- I call to order this meeting and Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It's Thursday, September 25th.
- I will note for the record that Commissioner Madeira and myself, Commissioner Thomas are present here
- in the NatU Hill Room. And we'll start with our
- public statement. We, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, renew our commitment to welcome and
- protect the rights of all people, regardless of age, race, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation,
- gender, gender identity, marital status, economic status, and national origin. And we affirm the right
- of every person to live peacefully and without fear, and we will fight and resist at every
- step discrimination and harmful policies, whatever their source. We believe
- in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We also stand in support of our county public school
- systems, both RBB and MCCSC. And with that, we'll move on to our department. Our department updates
- will begin with the health department, please. Good morning, commissioners. As of September 23rd, there
- has been a small decrease in
- emergency department visits for COVID-like illness. Wastewater concentrations are still high but lower
- than previous years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization
- Practices has recommended COVID-19 vaccination be determined by individual decision-making for adults
- 65 and older. For those six months to 64 years,
- ASEF emphasized that the risk benefit of vaccination is most favorable for individuals at increased
- risk of severe illness. The CDC recommends an annual flu vaccine for all people six months and older.
- Recommendations for the RSE vaccine are unchanged at this time.
- A single dose of the vaccine is recommended for adults over the age of 75 and those 50 to 74 who are
- at increased risk of severe RSV disease. Our public health clinic has vaccines available. You can call
- 812-353-3244 for an appointment. All right. Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira?
- I have none. Thank you so much.
- I don't have any questions either. The CDC site showed on a map, but it was outdated already. It's over
- two weeks old, unfortunately, almost two weeks old, that Indiana is very high in terms of our COVID
- prevalence in the wastewater. So thank you so much. We have an update from Ms. Ridge. Good morning.
- Good morning. Just want to announce that we will have a ribbon cutting tomorrow at 9 a.m. for the Fullerton
- Pike project. We will have a little bit of work to complete over the next 30 days or so finishing up
- the project, but it should not impede traffic too much, maybe sporadic flagging operations. But for
- the most part, it will be open to the traveling public from here on out.
- Okay, thank you so much. Very exciting. I'm looking forward to it. That's another achievement.
- Thank you. Huge achievement for highway for sure. All right. Any other departments have an update for
- us? All right. Seeing none, we will now open
- The floor for public comment. This is for items not on our agenda. We ask that speakers limit their
- time to three minutes per person. And we ask you to provide your name and county of residence. You may
- raise your hand on teams to be recognized or come to the podium here in the NatU Hill Room.
- seeing none, we'll move on to our next item, please. I would like to move to approve the minutes for
- September 11th, 2025. Second. Any comments, corrections, or edits? Nope, I already have them in.
- All right. I don't have any either. All those in favor of approving the minutes for September 11th,
- 2025, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. 2-0. Next item, please.
- I would like to move to approve the claims docket for accounts payable for September 25th, 2025, and
- for payroll for September 19th, 2025. Second. Ms. Moser, please. Good morning, commissioners. The accounts
- payable claims docket for September 25th, 2025 totals $3,197,786.07. This includes all emergency claims
- and adjustments.
- The payroll docket for September 19th, 2025 includes $1,622,537.45 in direct costs, and the remaining
- $693,848.41 were for indirect costs for a grand total of $2,316,385.86.
- Thank you so much. Comments or questions? Commissioner Madeira? I actually have none. Thank you. I don't
- either. Thank you so much. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your
- hand on Teams or podium here in the NatU Hill Room.
- seeing none all those in favor of approving the claims docket accounts payable September 25th 2025 and
- payroll September 19th 2025 signify by saying aye aye motion carries to zero I will note for the record
- that we have received reports from the clerk for August 2025 and the treasurer also August 2025 and
- with that we'll move on to new business please
- I would like to move approval for RQAW Corporation Professional Services for generator projects at County
- Highway Garage and the Youth Services Bureau. Fund name 2024 Geobahn, fund number 4819 in an amount
- not to exceed $67,000. I will second that. Mr. Kreider. Good morning, commissioners. Richard Kreider,
- Building and Fleet Department. This request is to accept the proposal submitted by RQAW in an amount
- not to exceed $67,000.
- to provide professional services to include design development, final design, bidding and construction
- administration for installation of a new diesel emergency generator that is capable of full facility
- backup at the highway garage. This project also includes relocating the existing generator at the highway
- garage to the Youth Services Bureau to provide emergency power to the residential portion of the building.
- Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madure? No, really essential to have power at
- that location. So happy to do this. It's a great, great use of that generator. So good thinking.
- Thank you. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come
- to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the RQAW Corporation Professional Services agreement for
- projects at County Highway Garage and Use Service Bureau signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries
- to zero. Next item, please. I would like to move approval for resolution 2025-40, surplus property.
- I will second that. Mr. Crider, are you handling this one? Yeah, I'll take this one. Various departments
- have submitted items to surplus. The maintenance department, we have some broken, unserviceable, and
- obsolete tools there to be recycled at the waste reduction district. The prosecutor's office has three
- desks that are no longer needed. They're past service life. They'll be sold for scrap metal at the salvage yard.
- The highway department has 50 used street signs that have been replaced with new. And those will be
- auctioned on govdeals.com. Fleet, we have a 2012 Chevy Equinox that we'd like to donate to Health Net.
- Excellent use of that vehicle. Comments or questions? Commissioner Madeira? I always am glad to reuse
- or otherwise productively
- you know, dispose of these materials. So thank you. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment
- on this item. Raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving
- resolution 2025-40, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Thank you, sir.
- Next item, please. I would like to move approval for Smithville Fiber Carst Park Internet Agreement
- Fund name County General Fund number 1000 in the amount of $21,150. I will second that. Mr. Crone. Good
- morning, everyone. So just a few weeks ago, Smithville Fiber completed the fiber project at Carst Farm Park.
- They've tied off the fiber that's located at the highway garage to provide that to that location so
- that we can have better coverage for the patrons that visit out there. So now it's time to pay for the
- actual internet service to back it. So this will be tied into the agreement we already have for the
- highway department's internet service. It comes at a charge of $450 a month that will add to that agreement.
- Thank you so much.
- questions, Commissioner Madure? You know, I think this is just really fabulous because there is a lot
- of residents that use these fields. It's really a safety feature. I think if you're encountering car
- difficulties out there, if you run into an issue, it's really just essential. It's not really even a
- convenience factor. So I think this is wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. So this is so the ARPA funding was
- utilized to bring Internet
- to Karst Farm Park, but this is the actual internet bill. That is correct. To pay for it, got it. Perfect,
- thank you so much. All right, let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand
- on teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Smithville Fiber Karst
- Park internet agreement signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.
- I would like to move approval for Toshiba copier agreement for the voter registration office. Fund name,
- cumulative capital, fund number 1138 in the amount of $3,614.28. I will second that. Mr. Crown, tell
- us all about it, please. So approximately three years ago, we replaced half of our copier fleet, which
- was about 75 copiers with Toshiba's. The plan being to get through
- year four of a five year agreement before we advance the rest of the retired the rest of the Rico's
- with for Toshiba. Unfortunately, the voter edge copier.
- completely burned. It's beyond repair at this point. Can't get parts for it either. So we need to go
- ahead and get that one taken care of ahead of all the other refresh on that. So this is for one single
- copier. It is a lease agreement over a term of 60 months, at the end of which we do have a dollar buyout.
- We will own the equipment. And this does meet state QPA pricing for the copier.
- Thank you so much for managing the fleet of copiers that we have. Comments or questions? Commissioner
- Madera? Nope. The RICO's must be recalled at some point. And so these are essential. I mean, again,
- this is sort of the bare bones of government business. All right. Let's see if there's any public comments
- on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- All those in favor of approving the Toshiba copier agreement for voter registration office signify by
- saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Thank you very much. Okay. Item please. I would like to move approval
- for ordinance 2025-29 to amend the Monroe County code chapter 360, the solid waste disposal. I will
- second that. Looks like we have our health department folks here.
- Good morning. Good morning. Mike is in good with the Monroe County Health Department. Semi and I are
- requesting for the general environmental chapter 360 waste haulers. The vehicles permits be discontinued.
- So it's the program started in the 70s when we had landfill and toxics PCB sites. Those are no longer
- available here in the county. Then also a few local health departments are doing this. The only ones
- we're aware of St. Joe and Clark County.
- Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira? No, it makes sense to me. Thank you.
- Yeah, it does make sense. But so if a resident sees an issue, they should call IDEM, I assume? Department
- of Transportation, the state police, and also we're available if needed. But I mean, there's
- other departments, agencies that take it will do this task as well.
- Excellent. Thank you. It's just always good to know where people can contact an agency if they see an
- issue. So thank you so much. It's very important that most of everything that's in 360 will still give
- both the waste district and our department the ability to, if we can determine source of trash on the
- wayside so we can still do that. Right. So after the fact, yes, absolutely. Yeah. No, that's an important
- thing to point out. Thank you for that.
- All right, let's see if there's any public comments on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come
- to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving ordinance 2025-29 signify by saying aye. Aye.
- Motion carries 2-0. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks. Item, please. I would like to amend the Monroe
- County restricted addresses policy. Second. Mr. Cochran? Yes. State code has a provision in it that
- requires us to, if requested, protect information of people of certain characters.
- in our public database. So like when you go on the GIS, I think it's primarily what we're talking about
- here. And basically it's to hide the addresses of people who may have sensitivities to people, the public
- at large, knowing where they're at. State code has recently changed to identify different groups of
- people who this would apply to. And this is just bringing that, our code in compliance with state code.
- Thank you so much. So I think my question relates to, I know it's following state law, but item three
- lists a victim of domestic violence, but that got crossed out
- to read and address confidentiality program participant. Can you speak on that? I can do my best. I
- think the victims of domestic violence, if the court found it, would include them. And it might be a
- little broader. So it might include other people who would enter that address confidentiality program
- that may not be a domestic violence victim, but could be something akin to that where we would want
- to protect
- their identity, where they live on our public database. Thank you. I just want to make that clear to
- everyone that we're not eliminating that protection. Okay. Any questions or comments? No, I was going
- to say I looked at the elaboration of that and see, and there's actually a public program that's certified
- under the state code and it does appear to be broader. Yeah.
- There's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of amending the Monroe County restricted addresses policies signify
- by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.
- I will second that. Um. I don't know if you want to speak on this
- So Ms. Purdy has kindly agreed to read out the names and the amounts for us, and then we'll go from
- there. If you want, I can note that this is the local coordinating councils were formed in
- 1991 in association with Governor by anti-drug initiative at that time.
- These councils support and promote, these councils exist across the state, promote local efforts to
- prevent and reduce harmful involvement with alcohol and other drugs. And as such, the board of commissioners
- are responsible for approving this disbursement of funds. And so at this point in time, I'll just start
- reading out names. And I do know that there's two people, I believe, who are not here and unable to
- pick up their
- their funding, but we will reach out to them and get them in here so they can get that. So the first
- one would be for the Monroe County Drug Treatment Court and Monroe Circuit Court Probation Department.
- And they're receiving one check. Monroe County Drug Treatment Court gets $1,462.50 and the probation
- gets $1,162.50. Thank you. You're welcome.
- The second one is New Leaf New Life for their reentry programs, and that is $4,910.39. We have, okay,
- so this one, the Bloomington Police Department did in fact receive some funding of $1,862.50, and that's
- for a Sotoxa test system.
- It's enhanced roadside detection of drug impaired driving. The next one is Amethyst House. Yep. And
- that's for the men's program at $5,010.39. And then I believe Amethyst House is also picking up for
- the women's program at $4,062.50. And they're both on that one check.
- Yep. Courage to Change is the next one. For Sober Living, $5,292.29. Beacon is also not able to be here,
- and that is for their Crawford Homes program. It's a sum of $4,614.61. Big Brothers, Big Sisters for
- mentoring.
- $5,233. PALS, People and Animal Learning Services, for $3,283 for their changing leads, changing lives.
- I don't know what wonderful work animals and horses do for other people, me especially.
- And then the last one will go to the cares board itself for their operating expenses in the sum of $5,250.
- So thank you. Thank you so much. Was there was there anybody who wishes to speak from the cares board?
- Mr. Mullen, did you want to speak on this? Sorry, don't sit down yet. Sure. I'm Steven Malone, CARES
- Board President. I'm also a probation officer and director of the Monroe County Circuit Court Problem
- Solving Courts Program. This is a pretty judicious project we go through each year as far as handing
- out the grants, and we appreciate the commissioners helping us with this.
- keeping me on the right track as far as what I need to do and how I need to do it because for some reason
- I can't get it straight every year. But unfortunately the money keeps dwindling. However, we're doing
- our best to make sure that everybody gets what they deserve based on their scores on the grants. And
- I do want to make mention about the Sotoxa machine. It's a really cool machine. I actually purchased
- one for our problem solving course last year through a state grant. It's an instant saliva oral swab.
- that you can do and get results within five minutes that will detect. The unfortunate thing is it does
- not detect for alcohol, but it tests for, you know, opiates, benzos, amphetamines, cocaine, buproponephrine,
- stuff like that. So it's a really cool that the officer can use out in the field if he suspects somebody's
- been using that's not drinking alcohol. So it's a really cool machine. But we appreciate your help.
- and the checks and I, as I told Angie, I will have my CARES board coordinator, Lisa Muser, reach out
- to the two that weren't here this morning to make sure they get their checks. Any questions? Just what
- a wonderful series of grants. Thank you.
- actually seen that machine, they use it widely in Europe on the roadsides. It's surprising that it's
- taken so long to come to the US, but it's accurate enough to get a reading to bring someone back for
- a blood draw to get something that's legally binding. And it's really a huge help because this is
- part of the issue with roadway safety. And we won't use those as a piece for the problem solving courts
- as far as sanctioning somebody. If they use, we will actually get one that we will send off to the lab
- to get confirmation just to make sure that have the scientific proof there in front of us. And I assume
- the BPD will do something similar to that as well. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks.
- Is there any public comment on this item?
- You can raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Well, the checks are already gone, so it seems
- a little anticlimactic. But all those in favor of approving the CARES Board disbursement of checks for
- grantees for 2025, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries, fortunately, to zero. Yeah, I don't know.
- Do we just go back?
- I'm back with the checks. Okay. Next item, please. I would like to move approval for Ordinance 2025-32
- to amend the Monroe County Code, Chapter 760-13. Second. And we have Mr. Schilling joining us to tell
- us all about the drainage board changes. Good morning. Good morning. Dave Schilling from the
- legal department. And this first ordinance
- adds to the power or clarifies that the drainage board has the authority to identify critical watersheds
- and sensitive areas. And critical watersheds would be like Cave Creek, areas where we've had substantial
- flooding history. And sensitive areas are things like wetlands, slopes greater than 15% or falluvial
- erosion hazard corridors, things like that. And these characteristics, the critical watersheds and the
- sensitive areas are identified in our stormwater technical manual and in our stormwater plan. And you've
- approved the ones that have been identified in the past, but we just wanted to make sure that everyone
- knows that the Drainage Board has the authority to identify those and establish those. And then when they do,
- we would need to come back and amend the plans through the commissioners. Perfect. Thank you. Comments
- or questions, Commissioner Maduro? Nope. Again, something that needs to be done because we keep having
- these events and the drainage board needs to have the authority to deal with them. Thank you for bringing
- this forward, Mr. Schilling. Let's see if there's any public comments on this item. You can raise your
- hand on Teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving ordinance 2025-32 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries
- to zero. Next item, please. I'd like to move approval for ordinance 2025-33 to amend the Monroe County
- code chapter 761. Second. Mr. Schilling. Thank you. Earlier this year, we had a comprehensive rewrite
- of chapter 761, which is our stormwater ordinance.
- And since we adopted that, the legislature adopted House Enrolled Act 1037, which basically said that
- local ordinances could not be more strict or restrictive than the state's construction general stormwater
- permit. And that the state's permit applies to
- land disturbances that are greater than one acre or less than one acre in a common plan of development.
- And our ordinance had extended that to land disturbance of less than an acre. So we had to go through
- and revise the provisions to make sure that
- Our ordinance would not be interpreted in a manner contrary to House Enrolled Act 1037. So those are
- basically the changes we made. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira? Nope. Again, something that
- makes sense. I've already seen this at the stormwater board.
- I'm not sure if we're going to be able to do that on a public level so this isn't a new document for
- us, but I appreciate the explanation for those who are seeing this for the first time. All right, so
- let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand and teams are
- I would like to move approval for the end agreement for the design of the old 37 south and Dillman Road
- intersection. I'm sorry, fun name, old 30 old a state road south and Dillman Road.
- I would like to move approval for the Sheriff's Donation Agreement, fund name donations, Sheriff's Reserved,
- fund number 4115. Second. Mr. Cockrell. Yes, and this is something that we've been working with the
- Monroe County Auxiliary Police Incorporated, which I will refer to as the Sheriff's Reserves from now
- on because that is how I think people think of them. Their not-for-profit is dissolving.
- the volunteers and things will still be housed somewhere under the sheriff's umbrella. But when they
- dissolve, they've got assets that they want to give to the county. Some is cash or cash equivalents,
- which I assume is all going to be cash. And we created a fund for that earlier this year. And so this
- just says that that money will be placed in that fund. The other is they have, they build a building
- on county owned property. And this is kind of clarifying and making sure that
- that is being donated to the county. So we kind of are joining those two property interests together.
- Their intent is, their hope is that this remains as part of the law enforcement sheriff's network, but
- it's not a binding commitment from now till the end of time. I believe the intent is that whoever buys
- the property will make sure they know that that was the intent of the donation. And I think for the
- most part,
- the intent is to keep that as a sheriff's sheriff's reserves but we are going through a kind of a big
- cycle of how we look at property right now and we're going to have to determine what is in the future
- the best use of that. Thank you so much. Comments or questions? Commissioner Medeo? No. This all makes
- sense and clearly that's the intention is to maintain a sheriff's reserve office on that location.
- Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the sheriff's donation agreement signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Motion carries to zero. Next item, please.
- I would like to move approval for the end on agreement for the design of the old 37 South and Dillman
- Road intersection fund name old State Road South and Dillman Road fund number 8191 in the amount of
- $481,500. I will second that. Ms. Ridge. Good morning. On September 4th, you approved a contract with
- DLZ and the amount of $539,500.
- Uh, this is in dots agreement to cover 80% for that contract. Um, and, um, 481,500 dollars and the remainder
- will be, um, local funds. Thank you so much. Comments or questions. Commissioner Madure. Nope. Again,
- this is something that I really like seeing move along. Yeah, it's a great project. What, what is the
- general timeline at this moment?
- I believe it's fiscal year 2028 was the award for that project. That's what I thought. It's a little
- ways out, but there's a lot of work that has to be done first. It's about four or five years to get
- to the construction. Excellent. Thank you so much. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment
- on this item. You raise your hand in teams or come to the podium.
- All those in favor of approving the in that agreement for design of the old 37 South Dillman
- Road intersection signify by saying aye. I motion carries two zero. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Um,
- item L, please. I would like to move approval from Monroe County Commissioners, Food and Beverage Tax
- Plan for 2026 2027. Uh, I will second that. Um, and this one's on me. Um, we, um,
- to present or are required to present as part of the food and beverage tax, which the county receives
- 10%. The remainder goes to the city for the convention center. Ours is dedicated for tourism or economic
- development projects with the emphasis on projects. And we need to present this to the Food and Beverage
- Tax Advisory Commission.
- There is a meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. here in the NatU Hill Room where this plan and the city's plan
- will both be reviewed and voted on by that board. And there is an outline. This was submitted late,
- so I apologize to the public. But there is a general outline that shows expenditures out of this fund
- And early on, we provided a lot of COVID assistance in the form of grants rather than loans to local
- businesses and the Monroe County Convention Center. That was 2020 and 2021.
- there's a Harrisburg Fireworks show in 2024 received $6000. But otherwise we do plan to proceed with
- the quarry in the Uplands project, which it's more than a park. It's way more than a park. But, um,
- we've been a bit delayed due to the issue of
- fitting this in as we are moving toward the final design for the Justice Center. At first it was, are
- we buying that property at North Park or not because it adjoins this 99 acres that the county owns with
- old quarry
- and we have a number of spots on it. So there is a committee of fine residents who all have different
- interests and areas of expertise. And we just have in the plan a very, very general outline, because
- one of the first things we're going to have to do is a master plan,
- of the delay is, which entrance are we using? But it would be a very public intensive series of meetings
- to begin that planning process. Because really, it is the county's residence land.
- There are so many possibilities and opportunities. We do know we want to develop an outdoor and eventually
- an indoor limestone history center. And that's going to be a big part of this, but certainly there's
- a lot more that can be done with this property. So the master plan.
- and then site safety improvements, meaning getting people onto the property, and then gradually over
- time, seeing, depending on what the public wants, developing different pieces of this property to meet
- the community's needs. It's going to be very exciting, but that is the plan for our portion of the food
- and beverage
- tax dollars. And I'd like to bring this to the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission tomorrow for
- their final stamp of approval. And that is it. So do you have any questions? No. And just it looks exciting
- to move this along because I know that for the past several years, we haven't had an expenditure. And I think
- you know, it's time to have one. Oh, yeah. We will definitely do that. Yeah. And, you know, knowing
- where we can park, knowing which entrance we should use has a lot to do with that justice center development.
- So I feel like we are poised to launch. And I know we've got some potential consultants
- we're going to go through a vetting process, and that will come before us for a contract approval so.
- From that committee, so that will be a recommendation from that committee. Let's see if there's any
- public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Alright, and I do want to.
- I would like to. Give a quick shout out to our great planning director is Nestor Jelin for all our help
- with this project because we're and we've got more to do and she knows it so. All right with that and
- no other no public comment. All those in favor of approving the Monroe County commissioners food and
- beverage tax plan 2026 2027
- All right, we will move on. Well, I will actually open this up. I'm going to open up a public hearing
- on ordinance 2025-27, which is a vacation of right of way of a portion of West Marshall May Road. So
- petitioner? Yes. Please, please share your name and tell us about it.
- I'm Deborah Pardue. I bought some property off of my neighbor off of South Ketchum Road. She had a 26
- acre plot. We did an administrative type E subdivision.
- the property. The property was removed last summer during the survey, which was completed by Eric Deckard
- in July. Part of the type the administrative subdivision requirements required us to do a 25 ft or required
- her the property owner at that time. To do a 25 ft dedicated easement or right of way along Marshall
- May road in on our property that requirement was removed from the
- add to public burden or anything. And so I was asking for that to be removed from my land because people
- can park in that easement and I can't do anything about it and they can sit there for as long as they
- want. They can leave trash on my property.
- and so I'm only asking for vacation or right of way. The county has imposed the option for vacation
- or roadway, which if there is a vacation or roadways that is decided on, I'm gonna ask that the county
- pay the legal burden for the permanent easement that would need to be granted among all property owners
- for the mays who live at the end of Marshall May to be able to access their house because if the road
- is vacated,
- then they become landlocked and then the three property owners who own the property that make up Marshall
- May Road then are required to come together to make an agreement for them to be able to have a permanent
- easement to access their property. And so my petition was only for vacation of the easement that affects
- my property, not the roadway. It was the highway department and legal department that threw in the option
- to vacate the roadway. That was not something I was asking for.
- We may need to hear from you again. So if you don't wouldn't mind, I think we'll go to legal next. Thank
- you so much. Hello, Justin Rodding with the Merrick County Legal Department. I'm here on this ordinance
- today. I'm going to turn it over shortly to Ms. Jelen. But this is a situation where we've been in contact
- with Ms. Perdue for some time. It is correct that this land was subdivided in July of last year. As
- part of that, there was a dedicated 25-foot
- right of way from the center of the roadway. The roadways varies between about 10 and 14 feet. So it's
- about 20 feet to maybe 18 feet off the side of the roadway on the south side. I do have some information
- that I'd like to pass out if I could that was inadvertently neglected to be put in the packet. Ms. Pardue
- was given a copy by Ms. Jelen, but this has some additional information, including better photographs
- of what we believe the actual right of way section
- So I'm going to provide a little bit of additional context and here with my colleagues Ben Ayers with
- the Highway Department and of course Justin Roddy who just spoke. As Ms. Perdue stated this property
- was subject to a type E administrative subdivision last year. When our county development ordinance
- passed we did remove the requirements since then to no longer require type E's which this was subject
- to to dedicate right of way.
- However, for its plats that have already dedicated right of way, the planning department cannot vacate
- that right of way. West Marshall May is a county maintained road. It's a gravel road. It's been in the
- county inventory for several decades. And from our research, it's only accessing one home. But that
- one home that's receiving access through this county road
- is actually addressed off of Ketchum, which is the nearest other county road intersecting the street.
- So I just want to point you to the packet of information that was just handed out. On page 14 of that
- packet, the second to last page, it defines some of the Indiana code references that we're using here.
- Under IC 36-7-1-17, it states that a public way includes highway, street, avenue, boulevard, road, lane,
- or alley. This is West Marshall-May Road.
- And then if you further look into what those definitions mean, we were able to find just highway or
- street, which means the entire width between the boundary lines of every publicly maintained way when
- any part of the way is open to use of the public for purposes of vehicular traffic in Indiana. The term
- includes an alley in a city or town.
- So typically when we see these right of way vacation petitions come through, it's not necessarily a
- road. Maybe it's a right of way for an intended road. When speaking with Mr. Ayers, this is the first
- time in a very long time where we've had a right of way vacation of an actual road come through.
- So our suggestion on page 15 is that the commissioners have one of the three options. So number one,
- you could deny any vacation request and keep the right of way as it is on the type E plat. Number two,
- you could vacate the entire roadway, which currently serves one property owner. Or number three,
- as Ms. Perdue would like you to do, is vacate a portion of the right of way, which is
- primarily the grass surrounding the road, but not the road itself.
- I guess our position is that the code is pretty clear under the state, which says a vacation is the
- entire road, it's not just the grass. And what they're asking is that basically we keep maintenance
- of West Marshall-May Road without any room for, right now, a turnaround. So if this were to actually
- pass, we would have to work through some sort of MOU to actually even get a vehicle down there to maintain
- the road. And I know also in this packet,
- Earlier this year, there have been costs associated with it being in the, in the right of way. Mr errors
- pooled from their database, a some information about a tree removal and the costs associated with that.
- which was $1,283.75. And then he also has some information about the cost of maintaining this road,
- I believe in a year's time that I might have him speak to. But that's just generally some background
- and happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you so much. We might have you come back up
- for questions. Mr. Harris, did you want to speak on this?
- on this proposal and average cost to maintain the roadway. And I saw the tree. Yeah, but yeah. So in
- that report, it looks like we spend about $1,500 a year to maintain that road. This year, we're right
- at 2,800 due to the tree. So what are
- What are your thoughts on this in terms of the highway department in this proposal? I question all along
- of why it's a county road, but I mean, it's been in there for decades. You know, if it is vacated or
- just a section of it, we would have to come up with a place to turn around. You know, there's an existing
- turnaround down there that we've used for years.
- We did work with Miss Purdue at one point on getting some no parking signs down, went to Traffic Commission
- to get that to try to help with the parking issue. But I don't think it ever got pushed any further.
- I think it was approved. But then I think it may have. She didn't want that or something. I'll let her
- speak on that. OK. Because that would be my first suggestion would be a no parking signs in that area.
- for sure. Ms. Ridge, did you have anything you wanted to add about this? As far as I've been, as long
- as I've been around and very few of the road vacations, we've never vacated an easement. It's either
- the entirety of the road or it's not. And Ben's correct. We've been going back and forth on this Marshall
- May road for quite some time. It is more actually like a driveway than a county road.
- If you want to vacate it, we would not have any issues with that. Okay. And again, we, I think it got
- stopped. It went to traffic commission for signs for no parking to help eliminate that problem. We've
- dealt with the tree issue. Um, so it's just been going and ongoing issue for the county highway. Okay.
- Great. I would add that I did reach out to all the utility companies and there are no utilities in that area.
- question. So good. Okay, so there's no utility easement on this on this roadway. Okay. And then I'm
- going to let you ask questions, not not the petitioner yet. So you may want to sit for a moment. We've
- got questions that we're going to ask staff, I think. Go ahead and offer your questions. I have a couple
- more. Actually, I think that all my questions that I've wanted to ask have been asked.
- You know, historically, have we done these sorts of things? It appears that this is sort of the first
- question like this we've considered after passage of the CDO. You know, had this been handled, I mean,
- it appears that if this had been handled under the CDO, it would have been, you know, handled differently.
- This would have been what
- it would have been, you said not the category E. The type E administrative. Yes, so essentially in your
- packet on page 15, the end result would have been three. So they wouldn't have had to dedicate the right
- way. Yes, exactly. Thank you. So. Yes, no, I.
- Go ahead and ask. I may have questions later on. Yeah. So we have a petitioner that says there are four
- people who become landlocked if this becomes a private road. A shared driveway can't be more than four
- addresses. But now I'm hearing there's only one address off of this. And I only saw one driveway off
- of this as well. So I don't know if.
- Mr. Roddy or Ms. Nestor Jelen can speak to how many people utilize this road for access.
- So there's one house that primarily uses this address. And then I know Ms. Perdue will state that this
- is an access point for the land that she purchased, though you may not see it on the aerials. I think
- that's an agricultural parcel. And then technically, the Kirkmans could use that frontage. I don't believe
- they have a driveway off of that area.
- but then the Kirkmans also have frontage on Ketchum and then the property to the north has access off
- of Ketchum and we did as part of this process notice neighbors as a requirement that this would happen.
- There's a separate code provision if there was a demonstrator to this request and they were you know
- notified that this hearing was happening today so I don't believe anyone's in attendance but just want
- to point that out. Okay so a follow-up to that because that was my second question you're just like
- So the follow-up to that is the notification to adjoining property owners. Was it just a notification
- that someone has petitioned to vacate the right-of-way, that the road vacation may happen as a result?
- Is that part of what
- these neighbors, how these neighbors were notified. I assume the neighbors were notified that there
- was a request for a vacation of the right of way. I think Justin can speak to that. Thank you.
- The notice says that the Board of Commissioners will conduct a public hearing for the petition to vacate
- part of West Marshall May Road, described as roadway along the west end of West Marshall May Road. Also,
- I want to add that in the subdivision plans in the application, which were done by a professional surveyor,
- there was an option for waiver of requirements
- It's a box that you check and that box was checked. No. So there was no request at the time the subdivision
- was initially planned for any waiver. OK. OK. So Mr. Ayers, if you were to look through the driveway
- permit file, how many driveway permits are there on West Marshall Road? None. Marshall May Road? None. None.
- even though there is at least one homeowner who requires. Answers are it could have been there prior
- to to when permitting started in 1968. Yeah, well. OK, so. My take on this right now is that.
- I I feel like. The the fairest and easiest thing to do
- would be to consider a vacation of the entire roadway, making it a private road or a driveway easement
- or whatever it might become or be called at that point. I don't think it's a good thing to try to peel
- off just the right of way. It makes life too difficult because if we're asked to maintain it,
- we're going to need some access, and we're going to need to turn around. So it seems to me, especially
- given that we have potentially two access points for people who are required to use that road, that
- we should notify by letter, again, all of the homeowners, property owners in that area, but let them
- know that we're considering
- vacating the entire roadway. And it sounds like that would be an amenable solution to highway. Yes?
- OK. But I feel like we haven't given those property owners that notice that that's a potential outcome
- based on what I read and based on what we've heard. And I just don't feel comfortable
- voting on this at all today because we don't have that notice, to be fair. So what are your thoughts?
- I think that's fair and I especially feel that's something we haven't done ever in the past, yes. I
- was also curious why did it come into the county inventory to begin with in 1987?
- My understanding is there was a whole bunch of roads that were accepted in 1987 at one time. I think
- a lot of them were like these little dead end roads. It was probably, I'm going to guess, I'm going
- to throw a dart here. That was probably at a time when they were changing the structure of how roadway
- funding occurred related to gas.
- the number of miles of roadway or something like that. I'm guessing. I'm just throwing that out there.
- But yeah. All right. Because if you see a wholesale shift like that, there's a reason. All right. OK.
- So I would like to because for me, I think it's either point one or two.
- I don't think .3 is viable for our highway department, and it certainly makes more trouble than the
- benefits of having this bit of land in our roadway inventory at the moment. From what I know about the
- process, that makes sense, yes.
- anything else you wanted to add anything else, please. I think for clarification purposes, it would
- be nice to understand from staff's perspective where we're considering the vacation of right away. Is
- it from South Ketchum or is it just in front of the Pardue property? I'm not sure that that's been made
- clear by the petitioner. Yeah, well, I think we've
- We've both discussed that that's not an interest to us, that we would vacate the whole roadway, which
- is not terribly long. It's not a... The entire road. It would be the roadway that we're considering.
- But of course, we feel like we need to have a notice going out to these neighbors again with that as
- a potential because we haven't heard from them and they didn't know that that was a possibility, I feel,
- based on the contents of the letter.
- the roadway. Um so but that's what I would consider would be because there's no point in. Vacating part
- of the roadway because there's no turnaround and it's you know, it's so it just. Am I correct in that
- I would just say that we put those options because we weren't sure what Ms. Pardue wanted to do. I don't
- know if she wants to vacate the entire roadway. Oh, I know. I'm going to talk to her next. Gotcha.
- For sure. But I feel like, for me, that's the only viable option. Either we vacate the whole roadway
- or things stay as they are and she installs those no parking signs.
- that I think did that pass traffic commission? Miss Ridge, do you remember? I think it did. Yeah. It's
- been a few months, but I believe I went to them and it was passed. So that's still an option on the
- table. Okay. All right. Thank you. Ms. Pardue, did you have any further comment? It sounds like we're
- not going to be voting today on this, so. No. Okay. So the reason why I
- to not go with the no parking signs and try to get the vacation is because then I can't even park on
- my property. My car can get towed. Any machinery that I leave parked there can get towed. And I don't
- feel like that is fair when I am going to be farming this property. And so that makes it more difficult
- for me. And so currently, while this property or this roadway only serves one house, yes, but there
- are community members who will drop their kayaks in the creek from this road. And so if you guys vacate
- this roadway,
- Then it puts then the property owners at burden for a trespassing of all of these people that come to
- utilize the creek and so anybody that will now drive on this road that has been a legit county road
- for a long time will now be trespassing on private property to access the creek and so.
- That will be a thing that the property owners will now have to deal with. And again, the only reason
- that I'm asking for a vacation of this easement is because when Eric Decker did the survey, even though
- it shows that there's a check to box to waive it, it was made very clear that this that are.
- our plan, whatever, would not be approved unless this dedication happens, right? And at the same time,
- Monroe County took out two acres of the land that I was buying and claimed it as park and rec land for
- the rails and trails. So they took out two acres of the 136 parcel of the land, and so they wanted this
- 25-foot easement for parking for access for the rails and trails. Well, Parks and Rec had to do a quick
- claim deed
- back in April to release the land back to me because they did not own that land. And so now I feel like
- the property owners that are at the end of the roadway are now going to be punished for maintaining
- like snow removal and whatever, because now that it doesn't serve the county any longer, it's just gonna
- be their responsibility. Right, and this is what happens.
- I think you have a choice in front of you, and perhaps I should, I recommend that you think about it
- and then contact Mr. Roddy and or Ms. Nestor Jelen once you've thought about it. You have two options.
- Either this remains a county road, as is, and you can utilize no parking signs, et cetera.
- You could make a little driveway off this road with the driveway permit and park your vehicle there
- because that would be your property. Put a private property sign up. If that's the issue, it would be
- just like any other county road that is gravel road, not necessarily an improved road or paved road,
- but it is a gravel road. That's option one. That means snow removal,
- maintaining, taking out trees, maintaining the gravel, et cetera. Option two is it becomes an easement,
- a private road. A shared driveway, I think, is probably the most appropriate way to say it. And those
- who use the shared driveway have to maintain it if you want it maintained. If you don't want to maintain
- it, you don't have to maintain it. It's a shared drive.
- You all have to just figure that out. No, I understand. So I think those are your options because what
- we've, I think, clearly said here is we're not interested in vacating the right of way. It's either
- the whole kit and caboodle, as they say, the entire road gets vacated, start to finish, or, and not
- even just part of all of it, or we leave things as they are. So I think
- those are the only two options we can offer. And you might want to think about it. And if you do want
- to proceed with the road vacation, then I would ask that we contact those property owners by letter
- of a hearing similar to this, invite them to come or to send an email or letter or ask questions or
- whatever, because I don't think they were clearly made aware that this is an option.
- So I don't feel comfortable voting on it today. So that's it. Those are your options. We can't customize
- a menu because you have ag land or there's a creek. Because when we operate, and I'm sure Lisa Ridge
- can back me up on this, when you have a highway department, these little nuances are killer.
- They you know oh don't go that road you can't turn around there and on this road you can only turn around
- here and on this one. There's a no parking but people can park there to put a kayak in the in the creek
- and we can't operate that way because as much as we
- like to think of ourselves as Mayberry, we're not Mayberry. We have over 700 miles of county road. Please
- know that I wasn't asking for you to operate that way and I wasn't expecting that. I was letting you
- know the people that utilize this road for in for what and so again I'm not going to ask for vacation
- of the roadway because I do not want to be held legally financially responsible for what it will cost
- to for the property owners to come up. So if you vote no on the easement
- That is what I'm asking for. I'm asking for vacation and the easement because your current ordinance
- does not have that as a stipulation. And so if we look at the clause to be able to do this, I sent a
- letter to an email to the legal that shows that per the Supreme Court, Dolan versus California Coastal
- Commissions and Dolan versus the city of Taggart, which established the nexus and rough
- I can't say that word, but which established the test that would state why property can be taken by
- government or required easements. Neither of those tests are met for this dedication of right away in
- my land. And so the rough proportionality says the amount of extraction or whatever of land must correspond
- to the burden placed on government from the proposed development.
- So there isn't any increased burden on the government. And then the nexus is the direct connection between
- the government demand from the property owner and public purpose, which again, there's not an increase
- in whatever. And so under those two rulings or whatever, the land that was taken or the requirement of that
- is it met by that? And so that was my argument. It's just there wasn't a reason for that land and it's
- no longer required. And that's the only reason I'm asking for this so that I can protect my land from
- people parking on it, from littering it, from me having to clean up the land. That's all I'm asking.
- And so if you refuse, if you vote no on the easement, I will let you guys vote no on vacation on the
- easement if you want to vote on vacation or the roadway. But I'm not going to ask for that because I
- don't want to carry the financial burden for that.
- Mr. Roddy, did you want to respond to? We're not here today for taking his claim. We're here today about
- platted land. I think that this meets the taking requirements of rough proportionality. It sounds to
- me like there is no request to vacate the entire roadway. It sounds to me like the board of commissioners
- does not want to vacate just the easement. So I would propose that if that's the case, the vote just be known.
- If there's a new matter before about vacating the entire roadway, we can start. We can hear that. Okay.
- And I would assume we could hear that without an additional cost if it's from the same petitioner, because
- I don't want to, I don't want to financially impact a single petitioner who now has to come back because,
- you know, the goalposts have moved a bit. Not from our doing, but I just feel like it's,
- planning is very complex and we can't always count on the public to understand the whys and wherefores
- and the rules and all of that. And so I would ask that if the petitioner does wish to come back for
- a vacation, the roadway petition that we would do so without an additional cost for that. Okay, so thank you.
- appreciate that. Let's and thank you, Ms. Purdy for coming. I appreciate you've got a lot to deal with.
- I understand that. I think you have some options. I would ask that you exercise those options regarding
- no parking signs, et cetera. But I want to see if there's any other public comment on this item.
- either in support of the petition or in opposition to the petition. With that, I'm going to go ahead
- and close the public hearing. And I will go ahead and make a motion to I'm going to say it this way
- because it's clear.
- I'm going to move approval of ordinance twenty twenty five dash twenty seven I'm going to need a second.
- I will second that okay- all those in favor of approving the vacation of the right away say aye aye.
- All those opposed no. So we're split which means it doesn't
- The option is on the table to vacate the entire roadway if you choose at any time in the future that
- that may seem like a better option for you. And we will go through that process. Mr. Cockrell, did you
- have something you wanted to? I would just say a one-to-one vote is neither approval nor disapproval,
- so the item is still in front of you. If you wish to resolve it given the current vote, I would recommend
- tabling it to a future meeting.
- Okay. I thought it just didn't pass. Okay. Well, it doesn't pass, but it doesn't fail either, right?
- So it's, it's still in limbo. Okay. So we can't have a purgatory vote. Um, I don't really want to continue
- this to a particular meeting because I don't know when there's going to be three of us to have a vote.
- I may have misunderstood my vote. Ah, okay. So I thought I was voting to just
- move this along in the sense of we were basically going to say no easement. Ah, OK. So the request on
- this ordinance is to vacate the right of way. Oh, so yes. And so that was my, and that's, instead of
- doing a negative motion, I did a positive motion, and I am still, it's still difficult. Yeah.
- want to bring this back for a vote at this moment. I would like to bring it back for a vote. Or would
- you like to wait till next meeting? No, let's bring it back. OK. Yes. May we just go ahead and revote,
- sir? We don't need another motion. I think that's appropriate. OK. All those in favor of approving ordinance
- 2025-27 signify by saying aye. All opposed say no. No. And now we have
- a zero to vote. There we go. It fails. Yes. Thank you. OK. No, that's sorry for the misunderstanding.
- All right. So that's where we are. And I do invite you to consider the roadway vacation. And if you
- do feel like that's something you want to do, that we would just have to notify your neighbors as well.
- OK. Thank you so much. OK. So with that,
- in the right papers. Here we go. All right. I have, we don't have any appointments today. I think we
- have some boarding commission cleanup work that we're gonna be completing here in the next several weeks.
- So watch for that. We do and are accepting applications for boards and commissions.
- And we encourage folks to consider applying. Just go to our website, Indiana.gov slash county slash
- Monroe, and look at the opportunities available. I will let you all know that some of the listings may
- or may not be updated yet. And so if you're interested in something, just apply for it. And the application
- is right there on the website.
- recommend that folks, while they're on our website, sign up for a resident alert system to be notified
- of any emergencies related to storms, road closures, etc. Just click on the link right on our home page.
- And we also have a big calendar where all the meetings are posted and those include six different times
- and days to have
- office hours, where we have office hours. We invite the public to come see us via Teams to ask questions
- and to have interesting conversations. My last one went an hour and 45 minutes, and it was great. So
- it's all good. So I learn a lot, and I appreciate those folks who do participate. They make government
- work better.
- So I would like to take a second to make a note about we had the profile parkway, sunrise greetings,
- ribbon cutting last week, which was great. And that's the culmination of a lot of work.
- And tomorrow is the Fullerton Pike ribbon cutting. And that is a culmination of years of work and planning.
- And all that went into that. Kudos, Lisa Ridge. Kudos, Highway Department. You work so well with the
- residents, with INDOT, with utilities. And there's a beautiful roundabout.
- It's it's an amazing project and that is that the longest bridge in the county. How many feet is it
- 525 500 you know every foot of it 525 feet building the longest bridge in Monroe County.
- That is amazing. And I can't thank you enough for all of that. So that's a great celebration. This week,
- I had the honor of representing Monroe County at Beacon when we had the groundbreaking. That was amazing.
- I know that the 500,000 ARPA dollars that we dedicated to that project allowed Beacon to be eligible
- for that grant.
- And so they are still short, a few hundred thousand dollars of their goal, but it is going to be an
- amazing place. And I'm so proud of the hard work of the staff and the board and their campaign committee
- and everybody in the community that's given donated time, donated money or both to help make Beacon
- such an amazing place. So kudos to them. Congratulations to them.
- So we've had all this really good news. And then last week, we heard that, indeed, the National Forest
- Service has basically been told to stop all Houston South project activity. So even though they had
- a timber auction a few, what, three weeks ago,
- Um, Judge Pratt, um, and, um, at the, uh, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, made an
- exceptional decision, um, and rendered an exceptional decision that is well thought out. And it, I,
- I hope it sticks, um, long-term.
- that was really good news. And so I just want to thank the Indiana Forest Alliance, Hoosier Environmental
- Council, our county council for approving the legal fees and our portion of it. It's still upsetting
- to me that the city of Bloomington did not feel like they needed to contribute or help in any way, but
- we did it.
- And friends of Lake Monroe, also a huge part of this. So this is a statewide coalition of people who
- care about the forest, old growth forest, wildlife, our air quality. I know one of our biggest concerns
- was water quality for Lake Monroe. And this feels like such a momentous ruling. So lots of good news.
- in the last several days. And so I just want to thank everybody who's been involved in that for so long,
- who've made this happen. So it's good to end on that note. All right. So I, do you have anything else
- for good of the order?
- No, just a tremendous job by the fundraising committee at Beacon. They have really worked hard to put
- together a tremendous amount of money in a very short period of time for that project. Little way to
- go, but. Yeah, they've done amazing work. Yeah. And Cory Fest in Steinsville this weekend, so we'll
- be there in the parade with our shiny red truck. And I'm not driving it.
- trying to stay out of the way. And our next meeting will be on Thursday, October 2nd. I can't believe
- it's going to be October already, but here it is. And we do not have a work session today, correct?
- Right. All right. And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Be well.