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 The CDC site showed on a map, but it was outdated already.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.