- Good morning. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It
- is Thursday, October 2nd. I'm joined here today by Commissioner Madeira. Commissioner Jones is not present.
- And we will begin with our public statement, please.
- 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,
- and we also stand in support of our county public school systems, both RBD and MCC-SC. Thank you so
- much. Next on our agenda are department updates. Ms. Kelly is joining us. Good morning. Good morning,
- commissioners.
- As of September 30th, COVID wastewater concentrations are trending down. The levels are currently moderate,
- but still a little bit higher than earlier this summer. Current COVID variants circulating include the
- XFB, also referred to as Stratus, and NB1.8.1, also referred to as Nimbus. So common symptoms include headache,
- cough, severe throat pain, and runny nose or congestion. Flu activity across the state is minimal. The
- CDC recommends an annual flu vaccine for all people six months and older. And our public health clinic
- has vaccines available for all ages. You can call 812-353-3244 for an appointment.
- Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira? No, I have none. Thank you very much
- for the update. And it's good to hear that COVID is trending down. Good news. Thank you so much.
- Thank you. All right. Now, any other departments have an update for us? Mr. Crider?
- Good morning Commissioners. Richard Crider, Building Fleet Manager. I'm here regarding renovations for
- Election Central. To date design and development construction documents have been completed. We're now
- in the bidding phase. Advertisements were sent out on Tuesday September 9th and Wednesday September 17th.
- The original deadline to submit bids was September 25th, but there were some changes in the scope, so
- we granted an extra week for that. That's this morning. And we've received sealed bids from two contractors.
- I'm going to take these to Mr. Cocker. Ready with the letter opener. This is the favorite part of my job.
- We have to get you a new letter opener. I brought a different one than last time. The first one I'm
- going to open is from Strouser Construction Company in Bloomington, Indiana.
- Base bid for construction is $506,800. There is a bid for an alternative of $146,800. Second bid is
- from Fox Company out of Bloomington, Indiana.
- The base bid is $509,450, with the alternative being $183,700. I think we had asked you to let us look
- at these, take them under advisement, and we would come back with a recommendation, hopefully next week.
- Great. We will take these under advisement. Yes? Agreed. OK, great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any
- other department updates for us?
- Or are there envelopes for Jeff to open? A lot better than that. It did. It was good. You must have
- sharpened it. All right. Let's move on to public comment. This is for items not on our agenda. Each
- commenter is limited to three minutes per person. We ask that you provide your name and county of residence.
- You may raise your hand on teams or come to the podium here.
- in the Natt U Hill Room. All right, seeing none, we'll move on to our next agenda item, please. I would
- like to move approval of the minutes for September 25th, 2025. Second. Any comments, corrections, edits?
- I had none.
- All those in favor of approving the minutes for September 25th 2025 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion
- carries 2-0 and we'll move on to the next item please. I would like to move approval for the claim stock
- it for accounts payable for October 2nd 2025 and for payroll for October 3rd 2025. Second. Ms. Moser
- please tell us all about it. Good morning commissioners.
- The accounts payable claims docket for October 2nd, 2025 totals $3,555,502.11. This includes all emergency
- claims and adjustments. The payroll docket for October 3rd, 2025 includes $1,592,454.60 in direct costs,
- and the remaining $682,077
- $77.34 were for indirect costs for a grand total of $2,274,531.94. Thank you so much. Comments or questions,
- Commissioner Medeira? I had none. I don't have any either. Let's see if there's any public comment on
- this item. You may raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
- none all those in favor of approving the claim stock and accounts payable october 2nd 2025 and payroll
- october 3rd 2025 signify by saying aye aye motion carries two zero um i will note for the record that
- we have received a report from weights and measures dated september of 2025 and we will now move on
- to new business please
- I would like to move approval for the Indian Energy Graphic Information Office sowing enriched and enhanced
- data sets or SEAS grant application in the amount of $29,930. I will second that. We have surveyor Enright
- Randolph and we have Dr. Baten joining us. Good morning. Yes, hi. I'm just actually really up here to
- express my gratitude to Dr. John Baten with his initiative to pursue this grant. I came here earlier
- to kind of get a thumbs up to go ahead and pursue this. We were awarded the grant and I'm just going
- to kind of get out of the way and let Mr. Baten to talk about it a bit more. Good morning. Hi commissioners.
- Yeah, so this is a grant that we applied for and we're awarded. It's just for under $30,000 to essentially
- try to enhance some of our core data sets to align with next gen 911 kind of recording standards of
- the state. In addition to that, we're going to be using this funding with
- Cultivate Geospatial Solutions, which is a company we've been contracting with and have a good relationship
- already, to kind of, I don't want to say just overhaul, but really strengthen our GIS database and make
- sure that things are going to be running faster and smoother and be more secure moving forward. So yeah,
- we're here today to basically get the approval so we can hit accept on a button and then we get a contract
- that comes out and we'll need signatures and things like that. This has gone through legal and everything
- like that. The only concern that
- legal had raised was about a line in the template contract that said something along the lines of the
- county agrees that the state doesn't have any lawsuits against them. There is a current one with the
- sheriff's office, but that is a caveat in the contract that they'll be producing after we hit accept.
- So I'm saying with the acceptance of this, whatever. But it's a really exciting grant. And yeah, I'm
- really looking forward to kind of moving forward.
- Very cool. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira? No, I think this is very exciting, and I'm really
- happy to help you hit that Accept button. Awesome. Thanks. This is great news, and it's great for the
- safety of our residents, obviously. So that's a win-win. I really appreciate the work on this.
- Thank you. Thanks. 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 Indiana Geographic Information Office sowing enriched
- and enhanced data sets grant application signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Thank you.
- Thank you. Thanks. All right. Next item, please.
- I would like to move to approve the Convention Center Management Agreement, fund name Monroe County
- Convention Center Operations, fund number 4005 in the amount of $531,300 for the first year. I will
- second that. Mr. Cockrell. Yes, our current agreement.
- expires at the end of the year, and with the operations of the Convention Center, they need to make
- sure they have contracts in place for things such as catering, audiovisual, and things like that. So
- we like to get this approved well before the end of the year. We've actually probably been working on
- this contract for six months, trying to figure out how to accommodate the transition that we see coming with the
- with the CIB and the completion of the expanded project and things like that. I think at the end of
- the day, we kind of came to the conclusion that those conversations really need to be happening between
- the CIB and the CBC and those groups. So we tried to keep the contract much the same as what it has
- been historically. We did make some changes to clean up some of the confusions that we think will help
- the future conversations between those two groups.
- the funding being the particular area that I think we probably hit the most because I've been looking
- at this contract for 15 years and I still didn't understand it as completely as I should have or needed
- to. So we kind of tried to make it a little bit clearer how the money flows from their operations as
- it goes into an account held by the Convention Center Management Company who pays the day-to-day expenses.
- And then after those are paid, it goes into the county fund, which is then used to pay the Convention
- Center management company their management fee. So these are all the revenues we're talking about with
- this contract originate from the use of the Convention Center. Any innkeepers tax or anything like that
- is dealt with a separate agreement with the Convention and Visitors Commission. So we kind of wanted
- to include language in there
- that said or that it's paid from from these funds or through that contract and and and the cbc is the
- party of that contract so we we just wanted to make it clear that this wasn't the sole funding sources
- for a lot of those things other than that i think the expiration date is three months after the expanded
- center is open and operating or five years whichever is sooner because we wanted to make sure that
- that there wasn't a gap anywhere in between if something were to happen. So our hope is that that three-month
- window really gives, and the remaining of the construction really gives the time for those conversations
- that happen between the CIB and the CVC. And CIB is Capital Improvement Board, CVC is Convention and
- Visitors Commission. Sometimes I talk in acronyms like
- everybody in the world knows, and I should know better. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Do you
- have any comments or questions? No, I'm very thankful for your clear explanation of that complicated
- arrangement. It's almost like a verbal flow chart. So thank you. I don't have any questions. I don't
- know if Ms. Coppock wants to speak at all. Sure. Thank you.
- I just wanted to say thank you for 35 years with the Convention Center, and there's been over 14,000
- events, over two and a half million people that have come through the doors. The ARPA funding was invaluable,
- and I think we're down to the wire on that. There's $10,000 left, so we anticipate wrapping that up
- pretty soon also.
- The local meetings, celebrations, not-for-profit fundraisers, visitor conferences, conventions. Just
- this week, for example, we've had Affleck with a team meeting. Sycamore Land Trust is this Saturday
- with their fundraiser. Cook Medical is there today. Indiana Hospital Association was there yesterday
- and today talking about trauma in the hospital arena. So it's just been really rewarding and economically
- valuable for the community.
- well and you know thank Jeff for the tediousness of this agreement but you know as we're getting ready
- for that next phase I think this will be helpful transition and
- We're looking forward to the new building being open February 27 and it's it's moving along quite quickly.
- We have a communications listserv that if anybody's interested in being on that they can contact us
- at info at Bloomington convention dot com and we can get them added for construction updates.
- But thank you. I really enjoyed working with all of you over the years. Thank you. We like working with
- you. Yeah. You've been an amazing steward of the property and a great face for conventions in our area.
- So thank you for all your hard work. And I know that construction brings new headaches.
- as much as it brings new promise. But I'm sure things will go well. We've got a good CIB, so that helps.
- All right. Let's see if 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 approving the Convention Center Management Agreement signify by saying aye. Aye.
- Motion carries to zero. Thank you. All right, next item, please. I would like to move approval for resolution
- 202538B regarding approving the issuance of a general obligation bond in an amount up to $6 million.
- I will second that. Mr. Cockrell. Yeah, and this is essentially
- a resolution that is very very similar to the one you passed a few weeks ago when we had a conversation
- with the county council and as they worked through their budget process some things were added to that
- and they're in the the only thing that changed is exhibit a and and it's the project list they added
- things such as clarifying that as sweet street sweeper and highway vehicles which
- I think would have been included in the general term vehicles, but just clarifying that and a couple
- other small ones, I will say since I put this on the agenda, working with the bond council
- and the commissioner staff, we also would like to add justice building remodel and repair and a courthouse
- to this list as well. I think I gave you a version of it with those bolded as addition. So I think when
- this gets approved, we'd ask that you add those in as well.
- I think that's a good point. So justice building remodel and repair refers to the Charlottes at low
- justice center. Court House refers to the historic
- right and we have not lost any items from the list which is which is wonderful okay great any comments
- or questions i know i think this is a just a technical clarification so yeah yeah so this is a new resolution
- rather than revising an existing resolution correct that's why it's a b yes it's a new one i would just
- wanted to make clear because when
- When the bonds get marketed and sold, they will ask for this resolution. And I wanted it to be a clean
- resolution. Great. Thank you. Appreciate that explanation. All right. Let's see if there's any public
- comment on the side and you raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none all those in favor approving resolution 2025-38B signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries
- to zero. Thank you and we'll go to the next item please. I would like to move approval for
- the VET environmental engineering LLC dehumidifier installation and long-term stewardship plan for the
- justice building.
- fund name cumulative capital, fund number 1138 in the amount of $44,067.65. I will second that. Ms.
- Purdy? Yes. This is as a result of the mold response and remediation process that occurred at the Justice
- Building in, I believe, August, September. And there's actually two parts to this. So this is the first
- part, because these are both flat
- fees. Based upon the information that was gathered during the August-September issues, primarily the
- issue with elevated relative humidity, I'm going to kind of read this from VET as being the primary
- cause of much of the identified biological growth. And elevated relative humidity is reportedly attributable
- to a poorly functioning
- or improperly calibrated HVAC system. And that was what we found is that the HVAC system, someone who
- shouldn't have changed the calibration caused all kinds of problems. That coupled with just the inefficiency
- of the building design, the aging infrastructure has all added to the elevated
- humidity that's within that particular building. So as a result of that, they are proposing the installation
- of dehumidifiers. And those were going to go into three stairwells. And anticipated that those will
- be on the third floor and three dehumidifiers on the third floor and three on the fifth floor. And then
- their condensate drain will be
- And that they're going to help us not only now but in
- we and staff are able to respond appropriately to water intrusions because it's mold and water are the
- two things that are the problem and we have problems with this building in that some of the windows
- on one of the sides of the building. They leak and that causes problems within the
- as it comes into the building and the floors. And so she's proposing or they're proposing kind of an
- oversight, it'd be a living document that will help us and everyone to understand the building systems,
- the operations and the ongoing challenges that we have. And she's identified, you know, that one of
- the things that we'll need to do is ensure that the windows are assessed on a
- regular basis to ensure water intrusion has not occurred. But that would be more coming from that particular
- plan as it becomes fully put together. And as I said, it's a living document. It will change and evolve
- as we learn and as we go. So that's the first part of this. Comments or questions? No, this sounds like
- it's really going to help.
- I just am mindful that there's a number of community members who think that this building is salvageable.
- And it just kills me to dump taxpayer money into this building because it's just a sunk cost. But it
- is necessary because we have staff and we have individuals in that building. And it's necessary. It's
- vital that we maintain that building until we have an alternative. And it's vital we have an alternative.
- So until that is here, we have to
- have these costs. But yes, thank you for that explanation. Yeah, and I think she had mentioned something
- about a mold-resistant paint that needs to go in stairwells, but that's something that Mr. Gardner and
- others can do.
- I think that's actually part of the second group or the second item I have on here. I don't think she
- identifies. She doesn't necessarily identify the paint per se, but there's a cleaner that is going to
- be used as part of this whole ongoing pack. I got it now. All right. And I just want to note as well
- that part of this issue, obviously it's
- you know, building design, building age. But part of this issue has to do with climate change as well.
- This is a resiliency issue because we experienced the highest humidity levels in decades, in decades,
- in Monroe County this past summer. So that's, you know, and that's not going to go away. So that's,
- that's an issue. So this is a one-time expense and makes total sense. Let's see if there's any public
- comment on this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium. All right, seeing none.
- All those in favor of approving the VET environmental engineering LLC dehumidifier installation long-term
- stewardship plan for the justice building signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item,
- please. I would like to move approval for the VET environmental engineering LLC consulting services
- fund named cumulative capital fund number 1138 in an amount not to exceed $134,986.68 per year.
- seconds, Ms. Purdy. So this is the second part of this proposed contract for you guys and that is there'll
- be ongoing mold inspection and that I want to also take from the report what it says or the proposal
- they're going to perform regular inspections of areas that were not included in the initial sampling
- events at the building
- And it will also include areas that had exhibited particularly problematic conditions prior
- to the remediation. So it's going to expand its approach of the building and then also focus on those
- areas that had had definite problems before. And they're going to do air samples within these spaces.
- And they're also going to do the tape lift surface samples of
- of within the facility. And then what they're going to do is they will, once they get those results,
- they're going to do an actual targeted remediation of those spaces. And they're going to ensure that
- there's confirmatory sampling, both obviously before and after that remediation has occurred. And so
- that is going to be going on if you're an agreement for each
- month, we have a not to exceed per month, which is what's listed in the agenda and the three different
- actions being the ongoing mold inspection, targeted remediation, and confirmatory sampling. Those all
- have a not to exceed number per month, but they total if it was to max out at that level.
- each month for $134,986.68. Thank you. And on this one, I would ask that you would include in your motion
- language that says that we are going to add our kind of boilerplate language for insurance reporting
- harassment that we use on our standard contracts to this. We've used this because this is ongoing. It's
- ongoing and it involves them in the building more and things like that. And it's not just installation of
- equipment. So I would ask that you add that to it. We've worked with this vendor before. They've seen
- that language before, so I'm not really worried about any concerns on their end. I just think it needs
- to be part of this agreement. So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we amend the contract
- to include the boilerplate language as Mr. Cockrell has outlined regarding discrimination in insurance
- and other key items that we always include. I second that motion.
- We have a motion to second. Any public comment on the revise or on the amend amendment to the motion.
- Now I'm going to call the roll on the amendment to the motion. All those in favor of amending the motion
- signify by saying aye. Aye.
- The amendment carries 2-0. Now we'll go back to the heart of the matter and see if you have comments
- or questions. I do not. Again, critical infrastructural expense. My question is if I would assume that
- two things.
- For the Charlotte Zillow Justice Building, I would assume that if an employee has a specific concern
- or question that that would then be funneled to vet by Mr. Gardner and his group. They should go through
- a kind of a chain of command. Got it. And not reach directly to vet. OK. Got it. Right. The other question.
- is what we're doing for other buildings, given the environment, given the situation in various buildings
- that we've seen, that we've dealt with. Are we going to see a contract for those other buildings? It's possible.
- We're kind of reactive at this point in time. I think the health building would be the next one on our
- list because we know there has been an issue of mold in that particular building. We have not had identified
- issues of mold in other buildings. People are not expressing what brought all this to our attention
- in the first place.
- We kind of need to get to take care of the problems that we do know that we have. And then after that,
- we will, I think, just as a prophylaxis, if you will, we will make sure that each building is, in fact,
- tested just as an ongoing basis. But that is not part of this particular contract. That will be forthcoming.
- Right. That's what I wanted.
- you know, we could probably get away with quarterly and in the most bill, you know, but but it's something
- I'd like us to do. Oh, it's definitely spoken about that. Perfect. I figured that that was where you
- guys would go. Yeah. Yeah. But just trying to eat this elephant one bite. Sure, sure, sure. No, no,
- no, for sure. Yeah, this is sort of the next step. I'm kind of over there and we're here. Got it.
- Thank you. I appreciate all the work.
- that's gone into this, which is quite a bit. And climate change isn't going away, so we were going to
- have to continue to keep our eyes on this as mold becomes more prevalent in the atmosphere around us
- in the summer months, especially. All right. Anything else? No, I just even noticed that mold numbers
- are higher this week, actually, because of the higher temperatures.
- Yeah. Yeah, lots of fun. Um, all right. So, uh, let's see if there's any public comment on this item.
- You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Uh, seeing none, all those in favor of approving
- the amended motion.
- for VET Environmental Engineering LLC consulting services for the Charlotte-Zitlow Justice Building.
- I'm just gonna add that in there. Signified by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Okay. Thank you.
- Good, good. Thank you. All right. We don't have any appointments today. Just to note that the Rural
- Housing Repair Program through ARPA is now being managed
- by the Bloomington Foundation. Contact your Township Trustee to assist you with the application process.
- Reminder, this is for homeowners who occupy their homes outside the city of Bloomington. Just a reminder
- to sign up for the Monroe County alert notification system.
- weather and health updates will be provided for you when you sign up. You can receive text emails and
- or phone calls. Belt suspenders and another belt. We are accepting applications for all boards
- and commissions. Go to our new website, in.gov slash county slash Monroe and take a look there again
- and note that we have not yet updated
- this is part of the process of migrating data. The board and commission lists are not yet updated. So
- if you're interested in something, apply. You never know. We do hold virtual office hours six times
- each month. Go to the calendar on our home page, iam.gov slash county slash Monroe, and check out the
- dates and times and join us via Teams for an interesting conversation.
- The next blood drives are Thursday, October 9th, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, October 10th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- These are at IVTech. Thanks, IVTech, for helping us with this. In room C130A and B, please
- make an appointment at redcross.org. We always need blood and blood products in our community.
- Anything else for the good of the order? No. All right. We do have a work session item. So I have to
- see what. 1038, can we come back at 1050, five zero for the work session item? Is that okay?
- Good, okay, excellent. Our next regular meeting is Thursday, October 9th, right here in the NatU Hill
- Room in your favorite team's channel. With that, we are adjourned. Thanks, Katz. Thanks, TSD.