Transcript — Vigo County Commissioners, 2026-08-18

Machine transcription of the recording of the Vigo County Commissioners meeting on 2026-08-18, aligned to the video timeline. This is not the official record — the clerk's minutes are, and this is unreviewed automatic speech recognition that mis-hears names and numbers. Check anything that matters against the recording.

Each line is stamped with its position in the recording, both as a clock time and as [t=SECONDS]. Those are the same seconds the archive's source links use: open the recording and add &t=<seconds> to jump to any line.

Speakers were separated automatically and named from the meeting's speaker roster where the evidence supported it; an unnamed voice is shown as Speaker <n>, which is a machine label and not a person's name.

Transcript

0:00:00 [t=0] Speaker 0: Thank you.
0:00:30 [t=30] Speaker 9: good morning we will start with the pledge of allegiance please
0:00:51 [t=51] Speaker 14: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
0:01:12 [t=72] Speaker 15: Good morning, good morning all.
0:01:15 [t=75] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): It's not raining this morning. What do you know about that? Okay, minutes reviewed. Any corrections or additions or subtractions?
0:01:29 [t=89] Speaker 17: Nope, I think Devin's doing a great job on the minutes and reflecting what we say, so motion to approve.
0:01:36 [t=96] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Second. All by aye. Aye. Aye.
0:01:40 [t=100] Speaker 22: Okay. Mr. Auditor, the claims.
0:01:44 [t=104] Speaker 23 (auditor): Thank you, Mike. We have payroll docket and claims. payroll docket date August 7th 26 through August 13th of 26 and the met in the amount of the 1 million five hundred fifty five thousand six hundred
0:01:58 [t=118] Speaker 25: seventeen dollars and sixty seven cents but that's for the commissioners to
0:02:02 [t=122] Speaker 29: approve that please motion to approve pay docket payroll second motion is
0:02:11 [t=131] Speaker 23 (auditor): second all by aye aye okay thank you we do have a claim docket date at August 7th of 26 through August 13th of 26 in the amount of $440,670.74.
0:02:23 [t=143] Speaker 25: We'll ask for the commissioners to approve that, please.
0:02:26 [t=146] Speaker 36 (commissioner): Motion to approve. Second. All by aye. Aye. Aye. Okay.
0:02:32 [t=152] Speaker 38: All right. Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that.
0:02:36 [t=156] Speaker 41 (commissioner): Okay. All right. Thank you.
0:02:44 [t=164] Speaker 43: Do you want to just speak on this second thing? I know. Let's wait until David's here.
0:02:50 [t=170] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): All right. Okay. We have a resolution appointing the board members to the thrall station. Commissioners.
0:03:02 [t=182] Speaker 48: This is the one that I got sent to me by, I believe it was a blueprint. Yeah.
0:03:11 [t=191] Speaker 54: So they're just replacing a board member.
0:03:13 [t=193] Speaker 56: Okay. All right.
0:03:18 [t=198] Speaker 59: So it looks like Lisa Stallings has indicated she is resigning as a member of the Thralls Station Regional Sewer District,
0:03:28 [t=208] Chris Switzer (commissioner): effective August 31, 2026, and they're replacing her with Betty Paul,
0:03:35 [t=215] Speaker 59: and her term will end December 31, 2028. So I'll make a motion to approve that.
0:03:43 [t=223] Speaker 61: Second.
0:03:44 [t=224] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): All by aye. Aye. All right. Now, ordinance for Otter Creek to establish a fire protection district. Mr. Shagley, thank you.
0:03:59 [t=239] Speaker 64: Good morning, commissioners. My name is Richard Shagley, and I'm here today on behalf of the Otter Creek Township.
0:04:06 [t=246] Speaker 65: Is your microphone on, Rich?
0:04:07 [t=247] Richard Shagley (attorney): The green light is on. I will start over for your benefit, Commissioner Schweitzer. My name is Mr. Shagley. I'm with the law firm Ryan Shagley. There you go.
0:04:18 [t=258] Richard Shagley (attorney): And this morning it's my honor to be here on behalf of the Audit Creek Township. Before you is an ordinance establishing a fire district. Currently, Audit Creek Township does not run within a territory or district, which has, based upon their number of runs and also with the, as you've noticed from the state, some transitioning, the state is encouraging, forcing with regard to townships. The Outer Creek Township Advisory Board and trustee believe it's in the best interest of Outer Creek Township to establish a fire district.
0:04:59 [t=299] Richard Shagley (attorney): We are currently working with Baker Tilly on the finances of this, and today we're simply here asking for the commissioners to approve the establishment of a fire district. This would include all of Otter Creek Township except for the portion that the city comes into Otter Creek Township.
0:05:23 [t=323] Speaker 71: I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
0:05:28 [t=328] Speaker 41 (commissioner): Board comprised of Tim Curley, Jeff Fisher, and Bob Solomon.
0:05:34 [t=334] Richard Shagley (attorney): That is the board we're proposing upon your approval.
0:05:38 [t=338] Okay.
0:05:40 [t=340] Speaker 73: When do you expect Baker Tilly to finalize some of their...
0:05:47 [t=347] Richard Shagley (attorney): I would anticipate... Well, we're going to have to have that before we go through the next steps, probably the next at least 30 days. Our next step here would be to publish this ordinance. and then move to the next phase which is going through establishing the board and then going through the DLGF and then all went through the county council.
0:06:14 [t=374] Speaker 82: And we anticipate that in the next 30 minutes. Could you explain a little bit the benefits of
0:06:19 [t=379] Speaker 80: a fire protection district? Well it becomes its own taxing entity and as a result it will be
0:06:28 [t=388] Richard Shagley (attorney): be a separate entity that would allow them to continue to pay for training, some paid firefighters, and to continue to maintain the equipment that they have in the buildings. Currently, Auburn Creek Township has three firehouses and several apparatuses. Since you don't get to deal with firefighting equipment very often, the equipment that the trucks and whatnot have only gotten more expensive and only have gotten a longer delay you could order a truck today and might get in two years with all that and with the state and its push for the
0:07:10 [t=430] Richard Shagley (attorney): trustees they believe to in order to continue to provide the services that they provide to
0:07:15 [t=435] Speaker 84: the township that the fire district as opposed to the territory is in the best interest of the
0:07:19 [t=439] Speaker 82: I think with Honey Creek has one correct yeah okay we're not doing it right
0:07:28 [t=448] Richard Shagley (attorney): right right yeah the only difference is as you will see by the ordinance I believe the last one he approved was Sealyville which is a lost Creek yeah they brought in Nevin's town right and we were fortunate I should say we is a little loose i think the fire department and the advisory board were fortunate that with some recent changes they were not required to go out and get the hundreds of signatures that was previously required for this fortunately because of those changes that's no longer necessary and you can improve without
0:08:13 [t=493] Speaker 93: signatures mark Riley has a fire district that I'm involved with a
0:08:18 [t=498] Speaker 95: prayer creek due to this so there's a lot of fire districts in the area now basically they're surviving on the money the trustees give them right now correct right which is this will be a big boost to them as far as the amount of money they'll have to run the fire department how many full-time employees
0:08:37 [t=517] Speaker 100: do you have now just one
0:08:43 [t=523] Speaker 102: process okay all right is our creek currently funded from the township trustees correct yeah
0:08:51 [t=531] Speaker 59: so we're not technically creating a new tax here we're just kind of they'll have their own levy
0:08:56 [t=536] Speaker 106: yeah but yeah yeah motion to approve 2026 after 11. second all by aye aye thank you gentlemen
0:09:07 [t=547] Speaker 108: Thank you very much. Thank you.
0:09:11 [t=551] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Okay, a contract for maintenance from our maintenance department. Ricky Hammond, do you want to explain this to the public, I guess, here? I think we've reviewed it a little bit.
0:09:25 [t=565] Ricky Hammonds (staff): Good morning. Good morning, Ricky. So this is just a request for contract renewal for BNS plumbing at the Beagle County Jail. This preventative maintenance includes all the filter change throughout the whole facility six times a year, cleaning the energy wheels two times a year, clean condenser coils two times a year, walled ductless unit filters two times a year, check all the belts on all units once a year, grease the pumps twice a year, and then testing the back blows for the domestic water once a year. So basically it covers most of the HVAC equipment through the facility.
0:10:03 [t=603] Ricky Hammonds (staff): there is a lot of filters through the FPBs and the air handlers throughout the facility. So it kind of covers all the PM on all that.
0:10:14 [t=614] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Okay. Please make a note to the public when we get accused of lack of maintenance. $37,800 to perform maintenance. It's an annual charge to try to keep our multimillion-dollar facility in good repair and take care of the people that are incarcerated there.
0:10:37 [t=637] Ricky Hammonds (staff): And definitely one of many. This is just one of many contracts down there.
0:10:41 [t=641] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): So we are looking to maintain what we have to our facilities.
0:10:52 [t=652] Speaker 120 (commissioner): Thank you, Ricky, for continuing to do this, take care of these things. I would make a motion to approve this contract. Second. All by. Aye.
0:11:00 [t=660] Speaker 122: Thank you.
0:11:02 [t=662] Speaker 124: Okay, County Engineer, you've got a couple of things going on here.
0:11:15 [t=675] Larry (county engineer): Good morning. Good morning. So let's see, first thing I got on there is a contract with American Structure Point. This contract is our Safe Streets for All contract. If you recall we did receive a grant for $400,000 for a Safe Streets for All study. This is that contract to execute that and get that started. This contract amounts for $469,000 so we were, according to that grant, we were on the hook for $100,000 of that so it would be a $500,000 project total for the study itself. But this come into $469,000 is what StructurePoint believes they can get
0:11:55 [t=715] Larry (county engineer): done for and this will start our safety action plan basically to look at all of those safety features county-wide any safety issues we have there'll be numerous public meetings as long as well as a social media presence for this
0:12:14 [t=734] Larry (county engineer): project so there'll be plenty of public input and we'll develop an action plan to move forward and identify those projects around the county that are causing some issues safety wise.
0:12:26 [t=746] Speaker 132: Terry has reviewed it and he's okay with this contract.
0:12:34 [t=754] Speaker 22: Well you went across the half a million dollar project pretty quick but it's a pretty sizable
0:12:38 [t=758] Larry (county engineer): program isn't it? Yes so this is a pretty large federal program that's been pushed out. They've made a lot of this money available for these studies. A lot of communities are taking advantage of this to identify those safety issues that are there and the goal is to move to zero fatalities from a traffic
0:12:55 [t=775] Larry (county engineer): from a traffic standpoint in our community so that's the goal we want everybody to be out there to use the facilities and and get where they're going in a safe manner so how long will this take
0:13:08 [t=788] Larry (county engineer): it's probably approximately about a year probably for this project to take place just because of the numerous you know data collection for all the you know accident data We also get there's a subcontractor out here that has data that comes from cell phones.
0:13:26 [t=806] Larry (county engineer): So it'll come from, it'll identify all the heartbreaking near miss accidents that don't even get reported.
0:13:33 [t=813] Larry (county engineer): So some of those things will identify those areas and we'll be able to study that and see what's going on in those locations as well.
0:13:39 [t=819] Larry (county engineer): like i said there will be several public meetings as well and social media platforms so you know we can get all this data collection done we'll try to hit as many public meetings as we can with some of these so that people can can express their their concerns as well from a safety standpoint so this should be coming out here first quarter of the you know in the fall here we should be able to get this kicked off and get it rolling.
0:14:12 [t=852] Speaker 140: Make a motion to approve. Second. All by aye. Aye.
0:14:16 [t=856] Speaker 41 (commissioner): Thank you. Thank you. Now you've got another contract here.
0:14:22 [t=862] Speaker 142: Yes, the second contract here I have is from Rapid Reproductions. This is one I'm working with Terry on.
0:14:28 [t=868] Larry (county engineer): He requests some changes to the lease agreement, and we're waiting to see if those terms can be met. The gist of it is our printer at the North shop is not functioning anymore. It's an old Canon copier that is not under contract anymore, so we need a new one. We worked with a couple that we got a quote from Canon and a quote from Rapid. Rapid was a lot cheaper at $85.14 a month. It's similar to one that the recorder has, the Kyocera that they have in their department, they seem to be happy with. So something we're willing to try out is definitely cheaper.
0:15:11 [t=911] Larry (county engineer): But like I said, Terry does have some concerns about the contract, and we've reached out to see if we can get those changes made. I would just ask that the commissioners maybe approve this upon Terry's approval of the contract, if that is acceptable. Motion to approve.
0:15:27 [t=927] Speaker 146: Second. Opposed by aye. Aye. Thank you.
0:15:30 [t=930] Larry (county engineer): Thank you. And then the last one I have is a contract with Walbeeser Engineering. As you know, we have had some space issues at our south unit. We had looked at moving to a new location, but that's not going to be cost effective. So now we need to look at expanding the current building that we have, adding three bays. Right now we're limited with just two pull-in bays. They are not pulled through. So if the guys are working on anything, that ties up most of the shop down there. So this contract would be for a new, for a 60 by 80 addition, which would be three bays plus a wash bay.
0:16:09 [t=969] Larry (county engineer): That's the design of that.
0:16:10 [t=970] Larry (county engineer): And then some site design as well to take care of some drainage issues that we have down there on the site. So this contract is for $45,000. And it was designed in that building and does include a subcontract with HWC for, 16 000 about 16 000 for their site design work so
0:16:34 [t=994] Larry (county engineer): yes yes do you have any plans in the budget yet for this not yet so this would be the first step to get this design to see get a cost at some good cost to see what it is and then we'll
0:16:46 [t=1006] Larry (county engineer): we'll have to pursue some funding opportunities that we could have maybe go to council and ask for some money or figure out some other way to fund this project so maybe we can set the stage
0:16:57 [t=1017] Speaker 17: here a little bit. Councilwoman Wagers here. Initially, we considered investing in Cowan
0:17:05 [t=1025] Chris Switzer (commissioner): property where the buildings are and then determined that that was going to be way too much money to repair that and do the things that the highway department wanted to do. Therefore, we ended up selling that property. The South Cross has always had an issue with a truck broke down in a bay and you've only got two bays down there, right, Larry?
0:17:26 [t=1046] Speaker 158: Correct. Just pull in base, not pull through either.
0:17:29 [t=1049] Chris Switzer (commissioner): And so if one truck's broke down and it's sitting there, obviously Mike and I came from this world. We don't have room for much else to repair your vehicle, so we find ourselves fixing trucks outside in different types of weather. Especially when winter comes around, salt trucks and plows and stuff like that, those guys are working outside. We've explored purchasing more property before. We've explored the Cowan property, but we've been led to believe that the best thing is probably just to build a building where we're at in addition to what we already have.
0:18:02 [t=1082] Chris Switzer (commissioner): Also in that space down there is the compost site and the second center for solid waste management district. So taking all that into consideration, it's getting pretty tight down there. So the wash area, the new shop.
0:18:16 [t=1096] Larry (county engineer): Yeah, it definitely would help having a wash bay down there. Right now they have to go north if they want to wash any trucks and get the sand and salt off there, particularly in the wintertime.
0:18:26 [t=1106] Larry (county engineer): That helps keep our equipment good, in good condition. Like I said, not being able to have those, you know, if they got, it's not only trucks, it's any piece of equipment we have. So we've had, you know, tractors, everything else in there, graders. We can't get a grader in the building at all. It's not big enough.
0:18:41 [t=1121] Larry (county engineer): So this new addition would allow us to do that. It would also allow us to preload some materials for wintertime, so we had quicker response for snow situations and things like that.
0:18:53 [t=1133] Larry (county engineer): So right now we don't currently have that capability at the south garage. We do at the north but not the south.
0:19:00 [t=1140] Speaker 163 (commissioner): When you come, if it comes before the council, Larry, I don't believe you can use MVH or local road and street funds for something like this. It'd have to be?
0:19:10 [t=1150] Larry (county engineer): I think there's a mechanism to use some of those funds, but that would greatly impact what we do with that regular budget. And that would definitely be something that would impact us for not only this year, but years to come. So I would be looking at other sources for that, whether it be Edit or some other place, to try to get these funds to do this. Because those MVH funds and local road street need to be used towards those maintenance and preservation activities that we're doing.
0:19:40 [t=1180] Larry (county engineer): We are required to meet that 50-50 rule now. So if we were to stretch that out, we would probably be looking at some kind of a bond or something like that to get that done.
0:19:47 [t=1187] Speaker 168: And that would probably not be feasible. I wouldn't expect Walden Beaver will be done by the end of the year anyway, would you?
0:19:54 [t=1194] Larry (county engineer): I don't know if he put a – I don't think he put a schedule in here. But I don't think it will take too long. There's not too much to the building. But, you know, he does have a lot of these – you know, it does have a state review and everything that would go along with that. So, I mean, probably, you probably look by the end of the year, probably as far as the time, but we should have a good idea maybe in a couple months what a good cost estimate would be for this.
0:20:21 [t=1221] Speaker 169: I have nothing further.
0:20:24 [t=1224] Speaker 171: Part of the site study is we would need to buy a little additional property, possibly.
0:20:32 [t=1232] Speaker 136: Yeah, so hopefully we could work something out with redevelopment where they could give us some property.
0:20:36 [t=1236] Larry (county engineer): But yeah, I mean, yes, we would need some additional property, especially for take care of some of the drainage issues that are down there right now.
0:20:44 [t=1244] Larry (county engineer): Currently, right now, it's a vacant field that sits next to us. It's just a farm field that Redevelopment owns. So we're hoping we can utilize some of that, especially with soil and water or solid waste. I'm sorry, going down there and doing their composting facility down there and getting that off the ground. That take up a lot of the property that we had down there. So being able to expand, you know, further to the east would help us greatly.
0:21:06 [t=1266] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Well, this is some things like Commissioner Schweitzer mentioned, what we've been looking at for quite some time to improve preventative maintenance, clean up, restore our equipment. Things get pretty sticky down there in a hurry on a cold winter night, everything freezing up and have you. And summertime with a lot of the brush moving it back off the roads, et cetera. They're really coming through and getting some things done down there. Very helpful to the county as a whole.
0:21:46 [t=1306] Chris Switzer (commissioner): I was going to recommend the highway department using Ricky's space down behind the jail that he said stay the heck out. No highway guys down there.
0:21:55 [t=1315] Speaker 181 (commissioner): I'll make a motion to approve the contract.
0:21:57 [t=1317] Speaker 180: Second.
0:21:58 [t=1318] Speaker 181 (commissioner): All by aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you.
0:22:01 [t=1321] Speaker 182: Okay.
0:22:02 [t=1322] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Mr. Friedrich, you have come in here from your court appointment here. Yes. Okay.
0:22:14 [t=1334] Friedrich (county official): Yeah, I'd like to introduce Dave. So I reached out to Dave a couple days ago. You normally give us a status report on jail numbers, things like that every month, correct?
0:22:25 [t=1345] Speaker 190: Yes, as part of the federal class action, which I think was filed back initially in 2016,
0:22:30 [t=1350] Dave (attorney): 16 judge magnus stenson since it was resolved has requested a report the end of each month is to the number of people inside and outside the jail as far as staffing within the jail recreation you know altercations of the jail things of that nature which the altercation summary sent to ken falk at the aclu and the other things the other issues that i mentioned are filed with the court each
0:22:52 [t=1372] Friedrich (county official): month okay just um i guess to get the cliff's notes version we we are still housing a number of
0:22:59 [t=1379] Dave (attorney): inmates outside of county is that correct correct i think usually we range between depending on what time of year anywhere from 25 to 50. usually it tends to be higher in the winter lower in the summer like it is now we're probably around 30 average we've averaged between 25 and 30 most of
0:23:14 [t=1394] Friedrich (county official): this summer yeah and if i'm not mistaken i think we're spending somewhere between 400 and 600 thousand dollars a year to house these inmates out of county i believe yeah i think that's in the the block park well I just wanted to kind of get together and talk a little bit I believe that we need to we are consistently people ask the commissioners what we're going to do about jail overcrowding and it comes back to us all the time I think we've talked before we build buildings we maintain buildings I believe talking with our commissioners that we
0:23:57 [t=1437] Friedrich (county official): need to have people make this decision on what we need whether it's a community Corrections expansion or whether it's a jail pod expansion I believe we need people that work with this every day to look at this talking about judges Sheriff's Department prosecutor and others and then come back to us I don't know whether we you know I don't think we're ready to put forth an ordinance today but I think we need to look at this issue and and have people that deal that every day come back to us with a recommendation. I don't know if you guys want to say anything on that also.
0:24:35 [t=1475] Speaker 204: Well, I mean, I've been a part of this for six and a half years now.
0:24:41 [t=1481] Chris Switzer (commissioner): The council that voted, or I was behind the council that voted to implement a new lit, obviously the special purpose tax we talked about with the oversight board and the school conversation, 0.25% special purpose tax remains in place. It's state law. It's outside of the lid that will have to be passed in 28. So we have the funds to do a project. We asked the council to fund plans for community corrections buildings so we could know where we would be at when it comes to a true cost of what the council would support. We had individual meetings with them at Garland Construction.
0:25:18 [t=1518] Chris Switzer (commissioner): That was a hefty bill from RQAW of $967,000 or around that area. So we know where we're at. We know that an additional jail pod in today's numbers would be somewhere around 25 to 30 million dollars with not much more of an anticipated employee cost because you're just going to add a couple more staff members to an additional pod and they can adjust their schedule to make all that work with their current employees, how I understand it. Community Corrections would be an additional, I think Bill and we all spoke a couple times,
0:25:50 [t=1550] Chris Switzer (commissioner): five to six staff members, which would be a pretty decent hit to the general fund if we were to do that. My opinion is null at this point on what we do. Mark suggested a committee of people that truly deal with these things every day. I know Dave, you're probably like, we've done this a thousand times. Because we have.
0:26:13 [t=1573] Dave (attorney): I mean, I think the issue that came up obviously the last two years you talked about an expanded community correction center Obviously that price tag was much higher than anticipated So then obviously another pot of the jail is cheaper So I think the direction in my conversation with you was to Talk with the judges and I have a meeting scheduled them next week There's probably two or three issues we're going to talk about We'll talk about basically, you know, what do you think should be the best use of is it an additional pot of the jail?
0:26:39 [t=1599] Dave (attorney): Is it this expanded community correction center and get their input? But there's also a couple of issues concerning staffing. I think in use of the video courtrooms at the jail, I think one of the major problems the Sheriff's Department is having now is because of the number of inmates being taken from the jail to the courthouse every day, they're having to mandate correctional officers work on the third shift to work overtime into probably 9, 10, 11 o'clock in the morning. They do that for a period of time, and then they say, this isn't for me, and they resign.
0:27:09 [t=1629] Dave (attorney): So it's kind of led to quite a bit of turnover. And then also, as I think you've asked and you've talked about before, we have two video courtrooms that were built to that jail to be used. And I think since that jail is opened in 2021, it's not being used. So the issues we'll be talking with the judges next week will be another part of the jail as opposed to expanding Community Correction Center. How do we handle staffing issues? And then basically, what committee, if any, do we put together to decide and make decisions and make recommendations to you?
0:27:43 [t=1663] Friedrich (county official): Yeah, I mean, I think we're making progress with things like the RISE program and other mental health court. But I mean, it's not going to take a big enough bite out of the issue. So I think at some point, something's going to have to be done. I'm sorry, Mark, do you want to?
0:28:01 [t=1681] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Well, I would say that Bigelow County has acted on some things. We're not just sitting here. I mean, with mental health court, divorce court, veterans court, what have you. I mean, I think we've spent close to $1 and 1 half million on personnel and facilities. We just bought a facility and opened it here on Third Street. So it's not that we are not doing anything. So yeah, but as we continue to look to see what
0:28:33 [t=1713] Speaker 215: our future needs, I think.
0:28:35 [t=1715] Dave (attorney): No, I think the issue we talk about is the dual diagnosis. And I think obviously Bill Watson knows it much better than I do. We have a significant, almost probably most of your prisoners, whether they be pretrial detainees or individuals that are convicted, all have mental health issues and or have drug issues, and most have both. And that's, let's face it, jails aren't designed to deal with that. And so obviously the problem we're dealing with isn't unique, but it's something we have to deal with.
0:29:02 [t=1742] Dave (attorney): I think you also have to keep in mind that the jail but built was the jail that we get constructed. And probably we knew when that jail was built that this was a problem we're going to have to deal with within five years. And it came up even quicker than we anticipated. So it's not a surprise. It's just kind of the situation you've been dealt with.
0:29:18 [t=1758] Speaker 163 (commissioner): Yeah, and I don't think we're not taking that responsibility seriously. I think that we've decided.
0:29:23 [t=1763] Chris Switzer (commissioner): I love Brad, Judy, and John. I told Tammy this the other day. And the previous commissioners in the past have made decisions the way they did things. But for us, I think this group of commissioners, tell us what you want, and then we'll approach the council with a cost and what to build.
0:29:38 [t=1778] Dave (attorney): It's a totally different dynamic because, obviously, we have the federal court saying, either you figure it out or I'm going to figure it out for you. We don't have that situation, at least at this point now. And I think Judge Madness Denson knows we're working on it. You know, she dealt with a consent decree in Marion County when she was a Superior Court judge, which was in place for 30 years. So she understands the issues that we're dealing with. And as long as we're working on it and making some strides toward coming into an ultimate solution, I think the court's willing to just continue
0:30:05 [t=1805] Dave (attorney): to monitor the situation.
0:30:06 [t=1806] Speaker 163 (commissioner): Well, the ordinance that we've kind of been talking about gave a 90-day hard deadline for a group of five individuals
0:30:12 [t=1812] Chris Switzer (commissioner): to get together and make a decision. And then at the first of the year, we come up with, we start to reach out to bond council or where we do and bring a project to the county council to be funded in 2027.
0:30:24 [t=1824] Dave (attorney): No, my thought would be is I'd meet with the judges next week then come back to you and we try to formulate to come up with what we would consider to be an ordinance that would be acceptable to you.
0:30:32 [t=1832] Speaker 224: Yeah, that's why we had an ordinance on here.
0:30:34 [t=1834] Friedrich (county official): We've scratched that. We're not going to bring that forth today. But I know Councilwoman Weger is in attendance. I asked her to be here today. I know this is an important issue to her. It's important to all of us to come up with a solution. So I believe we're committed to moving that forward.
0:30:52 [t=1852] Speaker 226: Dave, you mentioned one thing.
0:30:56 [t=1856] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): that this is, that people have to understand. This is obviously part of a solution. But as you say, the judge dealt with this consent degree for 30 years.
0:31:09 [t=1869] Speaker 99: No, I mean, if you ask Garmon.
0:31:09 [t=1869] Dave (attorney): So this isn't going away. I think if you ask Garmon how many jail projects they have either in planning process or underway, it's probably in the 20 to 30, and they're just one construction company. Yeah. And that's kind of been, since this started in 2016, And when I first got involved defending that federal class action, that's kind of been
0:31:29 [t=1889] Speaker 212: just one, 20 to 30 that they're involved in around the state, 92 counties.
0:31:34 [t=1894] Speaker 163 (commissioner): Nobody likes an additional tax increase, but we're not talking about anything like that.
0:31:38 [t=1898] Chris Switzer (commissioner): We were fortunate to get the special purpose tax. I know that those are getting more difficult to get as years go on with counties facing the same issue. So we have the money to do a project confidently, whether it's community corrections or a jail pod. I mean, if it's a jail pod, we can potentially pay 80% of the project in cash and bond 20% or however we want to do it with bond council, but we definitely have the wherewithal to do it.
0:32:11 [t=1931] Speaker 205: Okay. Anything else? I don't think so. Thanks, Dave, for coming this morning.
0:32:15 [t=1935] Speaker 230: Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Moving on.
0:32:19 [t=1939] Speaker 232: We have a vacate. Mr. Barber.
0:32:25 [t=1945] Scott Barber (attorney): I'm sorry this will be far less interesting than the last conversation. I'm here representing Katie Akers. She is a petitioner for a section of Union Road to be vacated, the last block from Washington going to the railroad tracks which was originally platted in the original town of Centerville which is now Lewis I've given showed you guys this before and you gave us some preliminary approval to it so now we're going through the regular process and I think you were provided a map like I said I brought
0:33:10 [t=1990] Speaker 235: this to you a little while back so I'd be happy to answer any questions you
0:33:14 [t=1994] Speaker 224: have no other property owners have any issues with this the only other property
0:33:22 [t=2002] Scott Barber (attorney): owners are related to miss acres so they're all together I mean to approve
0:33:29 [t=2009] Speaker 241: the alley vacant second thank you Scott thank you okay
0:33:36 [t=2016] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs Kevin Hinton
0:33:41 [t=2021] Speaker 124: Hey guys, you happy that that school is torn down?
0:33:46 [t=2026] Thank you.
0:33:48 [t=2028] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): Let's see if you can get somebody to build something on that vacant lot now.
0:33:54 [t=2034] Speaker 248: Do you have any information on that?
0:33:59 [t=2039] Speaker 99: We're working on it. We actually have. But if you hear anybody, send them to us.
0:34:06 [t=2046] Kevin Hinton (staff): Good morning. My name is Kevin Hinton. I'm with Indiana Department of Veteran Affairs. I'm the Southwest District Service Officer. I have 19 counties, including Beagle. This here is a biannual report that's required by Indiana Code 10-17-9-1 that Indiana Department of Veteran Affairs provide an update of the County Veteran Service Office twice a year. I was here in the spring and gave the outline of the Indiana Code. This is the second one this year. Terry's listening to me twice in two days because I started in Sullivan.
0:34:56 [t=2096] Kevin Hinton (staff): But this year, under the Code, it requires county veteran service offices to be accredited through the state, not just through the federal VA. As of this time, Billy and Tim are in compliance and accredited. Billy got his at the spring training back in April and Tim received his at the summer training this year. There is a fall training that is going to be September 15th. Well, my district training is September 15th at Spring Mill State Park. If they cannot make mine, they need to make one of the others that's three days during that week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or the next week
0:35:51 [t=2151] Kevin Hinton (staff): like a Tuesday and Wednesday at other locations to comply with the state requirement that they go to a district spring and fall training plus the annual which they were at. As right now, I believe Tim is working out at the library. I haven't been able to get out there yet. I was going to go today, but he's under the weather today, so I'm not going to make it out there today either. But as of right now, the county service officer is doing an excellent job for the veterans of Eagle County. you have any questions for me
0:36:41 [t=2201] Chris Switzer (commissioner): no kevin we appreciate you ringing jake by last time yes that was awesome uh jake and i have a real fun relationship i like to poke fun at him all the time he does me as well um so we appreciate what you do and coming here and updating us and we're incredibly proud of our our vso's and what what they do. Even counties surrounding us appreciate what we do
0:37:04 [t=2224] Speaker 181 (commissioner): at Veriligo County. So I think they do a great job. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
0:37:11 [t=2231] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): OK. Thank you very much. At this time, we have any comments from the public?
0:37:21 [t=2241] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): You know, interestingly, we had a meeting Wednesday night, And it seems there was still some confusion that in any of these Tuesday morning meetings, you come in here and discuss anything, not necessarily what's on our schedule. But the public is always welcome to expand on any thoughts they have for the community or anything. So at any rate, seeing no comments from the public,
0:37:49 [t=2269] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): any comments from commissioners or other elected officials?
0:37:54 [t=2274] Speaker 258: I'll go. I like to talk.
0:37:57 [t=2277] Speaker 204: I want to address public meetings real quick because this group of commissioners,
0:38:04 [t=2284] Chris Switzer (commissioner): starting back to Mike and I's time on the council, when we had difficult conversations with the community, like the jail-lit conversation and implementing a new tax, we welcomed people comfortably to this room, Woodrow Wilson, Terre Haute South, wherever we needed to have important conversations. Food and beverage tax, same thing. We had meetings outside of the council chambers. Marco Mill Dam, we went to Otter Creek and had meetings there to have meetings about or to have conversation about the dam. The jail demolition, we hosted a public input session here outside of rural business hours.
0:38:40 [t=2320] Chris Switzer (commissioner): And then with schools, the oversight board has hosted meetings morning, afternoon, night, here. The commissioners have hosted meetings morning and at night about that conversation. This room can only hold about 130 people according to our fire code. And last meeting that we saw, there were people standing outside. And Commissioner Morris did a great job of trying to get some TVs outside. And some folks were wanting to come in and comment. They absolutely could have, but decided not to.
0:39:10 [t=2350] Chris Switzer (commissioner): These conversations that we're having are bigger than this room and are bigger than, in my opinion, the county budget is going to pass. It always does. The auditor's office does good work. Vicki, as chair of the budget committee, is going to do her job and do good work like she always does to get the budget passed. The school conversation is perhaps the biggest conversation in county history that we'll ever have. If we need to have a special meeting, that's fine. If we need to move the meeting out of this room, that's acceptable.
0:39:42 [t=2382] Chris Switzer (commissioner): I can get the convention center. We can move it to Tarot North or South or Woodrow Wilson or wherever we need to. I'm hopeful that the council will decide to move this meeting in September, even if they decide not to vote, to allow for more space for people to comfortably come and speak, not to stand outside in the instance of inclement weather or in this tight area where we can only get about 70 chairs in here. So, if possible, I'm hopeful we'll have a 30 to 45 minute presentation that we've asked the auditor that will be on the agenda.
0:40:23 [t=2423] Chris Switzer (commissioner): We've submitted our resolution for the council to support or not, but I think it'd be incredibly disingenuous if we don't host that meeting at a larger venue to get the public's input
0:40:35 [t=2435] Speaker 181 (commissioner): for or oppose the school project.
0:40:39 [t=2439] Speaker 118: In lieu of that, we will have, if they decide to have that meeting here, we will have exterior access to video and audio. We'll rent some chairs or something and make an amphitheater out there. But that still is, it could be inclement weather.
0:41:03 [t=2463] Mark Clinkenbeard (chair): And we did go out and talk to those people that were outside to clarify that they could come in and make public comment at that time as well.
0:41:19 [t=2479] Speaker 118: So we will accommodate it as best we can.
0:41:23 [t=2483] Chris Switzer (commissioner): I keep saying this. I think Vicki knows this county is perfectly capable of walking, talking, and chewing gum at the same time. We've never been, sometimes we've been, the crisis of the day situation where we focus solely on one thing. But we're perfectly able to focus on the budget, focus on a variety of other things at the same time and get them all accomplished at the same time. So when we're talking about jails or additions to the jail, community corrections, schools, supporting Joanie and Health vs. Indiana funding, the budget, all these things.
0:42:00 [t=2520] Chris Switzer (commissioner): I think we can do all of those things collectively and not have to just focus on one thing.
0:42:05 [t=2525] Speaker 20: So that's my two cents.
0:42:07 [t=2527] Speaker 262 (commissioner): I'm voting for it. Anything else? I agree. Okay. Hearing nothing else.