Area Plan Apc / Bza - Regular Meeting

United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Join us in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come here today, we just ask you for a great day with us. We ask you for guidance and wisdom. We ask you for safety in looking over those who have had flooding issues. We just ask you to bless our country. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

All right. Gabe, anything on the minutes from last meeting? I had a chance to go through those.

I did. I didn't have anything. I'd make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second that. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Okay. And claims.

I had a chance to go through the claims. I also didn't have anything with claims. I agree. I'd make a motion to approve claims. I'll second that. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

Payroll. We have payroll at a total of $434.90. Went through that. Nothing looks different.

I didn't have anything with payroll. I'd make a motion to approve payroll.

I'll second that. All in favor of payroll?

Aye.

All right. First up on the agenda is Tim Ortman. Tim. Good morning. Good morning.

So, of course, weather issues kind of atop the priority right now as far as issues are going. Just a little report, we had about 24 tree issues during the wind event, storm event, the blow through. After that was a flooding event, so we did have to work Friday to kind of open up a couple roads. We haven't closed yet, take care of washouts and stuff. So we'll be working with Mike at EMA. I mean, there's going to be an emergency declaration, we're sure. Right. So we'll get all that information over to Mike so he can get that submitted, the cost and everything. We'll have that done this week.

We didn't lose any structures, no bridges or anything?

We lost no structures, no bridges, no. I will tell you, of course, our bridge maintenance program was pretty robust the last couple years. We did a lot of riprap, a lot of scour, et cetera, et cetera. In these two events, NDOT, the feds required all the counties that had any scour critical bridges to go out and do re-inspections of all of them. we had 14 before we did the riprap project we had none so luckily we was able to bypass that and i'll have that done in your time so that that project did pay off as far as that went so um the barrier storage up there the intersection state road three has been completed and widened up there now uh i meet with them today on the bridge jumpers for the barrier deliveries and stuff 911 has been notified of the schools have been notified other procedures processes etc that so

So you're meeting with them, you don't have a timeline yet of when that's going to...

I'd say they'll probably go down today or this week, I'm assuming. They'll be placed down. The first one's been shipped in, so we're just working over the final details, the asphalt transitions into them, et cetera, et cetera. So yes, I'd say this week they'll go down, yes.

And as far as... Those containers coming in, how long does it typically, are you looking at a couple weeks or?

We're going to be looking at a month total. A month? Between them and the large transformer. Okay, all right. And then, of course, for you guys' information, traffic management, they'll be coming in on three. Right. Across 400. The empty trucks will be going out 250. 250. Yeah, they'll be round robin' that away. I think they're looking at somewhere about 10 to 12 a day, delivery-wise, what they are.

And any more update on the, we had a complaint about the dump trucks and so forth.

Subcontractors, they got people leading them in, escorting each truck in. All these will be escorted in. So everything's being throttled down. Sure, they're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

All right. All right. Thank you.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So yes, because these bridge jumpers, so these bridge jumpers come up ramp over the bridge. So yes, this road will be closed. It'll be closed to everyone, but emergency services, local traffic and emergency services schools.

You know what?

Yes. So, and we highly recommend we'll, we'll let you know when these get placed. We highly recommend schools. Everybody go out and look at them. You know, if they got any questions, concerns, while these are in place, you know, emergency services.

Yeah, I've talked to them.

I've talked to county schools. They've got one bus that runs that route. That's what they've got. Good deal. So yeah, we hope everybody's well aware and hopefully it goes smoothly.

That's our plan.

So the next two items, the chip and seal and paint strike, both got pushed back. It was supposed to start last week, but the weather delays. Of course, they both got to cancel the day, too, also. So once the weather straightens up, they'll be off and rolling. 421 South, we did more patching on 700 East. So hopefully we got most of them concerns taken care of, even though it's still getting utilized very hard. But we have been working on that. Old 421, the inefficient detour for I-74, we was able to meet with NDOT last week. Everybody's on the same page, how we're going to track our costs, how we're going to document stuff for our reimbursement, and then at the end, how we'll review to do the permanent repairs. So we had a good, productive meeting with them also.

I was very pleased with that meeting, listening to what they had to say and vice versa. They listened to us really well, so I think it was a good meeting with them.

So Bridge 31, either this meeting or next meeting, the right-of-way. So we know, if you remember correctly, part of the scheduling process, the state didn't meet their deadlines. We lost our right-of-way funding for it, but we was able to get it back. So we got a contract for them, for United, to do all the right-of-way consulting, negotiation, appraisals for that bridge. Who is that? 131 is the one on 200 South, out there at the county line. It's the one that's been closed for probably three years now, I'm guessing, is where it's at.

This is just something simple, but you always give us a nice little update. When you give us those bridges, could you put locations of the bridges on there, please? Absolutely. Because all those numbers, it's like, okay, which one's which? I get them confused.

Absolutely, yes.

I'd appreciate that. You don't have them memorized? No.

So the right-of-way, we need to get that completed within the 2027 fiscal year for that funding. So like I said, we got the contract. You got to do this. We can go ahead and sign it next May if we want to on that for the commissioners. Bridge 141 is on 1000 South. It is between 600 south and 700 south is where it's at. It's a concrete arch bridge. It's slated for construction in 2030. So we had our first walkthrough with NDOT down there to go over the utilities, et cetera. The bridge is deteriorating pretty quickly. It really is. We do not know if he'll make it until 2030. It may be closed before then, but we did request NDOT and all the agencies to make sure that we stay on schedule through all this whole process so we can make sure we can hit that 2030 construction timeline. But it is a concern. I think it's a 10-ton right now.

Is that a stone bridge?

It's concrete arch.

Concrete arch, okay.

Yep, yep. So, and everybody thought we could maintain that process through there. We could go in and do some repairs. We're probably looking at $100,000. We only might buy us a year or so, so we elected not to do the repairs. Cross our fingers, hope it lasts, stay on schedule. And the bridge void project we talked about, we was able to meet with United. The contractor's going to be doing that on them bridges. There's 10 or 11 bridges they're going to be doing. make sure that each deficiency of the bridge, we're going to get corrected, what we're after to correct. So everybody's on go. Everybody agrees the best way to fix it, we're going forward.

That's the pressure grouting.

Yes, that's pressure grouting on the bridge. It's got them deficiencies. We can fix that away, yes. And then the only other thing I attached was a map for the chip and seal project. It'll be happening any time, which I think it got pushed out on social media.

So the document that's there is for the right-of-way?

That's the right-of-ways, what it is for United to do, yes. That's what the contract is. So, like I said, if we want to wait until next meeting until Jeremy's back.

It's fine. I would make a motion to approve the contract for the right-of-way consultant for USI for Bridge 131.

United, excuse me, United.

United, sorry. United.

All right, I'll second that motion. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Tim.

All right, Doug Westerfeld.

Good morning. I wanted to give an update on the comprehensive plan. Last Wednesday, we were supposed to have the public presentation at the Decatur County Annex. And as the day went on, we decided that in order for everyone to be able to attend the meeting, it was best to cancel it and reschedule because of the flooding and the weather. So it is rescheduled for tomorrow from 530 to 630 at the annex. We look forward to good attendance to that so that the public can listen to the presentation and then on the side give us feedback on what their thoughts are. So that will be tomorrow at the annex, 530 to 630. Also tomorrow, I'm going to be having a meeting, Rush to Cater County blight coordination meeting. This has to do with the ready funds. So we're in the process of preparing how those funds are going to be allocated. We're putting projects together within the incorporated towns on what they're looking to do with those funds if they were to receive those funds. So I have that meeting tomorrow, and we're moving forward on that project. So that's all that I have.

Thinking about blight funds, we still had a surplus of the ARPA money. Have you thought of using that? It has to be spent by December 31st.

It has to be spent by the end of this year. We have several properties that we've targeted. We've gone to court. We've had... eight court cases so far. So we've got eight court orders that are in a pipeline for cleanup. So we're working between ourselves and the Sheriff's Department and the Highway Department to get those cleaned up. So those are eight. We have another probably five on top of that. So between those eight to 13 cases and those cleanup.

Do you think the timeline will...

Yeah, because right now with the eight that we have, all we've got to do is get them scheduled. We had some that were supposed to happen last week, but because of the flooding, we couldn't get those coordinated. The highway department was busy, and the sheriff's department was busy with other things. So we've got some this week and moving forward. So, yeah. Now, I'm not going to say that we're going to be able to use all of those funds. We got behind the eight ball a little bit on getting this started from a... From how we set it up and the ordinance part of it, that took longer than anticipated. But we're going to try to get as much as we can, get as many projects underneath that umbrella to get them in by the end of the year.

Very good. All right. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. Just a couple things. I would say real quick, but I actually have a lot to talk about here, but I'm going to make it as brief as possible. What I wanted to talk about to start with is some of the accomplishments we've had at the health department, some of our capacity building within 2025 and so far in 2026. I'm really proud of my people. So I want to highlight some of the things they've done here. One of the things that I really want to stress with this is we have certain duties we are, by statute, we have to do. That's all we have to do. Everything else is extra. Everything else we do is for the people of this county to improve their public health. So we could just sit back and rest on our laurels, I guess, but we're continually trying to improve. So just talking about a few things. Our vital records, we now have the capacity to do birth and death certificates for anyone born anywhere in Indiana. It used to be just in Decatur County, so that's a big improvement. So it's easier for residents. When people have moved into Decatur County, not necessarily from their birth county, they can come to us and get their birth certificate now. We also have just started. It's called My Visit. My Visit is a billing and... IT'S A BILLING SERVICE, BASICALLY, BUT IT'S ALSO A MEDICAL RECORDS SERVICE. WE'VE NEVER REALLY HAD THE CAPACITY TO DO THAT. WE'VE DONE SOME BILLING THROUGH A VACCINE COMPANY THAT ACTUALLY, THEY OWNED THE VACCINE AND PAID US FOR EACH ADMINISTRATION. WITH THIS, WE'LL ACTUALLY BILL THE INSURANCE COMPANY. THEY KEEP 7% OF EVERYTHING WE GET. SO RATHER THAN A $10 FEE, WE'LL GET 93% OF THE REIMBURSEMENT AMOUNTS. THAT WILL BE BOTH MEDICAID, MEDICARE, AND PRIVATE INSURANCE, SO THAT WILL BE A GOOD WAY TO BRING SOME ADDITIONAL INCOME INTO THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, SO WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT. IS THAT A STATE-FUNDED THING? IT IS STATE-FUNDED, YEAH. IT WAS ORIGINALLY STATE-FUNDED. MY VISIT WAS A PROGRAM THAT THE STATE OFFERED TO US. NOW, THEY MAKE THEIR MONEY BY WITHHOLDING THAT 7% OF THE BILLING, SO IT IS A FOR-PROFIT COMPANY, BUT THEY'VE BEEN GREAT TO WORK WITH AND HELPED US THROUGH THIS TRANSITION A LOT.

Is that typically what health departments, other health departments?

No. No? No, I think we're one of three in the state that have started this. I anticipate more doing it, however. We are one of their first, I know. They've actually had to do some reprogramming on their system just for us because it didn't fit into, and they're really responsive, so you can't ask for much more than that from a company.

So looking forward to working with them.

Last year we launched Credible Mind. Credible Mind is a web-based mental health service. As of last month, we have had over 6,000 people utilize that service. And many of that 6,000, that's new users, have come back and utilized it multiple times. So we do get good data from them on what the usage is. If you get a chance to check it out, it's Credible Mind. You can find it on our website. And I think you'll be impressed with what you see there. We've also, rather than just sitting in our health department resting, we have been going out to the residents. We've had traveling vaccine clinics. We also have extended hours for the vaccines. We do Boo to the Flu every Halloween. This will be our third year doing that, fourth year doing that. And then we have partnerships with the schools and day cares, and we do TB testing. So we're really trying to bring that public health access to the people, not necessarily the people to the public health. We also do the Back to School Bash. We did that last month. We had about 900 people come through there. It was a huge event. Gave away over 500 backpacks. Truly appreciate the partnership with Greensburg Daily News on that. It was a good event. Moving along with our staff a little bit here. So Leslie, last year she became an RN. She was an LPN. In our environmental health section, Allie and Alicia are certified pool and spa inspectors. Operators, sorry. Can't talk. Alicia has her lead certification. Now what that does is that allows her to go to homes. When we have a case, a child with a high lead level, it's the health department's responsibility to do the investigation in that. And that investigation is both an interview from the nurse and we have to have a lead inspector. Lead inspectors are very expensive. So Alicia was able to go and get her actual inspector and the assessor license. And it is truly a license. It has to be done. We did have to invest in a $15,000 piece of equipment that measures the lead levels. But at this point, we're able to go do that just on our own without having to pay somebody to do that. Allie has what's called the infiltrator. It's a special septic system that is allowed in the state of Indiana. She has her certification in that. And Alicia with the work on the community garden has become a master gardener. And these are things they've just done on their own time to be better people, better at their jobs. They also had the opportunity to go for Indiana, Environmental Health Association meeting over at Holiday World. It wasn't all that, it wasn't fun and ride and rides and everything, but they did do pool inspections there, which is a great place to go do pool inspections because you have a lot of different types of water features there. SO THEY'RE ABLE TO GAIN SOME EXPERIENCE IN THAT. AND THEN WE ALSO STARTED, YOU GUYS APPROVED OUR NEW FOOD CODE, BUT IT IS IN LINE WITH THE STATE FOOD CODE. AND THEN ALSO THEY WENT TO KANSAS CITY LAST WEEK AND WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF WORKING TOWARDS OUR ACCREDITATION FOR A FOODS PROGRAM THROUGH THE FDA. THAT WAS ALL PAID FOR THROUGH A GRANT THAT THEY RECEIVED FOR THAT. Tony, Amanda Rich, and Amanda Bates are all certified car seat installers, so that means that we can now do car safety clinics, car seat safety clinics. Most of us, I think that we have two left that have gone through the CIT training. I think one of the things that I really wanted emphasize there is that our people invest in their time to make the health department a better place that has more expertise within the department. Along with that, just a few more events. We had the community baby shower. This is for maternal child health, one of our key places we're trying to hit. We started the fetal and infant mortality review. We've never done that in this county. Well, it was done, but it fell off. We haven't done it for a long time. IN ADDITION, WE DID JUST BEGIN THROUGH PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ON OUR SUICIDE OVERDOSE FATALITY REVIEW TEAM HAVE NOW STARTED THE CHILD INFANT MORTALITY REVIEW TEAM. NOW, THAT'S DIFFERENT THAN THE INFANT MORTALITY TEAM. THIS IS FOR ANY CHILDHOOD DEATH DUE TO ACCIDENT OR, YOU KNOW, NOT NATURAL CAUSES. ANY CHILD THAT DIES NOT FROM NATURAL CAUSES. A REVIEW TEAM SITS. THEY GO OVER IT. We talk about what can be done on all three of these. What can be done to prevent these in the future? That's what this is for. It's a very diverse group consisting of law enforcement, medical, emergency response. So it's a great team and they do a lot of great work. Some of the people in it are in this room. We also, we did the community garden. We had our, I already talked about that. Girls have done several presentations that they call a TikTok. WE DID THE CANDY BUYBACK HALLOWEEN THIS YEAR, OUR SECOND YEAR FOR DOING THAT. WE ACTUALLY PARTNER WITH NOLS FAMILY DENTIST, AND THEY GIVE US CASH TO BUY BACK CANDY FROM TRICK OR TREATERS, AND THEN WE TAKE THAT CANDY AND IT GETS SHIPPED TO OVERSEAS TROOPS. AND WE DID THE BATTLE OF THE BADGES THIS YEAR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT AS A BLOOD DRIVE, AND THAT WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL. On our preparedness side of things, we did a full-scale anthrax pod exercise. It was very, very good. Got a lot of good input. We moved people through very quickly. Appreciate the highway department's partnership on that. They provided our patients on that. And then we had a lot of good partnerships with... all of the people we would need if there were ever a large point of dispension of medicines in the county. So it's good to have that. We did the warming shelter second year in a row. It worked out very well. We helped to do the Skybird Fire evacuation. We actually set up the shelter with Mike, got things rolling there, and we did that. Actually, that was before Mike. That was last year. But we did pretty much the same thing with Aspen Place. It didn't go quite as how we expected there at Aspen. It was fine. We've also done CPR and ATV training. So moving right along here. This is one of the... ATV training, yeah. So we partnered with the DNR, Indiana DNR, to have one of their officers come down and do their ATV safety course. As an incentive for that, we had some grant money that we used to purchase helmets and goggles and gloves that we were able to give to both adults and children. 40-ish people. We ran out of everything. We had to limit the size. It was that good. We're doing it again this year, so we're looking forward to doing that with them. We haven't got a date scheduled, but we'll be doing that again. So again, that's a lot of people who...

Giving away helmets?

We are giving away helmets. Helmets, pads, gloves, and goggles. Yeah.

How do you fund that?

It's through a grant. It's called TRAC. Basically, it's a trauma grant that we receive from the state. We have to apply for it every year. So we'll be doing that again this year. In addition to that, with that same funding, we were able to purchase over 100 Stop the Bleed kits that we will be able to distribute. We also have... Partnering with the parks department we bought life jackets their approved life jackets for the pool and then partnering again with the parks department we will be doing a skating Safety course again where the participants will receive the gloves and the pads and the no not gloves I'm just sorry pads and helmets. So once they go through that course with with Chris's people there, then they'll be able to, they'll qualify for that. So, yeah. He's behind me.

He's a skateboarder, Chris.

He's going to get out there and do some tricks, do the half pipe. So yeah, one of the biggest things I think we've done, one of the things that's being really strongly stressed right now in public health is community health workers. Now these are people who have the capacity to go out into the community and meet people where they are and help them navigate health systems. That's our primary focus on that. We can also do blood pressures, anything we're trained to do in that regard, but mostly just help people get the help they need and also meet them where they are or when they come in, either way. So this has been a big push from the Department of Health. It's part of this rural health initiative that they are pushing that that becomes a huge focus. We were kind of ahead of the ball and every single person in our health department went through the training and is now a community health worker. I'm really proud of that. I can say with assurance that we are the only health department in the state that can boast that every member of the, and I mean everybody. WHEN SOMEBODY COMES TO THE WINDOW, THEY'RE TALKING TO A COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER. SO OUR ENVIRONMENTAL PEOPLE, OUR CLINICAL PEOPLE, EVERYBODY. SO THAT WILL HELP US IDENTIFY SOME OF THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE OUT THERE AND GET THEM TO THOSE RESOURCES. We also now have four certified peer recovery coaches. We have four, actually five, people who have completed a CRAFT training, which is also in the recovery world. We did a, we actually have more of the nalox boxes out now. We have nine out now in the county that are places where people can get naloxone. And I know earlier, I have to check the statistics right now, but I talked to Charity and she said our overdose deaths were down considerably and she attributes that to the availability of naloxone in the community now.

So that was nice to hear.

One of the things we did that was kind of unique, we partnered with Daisy, and we offered the parents of the children who go to Daisy the opportunity to bring their children to the YMCA, to their play area, to the gym, and to a little art area that they could do. all of their children. So the ones who go to Daisy and their siblings were all invited to go so the parents could have a parent's night out. So our entire staff and Daisy's entire staff came down there and worked that one evening, one Friday evening, gave those parents two hours to get out. Parents were extremely grateful. The kids had a blast and I think everybody who worked it was pretty touched by what happened there. It was a great event. And while that sounds like it's one of those, you know, oh, that feels really good, it wasn't just to feel good. This is a mental health priority. Those people, I mean, just as we all know that are parents, it's hard. And sometimes with certain conditions, it's even harder. So this was a mental health situation that we were able to help on. I know I'm taking way too long here. I'm going to move along. Allie Alicia, they've gotten some more additional septic certifications. Allie began actually today as her first day working on her. She is starting her master's degree in public health. So real proud of her on that. We partnered with the city of Greensburg. This just started a couple of weeks ago as well. We are now going to be monitoring with their wastewater there. And what this will allow us to do right now is to be ahead of the curve on, right now, respiratory diseases that can be circulating before we even know they're circulating. So COVID, RSV, the flu, both A and B will be tested at the Indian Department of Health lab. This is the effluent coming into the wastewater, gets sent up there twice a week, and we are able to get those reports and then give a heads up to our clinical providers that, hey, we see an increase in RSV. You need to be ready for this. So we are actually one of two in our entire district that are doing that. Osgoode's the other one. Very small system, so it doesn't give a great... overview to the district as to what is going on. So this will help a lot with that. I talked a little bit about the injury prevention. We also do the gun safety. We have a teen driver training class that we can do now. I'm going to stop talking about that, but I just want to talk real briefly about what else we do for the county, what this means for the county. We had a study by the Regan Strief Institute, which is a public health think tank basically, where they were looking at interventions by public health and what the return on investment on those are. They looked at four areas. In those four areas, the return on investment was about four to one. The often cited figure for public health is 14 to 1. But some of those are really hard to use real data to justify. So somewhere between 3 and 14 to 1. OUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT BASED ON THE FIGURES THAT THEY HAD ON JUST FOUR AREAS, RETURN ON INVESTMENT WAS FOUR TO ONE. SO WHAT THAT MEANS IS IT DOESN'T MEAN THAT'S ABOUT $3 MILLION IN SAVINGS. THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M GIVING BACK TO THE COUNTY $3 MILLION. WHAT THAT MEANS IS WE HAVE INITIATIVES THAT SAVE THIS COUNTY $3 MILLION IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH. FOR INSTANCE, AN A.V.E. ACCIDENT IS VERY, VERY COSTLY. A drowning, of course, is very costly. All of these things that we do, all these interventions we take save money down the line. Some of the main ones that they look at are immunizations. They can quantify that well with studies. Also undiagnosed blood pressure. We've had multiple people who have come in for blood pressure screening and find out they have high blood pressure. Had they not done that, Many of them don't have a primary care provider, so this was their intervention. This was their chance to find out that they have something that needs to be treated. So that's a huge cost savings to the county, much cheaper to give them the medication than for them to have a stroke. So we're not only saving lives, we're not only improving lives, we're out there saving money for the county. I TALKED WAY TOO LONG. I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME. I ALSO PRESENTED YOU WITH ACTUALLY THE 2025 ANNUAL REPORT. THE ANNUAL REPORT DOES BY CODE WE HAVE TO DO AN ANNUAL REPORT EVERY YEAR. A LITTLE BIT DELAYED THIS YEAR BECAUSE I WAS WAITING ON SOME DATA FROM THE STATE. BUT BASICALLY THE ANNUAL REPORT BY STATUTE REQUIRES THAT WE GIVE receipts and our expenditures and that's it I did include in there the activities that we did that are tracked through the health first Indiana funding and the other part of that is I do need an approval by the commissioners on that and needs to be signed by the county executive so I don't know if I can ask for that now or wait till Jeremy gets here.

Do you need the, what is it? Do you need the signature for what?

I just need an approval on the report.

Oh, no, we can approve it. Yeah, we can approve the report. Yeah, I would make a motion to approve the Decatur County Health Department annual report for 2025. Yeah, I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you for your time.

I don't see anywhere on here you don't have a form for us to sign.

I do not. I'll get it back.

Do you just need an acknowledgment?

Yeah. They don't really need anything sent back. I think the minutes will be fine. OK.

Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Sorry I took so much time. A lot of good work.

Thank you. A lot of good work, Sean. Appreciate that.

Thank you, Sean. OK. Next up, we have the annex update. Our long-range planning committee, we've been meeting. We haven't met in the last couple months. A lot of things going on with the group, but some of the things we've talked about, some buildings, some long-term maintenance, things like that, the annex has come up periodically. So we are going to seriously look at the annex for an exterior update. uh... doing some construction removing windows and uh... doing some exterior work so we're going to uh... next week we're going to put out a uh... publish in the newspaper uh... we're going to do a rfp request for proposal uh... to get some quotes on getting some work done at the annex so that's going to take place uh... we've got some legal documents that we've already checked into and looked at so let's look for that in the newspaper uh... And I think it's gonna be two, let me look here. September the, I think two different dates on the RFP. Their proposals have to be in by September the 11th, and we're going to have two publishings on 826 and 92 in the newspaper for the request for proposals. So that will be coming up soon, just an update on that. Next we have Dennis Fogle, Community Building Update. Dennis, we've got your info here that you've given us. You want to give us some updates?

Sure, thank you. As of February 12th and 13th, that was the first event for the new community building out there. Since then, we have had several events that I listed here for you. There's been the DCMH employee event, the Decatur County Community Foundation annual A meeting was out there. There's been a couple blood drives, the swine and goat clinics that Lowe's put on, the 4-H next chapter events. There's been 4-H council meetings, the 4-H training camp, and then also some regional 4-H QLCs. There's been two weddings, the fair, of course. Power of the Pass is going on right now. Sheriff's Department statewide training. There also was a two-day gun show. Miss Decatur County, they used it out there, and then they did their tea, fair board meetings, the Wine and Rose event, and then they also utilized it a little bit for the solid waste tree giveaway. Looking at the next thing that you'll see there, the event's scheduled for 26 and 27. People might want to be aware of, and I kind of combine things. Of course, the fair and the power of the past. There's also a celebration a local church has that will be doing some fireworks and things like that. There's three annual meetings scheduled. The Meals on Wheels Dancing with the Stars. Excuse me. Also the Decatur County Community Foundation High School Awards will be out there. The DCMH Foundation Gala again. Right now there's five weddings. There's also two large family events that'll be going on there. and pending not in writing and deposits yet but there's uh four gun shows the gun show was quite uh successful out there and they're wanting to do four uh next year and then we also have a wedding um and we're also getting calls for 2028 um we have uh information that we sent out to one summer wedding and then we got a couple other uh community groups that are wanting to to utilize it positive feeds back has been really really good from the community uh... we haven't had too many had a couple of people say something about the parking but uh... once i realized that they had been to a concert and i explained to them how long they had to walk to get to They said, yeah, I guess the parking's not so bad. So we haven't had any issues since. I say concerns, a couple things we need to be aware of. Moving of the tables and chairs. Charlie and Christopher, they do a lot of that for me. A cart that has a fold down really does seem to work. It's a little safer. It still scares me a little bit. You know, I've shared that. The platform. The platform. I just want to, I'm just so afraid when I take that barrier down, I don't want somebody to fall. One note we need to do is we need longer carts for the rectangle tables. I know a lot of the tables were, what happens is they're stacking them on there and they're leaning on the front, so they're going to start bowing. So we're going to have to work with that. And then some of the table carts are, Chris told me, Charlie has changed some of the casters already. IT issues, we've had a couple. Dave Henderson and Christopher, they usually work that out when somebody's there. A lot of it is because they have to change the computer. They can't use certain computers on it. So, but this, I know for Wine and Roses, they did use the sound system for the music and things like that. The microphone is working well. Yeah, it seems to be doing well. But I still think there needs to be a little bit of issue there. One of the big concerns that I have, I know Charlie has been working with it as far as, and Christopher as well with the company, The overhead fan, the one to the east, is making lots of noise. But there's a new one coming. They think they figured out what that is. It also shuts off. I talked to Christopher last night, and he says they actually went and bought a little clock to put in there, like when their power surge goes off, and, you know, your clock will – they don't know if that's for sure what it is, so now the clock will tell them whether it will work or not. So we'll – Janitorial support, I think it's going really, really good. The only thing is, I think the group that's out there now, they don't really clean kitchen and some things like that. So we'll have to eventually look at that, because that kitchen is starting to get used a lot. The floor cleaning runs has been working with that a lot for us. Just some general inside wall cleaning and painting. There's a couple places where the forklift I think has kind of hit the wall taking stuff up and down and then also outside the building we're probably going to have to do some cleaning there. Parking's good. The food preparation, we had lots of Broasters plugged in to a wedding here a couple weeks ago and started blowing circuits and stuff So there's too many outlets on on one circuit. So we're gonna have to look at that if they're going to be doing large events out there We need a podium Also, the drain from the cooling units are causing lots of mud, especially the north unit. In fact, somebody pulled something down in there, so they'll have to mark that off.

During the fair, somebody drove through there.

I think it's been done since then, too. Yeah, so something's going to have to happen there. We need AED. I know there was sometimes things like we need an AED for the front part of the building and also the back part of the building, because if you put it up front where the extension office is and there's an event going on, nobody can get to it. So I think we just we got first aid and things like that out there. I think we ought to add an AED. And then state fire marshal inspection, there was a few general items. Charlie's getting those accomplished. And then I just wanted to say special thanks to the extension office because they get interrupted a lot with telephone calls and, you know, and things like that. And me, Charlie, and Dave Henderson, and then Chris and Christy. I talk to Christy periodically on those. And then there's just, I just threw a couple of pictures there so you can kind of see what all is going on. Other than that, the building's serving great purpose.

Outstanding. Thank you for that. It's been a great year so far. Thank you, Dennis. All right. Gabe. Gabe. Decatur County community pool update.

Yeah, it probably goes without saying, but due to delays and it making the most financial sense, delay the pool grand opening until next year. Try to roll that out Memorial Day or ish around that time frame as to when it opens. But there'll be more to come on that. But just... Still, all the material's not in, it's not available. The pumps are running, the pool's turning water, but we're not filtering it because the sand filters are not in. And so due to those delays of a few material items, it's not feasible to open it this year. So again, delay that until next year and do one grand opening at once and have all the amenities available at that time.

If you ever get a chance to drive out there and check it out, it's looking good. They're pouring a lot of concrete. The slides are up.

Some of the slides are up. Four flume slides going up. Family slide gets started on August 24th that week. The splash pad material will be here in September. The rest of the... Sand filters and stuff are supposed to be here in September. So everything should be functional by the end of this year is the concept. But it's just obviously it's too cold to be open. So next year they'll fire it up early, do all their testing next year before it opens.

Looking good. Very good. Thank you for all your work on that. All right. That's all we have on the agenda today. Anything else, Gabe, you want to add?

I don't have anything.

Okay. Matthew, anything over here? I was going to go around the room, but if you want to start.

It's fine. This just didn't get put on the agenda. Sure. We thought it should. Did you get the letters?

We did. We did. Can you go on that today?

Yeah, we don't have anybody.

You don't? No, we don't have anybody to replace.

Yeah, we need to notify that that's available.

So that's why it's not.

Yeah. Yeah, because we need to do a little more work before. Okay. When does that need to be done?

As soon as possible.

By next meeting?

I mean, it's kind of worried. It should have been done, but.

Okay. Well, we just got the letter.

Oh, I know. Okay.

All right.

Not by you. I mean, just.

And refresh our memory, just so that it's clear. What position is it?

This is for the Sand Creek Township Advisory Board. They have a member pass away. And now, so they can see their name.

So if anybody out there is interested in the Sand Creek Advisory Board, please submit your interest to us so that we can use that for consideration to make an appointment.

Very good. Thank you. Matthew, anything at the animal shelter?

We're back in the building.

We evacuated last week, but we're back in town. Okay. Water didn't get into the building, hopefully? Okay. Nothing in the building. Okay. Okay. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT.

ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT.

ALL RIGHT.

My understanding, Trump was going to sign something for us as well.

Not every single county. Okay. I still am not clear if we are going to be a part of that. Okay. We've got to go for the hardest hit counties.

Okay. Something to watch. Okay.

Abby, anything from Community Corrections? No, we're checking on you. All right. Chris?

Just, yeah, it's been going after...

You know, last meeting we closed that through road for Rebecca Park. Have you got any more thoughts on doing bollards and or a gate to be able to use that during a concert event or during an event where we have a lot of and open that up for use and then close it periodically? I don't know what the There's a little bit of pushback, not much, but some people don't care for that.

I think it's important to be able to use it when we need it. Yeah, we've seen a difference, personally, with it being closed. It does seem a lot safer through there. We have had some, and we've seen the ruts, people just flat out driven around, you know, stuff in the grass. But, yeah, we were looking at more of an electronic gated system, and we've gotten some quotes for that, just looking at...

Well, and I look at the other, you know, walking around, just looking at those other access roads into it, is you basically have bollards there that you can take down.

Yeah, those are easy. They just lay down.

And they're cost-effective.

Yeah, they are.

Is what I'm thinking, more than an electronic gate. I know it takes time for somebody to go out there and put the bollards down, but... I don't know what the difference in, you know, when we're looking at an electronic gate to open and close that.

Yeah, well, I mean, just out of curiosity, why would we want to?

Pretty salty.

Well, for us, my thinking was is if you can, especially for emergency services go, and that thing is gated with bollards, I mean, I don't know how much more time that takes other than us just pushing a button from our phone and we can unlock a gate. Yeah, but you're not available.

Yeah, I mean, what if somebody's not, I mean, if it's at 2 o'clock in the morning, it's not going to make a difference. I mean.

You know, like the trails, they all have padlocks on them. And I believe fire and EMS or they have like a universal key or whatever, the key to unlock those ballers. The ballers you have have padlocks on them, right? You know, if they had a key to that, they could unlock that, pull it out, go. emergency services if that's your concern yeah i mean that's that's fine and those are those are thoughts i had with with the way to make it cost effective and still be able to utilize it in emergency and or large events and we can take them down and and still use the road and close it back up when needed yeah i mean realistically what it's 10 times a year they'll come out i mean eight to eight five times a year yeah so it's that's my concern too is spending a bunch of money for something that

may or may not.

I would not be in favor of spending that money for electronic games.

I mean, obviously, it's your guys' decision what you do, but I like the idea of a removable, cost-effective follow-up or something.

Just thoughts. Yep. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Doug, anything else? Sheriff Myros. All right. Dennis? Don?

for the metal basketball tree presented by Greensburg Rotary. So anyone is welcome to join us for that. That's at noon. And then on Friday, September the 4th, which is that same week, at 10.30 a.m., we'll be doing a ribbon cutting for the Beach Firing Grill. It's under new ownership of McCulloch. So feel free to join us for that. We're coming off a very successful 30-14 golf outing. So that was a great event that had a little bit of rain from about 5.30 to 6.40, so we're lucky to have escaped everything that we're seeing now, thankfully. And then just marking your calendars, tomorrow we've got leaders and loggers from four to six. I know we've got the comp plan at 5.30, but you can join us at four at the tap for Tree City Getaway. So that is Steve Freeman and Roy Feldbauer presenting on Tree City Getaway. Join us from four to 5.30, then head over to the comp plan, and then we'll be there until six, and then mark your calendars and that would be held at the community building. Very good.

Thank you.

Diane? Ken?

Just two things. Working real close with the auditor's office on the veterans or disabled veterans property tax credits that are out there now. I've been doing, when I talk to the veterans, I try to make sure they understand, because I know this keeps coming up, credit is that for any of our veterans that are 100 disabled it covers 100 of their property taxes but it's not really 100 of their property taxes it's a homestead plus one acre so i try to stress that at my office and i know that the auditor has that several times as well so if you know of veterans and they talk about that just remind them it's homestead plus one acre it's not the entitled several times. And then something else that I think is really cool that I don't think many of us know about So typically a veteran needs to go and have care. They have to go to either VA in Indianapolis, VA in Cincinnati to go and get any of their medical things done. VA has pushed out, and I'm not even sure how long ago, but I have just found out and been pushing this in my office, VA now has community care, which means that they don't have to go to Indianapolis. They don't have to go to Cincinnati. that way. So that's a big deal. I keep mentioning it to our veterans so that they have to get some care and they can't drive, especially our elderly guys and veterans, that they can actually request the community care and get it done here at Walpole, which also helps us in our Decatur County.

That's a great benefit.

So it's huge, and I know several of my veterans are using it already, but I think that is significant with our veterans is that, I'm just only gonna talk about about five of the veterans. We were able to get them higher percentages, and it's a lot of hard work to get that, because you gotta prove some stuff to the VA. And a significant thing is I've had five veterans that are now up to bringing in about $20,000 a month between them. So take that times a year, It comes up to, what, $240,000 that's coming into our veteran pockets that are being spent here in Decatur County. So we're making great strides. It's a lot of fights with the VA. I fight all day long with them, and it's OK. I like it. The impact that we are having is really impacting our veterans in a positive way and to our community as well. Even though it's benefiting our veterans, it is going back into our community ultimately. So I think we're making great strides. It's not for me, but it's the veterans getting involved, getting them in. And so I think we're making some great strides in this county as well. You're doing a great job getting word out there. My office is busy, busy, busy, which is good because we're reaching out to our veterans.

Fantastic. Clerk's office, anything else?

And I do worry.

We've got to keep it clean. I mean, all that. And I know Diane's office has got issues over here.

That's what I worry about. I know it will dry out eventually, but what does that look like underneath? Because we've had it numerous over. I know the last one we had that was on the wall that was significant.

He did put a fire in and a fan and a blower for about a month just to try to keep it open.

We think a lot of it stems back to the caulking that needed to happen to the outside of the courthouse. It's over 20-something years old. It's past its lifespan. It needs to be replaced. There was a bid for that at one point, but it didn't happen. I think we're past the point of that needing to be done. It's just continually becoming more and more of a problem in different locations. As we've seen the last time, there's still wood damage in the courthouse now from the last time. THAT THINGS WENT BAD AND WERE LEAKING. SO THAT'S DEFINITELY SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN, AND WE PLAN TO PROBABLY PUT THAT BACK OUT FOR RFP WOULD BE MY ASSUMPTION HERE IN THE NEXT MEETING OR SO.

AND THEN THAT DOESN'T... AND A LOT OF IT IS COMING TO WHERE CHARLIE'S SIDE IS WHERE THEY'VE BEEN IN THE NEW ROOF LAST YEAR.

THERE'S BEEN A COUPLE OF THOSE. OVER YOUR AREA IS A NEW ROOF, RIGHT? YEAH.

YEAH.

YEAH.

THEY SHOWED THAT SIDE WHERE IT'S LEAKING. I KNOW HE SAID IT WAS, SO I DON'T KNOW. I just wanted to make sure you guys were aware. We didn't text Charlie, but he's like, okay, I'm at the annex working on the same thing right now.

Yeah. There's been several things. I think everybody experienced some kind of leak last week.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. All right. Anybody else before we make a motion to close? I'll make a motion to close the meeting.

So moved.

We are.