The Decatur County Commissioners

The Decatur County Commissioners met on Monday. The board approved the claims.

Mark Mohr gave an update. They are currently working on tearing out the old road on E CR 900 S and S CR 60 SW which will remain as a stone road through winter. The community crossing grant project on W CR 400 S and S CR 60 SW has been completed. They plan to address the shoulders in the road on Wednesday, anything over 3 inches will be fixed. They are also replacing 3 pipes on CR 300 S and a pipe on CR 700 E will be replaced due to rust.

Krista Duvall presented ordinance 2020-13 which the board approved. Kenny Buening gave an update. There have been 7 inspections, 11 new building permits, and 3 red tags- one for electrical issues and one for no permit. Buening met with Christian Rust to talk about Lake McCoy. He plans to reassess the properties since the land has been slightly cleaned up. There was discussion on how to handle a burned house at Lake McCoy that the current owner wont to tear down and refuses to pay taxes on.

Mayor Joshua Marsh came to the commissioners to present a letter of commitment to the Park Road Project. This is a joint state/county/city project where the state would match 80% of the funding. The county has worries about paying for items such as gutters and streetlights on county roads, which are typically things they dont pay for. The hope was to start with the county part of the project and finish that before starting on the city portion. The commissioners asked if it was possible to start at the east end of the project first, which is on the final side of the project, so they could have more time to consider their options. The Mayor responded with that it would be more difficult for various reasons to start the project there including that larger property acquisitions are required for that area. Mark Koors mentioned that a few members of the community contacted him worried about a trail 30 feet from their front door. The total amount for the project the county would pay for would be $5 million however with the state matching 80%, they would realistically only pay $1 million. The motion to proceed with the city on the Park Road Project died.

There was discussion with the phone service Level 365 for a new phone system in the courthouse and highway department. This service is cloud based and is the technology that eventually everything will be switching over to. The phone system will be able to work with or without power, since desk phones will be able to be answered through cell phones. The total price will be about $19,375 and can be funded through the CARES Act.

WTRE requested funding for more periscope equipment. As Covid-19 still remains prevalent in the community, periscope has been more turned to for meeting information and sports games. The total amount requested was $3,072. The board said to meet with someone from the EMA and discuss them helping to fund before the next meeting.

Sheriff Durant came to the board requesting a full time maintenance person to help in the detention center. We are the only county in the 22 counties similar to our size that does not have any maintenance person. The sheriff can pay for the salary for 1 year and hopes to put it in the budget for either the commissioners or his own. Someone needs to write the job description. A concerned citizen was also present to talk to the Sheriff about the lack of extras given to the prisoners including things like tv and puzzles. The sheriff made it known that these items are not required to be given and when they are they tend to get destroyed.

The contract with minute maid was renewed for $93,704 for Jan 1, 2021- Dec 31,2022. Nepotism Certification letters have been coming in. Every year they get letters from all offices that swear they dont let nepotism into their work space.

Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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