Good morning. I'm going to call to order this meeting of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners. It
is August 27th. And I will note for the record that Commissioner Madeira and myself are here and present
in the NETU Hill Room. And we will begin with our public statement.
We, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, renew our commitment to welcome and protect the rights
of all people, regardless of age, race, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender,
gender identity, marital status, economic status, and national origin. And we affirm the right of every
person to live peacefully and without fear. And we will fight and resist at every step discrimination
and harmful policies, whatever their source. We believe in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
We also stand in support of our county public school systems, both RBB and MCC SC.
Thank you so much. We will now move on to our department updates. We have an update for us,
health department. Ms. Kelly is online. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. Just a few updates
for you. According to the Indiana Department of Health, wastewater concentrations increased in early
August, but they're trending down now as August
25th. Monroe County has still only had eight cyclospora cases since May 1st of this year. The multi-state
outbreak was linked to Taylor Farms lettuce and products should no longer be available. And the Morgan
County Health Department has vaccines available for all ages. Individuals can call 765-342-6621 for
more information. Great.
Thank you so much. Comments or questions? I have none. All right. I don't either. Thank you for joining
us today. We appreciate you. Thank you. Other department updates? All right. Seeing none, we will move
on to public comment.
time reserved for items that are not on our agenda. We ask each commenter to limit their time to three
minutes per person and to give us their name and county of residence before they begin speaking. Does
anybody have general public comment for us? You can raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
My name is Don Cross. I'm a resident of Monroe County for 58 years. Working at IU for 33 in the media
school. I and a few others pray with people at the Justice building from time to time for the past 10
years. We are genuinely impressed with the staff that we have met and who work in the Justice building.
The clerk's office, prosecutors office, judges, courts, public defenders.
in the jail and others. We found them as friendly, diligent servants of our county who really care about
their work and the people that they serve. Many of our prayers over the years and especially lately
have been for health issues related to negative physical conditions in the justice building, some of
them very serious. As Monroe County resident, it is deeply disturbing to me that many
justice building workers must deal with and endure such negative conditions on a day-to-day basis year
after year. Conditions that I would not want to work in, nor would I want for people I cared about to
work in. I urge that positive steps be taken as soon as possible to relieve this situation short-term
and long-term
for the sake of the people who serve our county so well. Thank you so much. Anyone else have public
comment for items not on our agenda? Well, just to offer a brief review, we have had
we continue to have problems with that building because it's structurally and unsound and we continue
to fix update where possible certainly maintain everything that goes on in that building from the jail
to the offices and it is a failing building and we'd like to move out of it
And we've been stymied in that effort. And that's unfortunate for everybody that works there and everybody
that is housed in the jail or works in the jail. And we actually hear a lot of these issues raised in
the media and elsewhere. And the thing is, we continue to have mold
remediation and testing done in every one of our county buildings, because the mold levels are very
high in this county in the summer anyway. But the situation last year led us to have an ongoing contract.
That work goes on and it continues. And in fact, we invited, because somebody complained about the mold
levels, we invited the Indiana State Department of Health to come to our building and check it.
and the mold levels inside the building were lower than the mold levels outside the building. But we
are continuing to remediate test for mold. We are continuing to maintain that building. I've
heard suggestions, well, why not overhaul the building? Well, that would be a down to the foundation
kind of reconstruction project. And that is far too expensive for a building that
We don't think we're going to be in. So I appreciate your concern. I appreciate the concerns of employees.
Nothing's ideal in that building. Nothing. And I get it. But we're doing everything we can. And we have
done a lot to try to get us out of that building as soon as possible. So thank you for your comments.
All right. I don't see any other public comments. We'll move on to the next item, please.
Yes, I would like to move approval of minutes for August 20th, 2026. Second. Any comments, corrections?
Neither, although I may find one later as I did last week, sorry. All right. All those in favor of approving
the minutes for August 20th, 2026 signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0. Next item, please.
Yes, I'd like to move approval of the claim socket for accounts payable for August 27th, 2026.
I will second that. Oh, and we have Ms Freeman joining us. We miss seeing you around, but I know you're
busy. Yes, very busy. Good morning. Good morning. The accounts payable claims docket for August 27,
2026 totals $8,929,197.56. This total includes all emergency claims and adjustments.
Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Comments or questions? I don't. Okay. I don't either. Thank you.
Any public comment on this item? You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium. All those in
favor of approving the claim stock and accounts payable for August 27th, 2026 signify by saying aye. Aye.
Motion carries to zero. Thank you, ma'am. I will note for the record, we've received a report from Weights
and Measures, and this is from August 2026, although the month's not done yet. All right. Yes, I'd like
to move approval of the... I'd like to...
like to move to approve the Shoesbury change order number five for baby Creek funds named stormwater
fund number 1197 in the amount of hundred and seven thousand seven hundred dollars I will second that
I think at the stormwater board meeting it was one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars as a not
to exceed amount so we can go with that if you're all right with that okay great yeah good morning
Good morning. Yes, I was going to make note that yesterday stormwater board did condition their approval
recommendation to you the commissioners with a not to exceed of $125,000 so I Do remembered as well
So this will be our next iteration of redesign for baby Creek crossings and it will significantly reduce the
impact area by removing the run around and just make each crossing more affordable for us to accomplish
in the timeline as presented. So hopefully finishing construction of the final crossing by 2029. Great.
Thank you so much. This has been a long project, as you know. Excellent. Let's see. Do you have any
comments or questions?
public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. Being none, all
those in favor of approving the Shrewsbury change order number five for Baby Creek signify by saying
aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you. And next item, please.
Yes, I'd like to move approval for Groundbreakers LLC for Televising Services, Curry Pike Phase 2,
Fund Name, Storm Order, Professional Fees, Fund Number 1197, in an amount not to exceed $20,489.80.
I will second that, Ms. Pena.
Yes. So this is our phase two of Curry Pike. Phase one was completed this summer. Last year around this
time we televised the first section. Now we're doing the second section, which is approximately third
street through up to Vernal Pike. We need to know what our infrastructure looks like to make sure it's
replaced before the road gets repaved. Perfect. Good planning. Comments or questions? Done. All right.
I don't either. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You can raise your hand on teams
or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving ground bakers LLC for televising
services, Curry Pike phase two signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries two zero. All right. Thank
you so much. Next item, please.
Yeah. I would like to move approval for award paving projects to ENB Paving and Milestone Contractors
Fund named Motor Vehicle Highway Fund number 1173 in the amount of $311,611,656.60. I will second that.
Ms. Ridge. Good morning. So we open sealed beds on 820 here at the
commissioners meeting. We received four sealed bids. We would like to award EMB Paving Fry Road in the
amount of $172,208.50 and Milestone Contractors for Stanford Road $139,448. These were the two lowest
most responsive and responsible bidders. Excellent. Thank you so much. That was a quick turnaround.
Appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.
Any comments or questions? No, just good again to have that. Any public item? Raise your hand on teams
or come to the podium. Seeing none, all those in favor of awarding the paving projects to E&B Paving
and Milestone Contractors signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero.
Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for etiquette group for on call engineering services
funding local road and street fund number 1169 in an amount to be determined or hourly as needed. I
will second that. So occasionally we have on call engineering service contracts with various engineering
firms and we just use this and on an as needed basis.
This has worked out really well for us in the past, and you don't have to come to us for a specific
contract on an item. Something can get done more quickly. Yeah. Question? Nope. Again, it's excellent
when you have these types of needs. You can't exactly go and or go without an enormous cost.
So thank you. Yeah. 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.
be done. All those in favor of approving the etiquette group for on-call engineering services signify
by saying aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you so much. We don't have any appointments today, but
we do want to remind folks to think about boards and commissions as this year is in its order. Crazy.
Do you want to talk about the Recovery Summit? Are there any spots left available? Yes, there's always
spots left available, and we urge people to sign up as soon as possible. We've got a wonderful lineup,
and again, information about that can be found on the county website. And I'd also like to emphasize
that continuing education credits are available. I know that it's very difficult, especially at this
time of year, to get those continuing education credits, especially for interesting topics.
We have a plethora of those offered over the summer, but there's plenty available at this conference
as well. Excellent, excellent. And just a reminder to folks to sign up for the resident alert system.
And you can go to our website, in.gov slash county slash Monroe and click on that item. You can sign
up for a text phone and or email alerts. Got a few last night.
So it's really good to keep us all weather wise because fall can be a interesting weather time as well
as the summer and the spring. And there is a board drive today at Ivy Tech. We're co-sponsoring that.
Room C, 130A and B. And that is from noon until five.
If you can, please make an appointment at redcross.org. And if you don't have time to do that, but you
do have time to donate, just show up. They'll figure it out. They will figure it out. We do continue
to offer office hours every month. And again, you go to our website and look at the calendar and you
can find those times. And that's a one-on-one conversation with one of us
and we learn a lot and we really appreciate it. We always appreciate the folks who make an effort to
connect with us. So the other thing I wanted to note is that we did sign for Stormwater Department a
letter of intent regarding a grant that we'd like to apply for. And thank you, Ms. Penna, for
that information. Um getting that information finding that information. Um this is related to the June
2026 tornado. And, um, the hope is that we can get some good Creek clearing of log jams and things which
will help keep. Everyone
that's one of those long term impacts of a tornado. We just had a grant related to Clear Creek from
previous tornadoes, so this one is new and very exciting opportunity, and I hope it works. I hope it
happens, and it would be great if it did. All right, so the other thing I want to note is that
meeting. Um our next meeting is September 3rd and we are not going to be here on September 10th. Um
so just a note for folks. Um and we. We're planning to issue a statement at the council meeting on Tuesday,
and unfortunately. We were unable to
we ask for your indulgence. So the June 26 tornado, June 2026 tornado, brought criticism that I think
we had not done enough. The facts do tell a different story. I think we had done our part that just
as we do with every single disaster our community faces. And so we issued an emergency declaration
and we had done things like consider and approve contracts for roll-off dumpsters. We received updates,
we asked questions, and we offered assistance. In short, we did our job. Also, the Monroe County Fire
Department, the Highway Departments, and Emergency Management also performed admirably, immediately
following the tornado and throughout the days of recovery that followed. They did their jobs, and it's
important, I think, that we really keep the record straight and give credit to the people in the departments
who do respond effectively when our community needs them to.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we're being blamed for not doing something and that makes no sense
at all. It makes no sense at all. And so the Emergency Management Advisory Commission may be the place
to go for information for the council member who is concerned that we're not doing something. The Emergency
Management Department reports to the Emergency Management Advisory Commission.
they don't report to us. So we're limited in what we can do. But one of the things we did do is this
letter seeking grant funds. And we have been, as you've heard in statements over the last several weeks,
we have been very concerned about the level of respect that has not been shown to
and we want to say that, um. Us as commissioners us as women. Um there is a basic level of respect that
is owed to any. Public official of any public any political party. Um and, um. We want to say that counselor
David Henry crossed the line. By issuing a threat of violence. Um. At a
to be clear, this threat was not only issued at a public meeting, but it was issued against women who
serve this community as Monroe County's Board of Commissioners. And it was also issued against our staff.
This threat of violence cannot be tolerated. It was a despicable, cowardly utterance. It is especially
awful because it was uttered against women.
every day in this community. Sadly, women are abused. Violence against women cannot and should not be
tolerated. And speaking a threat like that makes violence against women more acceptable. There are women
who serve our communities, Monroe County employees who heard your threat of violence. We demand to be
respected everywhere in Monroe County government, including and especially at county council meetings.
There are women across this community
who heard your threat of violence, and they are outraged and demand your respect. And women and girls
across this county who now wonder if this is how women should be treated or will be treated if they
choose to become a public servant, a public official, or work as an employee of Monroe County. Misogyny
is not acceptable.
from the White House to the bullies who hide behind a keyboard on social media, and boy, we have a lot
of them. Threats of violence are inexcusable and are the words of cowards. So what's the best way to
deal with this? Join in because it's fun, get on that bandwagon. No, we're going to shine a light on
this intolerable language, the threat of violence against women, and we will call it out.
It was not only shocking to hear a council member advise us to wear body armor to attend a meeting,
it was shocking to us that his colleagues on the county council let that threat of violence go. And
it went unchallenged. Silence is complicity. So shame on you, Mr. Henry, shame on all of you on the
council for failing to speak up and failing to do the right thing.
you have to do better. And that's all we really wanted to say. So unfortunately, we couldn't deliver
that Tuesday in person, because it's important to look these bullies in the eye. But there we have it.
So thank you. All right. Anything else for the good of the order? I think we'll leave.
All right. With that, we are adjourned until September 3rd, where we will be here at the NatU Hill Room
at 10 a.m. Thank you everyone. We're adjourned.