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PORTER COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS The regular meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners convened at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center. Those present were: Commissioners Robert Harper and John Evans; County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger; Administrative Assistant Melissa Hartig; and Recording Secretary Vi Wagner.
President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of May 29, 2007, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of April 30, May 1, and May 9, 2007, Com Harper seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of May 22 and May 29, 2007, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
Com. Harper, “I am going to take something out of order here. Where is this approval we need to do on this bond issue? Is Dave here?” Atty. Hollenbeck, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Is that on the agenda?” Atty. Hollenbeck, “Yes.” Com. Harper: “Let’s do that now.” Atty. Hollenbeck, “Thank you. Good evening. As you are aware, the County Council in it’s wisdom has chosen not to spend the $14.3 million in Major Moves money that we received from the lease of the Toll Road but to preserve the corpus of that and to spend the interest. Pursuant to previous discussions with the Commissioners, there is a consensus that money should be spent on the highways in Porter County. So what we have done is coordinated an investment of that $14.3 million, and Treasurer Murphy has completed that task. As of June 1st, the money has been invested with Fifth Third Bank, who was the highest bidder in a competitive bidding contest at 5.27 percent interest. With that interest rate, we can fund about $1.5 million worth of borrowing right now and secure that money so that you will have it available for highway projects. The money has been in the bank since September and has earned over $500,000 of interest. So with the interest we will earn in the next two years plus that $500,000, we will have about $1.9 million of interest at the end of two years. We competitively bid the borrowing today and, again, Fifth Third Bank was the most competitive interest rate at 6.17 percent. So our interest will be $182,000 added to the $1.5 million we are borrowing is $1,680,000 that we will have to pay back in two years, and we will have approximately $1.9 million from which to do that. So when the two-year cycle is done, we will have borrowed $1.5 million; you will have that to do the projects, and we will have about $350,000 worth of interest left that we can recycle if you choose to do this again. We originally hoped to do it for three to five years to get a little more bang out of our buck, but the ability of the County to invest money by law is limited to two years, we discovered. So that is the longest period of time that we could, in fact, invest the money; and the Council wanted to link the investment to the borrowing to make sure that that money would be there, and there would not be any temptation to spend it on anything else.” Com. Harper, “So what do we need to approve?” Atty. Hollenbeck, “You need to approve the borrowing tonight. Actually, we are borrowing it in the form of a BAN, a bond anticipation note, although there will be no bond at the end, we will simply pay off the note. We are working with Patti Zelmer from Ice Miller as our Bond Council, and it is very similar to other borrowings you do. I provided you with copies of the five forms that I need your signature on, and I would answer questions you may have. If there are not any, I would ask for an approval of the execution of the five bond documents and then we can start signing them.” Com. Harper, “Let me just ask you this. Tonight the official action we are taking is entering into the bond anticipation note purchase agreement.” Atty. Hollenbeck, “And the other four documents that I have forwarded to you that are part of the transcript. There is an order, there is the purchase agreement, there is a signature and no litigation certificate, and the last one is the bond itself that you have to sign. Again, other than the purchase agreement and the bond itself, the other three forms end up in the bond transcript that Bond Council prepares and gets back to us and provides the basis of their rendering their legal opinion that we have done everything appropriately and that it is a legal obligation of Porter County.” Com Harper, “Are there any motions or questions?”
Com. Evans, “Is there going to be any appreciable change to the Indiana Toll Road in its entity since the lease of that?” Com. Evans, “In other words, the rates have not gone up, but without that lease, we would not be doing what we are doing here tonight, right?” Atty. Hollenbeck, “Without that lease, there wouldn’t be $14.3 million sitting in Porter County coffers to spend.” Com. Evans, “The fare has not been raised on the toll road.” Atty. Hollenbeck, “It has probably been a week since I have been on the toll road, but the last time I was there, it was the same toll.” Com. Evans moved to approve the execution of the five bond documents. Com. Harper, “If you want to find out, all you have to do is make a call to Australia and ask, since they bought our toll road, have they changed anything.” Com. Evans, “We sold the hospital, we leased the toll road.” Com. Harper, “My dad leased a piece of property for four years, and he told me it was the same thing as a sale because he would be dead by the time it was over with. And we will be dead by the time this one is over with, too.” Com. Harper seconded the motion, motion carried. Atty. Hollenbeck, “Thank you, gentlemen. As I said, I have a series of forms, and as you might imagine, there are multiple copies. This one is just for the President to sign. I will get the County Attorney a copy of the transcript. One other comment while you are signing, I will tell you that both the investing and the borrowing were very competitive. We had, I believe, eight bids to invest our money and six bids to loan us money. So it is a little different than the Bethlehem Steel bankruptcy days.”
Com. Harper, “The next thing is the approval of change order for the Visitor’s Center. Lorelei, do you have the change order? What number is this?” Ms. Weimer, “Good evening. We have two change orders. We have change order 21, which is basically we needed to do additional work to modify the manholes to allow for our connection to the downspout piping into the storm water sewers. That change order is a total cost of $457.65; 20%, which is our amount, is $91.53. Change order number 22 is for the faucet aerators in the public restrooms. We needed higher flow aerators because there would not be hot water, so we changed those out. The total cost of that was $250, and our share was $50.” Com. Harper, “They get fewer and farther between and cheaper prices.” Ms. Weimer, “They did. And we just have one more I know for sure then, hopefully, we will get this project done.” Com. Evans, “The total of change order numbers for the project? This brings it to what, 18?” Ms. Weimer, “Twenty-two.” Ms. Weimer, “We do have one addressing the swale at the back of the property that will be coming, so about 23 total. Not too bad.” Com. Evans, “That is remarkable. It really is.” Com. Evans moved to approve the two change orders number 21 and 22 for the Visitor’s Center, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “It takes the same amount of signatures to approve $500 as millions.”
Com. Harper, “It is my understanding that we need to do two things. Gwenn, what is the first?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “The first is under tab 2, there is a letter of agreement outlining the scope of the services they are going to provide for the separation of bid specifications, and construction documents for the total project, and the compensation that they are requesting.” Com. Harper, “So you have gone over it?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “All right. Are there any questions, John, or motions?” Com. Evans, “I just wanted clarification. When we met the last time — I think it had already been pretty much explained to me — but we had talked about and were going to lease the chiller, and we found one in the interim, and it is going to be more cost effective to purchase that than to lease it. Am I correct?” Mr. Dorney, “You are correct. You have purchased that, and it has been delivered.” Com. Harper, “If you leased it, it was going to be how much a month? I forgot what it was going to be.” Mr. Kromkowski, “About $20,000 a month.” Com. Evans, “We purchased it for $39,000 or $37,000, but they tried to charge us $10,000 extra.” Com. Harper, “I asked today, Gwenn has anybody talked to you about that today, because I asked today to make sure we got somebody that is covering that by insurance. No one has contacted you?” Com. Evans “Is it installed?” Com. Harper, “No, it is sitting . . .” Mr. Dorney, “It is in the parking lot. It had been delivered, it is on site.” Com. Harper, “I understand that. Gwenn, could you call Anton tomorrow and just make sure that that is covered?” Com. Evans, “Do we need a builder’s risk policy, too? Maybe that would be a better way to go with this, just have him issue a builder’s risk until we’re finished with the installation.” Mr. Dorney, “I would really recommend that you have at least some type of umbrella policy or something to cover that material since it is not installed.” Com. Evans, “I don’t think anybody is going to walk away with it, but we need to make sure that it is . . .” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What is Mike Anton’s number? Why don’t we have them contact Mike Anton directly since they have all the information.” Com. Harper, “Here’s what I feel would be better. Would you guys be wiling to do that?” Mr. Kromkowski, “We would be happy to help with that.” Com. Harper, “I would feel better if you did that tonight. They can give you his cell phone number before you leave today and see if you can get a rider on it. Mr. Kromkowski, “Sure.” Com. Harper, “I thought somebody had called Gwenn today and taken care of it.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “This proposal includes the construction documents, the bidding phase, and you are performing almost construction management oversight of the project?” Mr. Kromkowski, “That is correct.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “For $34,500?” Mr. Kromkowski, “That is correct.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Exclusive of expenses. What type of expenses?” Mr. Kromkowski, “Primarily it would be just mileage. I do not anticipate it probably being $250. Somewhere around there.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “So you prepared the bid documents, and you reviewed the bid documents?” Mr. Kromkowski, “We prepared the bid documents, we reviewed the bid documents, gave you a recommendation, and then also administrated the contracts or purchase orders depending upon how you want to proceed with that.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think way we normally would do it is, even if you prepared the bids, we probably would have them opened in a public meeting. And you would attend, right?” Mr. Kromkowski, “And we would attend and assist you in that, correct.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Exactly. And then have you review the contracts and we would sign them.” Mr. Kromkowski, “That is absolutely right. The contract would be between you and your contractor.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right.” Com. Evans, “I would like to add a little caveat to that. Because Johnson Controls is our administrator of that building and oversees the work that goes on and the equipment and the process for functioning over there on a continual basis – and I know they are probably going to be a bidder in the installation process – if they do not win the bid, I would like to have them have a chance to look at the winning bids to make sure that they are including everything that should be there and anything that would create an additional hardship or management problem for them.” Mr. Kromkowski, “I do not have any problem with that.” Com. Evans moved to approve the letter of agreement with DLZ, Com. Harper, seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “I want to talk about these bids. Apparently, we have bids here for the installation of the chiller. When did we visualize this thing being installed? How soon?” Mr. Dorney, “Before the first of July.” Com. Harper, “What we usually do is open bids, announce the bid amount and give them to you to review, then you come back to our next meeting, give us your recommendation, and we make our selection. If we go through that process, is that going to be quick enough to get that in there by the first of July?” Mr. Dorney, “I believe so. We are estimating within the bid the quotes that were requested is not only the price but also the time, the duration to do the work on straight time, and also if there is overtime, how quickly we can expedite it. We are anticipating probably three weeks to get the work done. We can review the bids tomorrow and give you a recommendation before . . .” Com. Harper, “Our next meeting is when?” Com. Evans, “June 19th.” Com. Harper, “June 19th. That is why I am asking if we selected the bidder on June 19th ….?” Com. Evans, “How about this. If we open the biddings at the beginning of our next meeting on the 19th, would you be prepared to go through them?” Com. Harper, “We have them now. We have the sealed bids.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We have three bids for installation.” Com. Harper, “We can open them tonight.” Com. Evans, “Have they been advertised in a proper manner?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Yes. This is just for the installation of the chiller.” Mr. Dorney, “This is just for the installation of the chiller, not the overall project.” Com. Evans, “Why don’t we go ahead with it tonight and award that portion tonight.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t we open them up and see what they say and see if they can give us a recommendation.” Com. Harper, “Why don’t we open them, and let them come back at the end of the meeting tonight. Look them over and come back at the end of the meeting tonight and do it.” Mr. Dorney, “It should not be too complex, so we will just have to review those and report back.” Com. Harper, “And anybody here that is bidding can look at these bids, too. The first bid is from D.A. Dodd and it is for $104,000. They have an alternate if they include the performance bond add $1,124. The second is from Delco, and it is for $107,500, and it adds a performance bond of $1,400 and adds $5,800 for overtime work to cut the schedule down to two weeks. The next one is from Johnson Controls, and it is for $89,850; however, it does not include overtime, asbestos removal, permits, fees, and drawings are not included. The project is expected to take three to four weeks with the chiller down for about five days. And, again, their bid is $5,400 to shorten that time by overtime. So you guys can take these and look over them, see if they are a formal bid, come back toward the end of our meeting and we will take action on it. If there is anybody here that has bid on it, you are more than welcome to look at the other bids. Maybe you could open the outer door to the Commissioner’s office and let them sit in there. Do you think you could do that?” Ms. Hartig, “It should be open.” Com. Harper, “There is a desk right inside the Commissioner’s office. If anybody wants to look them over, come back and tell us. The next thing on the agenda because Kevin Breitzke has withdrawn his…… he doesn’t want to be on the agenda tonight, is Dave Lain with the approval of a couple things, the lawn mower bid and Porter Starke contract.”
Approval of Lawn Mower Bid Sheriff Lain, “Good evening. As you know, we have been trying to help out the maintenance by doing our own lawn, so to speak. There is a lot of grass to cut. We have been able to utilize inmate labor to do that, but the lawn mower that we had gave its life for the good of the County. I think you have the three bids from Riggs, Burke, and A&M.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “How old was the lawn mower, or were they just hard on it? Didn’t we buy a new lawn mower when we built the jail?” Sheriff Lain, “Yeah, but, they mow the lawn and, no, I do not think they were hard on it. I think it is a hard job, plus that has been traditionally both our use and it has been picked up by the Maintenance Department to be used in other places when other mowers went down. So I do not know what kind of use it has gotten elsewhere.” Com. Harper, “Do you have a recommendation, David?” Sheriff Lain, “We are recommending Riggs.” Com. Harper, “Why is that? I see. A couple of reasons, Dave?” Sheriff Lain, “It is competitively priced, and they have agreed to give us a good trade-in value on the other mower, and they have enhanced the deal by allowing us use of some other equipment for some other projects at the jail; for instance, the vegetable garden that the inmates have in the back.” Com. Evans, “Are all of these gasoline engines?” Sheriff Lain, “Yes.” Com. Evans, “Why?” Sheriff Lain, “That is what has been in use.” Com. Evans, “I know, but that is such a big area, we can do better with a diesel, to tell you the truth. But they seem to know; 30 horsepower is a pretty good size. They have given you $2,069 for the old one? That is a good price.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation to purchase the lawn mower from Riggs, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Approval of contract with Porter Starke (IOP) Sheriff Lain, “As you know, the IOP, I am trying to remember what IOP stood for. Intensive Out-Patient, that’s it. Actually the name has been changed to Chemical Addiction and Dependency Program that has been very successful in reducing recidivism for inmates. As you know, probably 95 percent of people that find themselves behind bars are also addicted to some substance. So as best we can, we are getting people into this program that is administered by Porter Starke. The contract is to supply those instructors for that program.” Com Harper, “You have a men’s program and a women’s program?” Sheriff Lain, “Yes,” Com. Harper, “How many people can they take at one time in each program, do you know?” Sheriff Lain, “The maximum that can be accommodated in any one program is 23 individuals.” Com. Harper, “So the men’s program has 23, and . . .” Sheriff Lain, “Currently, we are running two men’s programs, and one women’s program.” Com. Harper, “And you have people lined up that are waiting to get in.” Sheriff Lain, “Absolutely, and I know the judges would like to make this program a condition of sentencing as well, and we are able to accept some of those individuals, but not all of them.” Com. Harper, “This is an intensive outpatient program, which is sort of a misnomer because they are in-custody people.” Sheriff Lain, “That is why they changed the name.” Com. Harper, “Several hours a week they meet, several times a week, correct? Not all drug dependency programs that I understand, from what everyone has told me, have had a great deal of success.” Sheriff Lain, “It is a 100-hour program; and one of the instructors, Gwen Schilling, who does the female program currently, does the tracking. Over the course of time that it has been tracked since we have been in the jail since 2002, typically recidivism is roughly 65 to 70 percent — people come back 7 out of 10 times. For graduates of the IOP or the Chemical Addiction Program, the last set of statistics that she compiled, I think that is still down below, I don’t have it in front of me, but I know it is below 50%, and I believe it is only just above 40%. So they are successful in reducing by 30 percentage points the number of people that come back.” Com. Harper, “I think, and you and I have discussed this, that you have the space and the manpower to support another program for the men if Porter Starke would provide you the people to do that. You have people standing in line to get in this thing, correct?” Sheriff Lain, “Sure, and remember that this is also something that the inmates themselves are essentially paying for. As you will remember, we instituted a fee that goes exclusively toward paying for this program.” Com. Harper, “Here is what I would ask you. We talk about working on the drug problem in Porter County. I think you should find out how much it would cost to get another men’s program going. The women’s program, they can take care of the volume of women you have, is that correct, or not? They don’t have a big waiting list.” Sheriff Lain, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I have already been in conversations with Porter Starke, and they are in the process of looking for just the individual you described, looking at options on how we can do that. We have already looked, and we can accommodate logistically another men’s class, and we are trying to work with Porter Starke to come up with the most efficient way to do that, whether it is a full-time clinician or just how we would do that.” Com. Harper, “When the funding becomes an issue, I think we should address that issue Bring it to us, and we should address it.” Sheriff Lain, “We certainly will.” Com. Harper, “I think it is just another thing we can do to try to address the drug problem. It sounds to me like it is sort of an inexpensive one we can work on, too.”
Sheriff Lain, “Ask any inmate that has gone through this program, and they will say it is the best money they ever spent.” Com. Evans, “I agree with everything that has been said here wholeheartedly. But I disagree with the idea that it should be made a condition of sentencing by the courts or by the judge because for somebody to personally say, ‘I want to enroll in this program,’ is one thing; for the court to say you have to enroll in this program as a condition of your release or a condition of your sentencing is quite another. It just, in my way of thinking, downgrades the program itself. If the program has that good of an ability and it is capable of making those kind of results, then I do not think we need to cheapen it by making it a condition that now is like a check mark that somebody has to meet before they can get out of jail.” Sheriff Lain, “I certainly understand the philosophy, and to some extent, I agree, but remember that I think the judiciary is trying to do what they can because they see the benefits of the program. What we have found is that maybe some people start the program not by their own volition, but they reap the benefits anyway. So it kind of goes back to the old saw, ‘You can’t lead a horse to water,’ well, judges can. I think we have found that even if they are court ordered to be in the program, they still are getting the successes from those individuals as well.” Com. Evans, “I just do not want to see it cheapened because I know they have such good results.” Sheriff Lain, “I think if you talk to Gwen or Dennis, either one, they would say that the people that finish the program, and it is really the court order that is the hammer that is being held over their head, figuratively speaking, people that are finishing the program have an equal chance of success whether or not they were court ordered.” Com. Evans, “Keep that statistic, too.” Sheriff Lain, “You would have to talk to Gwen Schilling. I am not exactly sure how closely she tracks that, but it is a big job just figuring out who goes through it because, I would like to say, John, almost everybody in there needs addiction counseling.” Com. Evans moved to approve the jail Chemical Addiction and Dependency Program agreement with Porter Starke, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Atty. Rinkenberger, “It says 2006, we do not have a new contract, at least not ours, for 2006?” Com. Evans, “It has got to be 2007 because they just changed the name. It’s just a typo.” Sheriff Lain, “I didn’t see that. I will have Porter Starke get a fresh copy over tomorrow.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “On that lawn mower, you guys are paying for that lawn mower out of your budget?” Com. Harper, “I thought that we said we were paying for it.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We are paying for the lawn mower?” Sheriff Lain, “233 I think we were….” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Who is going to pay for maintenance for the lawn mower?” Com. Harper, “What fund did we say we were taking that out of? Didn’t we say when we did this that we would pay for it?” Ms. Hartig, “You did stipulate that, but you did not tell me from where. We really don’t have any funds in 233 to purchase a mower unless we do an additional appropriation.” Com. Harper, “Do we have a place where we can purchase the mower?” Com. Evans, “233 has . . .” Com. Harper, “Yes, but she is saying we will have to do an additional, that is what she is saying. It does have, we would have to do an additional. Do we have somewhere where we wouldn’t have to do this?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Is there maintenance money in our CEDIT from somewhere? This is maintenance.” Com. Evans, “Can’t we purchase it out of 233?” Ms. Hartig, “The line items in 233 are set up for just maintenance of the building.” Com. Evans, “Gas and electric, so we are going to be short here if we take it out of there.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What about just general CEDIT maintenance?” Com. Harper, “It is not that we are going to be short, John, I do not think we are going to be short. I think we are going to have to do it. It would be easy to do it….” Ms. Hartig, “If you want, we could take it out of CEDIT Building Maintenance.” Com. Evans, “How about if we take it out of Riverboat Revenue Sharing?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Let’s take it out of one of those dormant accounts.” Ms. Hartig, “There is Property Disposal. It has $164,000 in it.” Com. Evans, “How about your DEA proceeds?” Sheriff Lain, “What about them?” Com. Evans, “Is there enough in there to cover it?” Sheriff Lain, “Actually, we are working on a separate project with those funds in mind.” Com. Evans, “As you speak.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What is the Property Disposal Fund usually used for?” Sheriff Lain, “Disposing of property.” Com. Evans, “It’s had a lot of activity..” Ms. Hartig, “It says building maintenance.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Let’s do that.” Com. Evans, “Which one?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Property Disposal.”
Com. Evans, “Do we have a number?” Com. Harper, “Let’s take it out of 252.” Com. Evans amended his motion to have the proceeds withdrawn from fund 252, Com. Harper seconded. Atty. Rinkenberger, “And maintenance costs?” Ms. Hartig, “I just wanted to know who is responsible for the maintenance of the mower once it is purchased because there seemed to be an ongoing dispute.” Sheriff Lain, “I would not call it a dispute. I would say that there was at times the need for maintenance, and rather than spending a greater amount for routine things like oil changes, belt changes, and that sort of thing — again, we have the perfect setting to handle that sort of thing — so we have been handling that in house.” Com. Harper, “And you are going to handle it.” Sheriff Lain, “Absolutely.” Motion carried. Com. Harper, “The understanding is you are handling the maintenance.” Sheriff Lain, “Correct.” Com. Harper, “Is there anything else?” UNDERGROUND TANKS AT HIGHWAY GARAGE DISCUSSION Com. Evans, “In regard to a conversation I had earlier with Russ Shirley, and I am sure you are aware that the underground tanks at the highway garage, to date I think the county has spent about $120,000 to monitor those requests. Could you have someone explore that — I do not know how much in depth you want to go into this — the possibility of not having those tanks anymore? We may end up having to do that throughout the county and ridding the county of all underground storage and going to a credit card system. I know we spoke about it three or four years ago, but I think we have to look at it again.” Sheriff Lain, “As a matter of fact, I have had recent conversations with Captain Tom Henderson in that regard. That is kind of an ongoing process as well. We kind of always knew that those tanks were finite.” Com. Evans, “It may come to a head within the next few months. It depends on where we end up. It is a great idea to be able to buy gas at a wholesale price and save up but when we have to spend now nearly a half a million dollars since this monitoring thing has been going on. We are not getting any deals out of this.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Do you have quotes on digital cameras that Doug sent with you?” Sheriff Lain, “I do. I do not know if you do yet or not.” Com. Evans, “We talked about it some time ago.” Com. Harper, “Hold on a second. Is that on the agenda for tonight?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “No.”
Ms. Hartig, “No, because we did not know how much it was.” Com. Harper, “Do you have the quotes with you?” Sheriff Lain, “I have them, and while I am pulling mine I will see if I can get your copies. We have had conversations about fully digitizing the building from the current analog video system, which takes a tremendous amount of storage space for VCR tapes because of the number of cameras. The quality that is there has proven — I do not know if I would call it insufficient — but it is certainly not the quality that we would like to have in order to protect ourselves from certain areas of liability. I think we can certainly enhance our coverage and quality in video surveillance by going to this digital system. I can kind of lead you through what we’ve got.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What is your recommendation?” Sheriff Lain, “I think, if you will look at all things being equal, the Johnson Controls proposal comes out ahead.” Com. Harper, “Now is this proposal, because this is a liability issue, and it is an issue that especially since we are keeping prisoners for other jurisdictions, that we have to be able to save, and this will film all areas of the jail other than the cells, is that correct?” Sheriff Lain, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Because with the system we have now, we don’t have the capacity to save these films indefinitely.” Sheriff Lain, “Correct.” Com. Harper, “And this is going to give us that capacity.” Sheriff Lain, “Yes. This really enhances our storage capabilities and it enhances the quality of what is available.” Com. Harper, “Let’s say we accept whichever proposal we accept, let’s say we accept the proposal you are talking about, what is it going to cost, round figures, to do this project?” Sheriff Lain, “Round figures with totally digitizing, and I will just very briefly mention we are talking about within the jail and also within the detective bureau because, as you well know, there are a lot of interviews that are tape recorded, and we are looking at the same sorts of issues, the total bill for the jail portion is $73,454; added to that, I want to say it was $3,825, that is the detective bureau portion.” Com. Harper, “What we had discussed is doing an additional out of 233, correct, David?” Sheriff Lain, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Doing an additional out of 233, which we will have to pass here and then get on the Council agenda.” Com. Evans, “I like that it is his money.” Sheriff Lain, “It is our money. We are all members of the community.” Com. Harper, “It is the taxpayers money.” Ms. Hartig, “What is the total then?” Com. Harper, “If we did an additional $80,000 to cover this project, would that cover it?” Sheriff Lain, “Yes, I think so.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Not quite. You need like $81,000; $74,000 plus another $4,000. No, you are right. Bob is right.” Com. Harper, “Eighty thousand would cover the project in round figures and leave a little room for miscalculations such as the one Gwenn just made (laughter).” Atty. Rinkenberger, $80,000 will do it.” Ms. Hartig, “And that is with Johnson Controls?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right, and I think just for the record we should say that he got quotes from Videotec Corporation, Star Uniform, Stanley Security Solutions, and Johnson Controls, and you are recommending Johnson Controls.” Sheriff Lain, “Yes. The Star Uniform is a different issue.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Oh, it is? So we only have them from Stanley, Videotec, and Johnson Controls.” Sheriff Lain, “We can talk about that, too, if you want.” Com. Harper, “Let’s not. We are doing enough tonight.” Sheriff Lain, “It’s a pretty tall agenda.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation and the $80,000 to come out of fund 233 contingent on the Council’s approval, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “Let’s see if you can get that on as soon as we can.” Ms. Hartig, “I think we are past the deadline for the June meeting, but Friday is for transfers.”
Mr. Schelling, “Good evening. I am on the agenda about sidewalks. I do have well, I haven’t gotten any bids yet, but this is what I am planning to do, submit these to the various contractors with the idea to have them do the work and have it completed by August 17th just before school starts. I do not have any bidders at this time, we have not submitted it. The way this is written, they are supposed to have the bids back to the Highway office June 22nd. This is for a sidewalk in South Haven on the east side of Long Run Road to Midway to the south to the Boys and Girls Club.” Com Evans, “Do you have your own estimate, Dave?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, I believe it is going to be under $25,000.” Com. Evans, “And this money would come from . . .?” Mr. Schelling, “Highway.” Com. Harper, “Where would you like it to come from, John?” Com. Evans, “For the last three years in a row, I have spent $75,000. I would certainly be glad to fund the sidewalks again in South Haven.” Com. Harper, “I want to say that Com. Evans has worked on the sidewalks in South Haven, as he says, for the past three years. And you are going to fund it?” Com. Evans, Yes, indeed.” Com. Evans moved to accept the sidewalk proposal as submitted by the engineer, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Safe Routes to School Program Mr. Schelling, “The other topic is that Safe Routes to School Program. We do not really have anything to do with it. It is administered through INDOT. I printed out a brochure from the INDOT web site, and it is something that is really kind of neat, but there is a lot of competition for it. It funds various aspects of kids walking and biking to schools. It can pay for sidewalks or shared-use paths and education. It has all kinds of different options. This year in early May we had contacted all of the schools in unincorporated Porter County with this information in the hopes that somebody would go for it — we did this last year, too, — but I do not believe anybody did. It is a nice opportunity to get kids to school a little bit safer.”
Com. Harper, “I have been told, and I think I called you about this, that we are in line to get $400,000 from the federal government for sidewalks in South Haven. We will have to put something in on that project. And NIRPC has some money, too, don’t they, David?” Com. Harper, “Let me ask you this, for the Indiana Safe Routes, do we have to engineer the project before we make the application?” Mr. Schelling, “I do not believe so. I also have the certifications for our 2006 mileage, and that is 797.55 miles, which is up. It is going to go down when the mileage is deducted from the annexations that we have, but in the meantime, we can reap the benefits of higher mileage.” Com. Harper, “Is there anything else?” Agreement for Bridge 58, Baum’s Bridge Road Mr. Schelling, “I do have an agreement that was approved by Jasper County for that Bridge 58, Baum’s Bridge Road over the Kankakee. This has a value of a little over $30,000 for Porter County.” Com. Harper, “And you are asking us to approve this?” Mr. Schelling, “It has been approved, and it has been approved by Jasper County, so I just provided that for your information.” Final Inspection of the Midwest Steel Bridge Mr. Schelling, “Another thing, I have been invited to a final inspection of the Midwest Steel Bridge, the one that goes over 12. The Commissioners in the past decided they did not want anything to do with the bridge. Originally, it was set up for the county to maintain the bridge, and that is really beyond the scope of Porter County, in my opinion. Also, it is a bridge that is over railroads plus a U.S. highway. The final inspection was scheduled tomorrow at 11:00, and I am asking whether or not you want me to attend the final inspection. I feel that if we are not going to have anything to do with the bridge, I should not even attend, and I wanted to get your opinion on that.” Com. Evans, “Normally, at the final inspection then the bridge is turned over to us for maintenance. We have written the state telling them that we did not want to accept this bridge. What is going to happen after it is finally inspected tomorrow, what is going to be that status of that bridge, and who is going to be responsible for maintenance?” Mr. Schelling, “That is a good question. I feel that it should be INDOT since the traffic going over that bridge comes off 249, and it is going over U.S. 12.” Com. Evans, “The only benefactor is U.S. Steel.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, at this time that is correct.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t we hand deliver a letter to everyone at the final inspection that Porter County is not attending because we are not taking jurisdiction over the bridge, and then leave.” Com. Evans, “I hate to do that.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Well, then it is perfectly clear. I do not want a final inspection and have nothing on the record that we are not accepting jurisdiction and then have them have a final inspection and pass jurisdiction onto us.” Com. Evans, “Do you have a copy of the letter we wrote?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, I have a letter that was signed by all of the Commissioners back on May 5th of 2005.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “It has been years.” Com. Evans, “And it says that we will not accept it, does it not?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, and also there is a letter to Tom O’Sharpe, who was Commissioner at the time, June 9th, so I could take copies of both of those letters and reinforce it in that regard.” Com. Evans, “I do not think we need to write a new letter. We just need to say that we would have been glad to be here if we were going to accept the maintenance responsibility, and as we wish to remind you, here are copies of the former letters. I do not think we need to write a new one.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “What harm would there be in politely drafting a letter that reaffirms our position that we are not attending the final inspection because we are not accepting jurisdiction? I think it would not be a bad idea if they are having final inspection.” Mr. Schelling, “In that regard, do you want me to participate in the final inspection?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “No.” Com. Harper, “I feel Gwenn and you should go out there tomorrow (laughter). And trust me, if Gwenn goes, they will understand.” Com. Evans, “Why don’t you draft a short letter referring to the other two letters as the reason we are not attending, and make copies of the previous letters. We still believe the same issues are there, and we are not going to accept it.” Administration Building cleaning, sealing and window streaking discussion Mr. Schelling, “I do have one other item. Mid Continental Restoration Company has looked at the exterior of this building, and they would like to do some testing on the surface in an area where it is not noticeable to see what kind of cleaning and sealing were done on this building without destroying the appearance of the building. This building does have a light sealer on it, which gave the white appearance of the building that was desired. It should have used white Portland cement, and it appears that gray Portland cement was put in, and that is why a light sealer was used. Now that is what is coming off and staining the windows. So I would recommend that we do have this Mid Continental Restoration do this inspection for $1,800.” Com. Harper, “Let’s go through this. You were out here and met with these people, right?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “And Maintenance was with you.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “And they are telling you when we have the windows cleaned, they are streaking again the next time we have a rain. And they are telling you that the right materials which were called for in the specs on this building were not installed, is that right?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “They are telling you that the specs called for what?” Mrs. Schelling, “A white Portland cement to be used for the exterior surfaces of the building.” Com. Harper, “And a much cheaper product was used, correct?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes. They gray Portland cement, which was quite a bit cheaper. I do not know what the cost differential was, but it is quite a bit cheaper.” Com. Harper, “It is thousands of dollars in each building, is it not?” Mr. Schelling, “Yes, especially when you look at the overall surface area of the building and when you go up to the building when it is dry, you can rub your fingers on it and have some of that chalk-like material come off on your fingers.” Com. Harper, “So now we are spending all kinds of money having these windows cleaned again and again because of that defect. And they want to come out and do a study to try to figure out how to solve that problem.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes. If you just clean it with normal building cleaners, the white will come off, and it will look pretty bad.” Com. Harper, “You will no longer have a white building.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Somehow this cheap job got by and got done.” Mr. Schelling, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Okay. Because we are spending so much on cleaning the windows, we should try to see if we could figure out a solution.” Com. Evans, “I agree. And, obviously, the statute of limitations has run out on the builder, so there is no recourse there, I am sure.” Com. Evans moved to approve the restoration company to do the testing to the building, Mr. Schelling, “It is the same restoration company that did the restoration on the courthouse a number of years ago. When I met with the people, I was really pretty impressed.” Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “Melissa wants to know where it is coming from.” Com. Harper, “Building and Building Needs.” Ms. Hartig, “The CCD or CEDIT?” Com. Harper, “Let’s use the CEDIT Building Maintenance Fund.” Mr. Schelling, “The original document should have been submitted with the paperwork, so I can sign it or the Commissioners can sign it now.” Com. Harper, “We will get it to them. Thank you, David.”
Mr. Melendez, “Thank you for making time for us tonight. You have in front of you a proposed drawing from an Exhibit B that we have with the Northern Indiana Disposable Power Association at Sunset Hill. In this is a roadway to be installed to our grass/gravel parking lot that we have at the south end of the park. We had a problem last year with a major rainstorm where a lot of the vehicles, especially the trucks and tractors, pretty well had devastated the north end of the park, and it has taken time to get that back into condition. This gravel area is for the units, such as semi trucks and tractors, to unload them in that area, and then be able to take it back out to the (inaudible)……. We have talked to Al a little bit, and I am here tonight to ask for you folks to assist us in letting us work with the Highway Department to dig out this area. We have already agreed with NIPA on their purchasing the stone, and we are getting it delivered, and we will get it spread, so we are just asking for assistance from the Highway Department t help cut out this area.” Com. Harper, “Is Al here?” David James, “He is out visiting with David.” Com. Evans, “Is this within the scope of your…I think it is a good idea.” Com. Harper, “Dave, you guys have looked this over, and you know what is going on.” Mr. Melendez, “And we know their schedules.” Com. Harper, “You guys have the material, and you are asking them to do some of the excavating.” Mr. Melendez, “That is it. Not to haul away or anything, they will leave the stuff at the site.” Com. Evans, “I think it is a good idea. I think it is a great idea that you work together with the Highway to get it done and lower everybody’s cost.” Com. Evans moved to approve the recommendation, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
DLZ Recommendation
Mr. Kromkowski, “We have.” Com. Evans, “The envelope, please.” Mr. Kromkowski, “As you know, we received three bids. The lowest and responsive bidder is from Johnson Controls. We would recommend that you enter into an agreement with them for $89,850. They do have a premium cost of $5,400 for overtime, and that would essentially be two to three days of overtime plus a Saturday. Given the material and some of the equipment that needs to be ordered, you are really not cutting any time down in terms of the completion date. So we would not recommend that you would proceed with the overtime cost. That is just not a value to do that. They do not have a performance bond included. That was not part of the original documents. That was a request in terms of what the additional costs would be. Typically, for ___ sponsor, about one percent, so we would probably be under $1,000 plus (inaudible)……… They actually are going to be doing some of the other work that is at the facility now but their service contract’s, I am not even sure if you need it. (Inaudible)………” Com. Harper, “Do you guys check and find out that?” Mr. Kromkowski, “We can do that. We did ask a representative from Johnson Controls to provide what that cost would be, so we would have that actual dollar amount.” Com. Harper, “So you are asking us to approve the Johnson Controls bid.” Mr. Kromkowski, “To approve the Johnson Controls bid for $89,850.” Com. Evans, “And the contingent that you may come back for the performance bond.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation of Johnson Controls for $89,850, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
Com. Harper, “These guys need numbers from Mike Anton, because I am really concerned about that. I would really like to make sure we get a bond here..” Ms. Hartig, “I have an office number. I have a cell number, but it would take me some time to find it.” Com. Harper, “This has already been approved? No, it has not.” Ms. Hartig, “It went before them?” Com. Harper, “Since we do not have anything on the book approved, John, one of the reasons I held off on that Building Disposal fund is I thought we would take the start of this project out of there before we got back in front of the Council for CEDIT or something. This is the rush part of the project, so would you move that we have this come out of the Property Disposal fund?” Com. Evans, “Property Disposal, yes; I think that is an appropriate place for it.” Com. Evans moved that the funds should come out of Property Disposal, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “The project is rolling, we are going to get the rest of it bid out.” Mr. Kromkowski, “That is correct, and we should be able to have as early as the end of this week we would invite you to have a public termination hearing. The numbers are going to be very close to $150,000, and I guess I am probably being conservative, but I have to reiterate, there are some things that we can work with you, Gwenn, on in terms of the language for the advertisements. We will draft it, but we will send it to you for publication.” Com. Harper, “It is my understanding that when the chiller gets put in there, at least there will be some temporary relief until the job is done.” Mr. Kromkowski, “That is correct. Will this be a purchase order? We will let Johnson Controls know that it is your intent to award the bid and the purchase order is in a contract however you enter or are signing their proposal.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We do not sign the proposal They’ll give us some time for contract pursuit.” Com. Evans, “They won the bid at the price quoted, so we will proceed from there.” Mr. Kromkowski, “We will prepare a contract with the necessary information and send that to you.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right, or they should have one form contract to provide.” Mr. Kromkowski, “Do you have your own contract that you use for?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “No, Johnson Controls should supply it.” Com. Evans, “We have a lawyer that looks at every contract and reads them all.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Why don’t they contact Johnson Controls and tell them the bid was awarded to them and they will provide a contract.” Mr. Kromkowski, “You are not issuing a purchase order to them based on this.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “That is not a purchase order item. I think the chiller is a purchase order item, but not for service.” Com. Evans, “Theirs is a bid for service.”
Center District: Com. Harper 1. Augustine Subdivision Performance Letter of Credit #HACH175113OS from Harris Bank in the amount of $1,150,000. Recommend approval. Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. 2. Shorewood Forest, Section 29 Performance Letter of Credit #HACH175774OS from Harris Bank in the amount of $67,900.00. Recommend approval. Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans, seconded, motion carried.
Clerk’s monthly report for April 2007 is on file. Request for approval of “Hold Harmless Agreement” temporarily closing State Road 130 and using County Road 250 West as the detour between State Road 130 and US Highway 30 during the Popcorn Festival to be held on September 8, 2007. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for approval by the South Haven Boy’s and Girl’s Junior Garden Club to proclaim June 3 through June 9, 2007 as “National Garden Week.” Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for approval of quote by Tudor or I-deal Floors to replace the carpet in the Commissioners Chambers. Com. Harper, “I would like to continue this for two weeks because I have not had a chance to go over the quotes. Do you have a problem with that?” Com. Evans, “They are in there.” Com. Harper, “Are you in a hurry for this?” Ms. Hartig, “Charlotte called both companies, and they both agreed that they would install on the weekend with no price change.” Com. Harper, “So which price is the one? So Tudor’s is substantially less expensive by about $4,000.”
Ms. Hartig, “Right.” Com. Evans, “That is great. My only question is, in looking at the two, one is a pretty big disparity for this area, and then the other one is only a couple hundred bucks. Is there a reason for that, do we know?” Ms. Hartig, “I don’t know.” Com. Evans moved to accept the Tudor Floors bid of $11,868.34 to replace the carpet in the Commissioners Chambers including a double-stick pad, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for approval by Great Lakes Automatic Door for a planned service agreement for the automatic doors at the North County Complex. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for Transfer of Funds — Commissioners
Fund 01.30 $450 From acct 3970 Memorial Day Expenses To pay Campbell & Associates for their appraisal of property located at 326 W. 700 North, Valparaiso. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for Additional Appropriation — Commissioners Fund 318.30 $100,000 To acct 0001 CEDIT Project #19 For development standards to supplement Chapter 8 of the Unified Development Ordinance. Com. Harper, “I wanted Bob to explain that tonight. They have engineering development standards that they now need to get together to supplement the ordinance, and they estimate that that is approximately how much it is going to take. They are going to get a print out proposals to do it..” Com. Evans, “Will we look at the proposals, or will the Planning Commission look at them?” Com. Harper, “Plan Commission.” Com. Evans moved to approve the additional, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for Additional Appropriation — Commissioners Fund 319.30 $250,000 To acct 0001 CEDIT Project #20 For the proposed corridor study. Com. Harper, “That is for to further the study right now NIRPC and I think in compliance with the Marquette Plan II are doing a corridor study at 12 and 20. This is to round that out with this corridor study for the rest of our corridors in the County, and the idea is with planning ahead of time, we do not run into some of these problems that the cities have run into by having growth around the corridors but not having turning lanes and all those types of things that need to be done around the corridors. So that is for that corridor study for the other identified corridors other than 12 and 20.”
Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Fund 02.91 $100,000 To acct 2210 Gas, Fuel & Lubrication Fuel account is almost depleted. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Request for Additional Appropriation — Highway
Fund 26.191 $15,000 To acct 3950 Contractual Services Funds needed for road striping.
Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “I move to act on the appraisal and purchase 4.42 acres of property specifically known as parcel east one-half south quadrant of RREXEW629.632-37-5 4.42 acres” Com. Evans, “The property is directly west of our existing County Highway Garage for the North District. We have talked about this for some time. The appraisers appraised a piece of property in total size of about 15 acres. The owner was gracious enough to go back to the original plotting of that large piece of property, and there was a parcel that was 4.42 acres that will adequately serve our needs. We have adjusted the purchase price, which we are offering to the seller of $160,000 in accordance with the appraisal of the large tract of land. The only caveat I would like to add to that is that we need the Auditor to draft a check for earnest money in the total of $5,000 within the next 48 hours, and then I move that we proceed with the purchase of this property and go full speed ahead to build that garage.” Com. Harper, “Number one, the Council has already approved this project out of the CEDIT funds. Number two, this offer is subject to proper zoning. Number three, the attorney has gone over this offer.” Com. Evans, “Yes, she has. The only thing I would add in regard to the zoning is we will need to request that, because of the nature of the use that will be there, we need to have it ‘Institutional Industrial District’ I think is the proper title for it. We need to comply with the appropriate zoning change that needs to be made in that regard.” Com. Harper, “Once that proposal is accepted, our attorney can start representing us and getting this done. After she gets the letter done to the bridge people.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We have the contingency for the zoning only it is through July 31, 2007.” Com. Evans, “I think we can say that an emergency exists and we need to have action pretty quickly.” Com. Harper, “We have certain deadlines because it’s got to go there and up here. Do you think we should change that a little bit or not?” Com. Evans, “As long as it is in the works, I think we are okay. As long as we have made the application, we cannot tell the Board how fast they have to act.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “It says ‘subject to the County receiving acceptable zoning for their purpose by July 31, 2007.’ I think with language like that . . .” Com. Evans, “We will need to strike that as part of the purchase as soon as possible, I think, with the proper term there.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “How about just ‘subject to the County receiving acceptable zoning’ period?” Com. Evans, “If you want call the realtor and make that recommendation, I am certain that they will go along with it. It is not like we are not going to make the application immediately. We can do that tomorrow.” Com. Harper, “You have made the motion, right?” Com. Evans, “Yes, I have.” Com. Harper, “And I second it.” Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
Com. Harper, “I just want to make a quick announcement. In an ongoing effort to cut down on the number of animals we have to euthanize at the shelter, we have been working on a lot of things. As many of you are aware, the Council approved someone last year to work with volunteer groups and so forth to try to get more of these animals adopted out. Last year or the year before last, we had this organization called the Neuter Scooter. They come in and stay here for a day, and I think they neutered a couple hundred cats last year. They are coming back again, and we want to announce that. You can go online and I’ve got some information on that, but you can go online and they have a place online, these surgeries are only $40, so it is a good price. If you sign up, and you can pay online. They are coming here June 26th, and you can go on line and sign up for that. It answers your questions on line. I think that the Neuter Scooters have been going to Lake County on a regular basis, and they are always overwhelmed by people. We are working right now with them to try and make sure that we have them six times in the following year, and then maybe even more often, so they are going to try to work out some dates. The next date they are going to be here is June 26th. The County does not have to pay anything for this service. They are paid by the people going on line and paying the $40 for this service. The press is here; I hope you put the date in so people know that. I do have some information I got from them online if anybody wants to see some of that information. Hopefully, that will be a successful project.” Com. Evans, “The animal shelter also has an ongoing program when you adopt a pet from them where you can take it to get it spayed or neutered and, when funding permits, they give a certificate along with that that the veterinarians in Porter County honor and do the spaying and neutering at a very reasonable price, and they deserve credit for what they do for the County as well.” Com. Harper, “The volunteer groups at the Animal Shelter have been working to raise more money for those certificates, too. A big problem in the County are these wild cats and, hopefully, this will take care of some of that.” Com. Evans moved to recess, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried.
Robert P. Harper
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June 5, 2007