VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

The Vanderburgh County Drainage Board met in session this 16^th day of February, 2010 at 6:02 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Troy Tornatta presiding.

Commissioner Winnecke: TT?

President Tornatta: Hey, Bill?

Bill Jeffers: Good evening.

President Tornatta: Sorry, I forgot, I hold the honor of being President of the Drainage Board this year.

Bill Jeffers: You do indeed.

President Tornatta: I would say good evening.

President Tornatta: Motion to approve the minutes?

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

Bill Jeffers: The only order...the only item of business I brought–

President Tornatta: Hold on one second.

Bill Jeffers: Oh, you have to take a vote, don’t you?

President Tornatta: Yeah.

Bill Jeffers: I’m sorry.

President Tornatta: We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Tornatta: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: You gotta love the democrat process.

President Tornatta: Is there an agenda?

Bill Jeffers: No, sir, because I only have one item of business.

President Tornatta: That’s okay. Okay, sorry.

Bill Jeffers: I have a folder full of blue claim forms here. It represents about $8,500 worth of work completed by ditch contractors, like Eldon Maasberg.

President Tornatta: Did he bid those?

Bill Jeffers: Some of them, yes. In that regard, the reason we take bids at Drainage Board is because State statute requires that if we spend over $75,000 per year on ditch contracts that they have to be bid out. So, it’s a statutory requirement in this instance. I would like to say I’m glad I’m not John Stoll, because he has a monumental amount of work to accomplish compared to what I do. He does a wonderful job coordinating that for the County Commissioners under whatever processes he goes through. I would also repeat what Eldon Maasberg said regarding the county roads, I’ve never seen them handled better than what I’ve seen them handled this year.

Eldon Maasberg: The city is not done.

President Tornatta: We’re not bashing.

Bill Jeffers: I’m not going to–

President Tornatta: We’re not bashing, we’re just giving credit.

Bill Jeffers: Yeah, no bashing today for me. It is was it is out there. Just today. Anyway, I’ve asked that you approve these claims and pay the ditch contractors. Everything in this folder is in order.

President Tornatta: I’m looking for a motion.

Commissioner Winnecke: So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

President Tornatta: A motion and a second. All in favor say aye.

All Commissioners: Aye.

Commissioner Melcher: And, I agree with you about John Stoll. I think both of you are top rated. Of all of the time that I’ve been in this with the city, for 17 years, I’ve never gotten the reports and answers back as quick as I do from you two.

Bill Jeffers: Well–

Commissioner Melcher: You know, you two just are good at what you do.

Bill Jeffers: Well, he’s been a model for me really. I mean, he’s been here for, well, 17 years as you said earlier in your meeting. He’s very professional and he’s been a model for me to follow. I would like to ask you just for your permission, as Commissioners, to let me work with him between now and the end of March on the MS4 program, because I understand that the State has reset the date for their review of the MS4 program from August back to March. He’s under a big crunch, because as you know his, one of his deputy engineers has been off–

Commissioner Melcher: Uh-huh.

Bill Jeffers: –and that was the deputy that took care of those things. I think between me and one other employee in my office we may have some time to contribute to John and do some of that paperwork for him while he does these more important projects for you. If that would be okay with you. I’ve worked with him on that before, and I think I would be happy to do that again.

Commissioner Melcher: I think that would work out great for us.

Bill Jeffers: It’s generally just paper shuffling is what it is.

Commissioner Melcher: Okay, you might explain, for the public that are listening what MS4 means.

Bill Jeffers: Oh, that’s the storm water program mandated by Indiana Department of Environmental Management. It requires the County Engineer to prepare reports, annual reports, updating the State on what the county has done to intercept storm water pollution before it runs off. For example, the County Highway garage lot, where they store the salt, how we intercept the pollution before it gets into the creeks and the waterways and ends up in the river. How we clean our streets, how we require new developments to put in structures to capture the runoff from parking lots or other hard structures and filter out the storm water pollutants so they don’t get into our streams and our rivers. We’re going for a new permit, you have to get a new permit every five years to prove to the State that we’re doing this. It’s an unfunded mandate. They don’t provide us with any money. So, that puts the burden on the County Engineer to perform all of these tasks with nothing from the budget. Obviously, the County Council is strapped for funds and can’t....so, really it’s all done in the form of local work, you know, effort on our part. And, you know, John listed several projects that he’s working towards, and they’re major projects, I mean, these are major road building, bridge building projects, and now it falls on his shoulder to do all this just grunt work, to shuffle papers and get everything ready for a State audit, and I’m just offering my services, because I know I have some spare time in the office. I will find someone else in my office to help, just on a clerical basis, if it’s okay with you.

President Tornatta: Thank you. That would be great.

Bill Jeffers: Okay. Thank you.

President Tornatta: Okay, with no other business, motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Winnecke: Did we approve the claims?

President Tornatta: Yeah, we approved the claims.

Commissioner Winnecke: Oh, we did, didn’t we? Okay. So moved.

Commissioner Melcher: Second.

(The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.)

Those in Attendance:

Troy Tornatta                            Stephen Melcher                      Lloyd Winnecke

Bill Jeffers                                 David Miller                               Madelyn Grayson

Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

Troy Tornatta, President

Stephen Melcher, Vice President

Lloyd Winnecke, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)