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PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005 6:00 P.M. The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 6, 2005, in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center. Those present were: Commissioners Robert P. Harper, John Evans, Carole Knoblock, County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger, Vi Wagner and Melissa Hartig. President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF PAYROLL Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of August 22 and September 6, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of August 16, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. APPROVAL OF CLAIMS Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of September 6, 2005, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. NORTHERN INDIANA HISTORICAL POWER ASSOCIATION George Armstrong Mr. Armstrong, “I am the secretary of the club, so I am representing the club on their behalf in this request. I have talked to Dave Lain about this. He relayed some concerns and interests in why it causes some difficulty for the county.” Com. Harper, “Is he going to work with you on this?” Mr. Armstrong, “He said he would, yes. He said that was the correct route to contact him first and then to talk to the Commissioners.” Com. Evans, “Where is it going to start at?” Mr. Armstrong, “We are going to start at Sunset Hill Farm and that way the owners of the tractors can drop theirs off with the tractors. Last year we did have a tractor caravan and it started at Crown Point. I bet this map will not be correct and I told Dave that it may change because it appears that we will have to stay all on county roads and Valparaiso is reluctant to let us come down through town. I had a message from the police chief on the phone, we were gone for the weekend and he says they prefer that we do not come through town. I mentioned that to Dave that we might just be on county roads and of course we don’t want to go on any state roads. Of course we don’t want to go up close to Chesterton because that is the Oz Festival.” Com. Knoblock moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, Com. Evans, “Al, do you have any problem with this?” Mr. Hoagland, “I didn’t understand where you were going to.” Mr. Armstrong, “I’m sorry, Al, its going to be a tractor caravan from Sunset Hill Farm we are going to make a loop and come back to the farm. We don’t want to be on the road more than a couple hours. If I had my druthers, what I would like to do is start at the Kankakee River and go to Sunset Hill Farm, but that is a lot. Maybe we will vote to do that sometime in the future if we get all the permission to do that.” Com. Evans, “They’re not all John Deere’s are they?” Mr. Armstrong, “They are not. We have every color.” Motion carried. ADMINISTRATION CENTER WINDOW CLEANING CONTRACT APPROVAL Atty. Rinkenberger, “If you recall, Triumph Restoration, which we have retained to do all the caulking and work on the outside, gave us a proposal from a subcontractor to clean our windows for $24,850.00. A couple months ago we decided that we should get more proposals so I sent out six proposals to all the other companies that bid on the work to begin with and no one responded. We received no proposals back so I am suggesting that you approve the contract with Triumph so we can get the caulking done and the windows cleaned.” Com. Evans, “Is the contract with them or with a subcontractor?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s with Triumph.” Com. Harper, “Do I hear a motion?” Com. Knoblock, “I see there is only a one year warranty.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “For cleaning windows.” Com. Knoblock, “It says for ___ and falling materials, they give you one year. Is that normal?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “For window washing it’s fine.” Com. Knoblock, “It really isn’t washing.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “They are going to buff it, but I don’t know if they could guarantee that they would stay clean long so I think that covers any defects they may do in their work.” Com. Knoblock, “There is more to it than just washing.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Oh yes, for $25,000.00 they’ve got to buff it.” Com. Evans, “I just have a hard time believing that for $25,000.00 to clean windows and you can only get one company to bid on it.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes, that is the truth.” Com. Knoblock, “Is that the one that did the sample?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes, they did the sample. Design Organization didn’t think it was a high price necessarily, but they did suggest I try to get other quotes. I did try but I didn’t so I guess we are going to have them do it or keep dirty windows.” Com. Evans, “Is there a time by which they have to finish?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “By the end of the 2005 construction season. They can’t start on it until Triumph does all the caulking and the sealant work so I guess once Triumph gets around the whole building and gets all the caulk and window sealant done I guess if there is still time and weather permitting, they’ll do our windows.” Com. Knoblock, “So Design Organization doesn’t have any reason why this happened?” Com. Evans, “I don’t think we have much choice.” Com. Evans moved to accept the contract, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “What fund is this coming out of ?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What fund is the $85,000.00 coming out of for the sealant and the caulk, it should come out of the same fund.” Com. Evans, “Building maintenance.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We have Building Maintenance in CEDIT and we have Building Maintenance in CCD….” Com. Evans, “CCD Building Maintenance.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t think we have enough in there do we?” Ms. Hartig, “I don’t think we do. (Inaudible)…” Com. Evans, “This is $24,850.00 is their contract. What was the contract for caulking and sealing?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “$85,000.00, so it is a total of $100,000.00 package to do the whole building.” Com. Harper, “When do we get our next CEDIT draw for this year? Or have we got all the draws for this year?” Ms. Hartig, “We have not. I think we should probably get another draw sometime in November.” Atty. Hollenbeck, “The next one will come the end of September.” Com. Harper, “So why can’t we take that out of CEDIT funds?” Com. Evans, “We are not going to pay them until they finish.” Com. Harper, “So we will take it out of CEDIT funds.” Ms. Hartig, “CEDIT Funds Building Maintenance.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “CEDIT Funds, Building Maintenance and it will be project number, whatever project that falls under in our plan. So we should encumber $100,000.00 of that CEDIT money.” Ms. Hartig, “We only have $19,000.00 right now.” Com. Harper, “I understand that. Anything else?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “They are going to start the day after Popcorn Festival.” VISITOR’S COMMISSION David Hollenbeck, Attorney Atty. Hollenbeck, “I apologize for this short notice but I am here on behalf of the Visitor’s Commission. Their building is starting to progress rather rapidly, and we are talking about a groundbreaking in October and we are not at the point where the federal government, through the National Park Service, will commence the process of contributing about $56,000.00 a year in rent toward that building. Back in July you approved a Memorandum of Understanding that I brought you that laid out all the dollars and how we calculated them and what they would be paying. I just learned on Friday that the National Park Service needs a signed lease so they can attach it to their budget documents with the federal budget by September 15. You won’t meet again before September 15 and I just didn’t have an opportunity to complete that task by 6:00 tonight. With that in mind I am here asking that you authorize your chairman to work with your attorney and myself and in the next week or so I will get that lease together and it will mirror the Memorandum of Understanding provisions that you already accepted and authorize Commissioner Harper to sign that lease on your behalf after it passes the muster of the county attorney.” Com. Evans moved to approve the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. NATIONAL GAS RATES DISCUSSION Fred Christ Mr. Christ, “Our company is C-Squared International and is a utility consultant company from coast to coast. We handle everything from municipalities, we have worked with companies from municipalities to nursing homes, hospitals to multi location restaurant owners. We have about four hundred customers in Northern Indiana and we are located up in Wisconsin. Larry asked me to come by just to be able to review gas programs and where the market is right now and I am sure when you have been watching your gasoline pumps or your natural gas bills, we are in a period where there is extreme volatility and the only way to try and control your budgets is to be able to be with an alternative provider through the deregulation process which has been open now for several years in the NIPSCO marketplace. Is anyone familiar at all with deregulated natural gas? Okay. Basically within NIPSCO the deregulation allows for you to purchase the commodity from an alternative provider that is certified by NIPSCO. The transportation still goes through NIPSCO pipelines, NIPSCO still reads the meters. If you smell gas, you still call NIPSCO. I am sure many of you have been tele-marketed and called at your house as well from many of the mass marketers. We look at all the different providers that are available, take people’s load profiles and then review what the best options are for companies. Just at Fifth Third Bank, I know there is a bunch in Indiana, they are one of our clients that we do on a national basis. So by being able to purchase gas from an alternative provider allows you to have greater control that ranges from a variable rate to also locking in to a fixed price, to be able to try and control your budgets. Right now, if you went in that little packet that I gave you actually to the fourth page which shows the commodity gas cost with NIPSCO, August 2005 and you have to add another $.5 per therm on top of that for the interstate pipeline, you would be at $.99.46, last year you would have been at about $.65. So you have a 30% price increase that you are looking at with your budgets for wintertime. Natural gas has a couple components to it in controlling the costs. One of them in the NIPSCO market is some gas goes into storage during the summertime. We have suppliers that we reviewed for the basic loads for Porter County. One offer is a storage program which means you buy some of the gas at 20% of your annual usage during the summer at the traditionally low summer rates and then you use that in the wintertime and you just pay the distribution costs. Because of where we are at today in the marketplace and the hurricane of course, didn’t help any of us, whether it is gasoline or natural gas or in many markets, electricity, to recommend really a non storage program with Centerpoint Energy. Centerpoint had an offer at an index of, and that’s a variable rate, plus three and a half cents. Stan Energy came in at index plus four cents. They do offer a storage program but at today’s prices right now with the run up in the market price, we don’t see a benefit for being able to buy any storage gas and you would have to buy all 20% of your usage right now in the next month and a half. Larry did, in the color chart which is the third page, gave some comparisons on historically of where things have been for part of this year and then also shows projections based on the commodity market price where pricing would be if the same things held true in a snap shot picture today versus where they were last year. You can see there are savings capability for the county last month, in fact, utility was at approximately $.98 and the index would have been at $.76 in August. In July the utility was at $.92 and the index rate was at $.75. You don’t have a huge amount of usage in the summertime but any savings you can get in today’s world and more importantly controlling the budget costs, you are able to do that with an alternate provider. I believe, Gwenn, you have been sent the contract?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “No.” Com. Harper, “ It looks to me that based on your projections you are projecting that if the next six months, the savings would be about 70%. Right?” Mr. Christ, “That would be correct.” Com. Harper, “What’s the down side, could you lose money on this?” Mr. Christ, “You could lose money. Let’s say that you went into a fixed rate, most companies, and McGill Manufacturing is one of our customers, I think they are around in this area actually, they lock in fixed rates all the time because their manufacturing process requires natural gas and they have to build the cost into their components and their structure in what they are going to sell to the customer so they need to know exactly what their budget is going to be. Most churches, schools, and things like that lock in the fixed rates to at least cover the winter time to make sure their budgets are not going to get totally blown apart. In today’s market, if it ends up being a warm winter like we had four or five years ago when it was 50 degrees the entire winter time, the stock market price then will nose dive because in the winter time, no one is using as much natural gas as they project. So in that case you would have a higher fixed rate, the variable rate would drop way down. The side of the benefit though is that you are also using a lot less gas. So what you are trying to do sometimes, especially in fixed rates for winter time is to be able to fix your budget and know what your budget is going to be that you can deal with. Most companies can, schools or facilities, they need to try and come up with a way to be able to manage and control and getting the savings is great but we live our lives on cash flow, just like what you went through, the budget process and where do we get the money and when do the funds come in and things like that. It is the same thing in trying to manage natural gas which is why companies like ours are hired so we can make sense out of all the different offers that are available and help to develop strategies. But market changes minute by minute.” Com. Harper, “Can you explain the variable rate?” Mr. Christ, “You could lose money on a variable rate just because it depends on… the utility company is always able to recoup all of their costs. So, if they project to the utility commission that gas is going to be a dollar and they have to buy a thousand units, then they are going to buy that thousand units at a dollar. If during the month they have to buy twelve hundred units and the two hundred units are on the stock market and that might be at $1.40, they are able to recoup that extra amount going back into their rate case the next month. The same thing is true in the opposite way. If they only used 800 and they sold part of it back into the marketplace, they could end up having to rebate some of the money back. So the utilities is sometimes not market by market. Traditionally over the years we have been able to save money against the utility on a variable rate.” Com. Harper, “What was that about looking for errors in billing?” Mr. Christ, “We also review if the company that contracts with us is looking for errors in doing the audit and things like that. Just to make sure the billing is accurate that you are not getting a lot of estimated bills. Village of Rosemont in Illinois, we had a $46,000 billing error on their electric bill. Actually we also found them another $7,000 on their SPC telephone bills going back. So that is another service that we provide that is independent by just the procurement portion of the management of energy.” Com. Knoblock, “How long does your contract run for?” Mr. Christ, “Typically our contract is for one year. Most gas contracts range from one year to two years. They can go as far as three years. If we were ever to see a price drop, and don’t hold your breath, we certainly would be recommend being able to lock into a longer term contract if we felt that the market had settled down towards the lower part. But we have a lot of flexibility. Usually with a one year contract, at the end of the year we provide assessments of where things were and projecting all the time because we are watching the commodity market continuously trying to find the right opportunities to either buy gas and lock in a fixed rate for the future to control your budget, or making sure the market is not running up so fast and some customers, you know, we run into a lot of people in the summertime that just say, I will worry about the gas in the winter time. Well, winter time is not the best time to be necessarily watching and monitoring as prices.” Com. Evans, “Is there a do not exceed figure or percent?” Mr. Christ, “You can lock in a do not exceed price, we could do that with a hedge on a fixed rate but it doesn’t guarantee that you are going to save against the utility because part of the utilities pricing is totally weather sensitive. And they are only allowed to lock in, they buy gas that goes into storage, but then they have to buy all the rest of the gas that is really bought on the stock market. So if it gets really cold, then there is pipeline constraints and capacity, then you are going to see prices skyrocket again. Last year, the day before Thanksgiving, the federal government put out storage report that was in error and that’s when gas prices shot up 10% in four hours. They dropped later the next week but prices seem to go up faster and never drop as much as they go up.” Com. Evans, “In my last years of dealing with these kind of figures, I’ve found out the reason you guys are in business is because you know better than we do.” Mr. Christ. “Its complex, and why a lot of companies end up coming to us is because when you deal with a gas supplier directly, that supplier has one thing to sell whatever his company tells him he has to sell. He is only going to tell you what he feels are the most beneficial parts of what he wants you to know. Our job is to look at it from both sides and because we understand the industry from the backside as well as the front side. We can help develop a strategy so that we at lease have a level playing field.” Com. Harper, “I was going to suggest we put this off for a couple weeks and give Gwenn a chance to look it over and give us a chance to think about it.” Com. Evans, “Are the numbers going to stay the same?” Mr. Christ, “From the moment I started talking to the moment I finished talking, the numbers are different already. It is going to be a wild winter but looking at your budgets.” Com. Knoblock, “This would take effect January 1st?” Mr. Christ, “No, no, we would want to get you on a gas contract as rapidly as possible because it is going to be a tough winter, no matter what happens, prices might come down but if there is any way we can all hope for a warm winter, that would really be great. The hurricane only disrupted about 1% of production capacity on the natural gas line. So we weren’t terribly hurt right there, but the way the trend has been going over the last year, it has been targeting the BTU value of fuel oil. So as the oil is going up the marketers and traders on the gas side have been keeping their BTU comparison priced up at the same rate.” Com. Evans, “Can you get that contract to Gwenn right away?” Mr. Christ, “I can get this to her tomorrow.” Com. Harper, “Lets put this over for two weeks, what is the date, the 20th?” Com. Knoblock, “Yes.” OFFICE HOLDERS/DEPARTMENT HEADS Recommendation for ATM Proposal Linda Trinkler, Recorder Ms. Trinkler, “I sent a letter to you. Centier will be over at the courthouse. I had a lot of calls from people there saying why can’t we have one and I thought well, perfect solution here is to put one bank over at the courthouse and the other one here, will be First National at this location.” Com. Harper, “And this is costing us nothing?” Ms. Trinkler, “No, it is not. Centier will pay for the Verizon line coming in over at the courthouse because the electric is already there. I am having Dodrill put in a plug, I already had allotted money for my debit so I can use that to put in a plug out here in the hall. Verizon will put in the line for the telephone and First National will pay for that. Nothing is coming out of your funds at all.” Com. Harper, “We’ll need a motion to have First National put their machine here at the county building and Centier Bank to put their machine at the courthouse.” Ms. Trinkler, “Correct.” Com. Knoblock moved to have First National put in an ATM in the county building and Centier Bank put one in the courthouse, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. COLLECT MONEY FOR AIC CONFERENCE FOR HURRICAN KATRINA HELP Ms. Trinkler, “I gave everybody a paper and talked to Carole today about it. The AIC Conference is every year and this year I got a little note here and it says they are going to have the first ever AIC annual conference fund raiser with the help and support of the host committee, the AIC will offer a silent auction. In addition, we are planning a county contest, a challenge to each county to raise money in the next six weeks to support the Hurricane Relief Effort. I talked to Lake County, St. Joe County and LaPorte County and they have all had their meetings already and they are going to have all the departments collect it and then taking a check to the AIC. I was wondering if, in fact, we could have a meeting with all the department heads, whether they’re appointed or elected, and have every department collect in their offices and then bring it to Shirley LaFever or myself, we’ll collect it and take it to the AIC conference on October the 16th through the 20th. I just need permission and if you could call a meeting to have all the department heads. If Missy could send out, you know, have a meeting here early, like 8:00 sometime this week, and have the department heads here in order to ask them if they will and if everyone can participate in this. Everybody do their own department.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Sharon Lippens, ITS Director Document Imaging/Print Shop Copiers Ms. Lippens, “Several departments in this building and the courthouse have talked to me about implementing document imaging. Several years ago the Prosecutor’s office and the Sheriff’s Department and the County Assessor’s office chose to begin document imaging in their offices but then as the funding cuts came in that was one of the things that was cut. So they got some of it going and then they had to stop. Now we have also had interest from the Planning Commission, Building Department, Clerk’s office, Adult Probation, Health Department, Treasurers, and there might be a couple more. They would all like to look at this and the reason is because of space, they don’t have any more room for file cabinets, don’t have any more room for paper, and they need to find a way that they can continue without having to take up more space or have to have it stored outside the building. So, some discussion we’ve had with those department heads and myself, the Prosecutor and the Clerk came and spoke to the finance committee earlier this year and talked about a figure of money that it would take to scan all of the archival type of information or the very old data, the very large handwritten books those types of things that are deteriorating so to speak. As well as to catch them up to date as of today. Then they would take it from today forward and as documents came into their office, they would be scanning them in at that point. That is why I am here for today to ask the Commissioners’ approval to back this project as these department heads are going to go to the County Council and request money for hardware, software, and little bits of hardware in their offices. What the company we have been dealing with has recommended as spending money for a large server to encompass all of the departments. They were here, they did a review of all the departments, they gave us a recommendation on housing all of the documents for those departments, including the archival information for three years from today. So it would be all of the archival information plus three years from today’s future information.” Com. Harper, “Who is the document company?” Ms. Lippens, “The document company, which is Information Records and Associations, is the company that the departments that were utilizing it before, that’s who they were using, they have spoken to that company recently. They came out and viewed each of the departments’ needs, looked at their old documents what it would take to get those documents imaged and also made a projection based on their current documents of how much storage they would need, computer storage, to store an enough data from day to last three years before we would have to upgrade a server or buy another server, etc.” Com. Evans, “All archive documents from today forward three years?” Ms. Lippens, “The hardware for the computer will hold enough data for three years’ worth. So in three years we would come back to you and say we need to buy a new server, this one is full or we need to buy an additional server because this one’s going to hold all the old information, we are going to have a new one to hold the new information.” Com. Evans, “Would there be any merit to just putting the archive information on one server and starting fresh the first of the year with the new stuff?” Ms. Lippens, “We have talked about that and a lot of the archived information will go on CD’s and will be in each office so that they can retrieve it. The computer will know where it is so if they search on Harper and they look at all the different documents that are related to Harper back to the 1800’s, etc. and there is one document that they want from way back when, the computer will it is on CD No. 327 and then they will know to go to CD 327, put it in and get that document. So the archived information is going to be on CD and the computer will know where all of that is.” Com. Knoblock, “How much are we talking about?” Ms. Lippens, “A lot. The amount for the server itself which is what I have basically been involved with is about $7,200.00. That would be housed either here or at the court house. I am thinking most likely at the court house because they are going to have more volume there. That would be for all the departments that I mentioned for a span of three years. So in three years from today, we would need to upgrade that or consider off loading some of that onto CD to make room for new information.” Com. Knoblock, “So the upgrade would be about the same price, right?” Ms. Lippens, “It depends on where technology is then, it could be cheaper.” Com. Knoblock, “What fund?” Ms. Lippens, “The departments are going to go to the Council to ask for funding for this on more of a general county wide basis rather that individual departments. Then each individual department is going to need to buy the license for their software.” Com. Harper, “Back up a second. They are not going to the Council to ask for the server, correct?” Ms. Lippens, “Right. They are asking for the Council’s support to approve it. They are asking for the Commissioners’ support to buy the server and to back them with the Council to say this is a project worth investing in.” Com. Harper, “They are asking us to purchase the server and they are going to ask each individual department to come before the Council to give them their software. How much is that going to cost per department?” Ms. Lippens, “It varies between $5,000 and $13,000 per department and that figure is the software licensing. They only have to buy a license for a workstation where the person is actually going to scan the document in and then input the reference of what the document is. If they are scanning in a marriage certificate, they are going to key in the dates, names and etc or whatever the case may be. That software only has to be purchased, lets say they are only going to have one, lets say the Plan Commission, if they are only going to have one person doing it they only need one license. Everybody can look at, but you have to have a license to update it and change it. The Clerk’s office is going to need several. It is the same software program for all departments and it is the same software that they used five or six years ago so it will already be compatible with the data they have already got. The Sheriff’s Department has continued to use that software ever since, they never stopped.” Com. Harper, “So now we are talking $7,200 for the server, plus up to $13,000 for the department for the software . . .” Ms. Lippens, “And the scanners. That includes software and hardware. It does not include yearly maintenance on the software that we will have to pay a yearly fee to get updates and things like that.” Com. Harper, “What do you think that will run?” Ms. Lippens, “I would say a few hundred dollars because the license itself is like $1,700.” Com. Harper, “Is the license included in this 5-13?” Ms. Lippens, “Yes, what is not included is the yearly continual maintenance that they would have to pay. Nor does it include any type of hardware maintenance on say the scanner that they would buy beyond whatever the warranty would be that came with it.” Com. Harper, “We are just talking about, right now, from here on in and the future, are there any other costs for this?” Ms. Lippens, “Other than the figures we discussed? There is a figure, I believe, that was approximately $1.4 million, that was for all for here back.” Com. Harper, “Is there any more for here for the future?” Ms. Lippens, “Only if other departments decide to sign on, other than the departments that were originally interviewed, that may make the server not able to contain three years’ worth of information.” Com. Evans, “Who would that be?” Ms. Lippens, “I don’t think the Treasurer had any input, I don’t think any of the courts but I don’t think they have documents that the Clerk’s are not already housing.” Com. Harper, “We had a joint meeting with the Council about this issue where we mainly discussed what it would cost for the past, which is that large figure, to do all these documents at the Highway Garage, stored there, and the Council asked for us to get some prices. What is going on with that?” Ms. Lippens, “I did get other prices and the one we had originally was the one ______. For the historical scanning, we did talk to other vendors as well about software and it was determined that because there was so many documents in existence already, plus if you counted up the amount of money that had been spent on the package that we currently have, it wasn’t worth throwing that away to go to a new package which then everybody would have to be re-trained, would have to convert over any old documents that there was already enough of an investment that we should stay with the package that was in use and is still in use at the Sheriff’s Department rather than going with the different package. But there were different packages that we looked at.” Com. Evans, “Of the $1.4 million, how much of that was hardware, software?” Ms. Lippens, “None of it. It was all services. What that would be was an outside company coming to Porter County collecting boxes of paper, taking it to their site, scanning it in and then bringing CD’s or whatever back to us with the documents and I believe that also included the destruction of the documents if it was required.” Com. Evans, “Couldn’t OE do that for us?” Ms. Lippens, “I have been involved in the hardware-software side and I know . “ Com. Harper, “Here’s what I am wondering if we shouldn’t try and see in the next couple of weeks, that we try and have some workshops with the Council. Before all these departments come running in with their budgets, if we couldn’t try a workshop like we did before and make this decision and discuss it jointly.” Com. Evans, “Is there any more micro filming or micro fisch at all anymore?” Ms. Lippens, “ I think the Recorder’s office is still micro filming although they are scanning all of their documents as well. I believe they have a scanner that does both at the same time. When they scan the document, it creates both because they still give the microfilm to the title companies.” Com. Evans, “Would that be a possibility or a lesser expense?” Ms. Lippens, “I don’t think that is really done anymore. We did also check with the legalities of retention with the state and all of the requirements that the state board administrator’s office are met with retention, being able to reproduce the information so we would not have any problems there. The departments have kind of just kept coming to me because they don’t want to let this die down. They keep wanting to . . . .” Com. Harper, “This is just going to force us into another building if we keep filling these rooms with documents. What do you two think about us trying to get one …” Com. Evans, “I think it is a good idea but we should also ask department heads and office holders . . . .” Com. Harper, “Get everybody in on it. The last time I met with the Council they said they asked Sharon to get more prices. She has done that now.” Mike Haller, “I was going to ask a couple questions because I was at their seminar. Doesn’t the county already own the license?” Ms. Lippens, “Yes.” Mr. Haller, “So then that is the most expensive part.” Ms. Lippens, “They own what is called the base license.” Mr. Haller, “So if you go from there, each of the departments needs their own server, basically, for the storage space?” Ms. Lippens, “No. That is where the company information records felt that it would be better for the county financially to buy one large server for all the departments rather than spending the money on a whole bunch of servers in every department..” Mr. Haller, “They have a variety of ways to go about doing all the scanning, and all different prices and machines you can get. I would say she’s pretty got that summed up correctly. You can do the archival stuff separately from the new stuff. But everybody is anxious to get on the new stuff and that could be done separately from the old stuff. However you wanted to hit it. All anyone has to do is rearrange the money on their budget and buy the stuff they need for their particular office. I guess the point I am trying to make was that all the individual departments have been through that program and seen all their stuff and have figured out what bits and pieces they want to do for each one. It is just a matter of getting that big machine in there to get it going. It is slick, it whittles it all down to nothing and its perfectly legal according to the state like she said.” Ms. Lippens, “I think that is why I have been elected the spokesman even though mostly it is the department’s needs to organize their office but it kind of all starts with their positive information and that is the computer.” Com. Evans, “Well, there is no doubt that is something we really need to do. The building is just getting ________. I think it would be a great advantage to have all the department heads, this body, and the Council together so that when they come before the Council, the Council knows what each thing they are asking for and they have an idea of what is needed, what the cost is, what the departments are going to have to have more than one seat and if we can nail down the cost per year on the software licenses and continuations, that would be nice, too.” Com. Evans moved to set the meeting and get everybody in, Ms. Lippens, “It would be a good idea to get the Sheriff’s Department in as well because since they continued to use it, they have found a lot of other ways to utilize it to help their office run smoother. The departments did go out and visit John Miller, he showed them how they were doing things and he is able to give them some ideas of things they not have even thought of that will help their office even more. He could also explain the history of working with the vendor to the Council.” Com. Evans, “Could they bring somebody else in and show . . . .” Mr. Haller, “They swear by that, I talked to the Sheriff’s guy and he has a bunch of people that didn’t know how to do anything and now they are all doing it and they love it.” Ms. Lippens, “The other thing that helps, too, is I have been working with Neil Hannon on and John Miller, is the sharing of information. Normally, the Sheriff’s Department has to fax information over or interoffice mail all this paperwork over to Adult Probation whereas if they can all access it through a browser, which could be made just inside the county or outside if it was something that needed to be public, they can do up, key in the person’s name and get the documents that they need instead of having all this paper going back and forth as well as the time lag and the cost of generating it.” Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Print Shop Copiers Ms. Lippens, “I had been talking to Commissioner Harper about where we had come since March which was the last time I talked to the Board about it. What we had done over the last few months is try and work with the current vendor to try and find an amicable solution. The vendor did bring out an additional machine to try and help us. It has not been functional most of the time. In fact, when we got it, it wasn’t functional. We have continued to have the same problems, we place a service call, we don’t get a call back for two weeks. We place a service call, they say they’ll be out first thing in the morning, we don’t hear from them for three or four days. They have parts they need to put on but they are too busy dealing with other customers so they can’t deal with us for weeks at a time, but it is just a bad situation. We are paying for equipment that is not running and all the departments suffer because they can’t get what they need. My recommendation is I did go out and get quotes, quotes were received from ICON, Cirrius, which represents IBM, they sell the same equipment that ICON does but they re-label it with their name on it, and from Xerox. The Xerox machine is different from the Canon machine but as far as features and functions, they are comparable and the lowest quote was from ICON by almost $1,000 a month. They have offered a sixty month lease with a dollar buy out at the end. The price is $48.23 a month, we are currently paying $33.76 per month. At the end of the five years, we would own it. And we would be no where the capacity of the machine at that time so we should be able to utilize that machine after the five years. I have talked with Melissa and the time frame for if this were to be approved to get the machines swapped out, etc., we would have three months of the new payment which we would pay the difference between that amount and our current. And then there is money already in the proper account to cover the increase for the monthly cost for next year.” Com. Evans, “What is the term of your lease that is currently left on there?” Ms. Lippens, “The current lease has one year left and the monthly amount that I quoted you from ICON includes a “buy out to return of that lease” so it would pay out the remaining payments of that lease as well as the taxes that we owe on it and the cost to have that equipment shipped back to the finance company. If the finance company won’t accept it right now then we would have to put that equipment somewhere until a year from today and ship it back. I don’t know why they wouldn’t, because then they could re-sell it earlier and the company could get another year’s service on it that someone else would pay. I have copies of the agreement if you would like to look at them.” Com. Evans, “I remember the fellow showed up at our one meeting when we were about to do this before and he guaranteed us that you weren’t going to have any more of these problems and I don’t think he has lived up to his guarantees.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock, “I am not a computer person so I am not sure where we are going.” Com. Evans, “Well, these are copiers but she leases them so she pays a monthly fee for them. They are great big copiers.” Ms. Lippens, “Probably two thirds the length of your seats here.” Com. Evans, “It’s for the Print Shop, for all the printing throughout the county. She has had nothing but problems with this one that she’s got ever since she got them. The guy came to our meeting that supplies her and guaranteed us that she was not going to have any more problems. That he was going to take care of his end of the deal, he was going to be out here every day if he had to, and she still is at the same place, he has not taken care of anything. She made this recommendation in what did you say, May?” Ms. Lippens, “March.” Com. Evans, “So, we have given him since March to live up to his word and he hasn’t done it and in the meantime, everybody suffers because she can’t get the work done. At that time, the attorney was ready to sue the guy, so I think you have definitely put up with it long enough and I think we need to just terminate the relationship.” Ms. Lippens, “It was in May when we first started to look into a resolution.” Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. AWARD BID FOR SALT Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent Mr. Hoagland, “Good evening. Salt bids we had five bids submitted. The best I can do is recommend North American Salt at this time. Morton has been our supplier for the last four years. I have negotiated with them as much as I could and I just cannot get a price break. So for the twenty cents difference, we are going to be changing companies.” Com. Evans, “It kind of scares me that we are doing gas and salt. That means it is going to get cold.” Mr. Hoagland, “That is the next one, the fuel.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation for North American Salt, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Just for your information, it is $4.25 a ton.” Com. Evans, “Where is the shortage in salt?” Mr. Hoagland, “A lot of it is coming in as transportation costs. North American will have supply at Burns Harbor and that is about as close as we are going to get.” Com. Evans, “And they deliver to all three?” Mr. Hoagland, “Yes.” SPECIFICATION FOR COUNTY HOME DEMOLITION Dave Schelling, Highway Engineer Mr. Schelling, “We had contacted DLZ about preparing some proposals for the demolition of the County Home and those people are the experts on that type of work. He has gone through the building with us, Steve Winters, with DLZ, and he has prepared a document for the Commissioners that has five different tasks involved in it; project administration; meetings; field investigations; preparation of contract; specification and plan; storm water pollution prevention plan and bid phase. That all comes out to $25,250.00. It is quite a bit of money but the thing is it is a pretty involved project with the ___ fair and getting the bid document worded properly is very important. It is my recommendation that we go with them and enter this agreement.” Com. Harper, “Gwenn, have you had a chance to look this over?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “No, not carefully. So I would recommend approval based upon my review.” Com. Knoblock, “What’s the cost of everything?” Mr. Schelling, “Well, this is just for the design engineer. We don’t have any cost for the actual demolition at this time. This is just for the specs.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “And for handling, it almost looks like a project management type of thing.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, there’s those options involved in it, too. There is a lot of liability when you remove buildings such as this and in the long run that is going to protect the county. Liability because of the asbestos.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation based on the county attorney’s approval of documents, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Schelling, “We have been going around in circles with Canadian National for years now for that State Road 2 crossing near 300 North. But the fellow who is head of public information and public relations promised me that the work would start the week of the 12th, which is good because if he doesn’t, then we can talk about it on the 20th at our meeting.” Com. Harper, “You told us before he was going to start on the 12th and there were some things he had to do to get ready. What were those things?” Mr. Schelling, “They have to contact INDOT to prepare the detour, because they have to do that with a closed crossing.” Com. Harper, “Have they done that?” Mr. Schelling, “I have not gotten confirmation from INDOT that they have yet. I emailed them but not gotten a response. So I hope that they did.” Com. Harper, “I think what we should is, next week is the 20th, is ask the county attorney to preliminarily start working on what we are going to have to do legally if they haven’t started on this project by the 20th. This is just going to. . . . . .” Com. Evans, “I would like to suggest that they if they don’t start on the week of the 12th, then our next meeting on the 20th, we authorize our Highway Department to fix the crossing.” Com. Harper, “I think there is a specific statute on that.” Com. Evans moved that if the Canadian National Railroad has not begun the work as indicated to the county engineer by the 12th of September, that we are going to begin the process of legal action of whatever is necessary to fix the crossing, Com. Knoblock seconded, Com. Harper, “This has been going on for over two years.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think we looked at the statute before and threatened to use the statute but we have never had to use the statute before.” Motion carried. Mr. Schelling, “I do want to point out that IDEM has a public hearing for the Great Lakes transfer in Michigan City on the 27th of September, Tuesday, at 7:00 p.m.” Com. Evans, “I have had several calls from residents out there and what I reiterated to all of them was that this body voted not to do anything to that road (inaudible)… and not make that an all weather road nor do we want to raise the tonnage.” Com. Harper, “Nor are you granting the (inaudible)…” Mr. Schelling, “They made the application and I emailed them the resolution that the Commissioners prepared previously about that. We are not going to issue it, no. But we maintain the entire road. As a matter of fact, I understand that they do have a permit from LaPorte County at this time but it is really meaningless.” Com. Evans, “Should we advise them of that fact?” Mr. Schelling, “They know that they need a permit from us, that is why they made the application. So I think he knows.” Com. Evans, “Okay.” Mr. Schelling, “I think that is all at this time.” COMMISSIONERS REPORTS North District: Com. Evans 1. The public hearing for the Great Lakes Transfer, LLC waste transfer station has been set by IDEM for Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at 7 pm local time. This will be at the Queen of All Saints School Gymnasium, 1715 East Barker Avenue in Michigan City. 2. Rilan Acres Subdivision Road Agreement located on the west side of CR 400 East between CR 850 North and CR 1000 North. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $9,000.00. Owners and subdivider are John J. and Dorothy A. Arndt. Recommend approval Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. 3. County Bridge #125, on CR 875 North over Squirrel Creek, audit report for construction engineering services performed. We concur with the audit of claims and the summary of invoiced & audited costs. On the letter from INDOT the total claims amount is incorrect. After talking to Linda from First Group and her talking to Brenda Fox from INDOT, it was discovered that an incorrect amount was carried over from a letter written in 2001. The corrected amount was $32,289….82 for the total claims amount. There is a letter to INDOT for the Commissioners to sign if you concur. Recommend approval. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Center District: Com. Harper 1. Two original agreements for the Preparation of Demolition/Asbestos Abatement Specifications for the former Porter County Home. Total cost for the project is $25,250.00. Recommend approval. Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. 2. Hawthorne Subdivision, Phase I, Performance Letter of Credit #00761 from Centier Bank in the amount of $45,700.00. The letter of credit was reduced from $545,700.00. New expiration date is September 15, 2006. Recommend approval. Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. South District: Com. Knoblock 1. Holder Estates Subdivision Road Agreement, located on the west side of CR 450 East between CR 400 South and CR 500 South. Offer to contribute $750.00/lot for a total of $2,250.00. Owners and subdividers are Mark A. and Kelly A. Holder. Recommend approval. Com. Knoblock moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE Clerk’s monthly report for July 2005 is on file. Building Dept. monthly report for July 2005 is on file. Approval of Animal Shelter services for the following towns for 2006: (Com. Harper read the following contracts as one item) Town of Beverly Shores in the amount of $558.00 Town of Burns Harbor in the amount of $682.00 Town of Chesterton in the amount of $6,076.00 Town of Hebron in the amount of $2,015.00 Town of Kouts in the amount of $1,550.00 Town of Ogden Dunes in the amount of $558.00 Com. Evans moved to approve the contracts with the towns and the Animal Shelter for the year 2006 in the above amounts, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Proclamation for National Incident Management System as the Basis for all Incident Management in Porter County Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Proclamation for the Family & Youth Services Bureau Anniversary Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Valparaiso University Habitat for Humanity to hold “Shack City” on October 14-15, 2005 to raise awareness and money for Habitat for Humanity Com. Evans moved to approve contingent upon proof of insurance, Com. Evans, “They have had this two or three years in a row. They set up cardboard houses and the students actually sleep overnight in them, they do that to raise funds for the Habitat for Humanity. The first year we had it we allowed them to use the rest rooms inside the building and they really made a mess. So, they are not allowed in the building anymore and I think they put up their own porta potties. They have supervision.” Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Request for transfer of funds-Commissioners Fund 01.30 $2,777.52 from acct 1110 salaries Into acct 3120 consultants To cover the cost of codification of county ordinances Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Fund 01.30 $307.97 from acct 2110 offices supplies Into acct 4440 furniture/fixtures over $100 To purchase chairs and desk for Judge Jent’s court Com. Knoblock moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. Request for additional appropriation—Commissioners Fund 132.30 $29,325 acct 4540 other equipment To cover partial cost of installation of National Weather Service radio tower in Porter Township Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “It should be noted that our share of that dropped about $12,000 or better because of the townships.” Fund 233.30 $32,400 acct 3520 water & sewage 3.400 acct 3220 telephone To cover bills for water and telephone for the Jail through the end of 2005. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “While we are on the jail topic, maybe we should make note of the jail break today and to let people know that we are taking some action to make sure that the building is secure and that we would like to commend the Sheriff and his people for the work they have done in capturing those people.” COMMISSIONERS’ APPOINTMENT TO THE GARY/CHICAGO GOVERNING AIRPORT BOARD Com. Harper, “Do I hear a motion on this?” Com. Knoblock, “For who?” Com. Harper, “For the Airport Board.” Com. Knoblock, “I thought we’ve already done that.” Com. Harper, “No, we haven’t done that yet and I am suggesting we appoint Commissioner Evans.” Com. Knoblock moved to appoint Commissioner John Evans to the Airport Board, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. HOSPITAL HOLDING EXECUTIVE SESSION Com. Harper, “I have one announcement. Tonight the hospital is going to hold an executive session here, the Hospital Board, for strategic planning. Only one Commissioner is going because of the fact that our attorney has checked with public service counselor and they feel that is the proper way to handle this. So I will be attending that meeting at 8:00.” PLAN COMMISSION Rezone, RR to R1, Aberdeen Limited Partnership, 2nd reading Com. Harper, “Is there anyone here for the second reading? No one is here?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “That is kind of odd.” Ms. Hartig, “Bob came down earlier and said he wasn’t able to come tonight.” Com. Harper, “Well, what about their attorney?” Com. Evans, “It’s the second reading and the public hearing is closed. There was no remonstrance.” Com. Evans moved to approve the RR to R1, Aberdeen Limited Partnership on second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. With no further business to conduct, the meeting was recessed. Com. Evans moved to recess, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PORTER COUNTY, INDIANA Robert P. Harper A. Evans Carole M. Knoblock Attest: Sandra K. 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September 6, 2005