PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2005
6:00 P.M.


The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1, 2005, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

Those present were: Commissioners Robert Harper, John Evans and Carole Knoblock, County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger, Melissa Hartig, and Vi Wagner.

President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Knoblock moved to approve the payroll of February 22, 2005, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF CLAIMS

Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of March 1, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes from February 1, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVE COURSE FOR VALPO MINI MARATHON ON APRIL 10, 2005
Ezra Hurwitz, Human Race Sports

Mr. Hurwitz, “I’ve got some information to pass out to you. We are hosting the Valparaiso Mini Marathon. It is a 13.1 mile running event to start and end in downtown Valparaiso. It will run through downtown, Valparaiso University, various sections of Valparaiso, local neighborhoods, as well as a small section of Porter County.”

Com. Harper, “Have you talked to the Sheriff’s Department about this?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “Yes, I believe I spoke to Ed James, at the Highway Department. I tried to get ahold of the Sheriff’s Department, I had trouble getting a hold of anyone there, and Mr. James told me he would pass the information along to the Sheriff’s Department.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think that normally the Sheriff’s Department gets these . .”

Com. Evans, “Dave Lain from the Sheriff’s. Has Valpo City Police approved this?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “Yes, they have.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is this the first year?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “Yes, ma’am. This will be the first year for this event and if I may, the section of the course that runs through Porter County, that is actually outside the city limits, I believe a portion of that is actually used for the Valpo Triathlon as well as several groups in town use those sections of roads for training runs. I know Opportunity Enterprise runs out there as well as other groups.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Don’t they usually give us a lot of details like the times and roads.”
Com. Evans, “Are you asking that any of these roads be closed?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “No, we are not asking that they be closed, we are asking to set up an easement along the roads. The race starts at 7:30 a.m., we are anticipating a 15 minute mile pace, so that every 15 minutes we are actually going to be having a truck trailing the last runner and will be picking up cones along the way to re-open that section of road. It won’t be a full closure, just as an easement set up along the road. We have a request into the Valparaiso City Police to use ten off duty police officers as well as numerous volunteers to help us control traffic the day of the event.”

Com. Evans, “Would they be utilizing those people in the county’s jurisdiction also in that area as well?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “The volunteers will be in the county. I am not sure as for out into the county, we do not anticipate having the city police out there. We are going to have a police squad car set up at the intersection of Meridian and 550, similar to how they have one set up for the Valpo Triathlon. Now if that needs to be a county police officer, we are more than happy to make arrangements for that.”

Com. Harper, “Here is what I would suggest. Dave, do you see any problems with this?”

Chief Lain, “No, I am confident that through our department and working with Valpo, I don’t see any large impediment to this.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t we approve it subject to you meeting with Dave Lain from the Sheriff’s Department and working everything out. If everything doesn’t get worked out we can reverse ourselves two weeks from now.”

Com. Knoblock, “One more thing, it says ‘mini’, does that mean young children or is it short one?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “No, that is just a term that is used to describe a half marathon. Any age group is welcome to participate.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “How many are you expecting?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “We are expecting 500 for this first year. We actually have already topped about 250 and half of that is from outside Porter County.”

Com. Evans, “Do you have liability insurance?”

Mr. Hurwitz, “Yes, we do. With USA ATF. We are applying for liability but we are members of ATF so it won’t be a problem to get it.”

Com. Evans moved to approve conditional upon the Sheriff’s Department cooperation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.


REPORT ON COUNTY BUILDINGS
Rick Renner, Johnson Controls

Mr. Renner, “Thank you for having me here tonight. The purpose of my visit tonight goes back to the January meeting where Johnson Controls gave a list of recommendations for some county buildings and one of them was the specific problem at the jail. At that time you asked us to put some numbers together for a price to fix the problem and so if you don’t mind I would like to pass out the proposal.”

Com. Harper, “And this is on the noise problem, right? I think we have to go ahead and do this as I understand it the noise is so bad.”

Mr. Renner, “Yes. It’s not just the noise problem, but you are right, if you standing there you can’t hear each other talk but the concern is the potential further damage it could cause because the way it is tied into the concrete, the brick walls, we are concerned it could eventually start seeing cracks in the walls. So by putting in these vibration isolators, it is going to reduce the amount of energy that is getting into the walls and it will also reduce the noise.”

Com. Harper, “I would ask you to document everything that goes on with this work because I think we should take a look at this situation since the building is only two years. How many years, two years, three years?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It depends on the product we are talking about in terms of what is the warranty. Many of the things have a warranty from one year from the date of substantial completion which is long gone, but some of these items have warranties in and of themselves.”

Com. Harper, “What about the people that supervise the work?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Are you talking about our architect? Or the project manager? Or who are you talking about?”

Com. Harper, “I wondered about the people who supervise the work. There is not a statute of limitations for that, is there?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Not if there is negligence.”

Com. Harper, “This shouldn’t have happened.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the proposal, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “I want to ask Commissioner Evans and Commissioner Knoblock about this. We have now been presented a pretty thorough list of projects that need to be done at these various buildings and I am all for getting going on them. I thought perhaps we could all go over that list and maybe just decide to get some of these started. Do you have any problem with at least going over and have him come back in two weeks?”

Com. Evans, “I agree. I think if he could get a little priority listing, I know they are all priority, but if he could tell us which ones he would do.”

Com. Harper, “I’ll tell you the ones I think we may have to take proposals on is that $300,000.00 one. The rest of them you could get started on.”

Mr. Renner, “Thank you.”

Com. Harper, “While we are on that subject have you had a chance to look over the walk through they did?”

Com. Evans, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “My thought on that was to have for us to try to put together some sort of a proposal on the windows and just get it out rather than have one company do a proposal, why not have us do it, ask three or four window companies on what they say needs to be done, and ask them to give us a proposal. At least get started on those windows because they are saying there is caulking that is missing and things like that.”

Com. Evans, “I think . . .(inaudible).

Com. Harper, “It almost looked to me that the report you wrote on that, maybe you could put something together and meet two weeks from tonight and if that is a good proposal, then we can put it out for proposal.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “You guys could authorize the proposal to go out, I can look at it and do it before the next meeting.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, so you will put together some sort of proposal; and we’ll put it out for the different companies.”

Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “So we will put you back on the schedule for the next meeting and we are going to talk about all these things.”

Mr. Renner, “Do you want prices?”

Com. Harper, “A lot of them you gave us. We are going to talk about all the things that you listed down, we are going to get a quote on.”

Mr. Renner, “The price I gave you last time was based on the ____ history, not from (inaudible)”

Com. Evans, “As long as we are talking about buildings, I know that you and Carole went up and looked at the County Highway Garage in North District. I just want to see if you agree that is not one of the most deplorable buildings?”

Com. Harper, “I think it has to become a priority. I had a couple questions about that, maybe you could fill us in. Do we own the land all the way behind that?”

Com. Evans, “Well, and Al is here, but we own back to the tree line just about.”

Com. Harper, “Is that enough room to put the building?”

Com. Evans, “I don’t think so. I think we need, especially since that property to the south is for sale, we need to look at maybe purchasing an acre or two maybe three, because we are running out of room for storage and the building will take up some space. I think we should probably approach the neighbor to the south and see if they are interested in selling their property because that would make an ideal spot for an office. We would have to build one. We need to see if they would be interested in selling their property. I know it is not going to happen overnight but since that property is for sale to the south, it would remiss not to make an offer.”

Com. Harper, “Carole and I agreed it was in pretty bad shape. My only question is how are you going to get an appraisal on that property before we start and how would we go about that?”

Com. Evans, “I would be willing to approach the neighbors and see if they are interested in selling and I think there is enough appraisers out there that we could get a decent appraisal.”

Com. Harper, “Should we do that?”

Com. Knoblock, “Sure.”

Com. Evans, “I’ll pursue it then.”

Com. Harper, “Maybe four weeks from tonight we can talk about it.”


SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT VEHICLE DISCUSSION
Capt. Tom Henderson, Sheriff’s Dept.
Chief Deputy Dave Lain, Sheriff’s Dept.

Capt. Henderson, “Basically, our conversation, we were to receive $250,000.00 from the CCD fund for squad cars, to replace them. And that would purchase approximately 11 cars.”

Com. Harper, “Did we get our cars from last year and did we have a sale?”

Capt. Henderson, “Yes, and that was another discussion I was going to try and have here, I was going to get your permission to have an auction here in April.”

Com. Harper, “Are we going to sell as many as we got?”

Capt. Henderson, “Correct.”

Com. Harper, “Are we counting the two. . . .”

Capt. Henderson, “That was something that was left up to you.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t we do that if we are trying to keep the fleet current and we pledged this money, why wouldn’t we get rid of them. See, here’s what happened. When we have extra cars, extra people got extra cars, it doesn’t have anything to do with you, I understand that, that is how these cars got spread around, so why wouldn’t we sell as many. . . . . I understand like when a car is totaled, but why don’t we sell as many as we are getting?”

Capt. Henderson, “I always have, in fact we had a surplus in military vehicles back in 2003, I got rid of more than what I received. I cleaned that portion of the fleet that was considered excess, but at this point the reason I counted the Humvee as a motor vehicle, and I was under the interpretation by Mr. Burrus that the motor vehicle and counted one for one. I haven’t added any additional people to the use of a car.”

Com. Harper, “So, what is being done with the extra cars?”

Chief Lain, “First of all, there are no new people getting cars, but it is important for the Sheriff’s Department to maintain somewhat of a fleet of pool and it think that is the disparity between the two going. I think we have been a critical mass the last several years with pool vehicles. We have nearly run out of vehicles to replace.”

Com. Harper, “How many pool vehicles do you have right now?”

Capt. Henderson, “Thirteen and at one point we were down to about one vehicle left due to the total vehicles, plus we loan vehicles to other entities when they need one.”

Com. Harper, “Thirteen sounds like quite a bit to me.”

Capt. Henderson, “Actually we started with eight, I tried to indicate from the first year that we needed to increase that to thirteen for 2004 because of the excessive miles and condition of my fleet. There’s numerous officers out there with 150,000 miles or more actively patrolling with these vehicles.”

Com. Harper, “Now that we got this started, is this going to improve that situation?”

Capt. Henderson, “I think it will be an improvement.”

Chief Lain, “The fleet mileage will drop with this purchase. It is an unfortunate fact of life that we need this, this has to be a yearly infusion of new vehicles, but certainly this meets that standard.”

Com. Harper, “And I don’t think there is any area regarding the 250, because I don’t think there should be, we put it there, we’ve got money for vehicles each year. There is nothing to argue about that money. So let’s do a motion on the vehicles.”

Com. Evans, “One thing, I think the pool cars need to be a little better defined. They are used by the reserve officers along with the other officers when there is not a vehicle available to them. So its not like they are there to collect dust, they are being used as most expeditiously as possible. The Humvee, though, what is the use of that Humvee?”

Capt. Henderson, “I got rid of it.”

Com. Evans, “I agree with that. You have to have the reserve officers, they are volunteering most of the time, they are not getting paid for what they are doing so if they need a decent means of transportation.”

Chief Lain, “The reserves uses them as do officers whose vehicles are incapacitated or other entities not only within the Sheriff’s Department, but I think we’ve got at least two vehicles on loan to other departments within the county system. So there is a wide range of uses because not all pool cars are marked cars. Tom has done a very good job of balancing marked cars. It really is a juggling game trying to keep everything in working order. The mechanics are either constantly repairing or outfitting new vehicles. So it is a pretty constant assembly line. So the most important thing that I know you are concerned with is that we don’t get a burgeoning fleet, that we stay status quo and we have made that pledge.”

Com. Evans moved to approve $250,000.00 from CCD and permission to have an auction,

Com. Knoblock, “I am not so sure.”

Com. Harper, “This is what we did last year. This is the whole explanation. They could never have a budget because some years they would get car money and other years they wouldn’t get car money so we, and I think we took it in front of the Council, and said there was going to be 250 and it was going to be theirs as long as they sold what they bought and every year to have an auction. So, it is sort of pledged to them.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “There is $250,000.00 in our CCD fund that is appropriated by the Council for Sheriff’s vehicles.”

Ms. Hartig, “We have $350,000.00 in the vehicle line item but $100,000.00 of that is set aside for Parks.”

Com. Harper, “We went before the Council, both of those things did.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Have you seen the actual number? Is the money there?”

Ms Hartig, “Right now there is $449,000.00.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Okay, you are not just looking at the budget, you are looking at the print out that shows the money . . .”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Capt. Henderson, “Just to let you know, I will present the list to you for final approval next week and a total of what is being auctioned.”


OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Personal property software contract
Center Township Assessor
Shirley Lafever for Susan Larson

Ms. Lafever, “I am not Susan Larson, I am Shirley Lafever, Susan is on vacation this week and she already had her vacation planned so she asked me to come before you tonight with her deputy Gail here. She has a software program she would like to purchase for personal property. The Assessors used to have one years ago and there were so many problems in the software package, we discontinued that and so now she has requested to purchase this other personal property software contract. She has been working with the vendor for a week now working out the bugs. She could give you an update on that but this is only one township that is going to use this personal property. We are going to use it on a trial basis, if it works well with one township, we might consider it for the rest of the county but we do not want to purchase it for all the township offices because we had trouble with the other vendor in the past. We felt this time we would only do one set and try it and if it works well, we will consider it for next year. So that is why we are here before you tonight. I do know that Sharon has a computer (inaudible). This is for your approval, the software package.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “What is the primary concern that they modified?”

Ms. Lippens, “Mostly what I asked for was clarification. There were a lot of terms that seemed to be a little bit vague and due to the history of the software vendors, I asked for mostly clarification on things and he was most agreeable to respond right away with all the requests I asked for right and made all the adjustments that I requested.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Now this contract says that it is $5,280.00 per township office for the software and then another price for the maintenance but we are only doing this for one township?”

Ms. Lafever, “Susan Larson only requested for one. Portage said they want it, I called to see if they wanted it, they want to wait until next year.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So if other townships decided they wanted it, they would come before the Commissioners with another contract?”

Ms. Lafever, “Yes.”

Com. Harper, “Then why do they have it in there for per township?”

Ms Lafever, “Well I think while they are in the contract it says a certain township.”

Ms. Lippens, “I think it is for their blanket contract they give to all counties that sometimes purchase . . . (inaudible).”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So we need to approve it conditional upon the understanding it is only for Center Township.”

Ms. Lafever, “It is only for Center Township.”

Com. Evans, “Do we know any other township anywhere in the universe that is using this program?”

Ms. Lafever, “Yes, Sharon you emailed him today, did you get any response back from them today?”

Ms. Lippens, “At the bottom of page two of their contract, it does state that (inaudible.)

Ms. Lafever, “There has not been any vendors out there that have (inaudible) the software. Several months ago they gave a presentation to all the assessors and at that time he gave the price, I told him I was not going to purchase it for the entire county, I wanted to test it out first. I don’t mind purchasing it later on but I do not want to purchase it like we did the last time and we had all kinds of problems. This will be purchased out of my ____ fund. I have money in the ______ fund to purchase this. It has to be purchased out of that.”

Com. Harper, “Well I think it is great you are trying it with one office before we get too deep. That’s a good idea to see if it is working or not instead of just jumping in.”

Ms. Lafever, “Years ago, Carol was a township assessor years ago, who had to post all the books by hand. In our county office and the ___ office to put it in our system, but the Plexis system puts it all in and you are done. If we can get this program to work, we will not have to post ____ again if I can get all twelve township assessors to agree to use it. Then they wont have to go to the Auditor’s office and they don’t have to sit there manually, the assessor enters the figures, we check them, the Auditor’s office has to enter the figures again into their system so we can go to computer and automation, this will be much faster and we will save man hours all the way around. But I don’t want to try out the whole county first.”

Com. Harper, “All right, try it out on a limited basis.”

Com. Evans, “The hardware from the Center Township Assessor’s office, will it run this program?”

Ms. Lippens, “It does meet the minimum. But it is not at the recommended.”

Com. Evans, “Are we talking about buying more computers?”

Ms. Lafever, “Just one. I know Susan is going to come back and I told her I had enough money in my line item to purchase her one computer to run this if it gets approves. We will be ordering a new computer for Data Processing to be installed.”

Ms. Lippens, “The counties using this are Hamilton, Tipton, Wayne, Polk, and ________.”

Com. Evans, “Any conversation with any of them?”

Ms. Lippens, “I spoke to two of them and they all had good things to say as far as the vendor being responsive dealing with issues.”

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

Request permission to advertise bids for highway vehicles
Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent

Mr. Hoagland, “I would like to reassure you that I have figured out the financing for these proposed vehicles we would like to purchase. It will be paid out of Motor Vehicle, Highway Fund and Bridge Fund. And we are confident that we have the numbers and we can absorb the cost.”

Com. Harper, “You are going to purchase how many?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Six.”

Com. Harper, “Six this year and six next year?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Correct. Six this year for sure. That is what we are going for right now.”

Com. Harper, “So that is what we are approving tonight, approving your advertising for bids for six vehicles. You are not going to pay for them all this year?”

Mr. Hoagland, “No, sir. We will be lease purchasing on four for five years.”

Com. Harper, “As I understand it, you are going to work out of a fund that you already have lease purchasing but you think you can continue and have money for those four?”

Mr. Hoagland, “I believe so. If the bids come in too high, we will simply cut a truck.”

Com. Harper, “What about the other two?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Those will come out of a bridge account that has been set up specifically in the last five years to purchase vehicles.”

Com. Harper, “We just had the Sheriff’s Department here which I think we are starting to get on a regular basis, so are you putting together a plan, a replacement plan?”

Mr. Hoagland, “That is what we are trying to do in looking at options in front of us and finding we have two house bills up this year that if they get passed, will help us considerably.”

Com. Harper, “Does this need to go before the Council yet?”

Mr. Hoagland, “I don’t believe so. We’ve got the money appropriated in our line items.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think we can authorize them to bid six trucks. Al did come in and spend a significant amount of time with Carole and I going through the figures on how the money was going to be handled out of 023730 and we took a calculator to it and he is going to have the money; he has the bridge fund as well. It sounds like about $280,000 out of Bridge for two trucks?”

Mr. Hoagland, “The funds I am still not sure are the additionals that would be available the rest of the year.”

Com. Harper, “So you think you are going to have the money for these, do you need a car or truck?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Right, the two pick ups and an engineering vehicle, as soon as I find out the additionals I am going to the Council for that appropriation.”

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

Com. Harper, “Anything else?”

Mr. Hoagland, “It would be nice to have a new garage to park them in.”

Award bid for Emergency Warning Siren System
Phil Griffith, EMA Director

Mr. Griffith, “The committee that we set up to review it when through all three of the bidders and we’ve decided Tri-Electronics of Hammond would be the appropriate place to give a bid. I have copies of their bid. The fact that they are a local company, they can provide the service that may or may not be needed. They were the low bidder and they have the same warranty as the other ones. I have a list of their agencies including several in Indiana that have that siren. I talked to them and they are very pleased.”

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

Mr. Griffith, “I also have a proclamation as next week is Severe Weather Preparedness Week the governor is making a proclamation. They have asked each commission in the counties do a proclamation also. The date is March 6-12 and on March 9, at our time between 9:00 and 10:00 there will be a statewide tornado drill for schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, and again at night from 6:00 to 7:00 pm, our time they will do another exercise and then compare the skills.”

PROCLAMATION
SEVERE WEATHER PREPAREDNESS WEEK
MARCH 6-12, 2005

Whereas, the money of March through June present the highest risk for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to strike Porter County; and
Whereas, Porter County is located within the nation’s “Tornado Belt” becoming a prime target of devastating tornado outbreaks and other types of severe weather; and
Whereas, a statewide tornado warning exercise will be held on March 9, 2005 for the purpose of testing communication systems, equipment and procedures; and
Whereas, During this week, the Porter County Emergency Management Agency is emphasizing its safety procedures involving tornado activity;
Now therefore, we the Porter County Board of Commissioners do hereby proclaim March 6-12, 2005 as
“SEVERE WEATHER PREPAREDNESS WEEK”
in Porter County and encourage all citizens to become aware of severe weather danger signs, and to learn how to safeguard the lives of their families, friends and citizenry in the event of severe weather activity in our area.
S/Robert P. Harper
S/John A. Evans
S/Carole M. Knoblock

Com. Evans moved to approve the proclamation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.


David Sheibels, E911 Director

Mr. Sheibels, “To make a long story short, we entered into the dispatch mapping business when I came to the county approximately 8 years ago. We have been using two products, one from a company in Florida another company in California. Tiburon, as you know, became our dispatch software vendor about 2 ½ years ago, was a business partner with Plant Mapping. They gave us general notification about a year ago that they were dissolving that relationship with Plant Mapping for 911 call taking mapping software that it automatically interfaces with our dispatch software. They have formally announced the demise of their relationship with Plant Equipment, have formed a new relationship with a company called 911 Mapping a few months ago. They have indicated to all the Tiburon dispatch customers that their next version which is going out in April and we are scheduled at the end of April to get that release. It will no longer be interfaced with the Plant Mapping software so we basically do not have a choice but to move to their new business partner or mapping software display software for dispatch positions in order to maintain the wireless location technology features that we currently enjoy with Plant Mapping. So since this was an unplanned event this year, I did not budget for it or have knowledge of a dollar amount to change software this year. So I am asking for an additional appropriation out of unencumbered 911 surcharge money into a line item in my budget, line item 4510 for $47,100.00 to take care of this particular event so we stay in tune with the next generation of dispatch software and have all the call taking features on the mapping side that we currently have had for many years.”

Com. Harper, “So, Tiburon, we just spent what?”

Mr. Sheibels, “The dispatch side it was approximately $300,000.00 about two years ago and that did not include mapping software. We have had the mapping software in place for many years before Tiburon was using it. With the old CLUES system that came before Tiburon.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Is this for the program, that CLUES? That same type of program they provided us with?”

Mr. Sheibels, “No, it is outside of the dispatch software, this is strictly a map display software. Map display software has become pretty standard throughout the dispatch industry these days, except for the interface, you have to have the ability for the dispatch software to talk to the map, it is a bi-directional two way communication so that especially now with wireless cell phones prevalent in our business, in order to re-bid or relocate the cell phone, we need to have the map automatically do that. As of the next generation of Tiburon software, our current map software will no longer have that capability simply because they have left the relationship with Plant Mapping and are joined up with 911 mapping. When we get the next interface, it will not talk to our current map and we can’t afford to let that happen. It was writing on the wall, this was very typical of technology companies that change business partners for different attributes of the their operations. This is just another example of this.”

Com. Evans, “Does Tiburon have anybody on the board of the new software?”

Mr. Sheibels, “Not that I know of, it is strictly just another business relationship. They basically gave the indication at last year’s Tiburon conference which I attended in September that this had a probability of happening. The good news is that last year when the probability surfaced, I wrote a comprehensive letter to the Indiana Wireless Board which has had a cost recovery mapping grant in place for about two years. This mapping upgrade, is actually going to enhance our wireless call location technology a little bit. It has a signal ____ feature which our current map does not have which will give us an indication of signal strength on the network triangularztion methodology that cell phone companies are using and display that percentage to the dispatcher at the call location icon on the map so we are getting that feature and a few minor features by changing at this time. In any case the Indiana Wireless Board has concluded from my correspondence last year that this does correspond with the criteria for grant money. So there is an excellent probability, in fact I am almost sure we will get reimbursed 100% of the cost from the Indiana Wireless Board. The plan on the grant is that the county must pay for the software update first and then we submit our paid out invoice along with the grant application which I have in my office to the Wireless Board for the review of map cost recoveries twice a year. We will probably hit the October meeting and excellent probabilities are mentioned here for being reimbursed for this anyway.”

Com. Knoblock, “What’s the balance of that fund?”

Mr. Sheibels, “Currently, in a fund appropriated, we have a little over $1.8 million.”

Com. Evans, “Dave, I know this isn’t your fault and you should be commended for making your budget in a manner that allows for these types of unforeseen problems. It just kind of irritates me that we are held hostage by people that write software. Is there anybody else who they will interface with other than this company?”

Mr. Sheibels, “No, this is . . . unfortunately they are a single source vendor, but they have gone into business with and there is not another company.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the additional appropriation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “I think we should have this earlier, Dave, when did we get this?”

Mr. Sheibels, “I just got the final prices from 911 mapping just yesterday.”

Com. Harper, “I just would like to have a head’s up. Thank you.”

Sharon Lippens, ITS Director

Com. Harper, “Sharon is not on the agenda, but they have a problem, apparently we have a couple weeks to make a decision and I thought we should get a head’s up.”

Com. Evans, “Please tell me it isn’t software.”

Ms. Lippens, “No, it isn’t, its hardware. Thank you for hearing me tonight. I have some very brief background. The contract was signed with McShanes to lease two copies in the Print Shop to be used for all the tasks the Print Shop does. That was done, the contract was signed in 2001, and actually it went into effect September of 2001. The amount was for $3,375.06 per month and that was for 250,000 combined copies and if it went over that there was a _________. There’s approximately 18 months left on that agreement. For about the last year to 18 months, we have had non stop problems with this equipment. They are down 50% of the time and that is being very, very generous. It is probably close to 75% of the time that they are inoperable. And it is very frustrating for my staff and it is very frustrating for departments that are waiting to get correspondence, sometimes they are time sensitive, and we cannot help them. I have repeatedly met with representatives from McShanes to try and find a solution. The contract is written so that McShanes holds all of the cards and we don’t have any. They basically have no response time and we have made service calls and not received a call back for two weeks. In the last two months, both machines have pretty much been down 100%. I have had numerous meetings with representatives from McShanes, they gave us possible solutions on how to get this going. They work for a week or two, they were going to come out and clean the machines and do maintenance once a week, that happened for about two weeks, then stopped. Finally, I was presented with a new contract for a replacement copier. They were all too generous to do that for us. The agreement was to replace the two machines with a new five year contract which would also include refinancing with balance due on the contract. The two machines that were quoted, I spoke to another vendor that we have worked with before, the vendor that we purchased our other printer from, and asked them to give me a quote as well. The quote that they gave me was considerably less. And from what I understand, those two machines run on the ____ contract and that is where they got their pricing from. I did not divulge any pricing from McShanes to them. McShanes has also stated that if we were to go with another company to purchase the equipment, that we are responsible for the balance due on that contract even though part of that contract is for service on the machines that we will not be receiving and part of it would be for the hardware. I tried to explain to them that I did not feel this is right, that they be charging us for service that we would not be receiving and their answer was we signed the contract, we are obligated to it. The other company I spoke to felt that there may be an Indiana law to help us with that, and they were not able to give me references.”

Com. Harper, “So we signed a contract for five years, the machines don’t run half the time, we have to keep getting the _________. “

Ms. Lippens, “The contract gives us no rights whatsoever. It does not guarantee a response time, it does not guarantee the machines will run.”

Com. Harper, “Lets have the county attorney look over this contract with McShanes and give us some suggestions on what we should do, purchase new machines and we will vote on it in two weeks from tonight.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, we are going to quit paying them and they take their machines back and we are going to get new machines and then when they want their money they can take action with us. That’s what this boils down to is the fines.”

Ms. Lippens, “I have two alternate solutions that I could present to you. Each solution includes a lease, a buy out lease and a purchase for consideration. Of course, there are two options, one is less so that we can stay in the county budget.”

Com. Harper, “The only thing I ask is give it to us a few days early so we have a chance to look it over.”

Ms. Lippens, “Okay, thank you.”

Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitor’s Commission
Lorelei Weimer, Director

Ms. Weimer, “We are getting ready to submit our mylar plans for the new Visitor’s Center down to INDOT. They are prepared and you guys are acting as the LPA for the Visitor’s Center. I have their cover sheet for the Mylar’s and I request your signatures on that. We will have a couple other documents. After this is done, we are trying to get our land closed on, once the land is certified and closed on, INDOT will actually bid. We are hoping to be on the May bidding list. So once those two things come together, we will bid and have our groundbreaking in July or August.”

Com. Evans, “We can come over to you and sign, it will be better with the Mylar’s.”


COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

North District: Com. Evans

1. INDOT Letter of Commitment for Bridge 1014, over CSX Railroad (now RailAmerica) on Calumet Road. Total amount of federal aid is $420,000.00. This is 80% federal funding and the County’s match would be $105,000.00 plus design costs.

Com. Evans, “This is for information only, we have already done that.”

2. Pine Minor Subdivision 2608-D-1, located on the north side of CR 1500 North between CR 500 East and CR 400 East. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total $750.00. Recommend approval.

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

Center District: Com. Harper

1. INDOT Letter of Commitment for Bridge 1010, Joliet Road over CSX Railroad. Total amount of additional money is $240,000.00. We previously had obtained $200,000.00 in federal money. This will allow for a bridge overlay. This is 80% federal funding and the County’s match would be $110,000.00 plus design costs.

Com. Harper, “That is only for a matter of information.”

2. Prairie Ridge Subdivision located on the east side of CR 150 East about 600 feet north of Division Road. Offer to contribute $660.00/lot for a total of $46,200.00. Recommend approval.

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

South District: Com. Knoblock

1. Morgan Minor Subdivision 2341-D-1, located on the east side of CR 325 East between CR 100 South and CR 150 South. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $3,000.00. Recommend approval.

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

APPROVE PORTER COUNTY PERSONNEL POLICY MANUAL

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We combined all the amendments that we have done for the last four years. We didn’t approve it last meeting because you said you wanted to wait until all three Commissioners were present to sign it.”

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

APPROVE GOETZ LANDSCAPING CONTRACT

Com. Harper, “Mrs. Miller has given us the information from Goetz Landscaping. I think we should approve that with the exception of the trees out front and that we make it a definite decision on that but include the fertilizing. They want to start and they did a pretty good job last year.”

Com. Evans moved to approve Goetz Landscaping for all buildings, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “We have two openings that I think we should take applications for a couple weeks. We have an opening on the Plan Commission, for a public member to the Plan Commission but you can live anywhere but you have to either live or own land in the county. We also have an opening for the Wildlife Board. We should get out notices. Is it alright with everybody that we do that in two weeks? That is all I have.”

Com. Evans, “I have something for Dave Schelling. The railroad crossing at Highway 2 is just pathetic. They never have fulfilled their obligation. They just come by and throw asphalt on it.”

Com. Harper, “We should do what we did last time and threaten.”

Com. Evans, “I think we need to get them a letter that if they don’t repair it we are going to repair it and send them the bill.”

Com. Harper, “Okay, does anyone have anything else?”


CORRESPONDENCE

Treasurer’s monthly report for January 2005 is on file.
Clerk’s monthly report for January 2005 is on file.

Request for late enrollee to the Porter County Employee Benefit Plan

Com. Evans moved to approve Christina Valpatic as late enrollee to the Porter County Employee Benefit Plan with coverage to be effective March 1, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Approval of contract with Animal Shelter Services and City of Valparaiso

Com. Evans moved to approve the contract in the amount of $20,150.00 with the City of Valparaiso, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Request use of State Road 130 for Soap Box Derby on June 25, 2005

Com. Evans moved to approve the Soap Box Derby for June 25, 2005, rain date June 26, 2005, contingent upon insurance being in place, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Bills for Sommer Barnard

Com. Harper, “They are handling our appeal on the landfill. Are you going to have that on the Council meeting?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I didn’t know if they ever had a special meeting or if they wanted to take it because Sommer and Barnard are hostile.”

Com. Harper, “We are asking for additional appropriation.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the additional appropriation for Sommer Barnard in the amount of $30,141.47

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think we already asked them and they already approve it but now we have to go back in with the BZA because they are the party to the action and find out where the Council is going to get the money from because they approved the initial bill for the trial work. Then they approved us to proceed with the appeal and said they would come up with the money for us to pay for it and we would not have to take it out the Plan Commission fund. So now we have a firm figure that is rising monthly.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Transfer of funds-Commissioners

Fund 01.30 $10,000 from acct 3710 equipment
Into acct 3978 care of patients and inmates

To cover cost of taking care of adult inmates through the end of 2005.

Ms. Hartig, “Last year at budget hearings we had money in this line item and last year it was taken out of our budget and given to Judge Harper for the care of juveniles but I don’t think anybody realized we were still paying for adults.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We figured out they took the money away but we are still getting billed. So is this something else we have to bring up in front of the Council?”

Ms. Hartig, “We are still getting bills for the adults.”

Com. Evans, “This is for Parke County.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Whoever it was came from us and went to Richmond State Hospital in Parke County.”

Com. Harper, “We need to look into the statute that requires us to do this because they are buying clothing, so lets put it back on for the next time.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “How are we going to find a statute?”

Com. Harper, “Well, these people are in Richmond State Hospital.”

Ms. Hartig, “We pay Richmond, Logansport State Hospital, Ft. Wayne, . . . “

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We don’t know who these people are, who’s sending them there, or anything. I think we probably should send this over to the courts who must be ordering these people to these places and find out why they are ordering them and why we’re paying for it. It should probably be in the judge’s budget.”

Com. Harper, “No, I think this is something else. I think these are people that can’t take care of themselves. They were in the County Home before that and they somehow got to these facilities. It says here pursuant to acts. So we can look this up. We’ll just put it on for two weeks.”

Request for Additional Appropriation—Commissioners

Fund 01.30 $180,000 acct 3963 Youth Service Bureau

To cover shortfall.

Com. Harper, “We held an information meeting on that with all three Commissioners present, it was a public meeting, and several Council members present. If there are going to be additional funds, and no vote was taken, the Council is going to be one to have the final saying on the additional appropriation. The amount in here was the amount they are asking for. I am not sure that is what they are going to get, but if we are going to start the ball rolling to give the Council the opportunity to debate this and decide what action they are going to take, I think we should start with this figure and then take it to them and they’ll have their debate and decide what to do. There were some questions at that meeting and some different suggestions, the state is apparently holding about $100,000 and will probably be somewhat more. John, do you have anything to add?”

Com. Evans, “No, I think that is pretty accurate. They have had a continuing problem and timely payments and that is a necessity if they are borrowing it they are in a position currently where they are either going to have to seek this additional appropriation or seek a second mortgage and I don’t think it is a good idea they go in for a second mortgage in light of what they do. I think they are very worthwhile, they do a great deal of good for this county.”

Com. Evans moved to request the additional appropriation in the Commissioners’ budget and present the case with them at the Council, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

PLAN COMMISSION
PUBLIC HEARING-PETITION TO VACATE ST. ROADS 49 AND 30, COMEFORD ROAD
Atty. Todd Leeth, Hoeppner Wagner Evans

Com. Harper “There was a lot of discussion last time and I feel that there is a dispute over the road and it is not worth anybody’s trouble to dispute it. It is my suggestion we approve that Dave offered to pay $1,000 for the engineering. Let’s go through the public hearing.”

Atty. Leeth, “I am here on behalf of the petitioner, Porter County Development Corporation, I am joined with John McCurran from the company. As you know we filed a Petition to Vacate two strips of right of way along the northern 26 feet of Comeford Road as it curves off of South Sturdy Road, south of US Highway 30 and the other portion of right of way is the eastern ten feet of Sturdy Road that then creates this triangular piece between Comeford Road and the Penn Central Railroad to allow for the creation of a buildable site in there. Then we are going to relocate the cross over road to a further northern portion. Mr. McCurran and Don Bengal, the project engineer, have been in touch with the Highway Department and worked all that out. The general location and shape of that road has been tentatively approved. You’ve seen the drawings for the purposes of the hearing tonight that is the brief explanation. If there are any questions from the public, we would be happy to share a detailed drawing and help the public better understand it. But it is to vacate the road and then a parcel of that is the relocation of that cross over road and dedicate the right of way.”

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone who wants to speak on behalf of this petition? Anyone that wants to speak against it?”

George Stoner, “I live tat 2451 Sturdy Road, south of the project. Sturdy Road is a (inaudible) from the previous meeting. Sturdy Road is a forty foot easement road at the south end, at the north end it is a 40 foot easement also?”

Com. Harper, “Please ask all of your questions at once and then we’ll answer them. Do you have any other questions?”

Mr. Stoner, “At the last meeting it was kind of a situation we were discussing almost like which came first the chicken or the egg and apparently the north end section of this part of Sturdy Road has been at one time part of State Highway 30 and 49 and now it is considered Sturdy Road. My observation that the 85 foot right of way in that northern part is still in existence and has not been ___ upon. So why is it necessary to work from the center line of the present road, you are basically changing the easement of that section ___ of the Comeford Road section. Does that include then coming down in the section that was Sturdy Road coming down on the southern part of the project, are you suggesting that is also going to have a sixty foot easement as a thoroughfare type of road? I live on Sturdy Road, I know how to get ___ with a sixty foot right of way and a forty foot right of way at the railroad track. Do you understand what I am saying?”

Com. Harper, “We will address that, do you have any other comments?”

Mr. Stoner, “Since it is so close to Valparaiso, and the eastern section of Comeford Road, has it been turned over to the city of Valparaiso, they have maintained that and snowplowed and taken care of, what are they doing with their easement on those sections of Comeford Road and Sturdy Road. Are they giving back to the owners, are they drawing up the necessary papers to show that they are going back on the tax rolls?”

Com. Harper, “Thank you. Anyone else to speak against?”

Frank Corona, “I live at 2500 ____, Valparaiso and I am here representing St. Paul Catholic Church. I am here to talk about the roadways, reading the description, it sounds like ________, (Inaudible).”

Com. Harper, “Anyone else want to comment? Mr. Leeth could you respond?”

Atty. Leeth, “I am not sure I understand all of the concerns but let me try and address the concerns. With regard to Comeford Road. Comeford Road as we know starts on the about the middle of my clients’ property and extends south and east of off Sturdy Road in a curve or radius. That is a roadway that is 85 feet in width, the right of way, obviously the paved or traveled portion is much much smaller than that. I think Mr. Schelling, at the last meeting, it was indicated that the right of way was excessive. The reason it is 85 feet that I can gather, is the historical drawings for Comeford Road indicate that it is a state highway and it is confusing as to whether or not it is Highway 49 or Highway 30, as its in that general location of the quadrant of the intersection of those two state highways, it is referred to as both of them in some of the historical drawings. Nevertheless, it was a state highway at one time before Highway 30 and 49, as we know them, were developed. So the right of way was basically a county road, is certainly excessive with regard to Comeford Road, so we are asking to vacate the northern 26 feet which frankly places the travel portion or the paved portion of the roadway in the center of a remaining 60 foot wide right of way. I don’t think there is much question that that is meritorious petition with regard to Comeford Road. Even on the northern end, the medical building on the north actually encroaches into that excessive right of way three or four feet so it is actually comes way out into the actual encroaching of the building. The second portion of the petition has to do with the eastern side of County Road 150 which is Sturdy Road and there its an existing 40 foot wide right of way and we are asking for it to be reduced to 30 feet with a reduction of 10 feet and again, Mr. Schelling has indicated that the 30 foot wide right of way that remains is the same right of way that he would ask be dedicated if this were a new road under the county thoroughfare plan. So we are not asking for a reduction in what the county would as for is this were a new road to be dedicated. It is only on the east side, its not affecting the west side. I think the two gentlemen that spoke concerned property on the west side, we not affecting that one bit it only relates on our side. As to placing this land, yes, it would go back on the tax rolls as part of the petitioner’s real estate and hopefully they will develop the property that would have more assessed valuation on the tax rolls.”

Com. Evans, “Mr. Stoner, you live on the west side of Sturdy?”

Mr. Stoner, “I live south of the railroad tracks, south of the second railroad tracks, on the east side of the road and at that point Sturdy Road is ___ of an easement. I am suggesting that maybe if you drive the road and look at it, Sturdy Road is off center now from the 40 foot easement. Sturdy Road’s center isn’t ____ unless you want to say that the St. Paul’s Cemetery is infringing upon the present 40 foot right of way; the same way with the other cemetery, Township Cemetery. At that point it has probably a 70 foot easement based upon the old 49 highway easement. There again, 49 on that 85 foot easement lies off center. The same way with Sturdy Road south of the curve, it lies off center also. The paved section is off center from the center line, or of the easement. Maybe this is not clear as mud but I hope it doesn’t confuse the issue. I hope they would at least come to the railroad track and make provisions for that 65 foot right of way which is a thoroughfare right of way.”

Atty. Leeth, “I think we all understand, but when we are talking about 30 foot and 40 foot, today, it exists 40 foot on our side of the centerline, it is really 80 feet wide and we are asking that it be reduced on our side 10 feet so that the 40 feet on our side is really 30 feet but there still would remain the other 40 feet on the west side for a remaining total of 70 total.”

Com. Harper, “Does that answer your question?”

Mr. Stoner, “I still don’t get a good picture how this is going to affect their set back from that road. I can’t quite picture it.”

Atty. Leeth, “Well, I gave you a drawing, what it allows us to do is locate the building further south and west that gives us ten more feet for our front yard which will be on Comeford Road to allow for more parking space and better ingress and egress and parking on the north and east side of the proposed building. It is a very difficult site as we identified before. I don’t think it creates the bottle Mr. Stoner is fearful of.”

Mr. Stoner, “I feel that it is so close to Sturdy Road that it will obscure the vision of the railroad tracks and the flashers that sometimes work and sometimes don’t; will that cause the effect to reduce the possibility of the attractiveness of it?”

Atty. Leeth, “Well, the southern set back for the parcel in question isn’t being reduced one bit. We can build on that line as it were even if the vacations were not granted. Second of all, I don’t have any indication, yes I do, the drawing shows from our southern property line to the center line of the tracks is 63 feet, so that is a significant distance that gives site line, and we are fifteen feet off that, so 75 feet of separation between our building and the center of the tracks, which would give adequate site line distance looking to the east.”

Mr. Stoner, “I’m still not satisfied but its not my place to question it. So I leave it in the hands of these three people. The buck stops with you.”

Com. Evans, “I personally feel the safety aspect of that road, when you are heading north on Sturdy, you come up to the curve, its kind of hazardous if you look one way and then the other, if the car on Sturdy is going to take Comeford, there’s many occasion there where somebody starts to pull out and realizes the person is actually going to take the curve to the east rather than go straight on Sturdy to the south. So the proposal for the intersection to come at right angles to each other would probably increase the safety of that intersection remarkably. I don’t think it is going preclude for the site distance for the railroad. The west side where the cemetery is actually untouched and probably enhanced by the fact that the entrance to the cemetery is now going to be removed from the intersection. I have taken funerals in there and it has been a little hairy to turn into that corner.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is that in the city limits?”

Atty. Leeth, “I believe the city limits are out by the back entrance into the Wal Mart development.”

Mr. Stoner, “Doesn’t the city have an overlay plan, though? At lease offer their input on this decision?”

Com. Evans, “I don’t think its required. I’m sure they had the ability to read the notice if they thought they should show up, they usually do.”

Com. Harper, “Does either board member have any more questions?”

Com. Knoblock, “I have one question, who is going to pay for the road?”

Atty. Leeth, “The relocation of the road is going to be, the new road will be dedicated as part of our agreement and then my client will then agree to pay 50% of the engineering and development of the new road not to exceed $1,000.00.”

Com. Evans, “Dave Schelling has obviously looked at this project, what is your ball park figure for engineering and construction?”

Mr. Schelling, “The cost of the road itself would (inaudible)… around $4,000.00.”
Com. Evans, “And the engineering?”

Mr. Schelling, “Well, the main part of the engineering would be the ___ and the legal work for defining a new right of way. It’s only about 80 feet long so you just have to meet____. There might be a need for a _______, probably on the west end. (Mr. Schelling was not sitting by a microphone and therefore not able to be heard by the recording equipment.)

Unknown male, (inaudible due to the fact he was not speaking near the microphone and he was mumbling.)

Atty. Leeth, “That is not the way I stated it. Are you willing to throw in the engineering and then $1,000.00?”

Unknown male, (inaudible). We’ll pitch in the $1,000.00 and then we will dedicate the right of way to the county.

Atty. Leeth, “That is a little bit different as I stated.

Com. Harper, “Are you saying you will pay the engineering cost plus the $1,000.00?”

Atty. Leeth, “Yes.”

Unknown male, (inaudible).

Com. Evans, “You are talking about more than $1,000.00. You’re saying you will pay the engineering costs.”

Unknown male, “Don Bengal is the engineer. (Inaudible)

Com. Evans, “I think that is fair since you are going to start paying taxes on that property.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the vacation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Before you go and for the record we like to approve the publication and make sure the property owners were served with certain guidelines.”


ADMINISTRATION BUILDING BLINDS DISCUSSION

Com. Harper, “All three of us have received the proposals on the shades for the building. Have you had a chance to look this over?”

Com. Evans, “Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy them all sunglasses? Why don’t we hold off?”

Com. Knoblock, “We talked about it being cheaper to do all three floors.”

Com. Harper, “Probably to save on energy costs.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Did we talk about or get a price to just get that darker color film?”

Com. Knoblock, “This is mesh, it looks like mesh.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Did anyone think about tinting them?”

Com. Knoblock, “No.”

Com. Harper, “To my way of thinking, we don’t want to mess with that glass anyway.”

Com. Knoblock, “And there are kids that always play there and they didn’t want to get blinds.”

Com. Harper, “Well, lets think about it.”

Com. Knoblock moved to recess, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA


Robert P. Harper
John A. Evans
Carole M. Knoblock

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor