- Good morning. I'm going to call to order this meeting and Monroe County board of commissioners. It is
- Thursday July 2nd already. Yeah. Um, I will note for the record that commissioner Madera and myself
- are here and present in the net you Hill room. And we're going to begin with our public statement read
- by commissioner Madera.
- 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.
- We'll now turn to our department updates. We'll begin with the health department. We have Ms. Kelly
- joining us. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Just a few updates.
- According to our data from the wastewater scan, we're seeing very low levels of COVID flu and RSV. The
- health department does have vaccines available. We are scheduling appointments. The number to call for
- an appointment is 812-803-6364. And lastly, just a reminder, the health department offers free walk-in
- testing and treatment services
- for Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis every Thursday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Great. Thank you so
- much. Any comments or questions? No. Thank you. All right. I don't either. Thank you so much for joining
- us again. All right. Next, we have Mr. Stephen Miller, Veterans Affairs Officer.
- Good morning, commissioners. I wanted to tell you about two things this morning. The first is I wanted
- to give you a little story about a veteran's situation that I've run across recently. Oftentimes in
- our office, what we do are VA disability claims for injuries, illnesses, or diseases that a veteran
- incurred while in active military service. In order to do that, we will order their military records
- from the National Archives.
- In February, I helped this one veteran. They've been out for a very long time, and we ordered their
- medical records, their personnel files, and their DD-214s from the National Archives. It usually takes
- a month or two to get those records in the mail to the veteran. And after a couple, it was about three
- months, we realized that we weren't getting those records.
- We contacted an Indiana senator who was able to put in an inquiry and got those records in two days.
- So what we found, though, was not necessarily what we were hoping for. We found that the records of
- that veteran had been destroyed in the fire of 1973 in the National Archives. Back in 1973, there was
- a fire that destroyed between 16 and 18 million veterans' files from the Air Force and the Army.
- from starting in World War II all the way up through Vietnam. So that sounds like it's a
- and no deal then, but we are going to work on getting additional records, unit level records, anything
- that we can get to try to help identify the injuries that this individual had and get them a good VA
- disability claim. So we're not done, but this is part of what we have to go through on occasion to try
- to help get veterans connected to the benefits that they deserve. Additionally, I wanted to tell you
- kind of very quickly about the new property tax credit in the state of Indiana for disabled veterans.
- Beginning, veterans are able to apply for the new property tax credit for the state of Indiana.
- Everyone who is receiving that benefit should needs to actually refile for that benefit, according to
- the state. We're here to help. We're going to be doing walk in clinics from July 10th.
- 17th, 24th, and 31st from 8 to noon to have folks come in to work on those packages. We've got a real
- good system with the auditor's office. We're making it really simple. The veteran comes to us, we'll
- do our part of the paperwork, get it to the auditor. They don't have to deal with any of the running
- around. So again, we're going to be doing those walk-in clinics on the 10th
- the 17th, the 24th, and the 31st from 8 to noon. The veteran will need to make sure that they bring
- two different documents with them so that we can process the benefit. They need to bring their VA award
- letter or the annual VA tax letter. That's the letter that comes out every November that tells the basics
- of the benefit that you receive.
- And they also need to bring their DD-214. So once we have those things, we'll be able to complete the
- package for them and get them going in the right direction. So that's all I had for you folks today.
- Is there anything that I can help with or any questions that you have? I don't have any questions. As
- someone who's personally been burned by that fire that destroyed those records, I so appreciate your
- efforts to work through that.
- Thank you so very much. That has had a devastating effect on my family in particular, and I think on
- millions of veterans. So thank you so much for fighting for our veterans. You're very welcome. It's
- my pleasure. So thank you so much, and you all have a wonderful rest of your day.
- All right, thank you so much. Yeah, it's an amazing story. And we do encourage folks in the community
- who are veterans to contact your office if they have questions about anything. And if you could give
- your phone number again, that would be great. Absolutely. Yes, my phone number is 812-349-2537. Please
- call early and often. Great. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. Next, we have our recorder, Ms. Amy
- Swain joining us.
- Good morning. Good morning. I love being able to follow up Stephen because the recorder's office and
- the veteran service office work closely together to serve our veterans. And one of the things that I
- wanted to talk about today knowing Steve was right before me is that you see how diligently our local
- veteran service officers work to help the veteran get the records that they need. There is a company
- out there that is charging more than $100 to expedite the process with the National Archives. And normally,
- it's going to take that one to two months, as Stephen said, and there's really no expediting to it unless
- you work with
- the veteran service officer. And so if someone comes into our office to get a copy of their DD 214,
- which they can do, we always encourage them to visit the VSO so that they learn about updates like the
- new tax credit that Stephen was talking about. I also got a call yesterday from a local woman who had
- just had property transferred into her name, and she got a letter in the mail.
- And they said, for $285, we will give you a service that will alert you if anything is recorded against
- your property. And I was able to happily tell her that the recorder's office in conjunction with one
- of our business partners offers that service for free. It's called Property Watch. There is a link to
- it on the recorder page of the county website. And I would encourage everyone to sign up for that free service.
- Again, it's called Property Watch. It will give you either text or email alerts, your choice, when anything
- is recorded that matches your legal description or your name. I will say if you live outside of city
- limits and you have what's called a meets and bounds, that's M-E-T-E-S, meets and bounds, legal description,
- you may get an alert when it is someone in a similar
- Township range and section so it might be your neighbor But it's a really easy and again free way to
- know when something is recorded that matches your information Let everyone know that we're trying to
- use all methods possible to get the words out about these questionable business practices that are going
- on when you can get them from your local recorder's office at no charge and
- Thank you very much. Do you have any questions? I don't, but this is very helpful information. And there's
- always a service that's out there that costs exponentially more than the services we provide in our
- county government to taxpayers, many of which are free, the rest of which are at much lower cost.
- But again, so few taxpayers know about them. So thank you so very much. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank
- you for bringing this to public attention.
- Great, excellent, excellent. All right. We also have Ms. Purdy is going to introduce our get up to that
- podium. You're the next contestant. Come on down. Come on down. So I want to introduce to you guys formally
- and to any of the other departments who may be
- watching this on cats or teams, but this is our new HR director. This is Melissa Stinson Waddell, and
- she's coming to us with a lot of background that's going to be very beneficial to the Monroe County
- government. So do you want to share anything, tell them a little bit about yourself?
- I do come from county government. I have worked in county government for over 17 years in the Brown
- County government. Prior to that, I worked for the Brown County School Corporation for 16 years. So
- very familiar with the public sector and working for the citizens of the counties. And I was in HR and
- worked as a commissioner's assistant for 12 years. So I do have background in benefits and in employer
- services, worked in payroll in the auditor's office, so rail rounded.
- So and I appreciate the opportunity to work here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. And
- thank you for being here today. We're really excited. And we I've heard only incredible things about
- you so far. Well, thank you. That new HR person. Oh, my gosh. She's lots of reading. Yeah.
- So thank you. You hit the ground running and it's almost budget time. So.
- I'm very delighted with that. Yeah, you made it want to time that differently. I'm just saying.
- But thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you very much. Yes, I'd like to echo everything
- Commissioner Thomas said and welcome. Any other department updates? You raise your hand on Teams or
- come to the podium. All right, seeing none.
- We're gonna open the floor to public comment. Public comment is reserved for items that are not on the
- agenda. You may raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. We ask each person to limit their time
- to three minutes and to provide your name and county of residence before you begin speaking. All right,
- I do not see anyone for public comment. So I do want to make it,
- In addition to our very short agenda today, I would like to move that we add item AB at the end of our
- agenda, which is a ratification of the emergency declaration for June 18th. I will second that. All
- of those in favor of approving the agenda change, say aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Excellent.
- All right. With that,
- We'll now move on to the next item and you can make one motion. That would be great. Yes, I would like
- to approve the minutes for move to approve the minutes for June 18th, 2026 and for June 25th, 2026.
- I will second that. Any comments, corrections or edits? I have none. Okay. All those in favor of approving
- the minutes for June 18th and June 25th, 2026 signify by saying aye.
- I motion carries two zero next item please all one motion again please yes I would like to move to ratify
- the claims dockets for accounts payable for June 18th 2026 for accounts payable for June 25th 2026 for
- payroll for June 12th 2026 and for payroll for June 26th 2026 and I did that in one breath you did that
- was awesome I will second that and I won't make you repeat it good morning
- this guy or those joining us I wasn't sure who was presenting today good morning hi good morning the
- accounts payable claims docket for July 2nd 2026 totals two million one hundred seventy nine thousand
- forty and two cents this includes all emergency claims and adjustments thank you so much comments or questions
- I don't have any, these were approved at various junctures. She just read for today, which was not part
- of the vote. Can you review the previous, because we're ratifying what we did. The numbers? I would
- have to go get those doc ups. Let's not do that then. I think these were presented at that meeting.
- They were presented at past meetings.
- So one moment, we'll be back with you. Okay. Do you have any comments on any of the ratifications? Nope.
- Okay. Let's see if there's any public comment on the ratifications of the June 18th and June 25th packets.
- All right. So have I sufficiently covered that for ratification? I think so, yes.
- All those in favor of ratifying the accounts payable for June 18th and 25th and payroll for June 12th
- and June 26 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Now we'll have another motion and I'm gonna
- have you read that again. Okay. Yes. I would like to move to approve the claim socket for accounts payable
- for July 2nd, 2026. I will second that now. Okay. Thank you.
- The accounts people claims doctor for July 2nd, 2026 totals 2,179,040 and two cents. This includes all
- emergency claims and adjustments. There you go. Thank you so much. Uh, comments or questions on July
- 2nd. Nope. All right. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Thank you so much, Ms. Gallardo.
- um all those in favor of approving the claims docket for accounts payable july 2nd 2026 signify by saying
- aye aye motion carries two zero um now uh we will move on to i will note for the record that we have
- received reports from the treasurer's office that both april and may of 2026 waits and measures june
- 2026 and the clerk's office for may 2026
- And we will now move on to new business. So I would like to move approval for the for the record software
- agreement funding cumulative capital funds number 1138 in the amount of $24,000. I will second that.
- Good morning, Mr. Crone. He's the director of technical services department. Can you tell us about this?
- All right.
- So we've been using FTR for well over a decade now, and that stands for For the Record. That's our judicial
- recording software. The version that we're on is discontinued by the manufacturer, no longer supported.
- With architecture changes in Windows 11 that Microsoft's made, it's caused compatibility issues with
- the old version we have. So our tech services group has done very well to keep spitting Band-Aid and
- this thing back together to keep it running for the courts.
- So it's time to upgrade the cloud version that we are looking at to go with here offers functionality
- that we've not had previously that the courts could use One prime example is we have no way of if a
- case is locked There's no way other than annotating that that they can put that there was no block there.
- So it was kind of relied on people being honest about
- In the system so this gives them permissions gives them tighter controls to be able to control who can
- see what between the courts and any confidential documents. But also gives them the ability to redact
- annotate in real time things options we didn't have before it's cloud based, so it is accessible from
- anywhere by any of the staff, it would make it easier.
- for the process to share documents with attorneys and things like that because it can be done through
- the cloud and not through flash drives and things like that the way we do now. One advantage to this
- system, it does put all the data storage in the cloud on FTR. Right now we have four and a half terabytes
- of recorded data.
- So moving forward, we need to look at other solutions for that storage and backup, which FTR would then
- take care of that. I am in discussions with them about whether they will take this four and a half terabyte
- we currently have and move it into the cloud under this price tag, whether there be an additional charge
- or whether we need to just maintain that old archive data ourselves. So that's still moving forward.
- But the terms of this agreement are for one year. We wanted to run it at least once and then talk to
- them later.
- If everyone agrees with the courts that it's working well, then look at longer term contracts. There
- is a training period with this contract that FTR would come on site, train all the court services employees
- to get us through the system. Excellent. Thank you so much. Comments or questions, Commissioner Madera?
- None. This is actually a really super critical function. And this is a, I can't say how much I appreciate
- the careful research you've done.
- on this software option. And thank you. I definitely want to give a lot of credit to Court Services
- and the court offices. We actually had FTR come on site and give us a quick demo. They got to ask their
- questions. Jamie Chandler, head of Court Services, has been very involved in the process. So a lot of
- the credit goes to those folks. Excellent.
- The question I have for you, if you get out your crystal ball, do you think it's going to be approximately
- this much per year to maintain this if we decided to stick with them? Because this is really you're
- renting cloud storage and not really buying software, is that correct?
- No, you're doing both. You're buying software. This is all cloud based software as a service. What's
- known as a SAS. OK, so you're getting that FTR recorder. The data components say it's all bundled together,
- but it is a separate component of that. So going forward, all cloud based services, all software's take
- an annual increase, depending on what kind of terms you can work with and dictates what your increases
- are going to look like. And along with obviously longer term contracts offer some benefits.
- we just wanted to make sure this was a good fit for us based on the price tag before we committed. Yeah,
- it's a prudent way to move forward. So thank you for that. So we would have to be buying the software
- again in the future. Correct. Along with the cloud storage space management. That is correct. Got it.
- The data is always ours. So obviously if we decided not to stay with the cloud base, want to go on prem
- or go with another manufacturer, we have all that data. They will help us download back into our own
- repositories. Awesome.
- Thank you so much. Thanks for answering all the questions. Let's see if there's any public comment on
- this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. None. All those in favor of approving
- the for the record software agreement signify by saying aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you very
- much. All right. Next.
- I would like to move approval for the proposal for valuation services between Integra Realty Resources
- and Monroe County Assessor. Assessor. Fund name reassessment, fund number 1224 in the amount of $6,900.
- I will second that. Ms. Sharp is not. The assessor's office asked if I could cover this for them. Oh,
- thank you so much, Mr. Cockrell.
- While not routine, not extraordinary in that there is an appeal from an assessment for the property
- located at 1700 North Washington Street. This is the appraisal that the county needs to justify the
- number they have on that appraisal. So this is, again, this is site-specific, but in the grand scheme
- of things, we do this quite often. Pretty typical, yeah. Thank you. Comments or questions, Commissioner Medeira?
- No, this looks like a routine item. It does. Let's see if there's any public comment. Thank you, Mr.
- Cockrell, for providing the information. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand in teams
- or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the proposal for evaluation services
- between Integra Realty Resources and Monroe County Assessors signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. 2-0.
- Next item please. Yes I would like to move approval for the KS contract for disaster debris. Fund name
- county general EM response and recovery. Fund number one thousand in the amount of ten thousand dollars.
- I will second that we have Mr. Baker joining us. Good morning. Good morning commissioners. So this is
- a contract for the dumpsters that we have out currently
- at three different locations within the tornado path. One dumpster is located at the Liberty church.
- And another one is located at Mount Pleasant church. And the last one is at the entrance of Morgan Monroe
- State Forest. These dumpsters are available for those impacted residents to dispose of household and
- construction debris.
- Um, thank you so much. Um, I'm wondering if, uh, first of all, TSD, can you remove that calendar from
- our screen? Because I cannot read the captions. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Um, so
- I'm wondering if you could give us, uh, and give the residents an update on this cleanup process and
- how long those dumpsters will, will, they're not there anymore, I believe. Um, can you give us some
- more information, please?
- Yes, so the dumpsters will be there until July 8th. So they got almost a whole week left. And I checked
- them yesterday, went out, drove around the area. They haven't been used yet, so we'll try and spread
- the word about them being available to the residents. But the Indian Department of Transportation has
- been out and about the impacted area, cleaning up the light away.
- within like two feet of the load and stuff. So that's been going on and we'll continue for the next
- few days until it's completed. They're helping the County Highway Department with that. And totes and
- some other supplies are available if residents need them, they can contact our office. Thank you so
- much. Can you provide some information about how this cleanup
- process is going in general? Are we in good shape? Do we need to think about extending the time on the
- dumpsters? At this time, I think we are in good shape. But yeah, the trees have been picked up a lot.
- And that helped out a lot. And people are happy with the dumpsters and stuff, it seems like. Great.
- Thank you so much. Do you have any comments or questions? No, I'm very glad we can provide the service.
- And again, an essential service I think we can do. I would like to provide more, but at minimum, I think
- this is incredibly useful. So I just wish we
- would get out of the path of these darn storms. I don't think that's going to happen as much as I wish.
- And I do want to say that the governor's office reached out early on. And at that point, we had had
- some discussion about tree debris. And I drove through the area about a week after it happened. And
- you could smell the green. You could smell that that had been decimated. And you could obviously see
- it as well.
- And we're just grateful everybody's OK. We really appreciate the work at emergency management. So thank
- you to you and Jamie for all your hard work. I know it's been a lot. And hopefully, as Commissioner
- Medeira says, we won't be doing this again this year. But that's a wish. It's a good wish. But this
- is why we all need to take it seriously when
- there's a warning. It's important that we do the right things in order to save our lives. Property can
- be replaced, people can't. And just a quick question, either for Angie or Jeff, this is coming out of
- rainy day, is that correct? Okay, thank you. I appreciate that the council set aside the funding in
- rainy day so that they could act quickly and get this done. Yes, thank you, that was wonderful.
- All right, with that, any public comment on this item? Raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- All right, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the K&S contract for disaster debris signify
- by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries two zero. I do have one question actually.
- Do we have the addresses of these dumpsters published anywhere? Are they online on the website, by chance?
- They're on the emergency management website, I believe. Okay, perfect. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Perfect. Okay.
- Yes, they are on our press releases that we've been sending out, which can be found on the county website
- and our Facebook page. Wonderful. Wonderful. Great. Thank you so much. Good question. So just if anybody's
- watching and they want to know where they are. Yeah. Excellent.
- Mount Pleasant Church, Liberty Church, and the entrance to the Morgan Monroe Forest. Excellent.
- There we go. Yes. All right. Next item, please. Excellent. I would like to move approval for the digital
- scanning project of historical documents by U.S. Imaging and fund phase two fund name recorders perpetuation
- fund for fund number 1189 in the amount of $178,023.66.
- I will second that recorder swing. Thank you for joining us again. Yes, it's nice to be here and talk
- with you guys about this project. It's phase two of a project to protect and preserve the contents of
- the physical books that are in the recorder's office that have yet to be digitized. There are approximately
- 300 books in the office. Phase one of this project was last year. This is to take care of the remaining books.
- It's to protect them from water and fire damage and deterioration. Most of our records are over in the
- archives, which has a dry fire suppression system. The one in the recorder's office is water. And so
- I think it's critical to get these digitized. The other thing is the purpose of the perpetuation fund
- is to protect and preserve those records as well as make them more publicly accessible.
- which this does. And so I think it's right in line with the purpose of the fund. And so, like I said,
- this is phase two of this project. Makes sense. We also went with US Imaging. We've had prior
- good relationships with them and worked on projects. Plus, they will actually scan the books in our
- office. They don't leave the premises. So I think that's another big point in their favor. Yeah, for sure.
- I think this is an essential project I think this places us ahead of many counties in Indiana. I frequently
- have students and I know of other people who do research in rural Indiana particularly
- And they can't, you know, people go in records or loss and real legal outcomes hinge on this availability
- of this information, unfortunately. And so this can be catastrophic. So I really appreciate these efforts
- and they can save everybody a lot of time and money. And again, I think this is wonderful. So I really
- appreciate this. This is great. I'm so glad we can do this. Yeah, this is what
- perpetuation funds are for, and it's great transparency for the public, and preserving those records
- is part of our history, so I appreciate that. And you noted here that you have had TSD review this contract
- as well, so I appreciate that. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You
- can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the digital scanning project of historical documents by U.S.
- Imaging, and this is phase two, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please. Yes,
- I'd like to move approval for Eastern financing rental agreement for a large format scanner and printer.
- Fund name Recorders Perpetuation Fund, fund number 1189, an amount of $529 for installation and $359
- per month plus printing coverage.
- I will second that, Ms. Wayne. Yes, I really want to thank you for your cooperation during June to go
- ahead and authorize Angie Purdy to sign this contract while you were not looking at new things. It allowed
- us to take advantage of a unique situation where we got a gently used large format
- printer at last year's prices. And that was locked in for five years at that previous year's price.
- So it really is a big help to our office when we're scanning plats and surveys and other large format
- documents. The current one that we have now resides in the surveyor's office. So
- They will continue the service contract on that piece and it provides service over there. But it's an
- internal thing where they don't have customers waiting at the counter for us to take care of them. And
- so I think this is a win-win for both offices. It's a good plan. Thank you so much. Comments or questions?
- Commissioner Medeira? Only that we save taxpayers money, which is always a great thing.
- I always try to do that when I can. Yes. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this
- item. You raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving
- the Eastern financing rental agreement for a large format scanner printer signify by saying aye.
- I motion carries to zero. Thank you so much. Thank you all. All right. Next we have the presentation
- of county form number 144. Good morning. Morning. I'm here to present
- I'm here to present the counties 144 is for 2027. This is a form that outlines the anticipated expenditures
- for payroll in 2027. The forms are rather large so they're included in the packet on the agenda as a
- link. And again, these are just used to
- to the council for what the 2027 wages should be. Excellent. Thank you so much. And we have to do that
- by August 20th. Comments or questions? Nope. Everything looks to be in order. Thank you. I appreciate
- that it was done as a link this time.
- instead of a packet of paper. Thank you for that. Yep, this is an annual review that we do prior to
- council budgets being set. So thank you so much. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand
- on teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, I guess we accept
- the presentation of the Form 144s. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to
- zero. Next item, please. I would like to move approval for the 2026 covered bridge certification. Yes.
- I will second that. And you're here to present that as well. Thank you.
- Yes. So each year we are required by code to certify the amount of covered bridges in the county. That
- amount still remains at one. So we're here today to request the commissioners certification. Yeah. One,
- one cool one. Yes. One. It's funny that we have to do this. All right. Uh, thank you. Nothing controversial
- here. Um, any public comment on this item? You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of certifying our 2026 covered bridge, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion
- carries, 2-0. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for change
- order number two with Strouser Construction Fund named County General Park Non-Reverting Capital and
- Park Non-Reverting Operating Fund number 1000, 1178, 1179, an amount not to exceed $19,374.
- I will second that Ms. Purdy is going to be presenting for parks today. Yes and thankfully Ms. Whitmer
- has provided a very concise and easily understood explanation for this request. These have sufficient
- funds to cover this change order and this change order is the result of the Flatwood Park restroom.
- having an issue with the underground holding tanks that were leaking. And so this is going to remove
- those and replace them and ensure that everything is appropriately tested and cleared before opening
- the actual restroom. Great. Thank you so much. Let's ask, let's ask Ms. Purdy a tough question. You
- got one for him? Any comments, questions? I'll skip all the puns that go with this. I'll keep a lid
- on them. So,
- Yes, this is essential, obviously, for many obvious reasons. And so this is a... So the restroom was
- never opened at all, is that correct? Okay, yes. Yep, yep, good. I have no further questions. All right,
- yeah, let's...
- bad puns, the potty jokes. A hundred percent, yes. All right, let's see if there's any public comment
- on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of
- approving change order number two of Strausser construction signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries,
- two zero. And next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the blood.
- uh, Riggett, Cooper, James service agreement, second addendum. I will second that Ms. Birdie. Okay.
- And this is, um, an addendum to extend the, uh, the contract. So it now extends from June 30th of 2026
- to 12, 31, 26. And this is for, um, services of the survey survey of the Monroe County nature preserve.
- Yep. Excellent. Thank you. Uh, comments or questions? Nope. Uh, again, I look forward to moving this
- project along and this is an important part of it.
- Yeah, absolutely. Great. Thank you so much. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand in
- teams or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the second addendum to the
- Bledsoe Rieger Cooper James Service Agreement for the Monroe County Nature Preserve, signify by saying
- aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please.
- I would like to move approval for Ordinance 2026-22 to amend Chapter 258-1 of the Monroe County Code.
- I will second that. Ms. Purdy? Yep. This is a housekeeping issue because the Parks Department has moved
- from their original spot, which is now, I believe, voter registration, to another spot in showers. And
- so this is just updating that address within our code. Yeah. Makes sense.
- not lost on this one. Got anything? No, I just don't want lost and found to be lost and found. We got
- to find the lost and found. All right. Thank you so much. Any public comment on this item? You raise
- your hand on teams or come to the podium. None. All those in favor of approving ordinance 2026-22, signify
- by saying aye. Aye.
- Motion carries 2-0. Thank you so much, Ms. Curry. Thank you. And Ms. Whitmer says thank you. She's having
- problems with her computer. She can hear, but she can't talk. We're all good. All good. Thank you. We'll
- center tough questions later. All right. Item K, please. Yes. I'd like to move approval for the memorandum
- of understanding between Monroe County Circuit Court and Centerstone. Fund name
- JDAI programming fund number 9123 in the amount of $1,500. I will second that and we have Ms. McAfee
- joining us and if you could give an overview first because we have so many of these contracts and then
- we can just go through the individual contracts then.
- would be spectacular the other day to someone you're the commissioners meeting I said I am the commissioners
- meeting juvenile detention alternatives initiative it's been in Monroe County since 2014 and we received
- grant from funds from the State Department of Correction and they filtered down to a
- the counties that are part of this initiative. For the 26-27 fiscal year, we were awarded $80,000. The
- exciting thing about this award, I think in the past, they put our money in buckets for us. So we had
- money that was kind of for coordination. It was office supplies and meals and travel training. And they
- gave us an amount that if we didn't use all of it, we couldn't move it. This year, they gave us a pot.
- And they said, you can't go over this. But the good news is we are able to put just over 60,000 of this
- into programming for our community. And that will be the majority of the MOUs that we're going to talk
- about today. The other MOUs are for data. So we do a lot of data-driven decisions. We do a lot of data
- visualization, a lot of data collection. I'm good at a few things, and I'm not really good at a lot
- of things. And data, I'm getting better.
- I need a lot of help. So we've partnered with a couple entities to help us with that. We're also working
- with Indiana University. We do a survey for youth and families who leave our probation department. It's
- after court, after appointments, after intake. Just to get some feedback on how did this appointment
- feel? Did you feel respected? Did someone listen to you? Was our location easy to find? How awful was
- parking on the day that you arrived? Just some of those kinds of things so that we can continue to inform
- the county as well as our leaders in the department about things that are
- really well and maybe things we might consider looking at. Great. Thank you so much. Yes.
- Oh, Centerstone, sorry. Yes, we will go with Centerstone first. For the last few years, we have partnered
- with Centerstone for a specific program called Teen Intervene, and it is an evidence based intervention
- for low to moderate youth experiencing substance use. The reason this funding is so important
- is historically, if we wanted to send a young person to Centerstone for services, they had to go, they
- had to do an intake, they had to open a chart. It was a two or three step process and regrettably,
- Sometimes families got lost in that stretch. And so what we're able to do is make a direct referral
- to Centerstone, and then Centerstone bills us directly so we don't have to worry about, is there insurance?
- Is there not insurance? How much is the copay? Those kinds of things. So it's a maximum six
- week intervention. It is typically done on a weekly basis. It can be done individually or in a group
- setting. Great. Thank you so much.
- comments or questions on the centerstone? I'm a big fan of this and there are, this is an area that
- I've done research in and this is an excellent way to reduce so many of the barriers of youth starting
- this type of program. Is there a way that individuals can transition to other care after these sessions are over?
- Yes, so Centerstone will also do an intake with that family, not as formalized as it would be if we
- didn't make the direct referral, but we have had instances
- where the young person's need was determined to be higher than this. This wasn't really a good fit,
- and so they were able to shift them into something a little bit more intensive. They've been able to
- shift families into their wraparound services because, yes, this young person was having this behavior,
- but looking at the totality of it, you know, if we don't address the whole package, we're probably not
- going to have much success in this one area.
- So yes, absolutely. Given center stones diversity of services that they offer. They're really good at
- kind of keeping an eye out for what else is missing. Awesome. Yes, and I can't think of a better provider.
- So thank you so much. Good work. One additional thing and this will again be kind of an overview of
- all of these.
- Monroe County has spent the last five or six years focusing on how do we keep kids out of the system.
- So not just serving kids in the system and we still do that and we do that very well. But there are
- a lot of resources that are available through Department of Child Services to pay for system involved families.
- The services, a lot of the things we're going to be talking about today are intended for either non-system
- as a prevention intervention or like a soft touch. You came into the system. We don't really want to
- keep you. So here's a resource that you can access. Again, reducing those barriers and trying to keep
- kids and families out of the system. Because like so many other systems, once we get a hold of people,
- sometimes it can be hard to get out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- I've had friends who felt obligated to get their kids into the system in order to get access to certain
- services, and a family should never feel that type of pressure. Regrettably, that has not been fixed
- yet, but I think that is really starting to be verbalized very loudly. And again, with so much research
- talking about the dangers of being in the system, we're really trying to explore
- Why can't that funding be available? Why can't that door be open? What is the magic that my office can
- make a phone call and access, but your office can't? So we're getting there. Thank you. And so much
- of this targets prevention, interventions, and the evidence shows it works. Yeah, absolutely. Really
- grateful for all the hard work that's gone into this, all these programs, your staff, you, of course.
- Thank you so much.
- 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 MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court
- and Centerstone signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please.
- I would like to move approval for the memorandum of understanding between the Monroe County Circuit
- Court and impact solutions funded name JDAI data analysis fund number 9175 in the amount of $3,150.
- I will second that.
- Ms. McAfee? Yeah, this is part of that data package where most of our reports come out in Excel format,
- which is really boring and not super engaging. And so what we do with Impact is they use a software
- tableau and they insert our data, they work their magic, and it comes back looking really impressive.
- And we can have really good conversations about what's happening now, what's happening trending-wise.
- Two years ago, we noticed an increase in female referrals and so we're able to do some real life analysis
- with the data that they provide to us. And again, it's interesting. That's part of the evidence of evidence
- based right. Questions. Nope, in a world where people are are.
- wanting to make so many decisions without that evidence base, evidence is incredibly important. And
- we have so many resources in our own backyard here. And we have so many wonderful tools with which to
- do this with. So it doesn't seem logical to do it any other way. And it's our best use of dollars because
- we can target exactly those interventions that are most called for. And we're getting to track program
- outcomes and recidivism and all of those things.
- You know, talk about so often. And for years, all we could say was, my gut. Well, I think it's working.
- I don't know if it is. So yeah, this has been wonderful. And increasingly, grants are demanding. Grants
- should demand that type of proof. So we need to prove that there is efficacy, right? And put our dollars
- where those outcomes are. Thank you. And I would say, the other thing I noticed about the contract is
- it's scaffolding previous data collection. Yes.
- bringing in older historical information and really helping make a more informed decision. So good work
- on that. All right. Any public comment on this? You can raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court and M-PACT
- solution signify by saying aye.
- Aye. Motion carries two zero. Next item please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the memorandum of
- understanding between the Monroe County Circuit Court and Family Solutions Fund named JDAI programming
- fund number 9123 in the amount of $5,500. I will second that Ms. McAfee.
- Parenting project we've been here a couple of times to talk about this specifically again another one
- of those wonderful intervention programs. This is designed specifically for parents and caregivers of
- strong willed children. If any of you have had one you know exactly who i'm talking about they are bold
- they are brilliant and they are really challenging and sometimes they're hard so this program has direct parent
- recommendations and tools to be able to address some of those challenges. It is done this this bundle
- of money will be for an in person class. Well, one of the items is also for some virtual programming.
- But this is for specifically the in person class, you do not have to be a system involved family. We
- asked that for the in program that you can be a Monroe County resident, the out of
- the virtual, we can broaden that certainly. So if we have anybody that's watching that wants to learn
- more about this, I would love to share information. Christine McAfee at the Probation Department. So
- give us a phone number. Yeah, absolutely. 812-349-2649. All right. Thank you so much. Comments, questions?
- No, again, I think this is one of those pre-involvement programs that's so critical.
- and give skills to people who may be at their wits end. So thank you. Yeah. Turning the stubborn child
- into a tenacious child. I was one of them. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this
- item. You raise your hand in teams or come to the podium. All those in favor of approving the MOU between
- Monroe County Circuit Court and Family Solutions signify by saying aye.
- motion carries to zero next item please yes I'd like to move approval for the memorandum of understanding
- between the Monroe County Circuit Court and Justin site LLC fund named JDI data analysis fund number
- 9175 in the amount of four thousand three hundred dollars I will second that tell us about this one
- yeah it's another data request I thank you all are familiar if you remember we are moving from quest
- into SRS, which is an entirely different beast. These dollars are specifically to help us start exploring
- what can we get out of SRS and how can we use that. So we're going to continue with the tableau. We're
- going to continue with the other things. Those things are going to merge, but we're suspecting there
- might be some ad hoc reports that we didn't previously have that we might want to add to our menu. So
- that's what this funding is for. Good idea. Comments, questions? No. This is again, wonderful tool.
- Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
- None. All those in favor of approving the MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court and Just Insight LLC
- signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. We only have three more items for this. Yes. Great.
- So I'd like to move approval for the Memorandum of Understanding between the Monroe County Circuit Court
- and People and Animal Learning Services, or PALS, fund named JDAI Programming, fund number 9123, in
- the amount of $6,400. I will second that. Tell us about this lovely program. I love this program. It
- started just a few years ago. And what this pays for are eight one and a half hour sessions, an adult
- caretaker and a young person. And in the midst of having fun and working with those beautiful horses,
- Angie is smiling because she probably knows this but apparently horses are pretty intuitive. And they
- really help you kind of identify the energy that you're bringing into the space and sometimes our adults
- and young people have a lot of difficulty with self regulation. And these this animal interaction helps
- them identify what am I adding.
- to maybe the part of this story. And the horses are wonderful and some of them are huge and some of
- them are little. But we have had a wonderful, wonderful time with this program. We have increased the
- length of the sessions. We were doing one hour sessions. They decided that really wasn't enough because
- by the time they got in, they got introduced, it was time to leave. So there are fewer sessions, but
- they're a little bit longer. For this grant, we're also adding an end of session celebration. So that
- will be open to friends and family, to the community, to come and see what work these young people
- families have been doing during these eight weeks will provide some horse time. And then there'll be
- refreshments and things like that. So again, if you're interested in learning more about pals, more
- about this horse interaction, contact me. I would love to share the information with you. Excellent.
- Comments or questions? Yep. We're not horsing around with this major. It's fun Thursday.
- I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good
- point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really
- good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a really good point. I think that's a
- really good point. I think that's a really good point.
- All right, seeing none, all those in favor of approving the MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court
- and People and Animal Learning Services signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Next item,
- please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the Memorandum of Understanding between the Monroe County
- Circuit Court and Parenting Solutions. Fund name JD-AI Programming, fund number 9123 in the amount of $9,000.
- I will second that. Tell us about this one, please. So Rob Evans is a former probation officer from
- Hamilton County. He started his business parenting solutions because he really feels that homes and
- families are where the magic happens. And too often entities kind of swoop in and we want to work with
- this person or that person individually. And he believes that the family really is a unit and working together
- is where that magic is going to happen so what he is offering to Monroe County are those parenting solution
- or the parent project classes that I spoke about earlier there they are virtual so he will offer those
- multiple times during the year the parent
- project is for kids 11 to 17 there's a loving solutions that's actually available for 5 to 10 year olds
- so again those strong will kids don't wake up the age of 12 and suddenly have this energy sometimes
- we can see it coming so this is something to help parents support those young people as they develop
- they also have a variety of one hour
- he's doing one on school success so kids that are school resistant. How can parents kind of get ahead
- of that before the trancy courts coming before the trancy officer before the trancy letters. He's got
- a really nice webinar on technology and safety and how parents can be as responsible and acknowledge
- and knowledgeable about technology are young people are using. If you've ever looked at any young persons
- phone they could. Probably launch a
- missile with it. They can do so many things with it. I just want to call people. So he does a really
- nice job of supporting parents and learning more about those things as well. Excellent. Thank you so
- much. Comments or questions? No, it sounds like it's the type of information that instead of searching
- a bazillion YouTube videos with conflicting information, this could be very helpful and perhaps directly
- speak to our families.
- That is the hope. And I will tell you also, I didn't say, but this is also at no cost. Yeah. Pal's is
- at no cost. The family solutions is at no cost. So all of these things are available to the community.
- That's wonderful. Exactly. All right. Thank you so much. 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 MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court and Parenting
- Solutions signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Last one for you, anyway. I would like to
- move approval for the memorandum of understanding between the Monroe County Circuit Court and the warehouse.
- Fund name GDI programming, fund number 9123 in the amount of $13,500. I will second that. Tell us about
- this, please.
- Yeah, again, this is a long term relationship that we have had with the warehouse. It morphed out of
- a conversation with Dave while who is the executive director, insurance requires kids 12 and younger
- have to be present with an adult to take
- to engage in activities. So he was having to turn kids away. So what we have done is develop a partnership
- with a couple of their staff whom we pay their hourly wage. They pick them up at the Dorothy Apartments
- and at Country View on specific days and specific times. They bring the kids back to the warehouse.
- They engage in activities. They have a short life lesson kind of curriculum. There's obviously gonna
- be food involved. And then they take the kids back. And the goal is really that,
- kind of selling it under structured activities, but it's really about relationships and mentorships.
- If you look at the research about keeping kids out of the system, the number one predictor is a committed,
- caring, consistent adult. And we're trying to help our community provide that to these kids in this
- program. So important, thank you. Yeah. Questions?
- No, this is the warehouse is one of those wonderful community spaces that's very unique. I think every
- community should have one of those and it provides an ideal site for this type of programming. And I'm
- really glad that we can provide what the resources we need to most effectively use that space. And I'm
- grateful to the owners of the warehouse for making that space available in this capacity.
- and they made the space available for the program that you did this spring. I was only there a short
- time, but I learned so much. So thank you again for extending that invitation. We'll keep you on the
- invitation list. Show up when you can. We love it. I learned a lot in a very compressed amount of time.
- It's impressive. All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your
- hand on teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the MOU between Monroe County Circuit Court and the warehouse
- signify by saying aye. Aye. Thank you so much for being here and for all the information you gave to
- everyone. And thank you to the county, to you all, to the probation, the judicial branch, or the judicial
- officers. The community really steps up. I can't tell you, we would not be able to do this if all of
- these partners didn't say yes when we reached out. So thank you to all of you. Awesome. Thank you so much.
- Right, do you need a break or should we just go? Okay, next item, please. Yes, I would like to move
- approval for ordinance 2026-24, adding chapter 385 to the Monroe County code. I will second that. Mr.
- Cockrell. Yes, and TSC at some point in time, I may ask to be able to share my screen. So just kind
- of giving you a heads up.
- First, I'd like to say this is an expansion of what can be used on county roads. This is no way, if
- you are allowed to drive this vehicle on a county road today, this does not change that. I've gotten
- quite a few questions about that. So what we have here is a co-provision that allows certain new types
- of vehicles on the roadway. There's a really long definition in the ordinance
- Please look at that if you have a vehicle that meets that, that is great. But I'm gonna go through some
- of the highlights of what we expect these vehicles to be able to do. One, they have to have at least
- four wheels. Two, they have to be able to operate at at least 35 miles per hour. They have to be insured.
- The driver has to have a driver's license. They have to have seat belts for everyone that is riding
- in the vehicle. They have to have a roll cage.
- has to have at least one brake light, has to have turn signals, have to have headlights, and it has
- to have a traditional steering wheel, and it's got to have rear view mirrors, side view mirrors. So
- that encompasses a lot, and I think the speed is necessary to make sure that they can travel safely
- on the roads without impeding traffic too much. And then the roll cage and all those other things are
- safety equipments to make sure they can be operated safely.
- So those are the types of vehicles that we are looking at. What's not included in that definition are
- your traditional ATV four-wheelers, three-wheelers, golf carts, those are not. And actually, what I'm
- asking you to look at is slightly changed from what was submitted before. It excludes golf carts. Outside
- the definitions, it always included that you weren't allowed to, but it just
- clarifies it, and it reworks the roadways where you're not allowed to. So if TSD would allow, I would
- like to share my screen to go over the roadways.
- So I had our friends at the surveyor's office, Dr. Baten, put this together. I don't know if you could
- see it very well. We expect this to be placed on our website in our GIS. But the red roads indicated
- on this are the roads where it's, and the areas of the roads where it's prohibited. And it's prohibited
- on roads where we have higher traffic counts. So if it's a really busy road, and those roads are part
- of Arlington,
- Drive, part of Business 37 North, all of Curry Pike, all of Fairfax Road, a portion of Fullerton Pike,
- I think a portion of Gordon Pike, all of Hunter Valley Road, Industrial Park Drive, portions of Old
- 37 South, I think all of Profile Parkway, Rogers Road,
- uh roger street and rora road those are the names of the road that are at least partially if not totally
- prohibited from using these types of vehicles so and i think as you can see from the map it's it's really
- the heavy roads around the city of bloomington in between the city of bloomington ellisville that's
- really used for people to get to and from work and really highly congested this also does not include
- any state highway um in addition
- we're only talking about use of these vehicles on a public roadway or a public place. If you could not
- drive an automobile on it right now, these vehicles still aren't allowed. So you can't ride it through
- our parks. You can't ride it through the trails, walking trails, those kinds of things. So there's a
- lot of no's in there, which is why I started off with, this is really expanding quite a bit where you're
- able to utilize these vehicles.
- And then finally, the penalties have changed since what was put on the website. We're not doing an ordinance
- violation for these. State law covers what the penalties are for these, and state law will continue
- to cover the penalties for these. I think internally, we kind of had a conversation about it. We don't
- want any incentive for a local government to collect fines and fees based upon regulation of state code.
- So if it's a penalty, it's a state code penalty.
- Really this this allows a whole new set of vehicles and I guess maybe a little bit of the history is
- we've had these conversations off and on for a long time. I think what really got it traction this time
- is that when we had the gigantic snowstorm last year.
- individuals were wanting to use these vehicles to help out their neighbors to plow their drives and
- do things like that. And they were running into resistance from law enforcement who were like, you're
- not allowed to use these here. And that really jump started that conversation. So that's kind of how
- it got to where it is today. Yeah. All right. Yeah. And I will add that all of this came from folks
- who attended office hours. This is where it started.
- Um, and this is why it's important for us to have them and continue them. Sometimes nobody shows up.
- I was on three hours the other day and nobody showed up. Um, but it's, it's important to have that conduit
- with, with our community. And, you know, and I talked through, I was initially, I initially.
- threw up a lot of objections. But they answered a lot of the questions that I had. They're
- very knowledgeable. I really appreciated that they took the time to do that. They send us similar ordinances
- from local counties, which saved us some time. I also want to give a huge shout out to Ms. Ridge and
- her department for helping out with creating this list. I mean, the roads that are
- are selected in red. And again, a reminder, this does not include State Road 45. This does not include
- State Road 46, right? Any state road or obviously I-69 is prohibited for utility vehicles. These are,
- so it's interesting. So my nephew has one of these up in Michigan and he's driven me a few times. My
- knuckles just,
- just turned back to their usual color, but he's a good driver. But I really have a better understanding
- of them thanks to my nephew, inadvertently, but that these, I mean, his goes 55. So he, you know, it
- is a safe way to get around. You know, yes, you still, if you're on a four wheeler that's intended for
- off-road use only,
- you should not be on county roads. If you are in a golf cart, you should not be on county roads. That's
- not changing, right? But these utility vehicles are really safe. Um, and, um, and it's, I think it's
- important to kind of continue to add onto what folks can do in our community ways that will help them
- get around easier, especially in inclement weather. But, um, it's, it's, um, fairly,
- really good gas mileage, too. But I'm really grateful to Mr. Cockrell for working through this. I had
- a number of questions that he even addressed this week, so thank you for that. And also, Dr. Baten,
- with GIS services, the map, I
- I saw the email that said, Hey, can you make a map? And then I saw the email that said, here's the map.
- Um, that was great. Uh, so really do appreciate all of that. Um, and I want to thank everybody in the
- community for helping out, um, and within county government for making this happen pretty quickly. My
- understanding though, is that pretty much all along only conservation officers have been, have been
- the ones who have been
- focused on ticketing and addressing this. So I just want to make sure that we do send this out and get
- a copy of this with some information to not only our sheriff's department, I think the city of Bloomington
- and town of Elisle should have this information because they may want to look at their ordinances because
- this does not cover either of those, right? It's only the unincorporated parts of the county, but also
- to send it to our
- friends in the conservation office and Indiana State Police so that they know what our new law is. And
- I'm really grateful to have a map because reading a list of streets is, yeah, makes your eyes run.
- So anyway, a lot of info, but again, thank you to the community. And do you have any comments or questions
- for Mr. Crockrell? Yes, I just want to second a lot of what you said. And in Torts, I teach how,
- one case where, you know, you had the Model T's and they started, courts started to impose a duty on
- counties to build wooden guardrails, you know, and they said, now that we have these technologies,
- communities have to basically regulate accordingly. And then we had to go to metal guardrails, you know,
- once cars got faster. But as technology gets safer, communities have to sort of ease up on some regulations
- as well. And consumers do pay a premium for these safety features as well. These are not
- the four-wheelers that just come with handlebars and that pose a rollover risk. These are very expensive
- pieces of equipment. They have a lot of safety features. They're very expensive. And this is a pretty
- restrictive ordinance as well. But they can engage in these activities in adjacent counties. And there
- are many, as you said, good examples of ordinances that people have presented. And so I think this is
- a very reasonable, very
- a good, moderate step forward. And so I think it's also a very great example of county departments working
- together to allow this activity. So I think this is everything that you said. And thank you to those
- who came forward and merged this. Yeah. It's really good. I do want to note that we'd also had conversations
- with the Sheriff's Department about this
- before hand because obviously we want to make sure that they're okay with what we're doing and they
- were so grateful for that input as well so thank you to them. The first contacts once we thought this
- was maybe on the horizon.
- So folks, look out for UTVs. And I just want to also state that if the sheriff's department or highway
- sees any issues or concerns and we need to change this map, just let us know. And we can easily make
- those accommodations if something comes up that's a safety issue. Am I thinking about going to buy myself
- one now? I hope they all get snow plows. Yeah, that'd be awesome, wouldn't it? Yes, they are fun.
- If citizens have questions about these individual roads, and I know it's very clear once you look, you
- know where exactly they're allowed and permitted, but if they have questions about why should they contact
- should they contact County legal should they contact highway. I think you can reach out to either Jeff
- or myself.
- It's something that a list that we put together just trying to get the ordinance to, um, to you guys
- to get passed. Um, I know I have had a lot of questions, uh, when's it going to take effect and a lot
- of support for it. It's not anything that a list can't be modified. If there's reason that we say maybe
- there needs to be a change or a road eliminated or maybe an additional road added. Again, we just, uh,
- briefly went through, um,
- roads that were classified at a higher level than a local road to recharge list. Just like you said,
- it's just the congested areas. Maybe as the public gets more comfortable with these vehicles on the
- roadway, we can modify the list. But if they have any questions, I'm sure they can reach to Jeff or
- the highway department. That's awesome. Thank you. And I know one of our options was, and I appreciate
- the way that
- we've done this without adding more fees or fines or things because we already know golf carts are not
- allowed on public roads, et cetera. Um, that w I was also told that, uh, some counties will sell a permit
- so that you can actually, and I was just like, I don't want to go down that road. First of all,
- it's just, yeah, it's not, um, it's not worthwhile. And I certainly, if somebody is using a UTV,
- It may be because they don't have a car car. And if they don't, then why would I add another, right?
- Why should we do that? It should not be an excuse to build taxis out of more money. Exactly. It doesn't
- cost us anything to do this. Exactly. Right. Time. But thank you. All right. Don't go down there.
- All right. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or
- come to the podium. Oh, looky there.
- Now, fees for public comment now. Yeah. That's free, too. OK. Today, Monroe County government makes
- me proud. Thank you for all those comments. And I've kind of been a little bit behind a lot of this.
- Can you give us your name, please? Tom. Or M-A-N.
- 91 counties in the state of Indiana today if you guys vote yes 88 of those 92 counties will have ordinances
- it was the right it was the right move these things are safe they do i worked with the sheriff's department
- to answer the question you're right no police officers ever pulled any of us over no city no county
- no state it's just one department and Monroe county is beautiful and it gives us a chance to get out
- and explore Monroe county in a different way
- so i appreciate all your help and you guys might be proud today thank you all right thank you and thank
- you again for joining us during the office hours that was awesome and if it wasn't for that i don't
- know where i've been in this process so thank you for that service i learned so much from you thank
- you yes thanks for your help yeah great all right any other public comment you raise your hand on teams
- or come to the podium
- and just to clarify this will take effect immediately upon passage yes um we need to get it out to the
- uh to the so have a little patience with them yeah but but i mean but it does become effective immediately
- it's it's just that we're going to get this information out over a holiday weekend and hope that
- that they have it, so if somebody out there wants to drive a utility vehicle, I recommend you kind of
- fold up a copy of this and put it in your pocket, including the map. Yeah, and then, yeah, we can get
- you a copy. We can get you a copy. It's on the website. Once it gets signed, we'll put it in the updated
- news area of our website, so you can just pull it and print it off.
- probably need it signed before it'll be done. Yeah, we need it signed first, yeah. Okay, so seeing no
- other public comment, all those in favor of approving Ordinance 2026-24 signify by saying aye. Aye.
- Motion carries to zero. Thank you so much. All right, next item please. Yes, I would like to move approval
- for the assignment and assumption agreement for the convention center management and the modification
- of various management duties.
- I will second that Mr. Cockrell. Yes, this is a an agreement and it's it's kind of based off of our
- transfer of the property to the properties south of the Convention Center to the Capital Improvement
- Board. Those properties as well as the Convention Center. And maybe this is how I connect the dots all
- went into a fund to pay for the management contract.
- So the revenues from those rental agreements as well as the revenues from the Convention Center itself
- went into the management contract. Our plan all along was to make sure that when the Capital Improvement
- Board got on its feet and was ready to take over the management of the Convention Center that they would
- get the contract for the management
- address to them, assigned to them. It's in the agreement that we can assign it to the Capital Improvement
- Board. This is just a document that does that assignment. It also includes turning over the funds that
- we have collected through the rentals and all that to them. I think it's $190,000 that we have
- an appropriation for because all that money was going to go back to the management company as well.
- I guess just as a
- bring everything around together. Part of that when we transfer the property, we also have an agreement
- that is included in the transfer approval for you to sign off on transferring some of the damage deposits.
- So we'll do that as well. But that's kind of just bringing this all the authority that the county has
- for the area is going and under that contract is going from the county to the capital improvement floor.
- That's the gist and the kind of the long story behind the long document. Excellent. Thank you so much.
- Do you have any questions? No, that was incredibly clear. And I think, yeah, no questions. We knew this
- day was coming and it's bittersweet for me because it's been fabulous working with the management group
- and Ms. Copping. And I don't know if you wanted to say anything today. Please.
- Hi, Talisha Coppett, Convention Center Management Company. And the same for me is we've loved working
- with commissioners, the council, your leadership, your support, but also
- the depth that the county has with the various departments and from the office folks with Angie and
- Jeff was legal, but the IT and maintenance and auditor's office and treasurer's office and even getting
- to know the health department more during COVID when we did the vaccine clinic and IT department. So
- there's maintenance, there's just a lot of depth there. And we found that everybody is
- helpful and friendly and professional and have provided a lot of advice over the years, which has allowed
- us to continue to work with you and do it correctly. We've started working with
- the capital improvement board, and that transition is going well. We continue to work very closely with
- Visit Bloomington, already starting to do tours of the site that should be open in January, getting
- a lot of enthusiasm. So it's really interesting that they really are, if you build it, they will come.
- It's starting, so it's pretty exciting.
- So anyway, we just wanted to say excited for those next steps and thank you all and love Fullerton Pike.
- So, and the Fourth of July parade is Saturday so downtown Bloomington continues to co sponsor that with
- the parks and rec but I mean I think you can be very proud of the county's investment over all these
- years have been 14,000 events over a million people through local community events.
- as well as out of town visitors and generating that economic impact. So I just see more of the same
- coming along and being able to go to that next step. So onward, upward. Thank you. We will miss seeing
- you here, at least annually, to do the contracts and to discuss things. But it's been wonderful working
- with you. And don't be a stranger.
- Be sure to let us know if there's anything you need. Getting through COVID, you all were amazing. It
- helped so much. You've helped in elections in the past. And really, this whole project, oh,
- and the ARPA, the ARPA renovations, I'm so glad those got done. Yeah, right. I think it's really helped
- be able to keep the doors open, actually, during this whole
- part of it, because all those things were really overdue. So they've really been and we haven't had
- any issues with all of them. And we haven't had the bills that come with, you know, having to repair
- something last minute. Yeah. So that's really good. And, you know, just you've been wonderful to work
- with you and your staff and cannot thank you enough for all you've done to welcome people, but also
- to encourage them to visit Bloomington and Monroe County. Yes. Yeah.
- And we've got a great team. Our staff, you know, loves the business and it's a fun business and it's
- really interesting to see all the different interests people have. Yeah, for sure. Anything to add?
- Yeah, so my late night reading for the past, you know, approximately two years has been the history
- of what has gone on in much of the county. And so there have been certain heroes in those sagas and
- you've been one of them. So, you know, I think that
- I marvel at all you've done and how you've done it not only in the convention center space but also
- in visit Bloomington and to invoke you know Commissioner Thomas is field of dreams analogy. I would
- say field of beams. But it's just been marvelous you know how quickly it's risen, and you know, all
- of all of the things you've managed to do.
- while that project has been ongoing. And I think everything just has operated smoothly over there. You
- wouldn't even know that there's this major construction project across the street. And all of the things
- you've helped us negotiate, all of the many, many difficult situations you've helped us negotiate this
- year alone. So even from the moment I've been here forward, thank you very much for all of that. Oh,
- thank you.
- just a spectacular professional, as well as a spectacular human being. Thank you. But I think those
- personal remarks are warranted even in this professional context. We've come a long way since the train
- used to go by five times a day and rattle the whole building. And that West parking lot was a field.
- And so there have been a lot of things up and down over the years.
- A lot of changes and it takes a lot of changes in downtown. Yeah, and it takes a special person and
- a special organization to to weather those changes and to keep making it better and more interesting
- and more alluring for folks. So absolutely. Yeah, really. You've just done amazing. Such a bright future,
- too. So so, you know, set up to succeed. So thank you so much. OK, great. Thank you for everything. Yeah.
- Thanks. Let's see if there's any public comments on this item. Raise your hand on teams or come to the
- podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of the assignment and assumption agreement for Convention Center
- management and modification of various management duties signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries
- to zero. Next item, please.
- like to move approval for the letter of representation for Clark Johnson and night LTD. I will second
- that. Yes, this is a letter of representation that would have that would give the commissioners their
- own legal counsel for the anticipated ACLU jail constitutionality case. I think from the legal of the this firm
- Members of this firm were part of the firm that originally represented the county when the Richardson
- case was filed in 2008-2009 Pam Schneeman is the person who will be the primary and she was part of
- that litigation as well We had Angie pretty and I had been discussing with our insurance carrier and
- our insurance
- in our insurance agent, whether the insurance carrier would cover the cost of this defense. They don't
- want to, and I don't blame them, make any kind of decision until they actually see what claim has been
- filed. But they indicated that if they would, that this firm would be, who would they would recommend
- us using, so we would have some continuing. And the, I guess the
- other part that's probably not on the cover sheet is that the rate is $225 an hour for the principal
- and 195 for and below for others in the firm. So I guess capped off I know that the sheriff's has has
- gotten their counsel this would be the commissioners getting their counsel and I guess from our office's
- perspective we don't believe that
- we could represent any of the parties because there is a conflict between the three. I don't think we
- could represent you and have the council feel that we are adequately representing them and vice versa.
- And the sheriff could be vice versa between all three of you as well, right? There's ways this case
- could go that could cause all kinds of conflicts between all the parties. So we ethically are not able
- to do that. What fund is going to be used to pay this
- we're going to be using is county general professional services. Okay. And at the last council meeting
- when the sheriff requested an additional he was initially advised to use funds that he currently had.
- We're going to do that and I'll send an email to the council letting them know that we're not coming
- for an additional at this point in time however this is displacing
- um our ability to pay those professional services we had planned on paying for 2026 so we will more
- than have to come back for an additional but we will do that later um and um i i want to say two things
- um and neither's controversial but this is an example of a cost for not
- completing what should have been done by Mr. Falk's deadline on time. Um, and it's unfortunate because
- taxpayers are paying the price. Um, the other thing I will say is that right now, even though we, we
- should have separate council that we're aligned with the sheriff's department on, on this project and
- where it should go and what it should entail and how quickly it should have been done. But,
- I do want to say that because I don't want anybody to come away thinking that we've not been in alignment
- with the sheriff's department. I think it's important to note that. Any comments? Just a clarification.
- So it says in the agenda that this is the commissioner's attorney. So this does not cover counsel. Correct.
- Correct. Okay. And I guess when you speak with them, you may ask them if they see the same conflict we do.
- And if they don't, then that's a conversation you guys can have with them. If they talk to me, I would
- indicate that we found that there was a conflict. And I also think, to your point about representation,
- with my knowledge, this is a very specialized body of litigation, as well, that a certain subset of
- lawyers specialize in. Yes. OK. Great. Thank you so much. Any public comment on this item? You raise
- your hand, and teams are come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the letter of representation for Clark Johnson and Knight
- LTD signify by saying aye. Motion carries to zero. And thank you for helping vets the best firm possible
- for this. Appreciate the work. Can I ask one more question?
- So there is a determination that is possible by insurance after the lawsuit gets filed. They then they
- will determine whether or not this is covered by insurance. But that this one is on their list. So another
- is for not going out of balance. Right. Right. Right. Right. So it's vetted. But a determination is
- yet to come. Right. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. Okay.
- Thank you. All right. Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval from Monroe County and city
- of Bloomington memorandum of understanding. Second, I don't Mr. Cockrell, I guess or Ms. Ridge, I don't
- know tag team, whatever. The city of Bloomington is doing a project and that project includes every
- is going to include work that we requested they do on one of our bridges. And so this agreement is for
- them to do go ahead and oversee the work.
- and that we will pay them an amount associated with I think it's like $38,000. It's approximately in
- the MOU I believe it's $34,000. EMB is the awarded contractor. We've made a little bit of modifications
- to it already. It's just for the longevity of the bridge for removing the sidewalk that's on the bridge
- increasing what we call a membrane layer.
- The 34,000, it is an MOU that as long as we approve a change order that we've seen, it pertains to our
- bridge, then we have the right to approve that. We have let EMB know we do support that additional cost.
- Again, it's all just for the longevity of the bridge, and the work is just for what is on the bridge
- that's in this MOU. And the bridge is our responsibility.
- And is this being paid for out of Kew Bridge? Correct. All of this makes sense. I guess I'm just trying
- to ensure that I understand what's going to be done. So they're actually going to put the membrane down,
- repair the sidewalks, but they're also then putting asphalt down on top of the bridge deck? No. Yes,
- that is correct.
- The membrane was actually going to stop at the edge of the bridge where the sidewalk was. They were
- not going to remove the sidewalk. So we had reached out to our bridge inspector. We feel for the longevity
- of the bridge, the sidewalk does need to be removed so we can extend that membrane. And then the extra
- cost is putting back that sidewalk. So that's why the cost has increased over the last week or so after
- we made those modifications and worked it all out. So yeah, and then they'll
- I was a little confused when I read it. I'm sure it's something you're like, yeah, of course,
- but I was, can we pay? All right. Any questions? I'm perfectly fine. My mic's not working. Let's see
- if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Monroe County City of Bloomington Memorandum
- of Understanding signified by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0 and thank you, Ms. Ridge, for working
- on this. This is a good example of when collaboration works. We don't always have that. So next we have
- our road salt bid opening. If you would like to proceed with that, it looks, I can't believe we're talking
- about road salt.
- be prepared. I know you're so smart to talk about it now. Makes me feel salty. Yeah. So bids were due
- this morning by 10 a.m. The first one that I am gonna open is from Morton Salt. This tells me that they
- provide road salt too. They do yeah. If you go to if you go to Manistee Michigan on the shores of
- Lake Michigan, you can see their settlements. They're still there. That's amazing. They're still there.
- That's so fascinating. Yeah. Sodium chloride delivered is $100.65 a ton. And untreated sodium chloride,
- if we picked it up, would be $97 a ton. The next one that we have is from Cargill.
- stuff and it really knows how to clear out a room, don't they? A drum roll, but I think it would get
- old after a while.
- Okay, so Cargill is regrets. They will be unable to submit a bid for the salt according to their letter.
- And then we have one from Compass. Your jokes are going south.
- That looks like another we're not bidding letter. Oh, no. And we received that Compass will not be providing
- a bid on SALT either. Is there still a shortage? I mean, this was last year. I don't know if that's
- what's anticipated or if you just have to call at the time for quotes for materials. But you can still
- do that, right? We can still get quotes
- if even if we i think some of the things we ran into last year when we had the shortage i believe that
- compass was one of the companies um when we reached out to them having a hard time getting salt they
- were only committed to their um right awarded clients right so they wouldn't right so um we'll look
- at this maybe contact the companies talk to legal department and see how we want to move forward i would
- check and see
- that price compares to what we've currently been paying. Yeah, it seems like it's in line with what
- we're paying now per ton. So it might be that that's that's who we go with. But we'll just take them
- under advisement at this point. Yeah. Take this under advisement. Yeah, I'm just curious. I mean, I
- do feel like we should have a contract with somebody. But
- Again, our barn is pretty full. So we've been ordering salt and up until the last month or two.
- So we are, we were prepared for. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got what's been called the super El Nino on
- its way. And it's actually started now. Right. Right. Right. I mean, weather agencies are like, there's
- a hundred percent chance we're going to have a strong El Nino. Okay. Yeah. So I think, I think it,
- We may be okay, weather-wise, but you had to be prepared, and it could be ice versus snow, and that's
- just a salt, another salt lick. All right, great, yeah, let us know what you wanna do, think about it,
- and appreciate you opening bids and being a contestant today. All right, we'll move on to item W.
- Yes, I'd like to move approval for the change order number four for Sunrise Greetings Vernal Pike Connector
- Road. Funding Vernal Pike Sunrise Greetings, fund number 8165 in the amount of $10,165. I will second
- that. I thought we were done with this. We're getting there. I believe this is our last change order
- for this project. At the time when we put the ends on the bridge railings,
- This felt like that there needed to be a different type or additional attenuators on the ends, basically
- for pedestrian traffic. So we wanted to make sure that we had the best finished product. So we wanted
- to take on this extra cost of putting in that extra protection for the pedestrian traffic at the ends
- where you're entering the bridge, kind of where you see the guard rail ends.
- Um, so that's what this change order is for. Uh, again, I believe this is the last change order, um,
- for this project. So awesome. Good work. Uh, comments, questions. Uh, no, good to know. There will be
- no additional attenuators for the project at the ends of the bridge. Right. Exactly. The road. Yeah.
- Um, any public comment on this site? Any raise your hand in teams or Mr. Askins can come to the podium.
- All right, seeing none, all those in favor of change order number four for Sunrise Greetings Vernal
- Pike Connector Road signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries two zero. Next item please. Yes, I'd
- like to move approval for supplemental number two with Clark Dietz Engineering for that road bridge
- number 79. Fund name cumulative bridge fund number 1135 in the amount of $75,450.
- I will second that. Ms. Ridge, tell us all about it. So when we designed this project, it was all going
- to be locally funded from design right of way through construction. As we've gone forward, the cost
- of the replacement increased. So we submitted this project to be a federal aid project. It was awarded
- for construction of fiscal year 2031. So 80% of the construction and construction inspection will be
- covered as a federal aid project. But to lead up to
- satisfying all the federal aid requirements, there'll be additional documents required like NEPA, things
- like that to show that we have our right of way certified. So these are the extra steps. So the cost
- of 75,000 upfront to the county is better than paying the 100% of, I believe the current estimate is
- about 1.8 million for the bridge replacement. Questions? You know, it makes sense,
- No questions. What is the time frame on this again? I believe that's a construction season of 2031.
- So far in the future. Oh my gosh. I mean, that's the last we did not get a call. We did not put a project
- in in November of 2025 just because we are so far out. Um, but we put this in into the call on November
- of 2024 and that's how far out it is for construction.
- And it takes you five years, basically, to get to construction. Sure. Yeah. That's amazing. Awesome
- work planning ahead for that. Really, really good. Do you have any? No. OK. Yeah. Let's see if there's
- any public comment on this item. You raise your hand in teams. If you're asking, this is even left.
- And there's nobody to come to the podium. All right.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving supplemental number two with Clark Dates Engineering for
- that road bridge number 79 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Next please. Yes, I'd
- like to move approval for awarding the highway garage parking lot paving project to Lutz Paving LLC,
- fund name 2025 Geobahn Capital Projects, fund number 4820 in the amount of $142,651.
- not euros, dollars. I will second that, Ms. Ridge. So we had four sealed bids that we opened on June
- 4th at the Monroe County Commissioners meeting. Lent Asphalt was the lowest, most responsive and responsible bidder.
- The engineer estimate was $173,623.77. So yeah, we're excited for this project. We want to thank the
- commissioners for putting it into their GeoBond capital projects and the council supporting that. The
- parking lot was built in 1995, so it's definitely overdue, but we wouldn't have been able to do this project.
- without your support. We've done all the drainage work, replaced some pipes in-house with our crews
- to get it ready. So we're ready to go once Lentz is ready to go. Great. Questions, comments? Absolutely.
- This is a project that has, as you said, been long overdue, and I'm so glad we could come in under budget.
- I have a question for you that came up for me, and it's not directly
- to this, if you don't mind. So the governor put a leave of the gas tax. He's rescinded the
- gas tax temporarily. It's both the get and the gut, which is the excise tax, but then also the sales
- tax of 7%. I've been seeing things coming from Association of Indiana Counties about
- how much this because that means we're getting no funding when we don't know if it's going to be continued
- or not but what what is going to be the impact of this so that residents understand that and i think
- maybe putting something on our website would be useful too but okay yeah um so yes we have followed
- this close um governor did announce i believe it was on tuesday of this week that
- He has directed the state comptroller to make the local government's hole on this suspension by November
- 1st. So how much we're going to, our distribution comes in monthly from the gasoline tax. We won't see
- that deduction until we probably receive our July, August, September, because it kind of runs in the rear.
- when it calculates out. So I believe it was suspended for three months at this point. So we expect to
- see those deductions, reductions in August, September, October, July, August, September. Again, however,
- the governor has issued a press release statement this week that he will make the local county entities
- and cities whole.
- It will affect probably moving forward county community crossing matching grant program right paving
- projects that we've submit always have submitted to for the last ten years. We did not anticipate that
- the governor would come back and make us whole but we also we have a cash balance we were we did not
- go in for an additional this year like we do usually do in the past for paving.
- in case we needed to go into those reserve cash funds. We wanna maintain what we're doing. We're just,
- we're still moving forward with what we're doing. And I think we're gonna be okay because they are gonna
- make us whole by the end of the year, so. Okay, so even the delay is not necessarily a negative. The
- delay should be fine because again, we get it in monthly. We have our projects appropriated for
- We can cover our lines right now. If we did say that we needed to go in for an additional to the council,
- we would. We have a great staff that's watching our lines to make sure that we're not depleting a line
- and don't have something to cover that. But we're watching it closely. There's kind of a mixed, mixed
- number out there. What, how much we're going to lose in a month. Mr. Garitas with FSG set,
- believes 15 to 20%.
- Um, I believe our county auditor believes it's going to be 50%. So for those monthly distributions.
- So again, the governor has said that, that, um, that we will get those funds back by the end of the
- year. So, okay. I was just curious about that. Thank you for all the information. I, I think people
- need to understand that. Yeah.
- I was up in Michigan, gas was $4.40 a gallon. Oh, yes. Colorado, $4.79, $4.95. Yeah, sure. Very expensive.
- So there's a price to pay for that. And we're going to pay for it somewhere or another. And I didn't
- ask for this war. Did you ask for this war? I didn't ask for this war. No, but Congress has determined to. Yeah.
- All right. So anyway, thank you for that additional information. I think it's important. And, you know,
- keep us posted. If if something is going to be shorted, you know, let us know how you want to manage
- it and we'll we'll work. We'll work with you as always. All right. So back to the highway garage parking
- lot, the jumble of stones and debris and dirt that it is.
- that is going to get done. Let's see if there's any public comment on this. All right. Seeing none,
- all those in favor of awarding the highway garage parking lot paving project to lens paving signify
- by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero.
- It's amazing the connection between these national dents and the local. It all filters down. If people
- weren't already worried because they've gone to the Urushi store and things are way more expensive than
- they used to be for no apparent reason, this is a good example of how it could really impact us. Absolutely.
- Next item, please. I would like to move approval for the agreement between the Monroe County Board of
- Commissioners and Aegis BLN USA Incorporated for the right of way services.
- fund named Dillman Road Bridge number 83, fund number 8170 in the amount of $62,227. I will second that,
- Ms. Ridge. This is basically to start the right of way process. This is a federal aid project. When
- we begin the right of way process, it'll be 80% reimbursed from NDOT. So this is just the next phase
- of replacing Dillman Road Bridge 83. Right. Thank you so much. And when is the project
- The letting for this project is in 2027. I want to say the fall of 2027. So it gives us about a year
- for right-of-way acquisition. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. Do you have any questions? Nope. Again,
- another critical project that has waited quite a while. Yeah. This is going to be a really good one.
- Absolutely. Appreciate you working on this. Huge safety issue. So thank you for working on
- this so diligently. Let's see if there's any public comment or on Teams.
- Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the agreement between Monroe County Board of Commissioners
- and EGISPL and USA Inc. for right-of-way services signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Ms.
- Ridge, thank you for being patient and sitting with us today for so long and for all your hard work
- and your staff.
- Go on to the next item please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the 2026 Sophia Travis Community Service
- grant agreements fund name county general fund number 1000 the amount of $190,000. I will second that
- Mr. King. Good morning.
- On June 23rd of this year, the council approved the distribution of $190,000 of appropriations for the
- Sophia Travis grants program. The funds were awarded to 41 agencies, all of which submitted applications
- or projects for one of the eight categories for which Sophia Travis
- grants cover, which include food, nutrition, security, shelter and health, transportation assistance,
- climate change, emergency shortages, first responders, veterans assistance, excellence in government
- and or youth enrichment. The council is requesting that the board of commissioners approve and sign
- the twenty twenty six agreements in your packet. There's a template agreement. And then I just prepared
- an agreement for each of the agencies by filling in their project, their name and their amount.
- I'm happy to read the list of awardees if you'd like, but it's also included in the packet. Yeah, I
- think it would be really useful if you don't mind doing so. Thank you. So Amethyst House received $5,300
- for residential food. Artist Adjacent received $2,100 for Rover's kickoff shows. Auxiliary to Boys and
- Girls Club received $2,000 for the Crestmont Special Snack Program. Big Brothers Big Sisters received
- $4,900 for the Big and Little Adventure Connected Print and App Tools Program.
- Blooming Arts received $2,800 for a scholarship fund for young actors. Bloomington Cooperative Living
- received $1,000 for their digital outreach program. Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington received $8,600
- for summer field trips. Cancer Support Community received $4,020 for food and transportation assistance
- for cancer patients.
- Monroe Kayane Casa received $2,500 for the Project Stop It Now program. Catholic Charities received
- $3,400 for the Affordable Therapy program. Center for Sustainable Living received $3,140 for environmental
- remediation and safety improvements for the community greenhouse. The Chamber of Commerce received $2,200
- for their Career Cruise program.
- C jam received two thousand three hundred and forty for expanding volunteer led eviction mediation services
- community culture inc received three thousand four hundred and twenty dollars for their bobs garden
- program community kitchen received nine thousand two hundred and forty dollars which is for food for
- all essential food for funding um first to change sober leaving received two thousand six hundred and
- sixty dollars for welcome home kits and drug tests el centro communal
- Latino received $5,000 for rent and utility assistance for Latino community members. First Christian
- Church received $5,600 for Welcome Table Breakfast and Sunday Meal program. First Presbyterian Church
- received $10,060 for the Bloomington Severe Winter Emergency Shelter.
- Bloomington received $4,900 for summer camp. Harmony School received $2,200 for the Harmony
- School Performance Tech Upgrade. Healing Hands received $3,800, which is for Nourishing Neighbors Produce
- Project. The Hoosier Trails Council received $2,600 for their Growing Scouts in Monroe County program.
- I will note, in the packet, I do believe
- The next award was listed as going to Monroe County for age, but the appropriate agency is Hoosiers
- feeding the hungry Hoosiers feeding the hungry is going to work with Monroe County for age, but they're
- the receiving agency. So Hoosiers feeding the hungry received 11,400 and that was for Monroe County
- for each livestock sale for meat processing for local hunger relief.
- Limestone Media received nine hundred and eighty dollars for climate change. What's the atmosphere like
- here program? Lotus received two thousand two hundred and fifty for the Lotus Blossoms Artist Residency
- and World Bazaar. Middle Way House received two grants. One was an individual grant and one is for a
- collaborative project. So for the first one, they received one thousand five hundred next for decreasing
- transportation barriers for survivors of violence.
- And then the collaborative project received $5,120 and that's to provide CPR trainings. Mother Hubbard's
- cupboard received $5,500 for the MHC education program.
- My sister's closet received $2,080 for providing a secure resource for women. New Hope families received
- $7,400 for the New Hope family shelter summer camp. New Leaf New Life received $5,860 for stability
- and motion rent assistance for sober living and transportation. PALS received $5,100 for stable futures
- after school program. Pantry 279 received $13,000 and that's for nutritional food for food insecure families.
- Pathways received 2,400 for their My First Library program. Pathways to Cross-Cultural Understanding
- received 2,460 for Bridging Borders of Visual Dialogue on Global Youth Perspectives. Reimagining Opera
- for Kids received 1,300 for their 26-27 season of Reimagining Opera for Kids. Ana Isu Sombra, I'm sure
- I mispronounced that. Sombra Mesa received 6,400.
- for increasing local grown nutritious food. Stone Belt received $5,240 for CPR and first aid training.
- Suzy's Place received $4,100 for Suzy's Place internship opportunities. Tandem received $11,090 for
- Tandem Essentials. And the Wonder Lab received $3,040 for the Wonder Lab lab room facility
- tech up improvement. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you for reading all that. That saved us. I mean, we've
- been here a couple hours, so it was a nice relief for us. Do you have any comments?
- No, I just wanted to say thank you to the committee for their diligence and looking at all the applications.
- I know this takes so much time. And thank you to the committee community organizations for putting in
- these applications and for the tremendous work they do. Yeah, it's it's so important I mean there's
- a lot here with food, food insecurity and but shelter and transitional housing and
- people in recovery. It's a good wide range of programming. So, yep, certainly do appreciate this getting
- done. 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 2026 Sophia Travis Community
- Service Grant Agreement signified by saying aye.
- motion carries to zero. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. And I'm going to go ahead and make a motion for
- item A B. I'm going to move that we ratify the emergency declaration that was posted for June 18th,
- 2026 regarding the tornado damage. I will second that. All right. We have a motion and a second.
- I don't know. Uh, Bernie, if you want to address this or Mr. Baker,
- looks like he's still on but I have it. There it is. We were impacted by excessive rain tornado damage
- and wind damage down power lines and trees and public structure damage and life safety issues. We declared
- the local disaster emergency exists in the county and that we declared
- uh invoked and declared those portions of the Indiana code which are applicable to conditions and have
- caused the issuance of this proclamation to be in full force and effect in the county and this was for
- seven days um so uh this idea is of course that it may make us eligible for some funding um either through
- the state or even potentially the federal government we shall see but if anybody has suffered damage
- and needs funding
- or funding assistance, they should go to the emergency management webpage or call them and they can
- give you information based on the kinds of situation that you're dealing with. And I know we've also
- had, we had a lot of money spent out of highway and in overtime and equipment. So I don't know if we
- can recoup any of that with,
- FEMA, who knows? I mean, the money is there at the beginning of the year, and then it goes. And once
- it's gone, it's gone. They don't really portion out for various seasons, unfortunately. So we'll see
- what happens with all of that. But we did have to have this in place in order to do that. Ms. Purdy
- signed for me because I did not have a printer where I was. So I appreciate that. Anything else?
- Thanks to our sheriff's department. Thank you to our highway department. Thank you to emergency management,
- Red Cross, everybody that helped out. We got through it. Let's hope we don't have to do it again.
- All right. Any public comment on this item? Raise your hand on teams. Oh, Mr. Baker. Thank you. Anything
- else you need to add? Thank you so much.
- The state disaster relief fund is open for applications from people who are impacted by the tornado
- if they are underinsured or uninsured. So that application process is going on. It is a bunch of applicants
- from all the disasters that happen within the whole state from January 1st, but applications are open. And
- They can go to the application. It's posted on the county website on the plus releases that we sent
- out or also our social media page, Facebook. So that's one big thing that's going on. And I did talk
- to Jamie and if needed we can extend the dumpsters beyond the eighth if needed. I'm gonna drive out
- today and check out
- you see at the green news and stuff. So that's, so we'll keep you updated if that's needed. Great. So
- if you do decide to extend, just make sure to post it and we'll get it on our homepage as well. Especially
- if it could be done before the weekend, that would be even better because we're off tomorrow. But yeah,
- thank you so much. So folks can go to the emergency management webpage.
- or call the office for further information about those applications for assistance. Thank you. All right.
- All right. Seeing no other public comment, all those in favor of ratifying our emergency declaration
- of June 18th, 2026 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. And one of the things that became
- apparent to me
- was when I first started as a commissioner back in December 2012, uh, emergency declarations were rare.
- Rare. And now I feel like a couple of years normal. It's, it's, it's, I mean, this is what climate change
- is. It doesn't come on all of a sudden. It, it, it creeps up on you, but it's expensive. I think this
- is the third since I took office. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- COVID, well, that was a whole year and a half. I know, yeah. It would say typically it was snow, too.
- Right. Yeah. I mean, now it's not. It was not. Yeah. Oh, maybe this was the fourth. Yeah, because we
- had that. Yeah, we had two tornadoes of snow in the. Yeah, and this. Yeah. Crazy. All right. I just
- wanted to add that in there. It's a little anecdotal evidence of how things have changed.
- I do want to remind folks that we do have office hours and look what can happen. You can get utility
- vehicles allowed on some county roads as a result. So join us, go to the calendar on our homepage, iam.gov
- slash county slash Monroe, and check out the calendar and join us if you have comments, if you have
- questions, if there's anything we can help you with, we will do so. It's been amazing to me how much
- this has helped.
- Sometimes I'm just explaining code for zoning, or sometimes it's really something where we can make
- a substantive change to our code to help people out. I do also want to remind folks that we are under
- an extreme heat warning, and that will continue. But if you want to receive information from Monroe
- County government about any emergencies,
- you can sign up for our resident alert system right on our homepage. I also do want to encourage people
- to go ahead and think about, especially if you have a little time this summer, think about boards and
- commissions. And if you would like to become part of Monroe County government and lend your expertise.
- I know our traffic commission was part of that utility vehicle discussion as well. So we are,
- We are on holiday tomorrow for the 4th of July celebration. I do want to wish everyone a happy 4th of
- July from all of us at Monroe County government. There is a parade Saturday morning at 10 a.m. where
- it's only supposed to be like 86. Yeah, 10 a.m. Yeah, it's going to be hot. So just bring more watering
- you think you need.
- It'll be a great parade. A reminder that the Monroe County Fair continues through July 5th. The fireworks
- for the community are postponed. They're postponed until September. September? Yes. Okay. Just making
- sure I understand. That's correct. Yeah. It was, no, it was, it was, we had storms that night. It was
- a week ago, Friday.
- Yeah, we had storms. Yeah, it was raining. But you can look around on Visit Bloomington's website to
- see other, I know Lake Lemmon's doing theirs, and there are some other folks that charge or don't charge.
- Ellisville's doing one. Yeah, so if you really got to go see fireworks, do it. My dog and I will.
- to be hiding from fireworks, per usual. He gets very scared. Yeah, not good. Not good for wildlife.
- I'm just going to say it. Anyway, I also want to mention that I had a really amazing experience last
- week at Pantry 279. They'd received a grant for two of my truckloads of food, 40 tons of food each.
- They had a little ceremony, and it's really nice. This came out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
- Saints across the nation. They did some fasting and put their money together and made this happen. And
- there were 250 places that got food. Each 40-ton semi is 33,000 meals. They are going to be through
- it quick, though. They have been struggling. Pantry 279 has been struggling.
- Who's your host food bank? Everybody's been struggling because food insecurity is really high right
- now. We've got kids home from school who aren't on their lunch programs. We've got, you know, we've
- got all kinds of situations where the cost of food, gas, all of those things are just putting the basics
- out of reach for people. So if you have anything to spare, please remember all of these food organizations.
- I know we're doing something
- through the Sophia Travis grant, but boy, it's not enough. It's not enough. And then again, a reminder
- that the roll off containers are up and out at Liberty Church, Mount Pleasant Church, and the entrance
- to Morgan Monroe Forest. This is the area directly impacted by the tornado. Those
- will be there at least until the eighth of July and maybe longer, but check back with emergency management.
- If you have any questions, we do not have a work session today. Oh my God. How crazy is that? We are
- meeting next week. Yes. Uh, that will be July 9th at 10 AM. Uh, anything else for the good of the order?
- Uh, I have nothing. I just wanted to wish people a safe and happy 4th of July holiday. Absolutely. Um,
- I want to thank, um, uh, Mr. Crider, um, Alex, everyone who has helped, um, spiffify Monroe counties,
- uh, historic courthouse. It is a, uh, there's beautiful bunting up and it's, it's really beautiful.
- Did a great job. That was just.
- Richard and I walking around in the spring going, what are we going to do for the fourth of July? So
- that was good. He did a great job, really brought it to life. And we are going to be on July 11th, dedicating
- a revised plaque for the Monroe County families, dedicated Monroe County families who were active in hearing.
- our independence, taking part in the American Revolution, who are from Indiana, and that will be on
- July 11th. So keep an eye out for that. I'll talk about that again next week, but just it's a Saturday
- morning. So very exciting. All right, everyone happy say forth. Be well and we'll be back in a week.
- We're adjourned.