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.