VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

DECEMBER 5, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Drainage Board met in session this 5^th day of December, 2006 at 4:12 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 Vanderburgh County Drainage Board, Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 4:12 p.m.

President Nix: I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

President Nix: Second. All in favor? Aye.

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

President Nix: Mr. Jeffers, good afternoon.

Bill Jeffers: Good afternoon, Mr. Nix, Ms. Musgrave, and staff. The first, I mean, the only drainage plan I have is the final drainage plan for Stonegate Estates. It’s located on Browning Road, north of Boonville-New Harmony Road, just about half a mile north. It’s a large, wooded tract being divided into two and one half acre or so large lots, all wooded. I’ve highlighted in green two streams that run through the interior of this subdivision. There’s a larger stream, Schlensker Creek, that runs through the corner. They’re excavating a nice, large lake. As I said, everything is wooded, and they would like to maintain a very natural estate, wooded estate type setting. So, the two creeks that I’ve outlined in green will remain as natural as possible. They’re remaining as open channels so that a large amount of water won’t travel down the middle of the roadway, it will still run through the creek. But, rather than converting that creek into a pipe, or an open ditch, they want to have it remain wooded. This is in conformance with some of the new regulations from the Army Corp of Engineers who does not like us to convert wooded creeks into ditches and so forth. So, that’s the reason why it’s not being altered, except where absolutely necessary to put in say a sewer line crossing, or a driveway crossing. So, it should be understood that that will remain natural, and that the homeowners across whose large, wooded lots the creeks pass, will be responsible for maintaining it in as close to it’s pristine and natural, wooded condition as is possible, and still maintain good, open drainage. That will be so declared to the owners at their time of purchase. They should understand that. The report and all the other documentation that came with the final plan has been reviewed by the County Surveyor, found to comport with the drainage ordinance, and the County Surveyor recommends approval of the final drainage plan for Stonegate Estates. I do not have a Mylar cover sheet accompanying that recommendation, but it will appear before you once again with street plans, with your signature block for Commissioners, and signature block for the Drainage Board, and you can sign it at that time as both entities.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to adopt the recommendation of the Surveyor.

President Nix: Second. All in favor? Aye.

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: I do have a large pile of blue claims that represent work that’s been completed on regulated drains. The paperwork is in order, and it’s signed, and I recommend payment to the contractor’s for those claims.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to pay the claims as outlined by the Surveyor.

President Nix: Second. All in favor? Aye.

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: There was one other issue that came, we became aware of yesterday. Commissioner Musgrave had viewed a problem out on the Wabash Eerie Canal, just east of Stockwell Road. It’s a reoccurring problem. Earlier in the year we had asked Norfolk Southern to remove an obstruction from that ditch where the side bank had slid in. It’s sliding in again. We don’t have the orthography to show you on your screen today, but you can clearly see the location. It’s a reoccurring problem. There’s a, the ditch is probably 15 or so feet deep at that point, and, so, the bank lays way back up to the rail, and as such it’s like a giant solar reflector laying there facing the southern sun during the winter time. When it freezes at night, the embankment freezes, and then the sun rapidly thaws it out, and it’s just unstable and it keeps sliding in. I went out there yesterday afternoon at Commissioner Musgrave’s request, and I saw that Norfolk Southern apparently was aware of the problem and had brought in several carloads of rip rap between the time that Ms. Musgrave viewed it and the time that I got out there at 4:00 in the afternoon. My opinion is that they’re just adding more and more weight to an unstable condition. That weight will just carry itself down into the ditch over a period of time. It’s just a band-aid approach. I reported to Ms. Musgrave this morning that I had viewed it at her request, and that I think that Norfolk Southern should be made fully aware of our feelings regarding a potential obstruction of the main drainage outlet for five square miles of the county and the city’s east side, and that, and to also remind everyone that we do have under contract a consulting engineer who is preparing a detailed study and evaluation of this entire ditch, including this area, and that I will be encouraging them to come up with recommended solutions and then go to Norfolk Southern and ask them to participate fully in their responsibility to stabilize their railbed.

President Nix: I know one of the problems we had when we did the bore underneath the tracks and that project we did, what, I guess, it’s been a year and a half ago, was actually finding who from Norfolk Southern to talk to about this. Have you got a good contact? Do you feel like you have a good contact?

Bill Jeffers: I did have a good contact who responded in a timely fashion earlier this year, but, again, I politely refer to it as a band-aid approach. They just pulled everything up out of the ditch and packed it against the embankment, and now they’re adding more rip rap. I just, I might want to go a little above that contact.

President Nix: I guess, that’s my point.

Bill Jeffers: Yeah.

President Nix: Okay.

Commissioner Musgrave: So, would it be best then for you to initiate a draft of a letter that the County Attorney could review, and then be brought back to at our next Drainage Board meeting to approve sending?

Bill Jeffers: I think that would be a good plan of action, because I believe that Norfolk Southern should be fully aware of what we may perceive as their liability in this matter, and that we do not wish to share their liability.

Commissioner Musgrave: Alright, then I will make the motion for that letter process to begin and to work with the County Attorney on that.

President Nix: Second. All in favor?

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: I’ll try to bring that to your County Attorney later this week, so that, hopefully, I can bring it to you next Tuesday afternoon.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Jeffers.

Bill Jeffers: Thank you.

President Nix: Is there any public comment? If not, I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move to adjourn.

President Nix: All in favor?

Commissioner Musgrave: Aye.

President Nix: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:20 p.m.)

Those in attendance:

Bill Nix                                      Cheryl Musgrave                      Bill Jeffers

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Madelyn Grayson                     Others Unidentified

Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

Bill Nix, President

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, Vice President

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.