VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

MAY 16, 2006

The Vanderburgh County Drainage Board met in session this 16^th day of May, 2006 at 4:02 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, May 16, 2006 at 4:02.

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

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

President Nix: Mr. Jeffers? Good afternoon.

Bill Jeffers: Good afternoon, Board, Mr. President. Our first drainage plan is Cayman Ridge, which comes in with some final modifications, due to the Corp of Engineers and the Department of Natural Resources requirement for the design to be changed to accommodate their clean water standards. Some alterations have been made to the detention basin, and some other minor alterations.

President Nix: Do we have any questions from the board?

Commissioner Shetler: I have none.

Commissioner Musgrave: You have reviewed and approved these?

Bill Jeffers: The County Surveyor and the County Engineer have both reviewed them. The County Surveyor recommends approval of the changes, and you will see those reflected when the County Engineer brings you the revised road plans.

Commissioner Musgrave: Move to adopt the recommendation of the County Surveyor.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: The second item is a new subdivision, Harbour’s Edge Townehomes, Phase II. I do have the Mylar here for you to sign. This is a plan for some townhouse type condominiums outside the Knight Township levee, immediately north of the Marina on Waterworks Road. All the drainage will discharge directly into the Ohio River. The County Surveyor has reviewed the plan, recommends approval of the plans, and also recommends that the motion include the waiver of the requirement for detention, because all water will be discharged directly into the Ohio River and your drainage code allows you to waive detention when the water is discharged into a major receiving stream.

Commissioner Musgrave: Mr. Surveyor? What is the diagonal line drawn across here?

Bill Jeffers: I believe that is the same diagonal line you see on the aerial photograph is the western boundary of the levee right-of-way.

Commissioner Musgrave: And some of these condos are being built on the levee right-of-way?

Bill Jeffers: The Levee Authority, and I believe, the developer’s engineer is here to explain that. It was explained in subdivision review and in site review yesterday, but the Levee Authority has given permission for parking areas to be extended onto the levee right-of-way. That’s my understanding. If you want a succinct explanation, the engineer is here. Lee?

Lee McClellan: My name is Lee McClellan, with Morley and Associates at 230 Second Street, Henderson, Kentucky. To answer your question, the diagonal line, the yellow, diagonal line is the actual west property line of Harbour Edge, Phase II, as recorded by the plat. It is also the west, or the east property line or the right-of-way line of the Knight Township, Vanderburgh Levee Authority flood protection work. In, back in 1987, when Mr. Bussing developed the Harbour’s Edge Subdivision, he entered into an agreement with the Evansville-Vanderburgh Levee Authority District, and the Army Corp of Engineers in Louisville for the following; it’s to grant an easement to the developer for the following uses; recreation facilities, parking areas, drainage facilities, and roadways. That was agreed upon back on June 10, 1987. Then, to reconfirm that the Corp of Engineers had no objection to the property, since the property had not been developed since 1987 by Mr. Bussing, we wrote a letter to the Corp, dated February 21, 2006, on behalf of Mr. Bussing, to the Chief of Operations and Readiness, explaining, along with some sketches, the preliminary layout of the site, along with how we were cutting down into the ground to develop the project. They returned a letter dated March 3, 2006 to Mr. Mangold, the Levee Superintendent, which states that they offered no objection to the project. There only condition was that a set of as-built drawings for the above project should be forwarded to this office following completion of the project. So, Mr. Bussing has received Levee Authority and the Corp of Engineer’s approval to actually encroach into that. The logic back in 1987 for that reasoning was that that land back there was going to be part of the Greenway, and, therefore it will always remain a flood protection, earthen levee, and we would not have a developer that could potentially purchase that project and build something behind them. So, the Corp, back in 1987 felt that that was a reasonable request.

Commissioner Musgrave: As you may know, I was ten years the Assessor, and when I see you’re building stuff on land you don’t own, and land that’s exempt, it causes me to bring up the question, how have you managed the taxing of this property?

Lee McClellan: That I cannot answer.

Commissioner Musgrave: But, it’s not your intention, should the Pigeon Township Assessor bill you for this, it’s not your intention to avoid, or the developer/owner whoever ends up owning this–

Lee McClellan: That would be Mr. Bussing, and Mr. Rayburn.

Commissioner Musgrave: Mr. Bussing and Mr. Rayburn fully are aware that they would have to pay taxes on this?

Lee McClellan: I really can’t answer that.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay.

Lee McClellan: I’m not, neither one of them are here this evening, so, I can’t really answer that question. I don’t know exactly what they’re under the impression is going to happen.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay, well, just let it be known here today that any vote that I might make in approval does not stand in approval of avoiding any kind of property taxes.

Lee McClellan: That’s fine, but I will relay that information to both of them.

President Nix: Was that a motion?

Commissioner Musgrave: It was. So moved approval.

Commissioner Shetler: I’ll second. I do have a question.

Lee McClellan: Yes.

Commissioner Shetler: To Bill, I guess, on, you said the water was going to be discharged, the run off, directly to the river.

Bill Jeffers: Yes, sir.

Commissioner Shetler: Is there any kind of filtering or anything that has to be done with the latest federal laws that have come into play dealing with run off waters and stuff?

Bill Jeffers: When John Stoll and I looked at this plan, we noticed that they had intended, at first, to have garage drains connected to the storm sewer, and we were concerned that a garage drain might capture oil, salt, spilled paint, whatever someone might illicitly throw down the drain or inadvertently let spill into the drain, and we asked that those be disconnected. My impression is that there should be some storm water pollution prevention measures, long term, that the residents or the condominium association, or whomever the duty is assigned to should make adequate and appropriate measures to protect the river from illicit discharge of pollution via the storm water. That should be in the, what’s called the storm water pollution prevention plan that’s filed with John Stoll as the MS4 operator for your board.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright.

Bill Jeffers: I assume that’s been filed. Again, Lee can be more explicit about that.

Lee McClellan: Yes, the SWP3, the Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan has been filed with John Stoll’s office, and has been approved. We have, we’re just waiting on the notice of publication to be published in the Evansville Courier & Press, along with the publisher’s affidavit. There is, as part of the SWP3, a post construction phase. Now, this is after the construction. Now, in addition to all of the construction practices, such as silt fences, straw bale dams, temporary seeding, a temporary rock entrance road, those type of things, there is also a post construction, which is each of the inlets and area drains that will collect run off from the parking lots and lawn areas, should somebody over fertilize, you’ll have hydro carbon drippings off the bottom of cars from oil, greases, antifreeze, you’ll have de-icing salts that will be tracked on to the site from county roads, all those will wash into the area drains. Inside of each of the area drains there is a liner that is a fabric and a screen that will catch all floatable solids, such as, fast food wrappers, or plastic Pepsi or Coke bottles, or coffee cups, those type of things will be captured in that basket, along with your silt tire rubbings and those type of things. So, there is, in the SWP3 that the developer has signed, that he will be responsible for maintaining those and inspecting those on a periodic basis, and then actually replacing the liners when they become a certain percentage plugged, and it’s defined, based on really the manufacturer of the lining, but normally it’s about 65 percent. So, debris will be captured before it is discharged directly to the Ohio River.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright, thank you.

President Nix: Any other questions from the board?

Bill Jeffers: And, of course, that is an appropriate question, because you recently turned over that program to John Stoll, County Engineer, as your MS4 operator. It has previously been administered by the Soil and Water Conservation District, but is now administered for you by John Stoll.

Commissioner Shetler: Alright, thanks, Bill.

Commissioner Musgrave: I think we were ready for a vote.

President Nix: I would entertain a motion.

Commissioner Musgrave: We did that.

President Nix: Oh, we did? Yeah, we’re ready to go.

Bill Jeffers: Did you all vote on it? I’m sorry.

President Nix: All in favor? I’m sorry.

All Commissioners: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: Thank you.

Bill Jeffers: The next item of business is for the board to receive a petition from Steven, Steve M. Kincaid, requesting that the board order the removal of an obstruction from a watercourse located on a property downstream of his. I would ask you to receive this, instruct the County Surveyor to immediately proceed with an investigation, and to file a report with you, within the next 30 days. The statute requires that the hearing be held no sooner than 30 days from today, no greater than 90 days from today. I believe your Recording Secretary is scheduled to be out of town one of those Tuesdays, but any other Tuesday would be fine with me, I believe, unless it coincides with a state convention.

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll move to receive the petition and allow the matter to take the course you described.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Bill Jeffers: So, when I bring you that report back, we can set a hearing date.

Bill Jeffers: The only other item I have is to receive and enter into a contract with Wessler and Associates, more particularly MD Wessler and Associates, Incorporated, 5401 Vogel Road, Suite 710, Evansville, 47715. This is for the study and evaluation services on Kolb Ditch, a regulated drain in Vanderburgh County for which we would desire to study the, and discover storm water conveyance inadequacies and establish a baseline characterization of the pollutant constituents in the water in that ditch, all as described in this contract, and for a total of $19,300, with an alternate of another $3,700, should we decide, the board and the County Surveyor decide that additional services should be rendered. I propose that those would be rendered in the year 2007 for the baseline characterization. I don’t want to pay for that out of this year’s budget. I would like to pay the $19,300 this year, and next year have them carry out the chemical analysis of the water and that type of thing at the laboratory and pay that amount next year. If you wish to take this under your and look at it, and have your lawyer look at it, that’s fine. However, as soon as we could proceed on this, I would like to.

Commissioner Musgrave: The funds are in place?

Bill Jeffers: Yes, Ma’am. There is available a surplus after we pay all of our regular annual maintenance that’s scheduled for that ditch, the mowings, the sprayings and everything else. There is an estimated surplus at the end of the year in excess of the amount, what was that, $19,000?

Commissioner Musgrave: $19,300.

Bill Jeffers: Three hundred, there is not enough to pay the additional $3,700, but there would be in 2007.

Commissioner Musgrave: And the water testing that your talking about is not something the Health Department does or can do?

Bill Jeffers: No, this is something that the MS4 operator, in this case the Drainage Board, is responsible to determine a baseline characterization of all the water quality and the various conveyances we’re responsible for. I don’t think we’re responsible to do that immediately, but Indiana Department of Environmental Management does expect us to come up with a characterization of that water as soon as possible. I think 2007 is a reasonable response to their rule.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: Then we would be, then after they establish that baseline and give us the testing points and everything, in house we could test most of that except for heavy metals and certain chemicals we’re unable to do in house. We would have to recontract with someone to do that on a periodic basis. But, we could do, for example, turbidity, phosphorous, nitrogen, ecoli. We have kits to do those types of things. We do not have the capability for the chemical analysis of the water that’s also required by IDEM.

Commissioner Musgrave: Motion to approve.

Commissioner Shetler: I’ll second. I was going to second it subject to, I guess–

President Nix: For the County Attorney?

Commissioner Musgrave: I’ll amend my motion to have review by County Attorney.

Bill Jeffers: Okay, I have five copies here for signatures. After we sign, or you can hold off signing them until you have your attorney review them, if you like.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: I will need whatever it is that I have to review.

Bill Jeffers: I do have one comment to make, briefly. We had a meeting yesterday at the Building Commissioners office with Steve Fuchs and Roger Lehman, and the consultant, Morley and Associates presented a synopsis of their recent flood plain study of the six square miles of the east side over which FEMA desires to expand the flood plain. The Commissioners went forward with a study to try to minimize the area that would be impacted by the required additional insurance and other bureaucratic burdens that are placed upon the flood plain. It came to light that the money spent and the project completed by the Commission on Stockwell Road reduced that amount of flood plain significantly. For example, all of Eastland Mall and everything west of Green River Road is now out of the flood plain, or will be out of the flood plain when FEMA approves that. That’s very significant. But, what came to light was is that the culvert structures under Green River Road for East Side Urban outlet, which is the old Wabash-Eerie Canal, are a restriction that causes a significant amount of the area between Green River and Burkhardt to remain in the flood plain. The information came to us that the Indiana Department of Transportation intends to widen the intersection of Morgan Avenue and Green River Road. In doing so, we’ll be paving some extra lanes over that culvert, and probably intend simply to extend the undersized culverts in both directions as the most economical way to complete their project, yet we locally, the City Engineer was also there, the County Engineer and all others in attendance at the meeting desire for any board or executive authority, whether it be the Mayor, the County Commissioners, or whomever, would forward to INDOT and the Governor an appeal to replace that culvert with an adequately sized culvert, very similar to what you did at Stockwell Road, thereby reducing the extent of the flood plain between Green River Road and Burkhardt, significantly. It might lower the flood plain as much as a foot and a half or two feet. That’s a lot of dirt, and that’s a lot of insurance premiums. When I say dirt, that’s a lot of dirt fill that would be required to raise the finished floor elevations inordinately. So, also it came to light that there are five other culverts between Green River Road and Burkhardt. I believe three or four, three of which are railroad culverts, and two of those spurs are no longer active. Those culverts should come out. If they are to remain, they should be enlarged. They are also restrictions. So, there is another study that is being, will be brought to you in contract form in the next few weeks for that area, because it is a regulated drain between Green River Road and Burkhardt. That study will take the data, the raw data that’s available now from Morley’s study and try to formulate or display some culvert sizes that should be enlarged, and show you at a later date what size culverts the County Drainage Board and County Surveyor should pursue as replacements for those three railroad crossings, Oak Grove Road, and a private entrance to a commercial establishment that’s currently vacant. That would be a great time to do it before that commercial establishment is released.

Commissioner Shetler: Bill, would it be more effective if we passed a resolution from this body?

Bill Jeffers: Anything would be effective, I think, coming from the County Commissioners and going to INDOT and more particularly to the Governor, who has expressed a desire for INDOT to cooperate with economic development. INDOT’s general response would be we will put in whatever we think’s adequate for a 50 year storm. We’re looking for something for a 100 year storm. That would be significantly larger, and slightly more expensive. We would encourage INDOT to do that, because that’s what we will be doing between that point and all other culverts upstream.

Commissioner Shetler: Well, generally the expense is pretty minor in the, from the very beginning if you do it, you know, when you’ve got everything under construction, compared to doing it, trying to do something later.

Bill Jeffers: It might not be as minor as we would wish, because they would simply want to extend the culverts, leave the existing one under Green River Road and put extensions on each end. We’re asking them to rip the entire thing out and put an all new box culvert in there.

President Nix: Which may be–

Bill Jeffers: It may be a million dollars.

President Nix: What I’m saying though, it may be covered by roadways and what have you.

Bill Jeffers: It will then be covered by the intersection of Green River Road and Morgan Avenue for probably the next 25 years, yes.

Commissioner Musgrave: And when was this project planned for INDOT?

Bill Jeffers: I’m not sure. It just came to my knowledge about three weeks ago.

Commissioner Musgrave: Have you, have you or anyone else spoken to INDOT about the issue?

Bill Jeffers: It’s in the City of Evansville, and the City Engineer has communicated with INDOT, and generally his response, or the response to him was not specific and indicated that they probably would like to just put extensions on the culvert and leave it as is. Which–

President Nix: This board really has jurisdiction over the drainage issues then, I mean, as far as that’s concerned, is that your interpretation?

Bill Jeffers: I believe so. I believe that to be true. That is a regulated drain.

President Nix: Whether it’s in the city or not?

Bill Jeffers: Correct. All of the regulated drains that exist in that area that was annexed in 1988 remain under your jurisdiction, until such time as you release them to the city. The previous boards have agreed, between the Board of Works and the Drainage Board that this board would continue to maintain those ditches. The county, the city does pay an assessment, but the county does the contracting.

President Nix: I had some conversations with Mr. Jeffers on this, I guess, in the last couple of weeks, and I think that we would be, it would be in our best interest to do what we can to get it to stay on board to proceed with what we feel is the right thing to do here. Because, if we don’t, I think we’re going to end up with a mess out there.

Commissioner Musgrave: Would it be possible for you to discuss that with our lobbyist before we make an official action here? Since Drainage Board has the opportunity to meet each week, and we have sent at least one other item to our lobbyist, I would like to–

President Nix: That would be a good place to start, but I think we need to pursue this, because I think it’s pretty important that we get our, that it’s done right. That it’s put in correctly. Because, if not, we could suffer some serious consequences later on with economic development in that area, all the way to the county line.

Commissioner Musgrave: Okay.

Bill Jeffers: I think your lobbyist would be much more qualified to write your resolution for you than I. But, I would be happy to discuss it with him in anyway that would be helpful to you. Thank you.

Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.: Excuse me? While you were making that presentation, I had an opportunity to review the Wessler Associates contract. I would find it satisfactory for approval except for the insurance requirements. It says they’ll maintain insurance pursuant to their business requirements, and, of course, we want them to maintain it pursuant to the county’s business requirements. It says they’ll provide us with a certificate of insurance at our request. Would you request that from them and let me review that? If that’s satisfactory, I would approve the contract. Otherwise, we would need to have additional insurance from them.

Bill Jeffers: Very good. Thank you. I’ll be happy to do that for you, Mr. Ziemer.

President Nix: I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Commissioner Musgrave: So moved.

Commissioner Shetler: Second.

President Nix: All in favor?

All Commissioners: Aye.

(The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.)

Those in Attendance:

Bill Nix                                      Cheryl Musgrave                      Tom Shetler, Jr.

Bill Jeffers                                 Ted C. Ziemer, Jr.          Madelyn Grayson

Lee McClellan                           Others Unidentified                   Members of Media

VANDERBURGH COUNTY

DRAINAGE BOARD

Bill Nix, President

Cheryl A.W. Musgrave, Vice President

Tom Shetler, Jr., Member

Recorded and transcribed by Madelyn Grayson.