The regular meeting of the Board of County Road Commissioners of the County of Calhoun was held Wednesday, January 4, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. in their office located at 13300 Fifteen Mile Road, Marshall, Michigan.

Present: Commissioner Chester E. Travis, Chairperson

Commissioner David D. Veramay, Vice-Chairperson

Commissioner Charles E. Monaweck, Member

Dennis A. Randolph, Managing Director

Joanna I. Johnson, Assistant Managing Director

Pixie Coats, Human Resources Director

Kevin Henning, Finance Director

Also Present: Tom Frank, Albion Township Supervisor

Steve Irons, Athens Township Supervisor

Larry Spoor, Burlington Township Supervisor

John Nieterer, Leroy Township Supervisor

Gene Hamaker, Marshall Township Supervisor

Steve Tuttle, Athens Township Trustee

Pete Shrontz, Marengo Township Trustee

Joseph Bramble, Convis Township Resident

Clarence Millard, Newton Township Resident

Gardy Berezonsky, Marengo Township Resident

Lynn Hagelshaw, Burlington Township Resident

Gene Hull, Burlington Township Resident

Paul Adams, Calhoun County Road Commission

Annette Chapman, Calhoun County Parks & Recreation Director

Dave Fuller, Calhoun County Road Commission

Hershel Stacy, Calhoun County Road Commission

Robert Volkmer, Calhoun County Road Commission

Clerk Johnson called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. and called for the selection of 2006 officers.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Veramay that Commissioner Chester Travis presides as Chairperson for 2006. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Travis that Commissioner Veramay serves as Vice-Chairperson for 2006. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Clerk Johnson handed the meeting over to Chairperson Travis.

Chairperson Travis stated that there being no additions or corrections to the regular meeting minutes of December 7, 2005 and the public meeting minutes of December 22, 2005 they stand approved as printed and distributed.

COMMUNICATIONS and RESOLUTIONS

•  Received a notice to amend Contract 05-5464 from MDOT, extending the completion date of the "Linear Trailway" from July 8, 2003 through July 8, 2006.

•  Received a notice to amend Contract 05-5463 from MDOT, extending the completion date of the corridor study plan within the corporate limits of the City of Albion and Sheridan Township from July 8, 2003 through July 8, 2006.

•  Received Ordinance #2005-20 amending current Ordinance to now designate Calhoun County Road Commission as the Municipal Enforcing Agency for Soil Erosion permits within the City of Albion boundaries.

•  Received a letter and information from Pixie Coats, Human Resource Director on the Health and Safety Refunds for the Calhoun County Road Commission.

NEW BUSINESS

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve the December 8, 2005, accounts payable for $350,187.69. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve the December 22, 2005, accounts payable for $433,920.31. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Veramay to approve the December 7, 2005, payroll for $137,440.98. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Veramay to approve the December 8, 2005, payroll for $7,093.39. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Veramay to approve the December 9, 2005, payroll for $4,517.49. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve the December 19, 2005, payroll for $5,062.24. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Monaweck and supported by Commissioner Veramay to approve the December 20, 2005, payroll for $29,488.04. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve the December 21, 2005, payroll for $139,290.54. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve Resolution 2005-22, the extension of MDOT Contract 05-5464 . Voice vote: Motion carried.

Resolution 2005 - 22

Linear Trailway

WHEREAS , an agreement between the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Board of County Road Commissioners of the County of Calhoun; Michigan has been previously entered into for the development of a trailway planning document and

WHEREAS , it is the desire of the Calhoun County Road Commission to extend the completion date the above described agreement referred to as CONTRACT 05-5464, and

WHEREAS , to extend retroactively CONTRACT 05-5464 terms by twelve (12) months, Section 11 of CONTRACT 05-5464 is hereby revised to be in effect from July 8, 2003, through July 8, 2006:

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED , that the Calhoun County Road Commission has accepted the revised CONTRACT 05-5464 to be in effect from July 8, 2003, through July 8, 2006.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve Resolution 2005-23, the extension of MDOT Contract 05-5463 . Voice vote: Motion carried.

Resolution 2005 - 23

Corridor Study Plan of the City of Albion

and

Sheridan Township

WHEREAS , an agreement between the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Board of County Road Commissioners of the County of Calhoun; Michigan has previously entered into for the development of a corridor study plan document; and

WHEREAS , it is the desire of the Calhoun County Road Commission to extend the completion date of the above described agreement referred to as CONTRACT 05-5463 , and

WHEREAS , to extend retroactively CONTRACT 05-5463 terms by twelve (12) months, Section 11 of CONTRACT 05-5463 is hereby revised to be in effect from July 8, 2003, through July 8, 2006:

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED , that the Calhoun County Road Commission has accepted the revised CONTRACT 05-5463 to be in effect from July 8, 2003, through July 8, 2006.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Monaweck to approve Resolution 2005-24, the designation of the Human Resource Director and the Assistant Managing Director as HIPPA Privacy Officer's . Voice vote: Motion carried.

Resolution 2005 - 24

Designate HIPPA Privacy Officers

WHEREAS , the Calhoun County Road Commission designates the Human Resource Director and the Assistant Managing Director as Privacy Officers for the Calhoun County Road Commission to oversee the development, implementation, maintenance and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) Privacy program, and

WHEREAS , it is the desire of the Calhoun County Road Commission to stay in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA), and

WHEREAS , the Calhoun County Road Commission has identified the Human Resource Director and the Assistant Managing Director as Privacy Officers to work with management staff, legal counsel, and appropriate staff to create, implement, and monitor the Road Commissions Privacy Policy, including policies for a notice of privacy practices; minimum necessary use and disclosure of protected health information (PHI); access, inspection, and copying of PHI; amendment of PHI; accounting for disclosures of PHI; record-keeping procedures; and other administrative procedures.

WHEREAS , the Privacy Officers will be responsible staying in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) for the Calhoun County Road Commission, and

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED , that the Calhoun County Road Commission acknowledges and accepts the designation of the Human Resource Director and the Assistant Managing Director as Privacy Officers for the Calhoun County Road Commission.

MANAGING DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Mr. Randolph provided the Board with the following information:

•  The letter received from Pixie Coats, Human Resource Director regarding the refunds we will be receiving from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Michigan County Road Commission Self Insurance Pool (MCRCSIP). Both of these refunds are because of the organizations good ratings. The Blue Cross/Blue Shield refund goes to the credit of our employees who are taking better care of themselves and keeping the claims down. The MCRCSIP refund, which is our self-insurance pool, goes to the credit of our safety program. This refund should actually be about $100,000.00 more. An employee had an accident that resulted in a law suite with a $500,000.00 payout. Because of this, we have to pay this money back to the insurance company and we are doing this over a five-year period with interest. Insurance is never free. But we are still receiving refunds and this reflects that we have a good record and comply with OSHA and safety requirements along with our employees taking better care of themselves.

•  The crews are out doing a variety of patching on the roads.

•  We are doing some touch up work on some gravel roads, but very little because of the weather.

•  The crews are doing some clean up tree work around the county.

•  We have had a big snow spell and have had to use quite a bit of salt. We are full right now but have had to order a little additional salt because we are selling salt to a number of other private vendors who remove snow around the county.

•  We are closing the books for the end of the year. We have met our target for the year-end cash balance. Our MTF cash is down about $400,000.00 from last year. Things have been fairly flat for the last 5 years.

•  We are closing out our work activity list and our service request list. Since 1996 we started out by just logging in pothole requests, but have now turned it into a full service request system. We have tried to capture more and more items from the calls we receive. This list is getting to be more reflective of the call load we get into the organization. Only 27% of the calls are road repair calls and the rest go into a number of other areas.

•  We had complete road ratings done for 2005. We should be getting the reports soon. These evaluations are done to State Standards and a State Engineer goes out with our people along with a planner from BCATS. These ratings are not my opinion of how I think the roads should be rated; it is done according to State standards on a rating from 1 to 10. 1 -3 are the worse and 4 - 5 are rated as fair. It is done the same way all across the State. This is the first time that all of the roads in the County, including state and city roads have been evaluated. We received a grant last year to do this. We have only 43 miles (3.3%) of roads that are rated 1-3. The City and Village roads in the County have 4.9% of their roads rated 1 - 3 and MDOT, who receives 9 times more dollars compared to city and county has 5.3% of their roads rated 1- 3. Only 3.9% of the whole County has roads that are rated 1 - 3. Mrs. Johnson will be sending letters to each of the Townships with their road rating and the 2006 Construction Fee Schedule along with some additional information.

•  We are trying to get the Federal Aid project together for the summer. We will be working in Union City in late July on a project doing an overlay. It should only take us a couple of days. We will be starting on Pennfield Road just as soon as school is out and hope to finish it by August. The Custer Bridge letting is later this year. We also have a new project, the 22 Mile Road Bridge over the St. Joe River. We received critical bridge funding, but the letting won't be until 2007.

COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS:

Commissioner Monaweck asked Mr. Randolph if the money we don't use is put into a note or something to earn interest. Mr. Randolph stated that if we do have money that we aren't going to use right away then we put it into CD's. Commissioner Veramay stated that he is the one to blame if we don't have a large cash balance. Commissioner Veramay stated that he feels that if we have the money then it should be used for the roads and not saved just to save money. We spend much of our cash through the match program. Mr. Randolph stated Mr. Henning has taken over the cash sheet and is doing a lot of analysis. He is doing a nice job with the vendors and has been negotiating new terms with them. He has also made substantial improvement with our books. We are expecting a good audit this year.

Commissioner Monaweck asked Mr. Henning if we would be able to find out what money is left on a given line item of the budget? Mr. Henning said yes they would be able to find this out. Mr. Randolph stated that with the new module and the upgrade that we are getting would really help us to track items. Mrs. Johnson noted that when she and Kevin met with Commissioner Monaweck to discuss the 2006 budget, that they had noted how they were trying to make big strides and improvements in proper coding which will make the line item updates consistent. The Precision upgrade mentioned will also improve this for us.

SUPERVISORS & PUBLIC OFFICIALS TIME:

Mr. Hamaker, Marshall Township Supervisor stated that he is looking forward to receiving the letter that evaluates the roads in his township.

Mr. Frank, Albion Township Supervisor, asked about the letter. Mr. Randolph stated that the list is to be used as a guideline, so that Townships could start working on their 5-year plan.

Mr. Spoor, Burlington Township Supervisor, asked how much more salt do we use now compared to 1970. Mr. Randolph stated that it goes up and down and depends on the various weather conditions, but he didn't have any documentation back that far. We use the same today as we did back in 1993 or 1994. Mr. Randolph stated that the salt application rate has not increased. In fact it has decreased, however, we are doing things a little differently. We apply it at a rate of 350 pounds per a 2-lane mile according to State requirements. This year we have been cutting the salt with sand, so we have cut back a little bit. Mr. Spoor also asked why we had to pay the insurance company back for the accident out on I-69. Mr. Randolph told him that because we are in a pool we have to either pay it back or have our rates go up.

Mr. Shrontz, Marengo Township Trustee asked if anything is going to be done with 22 ½ Mile Road. Mr. Randolph stated that they were looking at it this year.

CITIZENS TIME:

Mr. Bramble said that he has received some complaints on 12 Mile Road between the gravel pit and L Drive. The road is flaking off a bit, but understands there is not a lot we can do about it now. Mr. Randolph stated it has been noted for 2006.

Mr. Berezonsky stated that the bridge on 21 Mile Road over Rice Creek is still unsafe. However, we had money for the Bridge Park. Mr. Randolph stated dollars used for Bridge Park are different and that we have applied for money from the critical bridge fund, but haven't heard anything. Mr. Berezonsky stated that the new road at the fair ground is being used as a dumping ground. Mr. Randolph said they would look at it.

Commissioner Veramay talked about revenue sharing. One of the reasons our roads are not at good as they should be is because Townships are being choked less and less with revenue sharing. Your revenue sharing is based on the Township collecting 1 Mill. You need to go to the people and let them know you need to collect 1 Mill in order for your revenue sharing to be better. If you get your taxing efforts up to 1 Mill you would not only be collecting it for the roads, but would get some money back into the general fund

Commissioner Travis stated that if things go according to the Governor, there won't be any revenue sharing in 2007.