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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, December 4, 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.
President Harper called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Com. Evans moved to approve the payroll of November 26, 2007, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Com. Evans moved to approve the claims of November 27 and December 4, 2007, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Atty. Rinkenberger, “I have Tim McGeath here from Hall Render, and he has some information on Porter County’s receipt of Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payment that we are entitled to at the end of the year. You have a packet in front of you, which contains a letter from Hall Render and a letter from the Indiana Family and Social Services Department that sets forth the requirements that we have to fulfill in order to receive a payment of $20,268,592 on December 11, 2007. In order to do that – we’ll have Tim explain it – but in order for us to receive that DSH payment, we need to cut a check in the amount of $7,562,346, take it to the State of Indiana, and they will exchange for our $20,000,000.” Com. Evans, “It’s just like a Nigerian internet scam.” (laughter) Com. Harper, “We got an e-mail telling us this, right? (more laughter) This is for one year and, in fact, the net to Porter County is around $12,700,000. And we still have a year and a half . . .” Atty. McGeath, “We have a year and a half, so it’s hard to tell exactly what that amount will be. The hospital, before the closing, estimated we had about $20,000,000 of their total, so this is more than 50 percent of that in one chunk. It could be a little bit higher.” Com. Evans, “And we’ll do this same thing again next year, right?” Atty. McGeath, “We will do it again at least once, maybe twice to get the full amount.” Com. Harper, “So let me go through this, and correct me if I’m wrong. To obtain the DSH payment from the Federal Government, it is a requirement that the State pay one-third of that amount.” Atty. McGeath, “Correct.” Com. Harper, “But the State never does that. The State always has the hospital that receives the DSH payment pay the one-third.” Atty. McGeath, “Correct. It is only available for county hospitals, for municipal hospitals.” Com. Harper, “Right, it is not available for public hospitals; only municipal hospitals. And so all the hospitals that are going to receive this amount have to show up down state with their one-third payment, and they do this on one day, which is going to be the 11th, is that correct?” Atty. McGeath, “Correct.” Com. Harper, “And so we’ll show up with our $7,000,000, and they’ll give us a check for $12,700,000 more than our check, is that correct?” Atty. McGeath, “Exactly.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “And then we’ll hand deliver it and deposit it.” Atty. McGeath, “Probably deposit it before they cash the other one.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right.” Com. Harper, “Into which account are you suggesting we deposit that?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We’ll put it in the primary account. The three funds will not be set up. We’re going to look at the ordinances for the funds. They go into effect January 1st, so this will just go into our main money market account.” Com. Harper, “Do you need action on this, or are we just making our public disclosure?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I think just action to basically sign this letter. We’re going to have the Treasurer cut a check, and I’m going to take this letter that’s attached to your packet approved by the Board and take the letter and check and meet Tim so he can deliver it on December 11th.” Mr. Whitten, “Do you need anything more from the Council?” Com. Harper, “You’ve already signed off.” Mr. Whitten, “I have?” Com. Harper, “That’s the procedure that we’re using up until the first of the year.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Right.” Mr. Whitten, “Okay.” Com. Knoblock, “Do you need a motion?” Com. Harper, “Do you need a motion?”
Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t need one, but if you’d like to make one, go ahead.”
Atty. Rinkenberger, “As we have discussed previously, the State Board of Accounts has recommended that Porter County pass three ordinances creating three separate funds for deposit of the proceeds of the hospital sale. So in your binders, you should have three proposed ordinances. The first one we’ll look at is entitled Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund. The Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund is a permanent fund being created by an ordinance where we’re going to deposit, obviously, all the hospital sale proceeds. The ordinance sets forth the use of the funds under the second section, and under the contract that we signed with the hospital, the proceeds could be used for payment of trailing liabilities, obviously they have to be, and for the annual payment of $500,000 for ambulance services. So the ordinance sets out that the use of those sale proceeds can be used for those two things only. It indicates that any interest generated from this account will be transferred quarterly to the Hospital Interest Fund, which is another fund we’re creating. It says that the principle must be preserved for five years, which is by contract, so whether this ordinance said that or not, that would have to be the way it is, but it’s in the ordinance. The issue comes up, what occurs after the five years has expired? So we added language that says, ‘after expiration of the five-year preservation period, the Hospital Sales Proceeds Fund shall accrue and continue in perpetuity unless and until the Porter County Council and the Porter County Board of Commissioners unanimously agree otherwise.’ So once that five years expires and there’s no contractual obligation to preserve the principle, it would take a unanimous vote of the Council and the Commissioners to do anything but preserve this principle. We thought that was a good way to do it. In all our ordinances, we have to have a section that addresses termination of the fund or transfer of funds, and that is also something that is dictated by ordinance by Commissioner passage. What we added to this one is that the only way that this ordinance could be terminated is upon approval of both the Council and Commissioners again. But if both parties agree, this money could then revert to the County General Fund. That’s fund number one. Fund number two is the Hospital Interest Fund. That contemplates all the money that earns interest in the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund or in the Hospital Trailing Liability Fund, which is our third one, will be deposited into the Hospital Interest Fund. It can be expended in accordance with state law, which is any lawful purpose, that’s set forth in IC 36-2-6-4.5. The way this ordinance is drafted, it contemplates the Commissioners submitting an annual budget, not unlike the CEDIT budget, to the County Council that the Council would have to approve, so you’d have the check and balance there. The use of the funds could only be utilized for something that’s agreed upon, again, by the Council and Commissioners that state law dictated when we sold the hospital to begin with. That’s the language we’re contemplating. I think it’s the best. Again we have a termination clause here, and if this ordinance was terminated, the money could go either back into the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund or the County General Fund, but again that would have to be by passage of both Boards – the Council and Commissioners would both have to agree.” Mr. Whitten, “Unanimously?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I have that in the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund, but not the Interest or the Trailing Liabilities.” Com. Evans, “Is that something that would necessarily stand up? I mean, if someone challenged that – unanimous – if one person objects out of ten, then it’s not going to happen?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t think that it would hurt to have the unanimous language in the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund because that’s a preservation of principle. Can it be challenged? Yes. Anything can be challenged. All of this could be challenged.” Com. Harper, “If you want to have some assurance that the principle is going to stay together, that is the only way to do it. I’m just telling you right now, I’ve seen things come up here in one meeting, and a million bucks gets spent before you can blink your eye on a 4-3 vote.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I don’t see why we couldn’t use the same language for the interest earned money, that it would take a unanimous vote. That unanimous vote would decide whether or not this money would go into the County General Fund or into the Preservation if we are not using it for the purposes stated here. That’s up to this body of two boards.” Com. Harper, “This is the first reading today, by the way, so we’re going to have the second reading on the 18th. We have to have it in place by the first of the year.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “We’re trying to put in as many checks and balances as we can so we comply with state law that says this money is to be expended by agreement of the Council and Commissioners.” Mr. Whitten, “I can’t speak for the entire Council, but I do know there were a lot of discussions through the task force committee meetings and then just between the two bodies about the concern of affordability shift in the Council and, boom, it’s gone. So I like the idea of the unanimous vote in the termination of it, certainly, because that would at least really mandate a preservation of that money.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “It’s the only ************************* way we can.” Mr. Whitten, “There’s always one guy in the group, right?” Com. Evans, “There’s always one.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Just so there’s no confusion, as far as the use of the money goes, once it’s in this fund, it only takes a majority of the Council and a majority of Commissioners to say, ‘we would like to spend this money on project x, y, or z.’ It doesn’t take a unanimous vote there. The unanimous vote comes in if we’re going to terminate this ordinance, and the money is going somewhere else for some other purpose. Then we have the Hospital Trailing Liability Fund, which is funded, pursuant to contract, by the Hospital Sale Proceeds. The Hospital Trailing Liability Fund is established. We have three funds now that are out there that are separate for separate uses that we identify in here. Since these funds are going to go into existence January 1, we’ll have zero balances on some of these funds to pay off bonds and et cetera. If there is not a zero balance in those three funds, it will transfer into the Trailing Liabilities Fund. We tried to come up with an amount to fund this, but we don’t know what our trailing liabilities are going to be. The sum in the ordinance you have is $5,000,000. That was contemplating the $2,000,000 that was necessary to pay off the bond, so we might, on final reading, reduce that number to $3,000,000 just to have in this fund to pay trailing liabilities. When there are none anymore, we can transfer it all back into the Proceeds Fund.” Com. Harper, “Or if we need more, they can be transferred out of the main fund into this fund.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “Exactly. Then we identified the uses of that money specifically on page three, and it is as we’ve been paying claims today – Workmen’s Comp claims, health claims, litigation settlement of hospital claims, satisfaction of hospital indebtedness, contractual services including accounting, consulting, legal. Now the issue has come up about possibly retaining someone to invest the money, so we put investment services related to the sale proceeds can all come out of this fund to pay all that.” Com. Knoblock, “Is there a limit on the liability, so many years that they. . .?” Atty. Rinkenberger, “That would depend, I think, on the type of claim it is because state law would go into effect. If the hospital had a contract claim – and contract claims are no longer viable after five years – that would apply to us. Whatever the law that applies to the claim that we have when we get it applies. So if there’s a tort claim, they would have ‘x’ number of days or years to file their action. If it’s a breach of contract, that statute of limitations would come to us. So it would change depending on the claim.” Com. Harper, “We are required by contract to keep this main fund together for five years, so it’s there for anything that comes up.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “If this ordinance is terminated, this money automatically goes into the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund. We don’t say anything about converting to the General Fund. But again, we do have approval of both the Commissioners and the Council on that, it’s not as adamant though – it could be – but I don’t think that it’s necessary. Those are the three ordinances. We tried to trace the proceeds, and this should comply with all the concerns of the State Board of Accounts and then some.” Com. Harper, “Does anyone have any more questions for Gwenn? Do I hear a motion on the ordinance that she has gone over for setting up the Hospital Sale Proceeds, the main fund?” Com. Knoblock moved to approve on first reading the ordinance as it deals with the Hospital Sale Proceeds Fund, Com. Evans seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “The second fund that we have an ordinance on is for the Hospital Interest Fund. Do I hear a motion on that?” Com. Evans moved to approve on first reading the ordinance regarding the Hospital Interest Fund, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “The third ordinance I have is on the Hospital Trailing Liability Fund. Do I hear a motion on that?” Com. Evans moved to approve on first reading the ordinance for the Hospital Trailing Liability Fund, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “The final readings, so we have these in effect by the first of the year, will be on December 18th. Is there anything else?” Com. Evans, “I just think that everybody ought to get some ‘kudos’ for this because this is not – you made it sound like a piece of cake – and it’s definitely not been a piece of cake. There’s been a lot of hard work on Tim’s part and Gwenn’s part, and on the Council and the Commissioners. I just want to make sure that everybody understands at no time ever were these funds ever in question as to where they were or what their accountability was. That’s all I want to say, and I want to thank all of these people that were involved.”
Mr. Anton, “Thank you, Commissioner. In just a couple minutes today, I’d like to present three amendments to the Employee Benefit Plan for your consideration. These are suggestions that the three of you from time to time have suggested we present to you. I think they are recommendations that you can be very proud of, frankly, in terms of enhancing benefits for the County employees. On the left side of the folder is Amendment Number 9, which simply increases the Preferred Wellness Program’s benefit from $150 to $250. We’ve been approached by a number of County employees that thought that this would be beneficial to the overall wellness of the employee group, if we were to do that, so that they could meet the cost of the scans in the screening issues that are presented in the Wellness Program. Attached to that amendment, just for your preview, is the questionnaire that goes with the Preferred Wellness Program, and this is one that has been streamlined so that there should be little resistance to it, I think, within the County Building. So I submit that this particular amendment would be come effective January 1, 2008.” Com. Harper, “But you need our approval on this?” Mr. Anton, “Yes.” Com. Harper, “Okay. So number one, you’re asking for the approval to the Amendment Number 9 to the Employee Healthcare Plan increasing it to $250, is that correct?” Mr. Anton, “Correct.” Com. Evans moved to approve Amendment Number 9, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “The other thing you’re asking is for amendment to the Flexible Spending Plan, which is Amendment Number 3, is that correct?” Mr. Anton, “Correct. There are two sections to that particular amendment, and one is the grace period, which extends the time that a claim can be incurred under the Flexible Spending Account by 30 days. Currently an employee of the County that participates in the FSA has a 12-month period, calendar year, to incur expenses to be applied against their FSA account. This would allow them a 30-day grace period to get that done. So in other words, what you’re doing is just allowing those people that participate in the program, if they for whatever reason missed the timeline, an additional 30 days to expend their money. The second element of this amendment is the runoff period. That just extends the time that they can report incurring that claim by 90 days from the end of the calendar year. So all this amendment does is give a little additional flexibility within the FSA account for the employees to benefit from the program as a whole. And I think that without saying anything, obviously, the FSA program within itself could allow employees to use pre-tax dollars for medical expenses speaks for itself.” Com. Evans moved to approve Amendment Number 3 to the FSA, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Anton, “Once again, that will be effective January 1. Amendment Number 10 is one that has come up in the discussion and is certainly worthy of your consideration, and that is to consider Item 44 under Comprehensive Major Medical Expense Benefits, a colonoscopy. The amended definition would be, ‘This plan shall pay for colonoscopy charges set forth in the schedule of benefits incurred by eligible individuals.’ Frankly translated this means that you could have a routine colonoscopy as diagnosed by your doctor, which is currently excluded.” Com. Harper, “And it is covered by many plans.” Mr. Anton, “Absolutely.” Com. Evans moved to approve Amendment Number 10, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Anton, “That would be effective January 1 also. I have nothing else at this time. I just need to have those signed. Melissa, do you want to get me those? And then there will be an informational communication to the employees about these changes.”
Com. Harper, “There was a discussion of this last night at the Council meeting, and it was decided that they were going to form a committee to do a study of possible alternatives and where this stands as far as funding in supporting Portage Adult Education Program. Further, I have been informed by the staff here that I can’t make a motion for additionals until after the first of the year, that’s correct, right? So based on the discussions they had, I just want to say publicly that if they still need the solution of County funding, I intend at our first or second meeting in January to make that motion to support the Portage Adult Education. I do want to mention this, I have gotten a lot of letters and emails and so forth. One of the ones that I got today was from Stewart McMillan from Task Force Tips, which is what I consider an excellent employer here in Valparaiso – excellent because it’s a thriving business that has full-time, good-paying jobs with benefits and so forth. He pointed out to me that, I think, fourteen of their employees in this small business in Valparaiso have been through that Portage Adult Education Program; three of their employees are teaching in that program; they have had other employees through it that are now working other places; and that their average income at that business is $52,700. So I think there is a lot of economic development in this program and, at least, I intend to try to support it in every way possible. But I won’t be able to introduce that tonight; I’ll have to wait until the first of the year.” Com. Evans, “I just want to say I think that the program itself has to be saved. There are so many people that are in the same situation as Mr. McMillan’s employees, that it’s their last viable hope to make something of their lives. You can’t do much of anything in this world of ours without at least a high school education or a GED, and to see a program such as that shut down would be a travesty. I’m all for making sure that we can bail them out, if that’s the right term that we want to use, but I’m also all for making sure that every other possibility for funding is brought to the table as well. Those people that are using it need to . . . we need to figure out a formula so everybody can pay their fare share of it. I definitely don’t want to see it go under.” Com. Harper, “So we’ll be bringing that up after the first of the year.”
Com. Harper, “The County Home was torn down with the understanding that the Parks Department was going to put together some sort of plan, a proposal for the property.” Mr. Melendez, “Do you still have the drawings and the letters? Melissa got a hold of me to make sure that you had them updated. I just wanted to sit down with you folks for a little bit. The books that I have are marked with some tags when we go through the plan a little bit. Our consultant was Jacobs Edwards and Kelsey who did our five-year master plan for the Parks. We asked them to take the next step and develop a plan for the County Home site. The Park Board has proposed this site back in October. We had five different plans. The Park staff sat down and reviewed all five plans and condensed it down to Plan E that is in front of you. What we wanted to do was to keep the plan simple, the area to be user friendly to the adjacent homeowners and visitors in the park, but also keeping some areas open for any type of activities. When we looked at the site, the consultant came up with the drawings, and it was basically reducing our entrance to the park – we had a little concern as to the way the roundabout was to come in off of Route 2 and then exit – we wanted to stay close to an intersection that we do have on the county road there for entrance and exit so they do have a stop opposite them. We have proposed a parking lot of about 85 cars, a turnaround drop-off that would utilize the chapel, a patio area, and then the chapel use itself – it’s to be used for rental groups, receptions, parties, things like that. We kept the playground area close by to the shelter and an active open area behind it. What we did on the buffer on the front was to make sure that the traffic and the noise from Route 2 would be buffered from the area so there was a raised planter that, if you do remember, we retained 200 blocks from the County Home site that will be part of the retaining wall of the buffer so we can go ahead and landscape on the inner section of it. What you also see, when we start to go back into the facility, we have them marked out as Youth Soccer/T-ball fields. They will not be established fields – they will be open areas that will accommodate smaller soccer teams, the beginning groups that Valparaiso and the Boys and Girls Clubs would be able to utilize. We had designed the T-ball fields so that they can put their bases out, maybe keep a backstop there, design that so that they would be able to pull their bases at the end and still have an open area. As you see, we do have walking trails that would take you back to the picnic pavilion, and if you look at the books, we showed you what kind of benches and gazebos and shelters we have. We were concerned more about vandalism, so we went with the metal roof, metal posts, concrete and reinforced picnic tables and benches. The trail itself is phase one in the upper area around the pond that would be blacktopped for handicapped accessibility, walking, as well as bicycle riding. We do keep the maintenance building, which is the old chicken coop for equipment to be stored there. The picnic pavilion would at least have four tables to it and an active area for any participation into that. Circling around on the north side of the pond itself, we’ve put a connector that the consultant came up with. Everybody was pretty excited about that to have a bridge way over the top. I have met with the Planning Commission as well as the Surveyor. We will have an engineer design a type of a walking bridge; it will not have vehicles going across it. Another gazebo at the opposite end, and then a little interpretive/health walking trail that would take you down to the lower section and bring you back along the creek that brings you back toward the upper portion of the park. We understand the consultant is working, there are some plans along Salt Creek and some studies, and we will work with that group because they are doing some funding onto that. We will tie that trail into it. We are not looking at a trail that would be disturbing the wetland area, but a raised platform that you see in other areas like the Everglades and some of the other parks that do have some wetlands established. I have had contact with the Essex Homeowners group; there are plans that are going to be sent out to them. They are very excited about it; we had a discussion with them. We will get with the developer, Mr. Coolman, on the plans and what he had tied in with the neighborhood there. Valpo Parks has the concept drawing and are evaluating. I will meet with them tomorrow, and we will meet with the Planning Department in the City of Valparaiso. We have a little concern off of Route 2 on an easement with water and sewer coming in, which is relatively close to the parking lot area. So that gives you a concept of what we’re doing on that. These are all phases that we look at. We will bring DNR in to evaluate the trees along the banks and what we have in there, what is salvageable, what we need to remove. We have material lined up to do our grading work, readjust the parking lot. We have our first phase for working on the building and getting that access area to the front part of it.” Com. Harper, “How long is this walking trail?” Mr. Melendez, “We have estimated roughly just about two miles of walking trail going around.” Com. Harper, “How big is that wetland? How many acres it that?” Mr. Melendez, “We have total acreage in that whole area with that is 90 acres, Bob.” Com. Harper, “Yes, but the wetland part?” Mr. Melendez, “The wetland part itself, I think the upper half we figured just about 20 acres, so you’re looking at about 70 acres. We’re not going all the way back to the back part of it.” Com. Harper, “Directly on the south side, is that the neighborhood right there?” Mr. Melendez, “Yes, that’s the roadway that is adjacent to the property line, and there is a turnabout in there with a shelter too, so they would have accessibility right on the inside.” Com. Harper, “Yes, but do those homes butt right up on the south side of this?” Mr. Melendez, “No, there’s a roadbed for the subdivision that’s in between.” Com. Harper, “Because I saw this bridge that said ‘neighborhood connector.’ Explain that.” Mr. Melendez, “There is a parking lot. The neighbors, as I understand, would like to, instead of walking all the way around the pond, as well as what we thought, would be able to walk across. It would have reinforced steel in the steps as well as railing to walk across.” Com. Harper, “How large is this pond?” Mr. Melendez, “The pond itself comes out to just about two acres.” Com. Harper, “What depth is it going to be?” Mr. Melendez, “The pond that is there right now existing is about two-and-a-half to three feet. It doesn’t maintain any fish or other . . .” Com. Harper, “Do you have plans to?” Mr. Melendez, “No, that’s part of the retention pond with the subdivision, so we will work with the consultant. If there’s some reason that they do need work, then we can come in with engineers.” Com. Harper, “The subdivision’s retention pond is on our land?” Mr. Melendez, “Yes.” Com. Evans, “Retention or detention?” Mr. Melendez, “Detention; I’m sorry. It does maintain water and does hold water.” Com. Knoblock, “The water from the subdivision goes into the pond?” Mr. Melendez, “Yes.” Com. Knoblock, “You’ve met with the neighborhood people?” Mr. Melendez, “I had a discussion over the phone, and they had copies that we gotten to them, and they want to sit down with them in public meetings . . .” Com. Knoblock, “Because they have approached me. A lot of them have little children, and they were wondering if we would put up a fence.” Mr. Melendez, “When the public meeting is set, we do want their comments because this is just the tentative plans; they’ll do some additional scenes. We will probably make some additions and changes to this because there are concerns that the neighbors do have, and we want their input. There are public meetings that will be critical to stage development.” Com. Evans, “I think it’s great. Is there any potential plan down the road to use the other part of that wetland area?” Mr. Melendez, “We figured that would be a stage three, so once we get done with our stage two and our walking trails and we can see how DNR evaluates it. It’s been five years since we went through a study with DNR, and there has been a lot of terror since that point in time of the upgrade about the wetlands, so we’ll come back and have them reevaluate it for us again.” Com. Evans, “What percentage of the property are we looking at to develop it at this time?” Mr. Melendez, “At this stage of the game, we are looking at about 15 acres, which is the level part where the County Home was and going up around the pond area.” Com. Evans, “There are no real structures here other than the structure that exists for the chapel?” Mr. Melendez, “The only structure that they have is the existing one, which is the chapel. The other ones are, as you see in the drawings, scale structures for gazebos.” Com. Evans, “And these things are . . .?” Mr. Melendez, “That was part of the other one. In the book, you’ll see the little blue tags. Those are steel structures.” Com. Evans, “Instead of these.” Mr. Melendez, “Right. We’re not putting campsites into that.” Com. Harper, “Can we have a couple extra of these if the press wants them?” Mr. Melendez, “Yes, I’ll leave a few up here so they can grab them afterwards. The Park Board did approve it. Two of the things that we looked at were one of the names – I think we need to take it back to the Park Board to keep it what it was. It was County Home Park. We felt that it fit the site. We do have some of the original buildings, we have some original logs, and I think that’s something you folks are probably pretty willing to keep with that point in time. The other one is securing it and getting it under the Park Board so we can secure our DNR grants and going under the IDNR, our master plan is there. This does follow the guidelines for our Park master plan, and it does get under the official wildlife plans for some improvements.” Com. Harper, “You don’t need that right away?” Mr. Melendez, “No, we can work and we can have the attorneys get back with each other and work with that. We want to start implementing our program after the first of the year and start moving with the homeowners.” Com. Harper, “Do you have the funds to do this?” Mr. Melendez, “We have some funds set aside. We are now starting to go after some grants to see what we can match them with, especially along the walkways – that would be the first major expense.” Com. Evans, “The wetland itself is pretty pristine. It doesn’t need restoration.” Mr. Melendez, “There will not be any touching it because, at the time, it was pretty expensive. That’s why we want to bring DNR back in before we go into the lower stages, which is the second phase.” Com. Harper, “What would you do besides saving the wetland?” Mr. Melendez, “They were, at one point in time, looking at dredging it to make it deeper, to bring in some other material, to clean up a lot of other material – as I understand, there have been some trees that have been removed from the waterways – bring in pristine material and correct some of the drainage, which a lot of that itself has improved over the last five years. We’ll bring them back in as a study.” Com. Harper, “You’re not talking about doing away with any wetland at all whatsoever.” Mr. Melendez, “No, we’re staying on our flat level ground as much as possible.”
Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “Item #2 Slag – we had three bidders: Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “Item #3 Bituminous Plant Mix – we had three vendors: Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “There were no bidders on Item #4 Ice Abrasive Material. Item #5 Fill Sand – we had three bidders: Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item #6 Pavement Stripings and Markings – we had two bidders. One bidder we cannot accept because the Form 95 wasn’t attached. I would recommend we accept the bid from Line Markers. Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “Item #7 Equipment Rental – we had three bidders: Com Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item 7A Pulverizing Machine – I would recommend we take the bid from Mount Carmel Sand and Gravel. They were 26 cents a square yard compared to 37 cents a square yard.” Com Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item #8 Signs and Posts – we had two bidders. Fisher Associates’ bid we cannot accept due to no bond. I would recommend we take Hall Signs.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item #9 Calcium Chloride Solution – we had one bidder: Great Lakes Chloride. I would recommend we accept.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation. Com. Evans, “How does that compare price-wise to what we paid last year?” Mr. Hoagland, “It’s surprisingly not up very much, which is one of the few products that isn’t.” Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “Item #10 Gasoline – we will not accept any bids for gasoline at this time since we are on the fuel fleet system. Item #11 Diesel Fuel – At this time, we had three bidders: Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item #12 Motor Oil – I would recommend we accept the bid from Superior Petroleum.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “Item #13 Culverts – we have one bidder: CPI Supply/Debco Metal Culverts. I would recommend we take their bid.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Mr. Hoagland, “Item #13A Guardrail – we had two bidders: Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “The last one Item #14 Precast or Prestressed Bridge Beams – we had one bidder only: CPI Supply/Debco Metal Culverts. Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Award Equipment Bids
Mr. Hoagland, “I’ve brought Andy McKay with me tonight, our head mechanic, if there are any questions on any of the bids for equipment. The first item would be the sweeper. I would recommend that we accept the bid from Northern Equipment for a Schwarze model M-6000 at a price of $159,617.” Mr. Hoagland, “For the mowing tractor, I would recommend that we accept the bid from H&P, and that would be with the Tiger mower, and that would be for a price of $55,856.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Mr. Hoagland, “For the excavator, I recommend that we accept the bid from Rudd Equipment Company, and the price on that would be $121,950.” Com. Evans moved to accept the recommendation, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Evans, “Al, can I hold you up a minute? We’re not trading in the other mower, and we’re not trading in the excavator?” Mr. Hoagland, “The mower and the excavator will be traded in. The only piece of equipment we’re not trading is our old sweeper. So taking that out of the equation was . . . we talked before, if we try and replace equipment, we try and (inaudible)…”
Clerk’s Monthly Report for October 2007 is on file. Approval of proposal to purchase kennels from Mavron for new Animal Shelter vehicle. The vehicle purchase was approved at the November 20 Commissioners meeting. Com. Evans moved to accept the proposal. Com. Knoblock, “Are there no bids on that?” Ms. Hartig, “There’s one from Mavron, Inc. I think that’s who they go through to get the kennels. That’s who they went through the last time.” Com. Evans, “They already have the truck. It’s the kennels that fit into the back of it. There from a company in Warsaw; they’re kind of a specialized entity.” Com. Harper, “Tom Henderson from the Sheriff’s Department usually helps us get them.” Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Request for approval of Official Bond for James Murphy, Treasurer. The bond is in the amount of $300,000. Com. Evans moved to approve the request, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Request for approval of Blanket Employee bond for the Treasurer’s office in the amount of $250,000 (five employees at $50,000 each). Com. Evans moved to approve the request, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
Approval of increases for part-time Commissioners’ employees effective January 1, 2008. Vacancy in Weights & Measures. Com. Evans moved to appoint Michael Harper to the position of Director of Weights and Measures Department, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “Note there is no relationship there.” Proposal for work to be done on roof at Courthouse. Ms. Hartig, “This was something that the Board had asked Joe, the Maintenance Engineer, to look into. There is still some leaking in the roof there. He has checked with Firestone, and he’s also taken DLZ up there while they were doing their building assessment, and according to Babilla, they need to replace a section of that roof to get the leaking to stop.” Com. Harper, “Where is the proposal? I don’t see the proposal.” Ms. Hartig, “It’s in the front of your book.” Com. Harper, “This is obvious. I think this is sort of an emergency situation. The water is rolling in up there. If Joe has looked at it and DLZ has looked at it, I would suggest we accept this.” Com. Evans, “I agree.” Com. Evans moved to accept the proposal from Babilla Inc. to repair the roof on the Courthouse for $6,485, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “They also have to re-flash several spots of the east roof west of the units on the Administration Building for $1,475.” Com. Evans moved to accept the proposal, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Ms. Hartig, “I don’t know if that’s something that Joe may have in regards to this building or not. I will double check.” New doorway in Auditor’s mapping room Com. Harper, “Do we need to handle this door proposal tonight?” Mr. Hartig, “I know that they would like to get that done.” Com. Evans, “Can I backtrack just a minute on the Courthouse Building? That’s a time and materials bid, and it’s to not exceed the $6,485, so I just wanted to make that clear.” Com. Harper, “Is this the purpose, to keep the GIS?” Ms. Hartig, “There’s the GIS mapping room, and then there’s a small separate office next door to them. What they would like to do is add an access door so they don’t have to go out in the hall to go into that room. That’s where they’re going to keep their printer, and they want to be able to keep an eye on the printer so that it doesn’t jam or anything.” Com. Harper, “I’ve just seen this for the first time. I’d like to put this off until next time until I get a chance to look this over. Is that okay?”
Com. Evans, “Me, too. I’d like to visualize this.” Com. Harper, “Two weeks ago we appointed our Highway Engineer, but we didn’t set the salary, John and Carole. Do I hear a motion on that?” Com. Evans moved to set the salary for the Highway Engineer at $55,000, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried. Com. Harper, “Is there any other business, Melissa, before we go on to the Plan Commission?” Ms. Hartig, “No.” Com. Harper, “Anybody else? Alright let’s take about a five-minute break then go on with the Plan Commission.”
Mr. Thompson, “This is Plan Commission Resolution 07-15, petitioner Timberland Farms, LLC requesting a zoning map amendment, requesting that parts of it to be rezoned from RR (rural residential) to R1 (low-density single-family residential). This was heard at the Plan Commission at their October 10th hearing, and was recommended for approval to the County Commissioners by a 5-3 vote, and this is the second reading for the Commissioners.” Com. Evans moved to approve on second reading, Com. Harper seconded, motion carried with Com. Knoblock voted opposed. Com. Harper, “Is there any other Plan Commission business?” RFP’s ready for North County Highway Garage Mr. Thompson, “I just wanted to quickly mention from the last meeting the RFPs for the North County Highway Garage. I’ve worked with Gwenn on those situations and the language with them. I got the advertisement to Melissa for the newspapers, and the RFP package is now at the Auditor’s office. We’re in the process of contacting Design Built Firms to see if **********address*********** the packages are ready to pick up at the Auditor’s Office.” Atty. Rinkenberger, “I only have one question. Will it be done by the end of the year? Right, John?” (laughter) Com. Evans moved to recess, Com. Knoblock seconded, motion carried.
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Robert P. Harper
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December 4, 2007