- I'd like to call this meeting of Monroe County stormwater management board to order. It is Wednesday,
- October 1st, 2025. It is 332 PM. So first item on the agenda is public input for items not on the agenda.
- So it does not look like there is
- There is an abundance of people in the NatU Hill Room. Is there anyone in the NatU Hill Room who would
- like to provide public commentary for items not on the agenda? Seeing no one. Here, is there anyone
- online who would like to provide public input for items not on the agenda? I can confirm that those
- are all county employees except for maybe cats.
- Yes, so with that, I see no one. So we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the approval
- of the minutes for September 3rd, 2025. So moved. Does anyone? I will second that. The last name of
- the person speaking and not the first name.
- only. I actually noticed that. Thank you so much very much for making that comment. And just to note
- for the record that who's present here. Yes. Yep. And I will go ahead and do that actually right now.
- We have Commissioner Thomas, Commissioner Madeira, and Surveyor and Wright Randolph present. And also
- Erica Bina,
- And we have, yes, I'm sorry, as well, the difficulties of being a new commissioner who remembers faces
- but not names. Apologies for that.
- We have a motion for approval of minutes for September 3rd, 2025, and a second. Does anyone have any
- comments on the minutes for September 3rd, 2025? Since maybe I motion, I'll make sure it's clear that
- the revisions are a friendly amendment to my motion. I don't know if we need to be that formal or not.
- I will also note that Ms. Barbrook is online, so I'm sure she'll change that.
- Thanks for pointing that out. All those in favor of approving the minutes for September 3rd, say aye.
- Aye. Next item on the agenda is approval of minutes for September 22nd, 2025, which was the special
- budget update meeting.
- I'll move approval. I can't say if there's any changes on that one. Were those done more in
- line, Commissioner Thomas? I'm not sure which set of minutes had the mix up in the last name,
- first name, but just check them both. It's fine. Yeah, we'll just go ahead and add if they need to be
- revised, please revise that. Yes.
- And so is there a second for that? Yes, I second it. OK, perfect. Any more comments on those? All right,
- then I would like to, all those who would like to, who, I'm sorry, I am tongue tied today. All those
- in favor of approving the minutes for September 22, 2025, please say aye. Aye.
- Okay, next item is the stormwater expenditure report for August 2025. We really only had two larger
- payouts and one was for the backfill $8,133.82 and gas oil and lube $5,356.83. Thank you.
- Then we can move on to new business. Oh sorry. This might be a little premature because it was a fast-paced
- discussion yesterday at the council level but they were talking about zeroing out capital expenditures
- and they referred to a line with one dollar in it and my concern is that might be the street sweeper line and
- just want to bring that to your attention if that's the council's desire that's fine but if we're able
- to keep that dollar in there then we don't have to go through the whole process of creating a line and
- then simultaneously asking for additional appropriation and it just kind of makes things a bit smooth
- easier and more in a timely manner so I just want to bring that to your attention like I said it was a very
- fast-paced discussion, and I wasn't able to track it 100 percent, but I do think that's what the dollar
- was that they referred to. Commissioner Thomas? Okay. Moving on to new business, we have a Memorandum
- of Understanding with the Indiana Curse Conservancy.
- Yes, we have been working with the Indiana Cave Survey on a memorandum of understanding to be able to
- utilize some of their information during our plan reviews. We use several different data sources for
- our reviews that are publicly available at the state level, but with this being a private organization,
- we needed to have a
- a clear and defined way that that information was going to be used, who would have access to it and
- just general terms of that agreement. We do have one representative here with the the CAVE survey if
- you have any questions for them as well. I think it would be great and maybe even a better value of
- your time by if you just wanted to come and
- introduce yourself and you know speak maybe to this agreement but anything else you would love to share
- that could be beneficial to the public or us. Okay I am a board member and I do want to make one correction
- of the agenda. The organization is that should be the Indiana cave survey. I was gonna ask. The Carr's
- Conservancy is a sister organization but they do have two different boards and agreements with the caves
- Indiana cave survey as you see on the screen.
- at least the agreement there is correct. Yeah, the agreement's right. It was just the agenda listing.
- And basically, we're a private organization that collects data. We've been around for almost 40 years.
- And we like to collect it, but we also want to utilize appropriately and protect the caves. And it seems
- like a good match with, we've talked to both the stormwater people and the county planning.
- and they had interested in utilizing it. So we came up with the agreement and what else other questions
- you would have? No, I think it's great. Sometimes it's a hot mic. I think it's great. I was happy that
- I got here just a bit earlier to chat with you. And I'm just really curious if you would like to share with us
- a success story by these collaborations and how these protect these very sensitive and vulnerable resources
- across the state? If one pops out, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I would be so thrilled to
- hear anything such as a success story. We have had a data sharing agreement with Lockbueller consulting
- for a number of years. We provide a lot of information on I-69, so they had all that
- information as they were doing the environmental studies for I-69. And they did do some in the tier
- one, tier two, steering away from known cars features. That's awesome. Thank you so much. And I know
- you have to be very sensitive of not like talking about location, but thank you for sharing. I really
- appreciate it. And I'm just really happy to give you the opportunity to kind of express some of what
- is very valuable with this agreement.
- comment is I'm glad you're here today and thank you for doing this on a make the motion to accept the
- memorandum of understanding between Indiana cave survey and the Monroe County
- I think there's one note it's it's going to be going to the commissioners right because it's a the agreement
- is with the county commissioner so it's coming here first because we are the office that's kind of managing
- the agreement to pass this on to the commissioners with positive recommendation okay yes be thrilled to
- recommend this in a very favorable way to the board of commissioners. And I'm also just thrilled to
- be able to have the ability for a favorable recommendation. Excited to be included. Is that a second?
- And a second. I thought it was. Excellent. We have a motion and a second. Is there any public comment?
- Obviously, we don't have anyone here. Members of the public, are there any members of the public online?
- or anyone who would like to offer commentary on this agenda item. Seeing no one, I would actually like
- to hold a vote on the memorandum of understanding with the Indiana cave survey. Although just as a note,
- it does say on the agenda, Indiana curse conservancy that should say Indiana cave survey. All in favor
- say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you.
- This brings us to the second item of new business, the HNTB assignment number two, post-construction
- attention, basin maintenance assessment. So I will start this by showing you the map of the location.
- So we're old Vernal Pike.
- comes around Loesch Road and Vernal Pike. There are two county-owned detention basins there, which from
- the aerials you might not be able to tell that they are any kind of detention areas. They're very wooded.
- The infrastructure that's in place is very old and broken in some
- parts or just very filled in with silt and debris so it's not holding back water as it should. So this
- task order with HNTB, we have an on-call contract with them, is for
- evaluation of the current state of both of those basins and putting together a maintenance plan for
- tree removal, regrading, and then revegetation as well as potential infrastructure replacement. So as
- you know the stormwater program we should be managing our detention basins to the standard that we expect
- others to be maintaining theirs as well.
- had a question, and that's just how often is this maintenance needed? I guess it's a fairly routine
- item. There's typical things that happen on a seasonal basis, so kind of in the spring and the fall,
- other things that happen just annually, and then other larger things that might happen less frequently.
- But if you're doing that maintenance in the spring and fall, those larger maintenance items do tend to be
- more spread out between frequencies. So I don't think that there's been any maintenance performed on
- these. I know that they serve their regional detention for the commercial and industrial areas to the
- west of them. I couldn't find very much information about any maintenance records on them.
- So if you guys have more information at the commissioner level or at the stormwater management board
- level, I would love to see it. That would be helpful for us. Any comments? Commissioner Thomas? I just
- want to note that the fees don't include any plans, construction oversight. So I'm assuming if the issues are
- severe that we're going to have to get another entity unless we can do it. Yes, depending on the scale
- of what needs to be done and what our crews are already maybe planning to do next year, it may be something
- we can complete using our crews or it's something we would have to contract out. Great. Thank you for
- the clarification. Thank you. Yes, and I just assumed that obtaining permits would be kind of like a
- de minimis cost.
- Actually, I had kind of the same question, so I'm good on that one. I also kinda just want to understand,
- and you might have already expressed your limitations of kind of knowing some of how this all came together,
- but a lot of times there's these type of detentions, but they're more managed by, you know,
- non-government entity, right? How did these regional detention ponds become county owned and maintained?
- I am not entirely sure about that. Julie might know. I do know. I see Lisa's hand is raised as well.
- She might be able to. Yeah, and so
- One of the things I would suggest for further information is to talk to Kelly Whitmer in parks since
- we put a trail in on one of them. So I think the other is likely attached to that purchase right of
- way. But I would check with her because she would have all of the construction information in those areas.
- Excellent. Any more comments or questions? I had three, but somehow the last one. I was just wondering,
- since Ms. Ridge rose her hand virtually, if she wanted to add on to that at all. Hello. Can you hear
- me? Yes. Yes.
- Okay now Julie's right we would have construction plans because what that was cars trail phase to be
- and I think that was constructed around 2016 through the TIF district I believe it was funded through
- that program so and then also I wanted to point out on the maintenance and everything and possibly if
- we can do the work in-house luckily in this last legislative they
- increase the amount that we can do in-house. It used to be, I believe, a $250,000 cap. That has increased
- to be able to let in-house be able to do more. Then also the quoting and bid process, they've actually
- increased that threshold for us to be able to do quotes versus bids, saving costs to the county. I just
- want to throw that in, but yeah, we should have construction plans on most of the information that we
- would need. Thank you so much.
- glad you were able to add some fun facts in there too about our abilities to do larger projects in-house.
- That's incredible. I can't wait to see some success stories on that front, too. I remembered what I
- was going to say. It wasn't a question. It was just a comment. And just due to maintenance,
- yearly maintenance, backup maintenance, I'll say. And then I also think there is the
- unforeseen like weather storm event impacts that would need maintenance as well. So I just wanted to
- mention that there's a lot of circumstances that we need to get in there and maintain these. Also, I
- just want to share one other comment is this is from a session I attended at the in Assam, Indiana.
- Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Management. Geez. It was all about maintenance and building
- the worth of maintenance and the cost of sitting on what needs to be maintained starts to increase
- dramatically. And I'm very excited to be presented with something that focuses on maintenance as much as
- other things that we do that benefit stormwater. So I just wanted to share that the cost of doing it
- now outweighs the cost of doing it later. Excellent. Any more comments or questions? All right.
- I'd like to, since we don't have any members of the public here, see if there's any members of the public
- online with any comments about HNTB assignment number two. Seeing none.
- I believe we have a motion in a second, so. I don't think we have the motion. No. I move to approve
- the HNTB assignment to post-construction detention basin maintenance assessment. And I'll also, if you
- zoom in, put the not to exceed
- on here. That's typically what the commissioners want. Do you feel like that is a good amount to add
- in my motion? Not to exceed $28,500. Not to exceed $28,500. That's my motion. Second. So all in favor
- of approving HNTB assignment number 2. Not to exceed $28,500. Please say aye. Aye.
- All right, motion passes. Moving on to staff reports. I have nothing else for you today, so. Excellent.
- Then moving on to the last item on the agenda, which is adjournment. Oh, Lisa has her hand raised.
- I'm sorry. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Lisa. Sorry, I'll be really quick. I know the council
- met last night.
- Tron mentioned that a little bit. I do expect our budget to change. I do believe we'll go farther under
- budget from some of the cuts that possibly could be taking place. They have their next meeting next
- Wednesday, October 8th. We are following it so we can stay up to date on how it affects the stormwater
- budget. We will keep you informed. Some of the cuts were
- Uh, like I don't understand cutting the stormwater budget when we're already at or under budget. That
- doesn't make sense to me because those monies don't flow anywhere else. No pun intended. So I don't
- know that there'll be changes because to me it doesn't really make sense. I do that. It's a separate
- fund. It's a separate fee. So it's not part of the levy. I don't get it. So I'm not sure that there
- will be, but thank you for raising that.
- Yeah, and the only the only thing that I want to raise on that and most of the highway budgets are in
- that same category that were outside the levy and it's our own funds. I think some of the changes that
- I'm hearing is across the board where it involves employees and treating everybody the same there so.
- Excellent, thank you so much. Thanks for the update. Yes. And.
- With that, I think we are good to adjourn. The date of our next meeting is November 5th, 2025.
- Thank you all. Thank you.