PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERSREGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2002


The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 in the Commissioners' Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present: Commissioners David Burrus, Larry Sheets, John Evans and Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger.

President David Burrus called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com Evans moved to approve the payroll of August 26, 2002, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

Com. Sheets moved to approve the claims of September 3, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Sheets moved to approve the minutes of August 6, 2002 and August 20, 2002, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

AWARD BIDS FOR BOOM TRUCK-PORTER COUNTY HIGHWAY GARAGE
Jack Jarnecke, Highway Superintendent

Mr. Jarnecke, "As you can see, I gave you the list of the three bidders who submitted bids for the aerial lift and truck. The highest bid was Sutton Ford. With the interest, the bid price would be $103.110.00. That doesn't include any options or anything. I need to retract that; the amount of total payments with the interest and the DOC fee, is $116,685.00 and that includes everything. The next bid was from Utility Truck & Equipment from Colombus, Ohio and their bid with interest was $107,520.50. The last bid was from Dueco Inc., from Wisconsin with a total of payments with interest would be $110,254.10. The interest rate is from Old National Bank in Covington, Indiana with 4.40% on the two bids and the other bid from Ford was 5.30%. This is on a five year lease. We have had both UTE and Dueco trucks here in the past two weeks for us to look and demonstrate. UTE had a couple of things that did not meet the bid; one was the travel height, which is 12 foot 6 inches and we've been around 12 foot, 10 inches. Item number 5 on the dump body, the channel long sill is under the bid; instead of the eight inches that we asked for, they are five inch. Number 12, the truck frame which goes for all three bids, UTE is no longer using an L-frame, it is all just a straight frame now, which is good because before on the L-frames, you always ended up with rust getting in the between the frames. The truck frames are all standard bid, about 18.0 section modulus. The one thing that was disliked about the UTE truck was the steps and ladder getting into the aerial lift which were open, not very good and no hand railings and the operation of the aerial boom. The two guys that have operated it for quite some time complained about the controls were not operator friendly. And the service center was to be at Elmhurst, Illinois which would have been a 140 mile round trip. I did receive a fax back from them this morning and said the service center would be at Delphi, Indiana instead of Elmhurst. On Dueco, item number 3, the bids asked for a 46-inch horizontal reach, and their bid was at a 3-foot, 6 inch reach. Item number 5, the upper boom travel, at 270 degrees, and theirs was at 260 degrees. All three of them would have had a 360 degree rotation. Item number 6, insulated glass, upper boom; the minimum gap of 16 ½ inches and Dueco had a gap of 13.4 inches. Number 7, lower boom equipped with fiber glass insert, provides that 24 inch clear insulation gap and Dueco had only a 20 inch gap. Item 10, each boom single cylinder and Dueco had the double cylinder which was a very smooth acting machine. On the dump body, we asked for a 146 inch long bed and Dueco had a 132 inch long bed. They are all equal on the frames. The only other thing on Dueco's truck is item 13, we asked for a full bench seat and their seat was a split 1/3 and 2/3's seat."

Com. Burrus, "Which one do you recommend, Jack?"

Mr. Jarnecke, "Dollar wise, it would be UTE, operator wise and so forth it would be Dueco, which you are looking at $2,707.00 difference in price over 5 years. I had Mike Smith, he has worked for a tree company for 10 years previous to coming here, he operated and spent a lot of time on both of these machines and he did not like the controls on the UTE machine. He said they were very unhandy and hard to get used to. So, I am going to recommend Dueco."

Com. Sheets moved to accept the recommendation of Dueco contingent upon the attorney's review, Com. Evans seconded,

Atty. Rinkenberger, "I don't need to review anything else."

Com. Burrus, "One clarification; when talking about the lease payments, if I recall what I read, that is a residual value lease so at the end of the period, the vehicle becomes ours?"

Mr. Jarnecke, "Yes."

Motion carried.

Mr. Jarnecke, "Hopefully, we will get at least 15 years service out of it. It is a lot heavier than
the old one was."

Com. Burrus, "I notice that at the end of five years, it belongs to us for $1.00."

Com. Sheets, "One quick question, Division Road and 500, what are you going to do with that? I just wanted an update. Would it be this month?"

Mr. Jarnecke, "It all depends where we are at money wise here. We are going to go from 49 to Sagers Road first. We are ready to pour curbs in Salt Creek Commons on 550 tomorrow, and then hopefully we will get in there and grind the pavement and resurface that. We still have quite a bit of paving to go. I had hopes of finishing the chip seal this week. We are at 600 East now."

Com. Evans, "Meridian Road looks very good, Jack, but I was wondering when they are going to stripe it?"

Mr. Jarnecke, "Hopefully this week. They have had the order, so they are supposed to be in there this week to do the striping."


CORRESPONDENCE

Weights and Measures monthly report for August, 2002 is on file.

Approve contract for animal shelter services with Hebron

Com. Sheets moved to approve the contract with Porter County Animal Shelter and the Town of Hebron for 2003 for an annual amount of $2,000.00 to be paid quarterly, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Approve contract for animal shelter services for Kouts

Com. Sheets moved to approve the contract between Porter County Animal Shelter and the Town of Kouts for 2003 for an annual amount of $1,200.00 payable quarterly, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Accept Wesley Kozuszek, Jr. as late enrollee to Porter County Employee Health Plan.

Com. Sheets moved to approve Wesley Kozuszek, Jr. as a late enrollee to the Porter County
Employee Health Benefit Plan with coverage to be effective September 1, 2002 , Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

COMMISSIONERS' REPORTS

North District: John Evans

1. Change order #5 for Calumet Trail project. This added $3,740.07 to the contract for landscaping along the trail and both parking areas. Recommend approval.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

2. Utility agreement for Verizon to set two poles and remove 1 pole at CR 275 East and Li-Co-Ki-We Trail. Recommend approval.


Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

3. Performance Letter of Credit #2002-23 from Citizens Financial Services, FSB, in the amount of $270,000.00 for Ravinia Subdivision. New expiration date is August 19, 2003.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

4. Performance Letter of Credit #992485 from Horizon Bank in the amount of $25,000.00 for Sunnybrooke Subdivision. New expiration date is November 30, 2002.

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Com. Burrus, "John, what is the status of the Calumet Trail?"

Com. Evans, "It is just about done. We are working with Tourism, and hopefully we will be setting up a re-dedication of the project. It was very nicely done and we saved a lot of money and there was a great effort on many people's part that put it together."

Com. Burrus, "Do you know what the County's share of that will ultimately be?"

Com. Evans, "Not exactly. We have this new addition and that is for the landscaping in the area and we have some signs that are being made. It will be less than what we anticipated."

Com. Burrus, "I know Dave Schelling had some major success in trying to cut those costs back. We will all be anxious to get this wrapped up."

Com. Evans, "And the nice part is, the project didn't suffer from any of those cuts, either. The project really came out very nice."

Center District: Larry Sheets

1. Performance Letter of Credit #401 from DeMotte State Bank in the amount of
$59,000.00 for Windsor Park, Unit II. New expiration date is March 15, 2003.

Com. Sheets moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Sheets, "I have two announcements, if I may. This is a John Whitcomb project. We have now been told that the Route 30 and State Road 2, that new pavement will be added to the south approach and the markings will be changed to provide for one ‘left only' lane and one ‘through lane' and one ‘right turn only' lane just as we requested. This new lane configuration will line up with the traffic lanes in the north approach. Completion date planned is October 25, 2002. Another announcement is that we have put in a request over the years to get illumination at Route 30 and Route 49 and also at Route 2 and 49. The bids were let this summer and the meeting with Commissioner Brian Eckel said that should be done late summer or fall. Those are two things we have been trying to get for a long time, it looks like it was a done deal. John and I are going to hold our breath."

Com. Burrus, "Thank you. I appreciate all the hard work everybody contributed on getting these improvements under way. The South District has no items for this meeting."


OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS
Ed Melendez, Park Department Director

Mr. Melendez, "What I have given you is our agreement with the Zona property, was before any major projects had to done, it had to go through the proper steps and get everybody's signature. Yours is the last set of signatures I will need for this project. I have an Eagle Scout who is willing to do the project at the Zona property and into the parking lot area. This would be a 4 x 4 plexiglass information board with a roof on it made out of cedar, two park benches in the parking lot area, and the installation of a split rail fence. His project has been approved by the National and he has started work on the benches. As part of what we discussed in the past on the maintenance, we have looked at the possibility of the money coming from the Commissioners, but we have three sponsors who are willing to pick up the fencing for us. We are not asking you for any of the project money, all we want is your approval to stay in the parking lot and proceed."

Com. Sheets, "There was some controversy about the different agencies working together, but the Parks, the Wildlife, and the Commissioners have been working very well together. A couple things we planned to do are we had some people come in and give us an inventory of what is out there. In the near term we will be marking trails and flowers and stuff like that. Ed, and others who have been out there, met with the neighbors and they seem to be on board and we seem to answer their questions to satisfy them and it is moving in the right direction. I appreciate all you are doing, Ed."

Com. Evans moved to approve, Com Sheets seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Melendez, "Just for an update, I have met with NIPSCO and the Shirley Heinze Foundation on the care and maintenance of the trail once it officially comes over to us. My main concern was the liability factor concerning the mowing and how far back we are able to mow. We will get an agreement in writing from NIPSCO as well as the Heinze Foundation that the maintenance will be any type of mowing is done during the off season when the plants are dormant. From this point, I have a grace period of roughly November 1 to March 1. Normal maintenance is such as watching the trail on a weekly basis, litter is still what we consider a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Any types of mowing that will done will be on the ends of the parking lot area itself. Any repairs, we will discuss it with NIPSCO, especially if they have to get in and do any work on their units. It was pretty well discussed and felt that was the safest way to work it at this time. We stress money is tight for all the agencies so we wanted to do very minimal but still keep the appearance of what it is. We have had some comments, we had some families from Indianapolis, and they thought it was very, very nice and felt that Indy should have something like this with the scenic view. You gentlemen did an excellent job and you are getting some input from elsewhere outside the County. The presentation, we met with the Tourism Bureau, and we are looking at the 26th of this month. We just wanted to clarify the dates and if there is some discrepancy, please let me know because we haven't locked ourselves into that date. We are looking at having it in the afternoon and the location we felt was best was the Mineral Springs location, with the parking available, no heavy traffic, and it really does start at one of the ends of the Calumet Trail, so we thought that was the safe way to go. We will be passing on the information to you on that. The other thing, we hopefully will get a presentation down in Dunn's Bridge but with the mosquitos, we just figured we would wait. The maintenance is still on to that and hopefully we will get some signage there. I have contacted one of the professors and if we are going to do the survey of the plant material, at this time, he will not be able to begin anything until November or December and then work until the spring of next year. We kind of look at that cycle of being almost a complete year, because we have plant material that goes dormant in the winter months and then flower in the spring, summer and fall. With the plant and animal life, we felt it was safe and thought it would take about a year. From there, we will be able to see where we need to go."

Com. Burrus, "We accept those recommendations."

Com. Evans, "Do you have any scouts interested in doing the trails?"

Mr. Melendez, "Yes, we have a group out of Portage and Valparaiso, once we decide where the trails are to go, they will look at that for their project. I hope to have more updates during the year as we go."

Com. Evans, "I want to thank you personally for your help on the Calumet Trail. There were many agencies that were brought together and they all worked well together."

Mr. Melendez, "It worked out real well. I think the partnership program that was offered was excellent and everybody was communicating back and forth."

Com. Burrus, "I believe that concludes the agenda items for this morning and if no one has anything else, we do have our Plan Commission session scheduled for 11:00 a.m this morning. Both of these meetings today have had a light agenda. So we will re-convene at 11:00 a.m."

With no further business to discuss, Com. Sheets moved to recess until 11:00 a.m, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

PLAN COMMISSION-REZONE FELIX DURON 1ST READING
Steven Nigro, Plan Commission

Mr. Nigro, "This is Resolution No. 02-11, an amendment to the Porter County Master Plan. The petitioner is Felix Duron, he submitted an application that received approval for rezone from C4 General Business and RMH Residential Mobile Home District, to RRS, Multi family residential. The reason for this rezone is that it would keep the property in conformance with its current use and RMH does not allow for single family residences and that is basically an area where the proposed home that Mr. Duron wanted to build was going to go. I recently had a discussion with Mr. Duron, and he is contemplating rather than proceeding with this rezone, to seek a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals because he does value that C4 zoning which he currently holds on the front portion of that property."

Com. Sheets, "You are asking for a request to withdraw?"

Mr. Nigro, "I will let Mr. Duron make that request. I guess he would like some sort of safety net if he does not receive approval from the BZA for the drains. Then he would come before you once again and proceed with this currently before you."

Com. Sheets, "Well, you can ask for a continuance and I think you can get 90 days. My suggestion and you can tell me if you want to do this or not, is ask for a continuance and then you go through the process at the BZA and then come back here. But you have to find out if there is a determination and let us know because if we don't take action within that period of time, you automatically get it. We want to make sure we take action one way or the other before that time is up."

Mr. Nigro, "He will not be able to get to the BZA since they unfortunately do not meet until October. So it would be 30 days from today's date."

Com. Sheets, "I think it is 90 days. Then you need to research that and let us know and in the meantime, if he doesn't meet the criteria that he wants to, then he can be on the next agenda to have his hearing. I would suggest you request a continuance."

Mr. Duron, "Okay, then I am requesting a continuance."

Com. Evans, "If the BZA does not grant his request, then he can return to us, and if they grant


his request, he will not need to return to us."

Mr. Nigro, "Then he will just withdraw. He can do that prior to the meeting."

Com. Burrus, "It has to be withdrawn, otherwise it will happen by default."

Com. Sheets, "We have to have the document before that time period is up."

Com. Burrus, "If we take no action on it, then it becomes withdrawn. Now if it turns out that the continuance period is less than 90 days, do you know, Larry, if they are authorized to request an additional continuation?"

Com. Sheets, "I am not positive, but we have to take action by law, we can't continue it beyond that period of time."

Mr. Duron, "If the time period doesn't allow me to re-petition the Zoning Board for a variance, I can just come in and say I want to withdraw?"

Com. Sheets, "Just let Steve know in writing and he can come in here, you don't have to show up."

Mr. Duron, "So if I can't get my variance, I can just start the whole process all over again?"

Com. Sheets, "Yes."

Com Evans, "Are you aware that it will take two readings and if you come back later, it will be two months before we get to it?"

Mr. Duron, "Yes, I understand the time frame. I didn't know I could get a variance, I was ignorant to the fact."

Com. Sheets moved to approve Mr. Duron's request for continuance of the resolution, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Com. Sheets moved to recess the meeting, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was recessed.


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

David L. Burrus
Larry D. Sheets
John A. Evans

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor