County Council - public_hearing

Is everyone ready?

Don't cross the line there, Joel. Okay, so our first one this morning is the corner, location nine.

I put Wednesday, August 11th on his email.

Oh.

Wait. He wanted to make sure. Someone make a note. Leah messed up.

So, actually, Tim.

Yeah, Tim, we should have gone with Gordon. Yeah, no, that's good.

That's all right.

First time ever.

Gordon gets started.

What number is that? Nine.

Location nine. Good morning. Cameron McCreary, Dearborn County Coroner. I WANTED TO COME TO YOU TODAY AND TALK TO YOU ABOUT A COUPLE THINGS COMING NEXT YEAR MAINLY. BUT FIRST I WANT TO TELL YOU A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHERE WE'RE AT WITH THE DEPARTMENT. I DIDN'T COME TO YOU IN 2005 FOR ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDS, BUT IN 2005 WE HAD A TOTAL OF 105 CASES. TWO OF THEM WERE BACKUP RUNS FOR OHIO COUNTY THAT WE BILLED FOR. So far this year, we've had for the child and infant mortality, we've had one case. We are down fortunately from 25 where we had three and 2024 where we had four cases. SUICIDES ARE DOWN SLIGHTLY. WE HAD EIGHT CASES TOTAL RANGING FROM SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT TO HANGING. WE HAD EIGHT CASES IN 25. WE ARE AT CURRENTLY FIVE CASES RANGING FROM THE SAME.

I'M SORRY, 25 OR SO FAR 26?

IN 25 WE HAD EIGHT CASES RANGING FROM SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT AND HANGING. WE ARE CURRENTLY STANDING AT FIVE CASES. of the same manners. We've been pretty busy so far in the last couple months. From May 1st to June 14th, we've had a total of four MVA fatals. We had three double fatals, which required the use of both trucks and two full crews to manage the situation. One case, we are still currently on standby, which we haven't certified yet. It could be a result of impaired driving that took the life of a mother and father. So we're waiting on the tox results for that. Those could end up being homicide cases if the guy is found to be impaired on any kind of drugs or alcohol. We are currently standing at 61 cases for 2026. And that's currently where we stand now as far as our numbers from last year into this year. A COUPLE THINGS I WANTED TO TALK ABOUT COMING NEXT YEAR. IN 2023, WE ENTERED INTO A MAINTENANCE CONTRACT WITH STRIKER ON OUR TWO POWER LOAD COTS IN BOTH THE TRUCKS. THAT IS COMING DUE NEXT YEAR TO RENEW. STRIKER COTS REQUIRE THE SAME

know if they age out in ambulances at some point, and then you can get used ones from ambulances for... Well, that isn't an issue.

One cot that's in our older truck that was purchased during my predecessor, Steve Callahan's administration, it has come up on 13 years old. And when I talked to the representative of that striker, Usually doesn't, when it gets to age 14, which will be next year, they won't do any kind of contract with the maintenance. You either need to upgrade to a newer one or pay it out of your own pocket for any kind of service. And one battery costs you 400 bucks. There's a battery inside the trolley that the cot sits on, lifts it up and puts it in the truck. The battery itself is about 400 bucks.

I guess my question is, is there a chance we can go to EMS Alliance and say, do you have one that's rolling off that's only 10 years old that you could get four more years out of versus?

Well, we just had our last preventive maintenance, and our cots are in excellent shape, he said. They are wanting to make a deal with renewing the contract, even with the older cot while it's still 13 years old. What they want to do is... For the same coverage with preventive maintenance, any kind of parts, labor, whatever would happen, they're willing to cover the older cot as well as the newer one for additional four more years if we renew our contract before June of next year. That's when it'll come due.

So you're talking about 35-105?

Yes. Maintenance contract, yeah. FOR FOUR YEARS WITH A NEW CONTRACT, IT WOULD BE 29,157.84, WHICH BREAKS DOWN 7,289.46 FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS FROM 2027. JUNE OF 2027, THAT WILL START. If we don't renew, then they will not cover after June of 27 the older cotton. We would have to incur any kind of expense.

So you only requested 6220?

It went up for June of 27 for the next four years after that.

So we would have to transfer some money into that line item to cover that, right?

Yeah, the current contract that we have, we are paying yearly. I think this is when this contract now expires. 6,000, June 19, 38.

When does that expire?

June 12, 2027.

You'll have to come for an additional next May, I would think.

Oh, 2027. Yeah, this will be for next year. Okay.

We're doing 2027 right now. But I'm saying, like, if that contract is going to be renewed in June... at the main meeting of County Council, you probably need to come for another $1,000 because you only asked for $6,200.

Right. Well, the contract increased for a new contract.

You would need to ask for another $1,000. Yes. So what was the amount that you needed, $7,000 more?

For starting 2027, I would need $7,289.46 until 2030. But for the first half of the year, it would be $6,200.

The second half of the year, it would be that $7,200.

We're done with our maintenance for this contract. We just had it done. So we would have to renew to get it in 2027.

How often do they do anything for you?

Yearly. Under the contract, if we have any kind of service that breaks down, need a new battery, whatever, we just call them. They come out there and handle it, and it's covered under the contract. We don't pay nothing.

What happens to the old stretchers and stuff that the ambulances, after they time out, where do they go to?

I do not know. Either they... have someone buy them and then they get a new one or they, I don't think Stryker buys them back.

let me just ask you this question so we're talking about 2027 so for the first half of the year you're still under contract with them yes but then for the second half of the year would be the new contract we would have we have to renew before june 12 of 2027 to be able to roughly another thousand dollars for a full year and this is a little bit less than the full year so if you got an extra 700 or so on this would that carry you through so the payment due next year will be the 7290 is that what you're saying

No, we're done. No, we're talking about for 2027. 2027, we had to have a new contract for them to come back, and that will be $7,289.46.

So we need to up your 27 budget to the new figure, not your old figure.

Correct. Okay.

Is that $7,300? I put $7,290 if you said $7,289.46. Yeah, $7,290.

And that will take us all the way to 2030, which would be another administration.

And that's per year, right?

Yes.

Okay, so we can make that adjustment now? Yeah. Okay.

Well, those costs new are $25,000, I think.

The cops we have are in fantastic condition. They've helped us preventing back injuries and just all the rigors that we have on scenes. They're a huge investment in the county, in my department, and they're a godsend compared to what we were using when I first started 22 years ago.

You burned that Durango, I hope.

It went to auction. Good.

So on category 30,000, whatever, 3-0-0-0, miscellaneous operating for 7,000, it looks like the most you've ever used is a little over 2,000. Could that be dropped to five? In the last two years, you haven't come close to using seven.

I know we've moved it over to cover autopsies near the end of the year. That's one reason why we didn't come back for any additional appropriations in 25. We were able to use what we have and move around for payroll.

That's good enough. Thank you.

Anything else? Actually, one last thing I wanted to get everybody's thoughts and opinions on. Over the past few years that we've seen in the media that St. Elizabeth has moved a lot of services out of our area to Edgewood in Florence, Kentucky, that Corners office was the first to be cut when St. E took over Dearborn. We lost the ability to have pathology. We would go there for basic ones where we didn't have a doctor, and we would use Hamilton County for anything really outrageous or criminal related because they are forensic specialty. When we had the use of Dearborn for pathology, we were getting autopsy results within maybe two, maybe three weeks, which would help families. They could get a death certificate so they could get insurance and stuff like that. Now, because they cut their pathology and all that, we've been for a couple years now exclusive to Hamlin County, which is taking anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks before I get any results back to do a death certificate and for families to have their certificate for any kind of financials and the life stuff. There's not really anything we're going to be able to do as far as like any kind of brain pathology back unless someone's able to negotiate with Saney. I doubt that's going to happen. But I would like to maybe see what everybody's opinion is about having our own morgue storage at EMA for our department, for storage purposes only. I don't know what the future of this hospital is. There's rumors that it may not even be here in a couple years. I don't know. You probably know more about it than I do. But I do know they have cut a lot of services.

I'm a little bit queasy with the idea of us having a morgue on campus here.

I talked to you about this. It's funny that you say that, because I talked to Liz about this same subject. People were asking me about it. What's going on with the hospital over here and why they're dragging their feet?

If we, it's unreasonable for us to go, if something does happen to C&E where we can't use their facility no more, it is completely unreasonable for us to have to drive all the way to Blue Ash just for a storage and they're going to charge anywhere from $45 to $50 a day to house a body, not doing it on autopsy. just for storage purposes we may have an indigent person we may have people from another country we may have people to come here from other states that we don't know who they are we we we have to keep by law we have to keep a body two weeks uh to try to identify if we can't identify then go through a township trustee for funds for cremation and disposal so is there any facility at saint elizabeth florence that we we could use or margaret mary Margaret Mary, will they just build a new hospital? I don't know on that one. I know the original hospital does not.

To me, it would be worth exploring something a little closer, but not EMA. That would be my preference.

Really? You just need a big icebox, don't you?

It's basically this. What's that cost? For a new cooler, to have everything done, $26,830. It'd be $16,000 for the cooler itself, and they will deliver it, assemble it, and the cooling system is already pre-charged. $2,000 for a cot, two cots. We already have two at the EMA building. We would need two more to... put the person on for storage. Banta Electric would be $3,830 to run the power there.

Cameron, I've got to imagine there's all kinds of regulations on backup power and security and other things like that that would drive some additional costs. Do you have any information on that?

As far as any kind of security, there's already a surveillance system in the EMA building. We would just need to maybe run a camera to wherever we decide to put it over there. And then we would be under lock and key. then whenever we have someone in there in a funeral home uh comes together my chief deputy we would work up work it out to who goes down there and does the release we would have our own internal controls on who how we release and who's getting a person okay there's nothing we can do about that today this is this is a project i'd like to look at maybe explore next year so currently are you using a facility at saint elizabeth we're good on facilities

all right so we're looking at the 27 budget and what we can do today so the only thing we're doing is is changing that contract so we can accommodate the striker contract yes and then the rest of that's just information for next year yes okay so i think we're done you don't have any other approximately how many miles are on your newest truck very low um i had to look definitely i mean it's less than 50. yeah oh yeah considerably less thanks yeah

Our oldest truck only has 39,000. That's an 08. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

But I'd be good to go ahead and sign the contract now and get it back to Stryker with intentions of... That's a question for the auditor's office.

I don't know how that part works.

whether you're yeah right no no they would just need a the contract signed to guarantee it for next year that way okay we got the coverage so okay thank you yeah thanks cameron thank you thanks okay so mr bryvie you're up location 126 27 28. what number 126 27.8

morning Tim gravity highway superintendent let's do location 51 first thanks forgive me to Thanks a lot for using what you guys wrote. This is the first year I've ever... No, I got one. No, first time I ever had one. It's great. It's awesome. Thank you, Leah.

You're so progressive.

Yes. It makes it so much simpler than me rifling through my stuff.

So overtime was moved into this category for a different reason?

Yes, that was our office. They're the only department right now that's paid hourly, and we want to move them to salaries like everybody else. So we pulled the overtime out so you guys could see. It was just in the salary line items with their...

They all had like $10,000 worth of...

It was built in, so it's not an additional.

So this is not new money?

No, it's not new money. It's just separate, so you guys can see what we're doing.

Please. It's a big job. It's only one.

Two months.

$650,000.

We're not getting as much on the community crossings, so we've got to make it up.

Tim, your vacancy for assistant crew leader, are you actively searching for that? I am.

We thought we had somebody in-house, actually, and he doesn't want to do it.

For what reason? You just want the responsibility?

I think it's a family thing. It's not the work. It's not us. It's his obligations at home. I don't think his wife or family feel like they want him gone. Because when you're management, you're gone a lot in this job. Gone a lot. We'll be out later. I mean, it's going to storm later. We're under a severe thunderstorm watch right now. So, I mean, if the wind blows on a Sunday afternoon... We're out. Somebody's out. I mean, I'm just being honest. Somebody's out.

How many total guys report to you? I got 25 right now.

No, 24. I'm sorry, 24.

So the biggest jump, of course, is in the two minutes.

And I got some part-time, too, Tim. That's the full-time.

Can we talk about the two minutes? That's quite a jump.

Right. Well, we're trying to maintain our... You know, with community crossings kind of going away, we're trying to maintain our program. We're going backwards, not progressing. I mean, as it is, it's going to be forever to get pavement down in this county. As it is, and then...

So is this a lot of stuff having to be contracted out?

No, this would be contracts. These would be contracts, yes.

BASICALLY WHAT'S HAPPENED IS WE HAD A $3 MILLION PROGRAM.

RIGHT.

THE STATE WAS A 50-50 MATCH OF 1.5 MILLION. WELL, NOW I CAN GET A MAXIMUM OF A MILLION AT COMMUNITY CROSSINGS, MAXIMUM IF WE GET COMMUNITY CROSSINGS.

GOT VERY LITTLE LAST YEAR.

THE MATCH TO THAT IS 333 OR 334,000.

250, we got 250 in it, Todd. We got 250 in it.

That should have been three.

It's 250.

Yeah, that could have been, because it's now an 80-20. Oh, that's right. Yes, because they changed it.

It used to be a 75-35, okay.

Now it's down to 80-20, so 250 is right.

The 250 is correct, okay.

Correct, so if we got the maximum QT crossings, and we got a maximum... and we had a 250, that's 1.25 million. That's still 1.75 million less than what we used to do.

So how do you cut the program back and do less and less paving?

We're losing ground.

But everybody knows the prices are still going up and the prices don't go down. So with the same amount of money... Not the same amount if you gave us the... than we did the year before.

And we're doing less than half because everything's going up.

Everything, I mean, as you know, it's... Everything's up. And that's how we did it. It says, okay, you're gonna keep the same program that we had two years ago. And that's still no guarantee that I'm gonna get New Crossing money. A million dollar Community Crossing because this year I got 291,000.

Right.

So right there, boom, boom, I'm 700,000 less than the program.

But we did baby with that, right? We did baby with that.

We did baby with that, but I flipped around on that. That's what you transferred the 300 and whatever thousand yesterday from the two minutes. 291. From Community Crossing to two.

That's a big number. I mean, you guys are doing a good job on the roads, and I love paving better than anybody. It is a big number. You're right. Can we put that number on there until the end, Liz, and see where we're at? That's the biggest raise that we've looked at so far.

It's the biggest jump, but we can see right here what we're looking at. With that number in there, this is in this page 13.

Whatever you give us, you give us in the moment.

Everybody wants, I mean, we're trying to maintain what we've kind of said.

It's always tougher when it comes out of county general.

I understand that, totally. I get it. I'd much rather spend somebody else's money than mine. I'd rather spend Danny's money than mine all day long.

How many miles will this pay? I mean, it's not really...

Several. I mean, yeah, it's going to be substantial. I mean, it's just hard to – a lot of variables to that.

The community crossing does have an opener. It has a call in September, which we're looking at right now. We're going to put in for a little over a billion dollars.

just one person but when when the community crossings grant changed and the match changed one of the things you know Todd expressed a concern that this is gonna reduce our overall budget and my comment was to him as long as we're in it this is good for the county because it gives us in those lean years it gives us less money that we're forced to put in however I would personally like to see us continue to have the same paving program that we've had I agree. When we look at our county general budget, we've got some cutting to do. I don't know if we want to whittle this a little bit and look at it again at the end, but I'd like to try to keep as much as we can in the two minutes and then come back if we need to evaluate it at the end of the day tomorrow. But you guys are like me. Every citizen that comes to you, the thing they talk about most are their taxes and their roads.

I mean, I think that we can make this work this year. I mean, I don't know what 28 will bring, but it looks like... That's a year at a time.

That's just the way it goes.

I wish I knew how much community crossing I was going to get.

So what do you plan to do with the next call? What project are you putting in?

Right now we're looking at North Hogan.

We never did do that.

Which is the section that didn't get funded this year.

Possum Ridge to Ruble.

To where?

possum ridge to ruble.

It's a section we've been honed off because we needed to get the... Each end's been done, but the middle hasn't. Yeah, that big slip. Sort of like we had to wait on salt for it, but it had to slip for it before we made it this year. Yes, it did. Lower Dillsboro, there from Gatshield. We kind of know where. We had slips on Fort Hogan, or lower Dills were to get fixed. Plus we had two structures that had to get fixed, which are now done. So if it now fits for those, that'll be a million, and then the lower end of Hoosman's gone to hell. Yeah, it's horrible. So I'm going to try to use part of that. There's some pipes Tim's got to replace before we get there early next year. So that's from Texas Gas to 262.

The bottom end.

The bottom end. You said our community crossings, we just got the 291. Is that both calls have happened this year? There's only one now. Okay. The whole thing's a joke. That's all right. We don't need to go down a rabbit hole. I just didn't remember if we had one or two calls.

What I question about NDOT's thinking process is how does a city of 5,000 get more than a county of 51,000 in over 500 miles? I mean, NDOT's thought process alludes to that.

Honestly, Liz, NDOT's thinking was they would be able to come back and give us the additional money But the state law, when the government, when that legislature, how they wrote it, they wrote it such that if you got any money the first call, you couldn't get any additional money. And that hindered NDOT's hands. But I don't think it was NDOT as much as the way the state law was written for that additional money. Okay.

At any rate, for now, I would like to keep that additional $650 in there because we're going to get so far behind that there's going to be no... At the end of the day, if we have to revisit it, we can, but I would like to proceed with it in there. I would like for us to proceed with the 650 in there right now. At the end of the day, tomorrow afternoon, if we look like we have to chop something to make things work out, we may have to revisit it. But for now, I would like that.

All right. I understand. I understand that. I understand. We'll do the best we can with what we got.

We're kind of digging a hole, I mean, on our end. I know. But if we don't keep the roads up, then it's going to be twice the expense to fix them down the road.

The longer we wait, the more you kick the can, the more it costs. Yeah. It's that simple. Just everyday life.

And so the $250 for community crossings is the correct amount? Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Does anyone else have anything else on that page? Location 51. Everyone good with 51? we'll address the first item with the commissioners later. Okay. Okay, so location 126 that we're doing.

I got 127. What do you got? Oh, it's 127 next on local road and street.

So 126 is also you, right?

Yes.

That's 1176. I'll do whatever you guys got.

I was just trying to follow along.

You're the important part.

Does everyone have location 127 up along 1169?

So I noticed that for 26 you expended quite a bit more for ice control?

Yes, because we've been having a surplus of money and I just got, I'm glad you brought that up, I just got the email this morning. Salt went up $12 a ton from last year. Yes. How much we have on hand? Right now? Pretty close, pretty close. There's a lot of people that like, City of Lawrenceburg, City of Greendale, they buy treated salt. They're not getting it. I spoke with Greendale this morning. I tried to give them some people to call that could get regular salt. They want treated salt. I said, I don't think you're going to get it anywhere. But that's their problem, not mine. I was trying to help them. So it's $12 more a ton than it was last year. So that equates on... 3,000 tons is what we usually order. Last year we used more. Last year we used, what did we use? Last year we used 5,000 tons of salt. I bought a couple thousand tons out of the contract, because Morton couldn't deliver. Our contract is with Endot, with Morton, and they could not deliver. So we had to buy salt outside of the contract, and it was like $2 more a ton, which wasn't horrible. And it all worked out. We kept salt and kept everybody going. This year's a different deal. The Morton's, the Compass Mineral, the Cargill's, they don't have it. They're short on stock.

Well, $12 a ton, that's $60,000 bucks, right? Extra this year?

Close, yeah. But you have a pretty good store. Yes, I do. We do.

Have you been using like the brine or the beet juice or whatever it is in pretreatment?

We do. We don't pretreat. We pretreat the material. We put material on the material. So we spray a liquid component, which is brine and calcium chloride. on the salt as it comes off, which makes it work a lot quicker. To be honest with you, we've seen not a whole lot of great things out of the pre-wet the road. You're putting salt water on the road.

So if it rains, it draws moisture.

So if it lays there and then it gets cold, sometimes it'll make things freeze. That wouldn't have froze otherwise. We've seen that like on the 350 bridge and 50 bridge in town in Aurora.

We don't do the 350 bridge, do we?

No, no, no. We're observing. Because the state uses a lot. Yes. Here's why. I'm going to be real quick. Here's why they use it. We're all under MS4. So they wash their trucks in a building, which we're going to have to do soon. That's not even on this mess. But we're going to have to do all that soon. They have to trap the water. You can't put the water in the sewer. So they got these big underground tanks full of salt water. What do they do with it? They put it on the road. And MS4 says that's OK, because it's ice controlled. So we may get into that business.

We may get into that business out of necessity.

I mean, I'm not saying we won't. We may someday soon. Because we're not allowed to open.

Plus, their roads are in better condition than ours are. Every time you make a little bit of open road, you put salt on top of an open road. That gets down into the sub-basin and makes your roads worse. So it doesn't fit our need as well as it does theirs. Sorry, go ahead, Liz.

No, you go ahead.

Location 127, no changes. Everybody feel all right about that?

So what do you have next? 1136. Which is?

What did you say, Leo, we're on 1176? Yeah. Okay. Coming back to 1173, I guess.

We'll do 1176 right now for our location, 126, 127, and 128. So these are all fully funded. And the slipper fare, I'm jumping ahead to 128. The slipper fare, you've moved into MBH restricted.

Yeah, it's in restricted slip repairs.

Leon, location 127, why is the placeholder there for supplemental salaries?

The 4%. In case you guys get cold.

That's just for his department?

Yes, anybody that's...

Sorry, when it said council pay increase, that's what threw me off.

Is everyone on 1176?

Yes.

Okay, are we going to 1173 now? Is that what you've got up there? So that $1,300 from the two minutes, you're just moving that to the other one? Okay. And slip repair is going down from... So that $1.3 million is not a duplicate number from the other fund that it was in?

That's a me thing. The upload to Gateway wasn't working. It's new this year. They did updates. And State Board of Accounts sees this MDH fund as two separate, 1173 and 1176. DLGF sees it as one, so I had to take so okay so this 1173 restricted this 13 this 1.3 million is is essentially in two places but it's only going to be in 1173 it won't be in 1176 at all into 1176 before the upload, and then I took it back out.

We've been doing this, and we've been putting the same amount, same dollars basically every year, but we kind of move it around. We think our greater need this coming year will be bitumen. This is not so much slips, but I could be wrong. We have money now in slips that I have designed builds in for 26 that we haven't spent yet. We will spend it. So I think we'll be in good shape that way.

So between the $1.75 million and this $1.3, we're talking about $3 million for bituminous for the county.

And I assume you spend your restricted first before you get to your county general bituminous?

Yes.

And you can't move money between bituminous and slip repair and that because it starts with a different fund ID number? OK.

So do you have slips in mind?

We do now. We got two slips in kind of a design-build type situation right now. Coal Lane and Usaman Road are both in the southern part of the county. I'm sorry about that. That's the way it works. The slips are where they are. We fix them as they come. I mean, we fix them as they come. So right now, the money that I have in the 26 budget will get spent.

So, the slip-on salt fork, that had to be extremely expensive to fix.

It was extremely expensive.

Is that a, on these, you call them design builds, are we going out for bids on these? Yes, we are. For contractors?

Like right now on these, we got Buxom, GSI, and Geostable, Shenank, we've got three outfits that we're going to bid on this. It'll be apples to apples.

So it's not an open bid, it's an invited bid?

Well, I mean, it is an open bid. I mean, it's just there is not many people that do that kind of work. I mean, I know like you guys, Gary uses GSI all the time. I mean, that's his go-to. And I realize that's a different situation. But, yeah, there's just not a lot of guys that do that kind of work. And the bigger guys, to be honest with you, don't want to mess with us for some reason. We've sent email after email.

Do we have to advertise those jobs?

We will, yes. We send a notice out. Yep. We send a notice out.

What's the time frame on that? We're going to try to have them start it, which I don't know if we're going to get it all done or not. It's getting late in the year, by the end of the year. If not, we'll have to carry the money over. And then how long? Each project's probably going to be a month or month and a half long, probably. Three months to do all of it. Right. I'm trying to wait to see how the numbers come back, because I like... Colt Lane is an expansive area. There's a horrible flip that everybody sees, but there's the one waiting to happen like tomorrow or the next. It's going to happen. The Userman deal, it's pretty straightforward. It's about 200, 220 feet, give or take. It needs the worst way. And then the Coal Lane deal is, you know, if we can, I'd like to fix as much as we can. I'm not wasting the money. It's money well spent. I mean, Mark knows that the more you wait, the more it costs.

Let's have an idea of a place to grow. That's what happened to Lower Dillsboro, because the state funding we had for the original run of Lower Dillsboro, when we started design, because it takes five years to get through the federal process, almost doubled in size. So I had to split that project into two projects instead of one project. So we're finished up there.

And our monies have kind of dried up with the NRCS programs that, you know, I've got quite a bit of money through them people through the years, but that's kind of dried up.

So when they're high level, just educate me because I'm ignorant. The 4916 fund seems healthy. I assume there's, I mean, I know we committed 470 the other day out of that. Why are we not able to do the two minutes out of that fund? Or why did we put it in County General instead of trying to use MBHA for that?

It's kind of six-and-a-half dozen or the other. It's all worth a vote. So whether you take it out, if you add money into County General, which we've done to make County General healthier, or if we dedicate it to roads, I mean, to me, it's almost like a hat trick. It doesn't really matter.

And then we'll talk about when I get into, in my face, and transportation infrastructure, which I try to use for my federal master jobs. But we try to use a lot of these substitute fund, the help fund, the active bridge projects for construction side of it where we added right now, we added $400,000 to do the design side. Two years from now, I'm gonna have and construction side of it.

All right. So it's... Are we good on the highway side of things?

I think we're good on the highway side of things because this will actually just give them the authority to have that money committed to start using it in B-27. So, Mr. Greiber, I think we're... Is everyone good with Mr. Greiber?

Yes.

Okay, Mr. Listerman, you're up. I'm done. We're doing 1135. Thanks, Jim.

I did not. I did do that. I did do that. No, we don't. We did all that. Now, they upgrade them as they get them. So if we get a new truck, we do them, and it's not that big a deal.

What is the question?

that can be reduced to five thousand

Okay, so the change that's being made right now is on location 51-35110 at the 10000-119-05000.

That's the county general plan.

I'm sorry, Liz, could you repeat that?

Location 51, Kelly General Highway. Yep. 35110 instead of 10199, it'll go down to 5,000. Thank you.

What was the number? Back in the highway one, yeah. 35110 goes down there. That 10199 goes to 5,000. 5,000, okay.

I think so.

He's got more than one.

I think that's something we can do. If not, we can throw it in the contest. Which we more or less already have. Yes, sir, let's get started. How much do I need to lose, Leah? Well, how much did we approve yesterday?

well first of all if you look at my budget okay and you go to our capital projects the first five you can cut out because you've proven the So you have Dean, Hogan, Chapin, the first Pinhook, the 635 Pinhook, and the 665 Jamison.

That's the five, right? That was only four. That's four.

Dean, South Hogan, Pinhook, Jamison, Chapin. Chapin. I'll sell those out. That's $400. I thought we were at $470.

No, because you gave me another one that wasn't on that list that wasn't on the budget.

You can sneak them in all kinds of different directions.

I run my budget, whatever it said. According to me, I was in the hole $387,000. That gets me out of the hole, but it doesn't give me any leeway of cushion. It spends every dollar that they say I am supposed to get. So what did they come up and say? How much more on top of that do I have to lose? I mean, I actually get more money in than I actually budget, too. So, I mean, there is some fluff in there, just in case money changes and something happens. But, I mean, I estimate $400,000 is my estimation. I estimate $850,000 of income for next year. I think we took in just over $900,000 this year.

They're saying for 27 Hume Bridge, you'd get about $961,000. And I budgeted $850,000 in my calculations.

So that would be $100,000 of...

Okay, so let's just go a little bit slow here. So you asked for $2,025,653. And so we can deduct the ones that were approved, which is an even $400 or was it $470?

$400.

He's saying $400,000 because one of them wasn't on this list.

So that puts your current ask at $1.6 million? 245, 653, is that right?

Mm-hmm, it would be.

You got it.

I know I put it back in the bucket. Damn pipe.

So he's carrying a balance forward.

Oh, yeah.

How much? It's actually, if you look at the information that Susan gave us, without doing the math that we just did, it's in the whole 276.

Well, his encumbrances from 25 to 26 are 800, and we'll give him $23,000.

So for this to balance, how far off are we?

So you're looking at page 15 on Susan's report for 1135? Yeah.

It looks to me like you can hold it. I mean, if you spend virtually everything.

But you want to at least have a certain percentage of... Yeah, at least 15%. I mean, I want a rainy day fund in my account just in case something happens, Liz.

Right, I get that.

I've always held in, so I mean... Get into the punchline, Todd. What are we cutting?

Actually, if you take into account the $470,000 we did, it would be plus $200,000.

$276,000 in the hole.

No, no, no. Here's the deal. At the time this was printed, you were that much in the hole. With what we approved yesterday, that $470,000 comes off of this. So that puts you in a plus $200,000.

So it's a little better once you take off this $400,000.

So you're at plus $200,000.

Which you usually don't like to run it quite that tight.

Correct.

So if you want to not run it that tight, we're going to need to cut the liners in here. Correct.

And usually what I do, this is how we work.

So take your dart and tell us which ones you want to do.

Go to my capital projects.

Which one are we cutting?

And how much you want to cut out of those four projects.

I'm asking you. We show you at a plus 200,000, you like a bigger surplus, which is smart. So we're asking you to prioritize which ones should be cut to get to a better number.

Then I would like to cut the two Losey Camp jobs. That would add another $160,000.

So you're at $360,000 to the good.

$360,000. And how much is that off of how big a budget of $1.1 million?

Well, roughly $1 million. I mean, as far as revenue.

14.6.

I mean, percentage-wise, I think that'd be plenty.

Don't you?

That'd be like a 15% more than that. Maybe we are up. So let's lose small structure 663 and small structure 666 off of the budget for this year. That would then keep Barber and it'd keep Pinhook and I'd have two birds on Pinhook. One you did yesterday plus one for next year so I can get those as a package deal on design and go from there.

You kept one Pinhook and struck the other one. No, no, no.

The one got struck because you funded it yesterday. Oh, that's right. Sorry.

You know what I'm saying? So when I go to construction...

I can do the two pinhooks together and tie those two projects as one project as a bid. Get better pricing.

Well, you'll have money next year. The pinhook I'm keeping is 636, right?

You're keeping 636 and you're keeping Barber at 604. And Chapin. Well, those are already... We approved that yesterday. We approved those on the top five yesterday. I mean, we're gonna do a lot of small structures. You saw the list. I gave you the list of where we're at. And that's what you're asking about as we progress coming in for... You gave us a list? I handed it to you.

Right in front of me, Tom. Thanks.

So the idea is, when you were asking about the NVHA substitute, when I come back in, because those five, six projects you added yesterday were out of the substitute for design, we're going to come back and substitute the build with those same funds. So once I get these designed, which these are fairly quick turnarounds, they're not near as long as a bridge, it takes a couple years to get the designs and right away purchase, then I come back and use the MVH substitute fund to ask for the actual construction dollars to build.

So is everyone comfortable with Coon Bridge?

Yes.

Do you have another fund?

Tim's got all the phones. I just have one.

Are we done with you?

We're done with me. And then we overlap a couple.

How much will you use this year, Tim, for line striping?

Line striping? 220 was it was this year too we use a little bit less because we didn't have we're striping salt fork and that on the contract not through the striking contract okay

I was surprised. I saw somewhere the center line was striped, but not the edge lines. I was thinking prioritize the edge lines.

It depends. Okay, if we do a road, okay, that doesn't qualify by traffic volume. We stripe everything a thousand vehicles a day or more. Right. Edge line and center line. And those are the heavy traffic roads or wider roads. When you get to the lower volume roads, depending on what width is, okay, we're either going to stripe. If it's wide enough that I can fit a center line down the middle, we're always going to put a center line because center line cuts accents down about 33% where edge line only cuts accents down by 11%. So you get more bang for your buck for the center line. And you do that for roads that don't qualify to be striped every year, but are brand-newly paved, because when you get black pavement, okay, and it rains and it's dark, it's bad. I mean, it's tough to graze out to a point where you can do the... But if the road's not wide enough for me to put a center line, then I put two edge lines. So it's a... I'm going to put one or the other.

Okay, so we're done with highway altogether? So the next thing is... I'm going to talk to the commissioners. I'm going to talk to the commissioners.

That's all I can do. That's all I can do.

So the next thing is 1030 solid waste?

Yes. Is that a child fund? He's just going to come in and kind of go over what his budget is since he's buying it. Yeah, I don't think there's that.

And we have very, we don't have hardly any that are left. So can you move some people around? We've got a lot of wasted time.

Oh, that's right, that's right. I'm just thinking, was your dad here when I first started?

You think she can come now?

In 2005, I think he did. Can we get rid of that? We've got a lot of time. We're not going to have people. Way back when.

I can try. If Joyce moves down, I can probably text Hallie.

I think that would be great. Let's take a ten minute or five minute break.

We'll take a five minute break. And Dennis has an appointment tomorrow at 9, so he ought to be here.

I don't know if he would answer my call. Susie could. Susie would be better. Next year they're going to run a gas line down through there.

I delivered all the paperwork for that. All them houses. down to the to the plant there existing plant uh

Is that what they're doing now? Because at one time, they were trying to run a, coming off of Pribble, and tying that line right there by the railroad tracks by Pribble. There's three guys coming over that. And then they were going to come up over the hill by the, by the backside of Overdeen, and try to run down the cross.

Looking at tomorrow's schedule?

I don't know the whole plan, but I guess.

We need to look at the county general fund, whatever. That way, by the end of the day today, we can say if we accepted everybody's tomorrow. I don't want you to put it in there, but we could just write it on our calendar here and add it to whatever you have there and add what they're requesting, right? And have them tell us, okay.

I just don't want to confuse you and have you plug it in. I don't know.

Well, there's something that came in the office yesterday. Deacon told us that you can't buy that piece of property. I said, you can't. You don't have any friends. I've never heard of such a thing. You can't get access to the property. And she bought a piece of landlocked property somewhere. And she's landlocked. I mean, it's like, oh.

You're wrong, but we're going to be OK hitting our number.

Yeah, that little hunt club at the very end.

Yeah, Ralph Irwin and his wife owned that first little rental house there at the bottom of the hill. And then there's a gun club in the back of it.

I couldn't believe she wasn't giving a seat next to her. Well, he just performed in it. That's why I drove my truck today.

So how many people can we move up?

Because otherwise Joyce is coming. We need to move soil and water.

Otherwise we're going to be sitting around looking at you.

As much as I love everybody. Joyce is coming.

That guy sold. I guess the way they cut it up, the guy sold.

We can get done early today.

That's probably why. They'd be good as much as we can.

We'll just get them all Monday and Tuesday. Oh, I get it. I'd like to call the meeting over and get her What I always call, Tia, why don't you come up?

Jake comes off the one end, you come down the hill, take a right, go back up that.

Is that right?

You go Cold Springs. Well, Chaffin's come down. You make a left at the bottom of the hill, and there used to be one that ran back up that way.

Chaffin. Chaffin's awful.

Yeah. Well, that's an old right-of-way to open up that hill.

Don't you know you're on TV?

So we were on? Years ago, these here were tier one.

Everyone's ready to get started.

Todd. Todd. Thank you very much.

We're ready to get started. Okay. Thanks, guys. Look how quick Joyce pivots.

We're ready for you, Joyce. This is location five.

Yes, ma'am.

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's been another great year, and again, the Recorder's Office is still able to cover all of our proceeds, our operating expenses. Still had to go through the who, so I signed my sworn statement. We have the ordinance in place, and I understand that you've signed it, so we're glad to do so. Not making any changes from last year. I think it did pretty well.

Any questions for me? So looking at your county general, I have no questions. Anyone have any questions on county general? No. Then you've got the 1189, which is your graduation fund. Yes. That's the same as last year? Yes. I have no questions there. Did you have a question?

No, he asked me what number.

Location 5.

Joyce, for my knowledge, can you explain to me what the back indexing project is?

So we are still trying to get our documents on DocsPop. DocsPop is our vendor that does allow someone to subscribe and to see our documents. And we are back to 1986. So we started this when I started to turn what was 1999. So the process is just as we are able during the day to have someone work. We try to get that back indexed so it will be open. Those documents will be open to the public.

When you say someone could subscribe, is that for a fee?

They can subscribe for a no charge fee, and they get six free views a month. But to secure a copy, they will need to obviously put in their credit card and purchase it that way. In my office, it's only a dollar. Through DocsHub, it's about two. But it is a service.

So is that like title companies who?

Title companies are utilizing it. The more that we get on there, the more they are. Now, we tell them that my office is the only official record. So they use that to title search. It's on them, and there's all kinds of disclaimers. What's great is that constituents can get a copy when they're homebound or be able to view their records.

Oh, to further explain, I probably should.

So yes, Ms. Tanya is still working on the back-indexing project on overtime. Because I pay for that out of the RPF, but it is for the purpose of the fund. That's why it's not within my statement.

Your other fund is county elected training, and that's pretty self-explanatory.

Yes, and we share that with the entire county, the elected official training. And that really helps a lot.

Is the indexing project something that's going to take 10 years? Is it perpetual? Is it a one-year thing?

Well, like I said, we're working on it, and we're back to 1986, and we'd like to get every deed of record within that. And actually, we could... put all our records but it just makes more sense to really focus on the deeds for the chain of title themselves so like I said we just do this year by year I could I actually had hired Beth if you remember to help us along we did get four years done instead of just the two within a year so we could definitely work on this and if you're okay with continuing to allow me to pay overtime but I do that again out of the fund itself, and no cost to the county.

I think it makes great sense to do that.

The actual deeds can go back to 1812.

Yep. And you're in 1986? And we are in 1986.

Well, it gets a little tricky now. We've got Hidden Valley Lake records, if you remember. Yeah, there's a ton. So to get through those years, and then it'll go back a little faster.

That's great. Anyone have any other questions for the clerk?

Well, I heard that good reports from the community that the recorder's office was very diligent and helpful in getting all the names of the World War II veterans. So I'd like to thank you ladies for that. Mr. Fulton put on the wall down there.

That is why we're here. Thank you.

He spoke highly of you guys.

Well, the staff is amazing. They're incredible. Thank you.

Does anyone have any other questions for the clerk? If not, then we're good. Thank you so much, Joyce.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Liz, you have a minute?

As soon as possible. 1.30 is available now. Megan's coming in. What time is she coming in?

No, she should be over in 10 minutes. Liz, you want to see if Jim Deaton can come at 1.30 instead of 2.30?

Absolutely. Since Joyce is no longer on there?

And then leave Soil and Water where they're at?

Yeah, I think so.

1.30. Who's contacting Deaton?

Connie's office.

And did you say the assessor's coming now?

She should be right here.

Location 18 for the assessment.

Mark's got to finish his donut. He's got to slow down.

Well, you guys tell me how you want me to do it for next year, because I don't have to make schedules. I mean, I would rather schedule with judges.

It'd be nice if those harder ones to schedule were Monday and Tuesday and then the folks like Megan who could just pop down would be on Wednesday and then we could squeeze them in.

I think he had his first grandkid yesterday.

She was going to the hospital yesterday. I don't know if it happened. I don't want to see anybody standing up.

Should we call Claiborne and ask them to get in touch with you?

I've got a number.

If you'll bear with us, we're trying to rearrange the schedule. You're good. Are you calling Pearl and Bert?

No, I can if you want.

I just want one person to call, so.

Want me to call Pearl and Bert? Yeah.

Ask them.

Follow your donut first.

Just making fun of me. I got his voicemail.

I sent him a text.

Did you? I was getting ready to do the same thing.

What did you get, Jim's voicemail? You want to try? Yeah.

You got his number? I do.

Just leave him a message if he doesn't answer.

He said we would like you to come at 1.30. Okay. usually you know we have to sit and pay yeah location eight

Hi, Megan.

Hi, Sam. How are you?

Good.

How are you today?

I'm good. Can you come in early today? Is it 1.30? 1.30. Can you come in at 1.30 instead of 2.30? Okay. Okay. We'll see you at 1.30. I think it's a re-development connection.

Yes, when I called, that was the only thing that didn't work. I mean, I'm going to give him a call and ask his office. I talked to her yesterday. She said she may not even need a binding review, but she's meeting with DLGF today, I think. So she was going to let me know by the end of today.

Well, let's have her come tomorrow at 9.

I tried. She's going to let me know by the end of today what's going on with it.

We can bump her up.

The other thing we can do, honestly, is bump the commissioners back and have a late start and have everything kind of concentrated that way. Selfishly, I got my other job. I can get some stuff a couple hours there in the morning.

So what do you want him to do?

If it's easier. If we didn't start until 10 tomorrow, and the sheriff in jail, and then the commissioners. You know what I mean? That'd be fine.

I just hate dead time. Right, me too.

I'd rather push him back a little bit.

I don't think that would be a problem.

We'll figure that out when we're done with Megan.

Yes. Sorry, Megan. You're good. OK. Let's get down to business here. There are things in the assessor's office these days. Location 8. Well, it's there. It'll always be there, apparently.

There's no opinions about that, is there?

Yeah. Well.

Check Facebook.

Yeah. The only thing that I have is this is the first time I've ever came to a budget hearing because I've literally been OK with everything. But I had six employees, seven counting myself. But within this last year, I went to five employees. I'm not replacing the six. but have the salary for the sixth person didn't know about dividing that with the other five employees I have in the office. Only reasoning we picked up, DATA ENTRY FROM MY THIRD PARTY COMPANY IS DOING ALL THE FIELD WORK FOR CYCLICAL REVIEW AND MY NEW CONSTRUCTION, BUT ONCE THEY GO OUT IN THE FIELD, WE ARE DOING THE DATA ENTRY NOW INSTEAD OF TYLER TECHNOLOGIES. SO... WHAT WAS THAT CONTRACT AMOUNT? I BELIEVE IT WAS 300... It went down, I believe, it's over a four-year, I believe it went down almost $75,000. It's now $206,000.

And that's a new reassessment. Yeah. We showed the last previous two years it was 206, and we're asking for 206 again for 27 for Tyler.

And 25, 206 was budgeted, but 215 were spent. And then 20, yeah.

You're correct.

So is that the correct amount for Tyler, is the 206 money?

The 206. Yeah.

That is correct?

That is correct, yes. So it did not change?

Well, from the last, this is for a four-year, over a four-year contract. So the contract in 2019, I believe, was $279 something, I believe. Okay.

So you've been doing this for the last four years, you're saying?

No, I'm starting. I started this year, starting in January, started doing the data entry. Okay. for the next four years. And we had Janine Dish from Tyler Technologies that actually retired from the assessor's office doing the data entry, but we let her go so we could do it in-house. A little less confusion. with adding things, taking things off, and a little bit more schooling for my employees to get a little bit more comfortable with the software.

So you're talking about the position 111111. Correct. It's now going to be vacant, and you're wanting to try to...

If I could divide, yes. Like, kind of divide it between the employees that I have, because I'm not going to replace that.

How much more work would they have?

Well, they're staying a little bit more busy here. I mean, they got to do all the data entry. We have four-year cyclical. You're looking at probably close to over a four-year period. The 31,000 parcels, there's got to be something done to them.

whether it be notes or discussions this budget session around is just the struggle of there's additional responsibilities but but if they don't come with additional time and commitments from meetings and that kind of thing it's really we've been struggling with providing additional pay for for those things you know stipends or whatever i see you have first deputies and third deputies is there a reason is there do you have a second deputy tier that you could use for those lower people or

No. Okay. My three first deputies, they've been there the longest and is a little bit more, I feel like they got a little bit more on their plate. I feel a little bit more comfortable with them three making decisions when I'm not there.

Well, I guess the feeling I had was I don't love the idea of taking this vacant position funding and splitting it up, but if there were some lower, the third deputy people who might be doing some of the share of that work, bumping them up to a second deputy and giving them more of the lion's share of the additional work. But again, if it's not additional time,

beyond and above and beyond their work week is there a set rate for second deputy so so there is an in between the first and third okay the third could go to second okay which would get them closer to first okay but we also don't want to cause strife in your office with the third people getting a bump and the first people not so that's but you're saying your first uh deputies these three people are the ones you're finding them to be particularly dependable

So those are the ones that...

So my personal opinion, I wouldn't want my third deputies to go to two.

Okay, that's fair. We appreciate that.

Okay, so I'm having a little bit of a struggle like Tim was mentioning about taking the $41,000 and dividing it. I don't know what your vision was on each of those other five positions. Did you have a dollar amount?

I kind of just thought around anywhere between three and five thousand.

On just your first deputies?

Yes.

So you're not talking about your third deputies making any changes there? Yeah. So if you were doing like a 3,000 bump on your first deputies, is that what you're asking? Correct.

How does this first deputy tier price rate compare to other departments' first deputy tiers? Is it the same?

That presents another issue.

Right.

So it would be almost better to do a stipend if we were to do something, right or not? I mean, we have to look at the county. Right. Yeah, I understand.

Other departments, first deputies are this amount.

Yeah, I'm struggling with creating new precedent, to be honest. You guys got an opinion down there? Glenn or Denny?

I agree with that.

And I, yeah, I completely understand. I just, when you asked me, I just was like, I mean, since it was there. And I'll be honest, if I lose probably another employee, I probably won't replace it either because we got rid of the personal property. Right. Went way down. So we went from almost $1,000 or 1,000 personal property returns down to 47. From 1,000 to 47? Because it went to $2 billion. Right. which lowered, you know, so that's where my third deputies do the personal property, but since they didn't have a whole lot, that was only really, only one person could do, so.

It sounds like as far as trying to be consistent countywide, our best way to do this on a business-like manner is to just delete that third deputy, that 11111 position and leave everything else as is. Is that the consensus of council?

What about adding it to the assessor? I'm telling you what. I don't know if I can handle, I mean, I'm going to do four more years, but. I know why people have...

It's an easy department to get burned out in, isn't it?

Well, I love my job. I do love my job, but it's just the people that are so mean. And so it's... I should never take it to heart, but I do. Yeah. I've had dead animals at the bottom of my driveway. I've had garbage. I've had everything.

I deal with it.

Oh, yeah. So I just take it with a grain of salt. But I do love my job. You just take it with a shot? Yeah.

Liz, I have a question. Yes, sir. It's not about the budget, but does the state tell you that you have to have the assessments out to the taxpayers by a certain date? What is that date?

That is April 24th. She sends the form. Form 11. I send the form 11.

Is that everywhere in Indiana? Because the other counties came out a lot later.

They used to be not. You didn't have to. But now I believe it's January 1 of 2026. Every county has to send them.

So they were about...

Oh, absolutely. But they also could file on their tax bill.

She asked that.

They could what now?

File an appeal on their tax bill.

Oh, that's up to you.

Is that a problem?

Yeah, it's by design that they hit right before the election.

Yeah, exactly.

And it used to be you could use your tax bills. If you did not use your tax bill, you had to do a Form 11. I don't know if that's still the way it is or not.

Yeah, well, now as of January 1, all counties had to send Form 11s.

So her thing is she doesn't send a form 11 where if we make a mistake, they can appeal that because it wasn't right on that form 11. Right. Yeah.

So what I would like to suggest is ask the board what their consensus is. Since we're dropping that your fourth deputy, that 11111, we're deleting that amount, that $41,000. But then I would like to consider giving the assessor, the elected official, an additional $3,000.

That would be great.

Because you're the one managing these blessed people, so I agree.

Yeah. My only comment question is, do we have like level one, level two, level three?

No, no, I'm talking about the elected official.

I was thinking there was something within the elected official where you have to get some kind of accreditation.

Yes. Level three, which I'm working on, I've got two more tests to take. That's just a different stipend. Yeah, that's the schooling.

I mean, just raise your base salary by $3,000 a year. I support that. Are you good with that, Mr. Baker? Okay. Are you good with that, raising the assessor salary by $3,000 a year?

Yeah.

Okay. I appreciate it. Leah, do you have that? We're striking that $41,000 and adding $3,000 to the assessor. And then you've got your reassessment thing in your elective training. You don't have any other questions for the assessor?

No.

I think we're good.

I know.

Thank you. I appreciate it. You've got four more years to find your replacement though. Get them trained up.

I will. That's the sad part about it.

That's a tough job. Keep chugging along.

Like I said, I love my job. I just wish that people would understand my side of it.

Is it every four years they have to have a reassessment? And do we do 25% of the parcels each year? Is that how we do it?

Yep. And Tyler does that, right? Yes.

People need to be nicer, and the Internet needs to go away. Yes.

Thanks.

I tried to help you, but they don't listen. They don't. They don't. They just won't listen. They don't. People are asking.

Is that your level two down by $500,000?

okay thank you which one is it we're talking about just taking $500 So 11108 is going to be $40,000. $3,000. I'm sorry, what?

It'll be $3,000, 11018. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay, I'm sorry to keep you waiting.

Go ahead.

But no.

You sit on this board, don't you?

I do sit on this board. I've been a bad board member. I think I've missed the last two meetings. I used to be really great, I promise.