Deer Trail Road debacle haunts Commissioner Fleck

The first county commissioner meeting this month turned chilly when one of the two democrats declared he couldn’t support the other for the commission presidency due to a bad road deal that happened in 2009.

Commissioner Larry Vollmer (D), who has filed to run for the State Senate District 48 seat, stated during the vote that he couldn’t support Commissioner Randy Fleck (D) as the next commission president due to his involvement in a $27,000 expense the county paid for paving a private road.

Fleck was joined by Republican Doug Uebelhor, who nominated Fleck for the position, in approving Fleck for the presidency of the commission. This affords Fleck an increase in pay while he serves as president — $29,150 compared to the $25,450 the other two commissioners will make in 2014.

Before we get into that, I think a bit of explanation is necessary.

There are three county commissioner districts and each commissioner is responsible for the condition of the roads in their district. They can direct the county highway department to repair and maintain roads in their district as they see fit as long as they stay within their yearly budget.

The county also has a procedure for accepting new developments and subdivisions into the county. As Highway Superintendent Steve Berg explained, a farmer could create a road through his property and then subdivide that property into separate properties to sell. While the farmer is alive, he or she would complete the maintenance on the private road for the homeowners but when the farmer died, many times the homeowners didn’t have anyone to rely on to maintain and repair the road. Additionally, they could not have mail service to their homes or a have their children picked up by school buses along the private lane.

If the homeowners approached the county to add the road to the county inventory, the private road would have to be brought up to county standards, which for a subdivision includes chip and seal and room for utilities. This would be done at the expense of the whoever owned the private lane.

If approved, the private lane would be added to the county inventory with the agreement that the homeowners would pay for the road upgrades. This is an expensive process and if the owners wish, the county will complete the work for them, the only requirement being that they provide a check to the county as a form of surety bond that would be deposited when the county begins the work.

Now, what Vollmer was referring to in regards to Fleck having a road paved and never being reimbursed occurred over a period of three and a half years, according to county records.

In March of 2006, Brockman applied to complete the proposed Deer Trail Estates subdivision by extending a road from County Road 50 East to a creek that ran north/south through the property he wanted to develop. Another road would run from the nearby County Road 450 South and dead end in a cul-de-sac on the opposite side of the same creek that ran through the nearly 19 acres that was owned by Pristine Developments LLC.

At the commissioners meeting on March 20th, 2006, when the platt was up for approval, the commissioners heard from a group of residents along 450 South who opposed the added traffic the new subdivision would create along the road. 

On March 21st, 2006, Brockman signed a contract to complete the construction and paving of the road according to the county’s specifications and it had to be completed within six months or no later than September 15th. 

Berg explored improving 450 South to the increased traffic, but determined the houses were too close to the road to upgrade the road for the subdivision. According to Berg, 450 South is about 14 feet wide at its widest and drops down to a single lane of traffic after about a quarter mile. The county requires a 60 foot easement — 30 feet from the center-line on each side — to construct a subdivision road.

Based on this, Berg proposed that Brockman complete Deer Trail Road by crossing the creek and continuing to a cul-de-sac east of 450 South and 450 South would be dead-ended to prevent through traffic from Deer Trail. 

Brockman didn’t complete the construction and road improvement by the September deadline but did sell several lots along the existing rock road. The commissioners began billing him $100 a day for each day of non-compliance on September 15th. On September 30th,  The fee doubled to $200.

By November of 2006, Brockman had been charged $7,700 for non-completion of the work. The commissioners agreed to halting the charges due to inclement weather stopping the construction of the road. Brockman paid the fees on December 4, the same day the road was accepted into the county’s inventory.

The Deer Trail Road project wasn’t visited again until January of 2008 when a letter was sent to Brockman to complete the paving of the road from the county engineer Norm Wendholt. The commissioners also began receiving complaints from the homeowners along the road for the condition of the road that spring.

On November 3rd, 2008, the commissioners directed County Attorney Art Nordhoff Jr. to draft a letter ordering Brockman and Pristine Developments LLC to complete the chip and seal of the road or deposit the funds for the county to do it by August of 2009. That letter was approved an sent in December of 2008.

This is the same letter resurfaced this month after Vollmer made his statement about the bad land deal. Fleck pulled this letter with a stack of documents — those documents outlined the history of the proceedings with Brockman and his partner Steve Tucker — and stated this letter cleared him of any wrongdoing as the commissioners at the time had all signed it.

But the letter doesn’t state that the county would complete the work. It directs Brockman and Pristine Development to complete the work or deposit funds for the county to complete the work.

Back to the history of this deal.

July of 2009 rolled around and Berg completes an estimate to chip and seal the road for Randy Fleck. The estimate is around $30,000.

During a commissioner meeting, prior to the August 31st deadline for Brockman to complete the road, Fleck ordered Berg to complete the chip and seal of the road. According to Berg, this occurred while Vollmer and then commissioner John Burger were both out of the commissioner chambers.

The Dubois County Free Press could find no mention of the order in the minutes of the meetings held through 2009 up to the time the roadwork was completed by the Highway Department.

Fleck allegedly told Berg, who allegedly objected to completing the work without a check in hand from Brockman, he would get the payment from Brockman. Fleck denies he ever stated that to Berg and he denies ordering Berg to complete the road.

Berg completed the work over a period of about five days around the first of August in 2009

On August 9th, the auditor’s office received notice from Steven C. Bradley, representing Brockman, in response to a bill sent out to Brockman on July 22.

Bradley stated the county’s exorbitant requirements in constructing the road cost Brockman between $150,000 and $200,000 and that Brockman’s own claim against the county could amount to at least $93,333.33 due to the expenses incurred to complete the road.

In the letter, Brockman agreed to pay the county $2,250.96 and stated this amount is the most that Brockman could owe on the completion of his portion of the road since, according to Brockman, only 1,360 feet of the 3,600 feet constructed was necessary. Brockman estimated his actual amount to be 37.8 percent of the billed $26,325.30 based on the 1,360 feet. Brockman then subtracted the $7,700 billed for non-compliance of the construction contract from that amount to come up with the $2,250.96.

At the end of the notice, Bradley asked the county attorney to prepare a mutual release and then Brockman would pay the $2,250.96.

(We are currently exploring the issues Brockman raised during the process and those will be covered in a follow-up story.)

On August 11th, Berg received a list of complaints from Brockman on how the county had handled the project improperly from the very beginning. Berg meticulously answered each complaint and submitted it to the commissioners.

The county then received a notice of a filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy for  Steve Tucker, the other member of the Pristine Developments LLC; his bankruptcy was discharged in January 2013.

Back to today.

According to Vollmer, a vote to pave the road never occurred. He contends that if the commissioners were going to pave the road and exempt Brockman from providing the funds prior to them paving, it should have been put to a vote.

John Burger, who was on the commission at the time, doesn’t remember any vote occurring either.

Fleck maintains that he did nothing wrong and that the commission voted on paving the road, but the vote on the paving of the road isn’t recorded in any minutes of 2009 leading up to the county paving the road.

No more documentation regarding collection from Brockman or Pristine Development LLC is recorded in the files viewed by this reporter.

And, the county has never collected the money, according to Vollmer.