County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yeah, because we hadn't done that North Park in a little while. I was just curious. It was just a curiosity question. Yeah.

Okay. Uh, good morning everyone. I'd like to call the meeting of the Hancock County Board of Commissioners to order. Today's date is March 3rd, 2026, and it is 8:03. This meet meeting is being recorded and streamed for public viewing. By participating, you acknowledge your 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 is present. The commissioners are open for business. We will now proceed with the agenda. At this time, I'd like to invite everybody to stand and lead. Pledge allegiance.

Pledge allegiance 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. Did I get a motion to approve the minutes for two 21726 motion?

Okay. Second. Second. Okay. We got a motion. Motion and second. Uh all those in favor say I. I. Oppose the same sign. Motion passes and I need a motion to recess. Uh motion to recess. Second. Motion second is available. Uh all in favor I so be it. Something changed since I was okay. I will open the March 3rd drainage board meeting. I've been here since the first year.

Uh first a part approve the February minutes. I make a motion that we approve the February minutes of the drainage board and the Cranberry Mutual Dream hearing minutes. Second. Can we do that in one? Okay. Been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes from the February meeting and the Cranberry Mutual Drain hearing. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. All right. So, we're going to start uh go for it. We're going to start with number eight. Um, so this is Gateway Park. So it's up on the screen there for you. So it'll be number eight in your packet.

Um, this is the area that is just south of uh John Machlin Drive. Uh, the area that's right here on the map that you're seeing. Uh, right now it is platted as a drainage easement. Uh, that's through there. uh the hospital has came in and they are going to develop that area uh for what's there. So there is a an an existing pipe as you can see here in the red that is running through there and they need to relocate that around. Uh so they want to vacate this part of their easement to move it around. Um they have some renderings here of what's going to go there. uh the other uh building for uh tenants that is there uh clinic area there um going to be pretty nice for where it's at. So here's a rendering of where the building's going to be. This is where the line is running right now. It's running right through where the building's going to be. they want to move it around and that easement will get uh recorded when the plat when the lot is replatted. But at this time they would like to vacate the easement that is there right now on the north park here. So that way um drawing here they'd like to vacate that so they can replplat this and go through and do that. And since it was approved as a regulated drain, they are coming for this to this board to do that. They're asking to vacate a portion of the uh regulated drain.

When you say a portion, how so the area in red here is what they're looking to but in feet, I guess I'm asking or is it total? It's an area because it they when they did it the whole the whole lot was a regulated drain easements. It was an easement. So they are getting rid of the north part of that um and then rerouting the pipe that is going around there. Would you like to speak a little bit? Okay. Okay. And this Harold Gibson with the hospital. Good morning. Morning.

Appreciate y'all being here. Appreciate being here as well. Uh on behalf of the hospital, we uh are uh here this asking this morning for this uh vacation relocation. Uh it's not something we plan to have done. It's about 200 ft of existing pipe. Um we have an opportunity to add to the campus a medical office building and uh at the same time our campus is also planned in the future for a second hospital for the county. Uh so we would like to uh pres preserve as much of that campus as we can as uh we'll need almost all that 20 acres we have left. But in order to build the building we uh chose the place that's most out of the way and unfortunately the place that's most out of the way is our entrance there to the south. And we had we had never planned for a building at this space obviously, but um in order to do so uh it'll it'll necessitate relocating not not eliminating it'll just necessitate relocating that storm drain and uh rerouting it around the site and then vacating the variable drainage easement that was platted for the common area. That's part of that part of that we're using as well. So uh two things relocating the drain and then vacating the part of that variable drainage ement that isn't going to be needed. So, um, that's that's essentially it. That answer the question? It's just a couple hundred feet. Drain won't go away. It'll just be moved.

I've got a maybe a technical question for you, Harold. Where are you going to relocate it to? Do you have those plans yet? The the the uh black and white line. Is that where dash line will be the new drain? Yeah, the old drain is right here. Yeah, the old drain is the dash line. So, is that all one parcel still owned by the hospital? Yeah. Okay. So you can we can do that at a at a public meeting without having to have a public hearing since it's on one parcel owned by the hospital. Make a motion to approve the vacation of the regulated drain uh there at Gateway as presented.

Second. been moved and seconded that we approve the vacation of the easement for the hospital uh as presented. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Motion passes.

All right, let's just let's just Thank you, Harold. Let's uh let's just go down the list now. Uh number two, claims uh approval claims for 218 and 34. As you can see, we've been brushing and dredging as we go through there. Uh, Stansbury Schultz, Charles Brier, Daniel Hair, Marshall Trees, uh, Thomas Miller, Buck Creek Upper, and then, uh, some other things that we had to do as we went through there. Um, we had one outstanding bill for the Stansbury and Schultz.

Um, and then that's where we're at for our claims. I'll make a motion we approve the claims paid for 218 of 26 and 34 of 26 as presented. Second. It's been moved and second that we approve the claims for 218 and 34 as presented. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Opposed? Motion passes. Um we have a couple of encumbrances um for the drains. Um Daniel Aair um we had a couple of encumbrances uh on that ditch and then the Thomas Miller uh we had one big one um that we had for the brushing dredges that we had. I move that we authorize for incumbrance um for the Thomas Miller regulated drain in the amount of $18,000. Second. Can we do them all at once? You want to do them all? I don't care.

Yeah, there's four other You're in charge here. Well, I think we can do them all in one motion. Okay. also including the Daniel O'Hare regulated drain in the amount of $831 and the Daniel O'Hare regulated drain in the amount of $1,147 and and the uh Daniel O'Hara regulated drain in the amount of $2,426 and the Adam Wilson regulated drain in the amount of $360. $6060. Second.

Been moved and seconded that we approve the encumbrances for the Daniel O'Hara and the Thomas Miller as presented. Or is there another one that we have? It was the Adam Wilson and the Adam Wilson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I.

I. Passes. All right. Um let's go to number four. Um so this is a variance to daylight. So this is for the um John Maron Minor sub. Uh this is 50 East just south of State Road 234. So here's State Road 234. Uh here's 50 East. Sugar Creek uh is at the back of their lots uh that runs back down through here. And uh spot we're looking at is right in here. Uh you have one house here and then they're putting there you go. So there there's the house here and then they're going to put a lot here and a lot down here. And uh what they they have Sugar Creek behind them. And what they want to do is flat here like to daylight their drain on your list for locks one and three. Now back to the ditch goes back back here and let the fall of the ground take that back there so they don't have to run a tile all the way into the floodway and flood plane all the way back to the ditch the daylight parent track is in the middle. They have to cross that track out there. So they're daylight south of the floodway line and I don't see a problem with that.

They're putting three lots in there and they want to daylight it and the creek's right behind them. Correct. Well, they're daylighting it to the creek. They're just not taking it all the way to the creek for where it's at. It really drops off uh back here in the back corner. I mean, it drops off probably nine or 10 feet uh before you get to the creek uh right in the back. So, they just want to run it short of that and then just drop it off back there and there won't be any water backed up or No, no, no. Will each one of these lots have their own outlet? One one house on each. What were you asking? I'm sorry. Say that again. What were you asking? They're putting three houses on that one lot. Well, there's one house. There one house already there.

There's one house already there. They're putting a house to the north and a house to the south. And so they need a they need a uh tile by code or u on their lot. And so these are off their lot. And so they are having an easement here and they're going to daylight the tiles here. And then the ground is just going to take it back to the creek for where it's at. And it drops you're at 880 868 here and the creek is all the way down in the 8 around 860. So you're you're dropping dropping a good 9 10 ft for it to get back to where it's at. So they will take it back to where it is dropping.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. They're taking it back to where it drops off or it goes back.

So is there going to be one for each residence? So, one for the north one that they're building and one for the south one that they're building. The middle one is already existing. There's a house that's already there. Is that Is that tile daylighted? It's an existing lot. So, it's it I have no idea what theirs is from that standpoint. You don't have to do anything with the house. It's already there. I understand that. I'm just asking for what has I do not know from that standpoint. So, if they know that tile is daylighted. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

I make a motion then we approve the variance to daylight request for lots one and three on the Edgar Osborne regulated drain John Maron Miner uh sub north50 east south of state road 234 as presented by the surveyor. Second. Been moved and second that we approve the variance to daylight on the Edgar Osborne regulated drain for the John Maron Minor sub at 50 East and 234. There is by the code there is a $250 fee for that as well. So whether you're $250 per lot per lot. Yeah. Per daylight. So that's if you want to But that but that's already the fees included unless in the motion it's w

unless we delete it. Unless Unless you wait. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Good. All right.

Yep. Number five on the list. Uh when we brought our contracts in at the beginning of the year, banning was a little slow in getting us an on call contract. So, um bringing that to you now. So an on call contract to use banning engineering. Uh we used them for the uh Stansbury and Schultz uh ditch earlier this year. We use them for a number of projects sometimes throughout the year. um for what we use. And uh so there is a contract there uh with the the fees on the second page uh for on call services for design and things that we may need throughout the year.

Did we approve these prices already or we No, this is a new this is their new contract for this year. So yeah, we did Burke and we did DLZ. Um, and then we also do banning. We use all three. So, how much of an increase are these fees over a year though? Um, they're not very much. Um, some of them are $10 an hour, $15 an hour, but uh they they're all by the hour. So, as they work through just like everything in life, Steve, it's getting more expensive as things go up. Except some things.

Yeah. Yeah. Most things. Most things have to pay for. Make a motion to approve the agreement for banning engineering for uh on call services and the hourly rates that they have presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the on call services presented by banning engineering and the rate structure. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes.

All right. Number six is classification of drains. Uh we talked at the last meeting um a little bit about some of the duties that I have as the surveyor. One of them by mandate is to go through the uh regulated drains that we have on record in the county and to classify those drains as either on maintenance, reconstruction, or to vacate them. And so, uh, as you look through there, uh, on record, we have 315 total drains, uh, in the county, um, that have been through the courts for where they're at. Uh, there are 169 active drains. Um, some of these drains are drains that, uh, had been vacated or um are moved or combined into other drains from when they were first brought up. Uh if you look on the left on the column that says notes, the ones in yellow are ones that uh we had talked in previous meetings uh that we are assessing right now uh to verify that they're there and then starting to set up whether to have hearings on those um because they were ones who were created before the 1965 uh drainage act And so they were created as regulated drains, but there was no assessment given to them. And so um as we classify them, we have to classify them either as on maintenance needing to reconstruction or to vacate them. And if they're not on assessment, we can't maintenance. And so most of these drains have been taken care of by the land owners for where they're at. So we will be as the year goes on, we will be bringing some of these to you to have hearings on them, uh as we work through those. And I imagine a number of them will end up being vacated uh from that standpoint uh because the land owners are used to using and taking care of them and that's what they'll decide to do. We may have a couple that decide hey we would like to

put it on assessment and go from there but uh have to create a watershed and walk through the whole step of it as we have that hearing uh and then go through there. This is the classification of drains that we have that are there. Um, and any questions on anything that we have? It's a lot of names and a lot of different things in a lot of different places. So, so there would have to be a hearing on each one of these. So, the ones that are vacate them.

Yes. if they're not on assessment and we can't maintain them. So there's they're kind of a it's a regulated drain in name only from that standpoint. And the way we've handled that in the past is if they are going to do work on them or something else, they still come to us to get permission for what's there, but we can't pay for any of it because we don't have any money to take care of that. And so um the question then becomes, okay, um should it still be a regulated drainage? sure it stayed as a mutual direct where it's at. Do we as a board decide that?

Yes, because we have to well ultimately we will because we have to decide whether we put it on a maintenance for what's there. So that same thing as we run through before send out a watershed map. This is what's going to cost everybody to maintain it. This is where we're at. Um then the people will come and say, "Hey, we want that to be that way or don't want it to be that way." And then if you decide, hey, we're not going to put it on maintenance. Well, if it's not on maintenance and obviously it doesn't need to be reconstructed, then we would vacate it and turn back into a mutual drain. So,

so the best example is the one we just had recently, the public hearing where the drain was in in the county highway ended up coming up with some money, but none of the land owners had been assessed. So, even if you're going to assess it, you have to have a public hearing or if you're going to vacate it, you have to have a public hearing. So, it's just something that should have been done years ago. We're trying to right for some of these things. I noticed a couple in here where there there's probably some that are not on assessment that should be on assessment, but in the future that's going to be more important.

Yes. And and so as we talked at the last hearing, if it becomes a regulated drain now because of the the new from the 65 act and then on um if it becomes a regulated drain, it automatically goes on assessment. Okay? So if they petition the board now with a new one, it automatically goes on assessment. we don't have this issue. And so that's going to be the other issue as we get back to is okay, it's a tile that's kind of breaking down. It's where it's at. If the land owners choose that they don't want it to be on maintenance, and the board agrees with them, right, the board always has the choice. Even if the land owners say, "We don't think this needs to be on assessment, but you think as the good of the group of the area that's there that it needs to be on assessment," you can still do that. I mean, that's the power that you have. Um, but not saying where the political winds of all that fall out, but that's just how that works. But from that standpoint, if you choose and go with the land owners and say we're not going to put it on assessment, then we have to vacate it because there's no sense of us, we can't maintain it for it's really just a mutual drain.

Okay. So, if we vacate it and 50 years down the line, they will have to walk back through the process to make it a regulated drain again. It can always be brought back. Yes. Always can be brought back. Uh from that standpoint, any mutual drain can be brought back. The biggest example I see in here is the Wilson. The lower the lower part is not on assessment, but the upper two parts are correct. And there's more water, more people, more grain. Absolutely. And those people didn't want it 40, 50 years ago. Correct. And that's an open ditch. Absolutely. But now it may be a different situation. It may be. Absolutely. Um and you know so just to say a blanket thing of we need to walk away is not in my mind

absolutely and um you know from that same standpoint there are land owners there who do a good job of taking care of that lower for where it's at and there are some areas that it doesn't and so um absolutely uh I understand that completely and and that that's partly the part of my job that doesn't make it easy. Well I mean nobody's going to want to pay more money if they don't have

Absolutely. you know Yeah. And so you just got to kind of walk through that tight rope as you walk through that tight rope. So um I I agree completely. Yeah. The lower is one of those ones that we've always dealt with on there. Um from the WF Wilson and also the one off of two west that's just south of what four south you know it stops right there and doesn't go south. Ditch does but we don't maintain it. So um there there's a couple Thompson and Hampton on the way. So um absolutely. So, this is the the report that I put together for this year. Just understanding that as we work through this list, uh we will probably be having more hearings and more things from that standpoint to clean this list up. It's

just what we have to do uh from that standpoint. Some of them I think will be easy calls, some of them will be more difficult calls for where we're at, but the joys of of serving. So that's where we're I don't know if they have to I mean it just says I just have to I just have to uh show you to present to the classification of drains. So I don't know if I don't think they have to approve it or anything like that but that's where that is at from that standpoint. So this is always in our office. So if you have any questions the other side of this is uh from the drainage board you can as you look through this list and and some people have more of knowledge of this these drains than other people. Um, if you believe a drain that's on maintenance needs to move to reconstruction,

you can come in and say, "Hey, or at a hearing and say, "Hey, we need we should put this on the schedule for reconstruction." Okay. Um, and you know, I got a call here last week. We talked about one that we've had on the list um and uh but you know, there's ones that need to go on reconstruction. And if you think then we could put those on those lists. And I mean if the board believes we should move forward with going through a reconstruction hearing on a drain, the board can stipulate that. It doesn't always have to be land owners for to do a reconstruction. Just information from that standpoint. Okay. Any other questions about the classification drains? All right. We're going to skip seven. We'll do that at the end. Um that will be our little bit of our education point that we do. Um so number nine. So we are on 600 West. So this is across from uh the new Walmart building on six west and five north. Five north. So this is this building right here. Well, this at DDI building that's right here. And so they it was bought by um Walmart and they are doing um expanding uh parts of the uh building and things that they're doing uh there. And so I'll bring both of these so you can see both of them here a little bit better. Um here's the building and this is

way that you can. Okay. So, here's the little pond in the corner and this pond here on the side. So, that's this little pond here and this pond that's here. So, they had to add some parking in this area right here. So, they had to get rid of some of this pond uh to create parking. And what they are proposing is to do underground detention in that area where that pond was hear there and to make that easement bigger that runs around through there. Now, this is not a um this is an easement for access for us to get in if if something is clogged for where it's at. Uh these are not regulated drain easements uh but these are the easements that come before uh the drainage board uh if we need to uh maintain the structures that are here because they're backing up uh that comes through there. So, they're looking to alter this easement that is currently in the little red that's just around this pond and they want to make it bigger because this area here is that and then there's a little area up here add two structures up here. So we per ordinance, one of the things that we do is we make sure that when they're doing a development that is private that they put all of their drainage structures within easements. So that way we can get in and if we have to to clear a clog or different things like that um to keep the system moving from where they're at because there are things that drain through especially this site uh they get down through there. So they are just coming to u ask for permission to amend uh these easements and they will record those

documents from that standpoint. How much are they wanting to remend the easement? I love your choice of words too by the way. Yeah. You like that remend? I don't even know if that's a word but that's you know it's kind of kind of where it is. I guess the be amend but um area that they're changing here in the corner is originally the easement right. So this this little line here is where it's at originally over. So they're only changing probably 20 ft 25 ft on the outside of where this easement actually is.

So that is what we're looking at the parking spots Mhm. are going to be basically over the pond. Is that what I'm looking at? There's going to be underground storage under there. So, they're going to have But right now, looking at the actual aerial footage, there's a pond there. Right. There is a pond there. Okay. I'm looking right. Yes. Right here. So, there's kind of it's kind of a drive. So, there's there is some ground that's here. So, they're not technically in the pond. They're kind of where this they're getting rid of this drive that's here, creating a parking lot right here.

So, they're widening this area that's in here. And then they're creating underground storage in this area right here. Right here's the drive that runs through it. And they're just adding parking there on that drive and then putting some underground storage underneath of that because they're taking some of this grass and stuff that's on this end of the pond and going to and they're not affecting your ability to get to that tile at all.

No, no, no, no. And the only reason I would get to that tile is if it's backing up because this pond that's here, okay? Drains up this way, then it drains over this way, and then drains behind these people. And if you remember here about three months ago, we talked about a drain that goes this way, and it actually catches this subdivision that's all the way up here. You say only if you need to get back there. I mean, it it's it's a regulated drain, right? So, we have to maintain it. It is not a regulated drain. The regulated drain is this here. That's still a private tile that's there. Oh, I know that you're not affecting the ability to access the man for J, right? Okay, that was my question.

No, no, no, no. They're out of the forj. It's it's it's so if something upstream is not able to get to that from off of their site or through their site and that is what's clogging. This is one of those issues that we talk about where they're getting to the regulated drain, but the easements that are running through there to get to that are not regulated drain easements. They are private. Right. Because if we made a regulated drain easements, then we would have to maintain the ponds and we don't want to maintain the ponds. Right. I'm with you. Okay. And the easements are just moving. They're not they're not reducing. They're not reducing. They're actually increasing the easement a little bit. Uh from that standpoint as you have no problem with the under

I don't have any problem with it. No, it's actually I'm I'm glad they came to us with that. So that way everything that's in there is still within that easement. And you know, part of the question was whether this needed to go to the commissioners or the drainage board. Uh they named the drainage board in the way that they're doing it, which is fine. Uh either way, I'd be the one who's maintaining that point anyway. I move that we approve the change in easement for the GDI property as presented and approved by the surveyor. Second.

Been moved and seconded that we change the easement on the GDI property at 6437 Enterprise Drive. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I.

Motion passes. All right. So, next let's go to um number 10. So, this is a uh new house build on 800 West just south of 200 South. So, we are on this lot that is right here on this drawing. As you can see, the regulated drains are on. There are no regulated drains here. Uh, Fox Box Cove is over in this area. Um, you can see a little bit of drainage that runs through here. They're going to put a a house uh on this lot here. Um, there is a tile on the north side of this line here that runs through, but it is a 6-in tile uh that runs through there. So, by code, uh, if they do not have an 8 in tile on lot, then they have to, um, come before the board and ask for a variance, uh, from a tile that is an 8 in tile. And so, that is why we are here.

Any idea where the 6-in ton outlets? Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Have you looked at it? Yep. I have it. It's on your drawing that's there, but I will I think it's number 10 that we're at. So, the 6inch tile is along the north line up here. So, if you Well, we have no idea where it outlets. Uh, it runs to the west. So, it runs Marian County's problem.

Marian County. And so, um, the way that we look at it from a standpoint is is the tile in good shape and is it working? Right. Um, from that standpoint, then it's it's theirs to figure out if it is um, you know, don't really care where it goes from that standpoint that if it's if it's if it's working in good condition and um, it's a good tile, then they have an access to use that a right to use that tile for what's there. So, it's a 6-in field tile. It runs to the west. Um, it's right there along their north property line. The house is going to be here. There is a little ditch just not very far west of the county line road there.

Yes. Yes, there is. I assume it goes to that, but I move that we approve the variance to use 6inch tile for Waterman at 2149 South 800 West. Second. Been moved and seconded. Do we approve the variance to use a 6-in tile for the Waterman's at 2149 South 800 West? All those in favor say I. I. Motion passes.

All right. Now, we're going to go to the complete opposite side of the county. So, we're going to go to Smith Kerman Kunk, which is 234 up by Shirley. So, about 1175 east. So there is a structure um that is uh underneath 234 uh that runs through there county line road. So, uh, if you remember in the spring of this year, um, this is one of the areas when we had our flooding that this field that is here and, um, there's some grain bins that are over here that are owned by the wise hearts. Um, water was all the way up in here. Okay? And but this structure runs down through here for the Smith chronic that runs down through here. The state is going to replace that structure. So since it is a regulated drain um they are coming before the board to um seek permission um to replace that structure and to work within our easement. They will be just a little bit outside of where they're at, still within our easement to do some shaping and things on this side. There's some water that runs down this way. We've asked for them to catch that as it comes in. uh on the north side uh the structure is going to be uh we also is going to be very close to the same size uh because they are restricted by the structure that is here field structure in this yard and then there is a structure that is underneath actually we've opened this here uh there used to be a structure here but there's a crossing that is right here um a field crossing that is used to get back in that wise heart used to get back into

this field uh use the the restriction used to be their old railroad uh but we took took that out that's now open through there uh years ago and uh it was an old railroad car that was actually in the ground there that they were using crossing but uh I I didn't want them to increase this structure that was through here because I was afraid we were going to get to a point where we were going to put these houses in danger if we made it any bigger um so they're leaving it at pretty much the same size and 23 page paper. I'll just give you here's their here's the structure that's going to go in place in kind for where the one that is there. They have a couple power poles that u going to be re removed around outside of our easement. But this is structure that they want to put in here outside just a little bit here as the shaping to bring this water in from this side. Here's the main ditch. It flows south through here. And so they are asking for a right to work in the easement um and to replace the structure on two I we met on site uh with all the interested parties and things and I put a benchmark in it and I I I think it's good

move that we approve the state to work in the easement. at the Smith Kerman and Kron at 234 and 1175 East. Second. Been moved and seconded that we allow INDOT replace the structure at 234 and 1175 East. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. All right. Almost to the end.

All right. So number 12 is Brooks Edge. So we are Alford Road on the Mingle. So we are just north of Offford Road or on Offford Road Brooks Edge. Here's nine. We are just west of nine here on a thousand north. Brooks Edge is a uh Brooks Edge one and Brooks Edge 2 are subdivisions that are going in here. Minor subs that are going in here. Um but we have a request from Ninstar. They are looking to run fiber to them through there. And so they are going to cross the ditch right here uh back for these lots. Uh they are going to be seven feet below the bottom of the ditch.

There been a request to cross the ditch with a bridge yet? Yes. You guys approved that a long time ago? Really?

That Yeah. Last Oh goodness. May of last year for the plans. Uh, and there's working through the size of that to make sure it's the same size that's here. But this is for these that go through there. So 7 ft below the ditch is where they're looking to put their fiber in through there. You guys have waved the fee for nice, but that would have to be in the motion. And we need a standard county hold ar harmless. And they have a kind they have already signed one. Yep.

So I guess the only question is are we still doing no fee per night? Yes. Well, we have in the past. No, we have I'd say we go ahead and do it. I didn't know how big that bill was we were paying off. It's big. I think we Yeah. Wave there. Uh, I move that we approve the utility crossing of the Mingle arm of the Mcbaden by Ninstar waving the fee with a standard county hold homeless.

Second and moved and seconded that we allow Ninstar to cross the mingle arm of the McFadden with uh without the standard fee. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passes.

All right. So, last thing for the group. Um we have started a series of um discussions of uh for kind of education for the board of things that the surveyor's office does and that the the responsibilities of the board and the things that we do. Uh kind of just bringing some light to some different things and where we're at. Um we also in our office u from the state the county is mandated to uh run an MS4 program which is a water program uh and we have to give an annual report for that and so our office also maintains that and so at this time um I'm going to ask Cole Rainbolt who runs the uh daytoday MS4 for us in our office he's going to give you our MS4 uh report and uh we'll go from there. If you have any questions, grill them away. You're good.

All right. Here's this. You want That's fine. Morning everybody. Good morning. As Chad mentioned, my name is Rainol and I work as an inspector in the uh surveyor's office. A little bit of what we're going to go over today is going through our annual report and then here I will give this to the Yeah. Then when that goes to Cy,

sorry, I'm not pulling pills out of my thing. I'm just getting some stuff that we do for our elicit discharge here. So a little bit of the overview of what we're going to going to go over today. Uh main thing is what Chad has mentioned. We're going to a little bit go into what MS4 is. Uh why is it important and then as Chad mentioned as well uh the eight sections that we're going to go over the state has uh given us that we have to regulate through our county and jurisdiction wise and so make sure we are all hitting all those things in our NMS4 program as well. So going straight into it uh I asked the board here do you guys know what MS4 is by show of hands or anything like that?

Multiple separate storm sewer system. Very good. Very good. I was hoping somebody would say something like that. There you go.

To simplify that a little more is basically keeping the clean water away from the sewer water or necessarily the murky water away from clear water. And so what I do in my uh position is I facilitate and I manage and operate keeping our waters clean. And so with that, that kind of entails just with rivers, creeks, regulated drains, subdivisions, and just inlets that are coming out of into our streams. So with that um a little bit the main thing of that we try to do is just protecting our streams as much as we can from the illicit discharge and necessarily other pollutions that can cause harm to uh aquatic life and just water maintenance in general. So going straight back into our next one here is a little bit more of our general information and who's all in our Hancock car board. Uh as we here have here Gary McDaniel, he is our MS4 operator. uh Chad Coconer which is our Hanok County surveyor as well as our coordinator MS4 coordinator and then the application preparer that I have given Corey uh she is the one that has prepared our MS4 annual report and then for myself Cole Rainol I am the one that has gathered the information and provided it to you guys today and so as I was trying to search the uh web to find pretty pictures of all of us um these are the pictures that I kind of had in mind so this is Mr. for Gary McDaniel.

I was going there. Very good picture. I thought so. You just got a haircut. Looking back, trying to find as best pictures as we could. Uh then this is myself.

And then going into the next one, we have Susan Botkin, Chad Coconut, and then Donna Coco as well. And this is an old picture they had a couple years past um that they changing of the tides is what it is titled as. So going straight into our public outreach and education part of this uh program. So in this section uh we had a total of four events during this time or our annual period and within these four events we had about 13 participants that helped without uh our communities and those are communities can include Cumberland, New Pow, uh Fortville, McCordesville and we all work in as the MS4 entity for the Hancock County. And within these events we had about 850 attendees. uh during these events uh necessarily these can include uh blues and festivals uh fairs and school education events. And so within those the public outreach for uh the education part um through the schools we had DD Allander which she actually has a great job and helping us uh with our MS4 program with the collection events as well. But in these public uh education uh settings, she is uh usually one in the classroom teaching kids more about uh water quality control uh prevention, pollution preventions and stuff like that. And within these uh brochures and handouts that we usually pass out to the uh fair events, I have a little bit of things that you guys can pass around of what we actually just look and give out to people as they're looking for uh ways to help our county improve with uh water water quality control. And as you guys are looking through that, I'll just keep going through here. Uh we had about 34 total attendees in our pre-construction meetings. And within my pre-construction meetings, uh, what I do is I, uh, manage, uh, making sure that myself and Griffin Brown, we are part of the field crew chief. He is the field crew chief, then I am under him as the MS4 operator, uh, necessarily, I'm sorry, inspector. And so what we usually entail in these

pre-con meetings is I kind of just gave them the baseline of what MS4 is entailing, per se. And with that, I usually tell them keeping their inlet protection up. Uh silt fence needs to be implemented before any construction starts. Concrete wash out needs to be on uh site. A trash enclosure needs to be there as well. Uh just keeping the site maintained to compliance and keeping it clean is the main thing that I want to try to get into before they start any work. And I'll get into it later into the presentation as well with uh a little bit more of what that pre-construction work kind of looks like as well. So with that in the pre-construction meetings we had about 34 antinis as I said but with that is industrial commercial and construction. Uh the construction part is a little bit more of active sites that are being built onto. So over here on 200 west we have the boulders of Sugar Creek. They are have an existing active site that's going on right now. Uh and they are actually building onto another section as well. I think it's section three. Yes. That's what they were going into. So our next section here. So I may you guys may not know but uh does anybody know what elicit discharge is?

No. Okay. So I think we have all maybe I would hope so had a time where we're looking into a a river or necessarily a creek and you see soapy water or murky water or settlement build up a lot. And so what that is is necessarily classified as an illicit discharge. And with that, what I do is I take samples from our regulated drains and outfalls. And I use this tube right here. And what I do is I test uh this water to make sure if it doesn't have anything like high ammonia, uh anything like that, uh phosphate as well and then a little bit of nitrate as well. So, and if it does indicate that it does have high solutions of this material, uh, I do have to contact then the health department and then later on it would be IDM as well if it does get into that. But during this annual period, we did not have any elicit discharge detections, which is really good making sure that the county is keeping up to date with keeping our waters clean. Uh and with that uh I only did about 20 screenings uh this past annual year and I think within the annual reporting year you have about it's every once every four years you have to get the amount of outfalls detected and so I'm sorry even what an outfall is is necessarily a drain or a uh

discharge from a from a subdivision or a creek or regulated drain that I go in alpha and I test them to make sure that they're all up to date and making sure there's no elicit discharge. Another thing if too if visual inspections for illicit discharge, if you can see oil, if you can see soapy water or necessarily if you can smell odor, you know that you have an elicited discharge on hand. So going into section four here within this section, this is a little bit more of our construction phase. Uh I know the highway department has about 20 projects right now that are including bridges and roundabouts. uh for our office that have active sites. There are about 86 sites and those are things that I regulate and I visit regularly. And so I had about 411 inspections in this past annual reporting year. And within those inspections, these can include things just as visual inspections, driveby inspections, uh walkthrough inspections, in-person meetings with superintendents and contractors. And I usually just make sure that they have silt fence up site's very clean compliance and everything. making sure everything's up to date with the MS4 ordinances. And with that, I had no uh enforcement actions taken, which is really good because as I was mentioning from our precons, uh telling everything put in place beforehand, not necessarily having to have a enforcement taking later on, make sure that they're doing the right job. uh they our contractors and everybody in our uh active sites they do a really good job of keeping everything up to date uh with the ordinances and MS4 particular uh standards. So and within our office we had only about approximately seven requests for uh public information requests and that's dealing with MS4 standards and then we only had about four to five complaints that was also with the MS4 as well. So and then going into our section five here this is post construction. So this is after uh what we considered uh active sites they are done with their things and so during

this section we had two uh sites that requiring MS4 uh necess standards again and as well we had to put them tell them put implementation back in so considered maybe putting silt fence up getting uh necessarily more uh seed and grass put back in as well and these were considered be a little bit more bmps as well. So in that too we had one measure that was installed during this uh time period which was a structural measure which they needed to get it done. Uh it was definitely something that was really needed during that time. And then uh during this time also we had MS4 owned uh inspections as well. So these were four things that I will get into our next section which is section six and I'll identify those and what we go over those with too. Section six here. This is the area of what we do is our housekeeping. Uh mainly uh our outfall repairs. We only had about zero rip wrap jobs uh during this annual reporting period. About 10 brush and bridge ditches. Uh these are our regulated drains. Uh about 36.5 tons of collected storm uh storm water system cleanings. And with that that is just materials that were collected through u the time period. And those are just collected through a vac truck and then taken with them as well. And then there was 2,700 gallons of collected of materials from street tree street sweeping. And within those there are stockpile at the highway and then they disposed at the crossroads ecoenter landfill.

So and then we have one de deicing and salt and sand storage and that's also located at the uh highway department. So going down into this a little bit area. So the facilities that are the nine facilities that we own and operate as MS4, these are considered to be the prosecutor's office, uh the memorial building, the courthouse, the annex and some others as well. But uh the three operated facilities that requiring a SWIP are the highway department, oh I'm sorry, the highway department, the jail, and then the shooting range as well. And once we get uh the amplify going up with those will be also a SWIP related uh facility that we'll also have to look into. And as I did not mention before, I'm sorry, the SWIP is a prevention plan. Uh it's the storm water uh pollution prevention plan that is put in place for if something does happen uh at a site. They have the set standards in enforced to they know what to do if something does spill on a considered a elicit discharge or uh some type of spill that including oil anything that's going into a water bank. So finishing up here into our summary. So during this uh time period as well, we didn't really have any uh changes that were reported to our jurisdiction boundaries. As you can see, this is the jurisdiction boundary as well for our county. Uh as the uh purple are your towns and city limits as well. And then the white is mostly where those outfalls are that I mentioned before. And so these are all the alpha falls that are included in the white area that I do go and test that I'll be getting done this year as the fourth year is coming up uh pretty fastly approaching as well. So I said as well no new funding uh sources expenditure this year as well and then uh no modifications to the uh storm water quality management plan this year as well. So some things to highlight in success this year uh were our contractors workshop and then our county collection events. So during our contractor workshop, we had about 40 attendees this past year. Uh those were

all included in helping us learn them help them learn about MS4. And so what that helped is that they know what the ins and outs of MS4 and we had a little bit more of a I didn't come in and talk about what they were looking for on their inspections as well as too. So it did help that they didn't really have any uh complaints and necessarily enforcements taken this past annual year too. So, and as I mentioned is the collection of county events. Dee Allander, she runs our county collection events. She does a great job. She uh has done a tremendous help for us and she's setting up uh everything hopefully coming up in the next couple months for our next county events. And I know she has a really good mass following that comes and uh delivers or not necessarily delivers just tries to get rid of most of those things that they do not need anymore. So, and then conclusion in here and then finishing up. So, I appreciate you guys giving me the time to speak to you guys uh for today and I am asking for the approval and signature of Mr. Gary McDaniel and I appreciate you guys' time and thank you.

Thanks, Cole. Any questions for Cole? Did very well. Well done. Yeah, pulling them out. That's probably not the best thing.

All right. Um, so if you have any questions about MS4 or u you see something out and about um you can contact Cole in our office can call our office for where we're at. Uh but uh he does a great job, the crew does a great job of uh not only educating people but uh helping maintain our waterways uh for where we're at in the county. So, um I don't uh couple of the old business um in the process of uh waiting to hear back from Madison County uh for setting up a date uh to have a joint drainage board meeting for the BFAM. Um so, we'll have to do that at some point here coming up. Um I don't have any other new business. Any other new business from the group?

One's going twice. We need a motion to approve this. So when he signs it, that'll do it. Yeah, I think he just needs to sign it. Yeah, Gary, as the MS4 operator, he has to sign it. So just he's on the hook and I I get to walk away. So thank you. All I have. So I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn the drainage board meeting. Second. Been moved and seconded that we adjourn the March 3rd drainage board meeting. All in favor say I. I. Motion passes.

So whenever you do hear from Madison County, Chad, what's that? I said whenever you do hear from Madison County, we'll have to make new appointments to that board.

call our meeting back to order here. Uh Gary P. Good morning. The first item I have on the agenda, Strand Rideway Amendment. We're going to be moving to rightway purchasing on the uh 300 South and Meridian Road roundabout. So, these are standard INDOT. Uh there's a standard we're getting grants on. It's a standard INDOT uh contract amount. So, there wasn't any real negotiation on this, which is nice. Um but I'll bring it up. It is DEZ number 2301 to 625 modification to change the contract from so number

here grant project to modify from this to this and is our plan we're paying 80% of it we're paying 20% of it they're paying 80 I make a motion that we approve uh does number 2301625 for project County Road 300 South and Meridian Road intersection improvement. Uh the uh compensation change is from $414,210 to $533,000 uh $460.

Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve DEZ number 2301625 increase to four $414,210 to 500 $533,000 and460 as presented. All those in favor say I. I. I oppose the same sign. Motion carries.

As you're signing that, they are finishing the old jail remodel. Uh we will sit down and meet with the uh at some point, Gary, one of the commissioners will need to meet with us uh and decide uh about the next projects and the manner in which you want to pursue those projects, okay, in that area or if you want to pursue them. Um just let me know when

we'll do the question. You don't have to answer it today, but we need to consider it and probably have the answer by the April is are we going to extend HCSS in 2027? That's the Hancock County Senior Services or the Microtransit. Um, probably commissioners need to debate that, talk to council about that and talk with your colleagues in Greenfield and see if this is a service that the county wants to continue to participate in. Um and last last year I think they put in they did services they did and 7 76% of the ride share comes right from Greenfield. So um maybe Gary can work with mayor come up with there.

So that contract is expiring and we have exceeded the extensions on that contract. So we will need to re-engage certainly by April to get that done by the end of the year. Okay. I'm finishing the B10 and F10 reports for HCSS. We've been handling the administration of that. Miss uh R Miss Rollz has been handling a lot of that and I've handling it as well. So, we are getting that finished up.

Um I talked about the new procurements. We are working to um the recent grants that we got. There might be some distress over 900 North 600 West in the McCordil area. I'll keep you appraised of that. Miss Eden McCallip is considering u whether that's geographically locked or not fundwise. I'll keep you appraised of that. That affects McCordsville and the TIFF district more than this group, but I'll keep you praised. Is that the one that pulled back on it or whatever? They may pull back on it. Oh, okay. Um because it's inside Mccorsville and they have some discomfort with that. Um Indiana Trails Grant is still running. I don't think we got any word back on that, Miriam.

So, we are still awaiting word back on that. Um I believe the con the concert um event has been switched to 2027 but it will be in that location.

Okay. But it's been moved. Um bridges on three south and four south are closed for the winter. They should be opening late spring. They're moving right along. We've got the peers set on both of them. Um so they'll move right along. They won't be like a year long project or anything. So those I hope to get those open before summer break. weather dependent. It can start raining cats and dogs any minute. You know, mother nature's strong. She only snows during rush hour and she only rains when we're trying to build something. So, that's okay. We love her still. Um, we probably need an executive meeting on development. There's a lot of development still going there. So, I know Randy is here. There probably be some point when you probably need to talk to him and the council and make sure that uh everybody is synchronized on their ideas for development to some extent. There's been a lot of people talking uh trying to reach out to my office about it and I said that's inappropriate. I am the highway person. Um they need to coordinate with the executive body of the county and the economic development body of the county. So keep that in mind. I'm sure Randy will talk to you and try to set something up at some point. Uh road schools 16th to 18th. So we'll have the meeting on the uh 16th here and then I'll be up there. Uh we are presenting on a lot of the municipalities and counties throughout the state are interested in a lot of things that you have been doing and the council here has been doing. Um we've made mistakes but I think you guys have gotten a lot of things right and they are interested in it. So we'll be sharing some of that with them and we'll be sharing a lot of things we did wrong with them too cuz why let other people suffer twice. So a wet season is starting. It hasn't started yet. It's supposed to rain today. Um there's a lot of frozen ground still out there. I imagine the rainfall this week will cause a lot of flooding. There's no it's we we grew up in Indiana. We know what the deal is. If it's really frozen, you get a bunch of rain right away. There's no vegetation down there. I assume Chad's going to be very busy. Will be busy. There's going to be a lot of people. You know, why is there water on the road? Like there's not much we can do about it.

It's flat. So, yeah. Um barring that, that is all I have for this morning. Anybody have any questions? Nope. You got anything? I do know. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mike Gibson.

Morning, guys.

Appreciate you getting me in. Um, means a whole lot. I'm here for some rightaway uh dedications. Uh first one would be Steven Batty, 721 West, 900 North, two lot minor subdivision. Um and we're dedicating some rideway there. If I get the right one open here, it's a 50ft dedicated half rideway, 0.762 acres. And 50 foot dedicated half rideway, 0.762 acres. Yep.

Make a motion that we approve the uh 50 foot half rightway on 7.26 26 acres Batty 762 762 for the Batty minor minor subdivision. Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve and accept the 50 foot half rattleway on the Batty minor subdivision to equal 762 acres. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I

oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Second one uh that I'm representing is uh the Jason and Jenna Sylvvi minor subdivision located on uh North 350 West. It's a two lot minor subdivision and they're dedicating a 35 ft half right away 0.253 acres. What was the acreage? 0.253. 253.

Make a motion that we approve the Sylvie 35 foot 1/2 rideaway setback right away uh on on uh 0.253 acres. Second.

There's a motion on the floor to approve acceptance of a 35 foot half ride away. 253 acres for the Sylvia minor subdivision. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same signs. Motion carries. And the third one and last uh you heard this one during the uh drainage board meeting for John Marin located on North 50 East just south of State Road 234. It's a three lot minor subdivision called Marin Minor Subdivision. 35- ft dedicated half right away 0.585.

Make a motion we approve the Marin minor subdivision with 35 ft 1/2 rightway containing 0.585 acres. I'll second that. Uh we have a motion second on the floor. Any further discussion? Okay, we have a uh 35 ft half rideway equals.585 acres for the Marin Minor subdivision. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Okay.

Thank you. You're welcome. HWC Engineering and MS Consultants Incorporated. Oh. Oh. I missed. I'm sorry. Vote up. Brian Bree.

Morning everybody. Good morning. Morning Brian. Little chilly out there, but you never know what you're going to get, right? So,

yeah.

Thanks, sir. Yes, I will. Um, so with our insurance renewal, um, I feel like we've had a move to the, uh, partially self-funded program last year, and I was a little nervous up front. I'm not going to lie. took on a bigger deductible, 300,000 every claim being self-insured, but um knock on wood, it's hindsight, uh we've had a really good year. And the pieces I gave you there with the uh highlighted uh second page, I did a claim summary kind of over last year through this was through February 17th, but um had 51 claims. Our total incurred cost is 130,000. Um what we've paid to date uh from the third party administrator is 34,000. So there's some reserves out there right now. Um self-insured claims where we pay under 25, those are ran through um the county here. We've paid 79. Um so our total combined incurred. Now, some of those are pending and we've disputed some, so some of that may go away, but our total paid out uh combined is 114603. So, we saved around 380,000 moving to the self-insured program, what we've

paid out overall, even if you take the incurred and we were to encounter that uh worst case scenario, we're still coming out ahead on the self-insured program. Um, I want to compliment like all the department heads. Um, when we have safety meetings every other month, a lot of the reps that come in, and these are outside opinions, they're like, "We never go to any meetings with counties that have that many people in attendance." So, being on the self-insured program, having all the support we have, um, the auditor's office, uh, they do a great job. Sarah's on point. Um, in the insurance committee meeting we had, uh, I showed where the schedules are kind of like a living document now. So, uh, Sarah, I work with Sarah directly on that and we kind of keep everything, which is good. The county, you guys have the ability now to go in and see kind of everything that's out there. So, from a management perspective, we're on point. From a claims perspective, um, we're we're tracking well. um the department heads being involved and be you know they're well aware of the selfunded uh piece. Now um I think I want to compliment Sheriff Burkhart and Gary P. department um with our third party administrator Sean Monow is our claims rep. Uh we're able to dial in claims immediately where before we would send them off to travelers and they were they would handle it and then call us on follow-up questions. So, um I feel like we're kind of knives sharpening each other because the sheriff Gary, they we just had a couple of different scenarios where they're settled quickly and we get them either closed or determine if they're, you know, if we need to stay on them and they're legit or if it's something that's just uh somebody trying to hit us up. So, we've we've closed out uh quite a few that weren't really um like a target, a big target. So, we

sometimes we get stuff that's not really even part of ours. We we're getting those cleared off and u closed out. So you guys have any questions on the claims piece being this is our coming into our first year under that new I have any questions on that? Okay. Um if we go to the first page then what that is is the um renewals uh the package and liability uh it's through Lloyd's the premium went up slightly there uh there were some exposure increases so part of that um we're at 495 357 for the year on that line on the property uh this all our buildings and such our our business personal property um that's at 206 399 that took a slight increase. Um inland marine or equipment um that took a slight increase uh went it's at 19,172 on our umbrella or excess policy um it went up to 288 um 025 and then workers comp our experience mod dropped and it went down to a 888. So, anything under one, we get credit. Um, and we actually got $32,000 credit just in that drop or I'm sorry, 42917 credit by going down to a 088 mod. So, um, our our work comp trends um were tracking properly to where we got credit. That saved that went to 22424 and there was a difference of 18,510 in our favor. So that's savings u over last

year and then on the cyber it went up uh slightly it went up to 27752 and that was um the numbers that we get from the county on your revenues um went from 70 million and some change to 90 million and some change this year. So that was what drove that. If you think back and and I and we need to give Bernie props there. If you think back to when I started here around 21, um our cyber premium was 65,000 and we didn't have anywhere near the coverages in the policy we have now. But with all the um vulnerabilities and things when we did scans and all the additional um uh had two networks at one time that you would Bernie's tightened everything up to where we have better coverages uh higher limits and for you know almost a third of what it was prior. So I'm I'm I'm really proud of that number too for us. Um, in the green highlighted area, I know we've been talking about the Amplify building. Um, there's estimated premium and uh, at 65,000. I have a I have a tentative date of 61, but that can come down. I'm guessing that'll come down a little bit, but I I kind of put it in there high just to be um, honestly, it'll probably be in the 50 50 range at the end of the day. But um

that won't that won't be a full year either. Correct. Well, this is a full year. That's a full year, but I don't have the I don't have the um underwriters since it's a date kind of in June. We're still out over three months on it. Um that I had to give you an estimate on that. They they haven't been able to give me a hard number just yet, but I'm I'm working on a meeting for all of us. That way we can Perfect. iron a lot of this stuff out.

No problem. I think the county regardless is going to be responsible for that piece. So that's why I included it here. Okay. And um but um the other piece I gave you being that we're on the partially self-funded program, we had to have a third party administrator. So that agreement is outside of anything I'm connected with. It's really truly between you. But I got that late yesterday afternoon. And I as I read through it, I'm like, "Okay, last year, this year, there's some changes. One of the main changes is Brentwood was acquired by Acrichure and they the new Acrier contract had some variations in it. Um I talked to Scott earlier when the drainage board was going on in the hall gave him both contracts last year's this year's and then I I did some comparisons and I highlighted on one sheet the back or if you read through it'll it'll break down and explain and I've shared that with Scott. I sent emails to all of you on that. Um, again, I didn't get it until yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't put it in the packet for today by last Friday, but I emailed it to you all this morning. Um, that renews on 3:10 or it it expires 310. If you didn't sign it, it goes monthtomonth on our current one. Um, but the new one I felt, um, between you and Scott, uh, read through it, make sure if you go back to Acure and just say, "Hey, can we get closer?" I like the wording on it. last year. One of the examples was just training. Uh they had a higher cost on that. Um they had some incidental like some small bumps on some of the services which were okay, but it's all comp it's all completely broke out in that um sheet I gave you. Um, there aren't any questions, then the only thing I would need to do are get signatures from Gary on uh some couple different documents and then that would

um secure the renewal for us. Um, again, I said, you know, been around this account now for a while and I was really happy with our renewal numbers. County's grown. We had a little bump in in premium, but I mean we were at 11 1.197201 million last year and to come back 1.26729 this year for a difference of 63,000 and we've had growth. I mean that's that's awesome. So our self-insured piece I think all of us are working together on that. Janine has been integral. I need can't forget Janine. She's been in all the safety meetings. She's been our risk manager. uh you know kind of step in and and took those reigns. Um we're all kind of clicking together. So uh

Brian, do you know if our insurance committee people are getting this information as well? So they can I met with them Thursday. We met Thursday. Great. And shared that. Um Brian, um yes sir. I think the commissioners are of the mind that we would like uh acure to since they purchased Brentwood would like the same deal that we have with Brentwood grandfather sin. Yeah. Exactly. So they need to be they knew it was there to begin with. So yeah. So I I'll talk to Don Dickerson. That's one of those pieces that I'm not I understand. Um but Don needs to maybe you can that would be our direction. Uh,

I'm going to push it all. That's why I gave you what I gave you. I'm counting. I'm not acture. And you uh make sure that Don knows and Scott Binky has Don's contact information. Yes. Yes. Um I'll I'll put an email together with what I told Don I'll present it, but I'm not I I'm going to show what I received and then I'm gave you guys my recommendations. We don't have a lot of time to respond, but we need Don to act like now. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Um I'll uh I'll send that as soon as I get back to my office to D. Do we need a motion to resign the paper?

I would make a motion that we uh approve signatures for uh Hancock County uh our self-insured liability commercial property, Inland Marine. umbrella workers comp and cyber uh insurance premiums for the 2026 2027 premiums and it was signed by the commissioner president. Yeah, signed by the commissioner present. Second. Okay,

we uh have a motion and a second on the floor to allow commissioner president to sign the renewal for the insurance as presented. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I oppose the same sign. Motion carries. If do you have time to sign now? It take it won't take us but a couple minutes here.

Okay. Okay. Yes. Well, this is my last year, so we're up.

How's he doing? Ready to take a break.

It has been should make mention also that our stop loss is going to be from 910,000 to about $1 million. So, Okay,

because we will not have a commissioner's meeting. Acushure Brentwood contract is due to make a motion to approve signature on that contract once it is deemed appropriate by our county attorney and the agreements made or how do you want to how should we revisit that bill? I think we do another motion just to allow to sign to go ahead and sign uh pending legal the county legal review. I'll wait till he gets done signing so he doesn't have to do

Yeah. Thank you so much. There's another one. Yep. There you go. Thank you. All right. And I make a motion that we allow and um Gary McDaniel to sign off on the Acushure Brentwood contract once pending legal review.

Second. We have a motion and second on the floor to allow council president Gary McDaniel to sign off on insurance once it has gone through legal review. All in favor? I post same sign. Motion carries. Okay.

Janine in our insurance meeting we did discuss this. The the only change on the deductible they're 300 per loss. We had like a 95,000 stop loss last year. this this year they it is at a million. So we if we hit a million then the insurance picks up fully at that point. But that was one. Thank you Janine for mentioning that. I had it right here on my thing, but um that was the one other thing on the deductible. But you may want to mention to the other two commissioners about the you have to identify a risk manager and for right now.

So on the Jenine and I talked about this, she's been kind of the interim risk manager and so I'm going to move that forward for until there's until that position's filed or filled. So, we have Janine listed as manager or contact for the county. Okay. That's good with the both of you. Good with me. Yeah. Good. Okay. Yeah, that was I double check just to make sure we didn't need to put anybody new. So, well, thank you all. I appreciate Thank you. All the hard work you Thanks for taking care of us, Brian. We appreciate it.

HWC Engineering and ML Consultants Incorporated. Hey, thanks Brian.

Morning. Okay, Mark, you want to start or what? Where are we going? Okay, go for it. No, sorry. Go ahead. We've got these. HWC. Got it.

Good morning. Good morning. Good to see everybody. Um Corey Whitel with HWC Engineering. Um vice president oversee our um landscape architecture, community development, and uh planning departments. With me is Caleb Rothenberger. Caleb would be the project manager from our team on this. Uh Caleb's a landscape architect uh with uh prior experience um including at this site while he was with another firm on the uh jail project. Uh Brian Shehan's one of our client representatives on the project. Uh we're excited to be have a chance to be part of it. Be happy to answer any questions that you do have about our proposal. We did provide you a copy of that that is in front of you right now. Um had a lot of opportunity recently to continue to build our relationship with you guys working on the quality of life plan with the community foundation. Uh helping with ready administration, helping with the State Road 9 corridor plan. Both myself and Caleb were part of that team that worked on that project. Um, we're also just all of us are are here based in Indie close by ready to work on this project. Uh, be happy to answer any questions that you do have for us.

One thing I noticed between our two uh, contracts, there was a large difference in the fees or the cost. Can you explain that? cuz you guys were a lot lower. So, our prices, we stand by our prices um on this u we've given you what you ask for in the scope which includes uh full survey options. You'll notice our fee proposal, there are three different alternatives for for survey work on this. Um this did ask for full survey and so we did provide that. That's the larger number. um for master planning only the the level of survey may not be necessary and so that it would be possible for you to start with um less detail rather than fully surveying this out if it's going to be several years before you develop the site. You may not need to do that full survey right now. May be all all we need for master planning is you know a high resolution aerial. Just depends on how quickly you want to move from initial planning to a specific action and development at the site or how much level of detail you want to go into.

Cory, was there any planning that HWC did at the time the new jail facility was have anything to do in I did not, but Caleb did. What to can you just tell us to what extent that part?

Um, it was in association with the jail development. I think we were looking at a number of different options of remodeling the existing jail uh alternate sites and we the the farm site we were looking at you know if we utilize this how do we position that jail to allow for future development. Um so we did some very high level conceptual study looking at how either fairground elements could be brought there the judicial campus um other commercial elements could be brought into the site. Um, so it was kind of instrumental in trying to get those the jail kind of pushed away from the road knowing that other development could fill in that space.

Is that the type of planning that could be reused or is that something that if we you know do this all over again you can't really reuse any of that? That was about eight years ago. Um and again it was very high level. Okay. So, um, this process is going to dive into a lot more detail, understanding more due diligence around the site, environmental impacts, um, taking what we know about, uh, the market in the area, the market in the region, um, and applying that to, um, real life solutions.

I think what it also does though is because we, because Caleb has worked at this site before, we knew what we were getting into on this. We're not pricing it based on unknowns. We're pricing it based on what he's seen before, so we're not guessing what we might run into on it and putting in extra for. That's why we feel comfortable with our numbers.

Yeah. I might add, I mean, what I gathered from the RFP was really looking for a springboard to develop a vision of, you know, what's some possibilities for the site. um there's no reason for us to take it to the tenth mile before we land on okay what is an agreeable vision um before we incur a bunch of costs to a project before you really know the direction you want to head in. Um that again winds with our uh survey alternates. Um the flow and LAR will pick up a lot of detail. We can extrapolate any points or um road alignments that we need from that. Um, easements and boundaries are also important. Making sure we don't have any, uh, unrecorded easements or and doing title search on the property, make sure we have no unknowns there. Um, so that's you could get to too, but there's a good chance, you know, if other development comes in, it'll be outdated in four or five years, then you might have to go back and redo it.

Do you have anything? I think this project I think we want to move it along as quickly as we possibly can because we're just so out of room that uh and it's a while for all of that to to take place. So, we're anxious to get a a move on and we'll have a a meeting with the committee that is working on this after the budget meeting first Wednesday of April. So, we'll recommendations that point.

Hey, one last question. I can't remember off the top of my head if this is in your study or not, but any environmental study that'll be out there on the site. I mean, my concern is that we we've already been bit by the environ not doing an environmental study on a couple buildings that have uh just really become a thorn in our sides. Is there an environmental attached to that?

Back through make sure I'm saying exactly. We do have our environmental team on this. David Bough is part of their team to do that as a red flag analysis to see what environmental is needed. So we would look at it and decide if that's a surface level investigation for right now, what was done in the past when that was out there. We'd like to research that before we go make a final recommendation on doing detailed environmental. Um, all likelihood, you probably need to update a phase one out there and then that could lead into other things. Uh, but right now we'd start with a record search of what you've done in the past and then if there's additional environmental, we could go into it from Okay.

We understand there's going to need to be remediation at the gun range obviously. Um so we'll be able to look at some different alternates of how you can remediate that different solutions. Um a lot of it may dictate about what kind of development we want to put there, how we approach that. All right. Thank you.

Morning. Mark Forum, MS Consultants. Um, full service consultant engineering. Um, in our fee and scope, I do you guys have in front of you what I gave you guys. Okay, fair enough. You guys have had it in the past. Uh, our proposal is full service with the survey geotech engineering. Um, get you to that end implementation point you want to get to. So, that's what our proposal includes. Questions? Barry mentioned earlier there was quite a price gap.

Yeah. So this is includes environmental engineering survey all the due diligence on your site to make sure that gets us the full information. So then we can do the planning. Okay. M and you in your um packet too, I noticed quite a bit of public uh public in input, public workshops which I think lends itself to being as you know transparent too. It's what we're trying to do out there is be more transparent with any of the kind of building projects.

Also includes some of the work you've already done on the committee and your uh other workshops you've already done so we can implement that as well. Do was there anything in your study that also said, "Hey, we're going to do an environmental um included in that." It is included. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have any other Okay. Uh we got the answers we need. We'll make a decision. Get back with you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for all your work, both groups. We appreciate it.

You want to take care of some housekeeping? Yeah, sure. Okay. Um I make a motion that we approve the claims and payroll. Second motion on the floor to approve claims and payroll. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I I same same no same I can't talk here. No same same sign. Okay. Motion carries. Auditor business

business that I have voices for maintenance elevators. Um we had some emergency we had an emergency um repair that was needed for $16,380.38. Um and I'm making a recommendation that that does qualify for your 2025 bond. um we need to pay that. The bigger issue is we've got um an invoice from Corey that they are seeking $149,451.96 advanced payment for um the the elevator there at the

to be paid forward to be paid in advance. And there is there is the Indiana code. Um, and I think I left that code with you that allows us to do that. Indiana code 5-11-10-1.6. It allows for advanced payment, but it must have a motion to recommend that to the fiscal body. Yeah, the council's going to have to say yes, auditor, you can you can pay that, but you might want to. So, if I could get a motion, I'll make a motion that we send forward to the county council a favorable recommendation to pay in advance the services for the elevator in the total amount of 149,000. That's half of it. Half of it.

Yeah. 45196. And I would I would recommend the full amount eventually being paid out of and the full amount eventually paid from the 2025 GO bond. Second. Second.

Uh there's a motion and a second on the floor to recommend to council to make half of a payment half total payment to uh resurgent elevator service to rebuild the actual elevator in the uh courthouse. And uh that way we can go ahead and get that taken care of. Uh all do you any further discussion? It's based on an emergency. Yes, this is emergency. Okay. Uh no further discussion. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign.

Motion carries. What's the total amount we're going to

I don't I don't have that total, but the full payment for the actual elevator needs right at hand is $298,93.92. And then the amount of work that's already been done, the 16,38038, um I'll probably I'd like a motion to go ahead and pay that because that's already been done as well. It's just a separate issue. make a motion that we approve payment of the U work that has already been done to date on our elevator in the amount of $16,380.38 payable to

second. We have a motion and a second on the floor to pay for work that's already been done by Resurgent Elevator and the amount of $16,380.38. Uh all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. That would be it for me. You want to take a break? We can go ahead and break this. Let's go ahead and motion for a break. Make a motion we take a brief recess. All right. Yeah, recess. Sorry. Second. Okay. Uh motion second. All in favor?

I I motion carries.

call to order the uh meeting of the Hancock County Solid Waste Management Board. First item up on our agenda is a review of the minutes from February 3rd, 2026. I make a motion that we approve the minutes for February 3rd, 2026. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded that we approve our minutes from our February 3rd, 2026 meeting. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Passes. Director's report and approval of invoices.

Okay. So in your pack it can hear me um in the the very last page it's our um budget report. So um we paid out the contract for February office supplies. We purchased uh two trophies for um our shoe recycling challenge that we had through New PAL Awards. We had our monthly uh Verizon bill in January's bill. Um, and then we um, under talks away, we paid for lunch for some of our volunteers that helped us collect all the shoes through our shoe drive. I purchased some uh, plastic gloves through Walmart. And that's all of our invoices for the month.

Can I get a motion for Make a motion to approve the uh, expenses uh, invoices as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We approve the invoices as presented. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion passes. County council report.

Okay. So, um I did make an appearance at the county council meeting um last month. Um there have been some questions when I went through the budget hearings and everything um that they weren't sure exactly what I did. So, I wanted to make sure that I made an appearance and explained to them all that I do. Um, I presented them with my 2025 annual report and then also I gave you a second um uh little paperclip um thing that um couple of pages of uh some of my accomplishments that I've achieved over the past 13 years. Um, I kind of did this partially for myself, um, but also for their benefit as well because, you know, I just wanted to see, you know, the the impact that I've made on this county and I wanted to review, you know, what what we've done over the past 13 years. So, um, we have done a lot of different recycling, trying different things um, over the years. Um, some of these things are things that we um, are still doing. I think some of the these things are things that have kind of retired over the years. Um, but we've we've touched on a lot of different areas as far as recycling goes. Um, we've tried a couple few different promotions. I've done a lot of different programs, not just in the schools. I've done some, you know, community programs as well. Um, offered a lot of different services there, education throughout the community. Um we've been awarded several grants um mostly over the last basically four years. Um so and I'm currently working on three grants that I'm hoping to um bring more money into the area. Um and then the next page, the back of the front page are all my community partners. So, um, with the budget that I have, it's very important that I reach

out to community partners to help, um, supplement the services that we're able to provide here in Hancock County. So, I have quite a lengthy list here of of community partners. Um, I'm sure there's probably even more businesses on here that I've left off um, that probably also need to be included, but um, I just went through, you know, spent an afternoon and tried to write down everybody I could think of. So, I'm sure there's probably more people on there that I've or more organizations that I've left off. Um, and then the the next page was um some of the awards and courses that I've participated in over the past few years. And then um a listing of the current projects that I'm I'm working on trying to um figure out a solution for and trying to make those events happen as well. So, I wanted you guys to have a copy of this as well so you could see um my list of accomplishments. Um and I also did just send over um to be approved next week is um a request for the allocation or appropriation of our remaining 2025 budget to be transferred over to this year. So, um they will review that um next week. Okay. Um on to old business. Um the item tire grant. I had um a tire recycler listed on our grant that um that business apparently is under review through IDM. So, they contacted me and asked if there was a different um tire vendor that we would be willing to use because they couldn't award us the grant using that tire vendor. So, I was able to get a different tire vendor. Um and so I they've updated our grant. I still have not heard yet whether or not

we've been awarded that grant. So, um that's still out there, but we're still in the running apparently. uh the Swiffer grant. I have not heard any information on that. I know that item's working on restructuring um that whole process. So that's kind of um I don't know, it's put on the side. Uh the Hancock County Community Foundation grant, I did get notification that they approved our letter of intent, which means that now I am officially um been invited to apply for the grant. So, um that grant is due April 1st and that grant we're going to apply for are for those um trash and recycling containers for uh the Greenfield Parks Department. So, um that's good news. We're still in the process, but now I've got to work on another grant. So, that'll be good. And I contacted the parks department and they were pretty excited that we're able to move forward with that as well. Um we did our no cold feet shoe recycling challenge through um the schools. We had eight schools participating this year. Uh we did have to extend it out an extra week because the week that we had our challenge was the week we got that big snowstorm and some of the schools were virtual four days out of the week. And so uh I knew we weren't going to get hardly any shoes um with that being the case. So, we did extend it out another week and we brought in about 30,000 or not 30,000 3,000 pairs of shoes um that were brought in and we actually brought them in this room right here and then uh that was on a Friday and then Saturday I had 26 volunteers that came in, some from the Fountain Church, some from the Eastern Hancock Athletic Department. Um the 26 volunteers we came in here, we

had tables all set up in here. We sorted through the 3,000 pairs of shoes, pulled out any that were not usable, um, needed to be just removed, and then we reboxed all those shoes up, separated them by men's, women's, children's, we did tennis shoes, we did boots, you know, we separated them out as much as we possibly could. And then, um, we're still in the process of delivering those to changing footprints. They're being stored in a trailer right now, but um that way it helps them because they're kind of struggling with volunteers right now and trying to get these shoes cleaned up and back on the shelves for other people to use. So this way we were able to help them out. And um I had estimated that it was going to take us like eight hours to go through all those shoes and um it only took us two and a half hours. So we were out of here in record time. It was amazing. Everybody did a great job and it was it was great. So, u we have another 3,000 pairs of shoes that are in our community ready to go back out to someone who needs them. So, that was a really good good program. Um my school program update, I currently have 89 programs scheduled. Uh most are happening the month of April. Um there are a few that start this month. And then I have also 89 uh classrooms that are wanting to participate in our flower pot project. And that's where I provide them with a pot, the dirt, seeds, and they grow the the flower. They can plant it for Earth Day if they want to do it on Earth Day, but they can do it any time that they have extra time available to do that. Um and then the goal is is that they turn around, the plants hopefully grow, and they can give them back to um the students to take home for Mother's Day. So um I have that already

um scheduled and ready to to take place. Uh state boards of state board of accounts and the retract reports. There are several reports that um as a solid waste district we have to submit before March 1st. I believe all of those have been submitted now including the retract reports. So we are good to go for another year. uh 2026 agreement with Greenfield Banking Company. Um that is in regards to our collection event coming up the end of April. They have agreed to um provide us with the shred truck and um they're going to pay for that. They're also going to pay for um hiring offduty police officers to monitor traffic for the um Park Chapel Church um drives. So, I have a meeting with them on I think it's Thursday just to go over all the final details of that. But, um I am super excited about that arrangement right there. That's another community partner where, you know, they're going to help us out and it's it's going to be great. I did get a phone call from Republic Services and they are wanting to partner with us. they um are feel like, you know, they have a nice transfer station set up. They want to um work with us to somehow use that in other ways to kind of help with our our collections, either recycling or, you know, hazardous waste. Not really sure how that's going to look right now, but it was a very good conversation and um I think it's it's going to be a good good partnership there. We're just there right now. Um, I gave them some ideas and they are working on those ideas right now internally trying to figure out how they can make something work on

their end and then once they figure out their details they will come back and um talk to us and see what kind of a relationship we can form. But I think that's going to be a really good really good setup. I'm I'm very excited about that. Um, now we get down to uh the director update. And so all along I thought this past whole month it was going to be over how we were going to handle, you know, the contract, but uh last week we kind of ran into um a different issue that needs to be resolved before we resolve the contract issue. Um so I contacted state board of accounts um because we have um the event fund which is all the money we collect at our collection events. You know, when we charge the fees for the items that residents bring in, we collect a fee and those fees have been put into an event fund and it's to be used by the solid waste district for um basically carrying out the plan of the district. Um, so I was talking to them trying to determine, you know, is that a fund that we can use the money from that to help supplement, you know, hiring an employee full-time rather than doing the contract. You know, would it be able to compensate for the benefits or, you know, compensate the county to make that happen? Well, by making that phone call, uh, they have started looking into our setup, the way the solid waste district was set up. And, um, so solid waste districts were mandated back in 1991.

And originally, Hancock County was part of a four dis 4count solid waste district called the Three Rivers Solid Waste District. Uh, I believe it was Hancock, Fyet, Henry, and Rush, I believe, were the four counties. And about um the late 1990s, early 2000s, it was determined that Hancock County was growing at a faster rate than the other counties. And so we felt that it would be better in our interest for Hancock County to become an individual solid waste district. So in 2002 um plans were made to separate from the solid waste district, the three river solid waste district and form our own solid waste district. Um and so I believe there was a resolution that was signed back in 2002 I think that stated that we would be uh operating individually. And so, state board of accounts asked me where um the ordinance was that was supposed to be in place to set us up as a solid waste district. I searched through our my files multiple times. I had the auditor's office searching through their files trying to find this ordinance that set us up. And neither one of us were able to find this document. And I don't know if it happened and we just don't have the records or if we lost the records. I don't know what happened to it. So, um Deborah is working on her end. I'm working on my end trying to um figure this out. And so the state board of accounts, I actually talked to them yesterday trying to figure out, okay, what do we do at this

point now that we can't find this ordinance? How do we move forward? And so she recommended well she said that state board of accounts is compiling a committee of like four four or five people internally that they're going to review our situation and try to figure out on their end what the process needs to be for us to move forward. And at the same time, she recommended that we hire an attorney that can review the solid waste district. Um, figure out how we want it to be structured, how um we want to move forward and um maybe we can form a committee, you know, that can can work through this whole process to resolve these issues. Um, I do have a contact for um the attorney that's at um in Shelby County that has been the Shelby County Recycling District attorney for I know she's been there at least nine years um possibly longer. Um probably longer, but she knows solid waste district law backwards and forwards. She's been dealing with it for a long time. So I am recommending that maybe we hire her to look into our side of things to try to figure out, you know, how how to proceed at this point. Um maybe we can include, you know, Deborah and whoever else is interested in, you know, hash through this whole mess. So um that is my recommendation.

Comment.

Yes. I and and I've also been on on some conversations and we have been checking. We did find the 1991 ordinance that was established the three rivers and thank you to Robin because I had to pick her brain a little bit so I knew where to start there and we have been audited um off of the resolution that was done in uh 2002 and they've made reference to that establishing our solid waste district. But now all of the sudden they're I don't think that this resolution works for them any longer. So I also made a call to Greg Geratas and I would think that this board might want to recommend to the commissioners to maybe include him on um establishing the new ordinance um because that that was his first recommendation to go ahead and get that established very quickly. Again, I think years ago this resolution worked and I think for some reason it doesn't work any longer, but we do have the 1991. And now I don't know, did you send that to state board of accounts?

I did not send the 1991 one, but I sent the resolution from 2002.

So, we'll go ahead and try to send this 1991 today to them just to see if that does help them at all. But I I feel like we've I feel like I've already sent that once to them, but we'll do it again just to make sure. Well, on behalf of the county, uh, this is all of a sudden this is being thrust on us and I don't understand that. First of all, I don't know why you called the state board of accounts to begin with. Can you tell us that? What was your call for? So, I was trying to determine the event fund if that could be used to help supplement benefits for hiring an employee or you to be used to pay you or

me or the next person down the line because apparently we were at an impass with the contract. So, I was trying to figure out another alternative and thought, well, maybe if we could hire an employee rather than having it be an independent contractor, that would resolve our our our impass. Well, you could be an employee, but you don't want to do that. I didn't say that. We discussed that. You decided you wanted to be an independent company. Well, I was given the option to either Sorry,

that's exactly what happened. Well, in any event, if there was an ordinance that originally established our solid waste district, which it now seems that that's accurate, 1991, that should be before the SB, you know, the state board of accounts before they even start talking about forming committee and all that. That to me is not necessary because there's an ordinance. Now, just because we decide to operate independent of those other counties wouldn't necessarily nullify that ordinance and there's a resolution to that effect. So, I'm not sure why this is being questioned at this point. I'm not the attorney for this for the solid waste district board, but I am the attorney for the county and the county needs to be apprised of this situation, understand what's transpiring, but I don't think that makes any sense. So, I think we better get that ordinance to him right away as you suggested because I don't I think that's that was enough and appropriate. I don't know what you wouldn't necessarily do amended an amended ordinance just to say you were going to operate separately from the other counties. whoever I think Ray Richardson or whoever was the attorney at that time decided a resolution by so I don't

I was I was a little um confused as to why we've been audited off of that resolution and not an ordinance and now it's a thing but I I'm pretty I I'm not I'm not want to say that Mary Bmer sent that 1991 because G we were going back and forth so I'll I'll get that to them today just to see if that would alleviate this whole situ situation. Just double check. They should, you know. Yeah. Well, they're they're calling for an ordinance, not a resolution now. So, that's why I wanted to make sure that we had this information today just so that everyone's aware of it. So, moving forward, it's not going to be um we'll we can take action and make it right.

Sounds like when Dee talked to them, they were only aware of the resolution because you couldn't find the ordinance. So they've been under the misapprehension that there is no ordinance. Well, until today. So they've made decisions based on the idea there's no ordinance. So will you go ahead and follow up then with the U. Absolutely. Absolutely. There is any information pass on if you share it with DD.

Absolutely. So, um, yeah. Um, so being that I'm kind of in limbo right now, um, due to liability issues with me being contracted through, um, me, um, since I don't have my own liability insurance, um, I am very uncomfortable now doing school programs and actually running our event, which is on April 25th. So, I'm not saying I want to resign, but I I I don't want to go out and buy liability insurance for a month and then, you know, have it, you know, not not be used the rest of the year. Um, I don't know what I was thinking and what I was going to propose at this meeting was that I would um I only have um I have two programs before spring break and then they don't start up again until um March 30th, but I'm going to try to reschedu those two programs that I have this month and push them back till May until, you know, we can get this whole thing resolved and either I can get insurance or I'll be an employee and we be covered under the county. Um, but I was going to um just let you know that I I don't feel comfortable, you know, doing that part of this position without insurance knowing now what I didn't know before. So, I just want to let you know

is there a way for you to establish just a temporary liability line until figure this out?

It's it's possible. I can look into it. I mean, I'm I might talk to Brian Breees back in the back just about what that might look if you have somebody else. Just I'd like to hear back from the state board of one thing too, you are acting within the scope of being the director for the solid waste district. So, I do believe the county would have coverage for anything you do in the scope of that work. So, that's another point. I'm not sure, you know, if you contract it individually, which is what we've said needs to happen. I think you would still have coverage county because you're acting on behalf of the county and this board in the scope of your duties. So, I'm not sure that that's, you know, real issue as far as your own personal liability, which I know you've expressed your concern about. Um, and that that was part of the reason you wanted an LLC. But I don't think that's I think the county would have coverage for that. Now, we can we can check with our our insurance, but that would I'd be very surprised if you if there wasn't. So that might alleviate that concern that you have.

I I mean I don't think the commissioners would probably be opposed to covering her liability for that event, but I think when she's in the scope of doing things on behalf of

Well, let's see where the uh let's see where the ordinance issue lays. I'm just speaking on my behalf. Please pipe up if any of you have uh I'd rather wait till we get get the ordinance see how that works. I mean that because going forward I I think that through this whole thing that uh we keep on coming up with different things we need to get it ironed out. So okay. So if the board has no problem waiting until we hear back from SBOA, we can push that off until our next uh meeting at meeting is in April. Do you need a committee to

meet with us or do you want just Deborah and I to do it or how how do you want to I would like to I mean if you say they're creating a committee at the state board of accounts level for this I think we'd like to hear back from from them as well. Yeah. And this is all very quick. I know that we've been and I several of my staff have been constantly trying to find this ordinance. So, this just kind of transpired last week and we've all been trying to find it. We did find the 1991 um and I did think that you had that so I apologize. We may be able to preempt a committee formation and all that ordinance to them.

I would hope so. I would think that uh if we need to create an ordinance, we can do that by the next meeting. No. And he'll be here tomorrow, too, if we need to have any further discussion. Are you interested at all in having that attorney from the solid waste district come in and over this with us or do you want to hold off on that as well? Uh I think we wait until what the finding is the ordinance issue.

But if we need deeper explanation into it, we Okay.

And that's all I have unless anybody has anything else. No new business. Uh well the spring collection event um is April 25th 9 to1. Um usually I have already started advertising by this time but I haven't just kind of holding off just to see what unfolds but I really do need to start advertising. Are you fine with me going ahead and advertising that? I'm the board good with that. I will go ahead. Yeah, we'll we'll get all of our final details in order and volunteers and we'll be good to go. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. You do a great job, Dee. Thank you. Any additional comment or discussion? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to adjurnn. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We adjourn the solid waste uh management board. All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

order to our commissioner meeting. Uh David Eller with Boys and Girls Club.

Good morning. Thanks, sir.

Thank you. Right, everybody. Good afternoon or morning. Uh, my name is David Ulster. I'm the CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hancock County. Uh, the long and short of this is I went before the budget committee for the county council uh last month uh with a request um to help uh subsidize our uh our summer camp. we ran into a funding emergency uh due to a gap in Lily's Endowments coverage uh that they traditionally have annually provided us uh they executed about an 18-month gap in the middle of their funding cycles uh which kind of left us high and dry. Um, so we uh we are coming before the the county to ask for uh some emergency funding to help us cover that gap before we resume that funding uh which we should be getting uh next January. Um so this would be to help cover the expenses related to putting on our summer camp uh for about the 150 youth countywide that would uh that would attend that. Um I'm here to answer any questions

been to the city. I have. Yes. The city is graciously helping us out with some some funding related to our HVAC. Uh we had uh an HVAC emergency uh of $90,000. Um and the city is helping us out with a portion of that. Have you filled out? We have a grant uh form I believe that's not opioid. Um, it would be, yeah, we could we could gear it towards opioid or it could just be a just a grant request. Well, just a grant just a general grant request to be get the who's, what, when, where, and why's. Sure.

Um, is this something too that it sounds like it's you're going to get funded by Lily Endowment later. Is this something that they will fund what you're missing now and you'll have that and reimburse or? No, that would be for for next year. the the way this was initially positioned to the uh to the county council is that this would come from the food and beverage tax. We can send out an application. You can send that to us and then we make sure that the committee y would look at that. We've got a meeting coming up shortly. So,

and what that fund application does for us is let you fill it out. lets us be transparent to the state board of accounts and the taxpayers as to why that they know that we're just not willy-nilly, you know, giving out funds everywhere. Um, but we want to be responsive to your needs. What is the what's the date that you would need that like drop dead? Uh, well, the the camp would start at the the last week of May. Yeah. So I think if you got if we can get that application to them

make a decision. Okay. Get that out to you today. Does Sarah have your contact info? Yeah. Mhm. Thank you. Well, thank you if that's okay with you guys. We can look we can look and see what what they've got. So Don Higgins

morning commissioners. Good morning. Morning. Don Hagen, senior architect with the Etiquette Group. I'm here for the window door uh courthouse window and door proposal. Mhm. Uh I can run through the proposal with you to hit the high points and questions. Okay.

Um so last year around this time I I did a walk through with Corey Taylor, walked through the courthouse and reviewed the the scope of the work and then provided the proposal. This year was asked to the proposal just for the windows. This year was we were asked to actually add the doors in as well. um had uh Toby Dwinger from our company came out and did another review proposal to include the doors as well. So that updated proposal I don't know if you have it. Yes.

Okay. So it defines our full scope of services from pre-esign design through construction administration. It has a preliminary schedule. We have estimated at approximately 10 and a half months from beginning of our work which is site survey and then site survey which is mean meaning like measuring the existing windows and then till the end of construction and then it also has a preliminary budget. I believe you have that at the end. So we've done similar projects in 20 2023 2024 we did the window and door replacement for Johnson County courthouse for 2024 and 2025 we did the window replacement for county courthouse. So we were able to provide I think a very detailed proposal and a thorough uh schedule and budget based on our experience with

have any questions the the doors copper now would they be same type door I think we are looking into the option of serving the doors they can be repaired they'll be repaired if not then possibly And then if not then replacing with a very similar and that would be probably so this price includes restoration not as much right for the jaws only. I think I think it's they're comparable. Okay. It's just a different Okay. Yeah. It's just a different

and I originally I think the original bid to do the the tuck pointing and windows it was 2.5, wasn't it? They were around a million dollars a piece. So somewhere there. I do have a question about the the window replacement. So when you do the windows, are we going to have to use scaffolding to uh replace those windows?

Typically use a lift. Okay, that was that was my question because when we did the uh tuck pointing and masonry other masonry repairs, limestone repair, the initial bid out was for scaffolding. The contractor realized that there was savings in getting lifts and since we didn't have that written into our contract, we didn't get the savings back. So, I just was wondering if there was going to be that kind of insight into this where if you had to use scaffolding, the scaffolding was really half of the cost of the whole project. You know, what kind of savings do we get out of a lift? And then making sure that if that was an option, we wanted that option written into contractual agreements so we could get those savings back. So, if you say lifts and that's that option, then that's

for windows because you they're smaller area. Mhm. Lift lift can handle that that area of the the lift can take care of that scope of work for a whole building facade that might be different might assess but we've assessed this with the other counties and each time the contractor has opted to do lifts for the windows. Okay. So this is going to come out of the 2026 so As soon as we get that taken care of, then we'll we'll be in contact. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

John Dakis. Morning. Good morning. Well, we know Tai. We got a nice jacket. No money. No money. A little bit. A little bit of money. All right.

A little bit of money. So, um, my my first item is uh to replace our UPS backup batteries. Originally, this was going to be a 2027 project. Um, but due to them not being as stable as we would like them to be, we're going to make the ch we'd like to make the change more quickly. Um the county council has an additional appropriation in front of them uh on Wednesday or well the following Wednesday to um for the money to do this since we did not have it budgeted originally. So it's just we they already um advertised it'll just be approved at the next meeting. Um, so this this would be based on the or this would be pending the approval approval.

Y the 7,400. What's that? 7,400. No, the the total cost for the normal business hours should be on page three of six, which is 16,54977. And that's what just normal business hours. We don't do the weekends and holidays. No. No. They do they do a pretty good job when we had them do it last time. So, which was five or six years ago. I'm sorry. Did I miss why you're replacing

they're they're starting to deteriorate a little bit faster. It was supposed, like I said, we were going to do it in 2027, but they're they're starting to deteriorate a little bit faster. So, council make any mention to where they may pay that out? It'll be out of my 911 lit. Okay. Yeah. That'll come out of our our building maintenance and 911 lit.

Okay. Make a motion that we approve price quotation number 000000 96-9766 from DC Group uh regarding our battery replacements in the amount not to exceed $16,549.77.

Second. We have a motion on the floor to uh approve the replacement of backup batteries for 911 in the amount of $16,549.77 pending council's approval uh as presented. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I post same sign. Motion carries. Then I have an out ofstate travel that's in your packet as well and that's to go to Orlando, Florida for public safety facility planning.

So I figure if we're going to if we're already looking at this then I'd like to the two-day two-day classroom. Um here you go and we get to go see other facilities in the Orlando area since those are built pretty solid. Um, we'll make a motion that we approve mission to travel out of state for Jean Joe Connis. He's traveling to in March to Orlando, Florida with an amount not to exceed $1,90. Second

a motion and a uh second to approve uh John Jacconas to travel to participate in the public safeties facility planning from 3:25 to 327 and 2026. Uh all those in favor say I. I posted same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. And I'll bring back lots of information. Well, and then I'll probably see you in the next meeting. Okay. Bring back some sunshine and warm weather. Would you? I'd like to see spring early. It'll be nice there. It should be.

Okay. Just can you go ahead? That is the Oh, for the elevator. Uh don't just anywhere here. Yeah, kind of right over here. Okay. I remember it's There we go. Here you go. Take that with you. There we go. Marsha Moore. Sorry about that. They stuck.

Good morning. Good morning.

So, um this has changed a little bit with what I was originally um sent to the commissioners for a to think about in your packets prior. Uh it's regarding window tinting for our after the um let me sorry backtrack one second. After our training for the active shooter event, it was suggested that our safe rooms be um tinted so that they were a one view out. That initial thought was based on kind of the top level and that was top level of the building here prior to having an opportunity to meet with the department heads or staff in the lower level. Um, so the revised quote from Ethridge was approximately $3,200. However, Bernie just said to me, "Hey, Marca, what would it be if you know he could get his windows tinted downstairs in the basement?" I didn't realize there were that many people going down in the basement. his windows are the smaller ones and Ethridge has quoted pretty much $75 a door for those ones with smaller. So my request then is uh since this is a building window project if the commissioners would pay for that out of your either your a bond or your building maintenance fund that you may have uh not to exceed um $3500. Um that allows for if there's been a door missed in one office or another. So, for instance, um the quote um changed a little bit um simply because there were some doors downstairs that we didn't originally account for. For instance, we kind of did two doors for each exterior here. And then when we actually got looking into the um office specific for their safe room, they

needed, you know, maybe one or two doors more than what we initially and decided. So like I said, the 3200 was what was last quoted, but if you add the three doors that Bernie wants to add, that's approximately 3425. And then if we allow for just one more door in case we've missed something, then if it doesn't exceed 3500, that should cover everyone's safe rooms u with this tenting. It's come about after the shooter. And I mean, I think it's a good idea. Me, too. Simply be we I mean, if we save one life, that's I mean, it's already paid for itself. So, Exactly. So,

the only thing we would probably need uh can we strike the 3,200 and insert 3500 manually here or would we be better off having a new invoice with the correct amount? I I I would go ahead and request a an updated invoice, but you can go ahead and and approve that amount now. Yeah. Now take

I make a recommendation that we uh approve u well the invoice number on this is 234.761 dated 211 of 26 to Ethridge Motorsports and Racing LLC in an amount not to exceed $3500 and the invoice uh as stated is 3200 will be updated prior to signature to Thank 500. Second. Okay. We have a motion on the floor to sign that for window tinninging uh not to exceed 3500. Did you say? Mhm. But that says 32. Yeah. You're not going to sign it yet?

No. Uh but at the same time, uh any further discussion? Okay. Motion on floor. Uh all in favor? I I All right. Thank you. And the same time, I'll have Mr. Eths get us that new quote. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Great. Uh, sheriff, I'll move that around. Okay, get out of here. Mary,

good morning. Good morning. Morning.

Uh, Mary Zerbach. um representing owners rep for the sheriff's department on the uh sheriff's maintenance correction facility uh maintenance building. We received yesterday which I distributed to the three of you um and Greg Geratoss the I should back up. We have a um approved agreement Armong for the build operate transfer for this building. We um approved some pre-construction dollars of $350,000 which we have been paying upwards of we've been paying upwards of uh four invoices I believe to date um on that work. We're 100% designed. We uh submitted or we uh did public bidding through the month of January and February. Uh Garmong received the bids back. uh they put together a packet, like I said, I distributed to you folks yesterday um of what the final GMP cost would be. We did have a meeting um with Greg Geratas. We submitted it to him. He reviewed it fully. He did have some questions which we submitted to Garmong yesterday. They have uh Sheriff and I have been going back and forth and emails with them. We're hoping to get some of the dollar sorted out, but we have a pretty good idea of what this guaranteed max price for construction will be. So, we're here today to inform you where we're at. Um, we do, uh, construction pricing usually is only held by subs for 30 days. So, we do need to act quickly or the prices could potentially go up. Um, the construction industry is feeling about a 4% inflation per quarter. So, it's important that we act on the pricing that we have. Um, we the sheriff and I met with Garmong's project manager and estimators as well as our designer yesterday for a couple

hours in his office. We went through the pricing. We do have good reputable contractors that have um submitted prices. So, we're we're very comfortable with this. Like I said, they gave us some voluntary alternates to deduct the price. The sheriff is working through some of those. We believe we can take upwards of $50,000 of those. Um so we're hoping to have this agreement ready. We would like to go and we're trying to get in to the council's meeting tomorrow. Um just to do the same thing, inform them where we're at, tell them where the cost is roughly going to be. Um but it's very close to what you saw on that document that we had distributed to you. So will the 16th work?

Say that again. 16th 16th. gives everybody a chance to go through it and that way we're not just jumping on something. So yeah. Yeah. No, I mean it seems like a sense of urgency which I mean it kind of is a little bit just because of locking the contractors in their price and that's kind of why we're trying to roll it a little bit quicker than anticipated. We just got this information. We've been talking about this for months. So I mean we're aware of it. It just give everybody time to go through it. So understandable. Yes. Mary, would you say in the end the biggest expense here is really just the concrete

uh that in the the it's a prefabricated metal structure uh which is which is less expensive than structural steel. Um but the prefabricated metal structure is is is another large cost than the concrete um and then probably the earthwork and drainage around the facility. We are utilizing the existing utilities which is great. We're assuming that we will um be able to forego the permit cost from the county. Um so yeah, I I think that it's a we're not we're not we're not going to make you county ruin a claim.

I I do think that we're as skinny as up as on this as we can. It I will tell you it is a uh very competitive market to get workers out there. It's a um you know, the economy is very uh booming in construction right now. So, I'm glad that we've got some good subs. Um we're going to get some quality work and we're going to keep track to make sure that we spend every dollar wisely. The one thing I will tell you that I was excited about, there is a construction contingency in there of just under 100,000. Um that is our money.

So, we will get that back if it's not used. It'll be written in the agreement. um and for the contractor to work um efficiently. I'm not saying we have to approve every dollar, but we certainly need to know about how it's being spent and making sure that it's additional cost for means and methods or things that will benefit the quality of the building, not just at their sole discretion. Okay. All right. All right. We will uh take a look at that and we'll see you on the 16th. Thank you very much. Thank you, Larry. Nick Layman.

Morning. Good morning. I'm the assistant chief of the Hancock County Probation Department. Uh I'm just here to advise you of a termination of a contract. We had a contract with the Progress House for um recovery housing. Uh we went back looked at how we utilize that last year and decided that that was not something we wanted to go forward with. We spoke with the judges about that. They agreed it was a cost of about $27,000 and we were able to cancel that at the point this year. 27,000? I thought we cut that down. What's that?

Cuz I I I remember going with Josh and talking with these people. We we lowered those beds. I mean, from eight to six and then it was supposed to be like $16,000 instead of the the contract that I was operating off of that I have in front of me was a total cost of 27,000 for the whole year. Um, we made the first payment already. Um, but we can cancel it at the the first May point and save the 13.5,000. Okay. What what will you do to replace those beds? Actually, we look back and we didn't utilize a single bed in 2025. So, so there's no value even saving any

correct. And also, the way that the state is navigating the the funds to pay for their treatment is different now and we don't have any play in that. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Miriam Rollers. Morning, commissioners. Good morning.

Morning. Mary Morales. I'm appearing today as president of our county park board regarding the proposed name modification of NinStar Park at Spring Lake. I'm here to mediate the public request between the county and Ninstar Connect and to request that the county owned land, currently known as NinStar Park at Spring Lake, be officially and publicly renamed as Ninstar Park at Sugar Creek. Um the park's original name was established through a verbal agreement with Ninstar Connect in recognition of their generous donation of this land. Um that's located at 3212 West 100 South. And during the parks and recreation public input session on February 19th of this year and as reported in the daily reporter, the town of Spring Lake requested that the name be removed from the park title. So, Commissioner Daniel McDaniel appropriately contacted uh George Palinsky at Ninstar Connect and they have agreed to that modification. There's there is no recorded deed restrictions regarding the park's name. So today's action would simply formalize the agreed upon name change and place it into the public record. So um I respectfully request um your approval to officially adopt the new name NinStar Park at Sugar Creek. Make a motion that we approve the name change from Ninstar Park at Spring Lake to Ninstar Park at Sugar Creek. Second.

We have a motion on the floor and a second to approve the renaming of Ninstar Park at Spring Lake to Ninstar Park at Sugar Creek. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you. Um, I would like to put a plug in that the survey for the park uh and any amenities therein is still live until this Friday and the survey can be um found on our parks and recreation board web page. So that data for the park will be um gathered to finalize our five-year master plan and uh hopefully people will still you know look to answer those questions so we can get that data that much needed data. So thank you for your time today.

Thank you. Before you take off, Miriam, um, at the did Cayla Brooks reach out to you regarding a hearing before the plan commission in the end of March regarding some questions that we had. I can certainly do that. Yeah, I didn't know if she reached out, but just that's a fourth Tuesday at 6:30. Uh, we had quite a houseful at the planning commission and uh, they had a lot of questions that we really couldn't answer. We just didn't have enough information. So, it would probably be best if you were here to answer those questions. I can do that. Thank you for asking. Okay. Thank you. Happy to. Well, uh, we're just h housekeeping at this point in time. Uh, board appointments. Did we ever get those? Nope. We're right here.

Okay. I make a uh I make a motion that we appoint John M. Ritter DDS reappoint to a 4-year term to the board of health as well as Darla Baker a reappoint to a four-year term on the board of health. Let's see. Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor to appoint John M. Ritter uh to a four-year term uh to the board of health and dollar I mean Darla Baker to a four-year term to the board of health. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Same sign. Motion carries.

Okay. I make a motion that we uh appoint uh to the community corrections advisory board Wayne Addison from adult probation uh his term 12026 to 123129 Janine Gay commissioner from 1126 to 123127 and George Philhower educational administrator 1126 to 12312030 Second.

We have a motion and second on the floor for board appointments would would be Wayne Addison, adult probation from 112 2026 to 12312029. Janine Gray, commissioner 11 2026 to 1231 2027 and George Philhower to educational admin administrator from 11206 to 12312030. Any further discussions? All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries.

We should have some change order and dispersements. just make motion.

Uh this is amplif uh the amplify building. Uh change order number seven from Veridis Advisors. Um change order number seven includes the following change requests. CR061, automotive lab infrastructure clarification, approved on November 12th of 25. CR number 119, bus plugs and fuse reducers material only, approved on February 6,25. And CR number 120, bus plugs remainder, no GRC, approved on February 6, 2025. The funds for the change order will be allocated using the owner contingency and will increase my nasium's contract amount by $262,846. All those summaries are listed within the change order.

We have a motion on Oh, sec. Second. Okay. We have a motion and second on the floor for change order number seven dated February 18th. uh as presented. All those in favor I I oppos same sign. Motion carries

right here.

Yeah. Make a motion to approve affidavit for construction fund uh dispersement uh request number 22, Hancock County Redevelopment Authority, Redevelopment District and lease rental bond series 2025. Uh this is for dispersement is submitted to you pursuant to section 3.1 of the trust indenture dated February 1, 2025 between Hancock County Redevelopment Authority and the Huntington National Bank, now Argent Institutional Trust Company.

Second. We have a request number 22. Uh uh oh, I'm sorry. We're I got right here. Uh it's between Argent Institutional Trust Company and Hancock County Redevelopment Authority and as presented. All those in favor say I. I. I. Same sign. Motion carries. Which one? Who are you? Which one of you is the president? That's me now, isn't it? Of the redevelopment authority. Yeah. I thought

had a meeting since you've No, the only time No, the only time we ever change it.

You guys can just both sign it.

Do you guys have anything else? Do we have any any uh does anyone from the public have anything to say? Please come on. Good morning, commissioners. I know it's been a long meeting, so I'll make this quick. About three minutes. Um I'm Leah Letterman. This is Kylie Bllock. Um, our cohorts, Amanda Galbra and Paul Overhouser could not be here today, unfortunately. But we are here to request that the Hancock County Board of Commissioners direct the plan commission to issue a one-year moratorum on data center development in Hancock County until further research can be conducted on appropriate zoning as well as impact on local environment and infrastructure. The AI industry's gold rush for land and power is overwhelming local governments nationwide, outpacing existing local law and zoning ordinances. The operational needs of data centers are still in a state of flux and thus it is unclear what the local capacity needs to be to fulfill them. Environmental studies are at best premature and due to an unregulated industries reporting may not reflect the full scope and magnitude of issues. Last year, Surge Development withdrew their data center project after significant public opposition, and this board announced there are other areas of the county that are zoned for data centers, and we do not believe the proposed site is the right location for this project. We contend there is no area or zoning in this county appropriate for a project of this unprecedented scale and use, especially one with so many unknowns. Shoehorning a data center into industrial zoning doesn't work. The utility demand and environmental impact is fundamentally different. Current zoning requires no special exceptions for a data center. A data center may proceed without an

abatement if they need to or if they want to. Thus, there are situations in which you and your constituents have no recourse. Having the plan commission hold a public hearing and vote on a moratorum is our only protection. Hancock County has the historical opportunity to stand with other Indiana counties that elected to protect their residents and resources. A moratorium isn't against growth or progress. It is a standard tool for responsible governance when we're dealing with AI industry projects to preserve the quality and life and safety of our residents. We need to consider ways we can establish clear and consistent guard rails and agreements with data centers. Hancock County is familiar with developers neglecting their contracts and consequences in such situations has been complicated. Proper measures, excuse me, protective measures are essential to protect us and agreements made with an entity from the self-regulated AI industry which has minimal government guidelines for operation. Data centers are notorious energy and water consumers, oftentimes with homeowners and businesses footing the bill. They also pose environmental issues. Although the AI industry is actively seeking solutions for new technologies and methods, those solutions bring new concerns, we are not we are also not yet certain what the effect of data centers in surrounding communities will have on us and our resources and we should not be in competition for those. It behooves Hancock County to wait until there's been more troubleshooting before we allow a data center here. And AI is a trend. The bubble will pop just like it did with spec warehousing. And if we're not careful, we may end up sacrificing land and resources for something that will have moved on in a decade. Um, yeah, uh, AI's frontier system doubles every four to seven months. So, how soon will this technology be obsolete and what will we do with the ghost structures left behind? And there's issues with the lack of transparency of these projects from

misleading language and industry jargon to NDAs. The public and you deserve to know when, where, and how they're planned, and to know their true infrastructure costs. Commissioners, this is a historical opportunity to be leaders for other Indiana counties and states, to do the right thing for current and future voters. Please have the planning commission pause any available data center approvals, and draft specific data center zoning ordinances. Our proposed moratorum allows for responsible land, energy, and water use while collaborating with residents and experts because Hancock County deserves to have a future built with us, not imposed upon us. And to that end, I know you guys are so busy and you don't want to do this, but I did bring some research that we've done. I actually made an annotated bibliography and I have clickable links on it. I can email it to you so it's easier to navigate. We also have a um an exhaustive list um of questions that Kylie has prepared that um should be asked whenever there's a data center sniffing around. So, can I

Yes.

No one felt slighted. Thank you. Dang it. And sorry I bought the cheaper so thanks Leah.

We will definitely take this under consideration and check out all our options. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else? I was going to say something. Okay. Oh,

all right. Thank you. I'm Kylie Bllelock. Um I just live in Charlottesville. Um, but I'm here with Leah and to support the idea of a one-year moratorium on data centers. But I wanted to be really clear about what we're talking about and what we're not talking about. And we're not talking about the data centers that we've lived with for decades, um, that we pull our pictures from the cloud that run Facebook and run our streaming services. If you wanted to see one of those, you could see that in Caramel and you probably roll right past it because they're unconspicuous and modern and they're quiet. Um what we are talking about are AI data centers. They're entirely different. Um they're not comparable to any business that we've ever seen here. Um and how are they different? Well, Amazon's Project Rainer in New Carile runs on 2200 megawatts of electricity. That's 2,200. To put that in perspective, if every home, business, and facility in Hancock County were running at the same time, we would pull about 140 megawws. So, Amazon's single facility goes 16 times more than that. Um, on on water, the Leap project in Lebanon is already pulling its water supply from more than 50 miles away, and that impacts Gist Reservoir, and that's the same one that we even access. And that's not Lebanon's local water source. that's regional. Um, that leap project isn't even fully operational and a data center just down I7 in Henry County was approved and we don't have the full scope of how we'll be impacted yet. Um, these projects are being evaluated one at a time in isolation, but we all share the same grid and the water table and the same infrastructure. So, we haven't even felt the impact, the full impact of these local projects. Um, so what even happens if one comes to

Hancock County? Um, what how do we have the water to support it? Do we have the grid capacity? What's the cost to our rateayers, taxpayers of this county? What resources are we giving away that we haven't even measured yet? And we don't know. And so when it comes to protecting the people of the county, just saying we don't know, it's really not acceptable. So we don't have the ordinances or the regulations for something of this scale yet. Uh we need to understand what it means for us to even coexist with a facility like this before ones at our door. So that's why we're asking for one-year moratorium on data centers. And it's not to stop progress. It's not to stand in the way of technology, but it's just to protect the county and the people here while we set up the proper guard rails. So just one year to do things right. That's all we're asking. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else? All right. Oh, public comment, but yeah.

Oh, okay. Um, I got approached yesterday by the Purdue Extension Office. They need to do some remodeling over there with for all their data lines are going into a closet. It's in a furnace room. This stays about 90 95° all the time. So, it's going to burn up that equipment eventually. We need to get the server out of that room, but they also wanted to move the data cables and everything else. But, um, if we get the server out, I think the the switches will handle the heat, but it's up to you. It's our building. So, produce it's produced equipment, but it's our building. So we need either we can we need to move the server for sure want to remove the uh the cables and things that's entirely up to the to the board

at all on the county or does produce it would be on us to because the cables and stuff are part of the building and what are we looking at? It's a good question. I just got got it yesterday. So I'm guessing between five and $10,000 to move all this stuff to move all the cables and everything. That's just right after we've put it in there. Right. And after if we just move the server, it's going to be 500 bucks to do that. But well, for for sure move the server. Yes. But let let's uh take a look at the cables and stuff like that and see what that's going to run us. Okay. Well, I'll get a quote for that. So, Cory wanted me wanted me to approach and let you know that. So, okay. Make sure that's the final Yeah. final spot.

Yes, definitely. Our stuff is good. We moved ours back in the summer, so we're good. Oh, this is theirs. Let them move. This is this is Purdue's equipment. So, thank you. All right. Anything else? Motion to adjourn. Second. Have a motion to adjourn on the floor. All those in favor say I. I. I. No. Same sign. My mulching car.