Good morning. I'm going to call to order this meeting in Monroe County Board of Commissioners.
It is Thursday, October 8th, and we will begin with our public statement. Commissioner Madeira, please.
Yes, we, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, renew our commitment to welcome and protect the rights
of all people, regardless of age, race, color, breed, 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 FC. All right, thank you so much. We will now move on to our department
updates. Anyone here from the health department to offer an update? We might not have anybody.
We do. Good morning. Yes, they're going to, yes, Linnea needs to be made a presenter. Thank you so much.
Thank you, TST. Good morning, commissioners.
We're getting into respiratory virus season, so now is a great time to get those updated flu and COVID
vaccines. As of October 7th, the Indiana Department of Health reported that there have been 28 known
cases of measles statewide in 2026 so far, mostly among unvaccinated individuals. While there have been
no suspected measles cases in Monroe County this year, we are strongly encouraging folks to stay up
to date on vaccinations.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can lead to serious complications, especially in young children,
pregnant people, and those with weakened immune systems. And the most effective protection against measles
is the MMR or measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Folks can schedule a vaccination appointment with
their primary care provider at the IU Health Community Health Clinic or at the Morgan County Health
Department in Martinsville by calling 765
And then we'll go to the next slide. And that's 3426621. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Um,
any comments? Questions? Yeah, I hope it stays that way. Uh we bought low levels of everything infectious
and stay away. Stay away from Indiana. Yeah. Um I had read I was reading this morning that an
will actually contract measles. Wow. It's so contagious. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for that update.
Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. And with that, any other department updates? John Baten. Cool.
Hey, can you guys hear me? We sure can. Good morning.
Hi, hi, commissioners. Yeah, I'm just here to showcase a new application. Well, it's an ongoing application
that we do. We are in the election cycle. So we are within the GIS division in collaboration with voter
registration. We are, again, running an early voting election dashboard. We'll also be doing live election
reporting in November once that election comes about. But to get there, you can just go to our Monroe
County government homepage.
Click on the early voting dashboard and what this is going to be providing is updated nightly information
regarding early votes for the 2026 midterm general. Not only does this show data that we're receiving
this year, you'll also be seeing a comparison to other midterm generals that we have data going back to 2006.
The chart on the top is gonna show a comparison of votes that have been received over the number of
days within the early voting election cycle. So right now we're at two days. So we're doing pretty good
in comparison to 2022, 2014 and 2010, but 2018 we were really kicking butt. So hopefully we keep on
getting a lot more votes, but we can also see those past midterm daily voting totals in this chart down
here. And you can always expand these to get like a little bit more data
to look at. I'll also just note one more thing. When you go to the Monroe County homepage, if you click
on the GIS division and click on our own site, we do have lots of really cool public resources here,
including some information about historical election data, as well as a jail dashboard and other things.
And we're consistently updating this and adding new things. So we'll be back to present again when the
election kicks off to kind of give a demo about how our election reporting dashboard works.
that's all I got. Thank you so much. We appreciate that. And just a reminder for folks, since we don't
have anyone here from the clerk's office, that early voting is now ongoing. It's at 501 North Morton
or the Monroe County Government Center, Suite 101. You can see a picture on that GIS site there. And
early voting takes place from 8 to 6, Monday through Friday.
will be voting from 9 to 4. Saturdays of October 24th and October 31st. There will be early voting from
9 to 4. So if you have any questions, please contact the clerk's office. Thank you so much. Thank you.
you didn't oh you looked over here go for it sure so we do have an upcoming road closing it's the new
Fullerton Pike it's just for some maintenance we're gonna start it on the two days of fall break the
15th 16th that Thursday Friday and then it'll follow with Monday Tuesday Wednesday for the bridge
to be sealed. That way we can keep the traffic off of it. We know it's an inconvenience, but it is to
fix the asphalt that has held some moisture there. So we're going to have that taken up and new asphalt
put down so we can have a good finished project. And then hopefully that will be the last time that
we will be doing anything in this area except for normal maintenance and snow removal.
the water out of the bridge, which we hope we don't have to do much of this year. Very much so. Yeah.
Thank you so much. Yeah it's important to keep the water out of the bridge because that will. Shorten
its lifespan. Pun intended and any other department updates.
the agenda is reserved for items that are not on our agenda elsewhere, and we ask speakers to limit
their time to three minutes per person, and to provide your name and county of residence when you begin
speaking. You may raise your hand on teams or come to the podium. All right, seeing none, we will come back
for our next agenda item, please. Yes, I would like to move approval of the minutes for October 1st,
2026. I will second that. Any comments, corrections, or edits? No, sorry. I don't either accept that
I'm the one who read the statement last time. So that's why we're swapping out. So thank you.
All right. All those in favor of approving the minutes for October 1st, 2026 signify by saying aye.
Aye. Motion carries 2-0. We'll move on to our next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval of the
claims docket for accounts payable for October 8th, 2026. I will second that. It looks like we have
Ms. Freeman joining us this morning to tell us all about it. Good morning. Good morning.
The accounts payable claims docket for October 8th, 2026 totals $3,549,511.74. And this includes all
emergency claims and adjustments. Thank you so much. Comments or corrections? Notes? Anything?
I had none. Okay. 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 stack and accounts payable October 8th, 2026 signify by saying
aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right. We don't have any reports, so let's
move on to our new business, please. Item eight. Yes, I'd like to move approval for the MOU with resiliency
practice, fund name, self-insurance, fund number 4,700 in an amount not to exceed $10,000. I will second that.
Good morning, Ms. Stinson-Wada. How are you? Good. Do you want to pull that mic down a little bit? Sure.
We don't want to miss a word. Thank you. All right. So just some information for you before you vote.
Since January 1st, Amanda Solontin, she is the operator for the Resilience Practice, LLC.
and she has provided 54 hours of individual session services through this program. This program is designed
specifically to address the unique challenges and associated with the public safety work. And the public
safety employees are routinely exposed to stressful, traumatic, and emotional demanding situations as
part of their job. And the purpose of this program is to provide employees with an accessible resource
that they can seek support
the employees to do on their own. Um and I want to say that I recommend
I have a question for you. So the rate is 125 an hour. Is that the same as last year? Yes. Okay.
Thank you. Yep. Comments or questions? No. It's excellent program. I'm so glad we offer it, and I'm
glad that employees. Are aware of it. Both, um, merit deputies and our correctional staff are aware
of it. It's really useful. I'm glad I'm so glad we
anything else? Any comments from the public? Raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
Approving the Memorandum of Understanding with Resiliency Practice, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion
carries to zero. Thank you so much. Okay. All right. Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval
for the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute Diversion Grant, fund name to be determined, fund number
to be determined in the amount of $80,000.
I will second that. Good morning, Ms. McAfee. Good morning, everybody. I'm so excited to be here this
morning. You know, we have gotten JDAI grants from the state for several years. This opportunity presented
itself a couple of years ago, and it is to work in partnership with the work we're already doing with
JDAI, Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. We haven't gotten a grant from them for a while, but they
are great partners. And what this does, it's going to give us funding for two years
back to July 1, it's been a little contentious with the state trying to get things put together, but
we're here, so yay. And so the first phase of the project is we're gonna partner with an agency out
of Indianapolis, Community Solutions, and they're gonna come in and help as a community talk about what
does diversion mean to Monroe County? What does it mean to law enforcement? What does it mean to prosecutor?
What does it mean to our community members?
You guys all know that our big goal has been to avoid unnecessary involvement in the youth justice system,
which we believe then will impact the adult system involvement too. And I think having some outside
resources that have done this work in other communities will really be able to launch us into a great place.
phase two of the project is taking the work that these folks have done for us and really kind of doing
the boots on the grounds kinds of things. So with your permission, we would love to contract with the
Criminal Justice Institute. Right. Comments? No, this is amazing, just as our last opportunity was.
And again, I really am joy. I really feel like it's especially strong because it's two years of funding.
Yes. It really helps a lot.
So just to clear, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, word salad in here from them, and I get it. But
in plain speak, the idea- That's my specialty. Yes, I know. The idea is to assess what is being done
in terms of the programming, but then also to consider additional programming or what else is on the
table in phase two. So the first phase is we really just need to figure out what's out there.
who does it serve? Like who is their intended population? Is it meeting the need? And making, I wanna
be careful when I say this, cause I don't mean to be critical, but oftentimes we have programs that
duplicate one another. And then there's this huge gap. So do it a little bit of that as well. And the
gap analysis, then we'll start to look at who is addressing, what programmatic pieces out there are
addressing
specifically criminogenic traits for young people. We have a lot of really good programs, but don't
necessarily address attitudes, values, beliefs, thinking errors. So while we want the community to be
aware of those, it's not necessarily something that's going to change the trajectory for some of the
kids we're dealing with, kids and families. So then this second phase is identifying agency capacity for
either ramping up programming they're offering or maybe adding an additional layer of something. Oftentimes
with these programs, and I am not trying to promote one program against another, but oftentimes like
after school programs and things can be strong targets for these kinds of programs because they already
kind of have that captive audience. And there are sometimes just subtle things that can be done to kind of
their programming to do more of this targeted intervention work. Or frankly, it may be somebody that
we're not even aware of that kind of has this mission in their heart and wants to work with us. So that
will be the job of community partners to figure out who's already well positioned for this or who can
we bring on board.
Excellent. I appreciate the plain speak. Thank you. I hope that was. It was. It was. I really appreciate
it. The other piece is we've also included funds for curriculum. So we're not just going to identify
an agency and go, OK, well, you guys figure out how to pay for it, how to sustain it, how to market
it. And oh, yeah, your people are going to need trained, too, because it's probably not anything you've
done. So we've included some dollars for training as well. And again, this works so nicely in partnership
with our JDAI efforts.
as you know, we have all kinds of community partnerships with lots and lots of agencies. And we're hoping
that this will allow us to strengthen those partnerships. Yeah, excellent. Thank you so much for that
explanation. Really helpful. And I think it's helpful for the public to know what's going on. And yes,
a two-year grant is awesome. Yes. Thank you. We look forward to hearing the updates. Perfect.
I will be here. Yay. Any public comment on this item? You can raise your hand on Teams or come to the podium.
All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute Diversion
Grant signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. 2-0. Thank you, ma'am. Perfect. Thank you all so much.
Thanks. All right. Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for Bio 1 Thompson property encampment
cleanup extension addendum. Fund name, county general, fund number 1,000 in the amount of $35,000. I
will second that.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
anything? How is the progress proceeding out there? We're making progress. There's a lot. Yeah. Yeah,
there's a lot. I'd say we're past the halfway point. I could talk all day about it. Well, thank you
so much. We appreciate the ongoing efforts. It's not easy.
and this is necessary. So, all right. Thank you so much. 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 Bio One Thompson property encampment cleanup extension addendum, signify by saying aye.
Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you, sir.
Next item, please. Yes, I'd like to move approval for Ordinance 2026-41, an interlocal agreement with
the town of Ellisville for the major crash investigation team. Fund name, MCI Grant 20.616, Fund number
8193 in the amount of $75,534.38.
I will second that. We have a motion and we have a second. And we will hear from Lieutenant Molden first,
please. Good morning. Good morning. So excited to be back for you again this year. This will be the
second year, hopefully, that we continue this program. The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute has awarded
us a little over $60,000 for another year to continue to build upon what we started last year.
It's about a 36% increase over last year's award amounts. We're excited that they've not only found
value in what we're doing but are continuing to invest in us and allow us to expand the program. The
money covers a team of investigators, specialized investigators to respond to fatal and other major
crashes that occur throughout the county.
and in addition to providing for overtime funds for that to be possible. It funds very heavily training
which it's the field is constantly evolving and very specialized so it's pretty extensive. It will also
fund some equipment for us and then some just basic operating expenses as well so we're very excited
to keep the program going and it's been a very successful first year. Good excellent thank you so much.
Mr. Cockrell do you want to talk about the inner local side of this? Well the inner local agreement
is is necessary because it's working with the town of Ellitsville and so we have two different
law enforcement units working together to do this project so that's why the inner locals in place is
because this allows us to funnel some of the funding to Ellitsville to pay their overtime and to pay
for some equipment for that. Great yeah excellent. Any questions or comments?
I think it's wonderful and I think it's unique, and I hope it continues to grow and develop. Yes, indeed.
Um and, um. How many, um Monroe County deputies are part of this group? This team
So the team has 6 total members, 4 of which, counting myself, are from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Okay, so then there's 2 from Ellisville. Correct. Okay, got it. And I think I just want to clarify that
there are 2 different numbers in the packet. The 60,000-ish number is the actual state grant. The 75,000
number would be the state grant plus the local match. Right. Thank you. I'm sorry. And I think
I'm not sure I understand why there's an ordinance number, because this is a grant and an MOU. That
would be my question for you. The ordinance will approve the interlocal agreement, right? So if we do
this with the animal control and whenever we have an interlocal, we have an ordinance that approves
the interlocal agreement. Got it. Okay. The grant is separate. Got it. And then the resolution is, well,
the council will approve a resolution approving the ordinance, approving the interlocal.
sure okay welcome to county government all right thank you so much for presenting today one more question
so if some if there's a terrible crash do you all work outside of jurisdictions in other words Ellensville
officers may help from their team on something outside of Ellensville for example yes that's correct so
The way the team operates is as one cohesive team so respective of individual membership agency if there's
a crash anywhere in either jurisdiction then everyone could potentially respond and the biggest determination
of who specifically will respond is depending on the unique circumstances of the crash itself but it's
not about the geography it's more about the actual
mechanics of the crash itself as far as who we need. In the past year, we responded to 12 total crashes.
Wow, that's more than I would have thought. Yeah, 10 of which were in MCSO jurisdiction and two of which
were within the boundaries of the town of Ellitsville. But it's been a great partnership and the two
Ellitsville officers have been great to work with and we're excited to have them with us. Yeah, and
this helps
both agencies in general. Just having this base of knowledge is so important. So thank you so much.
Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks for serving on that team. Appreciate it. 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 ordinance 2026-41, an interlocal agreement with the town
of Elksville for the major crash investigation team, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries 2-0.
Thank you. Thanks. I wonder how many teams like there are that do that in the state. Yeah. It's really
cool that we have one so local. Yeah. All right. Next item, please.
I would like to move approval for ENB paving change order number one, fund name stormwater, fund number
1197 and the amount of $82,714. I will second that. Ms. Ridge. Good morning. So if you look in the narrative,
it's actually a reduction of $82,714. So that was what was saved on the project. We just did the final
walkthrough last week.
and everything is working the way it should. And we've replaced a bridge with this project. It's been
a long standing stormwater project that we were finally able to complete Morse Creek last year, Stip
Road this year. So we're glad to get this closed out and then also come in under budget. Excellent.
So I will go ahead and make it a motion to amend the motion to be a credit of $82,714.
I second. Okay, motion and a second. Any comments on the amendment? Seeing none, all those in favor
of amending the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. So now let's come back to
the amended motion. Any comments or questions? No.
reduction is a beautiful thing. Yeah. So STIP took how many years? Oh my gosh. I feel like I've been
talking about this since. Me too. Yeah. It's been, so I think our last long-range plan was approved
in 2016. Right. 2016-17. Then we went through the process of
prioritizing the project so it's been in the discussion and under design for quite some time. Yeah.
Yeah. Have you heard from the residents in that area. We actually had a resident stop while we were
down there doing a walkthrough. I'm very thankful for the project.
We also reached out, went down there after we had the spring rains back and the portion of the road
did not go underwater, what we expected. I know the car top area, that will continue to flood in that
area, but there's no residents in that area. So the project on Moores Creek stopped on the other side
of car top, Stipp Road stopped.
there. So you'll still have the flooding in the car top area. But again, the project was designed to
get the residents to their homes. And that's what we've done so far. And emergency vehicles to them,
if necessary. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I always thought that the car top area was named for how
deep the water gets when it floods. Is that true? It would not. OK. Just asking. Sorry. Any comments
or questions? None. This is so great to hear that that's done.
All right. Any public comment on this item? You raise your hand on teams or come to the podium.
Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the amended motion regarding EMB paving change order number
one, signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries to zero. Thank you so much. And next item, please.
I would like to move approval for American Structure Point Incorporated Addendum Fund Name Cumulative
Capital Fund Number 1138 in the amount of $9,900. Second. Let's see. We have somebody from planning
here. Hi. There you are. Yay. Good morning, Ms. Nestor-Gillin. Good morning. Thank you for hearing me
this morning. I just have a quick item. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here.
We have been working with American Structure Point in regards to the Fullerton Pike project and finishing
up the what's called CLOMAR process, which is the conditional letter of map revision. So when we did
the bridge across Fullerton Pike, it was in the floodway. And so what has happened now is that we just
need to update our data and make sure that no insurable structures were impacted by the bridge itself.
And then in the future, once we have this data, it will allow us to give better guidance to the residents
in the area as to where they can and cannot place future insurable structures. So today what I have
is an addendum to a contract that was approved last year, and it's essentially
The contract that was approved last year was for 50,000 not to exceed, but the itemized amount was 39,700.
So today is just to itemize the remainder up to that 50,000 that was already approved, but to specify
under the contract what those hours will be appropriated to. And I'm also happy that they have put together
a contract that states in bold
that at the end of the day, even if they essentially run out of hours, they will submit and get approval
for the Wilmar application. So with this final addendum, we will get the data that we need. I'll also
point out that this was a condition of approval for the Fullerton Pike Bridge from the state. So it
was sort of an unfunded mandate that we have to do. And so it has
cost us a lot of time and some funds. But again, this is to protect, hopefully, the residents in the
area with better data to know where to place and not to place structures. Yeah, absolutely. It's great.
Thank you for working on this. And if our public isn't aware, our floodplain manager is in the county
planning department, and it's Tammy Behrman, the assistant director.
part of what Tammy is on if you have any questions as well. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Do you have any
questions? No, this is just critical again, because we have so many darn areas that are susceptible
to this. Yeah. Yeah. And this bridge was really built in a very temperamental area environmentally.
So this has got to be done. Is there a deadline for this to be completed? So each time that they submit
To FEMA, there's a 90-day deadline. And so they submitted about, I think, September 29. So we have a
deadline. If you count the 90 days, I think it was right around the holidays, December 26, is when I
hope they tie this up. And so they think that they can do that there at the last stage. So much. Thanks
for that information. Because there isn't a deadline on the document. But yes, the FEMA deadline is
the looming one.
Thank you. Great. Let's see if there's any public comment on this item. You raise your hand on teams
or come to the podium. And all those in favor of approving the American structure Point Inc addendum
signify by saying aye.
So I just have. A couple of. Announcements. Um for today. I just want to remind folks that we are always
looking for board and commissioner. Boarding commission appointments from the
and take a look, and you can apply right online. The blood drive for October includes Friday,
October 9th, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday, October 14th,
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursday, October 22nd, noon to 5 p.m. This blood drive is always held at Ivy Tech
in its room C130A and B. And we're doing this in conjunction with Ivy Tech. Thank you, Ivy Tech. And
the Red Cross, if you'd like to make an appointment to donate blood, please go to redcross.org. And
we do have
We also want to remind residents to utilize the county alert notification system for all weather and
There is what is now a hurricane churning in the Gulf, and it's actually coming up here for Sunday.
So just keep an eye on flooding potential. I don't think we're in the danger zone, but you never know.
Things change. But it's a really good idea to sign up. You can receive notifications via text, email, and or.
phone call. I do all three, and it's kind of fun, because when you get the text, then the phone goes
off, and then you check your email. But anyway, just in case I'm not home when the alert comes over.
And a reminder that we are not meeting next week. So our next meeting will be October 22. We have a
little business that is outstanding.
And so I'm going to recess this meeting to October 9th, Friday at 3 45 PM right here in the net you
Hill room. And do you have anything else? No, I do not. Okay. With that our meeting is recessed. We
do have a work session and we will come back for that at 11 o'clock. Okay.
Yes. Okay we'll come back at 11 o'clock for our work session. Thank you so much.