Yellow Ambulance Service will make runs in Utica

Yellow Ambulance Service will continue to provide service to the Jeffersonville-annexed area of Utica Township until at least May 2012, and the Clark County Commissioners cannot make any changes to the arrangement without the agreement of all parties involved, according to County Attorney Greg Fifer.

The commissioners have been deliberating a territory dispute between Yellow Ambulance and Utica-based New Chapel EMS since January.

The New Chapel contract with the county defines the ambulance company’s service area as “Utica Township and Jeffersonville Township east of Ind. 62, excluding the city of Jeffersonville incorporated areas.” Yellow Ambulance’s service area is defined as “the city of Jeffersonville, in its entirety.”

The annexation created an obvious overlap.

In January, calls in the Jeffersonville-annexed part of Utica Township started being routed to Yellow Ambulance dispatch. Utica Township Fire and EMS Commissioner Jamey Noel brought the issue to the attention of the commissioners in January.

Commissioner Les Young told the other commissioners that Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan had been agreeable to a proposed compromise presented to the commissioners by New Chapel attorney Tom Lowe at the commissioners meeting last month when Young and Galligan met to discuss the matter Monday. However, Fifer told the commissioners Galligan wanted the contracts to remain as written.

Fifer told the commissioners the only way that the territories could be changed without legal implications would be to gain agreement of all parties involved, including the city of Jeffersonville, Yellow Ambulance and New Chapel EMS.

Sherman Hockenbury, of Yellow Ambulance, told the commissioners it has lived up to its end of the deal since service calls in Utica Township started being routed to the company.

“We’ve added coverage, we’ve added resources,” Hockenbury said. “We’ve spent money.”

Neither Noel or Lowe were present at the meeting.

Jeffersonville City Councilman Mike Smith told the commissioners that the Jeffersonville Fire Department and the International Firefighters Association chapter supported Yellow Ambulance.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

• The commissioners voted unanimously to take no action on a fuel-flow fee passed by the Clark County Board of Aviation Commissioners. Fifer told the county commissioners that the resolution passed by the aviation board did not require their endorsement, because the aviation commissioners have the authority to pass fees without the endorsement of other county-level agencies.

The board voted unanimously to not sign a resolution ratifying the new fee.

However, before they did, they heard from Ginger Davidson, a private airfield owner and an opponent of the fees.

Davidson, a self-described aviation enthusiast, told the board the fee would cause fixed-based operators, or FBOs, approximately five to 10 percent of their business in the first year as pilots fly to other airports with lower or no fees.

“Pilots will fly a hundred miles to save a nickel per gallon on gas,” Davidson said.

She also said hurting the airport would hurt the overall economy in Clark County.

Commissioner Mike Moore reiterated his support of the fuel-flow fee during his discussion with Davidson.

However, later in the meeting, County Assessor Vicki Kent Haire told the commissioners that FBOs at the Clark County Regional Airport do not pay property taxes because of a tax loophole that provides tax relief for properties with public hallways. Fifer said he would investigate the loophole to see if it was being abused.

The aviation board voted last month to pass a 10-cent fuel-flow fee, but put a clause in its resolution saying the resolution would pass after ratification from both the county commissioners and county council.

• Kent Haire and a representative from 39 Degrees North presented a proposal for geographic-information system parcel correction and validation. Kent haire told the commissioners a total of approximately 10,000 parcels are missing from the current GIS system used to send assessed property values from the assessor’s office to the auditor’s office.

39 Degrees North proposed a service package worth about $125,000. The commissioners asked a contract be written to be voted on at their next meeting.

• The commissioners reviewed the results of a bid to purchase a bituminous paver conducted on the county’s behalf by BidBridge, a reverse-auction Web site. The bids received by the county were about $6,000 lower than traditional bids, Moore said.

• Tim Cochran — of the New Washington Beautification Committee — told the commissioners new welcome signs were set to be installed at either end of the town, and asked to be absolved of any liability should the signs be the cause of litigation arising from an accident. Commissioner Ed Meyer instructed County Engineer Hyun Lee to make sure the signs were out of county right-of-ways, and Fifer assured Cochran that as long as the signs were properly installed, he would not be liable in such a case.

• Lee and Mike Harris of Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz engineering firm told the commissioners the county could expect to see about $3 million come to the county for paving projects through the Indiana Department of Transportation, or INDOT. The funds will pay for about 30 miles of road to be paved.

• Moore discussed the possibility of assessing fines to trucks leaving the Clark-Floyd Landfill without covers on truck beds to prevent litter on Ind. 60.

• Young motioned to hire Jim Ross into a newly created position of highway superintendent and compliance officer for the county highway department. Meyer seconded the motion, which passed 2-1. Moore said Larry Harbin was his choice.

SECURITY BREACH!

• A computer in the auditor’s office was accessed and installed with two programs believed to be used to breach security and discover passwords, a county systems administrator told county commissioners in an e-mail Thursday. The incident took place at approximately 7 p.m. March 30, and the computer was accessed from inside the auditor’s office.

The two programs are believed to be “Cain & Abel” and “LCP,” according to the e-mail.

“Due to the severity of this situation and our liability if information protected by HIPAA laws and state laws become compromised,” the e-mail reads, “I have spoken with [county Auditor] Keith Groth and have informed him on all the details including the persons that may be involved.”

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