BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION MINUTES
FEBRUARY 5, 2008
BALDWIN COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
BAY MINETTE, ALABAMA

Members present were David E. Bishop, Charles F. Gruber, Wayne A. Gruenloh, and Frank Burt, Jr., Chairman.

Also present were Michael L. Thompson, County Administrator and J. Scott Barnett, Chief Counsel

(E25) - I-10 SERVICE ROAD ADVERTISEMENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT MEETING APPROVED ADVERTISING AND CONDUCTING A PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT MEETING FOR THE COUNTY ROAD 13 INTERCHANGE AND I-10 SERVICE ROAD IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (ALDOT) AT DAPHNE HIGH SCHOOL AND APPROVED THE APPLICATION FOR USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES FORM REQUIRED BY THE SCHOOL FOR LIABILITY PURPOSES.

(E28) - I-10 SERVICE ROAD PROJECT AGREEMENT WITH ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has agreed to contribute $1,500,000.00 to Baldwin County for the construction of the I-10 Service Road project.

Cal Markert, County Engineer appeared before the Commission and said ALDOT sent this agreement to the County a while back when the County was working on the negotiations for funding the entire service road and finally is at the point where this agreement can be signed, as well as the others. This is a good project and the plans have to be approved by ALDOT. Once the County does the work, ALDOT will reimburse the County of their share. Mr. Markert looks forward to getting started on the project.

Commissioner Bishop said Paragraph 5 of the agreement states that invoices for work performed by the Commission under the terms of this Agreement will be submitted within twelve (12) months after the completion of the work. Any invoices submitted after this twelve-month period will not be eligible for payment. Commissioner Bishop said the County has run into this situation before, where something did not get submitted in time and the County failed to get any money back. Commissioner Bishop asked Mr. Markert how will he prevent this from happening?

Mr. Markert said the County will have a Project Inspector/Project Engineer assigned for this project, and every payment has to be certified. As soon as the parties are through with the work and the pay items, the County will do a final inspection and a final billing. Mr. Markert hopes this is done within thirty (30) days of the completion of a project. A system will be set up for this and there will be correspondence with ALDOT, Ninth Division, to prevent that from happening.

Commissioner Bishop asked if there is anything in the agreement that says the portions of the roads that are in Daphne and Spanish Fort will be turned over to them for maintenance after the road is complete, in which Mr. Markert replied not in this agreement. It will be discussed in the other agreements. ALDOT gave the County money for County road projects and at this moment, this is a County project. At the end, Mr. Markert feels that ALDOT does not care whose road it will be.

Commissioner Bishop said Paragraph 14 of the Agreement states that the Agreement will become null and void April 12, 2009, as to any phase of work provided herein which has not been authorized. What does that mean?

Mr. Markert said lot of these “catch all” statements are in the agreement and it is Mr. Markert’s guess that if the County spent the money without getting the plans checked by ALDOT, the money would be gone. Also, if the County did not spend the money by April of 2009, ALDOT would pull the agreement. By getting the agreement signed today, it will take care of that.

Commissioner Bishop said 2009 will be here quickly and the road will not be completed. These clauses bring questions to Commissioner Bishop of what they really mean.

Mr. Markert said the County needs to get the plans to ALDOT, Ninth Division, and once they check them, a letter can be sent to the County authorizing the County to let the bids to contract. The County does not necessarily have to be under construction or complete with construction, but the plans need to be sent to ALDOT for them to authorize them by April 12, 2009. Mr. Markert does not see a problem with this.

Chairman Burt said this is really talking about the whole project. There will be other agreements with other parties.

Mr. Markert said the project cost estimate right now is $9 million, including engineering design cost. This also includes some of the redesign cost for the interchange. ALDOT is contributing $1.5 million, and the County is expecting $.5 million from Cypress Equities, and they are also putting in another $1.5 million on the entrance work to Highway 90, but Mr. Markert is not counting that. TimberCreek is expected to put in $2 million and Daphne $1 million. The total is $5 million and the County is doing Woodrow Lane inhouse and to cover the cost of that, they committed $650,000.00 to the design of the whole project. A year ago, the County had committed $1.5 million and right now the County still has to borrow another $2.5 million to get all the “pieces of the puzzle” to be put together. This agreement is separate and by itself, but if the other agreements fail, this agreement will be cancelled, because the County cannot build the road with $1.5 million. The State does not want to be tied to the other things, they just want to know the County has a good set of plans.

Scott Barnett, Chief Legal Counsel said he reserves his comments until Agenda Item FB4 – I-10/County Road 13 Service Road Agreements later in the meeting.

MOTION BY COMMISSIONER BISHOP, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER GRUENLOH TO APPROVE THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN BALDWIN COUNTY AND THE ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (ALDOT) ALONG WITH THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION #2008-63 FOR A CONTRIBUTION OF $1,500,00.00 FROM ALDOT FOR THE I-10 SERVICE ROAD PROJECT:

(FB4) – I-10/COUNTY ROAD 13 SERVICE ROAD AGREEMENTS

On September 18, 2007, the Commission approved Supplemental Agreement #1 between Baldwin County and Carter-Burgess, Inc. revising the scope of work and contract amount to $520,581.00.

On March 8, 2007, the Commission approved an agreement between Baldwin County and Carter-Burgess, Inc. for the survey and design of an I-10 service road from SR-181 to the east property line of Cypress Equities with a contract amount not to exceed $526,199.00.

The County has negotiated with several parties in order to obtain funding for a service road from Alabama Highway 181 to U.S. Highway 98.

MOTION BY COMMISSIONER GRUENLOH, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER BISHOP TO APPROVE THE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN BALDWIN COUNTY AND TIMBERCREEK LAND COMPANY, INC.; BALDWIN COUNTY AND CYPRESS EQUITIES; AND BALDWIN COUNTY AND THE CITY OF DAPHNE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN I-10 SERVICE ROAD CONNECTING ALABAMA HIGHWAY 181 TO U.S. HIGHWAY 98

Commissioner Bishop asked if is stated in the agreement that the different entities will be taking over their portions of the road?

Scott Barnett, Chief Legal Counsel said that specific language is not currently in the agreement. It has been a goal of the County Commission to ensure that once the projects are completed, and in consideration that they are in fact within city limits, the cities do take them over.

Cal Markert, County Engineer appeared before the Commission and said he had asked Daphne if they will take over once the construction is complete and certified, and the Mayor said he did not think that would be a problem. During that conversation, the section from the new interchange west toward Spanish Fort city limits was discussed also. In a work session, someone brought up Woodrow Lane, which is currently County maintained, but only a few years ago Daphne had annexed both sides of Woodrow Lane and the entire area. It was brought up to the Mayor recently, for Daphne to take over the whole section including Woodrow Lane. The Mayor does not feel it would be fair to Daphne to maintain Woodrow Lane and the other part. Once Mr. Markert explained that they have annexed the area, the Mayor said they would go back and look at it.

Mr. Markert recommends approving these agreements contingent upon the cities sending the County documents ensuring they will take over maintenance over their respective sections. Mr. Markert said there is one piece on the map that is still in the County, but the rest of the area is part of Daphne or Spanish Fort. Mr. Markert said Spanish Fort may be working on possible annexing that last tract.

Commissioner Bishop asked why can’t there be an automatic provision that when a city annexes property, the roads go with the annexation?

Mr. Markert said he has been working on this. There are several roads that the Highway Department needs to deal with. Process has begun with the cities to get this resolved, but Mr. Markert does not want to see the County stop maintaining a road and someone get hurt.

Commissioner Bishop said when there is a major change like this, it seems like an opportune time to make this transition.

Mr. Markert agreed. The law is not exactly crystal clear on this. Mr. Markert believes Daphne will take over the maintenance once the road is complete. There could be an argument that as far as Woodrow Lane, it should already be under Daphne for maintenance.

Mr. Barnett said this has much to do with the dates of the annexations, how the roads have been maintained up to that point, and of course this is all matter of factual discussions between the County and the City. Woodrow Lane could very well fall under Daphne, but as far as the entire length of it, it will be taken back to Daphne.

Mr. Markert said Woodrow Lane could possibly be Daphne’s now; however, the County will build it, so it may be better to leave that alone until it is done and then say the County will go forward with the entire project if the City commits to take it over for maintenance once it is complete. This would not apply to the new section, because the way the law is written. The County will need Daphne to agree to that and they have verbally told Mr. Markert they would.

Commissioner Gruenloh said there are many parts and pieces to this and he feels there needs to be some kind of an agreement structured as far as maintaining of the whole road. Commissioner Bishop rather not “muddy the water” with this, but work on getting those two municipalities to maintain the whole road. It would be their best interest to do so and at that time, the County can back out of the picture. The road is new and the maintenance cannot be that significant for a while.

Mr. Barnett said three documents are before the Commission from each different entity, agreeing with Baldwin County to contribute certain amounts of funds and other things as it relates to this project. Daphne has agreed to the terminology, the language within their document and TimberCreek Land Company has also agreed to certain amounts of money, plus their credit donations of portion of the property relating to this. Cypress Equities has agreed upon the terms of the documents and the terms of the escrow agreement, but the County has not heard a final word from them regarding the final draft.

Mr. Barnett recommends the Commission goes forward with this at this time. Mr. Barnett feels that many of the details have been already ironed out with Cypress Equities and he does not expect them to change anything.

UNANIMOUS.