Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Weather my thumb do that. That's bad. I found if I move them together, it helps. I see likes company. [laughter]

Hey, thank you, sir. Good to see you. Good to see you. Glad to see you got off your hill. Yeah, I had to work on it about 6 hours with the ATV. Then I had to go over and the Andersons, they couldn't. They had a guy come up and was going to clean off their lane. He got halfway up the hill and got stuck. So I go over there and I said, "Well, if he can get down off the hill, I'll I'll try to get up there with ATV." And I I was able to get up there. And it's steeper than mine. So you got ADP with the blade on the front of it? Well, and I got the Kabota tractor, but that ATV, I can do more with it. I can maneuver it better. Seems like uh

Well, tell me that's not fun. Well, it is. I I get I'm about that close to not being able to control it, though. [laughter] Come on. Sit down here. Yeah, he's not going to be here. Okay. What is he supposed to be the only whatever he is department heads up here

Kevin and up here. Yeah, good luck with that. [laughter]

transit access,000 finance policy get some special minutes. I'm sorry. One. Yes. Two. Seven.

Yes. There is a claim correct that claim $35.9 that we put the claim and then

yes start sheets we got three vacancies one for a doctor we got assist Dr. Jim and Dr. Eng. And so um the people that here Dr. H was here his resume last meeting. Okay. I have no reason here. So change this. That would be a council. We don't have that unless you haveations.

So motion, excuse me, and airport. Kevin. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Tim. Yes. Yes. So this is Michael and Dr. Hold on. I have seen Dr. So I'm going to basically make

the commission one Benson um is in currently real time. That's the only person I don't think I mean the range here in the room you know I have failed to find anyone in the community just have you found anyone for this last year I don't We've got Argentina one and a stock that's done meetings. Were you the only applicant from the council?

Yes. We have also from the town. Okay. So another one that I agree with Dwayne. I think he's into a couple of those meetings. Ross did a fine job, especially settling in with understanding what the intricacies of alcohol and beverage work is. I know that it's routine in a sense the state really has the authority in that, but there is work that has to be done there. So,

there's a training process also, a training process. We don't have to retrain what we Okay. I would I would prefer or I would make a motion to keep Rosson in the position on the alcohol beverage commission. Second I'll pull the clerk. [laughter] Everybody's ahead of themselves today. I'll second Kevin. Yes.

No. Uh, yes. All right. CBC, we've had two board members reapply, Jimmy Tilton, Andy Salei. We had two additional applications from Brian Tadlock and Richard Stanley. Um, I'd propose um, in one of the issues we had the CBC that was misadvertised in the paper. So, that wasn't Well, no, that wasn't in paper. It was the other room.

APC, I'm thinking of. So, uh, we went out and looked at the, uh, the requirements for this and the county commissioners appoint two members to commission, at least one of whom must be engaged in hotel or motel business within the county and then the other can be kind of in a large general public. um asked our attorneys to validate the hotel motel business and pretty much they identified as lodging um lodging that's Airbnbs that's tur rentals uh any any lodging facility that collects incor who's eligible so I propose that we I okay we have two options Richard Stanley is the at large and as we've talked about Rich is an attorney he presented that his qualifications he's kind of an attorney the council reviews and approves the budget from the CBC and that's contingent on IC6-9-chapter 14 of the inkeepers tax. So we had different questions on how the operating documents are for that whole system and I think Rich could give us that insight onto that. Um and again the council approves the CBC budget. Another is the inkeeper tax is used as collateral um for the Maple Leaf Music Center. And so that has a whole set of documents there for the board of directors. Uh the building corp is on that part of that decision-m process as well as the commissioners. Those more documents that that we questioned also. Um and then we had the change in the law where the commissioners review and approve the contracts. We didn't have to do that on existing contracts. Um but when we looked at the admin agreement there is a termination clause which was missing for most historically missing for most of our contracts. So there is a termination clause in that six months notification on on terminating the administrative agreement. And then the other thing we noticed and that's fine. The other thing we noticed that we probably wouldn't approve commissioners wouldn't approve

today that that they did previously was the the distribution the 75% to the community foundation if permitted by law. And so when we checked with the attorneys, they go, "Well, that's debatable and that's why they put that in there permitted by law." So I'm kind of curious what would be the debate on that particular thing. So um again, that's something we could get a little insight in from from Rich to the table. So, [laughter] uh, the other is I propose on since the expanded definition of of the lodging, uh, that we readvertise that to the hotel positions and try to get more people in to see who's interested because our interest, the distribution of revenue from the inkeeper stacks is is extremely transparent these days, being debated through the quality of life committee and and different groups. So, I'd like to see if we can get more interest from from throughout the county on on this this particular position. So,

you need a motion for that. So, I do the first motion on on uh I propose that Richard Stanley I nominate Richard Stanley for a position. Well, let one of us do that. Okay. I'll make a motion to appoint Rich Stanley and CBC. Okay. Is there a second? Okay. I'll second. um that we are going to go ahead and revert. Is that what I understand? And the second part we re revert the second position. Okay. For the hotel. That's fine. Okay. So, roll call on Richard Stan. Okay. Ron. Yes. Tim. Yes. Kevin. No.

Should I should I be appointed to somebody's going to run against me? [laughter] All right. Now I need a motion on on revertising. I'll make a motion that we readvertise for another one just to say now explain again to me about the Brian Tadlon. Did he produce everywhere? He did. He did and he was here presented his qualifications.

Well, like you said the case about the 75 25%. Yeah. I'd like to readvertise and see if we can get someone. All right, that's a motion. That's my motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Tim, yes. Kevin, yes. Ron, yes.

All right, move it down to Helmsburg RSD. We had one applicant, Kyle Meyers, and remember his presentation last meeting. Yeah, he's the only one I think he was an individual as well. Single, no more applicants. Yep, that's it. So, he's also been in that position for a while. So, I'll make a motion we reappoint Carl Myers to the homework regional [laughter] district. Okay. Kevin, yes. Yes.

Yes. [laughter] in the fire district. We have three uh folks on the on there now. Tom Williams, William Callahan, Michael O'Neal. Um I think Teresa followed up. We didn't get any u letters of interest to be reappointed that they could be continuous. So leave them continuous for now. Yeah. Advertise and see if anybody applies and then Well, she contacted the and we'll follow up. She contacted the president of the board and said they wanted to continue. So all three of them. Yeah. All three of them.

I mean I didn't know her name yesterday. So if they want to continue uh have a motion I'll make a motion that we reappoint Tom Williams Callahan and Michael O'Neal to the Hamlin Township or the Hland Township Fire District Bo.

Yes. Kevin. Yes, I'll save the RDC for last there. Um, Harry Plan Commission, that was one that wasn't advertised. So, we just had the two folks that are on there now reapply. Um, again, wasn't advertised. I suggest we could repost that. Yeah. I mean, since it wasn't properly documented in the paper and did make it out there, I would like to go through and make a motion that we revertise the ABC as well. Okay. Okay. Tim, yes. Kevin, yes. Ron

is okay. The next one's board of zoning appeals. And we looked at the records and I don't know if there's Andy Boils applied and and for our records, he was appointed by the APC. So that's not our our our appointment. Debbie Bartis is the appointment is position that that expired and and Michael Harrison applied for that particular position. He's the only one that was advertised BCA, but he's the only one that applied. And I know he wants to make make a few comments. Michael, you want to I think you guys got his resume. Yeah, I did.

Thank you. I spoke at the last meeting and I talked a little bit at that time about my interest and why I wanted to be on the position and uh I don't think that my the letter that I wrote kind of explains why I think that my experience ties in um as well as I would like it to do. um my experience have been in commercial construction and I I don't think it's obvious to people that are not involved in that understand how that would apply because it's much different than commercial than residential construction. Um I've been involved in some very large projects. One of them was a $28 million hospital constructed at Fort Le Washington. Uh we had a staff of about 18 people there. Um we had a uh the quality control department, the engineering department, the construction staff and admin. At [clears throat] the request of the project manager, I wrote the operations procedure manual for that that group. I was in charge of the engineering department uh and had some oversight of the admin department. One of the things I was responsible for was the construction schedule. Uh in doing that I had to work with all the entities the subcontractors and suppliers to make sure that we could get everything done in sequence and have enough right number of people on site. Uh we had to make uh adjustments in how the building was constructed in order to allow for the cranes to be where they needed to be to erect the steel and recast. Uh [clears throat] at the end of the project I wrote the sequence for starting up all the hospital equipment uh life safety equipment building operations equipment uh and some of this was based upon personal experience and the input I got from my staff and some of it was based upon the specification requirements for the sequence that the owner required. Uh we had very a lot of

success on that job. We finished the 52-month schedule four months early. Um, the other project I was involved in was the design build project for WorldCom telecommunication center in Tulsa. Uh, WorldCom purchased a MREX TX manufacturing and warehouse facility and we converted it into a data center, cafeteria, uh, call center, uh, and and headquarters for Royal Compare. After we finished the renovation of the existing building, we constructed a new fourstory 260,000 square foot building. We did that on design bill from the time we started until we move people down on the fourth floor. Accomplish that for 11 months. [laughter] Um, obviously I did not do all this on my own. I worked with a lot of different people. uh one of my engineers scheduler and uh for this is now vice president of Hortonson in Washington Horton is a huge company and the other one of my subordinates is now president [clears throat] in Oklahoma it's a road dealing and a bridge company I think that from all this I learned how to work with people I've learned how to analyze facts and determine whether they're actually facts or whether they're interpretation because you get in real trouble there if you don't interpret things correctly. That's really all I wanted to say just to explain why I thought my experience would help me fill this position successfully. Yes, sir. Um, looking ahead in the future, uh, would you say you're prodevelopment or do you like Brown County to stay like it is or do you have any thoughts on that?

I don't really have direct thought on that. One of the things that I I see a lot of people comment about is that you get a lot of people come in here, they want to be like they want to fit in with Brown County, but once they want to change it the way it was where they were before and um I guess I'm probably more inclined to being like it is right now, but make it the best it could be in that regard. There's always rooms for improvement, right? Do you have anything in particular you want to improve?

Yes, sir. I one of the comments that I made the last time was that they asked if you had an agenda. I said I really don't have an agenda. Um and I it's as I understand this position people are going to come in with a presentation and you're going to approve it or disapprove it. I don't know how my agenda would fit in. Maybe I miss. [laughter] Okay. So, Michael, you So, I see your list of accomplishments ends at 2012. So, have you been like retired since 2012 or what what have you been doing in the meantime?

Well, as I said the last time, uh I was a caregiver for my wife. She been with me. Um, I I did some part-time work in uh from 2016 to 2017. University of Southern Mississippi has a research laboratory there in Ocean Springs where I lived and I I helped them oversee construction, the laboratory they were building. Uh, but most of that time I was just at home um taking care of things my wife passed in 2018. Well, thank you for appreciating it. I completely forgot that soon as you open your mouth. [laughter] I understand caregiving part. That's very hard and to step up and do that. I have a lot of respect for you. Well, I'll be honest with you. Until the tail end, it really was that that difficult. Most of her issues were mobility issues, you know, housework, cooking, cooking. She didn't go away too much. Uh so that there. A lot of people work a lot harder than I do.

It takes a village to take care of. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. All right. Back up to the board. Can I ask for some clarification? Sure. Sorry. You guys mentioned Debbie Bartis. Yeah. She hasn't been on the board for at least one term. So, that's currently Andy. It is Andy. It's Andy. APC appointment to the APC from you all or from the APC to the BCA? APC. Randy Jones. Okay. Is that okay? See, we're all confused. Thank you, Caleb. So, we have two applicants. Yes.

Um, thank you for a motion. I'll make a motion that we appoint. I'll second. Okay. Kevin, yes. Ron, yes. Tim, yes.

Mr. Michaels.

All right. Is this relevant to what we're doing right now? Is relevant to the appointments? Relevant to the appointments. I want some clarification um on the CDC appointment. Um which which seat did um Mr. Stanley take? Because right now we have we have two two there's two appointments from the county commissioners currently um on the CBC [clears throat] and we have one appointment now has been selected. But what does that mean for the the two existing? Because you can't have three.

Correct. So my understanding when we had the conversation with our attorney is the whoever's been appointed serves until removed. Which one we need to remove? So the so it would end up being the So your So actually that's a good question. So the removal was who's the general because we had two individuals appointed. Andy and and Jimmy were both hotel.

Actually, if I could interject, um if you're talking about the CBC, usually the people are for a term. Uh usually most of your appointments are for a term perhaps for a year. People continue to serve um if it's like past that term and the the next appointment has not yet been made. Okay. So I guess Jimmy's question is we've made an appointment. I don't know which because both Jimmy and and Andy were both appointed in the last time. I don't know [snorts] who was appointed for the I don't know who was appointed for the general or and who was appointed for the hotel. That's make a motion that we remove Andy.

Does that work attorney? Yes. You can designate one of them as having been the hotel I excuse me the non- hotel motel person then if you don't have that record. Yeah because then it would make I miss my motion to remove second roll. Ron, yes. Tim, yes. Kevin, yes. Thank you.

Last appointment. Library board. Then we'll go to the RDC library board. That was misadvertised. Um, as a council position, not commissioner position. Um Stan Floren applied sent resume sent you guys the transcript he presented at the council meeting sent you the transcript and the link to the his presentation his resume. So really we have one vacancy and and one applicant again this seems to be like a very small pool like board

I've looked at Dan's resume and I also looked at the council interview that he did. I'm fine with Dan. I'll make that motion and we appoint Dan. It was misadvered since we're going to read. Well, it was advertised correctly, but it was identified the appointing body was incorrect. So, he basically interviewed with the council versus here. So, we had him on his presentation. I had sent you guys a transcript of his comments. So any resume motion to appoint Dan. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second.

Okay. Tim. Yes. Kevin. Yes. Ron.

All right. Last one. RDC. Um we talked about this last time. We last meeting we kind of confirm it. Um I propose that we kind of put that on pause. um uh pending a more clear mission is what we expect out of RDC. I've got a little notes in there. The fact that it originated from as a result of the sock factory fire in Helsburg back in 2011, RDC was established. We had EDC at the time, but then the RDC was established to help dispose of that property. One way or the other, either redevelop the area or do something with that Helmsburg factory. Kevin Wling was the president of the RGC that did phenomenal work on the pros and the cons and the different options on that and the decision was to sell it um which sold to Beanery in 2014 and then they got about $400,000 and about $200,000 used to fund stormwater project in Helsburg. So at that point mission accomplished for the RDC. Since then I've been Kevin you served a year I've served two or three years um off and on and I've observed it. there's just nothing that's really been accomplished. It's a turned out to be a solution without a defined problem. So, don't want to perpetuate that. Want to sit back and pause that and look at it and say, "Hey, do we do we really need that? Is there a purpose for this this particular function?" Um, I think Stephanie, I think when we talk and and you can probably fill me in more information, I guess, but I know we're required to have at least an annual meeting and then file a report by April 15th. and and maybe if we pause it, we do we have to have a meeting or could we just stand it down? I guess that's that's the question I would like to know. What do we do with an RC that we don't think is functioning?

Um, no, you you just have to meet the minimum statutory requirements. Um, and like you said, those are those are two of the big ones. Um, and I I believe it would just have to be meet as necessary, but you wouldn't have to have the um monthly meetings that you've had in the past. That's good. Then the other thing is I've got that the two folks want to continue. Chris Snder and Alan Brown. Uh Jeremiah Reichman didn't want did not want to continue and I proposed in the interimm that I would serve on that RDC. Um the president set by Jerry Pitman a few years ago where there was a vacancy and Jerry sat on that RDC. And if that's legal, I guess Stephanie, if I can do that, then we've got our three appointments uh for the RDC. Yes, I have seen other red commissions have elected officials on that.

Okay, good. Um, do we need a motion or [laughter] sounds like there is [clears throat] so I'll make a motion that we retain the two gentlemen that requested that was Chris Snider Steiner Alan Brown and then have you Mr. President fill the third vac. That's fine. You make a motion. Yes. Okay. Roll. Kevin. Yes. Ron. Yes. Tim.

Yes. Is that clear for set for ABC for ABC and CBC? Okay. Well, that's the final act. [laughter] All right. All right. All right. Appointment. Um, next one. Team eight director. Oh, I guess I'll ask the news is it's a meat grinder. I want him up there, man. [laughter] Let's do the meat grinder.

Folks, Cory, I don't know if you guys I'll give you the memo, but Cory was was selected for the position from the emergency management advisory council with the memo. The recommendation is he's also been serving as an interim which he picked a hell of a time to choose to become the interim. Quite an interview process you have here. I I seen him sat in the front row and I was looking at him and I was like [laughter] and I'm like I haven't seen you in a while you know that's must be what it is.

Oh my Yeah. So uh I had donated my hair to Wings for Kids. So Oh really? Yep. Oh, okay. There we go. I wasn't gonna say

it was a four-year commitment after we finished up testing for CO that the challenge was presented to me for my family and not realizing what a time commitment that actually is. It's four years for me and [clears throat] it happened. So, I've been I'm back to hide and tight. I've been with Cory on some pretty high tense situations and uh last time he was really uh looked at it everybody was trying to talk him into doing it three years ago and he was committed and he stayed with his commitment and then it's become available. Appreciate you Corey. If you guys are ready for a motion I'll make a motion. I made a motion.

Yes, Tim. Yes, Kevin. Yes. And I just want to thank him as well because he handled the snowstorm and then on top of that that wasn't bad enough. We had a gas 30 engine gas man problem. Yeah, that was quite an injustice. So, I'll move your agenda up up to now on on the update from the EMA. Okay. Glad you got the job. Well, I appreciate the confidence, everybody. So, thank you. Um, it's my understanding that it had like a thousand pounds of pressure behind it. Yeah. So, it's set at 750 PSI and you know, then the the depressurization is quite a thing, but if you want, I'll give you a quick timeline of what this looks like.

All that and I forget that. [snorts] Um, was that monitored at a facility? Was it shut down at a facility or did it have to manually be shut down? Yeah, so it's remotely monitored. Then they have to have some blowoff valves to help get that pressure out also, but they have to lower it down over a course of time so you don't have the knocking effect and cause other ruptures down the line. But it was it ended up being a 20 mile line of main, 30-inch main that had to be abandoned. That's kind of like ice trucking. You drive across the ice at certain speed, but you can't come off the ice very fast.

You have to slow down or you break the same fundamental. Wow. Learn something new. Yeah. So, so winter storm fern all began on the uh the 23rd, which was a Friday, and that's when we had kind of a winter weather briefing at the EOC. We partially activated it um with minimal staffing of myself. [clears throat] We had a National Weather Service briefing. So, we kind of had an idea of what we're going to get into, but you know how weather is very unpredictable. They kind of got this one correct. Um, so that happened at 1400 hours and then we moved to Saturday the 24th. We had a state EOC, which is the emergency operations center meeting and briefing first thing in the morning. And then we uh had another National Weather Service briefing. The uh situation had had not changed at that point. 12:00 p.m. was about the start of the event. uh Kim and the co-ad uh activated on standby for a warming center just in case it was necessary. We had cold weather advisory that was going to start at 1:00 a.m. And as everybody knows, we had a significant amount of cold at that time. Um at 17 or 5:30 p.m. we ended up going to a yellow advisory because the highway trucks started to roll out. So that's kind of one of our triggers to put that travel advisory in. And the way that works is you just go into a platform and you click a button, you know, just like the other 92 counties. Um, at 8:30, Governor Braun issued the emergency declaration and at 9:30 we went to Orange. We started to work at that time on a draft emergency declaration that we knew we were going to end up in that situation at the time. um that between these time frames, there's a lot of other things going on, you know, as we're out there on the roads working the working the problem, which I wish the highway was here because they really deserve a lot of credit and applause and all this

stuff. Outstanding leadership, outstanding department. What a uh what a challenging situation. They they rose to the challenge. Um, so at 0900 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, we decided that we're going to issue the emergency declaration, which allowed us to go to a red travel status, which meant warning, stay off the roads, let the responders and the highway out there do their job safely, keeps everybody safe. Oh, goodness gracious. So then, uh, we stayed red just Wednesday until Wednesday at, uh, 07:30. In the meantime, on Tuesday at about 6:00 p.m., I get a phone call from our dispatch director and she says, "Corey, are you at the EOC?" "Yes, I am." "Well, we have a gas man rupture." And this is all during all that snow and freezing cold. And I kind of thought maybe I was getting messed with a little bit, but [laughter] I wasn't. There was a seriousness to her voice and the coroner came in and said, "Hey, did you hear that? We have a gas man rupture and we need to evacuate a half mile radius from that rupture, which was mostly in Brown County because it was on the line." Like the only place in Brown County where you have a population and houses where Baron County doesn't really.

So, we had to evacuate 30 homes and we did so safely. Um, we also had to fully activate the EOC at that point and staff it. These guys, Chris Henderson, medic over at IU Health, and Jim, who's actually out in the ambulance right now, happened to be coming off ship and happened to be trained and certified in what I needed. And they were both willing to say, Cory, what do you need? Well, I need an operation section chief, so I have to stand up what's called the incident command system. I need an operation section chief. I need a comm communication officer so I don't have to monitor all these different bandwidths. It all fell in line. They stayed until early hours in the morning. IDHS came in route the Department of Homeland Security from Clarksville to us and they were with and they were in the EOC in about an hour and a half which really helped us communicate with the utility and their policy group and what we could actually what information we could actually disseminate. Um, [laughter] sorry I tried to keep this brief. There's a lot more notes but I'm just kind of going through them. uh evacuations. We executed it safely as I said and all clear. At 0245, so 24 2:45 in the morning, we were able to notify the public to come back to their homes. And at 0400, we were able to demobilize back to partial status and limited staffing of me and go back to addressing the storm as a priority. And here we are today. That's kind of my story. I feel it doesn't stop being surrounded by talent and support. I'm telling you, everybody steps in in times like this and it's amazing.

Yeah, round of applause for the highway department. They cleared all the roads, the gravel roads as well as the pave roads within that that three days if I recall. Kevin, yeah, I had a lot of compliments on the highway. I think that the fact that it was a dry snow Yeah. just it held and when I dropped my snow plow it went straight to the dirt gravel and just right off. Well, you guys too. I mean, all through the night, all the hours of the night, just communicating, you know, and getting the stuff done that need to happen. Our auditor, [clears throat] you know, being able to execute a emergency declaration. Amazing. So, I'm proud of all you guys and I'm proud. Thank you.

[laughter]

I don't think man. No, but can I get home really fast? One of the few positions we get a we get a badge. Thank you. [laughter] Yeah, we're not going to have to slick your hair down. Get you out the door. I'll keep it high and tight till I'm challenged again. [laughter] Thank you, Cory. You're welcome. All right. I'm going to go next to the rural grant. Kim, I've got this is it the 24,021. You want to sign it? I will. Oh, okay. This is the clerk. We got to we got to present it first and vote.

Yeah, [clears throat] this is my fourth quarter claim for 2025 to close out the um access grant money. So, it's $24,000 and we're moving on to this year. It's just a pass through. It's just a pass through 100% pass through in and out every time. She said every time I'm here [laughter] because we have serious dysfunctional short term. I understand. That's okay. [laughter] So, I'll make a motion that we approve the access Brown County think that it's necessary. That's fine. I'll say roll. Uh Tim, yes. Kevin, yes. Ron, yes. And if I'm not mistaken, you actually need this because it needs to go somewhere. It needs to go to screw that up.

Yeah, we did screw it up, but that's okay. We'll learn [laughter] it's a learning curve. I get it. The shortterm memory.

[clears throat] Make sure you walk out the door with it. Thank you. I'll make sure we get a copy. Yeah, I'll I'll scan and send it back to you guys. Thank you very much. Then you put the address on there 201 Julie needs a copy. I'll scan and send it to Julia. She can take it. Thank you. Next on the agenda, Andy Bond. Grant County investment policy. [laughter]

Okay. So, you have to suspend your meeting. I make a motion to suspend our meeting. Second. All in favor say I I All right. Well, thank you. So, we are going to call the annual board of finance meeting to order. Um, we're going to start out. We're going to ask I'm going to ask for nominations for president. I'll make I'll make the motion that we accept the officers as were established last year. Let's just cut through the chase. Everyone's good with that? Yeah. [laughter] No, I'm just kidding.

I got a second on that. Kevin, your secretary, correct? I do. That is correct. Yes. So, all in favor? Yes. I

All right. Carries. Okay. So, um I emailed you guys the information. Um you got it. Okay. So, um our nothing has changed on our investment policy. Everything is essentially the same as it was the previous year. Um no new banks or anything like that. We're still using the same banks we were. Um, our interest earned in 2025 was 1,174,21.73. Can you repeat that one more time? Mhm. 1 million. Yeah. 174,000. Yeah. $21. Yeah. 73.

Now that's 1 million 174 or 1 million74. One one one 74. Yeah. 021. Okay. I missed it. 73. I'm good. Thank you.

Okay. Um it's more than what it was the previous year. Previous [snorts] year was um 1,40,346 and one penny. Um our interest rates are still decent. They're not as good as they were the previous year. Um but well they vary from bank to bank and they vary throughout the year. So um December our operating bank we were at 2.81%. Um we had some others that were around 4%. So they just they vary. Um, we still have our operating bank. Our checking account is with people. State bank still. Um, we're very happy with them. They're good to us. They help us out a lot. Um, any questions? Yeah, it's it's my understanding on the go money that it can set in there, but it can't collect more interest than what the people saying bank is collecting from us. And I asked you that the other day I believe there's no

thank you. [laughter] So then the other thing so Andy, have you So you've got your year to year for us. Do you have any idea how the other surrounding counties are doing with regard to their investments? No, I don't. Um I I no I don't I don't track their interest and things like that. Does anybody at the state do that? Consolidate returns by counties? I don't know that I I really have no idea on that. Um you probably plate full, don't you? Well, at the same time too, if you go county to county, they're going to have more money than what we have, right?

So, it's not really apples to apples. You would have to maybe look at interest rates and things like that. They may have more money to invest in an investment policy kind of or investment bank whereas we don't have as much to do. I think the only way you could be able to do that is if you just look at the percentage that the return, right? Yeah. You can't actually dollar figure on it's it's not I mean Hamilton County is obviously going to have Jim Camp seems to be a financial wizard. Yeah.

I just I it crossed my mind this morning when I was going through the report and looking at the numbers. just didn't know if that was something that was out there and available or if you knew that not that I know of, but there might be. I just don't know. Anything else? Any other questions? Did I Did I get in trouble there? I I didn't say anything. [laughter] So, I have a somewhat dry sense of humor sometimes. Mhm. Yeah. So I think at this point in time you need a motion to accept the policy and the report as presented and I will make that motion. Second. Kevin. Yes. Ron. Yes. Tim.

Yes. Yes. Lifelong friends pretty much with Andy's dad and brother. His dad's brothers. I remember we go way back. Yeah. So I am just looking for a motion to adjourn. Yeah. I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting for second. All favor say I. I thank you. I was having board of commissioners meeting resumes. Do I need a motions on that too? Probably a good idea. All right. Make a motion that resume the February commission meeting. Second.

All in favor say I. Hi. There we go. All right. Ah, okay. Back. Next thing on the agenda is a project update for Mount T State Forest upgrading Pumpkin Ridge Road. And Cole, thank you for being here. Um, our last meeting was on the January 24th. We did a an on-site visit at at uh

John. We started there, had our discussion, then we hit the road. eight degrees I mind you. We all went and walked the road forward and backward and looked at the construction limits and yeah obviously what I did is I brought in the sketch and initially if you recall you know we had kind of a big scope on the project and that's kind of what you do to roll this out to figure out um all the parameters. So, we asked for a a reduced footprint and we got it on this plan. The construction limits were significantly narrowed and uh and we cut the the width from 22 ft to 18 ft. And so that's what's represented up here. Um I think there's a lot of issues on G whiz. It costs a lot. Well, well, if you see um we don't have a road map pretty much and if you look at the the additional detail that we have and Kevin Allen went through that at a separate meeting we have on this particular plan. He kind of explained the elevations by sections along the map and you kind of see uh uh what the impact on in the top topography is going to be. So what we did and and I've looked through folks I keep track of the project timeline from beginning to end. I share as much information as I get. So very transparent. Um, Bill, if you bring out the report, um, went through and developed kind of a summary of the overall project. And I'll just start off with the, uh, with the key points and then we'll turn it over for the audience for for comments and then we don't have a screen run. You get your hand up. Yeah. Start off with the BR Democrat. Great article by Sarah Clifford uh, back in 2020 when this was uh, first announced. the permit recreation new state force open in Brown County by Sarah Clifford. Is that there?

Okay, good. And she kind of explains that again they opened it up on August 14th that year. And then this next one, project timeline. You can go to key that you can Google me, Google that topic and pull right up. Um it's an independent voters. Um again, I've got a complete timeline all the documents that I collect and I put out there so everybody knows what's going on. and then I'll just summarize these and we'll turn it over to the audience. The purpose of the project really to prove access to Mount T state force. The current access is by an unmaintained by the county grove. A two-lane gravel road providing safe access as a minimum expectation. And then the first point given the condition of the roaded topography, drainage issues, and maintenance challenges, the scope of the needed upgrade is prohibitively expensive for the county. The county department natural resources the county and department of natural resources requested state funding from the Indiana Department of Transportation which was approved by the governor legislation. Obviously the initial design of the upgraded road met INDOT standards for a primary access road but was not acceptable to county officials affected property owners and some residents. Changes were then made to develop a minimum level design that I did would approve and fund. The road was narrowed from 22 feet to 18 feet and options identified that that narrow the construction limits. Changes continue to be discussed to address concerns including ongoing and long-term maintenance costs on our walk. And then the last bullet, the final plan requires developing a preliminary engineering report with an estimated cost of 1.2 million. This document is used to obtain construction estimates and costs. The estimated construction cost for the initial concept for construction was estimated 6.5 million. I think this numbers and it would surprise me when you see the numbers [clears throat] but when you look at these highway projects that we do this is this is not unusual. Um if

you look at uh Indian road when we close the crossing u just to res reopen that crossing it was $400,000 for for preliminary engineering report and then another 1.6 6 million to change the elevation and the elevation of that railroad crossing is one of these. Well, now we got to go to one of these. That's a $2 million project. Sounds like a lot of money, is a lot of money, but that's just the matter. Um, not negotiate on that one. So, now you take a a onem one mile road 8 to be specific. It's expensive. And when you don't have a road bed, guess what? You got to put one in. And when you don't have the covers and you got to man manage the the the flow, the what the hydraology, guess what? That's a lot of covers. That's ditching, that's maintenance, uh it's all kinds of things that come along with that. And then when we narrow the construction limits, that's fine. It takes up needed less land, but at the same time, we needed some kind of retaining wall. And there's and we talked about on Saturday at 8 degrees. We talked about different options when it come to the soil. And I guess I heard all kinds of things, the soft armor thing and and soil tubes and log tubes and and different things I want to wear. I Googled some of it. And so we looked at that. And so everyone's flexible. That was more than flexible. DNR is more than flexible. Say, "Hey, we can do we'll do whatever we need to do to make make things work. At the same time, from the county perspective, we're looking at for maintenance costs because once that's in, we've got to maintain it. So we have a concern as to what that looks like and what the maintenance requirements may be for us. And so a lot of variables. And again, when we walked and looked at the construction limits, all those issues were drastic. We're saying, "Yeah, we're looking at very open, very receptive." and you're saying, "Well, give me a final plan." We're not going to have a final plan until you hit the road. We spend the money, start doing the planning, and that's the different different assessments and analysis that has to be done. You got the cultural stuff, the environmental stuff, um soil sampling, you name it. Um all that comes with a price tag and we've got to sign an

agreement before we start spending that kind of money. So, that's kind of where we're at. um that kind of rolls kind of gives you a pretty good summary, but uh again, we've taken our time on this. If you recall, we unanimously voted to take as much time as we needed to get the information. We did and the on-site visit last Saturday. I mentioned it was 8 degrees. We walked the road back and forth for a mile. Just just want to mention that. Um, and folks, we had INDOT folks, had two folks from INDOT, we had John Seer from DNR was out there and and again, we listened to every concerns that we had and and we'll address it. So, it's not like our way, the highway, not that way at all. This thing's adjusted and modified. And again, ENDOT had to basically ask for a design change, a deviation from their standard to go to this to go to a smaller footprint. And we appreciate that. And again, what's the minimum standard that we need to get funding and approval? And and I think we have that and we make adjustments as we needed and so we get into the plans. Golly there'll be more adjustments. And then the final thing when it comes to the plan that came up is is g whiz here's all the task we have for the LPA and who does what and we're we got some finer details. We're working through that. But what was nice I guess Kevin and I both the project management experience. We wanted to see the Gant chart because you had all these individual tasks and I had no idea which phase these tasks were in that we would have input into the design or a change or we hit an ancient Indian barrel ground we didn't know we had and that changes the nature of things or you hit a hit a spring that we didn't think was going to be there. A lot of things can kind of happen or somebody puts a septic system underneath the road, you know, puts a field out there. You never know these things, but all that is kind of dynamic as we go through the process. So, that's the pitch. I've got a four-pager. Um, we've got copies up here if anybody wants them. We've got a mailing list to all the Pumpkin Ridge owners. I sent that out. Send you the agenda. Sent that out. Said, "Hey,

here's here's the history of the project and and all the detail we have at this point." So, with that, um, it's okay if you guys have any questions, you can turn it over to the audience for comments.

Yes. You know, I thought that uh meeting was very constructive. My name is Bob F. I've not met me before. I'm one of the property owners. Um my wife and I bought our 47 acres. The south southern boundary is pumpkin red road in 2001 and then we also bought the 146 acres of the nature conservancy. Uh that probably has an indirect impact on that. But uh John Muller, by the way, is enjoying his vacation with Carmen, his wife. And Jason Dickmire is a property owner, and he tries to attend as many of these as he can. Unfortunately, he's trying to earn a living, and he's working for the man, so he uh he can't be here today. Uh I thought that meeting was very constructive. Shared a lot of good information. Um there's a couple I'm going to come back to that in a second. Uh there's one thing that Jason had recommended uh to John and I several weeks ago and he said, you know, we really ought to have some sort of petition and just get community feedback in terms of whether or not they're supportive or not. And of course, being kind of old school, I'm thinking that we set up a card table in bare hardware and just have people come on by and read something and sign it and so on. and uh that was not the case. And Jason actually um identified a uh website. It's called change.org where you can actually fill out a petition about whatever your interest is. Um and then invite people to go ahead and sign. And I thought, well, that's better than sitting out in bare hardware around parking lot. And uh so he went ahead and did a masterful job I think of writing the petition. The theme

was stop the widening of Pumpkin Ridge Road in Brown County. And it got off to kind of a slow start, but I would say probably within a week of filing that online, um we've already had more than 100 signatures um on on the website. And then as time has gone on, the number of people that have signed the petition uh has continued to grow and grow to the point that uh yesterday afternoon was the last time I looked at it. There were 251 uh signatures. And this is not one where you hide an anonymity that you actually put your name down there to say, "Yeah, this is is something I support." Uh, the other thing is interesting to me. I don't know how the technology works, but there's actually a map and shows the people that are voting and supporting this petition. Where do they live? Where do they reside? And it said that 70% of the supporters come from Nashville, uh, zip code, Morgantown, Columbus. And so you can see just the the red dot on here is saying the majority of those uh 251 signatures are from the area. I'm going to read just I'm not going to read the petition itself. You can look at that. But just a couple of the comments. U the money should be spent on more urgent needs. Taking uh private property away from people isn't right. The second comment, stop taking our force and leave it alone. Um, third comment, Pumpkin Ridge Road, good condition, more than wide enough to accommodate the very small number of people who actually travel it. Uh, they ought to spend money. Uh, tell DNR, "Thanks, but no thanks. Stop paving and and widening of our beloved pumpkin rich road." Uh, it's

fine how it is. It's just a waste of money. Uh, people people property should never be taken for government use. uh my friend's favorite tree would have to be cut down. So anyway, I I thought it was a pretty interesting process, not only in terms of the broad support for the petition, and again, stop the widening of Pumpkin Ridge Road in Brown County. Uh I I thought is is very enlightening, particularly. It's a strong voice from the community to say essentially, leave Pumpkin Ridge Road the way it is. I'm just going to wrap up on a couple things. Going back to the uh to the meeting we had, Tim. Some of that was in in a heated barn and some of that was out walking the Gravel Road, Pumpkin Ridge Road. I think that there were some new things that that came up I think that were helpful. Number one, I'm I'm the one that has the septic system that goes underneath Pumpkin Ridge Road. Uh Nick was there and his project manager Nicole and they said this is not something we need to fix like right now. Obviously you get into a detailed project plan but he said Bobby it could be a year a year and a half before we need to get a septic system contractor out there to actually evaluate. we would need to put in a new uh septic system on your property on your property. Right now, the finger system goes into John Muller's property. So that was good information to know in terms of when that would be sequenced in. The other thing that I would say the thing that is most objectionable to me is the construction limits and how far that goes from Pumpkin Ridge Road today.

How far up into my property the construction limit would go. I mean it it's a good 70 feet. uh that gets really close to our house and to our uh to our out building. And so as we were talking, Nick Ba was there the whole time. And we were talking about that and I said, "Nick, I think the whole reason you're taking so much land is you got to build a new road, but then still get access to people to get on and off their property." I said, I would be less concerned about it. Why would you not um build a temporary road? you know, if you want to go ahead and build a temporary road to get people access on and off, that's fine. But then give give us the property back. Go return the property after you're done with the project. Uh, and someone I think John had recommended that you'd have some sort of burm. when you're all done and you give me my property back, you've got an earthn BM and plant a bunch of pine trees along the way. So, you've you reduce the visibility and the noise. And so, Nick said, "Yeah, I think we could do that. That's that's kind of no big deal." Um, but the whole idea of a temporary road rather than take my property forever makes it uh better. Okay. Uh the other thing we start talking about is uh could you end up putting up some sort of retaining wall? So rather than take 70 feet of my property um maybe you put a retaining wall up that's more vertical and looks nice and so on um rather than encroach and take so much of my property. So those were, I think, uh, positives from my standpoint in terms of not taking 70 ft of my property or more. U, so all in all, I thought it was it

was it was a cold morning, but it was a good morning and uh uh hopefully the the uh I encourage you to look at the petition if you've not seen that. But all all in all, I thought it was a good good exchange. Thank you. can't fix. Yeah. Yeah. Just make a suggestion to you. Uh as far as receptive goes, you know, they said it might be a year and a half or something down the road. I suggest that this year sometime you have a contractor come out to your property and look at it and see if you actually have a septic site on your current property there for you.

Yeah. No, I agree. In fact, I I would welcome I've asked Nick. I said, "Nick, you know, I'm I'm a driver driver. go get her. So, I said, I I don't know any accepted contractors or consultants or whatever, but I said, if you wanted to recommend a couple guys, I'll be down here the next day to meet with them to evaluate that because you're right, the line from the septic pit to the finger system 329 ft or 309 ft. And so, why did they do that? I have no idea. But the other thing is I think the technology has changed that septic permit was uh approved in like 1993 and so I suspect that the technology has changed where they could have a less significant footprint just to make the drainage work. But no, I I would say that would be up to Nick I think as a program manager to go ahead and bring in a couple contractors and get the recommendations. work this time of year. But

yeah. Yeah. After it dries out from the spring, they should be able to get in there. I'm retired. I'll meet anyone anywhere. So yeah, it's me right up the road from you and he does that kind of work. I know Tim. I think Tim's done work for me over and Tim is known around our area. Okay. So, I'm also going to make the recommendation that you can also reach out to the health department because they do have a list of considered certified setting installers in the county. The health department. The health department. Yes. And would would Nick be making that in my mind?

I know. I'm just I'm just mentioning as a source of information is how that goes along like it comes closer where the project proceeds forward then I'm sure that you know that's part of the project plan. I would say there is but a list of that is maintained. Why is suggesting it early as soon as you can because you don't wait a year and a half, find out that you don't even have a location,

right? No, I I would once the project is approved, then uh if it is approved, then that to me is very important. I mean, I I come down here every Friday uh and use my property. And so uh and I want to be able to flush the toilet on a Friday and have it work well. And then on Monday, the new septic system flush it on Monday and it's working well and because everything's we we've owned the property since uh 2001 works fine today. Thanks for the input. Yeah, thank you.

Hi everyone. I'm Charlie Shaw and I'm precinct commitment for Hamlin one and I'd like to talk a little bit about this. I was here genie and I was here for the first meeting of this thing. You remember that Patrick? And I had all these concerns and it never got passed on. Seems to me you didn't pass it on to the people. And all the concerns I had, everybody has said today. And I find that unacceptable on your part. So why is Eugenie and I have lived in this county for 40 years and we love county. We live just down the road. Tim's been there. What I don't want to see happen is what Indot and DNR did to Elwood Road between Elwood Lake, Atlanta Ridge. They took a beautiful two-lane gravel road and ruined the essence of that road. They put in a super highway gravel road to cut the BMS on both sides up the hill, did some shore up and lost the essence of Brown County. I do not want to see that happen to pumpkin pie. I have hunted back there for years. I went back in there with Scott Selon for the people know Scott. We turkey hunted back in there when Hartwoods had he had the permission to hunt it. We hunted back in there. Jenny and I have been back in there and hunting mushrooms after it was turned over to the old but we have never had any problems getting back in there on that that road. We know some of the people who live back there

and we find it to be a beautiful area and I do not want to see it, like I said, the essence of Brown County destroyed just like they did up there north of Yellowwood and I appreciate you guys letting me talk about that. Charlie, just point out the process. I I know you had an initial meeting with Kevin and and I think INDOT. Here's the original meeting. I guess but the process is is that becomes official. We have a government meeting and we had the meetings and got all the input and I documented all the input. Um you weren't at this meeting. Pardon me. You were not at the original kickoff meeting is that we went through the sign with

it was right in this meeting. Right in this room there's no decisions made out of meetings like that. Well, but but the info that was come out of it should have been passed on to you as a commissioner. that should have been shared with you guys. That's where I'm at. Well, and I have shared some of this. Kevin may have said something, but at the same time, we've got to have the public meeting to get to make that official. Understand? I think you guys I heard through the grape vine. You asked this gentleman here if there was any issues and he said, "No, nobody had any problems."

I didn't Somebody's claiming I said that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You didn't understand. I'm sorry. There was concern and it was raised. I raised every one of these concerns about the shore up, how much spill you're going to have to bring in, how you going to maintain it after they walk away and how all that all that land could go right down those hills. So, how are you going to fix that? Okay. And I I didn't hear any results of any of that. But my issue is I do not want to see the essence of Brown County destroyed. Okay.

Yeah. I just want to reinforce all the issues that you brought up that you heard here today, those were covered in public meetings. Followups were done. The information was shared. Uh the project plans were updated. The last step was that on-site meeting. So there's nothing that that anybody said and then I've documented everything. So I think we got a really clear understanding. Okay. Of the project. Okay. Do you care about the instance of ground?

Sure, Charlie. It's like and I addressed the yellowwood road in in in the summary that we provided. Um we narrowed the construction limits. We talked the other issue came up with this main thing. We don't want any more land than we have to in order to build a road and maintain it. That's it. It's temporary easements. Um and it's just the land we need to maintain that road. uh that is put in there. [clears throat] That's it.

Okay. See, I work with Dan Shaver who was the director of the nature conservancy in southern Indiana who actually facilitate facilitated buying this property off the polies. He held on to it. The nature consery held on to it until they Indiana could come up with enough money to buy from the nature conservy. That's how it happened. A lot of that money actually, as I talked with Dan years ago, I'm not sure it's been shared all that well, but talking with Dan years ago about it when I was just starting come from Pittman and Robertson funds, which is the sportsman's funds, taxes on sports sports equipment. But I don't think that's out there. I don't think that's

I've got the fund that they're using the money on the paper. Okay. Now, who's is this the P Robertson doing? Nicole, do you remember the I've got it here. Think I reference cooperative recreational access road fund. Okay. That's that's the name of the fund. Is that a subset of the Pitman Robinson? Don't know. Yeah. Don't know. But see then I think there's people tend to come from all the taxpayers because a lot of the pitman Robertson fun actually come from sportsmen. Okay.

So it's not not as easy as just saying it's all taxpayers. Well sportsman are taxpayers truly. But the Robertson fund is a special fund and I think it was started in 1936. I might be wrong there. Right. But it was a it was a legislation that was passed and said we're going to tax all this the sporting equipment and we're going to put it in funds so it can buy access put uh launch ramps in buy ground in [snorts] Indiana across the nation really but it but Indiana gets a good portion. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [laughter] I'm Rich Stanley and I have two comments about the proposed pumpkin ridge project. My first comment concerns the cost of the project and my second comment concerns alternative options. I can't tell from this update um how much money we're actually talking about at this point. Um but it sounds like over $6 million. My view on this is that I don't believe in wasting money regardless of where that money is coming from. I don't believe in wasting money, period. Whether it's my own personal money, whether it's Brown County taxpayer money, whether it's state [clears throat] government money or anyone else's money, I simply don't believe in wasting money, regardless of where that money is coming from. And I see the current proposal for Pumpkin Ridge Road as an excessive, unnecessary waste of money. It's hard for me to see how a road section that is only 3/4 of a mile long that leads to a small, rarely used forest property is going to generate $6 million in value to anyone.

The real value of this proposal is dimminimous at best and it might even have a negative balance. The cost of this project needs to be drastically reduced or the cost of the project and the value of the project come anywhere close to matching each other. [clears throat] Second, there are at least two other alternatives that don't appear to have been seriously even considered yet. One alternative is a countyled option and another is to do nothing at all. The do nothing option is pretty attractive because it's essentially free. it would save $6 million. How often does our county commission get the chance to save $6 million? That would be a huge financially conservative win. Anyone who's a financial conservative would be very interested in saving that kind of money. And what about the county-led option? I haven't seen any serious consideration of that alternative at all. How can you really evaluate the merits of the current INDOT proposal when you haven't investigated the other alternatives? For example, how much would it cost to do a county-led option? $10,000, $50,000, $150, $500,000? We don't know. [cough and clears throat] It seems like you're putting blinders on yourselves and not seriously exploring all the options. As it stands now, you're really not comparing the current INDOT proposal to any other alternative except the previous INDOT proposal. From my perspective, this process seems to be rigged in favor of an INDOT proposal. And that doesn't satisfy my definition of good governance. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Hello, my name is Greg Dong. I have a few issues that I'd like to bring up. First of all, we keep hearing the word transparency, but I I'm bothered by the fact that we're continuously told that this project's 22, 24, 18 foot wide when the when you read the blueprints, they're actually making a scar over 100 foot wide in a lot of places. I think it's disingenuous to say that it's 18 foot wide when you know uh this gentleman's 70 foot up on his property. That's not 22 foot wide. The original blueprint, Rich Stanley and I went out with a 300 foot tape measure matched the north end of Yellowwood Road almost exactly. We measured the road to road uh burn to burn the amount of clearing where they uh gunnited the side of the hills to keep the hills from collapsing on the road where they there's places where the culvers go through that there's the culverts extend 15 20 foot on each side of the roadway. So I I think these the telling the public that the road is 22 foot wide may be technically correct but certainly no indicator indication of the width of the project. The the next thing that concerns me is that that the state actually owns property. This property actually touches Salt Creek Road. And why are we not coming off of Salt Creek Road? They could be 100% on their own property. What I'm saying is there might have to be a bridge, but so far, unless they're being disingenuous about the usage, there's plenty of places with primitive access that you have to cross a small foot bridge to get from the

parking lot to the actual area. One of the most visited state parks in Indiana is after Brown County is Turkey Run State Park. The major feature of that park is across the suspension bridge across Sugar Creek. So, you know, the fact that we haven't even looked at Salt Creek seems awful. uh that access seems awful suspicious to me. And then my last point is a little bit more about the fundamental aspects of Brown County. I'm not convinced that myself that that every single beautiful spot in Brown County has to be accessed by somebody pulled up a car not having to walk more than six feet. We have the Brown County State Park that covers everything from wheelchair access. You can drive up to those places. you can drive up directly [clears throat] to the camp spots that you know and so we're covering the people that that have limited mobility. Then we go down to Yellowwood that has light amenities, just basic pit toilets, running cold water only, no no showers, no nothing. So that's that immediate uh people, but we have a spot here that is p, you know, somewhat pristine, although it's been logged because it's actually hard to get to. We're arguing with the state right now. I believe the commissioners and the council are arguing with the state right now that the state park costs us a lot of money uh to uh provide emergency service, law enforcement services, all these services to the state park that we don't get adequately compensated for. But here we're going to add a new whole uh layer of situations. We know that if we increase the road back there, we're going to have more people back there. That's going to lead to more vandalism, more dumping. We've seen it everywhere. They improve the the roads in this county. Once the road gets improved, you know, more uh uh things occur. So, I

personally believe that it should either left alone or the state should use before they even remotely consider taking anybody's property. Why are they not forced to use their own access to the nearest road? I mean, it it makes no sense to me unless somebody has a good reason why they can't access it from their own property. That's all I got to say. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Hi, guys. Jerry Mitchell, I ran into Chris and Paulo today and they told me to tell you to vote no. Just so you know, my concern is number 14 of your new agreement. Tim and I have already discussed this to some length. Um, INDOT should provide the right of way to the LPA for their review, input, and approval prior to initiating land acquisition services. However, INDOT shall have sole final approval of all plans. That to me is you relinquishing local control to the state of Indiana. I am 100% opposed to that. Thank you gentlemen. Thank you, Sharon. And sorry about my this I guess my instead of being real database, it's more emotion for me because it's about brown for me. And but what I want to ask who owns that room? Who owns that room right now? Who owns it?

People. Who does the people? What people? People live up.

No, the actually we contacted Nicole who is the uh uh capital program management project manager and uh she responded. Let's see. I'm trying to see here if you were copied. Um, Nick B was copied on this. She said, "Thank you for reaching out and for following up on the question regarding easement information along Pumpkin Ridge Road. Typically, the title research is conducted a little bit later in the process. However, following the concerns that were expressed last at at the meeting, they've made efforts to uh dig into available documentation. The last deeds of records for the properties were reviewed and while all referred to the existence of the road either Pumpkin Ridge Road or Brown County Public Road number 22, additional information request and inquiries are all are being made. So they said, "We are planning to begin work on title research reports for each partial later this month and anticipate the review to take about two months to complete." So the question is uh is there a easement that's owned right? [clears throat] Is it is it a private road or is it a county road? Because if it's a private road then it belongs to the property owners. It's up to the state and then we basically the property owners none of the property owners have said their support of this. So if that road belongs to us we shut it down. Right.

Exactly. Exactly. And yes, it used to be in County Road. It run right down through uh the camp and it runs right down to 46. Now, when they put in Mountain T, they gave it where you can't do that anymore, [clears throat] but it used to be a county road. I mean, I've got some of the old graphical shows even even if it was a county road, the property owners on the center. Okay. So that's what not necessarily all the time. Okay. So

who who gives people the right to know and do not do the right to if it's if they don't own it and we don't own it as Brown County, who gives it the right to go in and even talk about doing this type of thing? Where does that come from? I'm asking a question, where's that come from? Is that right? That'd be like somebody coming to me and I've got a lane that's a half mile long and they say, well, we want to take that road. It's going to be called Shaw Road now, but it's it's it's going to be Shaw Road. It's not yours anymore. So, you got to ask that question. And I talked with Don Schlock, who used to be the uh a director the nature conservancy and she was getting her up to speed on and she's she was kind of opposed to because she understood where I was coming around the now she's no longer with nature conservancy is actually a director in scum now which is a organization works on invasives in Indiana I haven't talked with uh Dan Shaver but I want to get with Dan Dan has moved on too from the nature consery and Dan was heavily involved in from the very beginning. I've hunted your property when we rented it from the nature to hunt it. Jenny and I hunted that area. We've been up there quite a bit and we've never had an issue with that road. And every time we've been in there, if we miss somebody, there's always a back up a little bit. You find a wide spot and you can let somebody pass. And that's all you really need to do is make sure that you got a good gravel road in some areas where if you meet somebody, you can back up a little bit and get into a wide area so they can pass. That's where I'm at.

On the road question asked and answered and and that's part of the research. That's part of the problem. Okay. So, we we got some work that needs to come out. Sure.

Once that comes out, that needs to be out there and say, "What are we doing?" And it I mean if it it truly belongs to the people that own the land up there, why are you here trying to tell us what we're going to do with this road when it didn't belong to you to do that? So thank you Patrick. I live here in town and I honestly I've only been out that way one time. Uh in November I was out road and went past there. Um you will never see me out there because there are rattlesnakes and I don't do rattlesnakes. Um I have one question.

Yeah, I don't either. Yeah, but you can out there do my question this time of year. Yeah, you you don't go get out of the car. Who plowed that road last week? You know, I almost would have asked that, but I know that the county did did that. It's currently listed as an unmaintained route. Okay. So, I John Mohler has got equipment. Jason has got a kabuto. Uh Cuddle has got equipment. They have basically maintained that road. Okay. That's what I thought and I just wanted to bring that out because last week with all that snow, those people got out because they took care of it. That's all I had to say. I believe there's another person that lives out there. Homemstead. Yes.

I think he Eric Homestead. I think he's wore himself out years when Holland dump truck was a stone back here. Yeah. I just want to bring that up. Thank you. Any other additional comments? Anything to the board?

Hey, I got I got one. What what happens to that money if they don't You want to introduce yourself? The uh [laughter] I'm I'm Chester Morgan. I've lived here in Brown County my whole life and the property you're talking about. I logged back in there several times. Come out there with semis and everything and all just like everybody else. We put tons of gravel on that road back was there back when foley owned it. They tried to keep their parts shut down back there but it was always open to their property. But if if you don't go on with this project, what will they do with that money? State state funds.

So they've asked question county don't get to use that someplace else like what they talked about the park or no. So they basically either need to use it there or come in Salt Creek which you know not a bad idea think that would be lar a lot less money to build that bridge than what it would be build an entire road all the way across it. But you're actually saying that this money is not used on the mountain property, then it just goes to somebody else. Goes to another project within the state.

Yeah. I say, you know, with these people wants back there. Like I said, I I grew up there. You you got your occasional hunter, he doesn't like to drive all the way back there. They like you said, they go that small road, go back out, hike or three or four miles this way or that way to sit all day to kill a deer or maybe not kill a deer. But, you know, that's another thing, too. I mean, this is a whole lot of money that's going to be spent for a whole lot of people that don't want it. Just very few people that actually come in there and use that property. So, but that was my main concern where where that money goes if we don't do that project. So, if they don't, you think they'll probably shift them back?

Nicole, what what would you do with $8 million in [laughter] it would not go to a different project. So it needs to be spent on that right that property right somehow or in other words for that for an access road.

Thank you sir. Well that came up before also if if it's a new road or new project that's a whole different bucket of money with a whole different set of competition for that for that resource. So that's the trade-off. If you state funding, they go by fund types and and a new project, new bridge, new this, new that. That's that's a whole separate fund. The money they've gotten now for, you know, for this. Now I'm confused. [clears throat] I thought it was the DNR that

they confirmed at our meeting for Russian that January is that they actually endot has that fund. It was just approved through the request made by DN. Okay. I thought I might be confused. Now, it takes a lot to work through all this stuff. [clears throat]

All right, let's move on. Legal review. Uh, we just put this on the show for us anyway. It's kind of our workload. and Stephanie, you did a great job getting back to us and now we've got another week to go through and read read some of the changes you made. So, appreciate the the hard work on that one. um county office department reports highway department truth they're at a legislative conference in in Indianapolis and that's interesting because if you're aware the legislation went through they're changing the tax uh tax system property tax and so we're trying to figure out what's the impact on us and you know so I have an update thank you

so Eric is actually out on a site meeting with regards to the bridge that said at Hoover and Sweet Tro the best we could be here. So what we have right now is the Hoover bridge where he's actually visiting right now. Uh it's a deck replacement and a it's a replacement. It's not a complete bridge replacement. The work is targeted for the project review that they did yesterday around the middle of March is when they're planning on starting and they're looking at having that work done by the end of June. I will give people a heads up right now that if this schedule holds that road will be closed at that intersection on both ends. So if you are living on Hoover and you're basically using it to go north, go north during those dates. Okay? And we will try and communicate the actual dates and everything as quickly and then and clearly in as many channels as we can. Um the actual and actually since we have Corey here, one of the things he didn't mention is that he believes he's had some conversations with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and since it was a declaration of emergency, there may be an opportunity to go back and seek reimbursement from FEMA for um the actual snow work and plowing and hours dedicated for our staff and those kinds of things for that project. Um he the original estimate Eric looked at was about basically around by the time you filter in hours for equipment and things like FEMA does could be as much as $100,000 but that's an estimate of now and even not even certain if it will. Um to answer Ron's favorite question the greater is still stuck in the fall to more port waiting to be removed waiting to get out of the port. So, it's not made any more travel than off the ship.

Okay. Can you get on the phone? Hurry that up. Hurry it up. Well, you know, tell I'm not sure I have much coal in that area anymore. [laughter]

So, the uh JCB they have the company that we are bought that through has been invoiced. It's just a matter of they've not been confirmed what the delivery is for the excavator. Um Eric is going through the exercise working on plans with regards to the bridge structures and materials that need to be purchased to go through. One of the focuses is uh the bridge on Al Creek as you come off of Helmsburg Road is looking at for a full replacement, but that's not necessarily going to have any design work. We're looking at a structure that's basically purchased and implement uh on our part with a vendor. And then Mount Mariah. Um, so that particular bridge through the review they did, the embovements are going to stay. So it's going to be a beams and duct deck replacement on the bridge at Mount Ray to bring it back up to bring it back up to spec. Um, they've got training that's taking place. We actually do have Elap coming in April time frame to do some operator training for our crews at the highway garage. Um there's some actual training I think being done maybe by I think it's by the health department on bloodborne pathogens. It's part of the requirement for the training that within the next week or so. So that's all I have for that. Great Kevin. Thank you. Okay. Ongoing business. Used to put the to-do list on the back of the agenda, but now it's up to two pages and we're working on the third. So it's just separate attachment. If anybody's interested, I got some copies. If anybody's interested in our summary of the project, we have copies up here as well. So, um, turn that over to legal staff. You get anything?

No, just to reiterate, we're working on those ordinances and, uh, hopefully we'll have more to discuss soon. Great. Thank you, motion. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second motion meeting is adjourned. Thanks, everyone.