s standpoint.

President Tornatta: Right. I mean, I think right now, and I could be wrong, but I think asphalt actually costs more than concrete today. That being said, I’m like you, I don’t necessarily know what the difference would be except aesthetic values.

Philip Austin: I’m all for the people who obtained a new driveway, that’s fine–

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: –and concrete didn’t seem to be a problem to pour their driveway, whatever width it was–

President Tornatta: I understand.

Philip Austin: –and the length it was, and that’s okay. Then, all of a sudden we get to here–

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Philip Austin: –and, oh, we can’t do that. That costs too much.

President Tornatta: I think it comes down to, and on smaller jobs concrete is preferred because it’s easy to set up. If you have to try and bring a paver back into an area it’s tough to bring a paver down a driveway. When that paver lays that asphalt down, they’re normally going in big sections, sections that you have a lot of space. I know English Way and I know that there’s probably a lot of space, and I just assume that that’s the direction that they took, because on a concrete situation it would take longer to, I don’t know, it might take longer to set up in that case. I’m just throwing that out there, but I know on the shorter pieces, obviously, concrete is obviously a little bit easier and cost prohibitive to do the pavement.

Philip Austin: Okay, and the Engineer’s office their only suggestion to me was if you want to get the neighbors together and say we all in this subdivision, there’s only nine houses on the street, don’t like this, that may have some bearing with you. I don’t know that. I don’t know what kind of a thing that would be, or if it’s just a–

President Tornatta: It was just brought to my attention late today. So, I was–

Philip Austin: Yeah, I was here earlier at the office and–

President Tornatta: Right.

Philip Austin: –your lady at the desk, I kind of explained–

President Tornatta: And she sent us an e-mail. It just got to me late because we were busy.

Philip Austin: So, I don’t know if I’m whistling in the dark or not.

Commissioner Winnecke: I think the best thing we do is talk to John when John gets back....John is out for the holiday, Patrick?

Patrick Seib: Yeah, he is. What I was going to say is, I can go out tomorrow and take some pictures, because–

President Tornatta: Okay.

Patrick Seib: –I haven’t been out there to take a look at it myself. I can take some pictures and talk with John whenever he gets back next week.

Commissioner Winnecke: Okay, and then we have a meeting again on the 8^th, and I’ll make sure that I get out there to look at it and chat with you before that so that I have an idea and we’ll figure out what to do on the 8^th.

Philip Austin: Okay, I cannot be here on the 8^th, but–

President Tornatta: We’ll have somebody in touch with you.

Philip Austin: Okay, and if, I can contact the neighbors, if signatures of the neighbors are of any benefit to you, that’s fine that people feel that way, but–

President Tornatta: I don’t know that it’s necessary. I mean, right now we were just kind of brought up to speed on what was going on, didn’t have any idea.

Philip Austin: The underfill for the blacktop is there, it’s ready for whatever surface is going to come along, whether that be blacktop or concrete, they may, I don’t know which would need to be the thicker of the two to take the traffic kind of thing, I’m not into that, but that’s kind of open, ready for whatever–

President Tornatta: Okay.

Philip Austin: –pavement is going to be, and that small amount that’s there now is rather insignificant. So, I just kind of wanted to get a timeout, let’s look at this for a week or two–

President Tornatta: Okay, sure.

Philip Austin: –before they pave it tomorrow–

President Tornatta: Sounds good.

Philip Austin: –or the next day.

President Tornatta: We’ll do it.

Philip Austin: Thank you very much.

President Tornatta: Alright, thank you. Just–

Commissioner Winnecke: I’m sorry. Go ahead.

President Tornatta: Just a word to those who might not have heard, we do have Baseline Bridge open. So, that is a road that you can use now over the railroad tracks. It’s now named the Curt Wortman Memorial Bridge.

Commissioner Winnecke: Right.

President Tornatta: Thank you.

Commissioner Winnecke: Pat, I was just going to say. That’s what I, you don’t need to stay for Drainage Board. That’s the issue I was, I misspoke earlier. So, you’re free.

Patrick Seib: Very good.

Commissioner Winnecke: Thank you.

President Tornatta: Alright.

President Tornatta: Motion to approve the consent agenda?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

President Tornatta: Second. Madelyn, if you will read those.

Madelyn Grayson: The consent items for the November 24^th meeting are as follows; approval of the November 17, 2009 Commission meeting minutes; employment changes from the various offices; there are two travel requests for the Health Department; the County Engineer has approval of pay request number 93 for the Burkhardt-Green River TIF projects in the amount of $2,342,671.28; the County Engineer has a request to surplus two cameras and one laptop computer; Evansville ARC has the October 2009 meeting notes; the Commissioners have a J.E. Shekell quote for Old Courthouse boiler repairs; the Commissioners have a resignation letter from Don Gibbs from the PTABOA Board; there’s a waiver of fees/not overtime for use of the Centre on December 8^th for an arena pre-bid meeting; there’s a transfer request for the Commissioners, and a department head report from the County Engineer.

President Tornatta: And we had a motion and a second. If no discussion, roll call vote, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Winnecke?

Commissioner Winnecke: Yes.

Madelyn Grayson: President Tornatta?

President Tornatta: Yes.

(Motion approved 2-0)

President Tornatta: Alright, if there’s no other public comment. Motion to adjourn?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

(The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of the November 17, 2009 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Evansville ARC: October 2009 Meeting Notes.

J.E. Shekell: Old Courthouse Boiler Repair Quote.

Don Gibbs Resignation Letter from PTABOA Board Appointment.

Building Authority: Waiver of Fees/Not OT: Arena Pre-Bid Meeting: 12/8/09.

Commissioners: Transfer Request (4).

Employment Changes:

Co-Op Extension (1)                 Health Department (1)              Treasurer (1)

Commissioners (1)                   Auditor (1)

Travel Requests:                    Health Department (2)

County Engineer:

Pay Request No. 93: Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.

Surplus Request: Two cameras and a laptop computer.

Department Head Reports:    County Engineer

Those in Attendance:

Troy Tornatta                            Lloyd Winnecke                        Bill Fluty

David Miller                               Madelyn Grayson                     Danny Thomas

David Thomas                          John Richard                            Alex Mullen

Caleb Guard                             Matt Guard                               Rick Davis

Vernon Stevens                        Steve Craig                               David Kent

Chris Walsh                              Philip Austin                              Patrick Seib

Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Troy Tornatta, President

Lloyd Winnecke, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)