PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2005
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19, 2005, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

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

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

T-SHIRTS TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR HOWIE THE COW

Com. Harper, “John, why don’t you explain the shirts.”

Com. Evans, “Well, in about an hour from now the Valparaiso Board of Zoning Appeals is going to hear a request from Kelsey’s Restaurant to move Howie the Cow, their landmark that sits at the corner of Sturdy Road and Highway 30. We are just here to support Howie and his move. Howie should move, he is a landmark and he lets people know where Kelsey’s is, besides letting people know where to turn when they come into Valparaiso. He doesn’t qualify for the sign ordinance, that’s why he has to get a variance. We are just hoping he will get to move.”

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Knoblock moved to approve the payroll of July 11, 2005, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Knoblock moved to approve the minutes of June 21, 2005 and July 5, 2005, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

VISITOR’S CENTER ISSUES
David Hollenbeck, Attorney
Lorelei Weimer, Director Visitor’s Center

Atty. Hollenbeck, “I think you know Lorelei, our Executive Director and Dale Engquist from the Dunes National Lakeshore park. We are here this evening to number one, bring you up to date on the exciting work in progress we are making with the Visitor’s Center and to get your acquiescence on a couple of documents that need to be executed so we can progress. As you know, the Visitor’s Commission determined that we needed a new location for our facilities to make a statement in terms of people that come and visit Porter County. And that has culminated in an aggressive effort to seek funding from the federal government to help construct the facility and also a joint effort with the National Park Service to create a joint Visitor’s Center. After all the dust has settled, I believe we have been awarded approximately 2 ½ million dollars which represents 80% of the cost of the facility. I believe you have been provided ahead of time with two documents and a memorandum that we need your approval on this evening. Not necessarily in order of importance, the first one I have on my stack is the state local public agency construction and project management agreement between us and the state of Indiana Department of Transportation and that is who administers these federal grant dollars. Candidly, it is, as you can see from the fill in the blank provisions of it, it is pretty much of a boiler plate agreement that the Department of Transportation is required to provide us when they provide us with federal funding, the federal government dictates most of its parameters. Rest assured part of our project is that we hire a project manager who is experienced with the federal regulations and assures our compliance with them. I will answer any questions you may have about the agreement. But we are here this evening asking for the Commissioners’ acquiescence. Again, I will digress because the Visitor’s Commission is not statutorily able to own property, this building will actually be titled as the previous one was in the name of the Porter County Commissioners.”

Com. Harper, “Now the first document you are talking about is the document titled Local Public Agency Agreement and starts with the project management. All right, what is the second document?”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “Correct, the second document is the Memorandum of Understanding between the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Board of County Commissioners and the Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitor’s Commission. This is the document that outlines the basic parameters of the agreements that have been reached between the Visitor’s Commission and the National Lakeshore and the, we hope, Board of County Commissioners that will establish the relationship between the two entities as we progress in our joint adaptation of this new building. The third document is a Memorandum that I drafted dated July 11, 2005. That sets out with more specificity the parameters including the monetary parameters of the lease agreement that we will be getting more into. That is still a work in progress. What I would like to do this evening, the National Lakeshore, their federal funding cycle is such as they needed to know yesterday, not literally, the parameters of the commitment. They were going to have to get out of Congress in their budget and that is why we sat down and came to these agreements that we are hopefully getting your approval of this evening.”

Com. Harper, “Let me ask you this; are you asking for some sort of approval on this lease agreement because it is really a . . . . what are you asking for?”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “What I am asking for is the Commissioners consider this evening and approve the Memorandum of Understanding and seek the public agency agreement and I would ask that after I go through the monetary parameters of the lease, and if you are comfortable with it then you authorize upon Gwenn’s working with me and being satisfied with it, authorize the president of the Board of Commissioners to sign that hopefully in the next week or ten days.”

Com. Harper, “Are you asking us to approve that lease tonight or are you going to ask to bring it back?”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “I would prefer not to have to wait two weeks and bring it back. The Memorandum of Understanding contains basically everything except what the dollar amount is going to be. The Memorandum contains what the dollar agreements are. I will put these two together into a leased document.”

Com. Harper, “You know, we have had a chance to go over these documents and our attorney has gone over them and I assume you realize, and your board has gone over them and understand all the requirements that you are being put by entering these and by accepting these monies.”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “Absolutely, and we are cognizant of the extent of which the federal government ties strings around 2 ½ million dollars. They are not picking on us, these are requirements they place on everybody.”

Com. Harper, “All I am saying is we have reviewed them and the attorney has reviewed them, and we know what’s in them but you are the guys that are really going to have to live with all the agreements so I assume your board has been over this.”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “Yes, my board has been over it, we discussed it at a public meeting and they approved everything here before we brought it to you.”

Com. Harper, “Does anyone have any questions?”

Com. Evans, “Yes, on the 80-20 match, does your 20% come from the sale of the building?”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “Yes, and some other revenue from the Innkeeper’s Tax but the sale of the building, the revenue was placed back in the Innkeeper’s Tax Fund and that is where the preponderance of the 20% will go.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the three documents as presented, the state and local public agency agreement for construction and project management for federal aid projects, the memorandum of understanding between the Indiana National Lakeshore and Porter County Board of Commissioners and the PCCRVC and to approve the county attorney to go forward and prepare a lease to be entered pursuant to the specifications and amounts set forth in the memorandum prepared by Attorney Hollenbeck in the titled lease agreement, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

VERIZON SERVICE AGREEMENT
Tamra Craig, Verizon

Ms. Craig, “ I was looking over your current agreement for your telephone lines for the County which are called centranet lines and your current agreement is due to expire in the year 2008, however; (inaudible)… a couple years ago. It was under a sixty month contract term. We found that you went over the 500 line minimum that the ____ goes up to so we did file an individual ___ with the state to get you over that 500 line so that you are in compliance with the state of Indiana and with the Verizon regulations. So we went ahead and did that and were able to lower your monthly line rate by $.83 a line. And what that would so since you have so many lines, we also lowered your voice mail box rate. We can save you per year about $27,000.00. The new contract with the lower rate is going to be co-terminus with your previous contracts which will also be due to expire in 2008. So basically you are going to have the same contracts expiration, you are just going to save some money which is a pretty good deal.”

Com. Harper, “You have gone over it, Gwenn?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes I have. The only thing I was concerned with was paragraph four, the termination charges. I calculated it and if we would terminate the services twelve months early and we would have like a $12,685.00 phone bill.”

Ms. Craig, “At the same time, you are out of compliance and pretty much stuck with the rates you are currently at until 2008 any way.”

Com. Harper, “Take me through that again what you just said.”

Ms. Craig, “Okay, what happens is you went over the Indiana State _____ for this intranet lines as much as 500 lines. Once you get over the 500 lines, we need you so sign an individual case basis…”

Com. Harper, “I understand that but you say we are out of compliance now so our rate has changed?”

Ms. Craig, “The rate is going to stay the same of what you are currently paying.”

Com. Harper, “I thought you were saying that somehow we are paying more right now.”

Ms. Craig, “You are paying more right now than you would after you sign this agreement.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Then our savings would be more than the penalty if we breach the contract?”

Ms. Craig, “Right. Your savings per year are going to be a little over $27,000.00.”

Com. Harper, “When did we go over the 500?”

Ms. Craig, “I am not really sure. We don’t really have a great monitoring system for going in and looking at that. Every year I go in and take a look at your account and see where you are. So this year I took a look and that’s when I met with Melissa. And looked at the locations you had and figured out (inaudible)…..”

Com. Harper, “Could we put this over for two weeks and maybe within the next two weeks have a meeting with you. We’ve got some questions about where these lines are and so forth. It’s gotten so big that these lines start up and we lose track of them and in fact we lost track of what departments are paid for. So maybe if we can put this off for a couple weeks, and have a meeting with Melissa and sit down and take a look at where these lines are and where these extra ones are.”

Ms. Craig, “I have a spreadsheet all put together that we can sit down with you.”

Com. Harper, “If its all right with you, we will put this off for two weeks and have Melissa contact you for sometime and you can bring your spread sheet in. John, is that fine with you?”

Com. Evans, “That’s fine but have you worked with Joel Carney in the past with our account?”

Ms. Craig, “No, I have not.”

Com. Evans, “How long have you had our account?”

Ms. Craig, “Three and a half years.”

Com. Evans, “And you have never worked with Joel Carney? When did Joel’s contract expire?”

Ms. Hartig, “Probably the fall of last year, like in October.”

Ms. Craig, “He never contacted me. I have worked with Linda Walker before.”

Com. Evans, “Why don’t we put it off for two weeks and then I can get my questions answered in the mean time.”

Ms. Craig, “So Melissa will contact me and we can set up a time to meet. Okay. Thank you.”

NORTH COUNTY PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Rick Renner, Johnson Controls

Mr. Renner, “This is a project development agreement for us to come and perform a predesigned analysis of the north county building. In other words, it is an engineering study to determine what the specific problems are and what is going on in the facility so we can then put together a scope of work identify and correct the problem.”

Com. Evans, “As part of this study, you talked with the architect of the building?”

Mr. Renner, “We do have the original drawings that we are going to start with. I will probably get that information from you, I don’t know if I have that information in my file, but that will help us out.”

Com. Evans, “I had a conversation with the architect and he tells me this type of system is still installed in buildings today, in fact, it is done in new construction all the time. He kind of questioned the dollar amounts we are talking about.”

Mr. Renner, “We would be happy to sit down and talk with him.”

Com. Evans, “Okay, get him on board.”

Mr. Renner, “Absolutely.”

Com. Harper, “How long will it take to get this done?”

Mr. Renner, “It would take probably a couple weeks to get through the building. After that, drawings need to be done, hopefully that could be done within a week, so about three or four weeks, it should be finished.”

Com. Evans moved to accept the project development agreement, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “Tuesday night we have a Council meeting to discuss this and it starts at 6:30, could you be available to attend that meeting with us to explain that project?”

Mr. Renner, “Here at 6:30? Yes.”

DRUG FREE COMMUNITY FUNDS-
Sharon Cawood, Director of Porter County Substance Abuse Council

Ms. Cawood, “We are with the governor’s commission for Drug Free Indiana. We get our dollars, these are not tax dollars, we get them from drunk drivers in Porter County. When someone is arrested or convicted of a DUI, they are fined $200.00 for ___ fee, which we keep 75% and 25% goes to Indianapolis. If you will see here, we have the allocations and I will ask Ann Marie, our vice chairperson tell you how our dollars are spent this year.”

Ann Marie, “We are requesting under prevention and education, $47,876.00 and under treatment and prevention is $56,841.66, and under justice $67,456.65 and a total amount of funding that we are requesting would be $172,174.31.”

Com. Evans, “The total dollars requested from the different agencies and departments total $282,180.77, is there a listing anywhere of the other requests?”

Ann Marie, “I didn’t bring it. I have it with me if you want to see it.”

Com. Evans, “I think your group does a very good every year and how you go through and proportion these figures is beyond me, but everybody seems to be treated very fairly and equally.”

Ms. Cawood, “We had over $100,000.00 more requested than dollars.”

Com. Knoblock moved to accept the request, Com. Evans seconded,

Com. Evans, “I had one other question, is there any new projects or any new agencies that are receiving funds for the first time?”

Ann Marie, “Gabriel’s Horn. And I think their allocation, their award was $4,000.00 if I am not mistaken.”

Motion carried.

CEDIT PLAN AMENDMENT

Com. Harper, “We discussed and talked about various plans and she thought that it had gone to the Council with various requests, that we should amend our plan in total. This amendment involves $50,000.00 for the unsafe building fund that we have already been to the Council but we have to go to the Council again because they didn’t open a line item for it or assigned it a fund number, is that correct? Okay, and the $400,000.00 for the work on the north county annex building, and which I am sure we are going to be discussing that at the Council meeting next week. And our request for $50,000.00 if the Commissioners approve it for the Memorial Opera House, the Museum and the Animal Shelter. John, I think I talked to you about it but let me explain a little bit. The Memorial Opera House was asked by the Council to become self sufficient and they have been able to do that although it has been real close so far. They have some services that are available that the general public doesn’t really know about. One of them is that they have weddings over there, it’s a really beautiful spot since they have remodeled. Not only is it a nice spot to have a wedding but it also brings in revenue for the county. The Jail Museum, if any of you have visited and I encourage you to do it, really most people in the county have no idea what they have over there. There are several floors of antiques and displays and so forth. Their funding was cut by the Council and it was during the time the county was in dire need and they need some money to promote that. To promote to make more people aware in the county because a lot of people don’t know that it exists. Further, the Animal Shelter is trying to increase our adoptions out there to reduce the number of animals we have to put to sleep. So these three things are to try to work on the projects to make the public more aware of the three things we have to offer the public. John, do you want to add anything to that?”

Com. Evans, “No, I think that at the time the funding was cut, the Museum was in the budget for about $20,000.00 and the Opera House was in for just about nearly its entire operating budget. The Animal Shelter, at various times, took different levels of funding. But, this will be a source, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they have to spend it all either. My only fear is there were other agencies that were brought back to zero amounts and told to be self sufficient that are probably going to be knocking next.”

Com. Harper, “Carole, do you want to add anything?”

Com. Knoblock, “No.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The only thing I want to add is that the reason for the written amendment is because we are requesting appropriation of unallocated CEDIT money and I don’t think the Council can appropriate unallocated CEDIT money without it being appropriated pursuant to a plan because the executive is responsible for the plan. I think anytime that unallocated EDIT money is spent, it should be done first after we do a written amendment to whatever year we are asking for unallocated funds to be spent, we need to amend that year. This shows the amendment for 2004 for the $50,000.00 and the $400,000.00 for the annex, no amendment for 2005, unallocated yet, 2006 unallocated for $50,000.00 and we made no amendment to 2007 and after that no unallocated funds will be appropriated for 2005 or 2007 yet.”

Com. Harper “If there are no more questions do I hear a motion to pass the written amendment dated July 19, 2005 to the Economic Development Income Tax improvement plan?”

Com. Knoblock moved to approve the written amendment dated July 19, 2005 to the Economic Development Income Tax improvement plan,

Com. Evans, “Is that motion for Project 9 for the year 2004?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I am thinking to keep this clear, we are going to call this First Amendment and date it July 19, 2005 and then it encompasses all the amendments. The next time we do an amendment, I will call it the Second Amendment and if we amend more than one year they’ll be covered. So if somebody wants to see what we did for the first amendment they’ll see that we amended the request for appropriation for 2004 and 2006. I don’t know how else to do it otherwise it will become so confusing no one will ever know what was appropriated out of what fund for what purpose. So all you really have to do is make a motion to pass the first amendment dated July 19, 2005 to the Economic Development Plan.”

Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

OFFICE HOLDERS, DEPARTMENT HEADS

Award bids for trucks
Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent

Mr. Hoagland, “Good evening. These bids are for two 19,500 pound smaller dump trucks. We received bids from two vendors. Standard Truck Center of Chicago and Great Lakes Peterbilt GMC of Portage. At this time I would recommend we take the bid from Great Lakes Peterbilt of Portage for $143,466.00 and this is for two trucks.”

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

Copier Contract
Jim Lynch, Veteran Service Officer

Mr. Lynch, “I am here to petition the Commissioners to fund a contract required for a copy machine for the Veteran’s Service Office. There was never one in the office when I took the position last year. I tried for a number of months to operate using other machines around the building, up and down stairs from office to office. I had a handful of hand me downs passed through the office that invariably broke down and so I have no gotten to the point with the case load that has now developed in the year and a half I have been in there, I really need a copy machine in that office to function anything close to efficiently. When I am in there now, oftentimes I will have a veteran and maybe his family will be there and I will have to go downstairs to the mail room and be gone for maybe 15, 20, even 30 minutes on occasion to copy documents in order to go back and complete the effort with the veteran and his family. I think it will be more efficient to spend the time there with the veteran and work on his claim rather than going up and down the stairs or in the elevator. I recommend the McShane’s contract primarily because the gentleman I talked with, Robert Gansky, is pretty familiar with our facility here. He services a lot of other equipment here in the building and I thought that would be the most beneficial to have somebody who is familiar with the equipment and our operation to support us. It is a five year contract that I am asking that we sign a lease for.”

Com. Harper, “Where’s the funding coming from?”

Mr. Lynch, “It’s an emergency request. There was no funding originally provided for this because there was no intent for this to come up this year. I just got to the point of the operation of the office, and I could not continue to function any longer and I did some discussion with other folks here in the building and ultimately petitioned the Council for an emergency appropriation.”

Com. Harper, “The Council?”

Mr. Lynch, “Yes, sir.”

Com. Evans, “Do you have the money?”

Mr. Lynch, “They appropriated it, approved it.”

Com. Harper, “So what you need from us is to approve the contract?”

Mr. Lynch, “Yes, sir, just the approval of the contract.”

Com. Evans, “Would it be better to just purchase this outright?”

Mr. Lynch, “I think it would be better to lease it. When you purchase these things out right, as we all know, copiers, like some other types of office equipment, have a tendency not to be very reliable and durable. Especially when they start getting some mileage on them. I would feel more comfortable being able to pick up the phone and call for a service man than to try and get a repair on a piece of equipment that we own and then once they divest themselves, they kind of like to turn their back on it.”

Com. Evans, “Is there a service agreement on it?”

Mr. Lynch, “Yes, there is. There is a contract for maintenance agreement for the duration of the contract, that is separate from the contract.”

Com. Evans, “Do you have funding for that as well?”

Mr. Lynch, “Yes, it was included in the original request.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Was the maintenance included in the payment of $71.80?”

Mr. Lynch, “No, the total cost per month is $102.08. That was appropriated and approved by the Council and is now just pending authorization by the Commissioners.”

Com. Evans, “I am just trying to figure it out, the cost of the copier, by the time you get to the end of the lease.”

Mr. Lynch, “By the time I get done with the lease, it will be $6,184.80 and that includes the maintenance agreement. That is over a five year period.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the copier request based on the funding from the Council, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

Center District: Com. Harper

1. Mystic Springs Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the south side of
CR 550 North east of SR 149. Offer to contribute $600.00 per lot for a total of $25,800.00. Owner and subdividers are First Site Development, James Zimmer. Recommend approval.

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

2. The Highland Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the south side of
CR 150 North (Horn Road) west of CR 150 West (Hayes Leonard Road). Offer to contribute $685 per lot for a total of $19,180.00. Owner and subdividers are ASI Development, LLC, Daniel P. Steiner, recommend approval.

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


CORRESPONDENCE

Treasurer’s monthly report for June 2005 is on file.
Court Security Activity report for June 2005 is on file.

Request for approval of official bond for Commissioner Knoblock

Com. Evans moved to approve the bond for Commissioner Knoblock in the amount of $300,000.00, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.

Request for additional appropriation-Commissioners

Fund 240.30 $400,000.00 acct 0001 Unallocated CEDIT funds

To cover the cost of heat and repairs at North County complex.

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

Request for transfer of funds-Highway

Fund 02.91 $4,000.00 from acct 2470 calcium chloride
Into acct 2220 uniform and clothing
Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Bi-annual clothing allowance.

Request for additional appropriation—Highway

Fund 02.191 $80,000 acct 2362 District 1, bituminous
Fund 02.291 $80,000 acct 2362 District 2, bituminous
Fund 02.391 $80,000 acct 2360 District 3, stone

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

Fund 02.91 $60,000 acct 2210 fuel

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

To cover supplies needed for road construction and fuel.


Request for additional appropriation-Highway

Fund 26 $20,000 acct 2261 salt

To bring inventory up before prices increase.

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

ABERDEEN ROADS DISCUSSION

Com. Harper, “Let me start this off by saying we have had some discussion, especially with the county attorney, on the acceptance of the roads in Aberdeen, however, it has not been discussed in a public meeting. We are going to discuss it tonight, there are people from Aberdeen here tonight. If they want to speak we will give them a chance to speak and discuss what possible future action we are going to take. Let’s start off with asking if you gentlemen can give us a report on what the situation is.”

Dave Schelling, “I would like to start off by giving a little bit of history on Aberdeen. The Aberdeen development came in about the mid ‘90’s and as you might remember Tower Road, 250 West, was an existing county road that went from Division Road up past ____ on north. During the construction, Benchmark hired Merit Construction to do the work and he dealt very closely with Bill Wiggen. Bill Wiggen wanted to expedite the construction especially on Tower Road so that once it was taken out of service it could be put back in to service as rapidly as possible. To do that he wanted to provide inspections with K&S Testing instead of waiting for our inspectors to come by. As it turns out, none of the roads in Aberdeen were inspected. We weren’t called for any additional inspections so we were really at a disadvantage on that standpoint. During the construction of the roads, we were told that the only roads that would ultimately be public would be Tower Road and Aberdeen Drive. On the plat they have about a half dozen roads, maybe seven roads that were to be public roads and there are two additional cul-de-sacs that the developer Barb Young wanted to make into public roads if possible. That was later rescinded. The bottom line is that we were told that only Tower Road and Aberdeen would become public. What happened after a lot of the roads were completed Commissioner Karen Hughes had Jack Jarnecke start snow plowing Tower Road and Aberdeen Drive which ultimately did a disservice in my opinion to the subdivider because there wasn’t any need for them to, in their mind, to ask for the roads to be accepted into the highway system. That request was never made. To give you a little background on that subdivision. The roads are built, when the subdivision first gets a final plat there is a performance guarantee. There was a performance guarantee in Aberdeen. The roads were built, once the roads were built, the ones that were to be public, should have had the inspections which we never had, the subdivider, or contractor would request that we accept the roads into our highway system, which never happened. I talked with Bill Wiggen several times and he said, “I’ve got to get together with you sometime and discuss it” and it never was done. Once a request for acceptance is made we made the acceptance for them it is signed by the both the highway supervisor and the executive director of the Plan Commission. Then a maintenance guarantee is given along with that document and it is presented to the Commissioners for acceptance. That form was never made because it was never requested. Did stop snow plowing several years ago in Aberdeen and at least one subdivision that I know of for sure, there might have been others, and that was stopped because those roads were not in our highway system. They were never accepted. I might back up a little bit. The monies we get for snow plowing and maintaining roads come from our certified mileage from INDOT and its really improper in my opinion to do any work outside of those particular roads. I did write a letter to Barb Young in September of 2003 saying that there were some deficiencies out there on Tower Road and Aberdeen Drive and we did mark those locations in the fall of 2003.”

Com. Harper, “Now that was before I got here.”

Mr. Schelling, “Correct. Yes. And there was no repair work done. Now we have a disagreement as to whether when the final plat is made and the road is dedicated to the public, that’s one thing but to get something you have to also receive it and we have never received it; by means of acceptance into the highway system was the acceptance forms. So, basically there are some roads out there that have never been inspected, never been requested to be accepted into the highway system and therefore, aren’t being maintained by the county.”

Com. Evans, “That’s nice history, but what do we do to fix the problem?”

Mr. Schelling, “Well, I think it would be improper of the county to accept anything that is deficient for maintenance forever. If they made the repairs back in 2003 we wouldn’t likely be here talking about it right now. But that was never made.”

Com. Evans, “The roads that exist now in Aberdeen, obviously we plowed them for awhile and then we didn’t plow them and so in one essence you could say we are as guilty of anywhere that’s been causes as the next person. Have we ever accepted roads that are less degree than these are now?”

Mr. Schelling, “Not to my knowledge. I have been here for almost 18 years.”

Mr. Hoagland, “Maybe I could explain. 250 West typically was a very heavily traveled road for the steelworkers in the south end of the county. That is how they access the steel mill. When the realignment was made, before it was done, it was a straight shot. Very few calls on conditions. When the realignment was made where it makes multiple jogs through it, in the wintertime it got slick, we had a lot of accidents out there. We were called in by the Sheriff’s Department. Basically we ended up putting that up on one of our night watch roads, that we have on the night routes, to keep track of things because of the curves.”

Com. Evans, “250 was always a county road. Is it an all weather road?”

Mr. Hoagland, “I don’t believe it is.”

Mr. Schelling, “It might have been built to __ road standards, but I believe it was.”

Com. Evans, “The deficiencies that exist, they still exit today in what areas?”

Mr. Schelling, “There are several deficiencies. There’s a lot of cracks throughout the pavement on the roads south of the golf course club house, you can see a depression in the road where it is sinking and that might have been because of a lack of inspection for the sub grade before any stone was placed. There’s a lot of locations that don’t have the proper crown of the road. The crown is very important to get the water off the road. In the case where Tower Road isn’t concerned. It is kind of a little hilly but the water still flows down the road when it should be getting off the road, and then will freeze and cause issues like that. And there is also, just south of Aberdeen Drive there’s some deficiencies there, too, some pavement failure.”

Com. Evans, “I appreciate the problems that exist and I appreciate the difficulty that the Highway Department has in plowing and maintaining roads with those types of deficiencies, but I think we have to look back at the history again and say we are somewhat responsible as well as the homeowners. We are the entities that built Aberdeen. I don’t think it is fair at this point in time, many of those residences have changed hands two or three or four times and I think it would be difficult to go back and try to assess a dollar amount for someone to get them paved and get those roads accepted.”

Com. Harper, “You came up with a figure that you thought it would take to bring those roads up, is that for all roads?”

Mr. Schelling, “Just for Tower Road and Aberdeen Drive. I did not bring it with tonight. I brought some paperwork but not that particular figure.”

Com. Harper, “One thing that John said bothers me also. So at a point in September of 2003 a decision was made by the Highway Department not to plow these roads, is that correct?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yeah, that is also the month I wrote the letter to Barb Young . . . “

Com. Harper, “I understand that. I just want to point out and I have heard some people say that I made that decision and I have had nothing to do with that decision, number one, and number two, if those kinds of decisions are made, it think they should be made by the Commissioners as a whole and they should direct the Highway Department. None of us were here when this happened and I just want to ask you a few more questions. Now we are in a situation that really troubles me. We are in a situation where we have a series of roads we have not accepted and the way I read it, there was one time the Commissioners accepted two roads apparently, certain work was done and that work’s never been done due to the cul de sacs. Would it be fair to say this, it was over 100,000 (inaudible)….”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes, I apologize, I think it was like $120,000 for Aberdeen Drive and Tower Road.”

Com. Harper, “At least in your opinion to bring them up to county specs? If I remember correctly for all the roads was something like $200,000.00. Here is what troubles me, number one, these roads, now we never received from the state for these roads because they have never been accepted by the county. So we have never received money from the state. If we learned one lesson from this, I can’t understand how one commissioner can pick up a phone and order the Highway Department to plow roads the county hasn’t accepted. And I think maybe we need to understand that. The Commissioners are a legislative body and if we accept our end, and to have one person pick up a phone and say start plowing roads that the county hasn’t accepted is unacceptable. I understand Mr. Hoagland, you weren’t in charge of the Highway Department then, but I think we should have that clear from now on. When the Commissioners pick their head of the department, they (inaudible)…. Apparently at some point the Highway Department wasn’t happy with being ordered to plow these roads because they haven’t accepted them and they made a decision to stop.”

Mr. Hoagland, “I need to add to what David said. When this was all under construction, I was the foreman at that time and was involved somewhat of the _______. I agree with him, there were several times we made suggestions or asked were told its not going to be a county road so don’t worry about it.”

Com. Harper, “Regardless. I understand, Mr. Coolman, that you walked into that other Aberdeen, I understand exactly what happened to that other development that you walked in to that and had no responsibility as you explained to us. I would like to ask where that fell down. Because we ended up having on 100 we had to pave, the original people that were going to build on there, the Links, on the contractor who eventually filed bankruptcy, had told the county that one of the things that they would do is pave 100 all the way through. Is that correct?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes. That was a road agreement that he signed and he did do some work out there but obviously not the whole amount.”

Com. Harper, “Seems to me that we had to do that and pay for it ourselves because it didn’t get done because he filed bankruptcy. Where did we break down as a county in getting all that approved and then all that happening about that being recorded or something being done to enforce that agreement?”

Mr. Schelling, “We’ve talked in the past about recording road agreements and we never had and we still don’t; had we recorded that it might have been a different situation.”

Com. Evans, “I think they are recorded in the fact that they are accepted and read into the minutes of these meetings.”

Mr. Schelling, “That’s correct.”

Com. Harper, “I think we should start recording them also, now when we have a lateral exchange or bankruptcies. Here we have this total project where what is it going to cost us to finish the road on 100, how much did that cost?”

Mr. Hoagland, “About $48,000.00.”

Com. Harper, “And the other thing of what you said , I just want to make it clear. Its not clear now if we get involved in a legal struggle here that the original developer is going to have to pay to have these roads brought up to date, and maybe these people that live out there they are in the middle of this whole thing and they had no idea they were getting into the middle of it. I think that’s what John was referring to.”

Mr. Schelling, “The dollar amount for those two roads was $122,500.00.”

Com. Harper, “Carole, do you have any questions?”

Com. Knoblock, “No, it wasn’t here either.”

Com. Harper, “I want to give anybody from the association a chance to speak if they want to speak. One thing I want to say is if any lesson we take home from this is that we need to understand the Commissioners’ role here, they are the legislative body to appoint department heads to run departments and not to micromanage. So that is where we stand today. I am not even sure if we are going to give Mr. _____ a chance to talk if we even know if we are now dealing with a developer or the homeowner’s association or you are. I am sure you are not entirely sure of that or are you?”

Mr. Schelling, “I am not sure.”

Com. Evans, “I just want to reiterate the statement made earlier. I think this is something that should have been taken care of ten years ago and I don’t know if we have the right to make anyone go back and pay for those past mistakes. I think this whole thing is overcome by time and events and I think we should approve those roads and accept them into our system. And at least get the money we can be getting from the state to reimburse us for their maintenance and care. At this point in time.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t you have a seat and wait here. Lets see if there is anyone here from the homeowner’s association or anyone else that wants to speak on this subject.”

Attorney Earle Hites, “I am here representing the developer and the homeowner’s association tonight. I think we could have a long debate about whether the roads were accepted or weren’t accepted or whether there was form over substance. I think what we need to do is get the issue behind us and move along. As I look at the letter Mr. Schelling wrote notifying us of deficiencies, I think there were six category deficiencies. One of them had to do with subgrade and at this point I don’t know how we solve that. We paid for testing of the surface at sites that were selected by the county and the tests showed that the surface exceeded the county specs in each location. So, I know that doesn’t test the subsurface but I don’t know how that can be tested. The road has been used for ten years at this point so we have a pretty good idea of what type of shape they are in. The next one is crack sealing, I think that is a maintenance problem and it would seem to me that if this matter could be resolved, the homeowners and the developer could find a way to take care of that issue. The next one is tree trimming. Again, I think that is a maintenance issue that falls within the prevue of the homeowners even going forward. I think they would have that responsibility to take care of that area. There is an item on inlet cleaning for the storm water drainage. That is now the responsibility of the conservancy district so that will be taken care of at no expense to the county. There are a couple items on Tower Road that make a cut for drainage that I think will be taken care of at no expense to the county. Some stop signs that need to be put in and again we are willing to bear that expense. The one item that seems to be an issue as far as I am concerned has to do with the crown correction on the roads. Our engineer has basically given us a report that we’ve supplied that indicates the crowns meet the specifications in that they are adequate to drain the roads. Not only do you look at the crown from the top of the road down, you look at the slope of the road so if there is longitunal drainage, it prevents pooling or water accumulating on the roads. It would seem to me that if the county could bear that responsibility the association of homeowners would bear the other along with the developer and we could put this matter to rest. There has been some talk about posting a maintenance bond. Based on the fact that the roads have been here ten years, I am not really certain that a maintenance bond is as applicable in this situation as it would be if we were starting from scratch because we have had them for ten years. I would want say originally all the bonds were posted by the developer, the performance bonds, the maintenance bonds and they were really at some time, when the plowing began. So, there was protection put up according to law, what happened after that I think the facts are muddy.”

Mr. Schelling, “We’ve never gotten any maintenance bonds.”

Mr. Hites, “Well, maybe I am mistaken but it was my understanding that when the performance bonds were finished they were rolled in a maintenance bonds, maybe they were rolled into performance bonds for the other sections since that development had various phases. Okay, I would stand corrected on that then.”

Com. Knoblock, “I heard you mention conservancy district. Has that been there since it started?”

Mr. Hites, “It has been there since it started and it assumed responsibility this last year for this storm water maintenance of the ponds and so forth so they have accepted responsibility for cleaning the inlets from the roads into the storm systems.”

Com. Knoblock, “What is the name of your conservancy district?”

Mr. Hites, “Natureworks Conservancy District.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is the Links and everything in Aberdeen linked to the con into the storm systems.”

Com. Knoblock, “What is the name of your conservancy district?”

Mr. Hites, “Natureworks Conservancy District.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is the Links and everything in Aberdeen linked to the conservancy?”

Mr. Hites, “Yes that is all within the conservancy district.”
Com. Evans moved to accept the roads based on the agreement proposed that the homeowners share of work and the county’s share of work being Tower Road accept the roads as they exist today,

Com. Harper, “We are talking about several different things, some of the roads were never intended to be accepted. I would rather give Gwenn a chance to work on this and let the two of them work together and put it over for about 8 weeks. For two things, to make sure you’re back, because you are interested in it and give them a chance to go through this and work on it a little bit. Do you have a problem with that?”

Com. Evans, “No, its been ten years.”

Com. Knoblock, “This just came before us tonight.”

Com. Harper, “There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this. The thing that saddens me the most is the individual homeowners got caught up in the middle of this. That is what saddens me the most because things were not done right here. I just want it done right. All the taxpayers and the whole county do things like this and most apparently it is going to be the homeowners out there, they are the victims of this whole thing. I would like a motion to put it over for eight weeks and get the attorneys a chance to talk.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I can talk with Earl and let you know what the parameters are of our negotiation.”

Com. Harper, “We may have to call an executive session.”

Atty. Hites, “It is our intent that the roads all be dedicated with the exception of those two with the circular cul de sacs that are shown on the plats and recorded.”

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone else here to speak on this tonight?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So your request is going to be that Tower Road, Aberdeen Drive, Argyle, Kingsridge, Lockerbie and ___ Creek all be accepted by the county? What about________?”

Mr. Schelling, (Inaudible) No.”

Com. Knoblock moved to revisit this topic in eight weeks, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried.

ETHICS ORDINANCE DISCUSSION

Com. Harper, “The county has never officially had an ethics ordinance or approved an ethics ordinance and I would like to start discussing some. I’ve just pulled out some examples for both commissioners of some other ordinances and some of the things that are covered in these ethics ordinances. I would like to ask the county attorney to try and bring together an ordinance that would fit county government and then make a copy of it so all the commissioners can comment on it. Hopefully at a meeting in the near future we can vote on it. And again, I was thinking about eight weeks.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “This will probably be a work in progress because there is so many issues that come up with this type of ordinance. But I have files on it, I looked at this five years ago and we came up with some more ordinances and I asked for a boiler plate ordinance from Lexis Nexis so I can take six or eight different ordinances and go through them and pick out the best language. When you are dealing with an ethics ordinances there is a lot of issues that are covered by state criminal laws that are enforced by the prosecutor’s office already. I think we need to be clear on what we are trying to do.”

Com. Harper, “John, do you have any problem with this?”

Com. Evans, “I think we can look at them all we want, I don’t think you can legislate this. Either the person has them or they don’t. But we will look at them.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I can come up with areas and we can discuss it, like nepotism, or just different categories. Then we can get a consensus of what areas we think we might be able to address and what we can’t. What are addressed by state laws and what are not. And start whittling them away.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t we plan on a report back in about eight weeks?”

WINDOW LEAKAGE PROBLEM AT ADMINISTRATION BLDG. DISCUSSION

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Because Triumph did not come, I am going to have you look under Tab 2. As you know we have been working on the leakage issue at the Administration Center for a long time. In June, we sent out proposals and if you look under Tab 3 you will see a little sheet that looks like this. I’ve been sending the proposals to Design Organization and they did an analysis and recommended based on the first round of proposals, we got responses from Berglund, Triumph, Streich, Lazarro, Meyer and Glassman, Inc. So based upon the first round of proposals, Design Organization recommended that we select Triumph to do the pre-cast to pre-cast and pre-cast to aluminum sealant failures that we are experiencing out here. Then we weren’t satisfied that was the source of all the leakage so we hired Triumph to come in and do water testing, which they did. If you look at the second document you will see an email from Design Organization that talks about the new proposals that Triumph sent after they did additional testing. They gave the Commissioners a report and what Triumph found is that we have four areas that need to be addressed to stop the leakage and that is pre-cast to pre-cast sealant, pre-cast to aluminum which was included in their original proposal and they found problems with glass to aluminum sealant and aluminum to aluminum. So they added that to their proposal which upped the price of their original proposal from approximately $30,250.00 more so the total proposal to correct all of the sealant and gasket failures out there is $85,500.00, plus there was an add on that Design Organization suggested that we take for $2,300.00 making the total price $87,800.00 for them to redo all the sealant and gaskets around all the different connections in this building to stop it from leaking. In their water testing they also looked in the cracks we have out there and pre-cast and said they did not find that to be a significant or positive factor at all in the leakage. They are recommending we do nothing at this time for those cracks that are coming off the windows. I am saying lets get it off dead center, we sent proposals out, we got the responses, Triumph is the most responsive responsible, Design Organization is recommending we go with them. I met them, they did a very thorough job, I think they know what they are doing. Carole had wanted us to see if we couldn’t come up with a package that included cleaning the windows because they are such a mess and haven’t been cleaned for ten years. So, Triumph sent a subcontractor out to give us a price for cleaning the windows which is $24, 850.00. I did talk to Design Organization about that, they recommended to not take action on it at this time. He is going to get a breakdown of what that encompasses and suggests that we get other proposals if we can find somebody who can clean the windows in this condition and compare it first. So I recommend that we accept the proposal from Triumph to start fixing our sealant problem and do more proposals on the cleaning. Triumph said they could get here in August and start taking out all the caulk and all the black gasket filler and remove it all and replace it.”

Com. Evans, “You said it was $86,000.00?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “That was the first one, then they came and did the testing and did an add on because they found additional places of leakage and the add on is, I asked them what the difference was from the original proposal which was 68 and the one they are asking you to sign is 85 and the difference is they found other areas of leakage they are gong to have to replace and that is glass to aluminum and aluminum to aluminum. That upped the original price $30,000.00 to fix it all.”

Com. Knoblock, “Its leaked for eleven years.”

Com. Evans, “The thing I think everybody kind of glazed over is the pre cast to pre cast. Now there are no windows in pre cast.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “No, but there is pre cast to pre cast caulk that is dry and is no longer has its life endurance and is shrinking and cracking and beading. So they are going to redo it. They are going to redo pre cast to pre cast sealant, pre cast to aluminum, glass to aluminum and aluminum to aluminum.”

Com. Evans, “I am not trying to argue and I know what you are saying and I know we need to fix the problem, but David, you are an engineer, and when you have a pre cast building and you put a pre cast building together, isn’t the caulk and the substance used to adhere those, isn’t that a life substance, I mean it is not supposed to rot.”

Mr. Schelling, “The only thing they are going to be replacing is, and you can see it from the exterior, just between the panels. What they need to do is strip that off, . . (inaudible).”

Com. Evans, “Is that something you would normally expect in the maintenance of the pre cast building?”

Mr. Schelling, “No, the life expectancy of the caulk varies quite a bit and 10-15 years is probably the expectancy.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Everybody I talked to, Design Organization, everybody has said this is normal and is a maintenance issue. I don’t know what else you can do with it. But have it replaced.”

Com. Knoblock, “So Design Organization just washed their hands of it?”

Com. Evans, “They have reviewed all the proposals and they . . . .”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The problem is the building is 10 to 12 years old and most of these people are saying that this sealant and the black caulk and the gaskets all have a certain life and that the life is up and this is a maintenance issue. That is what they say. That is what the report says that Triumph gave us.”

Com. Knoblock, “We have a 100 year old home and some of our caulking is still on there from 100 years.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “All I can tell you is what the experts told me.”

Com. Harper, “Sometimes I don’t know how we got such fancy buildings, but I think we have a problem. We can talk about it and I suggest we accept this proposal and. . . . “

Com. Evans, “I would like to know if this comes with a guarantee that the building is going to be fixed?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Would you like to call them and talk to them?”

Com. Evans moved to accept the proposal from Triumph for the restoration, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Knoblock, “This is for the $87,000.00?”

Com. Evans, “$87,800.00.”

Com. Harper, “Any other business to come before the Plan Commission?”

PLAN COMMISSION

Petition to Vacate, Public Way, Streets and Alleys located in Westchester Township
Dale Engquist, US Dept. of Interior, National Park Service

Com. Harper, “This is a petition to vacate public ways, streets and alleys located in Westchester Township being filed by Dale Engquist, US Dept. of the Interior. I am going to open the public hearing of this petition and first give Dale a chance to explain it.”

Mr. Engquist “This is not nearly as weighty as a decision for you to make as the previous couple I listened to. What we are asking is that you vacate a 140 foot stretch of road that you still own that goes nowhere. I could illustrate this better. That is the view from the south side of US 12 looking across 12 to the northern terminus of Tremont. It is about a 140 foot stretch and you will notice there are barricades. The South Shore Railroad abandoned the ___ rail road crossing there a number of years ago, closed it. We actually thought that we owned that piece because we didn’t exchange with the county 1994 and we gave five acres of land for the development of the Dunes Park Station and parking areas in exchange for an equivalent value of county owned road rights of way and other real estate scattered around the park. We did that exchange and that included the piece of Tremont on the other side of the railroad and a piece of South State Park Road on the south side in this area. So we actually thought we got that but we didn’t get that little piece and what we would like to do since it goes nowhere is to remove it, (inaudible) right up to US 20 probably restored the shoulder or put the shoulder in and continue the shoulder, excuse me, I mean US 12, and quit that and that is all that does, is take of a piece of pavement that doesn’t cost you nothing to get rid of it.”

Com. Harper, “If you read Porter County’s Rules and Regulations there are about 15 of them that apply to land, if we vacate land and some other government entity takes it over, the guide of how to vegetate it, (inaudible)……”

Mr. Engquist, “Incidentally, I was up here before, and we are not the ones that make all the rules for the county and Visitor’s Center. If you got a grant from us, which would be the Land of Water and Conservation, that would be a federal case too, but this is not. This is very small and minor.”

Com. Evans, “Directly north of this property on the other side of the rail road tracks, is abandoned, the state park, is that still their access?”

Mr. Engquist, “That is still access. We own the road and we own the road that connects it to 49. So you go across National Park Service property to get to that gate.”

Com. Evans, “They still haven’t (inaudible.).

Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here to speak for or against this? If not, I will close the public hearing.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I always like to have some body from county government speak.”

Mr. Schelling, “That property serves absolutely no purpose to the county highway.”

Com. Harper, “Then I will close the public hearing. Again, can we do this in one meeting?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We can if there is an ordinance prepared and ready to sign. If not we are going to have to do it in two.”

Com. Evans, “Is there a legal notice required?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We already did it. I would need a copy of the ordinance and then we can pass it on first reading and then when we actually have the ordinance, we can pass it on second.”

Com. Evans moved to pass the petition to vacate on first reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Com. Harper, “Okay, the second reading will be August 2, if you don’t mind coming back. You will get a form to follow and get the ordinance prepared.”

Rezone, AG to RR, Mark and Kelly Holder, 2nd reading
Robert Thompson, Plan Commission Director

Mr. Thompson “This is Plan Commission Resolution 05-10, Mark and Kelly Holder requesting a rezone from AG to RR rural residential. I did draft up the written commitment that you had in your report. Mrs. Holder has come back and they agreed to the them and signed them and notarized them. We also have the ordinance.”

Com. Harper, “Any questions?”

Com. Evans moved to approve the rezone with the written commitments, Com Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Street Name Change---Jackson Heights, Unit C

Mr. Thompson, “The other item is Jackson Heights, Unit C a street name change. There seems to be a discrepancy with the street name. It was named Gingerwood Drive. Larry Hawkins who is with the Valparaiso branch of the US Post Office does not want Gingerwood Drive within their mailing delivery system. They have a Gingerwood Court somewhere. So therefore they do not want the word Gingerwood on it and asked the developer to change it. However, the only people that can change the name by state statute is the executive board members, the County Commissioners. Originally they were going to make it Ginger Drive, however, today I was dealing with somebody that was totally adamant against Ginger Drive and now they have agreed upon Grandwood Drive. Which 911 has approved, Valpo Post Office has approve, ____ has approved and I guess I am happy too.”

Com. Evans, “There is a Grandville already.”

Mr. Thompson “True, but everybody is agreeing with Grandwood Drive.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the name change from Gingerwood Drive to Grandwood Drive, Com. Knoblcok seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans, “Do we need to do a second reading on that?”

Mr. Thompson, “No, basically now that you have approved this, I will get the corrected amendment done from the engineer and have it recorded.”

Com. Evans, “This is our only chance ever to mess with the US Postal Service.”

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

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA

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

Attest: Sandra K. Vuko, Auditor