County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

He was waiting on 8:00, I think. Yeah. [laughter] Oh, no. We got a new chairman, don't we? That's right. [laughter]

I'm just playing on my phone. Okay. Talking about [snorts] Good morning everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Hancock County Commissioners Board of Commissioners to order. Today's date is February 2nd of 2026 and the time is 8:00. This meeting is being recorded and streamed for public viewing. By participating, you acknowledge the that your image, voice, and comments may be captured and made publicly available. This meeting has been properly noticed in accordance with Indiana code 5-14-1.5. Let the record show that a quorum of commissioners are present. The commissioners are open for business. We will now proceed with the agenda. At this time, I'd like to invite everyone to join us and stand for the pledge of allegiance. [clears throat] I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [cough and clears throat]

Uh like a motion to approve the last minutes meetings. I make a motion we approve our minutes as presented. Second. We've got a motion and second. Any further uh discussion? All I'll all approve. I I motion passes. And now a motion. Motion to recess. Second. Motion second is as for recess for the board of drainage board. Uh all in favor? I I motion approved. Steve.

Okay. I will open the February 3rd drainage board meeting. Uh first item would be to approve the January minutes. Make a move uh motion to approve January minutes. Second. Been moved and seconded. Do we approve the January minutes? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Chad, you want to take

Good morning, gentlemen. Um yeah, let's jump down. Um they're here, so let's start with them. We're going to go to number eight first, which is Ironbrook. Uh, Iron Brook is a new subdivision uh coming uh in Fortville. Um, have it up on the screen here for you as well. Um, but it is off of in between Fortville Pike and 200 West. She didn't number. She didn't number those.

There you go. It is It is uh actually uh Roger Wilson's Land um that is running through there. the Cal Jackson regulated drain runs through the middle of the uh of the property. Uh here, if you see a big board there, um it's running through there for where we're at. Uh they're going to have a a subdivision that's going to go the whole width in here between in between um Mount Vernon North to the north of it and uh the school to the south along with Mount Vernon Point over here and then a single lot home here with on the corner. Uh what they are coming for today is um on where the cow Jackson runs. Um two things. Uh first uh we'll do the crossing. So they would like to um get permission to put a there's currently um in the south corner here of their property down here in the bottom there's a field crossing that is used. They're going to take out that field crossing and they're going to put a a street u. Um, so they need permission uh to put a road crossing across the Cal Jackson um based upon uh through the surveyor's office. I'd like to do that one first if we're good. Oh, and I I'm sorry. Do you guys want to speak at all or are you good?

Don't need to unless unless we need to answer. Absolutely. I sorry I should have done that first, but um So you're good with everything? I'm good with everything yet for the crossing. Absolutely. Who's doing that? Is that Mi Homes? That's Mi Homes. Yep. Um, yep. All right. Make a motion to approve the crossing of putting a bridge street across the Kyle Jackson as pres presented. Second. Been moved and seconded that we approve the crossing of the Cal Jackson as presented. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Motion passes.

All right. So the second thing they are coming uh before you for and and I support is they would like to on the north side of the ditch they would like to reduce the easement from uh 75 ft to 60 ft. Um on the north side and at 15 ft would allow those house lots to be outside the easement that's there. uh to the south there is a uh with this in the 75 foot easement there's actually a pond and things that's outside the easement there um and all the way to the north so we have plenty of room to work on the ditch uh for where it's at. This just allows uh the development to utilize that space for those houses so that everything that is associated with the subdivision is outside of the regulated range. I'd make a motion then that we approve the reduction the 15oot reduction in easement uh that MI homes is requesting from 75 foot to 65 foot as per

or excuse me 60 ft I would [clears throat] I would say on the north on the north north and east side of the ditch just to clarify that in there so that way you're going to keep the 75 foot on the other side. All right. Second. Been moved and seconded that we approve the reduction from 75 ft to 60 ft easement for the Ironbrook subdivision on the northeast side of the Cal Jackson. And there's a and there's a there's a fee $250 [clears throat]

and a $250 $250 crossing fee. for the reduction of easement. Un unless you waved at your phone. Yes. Unless you wave, including including including the $250 fee. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes.

Yep. Thank you. All right. [cough and clears throat] So, I don't see Mike here. So, let's um we'll just go down the list then. [clears throat] So, we're at So, let's go with uh proving claims. So, number two, I know crazy. I'm going to go in order here. Um, so we have the claims there for January 21st and February 4th. Um, there we have started to do brushing and dredging. Um, that is there. So on the fee the January 21st uh we have some log jams uh some brushing and dredging there uh on Buck Creek along with uh Charles Brier. Um and then Daniel O'Hara there for February. Uh and then the assessment money is on the underside. Uh we'll talk about this a little bit later, but um every year there are ditches that other counties um do the work on, but um we have absolved our right to to uh to do that. They manage those ditches just like there are some that we manage that we take money from them. So this is the money that we've collected on those ditches that go over to those counties so they can do work on those ditches. Make a motion to approve claims for 12126 and 2426 as presented.

Second move and second that we approve the claims for 121 and 24 as presented. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. Uh next would be the approve of the encumbrance for the Uh we had a large large uh log jam down there off the Um it's down just just north of uh 52. Um it was three different areas back in there and took a little bit more than the money that we had in at that time. We had to we just incumbrance the whole amount from that standpoint. So that way we'll pay it back then as we as

this this is the whole amount or that is the amount that is encumbered for us. Okay. Yes. I'll make a motion we approve the encumbrance for the regulated drain from the general drain improvement fund in the amount of $4,429 as presented. Second move and seconded that we approve the encumbrance for the regulated drain in amount of $4,429. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Motion passes.

All right, let's go to um number four. So this is Huntington Heights subdivision. So we are just off 700 West north of 100 North. Mr. um Mr. Zerat has a piece of property in the old Huntington Heights subdivision. When Huntington Heights was put in long time ago, there was not necessarily any drainage put into so have the regulated drain that runs [clears throat and laughter] Snder Branch uh runs over here as you can on the map here. He's on Glendale Lane that runs through here south of him is Buck Creek here. uh in his lot that he is going looking [laughter] here. There is no good drainage there. There's no tiles in the back. Um there's nothing that is there. So Mike Gibson is doing the survey for them and came up with a solution creating a dry well on this side of his driveway on the there. It's just north of the uh the road there behind the rightway on his ground. Uh note on the plans, it'll be 25 ft uh away from any tanks or deliveries, six feet deep, six feet wide uh to allow that water uh from his perimeter tile to

get into there. Not having a crawl or a basement on the house from my understanding. Um, it's just a place for him to have an outlet. There's no elevation there for him to to run a perimeter to daylight it because it would be under the ground. So So his perimeter tile runs into that dry well and then the dry well just has a drain that runs out of it. Drywall does not have a drain. It just water eventually through the through a French drain. It's like a French drain. Yeah. [laughter] It's not our in the old days, how do you want to say? It's not our uh most

optimal thing to do, but it from that standpoint, it keeps it on him. Uh and from where he's doing it, it's not uh within a vicinity of another home, and it allows uh that to stay on his property for where it's at. And he understands, but if it overflows, it overflows. It overflows, it overflows. So, is is there a is it the lead for it or is it just open? What? What it what it is is it's a it's a hole that they dig in their yard. They dig it six feet deep. Okay. About six feet wide. Uh they fill probably the bottom two/3 with stone uh maybe three4s with stone and then they put dirt over the top of it and a tile runs into the stone.

So what happens is that that water goes into that and it just fills that in it and then it'll work its way into the ground. Yep. For [clears throat] where it's at. So yeah, just a little French drain system. So that's um yeah there we use them in situations where we really don't have another issue that's there. So that would be my recommendation uh that's there and um that's that's where he's at. So it's it's a variance to daylight is really what it is. He's looking for a variance to daylight [clears throat] because he doesn't have a 8 in tile on his property. So his variance is to daylight it into the French train system that per the plans and there's a $250 fee to do the um variance to daylight. I make a motion to uh approve the variance to daylight with the $250 fee uh for Mr. Zarat.

Zeratti Zarat. Yeah. Okay. as presented with $250 fee. Second. Been moved and second that we approve the variance of daylight for Mr. Zat and Huntington Heights uh with the $250 fee. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Motion passes.

All right. Next on the list, um our [clears throat] table of transfers. So after our uh thaw assessment, you have a table there in front of you. Um on the table, the uh current balance in the drain is on the left side of the table. The right side, the next column over is how much it brings in annually. We collect half of that in the spring and [clears throat] half of that in the fall.

Um so that's how much we bring in. The amount owed is in the red column in the center. Uh the next column is the amount we would like to pay back to each ditch at this time from ones that we have. And then on the end it is the remaining owed. Um we will be paying off. I [snorts] think there are four or five. There are four that we will be completely paying off. The the AMD branch cornerstone mingle arm McFaden and the poly will be back in the black. uh for where they're at. Um and then some of the other ones, they're getting back down to where they probably will be get some of them will get paid off again in the fall. Uh some of them are generating money to get more paid off. So, uh we're getting closer and closer. The total amount at the bottom, [snorts] as you can see, uh that we're paying back is $26,850. Still leaves a remaining balance of $186,00050. $186,8543 uh that has been u borrowed from the general fund uh to pay repairs but is slowly working its way back down.

Slow and steady. I'd make a motion we approve the table of transfers as presented by the surveyor. Second. Been moved and seconded that we approve the table of transfers as presented. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes. All right. Number six. I I have a question. Yes, sir. For instance, on the table of transfers at the top, we have several that we're paying nothing back this time. Correct. And they're pretty small. Do they need to be relooked at as far as how much money they're bringing in? Yes.

Well, it all depends. um on some of them kind of like Bower Estates. [snorts] Um you know that one it collects $250 a year. So there's not very many people on that one, right? And um you know it it owes $1,000. So to actually have a hearing and to have the people pay a little bit more just

that one in particular, but there are five more four more there in that category. Yeah, there are some uh the Mingo the Mingo and Frank uh we just dredged last year and also um if you remember um we were not collecting from uh Madison County on that one. We sent a thing out last year. So they actually are now collecting on that one. Um there was a snafu at some point that they were not collecting for that. So that was turned on this past year uh for where it's at. The is a brand new drain. So, it's going to take some time. Uh, and that's the one we had a little bit of an issue with one of the contractors. Uh, for where we're at, uh, Buck Creek Meadows, um, that's another one where it is relatively new for where it was at. It was brought on and we are building that one back up for where it's at. So, it takes a little bit of time. So, some of them, that's where they're at. Uh, the ones that are the big ones, you know, the Josh Pratt, we're slowly working on to bring it back down. The is just going to take some time as it's brand new. And then Sunset Manor, um you know, we put 4,000 in this time. Next time we'll put more in. Uh it's a brand new one as well. And so that's why those numbers are a little bit larger uh for where they're at. Um we're trying to get to the point where uh it's a how you want to say it is a uh tight rope to walk sometimes because the way that the prices of everything have gone up. If you put it too low and then there becomes a repair in there, then you just put it more in the red. But you don't want it to get too much in there that you have so much money in there that you could be paying it back to it. So, kind of a a balancing act. Sometimes you win, sometimes

I understand a couple of them look that way to me.

Yep. [laughter] Yes. And so that's kind of where they're at. And so, you know, the [clears throat] question is, and we'll talk about that here in a little bit when we talk about onoff ditches. And we'll talk a little bit about that um next time when we talk about um the classification of drains um you know whether on some of them we need to have a hearing and increase the rates on some of them. Um not always the most popular thing to do you know of of where you're at. And if you're within statute of where you're at, it's not more than four times um on a drain that has been established for a period of time. Um you know, you're you're okay to continue to work it back down. When it becomes a certain amount over that and you're not making progress on it, then you have to have that. So that's I I get your concern. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Any other thoughts on that, Steve? No. Okay. Just throwing it out. [snorts] Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely understood. Yeah, we we try not to try not to put them in the red if we cannot, but uh well, work still needs to get done. When you get back to the bottom line, I forget exactly how much we got, but that's I think that's 20% of the drainage fund out or so, right? Yep.

Not that that's concerning to me, but you know. Well, for the amount collected, this is only the amount collected on these ditches. So, the amount we bring in every year on all the ditches is a whole lot more than this. This is just the amount on those ditches that are in the red right now. So, [clears throat] those are the only ones that are shown.

All right, we good to move on the next one. Okay, so next on off. So, we're not turning any ditches off this year. Um there's none that uh that we need to do that with. Uh there's a list of ditches that we'd like to turn on this year. Um, in the middle of that list is the BF ham. Uh, the BF ham is an interesting ditch right now. Uh, we are doing a little bit of research on that. Um, none of you guys were here uh when we did that the last time. Uh, this was early or late uh 1990s uh early 2000. Uh there was a joint board that was created between Madison County and Hancock County for the BFAM uh to do um it was not on assessment at that time. It became on assessment um and was created by a joint board and look through a lot of the feedback and records and things that were there. The majority of the drain is in Hancock County. Uh 60 about 60% 40% of the drain is in Madison County. So under those rules um for the Indiana drainage code, uh that ditch can't be one county can't say, "Hey, you take care of all of it." It it needs to have a joint board. So the question now is, do we need to reconvene the joint board? The last time it met was 2005, which was the last time it was on, um uh for to start to recollect issues that are for there. And so Steve and I have been talking a little bit about it. Uh that's the way we're leaning. Um and if it the way that it was last time, the way that a joint board is um designated, the county that has the majority of land uh in it. Um usually the surveyor from that county is the lead on that aspect of it. And but usually there are two people from each county and then one person not from

either of those counties. So last time we had uh two people from our county that were on it and then we had two people from Madison County and then one person from Henry County was on it. So part of the thing will be to reach out to the people who were on the board before. Some of them now are deceased. So um and as far as I know, none of them are still in public office. So I think that would change things around a little bit. we would probably have to, you know, put a letter together back to both boards. Um, at that time, uh, the chairman of the board was from our county. Um, and actually we had two people on our county who were in it and we had the election of 2000 and then those two went off because they were no longer commissioners and two more came. So, um, [clears throat] it was a, uh, a long process uh, for where it was at. So, um, we have it on there. We'd like to turn it on, but there's a little bit more things we're going to have to do. It probably will not go on this year because of the steps we're going to have to take. It's got to be in by March for what's there. But, um, so just as an FYI, coming down the road, there will probably be a joint board for the ham that will be reconvened so we can turn it back on for where it's at.

So, what do you mean by turn it on, turn it off? So, damage. So, so great question. So when a ditch so on their table transfers that you saw there y okay so every year we collect so much money that comes in the ditch use that money to do repairs different things on the ditch okay so whenever we are collecting on those ditches they are considered on on

okay so they're on if it ever gets to four times if the amount in the fund gets to four times what you collect annually okay then you turn the ditch off okay because it's collecting more than you're doing repairs on that money is sitting there. Now, there are a number of ditches. Last year, we had a number of hearings where we on ditches that really weren't bringing in that much money that we the state code allows you through a hearing uh to take those from four times to eight times. So, there are a number of ditches that we have and we'd like to get most of them to that eight times. It's a it's a smaller fix than having a hearing and raising fees just because of the rising of prices of things. So, once it gets to that point, it goes off. So there's money in that fund. You still use it for the repairs and things that you have on the ditch. Once that number gets back below that amount again, then we turn it back as to turn it back on. So that means there's not as much money in that fund. If we have to do repair, maybe there's it's a little bit low. Uh as you can see here, the coon's getting turned back on and it had an incumbrance. So it it had wasn't on. The money went a little bit over. So once we turn it on, that money starts coming in. It'll pay it back. Some of the other ones, you know, the [clears throat] the amount that are in them are uh obviously the Lance Careway um is one that gets turned on anyways just because it just got approved. But some of the other ones um the money in them is getting lower. If we start doing some repairs on them, we're going to have to encumber money. So, you want to get them back up into a safe spot that we don't have to worry about that. So, that's what on and off is.

Okay.

Okay. And then we get this um as you saw on the uh fees uh that we did for the claims um we send a list to the other counties for the ones that we are collecting on whether they're staying on or coming off. So that way they will do the same thing at their drainage board meeting of hey we need to turn these on. Um I don't think there's any from any of the other counties that we didn't already have on that are coming on and there's none that are going off. So even from the ones that from the other counties right now uh Hamilton County is the main one um that we have ones that that we pay to uh McCord Point is the only one uh and it's still on uh that that it actually goes through Hamilton County eventually for where it's at. So that help?

Yes, it did. I make make a motion to approve the turning on of the drains presented. Second. Been moved and seconded that we turn on the drains as presented. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Motion passes. [clears throat] All right. Now the fun.

So Centerpoint Energy is running a gas line. If I do it from it's it's on your it's in your packet. Uh number seven, um they are doing a line from our county line to the north from Madison County. Eventually that line is going to go to Shelby County. So it's going to go all the way through our county. So they originally uh stopped they have come into our county this past year and have stopped at a thousand north. uh they brought plans in uh to the highway for road crossings of what they were going to do going south and uh those made their way to my office and they found out that even last year when they came through they crossed a legal drain and didn't realize that they are crossing 10 legal drains 10 different spots or nine different spots I'm sorry nine different crossings um on there are are the crossings that you have uh I have them thing for each one. Uh and I'll just bring one up to this bad one up which is

all this back from where they're at. That's what I'm thinking. It is must be. So we gave you a instead of giving you the major thing for all of them, we gave you a just a GIS picture of where they're going to be crossing at. Um, how big is their line?

Um, it is a 16 inch gas line. So, it's not a small gas line that's running north to south. And, um, just so the board understands and knows, so here's there an issue where they're crossing the ditch here um, on the McFaden um, and they are going to be 7 feet minimum below when they cross the ditch, minimum two feet below when they cross any tile. We're going to have them pothole once they get to each tile. Um, I have had a number of conversations with them because the depth that they are wanting to run in most places is the minimum of the requirement they need uh as a state utility. Um, and it is 4T. If anybody understands drainage a little bit that most private tiles are right around that area. So, um, we've had a lot of good discussions with them. Um, I know they have talked and have negotiated, I guess would be the best word, with a number of land owners, um, to get easements to run by through their private property for where they're going. Um but we have let them know that you know we will expect them when they cross a um when they get to a private tile that they are to go under those tiles not to go over them. Um and at first they were like we'll fix the tile. I'm like how are you going to fix a tile when you have a 16inch gas line running on the same elevation as your I don't think that works. Water doesn't just find a way make sure it continues to go downhill. and and anything in the future.

and anything in the future. Correct. Which, you know, Yes. And so now they're going to have an e as they go through there. So big of a pipe.

So this is their their major section. Well, their their northern section, I guess, would be the way to say. Uh they are going to be stopping in this group. And in this part, this one stops just north of well just off of [laughter] just about Lark Ranch is about where they're stopping on this one. So they down they cross Fort Bill Pike. Um they cross over um here come down through the Fuller where they're at. Uh come down 200 North back over. They are actually are stopping actually not Ranch. They are stopping right up in here just about 200 north that area. They will eventually go south. Uh I've seen preliminary plans where they're going to be in the easement of the WF Wilson going south and then they're going to continue to go through the county. So um there will be a number more as they come back through for where they're at. So um at this time um they are looking to get approvals. So this year they can put this section in and then at the end of the year we're looking to approvals for the southern half of the state, southern half of the county um for to do that portion next year. Um so we will be able to observe them a lot this year as they work through these nine crossings if they're approved um and make sure that they are doing what we want them to do in relationship to how they're doing it. I I just get a little hesitant sometimes and I'll say this in a public meeting. I get a little hesitant when it comes to big companies that are running lines through there that are state utilities. They sometimes believe they can do what they want to do.

Yes. And so make sure there [laughter] so we want to make sure that we protect the uh how much the land owners and the farmers [clears throat] authority do we have the people that are there and so like to say you have to do this or that or so deep authority to approve all crossings whether you want to pick a fight with centerpoint and the state and and everybody else that's that's your I mean they they go to the state and say no we're not going to do that go tell them [laughter] So they've crossed other counties.

Yes. So they're coming from Shelby County and they're they're I mean they're coming from Madison County and they're going to end up they're going through Shelby County. I don't know how farther south they're going. There's no Do they I mean do the other counties just let them pick their depth? So we have we have parameters of what we want them to be. So, seven feet below an open ditch, you know, only on ditch crossings

and for all ditch crossings, right? The only thing we can technically regulate are our regulated drains. Um, I can have conversations with them about, you know, private tiles and things that are there, things that I would like for them to do and to do that. Do I actually have authority to tell them on a private tile what they can do? No, I don't. Um, but from the same standpoint, you know, when you're looking for approval from someone, you want to make sure that you stay on good standing with them. So, that's been part of our conversations.

It's really no different than if Ninstar comes to ask to cross. The control you have is the depth. Uh, some point in time, you may want to have a conversation of the crossing fee. Not for for this amount of money is not significant, right? That may be something down the road you want to have, right? Yeah. Because they also do require the hold harmless. Yes, we still are they are they buying eile for So under on they are buying easement for where they're running their line. They're not just putting it in the road.

Correct. They're not putting it in the road right away. They are actually they're crossing the road when they cross the roads, but they are actually buying their own easement off of all these land owners all the way down south through I've got plenty of phone calls from plenty of the farmers and different people in this area as we've had these conversations. Full disclosure, I represent quite a few that are in negotiations and have entered agreements with Centerpoint Com. Yes. Yeah. And so they are they they are working through things in their agreements of what and I've been asked a number of times of what might be pipelines from a 100 years ago when they pretty well screwed the land owners. [laughter] Should have called an attorney. Yeah.

Well, I mean, I don't know how they're pretty old pipes, but you know, they pretty much did what they want. And this isn't a um you know, this isn't a small line. So, 16inch gas line is not a small line, you know. So, it's a uh it's a pretty significant investment um for a utility as it's coming through there. So, um, as Steve said, you know, right now our fee is $250 per crossing. I will tell you that they have already sent a check for the nine crossings. Um, you know, if they're approved that they've already sent it in and so, um, there's, you know, next year or at some point this year, if we want to turn around and say, you know,

probably needs to be a consideration because it is a pretty significant ask to cross whether it's a I mean, from my perspective, something you might want to consider that that $250 has been there since I represented the drainage board as long as I've been here. So, probably needs to increase.

Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of fees that we're going to talk about here in in a couple months of of different things, but uh you know, and and maybe there's a consideration for the size of crossing as well, for the size of tile that they're thing they're going to put in. You know, 16inch gas might be a little bit different than a you know, a 2-in telephone line. you know, so just throwing that out there. But their request um they have a holdless for each of the crossings uh that they [clears throat] have signed um along with detailed drawings for each. So our crew will be um we've told them we need to know when you're starting uh so we can be there for each one uh and verify and we're having them GPS if it is proved each of the spots so that way they are at the depth and spot they need to be at. So there is no question of hey you've done what you're supposed to do and they didn't well

do you think that's deep enough seven feet below or or seven feet seven feet seven feet below the bottom of the ditch is it deep enough under the tile though the two feet so two feet under the top of the tile should be from a standpoint um because if we need to fix on a tile if our contractor goes two feet deeper than the tile the bottom of the tile I'm not just thinking about that but you know when you get more roofs and more pavement and more more and everybody wants the water to go away and if you want to make the ditches deeper to carry more water, you know, well, they it it's way into the future. As flat as our county is, it's very hard to make them very much deeper. I understand.

Um you can't go any deeper than your outlet. Correct. And so for most of the ditches that we have, even on the grade that they're on, uh for us to make them uh deeper, it would be I was just challenging. We probably honestly for a number of them, we would probably run dual tile. So how how deep is it any other place? Is it all 7 foot or No, it's 7 foot when they cross under an open ditch. Got it. And then it's when they're running through the county, the federal regulations are they have to be 4 feet below the top of the ground, okay, at a minimum. And so they are constantly running four feet below unless they come across a tile

which is regulated drain and they have to be two feet below that [clears throat] or a ditch which we regulate which they have to be seven feet below the bottom of the ditch. So, um, you know, that's kind of where, so I believe and I think they're going to be open cutting a number of it and some of it they're going to be uh boring, but uh when they go under the ditches, we've told them we want them to bore under those uh for where they're at. Um but and there's been questions of and we've had conversations that if they get and they have to open cut through a tile for where they're at of how they're going to um bed it and put it so it doesn't sink in that spot. Anytime you go underneath if you're if you're not boring it you destabilize the tile right in the ground around it. So but so that is the proposal that they are bringing forward to you. So there's nine crossings, nine utility crossings uh for the drains that are there for centerpoint energy. They have uh sent in a hold harmless for each and then I will leave it to you and they have sent plans. I make a motion that we approve the nine crossings as presented for Centerpoint Energy and the 250 fee and hold armless second. Okay. [laughter] Okay, that's fine. And then we on the other end, not attached to this motion, we before we do any more approving of these things, we go back and look at our schedule of fees and let Centerpoint know not to get out ahead of their skis and send a pre

check to us. Well, but their check was based upon what our fees are now. So, I I get that. And we tell them all the time, uh, don't send us a check unless unless the till it's approved because, right, if it's not approved, then we're just going to tear up the check. Right. Been moved and seconded that we approve the crossings of the nine drains. Nine drains as presented by Center Point with the $250 fee per crossing and hold armless. And hold arm. All those in favor say I. I. opposed. Motion passes.

A couple of things. Um, you'll see there on the bottom there, uh, we called it, uh, drainage overview. Uh, I'd like to take just a couple minutes and Gary asked some really good questions this time, which is which is really good. Um, just to kind of continue to help us as a group uh, understand a little bit of of why we do what we do and and why it's there from a standpoint. Um and so the the conversation about on andoffs was very good uh for what was there. Um next month we will be bringing uh in a what we call classification of drains. And so just a little bit of history on that from the standpoint is prior to 1965 uh if you wanted to have a drainage issue resolved in the state of Indiana uh you either went to the commissioners and they figured it out or you went to the courts. And uh a lot of times when you went to the courts is where they [clears throat] created what they called legal court drains is which a lot of our regulated drains were before uh we considered them regulated drains. In 1965 uh Indiana passed what is known as the drainage act and that's where it created the uh board uh that you guys sit on um along with uh uh different aspects of the way that this works. And so uh they took it out of the courts and brought it to here. One of the aspects of that was when they did it for the courts, um you could bring a petition in to make a to create a drain that would become a legal court drain. Um and then the next step, if you chose to do it, you could create assessments for that. So people would pay in uh and then the government would take care of it. But it was not a mandate to do that. So prior to 1965, after 1965 with the drainage law, uh the way that the law reads is once you create once they bring in a petition for a legal drain and it is approved, then you create an assessment

for that legal drain. All right? Uh now whether that was consistently held and kept from 1965 for a little while uh until people understood what they were doing, I can't say whether it was or wasn't. But so that's why nowadays if we create a new drain uh ditch sunset man or whatever we automatically not only create the drain but we also create an assessment fund with it. Okay. So in the meantime there is a quasi amount of ditches. We have 34 in our county um that are considered legal court drains or regulated drains that have no assessments to them. Okay. So they are under the authority of the board from a standpoint of if people want to build on them, do them, it has the opportunity in the future uh if they want to come forward and say, "Hey, we'd like for this to be on assessment, it's already a legal drain and there's a process for that. But if there are repairs that need to be done to that drain, okay, technically the um it is the responsibility of the land owners to take care of that, but they still should come to our office to get approval to do that because it's a legal drain. I will tell you that doesn't happen, right? Um just from that standpoint. But um but it also gets into the issue of you have a [snorts] drain out there that's a legal drain. It's not creating money. The other thing that the act of 65 did was it created a avenue every year. I come before you and and give you a list of the drains that we have in the county. As those drains, they can only be classified one of three ways. Uh one is a drain that's on maintenance. So a drain that we're collecting fees on, that we're working on, it's working well, it's it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, and we're maintaining that drain for where it's at. So that's the first category. The second category is a reconstruction. So, it's a drain that isn't quite working the way that it should, that we know that it's got

issues with it. Uh, it's still being maintained. Uh, it's still classified under that maintenance part, but there is a plan in the future whether it is stated or it is something that is on that list that um can move forward that that drain is classified as needing of reconstruction. Okay? and those create hearings and those hearings can be brought forward by a land owner. Um there 10% of the land owners in the the thing to do a study to do that or the commissioners could say or my office could say hey we need to do a reconstruction to to do this. The third category is to vacate the drain is to say okay the drain is no longer under the category of the [clears throat] of the county. It's now going to be a mutual drain that is going to be just maintained by the land owners. So those drains that we have prior to 1965, some of those in the medium there that are not collecting assessments for us to classify it right now, we can't classify it as on maintenance because we aren't maintaining it. We can't classify it as reconstruction because

we can't have any money in there to do that. We'd have to create a hearing. And three, we could vacate those drains. So, um, what we are in the process of doing is, um, looking at those 34 drains first, making sure those drains are still there. They're still functioning. Um, that they are still carrying water. They're not full mud for where they're at. Um, if they are obsolete or not there, we'll bring a petition to say, "Hey, we these we think these things should be vacated because they're not working." If they are still working, then the next avenue is to actually have a hearing and say, "Okay, folks, do you want this to be here's the watershed for this drain? Do you want this drain to be on assessment? If they don't want it to be on assessment, or if you choose that it's not going to be on assessment, then it's to vacate that drain and it just become a mutual drain for those people." Okay? Because we just have this quasi area that just doesn't quite mesh with the code for where we're at. Okay? And sometimes, you know, it's just it's been a happen stance of pushing things down the road. Sometimes it's been the understanding. It's just it is what it is. So, we're going to try to bite that bullet as we walk forward. But that's just a little bit of education on that. Just for your information, uh we have 237 miles of open ditch in our county. Okay. We have 332 miles of tiled ditch in our county. So, we have 569 miles of regulated drain in our county right now. That number does change just about every year. New subdivisions come in, we add regulated drains, some uh that we've had vacated, especially in the Cordsville area, right? And so, we take some of those off. We are actually adding a lot more than we're taking off. Um, and just as a visual, um, it's about 73 miles, 74 miles if you do the perimeter of our county. If you've walked the pro of our county, so if you took all the regulated drains in our county that that you guys are um m seeing over, you go around our county

almost eight times. So seven and a half times. So it's a lot of area. Okay. And everybody in the county drains to something and some of it is regulated drains, some of it is, you know, non-navigables, but most of it is people are are avenue with that. So um next time, uh we'll be talking about those drains that uh for the three classifications. I just want to give you a little bit of a backdrop on that for where that's at for that standpoint. Okay. The other point that I have of information, um, we have a bid and we have accepted it and, um, he should be starting here whenever [clears throat and cough] the weather gets to a point where the snow is gone. Um, for Blake Thompson to do the work on the Lance Careway. Um, so that was a bid that he put in for that and it was accepted in our office and so uh to and that will be paid by the highway uh per the agreement of the hearing. Uh but I wanted to give that as information for the group so that way you understood where that was at and where it's going through. The plan is to have it done before planting season. So for where we're at that is all I have at this time. Um, and did we get to We should probably. So, it was we had talked at the last meeting to have the Cranberry hearing was going to be at 8:30. So, what we should probably do is we should probably suspend the drainage board meeting, open up the the hearing, and then move it to 10:00 uh because Eric can call in at 10 uh today because it doesn't have to be um advertised from that standpoint. The board can change it forever they want and then close that hearing again. I just want to make sure that that's taken care of. That be about the right way to do it. And you made that announcement at the start. So just go ahead and make that announcement. I don't think there's anybody here in the crowd, but just let them know we're you're going to

Yeah. Okay. We want to close this meeting then. No. No. Recess is I'd make a motion to recess this hearing till 10:00. Well, we got to open it, don't we? The hearing. At 10 o'clock. Recess the meeting until 10:00. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Second. Moved and seconded that we recess the drainage board hearing meeting until 10 o'clock. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. [sighs] So, you want to leave these here? Uh, you can leave these here

cuz we got that. We've got that. Uh, here. This is what we're going to approve basically. Are we on? Yeah.

We're going to reconvene the board of commissioners meeting. Uh Jane, good morning. Good morning. We're here for the Hancock County Board of Finance. And um first on our the agenda is um election of a president and secretary. So I would make a motion that we elect Gary McDaniel as the president of our Hancock County Board of Finance. Second. It's been Well, it's been moved and seconded that we approve Gary McDaniel as the president of the board of finance. All those in favor say I. I

I motion passes and I would go ahead. Election of secretary. I elect Jane Clim as our next secretary. Second. We've got a motion and second on the floor to elect Jane Clim as our secretary to the board of finance. All in favor? I I second or opposed. Same sign. Motion passes. And then we need approval of uh last year's um minutes. And you guys should have make a motion that we approved last year's minutes as [clears throat] presented. Second. Board of Finance.

There's a motion to second on the floor for uh approving last year's uh minutes for the board of finance. All in favor say I. I post the same sign. Motion passes. And then my [clears throat] report um in front of you um this year um the statement of investment policy. We do this every four years. It ends when my term ends which will be in um um 20 28 December 31st. So I need approval of the uh statement of investment policy and I just handed you those.

Okay. I would make a motion that we approve the statement of investment policy as presented to us by our treasurer. Second, there's been a motion to approve the statement of investment policy uh to be approved. Uh any further conf discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Motion passes. And then we have to adopt e each year um another part of the investment policy and that you you have that in your packet. It just says investment policy. It tells it just it it basically takes the the one that we just did and um combines and has to be done every year. So I'd make a motion we approve the additional uh Hancock County Indian investment policy as presented.

Second. [cough and laughter] There's a motion, a second on the floor to approve the the investment the additional investment policy for Hancock County. Uh all those in favor say I. I. Motion passes. Okay.

I'll have you sign that when we're done along with um bills. Also in your packet, I'm required to um you have the uh surplus transfers that we did last year and you also have the outstanding warrant checks over two years. Um and um by uh statute, I have to present that to uh the board also. So you have that in front of you. Um, grand total of the the over two-year-old checks were $1,424.94.

Do we need to make a motion to accept any of that information? Yes. Yes, you do. I'd make a motion that we accept the surplus transfer information as well as the outstanding warrant information presented by the treasurer. Second. motion and second is on the floor to approve the outstanding warrants and uh transfers presented by the uh treasurer. All those in favor say I. I oppose same sign. Motion passes.

And then you also have in front of you the different banks um but we don't need a motion for that that I use u the different descriptions and um the ones that are all active. Any questions about those?

Not heard.

Okay. Then um we'll continue. Um I always say that um we're required to meet annually and the board is made up of myself and you guys. Um and um what I've done this year in January um uh of course the um interest rates were dropping. So, um they started dropping in October and then in November and December and I, um moved some money out of one account, um that had dropped real low and I transferred um 30,000 out of it and also um the 30,000 went to um I got to find it. um STAR or I'm sorry, Trust Indiana. And then the 500,000 that I took out of it, I transferred to um um our um Goldman Sachs funds. Uh they're both carrying uh quite a bit more interest um than the other two. I've tried to work with this bank and um um they just can't get us the rate that the other two banks that I deal with can. Actually, three banks that I deal with. So, um, uh, we did then you have the big long paper I always give you every year and it shows what interest we've collected and, uh, we're down, um, over a million dollars this year with a drop in interest, but that's pretty good because the rates stayed up there. Um and um CDs um uh the banks were paying higher than CDs, so I didn't invest. Um I'm actually meeting uh next month or this month with um um our investor uh to see what I can

do. Um the rates are holding right now, but we don't know when or what's going to happen. So, uh the only good news that um happened was um it was um and we gained in the uh RDC money u $17,946. So, that was good. Uh do you want me to go over this? I put out in red what's in the general fund and you can see it's uh the interest was 2,555,519.32. Um Trust Indiana in that general fund was $770 208 and um then our star investment um was 129571. So the grand total of interest was 4,92098836 and um last year is is when we had 5,987. So

help. All right. Well, we will take your word for it. We're glad the rates are still high. They're decent is what I call them. And that's all I have. Um, okay. Any questions for me or I think we got all your documents signed and we're good. Uh, Mary, there's a and I'll have you sign those and we just need a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. Board of finance. Second. All those in favor? I I Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Damn.

Okay. We signed a couple, but we we signed copies already down there. Want those? I didn't sign I don't think we signed I didn't see I didn't see that one. Okay. To sign this one. Oh, gotcha. There you go. Mhm. [clears throat]

Okay. You ready? I'm ready. Morning, Gary.

Good morning. I have a uh thank you letter I'd like the commissioners to sign um for Governor Bronn [clears throat] uh between the three projects on bridge 67 county road 300 north and the pin or the Steinmire road project the state increased all of our funding levels uh by a total of $5.5 million which really helped in CUMCAP uh adds another $20 million to the RDC or sorry $2 million. So add that to her 17,000 and we're we're getting [clears throat] there. Um and to cumbridge as well. So uh the same the same letter I have in the packet I sent.

It's basically just a uh it helps.

Every every little bit helps. We'll take it. why you're signing that. Um, we are still talking to Jack and Suns. We uh, we're not talking to them now, but they've got the offer. We're sitting on that right now. That expires in June. Road infer was accepted. Ryan got that in as accepted. So, we added uh, some road mileage to our program. some [clears throat] of that money uh is going to be going to the we're transferring it to help with the schools on the purchase of their FFNE. Uh Mary, despite my uh bad emails, was able to get that transfer completed. So, we got the $1.2 million moved in there so we can pay those school bills. Um at the May, I don't know if I asked you or not, but I need to be on the next council meeting to ask for some different appropriations on the stuff listed here,

but I will make a note. I just need to be added on there. Um, they'll be for the mower head, some equipment that we use. I talked about the last meeting. Um, and just some general I forgot to make some appropriations, so I need to make those added for the um, our covers and stuff. So, if I could just be on the next meeting, Mary, so I can get that advertised next week. Yep. Going there at 10 a.m. Thank you. Um, I believe all of our PE our change orders are approved at the old jail and prosecutor's office. So, we should hopefully get those closed up and we get those projects closed up, we can discuss future projects at those locations.

They were asking about that the other day. H um I need I'll get with uh Suzanne of HCSS. Make sure she's talking to the city for the allocation of the city's contribution to the uh the microtransit or senior services transmit. Um possible disaster funds. I saw your email on that bill whether or not we'll be able to get uh obviously the last snowstorm is quite a bit of work and it did cost quite a bit of money to the county. Um uh see if we can get if the feds are participating in that. We've kept everything documented and if there's an opportunity, we'll try to claw back some of that money for the taxpayers here if we can.

And I can tell you, I've had people come up to me and say, "You guys did a great job." So, I appreciate that. It was It was tough. I mean, we were slow to get the neighborhoods obviously because the main roads will get treated first. So, we usually Well, we don't officially treat neighborhoods, but when it gets 12 in, we try to help out. Um, and I think everybody can get around now. So, but I saw plenty of shoveling. It was a lot of snow. It was a lot of snow and it was cold. Team effort. Team effort.

Um, no. Uh, nobody got hurt. We had some equipment damage. Um, so we'll get that fixed and move on. We learned some lessons. Some lessons we learned in past years, but we had forgotten like the Sanders froze up on us, but we'll adapt and overcome on that. Um, we're still chasing part of the solar panel money. We've got half of it. We're trying to chase chase the other half. So, we'll keep working that. We're still at a six-year ROI. I was reviewing the bills there. I always like to see if the projects are successful or not. and we'll have our money back in six years. So, it'll be a successful project. This is the solar that's on the the county highway department. I was hoping to get totally for free, but we haven't got totally for free yet. I have to get the rest of that money. But, uh with the government being how it is at the federal level, it might we'll see if we ever get it.

Um bridges 300 South 300 South will close next week. It was going to close this Monday. Um we can't really see the ground, so we didn't get started. We just left it open until we could at the bridge between 6 and 700. Yeah. right by the church down there, right by Zion, just to the uh east or to the west of Zion. So, when we get a little more workable site conditions, we'll get started on that. Um Sarah was good enough to get the ordinances printed out. So, we do actually have those for this meeting. We have the three ordinances for the speed, stop signs, and fees for permits. And I believe those are in your packet. Are those in Is that for later in the meeting or gonna do it now?

No, let's do it all. We'll just get it done. Okay. You know, with you. So, Sarah, I need an ordinance number. Okay, I'll make a a motion to introduce ordinance number 2026-2A. It's an amending an Hancock County Code of Ordinances, Title 7, Chapter 71, Speed Regulations. And then I will

second. Well, this doesn't have a second, but you go ahead and um I will make a motion to suspend the rules on the day of introduction or ordinance number 2026-2A. Second. There's a motion and second on the floor to suspend the rules on day of adoption uh for ordinance 20 26-2A. All in favor? I. Motion passes. And I'll make a motion that we adopt ordinance number 2026-2A.

Second order first and a second uh for to adopt 2026-2 A on day of day of present on the day of adoption. All in favor? Yes.

Me? Yes. Motion passed. Okay, then I'll go ahead and introduce ordinance number 2026-2B. It's an ordinance amending Hancock County Code of Ordinances, Title 7, Chapter 74, parking schedules. And I'd make a motion that we suspend the rules on the day of introduction, ordinance number 2026-2B. I'm um there second. There's a motion on the floor to uh suspend the rules on the day of adoption for 2026-2B. All those in favor?

I. Motion passes. And then I'll make a motion that we adopt ordinance number 2026-2B as presented. Second. There's a motion to adopt 2026-2B on uh as presented. Yeah. All in favor? I motion passes. Motion passes. Got a little tongue tied there.

And then I'll introduce ordinance number 2026-2C. It's an ordinance amending Hancock County Code of Ordinance, Title 7, Chapter 73, Traffic Schedules. And I would make a mo a motion that we adopt or excuse me, that we suspend the rules on the day of introduction ordinance number 2026-2C as presented. I second that. There's a motion, a second to uh suspend the rules for 20- 2026- C 22 2C on the day of adoption. All those in favor? I I Then I'll make a motion that we adopt ordinance number 2026-2C as presented.

I second that. There's a motion and second to adopt ordinance number 2026-2C. All those in favor? I I motion passes. There your ordinances are, sir. Okay. I have two contracts for microsurfacing. One is for our CCMG 2026 uh grant and one is just for a regular microsurface contract. And is that the bids? [sighs] Oh, okay. I was going to say these are the extra things. Okay. We're not to ex

Okay. Not to Okay. I'll make a motion that we enter into an agreement with Pavement Solutions uh for a project known as CCMG26 Micro Surface in an amount not to exceed 300,32 or $332,42720 as presented.

Second. There's a motion on the floor to uh approve or award the contract uh between Hancock County Highway Department and Pavement Solutions uh the project known as CCMG26 Micro Surface and an amount not to exceed $332 332,42720. All those in favor? I motion passes. I got to find that donut. I'll do to the right. I'll make a motion that we enter into an agreement with Pavement Solutions, Inc. for the project known as 2026 Microsurface in an amount not to exceed $178,39360.

Second. All those in favor? I I

and just redo this a little bit. We There's a motion and a second on and and approval to enter into an agreement between Hancock County Highway Department and Pavement Solutions Project 2026 micro Surface and an amount not to exceed $778,39360. Motion been approved. Oh, we didn't we didn't sign that, did we? Okay. Okay. On the back of what I handed you is just some information I gathered last week. One is covering, you know, we just went to a red or we I I would rather call it a warning because that's what it is in the wall. If you look on the left side, you can see we have advisory, which we'd call yellow, watch, which is orange, and then warning, which is red. And there's actual Indiana law that applies to all that. So, when we uh make it red, it does have an effect on all the citizens and and businesses. So, keep an eye about think about that. Um, so there's information on that at the top. I was asked to get some of the

JTurn information throughout the state aggregated. So, I did that. So, you can see if you want to read through that, you can read through that. But other than that, J turn, the reduce conflict intersection, basically whatever they want to call them, M cuts. There's a thousand names for them. Sure. You're talking about the one out at 640 is the one that's currently I think that's the only one active in our county, but they're active throughout the state. There's the ones on the top left installed already. [clears throat] And then the on the right is the numbers I pulled from their engineer stuff. Now, I'm not going to do the engineering on it, but the guy seems competent. So, so I just put that information out there so you know it's not really our thing cuz it's US4 so it's not our road

but uh just for your information I was asked and then below that is all the wall about the snow situations so bar any questions that's all I have for today. Thank you. Thank you,

Cory Taylor.

Good morning. Good morning. First thing I've got for you is a proposal from KK Fence. [clears throat] This is to furnish and install a 24x6x1 galvanized chain link canal lever slide gate. Um demo an existing damaged gate post and reconnect the existing slide gate to the operator. This is at the county highway for a total of $8,830. This is to make some repairs on a gate. Okay. So, and we can pay that out of building maintenance.

We're going to have a lot of expense coming out of building m I mean, we could do what you what you guys want, but just keep in mind we're going to have a lot coming out of building maintenance. Just quick quick question though. I mean, um, how are these getting damaged? Are they by our vehicles or or are they wore out? I'm not exactly sure. I was contacted by the highway said to get a quote to repair a damaged gate. Okay. Maybe there's some safety followup within that. I mean, I think we'd approve the bill, but just to say, hey, I believe Gary's probably on top of it. Okay.

Yeah. I make a motion that we approve the quote from K&K fence for repair to the county highway entrance gate in an amount not to exceed $8,830 to be paid for out of the uh county building maintenance fund.

Second. There's a motion and a second uh on the floor to approve the $8,830 to repair a fence over at the county highway department. Uh and it be paid for out of building maintenance. Uh any further discuss discussion? All those in favor? I I motion passes. Mhm.

[clears throat]

Next thing I've got for you is I received an email uh was forwarded to me from Derek Adams and environmental. Um I believe pensy.org or is requesting and looking at what is required to put a vault toilet at County Road 400 trail head. Um I told him I'm not sure what your recommendations were. I don't know I don't know what your direction is on that. The one thing I will ask you to consider is maintaining of that vault toilet. I don't know how I think excited about that that I am.

At least in my opinion, I'd like some more information. You know, I'm not so sure what really is going on and and maybe there are some things that came through emails that I just didn't spot. But last week was the first time I'd even heard anything. I'd at least like to hear the information on it before I to make a, you know, more informed decision. Um because I right now I haven't heard anything say [laughter] the rental uh portalletes that we have out there aren't handling the capacity we have or being damaged or whatever. So sure I just we need more information. I'll reach out to the organization and let them know if they they they need to come and present anyway.

Yeah. So, um I guess my suggestion would be with Ninstar Park coming and water and utilities going to be at that location, possibly see if there's a chance to put actual restrooms in Mhm. at the trail head there. Um once we have a parks department, you know, that could be maintained through the parks department, right? Then it comes down to who's going to maintain. How are those going to be maintained? Yeah. Yes, sir. Um okay. I will um I'll touch base with them and let them know. Okay.

Um as you know, there's been a lot of issues with the elevator in the courthouse. Um part of it is temperatures u which I am going to look at trying to get air brought into the elevator control room. Um but part of it is that elevator's 30 years old and parts are just failing. So

So the most recent part that has failed is a drive board. Uh the drive board is not available in the United States. It's in Germany and most of them that the vendor is finding are used. So I had asked him to see if he could find some closer and give me some pricing on that which he does not have yet. But he did call me right before this meeting. I also asked him to quote replacing all the electronics. Uh keeping the cab but updating all the electronics, all the drive components. Um, and he did inform me that I will have a quote coming in at $284,000. So to rehab it, not to replace it, but just to rehab.

To rehab it. Um, that's putting But that's new controls. That's something that we can readily get if something were to go wrong. Sure. It would be updated equipment. Um, yeah, that's part of the problem is that stuff's just outdated and hard to get. Obviously, it's been there quite a few years. We've we we keep putting money into boards. Um I want to say we've got a bill coming for I believe around $12,000 plus some some maintenance issues with them coming out um after hours. We can keep putting money into it like that and keep putting band-aids on it or we can look at trying to just resolve the issue.

Well, that's it. I was going to ask you, we might as well get a quote on a brand new what a brand new system cost to at that price we'd need to do an RFQ, correct? Is that something? Do I just get with your office on that because I'm not exactly I've not spent that much money. Scott, would you take care of that or I mean Yeah, I mean I can do an RFQ. Just I just need information you want in it. Okay. Okay. Just get with Scott. He'll help you out there. Okay. It seems like we're just going to throw money at it and at it and at it by the time we'd thrown the money probably that is needed to repair it in, we would have said, "Let's put a brand new unit."

And the people in the the citizens of this county hate me right now when that thing's not working. So, Oh, yeah. I'm tired of being hated. [laughter] Well, that's the secondary Hancock County Health Fitness program right over there. If you want to go up [laughter] stairs, you know, just um but we we understand and we, you know, um [sighs] working on it diligently. I'm sure we are to try to get those parts. It's just what whatever we're left with. You know, walking up the stairs is really the the only have now. So, and it's working right now. So, uh I just wanted to let you know that uh I've got Scott Wood with Etica.

He's putting together a proposal. He would have had the windows today, but he he's got to do something for his family, but at the same time, he's going to actually add the doors onto that also. Okay. And he will meet with you and I on the 17th. Okay. After the meeting. Okay. Okay. Um the next thing I've got for you, uh there's a I believe it's a spruce tree northeast side of the courthouse. It's dying and leaning. I need to cut that out. So, just FYI, unless you have any different thoughts on it, I need to have that removed. So, that's actually Bob Vil was trying to find a way to get up there today and just there's too much going on. So, can we get a replacement in there, too? Like a starter?

I can I can look at that. Um I need to I guess request permission to get service at 601 west of Sage the Quanza hut. Um the weights and measures is utilizing that space. Um need to try to get some light, some power. I may put electric heater and some garage door openers um out to that. The city does not do I wanted to do a 100 amp service. They do not. Um, so I need permission to uh get a quote to add power to 601 West Sage 200 amp 200 amp 200 amps.

Yes sir. Okay. That'll help out 26. Well, we'll see what their quote, but uh all depends on what that back to as to where and that would just be paid from what? Utilities, dads. I would think that that be paid out of a bond somewhere. No, it would probably come out of a potential CCD fund that we're repairing a piece, you know, some kind of capital that we have. Well, I just mean the reoccurring monthly electric. I didn't know if that would go to Gary P. The the the bill for the electric. Yes, sir. The one to come monthly that would come out of our utility fund.

Yeah. Yes. That Okay. I thought you were you were talking about the payment for what you were going out. No. No, sir. The monthly payment because I think Gary P's right next door. I believe he pays his own. Okay. Um, okay. So, am I good to go ahead and get quotes to Yes. Okay. Uh, Sunday, um, 2 a.m. I got a phone call from Greenfield Fire that we had low pressure on, uh, sprinkler system. We temporaried an air compressor, uh, in to get it up and going. Um, got some repairs that need to happen with that, and I'm hoping it's not too much.

Is there a leak somewhere then? Is that what we're thinking? Possibly. Um, can they put some down?

There is a problem that we spotted with the generator um with the air compressor, but the air compressor was installed in 24. So, they're looking to see if um it would be under warranty. It's the electric electric motor on the the drive. Um, so there are some things I just want want you to be aware of. There are some things coming with the snow removal. I have some considerable bills. Um had to call out Vince Feny. Um the elevator um some of the emergency service calls I've had. I just want to make you guys aware that I'm have some some large invoices coming in.

Other than that, that's all I've got. And the same goes to you, Corey, for you and even the FE helping to get these buildings lots clean, sidewalks clean. and we appreciate it and doing it while you were sick. That it's part of it. Uh the one thing I do appreciate is you guys allowing the the county vehicles to be parked over there [laughter] because that is a huge time saver. If that saves me an hour, it's huge. So, thank you for letting me That's what they can park here. Nobody in nobody's way. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we still got more time. Uh John Jakanis. Oh. Oh, Chad's here. Hold up. Back. But are but we can't start that to 10 o'clock yet.

No, this is a section. Oh, different. Okay. I'm sorry. Section corners. Okay. Sorry, John. Sorry. Stand down, John. [laughter] You got a tie on.

Take your tie and unloose a little bit. [laughter] So, I have um [clears throat] being the county surveyor and a nonregistered land surveyor uh by code, I have to have uh the ability to have a registered land surveyor to certify the records that we uh find and utilize in our office. So, uh by code, um we go and uh get quotes uh for people to do that. um preferably it's a person who lives in the county uh who is a surveyor um and is able to do that work and we try to get somebody who doesn't do a lot of work within the county for where we're at and so uh the last couple years we've used Ryan Selby uh with American Structure Point so the contract that is before you is for professional services for section court perpetuation for Ryan Selby um I think it's $190 per hour uh for him to certify our records. Um and we pay that out of section court perpetuation fund which is doesn't come out of the county general. It's a fund that we have uh based upon the number of uh recorded documents in the county.

I'll uh make a motion to approve the request of the surveyor to enter into a contract with American Structure Point for Corner Perpetuation Services with an hourly rate not to exceed $190. Second. [snorts] Uh there's a first and second on the floor to enter into an agreement between Hancock County Surveyor and and American Structure Point uh to to and with an hourly rate of $190 plus reimburseable expenses. Uh all those in favor say I. I. I post same sign. Motion passes. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you. get too far. [snorts] Okay, John Jakatus.

Just want to make sure you got your exercise. [laughter] I think he's got good news or something.

I feel a little safer. It's the near the first of the year, so we do have [laughter] money. If it was the end of the year, we we'd have concerns. So, um, one of the things that I did want to bring up, and Cory's already left, but they did a fantastic job on our stuff, keeping our people able to get in and out of there. So, it was uh, he usually gets in before about half hour before every shift. That way, it's clean for them to get in, get out. So, very much appreciated. Um so my two items today uh one of them is to approve the quote for um two vehicles to replace the current our two current vehicles. Um and again this is just to approve the quote to move forward. Obviously, there'll be more paperwork to sign. And the total for each is uh 54852. They're the Chevy Taho. They're not making like the the version that um that the uh Homeland Security director had. They're not making that version this year, which is actually oddly more expensive than this version. Anyway,

so this is the exact same quote that the sheriff um has from Kelly Chevy in Fort Wayne. And again, it's just to move forward so we can start with all the other paperwork. Uh this was approved out of the 2025 bond. We had $120,000 set aside for these two vehicles. Obviously, we're going to come in a little bit lower than that. And then for any type of emergency lights, um those would come out of the 911 bond and we'd come back for that. Uh we already have radios for them. So So okay. Yeah. $109,74.

Yep.

All right. I would uh make a motion that we approve the 911 director to seek a quote for two 2026 Taho as presented on um his request an amount not to exceed $109,74 to be paid for out of the 2025 GO bond proceeds. Uh, I second motion and a second on the floor to uh allow the uh E911 director to pursue a quote for two tiles as presented. It was $109,74. Uh, any further discussion? All those in favor? I

I motion passes. If if once we get the paper, this is the first time I we're buying new. Obviously, the other ones were handme-down. So, when that happens, there's paperwork that you need to sign. Correct. To surplus the old ones. Is that Well, we're not. Like I said, I think we may try and hold on to mine because mine's in way better shape than the deputy directors. That that the deputy director one just needs to surplus it. Get it. Yeah. Get it done. Um, and then on the actual purchase though, do I come back for that to get the actual purchase approved or is this what we're doing? I I think you can probably go seek it.

I I just go seek it because we just approved the the quote there amount not to see. So, so if if if we're on a timeline for ordering, can that be can if if the commissioners need to sign something, can the president of the county commissioners sign that outside of [cough] the meeting make a motion for that to happen? Can't we? You can go ahead because we can authorize that now. Okay. I'll make a motion to authorize Hancock County Commission President Gary McDaniel to sign off on an invoice for these uh

to Hancock County 911 uh 2026 Taho at a at a time other than our regular stated meeting. Second uh motion and second on the floor to allow myself Gary McDaniel, president of the commissioners uh to sign off on a completed contract for the two Taho. All those in favor I I. Awesome. Thank you. Motion passes

because I think we're coming up on the 2026 ordering date. So, but I'll get that as soon as now that we're past this. So, um the the second item I have is something that we've we've um talked about a couple times. It's the door access equipment for um the current project for 123 East Main Street, the old jail um for Nelson Alarm to to have them start that work as we get closer. Um you had talked about potentially CCD. Um, I had mentioned, but I don't know if it can come out of the 2025 bond because I know there's spending restrictions. But a third option is since my my total portion of the 2025 bond was about 750,000. We're we're well under that by about 40ish,000. um if it needs to come out of the 911 bond to get it done and have no nothing else, then we can do that too. And then if I need like the front door replacement is where the money is um the money that's left over right now that I that I would need if that can come out of the 2025 bond out of that 750ish that we had approved for us. So, but I just want to give you options and

Mary would be Mary I I forwarded that email to Mary. So, she's going to check into that. Okay. Okay. I mean, I I think there's maybe an issue with trying to co-ingle different bonds with different different things and that was the one reason I thought CCD, but but I I forward that to Mary. So, she'll take a look at that and but I don't think we either have an issue of it going this project going forward. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. So if that would and then so you should have a signature page um somewhere. Yeah, it's on the if depending on how it's printed, it's on the last page of the the quote. So, so I will uh I'll make a motion that we approve the equipment sales agreement between Hancock County and Nelson Alarm for a job at 123 East Main Street with involving controllers, uh card readers, battery, and wire and an amount not to exceed $31,55 with a fund uh to be at a later date.

I'll second that. There's a motion and second on the floor to uh approve the equipment sales agreement between uh Hancock County and uh Nelson alarm and amount it's for controllers uh card readers all that for the community corrections and it is not to exceed $31,55 as presented. All those in favor say I. I um mo oppose. Same sign. Motion passes.

And you shouldn't see me next meeting, but I will be back. We have some uh contracts to beed coming up here for the first meeting in March. I sent roller. That's a that's a beast. That's a beast of a contract. So, um, and then I'll have a couple. We'll we'll also be working this month on the, um, RFQ for the windows. And then I have one other one that that I'll send to you as well. So, that's it. And I thank you very much for your time. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. Didn't gouge us too bad. So, that was that was easy. What's that? I said you didn't gouge us too bad. That was easy.

John, come take a look at this. I I probably messed up, but at the same time, am I considered the customer or is it you? Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. [sighs] Okay. [sighs and gasps] Miriam Rs. Good morning. Good morning. I am

here to request reimbursement for my professional license fees. Um I recently renewed my notary license which included a background check um continuing education, the exam, my seal and and a shy bond. And then when I submitted for that reimbursement, it was suggested that I appear to present the approximate amount for all of my um professional license fees. So, um the total request will not exceed $1,800, which includes the notary license I've already paid for. And um I've provided a breakdown handout for reference um on the back that includes the title producer. Well, you've got the list there. Would you like me to read through it for

official notice or And this has got your insurance also. Your um I do not have ENO insurance with the county. That should be a separate um discussion with the attorney um and our insurance company which would be because I I we do need you to be covered. Yeah, we we need to to definitely talk about that, but I'm not here today on that particular item unless you want to add that to my to the discussion.

I don't think we have a problem reimbursing or right now. I'm not seeing a fund. Would we create kind of separate fund for that or could we call it could we get it under office supplies? Would that would that meet that? I mean, that's be able to be paid under. What about continuing education? Um, is there a education fund? Well, there's meeting travel lodge, but and that's probably the look and see if there's an appropriate line. Definitely probably in a three.

Okay, Miriam, I think we can get you reimbured. We just need to figure out whether we find a fund or we need to create a fund. Perfect. That works for me. Um the other um amounts will come due at some point this year that are on the top of the estimated cost breakdown and then the previously paid is in the second lower section. So, Dave, um, but regarding errors and omission insurance that yeah, you asked about, we should probably refer to, um, attorney Binky or talk with our insurance company. Probably get a quote on that from Brian Breeze.

Yeah. Right. I can reach out if you'd like me to do that. And then, um, yes. Would you like me to come back and follow up in front of you here or? Yes. Okay, I can do that. All right. All right. All right. And then you'll let me know of a fun number later. Okay. Perfect. Thank you guys. Thank you. We need a motion for this or [snorts] cost. Let's work on trying to find a fund before we make a motion to actually get money out of there. Yeah.

Okay. Works for me. So [sighs and gasps] it is we take a break here. Make a motion to recess. Let's do uh claims and pay. Let's go for it. I'll make a motion we approve claims and payroll as presented. Second. Motion approve claims and payroll as presented is on the floor. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. I. Motion passes. You want to audit the business? Yeah, let's go ahead and do that. Have you got a big long laundry list for us? Okay. Okay. Awesome.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. I don't Are they out a lot of them were out of town that that day? Yeah, I don't think they were. I don't think they were. I don't either. I talked to Scott and he led me to believe that they weren't going to have one. Okay. Ryan and what we were going to do with the presentation, we can do it at a council council meeting then. Same, you know, information. So, just go ahead and make it a regular commission meeting. No combined meeting.

Yes. Okay. Now the trailer has came in for more money. I just want Okay. We I We were aware of that. I mean $8,000 with the Yeah, we I mean we got to have it. I'll have them scheduled for the next meeting. Yeah, that'll be fine. Thank you. [sighs] Want to do the Let's go ahead and do the board appointment.

Board appointment. And Alexander, I'll make a motion that we appoint uh Alexander Huth to the impact fee review board uh with a two-year term ending December 31 of 2027. Second motion to uh approve the uh board appointment for the impact fee review board and allow Alexander Hut uh which is a CPA for a 2-year term. It' be December 31st, 2027.

Yeah, that's a two-year ter or excuse me 2028 2028. That's what I thought. 2028. Uh over here. Uh all those approved. I motion passes. 2028. Oh, it would be 27 at the end of Well, we just we we just started this. So, it' be if it's in 26. Oh, yeah. It would be now the beginning of 26. Okay.

Anything else? I think we're good. I think we're good. Recessing. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that we recess our meeting for uh solid waste. Second. Uh motion a second to adjourn the meeting for our solid waste meeting. All in favor? I I. Motion passes. Okay. [clears throat]

call to order our solid waste management board meeting. Just to let everybody know, this meeting is being recorded and streamed for public viewing. By participating, we acknowledge that your image, voice, and comments may be captured and made publicly available. I should lower make you look like you're real tight. Miss Allener. Uh do you want to approve the minutes from the Make a motion to approve the minutes from uh January 6, 2026. Second. It's been a motion and a second on the floor to approve the minutes. Um any discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. I and I abstain because I wasn't here. I wasn't even appointed to the board. Okay. Next up, a um director's report.

Okay. We have a few invoices to approve. Um so in your packet is the January um contractor agreement. Uh Verizon for looks like December. [clears throat] I don't know if I've gotten the January one paid yet. Um, a couple invoices for advertising through AIM Media or the Daily Reporter and then the New Palestine Chamber of Commerce membership uh fees.

Move approval. Second motion and second on the floor. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I I motion passes and contractually. Did we get everything worked out with No, we're gonna or is that still an ongoing We're gonna talk about that a little bit. Sorry. Well, we'll do it. So, um is that going to be within the approval or between the in your director's report or should we go on to old business? Um it's at the bottom of old business. Got it. All right. Old business.

Okay. Um, so first up is the tire IDM tire grant. Um, I thought they were going to notify us in January to let us know if we had won that or not. And I haven't heard anything, so I'm hoping that that's not bad news, but I I don't have any new information on that. And the same with the item Swiffer grant update. I have not heard anything about that as well. And the Hancock County Community Foundation grant um that was submitted, but I have not heard any um information on that either. Um, and I think I just submitted a letter of intent and then um I think I actually have to apply for that grant and I don't think those applications are due for like another month or so. So, they're going to let me know if they're going to invite me to apply for that grant or not. So, and I haven't gotten that notification yet. Um, our Christmas lights and tree recycling were went very well this year. Um, so the light recycling we collected 1,800 pounds of Christmas lights and uh, majority of that actually came from New Pal. So that was pretty impressive. U, but we had locations at Newal, Greenfield, Fortville, and McCordsville this year. Um, last year's totals were uh, 715. So we got a little over uh, about,00 uh, more pounds of lights. So that was really good. And then our uh Christmas tree recycling also did really well. Um we had 14 trees that were mulched last year and this year they had 70. So we um really got the word out this year. So that was really good. I was really happy to see those numbers go up. Um the no cold feet shoe recycling is the um shoe collection drive that we do through the schools. We have eight schools that are participating. I did have to postpone the collection of that. It was supposed to be last Friday. Um

but the schools were some of the schools were virtual almost all week. So we extended it out through this Thursday and then we are going to be going around and collecting all those shoes. I've got a team of volunteers. They're going to be help me helping me on Friday collect all those shoes and then we are actually bringing them here into this [laughter] room and we are going to sort through them. Um changing footprints. um they they're struggling with volunteers right now and our shoe collection really overwhelms them. So, I told them we would help them out this year. So, I've got some Eastern Hancock athletes that are going to be coming in and I've got some volunteers from my church that are coming in. And we're basically going to be separating out the the usable shoes from the non-usable and just get rid of the ones that are not able to be reused. And just by doing that and maybe boxing up by, you know, men's, women's, and children, that'll help them hopefully, um, not be quite so overwhelmed this year. So, um, and that shoe sorting is going to be next Saturday, or actually this Saturday, um, in here we're going to be in here from about 9 to 4. So, hopefully we can get through all the shoes. I'm estimating approximately 6,000 pairs of shoes.

So, we have to go through about a thousand shoes an hour in order to get through all those. So, I'm hoping to get that all done. We'll see how it goes this year. Um and then uh I've been in um talks with GBC bank and they want to partner with us on our collection events this year and um they have um we went over the final you know proposal of it and they are willing to provide two um recycling uh paper recycling shredding trucks and they're going to have two staff members per truck. They are also going to hire um two offduty police officers to man both entrances to the church. One we're going to use as the entrance, the other as an exit, but we're worried about left turn people. So, we're going to hire two police officers to help us manage uh traffic because I don't want them backing up onto the roads. Uh, but I think we should have enough um room in the parking lot that um I don't think we're going to back out onto the road or at least we shouldn't. Um they are also going to design and print um some signage for some sandwich boards. I told them they are willing to promote the bank as much as they want to say that they are providing these services free of charge. So we don't have to charge the residents to do their paper shredding. Um they're going to pay all those fees. So, um, so that's a really great partnership. I'm really excited about that. Um, so, and they are too because now they don't have to host it. So, they're happy to have us do it. [laughter] Um, so, um, on to, um, the director contract. Um, in your packet, um, there is a copy of the contract and, um, some of the items that, um, we need to

discuss. I have um voted to approve it the last meeting. Um but after that uh after I got the revised copy um I decided to send it over to my lawyer to have um her review it just to make sure that I was being equally represented. Um I just wanted someone else to look over it that was you know uh skilled on looking at contracts. So, um, so, uh, skipping over the first, um, item in red, jumping down to number one, um, the terms of the, um, contract, uh, we decided we needed to include verbiage that either party may terminate the agreement with 10 days notice and not just Hancock County. So, I wanted to um, take note of that. And that's um under bullet point number one. Um number two is um oh actually that was under number two. Um so the second item is under bullet point number five. Um the um the hour or the monthly rate uh was wrong. Um, originally it was based on taking the contracted budget amount for 2026 and dividing that by 12. But actually in my 2026 budget, we pay the December 25 contract through November of 26 and then December of 26 will be paid out of 27's budget. So um after you deduct the December 2025 contracted amount, you divide the rest of those months or divide the remaining amount by 11 to get uh the monthly

amount. So I just wanted to note that that is a little different than the original contract. Um bullet point number six, there were a couple of items um duties on there, line item one and line item seven that I don't do. So, I wanted to make sure those were removed from the agreement and I requested that those be removed last time and for some reason they didn't get taken out. So, just minor things there. Um, number seven, bullet point number seven, uh, non-exclusivity. I do still have one customer from my graphic design days, um, that I still update their flyer. It's a Christmas tree farm. I update their flyer every fall. it takes me all of like five minutes to change the dates on it and get it ready for the next year. Um, and I don't want to tell them to go find somebody else. I've been doing that for 20 years and I don't feel like that's going to interfere with my work here at the district. So, um, I wanted to change that exclusivity part to non-exclusive just because I don't want to break our contract. [cough] Um and then um the biggest part of the the issue is [clears throat] with um the contract uh being um you guys had requested it to be with um me personally instead of with my um business. I have a um 501 or I mean not 501. I have a incorporation a corporation business called Deca Designs that I had requested that the contract go through and I talked to my lawyer and she didn't see that there was any reason why the contract couldn't be through my business and why it had to be through me personally. Um I've gone

back and forth with Scott about this um trying to understand his reasoning. Um there were some things that he mentioned to me prior to um or actually I guess before and I had told him I told my lawyer and we um covered some of those issues um that he had mentioned was being as being an issue. But I feel like we covered those issues and I don't really understand why he still is against that. Um, I've done research and it's going to cost me about $5,000 in additional taxes if you go through me personally. There are some tax advantages by using a corporation. So, um, that's going to cost me extra money. And then um the other really big issue um is liability. So, I do collection events, you know, many a year. I do school programs and some of those school programs include uh food items. So, I am just scared to death. What if somebody gets hurt at one of my collection events? You know, we have it set up where the residents don't even have to get out of their vehicles. We have volunteers that are or vendors that take the items out of the people's vehicles. So, really, there shouldn't be any reason why anybody would get hurt. I mean, could be a volunteer maybe gets hit. I don't know. And then I'm also really worried about um my school programs. Um you know, since I do serve food, if there's some kid, I mean, I always ask the teachers ahead of time to get any allergy information. I try to bring foods in that uh avoid those allergies. But, you know, we're dealing with um all I do programs all the way down to kindergarten. And what happens if one of these kids eats something that they're allergic to and they get sick or

worse? Um, so I am just like scared to death of um getting sued, you know, for I don't know them doing something that's going to hurt them. So by contracting it through my business, it does give me an extra layer of that liability coverage. Um, I've talked to an an insurance agent and he recommended that I do get um additional liability insurance to cover me whether it goes through my business or me personally. Um, he's estimating I haven't gotten the final numbers, but he estimated that it was going to cost me another $5,000 to have adequate insurance to protect me. Um, you know, my husband and I have been working all of our lives to work towards retirement, and I don't want someone coming and taking all my savings and house and all that. So, that's where I'm at.

Maybe I can shed some light on this. Um, the prior contract that Dee has had was with her LLC before my time. um it's not appropriate for us to contract with an LLC when she is the actual director. This is a governmental entity and I tried to explain that to her that it's not a vendor contract contract with vendors all the time and that's okay but she's actually the director of the solid waste district and so that's where there's a difference. We shouldn't be contracting with an entity that really doesn't have any I mean there's no substance to it. It's a business entity that does other things for her. It's not her directly and I think this is really does a great job and you know I've been able to work with her and talking about all this. She apparently ran this by a lawyer, but I don't agree with that attorney because that attorney is really advocating for her because she wants the tax advantage. And whether or not that is a meritorious um that's not within my purview. I'm not a CPA and I'm not going to comment on that. But I think that's the primary reason that she wants it that way. Liability uh would that would be an issue. I don't ever anticipate that we would ever have a breach of contract with her, but she is an independent contractor and it's possible. And it's also possible that she would have a breach of contract against us. We would never want to contract with an LLC in that situation because it's hollow. There's nothing there. Um, as far as insurance, you should probably already have insurance

for your LLC if it's doing any business. If it's not that that's your call, but you're you're the director of of the solid waste district. So, it's not the LLC and we would not contract with an LLC. I I didn't want to take a hard line on because I understand and we are trying to do what we can to help Dee uh in her role and I understand that. Um, but I have to I have to give you the legal opinion and that is the legal opinion. Um, it we should not be contracting with an LLC. It doesn't do first of all, it's not a, you know, it's not an individual. This is a director position. So, that's the main issue with that. Um, the other issues with the contract, I don't see any problem. The old contract had a couple of those provisions on duty and that's why they were in there. I I you know they were already there. So taking those out if she doesn't do those that's fine. The the change on the amount of monthly that's appropriate. Um, so with the rest of it exclusivity, I mean, if you're only doing the one thing with that, I don't know how that really, we're just trying to avoid ghost employment issues potentially and things like that because we can't have somebody doing things, you know, for two in a dual role. uh even though you are an independent contractor. And that was something that we spent a lot of time on in reviewing and asking for uh information on what time she was committing because she's going to be keeping a record of that now under this new contract which was something that we wanted. So really the biggest issue is this this you know we need to contract

with the director not with a LLC that that was the hangup. I I know that's not what Dee wants to hear and I understand there could be tax issues there but um can I just say something? So it's not an LLC, it's an incorporation. You know I've been incorporated the same thing Dee. Okay. Okay. Well, anyway, it's my my position has been contracted with CGS, which is also incorporated for nine years and then my business for four. So, I don't understand how it's

I just explained it and I've explained it to you several times and we're not going to we don't contract with a corporation. Uh we don't do that. You're the director. if you were a vendor, it would be totally different if she was working, you know, if we were using your company to supply things. I've been very respectful and I've we've had a good interchange about this, but I'm not you I'm hearing the same argument over and over and, you know, it's just the I I'm not going to relent on that. I did explain to her it's your decision, but I don't think it's the right thing to do. So,

so are you contracted you personally or are you contracted through your law firm? Personally, and I'm an attorney. That's a professional service. I I don't work as a on a board. I'm not a director on a board. And that's not even analogous. Okay. [clears throat] I know you don't like my answer, but you know, I don't I'm sorry. That's, you know, we can't always accommodate these kinds of things. This is a governmental entity. It's not a private business transaction.

Sorry, that's just I knew this was going to come up. Unfortunately, it's in a public meeting. So,

any additional thoughts from the board members? In my own opinion and not speaking for the board, I I think we have to look out for the best interest of the county and where the county stands. liabilitywise. I'm not totally sure uh the contract law, but I I lean into the information that our uh county attorney gives us as as good, credible, truthful information to keep the county out of any kind of u liability or or trouble. Um, I understand, at least I think I do, where we were with the contract before all this and trying to get it straightened out. I'm not sure if they were ever really looked at, you know, carefully before to make those decisions. But in in my opinion, I don't think we have any other way but to make this position something that's signed on to not by an LLC, but by a by a by an individual just by the nature of the contract. [clears throat] I don't I don't see any other way around it. Again, I'm looking at what I I like you as a friend and as a personal person, but when I have to think about who I'm protecting here, I'm protecting the county and not myself. And believe that's the information that our legal counsel is has given us to go.

How do other um counties do this position? Are they county employees or are they contracted also? Um, I think it's mixed, but I'm not sure,

but I don't know that other people would have a business to be contracted through. I feel like I'm kind of a unique situation. So, there's probably go directly to the person. I don't I don't know. I would doubt there's a contract out there with an LLC for waste district.

We hire we hire Scott for a reason and that's to get his opinion and he works for us. He trying to keep us safe. I I still say that you know it might come down to having to you make a choice. I mean it's what whatever need be done. I've known you for what almost 20 years. So, I mean, you've always done a great job and and done a lot of promoting.

Yeah, I understand Dee's confusion with this a little bit because at one time CGS, we contracted with them and then we had a director, but I never thought I don't think you can do that. I was never a fan of it. And uh we've had a couple other things happen and we went to state board of accounts and um I just don't think it's a good idea to have a contract with a company and then we have a director. She's more tied to the county than that. I believe I mean you you all as commissioners have the ability to hire and fire the solid waste person because we had to do that at one time. So yeah, I I agree. I just don't think it's a good legal way to do it.

Then I think we discussed potentially hiring her as an employee. Yeah, I I that would probably been the way to go. I was for it, but to get I was by myself. It I think the problem had become trying to justify the salary versus justifying what you had the ability to show was being done. and some other members of the council had questions about that. Um, so I do I think that that's a a potential. It is, but it may not be for the salary that she could get that is listed on the contract right now.

And I think she wanted the flexibility of being an independent contract.

That was that was true. the that came along with, hey, do you want to still want to have the ability to work from home or do some different things? And that was a yes because if not, becoming an employee was going to lock you into certain things that really restricted um restricted your movement. Ed, where is are is your line in the sand then at hey I still want to keep my LLC or

I'll have to think about it. So, can we agree maybe a motion to continue this? Motion to continue. Second. It's been moved and seconded to continue this matter to our next meeting. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion passes.

Okay. So in your packet um the last page we have the sorry [snorts] we have the RFPs for our events. Um shredding is handled by Greenfield Banking Company so we don't have to worry about that. hazardous waste. We only got one bid for Caldwell Environmental and their bids went up by $2 a car load, so it would be basically the same. I have the the 2026 prices versus the 2025 totals. [snorts] Um tires, we only got one bid for that and that will be contracted through Caldwells, although T and Tire will be handling that. um paint [snorts] uh went up from $3,100 to 4250 per [snorts] event.

Um and that's just a flat flat rate. And then the electronics is the only one we have to make a decision on. Um, Recycle Force, um, ERRI and technology recyclers all came in at the same price. Recycle Force, um, will not be accepting any batteries. And then ERRI has some additional charges for appliances, which we don't take anyway, but they will charge us um, an additional $5,000 for logistics and supplies, and $1,500 for labor. And then technology recyclers has um they will take batteries. So I am recommending that we go with technology recyclers.

I just need your approval on that. Get a motion. I I make a motion to uh contract with technology recyclers for our uh electronics or electronic waste and and yeah, I'll second. And a motion, a second on the floor to approve technology recycler recyclers as our electronics uh waste provider for this year. Is there any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes.

Okay. So, the state board of accounts uh end of year reporting the 100R was due January 31st and we got that submitted. Um the other reports are due um March 1st I believe. So we'll get those in. Um I also got a phone call from technology recyclers um wanting to do more in Hancock County. Um he is interested in bringing a truck in and just parking it for a few hours and let people bring the electronics to him at his truck and he's still working out all the details. Um I talked to uh Republic Services and they are fine with having him park his truck at their facility and bringing [snorts] electronics into them. Um, so he's still working out all the details, but Republic Services on is on board and technology recyclers um really wants to do something. So, we're still working on that. Um, school programs, I have uh 76 school programs already um scheduled and then I have 76 classrooms that will be doing the flower pot project. I'm still getting um teachers to contact me. So, I'm estimating those numbers are going to go up. Um, and then I did get a call from uh Republic Services and um they are wanting to partner with us more on hazardous waste, which is um pretty cool because that one's our most expensive vendor that we have to um contend with. Um not sure exactly what that's going to look like. Um, I'm supposed to meet with him sometime the end of the week and we're going to talk about that. Um, I'm not sure if they're wanting to host it. I I don't know how they want to

partner, but we'll we'll get in conversations with that. So, that was pretty exciting that they're willing to kind of partner with us a little bit more. And then I got a phone call late last week to do a program today and Thursday. That's for farm which is Fortville area resource mission. I'm going to be doing um a pro both programs are going to be on my expiration date um topic and the one is um today at 12:30 and then the other one's Thursday at 6. It'll be the same program. Um but that's all I have.

Any other information to come before the solid waste board today? entertain a motion. Motion to adjurnn. Um, yes, you may speak.

Um, I'm Chad Cookinire, uh, resident of the county, but also Hanok County surveyor. Um, some of you know me. Um, I work with DD very closely. Uh, we deal with things with our MS4. Uh, a lot of things that she does is very invaluable to what we do. Um, I know we got a um I I'm not here to to dispute or to talk about uh how the contract or anything is going to go about. Okay. Um just in support of DD, but also from the standpoint I know we have gotten a um a grant well a a check from Monsantos a couple of years ago uh to compensate through the MS4 um for some things that they had done that weren't kosher. I guess would be the way to say that. Um, and we would be willing to utilize that money uh to cover the shortfall that she would have this year uh through that contract [laughter] uh as opposed to and if it's legal, we'd have to talk about it from that standpoint. Um that she would lose in the compensation. We'd really like to keep her. So, um just something for you guys to think about from that standpoint. Um I I know the budgets [snorts] are where they are at this moment. uh but uh we have the availability with that to be able to offset that as that goes through. So I wanted to throw that out there uh for that opportunity for the board um as you guys look at that and go from there. So um that's all I have to say. If you have any questions for me, I more than welcome to answer them or go from that standpoint.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Second. It's been moved and seconded we adjourn this meeting. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion passes.

All right, I lost. You ready? I'm ready. Rachel's [clears throat] Hey, Eric. Can you hear us? Eric. Yes. Okay, there he is. You guys are live. Hey Eric, we are live live now. Here we go.

Ready? I will reconvene the February 3rd drainage board meeting and then I will reconvene the hearing on Cranberry Estates. Um Chad, you want to So let's uh first let's approve the minutes of the uh drain of the cranberry meeting in from December. Is that December? Make Yeah. Make a motion to approve the meeting from uh uh December uh Cranberry Mutual Drain Hearing. Can I approve the minutes if I wasn't? I'm not sure. You can't. So Eric Eric can

Eric's got to been moved in a second. Second. You got a second. [laughter] Been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes from the December cranberry drainage board hearing. All those in favor say I. I. I. Eric I I I thank you. [laughter] Technology is great. Motion passes.

All right. There has been a order that has been prepared for the board. Um should I [clears throat] go ahead and read the order? So I will read the order um that has been put together for our attorney and um then that will be up to the uh board to either accept the order or or not accept the order. So this is a petition to remove an obstruction in a mutual drain. This is called the cranberry petition. Uh the petitioners were Hmel, Dickman, Cameron, Thompson, and Wright. The respondents were Matthew and Andrea Masters. Uh the findings in the order on the Cranberry Mutual Drain Obstruction One, the Hancock County Drainage Board, so after known as board, is a duly constituted drainage board under Indiana code title 36, article 9, and has jurisdiction over regulated and mutual drains located within Hancock County, Indiana. This action was initiated pursuant to Indiana code 36927.4 upon a petition filed by petitioners alleging the existence of an obstruction in a mutual drain tile on respondents property located in Hancock County, Indiana. Number three, upon receipt of the petition, the Hancock County Surveyor investigated the allegation pursuant to Indiana code 36927.4-12 4-12 and reported to the board that a mutual drain exists and that an obstruction was present in the form of a valve gate on the southern edge of respondents property formerly known as southern valve. The board number four the board provided proper notice of a public hearing in compliance with Indiana code 369 27.4 including notice to Matthew and Andrea Masters uh now known as the respondents. Number five, a duly noticed public hearing was conducted on November 1st, 2025 and continued to January 6th, 2026 and again to February 3rd, 2026. Number six, the board received evidence

and exhibits and heard testimony, including testimony from Hancock County Surveyor Chad Cooker and multiple members of the public. Number [clears throat] seven, the respondents appeared by councel represented by Sylvia B. Miller and participated in the hearing through their legal counsel who acknowledged respondent had placed the south valve on their property. Number eight, the board finds this tile is a mutual subsurface drain tile which exists on two or more tracks of land owned by different owners and is a legally defined mutual drain. The county surveyor testified that the south valve is inconsistent with an ordinary tile and when closed causes an obstruction in the drain function. Number 10. The board finds the south valve exists as an obstruction in this mutual drain and the removal of the obstruction will provide better drainage on the petitioner's land and not cause unreasonable damage land to the to the land of the respondents. Number 11. The board further finds that based upon the testimony provided and by a prepoundonderance of the evidence, the south valve obstruction was intentionally placed by the respondents. Number 12. During the hearing, the respondents through council agreed on the record to remove the south valve. Number 13. Pursuant to Indiana code 36927.4-16, this board orders the county surveyor to have the south valve removed at the expense of the respondents. Number 14. The petition is therefore granted and the board finds for the petitioners. Number 15. The county surveyor is hereby ordered to remove the south valve and restore the mutual drain at the expense of the respondents. [clears throat]

Number 16. The cost shall be advanced from the general drainage fund pursuant to Indiana code 36927.4-21 and recovered from the respondents Matthew and Andrea Masters. And this would be so ordered this day on the 3. Um, also from that standpoint, we do have a quote that the masters had received from Davis Excavation, who is actually one of our county contractors, um, to remove the valve on the property, uh, for an amount, uh, of $1,000. And then there's, uh, some things underneath if there's yard repairs that need to happen, um, there is an additional amount that they could pay to do that. But, um, we do have a a quote amount for that as well. So, that is the uh order uh as it has been read into the record.

I would make a motion to approve the Hancock County uh drainage board to actually approve this agreement here uh to remove this south valve at their expense. Second. You can't second. You can't uh I can't. Sorry. [laughter] Eric seconded it. Yeah. Did he second? Okay. He did. It's been moved and seconded that we adopt the order to remove the obstruction. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Motion passes. And you can close the hearing. Make a motion to close our hearing. Second been moved and seconded that we close the cranberry hearing. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes. Thank you. That's done. Mr. Moore. Now we need to close our

the solid waste. Okay. Next. We recess. Next meeting will be March whatever we need to I'll make a motion that we adjourn. Yeah. Second. Been moved and seconded that we adjourn the February 3rd drainage board meeting. All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes. Okay. [clears throat] Okay. Now, thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

All right. You want me to sign Uh

well, thanks. Uh Chief Welch and Trustee M Mickey Seanic. That's what it's in. Okay. Thank you, Corey. Mine's not enough on something. So, obvious uh I just submitted a proposed order. Good afternoon.

Thank you guys for taking the time to talk to us. Essentially what we're trying to do is I want to give you an update and some information and then just ask for kind of your thumbs up um to go and present to the RDC. Essentially the goal that we're looking at is the currentou that we had worked with the county and with the RDC is set to expire this year. And so the request that we're asking is is to look at creating newou that would be a 2-year. And so just real quick I wanted to shoot through a couple slides to give you some information. Um we had an increase of 8% in our run volume. Um, of that run volume, 15% was to non-residential within our township. So, those would be the tiff businesses within the township. Uh, 27% of our total runs were dispatched to mutual aid assisting the county and our surrounding departments within the county. And then 31% of those uh overall are to the to the specifically to the tiff. So, we had a 15% increase, but 31% of our overall run volume. So when you're looking there's 50 58% of our total run volume is actually not just township that we're managing. The one thing that I did exclude out of this is car crashes. Uh simply for the fact that are those from the tip businesses being in are those residences or is it 50/50? Um I mean I I prefer to I'll keep those numbers out but if you want to see those we can bring those in. And so that's a service demand that exceeds beyond just the township that you guys are aware of and that we've talked about in the past. And so looking at our total run volume, this is from 23 to 25. And then this is just a forecast going into what 26 and 27 will look like. The mutual aid is shown in the red. And then the uh tiff or to the businesses within the township is shown in a yellow. I think we're going to see a change in this and I think that the forecast is actually a little underwhelming for the businesses simply for the fact that the number of businesses that are projected to come online from the hotel and event center to the apartment complexes that we've got coming on so forth and so on. But again, just to kind of give a quick representation, the other thing that I think is kind of relevant is talking

about the assessed value within Buck Creek Township. We're the green line. And so the top left is going to be the residential, the 1% AV. And so as you can see, we're the lowest of the four career department areas um indicated. Coming into the A non-homestead uh AV, the 2% is the bottom right. Again, we're on the low end of where that total AV comes into play. Where it gets a little impressive is when we start talking about the AV on the 3%, which is your industrial commercial. And so looking at that, when I presented to the commissioners and the council back in 2023, I said we were on track to surpass Greenfield uh in the AV in this realm. And we have surpassed them and continue to do so. And so looking at the green and the trend line and the projected line, um I think we're going to continue to see that grow as the AV grows and as we have additional businesses that come online. And so looking at that, this is where the tiff also comes into play. And so this is the tiff AV that's being captured out of that. And so that lines right up with the the growth that we're seeing that that AV that AV is being captured. Something else that I think is kind of impressive that I just wanted to give a visual representation to. Um this is from Google Earth. This shows Buck Creek Township in 2021. And then we flip over and look at 2025. And so just kind of the quick flip between the two shows that there's been a significant pop um in the warehouses that we've had within the district. Um the map even indicates amplify over towards the the right. So you can see it's even got the amplify being on that as well. [clears throat] And so from that perspective, there's something else that I wanted to kind of show you. We just recently attended a a mega warehouse seminar. Um if you recall back on March 16th of 2022, Planefield had a warehouse fire. It was a 1.2 million square foot uh Walmart distribution center. Um that the facility uh was a total loss. And so Planefield has actually done a um a debrief on this. There is a National Fall and Firefighters Association document. It's a 77page document if you

need something that you want to read on an airplane to help you pass the time. It's a it actually is a very insightful read, but they also did a video um that is called When the Sky Turned Black. And that video kind of goes into some of the challenges that they faced, some of the long-term impacts that that had. And I just thought it was a really good video and wanted to share that with you. I'm not going to show you the video, but I just wanted to share that link and we'll share that with you as well. And so the ask and the proposed going forward and again this is going to be for the RDC of what we're looking at. This is the same proposal I'm going to give to them. The same information I'm going to give to them is entering into a new memorandum of understanding for 27 and 28. And the reason that we stopped it at 28 is in talking with Gary P. um he shows that programming for the RDC looks good through 28 in order to be able to sustain this. He has some concerns in 29 and wasn't sure that making a commit to 29 at this point was going to be in the best interest of the RDC. And so we understood that and didn't want to didn't want to push that extension from there. Um [clears throat] asking to maintain some flexibility in the funds. Previously we did it for specifically staffing. We're looking primarily to use these funds for staffing, but having a little bit of flexibility with some of the uncertainty and legislation that's going on right now um from SEA1 of last year and then some of the bills that are being presented this year. Um I'm just asking for a little bit of flexibility in the fund usage. um from that perspective and then continuing the coordination between the the department and the RDC and then continuing our coordination with you guys and the the council as well is just the ask that we've got and so with that my ask is pretty straightforward and simple and just asking if you guys would support us going to the RDC because I know that as we got as as we're on their agenda the first question they'll ask is have you talked to the commissioners and so I just want to say that yes we've talked to you um that you guys um acknowledge that this is something that is worth looking into um and then that they can [clears throat] take a look at theou and determine they want to engage in that going into 27 and 28.

So where where's your finances? Because originally when when we looked at this originally it was because you guys were short, right? You needed men and all that. Where are we right now?

So we the theou that we did said that we would bring on six new staff and we did bring on those six staff. our staffing went from eight per shift to now we're at 10 per shift. And so if you're asking where we stand overall, um I'll give you two answers. One is is in talking with Greg Geratas and when he came out two years ago and looked at what is the right size of where we need to be, we targeted 14 per shift as being the right size. So we're still under target on where we need to be from a staffing perspective. Um I'll introduce here in just a minute. Um, but we've also got the the 4787 president Chris President Chris Collip who represents all of the union firefighters within the county and then also Phil Spencer who is the district vice president for Buck Creek that represents the union firefighters within Buck Creek Township. They had a survey um an assessment that was done on Buck Creek Township and shows that even that 14 is still under where we need to be targeted at. And to give an [clears throat] to give a um to give an idea at the 1.2 2 million warehouse uh that Planefield had. They had 33 firefighters on their shift where we were sitting at eight at the time and we've been able to move up to 10. So, we're still behind the eightball, but we're progressing. Our budget from some of the AV appeals and the natural growth within our budget. We're looking at adding one additional position per shift. So, that will bring us to 11. And then with looking at continuing this thisou, we want to add another position to that to bring us up to 12 per shift is what we're targeting. So, and how are you going to sustain this?

So, we've already worked with our budget growth that we've had has brought us up to a sustainability for the six that we've brought on. And so, what we've been able to do is we have with using the funds that we've had available, what we've been doing is we've been catching up on some of the capital purchases that we've needed to um over the period of time. So, it's been a as we have we have have because that was one of the biggest concerns that was brought up from the RDC is sustainability and when we did the three-year our budget growth was projected out to be able to offset that difference and it has. So from the projection to right now we are in a position that we are able to sustain the six that we have brought on without concerns. And so now going forward, the additional allows us to continue our our capital and our staffing and our projections on the increases that we're looking at will be set so that we'll be able to sustain that additional position. Um and then we're also have been working on our capital long-term plan that has given us some insight so that we're not getting hit with some large expenses all at once. Uh, one of the things that um, we were not doing well is we weren't forecasting out 101 15 years on some of our equipment and it was a all of a sudden we had an emergency. Now what we're doing is we have a capital improvement plan that goes out 10 years. Um, we take it out 15 but there's a lot of questions because even at 10 years knowing what a firetruck is going to cost is very questionable. Um, so we've built those plans out as well so that it creates that buffer so that as we get through these two years, we're looking at that sustainability and already being at that point just from the growth that we're expecting within our the natural budget growth.

Anything? [clears throat] I know you mentioned manpower. Was there anything else that you have spent uh some of the redevelopment commission monies on that you can share with us?

So, it's the the money was focused towards salaries and what that allowed us to do is that allowed us to free up we had as our budget increased um that allowed us to do some capital purchases. So, as we've shared on social media, we did do a purchase for extrication equipment um we've done uh purchase of new fire gear. So, we were getting into a life cycle with our fire gear. uh where we've done that. We've also purchased an air filtration system that's within the stations to help filter out the emissions from the vehicles and some of the other gases to try and work on staff safety. And so those are the three biggest projects. And in correlation with that, something that I want to point out is that we've been working with developers and with uh contractors to try and get funding in to support some of those projects as well. So, for instance, on the gear, we were even able to offset some of those costs on the gear um from some anonymous donations that we got and then from the air handling system. Uh Walmart had committed $20,000 towards the purchase of that system. Um and so we're also it's we're trying to take this as a multifaceted approach. I don't want you guys to ever feel like that we're just coming and saying, you know, we want you to solve our problems. We're also hitting the ground to try and solve our problems as well. And you're still trying to target did you say 15 years as your sustainability time or are we still on the 10-year from the time this um the original u grants were given to to say that Buck Creek could sustain itself. So from the originalou looking at sustaining the funds that we're giving in thatou going forward um unless there are any major changes um and again the I think we all have felt the wild card of the the state legislation providing no major um negative deflections were projected out to be able to sustain those positions. I don't have any concern of a negative deflection that's going to create a problem of we're going to have to do layoffs with staff.

Okay. And none of those six people have left to go any place else. They're still at Buck Creek.

I've got one that is leaving um I've got two. One is gone um lives out over on the west side and so transferred out to Pittsboro Fire Department. Um I've got a second that is leaving. Um he was in another process at the same time he was in process with us. Um his brother's at the department that he's going to. Um, and so again, it's kind of one of those that, um, there's three reasons I don't I I don't get mad for somebody leaving. And that is is pay because we can only control that so much. Run volume. Um, I'm not going to go out and create runs. That's not our job. It's to to mitigate them. And then homefield advantage. So those are the three things and they they fall within those categories.

I don't have anything else. I mean, we gave them a three-year in the beginning and knew that they were going to come back. we won't come back. And so I don't have a problem saying um go ahead and go before the RDC and share with them the same information you shared with us. Yes. And I've got the I've got theou I'll give you guys a copy of this so you're you can take a look at and if you have any questions that come up from it. Um we just did this as we just did this as a generic um similar to what we had done last time. Tried to make it so that it's it's very straightforward um and easy as can be. So we don't need a motion for this. Okay. No, cuz you're just he's just he's going to be able to tell the RDC that he's he here before you and to express you know thoughts.

If you don't mind, I just wanted to bring Phil and Chris up just so that you guys have a name with the face and so as they um interact with the county as well, you guys know who they are. I think you do already. Um at least Chris um I don't know if you've had the opportunity to meet Phil and just do a quick introduction for them and then we'll get out of your hair. But thank you. Morning. Well, afternoon. Um, like he said, I'm Chris Colop. I am the general president of the 4787, which means we cover the four career departments in the county. Um, basically anything of pay, benefits, disciplinary things, we come in and represent them. Um, we are the ones that initiated the GIS study through the IIAFF, which means they attach an analyst, finance, governmental affairs, and a whole team of people, and they they coordinate with us over the computer over about 3 or 4 months. We were able to fasttrack ours because of the amount of growth that Buck Creek Township and Hancock County has in Indiana. So, um, we were the ones that came to him and said, "Here's our findings." Um it's all based off of industry standards. Um one of the big things that we wanted to hard press on our presentation and eventually what we will come to you guys when um we can get on the docket is the fact that the 1.2 million square foot in uh Walmart and Planefield is half the size of what we have in Buck Creek Township and we're using less than half of the staffing per day.

Field does now. um he approached us and said you know what can we do? So we reach out to our international and they say this is this is everything that we can do and we will be there the whole way. Um but we just wanted to get in front of you guys and say you know we'll be working with you guys more looking forward to it. If you guys need anything from us don't hesitate to reach out. Um so yeah thank you.

Much more scaled down version. Phil Spencer I'm the district vice president. I deal strictly with professional firefighters at Buck Creek. Um Chris and I have known each other for a very long time. We work very well together. Um so job is to protect benefits and make sure everybody [cough and clears throat] unfortunate part of where we're at now is to be So, we will keep fighting the good fight and hopefully we guys have we have you along the

You bet. Phil, it's good to see you again. Haven't seen you in a while, sir. [laughter] Thank you, [cough and clears throat] Bob. He was here. I think [clears throat] he [snorts] Okay. Got Madden left. Eh, that's Bob. [laughter] Okay. We've got some uh got these changes

change orders. Contingent. dated info. So, I've got the change order number 20. Is it in which one is the or excuse me, is the change order? Yeah, the change. Okay, I've got change order six and number 20. So, okay. Whichever one you want to do first. Let's go. Uh, just pick one and go.

Okay. I'll make a motion we approve uh change order change order number six for the Amplify Hancock project one of two says the new contract amount including this change order will be 42,500 or excuse me 42,572,558.98 8

second uh motion and second to approve the uh change order number six and is with Veritus Advisors and it's change order number six and total amount to be done from owner contingency is $82,688 but the whole document actually uh is 42 572,558.98. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Motion pass. You got that one.

Okay. Okay. Signers. Okay. Here. Owner. printed name All right. [sighs and gasps]

Okay. Which one we doing now?

And dispersement number 20. I'll make a motion that we approve the affidavit for construction fund dispersement uh number 20 for the Amplify Hancock project in u the amount of 1,411,48160. Okay, I second that a motion and second uh for approve the affidavit for construction fund dispersement for the total [sighs] one one me okay 1,411,48160s any further discussion all in favor I motion passed sign. I got to sign after you. And then we've got some county farm bids. [sighs]

Okay. Have your little paper. It's right there. What is What is this? Garmong. I do not know what the Garmongud Oh, as I'll be there. Uh,

so we just had two county farms. Okay. First one is from MS Consultants. You always have to look for the the

[sighs and gasps] with a fee total of uh 22. 27,068 at least that appears right. Mr. Forkham's here so he could tell us if that's not okay.

Okay, I'll put it all the way. We're just naming them. So card there for Mark. The second is from HWC Engineering. Let's see.

And it appears that their fees are $133,500, but they also have reimburseable expenses at $1,500, which is an hourly rate, not to exceed. So, I think we probably gleaned through that more to make sure those fees all are are proper, but at least we have two. And we'll make an announcement later,

right? So, we go through them. I make a motion we accept the um two bids for the county property from HWC and MS Consultants as presented. Uh I second that. There's a motion to uh just uh accept these two bids. One for HWC and one was for MS MS Consultants. Uh, all those in favor? I I motion passes. So, I think that cleans our agenda out.

Okay, but that's there. [sighs] All right. We got any input from the public?

First of all, I want to make George Langston. First of all, I want to make a a statement. This is my own opinion and I have not had the opportunity to discuss this with the 4H a association this year. I did mention it to them last year, but this is in the ninth year since they had their operating expense changed in 2017. They're getting $95,000 a year right now. And in that time, we've had several cost of living adjustments, including the big one, over 8%. And I just want to get it on the rec uh your guys's radar that they do need to have an adjustment, okay? And and you guys can talk to them and figure out what that's going to be, but that's something that needs to be looked at, especially with what's coming up here in the next couple years, all that. It's all I got.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor? I. There we go.