VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

The Vanderburgh County Drainage Board met in session this 20^th day of February, 2007 at 4:35 p.m. in room 301 of the Civic Center Complex with President Bill Nix presiding.

President Nix: I would like to call to order the Vanderburgh County Drainage Board, Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 4:35.

President Nix: Before we start with Drainage Board, we had one item on public comment. I’ll turn this back over to Commissioner Musgrave.

Commissioner Musgrave: Yes.

President Nix: From the past meeting.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’m sorry. I didn’t see that you wanted to speak. Could you state your name and address for the record?

William Rainey: My name is William Rainey. I live at 2005 Selzer Road. I did put my hand up, but I was not recognized, but, that’s okay.

Commissioner Musgrave: Sorry.

William Rainey: I won’t take but just a minute. On October of 2006 I had come before the County Commissioners with a petition signed by myself, the people on Selzer Road, the people on Outer Broadway and Short Selzer requesting that the County Commissioners come up with some kind of something to help us out with the problem of dogs running loose, people being bit, and just virtually all kinds of problems. I asked the County Commissioners to please come up with something to help us out. Pass a law or something. The Sheriff’s Department cannot help us. There is no laws in the county that says people have to keep their dogs on a leash or inside of a fenced yard. I have talked to the Sheriff’s Department several times. There’s still no law. I hate to bring this up, I’ve got a cousin that’s a Sheriff in Posey County, according to him, the whole county has a law, a leash law or fenced in law. All the dogs in that whole county have to be on a leash or fenced in. Why can’t Vanderburgh County do that? I mean, we’ve got 187,000 people walking around here in this county alone. We’re talking about this greenway coming up, I live on Selzer Road, Selzer Road butts into Burdette Park. We’re going to have people walking these trails, all these dogs that I’m talking about are within barking distance of that trail. I would hate to see that trail of laughter turn into a trail of tears, just because we’re not going to do something about animals running loose. I mean, it’s getting to be, the people that I’ve talked to out there where I’m at right now said, “We’re not going to call the Sheriff’s Department. We’re not going to bother them. We’re going to let the County Commissioners do something.” Well, I’ve had quite a few of them call me back and say, “Hey, Bill, have you heard anything yet?” No, I haven’t heard a thing. There’s been no motions made, nothing. It’s like we got dropped off the back side of the cliff. We would like to know, can something be done?

Commissioner Tornatta: Bill, let me jump in here just for a minute. I’ve had a conversation with Animal Control and with the Sheriff’s Department, and, so, there is some type of lien that they think that we should at least look into and address. I did look up some definitions and codes with the city, and I don’t know, and it’s something we can talk about up here, but, I think this was brought in October of 2006 to the Commission–

William Rainey: Yes.

Commissioner Tornatta: –and you’re probably right, we do need to address it and to look into some of the legal language and see what restraints there are from city to county. This might be another place where we can combine some of our language–

William Rainey: That would be fantastic.

Commissioner Tornatta: – to do that. So, if it’s just the same to you, I would like to take this up with our attorney, go over some of it, present it to our County Commissioners in an upcoming meeting, and then see if we can’t address the problem.

William Rainey: Thank you.

Commissioner Musgrave: When you came–

William Rainey: I would really appreciate it.

Commissioner Musgrave: –to speak to us in October, the city was in progress of adopting an ordinance–

William Rainey: Yeah.

Commissioner Musgrave: – and I read through part of that ordinance, and as it was proposed it was very, very strict, and very expensive, and I wanted to wait for that to play out. I believe that the ordinance they adopted was much less stringent and expensive than the one that they were proposing, but it was still very, very comprehensive. So, I was waiting for that process to go through, and I would certainly be interested in working as a team with the Commissioners to come up with something that will work well for all the residents of the county. This is a good opportunity to ask you to pull the city’s ordinance and take a look at that, Mr. Ziemer, and we’ll go from there.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Certainly.

William Rainey: Thank you very much.

Commissioner Musgrave: Thank you.

William Rainey: Appreciate it.

Commissioner Tornatta: You’re welcome.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’m going to turn this back over to Commissioner Nix.

William Rainey: I will be checking back with you.

Commissioner Tornatta: We’ll be here.

William Rainey: Thank you.

President Nix: Mr. Jeffers, good afternoon.

Bill Jeffers: Good afternoon. Would you like to approve your minutes? I believe–

President Nix: I’m sorry.

Bill Jeffers: –your Recording Secretary has some in front of you.

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

Commissioner Tornatta: Motion to approve minutes.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: Okay, I’ve set on your tables, in front of each of you, a copy of the drainage plan for John’s Corner Subdivision. It’s in Darmstadt, right smack in the middle at the intersection of Darmstadt Road and Boonville-New Harmony Road. It’s a three lot subdivision on the northwest corner of that intersection, catty corner from Old National Bank, and north and across the road from, it used to be called Sherbrook’s Village, I’m not sure what it’s called now. I think it changed ownership. It’s a very simple drainage plan. Basically, it remains the same as what exists today. There are no plans for improvement. It simply is a situation where the owner is realigning the lot lines so that lot one becomes a large, marketable lot. If you look at lot one there’s an existing house on it at the north end of lot one, and previously all the south end of lot one was in a, over here combined with another area that is now lot two. So, in order to make lot one marketable, they changed lot lines. That required a major sub. A major sub requires a drainage plan, and what I’m saying here is basically until they go to constructing new buildings and parking lots, there’s no need for a new drainage plan. At the time at which they come in for permits to build a new building, say on lot one, then they would have to have a drainage plan to handle the increased runoff. Or, if they had, if they paved the lot back there on lot two, they would have to put in some surface drains to pick up the water off the paved lot and so forth. So, at this time, the County Surveyor recommends no change in the drainage plan, to adopt it as is, shown on this plat with the comments I made.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to adopt the recommendation of the Surveyor for John’s Corner.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: I’m curious, Mr. Jeffers, the zoning for this, what is it zoned now? Do you know off hand?

Bill Jeffers: I believe you all, did they rezone this?

Bev Behme: (Inaudible. Comments made away from microphone.)

Bill Jeffers: It remains part R-1 and part Commercial. I think the staff found it zoned properly to move forward, and it will come to Area Plan Commission–

President Nix: I was just curious.

Bill Jeffers: –at the next meeting, you know, as a subdivision actually.

Bill Jeffers: The other drainage plan is for a two lot subdivision. The reason it’s a major subdivision is they’re extending the right-of-way from Boonville-New Harmony Road southward to a cul-de-sac to serve lot one. This one is called Darmstadt West Number Two. Very simple, again, it’s just a realignment and subdividing of a parcel so that the existing home and garage remains on lot one, and lot two become marketable. Again, the reason it’s a major sub, rather than a minor two lot sub, is because there’s an extension of county right-of-way here that requires a new road be built, and that requires a public hearing. The drainage plan comports with the requirements for a preliminary drainage plan. The County Surveyor recommends approval of the preliminary drainage plan at this time. Mr. Fred Kuester, who is the engineer who designed the drainage plan, is in the audience if there is any questions. I don’t know if there is any remonstrators. If you approve this drainage plan it will move forward to Area Plan Commission at their next meeting.

President Nix: Is there anyone here that wishes to speak to this issue? If not, I’ll entertain a motion.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to adopt the Surveyor’s recommendation.

Commissioner Tornatta: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: The only other item I have at this time is that one of the Commissioners, Commissioner Musgrave, asked me to do a little research on changing a private drain or a creek or a waterway into a regulated drain so that it could be maintained by the county. We’ve had people come forward in the last several years, particularly in the last few months, and talk about creeks that are all grown up with trees or obstructed by one thing or another, and how do we go about turning those into regulated drains so the county maintains them, the same way we do the ones on the east side and far north side. So, I put a packet on your desk for you to look through over the next week or two. It goes through the statutory sections on how to convert a private or mutual drain into a regulated drain, whether that request be made by one owner, section 19 talks about if one owner makes that request. Section 54 you get into if construction is needed to make a substantial improvement to the creek or the ditch, how you go about doing that, how many people need to petition the board or the board itself can petition, like the County Commissioners could petition the Drainage Board because a conversion to a regulated drain would serve the public interest, like a highway. The School Board could do it. The municipality could petition us, etcetera, it goes through all that. It talks about how the Surveyor’s inspection and report goes, and how the board considers the findings and so forth. I just thought I would put it in front of you and let you read it, rather than discuss it at this time, because it’s, you might want to consult with your attorney. It does require that the petitioner employ an attorney, because that attorney has to identify every parcel of property in the watershed, and each parcel, each property owner receives a notification of the hearing by return receipt requested. That gets expensive, especially if we’re talking about Carpentier Creek, you might be notifying several thousand parcels. So, anyway, I put that in front of you. If you wanted to discuss it now, we can, or, if you would rather bring it up at a later meeting.

President Nix: We’ll discuss it at a later meeting.

Bill Jeffers: Okay, and that’s all I have, unless you have something further.

President Nix: Thank you, Mr. Jeffers.

President Nix: Now is the time of the meeting if anyone would like to speak to the board about anything relating to drainage. Public comment. If not, I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Tornatta: So moved.

Commissioner Musgrave: Second.

Bill Jeffers: Thank you.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.)

Those in Attendance:

Bill Nix                                      Troy Tornatta                            Cheryl Musgrave

Bill Jeffers                                 Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Madelyn Grayson

Bev Behme                               William Rainey                          Others Unidentified

Members of Media 

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

Bill Nix, President

Troy Tornatta, Vice President

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, Member

(Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.)