County Council - Regular Meeting

Their whole business is code enforcement towing company discussion decision. Welcome, sir. Good morning.

The floor is yours, sir. So I reached back out to Jeff's. towing and auto recovery and Parker's towing and recovery. And basically in a roundabout way, they said the price is the price. There is no moving on or anything because they basically have to run a business basically out of, you know, the roundabout way. That's what they're saying. I'm pretty sure we probably go like case by case base and everything on what, you know, they want to charge per property probably. But at the end of the day, it was What we got here is what they said. My only concern is Andrew and I were working on a couple properties that have a whole bunch of cars, a whole bunch of vehicles. It's the manpower, basically. I don't know what kind of Jeff's Manpower has for Jeff's towing recovery. I know what Parker towing recovery has because obviously they're Way better, you know, they're Allen County wide basically Basically, it's like getting in and getting out, you know, can we get in and get out within an eight-hour day with Parker's towing recovery or With Jeff's does it go take two three days to get everything removed from said properties? I I would say we'd probably try Jeff's Towing Recovery on the top thrush, just to see how everything goes. Just kind of get our foot through the door with somebody. But if it comes to anything bigger, like Sadison, or Cronses, or anything like that, I would probably suggest we go with Parker's Towing Recovery, because obviously the amount of manpower and equipment that they hold, basically what they can do. We can go from there. It's not for us. She just has one vehicle so far that needs to be removed and Like Sadison and Crohn's is and you know if we ever had to deal with the Masons, I mean the Masons they have a Lot and I don't think I don't think that's also another thing. I don't think Jeff's towing recovery has a big enough bullpen to hold the amount of vehicles that we would come across like off those properties rather Parker stone recovery they have one on St. Joe Road, one on Cache Street, downtown Fort Wayne, and other parts where they can disperse all that kind of stuff. But that's what it boiled down to at the end of the day. What's your recommendation? My recommendation is probably try Jeff's Towing Recovery first for top thrush, see how everything goes. But if we get anything bigger, I think we're going to have to deal with Parker's Towing Recovery. To be able to get in and get out within a day because I won't be sitting there for two days You know, I mean paying whatever it costs for two days of recovery, you know or night recovery removal for everything I'd rather everything get done in one day whether they and two guys four guys, you know what I mean and whatever Recovery stuff that they use, you know rotators or whatever and You know like for Crohn's is I know they have multiple campers out there They have fifth wheels and all that. I don't know if Jeff's towing recovery has that stuff You know where they could hook up to a fifth wheel camper and just pull it right out You know, I know Parker's towing recovery has that kind of stuff.

Yeah Thank you you've heard the recommendation

I'll make a motion that he uses whichever one best fits the scenario of what you're doing. OK. If you need a big one, go to Parker's. If you've got small jobs, you can use the local. OK. Second.

I have a motion and a second to allow our control officer to use his best judgment.

Yes.

We have a question, though.

Susan, what's the fund going to be out of for paying the tow companies? It's gonna come out of Chris Gommers, it's gonna come out of the, where's that money gonna come from?

I think it comes out of the, oh, go ahead.

Yeah, in the ordinance it says it's in the unsafe building fund, but I don't know how, I think there's like only like $6,000 in there, there's not much. And that was created way back before, maybe even before Jan. It was done during the public nuisance ordinance that we used to, or the unsafe building fund we used to have, or unsafe building ordinance we used to have. So unsafe building? Yeah. We'll have to find where it is, but that's where the ordinance says the money.

If there's not money there, yes, it would come from Chris's budget. Yeah, it says unsafe building funds. He'd have to do an additional, probably.

Yeah. OK, I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. That's also another thing. do any removal of sadison crons you know those are just ones that are up you know that chris or andrew and chris and i are all dealing with like just having some vehicles one or two vehicles removed it's gonna cost you know two thousand dollars three thousand dollars you know that's just on probably just a light like an suv and a car probably three thousand dollars for both that's not even coming across like a camper and stuff like that yet you know where it could be

know how they go store it basically they go store like a vehicle or you know i mean how they go now when they get sold at auction do we get the proceeds back uh i think it depends on whether or not the proceeds go to storage but then that would decrease our building right because a lot of that's going to be the storage fees that's what i'm saying like that could offset some of the cost at the back end of it Yeah, make sure that they're not charging us, and then they get to keep the money.

Right. But can we not attach a lien on the property?

I mean, he's got a lien on the real estate.

Well, that's what I meant.

Andrew, there's a maximum judgment there, though, too, right, of $7,500?

I think we got that one.

Correct.

Well, that's the maximum lien or fine.

So we can ask for an additional on top of that?

I think we might be able to.

OK. Cost.

OK. Just clarifying that part. It's an open question that we haven't had to come up against.

Yeah. We can get more if we have to go in there and if we're ordered to clean it up we get $7,500 or we can get $7,500 plus the cleanup costs. Okay.

Okay.

Any more questions or comments? Anyone from the audience? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. Thank you for your work. I appreciate it. Or we do. We greatly appreciate it. Are you good to go, Andrew, with everything?

Yes.

Can we do Ben next?

Yes.

OK. Do you have time, Ben? I hate to interrupt your day.

Good morning. Good morning. So I've got the reimbursement contract again for NDOT. The one that was originally sent was the one that I guess NDOT project manager thought was the one to use at the current time. After the signatures signed by the print commissioner president, and I'm not sure who else signed it by DocuSign in dot then Sent me as contract back. They said they won't use the revised newer paper contract So I sent this to Andrew got his blessing. I did skim through it and only thing I really seen that was changing It's got some more non-discrimination al-arbi Janet and it's Really about it So on this one, it is for all three commissioners to sign title and date along with the auditor. So if you guys are okay with this, this will be for the reimbursement contract for camera 26 there in Waterloo.

For the recommendation, gentlemen, entertain a motion. Move. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the new contract with NDOT. Quick question. With this one, does the old one then become non-existent? Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. You don't need to put commissioner on.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, just sign. One of the

First spot, buddy. Assault situation.

Hope so. I know we were having a hard time last year. I got ours reserved.

So while you're here, you had the county road 62. Are you going to rep?

Correct, which appears that that may have been the correct location based off of what I've read and seen from what I sent you guys on. Sorry, what I sent you guys on. This computer, I need a new battery. What I sent you on Friday, I believe, or Thursday. So the cul-de-sac may have been placed in the correct location, but the vacation actually went to how it read in the legal ad in the newspaper for public notice from County Road 7 and County Road 62 westerly to the property line of what is now Hickson Sand and Gravel and that 0662 or 665, I believe. So that's where the road should have ended. Or I guess I should backtrack a little bit. That's where the right-of-way ends. The road, though, the physical road, ends, like I said in the email, smack dab in the middle of that person's property, which doesn't give them any additional road access to the edge of their property, physical road access. That's my, and I, for whatever reason, the vacation of the road was never fully completed. The cul-de-sac was to be dedicated to the county by a survey done by Compass Land Surveying. That was never completed. I contacted Angie Wallace with Compass. She says that she gave it to Hickson's and they were supposed to finalize it, sign it, notarize it, get recorded. That never happened. There were some other mistakes, I think, done along the way. For instance, the publication was done five months after. The approval was done in October of 2019. The publication was done in March of 2020.

I would have thought the publication should have been done prior so that the neighbors would know what's happening. That's the whole idea. Right. I guess it sounds like Chris and I may have the same concerns as to the process and full legality of all of that.

Yeah. I mean, I think it just either, A, we need to go through the process again or clean up where the messes are, right, get the Hickson's to sign off on that document to make the right-of-way or make the cul-de-sac the right-of-way of the county. But also then I have concerns about how does this person access fully their property. Because they want to subdivide it off, I think, and build half that. Correct. The property owners have passed away. They're in the trust right now. Like I showed you as well, the property owner wants to subdivide off the house to include two acres. And then the remaining parcel would be probably farm ground for the foreseeable future, but then potentially sell it and maybe need another buildable lot. And obviously that would constrict that person's access to just the cul-de-sac.

If you go out there and look at it, the house is sitting right in the middle of where the cul-de-sac's at. But if you go back to the west, there's plenty of room for them to put a drive in. the west side of the property to get back to the back which there is not on the correct correct where their house is there's no there's not enough room to put a road on the east side of their property right and you pretty much can't move the call sack because hickson's have already dug the road out clear up to the thing and if you Looked where how the cul-de-sac sets and you can't move it down there now because they've already dug far enough in That it wouldn't so the road is gone. The actual base of the old road is gone.

Yeah It's about five feet past the cul-de-sac and this you know, yeah and this property owner Capples was the only property owner to not sign off on the vacation of that he was unresponsive and according to the daughter who I've had conversations with and He isn't conspiracy theorist, that's not the word I wanna use, but he's hesitant to talk to government officials for whatever reason. And so when he would probably get those knocks on his door, he wouldn't answer. I'm assuming he probably didn't sign off on the certified letters that probably went to his house. But also the file itself is pretty incomplete. The file that we have, that you have is incomplete. I had Susan go back and look at the file from when it was vacated, and there's nothing in there. There should be certified mail receipts. There should be documentation on some sort of not really maybe an application, but how did we get to the point of wanting to vacate the road? I think we all understand how, but there's literally nothing.

The only thing that I can think of is, if it was done, is that it's in McKenna's records somewhere.

Which Andrew has and Rachel has. And we looked at those, and there's like nothing in there.

Didn't really have much else.

Do you have the boxes of this stuff?

We have all his old records.

I can't remember if that went to our basement.

OK. Yeah, the paper file is. We actually checked the paper files. Rachel checked the computer files we had, and then we also checked her. It's like a folder like this, but it doesn't have much more detail.

And the legal ad, the parcel number was wrong as well. It's a non-existent parcel number. So somehow it just. But I assume the address was in the legal ad.

I'd have to look at it again. No. Well, then you could argue the legal ad isn't even valid.

Theoretically. I mean, it's not there, right? The road's gone. The road's gone. Yeah, the road's gone. You can't rebuild that part and then go through the process.

But obviously, there's this extra parcel that theoretically looks buildable because there should be a road there. So how could we accomplish that for the person?

There's not room to put on the east side from where the cul-de-sac would go down, even if you'd go farther and where their house sits. There's not room to build anything. And if you go behind it, there's a pond that kind of comes around to the east side of the property. It's not a buildable lot at all, even? If you go back to the west, before you come to their driveway, as soon as you hit their property, there's plenty of room to make a road back around that way. And then you miss the pond back there, and you miss. And then they could sell off the back where they're farming now.

And it appears that's what they're wanting to do, is sell off. house between there's a barn there and then the house split that down the middle and then the barn would stay with the tillable acreage there and then the remainder would stay with the house that the daughter is planning to get in the trust.

So I don't think there's anything we need to move roads or do anything. We just need to get the legal.

Correct. Except for the fact I think that what their concern is that they've lost road frontage. Her concern is like how did the cul-de-sac get put where it was put? And obviously, we don't know that answer because y'all commissioners weren't here at that time.

But theoretically, even with the, if you assume the notice was somehow legal, cul-de-sac normally goes at the end of the road, not in the middle of somebody's property. Because otherwise, the commissioner should have vacated that extra 200 feet to do it because maybe the theory would have been back then, hey, Hickson's gravel will have been digging out more or something.

I mean, obviously, you can tell by the aerial maps, their plan is to move further south onto that property they purchased. But yes, that's...

I think the going point was they put the cul-de-sac where the last driveway is instead of having 200 feet of dead end that semis and stuff would drive past and then have to come back.

Well, and so the neighbor there to the west at... Let me put the address point up. Meet Kobyl. Yeah. Yeah, Kobyl's does get a lot of semi-truck traffic because Google hasn't been updated, and MapQuest or whatever you use hasn't been updated. So he does get a lot of traffic that comes through and uses his driveway as a turnabout, apparently because the cul-de-sac isn't big enough. trucks to make a U-turn there. So there's that concern that, and I'm hearing this secondhand from Capple's daughter, who is the trustee of the trust.

So a lot of cul-de-sacs are just big enough for a pickup truck or a car to turn around.

Yeah, but I mean even the trucks these days that Amazon uses are, some of them are bigger than a, you know, pickup truck. So anyway, I don't know how to fix this problem. I'm just bringing it to you guys. I don't have the answer. I think at minimum, we need to get Hickson's to sign off on that. I don't even know what they're calling it.

It was done so many years ago, I think it's hard for someone to complain about it now. you know, seven years later.

Except for the fact that they're dealing with a trust that's messy.

Well, the other thing is, I mean, maybe there's a way to have, so one possibility would be to get the, get Hickson's to sign off on the cul-de-sac.

then help the trust figure out how best to get it right away and sell the driveway I think isn't the issue for what they're wanting to do now I think their concern is what happens in the future when whoever purchased this property doesn't actually have a physical road going to the edge of their property as it probably should be then we could we could vacate

Do you think they'd be in favor? Would they want us to vacate that 200 feet? I could ask. Maybe if you could ask, we could do a new vacation for that last 200 feet. That might solve at least the record problem. Because there's 200 foot of road that you're theoretically servicing that doesn't exist.

I think by the way their farm ground lays and which would be on the west side of their west and south looking to chop it off where you said I don't see any reason to extend try to re-extend the road or there's nothing if they cut off that corner and come between the house and that barn and keep that as one piece then if we put a if they would put a driveway on the west side of their property that dumps right into the Agricultural grounds.

That's what their plan is. And they're supposed to be staking that and getting it to them. So they don't need that 200 feet for driveway anymore?

It's not going to do that.

No, but I think it's the principle of the fact that the road was taken from the physical road was taken out from them. So they lost access to the edge of their property via a physical road. I think that's the concern. It's not that do they use it or not. It's the principle of it. And part of that is the dad was not responsive to these. communications that Jim McKenna had with all these property owners. I don't know if we solved that problem legally. And I don't know is there a legal, and this is what I asked, is there a legal reason if we would go vacate another road, do all those property owners need to sign off on that and agree to the vacation? Or can the county just vacate the road? I don't think you have to have every property owner ring.

I mean, I can look that up.

that I Just don't see how the way the I mean I realize it's not they need to clean up the paperwork But the way it's designed.

I don't think it hurt the property value at all You know probably not At first I thought they had to have their driveway there on that 200 feet

I thought so, too.

The original conversation was, I thought it was- I'm not as concerned about it if they've got a way to do their driveway, because that- A new driveway. And be able to use their property, so that's good. The 200 foot of road, it might be on your, that 200 foot theoretically is on your road, you have a list of roads, your road inventory.

Inventory?

Yeah.

Maybe.

But it doesn't exist. Well, and that's the thing, too, is for whatever reason, The road was still technically in your inventory via GIS. The process never followed the right procedures to trickle down to all the correct offices. And that's a concern too. I'm looking up the vacation document that I sent everybody to see. what our ordinance might require as far as vacation.

Well, I'll do my due diligence research as well, and maybe create a master checklist going forward so that we can try to have all our ducks in a row for the next vacation.

I would think if we have to do anything, we could help them with the new driveway, because that's really what they want. They want a way to get around the house. And they're going to have to put another driveway in.

And it sounds like there's a way to do that.

Either way, they would have to.

I guess we can decide whether or not you want to try to vacate that last 200 feet or not, just to clear up the record. Does that probably make sense from your standpoint in the highway department?

I mean, it would. GIS and all that. Especially if we got to go through and clean this up, it would be nice just to go ahead and vacate that 200 feet. But it's not even there.

Right. The physical road is not there, but there's technically still... On the record, it looks like it still exists.

Hickson's have dug all the stone and stuff off of it, so it's...

So I'll look into that. I mean, basically it would be a new vacation of just that 200 feet. Do we already have a survey of that from Angie Wallace, that 200 feet?

No, just all the sack portion.

Does the property owner need to?

We would get their input and give them notice before we do that. You said you would, you'd be able to- I'm going to call her and talk to her about if she- See if they're okay with that. I think we need to do it though, because the road doesn't exist and we needed to get it off GIS and our inventory. It just happened.

I mean, technically it's not there up to that property line, but it's still there for the remaining.

to the end of the edge of the cul-de-sac right we wouldn't want to do any vacation maybe more than might have to have Asked Angie did survey off exactly where the road ends my foot beyond the cul-de-sac. I think Terry's Okay I'll make a note to pursue working on that and

I don't know what's going on with this laptop.

We want to work with the property owner as much as possible on that.

And that's why I thought if we just say that we agree that the way you were talking about cutting the house off, you really need a driveway in the west side of the property anyways, then they wouldn't use their main driveway to their house. They're not losing anything. Right. If they're going to go around the house, they're going to have to have another driveway anyways.

Yeah, and I think that drive would come off of the cul-de-sac somewhere.

Right at the very start of it.

We need to table this until the next meeting because of research.

Well, we'll bring it back, I think, if she doesn't. want to vacate it, or she's not for vacating it, my personal opinion would not to do it. You can let us know what you find out. Yeah, I would let her know that we're at least going to get that. It appears the cul-de-sac, the commissioners approved the placement of the cul-de-sac. That just needs to get recorded. So someone needs to get Hickson's. I don't know if you've got a good relationship with them or not, but someone's got to be able to call Hickson's and say, this was not finished back in 2019. You need to sign this and get it recorded. Is this something that Andrew has to draw up or something that you... It's already done. The document is there to already split off and dedicate that portion to the county. It was done in 2019. All it has to do is be recorded. Be signed, notarized, and recorded by Vixens, which are they all still around?

I think Bobby's the executor of it.

I think Bobby's laying... It's still an active gravel pit.

Correct, but let me see who had to sign it.

Are you talking about this one?

No. Yes, that's what we're talking about, but that's not the form that they...

It doesn't say they did sign this.

It's a Raymond A. and Joan H. Hickson.

Yeah. Will Raymond sign the contract?

Right, but are they still alive is my question. Well, whoever succeeds, the current owner should be able to still sign. So then Angie is going to have to do some work to revise this document? Potentially, yes.

Yes.

She will, because it's saying that they are the owners currently. And if they're not, then OK. We could, I mean.

We could reach out to capitals and see what would make them happy. That's what I'm going to do. The grandpa died, and the granddaughter is the one who's going to move into the house.

Correct. And they need to split off that two acres for her. And then they're going to retain the farm ground that's to the west and south. So if they're OK with it, yeah. They don't know what their plans are with it. For right now, the daughter and her husband are going to retain ownership.

they don't know how long or if they will um it would just i mean it's just going to make them if they know that they can put the driveway in and stay off there you know stay off their two acres then that would even from the farming aspect of it it would help yeah so we'll come back when we have answers i don't want to do it to the next meeting because i might not have anything yet thank you very much we'll bring you back thank you ben chris andrew

Always nice to go back and have to fix things. That's okay. Yep.

Do you have anything else for me?

No, I just thought it important to be part of this conversation. No, that's fine. I greatly appreciate you sticking around. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. 9 o'clock, Mr. Lane. Actually, after 9.

Good morning. I believe you guys got sent to you quotes for the roof here at the courthouse.

Yes.

So me and Kellen talked about it, and I got a quote to do all of it, and I got a quote to do half one year and half the next year. I think the quote came back in that we should just go ahead and take care of it all at one time.

Was that the $45,000 quote?

Yes.

All of it? For all of it. OK. I misunderstood. I thought it was three different quotes added together on top.

When Larry and I were initially talking about it, we figured it would come in higher. So we were trying to split it out over two years. But if it's under 50, you can do what is best there.

And the only thing in there that he didn't know how much a lift was going to cost He did call me back because we had to measure it to see how far it was. And he said 3,000 for the lift. So that would be added on to that 45. And we have used this company before. They did the 220 building, which is the health department building. They did an excellent job on it.

It just concerned me a little bit how many times they put in there that they're not responsible for cracking the sidewalk. I mean, I understand that they don't want to be, but if you're setting yourself free of not repairing, you're not going to be near as careful about staying off sidewalk if you're not going to get charged for cracking.

Yeah. Well, and I've had pretty heavy lifts on that. that sidewalk.

That was my only concern, just that they tried their best to stay off of it and not crack it. Use boards when they got a drive on it and stuff like that. Other than that, it looked good to me. I'll make a motion to go ahead and fix the roof while we have somebody ready.

I'll second. We have a motion and a second to accept the contract to repair the Roof, totally.

For just clarification, it's Black Creek Builders for $48,500.

I have a motion and a second. Any other questions or discussion? Anyone in the audience? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. Thank you. Appreciate you getting those for me. Yep.

I'll get you the sign.

Okay. Anything else?

Just so everybody knows that, I mean, this is a repair from people that we've worked with before. It's why we didn't get three bids and all that stuff. They've done it in the past for us and done good work. It's a repair job, not a construction job.

When's the start date, roughly, they said? He acted like he could get on it pretty quick. Before the snow starts flying. Yeah. Anything else while I'm here?

No. Thank you.

OK. For the courthouse stuff. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Mr. Meeks, you're here. Do you wish to go early? Good morning, sir.

Good morning.

You know I'm kidding. I'm kidding for the record. Where is yours, sir?

Okay, thank you. So I've got a prepared statement for a proposal on behalf of the courthouse security committee. So what we have here is four recommendations. These four recommendations were decided by the courthouse security committee. We had a pre-courthouse security assessment performed by Sheriff Dowdell from Indianapolis. And these recommendations are a result of a 31-page report and then also the Courthouse Security Committee meeting discussions that we've had since June of 2025 when this group was formed. Down below, it has a list of the Courthouse Security Committee members. And on that Courthouse Security Committee, it's Commissioner Terry Yard, Council President Dave Yard, Judge Patrick Jessup, Sheriff Brady Thomas, Prosecutor Neil Blythe, Clerk Dana Hedrick, Police Chief Corey Heffelfinger, and myself. I'd like to mention that we had already completed some of the recommendations included in this report, some of the lower hanging fruit that were things that we could do internally with no cost. And we've already taken care of some of those projects as a result of that security assessment. Then as a committee, we went through the report and we separated everything by things that we thought were immediate needs. Looking at the 2026 year, again, this all started in June of 2025. So the latter part of 2025, we started going through the list of recommendations and we wanted to separate them by immediate goals, which were earmarked for 2026, preferably. And then one to three year goals, which would be short term things and then things that we weren't going to address at this time or long longer term with a strategic plan. The four projects listed in order by the courthouse security committee with financial estimates and these these are price estimates. So when we got them, some of the prices may have changed a little bit due to the time lag that we've had when we first started talking about this and started getting the quotes the present day. because some of these projects took a while to gather the information. And I'm going to refer to these projects by number so we don't openly communicate our courthouse security gaps. So as you see on your sheet, we have number one in the cost for that project was estimated at forty six thousand nine eighty two. Project number two, the estimate was four thousand seven hundred forty eight dollars with a six hundred fifty dollar annual monitoring fee. Number three was $8,768.56. And number four, the price estimate has changed a little bit due to some of the project and where it's went. But that was originally estimated around $60,000. We're not sure how accurate this number is because the sheriff has part of this project and then Commissioner Dooley and Larry have worked on another part of this project. But I will mention that the one part of the project that Commissioner Dooley and Larry's working on, there's recommendations from the Indiana Department of Child Services. If we do that project, there's recommendations that they suggest that we follow to ensure that they maintain their integrity within their office. So with that being said, this is our proposal on behalf of the Courthouse Security Committee. If there's any questions or comments, I would be more than happy to try to answer them the best I can. We also have Larry, the Sheriff, Commissioner Dooley here to address some of those questions also.

So number four is going to be $69,000 instead of $60,000. That includes the Title IV-D thing and the front part. So that's two sections. $69,352.15.

So are the recommendations from the DCS or Title IV-D? DCS. DCS, not Title IV-D. Alan, what was that, 69 and what?

$69,352.15.

We need to add 9,000 to the bottom line, correct?

The number four. Yeah, if you want to do the, yeah, to the bottom. Submitted total. Yeah. And Susan, we have 30,000 in the courthouse security budget, correct? Number four does get split up into two different parts. The first part is $31,789.18. That's the part that is for Brady. And then the other part is $37,563. That's the part for Title IV-D. I'll explain that here in a second when Susan's right. $25,000 for next year's budget, too, or just what's next year's budget also. This year is $25,000. What's next year's? The proposed for next year, I guess.

You know, you didn't put any in your . I don't remember that.

We put that all into one fund, didn't we?

Did we just move it into the courthouse? Anyways. My appeal is to break this up into a couple of different sections. Section 2 and 3, I believe, should come out of the courthouse budget. That's building sections. I would say half of 4, the $37,563 for Title IV-D, that should come out of the courthouse budget, which would be $51,079.56. $51,079. 56 cents would be the total of having two three and half of four into it come out of Larry's courthouse budget because that's all going to be courthouse things to me I would use the $25,000 for the rest of four in my opinion I think four is more important than one I know the committee is saying one is more important to them but I think four is more important down there for reasons I There's security reasons I'm not going to talk about here in the meeting, but that's just how I feel about it. And then number one, they can go to the council and ask for the general, or they can wait till next year and use whatever is budgeted for this courthouse security for next year is my opinion on it. So if you need me to go through that again, I can.

25 for now. We moved it to a county general.

I've talked to Larry about it. He was OK with that conversation. So that was kind of my recommendation on it. So I can go over that again since we're kind of using a lot of numbers. Don't let you real quick.

Just so I understand, I guess the public as well. We're using the 25,000 that's already designated this year for two and three and half of four, right?

No. So two, three, and half of four are going to be out of Larry's budget of the courthouse.

He's got- Isn't that what the 25,000 is?

No, that's a separate thing. The 25,000 is just for courthouse security.

Okay.

This is coming out of Larry's courthouse budget. That's my misunderstanding. Yep. Then- And then the rest of four comes out of- The courthouse maintenance. No, out of the courthouse security fund of the 25,000.

We have lighted for this year.

Yep, and I want to increase that the other 7,000 to cover the remaining because it's 31,000 for that section We had 25 budgeted we'd have to increase it another 7,000 out of our lighted you cover the rest of that out And then section 1 That would be, if they want, I'm fine with them doing it, but they have to go to the council and ask for the money out of the general, or we can use it next year for the courthouse security stuff that we would do for next year. Does that make sense? I know it's kind of a lot of moving parts there. Overall, I'm fine with everything. I just want to, what pools of money it's coming out of is my opinion.

I've been to one security meeting, and if they came in with these four requests in order of how they would like to see them done for security reasons, I don't know that we can skip over number one.

We're not. I'm fine with number one. I'm just having them go to the council and ask for that money. Because number four, because some of the equipment that's in four is going to be no longer good, that needs to be replaced and taken care of quickly, versus this can wait a little bit if need be. without getting into details in the public meeting. You were in it long before I was. That's my opinion on it. I'm for all four of it. Jason and I have talked about this. I'm for all four. I'll approve all four of it. It just depends on what pots of money it's coming out of is how I want to organize it, if that makes sense.

And I definitely think we need to move forward on it somehow. And it sounds like you have it figured out.

Do you have any questions? I know it's a lot of

That makes sense. There was the one part I did not understand, and I got some clarification there, so.

And then I want to have Brady come up for a second and just say that the equipment in Section 4 is no longer being supported, correct? Yeah, just to clarify that, so. Without getting into too many details about it, yeah.

when it comes to the number four that you guys are speaking about I do agree with Commissioner Dooley that there's no longer support for that there weren't a predicament with that so I agree with you and that's why I'm wanting to move that get that done quicker and make sure that's getting the funded right away thank you for validation number two three and four half a floor cupboard

This year to start those projects two three and half of four will be taken out of Larry's budget the title four section of it and then the other half the Custer section of Title four will come out of our lighted funds is what I make my motion I'm making and then one they'll have to go to The council and get the money for it if they want to have done this year If not, we will do it next year when we have that in our budget We could start

Project 2, 3, and 4. If it's approved, we could start project 2, 3, and 4 now, and then go to council for number one.

And ask for the funding on that. And if not, then next year we'll take care of that. That's my motion.

So you're turning all that into a motion?

Yes. That was a motion. That was my motion. All right.

I'll second his motion.

It's hard without explaining to me because of the security aspects of it.

Just so we get clarification on what the motion actually is. The motion is to do projects number two and three completely. Correct. And half of four. I'll do it this way.

I'll do it this way and make it a little easier.

How about I just read it?

Thank you.

Kellyn motion to do projects number two, three, and half of number four that will come out of the courthouse general fund budget. And the other half of number four will come out of lighted courthouse security account that currently has $25,000 and would like to add the $7,000 to fund those projects. Kellyn is also in favor of all four projects, but would like to see the committee go to the council to request funding for project number one.

And we have a second we have motion in a second Any more questions or comments from commissioners? You sir anyone in the audience Hearing no one all in favor signify by saying aye aye Opposed motion carries three to zero Thank you for your work.

Well, then I think we the name another motion to accept the actual contract for title feeding 4d then correct I

We just got it on Friday, so but we just got it on Friday.

Yeah, did you send that to Andrew Larry? That's the construction company that would do the title for these We had a couple other ones that just didn't respond back. So when we tried getting multiple quotes on it. So you tried to get the three quotes? It's 31,000, so it's under the 50 anyways. But we tried getting a couple of different companies, and it was just too. Which is always wise in a big project.

It was just too small of a project for a lot of them, they said, pretty much. It's not really worth their time, they said.

I won't say the company names, but that's basically what we were told. Right, Larry?

Pretty straightforward estimate for doing various items. It doesn't really have a lot of detailed contract language that would, other than they have to do the work, and I don't have a problem with that.

Do I have to make a motion to accept that? I think so, absolutely. Have that back for a second, Susan. I'm trying to make your job as easy as possible right now, but I'm not doing a very good job. Please, thank you. So I want to accept the Shawnee Construction Engineering for $26,790. They're going to work in conjunction with Atlas, who is going to deal with the marble part of it. This is going to deal with the reconstruction stuff. Atlas's if you want come up and explain it later a little bit But Atlas is going to deal with the restoration of the marble.

We have to move some marble around downstairs and Atlas is going to do the model marble part and also do the cutting of the opening So and then they're going to come back Atlas will come back and put the marble back over the opening around the opening so it'll look like It was there forever

And Atlas' cost is $10,773. So combined, it equals that $37,563. I'd make a motion to accept Atlas and Shawnee's proposals.

Second. Motion and a second to accept. Can we do both contracts at the same time?

Does Atlas have the same project? It's the same project because they're working together on the same project.

Did they have a separate letter from Atlas or anything?

Yeah, I have something from Atlas, too.

I mean, it's the same project. I think you can vote to approve both at the same time since it's the same project. Make sure. Pardon?

He just looked at me. He knows he's looking at me.

We have a motion and a second to accept the two contracts combined for the same project. Any other questions or comments, commissioners? You're OK? Just that.

Sure. I know Larry got the recommendations Indiana Department of Child Services, and then 4D, and as long as they're- Yeah, and Shawnee knows about it.

We've talked to Shawnee about it. They understand that they're going to work with Title IV-D and make sure everything's good with it.

So in other words, the recommendations of one of the agencies isn't going to cause a problem for the other agencies, is that what we're talking about? What the DCS wants isn't going to cause a problem with what we're doing for Title IV-D.

Correct.

No, they won't have.

Nope. Just thought I'd ask.

No, fair question. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts to this. This is why it's been kind of a fun little adventure together. Okay. So, but yes, they will, Shawnee knows about the recommendations. They're going to work closely with Title 40 to make sure that all those recommendations are in. But we want to get the ball started and then they're going to start working with them on it.

Is there anyone in the audience has any questions or concerns? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. There's one more thing now. I know. That Shawnee contract.

Okay, I was going to say, I need one of the Shawnee contracts.

A young man has them for you. Thank you.

Look at you.

Is that both of them? Yeah, both of them.

Right. There's a piece of equipment that needs to be ordered, Andrew. There's a what? A piece of equipment to be part of. This other part of part four is a scanner that needs to be ordered. Do we need to make an approval on that too then, right?

I would, especially, yeah, to approve ordering it from whatever particular company you're going to order it from. Brady, you want to come up and talk about that, please?

The bag scanner?

One of the components to one of these changes is the addition of a baggage. It's blue right now. Is it supposed to be blue? Okay. Is the addition of a baggage scanner for the entryway so that we have that tool to use? I don't know how much more you want me to elaborate on that.

Okay.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second to allow Sheriff Brady Thomas to go ahead and order the machine that is needed for this project. Any other questions or comments? I'm sorry. Anyone in the audience? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero.

do have a question for number one yes on the list so if we're looking at doing it the first of the year would it be okay with you guys if I talk to them and try to get them scheduled on a schedule because I don't know what kind of schedule their timeline they're gonna be on okay

But a timeline would be good because if it's not gonna happen this year, there's no need to ask for an additional.

So, you see what I'm saying? That I could get it, try to figure out if they could do it this year or make sure that they're ready for next year. Okay, I'll see what I can do.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

So, Kellen, what you just sent me, all those attachments are for the same thing?

No, just the back scanner.

Those are the two we're dealing with. I honestly can't even tell you.

I'm sorry?

Because I believe you only did the Alice and Shawnee. The bag. I don't think you did the other.

So we do need one more. We need everybody. No, we're fine. So to do Brady's part of part four, he needs to hire a company called Custer. I make the motion to accept Custer's Let me double check. We'll get you real quick. Hold on. Hold on. Let me redo that. I just talked to the sheriff 111 design is the company that he's going forward is actually the cheaper of the two options The total of fourteen thousand three hundred and eleven dollars and thirty two cents Which number is that under that would be number four that sprays part of number four. Okay, so actually I think some of those numbers were off and I think I had the wrong I We'll get it all clear.

Have we seen that contract? I don't remember.

It was sent to us a while ago when this was all initially started. So I can send it to you guys right now. I thought you guys had at least these ones because that section of Brady's hasn't changed in a while. But I'll send it to you guys now. We were kind of working on the second part of part four. That's what a lot of the legwork was with. So I'll send it to you guys now. He did get a couple of quotes and talked to him. But 111 is the one that's been working the best with them customer service wise and cheaper. And that's the one he highly recommends us to go with.

Oh. Or.

Yeah, I do, actually.

You can come sit up here if you want. Is it 21,450?

The bag scanner is, yeah, that's the bag scanner.

And then the 111 is?

That's the one you want is the 111. We've missed that one, so.

Is the $14,311.32.

That's correct. Right, Brady?

Right here. We had attempted to get three quotes for this project. The third one never returned any information. It is a relatively small project in the scope of what they do. So I think that's kind of why we never heard back on the third one. The second one was, came in just a, if I remember correctly, just a little bit higher than the first company that we had been working with for a while, which is 111 Design. If you look at the quotes, that second quote shows a little bit higher, but that's because 111 Design, okay, that's what I have here, yeah. The second quote, I'm sorry, the first quote from 111 design has the cost in it to dismantle the current system that's there, which is about $3,500, roughly. The second quote does not have that. That's why it reflects a difference there. But when you deduct that amount, they're, if not less, very comparable. And then Larry's going to dismantle it for us. So that cost is out. Yeah. And didn't know that at the beginning. I was just going to get it in the quote to have it dismantled. And then it was determined maintenance would do that. So that's why there's the difference in those quotes.

We're going to have to have additional entrances opened. How long is the project going to work closed?

Now that we are able to move forward with it, we'll start on some of the planning and the logistics of the timeline. Everything will have to be done in a certain order, but I don't believe that we'll need to open a separate entrance for that time. But we'll drill down a little bit further now, but my anticipation is to be able to just continue as we are while this happens.

Any other questions about it? Okay, so I will make the motion to accept 111 design minus the demolition and removal services of the contract to go forward with this overall security core house project.

Is that number then, do you have it or not?

I have to subtract, hold on, give me a second.

3,000, the amount that we're deducting is 3,673.33. Yep. Hold on.

Do the math over here.

10,673.

What is it?

10,637. Yeah.

They're very comparable to the other.

Second. I have a motion and a second to accept the contract as presented for $10,637.99, correct? Any other questions or comments? Anyone from the audience? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried, 3-0. Anything else, Commissioner, on this?

I believe I'm good at this. Brady and I have been working on this for three or four months now, trying to come up with a solution that's a great long-term solution at a very reasonable price. So we've cut a lot of costs in one area, which then increased costs in others. But I think overall, this strategy will be a really good spread to the public and for the building. So I appreciate that, Brady.

Sir, would you like to come forward? Do you have something? OK.

What was your last name?

Thank you, sir. We have a little bit of time before our 10 o'clock break. We have payroll for approval. So moved.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to accept payroll as presented. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes 3 to 0. You're caught up? Yep. OK. We have the claims for approval. So moved. I'll second. We have a motion and a second to accept the claims. Any questions or comments? Appreciate Susan answering all my questions. Did have. That's all right. 011704, new millennium infrastructure. How much was it? I didn't write it down.

What was the, would you say zero was?

0, 1, 1, 7, 0, 4. It was like three or four of them in a row that all had that same number for new millennium.

I don't know if that was.

RDC.

Yeah. Was it with the? Like was it New Millennium, SDI, and American Heritage?

Mm-hmm.

That was the one Kellen asked me about. It was a crane service for the placement of the railroad boxes at the hazmat facility here in Auburn that the Redevelopment Commission is a mean part of, I guess.

And they just split it across all three of them, so just doing it out of one district.

Because it benefits all, the whole county.

That's why it repeated three times because they separate, it was split among the three different TIF districts, the total cost. Okay. That's the same question I had for Susan too, so.

Yeah. Oh, yes. It was Doc's crane equipment. Yep. Yep. So, the county pays that?

Well, the county is not paying it out of their funds It's the redevelopment Commission's funds that are paying it when they approve what projects they want to fund But their money runs through us So like at settlement time when we have settlement any of their money that they receive gets receded into their funds here And then I pay for their invoices Those were just the pass-through annotations

Pretty much. Thank you.

Was that it?

011710. Ferris Management Group, $2,938.77. Oh, that is the

The tax sale properties that, was it last meeting? I don't know, either last meeting or the meeting before, I discussed that there were three Auburn parcels that went to sale and shouldn't have, and so this is us refunding them for their money that they had into it.

Susan's been working with me on that, and the City of Auburn, and since it was a mistake My understanding is that Susan's mistake had happened years prior to her time as the auditor, the original.

I think I was four when it happened.

There you go, so.

It was in the 80s.

Not Susan's mistake. And in the end, what we're planning to do, I think if Susan agrees to it, is Rachel in my office is getting it directly to the city, because that's what it should show up. This money then repays the buyer. I think we should be, as a county, we're very thankful to the buyer for being willing to. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Anyone from the audience? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. We have the minutes for approval. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the minutes. Any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. Is there a title signature?

That is a Durango that was in a it's going to be a total loss, so we need to make a motion and approve you to sign the title so that the sheriff's department can send it to the insurance and get rid of it and get a new vehicle.

I move. Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the- To approve- The sale of the-

You're signing the title, to approve the president to sign the title of the 2024 Dodge Durango that was in.

Okay, any questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Motion carried three to zero. The Brightly software discussion, can we go ahead and table that until next meeting? Which one? The Brightly software discussion that I was bringing. The contract that they did send us was only from April. It was from August to August. So I have them reaching out to give us a quote for the last couple of months. So that way it's a calendar year to calendar year. So that way it's easier for Larry to budget going forward and stuff like that. She did send it to me, but not in a PDF. So I wasn't able to open it up on Friday and get it to you guys. But unless you want to have some conversation with Andrew about some of the contract wording there, I'm okay with waiting until the next meeting.

So you'll email it to me to review?

Yeah, it's just she's going to add the cost of that extra couple months that goes calendar year to calendar year. So that way for budgeting purposes, we don't have to go from August to August, which would create all kinds of problems.

We have a little bit of time. So Andrew, didn't you have some issues with it? Okay.

You're talking about with Brightly? Yeah. Okay. Let's see. Yes. So that's the, is this the asset? Yes.

Okay. It's the one that we currently use for the sheriff's department. Okay. Just using it for this.

So it looks like what happens is we give them all the data. They put it into their system. But we have to gather the data. They're not going to come into our computer systems and gather the data. But I think we already know that. I believe so, yes. OK. And future items of equipment, we just plug into the software ourselves when we buy it. There was language about Siemens is allowed to use AI in the performance of its work, and we waive any liability for that. I have no idea what the risk of that would be, and it may not be very much risk at all. Basically, there's no way to necessarily get out of this early, but if you're putting all the information Probably not going to want to get out of it early. So I'm fine with it.

How can they not be held responsible if their AI goes awry and causes us damage?

Well, if we agree to it in a contractual form. Or we could say, no, we don't agree to that language. Take it out. So basically, it would be their AI coming in and somehow using information that violates. So what they're trying to do is probably prevent themselves from being sued for violating trademark. I bet more companies are going to start adding in paragraphs like this. This is the first one I've seen, I think, on any of these, but with AI uses certain types of AI will go out and scrape the internet for stuff and will capture trademarked and copyrighted items and use it as part of their AI. There's lawsuits being done on that. I doubt that if they somehow use AI that it'll scrape through our systems or anything. I'm not super concerned about it. And we could ask Basa to see what his concern is, I guess, would be, because I don't know enough of the, whether there's a risk to that.

I don't know. With AI, I think I agree with you. I think it's just to cover their butts, because I think with AI being so new and stuff, I think just putting word in to make sure that they're the ones not getting in trouble for if something does happen. That's what I see. You would have to still prove it. Even if they take it out, we still have to prove that it was their AI that caused the damage to us, you know what I mean? And that's always a hard thing to do anyways when it comes to corporate. So I mean, I can ask him if that's what you want. I mean.

I would.

OK. If you want to rewrite that section, I'll send it to her, off to her. Yeah, I'd like to send it to her. I mean, it's going to hurt to ask.

Yeah. Eight minutes.

Any other questions that you want me to ask her on that? Andrew, you good? Is that the only thing you were concerned about? That was the only thing that I had concern about, yes. So I'll follow up with her on that, get you the new proposal for you guys to look it over, make sure Andrew's good with it, see if we can get that wording changed on it, and I'll bring it to the next CE.

Yeah, I hate to be a stickler about, but people have to be, with AI stuff, they've got to be responsible for their own Tough.

Yeah, I mean, there's no real good reason to say why we should be responsible for their, you know, they should control their own AI.

They should put the diligence ahead to control their own AI, not just say, well, it happens that you're you guys' problem.

You just want to give me the wording that you're okay with, or just what you want out of it, Andrew? Well, yes. Basically, I'm going to try to find. If you just want to send it to me in an email, then that way I can forward it on to theirs. Yep. Because they'll be two lawyers, because they'll respond back and let you guys just talk to each other. I'll be the middle man. I'll locate the contact. Yeah, I prefer not to do that.

I don't blame you.

Are we ready for a break then? Yeah, I think we can take a break. I'm good. This time we'll be in recess until 10.15.

This is the updated contract with Brightly. And I'm saying to you guys, too, so that you guys will have the new numbers for end of this year and next year. We're on.

Okay, ready gentlemen? Yep. Yeah, you better hide. We'll call this commissioner meeting back to order. It is 1015, if Kimberly? Good morning, is that, can you?

Yeah, I got her.

All right, thank you.

Got it, you're welcome. all righty um for the past quarter uh for dart we had nine drivers employed uh three were full-time six are part-time we are currently in the process of trying to bring on one driver to meet the county needs we completed sending two drivers for our random drug and alcohol program we didn't have any issues with this all the results came back negative for them no reportable accidents in second quarter and then I'm brought up I think it was last year that we were working on getting our vans decaled we were able I solidified the grant for all of our low floors. Our low floor minivans, they have all been decaled. The solid color, there are solid color wraps around the body. I don't know if you guys have seen them out on the road yet. But I also sent Susan a picture of it in the agenda for you guys in color if you want to look at it that way. you haven't seen them I have gotten good feedback on them I personally really like them it was nerve-wracking picking out the color I had me and my team you know putting colors on the vans and we're trying to figure out which color would be more like the best suitable for Auburn being seated here with dart but good feedback some of the drivers don't like them but I felt like it really makes them stand out in our County like you can see them a lot quicker Other than that overall second quarter it was pretty quiet. Probably the biggest thing I'm struggling on is trying to get a driver. You know meeting the wage demand and for what we do there's a lot more than just driving with passenger assistance and meeting the needs of the county with typewriters. You'll see the data in front of you for quarter two of 26. We did 4,039 rides. We were up from quarter two from 25, so that was good. Other than that, I just need the second quarter invoice signed, and if you guys have any questions for me.

Gentlemen. Good.

Second. We have a motion and a second to accept the- Quarter two DART. Quarter two DART invoice is presented. Any other questions or comments? Anyone in the public? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carried three to zero. Thank you very much for coming.

Thank you.

Lou. You want to come, sir? Thank you.

So Tina Craft sent an email to the commissioners about, I think it was just maybe Miller. Mr. Miller about vacating. This subdivision was called Orangetown Original, right? Like it's part of an actual platted community that is obviously not incorporated. There's no town council. There's nothing like that. It's just homes along County Road 75A. And I think that's County Road 69, I believe, on kind of the northern corner.

If you bring it up. Yeah, if you bring it up on your map.

Anyway, these portions of the town are what has not been vacated, presumably by another entity. I'm assuming that these were old alleyways that just never got developed. Obviously, as you can see, there are structures that are within properties that are technically right of way that is owned by the county. So Tina has presumably three quarters of her house on property that she doesn't own. And this is on the one that looks like this. Obviously you can see Tina's email, or her email, her name there on properties that she owns. But then also on the other page there, the Ronald Van Camp has looks like garages and other accessory structures there that are on properties that he doesn't own. How that got permitted? Who knows?

Who knows?

But Tina's requested that the commissioners go through a plat vacation or not plat, but an alley or roadway right of way vacation for this. I met with Andrew about it last week, just talking to him about kind of what the process is. It's not simply as we've discussed with County Road 62. It's simply not just we approve it and it's done. There are surveys that would need to get completed. There's title work that we would need to get completed. Properties get split in half, obviously. So there would be multiple legal descriptions that would need to get written for this as well. And the reason for that is that there are multiple parcels there. So for instance, for the Ronald Van Camp, you wouldn't just do one single legal description for that. There would have to be a legal description for each parcel for each half of the right-of-way that they would Potentially acquire right so same with with with mrs. Kraft that would get split in half and there would be one two three four five six seven eight new parcels that would have to be created and new legal descriptions that would happen Correct yep all those are separate parcels So it's a lot of work and then theoretically like Jeffrey and Barbara Parker might get a

Half of that one strip of down at the bottom right side. Do you see where I'm going?

Correct.

Yep. Sorry, I didn't see that one. Yep. So you'd want to make sure there's a survey that protects Tina Craft's whatever that structure is that's there, whether it's a barn or a shed or something. Yeah. I just don't know what that is. If it's a couple feet on the side of Parker's, I doubt it. But if it is, she'd want to make sure that she does a deal with them to get that.

There'd be some sort of easement that would be required or she would have to move it. off of the property.

I can mention that Jeffrey Parker has said to me before, anything on my side of the creek would be mine, even though it's his property. So I know he's not going to have a problem with anything.

That's good to know. But it's also something that has to be worked out, you know, through the process. Yeah.

So... And I know the heirs next to me, they have 10 parcels and they're kind of looking to do the same thing. If what I do doesn't, you know, justify what they need done too, so...

Yeah, so I think part of it is the county should look at this, the county commissioners should look at this wholly to fix the problem, right? That somehow over the years, the county has also let people build within these alleyways. It needs to be corrected. On the other side of that, though, There's a big expense to the county to do this. There's title work that we need to get done. There's surveys that we need to get done. There's legal descriptions that we need to get written. There's deeds that would have to get created. There would be notification to surrounding property owners that would have to happen as well.

I understand that, but if we mess it up, we've got to fix it. I mean, we allowed them to build on these. It should have been caught at that time, so it's for us to fix it at this point. That's my opinion on it.

And like you said, three-quarters of my house is on a road.

Must not be a very busy road.

Exactly.

Yeah, I mean, I guess I don't know how that would have happened whenever the original house was built. Somebody should have looked at it. Does Tina, whoever, I don't know if you had the house built originally or somebody else. Whoever had the house built originally is going to have to typically make sure they own the property before they build the house on it. But it could have been something that slipped through the cracks.

This case has slipped through multiple times.

It probably slipped through multiple times. Like banks are very sensitive to these sort of things. And nowadays, I think if there was somebody got a mortgage on the property, they'd probably catch that.

I don't know. So those looks like those houses were probably built prior to planning and zoning requiring of permits. So there's no improvement location permit dot on our beacon site that shows that there were any permits given for Tina's house or the heirs house. OK. Odds are that house has been there for a long, long time.

1920 is what it says, but who knows.

So there were no permits. So there's that.

So like the county didn't necessarily make a mistake. It was just that somebody created Orangetown originally and then people went somewhere else to create community whether it's what is it what town is it closest to I don't know like Spencerville they would have started the town and then people would have migrated to st. Joe and Spencerville instead and they never push it through and then people just live there built their houses and live there and it was no big deal to anybody yeah it's just now that we have all these systems in place and it's online and

Notice it's caught and it has to be cleaned up to help people be able to sell their homes in the future So yeah, this would be I mean these would be issues that Especially now and Tina's probably owned this house for how long? Okay, so yeah now people on Planning Commission have heard Mortgage companies these days are having a heck of a time with with properties like this especially if she would go sell the house and someone needs a mortgage and The bank may not give a loan on this property because 3 quarters of it is on property that they don't own. So we get that a lot with banks calling us about non-conforming structures, structures that are built too close to property lines or within an easement. And they have to go to the Board of Zoning Appeals to get that approved so the bank can say, yes, we have a legal conforming lot to sell here. It would help clean that up. It would get these properties back on tax roll as well. Obviously, there's some sort of acreage here that will get back on tax roll. My concern is that the expense is going to be for the county to do this work. It's going to be some money. So usually, the context that, oh. I don't know how much. I mean, you'd have probably money for title work. Surveys themselves, I mean, that could be. We're probably looking at one of our people here just did one. So it's probably, what, $3,500, $4,000, $5,000 for a survey. But you're doing individual surveys here for each. PARCEL. YOU'RE PROBABLY LOOKING AT AN OVERALL BOUNDARY SURVEY AND THEN SOME WORK INSIDE THERE. I WOULD BUDGET $10,000 FOR A SURVEY AND THEN I WOULD BUDGET PROBABLY $1,000 FOR TITLE WORK AND I WOULD BUDGET MONEY THAT THIS IS NOT purview of the county commissioner's attorney to do this. This would be an expense on top of that.

A lot of times private attorneys are hired like the last one that was done in Waterloo that I can recall like this where they wanted to vacate an alley some people that had like a garage maybe or a propane tank in an alley but it wasn't used as an alley they all mowed it so they came in they One or two of the property owners hired, I think it was Eric Weber, to come in and create a petition and to go through the process. And actually they got a survey, so this was not the town of Waterloo spending the money, because it was just an alleyway that had it growing over and not used anymore. So a lot of times this would be a private pay thing because of the cost, but then, you know.

Well, yeah, typically someone would petition. the county to go through the process to do this and hire their own attorney and hire. Hire their own surveyor. Hire the title company to go through this process.

Chris, what did you estimate?

$1,000, I would have no idea.

I mean, I think a title search itself could be 300 maybe or something, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think they're 1,000. Okay. Title insurance could be 500 to 1,000. Okay. I always budget high and hope that we come in low. Surveys hopefully might be just a couple thousand per, I don't know. Well, you see more surveys maybe than I do. I mean, they're going to be out there, so they're going to be out there.

Right.

You might get some cost savings if there's multiple done, yeah.

I mean, that's going to add up. I mean, we just had a survey, and all they were doing was moving a line 10 feet, and it was $3,800. Yep. And the pins were already there from recent, and so... You could be talking several thousand to find the pins and move the lines and all these.

Well, they'd have to create new pins, right? So there'd be new pins in the middle of the road for, or in the middle of the road, yeah, in the middle of the right of way for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. They'd have to find, and they'd have to find the current pins that are out there. And if this town was created back in the 1900s or maybe 1800s maybe? Who knows what they're going to find, right?

It was before Spencerville was flooded, I think.

Really? Yeah. Oh, gosh. So there's a decision to make. If the county wants to do the work, I think between Andrew and I, I hate to add more stuff to my plate, but I think between Andrew and I, we could probably get a quote from a couple surveyors of what it would be to vacate this. a quote from a couple title companies, or the other option is that if Tina wants to vacate just her portion, she could petition the commissioners to just do the properties that she owns.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to piece it out, because then you're going to have some of it over here, and that's just going to be a problem down the line.

It makes sense to me that we should fix this all so that No commissioners down the road have to deal with this. Just so you're aware of the expense of it.

I think we'd have to get some sort of quote from Andrew as the county attorney. He's going to have an expense to do this because it's not part of the daily duties of being the county commissioner or county commissioner's attorney. What do you live at? No.

If that's what you want to do, that's fine. I personally would like to get some quotes and do it. I think it's the only county's responsibility to clean this up. It's just my opinion on it.

Because if we. Opinion as well that, yeah, get some quotes and I'm sorry it happened, but we need to fix it, fix it right.

OK. I mean, I'll work on that. Yeah. It won't be done fast.

OK.

But we'll work on it. I mean, this isn't going to be on the, what's that?

I said I don't plan to sell. OK. OK, good.

Because this will be in the middle of my pile of things to do, right? So I'll work on it. But this won't be done fast.

From my understanding, Orange, the town of Orange, was the first actual settlement of a town in the county.

Oh, really? Yeah. If I have my history correct. Yeah, interesting. You want to be the mayor of Orange?

There's been jokes that my neighbor is, but we just call him that.

Mr. Ayers?

Yes.

Funny, funny. Well, all right, we can do that. You guys probably want to make that into some sort of motion. OK, not yet.

I'm OK with that. We're just getting estimates right now. We're not pulling the trigger on it yet. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Will we meet again, or how will this go?

Yes, when and what I'll have- When all the- Yeah, when we get the quotes, we'll have to do it in a public meeting just like this. And can you notify her when you're going to bring the quotes back to us?

Okay, and then there'll be a public hearing, you said?

It'll be just like this, in public meeting, yeah. Okay, okay.

All right, thank you all for taking care of it.

Have a good one, Tina.

You too.

Thank you for coming. We have the 2027 holiday schedule clarification.

Sorry, Mr. President.

I was going to ask for order, but. We're going to get the clarification done for the holiday schedule. That's okay? Perfectly fine. Go ahead.

I just needed to clarify, because we added the May election day, if we were also adding the November election day, because we didn't specifically state it in the motion.

Gentlemen. What's your thoughts, Terry?

You did one. You might got to do them both.

My initial was I was thinking the November election. I said the primary day one when I was looking at it, but I meant the November one. That was on me for that. When I was pulling up it on my computer, I was looking and I was thinking the November election, but the date that was in front of me when I was pulling it up, it was the primary one. So do you wish to change it? But I'm also fine sticking with the federal guidelines and just doing whatever the federal guidelines is. It's always kind of in my stance, and I'm fine with that, too. So if you guys are OK with doing the November one, not the primary one, that's fine. If you guys just want to go back to the federal guidelines, that's fine with me, too. Either one's fine with me. Because if you add more onto it, then it kind of opens up a slippery slope of adding more and more stuff to it. So to me personally, I'm perfectly fine just sticking with the federal guidelines. Thought about it more afterwards that Susan asked me some questions clarification. I got some more information about it. So I'm the federal guideline As the federal guideline is the the holiday of the federal holiday schedule It's the one which we do except for a Columbus Day is switched for a fair day But everything else we follow correct Susan Do they have the election days off on the federal schedule? No, I don't believe so. Let me double check here. I

And I'm OK with just doing the federal as well, especially on an off year or the odd year where it's just the cities and towns as opposed to the county. So just my thought. Can you just double check something here real quick? If we're going to change it, though, we need to have a motion as such.

These are the ones that are off. And the election ones are not, which irritates me that the federal government doesn't allow their employees off for the November election.

Do you want to go back and take the election days off of?

Do you want me to clarify what the dates are then, Susan?

I think just if we're going to do the election day or not.

Well, I think if we do the federal one, they also have July 4th and July 5th off. Christmas is the 24th, 25th off. And then January 1st and the 31st off. So just making sure those are all.

Right. So Christmas, 24th, 25th.

That was a question, too, that was brought up during the conversation that I've had since we had the meeting is, are we going to pay them for that Saturday off?

That's why we.

What are we going to do Thursday, Friday?

But we did.

OK. And that's what I'm saying. If I say the federal holidays, this is what this is going off of versus what we've kind of done with. What do they have for Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving they have the 25th off, that Thursday. That's it. But we always have the Friday off too. That's why I said we probably need to clarify and go through and make sure it's all. Federal only.

Yeah. Federal only has Thursday off, yeah. So federal agencies are open on that Friday?

Yes.

My wife worked many years on Friday.

Many years. I think we should publicly go through each one of them. Yeah, I agree. Down the list so that everybody, there's a lot of, I need some definite clarification. You want me to do that? That is part of a motion, probably, yes.

You have January 1st off New Year's Day. January 18th, Martin Luther King Day. February 15th, President's Day. May 31st, Memorial Day. June 18th, is that, is have it off. July 4th, have it off. Actually, that's a Sunday, so have July 5th off. Do we want to have that Monday off? July 5th off to have a long weekend. September 6th for Labor Day. And then instead of having Columbus Day, we have Fair Day, which I don't know what that date is.

October 1st.

Okay, October 1st instead of October 11th. Veterans Day, November 11th. November 25th for Thanksgiving Day. November 26th for Thanksgiving II. And then December 24th. And then December 31st. Did I miss any?

Yeah. Good Friday.

Good Friday, yeah.

That's March 16th. No, I'm sorry, March 26th.

Okay, so Christmas. It's on Saturday.

Is that what you guys want to do? I'm fine with that. Okay, so 23rd and 24th.

So then the New Year's, we've historically always just did I think you said it first. I did.

I was just going down on this. Is New Year's Day a Saturday? Yes. OK. Then you guys want to? I'm fine not having that. Wait.

New Year's Day of 28 is a Saturday?

Yeah. Yeah.

OK.

Does it? Oh, it's only tonight's first. If that's what we want to have that day off, do you guys want to have that day off for the employees? Terry?

As our New Year's holiday.

Yeah, that's fine. Yep. OK. Oh.

Clear as mud now?

Yep.

And that's your motion. Is that correct? Correct. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second to accept the holiday schedule as presented. Any other questions, comments? Anyone from the audience? Hearing no one, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries three to zero. We have the Eastern Engineering contract.

Yeah, this was the one for the health department. And we currently have a contract with Eastern for some other departments. So Besa had reached out to Eastern Engineering, and he explained that the three we currently have are on a rental contract of 39 months. that expires this September. He said due to price increases over the past three years, he would recommend that you keep them for at least another year by letting the contract roll over. The price on a new 36 month rental has doubled since we last acquired the three that we currently have. So he is suggesting to roll over our current contract for the three and keep the health department one separate. So if you are in agreement with that, then we need to motion to approve that.

Because you had looked into it originally to see.

Make the motion.

Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve. I accept the Eastern Engineering contract for the Health Department as presented. Are there any other questions, concerns? Andrew, you're okay with it?

I believe I've reviewed it. Fine with it. You guys were just checking on that level.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other comments, questions? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Three to zero. Yes, Ms. Dana, welcome.

OK, so just to make sure, you just went to federal. We're not doing election days next year, is that correct? Correct. OK, so I just want to put it out there, the law changed last year. Sorry, I have a cold. We will not be open for business other than election business. So I just want that on record. that will mess with court, public defender, prosecuting attorney, and probation. So anything filed with us will not go through that day. We will strictly be doing election business in my office. So I just want that on record.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Mr. Bice? I believe so.

Well, good morning, commissioners. My name is Colin Bice. I'm the president and CEO of the DeKalb County Economic Development Partnership. I guess for those that don't know, we are an independent nonprofit serving the entire county with our mission to improve quality of life through responsible growth of business and industry, along with myself. Dave fry back at the office. He leads our business retention and expansion work and then along with our 14 member board Includes representation from the entire county cities towns. I know commissioner Dooley's on our board as well, but What the county has I guess the agreement before you is? is our fee-for-service contract for 2026. Just supports year-round work to retain and expand existing employers, recruit new investment, advance community development, provide planning assistance, represent DeKalb County regionally, and communicate economic development activity. But again, this is a working partnership, not a passive contribution. So I did want to make sure that's obviously documented, right? Not a passive contribution. From measurables and activity value, I guess specifically we can talk to the brownfield grant. We did secure a half million dollar EPA brownfield grant and have already put more than $160,000 to work in the county. And that's going to include environmental work at multiple sites along with the sampling and analysis plan and the asbestos assessment at the county poor farm. But this funding is going to help communities understand risk, repair properties for reuse and move difficult sites towards redevelopment. But then also what we do, existing businesses. So we've already completed over 50 business visits this year. And those conversations are going to include trying to uncover workforce, broadband, infrastructure, training, permitting, and expansion needs. So our job is basically just to serve as the connector who brings the company, local government, utilities, schools, and or state, regional resources together. um so actually one i can share one existing county employer in the non-incorporated area is currently considering a significant investment and expansion um but i can't disclose all those details right yet since the the project remains active but that is in the pipeline um and then obviously the attraction piece as well um so we've received over 60 project leads submitted to cal county for 17 opportunities and some of those leads prospects they're going to require buildings acreage square footage power that's not currently available in our county but when we do have a fit You know, we respond quickly, put the county's strongest case forward, which in case, you know, last December, one pursuit produced a site visit. And although that project did select another location, it did show, you know, how effectively our communities, utilities, partners all come together. So, and several of those submissions do remain active currently. So, yeah. I guess kind of some other key points. Our work is countywide. We serve employers inside municipalities and in unincorporated areas because jobs, payroll, supplier activity, housing demand, infrastructure, you name it, you know, affect the entire county. So we do recognize also agriculture, ag-related businesses as a major part of DeKalb County's economy and include those employers in our outreach. And then, yeah, I mean countywide economic development, you know, just requires a single point of contact that can coordinate across jurisdictional lines. And then in closing, economic development is more than sitting in an office and, you know, waiting on a ribbon cutting. It's, you know, visiting with companies, attending steering committees, writing support letters, meeting with developers, responding to leads, all the things. And while those results are not always immediately public, the activity is real and focused on the entire county. So I'm here today to respectfully ask for approval of the 2026 agreement and appreciate the county's continued partnership.

Chairman, you've heard the recommendation. Questions, concerns or motion?

Got all my questions answered so you wanna You want the motion or you want me to do it? Go ahead and motion it.

I'll make the motion. Is there a second? Second, I'll second. There's some more discussion.

Do you approve it?

Approve it, yeah. I guess some of the questions I get about what you do for us is That's gonna sound really weird is I get questions of why isn't the commissioners doing what you do? Why isn't our three of us out there doing exactly what you should be doing, what you're doing? Why are we hiring you to do that?

I mean, I would argue, I mean, it's like I said, you know, it kind of requires that single point. I mean, it's a it's a full time gig. I mean, going out there and meeting with these companies, I mean, you're going to run into no's, you're going to run into yeses. But, you know, just trying to uncover I know there was, you know, a business in our county that, you know, we meet with them and they're trying to do a planned expansion and uh there's a power line right in the middle of their parking lot and for whatever reason they are unable to get any developer to reach out to the utility partner and um just a simple conversation as far as us sitting in the room um they bring it up hey do you have a contact yes i mean we pair them up so i mean there's there's little small wins like that that people don't see um but again obviously you know what's in the pipeline and what you know could be coming to the county i mean You know just to surface all these leads and talk with all the utility partners meet with all the developers to just try to attract You know new development in the county. I mean, it's a real thing. So, I mean, obviously, you know, I've been in this role. This is my first presentation to you guys, but as the new president and CEO last November. But, no, it's exciting stuff. I mean, I'm still trying to put my own twist on things since, obviously, taking over for Anton last year. But, no, I mean, just the pipeline and the activity that's just, you know, within the past 12 months is exciting. So...

Any more questions, comments?

Leave it at that. I kind of want to see, I think I'm going to probably be more involved with you this next year to see kind of what you do and everything, make sure, because we are giving you, how much is it exactly again? $121,000. $105,000. So, I mean, $125,000, and yes, full-time job, you double our pay, and you're still saving county money. It should be $105,000, Andrew. I didn't think it was that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it was just some questions I had. People kind of reached out to me and asked. It's kind of like the city planner versus the mayor kind of conversations that people have. It's like what isn't the commissioner supposed to be the one advertising and getting voted on and going out there and talking to developers and stuff like that. So I'll probably be reaching out to you more in the next year, kind of see what you're doing, see if it's If it's worth the $105,000, just to be honest, straight up forward with you. But I'm OK with it. Chris has got a question, apparently.

No, I want to speak on behalf of economic development as a whole a little bit, too. It is nice to have these developers that are coming and looking for places to site projects are looking at a local economic development director or Lido. They're rarely going to go to the elected official and try to make that point of contact. Typically, what Collin's going to do is bring them to you if there's a lead that needs the expertise of the county commissioners. But local economic development directors and these organizations are very important to have in your back pocket for potential new development, whatever that is. If I can't speak on this, but a potential project that we had that was going to be surrounding the airport or around the airport The only reason they came and looked at DeKalb County was because of the work that his organization did. Now granted, we didn't get the project, but we were top five in looking at a multi-million dollar investment in DeKalb County. They probably would not have looked at DeKalb County because we wouldn't have been able to give them the information that they needed to make that decision if it wasn't for him and his team. Thank you.

No, thank you for that insight. I appreciate it.

I have to say, I was very skeptical when I first seen it come through after doing some checking and talking to people. I certainly understand that you do stuff that us three don't have time to do, so I appreciate what you do.

Appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate what you do. I'm not knocking that. I'm just bringing up some of the concerns that I've been brought up to, so I just wanted to kind of bring this to you.

Thank you, guys.

Any other questions, gentlemen? Anyone from the audience? Hearing no one, we have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried three to zero. Thank you, sir. Appreciate your time. Is there any other discussion item among the commissioners? Is there?

I might have one thing here, hold on. There is a hard drive that we wanted to get for the time capsule. Anyone speak on that, Andrew? You're the IT guy on this. The problem I was trying to find was a hard drive that could last 50 years.

I mean, it's true. It's just a different kind of basically drive that is supposed to last a lot longer. They're not all that expensive. I mean, the only other thing you could do is write to it, forget the exact type of disk, which is supposed to last that long. These should make it about that time, but... in 50 years we may not even be using that style of hard drive nothing you can ever tell but if you want it to last you just have to buy something that's gonna last a little longer you guys throw a thumb drive in there and it's gonna be done in ten years probably so it's it's pretty inexpensive but it will you should be able to load a ton of pictures a ton of different things just from every city and put in there as well and the county the one that me and him kind of worked on was the Falcon Z one terabyte L

SLC cache, SS drive, right?

They just last a little longer. I think they go for about $130.

$132. I'd like to use, buy two of them out of the Cannon Fund, donation funds, to get two of them for redundancy backup. They're going to store all I had, each county, each city, municipal, give me a bunch of pictures. They're going to download the pictures, some budgets, some of that stuff. They put them on thumb drives. And I've talked, thumb drives probably will not last 50 years. I'm going to put them in there anyways. Never know. But I would like to get two of these download all that stuff onto each one as a redundancy So that way in 50 years, maybe they'll survive in that time frame. So make the motion to Buy two of them at the price of a hundred three two dollars each Okay, I have a motion a second to buy the two thumb.

Oh, I'm present. Yeah It's on Amazon. So she'll just Any other questions or comments Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried, three to zero. Anything else, gentlemen? No.

Nope.

Anyone in the audience?

Andrew, anything? And what I'm flipping through, no, I don't think, no. Jody?

Hearing no other business to come before this board at this time, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Thank you. We have a motion and a second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carried, we're adjourned.