County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting the Hancock County Board of Commissioners to order. Today is 5-19-26. This meeting has been recorded and streamed for public viewing. By participating, you acknowledge that your image, voice, and comments may be captured and made publicly available. This meeting has been properly noticed in accordance with Indiana Code 5-14-1.5. Let the record show that a quorum of commissioners are present and the commissioners are open for business. We will proceed with the agenda. Can I get a motion? Tell you what, at this time, let's ask you to stand and do the pledge for this.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

Can I get a motion for the minutes, please?

I make a motion that we approve the minutes for 5-4-2026, Commissioner's meeting. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the minutes for 5-4-26. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Gary Poole.

Good morning. I have nothing for signature this morning. We're still working on a couple contracts, pricing and stuff. We're doing our negotiations and stuff. Those should come to you shortly. Get those contracts in so we can get our reimbursement started on those. We are looking to extend HCSS. We were talking about that at every meeting, so keep that in mind. I do believe I've passed on the message. She needs to speak with Greenfield and everything like that. That message has been passed on, so Miriam is working with her to try to keep her prodded along.

We are eligible for LCF grant.

In front of you,

You'll see a shoe like this. Miriam is working on this.

This is a land, This is a conservation act, so any of the property we purchase under this would have to be locked up into a restricted deed. So it's going to be nature land if we do that. So Miriam's going to explore, make some contact with some of the property owners, see if anybody is a willing seller or wants to participate in the program. And if they are, then we'll circle back, see if we can secure a grant. Ms. Scheidler and Ms. Rolles will work on that and see if we can get some land secured. This Thursday we'll also be speaking with Nine Star Board about future partnering with them on similar projects to the Nine Star Park. So we'll keep you informed on that.

Shirley Trail construction, we did get our paver.

We're finishing some important road work first, then we're going to get out to the Shirley Trail. We're hoping to get that done before the June celebration. We probably won't make it, but the paths still pack down, so we will get that paved soon, the school paved, and it's good to get going. I'll cover the effects of the gas tax holiday on excise and sales tax on gasoline. I'll talk about that in a minute. Jack and Sons, buying has been initiated. It'll be about $3,500 worth of services between myself, the consultant stuff. Obviously, you're already paying me, but it'll cost about $3,500. We'll get that together and try to get that closed. And I'll make sure we stay coordinated with Jenna and the team at Greenfield to get that done.

I just talked to her Tuesday. last week, Wednesday last week. They're prepared, so.

Yeah, I'm very confident. Jenna knows what she's doing. I'm confident we'll be able to take care of the brownfield project and do all the other things we want to do at the same time.

So we're advancing.

We're going to go light on salt this year. There's a big El Nino going on. So this is our winter projection. We're looking at above normal temperatures, below normal precipitation. So if you're a skier, it might be a little rough this year, but we'll probably go easier on salt. I give up skiing. I went a little lighter on the salt. This year was a pretty heavy salt year, but next year will probably be pretty light, which is nice because we are trying to save a buck right now. It's a high adventure in government. We're going to pilot some automated work. So this is, this is new. So we had some success with the we're always trying some pilot programs in the highway department. I'm glad we got the solar panels on there with the money back on that because power has been going nothing but up, but that's worked out well with labor hard to get. We're going to automate some of our mowing. So we're going to try a couple of small robots between Corey and myself to mow some of the County property. So if you see a new employee that looks like a trash can, he's kind of quiet. Uh, we might put a hat on them so kids don't beat them up.

Like, you know, anthropomorphize somebody walking down the road with this under their arm and it's not you or Corey, I should probably stop.

It'll be, it's really heavy. It's close to a hundred pounds and it's GPS everything. So if somebody steals it, they're a moron. It won't take Brad and his crew very long to track them down. So I'd warn the public it's in order for it to Mo and not get lost. It knows where it is. Um,

Where will you mow with that?

We're going to start.

We're going to ease in, because I'm still nervous.

We're going to start with the highway department, so keep my eye on it. Then we're going to expand the 911 center and a couple other properties like that. We are going to create a solar enclosure. There's not one made that. So Ms. Scheider and I engineered a, we had to dust off our electrical engineering stuff. We've engineered a small solar enclosure to charge it on site. So then we'll try some of the Penzi Trail stuff. It'll free up Corey from all his labor out there and free up my people for a lot of labor. So we can focus on other items. When I look at, because I have been reducing my staff size a little bit to accommodate some of the reductions in revenue coming. This will, but when I, one of the first things cut out is mowing and stuff like that. So we go to two weeks, go to three weeks. This will allow us to keep up on some of that. Now it's not ready for roadside, obviously. That's going to always be a tractor with a mower.

But you can see here, I believe I've tracked how many hours it takes us to do these different tasks, the hourly rate.

I'm not even really including equipment in there.

I believe over 10 years, which is probably about the life of the equipment, we'll save about $334,000. even just having it, if they don't get destroyed every other year or they don't break every other year, we're still ahead.

Um, and that's including a third of the time. We're not, uh, I'm assuming it's going to reduce our mowing labor to one third. We're still gonna have people go out there, check on them. We'd eat stuff like that, but we're not gonna be doing the big area stuff. So if you see something like that rolling around out there, don't be afraid. It's just the AI coming to take over. Um, I'm joking. Um, We're going to see how it works. We're going to ease into it before we go full bore.

It's going to be labeled to certain that lets people know what this is and whose it is.

Yeah, we'll have a label on it. We'll give it a name so people will be nice to it.

Will it have a yellow vest?

We will probably have some reflective stuff on it. But it's going to be in yards and stuff. It's not going to be on roadsides or trails. So we're not going to expose it to traffic yet. But at some point we may.

It also can do work at night and on the weekends so it's not in our way.

But we'll let you know how that goes. It's kind of interesting.

Capital plan.

It is big. So Gary, you guys probably saw I sent the capital plan in. I included a lot of stuff for the commissioners on there. I probably missed some stuff added as well. I spoke with Mr. Shelby about it. It is ambitious and it is large. I've talked to some of you guys about this and Mr. Shelby and some of the council. I might recommend, if you wish, if we're going to get away from all delivery and contracting out, a lot of the management of it. We might consider at this amount of capital plan, we might want to hire someone you have your hands on, someone that works for you to manage all this. I will do my best, but we're at $200 million in my stuff now. Adding another $100 million to it, I might miss a lot of stuff at some point. i did meet with uh jim and keely yesterday and we kind of discussed that a little bit so keep in discussion i presented some options to you guys and ways that can be done now it would not be a permanent position i understand which we wouldn't need to be just for the capital program but keep that in mind thinking forward We had a big storm last night. The drainage performed pretty well. I went out to one tree that fell down, but otherwise it was a lot of rain and everything drained pretty well, so that's good.

This time of year, those things are starting to grow. It makes it a little easier.

The storms like that are really tough in the beginning of spring when there's no vegetation growing yet because there's nowhere for the water to go. Unfortunately, contrary to property, we have lots and lots of water in Hancock County, so it takes an amount to leave. Well, General Prosecutor's Office, I need you guys to consider whether we want to do another project. If we're going to do another project, I have some recommendations. Do we want to do the full remodel like we've been doing? Because we have some restrictions there. Or do we want to do floors, doors, and walls, like paint the walls and just get stuff that's already there occupiable? So those are the decisions to make. We also need to talk...

We have a program there. Actually, they're going to be out there. We've got an estimate that Corey got on doing new office space and break room out there. Excellent. And not too bad.

Yep. So you still have money within those bonds. Yes. So the projects are winding down, so you need to consider if you want to do future projects.

I would really like to finish off the prosecutor's office. That way it's done.

I think that's sound thinking. Yeah. And then you need to consider your manner. Do you want to do an all delivery like a BOT or one of those deliveries like that? It does take the risk off us, but it does cost more. So we're trading risk for cost. So those considerations need to be made.

Expense and revenue variability we talked about last time, so I'm not going to go into that. On the revenue variability, so on the left side of this, our LRS is heavily dependent upon gas tax.

The cities and towns get hurt even more on this because they're heavier linked in on LRS versus MPH.

These are the general breakdowns of some of the combined loss.

If the gas tax remains in place over the summer, I'm going to assume the county, my operational funds will be down anywhere between $400,000 and $500,000. I do have working capital in place because these things do happen from time to time. It's not my first rodeo. So that's why we keep working capital. People always ask why we keep cash aside. Legitimately, we have rainy days sometimes, and it is a rainy day. As long as it doesn't go through the summer, I do not believe I'll have to curtail any of our program. I do believe that the majority of our cities and towns will have to curtail some of their programs. I went onto the DLGF and looked through their stuff because I'm nosy like that, and they are exposed. They will feel this. All of our cities and towns are going to feel this. Will they collapse? No, they'll be fine. But they're going to have to curtail some of their programs, so keep that in mind. When interacting with them, they're going to feel fiscal pressure on their DPW sides.

I know I had heard last week for MVH and LRS about $52 million every four weeks or...

For NDOT, yes.

For NDOT, so depending on how long that goes. And then I haven't looked at it yet, but I think LTAP has some information out there, too, that gives a little bit more detail.

And obviously, NDOT is their own operation. However, we as a county have been incredibly successful with the grant writing to NDOT. If they get hungry, they're not going to be issuing as many grants or any grants. So that does affect us as well on our capital project side. So this will affect us first on operations. A key point is I do need some feedback on this. I'm getting ready to complete my budgets for the auditor's office. Do I want to try and recoup my working capital next year, so I have to curtail some program to get my working capital back, or do I roll through with my same program and accept the risk that I could if the gas tax remains? Because it's so hard. We predict so far into the future that we will have some loss. Because if I program stuff and I have to cancel stuff, the taxpayer loses money and we don't get anything, right? Not all of it, but there's penalties for not meeting your obligations. Um, do I go all the way in? I'm going to recommend our roads are in really good shape compared to our peers. I'm going to recommend we rebuild our working capital. I wouldn't want to do that two years in a row because it's great. It's like a car. You don't have to change the oil and it'll probably run fine for a while until it completely breaks. We might defer. I hate to say deferred maintenance. We might defer maintenance a little bit to rebuild our working capital is my recommendation. Consider that if you have issue with that, let me know offline. But I do have to finish that by the 1st of June is the.

Sounds like the better trade off of the two for now.

But consider it. I mean, these are the decisions that you're elected by the people. Are we going to take the risk of our deferred maintenance? Are we going to take the risk of exposure to contract breach and the loss of revenue there?

Here is on the bottom part of this, on the last thing you might look at that, that is the current set

In the prosecutor's office in the old jail. So you can thumb through that and see what they're looking at. You got stuff from Corey. I'm envoy will certainly be reaching out and asking if we're going to continue your project with them or not. So those decisions need to be made at some point.

Burn that. That is all I will be going up.

Try to maintain our relationships with Mr Jensen today and then well, who knows if he'll do something in the future and that'd be good relationship to have. But I'll be out of the office the rest of the day.

Pretty much noon meeting about signage. Signage at amplify.

Oh.

We have a new meaning I wasn't invited and in person I thought you were on that list. Check your just check your calendar before you go.

I'll be there in spirit, but I don't have, I'm not really artistic. I don't know if I can really contribute to what a sign should look like. I'm good at a lot of stuff, but the artistic stuff, like I just bought petunias that were supposed to go in the dark and they don't go in the dark. My wife's really mad. They were like three times the price. It's a really nice white petunia, but I got suckered. They said I'd go in the dark and I took it in the bathroom. It doesn't go in the dark.

It's just a

So artistic stuff's not, I'm good at your money, but the art stuff is.

We need people like you so you can write a great review on that so we can avoid buying that product.

$20 for a white petunia? Like it glows in the dark and it doesn't glow in the dark.

Maybe it needs to soak up some sunshine first.

Well, you shouldn't buy things back behind the annex building, I guess. I'm joking. All right, that's all I have for today. I will. I'll be on my phone and sorry that's tomorrow tomorrow.

OK, that is tomorrow.

Thank you, thank you, thanks.

We're Taylor.

This is.

Personal. Good morning, good morning.

so the only thing i've got for you is a quote from klamath construction morgan is in need with personnel to have another office to be able to handle dealing with clients so we looked at an area we can add a couple walls and a door they also weren't designated a break room there's an area that can be utilized so this quote is to add Some eliminator tract, drywall, some doors, some door hardware, paint to create the office space, as well as adding some cabinets and some countertops, and we'll play their break room. For the project is in the amount of $12,955. Everybody, I'm good with it.

I make a motion that we approve the Klamath Construction LLC bid in the amount of, not to exceed, $12,955 for the community corrections building build-out. Second.

have motion and a second on the floor for to approve the klamath construction llc quote for a new break room and office for community corrections and it costs not to exceed twelve thousand nine hundred fifty five dollars any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion passes just to clarify will that come from 2001 point 2021

i just checked the other day and that one's it's got plenty of there okay and that is the 2021 go by yeah okay all right that is all i've got um just to let you guys know i've had a busy couple weeks at amplify uh until they have their maintenance personnel hired we're being trained on everything so

Unfortunately, I know that building pretty well. Take notes.

It is tying a lot of time up, so the entire week is spent out there as well as probably a little into next week.

And he told me about that this week, or actually last week he told me about that.

Sounds like they're going through the interview process. Other than that, that's all I've got.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thanks, Corey.

Chris Cooper.

Good morning. Good morning. I've got a couple of minor subdivisions just dedicating right away. I don't know. Do you have an order of. We do. Keaton or Dettish. Keaton first and then Dettish. Keaton it's two lot minor subdivision on US 52 dedicating 70 foot half right away across both lots.

about 0.3 acres per 0.3 yep i make a motion that we approve the uh right away for uh 70 foot one half right away uh on 0.3 acres for the keaton minor subdivision second

I have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the acceptance of the 70-foot half right-of-way amounting to about 0.3 acres for the Keeton Miner Subdivision. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. All right. Thank you.

The second one is the Dutch Culp Minor Subdivision. It's on County Road 700 West. It's a 50 foot dedicated half right of way. About .27 acres in one lot and .1 acres in the second lot.

Let me find that one. Oh, it's with that one. Okay.

I make a motion that we approve the 50-foot dedicated one-half right-of-way for the Dettish Culp Miner Subdivision that would encompass .27 acres and .1 acres.

Second.

We have a motion on the floor and a second to approve the acceptance of the 50-foot half right-of-way. One lot will be 0.27 acres and the other be 0.1. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Amanda Everett Etheridge. He's not. I didn't see her out there. OK, we'll skip her. Kayla Brooks. Morning, good morning.

Morning I have one reason. This is a zoning ordinance rezoning just under seven acres from agriculture to industrial general. The property is located at approximately three six five nine north four hundred west. This is if you're at three hundred north and four hundred west go north just south of the old railroad right of way where that crosses over south of 400 north there's a small seven acre what's currently a older farmstead this rezone by citrus harbor llc will convert that property from its current residential agricultural use to a equipment lease sales and lease site which is in keeping with the plan for that area becoming industrial. Equipment sales and rental, yep. The recommendation, it was a favorable recommendation from the plan commission, unanimous, which was five I's and zero A's, with one condition that the only permitted use be equipment sales and rental. Kevin Buckeye is here today representing the petition. I also have I'm happy to show you guys any any Drawings of the site or anything else you'd like to see or if you have any questions for me or Kevin feel free to ask That's it Anything do we have an ordinance number for this I

Make a motion that we approve ordinance number 2026-5D amending the Hancock County zoning ordinance number 2007-1B in Buck Creek Township in section 156.2020. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve ordinance number 2026-5D. Amending or approving the ordinance to be taken to, what is that? IG.

IG. Industrial General.

Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Greg Lindsay.

Good morning.

This is my first time here. I like to note that John asked me to wear a tie or pants. I chose pants.

Well, he also told us to give you a really hard time.

I saw the email and I appreciate that. I'm sure he's watching. So I want to get the pants thing in there and forget about the tie. Today John has asked me to come in and we have five items that we need to talk or would like to talk about. Item number one was updating David Perry's out-of-state travel. There were two additional days that were added to that. The travel's already taken place. He's already been to his conference. But my understanding was the auditor's office asked for us to bring it up for reapproval since there was an additional two days added to that.

It's on the action item? Okay. Here it is. You got it? May I read it?

David Perry? David Perry, yes, that's correct.

Okay.

I make a motion that we grant permission to travel out of state and with the estimated travel expenses not to exceed $22,218.16 for David Perry to attend the 2026 Navigator Conference in Las Vegas. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve. This is actually a revised... Correct. Okay, revised. It's already taken place. It's just there was a couple of days added to this. So all those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Motion carries.

Original's back here somewhere, Sarah. item six for bridget true love is that she's my next one okay here you go it's that one out there oh no we are we signing off on that one then yeah it should be my stack i'm not finding it here action item 10. 7 and you said 6 correct?

Right? You can 7 two sevens, which is.

Hey, there we go. OK. Also, I make a motion that we approve the out-of-state travel and estimated travel expenses for Bridget Truelove not to exceed $2,641.84 to attend the 2026 National NENA Conference and Pre-Conference course. Second.

motion on the floor in a second to approve bridget true love out of state travel to the 2026 national anina conference and pre-conference course uh price not to exceed 2 641.84 any further uh discussion all those and all those approved say aye aye motion carries

OK. The 3rd item that John had for us today was the maintenance contract with McAllister Caterpillar for generator. I believe you should have that preview as well. And this was the annual contract that's correct as just the normal renewal of the contract, OK?

Was there any significant price increase over that?

I don't believe so. He was pretty excited about getting the three years locked in. Typically it's year to year, I think, is what he was telling us. So having the three-year contract was something that he was really excited about.

And he hasn't had any issues with McAllister's coming out and servicing?

I don't believe so. I mean, we see them as regular as probably anybody else would, but no, we haven't had any issues that I'm aware of. As much as they charge, I would hope that they can get those trucks out there when we need them.

I make a motion that we approve the contract for McAllister CAT number 3193810 in the amount of a three-year grant total of $5,787. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the McAllister Annual Service Contract. number three one nine three eight one zero taking this from a one year to three year uh contract uh and price not to exceed five thousand seven hundred and eighty seven dollars and zero cents for the three years is there any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries

There we go.

Next. Item number four was a five-year maintenance contract with DC Group for our UPS battery backup. I know in talking to John about this, it's just a normal renewal for the five-year contract. The five-year locked-in price is apparently something that he's also pretty excited about because due to the expense, it's quite a bit cheaper than what we have been paying in the past. And I guess the reason for that, a lot of the stuff that they can do now is remote, like most things. But I know he's been working on this for a while. They actually contacted him I think a few years ago. But to be able to get it at the price that we're getting, that's quite a bit of savings for us.

Good. Questions? I don't.

I make a motion that we approve quote number 00062882 with DC Group regarding our UPS and batteries backup not to exceed in the amount of $2,229.17. For five years. Correct. Which is $11,145.85.

We have a motion and a second to approve the annual agreement for service from DC Group for maintaining the batteries, UPS system batteries. It to have an annual amount is $2,229.17. And you said that was $11,145.85 for five years. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

If I could, I'm gonna call Emily Sparks up. She's gonna talk about a pollinator garden real quick and just give you a little bit of background about that.

Hi, I'm Emily Sparks. I'm with the Hancock County 911 Center and I'm here to talk about a proposal for a pollinator garden at the EOC. The proposal started in the spring of 2025, laying out a plan to plant a pollinator garden in the 50 by 50 plot of grass to the east of our building. Not only will this garden beautify the grounds of the county building, but it will help to positively affect climate change, assist with water purification, be good for agriculture, and positively benefit the economy. There's further details about all of those in the proposal that was sent over. But the initial scope of the project we're seeking approval on today is 17 by 11. There is room to expand that due to being on the 50 by 50 plot of land, but today is for the 17 by 11 plot. The pollinator garden creates a public interest opportunity as the center plans to utilize social media throughout the entire process. The goal for socials would be to increase community engagement as well as give proper credit to our partners in this project. And that brings me to the sponsorship aspect of our project. So many thanks to Anna Voris, who is on the Economic Development Council. She took our proposal and turned it into a reality by finding our partners. I want to make sure I read this so I don't leave out anything that anybody has donated. But as a legacy gift, the Frady family and its associated businesses have offered to donate the following. Frady's Lawn and Landscape is donating the planting, installation, dirt, mulch, and consultation with Sean Lynch being our main contact. And Dave's Express Car Care is donating plants, bird houses, bird baths, et cetera. And Leslie Frady will be our contact for that. So in addition, the Purdue Extension Office is excitedly offering to assist on this project with their master gardeners doing the maintenance on the garden with weeding. So it will also be very low cost in terms of maintenance.

that's good thanks to those sponsors that makes it work easy then so sure does thank you i would add thanking emily as well this is something she came up with last year it's taken some work to get the sponsors together it kind of felt together with anna stepping in and really helping us out with that if you don't know emily one thing you'll know she's persistent and dedicated, but she's also, um, um, a big driving force behind something like this. And this is something that we could utilize as well when we have breaks and you work in a bunker for eight hours a day, it'd be nice to be able to go outside and experience some of that. So something that we're all very excited about.

Thank you very much. Thanks.

Well done. And that's all I have.

Thank you. Thank you very much before you leave. I just want to let, you know, I had an opportunity to visit my commissioners in Lake County the other day, and I got a chance to see this program that may be coming to a theater near you called a call taker. Yes, and they showed some demos of that. Now I was really impressed by what it was able to do and how it was able to tell when a call went from. A normal call to an enhanced where somebody was upset over something and handed it off to a. To a dispatcher how well that may you know work and I think that's something that in twenty twenty seven we're looking at having nine one one go ahead and do I know there's a version of that Madison County this one in Lake County said right now there was really no issue with. The public safety and it's just getting people who call in to not kind of override that initial hey can we help you but it sounded really I mean. sounded just as lifelike as you and I probably talking together and like I said whenever they determine a need it just dumped it off on a dispatcher like it was it didn't keep you in a queue of waiting for whatever so yeah I've seen I've sat in on a few demos so far the potential to take some of the workload and actually allow us to focus on more important things is pretty exciting looking forward to it thank you very much

Good morning. Good morning.

i'll start off with my first item on the agenda and that is some proposals quotes that you may have there for a walkway canopy And I'll just kind of, I got a little bit of a slide presentation to kind of give you a reference to what I'm referring to. So this is the picture between the two buildings, admin and jail. This is on a beautiful day right here. Nice and sunny area. This here. Not so sunny. Is a nice rainy day that we walked down. When training, that's 98 feet of pathway. This is a nice snowy day and what it looks like. This is what it looks like when it gets full of snow. That's 98 feet of pushing snow one direction because that's the only way you can go with it. And this is days after it snows of continuous snow blowing off the buildings and filling the walkway. So it's a continual having to clean even after snow goes away for three, four, five days until it's off the building, I suppose. And so this is something that I talked about going to be a problem during construction of the jail. However, at that time, it was decided that we didn't need any type of canopy. Knowing it was going to be a problem, I think it needs to be fixed. I think it's an ongoing issue. It's never going to go away until we get it fixed. and the door you showed there it probably receives just as much traffic if not more it's all it's all the jail traffic in the main yeah it's a really really busy space yeah so everybody doing any kind of business with the jail goes right goes to that door whether that's dropping off money bonding people out attorneys going in to see clients that's the main entrance to the gym And so the proposal is similar to what you're seeing here and what a walkway would look like. Basically, it's just a freestanding walkways by post. The drainage drains down the post through the gutter work. But this is basically what I'm referring to for that. It would not be attached to the building. It's basically freestanding coming up close to the edges to the building. I did three proposals. They're all considerably different. I'm not exactly sure where the one came from. That's just way out of the line. So I just didn't know how to proceed with something like this. Obviously this isn't something I budgeted for in future, but I don't know if it's something I need to go for like an additional through council or what, but... I just think this is something that we need to look at. Like I said, it's not going away.

Now, will it have its own gutter system or?

Yeah, it would have its own gutter system. But basically, it would drain off, but it drains down onto the concrete, which can still be a problem. You're limited to where you can go with your drainage.

Because I was seeing the drains there, and there are drains on the original.

So there's drains in the concrete, obviously, that drains into the concrete. But there are some drains, some gutter work that comes off the side of that building. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. My thought is, though, I don't know that those can handle any more water. There's a considerable amount of water coming down those off the large building. I don't know if you tied into that what that was going to do to it. I don't think it would handle it. So it would almost just have to really kind of drain back down onto the concrete into the drain service drain. can be a freezing and thawing issue, but we have that problem now. But if we can limit the amount of stuff that's on there, we can obviously continue to put salt down.

So we can safely say that the cool planet is off the table?

I would say, yes.

I would agree with that. And then there is really a 50% difference, maybe a little more, on Spone and Upside. Do you know, is Any particular reason why those are so?

I do not, and I didn't get into that yet. Quality of supply? I think that that would be a question to have between the two if, you know, obviously we'd kick out the one, but, you know, I don't understand. I mean, I gave them identical information to all of them, and so I don't know why one would be different than the other. I mean, the material should be the same, but I would definitely question that.

Sometimes cheaper is not always better.

Well, I agree and.

So which one are you going with?

Well, I mean, obviously I would obviously like to start with the cheaper one to see exactly spec wise, you know, why, why we're different because, you know, you know, ask them, you know, like, Hey, this is your cost, but also got one for, you know, top end at, you know, a hundred thousand some dollars. Like why, why are we so different here? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I gave him the same spec, so I don't know why we're not. somewhere close to one another. And so I would just kind of like to kick them out to start with because there's no way they're going to come down to where I am. But maybe go back and talk to the other two and say, hey, here's what I got. Why are we still so much different?

Is Upside out of Indianapolis?

It is not. I think that's Ohio.

Okay.

The one out of Indy was the most.

Is the spawn, it looks like, is Indianapolis at 70?

Yeah, they're out of Indy.

All right.

you want us just to hold on to it just to let you do some more looking into it or what do you want to do that's fine i can do that and i can come back and say hey here you know here's here's the preferred based off of you know some additional information but i just kind of Want to say, hey, are we good to go with trying to get this accomplished before I went any further, I suppose, and come down with a motion to leave it to him?

I think we ought to leave a motion at least to approve it. I mean, the project. Right. Yeah, or give a favor recommendation towards it and moving on to you say you need to ask the council.

Well, I'm going to have to obviously have some funding somewhere. This is something that I wouldn't agree. I don't have it to do right now. And so it would be an additional from somewhere to try to get it done.

No, it's a needed. It's a needed project. It always was a needed project. I wish they would have wrapped it in the original bill. Like you said, some other circumstances just didn't let that happen. But for like you said, all those folks coming into the jail, whether it's family members, the people in their legal counsel, whatever they need to have that kind of coverage.

It's an accident waiting to happen.

It is. It's another liability.

very much so yeah and we do the best we can obviously you know we bought a piece of equipment to clean it and um and staff you know keep it solid and everything like that but it's just it's just hard to keep on top of especially when it's blowing off the other building because we're always constantly you know messing with it so managing our risk is probably the most important reason for this project yeah so i would make a motion that we approve the project um

and then waiting on additional information regarding pricing and then sending it forward to the council with a favorable recommendation.

Second.

There's a motion and a second on the floor to approve the canopy project. for the sheriff's building and waiting for further information and send it to the council for their approval. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

aye aye motion carries all right thank you very much appreciate it uh secondly um i kind of just wanted to go over there so you'll you should have some pdf mechanical stuff in your packet and a cool planet i'm sorry no that's from the first that's from the first one these are all pdf uh quotes um yeah yeah yeah um so we're we're in that's why we where we're at now we're in our fourth year coming up june 10th as far as actually being in the building and so um so we're having some considerable amount of problems with our chillers and We've had them ongoing ever since. We've pretty much opened. And we've, you know, up until a certain point, everything was under warning, you know, and we were getting a lot of those things covered. I have a real feeling that I think these chillos were built during COVID. just because i think we're running into too many problems with them and so what we found now is is i'm out of warranty obviously you know they don't always they they don't they they start to warn even before you get in the building so basically when they're purchased and so these were obviously hooked up a year or so before we even had occupancy and so you really only get like a year maybe or two of a warranty and then it's just because of how it all works um so we're out of warning so we're having some major problems and and i've already replaced a uh condensing coil in one of them last year and that was a 23 000 um i got another coil that just came up that's bad that's going to be another you know 23 grand you can see that I have a compressor problem at about $34,000, and then I have some glycol pump that needs repaired, needs replaced, and it's about $9,700. I'm working with InnoVent, the manufacturer of them, and Garmong to try to maybe get the compressor warrantied. But I got to get it out first send it to them so they can see it But I got to put one back in immediately because if you don't put one back in immediately the unit will condensing pulling condensation and You can't have that for a compressor, you know, so for that so we need to get that installed back so I'm trying to work through that but I I mean, I generally for years have not had to come to you with maintenance stuff since the old jail because we just pretty much take care of it and we handle it. But this one's becoming more than my budget can handle, obviously, because I didn't figure for this either.

Problems you're experiencing. Same problems experienced. That's what they never really.

No, these are these are separate things. But they're, you know, they're, they're just saying, well, these are normal, normal type things that take place, which I don't, I don't agree with, you know, we had a chiller coil that based off how it was manufactured, there was when they turn on and off, there's a vibration. And one of them was setting up against a bolt and vibrated enough to create a hole and then you lose all your freon. They said we need to replace the whole thing. I was like, nah, that's crap. So I actually brought in somebody to weld it. And for $700, I fixed a $23,000 thing. But these are in a position where you can't do that. I can't fix them that way, the way they're located.

Yeah.

Well, and I don't know about the compressor. I mean, like I said, we got to get it out, get it back to them. They said they may warranty that piece. But as far as like the coils themselves, they say that's just, and again, I don't believe, a normal wear and tear type thing. You know, to me, and there again, material wise, I just can't see that that would be normal. But that's what I'm getting.

You're hoping you get 30...

Yeah.

Talk about. We have. Yeah. And like I said, I mean, you're getting 2019 into 20 when we were doing some of this stuff. I mean, that could be a COVID bill. And I know there's a lot of things manufactured during that time that weren't the greatest in things. So. that may be some of the issue i don't know fully what the issue um i can't say what i think these are i mean they're really i mean i mean they're they're horrible as far as these particular units and so um But I got to have them fixed. I mean, I got to do something with them guys. I got to have the coils because they operate the chilled water in the jail. They operate the HVAC systems for the air and it's going to start warming up and get hot. So I have two chillers that they sink back and forth. One runs, one kicks off, one, you know, back and forth. And so, but right now I only have a partial of one working because of everything that's down. So I got to get this fixed.

This is Tom's opinion. to fix it and not potentially buy a brand new chiller? Did he think we were going to continue?

Well, and I had asked, yeah, and I had asked that. It's like, at what point in time do you just say, hey, we're going to trash this thing and start over? I don't think we're at that point yet, but it could be soon. But I just don't want to go down, I didn't want to have to go down that road. It's like, we shouldn't have to do that. I mean, at this stage in the game, it's only four or five years into with a chiller. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Right. So I think right now, I mean, we're just kind of out of stage. We just need to get these repaired and then see how the future holds out. And if we still continue to have problems after we get these repaired, you know, then maybe we need to, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I guess I need to find out, too, is that we install these new parts. You know, is there a warranty attached to those, you know? know if they just explode you know it's one thing but if it's sitting there and it's vibrating touching something i mean that's another thing and so yeah says labor is warranted for 90 days parts warranted for one year and that's on the west chiller and the east one same thing um yeah parts wrong same thing i don't know if that's pds warning on that or that's manufacturer warning I mean if there's actually a manufacturer or or he's he's actually warranting that for that time period. So that's something I need to look at.

Yeah, and then you're trying to do the right thing. You're trying to put glycol in the system so it doesn't freeze up and then you get glycol pump leak.

Yeah, yeah, which I mean, you know it's been in the system and we I mean that we we maintain that and we do the testing and everything that we need to do for that piece.

For maintenance of building.

Better a CCD. That money from the. I mean, we could do that to be determined to be determined that way.

Get these things fixed and the audit gets back. We can figure out exactly where we get it from.

So OK. Well, I make a motion that we approve the proposals for the West Chiller Circuit to condenser coil not to exceed. $23,492.77. The East Chiller Circuit One Compressor, one replacement, not to exceed $33,859.33. And the East Chiller glycol pump, not to exceed $9,742. And that will be determined on whether we pay it from CCD or the 2025 GOP. Second.

There's a motion and a second on the floor to approve the quotes for maintenance to the sheriff's chiller. Three different ones, $23,492.77, $33,859.33, and a $9,742 quote. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. And so as I get these repaired,

I mean, obviously he doesn't want to sit on these for a while. I mean, there's quite a bit of money here and he's got. So we don't know where we haven't determined where it's going to be paid from yet. So when I do get invoices, what do I do with these invoices? soon as i i will get with mary as soon as they get back to make sure where they come it can be from either ccd or the 2025 it'll be taken care of okay do we have the 2025 yet yeah we always have we don't have the 26 we got 25. okay all right okay and i know there's money in both okay i just didn't want to get into because i've had the problem with additional appropriations in the 30 days and all that stuff i just didn't want to get into that again to where i gotta be in good shape for this okay all right thank you very much And the last item I have, you should have two different quotes here for, we are at our five-year fire suppression for pipe inspection for sprinklers. And I know the county uses Jacob Dietz for contractual stuff on a normal basis, but I wasn't really pleased with the quote that I got from them. and so we reached out to dalmatian which is who did the install and got a different quote um and so i don't i just wanted to let you guys know i'm gonna i'm gonna go with a lot lower quote but i know that's who we normally use as they used to do the contractual stuff but i'm going to deviate from that and utilize dalmatian because it is at a cheaper cost

But they're doing the same. Same thing.

Same thing. You know, I mean, it's just a five year inspection. And so I don't know. And again, I don't know what the difference is. And they both quoted the same thing. And just because I think we utilize them for contractual stuff, I don't mean I have to use them, you know, to do the you know, if it's going to be cheaper.

And they replace equipment if need be, right? Yeah, I mean, if it needs to be.

I mean, well, I mean, if there's something that probably needs fixed, I mean, we're going to have that probably be some additional. But this is just for the inspection piece and taking it apart and making sure everything's the way it complies and all that stuff. And so I just I just kind of wanted to bring it to your attention that that I'm going to deviate from our normal contract person that does all our other stuff and go with this.

Share that information too with Corey. I did earlier. Him saying, okay, on the rest of these buildings, we may look at this other group as well. I have done that, yes.

I almost bet they might change their quota.

Very much so. But this will be a learning experience for them.

I don't know. I am make a motion that we quote number INDS dash 26 dash 0171 for the Hancock County Jail fire protection and fire sprinkler. What do we call that inspections? In the amount not to exceed $6100 second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve a deficiency proposal from Shanbaugh and Son in the amount of $6,100, quote number INDS-26-0171. Any further questions? All those in favor say I I motion carries really no signature line for this, but I'll have Gary sign that OK. OK, I appreciate that's all I have.

Thank you, thank you.

Trying to.

Oh prosecutor. Street.

Good morning, folks. Good morning. How can I help you today?

I thought we were supposed to help you.

This is a juvenile deputy prosecutor apparently request. It's the same request that was made last year at about the same time. The facts are more or less the same as they were about a year ago. About a year ago, you did approve the request. And so in the interest of time, if there's additional questions beyond that, I'm very happy to address them as best I can.

No, I didn't notice on this request for employee, but is this a position the state potentially pays a percentage of? Or is it fully out of the moneys of the County County money?

It's not. It's not a reimbursed position like the other like the when we had the. And the child support prosecutor that's reimbursed.

This is not a reimbursed position. This is all on us. And so we are looking at two different expenses, $53,400 and $99,834. Is that correct?

Yeah, that shows both sides of the ledger. Okay.

I do know Jim knows about it.

Yes. Yes.

have you heard any from the council uh we had a good meeting with them last week on the same subject and there's a lot of question and answer they did not take a formal vote um and i hesitate to guess what people would do if they had to vote but i think it was a positive conversation there's a lot of information that was shared and i left the meeting feeling more positive than i did a year ago when i had the same request a year ago but i don't want to speak for those people

and this is an immediate hire these would be immediate hires january january next budget year okay hey what can let me get with jim on this and let's table this to the next meeting that way i can because i mean first of all they said no no new powers in budget. So I think we need to figure it out. So see if that's going to be approved.

I'm going to wait and discuss it at our budget hearing.

Oh, okay.

Standing as I put it in the budget and then they're going to see what happens because we're scheduled to meet with them.

We will. be at the budget hearing.

So I'll bring that up at the budget hearing. That way we can see what they're going to do. Obviously, I saw the headline.

And so that got my attention. I bet it did. That was after the meeting. I mean, the president of the council had a meeting with our office a week prior to the budget meeting. And so we had to sit down and kind of walk through some of the particulars. He encouraged us to get on the calendar. Last week we did so. um you know there was some pretty honest and frank discussion among the members you know again i'm not going to try to speak for those people but i left the meeting feeling positive and then that headline certainly did get my attention after the meeting and so i understand yeah we'll table it and we've got when's the budget uh first wednesday okay so june so i'll uh see what we can come up with them because we're all in the same room yeah One thing I just want to point out what I did up for was we did have juvenile probation here last time and they were part of our presentation with the Council. It was Connelly who was with us at that time and one of the things that we emphasize together was the. I guess the efficiency that would be gained by virtue of having this position, how it be a substantial benefit for them and also for law enforcement with juvenile cases and how really we would not just benefit our office. We think would benefit a lot of other people.

I think in the whole scope of thing, we have had a significant increase in juvenile.

Well, what we're getting, yeah, there's an increase. Juvenile cases, too, I mean, there's some burdens that you have to have. You have case staffing every week. You've got a juvenile roundtable with attendance you've got to attend. And so there's some things that normally aren't going to show up on the score sheet, right? the juvenile cases we're having, we're having more that are more significantly dangerous, having more people, you know, that are young people involved in high speed chases. You have more people that are young people involved in firearms crimes, and that's something that was not the case five years ago. So numerically it is increasing, but that's really not the biggest concern. The biggest concern is what is we're seeing and that is substantially different than what we saw five or 10 years ago.

like i said i i met with uh keely and jim yesterday and they talked about it but it was no hey we're going to do this or whatever so uh june 3rd we'll have the next budget hearing and just made a note here and we'll see what they say so continue to reveal to them the need and what the outcomes are we expect from this have your approval before i put it in the budget

So, I assume I go ahead and I think there's some wiggle room with that date.

Yeah, so not on my side.

Well, yeah, on the back end, you know, about the wiggler.

No, no higher stuff. You got getting people.

You can put it in there, but if they decide not to fund it, that's that's where we are.

That happened many times.

OK, I would go ahead and put it in your budget. That's what I wanted to figure it out.

And then if it comes out in the wash. Right. However, that's right. I just.

Perfect.

Thanks, sir.

Dean Vulcan.

Good morning. It's that time of year again. So just want to let you know that, you know, I got back in the office, things are going, believe it or not, we've already hit about 25 complaints, which is about fourth of what we normally see all year long. Janine, you'll be pleased to know the Bonforth property up there. It's all cleaned up. They got rid of all the scrub trees around the house and it's being mowed and You know, after 15 years, I guess they finally got the idea to keep it cleaned up. So things are going well. Like I said, just busy. But I wanted to poke my head in the door basically and say hi and let you know that the office is back open in case you all get any complaints, because I know you do from time to time. Don't hesitate to pass them on. I'm here. So I don't know if you have any questions for me, but... Other than that, we're here and ready for business. So I'll make it quick and easy.

Thank you so much. All right, keep up the good work. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Have a great day.

Amanda's still not here.

So just strike her potentially.

Okay. Dick Simon. he's not here either okay gail connelly she's not here either uh andrea hr good morning good morning

I am here today with some policies, either updated or brand new. The first one, you should have copies of these in your packet. This is the telework policy. The one that we had in the manual did not reflect the current wishes of county leadership uh it seemed to be a generic blanket program so we wrote the or i wrote this much more detailed one outlining responsibilities of the departments if they wish to use a telework program scott did you have a chance to look look at this okay

And we we are okay and with our covering our department heads with that. Other electives, what's their stance or what would you see? Do they have the authority to. Okay, so we still have some sort of control.

we if we if we do this we have to prove the vpn yeah and they're under us anyway so that's our only and then you know we have to buy the equipment and the vpn are very expensive

for each VPN. Right.

Well, I'm not totally opposed to it. I think there are times that merit it. I mean, we learned during COVID you could. And then if it got really bad with this gas price, it might not be bad for folks not to have to come in every once in a while. But I think we wanted to establish some kind of control over that process. So it just wasn't everyone at all times, nobody in the offices. So I appreciate. you working on that for us.

It was my understanding that there needed to be some controls in place. Like I said, there was a blanket one in the manual. This just gives more detail and kind of designates permissions and responsibilities. If we need to, I can create a telework agreement for those employees that are going to do it, outlining their responsibilities and what we expect from them if they telework.

if there's a need for that as well i would want to be able to establish how much how much productivity so yeah absolutely and is that measurable when they're working away from

Well, as I understand it, yes. Technologically speaking, I'm not good at that. But it is my understanding that there are ways to monitor performance and usage of the machine. That would probably be a Bernie question.

on the details but you know we are in a customer service business here i mean they're going to expect their offices to be open when they arrive and you know for auditor assessor treasurer all those absolutely your your uh constituent facing roles need to be filled and available to to the members of the public at all times that the office is open So I would make a motion that we approve the new Hancock County telework policy. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve a new Hancock County telework policy to put more guidelines behind it to better serve the public in all matters because we need our people at work. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you. The next one is concerning county vehicle messaging and a professional conduct policy. This does not currently exist, but it came to my attention recently that we did have a need for it due to some complaints related to a vehicle that someone was driving in their course of their official duties. I won't go into detail because I don't want to single anyone out but it is important that the personal vehicles that are being used maintain a professional neutral and non-disruptive presence so having county health inspectors or other field staff that arrive at local businesses we want to avoid the appearance of any political bias intimidation or unprofessionalism due to bumper stickers magnets and other messaging on the vehicles that might give that impression we would have the potential for a business owner to say well i failed my inspection because they don't like this group or that group or this was on their car As we do pay mileage as part of the performance of their duties, we are within our rights to request that they cover, they don't have to remove, you can buy blank white or tan or whatever color your car is, magnets and place them over these other ones to cover them up while you are performing your duties.

enforcement so i i'm in favor of that i mean as a state policeman we've had long-standing policy that says you know here's what you can put on your car in your car because not only do you reflect yourself you reflect me i'm not going to i want to reflect anything else but values of hancock county are so i totally i totally support that so if person who has a county vehicle or they are driving one getting mileage and fuel. You should enforce that.

I agree. And when I saw what I saw, um, it made it very clear to me that we did need something because having detrimental messages about the political parties just aside from anything else is looks very bias to possibly a business owners who are interacting with these officials.

Yeah, it's serve all people. So exactly to represent Hancock County.

And just about every company out there has a policy for this. Yes.

Well, I would make a motion that we approve and add to our policy manual the county vehicle messaging and professional conduct policy effective immediately. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve the new county vehicle messaging and professional conduct policy to be immediately added to our handbook. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Thank you. The last one I have for you today is the service award program for Hancock County employees that was requested. It may be overdeveloped. I don't know. It goes all the way through 50 years. and give suggestions or recommended items for those different time periods and five-year increments. There are some estimates in here and a few vendors that I was able to locate that are typically used for these kind of products. We can always do a little more shopping if we want to make budget adjustments to what I've suggested.

Oh yeah, we can, I mean, we can find a budget to, to be able to pay for those things. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't do it because we got a lot of people here in our County that we should have been honoring a long time ago and thanking for them, you know, them for all the things that they do for us. And this just, um, even though sometimes we get caught up in it, like it's just a grip and grin, it means a lot to us to go out and honor, uh, the amount of time that our employees are giving. at these milestone times in their life. And I don't know if we'll ever see anybody at 50 years, but I'm glad we planned for it.

Just in case.

Just in case.

I have seen it done. So, yeah, it has happened. It's rare, very rare, but I have seen it.

So is there a room in the HR budget or can we put this in the HR budget for next year? How would you want to or do you want it in the Commissioner's? think we'd ask it to be in an hr i would think so piece in the hr budget yeah and well i'm glad i'm asking now before i finish my budget so what we need to do then at the budget meetings make sure that everybody knows that we need a line item then for service awards

I will get with payroll and find out the timing of who we have with us now. Maybe I can get a rough idea of what our initial outlay needs to be and then we can kind of estimate what we might need throughout each year following.

I would make a motion that we approve the Hancock County Service Award Program with the addendum that Andrea will meet

and establish an hr account for that line item second there's motion and a second on the floor to approve a new hancock county service award program to honor our associates that spend their days and years here with us and which is very much appropriate uh is there any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries thank you very much thank you Okay, there we go.

Let's recognize Mark.

Mark Elder. Come on down.

You're the next contestant.

Oh, we're all comedians up here today, aren't we? Gonna spin the big wheel.

welcome thank you welcome to uh emergency management so uh we've seen we saw your application and all that kind of stuff we we felt that you were the

person for this and uh we we wish you the best i appreciate it thank you very much do you have all the tools you need to be successful out of the shoot are you finding things as you go along you'll have to just let us know i'm sure that john and greg and all those guys are just great to work with down there they've all been a big help ashley john greg all of them have been a big help so far and i will have budget questions since that's coming up real quick so i will get with you after right and support wise please feel free to call us anytime yeah okay yep out your back i appreciate it and you have all of our cell numbers in case of an emergency or whatever okay perfect so glad you're here thank you appreciate thank you thanks thanks mark all right uh can we do some action items here sure i make a motion that we approve claims and payroll second

motion on floor in a second to approve claims and payroll any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries auditor business we don't have an auditor today boy that was quick okay we have a resolution here That we need to send to the planning department. Do we have a resolution number?

All right.

I make a motion that we approve resolution number 2026-5-4, a resolution by the Board of Commissioners initiating a change in the Hancock County Code of Ordinances regarding zoning pursuant to Indiana Code 36-7-4-600. A legislative body of Hancock County has the exclusive authority to adopt or amend the county's zoning code. So there we go. This will provide us a more secure environment for working with data centers.

Right, gives us more oversight and direction that the commissioners control.

We have to pay the political price for this, so we should have the last say so on this. And what this would do is actually create, we would have to create an overlay district in order for it to be allowed.

So I second that resolution.

There is a motion and second on the floor to approve resolution number 2026-5-4. Yep. And any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will send this to the planning department to have them to finalize it.

and that we had our first data center advisory committee meeting last night went pretty well um need to probably uh because we're going to only do four meetings we need to really put some meat into what we are discussing at the meeting so those will have to be well thought out and planned so that we And get to everything that we need without having to be here until midnight.

And probably making sure that everybody that is on that does their homework too before they're so they can be prepared and ready to engage.

we have uh really assembled a tremendous group of people and that was oh so obvious last night with the comments and everything that was made so i personally feel very good about it good good uh we have the must uh this is mainly a council

and town uh deal but it it we have to have a representation because it involves a lot of money and fsg has volunteered to actually serve as that representation and since we already deal with fsg i'd say uh we might want to do this oh yeah i think we should send it over to council favorably

okay so i'd make a favorable recommendation that we engage fsg corporation in our municipal unit strategic task force project to help the council out with any fiscal issues that may arise while this is being discussed yeah and this this was uh created by the state and handed down to us so second

We have a motion and a second to approve a favorable recommendation for FSG to be our representation for the MUST program proposed. It's a Municipal Unit Strategic Task Force and it's got the acronym of MUST. So any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

Next we have permission for out of state travel and estimated travel expense for Kim Pearson with probation department. It's been approved by the department head all rise conference that will take place, I believe it's in Florida, oh, no, Nashville, with the amount not to exceed $960. Second.

motion the second on the floor to uh approve out-of-state travel and uh reimbursement for uh expenses for kim ferguson to attend the all-rise conference any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye motion carries

Next we have affidavit for construction foundry fund disbursement request number 26 From Argent internet into an institutional trust company and this is for amplify The amount of

total thirty nine thousand one hundred and thirty four dollars and ninety nine cents second we have a motion in a second to approve the disbursement uh affidavit for construction fund disbursement uh request number 26 uh what'd you say 54. what is that total i got a couple different

$39,134.99. Okay. We have a motion. Do you second that? Second.

Motion is second on the floor for disbursement. Not finding it. Okay. total amount being not to exceed $39,134.99. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay.

I will, as we look deeper into this, there are some outstanding invoices in the amount of $54,406.45, but I do believe in previous meetings that we have already approved those. Is that correct? Do you know? Invoice number 37568 and 37672. Yeah, it says outstanding invoices. Are you sure they're going to add up to that 34? Mm-hmm. Very good. Okay, very good. Thank you so much.

Okay. So is that part of that too? Or this?

Hang on a second. Is there a signature page on this, Sarah? Yes, there is. There you go.

What is this here?

Let me see this document. Something that it was attached to that so it's all attached to that. So I think that that is. That's what we're looking at. Yeah, this is separate OK. That here. Have a amendment to professional services agreement for amplify through ratio architects This is a compensation adjustment in the amount increase not to exceed $28,000 the new contract total is that are extended through October 31st, 2020. Second.

We have a motion and a second on the floor to approve An amendment to the professional services agreement not to exceed $28,000, and that makes the new contract total be $2,728,000. Any further discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion carries.

All right.

Signature?

Yep.

OK, I just messed that one up, Sir.

Dock is pacer. I know it.

Gets me every time. I bet they will.

Simon just came in.

Dick Simon.

Good morning.

Morning.

How are you? Just fine. You? Well, I guess I am here. I'm assuming you've got a packet with a couple pictures in it.

oh that the old equipment anyway you're wanting the approval to sell the old equipment yes and that is as long as somebody gets some use out of it and we can get some reimbursement i think it's a good idea okay what i would like to do is offer it to the you know the other guys in the state because there's smaller counties than ours now and

and and they would you know i think that'd be i know i really had made it a lot easier on me when i used it so i'm certainly that some of those guys would like to have it or some of the other counties would would benefit from it yeah and as long as it's in good condition i mean i'm sure somebody will pick it up it's it's just like i bought it except you know like The rubber starting to deteriorate on the tires, you know, that's just well part of it, part of it. So and that's the one reason it was suggested that I keep it for smaller stations, but there's no reason to keep it and spend money on it.

If I can hear just be sitting there just to keep it right.

So if if it's if it's OK with everyone, I would like to offer it to the state. And if no one wants it, we'll we'll go from there to try to. Find somebody. Find someone else.

Good.

Motion to approve the sale of the portable unit, Simon. Second.

If you would like a picture, I could. I'm good, because I've seen it before, so.

Right. We have a motion and a second on the floor to allow Mr. Simon to look into selling our old unit. A new unit costs over $8,000, and we paid $4,000 for this unit in 2023.

so rather than just let it sit we might as well try and find some a new home for it any further discussion do you have any suggestion as to what i was would ask for it it's it's like an 8 000 almost 9 000 piece of equipment to buy new is there any book value out there not that i'm aware of i could you know i could call seraphim and and and maybe get a recommendation from them

Just go ahead and do that and then just send us a note on how much it was. We'll let you know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Did we vote on it, did we?

We did.

Okay. I'll strike here. Okay. Okay. This Eastern Hancock schools want to use their TBRI funds Or other. Permitted. Items they're they're open. Hopefully this is a revised.

And this is what they're proposing here. Yeah.

I think we really need to take a look at this a little bit deeper than OK decision today, and I only say that after responding to Scott and email about the last. It's a news report locally that some people have, according to State Board of Accounts, have misused some of these funds. I don't think we have. I think we've done our due diligence and really tried to stay within the guidelines.

Well, plus we've been audited for the last three years, and it took so long to do that. So it's been there. They've approved what we've done. So let's hold off on this till next meeting.

So some of the language in that, while we're still on that, just as if there should be consequences. And I don't feel as if we did it directly inappropriate with that money. We looked at it.

That's true.

Right.

right so before we go and we say hey we can let you use it for these certain things let's take a deeper dive into that and find out if we so have you seen this one i mean have you seen this where they're wanting to they're wanting to use it for different things but they think it qualifies so

please do because I mean I can let us know yeah how to proceed at our next meeting the Boys and Girls Club has a grant request here we did look at it through the grant committee And the grants committee is myself, Scott Woldrich, and Clark Smith. And they've got better financial lives than I do. But at the same time, we're not approving anything right now simply because we're trying to get it all done at one time. And that way we know how much we've got to spare. They're wanting like, let's say 80. 72 72 thousand dollars and though what it is is the from the lily grant that they more or less get this money from they have to give it a year's rest they have to go off of it for a year and then go back and do it again so we'll be looking at that so we need to make a decision on that before it looks like that

Yes, when they're talking about the summer camp kicking off on June 1st. And concluding on July 31st, when when do we think we'll see?

I mean.

Now the timeline is pretty rapidly approaching.

But they've got money. They're just one. They don't have the money to pay for it. Right now is way out and stood it. OK, they can. They've got money to sustain.

Let's go. You can pay up front. Yeah, but you'll need reimburse. Is this a reimbursement? Yeah, so you can step up to the mic.

Please introduce yourself. Good morning. David Elser, Chief Executive Officer, Boys and Girls Clubs, Hancock County. Yeah, we have the money in our endowment, so we theoretically could burn that and pay ourselves back later. Ideally, we don't touch that. It is a money market account. It does gain interest. It's not funds that we enjoy depleting. It's not financially recommended. Yeah, when the money comes back in January at this point, it won't be an issue, but we do have this one year kind of had us in that funding and and that's why we approached.

Do you have any resources through the city?

Yeah, we did get leverage from the city resources, but we had an HVAC unit below in January, and that was $108,000. And they provided assistance? Yeah, they covered. I had some additional funding through the United Way, and they and the city combined to foot the bill for that. So that still leaves us with the operational funds that we still need to pay the teachers. and that's the so we've got some time for us to do budget yeah okay yeah we again we we have the endowment it's 150 000 left in there and we can you know stay afloat on that we just prefer not to because that is effectively the extent of our funds

And this expenditure will be over 6 weeks. Yeah, so it's not any. Yeah, all at one time.

$18,000 every 2 weeks.

OK, so then we'll get budget done. Then we can go from there. So thank you very much. Thank you, appreciate.

Bond releases. Here have some surveyor bonds to for release This is a cash bond for David severe on Steinmeier Road New Palestine and is this a release or This is a positive There's deposit mm-hmm deposit I

releasing the bond okay okay in the amount of six thousand four hundred and six dollars and twenty five cents second motion and a second on the floor to uh prove the release of a bond to dave severe and that's for tile to be installed eight inch uh in the amount of six thousand four hundred six dollars and 25 cents any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries There's more to this, aren't there? Backup information. All right.

Next we have a bond release for the deposit in the amount of $3,675 to business Grand Communities LLC out of Kentucky. And this is for the Villages of Brookside, Section 15, the monument signs.

second we have motion and second on the floor to release a bond to grand communities llc in the amount of three thousand six hundred seventy five dollars for the villages at brookside section 15 and it's for monuments any further discussions all those in favor say aye aye motion carries

Next, we have a release of bond for a deposit of $675, again, to Grand Communities LLC, Kentucky, for the villages at Brookside, Section 14, Monuments. Second.

Motion is second on the floor to approve release of bond 39 for Grand Communities LLC in the amount of $675 for the villages at Brookside section 14 for monuments. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Okay.

And the surveyor.

There he is.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay. We sent out quotes, three sets of quotes for section 4 perpetuation as part of our statutory obligation as the surveyor. We got two quotes back, one from United Consulting and one from American Structure Point. The one for United Consulting was $78,000. The one for Structure Point was $75,000. This is paid for throughout of our section for perpetuation, which is a fund that is set up for this. And so I'm just coming before you to get permission, I guess, to approve the quote for American Structure Point.

We approve the SECTION CORNER QUOTE TO AMERICAN STRUCTURE POINT IN THE AMOUNT OF, NOW IT TAKES THE $75,000. SECOND.

MOTION AND SECOND ON THE FLOOR TO APPROVE THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICAN STRUCTURE POINT IN THE AMOUNT OF $75,000. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. MOTION CARRIES.

THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. uh we have to have a regional water and sewer meeting and i was wondering if everybody's good with the 16th of june i think it's the 16th Yeah, we have a meeting 16th of June. That way we've got plenty of time to advertise and all that. Sure. So you're good with that, Jenny?

I'm good with that.

Okay. And we can do it after the meeting on that day. Okay. All right. Thank you. And Sarah, you want to advertise that? Am I advertising?

It's not going to be the

I'll reach out to Dan and see if he's going to do it or he should do it. He should do it. He should do it. He's our attorney for that. Okay.

He usually advertises it and then just...

Right.

I just know it didn't happen.

I can coordinate with Dan.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

That'd be perfect. Thank you.

Okay. Last week I approved... FOR THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO BORROW ONE OF OUR CARS UNTIL THE PERSON'S CAR GETS OUT OF THE GARAGE. AND TOLD THEM IT WAS A LIMITED TIME. SO IF I NEED SOMEBODY TO MAKE A MOTION.

I MAKE A MOTION THAT WE RATIFY IN THE VEHICLE USE OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT VEHICLE OF ONE OF OUR COUNTY VEHICLES.

AND IT'S THE FORD EDGE. SECOND. We are doing a ratified motion here for the health department to use one of our vehicles until the one they've got is out of the repair shop. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. I think everything else is done, guys. Do you have anything else?

Janice Conley here though. Oh, okay. Okay. She is. She's back there.

okay um you should have before you um a job description of the probation department's office manager um and this is assistant chief nick layman he is with me today and looking at the job categories we believe our office manager was placed in the wrong category initially um she we believe she's more appropriate in the coma category level three we think she's inappropriately placed in pat uh she has pat level two um it really doesn't fit it fits more in coma so we were wondering if we could um change her category to the more appropriate category for budgeting purposes and to make that maybe more appropriate and what we need to do.

And it doesn't change anything about her payroll status. It's just a job title.

It's a job title. Yeah. I mean, it I mean, eventually we'll change payroll, but not drastically. What what is happening is that she's in a very inappropriate category that capped her where she can't get an increase because of where she's at. And it really is. It's a more patch. Level two is a more professional where you need a degree, she doesn't need a degree to be our office manager, where she's more appropriate in Coma. So we were asking for that to be changed.

I make a motion that we approve the position description and title for Hancock County Probation Department Juvenile Adult C. A. D. P. Pretrial Division from From what?

It's Pat two to we'd like her to come up three, which seems appropriate. And I'm going I mean, this I am the interim chief. This is new to me. But looking at the pay range, she's more appropriately placed in level three. I'm assuming I'm reading this correctly.

OK. From what was that again?

Pat two to Colmont three.

Pat two to Colmont three. Second.

There's a motion and a second on the floor to change the job description of, or the position itself for this person to go from PAT 2, COMAT 3.

Yes, sir.

she will be the office manager yes and any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries thank you very much thank you thank you all right you don't need that scott williams is sitting back there shaking his head he wants to talk he does

morning good morning morning scott so um at our next commissioner's meeting um i'm going to collect the bids and open them for that uh demolition out on 200 south and 250. yes property um so with that we're going to have to pay out um to the contractor whoever wins the bid. And I've made no arrangements yet for that money. Have you talked to council? No, I haven't. So I'm going to need to do that.

Let's see. Talk to Council. I mean, you can give Keely or Jim a heads up. Yeah, but then we can figure out where they want to pay for that at. Where it's going to come from.

Yeah, OK. Start with Scott. Yeah, just start with him.

Yeah, just let him know about it and then he might send you Jim and Keely.

OK, so.

Right. And probably probably worth more than. but it's going to tear it down, isn't it?

I have no idea what the property is worth. I mean, it's sitting on three acres, so. It's worth more. Yeah, it's worth it. So at least we'll have a lien against it. Right. And we can get reimbursed for it. Okay. And then with the process of a budget transfer then, that has to happen.

That would be the auditor should just figure out once you get the approval.

OK, figure out how to do it. I'm just a little concerned about timing. I've waited too long to ask for this. And by the time the work is done.

I would just go ahead and give him a heads up.

I mean that way they they could make plans for it, but I mean OK, I'd march upstairs right now and talk with Mary and then get with Scott Woodridge right away as president of Council. Perfect alright.

Yeah, OK.

all week okay perfect all right that's all thank you you guys have anything else now do we have anything from the public anyone like to make a statement or anything all right only one thing left motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn and a second has been placed all those in favor say aye aye done