VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Board of Commissioners met in session this 11^th day of September, 2007 at 3:31 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Bill Nix presiding.

President Nix: Good afternoon. I would like to call to order the Board of Commissioners of Vanderburgh County, September 11, 2007 at 3:31. I will start to my far right with introductions.

Marissa Nichoalds: Marissa Nichoalds, Superintendent of County Buildings.

Jennifer Elston: Jennifer Elston from the office of the County Attorney.

President Nix: Bill Nix, County Commissioner.

Andrew Ritter: Andrew Ritter, Mater Dei High School, and I’m a junior.

Commissioner Tornatta: Troy Tornatta, County Commissioner.

Madelyn Grayson: Madelyn Grayson, Recording Secretary.

Bill Fluty: Bill Fluty, County Auditor.

President Nix: If you will please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

(The Pledge of Allegiance was given.)

President Nix: Our first action item is open bids for VC07-08-01. This is the Bromm Road culvert number 1338 replacement. I think our attorney has those to open. We’ll go ahead and continue here. The next action item is award bid APA-041–

Commissioner Tornatta: Bill? Excuse me, do we need to make a motion to open the bids?

President Nix: Yes, I’m sorry.

Commissioner Tornatta: I make a motion to open the bids.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Now, we will open them.

President Nix: The next action item is award bid APA-041-2008 for road salt. I believe Ms. Debbie Spalding is here today for that.

Debbie Spalding: Good afternoon.

President Nix: Good afternoon.

Debbie Spalding: Good afternoon. We accepted proposals, actually we advertised for road salt twice in the newspaper, and then the bids were opened in the Board of Public Works meeting on August the 30^th. At the last Board of Public Works meeting they voted to award the bid to the low bidder, which was North American Salt. We did receive three bids this year. North American Salt had the bid last year. The price that they bid was $45.27 per ton. So, we are asking your permission to award.

President Nix: I’m just curious, do you know how that compares to the year before?

Debbie Spalding: It’s about a four percent increase.

President Nix: Okay.

Debbie Spalding: On the form I gave you, last year the price was $43.68 per ton.

President Nix: Okay. Questions?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

Debbie Spalding: Thank you.

President Nix: Thank you.

President Nix: The next action item is second and final reading of vacation ordinance of CO.V-08-07-002, Royal Oak Drive. I guess, I’ll open up, is there any public comment at this time? Seeing none, any questions from the board? If not, I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. I will call for a roll call vote. Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yes.

President Nix: And I vote yes. It passes. Thank you.

President Nix: I tell you what, while we’re waiting on the bids to be opened I will go ahead down to department head reports. Mr. Craig do you have anything?

Steve Craig: No, sir.

President Nix: Okay, Mr. Stoll?

John Stoll: First I have a request to approve some right-of-way purchase offers on the Green River Road project. They are as follows; parcel 22, William Hussman, and the amount is $12,300; parcel 28, Kendall Development LLC, $37,900; and, parcel 34, Emmanuel Baptist Church, $15,000.

President Nix: Questions?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to accept.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Next, I’ve got a request for approval on a right-of-way purchase offer on the Green River Road-Millersburg Road intersection project. This is for Cheryl Melesky, and the amount is $13,400.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to accept.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: Next I have a pipe acceptance request for section 6B of Bridlewood Subdivision. This is for 207 linear feet of 12 inch pipe, 344 linear feet of 15 inch pipe, and 161 linear feet of 18 inch pipe.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: I’m not sure, Madelyn, does that, was that for–

Madelyn Grayson: It says Stonecreek PUD instead of Bridlewood.

John Stoll: PUD, oh, I’m sorry. It wasn’t Bridlewood. That’s another pending one we’ve got, and I just said the wrong one. So, that was for Stonecreek PUD, not for Bridlewood.

President Nix: Okay. Thank you.

John Stoll: Next, I have a time extension request letter for the St. George Road bridge project. This is a request to extend the completion date from October 20^th to October 31^st. The reason is, basically, in order to allow some advance public notice for some signs to be placed out at the project, the project won’t start until next Monday, which is the 17^th, the contract allotted 45 days for the project, which pushes it off to October 31^st. So, it was just a discrepancy in the requirements of the contract that caused this. It wasn’t anything that the contractor had changed that caused any delays. So, I would request approval of the time extension to the 31^st.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you.

John Stoll: Then, next, I have a sidewalk waiver request for the replat of Weslake Subdivision. This is in conjunction with the vacation that you just approved, it’s for that same subdivision. Basically, there are no other sidewalks out in the vicinity of this subdivision, which is located off Kasson Road. So, I would recommend approval of the sidewalk waiver.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: The last item that I’ve got is a request for approval of the deceleration plans for Stonefield Park Subdivision. This is a commercial subdivision located on the west side of Green River Road, opposite Sugar Mill Creek apartments. I’ve been working with the engineer on the project, and I’ll recommend approval of the plans subject to the following conditions; first would be they need to provide a detail showing the lids and castings that will be used on the existing curb inlets on Green River, and once their contractor gets on site, if the field measurements during construction show that the detail provided on the plans doesn’t work, then they must provide an alternate detail that will be approved by the county. The second would be that they add a note to the plans stating that the contractor/engineer must notify the county of each specific manhole modification that will be made to convert each existing manhole on Green River to a curb inlet. Basically, when they’re widening the road to provide the 12 foot decel lane, they have to make these changes with the manholes and the curb inlets. The third condition would be to provide a typical cross section for the deceleration lanes on Green River. There will be two of them, they basically have two entrances into this subdivision, one is opposite Sugar Mill apartments, the other is opposite Constellation Avenue. It will be a 12 foot lane, but that’s just not detailed right now on the plans. The fourth condition would be to modify the corner radius at the southwest and southeast corners of lot number seven to accommodate 67 foot wheel base trucks, to modify the corner radius at the southwest corner of lot two to accommodate the 67 foot trucks, and to modify the northwest corner of lot one as needed, once they change the striping. There again, if they modify the striping and change where the stop bar is, it might necessitate providing a larger curb radius. The next condition would be that the contractor must provide the county with a detail lane closure plan to build the decel lanes, and the plan must conform to the manual on uniform traffic control devices prior to closing the lane for construction on Green River Road. Then, the final condition would be that the developer must pay for the traffic study to determine if this development warrants a new traffic signal on Green River Road, and, if so, then the developer must pay for all improvements; striping, signalization, everything associated with the recommendations of the traffic study.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve and adopt the recommendations of the engineer.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

John Stoll: That’s all I have.

President Nix: Thank you.

John Stoll: Thanks.

President Nix: Are there any other department head reports? Seeing none.

President Nix: We’ll go back to the, I guess, the bids for the Bromm Road culvert.

Jennifer Elston: There were four bids received. Should I go ahead and read those into the record?

President Nix: Yes, please.

Jennifer Elston: The first is Deig Brothers Lumber and Construction Company in the amount of $151,768.

President Nix: Okay.

Jennifer Elston: The second is Blankenberger Brothers, Inc. in the amount of $135,450. The third is Koberstein Trucking in the amount of $123,053. The fourth is CCC of Evansville in the amount of $99,946.55.

President Nix: They started out good and got better, didn’t they?

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to take under advisement.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you.

President Nix: I guess we’re up to you again now, the contracts, agreements and leases, the CPL encroachment agreement.

Jennifer Elston: The CPL encroachment agreement has been reviewed by Ted Ziemer, and he has approved that agreement for signature. In short, CPL has asked to encroach upon a right-of-way owned by the county to transfer gas from Laubscher Meadows landfill and sell ultimately to Mead Johnson, install, operating and maintaining pipeline through the right-of-way.

President Nix: Okay, and I did receive an e-mail, a few e-mails from Ted stating that it was–

Jennifer Elston: Approved and ready to consent and execute.

President Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you. The next item is the Sheriff’s Department of Corrections grant amendment.

Jennifer Elston: The same has also been reviewed by the County Attorney, and approved. This is an amendment to a current grant for the drug court asking for additional funds in the amount of $128,208.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you. The last one, I guess, is Emergency Management performance grant sub-grant.

Jennifer Elston: The Emergency Management performance grant sub-grant has also been reviewed by Ted Ziemer, and he has also recommended that this be consented to and executed.

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Anything else?

Jennifer Elston: Nothing else.

President Nix: Ms. Nichoalds, do you have anything?

Marissa Nichoalds: No.

President Nix: I guess, the next item on the agenda is, we have been, I guess, the newspaper a few weeks ago had ran an editorial or some editorials and some comments on the Hamilton Golf Course, the future of the Hamilton Golf Course. The lease is up in May of 2009. What we would like to do is get some public comment from as many people as possible. We’ve hired a consultant some time back, we’ve got the results from that report back, I guess, about a month ago, three weeks to a month ago. We’ve had a chance to review it. We’ve also had an appraisal done, and we are in the process now of formulating, I guess, public opinion to see which direction we want to head with the Hamilton Golf Course. So, I would like to, I don’t know that we want to set any dates today. I would like to maybe come up with some firm dates next Tuesday at our meeting. I think the best format would be evening, maybe at 6:00 or so during the week, and then possibly a Saturday so that if people can’t make the evening meeting, they’ll make the Saturday meeting. We want everyone’s input in this. Please, if you’ve got something to say about this, please come forward. We’re not going to talk about sewers. We want to talk about Hamilton Golf Course. So, if you have anything you want to add to that, Commissioner.

Commissioner Tornatta: I think that’s an outstanding idea. At this point, there have been a lot of rumors. The rumor mill is going pretty hot on what has been talked about on Hamilton’s Golf Course, and what it’s future will bring. At this point there’s been no communication of any plans or any opportunities with the city and the county. Merely we have gone through the process of getting back some information from a consultant, and at this point we would like to open it up to those in the county to decide and give some input. So, I think it’s a great opportunity to get out to the public, and I commend you on coming up with the idea.

President Nix: Okay, like I say, we’ll have some firm dates next week. We’re looking probably late October, so, with a couple of public forums. And, if we have a real good turn out and we don’t have time and we run long, we could add another forum or two, that’s not a problem.

Commissioner Tornatta: This is actually for 2009.

President Nix: Yeah, it’s the lease for 2009. Our thinking on this is that if this would, in fact, remain a golf course, there’s a lot of things that happen a year ahead of time, planning-wise, as far as the courses are concerned, year-to-year activities that people plan. We want to make sure that we’ve got a lease in place in plenty of time for the future of the course out there, so. Okay, thank you.

President Nix: Is there any old business? Any new business?

President Nix: If not, I will accept public comment at this time. Seeing none.

President Nix: I will, I guess, consent items, I’ll entertain a motion to approve the consent items.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Tornatta: Aye.

President Nix: Aye. Thank you.

(The meeting was adjourned at 3:48 p.m.)

CONSENT ITEMS:

Commissioners:

Approval of the August 28, 2007 Commission Meeting Minutes.

Bernardin Lochmueller: University Parkway Phases I & II Project Update.

Settlement Agreement & General Release: Heather R. Williams.

Arthritis Foundation: OCH Rental Arrangement Letter.

Fetter Property Management Letter.

Letter Regarding Hamilton Golf Course.

Department Head Meeting Notes: August 28, 2007.

Employment Changes:

Burdette Park (2)                      County Highway (1)                  Area Plan (1)

Election Office (2)                     Health Dept. (2)                        Circuit Court (1)

County Assessor (2)                 Co-Op Ext. (1)                          Scott Assr. (1)

Travel Requests:

Health Dept. (4)                        Auditor (1)

Legal Aid: Financial Report: December 31, 2006.

Auditor: A/P Vouchers: September 2007.

County Engineer: Pay Request No. 34: Green River-Burkhardt TIF Projects.

Treasurer: Year-to-Date Report.

Recorder: Surplus Letter: 20 computers.

County Clerk: Monthly Report: July 2007.

Department Head Reports:

Burdette Park                           County Engineer                       County Highway

Ozone Officer                           Veterans Services

Those in Attendance:

Bill Nix                                      Troy Tornatta                            Bill Fluty

Jennifer Elston                          Marissa Nichoalds                    Madelyn Grayson

Andrew Ritter                            Debbie Spalding                       John Stoll

Steve Craig                               Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Bill Nix, President

Troy Tornatta, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)