PROCEEDINGS HELD BEFORE THE BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION
(Road and Bridge Meeting)
Monday, December 8, 2008

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:

Charles "Skip" Gruber, Chairman
Wayne Gruenloh
David Bishop
Frank Burt

ALSO PRESENT:

Michael Thompson, County Administrator
David Brewer, Assistant County Administrator
Cal Markert, County Engineer
Wesley Pennington, ROW Manager/Highway Administrator
Joey Nunnally, Maintenance Engineer
Frank Lundy, Construction Engineer
Lawrence Wilson, Design Engineer
Lloyd Turner, Highway Accountant
Ed Bellue, Engineering Tech I1
Tucker Stuart, Planning Engineer
Lisa Sangster, Office Administrator
Taylor Rider, BRATS Director

MR. CAL MARKERT: ... And, Lawrence, if you could give us an update on the service road, the design of that and where we're at on that.

MR. LAWRENCE WILSON: The -- on the service road, we resubmitted EA document to FHWA. It's their final review. I hope we should be getting that back within the next couple of weeks. We do have information. We're going to be using the con-span, open-bottom bridges instead of a standard bridge in those two creek locations.

MR. CAL MARKERT: Do you remember the first EA submittal or document submittal was how many months ago, four or five?

MR. LAWRENCE WILSON: It's been several. Yeah. I think it was in February or March when we submitted the first

MR. CAL MARKERT: So we've kind of bogged down with the Federal Highway Administration on that. And then I notice the consultants did some things wrong in the State's review process. So that's where we're at, Commissioners, on -- on that.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: On -- on that one, Cal, what's the status of the State, as far as the interchange and -- and their part of that? Do you have an update on that?

MR. CAL MARKERT: Yes, sir. They're waiting on this EA document so they can finalize their right-of-way purchase from Timber Creek. Other than that, I believe they've been working on the right-of-way on the south side where there wasn't any of that environmental document. But as soon as that gets approved, it's my understanding they're ready to purchase the right-of-way from Timber Creek, which is the north of the interstate.

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: Cal, one more question before we leave the subject. He said five hundred and fifty days. Someone asked me that specific question the other day. And I told him this time next year. That's erroneous. It would be the second quarter of '010, completion, wouldn't it?

MR. FRANK LUNDY: We're -- Based on the -- the progress the contractor is making and -- and based on his time schedule he says he's going to be able to meet, we're looking at about this time next year.

COMMISSIONER DAVID BISHOP: But the actual time in the contract would be -- could be -- the second quarter or earlier than the second quarter, could it not?

MR. FRANK LUNDY: Could be. And he's had -- he's had good weather. And if -- if the good weather continues, I think we'll beat that. If poor weather moves in, obviously, that date is going to be pushed back. And contract time would allow for that.

COMMISSIONER FRANK BURT: Mr. Chairman.

ROAD AND BRIDGE CHAIRMAN CHARLES "SKIP" GRUBER: Yeah.

CHAIRMAN FRANK BURT: I understood last week from a call I received that -- that the Infirmary is reconsidering their acquisition and the building of the hospital there, as to what they might do. And I don't believe they'll have that answer until -- they haven't committed yet. And Timber Creek won't have that answer until sometime in February. And there was some question as to the width of the right-of-way, whether to cut this road down, cut the hill down, and raise the road and bring the road and the site near the same level, or if you're going to leave the road low and let the hospital build at the top of the hill, if and when they do build the hospital. There has been some discussions there. And if we could get some of that on the record, I think that might help.

ROAD AND BRIDGE CHAIRMAN CHARLES "SKIP" GRUBER: That's a good point.

MR. CAL MARKERT: Thanks, Commissioner Burt. Yes, sir, we had talked to the hospital's engineer. Basically, we have a profile and design already done to where the profile is cutting off the hill. And it was making a real wide right-of-way. And we told them we could go with slope easements instead of permanent right-of-way on that very back slope. And we were trying to work out with their engineer what would be the best elevation and curb on the hospital. The hospital really doesn't know. At the time they were kind of working on their site plan. So we thought we were fixing to nail down a profile. And then lately it's -- we've -- we've lost -- kind of lost contact with them. And I -- Commissioner Burt is correct. Everything is changing. So they may be reaching and reconsidering whether or not they purchase and build out there. And how that affects all the other parties, I'm not sure. We were just hoping we'd get the EA document back before or somewhere around when the hospital would make their final decision and get that worked out. So that's where we're at on that. Is that clear as mud, Commissioners?

ROAD AND BRIDGE CHAIRMAN CHARLES "SKIP" GRUBER: I think it kind of solves it a little bit. The only thing about the EA, that's based on your right-of-way width drainage, is that not right, your design? So if you're cutting design down, that's going to change the EA?

MR. CAL MARKERT: It's -- as long as we didn't go wider with the right-of-way, we'd be okay. We could come in. Now, in the EA, we did specify a design speed, which stipulates how steep the hill can be. So we would have to work within that. But there's still some -- we could still raise the grade some and that kind of thing.

COMMISSIONER FRANK BURT: Another question was that the Infirmary is sort of looking again at the whole project, as to whether they do it. And I believe in this agreement that we had, the Infirmary committed up to a million dollars towards the cost of this thing. And if that goes away, I don't know how firm that commitment was, or if it was just a memorandum of understanding. Anyway, they are having second thoughts about it, I know, and probably based on economic conditions in the state and nation and world.

COMMISSIONER WAYNE GRUENLOH: On -- on -- on another subject, Cal....