PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006
6:00 P.M.

The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center.

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

CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE

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

APPROVAL OF PAYROLL

Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of November 13, 2006, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of October 3, and October 17, 2006, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

MAINTENANCE TRUCK
Tom Henderson, Porter County Sheriff’s Police Department

Com. Harper, “I am going to take this out of order, and take Tom Henderson. Tom has been working on a proposal for a truck for Maintenance.”

Mr. Henderson, “Basically it would be for a 2007 Chevy Silverado, 2500 Series Truck. Be fully equipped with four wheel drive, a plow, and it would be that the service box would be a utility type use. The price is a possibility of $29,000.00.”

Com. Evans, “I looked at the bid, we’ve kind of gone over it.”

Com. Evans moved to proceed with the purchase with the caveat that the old truck be put in the next auction, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Henderson, “I would like to say publicly, the inventory will be for the county, I think it is about the same for insurance as it was three years ago, so if we ask you to keep it at that figure and you have done that and we appreciate it.”

Com. Evans, “He is going to give us some prices, and if it is okay because time is of the essence to waive the proposal that he brings back and maybe proceed with this as soon as possible.”

Com. Harper, “Do you think you should do a motion?”

Com. Evans, “I think we probably need to do it in the form of a motion to proceed with it for obtaining a vehicle before the first of the year.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s almost an emergency circumstance.”

Com. Harper, “Have we talked about what fund to use?”

Com. Evans, “How much money is in CCD?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s all gone.”

Com. Evans, “How about cable?”

Ms. Hartig, “CCD is pretty depleted.”

Com. Evans, “How about cable?”

Ms. Hartig, “(inaudible)….

Com. Harper, “So your motion will be to go ahead and approve this purchase?”

Com. Evans, “Right.”

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

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So this is the purchase of the ambulance, or the coroner’s car, not the vehicle for….”

Com. Evans, “We already did that one first.”

Com. Harper, “And I would like to acknowledge that our newly elected coroner, Victoria Deppe is here tonight. Can we take that out of cable? I mean do we have the money?”

Ms. Hartig, “There’s also money in the property disposal fund.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “That will work.”

Com. Evans moved to take the money out of building maintenance, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.


ISSUANCE AND SALE OF BONDS
David Hollenbeck, Attorney
Bob Poparad, County Council

Mr. Poparad, “We want to invest the Major Moves money in the bond issue and take it off …(inaudible) “

Atty. Hollenbeck, “At best we can estimate the interest on the $14.3 million it will generate, how it will enable us to borrow and pay off approximately $3 million over five years so the investment will be for five years, the borrow would be for five years. With the payment at the end of five years, we will have paid off the $3 million debt and we will have the $14.5 million. The borrowed money can only be spent the same way that the Major Moves money would have been spent.”

Com. Evans, “I think it is a great idea. My only concern is and of course you never know what is going to happen in the future, that the money can’t be removed until the maturity.”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “Yes, as the five years, the people who are loaning us the $3 million will insist, when we tell them we are going to pay it off from this source as part of that process we’ll do that; we have to assure that the money remains, that we will invest it for five years.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the issuance of the sale of bonds, Com. Knoblock seconded,

Com. Harper, “I thought when the Council approved this they specifically approved it for highway projects.”

Com. Evans, “The three million?”

Com. Harper, “Yes. Because Dave said it a little different, he said it was approved for anything that this total of sale bill….”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “I guess I was responding that that’s bond counsel’s position on how it would be spent and that is broader than the discussions that the Council has had and as your resolution says, that acquisition and construction of certain highway road and bridge projects.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “So is this limited then to highway road and bridge projects even if Ice Miller thinks it can be utilized for something else our county…..”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “You can limit it, we just can’t expand it. Plus, I rendered a legal opinion to the Council that once we get the $3 million it has to be allocated and appropriated the same way that Major Moves is and the enabling statutes specifically for Major Moves says the money shall be appropriated by the County Council in consultation with the county executives. So, you will have input even after the money comes. This money will have to be appropriated and in that sense it will probably be much like the CEDIT money where either the Council and the Commissioners will sit down together and come up with a prioritized list of highway projects or you’ll submit something that the Council and I look at.”

Com. Harper, “I thought the understanding was it was just going to be for highway projects.”

Com. Evans, “I thought that, too.”

Com. Harper, “This is the one we are not going to do on a separate plan.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t you make your motion approving this order conditional upon the fact that the money is going to be used specifically for highway road and bridge projects?”

Com. Evans, “I’ll amend my motion to that effect. Speaking of that if you will hold the vote a minute, the RDA is the other subject that comes up and I know Bob and I have had a conversation on that, too. There was an article in the paper that said that the reason the RDA isn’t looking to do projects in Porter County is because they haven’t been asked. So, I think that we need to ask, I would like to see 149 extended, I would like to see Willowcreek Road extended. I can think of about a half dozen other ones, but those two should be worth a few million dollars more than they got right now, so, formally, I think we need to ask the RDA to extend 149 from its terminus at 130 to 30 and to extend Willowcreek Road from its terminus at 700 North to US Highway 30. So if the Council needs to do that or if we need to do that….”

Com. Harper, “Bob and I talked about that, too. I suggested for the 149 bypass we get together with Dave Schelling, who is here tonight, to get with him, at least the plans up to where we were ended when we were stopped and put something together as a joint effort.”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “The RDA does have an application, I will have to get hold of Tim Sanders.”

Com. Harper, “You can carry this back to Tim Sanders, too, when the Regional Bus Authority has been sending out letters looking for funding, other than the RDA, I don’t like that either. I thought the idea of the RDA was that they would fund that Regional Bus Authority and I sure am opposed to the taxing of people of Porter County to give for that project. And I have already been approached and I think they’ve already sent out a letter. I need to say something about this money thing. I think the Council has done an excellent job on tying the money up with, and I understand John, that we may want to look at it at some point, but on tying it up right now so that it is going to be used for road projects, but, I have to say something about the source of this money because there has been sort of a series of meetings and hoopla about this money being passed out across the northern part of the state as if it was some great windfall. And I just want to read a few paragraphs out of an editorial in the Chesterton Tribune which I think did an excellent job of analyzing exactly what this Toll Road Lease was about. Because I don’t want to be part of a dog and pony show to lead people to believe this is a huge windfall for us. Number one, the Chesterton Tribune said the lease was not needed to stabilize the Northwest Indiana Regional Development for it. The Regional Development Authority already had a hundred million committed to it by the state regardless or not of the Toll Road Lease. When Daniels announced last year that the tolls would be higher, he outlined where the increased revenue would go. His plan included ten million a year for the next ten years for the RDA. The lease was not needed to fund the majority of Major Moves, the governor’s ten year transportation plan. Now the $10.6 million plan, the total hikes and projected Indiana Department of Transportation budgets were identified as the funding source for 74% of the projects. If the total of this lease paid failed and the state had no other way to make up for the shortfall then Governor would have several other options including spending. Here’s what the lease did do: it covered the $2.8 million shortfall of Major Moves planned giving the governor money for all his projects and photo ops including the new I-69 highway from Evansville to Indianapolis by mixing a total of funds into the statewide pot, it took money from northern Indiana counties and moved it into southern and central Indiana. It handcuffed future generations of law makers and governors who now must depend on the courts to force the Toll Road Lease operators to operate more on the same manner for public good. So I agree with that editorial and the Chesterton Tribune did a lot of work on that. I also agree that the Council has done an excellent job in coming up with a plan.”

Atty. Hollenbeck, “I will read to you in support of what Commissioner Harper said, I am now up to six counties that I have heard from who are interested in this approach to it so it is something that seems to be (inaudible)…”

Com. Evans, “It’s kind of difficult at this point to argue how the money got there; the money’s there and it’s our job to be the judiciary guardians and I think I will echo your sentiments that the Council has done a great job in making sure it is protected and we’ll just have to deal with it.”

Motion carried.

Atty. Hollenbeck, “President Whitten intended to be here tonight to join us but was not able to get here. Thank you.”

APPROVAL OF CHANGE ORDERS FOR VISITOR’S CENTER
Lorelei Weimer, Director

Ms. Weimer, “These are the last change orders for approval. Number 15, at the suggestion of Mr. Evans, we had set the infrastructure in for (inaudible)…. And he recommended that we go ahead and just do it. And the state agreed with that so that is change order number 15. Again, these change orders are 80% the state pays for and 20% from the Visitor’s Commission. Change Order number 16 is we wanted to install electrical power into the ceiling of the conference rooms so that we can have a projector and a screen so that number 16. Change order 17, it was recommended that we add a asphalt material for tack coat to the parking lot. So, then that is number 17 and then number 18 is…oh, we have a 24 vestibule and in that vestibule is (inaudible)… over there so that people wouldn’t come when we are not there and that is number 18.”

Com. Evans moved to approve change orders 15, 16, 17, and 18, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Harper, “You open house is when?”

Ms. Weimer, “November 29th. The formal dedication is at 3:00 p.m. and the open house until 8:00 p.m. Thank you.”

PORTER COUNTY PROPOSED CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTER
Cheryl Polarek, Prosecutor’s office
Ms. Polarek, “I am here on behalf of Porter County to draft some kind of a lease for the property that is located on State Road 49 by the Porter County Jail for the purpose of opening a children’s advocacy center. A children’s advocacy center’s number one goal is to reduce trauma to a child by coordinating interviews that we conduct with them to include professionals from multiple agencies; law enforcement, medical, prosecutor’s office, CPS, thereby reducing the number of interviews and improving the quality of the law enforcement investigation. Our hope is to startup in the county and we believe it would do two things mainly: reduce trauma to the children in our community and secondly, boost convictions. There are currently twelve child advocacy centers around the state and there is about six that are developing right now and that includes Porter County. Our hope is to convince the county to allow us to use that property and doing this type of work within it and we would need the financial support for it.”

Com. Harper, “So, if I understand it correctly, and we have talked to John Thorstad about this, he wants to use the buildings around it for storage, this is the house they have rented out in the past and it needs a lot of work, I think. Your desire is to use that to enter into a lease for so many years and be responsible for the insurance and so forth and the upkeep of the building.”

Ms. Polarek, “Right. Pursuant to the proposal we drafted and it is certainly subject to change if need be, we don’t have any interest in the out buildings, we would be in the actual house. We would like to take care of the utilities, take care of any renovations, whatever we need for our purposes. It is going to have to be revamped as far as what we need to do as far as serving warrants and technical type of stuff. Mr. Thorstad would still have access to all the out buildings. As we know right now, there are two electrical boxes running off of it and we believe it is for the actual residence.”

Com. Harper, “So you need a go ahead from us and if we are for this you can go back and start checking out the service.”

Ms. Polarek, “We are still working on all the ins and outs we need to do, but we basically need to know whether or not it is a workable project with the county so we can determine that it will be our location and we can go forward from there.”

Com. Evans, “Have you reviewed their proposal, Gwenn?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right now, it’s just a concept.”

Com. Evans, “I just want to be clear, it’s going to be a nominal lease and you are going to be responsible for maintenance, upgrades, and whatever you need to do to the building itself. And insurance, you are going to take care of your own liability?”

Ms. Polarek, “Right. And Gwenn and I talked about that a little bit because obviously, we will need insurance on the house for now, but the insurance we need to have on the house will be different, so we need to take care of. Pursuant to the proposal, we are asking basically, we are taking the financial burden over and renovating the house, we are asking that the county maintain the property, which I believe they are currently doing right now through some of the trustees at the jail, basically snow removal, lawn care, stuff like that, we will actually do it and (inaudible) to make it accessible like that. But also my hope is the county will continue to maintain just the property while we will take care of inside.”

Com. Evans, “I think it sounds pretty good. The only thing I might ask is in relation to landscaping that you check with Mr. Thorstad and get his approval for anything.”

Ms. Polarek, “He has been very helpful letting us in and out. We’ve had some contractors there to find out what we need to do and he’s been very helpful in that regard.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “One of the issues with the terms for this lease is they propose twenty years, that’s kind of long. I was thinking we could go for like, four years, renewable automatically, by agreement of the parties for another term. But twenty seems ….”

Com. Harper, “Maybe we could ask for more like ten to make it worth their while.”

Com. Evans, “I think it is going to depend entirely on what your people live with; that’s an old house.”

Ms. Polarek, “We’ve been in it. We’ve actually had a number of contractors that have been in there from the Porter County Builder’s Association who kind of took a look around and get an idea of actually what we need to do sort of significantly. We know we have to have a new furnace, he checked all the windows so I think we have a good idea of what it is going to cost us and we do have good financial support. So, I am not really all concerned about that. We are well aware of what we are going to need to do to make that building appropriate for us. We are not going to ask the county to do any of that.”

Com. Evans, “I would like to see a list of your proposed changes and upgrades before we go forward with it, it sounds like a great idea.”

Com. Harper, “So, you want to make a motion?”

Com. Evans moved to go forward with the proposal with the submitted list of the things that need to be changed,

Com. Evans, “If you will return to us with a list of those things that you want to change and we will get a little bit better variety of the maintenance and what you will expect from us and we will proceed from there.”

Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

COMMISSIONERS’ REPORTS

All Districts:

1. INDOT LPA Claim Voucher #7 for Bridge Inspection, Phase 1 to pay the County, $1,218.67. Recommend approval.

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

North District:

1. Contract for Engineering Services for Porter County Bridge #127, Lute Road over Willow Creek, at the cost of $83,000.00, between Porter County and Beam, Longest & Neff. Recommend approval.

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

Center District:

2. Pheasant Hills T-turnarounds that have not been completed as required since 1999. Four t-turnarounds were finally installed this summer but three were too steep. Request authorization to file claim against performance guarantee to give the developer more incentive to properly complete this work.

Dave Schelling, “This is the subdivision on 600 West, south of 30.”

Com. Harper, “How far south?”

Mr. Schelling, “About a mile on the east side. It was accepted back in 1999 and conditionally, and initially it was to get two t-turn arounds installed on the streets in the first section and we were after the developer and the engineer for years and years to do it. They finally, and we got the guarantee to do it, they finally did it this year and 3 out of the 4 legs of the t-turn around are not usable because they are so steep. You almost need a Jeep to turn around in there. The snow plows can’t use it and the only way I can get the attention of the engineers and the developers is to tell them if they don’t do it, we are going to pull the money and do it ourselves.”

Com. Evans, “Is there still a valid letter of credit on this? What’s the amount?”

Mr. Schelling, “Yes, and I don’t know off hand. I think it is about $23,000 but I am not positive.”

Com. Evans moved to grant authority to file a claim against the performance guarantee, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Mr. Schelling, “My intention is not to do that but at least show them……”

Com. Harper, “Dave, this Lake of the Four Seasons and the boundary, I keep getting emails on this.”

Mr. Schelling, “There’s an area boundary near the Four Seasons area, this is an urban area, and INDOT…”

Com. Harper, “What do you mean, urban area, in your estimation or urban as in …….”

Mr. Schelling, “Urban as by definition of the census. In 1990, urban areas included the area of the Four Seasons. INDOT is reviewing that and their recommendation is to add the Lake Eliza area and I don’t really understand because first of all, there really hasn’t been much increased activity there in homebuilding.”

Com. Harper, “What would that do?”

Mr. Schelling, “It would eliminate the builders to use group four STP money for any projects there and I would just as soon keep the urban areas as small as possible. Then the unusual thing about this situation is a fellow from INDOT came back to me and informed me that the people in Lake County, the Lake County Commissioner and the Woodfield manager and Lake of Four Seasons were not only have the Lake Eliza area but a lot more area included in the urban area. Which I don’t understand. I don’t understand why they would even be doing that. Why don’t they increase it in Winfield, in that area? I don’t understand it but my bottom line is I need to respond to INDOT.”

Com. Harper, “Do you think you could take a look at this and try and figure it out. There’s something more to it.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “There has to be.”

Com. Knoblock, “Is the fire district included in there?”

Mr. Schelling, “It probably includes it but that really shouldn’t change the urban area.”

Com. Evans, “And their definition of an urban area is not the same as the Plan Commission’s definition of an urban area.”

Mr. Schelling, “No. I think if you also recommend I respond to them, I would appreciate it, but I do need a response within a couple of working days.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Tell them we object.”

Com. Evans, “Tell them maybe.”

Com. Harper, “I want to find out if we can find out why they are trying to do this, there’s some reason they are trying to do this.”

Mr. Schelling, “Steve Strange from NIRPC was checking with Laura Vine about the ___________, and also with Carrie Eldridge to see how it would affect the funding of different projects. I haven’t heard back from either one of those folks yet. My recommendation is to keep it the same way it is now.”

Com. Evans, “Why does Lake County care?”

Com. Harper, “A lot of people want changes in zoning from Lake County. I don’t know but I want to find out.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Go with your gut.”

Mr. Schelling, “Better to keep it the way it is. Should I go ahead and contact him?”

Com. Harper, “Yes, don’t you think so, John?”

Com. Evans, “Why don’t you tell him that unless and until someone can tell us why this would be to our advantage, we want to leave it as is.”

Mr. Schelling, “Okay. I could just email him with the response and I will do so and copy everybody. Thank you.”


CORRESPONDENCE

Treasurer’s monthly report for October 2006 is on file.

Approval of Ordinance to repeal Ordinance 96-48 to enable the Auditor’s office to close Fund 155 and repeal Ordinance 97-36 to close Fund 163

Com. Harper, “State Board of Accounts has asked that we try to get some of these dormant funds closed.”

Com. Evans, “What were they?”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Do we have the ordinances here?”

Com. Evans, “No. I just wanted to know what the funds were originally.”

Com. Harper, “John, if you go back, I think, if you go back and skip the first page, the two ordinances, one of them was for the transfer of the Porter County Annex Building.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The fund balances are zero. One was the money when we sold the hospital, Porter County Annex, we got $430,000.00, we moved it into our own fund so we can spend it on whatever we wanted to and then we had a fund for the preservation of county property and all the balances were zero, so the balances are zero and we repeal them.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the request to repeal the dormant funds, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Approval of Official Bond for James Murphy, Treasurer

Com. Harper, “We have a request to approve the bond for James Murphy, in the amount of $300,000 for the county treasurer.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the bond for $300,000 for the county treasurer, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Approval of blanket employee bond for Treasurer’s office in the amount of $250,000

Com. Evans moved to approve the bond in the amount of $250,000, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Request for transfer of funds—E911

37.31 $4,000 from acct 1110 salaries
Into acct 1130 overtime

To pay overtime through the end of 2006.

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

Atty. Rinkenberger, “Do you have ordinance numbers for those? It’s really more of a motion to pass a repealing an ordinance than anything else. We need the numbers, you might as well give them right now.”

Ms. Hartig, “The ordinance to repeal Ordinance 96-48 is 06-14; and the ordinance number to repeal ordinance No. 97-36 is 06-15.”

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

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think we do.”

Com. Evans moved to suspend the rules to pass the ordinance on second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

Com. Evans moved to approve Ordinance 06-14 and 06-15 on second reading, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

APPROVAL OF 2007 HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

Com. Evans, “Boy, it’s a lot of time off.”

Ms. Hartig, “It’s two less than this year.”

Com. Evans, “Which ones did we quit? Groundhog day?”

Ms. Hartig, “The two election days.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the 2007 Holiday Schedule, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

2007 HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

Monday January 1 New Year’s Day
Monday January 15 Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday February 19 President’s Day
Friday April 6 Good Friday
Monday May 28 Memorial Day
Wednesday July 4 Independence Day
Monday September 3 Labor Day
Monday October 8 Columbus Day
Monday November 12 Veteran’s Day
Thursday November 22 Thanksgiving Day
Friday November 23 Thanksgiving
Tuesday December 25 Christmas Day

2006-2007 Snow Removal Proposals Discussion

Com. Harper, “Melissa has a snow removal proposal, apparently the same people as last year and we’ve got more than one proposal and they came in low, and you are recommending them?”

Ms. Hartig, “Yes, the Landscape Group.”

Com. Evans, “And that is for the courthouse, the administration building and north county?”

Ms. Hartig, “And Juvenile Detention.”

Com. Evans, “And the Sheriff’s Department. How much did it go up from last year?”

Com. Harper, “It’s the same.”

Com. Evans moved to approve the proposal of the Landscape Group for snow removal, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.

RECEIVE 2007 HIGHWAY SUPPLIES AND SERVICE BIDS
Al Hoagland, Highway Superintendent

Com. Evans, “So, you’ve got limestone, slag, bituminous, ice abrasive, fill sand, pavement striping and marking, rental rates, signs and sign posts, calcium chloride products, gasoline diesel fuel, motor oil, and chassis lubricants, galvanized corrugated steel culvers, pre-cast and pre-stressed bridge slabs, and that is it.”

ITEM #1 LIMESTONE:

Com. Harper, “The first one is Whitcomb Trucking for limestone. 73 limestone, $12.10 per ton. Obviously there are more things on that they have checked. These will be available tonight for anyone that wants to look at them.”

David James, “Harry Brown Trucking, $12.00.”

Unidentified man, “Is there any possibility you could read who the companies are so everyone can hear?”

Com. Harper, “Yes.”

Man, “Is that the first one?”

Mr. James, “The first one is Whitcomb Trucking. These will be on display.”

Man, “I just think it is important that we know who is submitting the bid.”

Com. Harper, “The next one is Vulcan. $12.20.”

Mr. James, “Hanson Material Service. $16.05.”

Com. Harper, “Is that all in that category?”

Com. Evans, “What are you going to do next, slag?”

Com. Harper, “Slag. $10.20 per ton.

Mr. James, “Let’s do slag sand.”

Com. Harper, “$10.20 per ton.”

ITEM #2 SLAG SAND

Beemsterboroer Slag $13.35
Levy Company 8.85
Ralston 10.12
Whitcomb 10.20

ITEM #3 BUTUMINOUS PLANT MIX


Reith Riley $39.20
Walsh $ Kelly 49.20

Mr. James, “We can look at these afterwards, they will be on display if there are questions on this. There’s extra charges on there.”

Aggregate Industries 62.65 surface
Central Paving 74.38 cold mix only, delivered to any spot in Porter County

ITEM #4 ICE ABRASIVE MATERIAL

No bidders

ITEM #5 FILL SAND (delivered to any point in Porter County)

Whitcomb Trucking 5.80 per yard
G.E. Marshall, Inc. 7.00 per yard
Ralston Trucking 6.35 per yard

ITEM #6 PAVEMENT STRIPINGS AND MARKINGS

Line Markers, Inc. $.29 linear foot
Air-Marking Co. $.65 linear foot

ITEM #7 EQUIPMENT RENTAL

A. Pulverizing machine

Klink Trucking $.35 sq. yard
Mt. Carmel .24 sq. yard
D. J. Mcquestion .26 sq. yard

B. Milling machine

Reith Riley $1.80 sq. yard

Mr. James, “They are making it an hourly rate there.”

Com. Harper, “127?”

Mr. James, “Yes. $127.85 an hour.”

Mr. Hoagland, “Milling and pulverizing are two different machines.”

Mr. James, “This is for regular rates for all the equipment the G.E. Marshall has, I
will just pick one. We’ve used the hydraulic excavator for $142.50 per hour.”

G.E Marshall $142.50 per hour for hydraulic



ITEM #8 SIGNS AND POSTS

Hall Signs

Com. Harper, “There is only one bid here. Pick one price, there are a lot of signs here.”

Mr. James, “The 30 inch stop sign: $20.86.”

ITEM #9 CALCIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTION

Price per gallon

Great Lakes $.512 cents a gallon to any spot in Porter County

ITEM # 10 GASOLINE

Rackham Services $1.972
Superior Petroleum 1.94
Petroleum Traders 1.86

Com. Harper, “So you just had three on that last one, right?”

Ms. Rubens, “Right, gasoline, there were three.”

Com. Evans, “The first two you announced for gasoline were for mid-grade and t his bid is for 87 octane.”

Com. Harper, “Who are you looking for, Al?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Well, Triple J-Mar Petroleum, sometimes they put their gas and diesel in the same package.”

Com. Evans, “Are you saying they can’t follow instructions?”

Mr. Hoagland, “Well, yeah.”

Mr. James, “This is just Petroleum Traders.”

Man in audience, “I have a question You just brought up that your bid says that you needed mid-grade gasolines, your bid says lead free 87 octane, not mid-grade.”

Com. Evans, “The first two were bidding on mid-grade. So they substituted, the Sheriff’s Department.”

Mr. James, “I read the Sheriff’s Department by mistake, not the County Highway. I am now reading Petroleum Traders for the County Highway for gasoline and it is $1.9453, that’s for gasoline. Now diesel for the County Highway. The low sulfur, number 2 diesel:

Petroleum Traders $2.576
Triple J-Mar 1.929
Superior Petroleum 2.318
Rackham Services 2.2528

Man in audience, “I believe that the bids said that the taxes had to be included in the bids and needed to be listed and what the bids were.”

Mr. James, “They are.”

Man, “So if somebody bid it and they didn’t have their taxes included it and they accepted the bid price.”
Atty. Rinkenberger, “That’s a decision that is up to the Board of Commissioners because they have the right to waive the bids forms and to waive technicalities and if they so desire to waive that they can if they don’t want to when they accept the bids, they don’t have to.”

Man, “Next question I have on that and I am not trying to be a pain, I invested $4 million in Porter County this last spring and I want to make sure my bid is the same as this year. Triple J Mar did not submit a bid on gasoline and since they didn’t, there is no way they can submit a bid after tonight, is that correct?”

Com. Evans, “That is correct.”

Mr. James, “If we didn’t receive it by 4:00, we don’t…..”

Man, “So we don’t have to worry about them, there’s only the three companies that bid on the gas, then.”

Mr. James, “From what I can see on this paperwork, it came across here.”

Man, “Thank you so much.”

Com. Evans, “The bid you spoke of was the bid at 1.9888 with a fixed margin of .094 Indiana Motor Fuel Tax inspection of point, 170 for a unit price of 2.2528.”

ITEM #12 MOTOR OIL AND LUBRICANTS

Rackham Service 15W40 , 55 gal. drum $6.12 gal.
Superior Oil 15W40, 55 gal. drum 7.32 gal.

ITEM #13 CULVERTS

Metal Culverts 12” diam., 14 gauge piping 2.40 foot
Guardrail 5.62 foot
St. Regis Culvert 8.30 foot
Debco 6.03 foot

Mr. James, “All these will be on display for at least a half an hour.”

Ms. Hartig, “According to the Auditor’s office, there was a bid received by Triple J Mar.”

Mr. James, “We overlooked it then. I may have called that Petroleum Traders instead of that.”

Com. Harper, “Why don’t you look through there.”

Man, “My only concern is that, my understanding is that all bids were going to be read aloud tonight.”

Com. Harper, “I am telling you we are going to stay here until they look and see if they got it or not. They either got it or they don’t.”

Man, “Last year I submitted a bid and did not receive the bid, only received a rejection on it. I own Rack and Service Corporation, I just bought Baird Marine Petroleum in Valparaiso so I am in Valparaiso every day. Porter County is extremely important to me. And my bid was rejected, I was never told why it was rejected, I called the Auditor’s Office and the bid was not read last year. So my feeling is and your attorney is going to have to make that decision for you, I spent eight years on the City Council in LaPorte and if a bid was not submitted tonight, then the bid was rejected. And I had the same thing happen in LaPorte County, that the bid was rejected because Triple J Mar did not submit on time, so my feeling is, is if their bid is not here tonight and you have an attorney standing here, that their bid cannot be accepted. If it comes up tomorrow or at a later date.”

Com. Harper, “We are going to make a record of what happens here today. And so we are giving them a chance to see if that bid is here and if it is not here….”

Man, “The same thing last year, and it was brought back to us.”

Com. Harper, “Let me just tell you, if it is not here, we are going to record it down, make a recording of it, we’ll come back in two weeks, they’ll give you the date we are coming back for our recommendations, and if there are any irregularities, we’ll get a decision that night on it, so I want you to be sure you are here that night. We’re not going to decide legal issues ahead of the game but…..”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We also say in our bids that we have the right to reject any and all bids and re-open it for bids. We can ….”

Man, “I’ve heard that before because somebody punched in what was taking place during bids. My only thing is that I want to go on public record saying that if the bid was not here tonight, was not read aloud, that no matter if that bid shows up tomorrow, or if it shows up two weeks from now, that bid is illegal and should not be accepted.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “You’re not going to hear that opinion from me.”

Man, “Then why do you write out a bid if you are not going to abide by the bid rule? That’s what happened last year. It came up after the fact and they said they would accept the bid when all the bids had been read aloud.”

Com. Harper, “Let me tell you what we are doing, okay. Here’s what we are doing. If you were here tonight and you said you fell on the sidewalk of Porter County and you have pictures to show that it was real bad, we wouldn’t make a legal decision on it tonight, okay, that is not the way we do business. Listen…”

Man, “The bid said 6:30 tonight the bid had to be in at 4:00 today and if they were not submitted on time, the bid should not be accepted, that is the bottom line.”

Com. Harper, “And that may be the law, I am not sure what it is, and we decide that next time. You have made your point and I think it is a good point, but we are not going to make a decision tonight because we don’t make legal decisions, I don’t care if it is about this, or you know, we research them and find out where we are at. By the way, we’ve got the bid up here.”

Mr. James, “We’ve got the Triple J Mar bid here for gas.”

Man, “Then I would like to hear what their bid is.”

Mr. James, “I read the wrong… I read it for the Sheriff’s Garage, which was the wrong one and for us, we’ll do the 30,000 gallons or less delivered to the Porter County Highway Department garages, BP Amoco, rack price $1.656, fixed margin of .0225, Indiana Motor Fuel Tax, $.19 for a unit price per gallon of $1.8685. Sorry for the confusion.”

Man, “I am glad that we cleared that up.”

Com. Harper, “Anything else? I have one thing I want to bring up. I’ve got to say this. There was an article in the local paper today about governmental officials urging the legislature to repeal this 2% cap on property tax and as many of you know, I wrote some letters to different people around the state regarding that and everything, you know, the article in the paper didn’t talk to anyone that was opposed to that appeal. It was all about that repeal and I have seen more and more articles and I would just like to say for the record, that I have gotten a lot of response back from the people that are part of the Association of Indiana Counties. I say it is about 50-50, but I think it is important that we know that there are a lot of officials in Indiana that don’t believe from all different parties and from all over the state that don’t believe that tax should be repealed, and I hope that in the future, both sides of the story are printed. And I just want to read a couple of those letters. I got one from the Lake County Assessor, Paul Karas.

“I am in full agreement with the sentiments expressed in your letter dated November 8, 2006 where you expressed your opposition and position taken by the Association of Indiana Counties in regard to the 2% cap on property taxes. Like you, I am opposed to any alteration or repeal of this cap and I believe this cap is beneficial to the taxpayers and should remain in place.”

Some of the different people that I’ve gotten emails from, I just want to note some of the different ones I got emails from. A fellow named Byron Collier, from Morgan County, a councilman, the Marion County Surveyor, Mary Kathryn Barton wrote me an email: “Thank you so much for alerting me to the position of our Association of Indiana Counties has taken to repeal the 2% cap on property taxes for residential homes. I agree with your opposition that such action and my staff agrees with you. A letter from a councilman down in Nashville, Indiana. “I received your letter today, thank you for standing with us. I agree with your analysis reference to the 2% property tax cap. The state must remain in control of the tax rates.” One from a councilman and Chuck Estock from Starke County. “I couldn’t agree more about the Association of Indiana Counties attempt to repeal the 2% cap on property taxes. I will be in contact with our new state representative, Nancy Dembowski and state senator Vic Heinhold from your area.” One from a coroner in Fayette County. His name is Joseph Todd. “I received your letter and was very surprised to learn that the Association of Indiana Counties would try and sneak this through. Like most elected officials most of the time, I cannot attend their meetings. Nevertheless, I feel I and all AIC members should have been contacted and have a say of yes or no in this action. Like you, I strongly oppose removing the 2% gap.” Another letter from the Fayette County Assessor along the same lines, Nancy Skiemens, and from a reporter in Warren County. These are just people I could get ahold of today and got a verbal okay to give their opinion, but to lead the public to believe that all public officials are for repealing that tax gap, I think is wrong. I don’t know how you feel about that John or Carole.”

Com. Knoblock, “I’m with you.”

Com. Evans, “Well, I think we ought to repeal all the taxes and go back to flat tax or a sales tax for everything.”

Com. Harper, “I just hope that our representatives listen to everybody’s opinion on that and don’t repeal this tax cap. Keep that 2% cap. You know, my example I gave in that letter was if a man and a woman retire at age 65 and they pay 2% of their property tax for the next 20 years they will pay 40% of the value of their home and it is just not right. Anything else?”

Mr. Hoagland, “When will we announce these? The 18th?”

Com. Harper, “Yes let’s announce when we will announce the bids.”

Ms. Hartig, “The last meeting of December?”

Com. Harper, “Yes.”

Ms. Hartig, “It’s the 19th.”

Man, “And I don’t want to be a pain with this, but the county attorney brought this up. And the only reason I am bringing this up is because she made a point of saying that the bids had to be, and I may have said this wrong, but it had to be the best or the most responsible or the best bid.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “The most responsible; responsive and responsible.”

Man, “My only request would be on that is that I have been down that path before and told because I spoke out at a public meeting, that my bid was not the best because I spoke out at a public meeting. I think we are here in America and that is what we are supposed to do and that is why I am here tonight because last year I didn’t have the opportunity to be here. So my only request is that whether it is me or whether it is people with stone, or whatever it is, that you don’t pick on somebody because they spoke out at a meeting. I am the only one that did tonight. But I think that is very important.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t think any county official in Porter County has ever picked on anybody for speaking.”

Man, “You just made a point of saying that, ma’am and I just wanted to make sure I said that. My intent was not to make it so that I was not the most responsive bid because I spoke out tonight.”

Atty. Rinkenberger, “We wouldn’t consider that responsive and responsible.”

Com. Evans, “We appreciate your comments.”

Com. Harper, “Anything else? Okay, do I hear a motion?”

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