- Good morning. I'm going to call to order this meeting in Monroe County Board of Commissioners. I will
- note for the record that Commissioner Madeira and myself are here and present in the Natu Hill room
- and that Jones is not available today. We'll begin by reading 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, and we also stand in support of our county public school systems,
- both RBB and MCCSC. And with that, we have our first agenda item. I'm going to move
- to ratify the emergency order of last week. I second that. We have a motion and we have a second.
- I don't, is it in the packet? It is. Okay, awesome. Any public comment on this item?
- Good morning. Good morning. For the record, my name is David Henry. I'm a resident of Van Deeren Township.
- I also serve on the Menor County Council as a member at large. I want to thank the Board of Commissioners
- for ratifying the state of emergency for the county. It is the first step.
- required for eligibility, as we know, for state and federal disaster assistance. As the public may know,
- both Governor Braun and President Trump have already declared a state of emergency for the state of
- Indiana. This is our step to get in line for that process, as we learned in county council on Tuesday
- from Director Ridge that
- about $300,000 in incurred costs to the county for the removal of snow over the snow emergency means
- that I'm hopeful that we're eligible for funding and reimbursement from either the state or federal
- government. This is, I know, sometimes a lottery we play, but it's one that is important. So thank you
- for ratification. I wanted to say that emergencies we know expose vulnerability in our community. Anytime
- that we have something that happens, we pull back the blanket and see that we may have some challenges
- in how we address
- things in our community. I've appeared in this room a few times in the past as a citizen, as a practitioner
- academic at Indiana University on emergency management, and as a council member. And when we've had
- the derecho, the tornado, the cybersecurity incident, all these cases expose opportunities for us to
- grow and learn from the way we conduct our business in times of crisis. I want to focus on two things
- with the moment I have. First is the access and public safety and our private developments in the county.
- One of the challenges I think we've seen in media and in meetings is that we know that there are 60
- developments in the county that are in various stages of build out and require some technical work between
- our plan commission our county legal and how we address private road access. It's not really about contract
- work between developers in the county at this point it's about the humans that live in those neighborhoods.
- Humans that have access to public safety in times of crisis. I think there's other people in the audience
- that will speak to that. And what an emergency order does in order to make sure we can get public safety
- access to those communities. I also want to talk about second and third order effects when we have to,
- when we can't plow certain neighborhoods. With 60 developments in the county, I came to learn that the
- reason why our schools were closed, our public schools were closed for three days is they couldn't get
- buses into them.
- which means that children that rely on free and reduced lunches didn't get them and families had to
- rearrange schedules to be at home and lose wages during that time as well. If all that relates to how
- we work through our zoning and development in the Plan Commission, I think we need to revisit some of
- those issues or look at ways that we can put a lien on property owners and developers to plow property.
- So I'm sure there'll be other
- comments as we go. But thank you for getting to work on this. And I look forward to working with the
- commissioners in the capacity of being an EMAC member to answer some of these questions when it's warmer.
- So we're prepared next time. Thank you. All right. With that, we'll go ahead and take a vote to ratify
- the emergency order. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries, 2-0.
- Uh, now we move on to department updates. We will begin with, uh, Ms. Kelly. I know she. Yeah, sorry.
- Good morning, commissioner. According to the Indiana department of health as of January 27th emergency
- department visits for COVID like illness remains stable. Waste water concentrations are trending down.
- According to data by wastewater scan, we are seeing high levels of flu and RSV. The health department
- is still transitioning our vaccination services. Currently, the public can reach the Morgan County Health
- Department for vaccines by calling 765-342-6621. All right. Thank you so much. Comments or questions?
- Commissioner Madura? No. Glad to hear that progress is being made on those transitions. Thank you so much.
- Thanks for working on that. It's really important to bring that back to Monroe County. Thank you.
- All right. Next department update will be from the Highway Department. Ms. Ridge. Good morning. I'll
- just read a statement that I had read at the council meeting, given an update for the snow event that
- we had this past weekend.
- So I want to provide an update after the snow event. Our crews began at 5 p.m. on Saturday evening and
- we sent them home on Monday evening at 5 p.m.
- We had approximately 45 employees working during this time from management to mechanics, equipment operators,
- and truck drivers. We rotated crews consistently so that we could provide rest for our crews when appropriate
- and had assistance, but we also had assistance available 24-7 throughout this time. The average snowfall
- across the county was 12 to 16 inches. The crew will be plowing all week trying to widen the roadways.
- With extreme cold temperatures, the melting will be a slow process. We will continue to haul in more
- materials and be ready for the next storm event. I personally think our crew did an excellent job with
- the snowfall that we experienced. The cost of the event from Saturday to Monday for labor equipment
- materials was $297,812.07. I also want to provide just a little information about snow removal and private
- roads. Monroe County Highway Department receives their funding from Motor Vehicle Highway Administration
- distribution. One of the factors that is part of this calculation is the road mileage that is maintained
- by the county. When we officially accept a road for future maintenance it is sent to the state who then
- adds this to our funding. Private roads do not bring any funding to the county highway until it's accepted.
- We are very restricted on what our funds can be used for but most importantly it must be a county accepted road.
- We have multiple subdivisions in this county that are working along with the planning department that
- includes issues of unfinished subdivisions, and we would be happy to share the list with anybody. It
- could be a whole subdivision or a phase of a subdivision. It could be unfinished roads, trees, sidewalks,
- ADA, curb ramps. There's many reasons why a developer has not finished the subdivision or just simply
- walked away. When a developer is approved for a subdivision within the county,
- Part of that agreement is that they will provide snow removal and all other maintenance until it is
- accepted by the county. It is in their official agreement. I have nothing but sympathy for the homeowners
- that are not aware that they might be living on a private road. We are unable to maintain all of these
- subdivisions with private roadways. If you take over the snow plowing, which again, we're not allowed
- to use our resources on private roads, it only makes the matter worse, giving developers more incentive
- to not finish their improvements.
- This has been an ongoing issue in the 38 years that I have worked in this county. We do have some great
- developers in Monroe County, but as always, you always have a few of those bad apples. I hope there
- can be a solution to this moving forward and it would make things a lot easier on homeowners and Monroe
- County staff. I do want to add that over the past probably five or six years that I have taken over
- more portion of the department. We haven't accepted any private roads, not any unfinished subdivisions
- and we stick to that until it's completed. We've worked with approximately 10 subdivisions that their
- developer did not finish the subdivision and we helped them get that subdivision completed with their
- funds or what was left on bonds and got the road accepted into the county as we had always
- promised when the road was finished. We are currently working with some subdivisions that have private
- phases working and we did bids help put bids together and contractors and things. We also provide resources
- to these private roads that we can offer as private contractors. We send the list every year to private
- roads residents so that they can
- hire a contractor and be able to provide snow removal on that private road. That is pretty much the
- link that we can do on these private areas. Thank you so much Ms. Ridge and big kudos to the crews and
- if anybody wants to complain about the width of roadways or that there's still a nice little patch of
- snow here or there,
- I will tell you the county roads look better than many I've seen around and it's impossible in this
- cold weather to make this pristine because the salt only works to a certain temperature plus there's
- also of course the salt shortage that we across the country are contending with. I'm not sure where
- it all went but
- you know, the cold weather, the cold air is not going to be very helpful. And then next week, when we
- do have above freezing temperatures, we'll all be wearing shorts and excited and playing outside. But
- even with that, when we have above freezing during the day, it drops below freezing at night. These
- rows will all be
- thawing and refreezing. We're going to have potholes galore. We can already see that writing on the
- wall. So we're battling Mother Nature. Mother Nature always wins, at least in the short term. And hopefully,
- in the long term, we will prevail.
- But I really do want to thank you and Toby Turner. And your crews are amazing. They're just amazing.
- And it was scheduled well. It really made a ton of sense. So big thanks from all of us. And I don't
- know if Commissioner Madeira has anything she wants to add. Thank you so much to all of the county employees
- that worked so hard.
- Also, do we have any updates on when we might get additional resources in case we get additional winter
- weather? We actually had more salt delivered this week, so we're good back on salt. Sand is probably
- about, I think we have, we're about half. Of course, it's frozen, so you can't haul any in.
- we'll be as ready as we can. We always that's what we do after and this is a this what we had over the
- weekend was a major storm event. It's not something that happens every year in Monroe County. So it's
- it's tricky on where do we push the snow. When's the snow going to melt? We have you know people complaining
- of how high the snow that you know maybe the state has pushed it in at an intersection, but
- Again, the tricky part is where do you put all that snow to get it out of the road? So there's a lot
- of different hurdles when you're dealing with this type of snow event. Yes, excellent. Well, thank you
- so very much. I also want to say I appreciate the work that you've been doing all along. I mean, it
- wasn't just the storm. You get calls from private
- folks who live on private roads. This isn't the first time that's ever happened. And I really appreciate
- that you've worked with them and provided them with potential agencies, contractors, people they can
- hire. What happens in planning is we are between the proverbial rock and a hard place because developers
- will come in and say, well, I could do this development cheaper
- the roads are private. If. I don't if the roads are private. Um and the assumption being that, of course,
- that savings will be passed on to homeowners. Um who would then need to pay into an H away or have to
- club in together in some informal
- If we, on the other hand, require every single subdivision to have county road acceptance, meaning a
- certain width, meeting guidelines regarding curbs and curbs and everything under the sun, that cost
- does get passed along.
- and developers will claim that we're over regulating them. So it is certainly not anything that we should
- lay blame on the highway department for sure. They've done nothing wrong. In fact, they've gone above
- and beyond to help people understand how they can manage this.
- It certainly could be that the Plan Commission and the Board of Commissioners should, maybe we should
- only allow developments where the roads can be accepted into county inventory. That's an option and
- something that we should discuss. That doesn't help the people who are already in this situation.
- My fear is that we have this sort of knee-jerk reaction of, well, let's do something. Well, I'd love
- to do something. I don't know where that money would come from first. Second, it can't be county equipment
- and personnel that provide the service.
- So maybe we should just pay for private snow plowing services throughout the county on any private road.
- But that's county taxpayer dollars. Is that fair? Are we subsidizing developers? Are we subsidizing
- situa- I mean what about a long driveway? What if I have a super long driveway? Can I also have the
- county come and do my driveway?
- I don't know where that cutoff point is. And we have to look long-term. And we have to understand that
- if the county steps in and provides with council money, which I didn't hear that presented this week,
- but with council appropriating the county taxpayer dollars,
- to provide this is, what is the emergency? Is it six inches of snow? Is it eight inches of snow? And
- you can't bill people. They might as well just hire their own snow plow service, right? Because we can't
- just turn around and try to bill people if we go into their subdivision and provide that. We can't just
- turn around and try to bill them. There's no mechanism. There's no, they should just do this. So in a sense,
- What we've now done by doing that is we've now set the stage for no HOA to ever deal with snow plowing.
- And there are some HOAs out there that are doing what they're supposed to be doing. They're clearing
- the subdivisions. The residents are putting money together. That's what an HOA does. Or people who live
- on a particular street club together and pay for plowing.
- Well, why should they bother if we're just going to step in and do it? Now, look into the future even
- further. What developer in their right mind would want to pay to have their road meet county standards
- if they can just count on us to do the work anyway? Maybe we shouldn't even have that issue. So you
- always have to look medium term,
- immediate, immediate term, long term. So folks knew the storm was coming. Folks know that they live
- on a private road. HOAs know what their responsibilities are. Residents who live on private roads know
- what their responsibilities are. We are not going to come and patch your potholes. This was a decision
- made by the developer. Hopefully, they pass the savings on when they sold you your home. That's all
- I could say.
- It is a terrible situation. It is a terrible situation. But I don't think that this is the answer of,
- oh, well, let's just use an emergency fund that we don't have. And well, we do have it. I guess we could
- use the emergency management funding out of, oh, rainy day, I guess.
- I don't know. Uh. Is it Do we just pick the roads? Do we wait for them to call? I don't know. I mean.
- It just it just. It puts so many responsibilities on the county in the future that these developers
- chose us not to have. And I don't know that a
- out there, hire somebody. The highway department is happy to provide the names of reputable contractors
- in the community who do this work all the time on roads. They're not, you know, not going out there
- with snow blower. They're going out with snow plows. You know, I and get it done and get it done. Do
- you have anything else? Yes.
- it's a really complex, really unfortunate issue. And it's really hard to point to, I think, a scapegoat
- when these things happen. I think snow should never be an emergency. And it's always foreseeable. But
- there are these human interest moments when things fall through. And there might come a time when we
- as a county have to look at the human interests. I don't think this is the moment because
- Now the situation is wrapping up. The snow is melting. We do have to look to see how we can address
- this problem, if there is a problem. And I think that's the question right now. I think I'm not convinced
- right now that there is a problem. I know that we're working with neighborhoods diligently
- to get them into inventory quickly. I think we need to make sure that we're working as diligently as
- we can with all the neighborhoods we can to get them into inventory and that neighborhoods aren't falling
- through the cracks. And so I think the storm has passed, the storm emergency has passed, but I'd also like to
- see if County Legal has anything they can contribute as well because I think that I've had a couple
- conversations this week with them that have opened my eyes to some interesting dimensions of this problem.
- Mr. Cockrell, please. Sure, and I noticed Mr. Verratti is in the back if he wants to come up.
- I'll start off with saying that I'm not going to speak of any individual subdivision. Some of them are
- in litigation, some are not. It's just not appropriate to talk about things that are in litigation.
- But I guess generally speaking, and I spoke with Ms. Ridge the other day, we have 40 to 41 subdivisions
- out there that have private roads. And I think that 41 only includes the ones that weren't always designed
- at the beginning to be private. There's some subdivisions that were created
- to have private roads. And so they have private roads. These are the ones that were once, once everything
- gets into compliance, we would accept into our inventory, right? There are some subdivisions like we
- don't, we don't want to be part of the county infrastructure. We don't want to be part of the county
- road systems. And that's fine. I mean, that's how it was designed and how it goes through, but each
- one of those has an issue at this point where we cannot accept it into our road system because it doesn't
- meet our standards.
- And in order for it to be accepted, we have made the saying, is it has to meet our standards. And that's
- what kind of triggers the ability to use your MVH funds and be able to use kind of the gas tax that
- we get. And so those are kind of the, I think those are the ones we're really talking about. And there's
- 41 of them. I guess in my mind, until that road is accepted, I've always seen them more as a private drive.
- We don't regulate speed, we don't regulate stop signs, we don't regulate anything like that and so from
- I think the highways perspective and I think from the county legal's perspective they are essentially
- private driveways and everybody's expected to, I shoveled my own driveway so I think that's kind of
- how we look at these things and again I'm not going to speak of any specific one because I know some
- are in litigation. I mean is that helpful?
- Very, very, excuse me. And yes, and by just to clarify, when I said earlier, I'm not aware of any problems
- at this time, I know that there were some problems. I did not mean that. I think that all of the people
- who need to be plowed out are nail plowed out. That's what I meant. But I think, thank you very much.
- I think that clarifies some things that I was not aware of before. But yes, that's. Mr. Rodney, would
- you like to add something?
- Thank you for being here. Absolutely. I have nothing much more to add other than what Mr. Cockrell and
- Ms. Ridge has already said. We do have some subdivisions that are currently in litigation, including
- the ones that I believe we're talking about. Much of that information is available through the My Case
- system. Several of these we have, trial dates, discovery deadlines, deposition sets. So we're moving
- forward. In many cases, when we're involved in litigation, it doesn't go as quickly as
- people would like, myself included. In several of these, we've been attempting to negotiate with multiple
- parties, including developers, subcontractors, in the hopes that we could come to a resolution. In some
- of these cases, we were able to, and many of the cases were not. I believe in the one we're talking
- about now, we're probably going to move forward towards some sort of judicial remedy at this point,
- but we are currently scheduled as quickly as I could reasonably get that in. Okay. Thank you so much.
- I appreciate that.
- And really, this comes down to the developers. And oftentimes, it is something where if you have a private
- road that is finished, the subdivision's finished, and you didn't realize you'd bought a house on a
- private road, you have other remedies besides calling
- the county and asking us to do the work. And so I just want to encourage people to think about the cause
- of the problem, the root cause. And I do think we need to have a discussion about whether or not to
- ever do private roads again. And I don't know even if that's an option legally, statutorily with the
- state to even bar that option, but I think it's
- it would be interesting to have that discussion with the planning commission and then have that discussion
- here. And I see that Ms. Nesterjell and the director of planning is online. Would you like to add anything?
- Good morning, commissioners. First, I want to just commend Lisa and her department for, of course, the
- snow removal, but also being clear with people about the limited ability to use MVH funds on private
- roads. I don't think that we've been unclear to people and it's brought up a lot of challenging
- conversations. I also want to bring to your attention that the planning commission is not just putting
- this list aside.
- We have a list of the 41 subdivisions as Mister Cockrell mentioned, and we have at least 10 of these
- subdivisions and phases of those coming to the Planning Commission just this year. So we're talking
- about them on a routine basis. We're working with these developers and often it's
- pulling teeth because it comes down to they don't actually want to do the development. We've added an
- inflation adjustment of 10% every year they extend their timeline, which has gotten people to move a
- lot quicker. And as Lisa mentioned, we've ultimately gotten quite a few kind of knocked off the list
- and people have gotten things accepted into inventory.
- We are taking this seriously. We are working with people. There's just some subdivisions where the amount
- of money that is left to now do the work is so exorbitant because of inflation and the time that they've
- waited, in some instances, 30 years, that now it's just a money problem. And so we're trying to work
- with the homeowners and developers before they walk away, or if they've walked away, we're working with
- our legal department. So I just want to bring that to your attention. It's not an issue that we
- sleep under the rug, we're constantly thinking about it. Yeah, I appreciate you raising that. We did
- change the rules a few years back where developers have bonds set on their development and we now do
- an inflation rated
- a system where they are asked to deposit additional monies toward their bonds because the cost of everything
- goes up. We found ourselves in a few situations where something hadn't been completed, and the amount
- of the bond would have done like a third of the project. We had to finish the project because we had
- to finish the project. We don't want to get in that position again. There are some developers that walk
- away, they lose interest,
- They move, whatever they've done. I really commend our planning staff, Director Jelen, our highway department
- for constantly and consistently working to try to get these resolved as quickly as possible. It's not
- always easy. We certainly, once again, would hate to reward bad behavior.
- and put county taxpayer dollars into completing roads and projects that were promised in order to receive
- approval on a development. But I really appreciate that you've raised that. There are also, I know that
- there are folks who have moved into subdivisions that are complete, but the subdivision was designed
- to have private roads.
- we get those calls cannot help I'm sorry that is this is where you need to talk to your HOA your developer
- whoever and and get this straightened out I you know I'm not going to offer advice but certainly expecting
- county residents to do this is is a bit rich and it and it does not
- And it does not do anything to ensure that any developer finishes a development in the future. It basically
- says, we'll make it easy for you. We'll take care of it, even though that is your responsibility. I
- know it's enormously, enormously frustrating, aside from this planning situation, for the residents
- who are caught in this situation, too, of trying to comply just with these strictures and who are just
- left in the lurch.
- you know, aside from this plow situation, this is just one more extension of that. So that's a really
- good point. And I do worry about all of this and how folks are going to manage it. And this is a huge
- responsibility to be part of an HOA, to live in a private road development.
- have a heavy responsibility with it. And some people were not ever made aware. Some people, maybe their
- HOA is underfunded. I'm hearing it. And I feel for you. But we can't send county trucks in to help.
- We just can't do it. And that's the unfortunate thing. Because that would actually go against
- state statute and the use of motor vehicle highway funds, which is how we fund our snowplow system.
- Terrible, terrible, terrible. I feel horrible for these folks. My heart goes out to them, especially
- those who didn't know or those who have an HOA that's not doing their job, whatever it might be.
- I am sorry, especially if this is the storm where you found that out for the first time. If this is
- the first time anything went wrong. Terrible.
- What we can do is encourage these developers to get these subdivisions done, to get them done right.
- And again, we need to have that conversation about, do we ever do private road developments again? And
- that's the next question. All right, I've gone on too long. Any other department updates?
- seeing none, we'll go ahead and open this up to public comment. This is the section of the meeting for
- public comment on items not on our agenda. We ask commenters to limit their time to three minutes per
- person. Please provide your name and county of residence as you speak. And good morning. Good morning.
- My name's Lynn Coyne, longtime resident
- Monroe County. I'd originally wanted to speak to you for clarification on funding for the Highway Department,
- as I understand the gas tax funds highway road maintenance. Are you saying that we cannot use county
- tax dollars to maintain county roads, that that's our only source to maintain county streets and roads?
- That's my question. The word maintain is a bit big. Are you talking about plowing?
- anything. Okay. Ms. Rich, do you want to address it? Again, we get our money from motor vehicle highway.
- It's very restricted on what we can use it for. It is to be for county maintained roads that have been
- accepted into our system, which that's how our funding is calculated. We don't, we have a local road
- and street budget. You can't use, you cannot pay any labor out of that fund. That's our two biggest
- sources of income in highway.
- I do understand that. Is that the only source of funds? There's no county tax dollars. You can't spend
- county tax dollars to do any of that work. I don't over tax dollars. It's a be up to the council to
- do that. I guess maybe the answer to the question is that I think in the past we have used county general
- funds for things like buying by two minutes or something like that. So county general funds clearly
- could be used for maintaining county grants. Thank you for that.
- Part two, which I didn't intend to do, but because of commissioners Thomas's remarks, I feel compelled
- to do this. I speak for myself, only myself as a lot owner in a subdivision that has not been accepted
- by the county. I do not speak for my homeowners association or anybody else. I want that to be clear.
- I do not understand. My developer installed the streets, sidewalks and improvements in my subdivision
- in accordance with the county specification at the time they were installed. That's very clear. They
- were inspected and a bond was posted at that time for any deficiencies. Okay.
- Now what's going on is the county has moved the finish line. They have changed your specifications and
- you are applying new specifications to those roads. I do not believe, and I would like Mr. Cockrell
- to explain how you can apply today's standards to the approved standards at the time they were installed.
- That is the root of the problem in my subdivision.
- It's not that we don't want to do it. I'm sure they're doing a good job. Our streets got plowed by them
- and all that. But how is it that streets, sidewalks and so forth built to the standards that were approved
- at the time they were installed are no longer acceptable to you? I don't understand that. You drew money
- from the bond, the county drew money from our bond, built an ADA crosswalk
- all under the standing that you were doing this to accept these streets. You then came back and inspected
- your own work and rejected it. You have inspected these streets multiple times and each time you change
- the rules on us. I don't know how anybody can tolerate that situation or comply with it. It baffles
- me. Plus, is it legal to apply post facto these new standards, for example, the sidewalk standards?
- You have completely different sidewalk and crosswalk standards now than you did at the time you approved
- the subdivision. You are applying the new standards and want all the crosswalks torn out and rebuilt.
- Tell me how that's fair. You can blame developers, you can blame anybody, but I think you need to look
- in the mirror here. Thank you. Thank you. I hope that we can look into this a bit more because this
- raises an interesting
- So we would need, if you could send, I don't know which development it is, if you could send that on
- email and we can have more information. We can dig through that information and see what's actually
- going on on the ground. I appreciate you bringing it. Thank you.
- Hi, my name is Lynn Barrett. I live on Geranium Lane. I had a house built seven years ago, not knowing
- that this was a private road. And I honestly didn't find out that it was a private road until last year.
- Dave Blackwell is the one that I had to go through to purchase the lot from Don Grubbs. I have my deed
- here that they signed, that everything was on the up and up of the subdivision.
- I believe that that's fraudulent now. There are approximately 55 homeowners in this subdivision. None
- of us knew that this was a private road. In 2021 when we had a large snow, I called Dave Blackwell and
- asked him, you know, can you clear the streets? And he told me that Grubbs was the person that
- would be responsible for that, but he would get somebody out there, and he did. And the reason is because
- some of the lots had not been built on, so therefore it wasn't complete. My question also is similar
- to the gentleman that just spoke, that Don Grubbs said that he posted a bond 20 years ago, and some
- of the neighbors that have lived there 20 years have said the same thing, and that it was approved.
- Now you're not approving it. There is a case against him and I have all the improvements that Mr. Cockrell
- has sent and it's over $500,000 that is going to take to bring our streets up to code. A couple of days
- ago, our roads were impassable until yesterday. A couple of days ago, I found somebody on another street
- that was just
- A gentleman that could clean the street part of the street I hired him to take one swipe down petunia
- and then one swipe down geranium because I have a neighbor that is just going through cancer treatments,
- they are trying to adopt three little kids and she needs to get out for that so.
- at least they could get out at that point. Another homeowner yesterday hired Abels to clean off the
- east side of the street, and then another company came last night. They didn't charge anything to clean
- our section off, but one of our neighbors gave them money just to be out there. You mentioned
- that you give a list to homeowners. I've never received a list of private companies that could come
- and clean our streets. And I'm not sure that other people in my neighborhood have also, but I would
- like you to send me the list. I would appreciate that. People that we can call to clean off our streets.
- Last year, I called your office, Mr. Cockrell, and I was told that you represent the county
- you do not represent individuals. So I never got to talk to you. We have this year, we have put things
- on Facebook. We've got a state representative that is trying to help us. We've called Rafael Sanchez.
- He's trying to help us. We've called attorneys. We don't know what to do at this point. The streets
- were clean a couple of years when I first moved there. And it was when I found out about that,
- That was because there was somebody new on the job and they mistakenly cleaned Geranium Street because
- it butts up against Jaffa, Java subdivision and it butts up against Aloha subdivision. Your time is
- up, but I appreciate you coming in, really do.
- We can't comment because this is a litigation. We cannot offer comment to you, but we do encourage anyone
- in your situation to call the Highway Department. Lisa Ridge, what is the phone number? 812. 803-6810
- sorry 812-803-6810. 6810 and I.
- talked with Justin a couple days ago, and he has sent the list of contractors. I don't know if it's
- to you, multiple times over the past year also. So I'm not, and I don't have your email. So call, give
- us your email. We'll get you the list. Bachelor has the list. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming
- in. Otherwise we can't comment because this is something for litigation and we're in that position where
- we can't, we cannot comment on it. Thank you.
- Good morning, commissioners. My name is Trent Deckard. I'm an at-large member of the Monroe County Council.
- It's always good to be back in this room at a different time. I just want to say a couple things on
- this complex issue. Sometimes on a complex issue, I always think back to the old saying that the buck
- stops here. It stops with us as elected officials. We have magnificent
- department heads who pursue their work with all the folks in their charge. They do this day in and day
- out. And we need a wider solution to the complexities here than I think what they are either empowered
- to give or can give due to the complexities of either federal state or local regulation. And if ever
- there was a call for taking a look at some of those to make sure that all of those make sense, this
- might be a good example.
- I do think it's extremely appropriate to say a big shout out and thank you to Highway and to our first
- responders and to our parks folks who are all still actively doing all these things, as well as other
- folks that I'm sure I've not mentioned, including our colleagues and friends over at the city, town
- of Eltsville. It's important in this room that we say that.
- But on this more massive issue where we've got a cross between a planning series of events and we've
- got very tight restrictions on how motor vehicle can do, we need some outside the box considerations
- for solutions. And I think it's only going to come from elected officials. I said in our council meeting
- the other day,
- that we would respond in flooding with emergency management response. We would respond in that kind
- of a weather event with a response. I think as we ease our way towards the door, trying to find the
- doorknob, trying to find the solution, trying to get people moving in neighborhoods, I think it's important
- we do not get tripped both in the snow and in our own strings and attachments.
- I, as an elected official, I struggle in this job when there's someone suffering for which I have not
- done everything I can do to get them moving. I was pleased yesterday to be able to drive on Geranium
- Lane. I keep calling this a Geranium issue. My understanding is it's the Java Heights neighborhood.
- I think I'm saying that right. I also want to thank Nextphase Construction and Cleaning that got out
- there to kind of finish the job that the last speaker talked about, but ultimately,
- I think we've got to think beyond the box, and we cannot get tripped in what we can do and cannot do,
- because I think that's a federal and state game of keeping local officials from doing the one thing
- that matters the most, being neighbors to each other, reaching over, figuring this out. And look, if
- we do the wrong thing in that process, someone will surely tell us, but I think that for our constituents,
- we have a duty bound to do that. So commissioners,
- As a county council member, I look forward to working with you on a caring solution. We do have $1 million
- we put into rainy day funds towards emergency management needs. I think that we've got to think pretty
- creatively and take this burden from department heads and do our job. So thank you so much. Thank you.
- Yeah, we also have. Mr Spoonmore.
- on teams. He could I promote him so he can speak you 3 minutes, Mister Spoonmore. Yes, good morning
- missioners this is Eric Spoonmore president greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce also a Monroe County
- resident and taxpayer appreciate being able to attend these meetings and speak plainly and bluntly about
- the issues within Monroe County government but
- Before I get to some of the concerns, I want to recognize a resounding success that we've heard already.
- We should all be very proud of. That's our first rate highway department. The workers there and the
- management, including Director Ridge, did a superb job of handling the historic severe winter weather
- event we just endured. The entire department deserves our highest praise for their dedication to duty
- and service. With the extreme weather and the
- snow that piled up, we saw how this exposed some gaps in services that our taxpayers receive, again,
- at no fault of our county highway department, but seemingly due to administrative paperwork based denials
- for certain roads and subdivisions. And so God bless Dave Cochran and Nextphase Construction and Cleaning
- Services who saw these conversations and issues unfolding on social media like we all did.
- And knowing Dave, I think his moral compass just directed him to go help the residents on Geranium Lane
- who were stranded and up to 15 inches of snow. And so this is just another example to me of our business
- community stepping up when government can't or just won't. And it reminds me of a similar recent situation
- when the business community stepped up to help feed needy school children despite the commissioner's
- denial of local government social service grant dollars designed
- for that very purpose. It's the business community here in Bloomington and Monroe County that is consistently
- and generously helping our neighbors and at times when they need help the most. And I think that's an
- important thing to recognize. We should always look for the helpers, especially in emergency situations.
- These are the difference makers that do good in our community. So thanks so much to Dave Cochran and
- the Nextphase team for doing this work pro bono. So the residents of Java Heights area can
- now get to the grocery store, they can get to their medical appointments, they can get back to work
- so they can pay taxes, hopefully get the full range of services they deserve for those taxes in the
- future. And then I'll just close with this point. If you all could just spend a fraction of the time
- that you spent on trying to purchase North Park for a $250 million jail and instead focus on fixing
- this issue with the snow and subdivisions, I think county government would score a lot more points for
- themselves
- and with our residents. So, thank you. Thank you. Next, please. Thank you, David Henry, Van Buren Township.
- I was so excited about the state of emergency being ratified and listening to the conversation. I felt
- compelled to come back up and share a few thoughts from the hat I wear as an emergency management faculty
- at IU. My reading of Indiana code is that a declared state of emergency would give
- some authorities down to a state and local level. We don't have a lot of local ordinances built around
- states of emergency. We'd have to lean on state code for that. But I think the novel solution to consider
- in the future for developments that
- for developers that refuse to do this work, is to treat it no differently than we would nuisance objects
- on private property that would be affecting the public health and safety. We've done that through plan
- commission this year already. And to the argument that if we do it for one, we do it for all, I don't
- find to be particularly credible. There are a lot of HOAs and developers that are doing their part to
- maintain their neighborhoods and neighbors maintaining their neighborhoods. But I think this conversation
- would be very different today if we found out someone died in their house this week.
- And I wonder if that changes the tone or blame or finger pointing if we were dealing with a fatality
- because we couldn't find a way to deal with the nuisance snow that was in the way of some of
- these neighborhoods. I'm glad that's not the conversation today, but I think I'll leave it there. The
- second point I want to raise is one I've raised multiple times from this podium since the derecho, and
- it's one that we either
- Haven't learned the lesson from or you're not choosing to and it's pretty much this we have an emergency
- management agency there is a binder on a shelf somewhere that is the county's emergency management plan
- that calls for some point of contact for the who what where when and why of what we're doing in this
- building and time and again.
- The media finds out piecemeal what the states of emergencies are. The fellow elected officials in this
- community do not get the information they need to understand how to participate or to propose funding
- for ideas. And so we need to get better at this. It is a systems failure at this point. It's not just
- ignorance. And I get it. I teach this for a living. My students have never heard of emergency management
- before they take my class. But I expect a little more of my county government.
- to operate as FEMA has intended through its best practice training and that we must do and certify to
- the state that we know what we're doing locally with emergency management. We need a public information
- officer that's talking to the public. It's not an elected official. It's a point of contact.
- that is getting the information out routinely. We have a Facebook page maintained by the Board
- of Commissioners by private contract. Sometimes it's updated, sometimes it's not. We have some information
- coming from the body, sometimes we do, sometimes it's not. We learn things in public comment, sometimes
- we do, sometimes we don't.
- I am again willing as an EMAC member to start to get under the hood of this, but I don't know how many
- more near misses we get until one really hits and we have to backtrack and explain ourselves to the
- public as why we couldn't get the right information out to who needed it and when they needed it.
- Thank you. And just to be clear, the Board of Commissioners does not supervise, manage or control the
- emergency management.
- department. That department is under the supervision and control of the Emergency Management Commission,
- Advisory Commission. And I know Mr. Henry is a member of that, as is Commissioner Jones. So I think,
- or are you doing it? I think it's still Commissioner Jones. Remember what we just did appointments two
- weeks ago. Anyway, so just to be clear, it is not
- possible for us to direct or manage or supervise that department. It's the way that it's been set up
- by state statutes. All right. Let's see. I don't see any other comments, so let's move on to our next
- agenda item, please. I would like to move approval of the minutes for January 22nd, 2026. I will second that.
- Any comments, corrections, edits? I did not either. All those in favor of approving minutes for January
- 22nd, 2026, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Next item, please. I would like to move
- approval of the claims docket for accounts payable for January 29th, 2026. I will second that. Tell
- us all about it, please, Ms. Moser.
- Good morning. The accounts payable claims docket for January 29th, 2026 totals $12,142,138.29. This
- includes all emergency claims and adjustments. Thank you so much. Any comments, corrections, edits?
- I don't. Either any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand in teams or come to the podium.
- All those in favor of approving the claim stock and accounts payable January 29, 2026 signify by saying
- aye. Motion carries two zero. We did not receive any reports. And so we will move on to new business,
- please. I would like to move approval for blood. So Rygert, Cooper, James on call service agreement,
- fund names, food and beverage, parks, non-reverting and county general.
- fund numbers, 4932, 4113, 1178, 1179, and 1000 in the amount of not to exceed $10,000. I will second
- that. Ms. Whitmer, good morning. Good morning. The Parks Board approved to hire BRCJ for on-call services.
- If we don't need them, we won't use them. But things just pop up once in a while that we don't have
- the expertise in. All right. Thank you so much.
- Just to clarify, the reason the food and beverage is listed is if ever the on-call relates to Huntington.
- Correct. The Monroe County Nature Preserve. Correct. Thank you. I just want to clarify that. Any questions
- here? 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 on-call service agreement with Bledsoe,
- Rieger, Cooper, and James, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item. Yes, I would like
- to move approval for Bledsoe, Rieger, Cooper, James Engineering Service Agreement. Fund names, food
- and beverage, parks and honor reverting, and county general.
- Fund numbers, 4932, 4113, 1178, 1179, and 1000 in the amount of not to exceed $79,300. I will second
- that. Tell us about this one, please. This is for the Monroe County Nature Preserve design so we can
- get an entrance, a maintenance building, a dog park, and all the amenities that we need to make that happen.
- We as our department will be the general contractor, which is probably going to save a million dollars
- to the county taxpayer for us doing that. BRCJ is going to help us get all the permits working through
- planning, building, legal and stormwater to get everything that we need to go and make sure we're doing,
- our staff is doing what we need to do. So we find this a more economical way to do it. Great. Excellent.
- Excellent.
- If we can chat after the meeting today, I'd like to set a time to meet with you. Any questions or comments?
- No. 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. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Bloods
- of Rigor Cooper James Engineering Service Agreement signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Motion carries, 2-0. Thank you, ma'am. Next item, please. I would like to move approval with the
- ratification of the settlement agreement with IU Health. I will second that. I assume you're doing this,
- Mr. Cockrell, for us. Yes, I think I can handle this. We discussed this pretty thoroughly at last week's
- work session. This and essentially the next item are kind of similar.
- We had run the public health clinic out of the Miller Drive area that the county had funded that. Part
- of that funding included the purchase and installation of a generator. The generator is installed in
- the building. So the first is a settlement agreement where they get to keep the generator but compensate
- us for its value. Great. Thank you so much.
- And this is all part of moving the vaccination program into our health building where it really belongs.
- All right. Any questions? No. All right. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand on teams
- or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of ratifying the settlement agreement with IU
- Health signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Motion carries. 2-0. Next item, please. I would like to move approval to ratify the elite electric
- memorandum of understanding, fund name, crisis coag supplemental workforce, fund number 8111 in the
- amount not to exceed $25,000. I will second that. Mr. Cockrell.
- Yes, and we still need to keep the vaccines and other medicines temperature controlled. This generator
- would allow the coolers and the refrigerators and the freezers to maintain operations even if we lost
- power. All right. Thank you so much. Comments or questions? No. And this is a higher price, although
- it's not to exceed amount because
- There are other elements that need to be completed in order to install. So we're just accounting for
- that with the not to exceed amount. All right. Thank you. Any public comment on this item? You raise
- your hand in teams or come to the podium. None. All those in favor of ratifying the elite electric memorandum
- of understanding signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please. I would like to move approval for ordinance 2025-45, the
- Monroe Nature Preserve Rezone. I will second that, Mr. Brown. Good morning. Good morning. So this is
- regarding a rezone of the Monroe County Nature Reserve from Conservation Residential 2.5 to Institutional Public.
- The petitioner is the Board of Commissioners, and the planning commission for this petition under petition
- number REZ-25-6 to the commissioners with a positive recommendation by a vote of seven to zero. In November
- of 2023, Nancy Huntington passed away, and upon her passing, she dated 409 acres to Maduro County for
- recreational purposes only.
- To determine the language of the trust, including the meaning of recreational purposes, a hearing order
- was enacted as follows. Would the board like me to run through this? We did hear this last week as well.
- I don't if it's up to you. Are you OK? Yes, I'm totally OK. OK, we're good. Thank you. All right, so
- the county is limited in using the nature preserve
- only for the uses that fall under the definition as recreational purposes as shown in the order. There
- are existing structures on the property currently, including some that were previously used residentially.
- Discussion about the lease buildings on the property was discussed by Commissioner Jody Madera on August
- 14th, 2025 Board of Commissioners meeting. Also, these lease properties did not meet the judge's order
- on the definition of what the property could be used for by the county.
- At this point in time, I believe we actually just heard some of the plans for the nature preserve via
- Kelly Whitmer. And questions about the nature reserve can be directed towards the Monroe County Parks
- and Recreational Department at their phone number 812-349-2800. And here are just some maps of the property
- showing the location as well as its role and comprehensive plan designations.
- as well as just the general zoning map. Here's the images of the property. The one on the left is taken
- from State Road 446, showing looking west towards the property. The image on the right is, I believe,
- a proposal by Kelly Whitmer to finish a driveway that is going to extend directly onto South Nightridge
- Road. And that's an image of the Anglican Way Drive.
- These are two images showing a current structure on the property. The one on the left is the entrance
- from South Nitridge Road, while the one on the right is the structure itself. And here are some existing
- properties on the existing structures on the property as well. And this shows a list of the uses that
- are currently allowed permitted in the Conservation Residential 2.5 Zoning District.
- and on the right is our uses that are allowed in the institutional and public zoning district. Here
- are comments from other departments. Ben Ayers with the Highway Department said no right of way activity
- application has been submitted for disposition. A proposed driveway entrance was. I apologize, jeez.
- was approved back in June 13th, 2025, and will be approved off of South Night Ridge Road. He has to
- submit a right-of-way activity permits for the driveway entrance prior to site plan review. Erica Pena
- from Stormwater said no comments or concerns regarding this rezoned and that a Stormwater grading permit
- and stake applicability will be reviewed at the time of development. We did receive a letter of support
- for this, which was,
- presented to the planning commission during their meeting. We have received no letters of remonstrance.
- And so once again, the Monroe County Planning Commission forwarded this petition under petition number
- REZ-25-6 to the Monroe County County Commissioners with a positive recommendation by a vote of seven
- to zero. And staff recommends approval of the rezone of the Monroe County Nature Preserve from conservation
- residential 2.5
- to institutional public based on the findings of that comprehensive plan analysis that were included
- in the Plan Commission packet. And I'll take any questions. Thank you so much, Mr. Brown. Questions
- or comments? Commissioner Madeira? I don't have any either. We're really excited about this and appreciate
- you bringing this forward. I really could have sworn we'd already heard this.
- Thank you so much for being here. Because we've been talking so much about it. So thank you for bringing
- this to us for the official vote. Let's see if there's anybody here or online who wishes to speak in
- favor of this petition. You may raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. And by the way, I guess
- we are the petitioner.
- Thank you. Does anybody wish to speak in opposition to this petition? Again, let me raise your hand
- on teams or come to the podium. Any general public comment? Seeing none, are you ready for a vote?
- All right. All those in favor of approving ordinance 2025-45 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries.
- 2-0. These are all reappointments. Yeah, I'm good with that. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
- Thank you, planning staff for working on this with us.
- It's nice that they made a recommendation to us as the petitioner to approve it. They appreciate it.
- All right. Appointments. Yes, we have some reappointments. For SUDAC, Ashley Collins, Steve Malone,
- and Melanie Rebecca Bichlage.
- And I believe that Peter Iverson and myself are going to be reappointed from county council and myself
- as county commissioner. We already did that. Did we? Yeah. See, it must be in the water. Yeah,
- that's OK. That's OK. We did that. But I will ratify that. We're just making it very sure that we're
- appointed. We're just in concrete. You got it. I will go ahead and second it. Those are one-year
- appointments? Yes. OK. Excellent.
- And so those can move forward. And we can continue doing our good work on that commission. There's much
- to do. Yes. So much to do. And exciting work, too. Yes. Substance Use Disorder Awareness Commission.
- Yes. And if anybody has questions about this or other items, please contact them. All those in favor
- of approving the appointment, signify by saying aye.
- I motion carries two zero and that is a good segue to your reminder that we still have some key positions
- available on boards and commissions including the library board and animal management so if anyone's
- interested or considering applying please do so as soon as possible you can call our office for further
- information
- or find the application on our website. Just look up boards and commissions. Please sign up for the
- Monroe County alert notification system. This is how people were aware of various travel advisories
- in our county and any emergency notifications will go over those airways and it could be sent to you by text.
- You can receive a phone call or you can receive an email or all three. And we do encourage residents
- to sign up. It's free and it could be a lifesaver. We continue to host our virtual office hours via
- Teams each month.
- There are six of those office hours every month. Just check out the calendar and drop in and we will
- chat. The next blood drives that we're co-sponsoring with Ivy Tech and the Red Cross will be Wednesday,
- February 11th from 1 to 6 p.m. and Thursday, February 12th from 10 a.m. to 3. That's at Ivy Tech rooms
- C130A and B. We encourage folks to make an appointment at redcross.org, but appointments probably aren't
- necessary, but you might have to wait a few minutes. All right. Anything else for the good of the order?
- Just expressing appreciation to all the county employees who worked so hard, again, through the storm
- and through all the residents who were patient.
- It takes a lot to clear all of that, and the clearing will continue because we have just mounds of snow
- out there. We do. We do. And just a good reminder to folks to be vigilant and careful. Yes, there's
- snow piled up at some intersections. You might have to creep up a little bit to make sure that you can
- pull out into traffic. You're not pulling out into traffic. And just be aware that as the snow melts,
- It will refreeze at night. It's going to be a cycle that will go on for quite some time. And just, just
- be careful driving. That's pretty much all we could say is be careful driving. And especially once schools
- back in and those kids are out there. So all right. So anything else for the good of the order?
- Um, I did not see a work session packet. Am I right? You may not have, but I have two items. All right.
- Good. All right. So we will come back at, um, 11 50. Can we do that? 10 minutes to noon. Is that good
- for, okay. Great. We'll come back at one, one five zero and we will, um, have our work session.
- Thanks Angie. All right.
- Our next meeting is February 2nd and with that we are adjourned. Thanks everyone.