PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2005
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 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 Hurting and Vi Wagner.

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

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of June 13, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

AMENDMENT TO ORDINANCE 96-31, ANIMAL CONTROL, 1ST READING
Matt Soliday, attorney

Atty. Soliday, “I am the attorney for the Porter County Animal Board and we are proposing that Ordinance 96-31, 6.04.10 Vicious animals, and I have provided you with the proposed amendment. It currently reads as follows: If the director finds that the allegations a vicious animal is substantiated, a copy of the director’s report shall be mailed to the owner of the animal and the Board of Commissioners of Porter County. And subsection E, Section 10E, and then under 10F it currently reads that upon receipt of the report of the director substantiating the allegation of a vicious animal, the Board of Commissioners of Porter County may: (1) advise the director to refer the matter to the Porter County Court system for disposition, or (2) notify the owner of the animal of the time and place of the hearing to be held by the Board of Commissioners for purposes of receiving evidence to make the findings issued …(inaudible)……of final disposition of said animal which may …(inaudible)… of the destruction of said animal upon the finding that it is vicious. We have proposed to take out the part under F with regard to the Board of Commissioners having a hearing on the matter of a vicious animal and just having it the director refer it straight to the Porter County Court system for disposition.”

Com. Harper, “How would they do that? Would you file the petition, is that what would happen?”

Atty. Soliday, “Right. And the reason this comes up is we had a case where there was a vicious animal and I basically followed standard procedure and filed the petition and it was set for hearing and then I was re-reading the statute and it said that it had to go to you folks first, that is just the way we had always done it. So I said, well, we have reached an agreement outside of the hearing.”

Com. Harper, “Myself personally, I think we should take this amendment. We don’t want to be going to hearings on that. That is a court matter to be determined.”

Com. Evans, “They end up there anyway so . . .”

Com. Harper, “Just let the court handle it? Can this be one reading?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “No, because I am going to change the format a little bit but we can have first reading. Then on second reading I am going to have it in a little better format for the code. When we do the codification, they like it and we like it better if you put the whole ordinance in and the whole section so you don’t have to cut and paste and figure out what’s changed. So you can read this on first reading and then the second reading will just be in a format that sets forth an entire Section 10 so if somebody pulls us Section 10, they don’t have to pull out all the other ordinances to figure out what the whole thing says.”
Com. Knoblock moved to pass the Amendment to Ordinance 96-31 on first reading, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

ADMINISTRATION CENTER BOILER REPAIR
Rick Renner, Johnson Controls

Mr. Renner, “What has happened is one of the three boilers in this building, the internal lining of the boiler has collapsed, which means the boiler is not functioning. The other two boilers are the same age and have been running the same time and we are starting to see hairline cracks in those already. We recommend doing all three when we are doing the one. That is what the proposal is for.”

Com. Harper, “I talked to you about this and it is not unusual for the age of these boilers to have this problem.”

Mr. Renner, “Not at all because they are running all year round. They are the original, they are the same age as the building. So it is not uncommon at all.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The total price for all three is $11,720.00?”

Mr. Renner, “That is correct.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Do we have the money?”

Com. Harper, “We’ll have to ask Melissa that.”

Ms. Hartig, “I will have to look around.”

Com. Harper, “Where do you think it will come from?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We have to have the money.”

Ms. Hartig, “Yes, there are a couple different places.”

Com. Harper, “Any questions?”

Com. Knoblock, “No, these are eleven years old.”

Com. Evans, “Estimated time for repair?”

Mr. Renner, “Less than a week.”

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

JOINT RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE ACCESSIBILITY OF POLLING PLACES AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF HAVA FUNDS

Atty. Rinkenberger, “No one is here on this because Dale Brewer is out to a clerk’s convention for the week. They sent no one else. But, I have read through this and if you recall when she appeared before us last time she said there were two issues that were going to require money and that was the contract we approved for all of the machines. Then she said we were going to have another added expenditure that we were facing to provide machines for disabled people at either multiple polling places or jointly together. This resolution, when you read through it actually is binding the county through actions of the Commissioners and the Council to agree that they are going to comply with the federal law that requires that we provide accessibility to disabled elderly people by providing special machines as need be. So the first section of the resolution says that we agree to make the improvements that are required but we don’t have the specific Help America Vote Act. But Dale does. Then we will submit a report to the Indiana Electoin Division. I am assuming we are going to sign this but we are going to have to rely on our Election Board to follow through on what we are saying will occur. They are supposed to submit a report that lists the problems they have had with accessibility and then how we are going to solve them and we agree that each place will contain one voting system for the visually impaired and the legislative body, which is us in Porter County, and that’s not true for all the counties, we agree if we are going to adopt an ordinance to establish an advisory council to advise on improvement and what should be done that will have disabled, elderly and others. We are going to have to have her to create an advisory council. Then Section 5, by the fiscal body, and it says that anybody that once they apply for reimbursememt will actually be spent on what it is supposed to be spent on and then if it is not, Section 6 says, or Section 7, says if you don’t spend the money like you are supposed to we get penalized and we have to pay back certain money to the state. The final section says that the legislative body, once again, we will have to help the Auditor in creating a non reverting fund and put all the reimbursement money into so we will make a separate line item. Obviously the federal government doesn’t want this reimbursement money coming into the general fund and then have it spent on something that it wasn’t intended to be spent on. The best way to guard against that is to create a special line item so when we get the reimbursement money it goes straight to that line item and then the only money that can be spent out of that line item is for the specific purposes of voting and polling.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is there a deadline?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes, they need it, I was told by Dale it is on the Council’s agenda for their meeting and we should pass it at ours and hopefully somebody can get it at the Council meeting. We are in the same situation we were with the contract. That is we have to pass it. I just want everybody to understand what it is we are agreeing to do when we pass it because once we pass it we have to follow through and create an ordinance and advisory committee and what have you.”

Com. Evans, “Who selects the committee, us or the Council?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The executive.”

Com. Knoblock, “What is the penalty?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “That I don’t know.”

Com. Harper, “According to our last presentation, one of the places where a penalty would come from would be the reimbursement funds. What we are going to get from this. I suggest we pass it tonight, it is still up to the Council scrutiny. We are just the first step.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We are the first step, the Council has to take a look at it and it is not going to go into effect unless they pass it as well at their meeting.”

Com. Knoblock, “What is the resolution number?”

Ms. Hartig, “05-06.”

Com. Knoblock moved to pass Resolution No. 05-06, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I am thinking what Dale said at the last meeting we had was this was going to require more money than we have already committed to so this fund is in addition to that. So as long as someone will be at the Council meeting to make the presentation so they will understand when they sign it that it is binding to spend more money so we can get reimbursement money back.”

Com. Evans, “The first sentence under Section 1 says subject to the availability of title 3 requirement monies to the county under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 no later than March 2006.”

Com. Harper, “I guess one of us will be at the Council meeting.”
PORTER COUNTY FAMILY COUNSELING CENTER WALK/RUN
Adam Holterhoff

Mr. Holterhoff, “ First of all, I am Adam Holterhoff from the Porter County Family Counseling Center. Very briefly I am here at the suggestion of Sheriff Lain and I apologize that we misspelled his name in the summary there. He suggested I come here to ask for your endorsement on this event so he can assign manpower for traffic control. It is difficult for us to know how many people are going to be involved but an event like this typically draws 150, 200, 300 people something like that. I don’t want to put words in his mouth but I think he was supportive of the idea. As I said, we are a Porter County United Way Agency and like many of the United Way Agencies, we struggle with funds and thought this would be a good way to have a fund raiser. Basically that is what it comes down to.”

Com. Harper, “Are you planning on having everyone meet at the Expo Center on the Expo Center grounds?”

Mr. Holterhoff, “Yes.”

Com. Harper “And you have cleared that with Lonnie Steele?”

Mr. Holterhoff, “Yes, we have agreed on rental fees and everything else. We are going to be back by the sheep barn I believe it is. There is adequate parking and restroom facilities. That doesn’t seem to be a problem other than he had a concern that there is a recycling event but we set this up so there wouldn’t be any problems with that.”

Com. Harper, “And the Sheriff’s Department said they will provide the traffic control you need?”

Mr. Holterhoff, “He indicated he would. Again, I don’t want to speak for him but that was my understanding, yes. I personally have participated in a number of events where the police help and make sure people can get across streets. It is a minor inconvenience for drivers but unless you are talking the Chicago Marathon, it is only 30 seconds or a minute or two before people can get through. We tried to schedule this at a time when it would be the least inconvenient to people and traffic seems to be light out on Division out into the subdivision, east of the Expo Center so we would be well out of traffic’s way.”

Com Evans, “Do you have insurance to cover this?”

Mr. Holterhoff, “I am not sure. I think ultimately we will. We are doing this in conjunction with the Calumet Striders and I believe they carry insurance but the very first one is kind of a walk through so to be honest, I don’t know if we have specific insurance or if our insurance has a not for profit ____ to cover that. That is something I will have to check. That is a good thought.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the walk/run with the contingency that they show proof of insurance, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Holterhoff, “Do I need to report that back to the Commissioners?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Just fax us a copy of the certificate of insurance. Your carrier should provide one that covers the event and that names us as an additional insured. They’ll know.”

MASTERPIECE SEATS PROJECT, VALPARAISO DEPT. OF PARKS & RECREATION
Carol Kostakis

Ms. Kostakis, “I am the Assistant Director of the Valparaiso Parks Department and I am here on behalf of the department and the Valparaiso Arts Commission. We recently completed twenty four park benches that have been painted by local artists and students and we would like to have a display of these benches throughout most of the downtown area here. Per our request we are asking that we put four benches on the north side of the Porter County Courthouse, so it would be on the walkway there, in proximity to the benches that are already there. These are heavy duty benches but to assure safety and prevent people from walking off with these very heavy benches, we may have to put a tackon into the foot of each bench. Our Park Department’s maintenance and construction director will take care of that and we would repair any concrete or hole we might have to put in the concrete. We have done that in our parks it is just a matter of safety. We don’t want anybody to tip the benches over nor do we want anybody to procure one of these benches that they don’t own. There will be 24 of them throughout the downtown area and we hope to get these up within a week or two and have them on exhibit until September.”

Com. Harper, “They started with the cows in Chicago.”

Ms. Kostakis, “Not original but highly functional and they are beautiful pieces.”

Com. Harper, “Sounds good.”

Ms. Kostakis, “This public art is really big throughout the world. Crown Point is doing the bull dogs this year, Highland is doing the ducks.”

Com. Evans, “The Farmer’s Market is going on right now, are these going to be, it looks like according to your drawing, they are going to be in the same vicinity that the market is.”

Ms. Kostakis, “We were going to try and put them where you could still have access to, closer in between where the trees are planted, there is a small area between, and maybe in line where the trees are and face the roadway to showcase them. We will be sure not to impede on the Farmer’s Market and we are working with the VCFA on the location there.”

Com. Evans, “My only other question would be I see that the Y is getting some and the library, looks like Centier Bank and First National Bank. There’s none scheduled for our building.”

Ms. Kostakis, “We thought we would take care of the Courthouse, we can certainly look at that. Some of these have been sponsored by the banks and so they certainly want them by their location. We did a walk through thinking where they would fit and they wouldn’t impede any traffic. I will certainly take it back to the Commission if they would like to shift one over here and you are so willing. We can certainly see if we have an extra one of them.”

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

OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS

Greg Phillips Memorial Building
Russ Shirley, Environmental Coordinator

Mr. Shirley, “As you know we received three bids from Gariup Construction, Chester, Inc., and Morton Buildings. We reviewed the bids along with the representative from the county Building Department. After reviewing the bids at length, we feel that the best bid at this time is with Morton Buildings. They added the alternate for the upstairs area and their total bid for $673,075.00, is with the alternate included. The other two bids were both higher than that for the base bid. So it is our recommendation at this time that we go with the Morton Builders.”

Com. Harper, “Very good. There is a Mr. Sommers here that would like to speak on this.”

Mr. Sommers, “I am Mike Sommers, I am actually the business agent for the iron workers but I am here tonight representing Northwest Indiana Building Trades. We have a concern about the bid Morton Builders has turned in. Before the addition he just spoke of, I believe the bid was $603,000.00 that is actually 15% below the middle bidder and 17 and a half percent the top bidder which was Gariup. This is a common wage job. In this type of building there is no way any contractor, we believe using the common wage as stated by the State of Indiana could be that much different from the other two bidders. When all three of these companies do the same type of work all the time. We feel that the common wage law is not being represented in this bid and we are asking the Commissioners that this be tabled until some further investigation. We think from all the math we did on this today, Morton Builders cannot be bidding this at the skilled common wage. Common wage for the state of Indiana specifically states, and I have it here, the wage settings apprentices shall be permitted to work only at the ration of a journeyman in the apprentice program standard for the state of Indiana in this area. I do know this is not a job the iron workers would do. It is a job the carpenters would do and their ratio of apprentices is one apprentice to four journeymen. We don’t feel this has been bid according to the common wage. We are asking the Commissioners to table this for tonight if possible or to at least do some further investigation. That is what I was sent here to ask.”

Com. Harper, “I want to tell the other two commissioners by Melissa just a few minutes ago that you were here. So I want them both to know that I didn’t know you were coming. I am a little upset by you coming and let me tell you why I am. Because I think you contacted me months ago, I think it was you or someone from your organization, and wanted me to bring you a proposal on the bid contracts for the county which I was more than willing to do and I am still willing to do. They follow this procedure. Then all of a sudden to have someone here in the middle of a bid procedure, makes me wonder how that happened. I think I made it plain I would be available to sit down and talk with you.”

Mr. Sommers, “I think that was Mr. Strider. I just got this handed to me at 10:00 this morning.”

Com. Harper, “I was more than willing to carry that proposal, but what concerns me is I wonder if one of the other bidder that was a high bidder didn’t get a hold of you and that is the reason you are here. That is what concerns me about this and maybe its not. But let me ask you this because I want to see the prevailing wage paid. In my personal opinion, the prevailing wage is paid. Can’t we, well, you asked for two things; either we table it and investigate it or we do what, and follow it?”

Mr. Sommers, “If you table it tonight, we would like it to be rebid.”

Com. Harper, “If we find out they are going to pay that wage, how are going to find out if they are or they aren’t, there has to be some way to do that.”

Mr. Sommers, “You would have to get Morton Builders in here, I guess.”

Com. Evans, “How about if we do accept this, we put the contingent on that there will be the normal manpower involved, four journeymen to one apprentice and that the prevailing wage is paid to those employees. I don’t want to stop the bidding process either.”

Man in audience, “I am from Morton Builders. I have been with Morton Builders for six years and that was specifically stated. We got the rate of what the skilled workers rate should be paid. I sent that to our engineers, we figured that. That labor rate alone probably, I can’t give you a certain number but that added quite a bit. I was talking to Russ a year and a half ago, two years ago, because this building has to be figured at the prevailing wage, the cost increases ______ and I gave a sheet of the labor rate to our architect that figured the building, each one of my subcontractors, I specifically gave them a sheet, and they figured their price on the building from that sheet. So I know for a fact that . . . .”

Com. Evans, “Let me have Commissioner Evans say it again. He wants to approve this bid subject to, go ahead, John.”

Com. Evans, “The ration of four journeymen to one apprentice and prevailing wage be paid to all crafts working on the project.”

Morton Builders, “That’s fine.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The bid is only valid with the way these bids are drafted, state law says we have to pay prevailing wage so if somebody bids on it, when they bid on it, it has to be prevailing wage, if its not, its not a valid bid. So if they bid it that way, it is going to be prevailing wage and there is no reason not to accept it.”

Mr. Sommers, “Can I add something? I am not saying they didn’t bid the common wage. I am saying to offset these other two contractors, 15 to 17 and a half percent, we feel that their ratio of skilled to unskilled, which would be journeymen to apprentice is not going to be according to the area standard which this calls for. Because I don’t think they have an accredited apprentice program with the state of Indiana.”

Com. Evans, “You said they would be willing to meet that requirement?”

Morton Builders, “That is not a problem.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We can’t reject bids because someone feels something.”

Morton Builders, “Morton Builders has been around since 1903, we are a very reputable company, I will respect and honor what you guys want done tonight, but I am just telling you I took into account the labor rate that is supposed to be figured for this building and it is figured on the fact that I made for the specification.”

Com. Evans, “I don’t think they should be penalized for not making as much profit as somebody else if that is what we are really coming down to, is the cost. Truthfully, this building should have been built five years ago and I don’t want to see it delayed any longer.”

Com. Harper, “We can monitor this and you can monitor this, and that is part of the contract, (inaudible). . . . call it to our attention. (inaudible) . . . I think tonight my feeling is should act on this tonight.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the bid of Morton Builders,

Com. Harper, “I want to make it contingent on Council approval.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “And the execution of a contract that has satisfactory terms and conditions.”

Com. Harper moved to amend the approval subject to County Council approval and subject to execution of a contract that has satisfactory terms and conditions, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

All Districts: read by Com. Evans

1. Recently, INDOT sent the 2004 Mileage Certification for Porter County roads. Our current 2004 certification is for 788.12 miles of road which is up 3.81 miles from our 2003 Mileage Certification of 784.31 miles.

North District: Com. Evans

1. Replat of Lot 2 in Liberty Minor Subdivision 1825-A-1 Road Agreement, located on the south side of CR 700 North between Meridian Road and CR 150 East. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $750.00. Owners and subdividers are William C and Laura L. Strand. Recommend approval.

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

2. INDOT Claim Voucher to refund $7,037.43 to the County for over payment of money deposited with INDOT for the installation of gates and flashers at CR 1400 North at Amtrak. The County originally deposited $18,537.50 in September 1992. Recommend approval.

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

3. Recommend approval for a road agreement for Jackson Minor Subdivision 3020-A-1 with one buildable lot located at the southwest corner of CR 950 North and Porter-LaPorte County Line Road. The total amount is $750. The owners and subdividers are John & Anita Kadish and Ronald & Susan Stangebye.

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

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Recommend approval of Shorewood Forest, Section 29 Performance Letter of Credit MNB-2126 from Mercantile Bank in the amount of $425,150.00. The expiration date is June 6, 2006.

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


South District: Com. Knoblock

1. We finally received the Falling Waters Subdivision Second Addendum to extend the expiration date for Performance Letter of Credit #2001-12 from Citizens Financial Services, FSB in the amount of $343,000.00. New expiration date is June 18, 2006. Recommend approval.

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

CORRESPONDENCE

Treasurer’s monthly report for May 2005 is on file.
Building Dept. monthly report for May 2005 is on file.

Request approval for Rooftop Rendezvous on August 5, 2005

Com. Evans moved to approve the use of the parking garage for Friday, August 5, 2005 from 7:00 to 11:00 by the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce with proof of insurance, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Request for transfer of funds

Fund 132.30 $10,288 from acct 4210 buildings
Into acct 3120 consultants

To cover the consulting agreement and assessment performed by Daadda Services.

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

RAILROAD TRACKS ON STATE ROAD 2

Com. Evans, “After reading my report, it reminded me, Al, of the railroad tracks on State Road 2, they’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing. Can we see if we can light a fire there, that thing is terrible. And the other thing is in light of the recent appeal of the landfill decision, I think we should make sure that our Council is on track with the appeal process of the Supreme Court, the Indianapolis firm that we employed before, I don’t know if we need to that to make sure that happens.”

Com. Harper, “I think we need to do that, too, and we all want to see that we fight that landfill as hard as we can. I asked our attorney to contact them and get an idea of what they feel the fee would be, get an estimate, for the _____ of this. They may not accept it.”

Com. Evans, “That was my question, how does that process work?”

Com. Harper, “Well there may be some briefs filed before they decide whether they are going to accept it or not. But they may not accept it so it will be on hold, but lets get it and get on the Council meeting as soon as we can.”

Com. Evans, “Does the high court say okay, these are the cases we are going to hear and then set a date or do they say this is the case we are going to hear and start hearing it?”

Com. Harper, “A lot of times they don’t even hear it, they just read the briefs, they don’t have a hearing at all. What they do is these people filed a Petition to Transfer and I think we are going to have to file a reply to that to start with and then based on that, they’ll decide if they transfer it and then it will have to be re-briefed once it is transferred. So like I say there will probably be an ____ on the thing and we need to find out where we are at with the thing and we may need to ask to go on the next Council meeting because we are not actually asking for the funds, we are asking for a reason to spend the funds. Then we probably need to call that Indianapolis firm right away and find out what they need to get involved in this.”

Com. Evans, “We have an obligation so I think we should do it as quick as possible.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The Indianapolis firm was not too happy with us because it took us so long to pay them and they may not even do it. Yes, they will? Okay.”

WATER TESTING FOR WINDOWS AT ADMINISTRATION CENTER

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Water testing tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. for the windows and the sealant and the caulk. After we have our water tested, we should get a report and we should have direction to start moving on immediately.”

PLAN COMMISSION

Rezone, Ag –RR, Brad Birky, Owner, 1st Reading
Robert Thompson, Plan Commission Director

Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commission Resolution 05-9, Petitioner Brad Birky requesting an amendment to the zoning maps for a parcel of land from AG, Agriculture and Open Space to RR, Rural Residential. The Plan Commission approved this at their May 25th hearing and forwarded this to the County Commissioners with a favorable recommendation by 6-2 vote. I do want to go one step further and explain the petitioners did actually request with their application an R1 zoning, an ____ of R1 and the Plan Commission was uncomfortable with the R1 and did request the petitioner to give consideration to an RR Rural Residential zoning. The petitioner did and then the Plan Commission acted and recommended a favorable recommendation based on the RR.”

Com. Evans, “So the request is from AG to RR?”

Mr. Thompson, “Correct.”

Com. Harper, “And that request has a favorable recommendation?”
Mr. Thompson, “Correct. And that is the way our Plan Commission Resolution is reflected. From AG to RR.”

Com. Harper, “This is a public hearing?”

Mr. Thompson, “Yes, it is.”

Com. Harper, “Please state your name for the record.”

Mr. Birky, “Sure, my name is Brad Birky, my address is 870 South Baum’s Bridge Road, that is in Kouts, Indiana.”

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone to speak either for or against this? Okay, no one being here, do you want to tell us a little bit about what your plan is?”

Mr. Birky, “I don’t know how familiar you are with the situation. Unfortunately, my mother received this in a divorce and being she is not a farmer or farmer’s wife anymore, it is not profitable to her. This is her property and she said she purchased this in a divorce, thought it may be good residential, I said, yes, that is probably your best bet as far as being profitable to somebody that has a farm so here I am trying to get it rezoned RR. There is a good possibility of putting some residential homes on it. It is down in Kouts and sits at the corner of 850 South and Baum’s Bridge Road, it would be the southeast corner. I think they call it ten acres, it is about 9.5 tillable. It is bordered by Township Ditch on the south and I think that is a private ditch on the east which one of the neighbors stated at the last meeting that he wanted a right of way to keep that clean of debris which is no problem.”

Com. Harper, “If I remember correctly, there are houses south of you, right? There are houses in this area?”

Mr. Birky, “Yes, not even 100 feet from that property to the east. In fact, 850 is lined with houses except for a few lots that haven’t been sold.”

Com. Harper, “Bob, if this parcel is rezoned RR, how many lots are there in this?”

Mr. Thompson, “I would have to ask Mr. Birky, what is your frontage along 850?”

Mr. Birky, “I believe 782, around 700, don’t quote me on that.”

Mr. Thompson, “I would guess around 6.”

Com. Evans, “Your proposals indicate five to seven homes.”

Mr. Birky, “Really, I thought it was four to six.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Maybe that was based on the . . . it got changed, (inaudible)…

Mr. Birky, “I stand corrected, it was five to seven.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Then they changed it to RR, which probably changed the configuration.”

Mr. Thompson, “A lot of that is going to depend on the soil and the reason I said six is RR has 160 foot frontage versus the R1 which would have had 100, so six might even be stretching it. It might be five. I think six would be potentially with 160 foot frontage and figuring the lots coming off of 850 South. There is a subdivision just west of this, Snowberry Heights, and a lot of that is very sandy soil in there which is considered good for septics I guess in this situation because of being a well drained field. However, in this situation, the soil conditions can change from one parcel to the next so you never know. I know this is a little bit more than the road, . . .”
Com. Knoblock, “Do you know what the water table is?”

Mr. Thompson, “That I don’t know.”

Mr. Birky, “I don’t know. The next step I was going to take was to get soil borings and so forth to find out soil types and different things that we need to know.”

Mr. Thompson, “My guess would be the Health Department is going to require one acre lots, even it is zoned R1, it would require one acre. They have been really tough as far as looking at anything that would be less than one acre.”

Mr. Birky, “Which is fine.”

Mr. Thompson, “Green space would take effect. Six max in my opinion.”

Com. Evans, “Sounds like there is plenty of room for maximum of six houses and still have a lot of open areas as well.”

Com. Harper, “One thing of concern is the drainage ditch. Does he agree to . . .”

Mr. Birky, “Leave an easement for maintenance. An easement to Butch, he gets down there and he cuts the trees out and stuff, because it is a main water way for his field across the road. I don’t believe it is a county ditch, I don’t think, so I don’t think there is an automatic easement, like county wide, so it would be to him. Butch Warner.”

Mr. Thompson, “He is directly north of this parcel.”

Com. Knoblock, “There is one on the west side of Baum’s Bridge but it is dry on the east side.”

Mr. Thompson, “The man’s name was Wendel Warner, he came in from 841 Baum’s Bridge Road.”

Com. Harper, “So how should we word the motion?”

Mr. Thompson, “Probably should have a written commitment and present it at second reading. I don’t know how wide (inaudible)…. Probably twenty five feet, just to get equipment in or something.”

Mr. Birky, “That is fine.”

Com. Evans, “Twenty foot ought to be wide enough.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “What happens if it becomes a regulated ditch?”

Com. Evans, “They just take it over,”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t you make the easement the same as a regulated ditch just in case it becomes . . . .”

Com. Evans, “What is it on a regulated ditch?”

Mr. Thompson, “75. (inaudible.)…. In some situations . . .”

Com. Evans, “There is no utilities in it?”

Mr. Birky, “No. Let me ask you this, if you don’t mind. That lot is still being able to be used right for housing but it is going to be written in the description that it is an easement so that way the homeowner knows?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It will be recorded, a recorded document that runs with the land. If you are able to divide and sell property out there they are going to have notice so when they buy the property there is an easement for a regulated drain . . . “

Mr. Birky, “Right, because it is a right of way.”

Com. Evans moved to approve Resolution 05-09 AG to RR based on written commitments to be tendered for the drainage easement,

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Actually that is wrong. It should be motion to approve the ordinance approving the rezone of AG to RR on first reading and then he’ll prepare an ordinance that we will give a number to and the written commitment attached for second reading.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the rezone from AG to RR on first reading with the written commitments for second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Birky, “Can my wife come back to represent if I can’t make it?”

Com. Evans, “That is fine.”

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

With no further business, the meeting was recessed.


BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

Robert P. Harper
John A. Evans
Carole M. Knob lock

Attest: Sandra K. Vivo, Auditor