COMMISSIONERS MEETING

REGULAR SESSION

MAY 3, 2004 at 9:00 A.M.

ATTENDANCE:

COMMISSIONERS:                   Gene R. Beck, President

                                                Donald K. Walton, Vice President

                                                Dennis D. O’Hair

COUNTY ATTORNEY:               Timothy Bookwalter

COUNCIL:                                 Larry Parker

AUDITOR:                                 Kristina Warren

AUDIENCE:                              Twenty-two Individuals

The Putnam County Commissioners met in regular session on May 3, 2004 at 9:00 a.m. at the Courthouse Annex.  The pledge to the flag was given.  Don Walton led everyone in a moment of prayer.

BRIDGE 159

Steve Luther with Beam, Longest and Neff stated he had received correspondence from INDOT requesting $133,395.63.  This amount is the county’s match for the bridge that was awarded to Milestone Construction.  Don Walton made the motion to approve cutting a check in the amount of $133,395.63 and giving it to Steve Luther to take to INDOT; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

IRON STRUCTURE BRIDGE

Gene Beck said the bridge is located on County Road 900 East, three miles north of 36.  Gene Beck made the motion to put it on the federal aid project per Steve Luther’s recommendation; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously. 

PERMIT FOR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT

Dave Sutherlin, Highway Supervisor presented the needed paperwork to get a $200 check cut for a permit.  The permit was to enter Waterway Cotton Branch in Jefferson Township.  Don Walton made the motion to approve the Auditor’s Office cutting an emergency claim check in the amount of $200 to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

COUNTY ROAD 475 SOUTH

Bill Lemay, county resident presented pictures to the Commissioners showing the dust problem on the gravel road he lived on.  Gene Beck said the Commissioners had over 300 miles of gravel roads to take care of in Putnam County.  Mr. Lemay said he had been waiting for years to get his road done.  Mr. Beck said they had a lot of roads to deal with and others were waiting too.  Mr. Lemay said he had been waiting for over 20 years, had they?  He said roads had been chip and sealed around him.  He felt left out.

Gene Beck said the Commissioners were trying to work out a 50/50 cost share dust control program.  Mr. Lemay said something needed to be done.  If not, then he would like the road closed.  He had spoken to his attorney about closing the road.  He was the only house on the road and he owned the property on both sides of the road. 

Gene Beck said they would look into the matter.  The Commissioners were not making any promises on roads at this time. 

MT. MERIDIAN PROBLEM WITH NEIGHBORING DOGS

Kim Hyten, Planning & Zoning Director informed the Commissioners that he had met with both the dog owner and the neighbor that had been discussed at the last meeting.  The owner of the dogs said he would get rid of the dogs if the county would allow him to sell them. 

OLD 36 BY BAKERS CAMP BRIDGE - BUS TURN AROUND

Gene Beck said the Highway Department had received a letter from George Huber with North Putnam School Corporation regarding a bus turn around.  The turn around is located on the West Side of Bakers Camp Bridge.  Mr. Huber stated people were parking in the bus turn around.  The School Corporation needed an ordinance passed by the Commissioners to make it a no parking area.  Gene Beck made the motion to approve the ordinance and to post signs; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

CROSSWALK BY CLOVERDALE CONSERVATION CLUB

Gene Beck said a letter had been submitted to the Highway Department from Mark Ennis with Bliss McKnight.  It stated once the crosswalk was approved it would have to be maintained by the county and have proper signage.  Don Walton made the motion to approve; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.  Tim Bookwalter, County Attorney said it would be okay if the Commissioners wanted to approve it.

COUNTY WEB SITE

Marilyn Bigelow, county resident said the web site committee had met two times now.  They have set the meetings to an hour limit.  The committee had covered a lot in a short time.  Ms. Bigelow submitted paperwork to the Commissioners.  Ms. Bigelow stated she had asked Dave Johnson with Johnson & Johnson to come to the meeting today to answer any questions.

Mr. Johnson said they were meeting weekly and receiving good participation.  They were working off of a temporary web site.  They should be on the official web site by the end of the week.  The web site would be www.co.putnam.in.us.com.

Mr. Johnson said they have identified a computer that would be used for the departments to update their portion of the web site.  He said part of the web site would show the Commissioners hard at work.  He wanted to take their picture today to put on the web site.

COUNTY ROAD 475 WEST

Candy Mitchem, county resident came to the meeting to request a portion of the road be closed.  The road was located in Russell Township.  Mr. Beck said Larry Scott, a prior Highway Engineer had started it when he worked for the county.  It was dropped when Mr. Scott left.

Tim Bookwalter, County Attorney said he would check with the Plat Deputy to make sure they had all the property owner names they would need for the paperwork.  He explained to Ms. Mitchem that a petition to vacate a portion of the road would need to be drawn up and approved.

Ms. Mitchem said she had been advised that a long time ago the road had been closed.  Mr. Bookwalter said if he had a time period, he could look back into the Commissioner minutes to find it.  Mr. Bookwalter would start the paperwork process per the Commissioners.

OPERATION LIFE AMBULANCE SERVICE

Rick Archer with Operation Life said he was here today to report a very serious financial problem.  He said that they were running short in the amount of $20,000 per month.  The month of April looked even worse.  Putnam County residents have been very healthy, which was a very good thing.  However, the decrease in runs had severely hurt their finances.  They have already started cutting their budget due to the drop in revenue.  They have also put a hold on all capital purchases unless absolutely necessary. 

Mr. Archer said they were at the point now that if the call volume did not start to increase they would have to cut down the 24-hour service they provided to the county.  Mr. Archer said Operation Life needed the county to help financially.  It was hurting them to rely almost solely upon user fees.

Mr. Archer said the State had allowed funding mechanisms such as the County Option Income Tax (C.O.I.T.), Economic Development Income Tax (E.D.I.T.) and the wheel tax to help fund their operating expenses.  Currently, Operation Life did not receive any funding from these taxes.  The total amount of money given to them by the county came from the county general fund.  Gene Beck questioned how much the county was funding operation life.  Mr. Archer said $160,000.  Mr. Beck asked if this included the extra amount budgeted when the ambulance service took over for PMH Ambulance.  Mr. Archer said it did.

Dennis O’Hair said he would like to see financial and call reports.  He would also like to see a five-year projection.  Mr. O’Hair said it was not that long ago that the county was assured that Operation Life would slowly be coming off the tax rolls and now each year they needed more money to operate.  He would need to see the reports to be able to justify the funding to the constituents of the county.  He believed what Mr. Archer was saying but he wanted facts and figures to review and then go to the County Council with the information. 

Mr. Archer said Don Walton served on their board.  Mr. Walton could verify the finances of Operation Life services.  Mr. Archer again did not have any problem giving the Commissioners the requested reports.  Dennis O’Hair said the Commissioners were here to serve the taxpayers.  They had to give the burden of proof to those individuals.

Gene Beck asked how Owen, Parke, Montgomery and Clay counties were paying for ambulance service.  Could Mr. Archer get those figures?  Mr. Archer said he would get that information. 

Mr. Archer said they were concerned with response time.  They want an ambulance in the southern, central and northern part of the county to cut down response time.  If they have to eliminate one of those then an individual may have to wait longer for service.

Mr. Archer felt they would not be having this discussion if the Medicare and Medicaid law had not changed in 2002.  They have to write off about 40% of their revenue due to the change.  If he could capture 10% of that lost revenue he would not be before them today.

Marilyn Bigelow asked if someone from the hospital could help with fundraising for the ambulance service.  Mr. Archer said he did not feel there was funding from that source.  He felt ambulance service was sort of an unfunded mandate by the state.

Don Walton said he had spoken with Mr. Archer regarding the service.  He felt the county offered an excellent ambulance service to the residents.  Unfortunately, the runs had decreased and it was hurting their finances.  He did not want to see any new taxes for this service.  He could not give Mr. Archer any figures today because they do not have their finances figured for this year.  He suggested using the interest off of the hazardous waste fund.  Maybe this money would generate enough to pay for the ambulance service and E911.

E911: 911 POLICY REVISION

Dave Costin, 911 Director submitted a revised Policy Manual for the Putnam County 911 effective May 2004.  Mr. Costin went over briefly the changes in the manual.  The 911 Board had already approved it.  Gene Beck said the Commissioners would review and approve at their next meeting.

E911 FINANCIAL CONCERNS

Dave Costin, 911 Director said the revenue for 911 has slowly been declining.  He submitted paperwork that showed a financial overview.  Mr. Costin said part of the problem was due to wireless telephones.  A lot of people were going to those and getting rid of their landline.  Mr. Costin said they only received .05 percent of the money collected from the State from wireless telephones.  This was based on the population of the county.  Also, the DSL service for computers was hurting their revenue.  An individual used to get another phone line for their computer and now they can just pay extra and get DSL service.

Mr. Costin said the bottom line was that he was spending more than he was taking in for his department.  He felt by July he would be in the red and stay in the red unless he received financial help.

Mr. Costin said he had looked at his budget for places to cut.  The only place he could see was the repair and maintenance line item.  That would only save $45,000.  He could go to paying per maintenance job.  But, that could also hurt him depending on maintenance costs.

Mr. Costin said he would be addressing the County Council also with the E911 financial problem.  Don Walton said he was not in favor of additional taxes.  He was in favor of looking at current funding coming into the county.  He suggested the interest from the hazardous waste fund. 

Gene Beck said the law needed to be changed on the percentage the county received of the 65 cents charged each month for cell phones.  Putnam County should get the full 65 cents for the phones in our county.  The legislature needed to make a change.

Mr. Costin said he was short approximately $100,000.  This amount would increase as the landlines were done away with.  He had spoken with Rick Archer about funding options.  The E.D.I.T., C.A.G.I.T. and other taxes that exist in the county have already been fully utilized.  They were going to have to be creative on funding for the ambulance and 911 services.

Dennis O’Hair felt the county needed to educate the taxpayers of why the 911 funding has dropped.  We needed to explain it to them.  We need to get our representatives and senators together and show them the funding problems.  The law needed to be changed.  We should have done this a year ago.  The Commissioners decided to invite Connie Lawson and other interested parties to either the Commissioner or Council’s next meeting.

Mr. Costin said he did have a band-aid fix.  He could use the $86,000 that was loaned out to be reimbursed back by the State for the mapping system.  This would be a short-term fix only.  It would fix only this year.

Mr. Costin asked that two Commissioners be at the next Council meeting to help present this problem to them.

Dennis O’Hair asked about charging fees for the things the dispatch department was doing for city and towns.  Mr. Costin said that could be looked at.  Example: mileage log reports.  Mr. Costin said he would want to be very careful before proceeding in that avenue.  Mr. O’Hair said with the finances dropping through no fault of 911; they were going to have to be lean and mean.

Dave Costin said they might have a problem in the future too.  There may be a change that would require him to add 3 additional staff members to his department at the tune of $100,000. 

Dennis O’Hair also brought up the problem of the Amber Alert.  If the county ever called one they did not have the phone lines and equipment to handle it.  It would take thousands of dollars to get it.  It was a great benefit and the 911 Board had been discussing it for months now.

LETTER FROM JUDGE LAVIOLETTE

Gene Beck said the letter stated there was a piece of furniture in the Circuit Court Office that was no longer needed and someone wished to purchase it.  He had not had a chance to look at it.  The Commissioners tabled it until their next meeting.

MARCH 1, MARCH 15, APRIL 5 & APRIL 19 MINUTES

Gene Beck said he would like the March 1 minutes to reflect that Tim Bookwalter, Scott Hoff, Kim Hyten and Don Walton were unable to be present since they were in court that day representing the county. 

Gene Beck said he would like the price of each floor for the windows included in the April 5 minutes for future reference. 

Don Walton wanted the Auditor to check the two bids for tile work approved at the April 5 meeting.  He did not think the amounts were correct. 

Gene Beck and Don Walton questioned the Bridge 159 paperwork referenced in the mail for the March 15 minutes.  Auditor Kristina Warren stated Steve Luther had contacted her office about the paperwork.  She was not in the office at the time.  Her First Deputy, Stephanie Campbell found the needed paperwork in the mail that had been given to the Commissioners at their March 15 meeting. 

Gene Beck made the motion to approve the minutes with amendments; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

CLAIMS

Don Walton made the motion to approve; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

APRIL 23, 2004 PAYROLL

Don Walton made the motion to approve; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

COMMISSIONERS MAIL

1.  Board of Trustees Minutes – February 18, 2004, March 17, 2004 & Special Meeting on April 7, 2004.

2.   Sycamore Trails – January 29, 2004 & March 16, 2004 Minutes, Statement of Financial Position as of    March 31, 2004 and 2004 Annual Plan of Work.

3.   IDEM – Notice of Approval for Oxford Automotive. 

Don Walton made the motion to acknowledge; Dennis O’Hair seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

WHISTLE BEING INSTALLED EAST OF FILLMORE

Kenny Ames stated he had a place the county could dispose the concrete if needed.  The Commissioners said they already had a place but thanked him for the offer.

ADJOURN

Dennis O’Hair made the motion to adjourn; Don Walton seconded.  The motion carried unanimously.

________________________________      __________________________________

Gene R. Beck, President                        Donald K. Walton, V. President

________________________________      __________________________________

Dennis D. O’Hair                                    Attest: Kristina Warren, Auditor