The meeting began with the approval of the April 21st meeting minutes, Executive Session minutes from April 21st and 24th, claims, and $403,877.75 in payroll claims.
Todd Houk, Highway Department Superintendent stated that his team continues to perform general maintenance. He said that he recently attended the INDOT quarterly meeting where bridges were discussed. Todd said that the 2024-2 overlay is almost complete. 2025-1 chip n seal is currently slated to begin mid-June. Currently there is a vacancy for the receptionist position at the Highway Department and applications are being accepted. Concerns with 200S, 300S, and 500S were discussed with Todd stating that he would meet with Tim Ortman and come up with plans to get those fixed. For the work needed on 200S Todd said he would investigate the tipping fees that are collected to repair the road.
Sean Durbin, Health Department Director, updated the commissioners about a reduction in Health First Indiana (HFI) funding. Currently legislation has cut the budget statewide from 150 million to 40 million. Sean said that he is currently waiting for an announcement on the reduction Decatur County may experience. Sean stressed that with the reduction they would not be eliminating staff or services.
Sean also stated that the Decatur County Baby Shower was well attended with 10 vendors, 34 expectant mothers or mothers of a newborn, with 80 attendees’ total.
Alicia Nobbe Health Department representative presented a proposed pool ordinance that creates a fee so that they can collect fees that the department currently absorbs for pool inspections. These are inspections for hotels, schools, camps, wellness centers, and apartments. The fees would be $600 for a year-long open pool and $300 for a seasonal pool. Non-profits would not incur a fee. Commissioners approved the ordinance on first reading and stated that they will make a few changes before it is brought back for its second reading.
Doug Westerfeld, Area Plan Director, presented and received approval for the rezoning for APC Petitions 2025-1. 2025-3. And 2025-8. He provided an update on the Comprehensive Plan update stating that surveys will soon be going out. The next step will be interviewing and selecting an engineering firm. Doug stated that Cobia Solar LLC will be on the agenda for the June 4, 2025, BZA meeting at the Greensburg High School Auditorium.
The commissioners approved pay app #4 for the YMCA for the amount of $81,375.54.
Kevin Krekeler & Steve Leist, Assured Partners provided information on insurance renewals. Steve stated that the counties renewal date is 5/22/25. The current carrier is Liberty; however, Travelers Insurance has responded back from the request with favorable terms. The one item that was mentioned was that both Liberty and Travelers Insurance have elected to exclude any coverage on the Greensburg Park Dam due to its most recent inspection from 2020 stating that it was in poor condition. It was pointed out that they could get coverage on that as a separate policy. The commissioners have taken all the information under advisement and will discuss it at their next meeting. Jeremy asked that they investigate coverage for the Ball Diamonds to ensure that they have adequate insurance to cover the updated Turf and other upgrades.
Providing insurance for the Council Members and Commissioners was a topic this evening. Jeremy Pasel stated that this was first brought up in 2024 and with the changes that they are going to see with SB1 it is worth bringing up again. Jeremy stated his concern is that the county will see deficits of 2026-$517,700 2027-$615,550 and 2028 $781,450. Currently the county is spending $106,866 on insurance coverage for council and commissioners, which is roughly 20% of the deficit. Jeremy said that there need to be cuts but that he wants to see all staff employed and for the county to continue to provide services. He feels that insurance for the council and commissioners is a good place to begin with cuts. Commissioner Brian Wenning stated, “Our employees are the most valuable asset to the county.” Overall, the commissioners agreed that they would continue to look at this as they begin to absorb more information about SB1 changes and what costs can be reduced.
The commissioners voted to separate the parcel that the new Community Building will sit on at the Fairgrounds. Then rezone that parcel from A1-B3 for commercial use. The commissioners voted to pay Andy Scholle $3,000 to complete a property survey for the parcel and rezoning.
Jeremy stated that originally the county was projected to receive their Readi 2.0 funds around July 1, 2025. However recently it was stated that it would be fall 2025, and then most recently it has been stated that they may be looking at January 2026. Jeremy was very upfront and told the commissioners that at this time there was little information given to anyone about the plans for Readi funding. The delay is suspected to be due to the administration completing audits of the IEDC.
Jeremy said that the county has already agreed to pay for the exterior metal and interior metal structure of the building to avoid tariffs and have received a pay app for approximately 700k. He said that the commissioners had a decision to make. He stated that they could 1. Stop all work being completed until funding is received. 2. Continue work being completed until the building shell is completed. 3. Continue work and look at funding options including a possible loan or using EDIT funds and then when Readi funds are received pay those funds or a loan back. Jeremy added that he spoke with each council member individually and overall, they wanted them to move forward until at least the shell of the building is built.
Bryan Robbins, EDC spoke up and agreed that at this time they are receiving little direction and that he wanted to also state worse case scenario that the state could make the decision to not dispense funds. However, he pointed out that is unlikely. The commissioners stated they felt that the money would be distributed. Jeremy said, “(Governor) Braun really likes Readi and he stated that he (Braun) liked that communities have skin in the game.” The commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with the project to the point that the building shell is built and then they could rediscuss then. The commissioners also voted to pay the pay app #1.
The original project budget was a total of $4 million dollars, 1,950,000 being Readi funds, and the remainder being county funding and donations which included an $800,000 donation including in kind work.
Jeremy stated that currently the EDIT funds are approximately 3.6 million dollars, and the account currently earns interest in the amount of 12,000 per month.
The commissioners voted to pay Daniel Fayette to create a fundraising video for the fundraising committee to raise money for the READI 2.0 county match. The video cost is $2,000.
The commissioners voted to have Baker Tilly complete financial review and update due to recent changes on how counties will receive their funding.
The commissioners voted to approve the National Tractor Pulling Association (NTPA) contract for $15,000 for the fair to be paid out of the fairground budget. They also approved the contract for the sled rental for the Tractor Pull in the amount of $1,650.
Commissioners received four interested individuals for the Adams Township Advisory Board vacancy. After hearing from 3 of the 4 applicants the commissioners voted to appoint Kylie Debaun.
The commissioners approved Baker Tilly to receive their actual costs associated with the Jail Bond instead of a flat fee. The original agreement signed in 2018 stated that they would receive $2,000. However, in 2022 and 2023 they went over that amount.
Gabe Nobbe, Commissioner brought up concerns over the wi-fi concerns in the courthouse. He spoke with IT, and they are going to install access ports in a general area of the courthouse, each courtroom, and all conference rooms. They will replace broken ones in the Auditor and Treasurer’s office. The total cost will be approximately $1,200. The commissioners voted to move forward with this work and have the cost paid from the courthouse budget.
