VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

AUGUST 11, 2009

The Vanderburgh County Drainage Board met in session this 11^th day of August, 2009 at 6:22 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Lloyd Winnecke presiding.

President Winnecke: At this time I call to order the Tuesday, August 11^th meeting of the Vanderburgh County Drainage Board. Attendance roll call, please.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Tornatta?

Commissioner Tornatta: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: Commissioner Melcher?

Commissioner Melcher: Here.

Madelyn Grayson: President Winnecke?

President Winnecke: Here.

President Winnecke: At this time I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Winnecke: A motion and a second. Questions or discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Winnecke: Opposed? The minutes are approved.

(Motion approved 3-0)

President Winnecke: Okay, Bill?

Bill Jeffers: Good evening, Bill Jeffers, Vanderburgh County Surveyor. Scott Doan, property owner on Marion Court came before you last meeting, and that’s his address 7029 Marion Court, about some erosion in the outlet from the lake at Audubon Estates Subdivision. We have the pictures, we could skip, that’s what it looked like three years ago, and the pipe that collapsed underneath the electric box, that’s what it looked like in 2007. Okay, then we skip to 2009, last month, and it’s just astounding how much worse it is. That’s Mr. Doan’s backyard now. You can see that it’s, the water has gouged out even more erosion. He can’t maintain his backyard any longer. We spoke about the cause of that last year. I mean, excuse me, at the last meeting, I mean, to me that’s unbelievable. I saw it, I went out there Monday, I could not believe that it’s actually that bad. But, no water has come out of that lake for five or six years. The level of that lake has been so low for the last five or six years that all this damage could not possibly have been caused from water leaving the lake, which it was intended to do. This is all water that is back flowing from the State Highway and the State Highway project into the lake, the wrong way, and it’s due to a design error, in my opinion. However, this outlet channel is, in fact, Kolb Ditch, and we are, in fact, responsible for the care and maintenance and repair and so forth of Kolb Ditch, because it’s a regulated drain. So, I’ve prepared for you tonight a document that’s in front of Ms. Grayson, and it’s a notice to bidders seeking proposals to repair and improve Kolb Ditch within the 150 feet from that electric box you saw, that would be the starting point, to the outlet where it goes under I-164, Interstate 164, that’s approximately 150 feet, the repair of that channel, regrading the earth, and re-seeding the embankments so that it’s maintainable by the property owner and by us. Right now it’s totally in disrepair. Placing rip rap and constructing, I have a picture up there, here it is on your screen, basically, that’s a, the yellow, upright figure is a concrete wall with a 48 inch iron flat gate to let the water out of the lake should the lake ever be put back into sufficient repair, that it’s an operating lake, flowing full again, we would have a flat gate there. Meanwhile, this concrete wall would be facing the State Highway ditch and drainage facilities to physically block the entrance of their water into this lake, going backwards through our drainage system. It would force that water to take its true course and go through the eight foot square box culvert under Interstate I-164, or Interstate 164 and travel on down through our regulated drain, through the Indiana Mounds state property, Angel Mounds state property and into the Ohio River. So, that’s what this document is, and I’m asking you to sign it so that we may advertise and seek bids on the construction of this concrete wall, with the control gate and do approximately 150 feet of channel repair to Kolb Ditch.

Commissioner Melcher: Do you need a motion for that?

Commissioner Tornatta: Yep.

Bill Jeffers: Yes.

Commissioner Melcher: So moved.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Winnecke: A motion and a second. Questions or further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Winnecke: Opposed. Okay.

(Motion approved 3-0)

Bill Jeffers: Hopefully, we’ll open those bids, I believe, the date is on here, September 15^th. We would still have sufficient construction time to get that done, I believe. It couldn’t be any wetter than it has been.

Bill Jeffers: Scott Doan, okay, we’ve taken care of that. Fred and Melissa Emory had a drainage issue that they wanted to bring before the Drainage Board, but chose to try one more time to settle it with the developer of Falcon Ridge, who is, I’ll think of his name in a moment. However, after.....pardon me?

Brenda Jeffers: Chuck Murphy.

Bill Jeffers: Chuck Murphy, the developer for Falcon Ridge. However, after discussing this again with Mr. Emory today, and rethinking some of the very similar issues that we’ve had over the past several years in subdivisions, basically what I’m going to tell you is that whenever you have a backyard that is at a higher elevation than the front yard, you grade the drainage so that it’s kind of a donut, or a horseshoe type affair, a swale around the backyard that carries the water between the homes along the property line and out to the street so that the water flows out of the backyard in an orderly fashion between the homes, and the swale is deep enough that it can’t inundate the foundations between the homes, and then it goes out to the street system. This was the intended pattern to be set up on several homes on the same side of the street as the Emory’s own a home. That did not occur, so water stands in their backyard and the backyards of three or four other homes. The solution that I suggested they explore would be to extend the swale due east through all four of the backyards until it reached a lot that Chuck Murphy still owns without a home in it at the eastern most end of the street, and then turn the water out into the street system at that point. Mr. Murphy said that he thought he could do that. He would use a laser level to set grade and try to accomplish that. I believe he’s started construction on that, but it’s moving rather slowly, and, of course, we’ve had more and more rain, and the problem is still a headache for the Emory’s and some of their neighbors. I got to thinking about this, and because now instead of having individualized drainage set up, where each property owner has the water on their lot being taken between the homes along the property line and out to the street where they can control that. You know, they’re responsible for maintaining that drainage way in that set up. If they put a fence in it, that’s their problem. They have to take it out. If they put landscaping in it, they have to take it out, and it’s right there on their property, they can do so. Now I’m suggesting that it be rerouted in such a way that it crosses three or four separate pieces of property, it becomes a mutual drain, and if subsequently someone sells a house without notifying the subsequent property owner that their, they can’t block this drainage, five years from now someone is back in here complaining that there’s an obstruction. I thought the most expedient way to handle that, and probably the most appropriate was to ask Chuck Murphy to submit a modified final drainage plan so that it’s all on record, and bring that plan to our office to be reviewed. I will bring it to you with a recommendation. So, I believe that was explained to you in an e-mail. I’m sorry but I sent it out a little bit late today, you guys may have been at lunch or had a previous meeting and missed that. Mr. Miller, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to send you a copy because it went to one of your other associates instead of you. But, basically I’m just saying let’s follow the rules to the “t”, have him submit a drainage plan and move forward in that direction.

David Miller: I might say that from a private property owners standpoint, there may have to be a new easement agreement between all of those property owners, including Mr. Murphy who owns the outlet. That might have to be an amendment to the plat.

Bill Jeffers: That’s an excellent point. Without having to refile a new plat, they could refile, they could file that and record it in miscellaneous records, I believe.

David Miller: I think that’s right.

Bill Jeffers: So it’s attached to the title. But, you are correct, Mr. Miller, both the subdivision code and the drainage code requires all drainage ways be housed within an appropriate easement. So, that would be something that would have to be obtained from each of the owners. I think I’ve said enough on that. I’ll just, I have notified Mr. Murphy by e-mail, I will send him a letter to his place of residence. I don’t think that requires a motion, I’m just telling you about it.

President Winnecke: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: In other business, I don’t have any ditch claims today, in other business I would like to recommend that this Board have a joint meeting with the Warrick County Drainage Board regarding Pigeon Creek. I’ve received notification from contractors and property owners that every time we have one of these hard rains throughout the Pigeon Creek watershed, water is backing up into Chandler, Indiana into on-going construction, road construction and private construction sites and shutting down the work for two or three days at a time, and it’s due to this humongous log jam we discussed a month or so ago. I would also like to suggest that when you schedule a meeting with the Warrick County Drainage Board that you go there, hopefully, with an offer of a minimum of $2,000, and a maximum of $5,000 for your part of it, and ask them to do the same. Yes, that’s $4,000 as a minimum and $10,000 as a maximum, and that looks like a broad spread for the log jam, but basically what I’m saying is, I’m basing that on the method of disposal. If we take it out of the creek and tie it to the bank, you know, stake it down to the bank, we could probably get by for $4,000. If we have to haul that stuff away or burn it, whenever you burn it you have to have these accelerator airflow type burners for the EPA, it can get very expensive. I’m saying the top end would be $10,000. So, it’s all based on how we dispose of what we yank out of the creek. I think we could actually get two of the worst log jams for between $4,000 and $10,000.

Commissioner Melcher: Is this something that Commissioner Mosbey–

Bill Jeffers: Commissioner Mosbey brought this to you maybe two months ago.

Commissioner Melcher: Right, right.

Bill Jeffers: When the water was very high in the creek, and they were, the farmers were trying to plant and couldn’t plant. But, we’ve had re-occurring flooding on a lesser level, mostly construction sites at this point in time, highway construction out there towards Chandler.

President Winnecke: David, what are the legal mechanics of us having a meeting with that body in Warrick County?

Commissioner Melcher: Well, I thought we had a joint, there’s was already a joint one set up a long time ago.

President Winnecke: There is.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay.

David Miller: I think you just have to give public notice in both counties.

President Winnecke: Okay.

David Miller: And notify the public that a meeting is going to occur at a particular location and do it.

President Winnecke: Okay. Bill, it might be helpful if you could get, I don’t know when they, how quickly they would like to get together, but if you could get some dates to us, we can arrange that meeting.

Bill Jeffers: I think Commissioner Mosbey, is it Tim Mosbey?

President Winnecke: Yes, Tim.

Bill Jeffers: And the new County Surveyor are pretty keen on having this done.

President Winnecke: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: Quickly.

President Winnecke: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: If you were to have money left over, if you took $5,000 and they put in $5,000 and you had money leftover, I would suggest that you use any leftover money, leave it in an account to research the need for additional creek cleaning between Stevenson Station Road in Warrick County and Lynch Road in Vanderburgh County. I don’t know where the source of that money will be, because we don’t have it in our drainage funds for the creek.

President Winnecke: We’ll find it.

Bill Jeffers: That’s all the business I have for you gentlemen tonight.

President Winnecke: Okay.

President Winnecke: Any other public comment tonight?

Judy Mefford: Judy Mefford, I live at 2909 Bergdolt Road. I would like to know where we are at with the curbing up around Clover Drive and Bergdolt, and where we are at with the rest of the work on Bergdolt Road? Chris?

Chris Walsh: All I can speak to is the ditching. As John and I had said earlier, we’re getting with Sigeco to do the ditch in the easement. All I’m wanting to do there is take out some sediment and restore it back to what it’s original....I don’t think when he sees it he won’t have a problem with it, the gentleman from Sigeco.

John Stoll: But, there is the possibility that they may not authorize it, because their, they have the two gas transmission mains out there. So, we may not be able to dig any ditches across there, but that is something that we will have to work out when we get out there. As far as the curbs are concerned up at Clover and Bergdolt, the contractor told me this morning that they would like to try and get out there and start this week. But, I don’t have an exact start time, or an exact start date yet.

Judy Mefford: It hasn’t started yet. Thank you.

President Winnecke: Thank you. Any other public comment to come before us? At this time I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Winnecke: We are adjourned. Thank you.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:37 p.m.)

Those in Attendance:

Lloyd Winnecke                        Troy Tornatta                            Stephen Melcher

Bill Jeffers                                 David Miller                               Madelyn Grayson

Judy Mefford                             Chris Walsh                              Others Unidentified

Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

Lloyd Winnecke, President

Troy Tornatta, Vice President

Stephen Melcher, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)