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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, October 2, 2007 in the Commissioners’ Chambers of the Administration Center. Those present were: Commissioners Robert Harper, John Evans and Carole Knoblock; County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger; Administrative Assistant Melissa Hartig; and Recording Secretary Vi Wagner. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of October 1, 2007, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans moved to approve the minutes of September 4 and September 18, 2007, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of September 25 and October 2, 2007, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Contract Approval for Hamer Enterprises Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Harper seconded, Com. Knoblock abstained, Com. Harper, “Gwenn, do you want to say anything about this?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Only that we worked as diligently on getting the best contract language we can get as our other contract was. We worked with Data Processing, the township assessors, the auditor, and the treasurer. I think Data has a very brief report on the number of assessors that are on board. Do you want to state briefly the time line and what we’ve done to try and put the contract together, Sharon? I definitely recommend we approve the contract at this stage.” Ms. Lippens, “I want to introduce you to Deb Butterfield, she is the project manager for the Hamer project for both the auditor and the assessor. She’s worked for the county for 16 years, but you’ve probably never met her in this kind of situation, so I am going to let her go over some of the statistics very briefly.” Ms. Butterfield. “Thank you. Also, there is eight assessors here this evening in support of this. Our goal is to make sure that Hamer Enterprises develops software that is in compliance with Porter County with the state requirement. And to be sure that any contract included all the features and functions that the assessors needed to do their job. We attended 40-some meetings with various people and made lots of phone calls and received a lot of emails in regards to trying to gather enough information as we could and discuss concerns and requests that they had. We did kind of get it down to 3 major concerns. The first one being that the eCAM system is not out of the box, so to speak, and there is time required to be able to make changes. But the contract does improve language that does have a time line in there that would help all of us, actually, stay on track in a timely fashion and make sure everyone is on track. One of the biggest concerns was the response time compared to the Plexis system that they have now, how slow it is to be able to go between screens and be able to do the work. Sharon can answer how we responded to that.” Ms. Lippens, “I went out to one assessor’s office that is still on dial up, they don’t have any other capability. Everyone else is on cable or DSL or satellite. I went to that site specifically because it had dial up. The fastest speed I could get was 33.2 in the dial up. I uploaded the information required to bring up Hamer software; from the moment I hit the key executing the software, within six seconds I had a sign on. Once I signed in I had a one second response time between each screen so I clicked on real estate; one second, clicked on search; one second, keyed in a name; one second, double click that name; one second, double clicked that name; one second. So it was a very quick response with a minimal type of connection. And all of the townships have had connectivity for the existing tax system now and they have experienced that as well.” Ms. Butterfield, “The third major concern that we wanted to address was that if this state were to ever go to one vendor, where would that leave Porter County? Especially in purchasing and spending the money to purchase this in such a short period of time and this contract does address that Porter County will receive a license fee if that were to happen. Most of the feedback that I received was questions that mostly needed clarification in some of the functionality of the software, except for the major concerns that we have talked about earlier, that needed to be addressed in the contract. But we did include a 12-page letter that was a question-and-answer response from Hamer that were questions that the assessors had, and the responses that Hamer included were for customer service, sketching question, future changes; but a real important one, I thought, was would they address the updates required by the DLGF, which they would. I feel that there is a big benefit to having the Auditor, Treasurer, and Assessor all on one package being that it would be a single database that they could be sharing between each other, and this information could be shared in a seamless fashion. It would also eliminate finger pointing. We get this a lot of times with vendors, it’s “You call them,” or “You call them, it’s your fault,” and it would be one vendor. They would have to address which side — the Treasurer, Tax, eCAM system — whichever was the problem, they would have to address it. Also there is rumor that the State of Indiana may require counties to use a single vendor, and we would already be compliant with that. So these are the findings that we came across.” Com. Harper, “Does anyone have any questions?” Com. Evans, “I just want to thank you for all the hard work and the Township Assessors for all of their hard work in evaluating in both departments, and I also want to make it clear that this is not going to speed up the process this year, but it will help for years to come, the preceding years. This year is this year, and it is going to fall out the way it falls out, but thank you very much.” Motion carried.
Com. Harper, “On our agenda tonight there was a discussion on Income Works Software. The County Attorney has told me that she would like some more time, and I think that’s right – we have got to look that over, we just got it – so if the two of you are alright with that, we will continue that for at least two weeks.”
Kankakee Valley Historical Society Com. Harper, “The Kankakee Valley Historical Society, we still have a letter of recommendation, is that still on?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “The grant is not on, no, that’s off.” Ms. Hartig, “Just the letter for the archeological . . .” Atty. Rinkenberger, “There is a letter they wanted you to sign saying it has historical significance, but it doesn’t say anything about the grant.” Com. Evans moved to approve the letter of recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Sheriff Lain, “We have a new inmate phone contract with Securus. We looked at a number of vendors, and Securus had the most attractive package, and it also is, coincidentally, the same company that has provided inmate telephones for a number of years at the jail.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We discussed this at the last meeting. We went over the terms and conditions, and I think that there was a question about how funds would be handled.” Com. Harper, “I think the Council is going to want to see how funds are going to be handled, but I think we can approve the contract and let them deal with that.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “There are two ordinances in effect that dictate how funds are going to be handled. Any funds generated from this contract with Securus are to be deposited to fund 161, which is the technology fund. One of the terms of this contract binds us to pay them $4,000. Those contractual obligations should be paid out of 161, and the ordinance said that any expenditures made by the Sheriff’s Department out of 161 are supposed to be approved by the Commissioners before they are made. So that’s a check and balance that has not been going on, although the ordinance is in effect. So I think now that everybody understands that this ordinance is in effect and that the funds are going to go in and then only be spent out after approval, then I don’t think there is anything else that concerned us about the contract.” Com. Harper, “Is that a problem?” Sheriff Lain, “No, actually the question has never come up. The fund was in existence eight years ago when I came to the Sheriff’s Department, and the question never came up.” Com. Harper, “Alright so you can go to the Council with this?” Sheriff Lain, “Absolutely.” Com. Evans moved to approve the contract with Securus in accordance with the ordinance as it exists, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Thompson, “At the last meeting, we continued this and the requests for proposals for the North County garage due to the fact that our independent storm water review agency did not want to do the storm water design, they just wanted to continue on doing the reviewing. So I went back and received supplements to the original RFPs from these firms, and I did receive all of them now, so I will read them off here. This is the total now, which is the RFP that I sent out plus the drainage, so here are the totals: Davies-Resenberger Surveying is at $12,000; Great Lakes Engineering is at $11,300; McMahon is at $25,250, and Bonar is at $34,400.” Com. Harper, “Do you have a recommendation?” Mr. Thompson, “If you want to go by the lowest, then it’s going to be Great Lakes Engineering at $11,300.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Is that the lowest responsive responsible bidder?” Mr. Thompson, “They have done site works and development plans in front of the Planning Commission, so they should be well aware of what our codes are.” Com. Evans, “Where are they located?” Mr. Thompson, “Portage.” Com. Evans moved to approve the recommendation of Great Lakes Engineering, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Thompson, “I will ask them for a contract and get it to you.” Com. Harper, “Is that all you have on this?” Mr. Thompson, “As far as . . .?” Com. Harper, “Is everything else moving along smoothly?” Com. Evans, “I still want to get it built by the end of the year.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “That’s what I say.” Mr. Thompson, “I’m really trying (laughter). The next one I have to do is an RFP out for the actual building. I have gotten that RFP and…..” Com. Evans, “I know, and you’re doing a Yo’man’s tax club. I really appreciate it, I really do, but I think once we get over the hurdles that everybody else has to encounter when they do a project like this, the engineering is already there, the drawings are already there, we can get it up in a pretty . . . once we’ve got all the okee-dokees . . .” Mr. Thompson, “Give me about a week and a half.” Com. Evans, “You won’t have to build it.” Mr. Thompson, “I appreciate that.” (Laughter.)
Com. Harper, “Before you start, I called down, and it is my understanding that there are three townships that are partial precincts that were being supported in the city last time. Is that correct?” Ms. Kozuszek, “Correct, but as I told you, Mr. Harper, I don’t have a letter in my possession. This was done in 2003. I don’t have a letter in my possession signed by the Commissioners for that approval. I didn’t want to go ahead and do it again this year without that letter.” Com. Evans, “Where did these precincts vote last time?” Ms. Kozuszek, “They have their own precincts, Mr. Evans; Liberty and Jackson, well Liberty Township I believe, I don’t have that in front of me, but Jackson Township School. In the presidential such as next year, they have their own voting precincts. But if you look on the last page, you will see that Liberty, that one precinct only has 17 voters because in those three precincts, portions are within – they both were the Chesterton candidates – but the other portion of their township is in the County. So you will see that one precinct, I believe Jackson 1, only has 17 voters. If we were to open up that one precinct for 17 voters, the cost to man that precinct is approximately $900.” Com. Harper, “Which is the last municipal election they voted.” Ms. Kozuszek, “In going back and looking at the vote results, I don’t have separate totals for Liberty and Jackson, so that tells me they were combined into what I am proposing to combine again to the Westchester precincts.” Com. Evans, “In previous years, didn’t Jackson 1 and Jackson 2 vote at Jackson School?” Ms. Kozuszek, “Jackson 1, 2, and 3 do in the presidential and the bigger races.” Com. Evans, “But there is no election there this year.” Ms. Kozuszek, “As you see in Jackson 1, there are only 17 voters that are eligible to vote in this election. So if I open that one polling place, the cost is about $900 to service 17 voters. Historically, for city and town elections, the voter turnouts are low.” Com. Harper, “Again, in the last municipal election, these three precincts were combined and voted in the Westchester precinct.” Ms. Kozuszek, “Yes, Mr. Harper.” Com. Evans, “So we’re not talking about the recommendation before to consolidate all the Chesterton precincts.” Ms. Kozuszek, “I have something I would like to read to that.” Com. Evans, “Do you want to take them individually? Do you want to do this one first?” Com. Harper, “Let’s do this one first.” Com. Evans moved to approve the movement of Liberty 1 to Westchester 18, Liberty 5 to Westchester 3, and Jackson 1 to Westchester 14 for this election, Com. Knoblock, motion carried. Ms. Kozuszek, “I would like to first thank you for your time tonight, and I would also like to apologize that bits and pieces of what my office was proposing had come to the attention of some before others. However, I felt that it was more appropriate that I, so to speak, have all my ducks in a row before I came to you, and it was trying to get everything together to come to you and say this is what we were proposing. The office was proposing to consolidate all the Chesterton voting precincts, which is a total of nine – Westchester 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18 – to all vote at one location. This was to be a trial run, so to speak, as historically cities and towns have lower voter turnouts if there was an ideal election in which to try this. Several factors went into this proposal, the most important being the cost to the Town of Chesterton. For those of you that are not aware, cities and towns are responsible for approximately 80 percent of the cost of these elections. Secondly, each year gets more and more difficult for our office to staff the polling places. We lose several due to death or don’t want to do it. This commission needs for the future to look at possibly more money, maybe $10 an hour. Fourteen-hour days for $100, people don’t want to do it. Our median age of workers is the mid 70s.” Com. Evans, “Is the amount that is paid now simply a recommendation, or is that something else?” Ms. Kozuszek, “I am going to recommend that that be looked at.” Com. Harper, “But he’s asking is it a recommendation or is it mandated?” Ms. Kozuszek, “No, Mr. Evans, it is not. One of my girls called today, and a woman said, ‘I make more money cleaning houses.’” Com. Harper, “But he’s asking you, the amount to site paid now, how do you get that figure?” Ms. Kozuszek, “That was there. It has always been there. In the eight years I’ve been there, the price has never changed. I’m not quite sure, as you know, I just assumed my position in April, I’m getting acclimated to things, so all I know is in the eight years I’ve been there, the price has never changed what we pay the workers.” Com. Harper, “I think that County Council needs to know whether they can change that or not.” Com. Evans, “I think the Election Board dictates that, and not the Council.” Ms. Kozuszek, “I’ll look into it.” Com. Harper, “The other thing I understand is the inspectors, their pay, they have to go to a class, right?” Ms. Kozuszek, “Everybody attends class.” Com. Harper, “So it’s not just the day they are there. They have to be in class, the inspectors have to pick up the equipment, and when the poles close, they have to bring it down here. So it’s more than just that day.” Ms. Kozuszek, “Right. The inspectors are paid $125.” Com. Evans, “Plus their meals and everything. Now didn’t the inspectors get a raise in the last four years?” Ms. Kozuszek, “No. In the eight years I’ve been there, it’s been $125. I want you to ask. I invite you to come down to the office. As I said, it’s getting harder and harder to recruit people. We tap our friends, we tap our relatives, Commissioner Knoblock has offered to work, so we’re putting her to work, and she found us a couple of workers. The Democrats are in charge of the inspectors. And when each side has it, the other side wants it, because that’s an extra person to staff that precinct. Currently, the Democrats are down about 67 more persons. It’s not a matter of my girls haven’t . . . Commissioner Knoblock again has offered to . . . ‘Kathy, give me a list, and I’ll start calling.’ There is no such list. The girls have gone through the list. Last spring, we put an ad in the paper and also on our web site. We thought we were going to be banking them. We got ten calls. Mr. Stankowitz tried to tap the college. Why we can’t get workers, why our young people don’t want to get involved, I don’t know. But it’s not a matter of we’re not getting around to calling the people; there are no numbers to call. We can’t pull them. We first sent a letter to the precinct committeemen asking them to fill the poles, and some do, some don’t. We can’t find the workers themselves, they rely on us. It’s just getting harder and harder and we have a gentleman 81 years old, we called him and he said this will be his last time. He is just getting too old. So, that’s another factor. My fear is, there is a county this past spring that several of their polling places did not open because the workers did not show up. I don’t want that for Porter County, I don’t. And what I am saying in the age and the cost, the people don’t want to work for that money. We can combine polling locations, not precincts, locations. Last year in the town of Hebron, and other than in their spring elections, the feedback we got from them was they could use an extra clerk. But a year later I am told by the precinct committeeman down there it is wonderful. Everybody knows where to go. They know where to vote, they just worked out great. This past spring, we done it in the town of Porter and there was reservations because of parking around the town hall. Again, feedback, I personally did not get any negative feedback, they liked it. So this was, as I tried to explain, we got our feet wet with Hebron and Porter. I just wanted to wait a little to avoid us getting deeper, but it appears that the supporting in the Westchester polling places is not there at this time. Having said that, I am respectfully taking the proposal of combining the nine Chesterton polling places off the table at this time. Commissioner Harper has made mention of the fact that he would like to conduct bipartisan studies in reference to combining the polling places not only in Chesterton but in the cities of Portage and Valparaiso, so I am respectfully asking of you tonight to start this process as soon as possible. The reason being is not a matter of if the state of Indiana will mandate this, but when they will mandate. When will we be required to do this. And I want to be at the top of the curve in Porter County. I don’t want a mandate to come down and then we are forced, so if that is what you would like, Mr. Harper, I would respectfully ask that this process be started and who ever is chosen for these studies, all our resources are available to them under the office. And one more thing I would like to address. Council president, Mr. Whitten, his comments that were published in the Chesterton Tribune on this matter. He was quoted as saying that my office was picking on the town of Chesterton. Why didn’t I do it to Portage? Why didn’t we do it to Valpo? We are undertaking baby steps, we are getting our feet wet. It was just one more step, so perhaps the commissions and the studies that are done, certainly Portage and Valpo are much bigger, it’s not cities and towns elections, presidential, I don’t even want to think about it. So, if we can get things together for the 2010 election, that would be great. I have like I said for your consideration.” Com. Harper, “I thank you. I think everybody is concerned about the amount of time of getting people notified and so forth and I think we are all interested in equal times to discuss. I think we are all interested in complying with what the state of Indiana wants but we are further interested in making sure people have plenty of advance notice. I told somebody and it’s true, my problem in life is I still think of these old rascals, and my real problem is I can’t remember now, oh, it’s Norman Rockwell, I have this thought of a voting place, where people have voted for years, you know, mom and dad are coming in at 80 years old to vote and they voted there for 40 years and so forth. I guess that sort of passes us by. We want to make sure that we give people plenty of time and encourage them. Not do anything that further discourages them. So I appreciate you pulling them, I am sure we will start coming up with a plan and study.” Ms. Kozuszek, “I am going to add that Commissioner Knoblock is working, perhaps you can check your calendars for November 6th and give us a hand. If not, I would ask the reporters to please put a plea out to call our office, we need the help.” Com. Evans, “I would like to encourage you to do it throughout the county for the whole county at one time and 30 days prior to the election is not when we should be doing it. We should be doing it in the spring so that we can get everybody on board and make it like an eight month, or ten month thing that these are going to be the new polling places, this is where we are going to go and so everybody knows. I think every municipality in the county would like to save money on the election but nobody wants to disenfranchise the voters.” Ms. Kozuszek, “No, not at all, Mr. Evans, I agree with that. The girls, that’s our strong suit that we not disenfranchise, but I would like to remind you that the town of Porter this past spring had less notice. Legal notices went into the paper, the Chesterton paper was very good at putting it in there and a letter generated by the state was also mailed to each voter.” Com. Evans, “But, the further ahead of time we can do this then we won’t end up in situations like we did with Ed Soliday and the statehouse trying to …” Ms. Kozuszek, “That was a filing, that was not a voting error.” Com. Evans, “It was a filing, but in that meeting I also asked the question if this was going to cause a problem with any of those lines, in any districts and the answer was no and indeed it did. And it raises some questions. And I don’t think it was Rockwell, Bob, I thought it was the Quaker Oats guy.” COMMISSIONERS REPORT North District: 1. INDOT Claim Voucher #11 for bridge inspection to the pay the county $6,654.66. recommend approval. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Center District: 1. The Highlands Phases I and II, Performance Letter of Credit #CL7312LC from People’s Bank in the amount of $72,600.00. New expiration date is September 1, 2008. recommend approval. Com. Harper moved to approve, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. CORRESPONDENCE Clerk’s monthly report for August 2007 is on file. Request for transfer of funds-Commissioners
Fund 132.30 $3,952.36 from acct 4540 other equipment To cover the cost of the Administration Center rewiring project. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Request for transfer of funds-Commissioners To purchase computers for Maintenance Dept., Adult Probation, Judge Bradford and Victims Assistance. Com Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Request for Transfer of funds-ITS
Fund 01.50 $9,000 from acct 111 salaries
Fund 01.50 $10,000 from acct 1120 hourly Upgrades to county’s email system. Com. Evans moved to approve, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
UPDATE OF ROOF REPAIRS TO COUNTY BUILDINGS Mr. Lain, “Nothing has really changed. I didn’t know if you wanted to award a contract to any of these vendors or not. The Courthouse, I did check that and it is not a pipe leak, it has to do with the drains. The roof at the county garage needs attention pretty quick.” Com. Harper, “All right, so the low bid on all three of these was EC Babilla? Is that correct?” Mr. Lain, “Babilla. Yes.” Com. Harper, “Now I have the one for re-roof the Sheriff’s Garage and that is for $24,131, is that correct?” Mr. Lain, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “And to install the top coating, now this says the Administration Building, we are not talking about that?” Mr. Lain, “No, that has been addressed, there’s no problem. The leaks were fixed.” Com. Harper, “Where’s the courthouse… what are we approving for the courthouse?” Mr. Lain, “Actually I asked to table that at the last meeting because I wanted to check both drains.” Com. Harper, “Then where are we at with the courthouse then?” Com. Evans, “Were these properly advertised? Did we let these out for bid? Did we advertise the bid?” Com. Harper, “They were all under….” Atty. Rinkenberger, “They are all under the amounts. But, I only see one quote from Babilla and I see quotes for all the buildings from Culver’s.” Com. Harper, “If you will look at the Babilla one, you will see where they’ve got, on the first page….., but I think before we award that bid we need to define a little closer what the work on the courthouse is going to be, don’t we?” Mr. Lain, “With that, yes, I just got to look at that two days ago.” Com. Harper, “So if we can approve tonight the Sheriff’s Garage, the shingles at the Jail Museum, the ridge vent at Animal Control and the Juvenile Center, is that correct? And we are ready to go on that.” Mr. Lain, “Yes.” Com. Harper “And Babilla was the low bid on this.” Mr. Lain, “It wasn’t my recommendation for the JDC because they were (inaudible).” Com. Evans, “Who is your recommendation for JDC?” Mr. Lain, “Culver.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendations, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “So, Babilla is accepted for all except the Juvenile Center and that is Culver. And now what you need to do is get back to us with a bid on the courthouse. We need to do that as quickly as possible based on what your understanding now is of the problem there, okay?” Mr. Lain, “I actually did, I thought it was in here but maybe there was a number on that. But just for new membrane and stuppers, it was about $900.00.” Com. Harper, “Get it down so we know what we are doing. I want it fixed because ….” Mr. Lain, “Culver is for JDC?” Com. Harper, “Yes. The other projects are Babilla, the Sheriff’s Garage, the Jail Museum, the Animal Control, are for Babilla and you are going to come back to us once you know exactly what you want done with the courthouse roof.” Mr. Lain, “Correct.” Com. Harper, “Thank you. Let’s put that on for two weeks from tonight.” DRAINAGE ISSUES IN THE FLINT LAKE AREA DISCUSSION Com. Harper, “Before we start on that let me make a statement. There was two separate things that we had talked about discussing. One was over the years all the building projects everywhere and it ended up draining, a lot of building projects ended up draining into Flint Lake and there has been concern about mud build up and so forth coming into the lake. I have been contacted by people who live out there, we tentatively intended to discuss that tonight but once I started gathering information, in my mind, it just became too voluminous to do at a Commissioners meeting. I think perhaps what we need to do is have a separate meeting sometime down the line. However, I did approach Valparaiso because I think one thing we need to do and perhaps the county needs to do also is have a special evaluation of all projects where the drainage for that project is going to end up in Flint Lake. As many of you know, the county does now require all developments to have an independent study by an engineering firm for the drainage plan and their erosion control plan. I think that may not even be enough when it comes to drainage that is going into Flint Lake.” Lady in audience, “We not even near the lake.” Com. Harper, “I know that, I am talking about something else, I am not talking about south of Burlington Beach Road yet. So, I want to hold off on the discussion tonight but I want to tell you that one of my ideas, and I am going to keep working on this, is to get environmental impact studies. If it’s all right with you guys, I will read this letter from the Mayor, so I broached Valpo on it in person and followed it up with an email. I got a letter back from Mayor Costas. ‘Thank you for the letter of today’s date regarding Flint Lake. As expressed in our meeting last week, I support your efforts to improve drainage and sediment issues that are related to Flint Lake. The City of Valpo desires to use the best practice and environmental engineering at is relates to new construction. We want to strive for excellence in storm water drainage and have three professional engineers on staff with one of those positions dedicated to storm water management. I support the concept of creating a study committee with the county and servicing the district and the city to study the issue and find new ways to reduce erosion control and improve drainage into Flint Lake. I support reasonable amendments to our erosion control (he’s referring to the Valpo ordinances) to insure best practices and to reduce any affect on the lake. I would like to explore further your suggestion about requiring developers to pay the cost of environmental engineers to review development plans and to monitor erosion control pursuant to the development that drains into Flint Lake. I believe this idea has merit. It should be researched further to determine the potential benefits and cost of implementation. I appreciate your initiative on these matters and look forward to working with you and the county to create a joint study committee to study and implement reasonable measures to insure the best practices are used for erosion control and drainage of development that impacts the lake.’ I know there are people here that are interested in that tonight and that I intend to not let that issue go. And I intend to move forward. I just think tonight we have more than we can handle tonight and I want to get some further reports together before we do that. I feel that is a step in the right direction. Carole or John do you want to add anything?” Com. Evans, “I think you are right and we can listen to everybody that is here tonight and still end up in the same place that we are right now. We are going to require the assistance of the people that are putting the water in there and the sediment, and that is the city of Valpo and we are going to need them to get on board to help solve the problem. So, I don’t know that what ever we would do here tonight would accomplish much more than have you come back and repeat again when we get to that point in time. So, it may be premature to have a public hearing type situation this evening.” Com. Harper, “Thanks, John. Carole?” Com. Knoblock, “You’re talking about the other project?” Com. Harper, “Right. I am going to allow some comment on this other project. The second thing we had down for tonight is we have a series of our citizens that live south of Burlington Beach Road and in those first four photographs are just some of hundreds that we have in that area that when we have large rains, and it has happened twice this year to that extent we are seeing, we have a pond that impacts. I don’t know, we were out there today again, and I would say 16 homes, and I will give everyone a chance to comment on that that wants to, and my fear is not only is it not healthy but that at some point a child or something is going to be injured out there because of the situation. We have some representatives from the conservancy district, I believe, and we want to give everyone a chance. First I want to give some of the people that live out there a chance to speak and then perhaps after that we can have a little chat with the conservancy district and see if there is something that can be worked out in this situation. So, here’s what we are going to do. Anyone that wants to speak on this and we do this in public meetings because we just have so much time, but we limit the comments to about 2 minutes each. You can start a line over by the corner over here under the microphone and if you give your name and address, or if you want to point to those pictures or anything and tell us anything you want to about that. We would like you to hold it to a couple minutes because we’ve got a lot of people here. Just line up there, one right after the other. You need to give your name and address because she is recording it and when she types it later, we know who said what. So, start off with your name and address.” The following people spoke regarding the flooding/drainage at Flint Lake/Burlington Beach Road: (The transcript can be heard on the Commissioners Mtg. Tape #1 and 2, dated October 2, 2007) Gerald Pollard; Tim Knipe; Dustin Bowse; Susan Powers; Nikki Pollard; Jim Rowe; Bob Manurich; Sue Gustafson; George Smollar. Com. Harper, “… Have them visit these people in the next couple of weeks. We would ask you, and you are not under our jurisdiction, we understand that, but we would ask you to come back to our meeting on November 6th with some proposal. You cannot let people live this way. You cannot tax, I don’t think, people in a district for drainage and not address this problem. Maybe I am wrong about that. You are going to have to decide what you are going to do. But, I am asking you to come back and we will try and find out, and ask our Assistant Planner to contact these people and talk to them.” Man in audience, “I know some of the comments were not too favorable, but I will take it to him and try and get some sort of answer.”
Com. Harper, “These pictures are going to be back up here November 6th, these pictures aren’t going away.” Com. Harper, “Let’s get off the easement. We are going to have our assistant planner come out and talk to everybody see if that is a problem. By the way, I am also going to ask him to talk to the neighbors and report back to us whether he thinks the sewage got into the water this year. I am going to close this tonight because we’ve got zoning business and other business tonight.” Com. Harper, “Any other Commissioner business? I’ve got a couple other things. I’ve got our IT Department continues to report on the answers we did on people’s opinions on the proceeds from the sale of the hospital. I hope the papers mention it because we’ve got some responses. We haven’t gotten near as many that we got when we had the questionnaire about whether the hospital should be sold or not. That question can be addressed on the website. Anything else? We will take a five minute break and then we’ll go into Plan Commission.”
PLAN COMMISSION Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commission Resolution No. 07-14, petitioner Juan Otano, requesting a zoning map amendment from CM- Moderate Intensity Commercial District, to CH-High Intensity Commercial District. This was heard at the Plan Commission’s September 12th meeting and was forwarded to the County Commissioners with a recommendation of denial by a 7-0 vote.” Com. Harper, “Briefly why don’t you tell us about this.” Mr. Thompson, “The reason why they are going from CM to a CH, originally, some of you might recognize the place. It’s U.S. 6, it’s where the restaurant burned down, approximately 175 West, The Flame Restaurant, went up in flames and burned down. The location, CM is appropriate for a restaurant, but Mr. Otano wanted the place a used car, auto sales business and any auto related business in the Unified Development Ordinance must have a CH High Intensity Commercial District zoning. So he is asking to be upgraded from CM to CH.” Com. Harper, “Is he here tonight?” Mr. Thompson, “I don’t see him.” Com. Harper, “I haven’t seen him. I am going to open the public hearing. Is there anyone to speak for or against? Do you just want to do it just like we did before, come up, state your name and your address and try to hold your comments to a couple of minutes if you will.” The following people spoke against the rezone:
Julie Wilson, 803 Concord Street. Com. Harper, “Anyone else to speak for or against? All right, I am going to close the public hearing. Do I hear any comments or motions?” Com. Evans, “I think we have been through this route before and I think we have put the residents through enough emotional trouble with the different types of things that want to move in there and I think I agree with most of them, it is a residential area, farming area and should remain that way.” Com. Evans moved to deny the request for rezone, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans moved to recess, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Robert P. Harper
Attest: James K. Kopp, Auditor |
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October 2, 2007