Salary ordinance may get further review
The Brown County Council approved a salary ordinance for county employees that is largely unchanged from last year.
Auditor Beth Mulry said the ordinance was basically the same other than allowing for call-out pay for the county maintenance supervisor.
The salary ordinance also states that no raises will be given to county employees in 2019.
At the end of the council meeting, President Keith Baker said he had received a request from two department heads asking him to review the final recommendations made by a salary study committee earlier this year, with the “possible objective to slightly increase compensation for several employees.”
“The comparison study was not made to dictate an exact figure that each of our employees be paid, but rather to give us a tool to see if we’re competitive,” Baker said.
The committee concluded that some Brown County employees, but not all, needed a pay increase. Those who did were the jail commander, first deputies in the treasurer’s and recorder’s offices, a part-time employee in Veterans Affairs and the county’s computer network technician. A deputy in the assessor’s office was also moved up a pay grade.
“I approach things methodically to make sure I and our group haven’t missed anything. I am going to be calling together the salary committee over next few weeks to review findings one more time to see if there is something we might have missed,” Baker said.
If the committee sees any necessary changes, those will be recommended at council’s December meeting to give enough time to make adjustments before 2019, Baker said.
Road through forest reopens to traffic
The new Yellowwood Lake Road is now open.
The Indiana Department of Transportation opened the final section of rebuilt road through Yellowwood State Forest Oct. 19.
This year, INDOT, in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, reconstructed a 1.3-mile segment of gravel road north of the lake’s parking lot, raising the grade and adding drainage structures. The $4,363,000 Phase II work also included building a single-span bridge over Jackson Creek and reconstructing 1.5 miles of Yellowwood Road pavement north of State Road 46.
Last year, Phase I was completed, which included paving roads south of Yellowwood Lake’s parking lot and constructing a 300-foot-long bridge on Yellowwood Road over Salt Creek.
Fire departments will get money from timber sales
Local volunteer fire departments will soon receive more than $5,000 each from the sale of timber on public land.
Mike Spalding with the Hoosier National Forest attended the Oct. 17 meeting of the Brown County Commissioners to present the check to the board.
Each year, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry allocates 15 percent of timber sale revenue from state forests to counties in which harvests occur, a DNR press release states.
Brown County received $64,463.50 this year from those sales, which was about $36 more than what was initially reported in the DNR press release.
Of that amount, at least $6,000 total had to go to fire departments in Brown County. “It has always been our practice to take 50 percent of what we get and divide it among all of the fire departments anyway,” commissioner Diana Biddle said.
Half of $64,463.50 is $32,231.75. Dividing that among six fire departments would equal about $5,372. Biddle made a motion to round that number up to $5,500 for each department, distributing $33,000 of the county’s timber money. The remaining money will go to the county’s general fund.
“We want to do right thing by our fire departments,” Biddle said.
Of the 15 counties to receive timber sale money, Brown County received the most. The second-most was Harrison County, which received $34,824.39.
A total of $210,517.38 was distributed to counties.
Conservancy has board spot open
Lake Lemon Conservancy District is accepting nominations until Dec. 1 to fill one position on the board of directors.
The term of Mike Blackwell, director of sub-area VII, is expiring and the new term will begin at the annual meeting, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28.
Nominees must be freeholders of the sub-area of the district for which nominated or be an officer or a nominee of a corporate freeholder of the sub-area of the district; qualified by knowledge and experience in matters pertaining to the development of the district; and be willing to serve for four years with no pay.
Nominations for sub-area VII director positions must be submitted in person, by fax at 812-335-0038 or by email at office2lakelemon.org to the LLCD office before Dec. 1. The nomination must be in writing and signed by at least five freeholders from the sub-area to be served.
Nominations postmarked before Dec. 1 can be mailed to the LLCD at 7599 N. Tunnel Road, Unionville, IN 47468.
