Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

That stung in the hand last night in the morning. I seen the wasp. I swept my propane tank up. I seen the wasp. But you flop them up, and then they bang, and they fly. But then as I went around the tank, because I've been weed eating, the groundhogs come up. The outback groundhogs, whatever, just laid in. When they get you, they just burrow in. Thank you. You done, Eric? Still going. Hold on.

County Board of Commission meeting in order.

We start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. All right.

Any additions to the agenda or changes?

None from me.

I'm good. Approval of minutes and claims?

I've taken a review of the minutes and claims and I make a motion that we approve them. Hold on, I have to be specific about that. Are we still behind a month? The minutes that I looked at was from the 15th, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. So we are good. Okay, good. So I make a motion that we approve the June 15th. July 15th. Minutes and claims. Okay. Roll.

Ron.

Yes. Tim. Yes.

Kevin.

Yes. Claims? Claims are fine. I'll make a motion that we approve claims. Second. Roll.

Tim.

Yes.

Kevin. Yes.

Yes. All right. First order of business, memorandum of agreement for the school resource officer. Kevin, do you want to introduce that?

Yeah, so basically I'm going to do a generic introduction here. The sheriff's here. I'd like to have him just kind of give an overview for us just quickly. Or Brian, either one. So we went through this agreement and basically there has been a school resource officer at the Brown County School District. He's been a roving school district officer. The proposal has been written for 2026 and the school is proceeding to go and chase and try and get qualified and approval on a grant. Is the way the memo is written this time around, is they're going to have a permanent one officer at the high school, and the proposal is at some point to add a second. It would be a roving officer between the other campuses and the career center and things like that, correct? That is correct. Okay. And from my understanding, this is a matching grant between the school and the Department of Homeland Security? Yes. Okay.

Okay.

So is there anything that I, I mean, that's the gist of it. It's pretty much just recovering costs from the school district for that. The share on the resources themselves is going to be 75% of their time is going to be at the school. They actually have quite a bit of responsibility there. Yes. From training and drills and things of that nature, which I think has been working perfectly. I haven't heard any complaints. Anything that I kind of missed or didn't cover?

Just when they're not, when school's out of service, then they work for the county. That's the 25% that we were paying for, basically. This year, it really helped out with our shortage that we had officers leaving your thing, having that school resource officer covering shifts. This summer really helped out. Also, during winter break and all that stuff, they just worked for the county. So the school was told that they felt like Homeland Security felt like they didn't have enough with having four well, actually five different school locations that one was enough to cover everything that we have to cover. And with the distance and everything between the remote elementary schools that they weren't getting enough, elementary schools weren't getting enough coverage. And when we were covering that, then the high school was left and junior high was left exposed. So that's why they recommended that we have another one.

Okay. And from what I can tell, there were some slight coverages as far as what they're going to reimburse us for, but those costs are not necessarily significant. It would have been something that we have incurred as an officer anyway, like the cars and uniforms and things of that nature. Correct. And training. Yes. Correct.

So after reading that, it's like, my goodness, the world we're in now. Back then, I was still eating mud. Mm-hmm. It's not today, though. It's like unreal what all those people have to do to deal with children. Did Schrader want to add anything? No. It is Schrader, isn't it? Yeah. Yes, sir.

No, I'm trying to get it right.

Yeah, you really summarized it correctly. I think the only thing that probably isn't included is that the grant used to be through the Department of Education. And then this calendar year, it shifted to the Department of Homeland Security. The school had an audit as part of that shift. and that was where that recommendation came to the school. So it's the same funding, except it's been shifted from one state department to another state department, and that was why they then came down, did a new audit, and made that recommendation to the school. And then that's obviously what transpired the conversations with us and all of you.

Are they going to send a new grant out?

Yeah, the grant that they have, they find out if it's approved by September 1st, which would be under this new MOU is what they offer, basically. And then if it's not approved, we revert back to our previous agreement, basically.

Okay. So I think the only thing for me just as when we sit down and have our conversations is just, kind of working together with the auditor's office because we want to have a change in authority at the beginning of the year and making sure we're going to bring everybody up to speed.

Have a big group meeting, school, auditor's office, everybody, us, make sure that everything, billing and everything, it just needs to be tracked all three ways and make sure all three ways are together.

Because at this point in time, it's not an insignificant amount of money. When you're talking about, especially if it goes to two officers. Right. So, but again, it's a, I think it's a, it's like Ron says, it's an unfortunate thing that we have to kind of put those kind of resources in place.

It's just unreal reading it. I do have kind of a question. Since the funding hasn't been, and we might have talked about that, making it contingent that the grant comes through, but Julia, if the grant don't come through, Is there any way the county can fund that? No, there's no... Well...

I wouldn't even make that recommendation for that amount. It would just be that we have to revert back to our... agreement. Either way, all three departments have to get together to make sure that we're capturing what should be captured. It doesn't really matter whether we go the new MOU, the old one.

You're asking if they would just add another resource officer and paid for by the county fully? Is that what you're asking?

Well, I'm trying to understand it because it sounds like we're voting on this, but we're not sure of the funding.

Yeah, you're voting on the agreement and it's It is contingent on the fact that they get that grant. But if they don't get the grant, then we're safeguarded in proceeding how we exist over the past, I think it's eight years. With one officer. With one.

And it continues to come out of the same funding source? They will continue to get that grant. They're just asking for the second grant. That's what this MOU is. And I think it stays in there if that second one's not and it reverts back to the one officer.

For example, our SOR, he started today as well at the school. He actually started yesterday. So we're still operating under the same. And if September 1st, if we hear back that that actually goes through, then this all needs to be in line. So not only will you guys have to approve it, now the next step will be the council agreeing to it. The school board has to vote on it. They already did. They've agreed to that. They'll address the funding aspects of it.

We're just addressing what is our scope of work and making sure that we're not overly exposed to liability. Correct. Anything else, Ronald?

Is that good with it? I'm good.

Okay. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion that we approve. Hang on a minute.

Is there going to be a public comment on this?

Thank you, Tim. Gentlemen, I was watching budget hearings and I understood from those budget hearings when the sheriff was discussing the RSO that the county has covered more expenses than we were supposed to. Can you tell me about that?

You can't ask the sheriff.

Maybe he can. But I don't want the county to incur more expenses on another officer that we actually don't need in the county. It's not been budgeted. And I don't want to keep eating the cost of this RSO because we're not following the grants correctly or recouping the money from the school. And I understand from budget hearings that we started out $500,000 in the rolls. Is that about right? We did what? We started out about $500 under. Isn't that what Reedy said? This year? Yeah, for next year. No. No. He didn't say that, that the expenses were $500?

So if you look at Reedy's projections and you go back to the comment that Jim Kemp is making, the projections show that potentially, based on the revenue projections, there is a potential shortfall of $500,000. Yes. Here's my comment. That is an estimate.

I understand it's an estimate, sir.

And it didn't include the lit supplemental. And it didn't include that. Yes. And again, so from some of the things that we looked at when we were going through those budget numbers, there were some discrepancies in the actual funding numbers that were there.

But it still concerns me, especially if we're going to take out another personnel, even if it's for three months. And is there a way to not have them on the sheriff's department for the three months in the summer? so that we're not incurring that expense. They're just questions that I would think that we should answer before we make decisions like this.

Thanks for your time. I don't want the schools to get caught short. We're living in a world that's I mean, if they don't get the second officer and we got one, it would be better than nothing. I mean, that can't be an easy job. No.

Not at all. I don't think the money's going to be an issue. We'll identify the shortfalls in the grant management kind of process, and we're kind of addressing that one. You're good with it?

Yeah, I'm good with it. Does Schroeder have any more comments?

To answer and address the question of the shortfall, I don't think necessarily anybody really identified that until probably myself and Kim did a couple months back. Once that was identified, we now realize that that shortfall is going to be covered no matter what happens here. That is being taken care of. In fact, the shortfall that we've been operating under The new MOU, you actually end up saving money no matter what. Now, of course, you're gonna save probably an additional $10,000 more if we do nothing. But the one thing I wanna add about the school resource officer that gets overlooked, quite honestly, it makes the school safer, definitely. Most definitely makes the school safer. I spent 10 years in investigations, sex crimes. I had many cases where I had met kids through shop with a cop that ended up being victims of mine. That they talked to me because of that relationship. That is the most important thing that that officer does, to build those connections with the kids so that later on in life, should they need an officer, they have that trust there that they can go to them in just crazy situations that nobody thinks about. And I've lived it every day for 10 years. So, yes, I think that the schools being safer is at the top of my priority, but also in there is building that relationship with students and staff that goes way longer in their lives than they will ever remember. I mean, some of those students will remember those officers for the rest of their lives. I agree with you, sir.

Thank you. As far as to the funding aspects of that, That doesn't sit at the Board of Commissioners, that sits at the Council. So, and I think if they've had their conversations during that, and I know that there were follow-up conversations to that, and I know that there's, from the polling that I did from three of the members, they didn't see a challenge or a concern.

Are you ready to entertain a motion? I am, President.

I am. back and I will make the motion that we approve this memorandum understanding to be signed by Tim because that's the signature block that's here upon receipt of the grant by the school yes yes Tim yes thank you thank you

next item is helmsburg rsd request for funding to add new customers and kind of like thanks for the uh the documentation i shared with the other commissioners like eric yep i'm ready to bring it up you're welcome and i apologize that i was last minute on that it's fine i've been very busy the last few weeks um kyle myers i'm the vice president treasurer on the homes for regional sewer district board um We're coming to you, I know at the last meeting we kind of went over kind of updates on where we were at with our treatment plant and how we had to reject our bids that we had taken in June to try to basically get the money corrected to where we were gonna fall underneath getting grant funding or 100% grant funding for a treatment plant. So we've been working with our engineers tirelessly trying to figure out where we can safely cut costs from the treatment plant and the original plan. One of them was we had had new sewer mains installed already. Actually, I just found out from the contractor yesterday. He's 100% done with the extensions. We extended mains basically south along Helmsburg Road underneath Bean Blossom Creek. And then we also extended our mains then north of Helmsburg Elementary School and then along Oak Ridge Road towards Railroad Road. That was just putting in the mains. And we utilized funding that we had had left over from ARPA funds that you guys had given us several years now ago to be able to put those mains in. So in this, the original contract or the original designed for the treatment plant, we were going to then go through and hook up 10 new customers along that route, and then one customer that's actually located in town where our existing mains were already at. So that cost was going to be included in with the original wastewater treatment plant that was gonna get put in. Trying to cut costs to get the plant up and going, that was one of the things we said, well, let's pull that out, because we gotta get the plant going. And then we'll see if we can figure out other sources to be able to get that money to hook those customers on. During the treatment plant project, we also were already accounting for those 10 new customers to be included in when we did our rate studies during the treatment plant as well. And then when we passed our new rate ordinance back in May, Again, we were accounting for those 10 additional customers we included in. We did raise our rates in May from $92.50 to $118 a month. So if we don't hook on these 10 new customers, in theory, we need to go back and look and see what our rate would have to go up to to cover them not being hooked on. We don't really want to do that. We didn't want to raise the rates to begin with in May, and we really want to try to cap it and where it's at. And our goal is to try to hook on more people that are needing sewer service to our systems that we can either sustain that rate or potentially even try to start bringing that rate down. The cost that we're coming to you for is to basically hook on all 10 customers, basically purchase the grinder stations that we go in at each home, and then they'll line basically from the home to the station, to the station, to our mains. I know they've got some maps up here flashing for you. There's a few customers that are way back off the road, so that's going to require a little bit more piping in order for us to get them hooked on. All of these customers have already signed easements with us. One to be able to put the main lines on their properties, and then basically also said they wanted it hooked on. Several of them have had failing septic systems for quite some time and they've been following up with me repeatedly for years saying, when can we get hooked on because we need to get hooked on. Most don't have room to be able to put a septic system on their property. Some of them, their septic is still functioning, but they don't have room if something happens in the future and that system fails, then they don't have room to put another system on, so they're saying, yes, we would like to hook onto the system now. And then we do have a couple of new construction homes that have really just said we prefer to be on a sewer system than on a septic system.

So, Kyle, in this right now, so my understanding is these can fall within your...

Correct, yes. All 10 of these are within our current district boundaries.

Kyle, is that part of the boundaries that were extended previously?

Yes, we did request to extend our boundaries to do the sewer mains. I want to say it's been three or four years ago. Yes, I thought. At that time. And we were given permission basically from ECRSD at that time to allow us to extend our district boundaries to encompass these homes.

So you have a previous boundary change between the two boards and IDEM. And so that...

We were basically, when we were trying to think of funding for this, we were originally, our original thought was to come to you guys to see if we could utilize kind of the stock factory money that I know has been out there. We also kind of on our end wanted to do our due diligence because we know the people in Holmesburg really feel like that's Money should be spent or should be used there in Helmsburg. So we did first approach the Helmsburg community during the HCD meeting that was in July and proposed to them of us asking for $175,000 of that money to be able to do this work. Mainly because we weren't going to come and ask you guys. The community said absolutely not. We don't want you to touch it. At that meeting, basically, the people that were there, I want to say we had at least a dozen people at that meeting, that were in the community, basically all unanimously said, yes, we're fine with you guys making that request. Darren Bird from the county council was at that meeting as well. So he's told us that he would at least get us on the county council's next meeting to at least approach them. So we did meet with them. in July as well, kind of gave our presentation to them, you know, asking for this funding. They seemed open to the idea, but told us, one, they wanted us to come talk to you guys, get your buy-in, and of course, we're just suggesting as, you know, stock factory money as a potential option. If you guys have a better, you know, funding source or better option than that one, I mean, we're open to whatever you guys are willing to help us with. So at that county council meeting, they requested that we come talk to you guys. And then they also wanted to see kind of our financial records. So we have sent them some financial information over the last couple of weeks, along with the set of plans that we have for the mainline extensions. Just they can do their due diligence on their end as well. And then we do meet with them again tomorrow morning at their 9 o'clock meeting to just go over that information and then kind of what we discussed here at this meeting or After that, I'm open to any questions, comments you guys may have. I just have a comment.

Yes. I've seen them putting in the line up there on Helmsburg Road, School Road. What do you call that? The one that goes out to Railroad Road up by Oak Ridge? That's Oak Ridge Road. I've seen that line going in, so you're past shovel ready. Correct. You just are ready to go from the house to the line. Correct. On those five. And you're saying the line, you've done got the line under Bean Blossom Creek. Yep. Enough to take on four more houses there. Correct. Are a couple of them the ones that are way back off the road?

Yes. Okay. There's two that are way back off the road on the west side of the road south of Creek.

So, again, the only thing that comes to mind was you were saying, I'll give you an update, Kyle, is You said at some point there may be an opportunity if you get enough people added that your monthly bill might be able to decrease because you'll be able to, you know, cost sharing and things of that nature. Got any idea how many customers that might be in order to do that?

Basically what we would do is with any extension project that we could do, main extensions that would require us hooking people on, we would do another rate study along with that project to say, okay, if we're hooking these many people on, this is the funding source that we're going after. to do that work or do that project, and we're adding this many more customers, what does that mean for our bottom line for what our rates need to be for us to be able to pay the bills and do our replacement costs? Usually you're probably talking at least adding a decent amount of customers. If we're adding 30, 40, 50 more potential customers, we would include with doing that project another rate study to say, okay, and adding these ones on, what does that mean for our bottom dollar?

And then, so I'm going to confirm, you've already gone under the creek, which seems to be one of the hardest things that would have to have been done in order to make this. And I think in the past you'd asked to talk about potential customers along Lanham Ridge or along that area as well? Morrison.

Morrison Road is what we talked about. It's not in our district. So, again, if we did extend our mains outside of where we're currently at now, we would have to approach from NRSD to ask their permission to expand our boundaries to do that when people are there.

Pretty much all I had. Yeah. I just, you know, I could go back a little bit on the sock factory thing. I've dealt with that with Merling. That was gifted to us as a result of the fire. Evan Merling was charged by the commissioners to take action on that one and figure out how we could use it. Could we redevelop it in a sports complex? I think the volleyball thing was planned and they had all kinds of ideas. But all, Evan was the CPA and pretty sharp and when all things said and done, the best shot for the county was to sell it. And the sale was like $400,000. I think about $170,000 thereabout. The commissioner's authorized use of that Sock Factory money for a stormwater project that you did. And so I have no problem, personally I have no problem with using the Sock Factory money for infrastructure for Helmsburg. And the council also mentioned they weren't aware of county funding for these, for RSDs. And I'll just clarify, county has funded the RSTs. I mean, Helensburg, part of the ARPA grant, I think you mentioned it, ARPA funds, you guys received $339,489.70. And the Brown County Sura District received $300,000 of those funds. So the county is invested in infrastructure in these particular areas. So let's take that one off the table. So again, I have no problem with Using SOC factory money to support infrastructure projects in Helmsburg and especially, you know, our priority for the sewers and keep those rings manageable.

And that ARPA funding that you guys did graciously give us went towards basically our initial plumbing engineering report for the new street and plant. It covered that cost. It covered the cost of us purchasing the land to be able to put our new plant on. We've also used it for other engineering fees in the initial interim, getting things kind of going until we were able to get the grant funding from SRF to be able to finish the design and stuff. We've also used it towards kind of fixing our current infrastructure. We've had strider pumps that have gone out over the last few years that we didn't have money in the bank for, so we said we need to use this funding to be able to replace those pumps and keep those people going. We did do a very small extension project with that money as well several years back to extend our main to the west towards Lick Creek to hook on one home there that needed sewer service. And then also to the east along Highway 45 to a house just east of Helmsburg School Road because they had a failed septic system and they needed, they had no room to put a new septic on and they were saying, hey, we need service. Or their house was honestly probably being condemned, so. So we did that initial extension then, and they were still within our boundaries at that point in time as well, that we hooked them on, got them completely hooked on. They were then two new customers. And then we've used then some of the remaining of that money towards at least putting these mains in that we talked about going down Helmsburg Road, Helmsburg School Road, Oak Ridge Road. We do have, I want to say, about 40... I don't have my numbers. $48,550 or 47 cents of that money still left over that we're kind of holding on to to see what happens during our next bidding on this treatment plan. And then if, you know, we can use any of that to try to help towards getting that thing going this next go around. And we kind of got that as kind of our, our safe holder, our safety things at that point in time.

So do you know from the statement of all of this, that's where we've been receiving the majority of your funds, correct? Correct. And I think if I remember in the last time we met or had a conversation, they were placing an element around $6.4 million as far as considered forgivable loans. Correct. And I think I recall you and Adrian saying, well, we'll try and operate within those funds so that you don't want to take on any of that nature. Correct. So I still hold out hope that you guys...

continue your discussions with the brand kind of research we're still having conversations with them of what we can do in the future or you know here's the bright spot in all of this looks like there is an opportunity at morrison road if you could go down that path correct morrison road yeah that has logistical challenges you're gonna have to have some pump stations on that one it does and i mean so for us personally it feels like We haven't had anybody from that area really coming to any of us saying, hey, we need sewer service. You know, so, I mean, if any of them do, by all means, let us know and we'd be happy to figure out how we can, you know, we can work that to get those hookups. Where we're hearing that we need service or we need help is in the Bean Blossom area and in the Lake Lemon area. So that's where kind of like our focus is, you know, is working with BCRSD to see if we can focus on the bean blossom side of things and try to get stuff going over in there while they're focusing right now on Lakeland area to make things happen there. So we can try to do it simultaneously.

Again, so I know when I was at the, not the July meeting, but I think your June meeting, you do have projects, bring them forth. I encourage you guys to put proposals together. You did exactly what I asked you to do, and I appreciate you doing that. And I know that that audience at the Helmsburg community development audience can be a little rough, right? But they have a tendency to basically want to be a very community-focused and trying to move things forward. Appreciate all that. And just to clarify for myself, I mean, I did a lot of research when I came on board as commissioner with this whole discussion about sock factory money because there's always the enigma of, well, they know, I know this, I know this, I know this. And I shared at the last meeting that there were actually no specific allocations to that. In my heart of hearts as commissioner, I believe that Helmsburg, lumping in the regional sewer district, you should have the benefit of that. Because, again, it was a financial and an economic challenge for you guys. Right. That's why I'm sitting there saying, okay, why am I different on how we're going to try and blend these things together? I do see that as saying, well, there's an opportunity there, as long as it sounds like you guys are being very responsible with it.

And like I say, because the community is very outspoken and very opinionated in it, that's why we at least wanted to approach them first before we even came to you guys or to the county council to say, you guys are able to stillness before we approach the county from this aspect. That's why you guys get me and not...

Yeah. I've been to a few of those meetings. Including the startup phase, which is even a lot of fun. That was nuts. Kyle, I just have a question. Are you guys still doing the voluntary thing for people when they want to hook up? I mean, you're not doing the hammer that if you're within 600 feet, by God, you're going to hook up or else.

No.

You guys are pretty much on a voluntary basis and knocking on doors and talking to people about the benefits of hooking up.

When we did this extension project, the initial extension project, we basically went to every one of the property owners and even outside of that and just we said, hey, here's what we want to do. If you're interested, you know, basically the offering we were given at the time was if you'll grant us the easement to run the main line or hook onto it, we're going to hook you on at no cost to you, you know. But if you don't want to hook on or you don't have a need for it, by all means, we will make you an offer if we need to run the main line on your property to at least acquire an easement from you for just to run the main line past you and then say, if you need it in the future, it's there, but you may have to chip in a decent amount of money towards it at that point in time to hook on. So out of any of these ones, there was no forced connections whatsoever with it. pretty much said yes, we want a hook on. There was one property we did cross that didn't need a hook on because they're 100% in a floodway and they don't even have a home on it. So we negotiated with them for basically paying for the easement for our main to put on their property. All the conversations we had were very Very civil. They went very well. We didn't really have anybody that kicked back and said absolutely not, get out, or anything like that.

You can't underestimate that enough. That's huge. State Revolving Fund is looking for 85% of customer support for hookups, and you guys more than do that, especially other people you've been hooking up. So that's huge. If you've got the 85%, you've got the community support for that hookup, and you have your options that you do, that's huge. It opens up that gate. If they get the money, that's a state-revolving fund. So good on you. And, Ron, I think you mentioned the same thing. I mean, they've been working RSD, and you can see when we give money from the county, we're getting return on that money, and they're getting service in that area, and they've got plans to go even further. So kudos on you guys. It's all volunteer, I realize, but, you know, I think your reward's in heaven. So wonderful. Yes.

When you're done.

I'm done.

Just one more little thing. I remember something, I don't know if I went to a meeting down there or what, where I heard it, but you're offering to hook these up for these people at no charge. Sure. But back up, there was a time that I heard a conversation where, yes, we put the grinder in, run it to the, you know, main, but there was an issue with wiring to the house. Is there an issue there? Are you guys going to wire these grinders to their house? Yes. Okay, so that expense has also been waived. Yes. Now, in the future, I'm not trying to interrupt. I might forget here. In the future, if they have a grinder go out, do they have to pay for the new grinder?

No, because right now even with the new rates that we implemented in May, that still means that we as the sewer district are maintaining and operating the grinder pit. Basically from the grinder pit all the way to the treatment plant. So really the homeowner's only responsibility is whatever the connection is from the house to the grinder pit. So if they have an issue like our electrical line gets severed or something between the house and that grinder pit, they may have to hire an electrician to come in and make that repair our operator to some degree can make some of those repairs but those costs would kind of get if depending on how or why you know the issue happened if it was on the homeowner's side or they had another contractor out there doing something and it got damaged then unfortunately the homeowner is going to have to pay for that or however and we've also done it to where our grinder pump itself um if we're getting calls out, our operator will look in there and figure out why did the pump go out, especially if it's a relatively new one. And if it was misuse on the property owner, they sent flushable wipes, which are flushable, but they won't go through a pump, or anything of that nature, then we will pass that charge or that cost on to the property owner and say, The damage to our equipment was because of misuse by you, so your cost is this to fix the replacement.

What else I read in there, if I understand correctly, ENSA backed up from the $8 million to like the $6.6 million, and you're thinking that that's a possibility, and the size of your unit is going to go, you're currently probably maybe 6,000 to 7,000 gallons a day, and With these 10 added on, it's probably going to be seven or eight. And you're at 14,000 a day possible. So once you get that all operational, you're probably going to be looking to go outside of your boundary. So my suggestion to you would be to get with the Brown County Regional Sewer District. Because it's about helping the people. I think that's all I got. Anything else from the board?

I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion that we approve transferring $175,000 from the stock factory money to the Hellentrop Regional Service.

I believe I'm good with that. I'd like, you know, I think the last time I said I'd like to see the ball get moved. And I believe this is exactly what you guys are doing. You know, In the future, the foresight, you guys are going to be doing something there. You're making it happen. I'm going to second that. All right. Roll.

One.

Yes. Two. Yes.

Seven.

Yes.

Great. Thank you all very much. Thank you, guys.

Okay.

Moving on. No business, none. Ordinance, resolutions, agreements. August 19th is going to be a busy meeting. You can see kind of the times we have there, though. Address the amendment of the music center. Contract the human resource management system. That's a new personnel system. We had our HR consultant review our requirements, screen for vendors. We had three presentations from the vendors. We briefed the department heads. We briefed the council, briefed the auditor on potential costs and options and that kind of thing. And so we're down to one vendor, final vendor. I think we were unanimous on that one. And we're going through the final numbers on that one. So that contract will be ready to be voted on at their next meeting. We talked about American Legal Publishing. That's another one. Again, that just puts all the ordinances online. searchable, and it makes sure we're in compliance with the current state codes on different ordinances. That's another one. And then, guys, let me update you on the County Comprehensive Plan. The Area Plan Commission present signed off on that agreement, so the next step on that one is the RP, so I'll be working on that in a few weeks.

Before we get too far down the line, if you're okay... I'm good. You want to cover something? Well, I just noticed there's a couple members here that the next meeting coming up, There's the about the music center admin agreement. I know there's a couple people here. I see at least three that I can think of that might be interested. And I'd like to give them an opportunity if they want to say anything at this meeting. Anything new? I mean, we've... Yeah.

You're more than welcome to say something. They haven't been discussed?

Hi, Dean and Patrick. No, I don't have anything really to add to that. I just... Didn't know what exactly is it you're going to discuss because as far as I know, none of the entities have approved any change. That's correct. So is it just basically, Kevin, you're giving a, here's what's happened so far?

So it's basically probably going to be very likely. We'll see what happens by the 19th because I think there's another meeting before then. We'll see if it can go any further, but I don't know that this is going to be. So I mean, my feet got wet with the first meeting, and I saw you there. So round two will be a little bit different.

Okay.

Thank you. All right. Thanks, Rob.

Nothing new from coming here. Nothing new to say. But thanks for bringing it up. Okay. You took the time to come, so I wanted to give you an opportunity.

That's it. That's all I had. On the legal review, we'll probably have two more, plan on having two more ordinances on there. Hopefully get those through the legal review, the capital asset policy. We're pretty comfortable with that one. We've got a planned inventory after that's approved. And then the public records request, I think we're in the final stages of that one. So they may be on the agenda for August 19th as well. Okay, it moves us to the county office department reports. I don't think we've got anything from the commissioner's office. I think we're in good shape. Just got through the budget hearings, went well. Kevin and Teresa did a super job presenting that. If you get a chance, you might want to look it on there, but they did a super job. I don't think we had any issues. Okay, which is good. I'm glad they handed over more responsibility, not less. Okay. Thanks. Glad you got through that. Sandra, anything for us? I saw your report.

Good, thank you. Yeah, so just daily reports. mowing, grading, sowing, helping clean culverts. We've replaced a couple culverts under some roads. Right now, we're on target still for our Elkinsville bridge for 2030. Just finished our quarterly reports on that, and our phase two, or 1A, excuse me, bridge inspections, just requested FEMA's money for that.

Okay, great.

I think that's it for that. Pumpkin Ridge Road, I went to the information meeting. I thought it was pretty good. DNR and NDOT, the project team had at least maybe had six people there presenting the project and they were open to soliciting comments from people. So we're kind of on track on that one. That's all I had on the agenda. Anything from the public?

Yeah, a going question on the topic of the coroner's vehicle. Kaylin, did you have anything to add to that? The council allocated some funding for it. Is it back on your lap now, or where are we at? Thank you.

So the council basically is basically unanimous agreement. They said that they will go through and allocate $65,000. That's going to have to be a request in public, but that's where it's with that. and all the various conversations with regards to what that vehicle needs to be. Appreciate your help in the research and working with Mike Moore and Dave Frenzmeier. I always want to say fresh hour, but I know that's not correct. Frenzmeier. And having the details of that because those guys, you know, we move them along and make sure they're given the information and that kind of stuff. i think the other thing too which is not part of the truck part of the discussion about that vehicle is the discussion about a lift and a lift assistant things like that which is all part of that but it's not a significant amount and my commitment is they wanted to have it in this year which there were funding funds approved removed gone back and they'll I basically said, listen, once we have something put together, I'd like to try and go before them in their next meeting and sit there and say, here's what the dollars look like. And if you can sit and help, then I can go through that and stand with Mike Moore and Dave.

I'd like to sit down with Sandra also, please. Sorry? I'd like to sit down with Sandra also. Okay. So we look at makes. Right. If we're looking ahead and maybe have a maintenance person

uh take care of the fleet let's say the county fleet right it would make sense to keep trying to keep them all under one umbrella rather than forward shift and dodge whatever right and that has been discussions we've started in the highway department with that discussion and some preliminary moving in for direction not necessarily in the formal but look the purchases that were made with the recent replacement for equipment we did establish saying we're going this path right and then there has been discussions again with our mechanic at the garage and his assistant looking at taking on some of the responsibilities. I don't know how much further we progress that with the sheriff's department on doing maintenance, the basic maintenance activities. Thank you, and thank you for your help.

You're welcome. Okay, last item of legal. Stephanie, anything?

Nope, not right now.

Okay. Final comments from the public?

My name is Sherry Mitchell. I'm interested in... Sorry, the audio cut out.

Thanks, Stephanie.

It just came back.

Okay.

Repeat what you said.

Yeah, we just, hey, thanks. We just have one more comment from the public, then we'll close it out. Go ahead, Sherry.

Thank you. I'm interested in where we are on the BOT.

So BOT is basically a second meeting on the 12th. We've had an initial conversation with them. They presented a layout drawing. They're in the schedule to plan on providing additional drawings that they're obligated to under our agreement on the 12th. So we're not far off from being near completion and having it delivered. There is some utility work that had taken care of it. Most of it was IT, but Eric took care of that last week in a meeting with them to make sure that they had a clear understanding of where our trunk line would be coming from, what that layout needs to be within the building itself. And they've got expertise being brought on board to address that and make sure that design work happens. And then I think the last thing that we had is we've identified some utility stuff from the town of Nashville. So it's been identified and will be taken care of during the construction phase.

You said agreement. So you've signed a bond agreement?

No, we basically have a scoping agreement with them. We basically clearly identified for them what their deliverables are during the scoping period.

So is the public going to be able to see this agreement?

You can look on it. It's online in the DocsPop system.

Okay, and what about the actual drawings and the bid for construction?

I don't have any problem with us sharing those once we get them, and that will be part of the public hearing process.

Do you have a number now?

No, not yet. That won't come until they actually finish up all that work.

All right, and the fees will be in there too?

It'll be one lump sum number.

I want to talk about the bridge plans. I just heard her mention FEMA. So does that mean that we've asked for grant money from the federal government?

Sorry, not FEMA. It was FEMA. Oh, sorry. My bad. Thank you.

So right now, we have grant money for the engineering phase of Elkinsville.

For A Bridge.

For Elkinsville Bridge.

I have ten, though, that are critical. So do you have a bridge plan? Because you didn't mention it in your budget.

So my Well, it was mentioned at the end as basically no. It wasn't mentioned. Mount Liberty is the next one. That's the other critical one, and the other one that's being looked at, which we're going to put plans together, and that's when we did have the conversation during the highway department meetings budget that there will be a plan put together that we will go back and look at using unrestricted funds. The council was trying to say, hey, we need to do these things, put pavement on the road, but I, as a commissioner, was not comfortable sitting there saying we need to put that plan together. So my intent is to have a plan put together, hopefully by the end of September, with the other bridges. Likely, my take on it, but that's the superintendent's decision, my take on it is we're not necessarily going to focus on the criticals because the criticals that were listed first took us all the way through 2031, if I'm not mistaken. So I'm looking to gain ground from a preventative maintenance standpoint and looking at the rehab.

I heard you in your budget. I heard it in the budget, but I went across Mount Liberty not too very long ago and right behind me came a bus. That's not going to work. And that is a major thoroughfare. So are you going to pay cash then for that bridge? No, it's going to go under CCG. Yeah, but you can't guarantee that and they are cutting that back. Community Crossing has been cut back and they are restricting those funds dramatically. Even the state has said that.

So the current process that they have, and Sandra, correct me if I'm wrong, is that every dollar that we get from, what's this new program?

Lane Miles.

Yeah, Lane Miles. Lane Miles Direct basically goes off of a million dollar project. So right now, given the Lane Miles that we have, roughly $225,000, we'll only be able to request, whatever the difference in that is, $275,000. for that bridge, construction projection on that bridge.

Doesn't mean you'll get it though.

Sorry?

Doesn't mean you'll get it just because you asked for it. I understand that.

So that's why, again, when we had the conversation with the council, there's $2.4 million in the restricted fund that could potentially be used for that.

So possibly cash. I want to also tell you that of all the budget meetings or people that went up and did budgets, I thought the county commissioners did by far the best job. Thank you. Appreciate that. It's a fact. And if I'm not mistaken from listening to Teresa, you've taken 100 vehicles off of our insurance policy that we were covering in insurance that we did not own. That's correct. That's phenomenal. I mean, absolutely phenomenal. I also understand that we were paying real estate insurance on a property we hadn't owned in 21 years. That's correct. Yeah, so thank you. Love the idea of taking the economic development money and putting it into the rainy day fund. But I do understand that it could come out just as fast as it went in because it will be covering any medical expenses we have for the employees. Go ahead.

Now, Sherry, we're well-funded on the medical thing. We've minimized it, almost zeroed out the risk. We have a reserve fund that's built in there. I think Teresa mentioned 1.5 million. We don't need any extra money in that fund. We keep building it up every year. And we've also taken out two additional plans this year to minimize our risk. We're not the same health insurance system that we had a few years ago where, one, we budgeted for it or we didn't budget for it and then it kept adding expenses without identifying what the total cost was. We're out of that. Those days are gone. The worst case you could possibly have if you had all the employees that had catastrophic illnesses in 2027, we're not going back to the council for any money. It would be a two-year window for them to build that back and increase our rates to cover that additional expense and then and then that's even Bid out for them. You know the reserve funds of what they call it. It's reinsurance kind of fun Yeah, I'll tell you I wish it might take the time and for this county That's a huge success for this county getting that health insurance costs under control and I think we have it under control do so

It's been, yes, it has. I mean, because it bankrupted us almost every year for, I don't know, five, six, seven years.

We never budgeted for it?

No, we budgeted $250,000 for health insurance. I mean, we filed a, I don't know, whatever you call that, an appeal when they did that on the budget. And they had to rewrite it. That was a crazy thing. But anyways, what you guys did with your budget, seriously, was incredible. And thank you so much. And I hope that your leadership will shine down and that other people will also start looking at those things to make sure that what we are paying for is what we are getting. Great. Thank you. Have a great one. Thanks. Sure. Sir?

No, just one more little thing, a little detail. You mentioned the bot and the idea will come in my mind about the sewer. we'll have to pay the town to hook on that sewer. So just figure that cost in. It probably won't be in the cost of the bot. It will probably be on us. We'll need to clear it. I believe it is. Took into consideration.

That's it for me. Motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. All right. Meeting is adjourned.