meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It is Thursday, October 23rd. I apologize for the
late start. We have Commissioner Jones joining us on Teams, I believe. Yes, and we have Commissioner
Madeira present here in the NetU Hill Room. I'm Commissioner Thomas. I'm here. And with that, 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. We also stand in support of our county public
school systems, both RBB and MCCSC. Thank you so much. And with that, we will move on to a proclamation
for Youth Hope Month regarding youth homelessness, outreach, prevention, and education.
Whereas the future wellbeing of our nation is dependent on a value we place on our young people, and
the prevalence of runaway and homelessness among youth is staggering, with studies suggesting that every
year 4.2 million people ages 13 to 25 endure some form of homelessness. Runaway youth are often expelled
from their home, have experienced trauma, struggle to meet basic needs,
and are at an increased danger of falling into high-risk situations, including human trafficking, and
may be ineligible or unable to access adequate medical or mental health resources. Whereas the Youth
Service Bureau of Monroe County is working to raise awareness, support, and resources for young people
in the community, effective programs,
supporting runaway youth and assisting youth and their families in providing safe and stable homes succeed
because of partnerships created among families, youth-based advocacy organizations, community-based
human service agencies, law enforcement schools, faith-based organizations and businesses. If all of
us work together, we can prevent the situations that compel youth to run away from home.
and encourage all residents to appreciate the role that we can all play in advocating for and providing
safe alternatives to this vulnerable population of young people. Whereas the National Runaway Safe Line
is honoring November as Youth Help Month to raise awareness of the issues facing runaway and homeless
youth, to educate the public about solutions and the role they can play
in ending youth homelessness. Now, therefore, we, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, hereby proclaim
the month of November 2025 as Youth Hope Month in Monroe County. And that is proclaimed today, this
23rd day of October, 2025. Thank you all so much. We do have the proclamations, Ms. Ridge.
I don't know if you want to say anything.
Hi, I'm Sarah Jamieson with the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County. I'm the public program coordinator
and I'm here to also introduce Jade Passwader. She is our new safe place manager and she's been doing
an awesome job and super excited about National Hope Month and we just really appreciate you working
with us and we're looking forward to the courthouse lighting up green in November. We'll have signs
up and we'll have social media posts too about different ways to raise awareness. Thank you, welcome.
Yes, thank you.
now move on. Thank you, Ms. Ridge. Extra work, sorry. Thank you. And we will now move on to department
updates. I believe we have Ms. Kelly joining us from the Health Department. Good morning, Commissioners.
According to the Indiana Department of Health dashboard, as of October 21st, emergency department visits
for COVID-like illness have decreased
and wastewater concentrations have decreased slightly. Flu activity across the state is still minimal.
RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, but can be serious in
infants and older adults. Vaccination can prevent illness caused by RSV, and it is approved for pregnant
individuals 32 to 36 weeks of pregnancy,
Infants age months or younger, if not protected by a maternal vaccine and adults 60 and older. The public
health clinic does have vaccines available. You can call 812-353-3244 for an appointment. Thank you
so much. Comments or questions? Commissioner Jones? No, I don't. Thank you. Commissioner Madeira? No,
thank you.
I don't have any either. Thank you so much. Does any other department have an update for us? Raise your
hand on teams or come to the podium.
Hi, Martha Miller, Monroe County Soil and Water. I'm not on the actual agenda. I was gonna do a public
comment, but I'll just do it real quick here. I wanna just express a thank you to the commissioners
and all of my fellow coworkers throughout as we are in a strange time for governmental practices. And
we are temporarily housed at 501 North Morton in a conference room. And I just wanna truly just say
thank you. We have been welcomed, we have had
massive support from all of our other departments around us and it's just a good feeling. So thank you.
Great. Thank you so much. Displaced, but still with us working hard. Thank you. All right. Any other
departments have an update for us? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next agenda item.
which is public comment. This is for items that are not on our agenda. We ask commenters to limit their
time to three minutes per person and please share your name and county of residence. There will be a
timer on the screen, TSD, if you would please. Thank you so much. Good morning.
Good morning commissioners. Uh, this is Chris from the greater Bloomington chamber of commerce. Uh,
tonight or this morning, I don't even know what day it is. Um, I'm going to have my success school hat.
I, our foundation arm, our feel good arm of the chamber is having its career cruise two weeks from today.
Um, that's November six. I know that's commissioner time, but we're inviting all of the county departments
to take part in it. This is our third annual,
version of this where we bring in all 7th and 8th graders, not all either 7th or 8th graders from all
of the RBB MCCSE schools and they go to each port in the Monroe Convention Center and
with their passport, get stamped and learn about different wonderful careers right here in our county.
The sheriff's office was there last year and it is a lot of fun and I'm encouraging departments to set
sail with us November 6th. Look for an email from me or one of my fine fellows at the chamber.
You can also chamber bloomington.org. It's on our events calendar. You can sign up there. You have any
questions for me? We'd love to see you. It's 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on November 6th. That's at the Monroe
Convention Center. Let's see you two weeks from today. Thanks. Sounds good. Thank you. Any other public
comment for items not on our agenda?
Seeing none, we'll move on to the next agenda item, please. I would like to move approval of the minutes
for October 9th, 2025. I will second that. Anybody have comments, corrections, or edits? No? Okay. Mr.
Cockrell, will you please call the roll on approval of minutes for October 9th, 2025? Commissioner Thomas. Yes.
Commissioner Jones. I believe Commissioner Jones may be having technical issues. I believe she is.
Oh dear. Yes. Motion two to zero with one technical problem. Hopefully Commissioner Jones can log back
in to join us.
All right, let's move on to the next agenda item, please. I would like to move approval of the claims
docket for accounts payable for October 23rd, 2025, and for payroll for October 17th, 2025. Thank you
so much. Good morning. Tell us all about it, please. Good morning. The accounts payable claims docket
for October 23rd, 2025 totals $11,262,064.74.
This includes all emergency claims and adjustments. The payroll docket for October 17,
2025 totals $1,579,540.45 in direct costs, and the remaining $683,308.46 were for indirect costs for
a grant total of $2,206,605.66.
Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madeira? I have none, thank you. I don't see
that Commissioner Jones is back. I don't have any either. Let's see if there's any public comment on
this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
Since Commissioner Jones is not back online yet, I'll go ahead and call the question on the approval
of the claims docket. All those in favor of the claims docket accounts payable October 23rd and payroll
October 17, 2025, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. I will note for the record that
We have received a report from the treasurer for September of 2025. And with that, we will go ahead
and move on to new business, please. I would like to move approval for the town of Eltsville MOU for
the high tech crimes unit. Fund name, high tech crimes unit, fund number 9159 in the amount of $285,000.
I will second that. Ms. Hamlin is joining us via team. Hello, commissioners. Good morning. Can you hear
me okay? We sure can. Thank you. Great. This is a request for approval and signature on an MOA between
the Town of Ellitsville and our high tech crimes unit.
Ellitsville Police Department now houses our high-tech crime unit. This has been a very successful
partnership. Several months ago, you signed the agreement, the grant agreement that brings the funding
from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council to the high-tech crime unit. And this is just an agreement
between the town of Ellitsville and the county to house the project there.
Great, thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Redire? No, I just think it's really cool
that we have this here. I'm delighted that we have this available as a resource and I really enjoy funding
it, so. Yeah, it's a great project. Thank you for bringing this forward. Is there 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 town of Ellsville MOA for high tech crimes unit signify
by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you. Thank you. Next item please. I would like to
move approval for the ratification of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute grant for major
crash investigation team, fund name, number to be determined, grant amount 43,900. I will second that.
We did hear this at our work session. Oh, it looks like we got it back. Excellent. We did hear this
at our work session two weeks ago. I don't know that anyone is here to present on it, but I,
was given instructions for signing this via DocuSign, but was told that I can't sign it until the auditor
signs it. And I haven't received it back yet. So hopefully, that will get done. All right. Do you have
any comments or questions on this? No. Again, I just think that it's a wonderful resource, and again,
an essential resource, in fact. So yeah. It's a great thing to have.
Commissioner Jones, did you have any comments or questions? No, I don't, but I'm not going to be able
to vote on it because my cameras refusing to work. Oh dear. Okay. All right. Well, thank you. I'm glad
you're here. Yes, I'll stick around. Maybe it'll come on. Thank you. All right. Any public comment on
this item? Raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of ratifying the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute grant for Major
Crass Investigation Team, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please. I would
like to move approval for Reed and Sons construction, Carson Athletic Complex contract number two, change
order number five, fund names, parks, non-reverting and county general.
fund numbers 1178, 1179, and 1000, in an amount not to exceed $49,370.58. I will second that. Good morning,
Mr. Robertson. Good morning. OK, so change order number five to contract number two of the Carson Athletic
Complex project. Essentially, this is a modification to the electrical plans that will ultimately serve
as field number 12, which is in the northwest corner of the park.
also why it's on contract number two. And to make a long story short, so I don't get too far into the
weeds here, some of the electrical components that are located at the north side are not suitable for
Duke Energy to connect their service. So we have to move those components from the north end of the
facility to the south end, which ultimately Duke will install two transformers and connect their service
on the south end.
Simple enough, just quite a bit of material and labor involved there, which is what we see in the cost.
I also wanted to point out, and it was mentioned, but since there are a lot of different funding mechanisms
with this project, the park board did approve using our non-reverting funds for this expense. So it's
not a request for additional funds, just to proceed with the change order. Excellent. Thank you so much.
That was a question I'd sent on email. Thank you for that.
Any comments or questions, Commissioner Jones? No, just happy this is moving forward. Agreed. Yeah.
Commissioner Madeira? Nope, just sounds like one of those things that we have to go through in order
to complete the project.
I would say it's shocking, but that would be it. All right. The cost is shocked. 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.
All right, seeing none.
All those in favor of approving the reading sun's construction cars athletic complex contract number
two change order number five signify by saying aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you. Thanks for being
here. All right. Next item, please. I would like to move approval for section four F temporary occupancy
letter approval.
I will second that, Mr. Cockerill and or Ms. Ridge. Born happy to talk about this. Essentially what
section four F is, is whenever we're doing a federally funded project that's going to impact a park
or park like setting, they want to make sure that any intrusion on that is minor and will be replaced
at the end of time. And since you own the Karst
or the limestone greenway there. And this project is going to have to affect a little bit of it. I think
they're going to raise it a little bit and repave about 40 square feet or something. So relatively minor.
This just indicates of where they were worked a alternative route during that less than 90 day period
of that construction activity and that you guys are aware of it and are okay with that. And this is
the Dillman Bridge
replacement project that we're talking about. So when they replace the Dillman bridge, there's going
to be a minor alter alteration to the route for the limestone greenway. But at the end of the day with
it, it will be put back into place in as good or a better condition than what it is right now. Great.
Did you have anything to add, Ms. Ridge? No. Okay. Uh, comments or questions, commissioner Madeira?
Nope. Delighted that the access will be there. Absolutely. Commissioner Jones, comments or questions?
I'm just happy to see some progress with this. Or sure. I agree. Thanks everyone for working on this
important project. 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 section four F temporary occupancy letter signify by
saying aye. Aye. Motion carries two zero. All right. Next item, please. I'd like to move approval for
American structure point incorporated agreement for the Fullerton Pike FEMA floodplain as built and
modeling fund names, cumulative capital and county general fund numbers, 1138 and 1000 in an amount
not to exceed $50,000.
I will second that. Director Nestor Dillon from our planning department. Good morning. Thank you for
being here. Good morning. Thanks for having me. And also we have Lisa Ridge to fill us in and then Tammy
Biermans also online our floodplain administrator.
So this is a proposal for a contract with American Structure Point. Lisa and Paul Satterly with the
Highway Department have been incremental in helping us get together with American Structure Point and
look over a contract that's at a not to exceed amount of $50,000. Basically, what this contract helps
us to do is to get the necessary data associated with the completion of Fullerton Pike. We need some
hydrology modeling, which
is not just
typical as-builts of the bridge. So it went over the FEMA floodplain and we need better maps now that
the bridge is in. That will help us in the future if people want to put in new structures surrounding
the bridge to know whether they need flood insurance or move it or whether it can proceed. So we're
working with the commissioner's office. Angie's been very helpful. So we're looking to have $44,000
potentially under cumulative capital and then we've moved $6,000 just
from our general fund, from our unused budget from this year to hopefully encumber and have for next
year under this contract if approved by you and the council. All right, thank you so much. Thank you
for working on the funding issue. That's always something that's important. Comments or questions,
Commissioner Jones? No, I don't. Commissioner Madeira? No, I have none.
Ms. Ridge or Ms. Beerman, do you have anything you want to add? Nothing? That I know of. I know this
is a new requirement over the last couple of years. It goes with the CLOMAR permit and the LOMAR permit
to have a letter of map revision through FEMA. So we're just been following all the necessary requirements
to be in compliance with that. Excellent.
Thank you so much. I think the timeline is early 2026 would be the timeline for the contract completion.
Thank you so much. Oh, and commissioner Jones is back online and on camera. Yay. All right. Okay. 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, Mr. Cockrell, since we have Commissioner Jones back on camera, would you please call the
roll? Commissioner Thomas? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes. Commissioner Madeira? Yes. Motion is approved,
three to zero. Thank you so much. All right, next item, please. I would like to move approval for in-dot
change order number two for the bicentennial pathway.
Fund name, cumulative capital, fund number 1138 in the amount of $480,001.08. We skipped one. Let's
go ahead and do that. That's okay. Let's go ahead and do that's item G. We'll go ahead and do that one.
And we'll turn to Ms. Ridge.
So we are in the process of trying to get everything closed out for this project. It takes a while.
So this is a change order actually to begin that process. So it's a negative $481,001.08. So that's
how much the project came in under construction cost. When it's said and done and everything is finalized
and audited,
audited Monroe County should receive 20% of that amount back because we pay a 20% local match. So this
is just actually trying to finalize this project. And as you can see, it's two years after construction.
So it takes a while. It does, it does. And so the county capital fund, thank goodness, will eventually
be getting back 96,000
dollars and 21 cents. Yeah. Um, thank you. Comment. Thank you. Uh, commissioner, none. Um, commissioner
Jones, comments or questions. It's just always nice to get money back rather than sending it out. It's
a nice change.
Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand in teams or come to the podium.
All right. Mr. Cockrell, will you please call the roll on in dot change order number two for the bicentennial
pathway? Commissioner Thomas. Yes. Commissioner Jones. Yes. Commissioner Madeira.
Yes. Motion is approved three to zero. All right, thank you so much. Now we'll go back to item F please.
Yes, I'd like to move approval for the second item that said American Structure Point Incorporated Agreement
for Construction Inspection Services for Roar Road Bridge number 75. Fund name cumulative bridge, fund
number 1135 in an amount not to exceed $47,901.31. All right, I will second that. Thank you so much.
Ms. Ridge. So this contract is for part-time construction inspection services. We expect construction
to go after April 1st. The project was awarded to CLR construction contractors this past fall. And I
don't think there's anything else to add. This is just a locally funded project. There's no federal
aid dollars. There's no match. So
just want to throw that out there. This will be completely on Monroe County and local funds. Yeah. Can
you provide a little info about where the roar road bridges? Yeah, it is by Sarah road, just west of
that intersection. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Um, comments or questions, commissioner Jones.
No, I don't. Commissioner Madeira? No, thank you. All right. I don't either. 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, Mr. Cockrell, will you please call the roll on American Structure Point Inc. agreement
for construction inspection services, railroad bridge number 75. Commissioner Thomas. Yes. Commissioner
Jones. Yes. Commissioner Madeira. Yes. Motion is approved, three to zero. Thank you so much. All right.
Let's move on to item H, please.
I would like to move approval for ordinance 2025-38, Petra PUD outline plan amendment one. I will second
that. Oh, Mr. Sean Smith from planning is online. Please tell us all about it. Good morning, commissioners.
I'm going to share my screen here and start the show.
All right, so this is concerning the Petra PUD Outline Plan Amendment 1. This concerns 129.79 plus or
minus acre parcel, and this is located in the northern part of the county in Washington Township Section
19 at 1392 West Dittimore Road. It is close to the border between Washington Township and Bean Blossom Township.
So I will continue through here. So the request here is to amend that outline plan, specifically conditions
number two and number three. And this would allow for up to 30,000 square feet of developed area and
for the existing driveway and parking areas to remain paved. So this came to us in the form of a proposed
1,688 square foot addition that is to be added to the
Existing facility I'm told it will be an extension of their library. So just some background on this
request. So the board of commissioners ordinance number 2001 dash 30. Condition number 2 had stated
that the total developed area for this development shall be limited to 15,000 square feet. So for this
request, the petitioner is seeking to increase that from 15,000 to 30,000.
and that would allow them enough room for the expansion of their existing facility, but also room to
grow in the future should the current property owners or a future property owner decide to go through
with that addition. However, just for right now, the petitioners don't have any current plans to expand
beyond this proposed addition. And just some background on the zoning.
What the petitioner is proposing is for 30,000 square feet developed area. Whereas if it were. It's
underlying zoning district, the forest residential 5, they could be allowed to have up to 55,000 square
feet. So what the petitioner is, you know, hoping to request here is that because they're requesting
a less square footage limitation that. That might be approved and then condition number 3.
which states that the driveway and in parking areas shall be gravel. The petitioners are seeking to
just strike that condition entirely. And we'll talk more about that as the presentation goes on. So
this PUD was approved by the Board of Commissioners on June 1st, 2001. And the purpose was
for the development of a research facility
for the nonprofit organization known as Friends of Craft. So that's Center for Research into
the Anthropological Foundations of Technology. For the public's reference, this facility is otherwise
known as the Stone Age Institute. So the purpose of this research facility is not only to conduct research,
but they also do prepare publications, as well as house their large private library.
And you'll note as part of this request, it is to extend or add on to their vast collection in their
research library. So did want to make some brief points here. So while the facility does collaborate
with Indiana University, it is not owned by the university. So they are completely autonomous. It's
privately funded.
And the original PUD plans did offer the possibility of the directors living on site. However, through
the development of our residents on site. However, the directors did opt to purchase an adjacent property
and that is actually currently where the directors live. So there are no future plans for that, at least
right now. And
the underlying zoning district at the time was forest reserve, which was under the prior 1997 zoning
ordinance, which did not allow for a research facility youth. So that is why the current property owners
had sought a rezone to what we call planned unit development or a PUD for short. And that allowed them
the freedom to develop this research facility.
I have on the screen here highlighted the two original conditions of approval under the original outline
plan. The two highlighted are the problem areas. The first one being that the total developed area is
limited to 15,000 square feet and the third one being that the driveway and parking areas shall be gravel.
On the screen here, I just have a snippet of what the original ordinance looked like. At least as of
June 1st, 2001,
The main takeaway from this is just that the research facility was not a permitted use. But with the
original PUD approval, all the uses you see on the screen would be allowed to be developed in this area
in addition to the research facility if the property owners or a future owner saw fit. So some discussion into the
driveway and parking areas. So as I previously stated, the driveway and parking areas were supposed
to remain gravel. At some point between 2005 and 2010, the owners did opt to pave over the driveway
and parking areas. So in 2005, on the screen, the bottom of the screen, you can kind of see there's,
it looks like
There might be some paving starting or had just begun, but by 2010, it was very pronounced.
And then 2024, which would be the latest aerial imagery that we have. You can definitely see that it
looks like there was some repaving. So,
This would otherwise be a direct violation of the PUD ordinance, which is why the petitioners are here
in hopes to have that condition removed from the overall outline plan. And then on the screen before
you is just a zoning map. So you'll see that in gray represents the petition site. So it is
unique in its area, but the area overall is incredibly rural in nature. And then on the screen here
is just a brief snippet of the petitioners proposed development plans. Here they have the location of
the drive, so it is a fairly long drive, but
I think that was intentional because you cannot actually see the facility from the roadway itself. But
on the screen here just represents the extent of the driveway and parking areas that they would. Prefer
to keep paved if the commissioners vote on that today.
Then the second page here provides a little more detail in regards to their proposed addition. Their
proposed addition is located, I'm not sure if you can see my cursor here, but it is on the south side
of the building here noted by this rectangle. The proposed addition is 1,688 square feet. If they were
to build that today,
it would put them at approximately 15,860 square feet, which would be greater than the 15,000 square
foot threshold that was approved under the original 2001 ordinance. Then they did go ahead and label
an auxiliary garage building parking lot and just added some dates of when the pavement had occurred.
They do have an existing septic system that was
Installed on the property and the original plans did notes. And at the time, it was called a sinkhole
cons conservency area. So those have been labeled on the plot as well. The stormwater program manager
did not foresee an issue with their proposed addition with regards to impacting those sinkholes.
And then on the screen are just some site photos that I took during my site visit to the facility. I
mentioned previously, you cannot see the facility from the roadway. So the images on top would be reflective
of that statement. And then they do have a three, looks like a three car garage on the property. And
then the main facility shown on the bottom right hand side of the screen.
And then the top two images here, you'll notice that the area has been staked out. So they did that.
So it could help show the commissioners exactly the extent of the structure that's going in. So it does
not appear to otherwise have any adverse environmental impacts or anything like that.
These are the construction plans that the petitioner submitted along with their request. So, the main
takeaway is that they do appear to be staying with the architectural style of the building.
And planning staff is supportive of this petition. They did recommend a positive recommendation to the
county commissioners based on the fact or I should say conditioned on the fact that the uses shall be
limited to the friends of craft research facility or a research facility of a similar nature and uses
permitted in the forest reserve zone in the agricultural residential uses subcategories of table two
dash one, which was that table I showed earlier.
permitted land uses from ordinance 1997-36, number two, that the total developed area shall be limited
to 30,000 square feet, and three, that this petition shall comply with the requirements of the Monroe
County Highway and Drainage Engineer Reports. At their September 25th, 2025 meeting, the Monroe County
Planning Commission did vote six to zero to forward a positive recommendation to the county commissioners
with those three conditions outlined in the staff report. And this concludes my presentation. Thank
you so much, Mr. Smith. Great work. Very clearly explained. Appreciate that. Let's see if there's any
comments or questions for you, Mr. Smith. Commissioner Jones.
Well, I really don't have any problem with the paving rather than the gravel since it's my understanding
that once gravel has been driven on a bit, it really is not that much different than paving.
And in general, I'm very supportive of this. Do you know if it's ever open to the public or is this
entirely a private research facility?
I do not know for sure if it is open to the public. I will state that it is gated. So you do have to,
I had to ring in when I arrived. But I'm sure the petitioner or the petitioner's representatives who's
here, I believe online would be able to answer that. Thank you. All right. Comments or questions,
Commissioner Madera?
No, I think it was very thoroughly explained and I have no further questions. Great. So we do have Ms.
Kropinski online. I believe petitioners are also here in the NETU Hill Room. And so if you'd like to
offer an answer to Commissioner Jones's question, but also anything you wish to present or clarify,
we would welcome you to do so at this point.
You will have to unmute Ms. Kropinski. Your hands raised. We see you. There you are. Okay. Thank you
very much. I see Nick has made it to the podium, so perhaps I should let him speak. I could not see
that on screen.
Good morning. My name is Nicholas Toth and my wife, Kathy Schick, we're the co-founders and co-directors
of the Stone Age Institute. And as I understand it, by zoning, we're not open to the public, but by
special invitation. So we've hosted hundreds of visitors, both university and Bloomington community
over the last 20 years. Thank you. Is there anything else you wanted to add about this project?
Mr. Toath, Ms. Kropinski. And most of our research is done in East Africa and the Republic of Georgia,
some of the earliest stone age sites in the world. But the reason for this expansion, we've already
inherited one of our Berkeley professors' libraries. And we're about to inherit our other Berkeley
professors' library, which is 6,000 books and 100,000 reprints. So we will have compactors.
in this facility to store these things. And we will have the best library in the world for what we do.
Wow, impressive, impressive. All right, does anybody else wish to speak in favor of this petition? You
can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
Does anybody wish to speak in opposition to this petition? You may raise your hand on teams or come
to the podium here in the NETU Hill Room. Okay, see back to the board for any last comments or questions.
Anything come up, Mr. Commissioner Madera? Nope, I have nothing. Okay, Commissioner Jones.
No I don't. Now this is an impressive research facility and I'm grateful that you're here in Monroe
County. I'm not typically a fan of when projects are have gone through a PUD project process and the
owner slash operator makes a decision to make a change without coming
before us uh that's that's related specifically to the gravel slash paving of the driveway it's i know
there's a belief out there it's just better to do it and ask forgiveness than to ask permission but
um in the future um you know like you did with this building please ask permission we're a reasonable
bunch that's okay that's okay it's it's been a long time since the original pud was
was created, and that can be forgotten as to what all of the conditions are. So I don't claim
any intentionality in your action. But I am glad you came here. And it's really wonderful to hear that
you have such a great expansion of your collection. That is so impressive. Thank you for that. Being
good stewards and caretakers of this
is a vital resource. And there are three conditions that are attached to this relating to the use. The
limitation of 30,000 square feet total developed area, but on 29 acres, 29 plus acres, that's not terrible.
following the requirements of Monroe County Highway and the Drainage Engineer Report. So those are part
of this motion just for the record. So with that, Mr. Cockrell, will you please call the roll on Ordinance
2025-38? Commissioner Thomas? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes.
Commissioner Madeira. Yes. Motion is approved. Three to zero. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for
being here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Karpinski. Good to see you. All right. I don't
have a ton of items here, but I would just remind the public that the Board of Commissioners does have
office hours.
throughout the month, every month, six times a month. Just go to the calendar on our website and take
a look and join us for a conversation. Had a great conversation Tuesday. That was good. So while you're
there, recommend that you sign up for the Resident Alert.
notification system where you can be contacted via text email and or phone and also a reminder that
we do have board and commission appointments that will be coming up and as our website continues to
be updated don't worry about looking at how many members are
uh, expired members, um, tasked with are expiring and, and all that. Just if you're interested,
please apply. That's all I can tell you. Um, the next, uh, blood drives that we're co-sponsoring, uh,
with Ivy Tech and the Red Cross, Wednesday, November 12th, 2025, 10 a.m. to three Thursday, November 13th,
from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. And again, this is at Ivy Tech, 200 Daniels Way, room C130A and B. Please go to
redcross.org to make an appointment. Anything else for the good of the order?
Just a quick note that on November 13th from 8 to 4, we're going to have the Monroe County Childhood
Conditions Summit in the Monroe Convention Center. That's also always a wonderful event to attend. Yeah,
it is really good. Great. Thank you so much. Anything Commissioner Jones to add? No, I don't. All right.
Well, we do have
Our next meeting is October 30th, right here in the Net Your Hill Room at 10 a.m., but we do have a
work session agenda. Can we come back at 11.15 for that work session? Is that okay with everyone?
All right, all right, good. Well, with that, we are,
Thank you everyone. Be well.