The Decatur County Commissioners met on Monday.
Todd Houk gave an update on the highway department. They are continuing with patching and mowing. The pipe for a failing culvert pipe on CR 200 S and CR 700 W was delivered and installed. The road has now been reopened. Bridge 70 had a critical finding by inspectors and has been shut down due to this. It was recommended that they permanently close the bridge. The locals on the road have no problem with a permanent closure, but there will still need to be a public hearing before it is approved. They are preparing the 2024 asphalt bids which will be advertised this month. This is for CCMG 2023-1 and July 3 will be the bid opening. The grader lease is up and John Deere has presented them with a new lease plan that will need to be reviewed as well as advertised for bid.
Kenny Buening gave an update. There have been 73 building inspections, 23 plan reviews/permits, 4 permit renewals, and 2 complaints. One complaint was for an ongoing nuisance property cleanup that has been a reoccurring problem for 3 years. The owner did show the progress during the walkthrough but the complaint maker would like it to be advanced to the next stage. The commissioners agreed that this needs to be cleaned up at a faster pace. The board approved to move forward with the abatement process on another nuisance property that has exceeded its cleanup time frame.
Minde Meyers with Animal Control came to the board to discuss the implementation of a shelter vet. This would save money in the long run at the shelter. The vet would be part time and be paid for out of the adoption appropriation. This would help the shelter follow the spay and neuter state law and there is plenty of space for this addition. The funding for all surgery equipment would be of no cost to the county as it is being used out of grant money. They would like to eventually expand the services to basic, lower cost animal care that would help to keep animals out of the shelter. They currently have many animals that are given to the shelter due to medical care costs. This project was approved.
Sheriff Bill Meyerrose presented the Accurate Controls Renewal. This is a 3 year contract that was approved.
Patty Hensley gave an HR update. There have been a total of 6 new hires. They had a good response to the PERF meeting and it will now become an annual occurrence. There was a request to hire Waggoner, Irwin, and Sheele as an outside consultant for the salary survey. This would be a job classification and compensation study where they would work with county employees to build a job description, compensation, evaluate job categories, and compare to other counties. This would not exceed around $44,000 and would take 6 months to complete. This would be paid for out of the Plans and Implementation budget. This was approved.
Regional Sales Manager for PHI Air Medical LLC Jill Spaulding and Flight Nurse Amanda Wilson came to the board to discuss membership for Decatur County residents. This was presented to the County Council last month, who requested they give a presentation to the commissioners as well. Medical flights have been increasing in Decatur County, with 20 patients flown last year by PHI, and most people believe insurance covers air medical bills fully, which they do not. This would be a $61,056 annual fee to cover all households in Decatur County if membership was approved. The quote is good until the end of the year. The board tabled this for further information and discussion.
Washington Township Trustee Bev Rivera discussed Lake McCoy. They get phone calls constantly on why they are not forcing the mobile home park owner to clean the property and why they are not cleaning their own property. The trustee can only do what they can and anything else would need to be brought before the commissioners, which is why it was brought up at this meeting. The Trustee office does own 16 lots that they do not wish to keep and are currently negotiating a contract with a company to clean them. The boundary lines at the lake have made the processes difficult for clean up. The Trustee wants to know what they can do safely, legally, and properly without displacing any residents. This was brought up in order to start the discussion and begin looking through complications, both overall and individual, at Lake McCoy, according to the Trustee. The board approved for a group of county employees to merge and discuss the solutions.
Richard Friend made a request to vacate 2 alleys. Both alleys are located in Milford. The alleys are being maintained by all adjoins homeowners and the petitioners cannot currently do what they wish with their piece of property due to the alley placement. All adjoining neighbors have agreed to the vacation except for one. This neighbor wishes to keep their portion of the alley as their own property as they have always maintained it. This was tabled.
There was a discussion on the lighting at the Fairgrounds Livestock Barns. The board approved to replace the lighting at the barns with LED for $12,500.
There was a request for use of facilities for the Mainstreet Food Truck Festival on June 17. This was approved.
There was a request for use of facilities for the On Eagles Wings 5K on August 26. This was approved.
There was a discussion on the placement of a Memorial Bench at the Fairgrounds for Commissioner Chuck Emsweller. There will be a white vinyl bench placed with a plaque remembering Chuck. This was approved.
Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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