The Decatur County Commissioners met on Monday.
Todd Houk gave an update on the highway department. They received a call on a bridge near Hidden Paradis that had a damaged guard rail and stumps sticking out. Their plan is to fix these issues as well as patch when the weather permits them to do so. They are currently working on miscellaneous shop work and continue patching.
Abby Harry with Community Corrections gave an annual report. This report will be sent to the DOC. Their average home services caseload was 60.1, which is everyone with an ankle monitor. They were happy with the number of successful cases for the year. They had 59.08 felony and 69.2 misdemeanor people assigned to community service work which is a normal amount.
Patricia Louagie had Micro Vote do a presentation on the need for voting cage space. They currently have 64 voting machines and this year the Secretary of State required all voting machines to have a paper trail machine as well. These add ons will need roughly 200 sq. ft. of storage in order to be able to maneuver them and for programming. This add on will help raise the competency of the voting system to the highest level.
The Clerks office requested a closure from April 18-20 for mandatory training on a new child support system. This is a major 3 day training that is required to run the new Invest system going live in May. The commissioners approved this so long as it is advertised beforehand.
The Decatur County United Fund requested to use the courthouse lawn for their annual Strawberry Festival. This was approved.
The commissioners approved the contract renewal for the postage machine in the courthouse.
Teresa Kovacich had a discussion on the Allen Memorial Pool. This discussion was started in 2022 with hopes of renovating the pool using READI funds. Regardless of if they decide to only renovate the existing pool or create a new water recreation area, they will need to redo the old pool due to damage and leaks. They hope to make it bigger and better if possible, but understand that it would be a huge expense. However, this expense would be made possible through the use of available grant money. At the very least they will need to purchase a new pool liner for $129,000 but are worried they would be wasting money by putting it overtop the damaged concrete. The commissioners approved to close the Allen Memorial Pool for 2023 in order to access damages.
Head of HR Patty Hensley presented the new recruiting policy. This policy is to have all departments on the same page when it comes to hiring and hiring applications. This will make it easier for the public if they keep everything consistent. This was approved.
Pay application #5 for the highway department for $1,275,045.53 was approved.
The board approved the contract renewal for Peine Engineering for preventative maintenance.
Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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