The Press-Dispatch
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"Unfortunately, a lot of doctors don't practice un- less there's a hospital near- by," Adams added. "And we know the more rural we get in Indiana, the fewer den- tists there are. That also holds true for mental health providers. That preventa- tive care model of health- care is a little more challeng- ing when you have to cross those county lines." Adams said that Pike County's health outcomes ranking of 67th and its health factors ranking of 28th was "intriguing." "I think what it might be saying is you might be on the right track to start im- proving those health out- comes," Adams said. "But, you know, it's not about the rank—it's about how can we do better? " Ad- ams added. "The county health rankings are a great tool, but they are just one of many tools in the toolbox. So you use this, you use other data that your community collects, you use other re- sources that you have to pain that broad picture. Ev- ery county should be doing a county health needs assess- ment, which includes all of these things." For more information, or to view the report, vis- it www.countyhealthrank- ings.org. continued from page 4 continued from page 5 H Health Rankings H Road improvements H City to begin acquiring easements for sewer line near I-69 CEDIT funds they would be down to about $575,000 in CEDIT money. There is a projected reve- nue of $ 908,385 for CEDIT in 2014. Councilman Elliott asked if that amount would all be withdrawn at one time or over a period of time as the work is done. Auditor Wilson said it would be paid out as the in- voices are submitted and the work progresses. Ham told the council it is their intention to do all the paving inhouse instead of bidding out the work. He added because they were going to be doing a lot of skip patching, it would take longer than to do the paving work because they would be moving more than in typical continuous point-to-point paving projects. Krohn moved to appropri- ate the full $750,000 and di- vide it equally between the three commissioner dis- tricts. "I feel like the roads are the most important asset we have," said Krohn. "Personally, I would like to knock it down a little and see what comes down the road," said councilman Wil- lis. Krohn said the bill on the construction of the sewer line wouldn't all be paid un- til next year. "You have been on this board a long time and you know there is always some- thing that comes along," said Willis. Councilman Greg Man- gin seconded Krohn's mo- tion and it was approved by a 4-3 motion. Harris, Willis and Bishop all said they were in favor of funding paving, but wanted to appropriate less than the $750,000 to get the county started paving and see how the funding stood later in the year. Ham said they have the paving equipment ready to go, they are just waiting on the weather to break. He said they would probably start in early May. A second appropriation of $ 60,000 for rock was ap- proved by a 7-0 vote. "We are pretty much out of rock right now. I think we have about $10,000 on the ground at the garage. We could easily haul it out in two days," said Ham. "So this probably isn't enough? " asked Harris. "No," said Ham of the $ 60,000 request. Sewer line to i-69 update Petersburg Mayor Frank Coleman told the county council it looks like a real date of the sewer line be- ing operational is February 8, 2015. Coleman said he met with BL A Engineering and they have more definite times on the construction project. Anticipated final comple- tion date is May 30, 2015, but he said that is when all the seeding and everything involved with the project would be completed. The sewer line should actually be operational before then. Coleman said it is also possible it could be com- pleted a couple of months prior to February as well be- cause BL A has built in a cou- ple of months for easement acquisition and if that goes smoothly they could reduce the time line on the project. He added the easement acquisition would proba- bly start by the end of the month. In other business, the county council amended the pay scale for poll workers at the request of County Clerk Carol Austin. Auditor Ron Wilson said the council had approved a 2.5 percent pay raise across the board for all county em- ployees. Some of the poll worker positions of Inspec- tor, Judge and Clerk came out to be $146.73 per day, $125.77 and 104.81. Austin asked to have that amended to $145, $125 and $105 "to simplify it." Her request was approved by a 7-0 vote. • Council approved an additional amount of $ 9,135 from the highway general fund into machinery equip- ment. Superintendent Ham explained this was an insur- ance payment from a dump truck involved in a wreck. He said they were able to fix the truck and the insur- ance money needed to be appropriated back into the machinery and equipment fund. He said he hoped to purchase a milling head to mill roads. The next council meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 13. er that process will go, and that will really dictate the rest of the schedule." Bullock noted that the draft project time schedule allowed almost two months for ease- ment and lift station site ac- quisition, at which point plans will be finalized and the proj- ect advertised for bids. "If things go well, that could be decreased consid- erably," Bullock said. "So if you start those negotiations and things go quickly, then we can speed up the rest of the schedule accordingly." The draft project time schedule sets July 21 as the date the council will open bids, with the construction contracts set to be awarded on Aug. 4. Actual construction of the sewer line is expected to start on Sept. 8. "I believe we've got about five months for substantial completion," Bullock said. "The line itself will proba- bly not take that long, but the main work that would take longer would be the lift sta- tion sites," Bullock said. "A lot of that material has to be built and ordered and it just takes a little bit of time to get that in." Substantial completion of the project, Bullock noted, means that it would be able to be used, although final com- pletion is not schedule until May 30, 2015. "Like I said, the biggest thing that can either stop you or help speed up is the land acquisition," Bullock said. "It only takes one person to really delay that. And I'm sure peo- ple will have questions, so the earlier we can start talking to them and letting them know, then the better off we'll be." Board member Fran Lewis asked Mayor Frank Coleman if he foresaw any difficulties obtaining easements and lift station sites for the project. "We haven't so far, have we, (Codes Enforcement Officer) R.C. (Klipsch)? " Coleman re- plied. "We're really not that far in- to it yet, but we haven't heard anything," Klipsch said. "We have spoken with some of the people out there that are kind of talking about it amongst themselves al- ready," Coleman added. "I had a couple of people ask me when it would be com- pleted and when it was going to be ready," Lewis said. "And I didn't have any answer for them. This might help a lit- tle bit." "This is fluid, too," Cole- man said. "This could move. It just depends on how fast we can get easements." In another sewer-related matter, City Services Man- ager Gary McCandless in- formed the board that a lift station pump on the south end of the city had locked up on Friday, April 4. "I just don't know where it comes from, but we got sheets out of there and tow- els, wash rags," McCand- less said. "I can understand the water, but the hard mate- rial, I just don't get it unless it's coming out of somebody's basement." Fortunately, McCandless added, the breakers kicked out before the pump was dam- aged. "It was a hand towel and a washcloth that matched," Coleman said. "And then there was even a deflated bas- ketball. But how does that get in there? It's a mystery. "I would caution everyone about putting things down the drain that don't belong down the drain," Coleman added. "That includes any type of material that's either hazardous or toxic or materi- al, because it causes a prob- lem at the lift stations, and what it will do is cause the whole system from that area back to back up." Coleman said that the pump did what it was sup- posed to do when it shut the breaker off. "And then we started get- ting phone calls in here, so that's how we knew some- thing was wrong," Coleman said. "If people are having problems, I encourage them to call in, but please don't flush things down the toilet and down your drains that you shouldn't be flushing, because it causes problems in the whole system. And it can be very costly. If that breaker doesn't break, then we burn up a pump." In other action Monday night, the city's Common Council voted unanimously to accept the donation of the former Doty Insurance build- ing from German American Bank, for use as a new City Hall. Coleman said that he had spoken with German Amer- ican officials and that they needed an answer from the council whether it wanted the building or not. "They have agreed to leave the furnishings, which could be a big savings for us there," Coleman said. "And they al- so have agreed to remove the signage from both sides of the building." Coleman added that the German American signage on the awning had been painted. "I think at one time it said Doty Agency," Coleman said. "They actually painted over that, so they said we could probably paint over the Ger- man American. And they said the awnings weren't that ex- pensive." Coleman noted that the council had asked him to in- vestigate how much it would cost to make the building's restrooms ADA-compliant, and that he had conferred with David Henson, a local contractor. "There are four bathrooms, and they're kind of back-to- back, and what he suggests is that we put in two ADA rest- rooms, one women's and one men's," Coleman said. "The cost of doing that would be an estimated $ 9,500." Council member John Mel- hiser asked if Coleman fore- saw any additional renova- tions being needed. "That's the only thing we need to do," Coleman replied. "There's other things that are not urgent that we need to do, but I think if you accept the building, I would suggest we do (the restrooms) before moving in there to avoid all the dust and dirt and also the inconvenience of not having a restroom, until that's done. The rest of the things can be done along the way. "If you look at the overall building and contents, it's a good gift," Coleman added. "I've liked the idea since they offered the proposal to us," Lewis said. "I think we should go ahead with it. I think it's a great building. I think it's got a great look for city hall. I've said that all along. It's got my vote." Lewis subsequently made a motion to accept the build- ing, which was seconded by Melhiser. The vote was 5 -0. "We just need to take bet- ter care of it than we've tak- en care of this one," council member Gary Leavitt said. "This one's pretty shabby in front, I think." "I would agree," Coleman said. Later in the meeting, Cole- man presented a revised plan to renovate City Hall's facade for a total of $4,328.20. "I think it would make this building more marketable, if we decide to sell it," Cole- man said. "I've been told by a couple of people this week that the worst-looking build- ing on Main Street was City Hall. So I think we need to ad- dress those issues." Coleman said that city of- ficials could not expect the owners of other buildings on Main Street to keep them maintained "when we're not taking care of our own city- owned buildings. "There has been money that's been budgeted every year for the renovation or for the upkeep of City Hall, and it's usually not spent," Cole- man added. "That money just goes away. It doesn't accumu- late." Coleman asked City Clerk Tammy Selby if the city could use its Riverboat money to cover the cost of renovating city hall's facade. "There's several places you can get it," Selby replied. "So there's enough funding there that we could do at least the paint and the tuck point to keep the water out of the bricks," Coleman said. However, board members Ryne Biesterveld and Ber- tis Jenkins, along with Lew- is, balked. Both Biesterveld and Lew- is stated that they felt the amount quoted was too much and that the city should fo- cus on renovating the former Doty Insurance building first and only worry about spruc- ing up the current City Hall building after it was vacated. "I'm kind of leery with ev- erything," Biesterveld said. "I just like to take it one step at a time." "If we didn't have the money, if we didn't have the $4,328 to at least paint and tuck point, I would say, okay, wait till next year and take it out of City Hall's improve- ments fund," Coleman said. "But, you know, it's $4,000, and I think we can do that. That's not going to hurt us fi- nancially to do that. "We've got gutters laying in the back, Ryne," Coleman continued. "I mean, they fell off the building a couple of weeks ago and they're laying out here in the back. What do we do? Just leave them? No- body's going to put them up for free." Lewis said that she agreed with Biesterveld. "I know about the bath- rooms, but I'm not sure what else we might be looking in- to, you know, down the road," Lewis said. "Seeing what this needs and possibly what our new relocation might need, I think that should go first. "Yes, it's been let go for 20 years," Lewis added. "But I think $4,000 is a lot of money for paint. I'll just go ahead and say it. I know a little about get- ting things done and redone, but it looks like a lot of mon- ey just for painting." "I just think the taxpayers are looking to this council to maintain the city-owned fa- cilities and buildings," Cole- man said. After more discussion, Coleman asked Jenkins what he thought. "Well, I know it needs to be done," Jenkins replied. "I'm about like they are. I think we need to wait and see how everything turns out down there." Coleman then requested that the council make a mo- tion to either table the matter or accept the bid from Mike Wilson with Homes by De- sign. "I'll make the motion to ta- ble it," Jenkins said. After Melhiser seconded Jenkins' motion, it was ap- proved by a 3-2 vote, with Bi- esterveld, Jenkins and Mel- hiser voting yes while Lewis and Leavitt voted no. continued from page 5 The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 9, 2014 A-5