Commissioners to discuss changing meeting time

At the Nov. 6 Brown County Commissioners meeting, President Dave Anderson announced that the commissioners would be discussing possibly moving up their evening meeting time to 4 p.m. next year.

“You guys will all have a big thing to say about that. Personally, I think 6 p.m. is better,” Anderson told the meeting audience.

Commissioner Diana Biddle had suggested the possible time change, said county human resources coordinator Melissa Stinson.

Biddle was unable to attend the Nov. 6 meeting.

Currently, the commissioners meet at 9 a.m. on the first Wednesday of each month and at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month.

Anderson said the time change would have to be addressed no later than the December meeting. The commissioners will have only one meeting in December, which will be Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 4 p.m.

Commissioner Jerry Pittman said the majority of commissioners in other counties meet only in the morning. “A very small minority actually have a meeting in the evening,” he said.

“I personally feel like what we have maybe is a good compromise. I really want people to be able to come to our meetings, and a lot of people have to work for a living. They just can’t be here at 9 o’clock in the morning or even 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We’ll hash it out and try to make it fair for everybody so the public can participate.”

Anderson said participation is “the name of the game.”

“That is coming at some point, and certainly you folks will have a say in it,” Anderson said to the audience about the possible change.

Council approves transfers, additional appropriation

The Brown County Council heard several request for budget transfers last month.

Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission President Kevin Ault requested an additional appropriation of $280,000 out of the county’s innkeepers tax fund.

Last summer, when the 2019 budget was submitted, the CVC had asked for $800,000 in innkeepers tax. Of that amount, $140,000 was set aside to help cover expenses related to the Brown County Music Center, but setting aside that money cut into the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau budget of $712,000, Ault told the council on Oct. 21.

Ault said the plan is to use $52,500 of the additional $280,000 to go to lifting the CVB’s budget back up.

Each year, the CVC gives money to the Brown County YMCA’s Hilly Half marathon. This year, the group plans to give $7,500 toward the marathon and an additional $5,000 to the Brown County Playhouse.

The remaining $215,000 in innkeepers tax will go toward the music center’s mortgage payments if needed. The first mortgage payment is due at the end of December, Ault said.

“There’s not going to be problems to pay the mortgage. We want to put money in there just to make sure we’re shored up at the end of the year,” Ault said.

“If we don’t collect all of that money, then we won’t spend it.”

Brown County Solid Waste also approached the council about appropriating an additional $33,600 into the budget after selling a truck. “The money is in the bank, but it’s not re-appropriated,” Marilyn Feiock said.

The council advised Feiock to advertise the additional appropriation in the newspaper and then the council can vote on it at the November meeting.

Resident requests speed limit reduction on road

The Brown County Commissioners received a request from a resident to lower the speed limit on West Robertson Road to 30 MPH.

The request was announced at the Oct. 23 meeting.

Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said he would begin the process of possibly reducing the speed limit by putting up traffic counters on the road.

“We already have a countywide ordinance that’s 40 (MPH) unless posted something less. If we post anything less than 40, we have to do a study,” he said.

An ordinance would be required to lower the speed limit to 30 MPH.

Highway leader gives bridge, paving updates

At the Oct. 23 and Nov. 6 Brown County Commissioners meetings, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner updated the public on the status of bridge replacement and paving projects.

Resident Jenny Austin had asked Magner at the Oct. 23 meeting when the bridge on Country Club Road over Owl Creek would be replaced. She had asked about it being replaced in 2016. “It still has yet to be replaced and the bridge appears to be deteriorating,” she said.

Magner said the permit process through agencies like the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has caused the delay and it has taken longer to get permits than he originally thought.

“It’s in process. We don’t control the permits,” commissioner Diana Biddle said.

“You just never know on those permits where they will land in the pile.”

Magner said local bridge projects “take the back seat” to state projects, like interstates.

“I know a guy whose bridge washed out and it took him five years to get the permit to replace it. He had to drive through the creek,” commissioner Jerry Pittman said.

At the Nov. 6 meeting, Magner said he expected the final materials for the Gold Point Road bridge replacement to be delivered this week and that crews would start building the bridge after all of the materials are received.

“Up in the north part of the county, that’s kind of our only way out especially when we have hills all around us. Every time I call about it they put me off. ‘It’s going to be done. It’s going to be done,'” resident Jeanette Graves said Nov. 6.

“It’s just kind of an inconvenience. I have family up that way.”

Graves drives a newspaper route that involves using the detour on Gold Point Road; she used to drive that school bus route, too. School bus drivers get paid extra mileage for going out of their way.

Magner reiterated that the bridge closure was an emergency after inspections revealed that it had deteriorated, and that the county had no say in the closure.

“To get through the permitting process and some other things, it’s just taken time. A lot of that stuff is out of our control,” he said.

He added that the bridge had a posted 3-ton weight limit, but trucks and buses had been crossing it before it closed.

“It does affect some local car traffic, but there are a lot of roads around here that have a whole lot longer detours to get around them than that one,” Magner said.

After materials are received, Magner said it would take about a week or less to get the bridge built. At the very latest, it would be done by the end of the month, he said.

“I do appreciate everything they do. It’s not that I am ungrateful. It’s just been so long and everybody asks, ‘When are they going to get this road fixed?’” Graves said.

Magner said a lot of the delay related to the Gold Point Road bridge is also related to the paperwork and permitting. “We could sit down with consultants and design a bridge in a week or two. The rest of that is papers and permits, other agencies to sign off on it,” he said.

The new bridge will have a standard 80,000-pound weight limit, meaning any legal vehicle can cross it.

Also at the Nov. 6 meeting, Magner said the paving of Greasy Creek Road using Community Crossings grant money may be delayed until next year depending on the weather.

The grant contract allows for paving projects to be completed within a year and a half of receiving the money. The county received its grant funding in August.

“Since we’re just laying surface, we normally don’t lay when it’s too cold,” Magner said of the paving.

“With a lot of it (the road) being in that valley, it doesn’t get much sunshine to the road, so we just have to see how the weather goes. If we have time, we’ll work on it this year; if not, that will carry over to next year. … For almost a week it’s going to be in that cycle of 20 to 40 (degrees), which is what kills everything with the daily frosting.”

Highway department questioned about returning calls

At the Oct. 23 Brown County Commissioners meeting, a resident asked who was responsible for returning taxpayer phone calls at the county’s highway department.

“I went and made a visit to the highway department two weeks ago and still have not heard a word. I’m wondering who is responsible to get back to me?” Sherrie Mitchell asked.

Commissioner Diana Biddle said that if the department was fully staffed, that responsibility falls on Superintendent Mike Magner or the department’s secretary. “Mike has been on the road because we are five men down,” Biddle said.

“Our administrative offices are not well staffed at the moment because of shortages on the road.”

Both Magner and Biddle said that he is working as many as 70 hours a week already.

“I would think he would be able to slot those (calls) in, and it’s not just me. It is pretty prevalent in the community that no one is getting returned phone calls from the highway department,” Mitchell said.

“There a couple of people who have made that comment, but they will also call after hours and not leave their name or phone number, so it’s kind of hard to call them back,” Magner responded.

Biddle said she also listened to the voicemails without names or phone numbers included.

“We’ll do what we can to get Mr. Magner some help to answer those phone calls,” Biddle said.

At the same meeting, Magner said his department had received two applications from potential employees, but they did not have their commercial driver’s licenses. The potential employees were willing to get their CDLs and started the process with Bureau of Motor Vehicles to receive their permits.

“We want to at least make sure they got through that level before we made them an offer,” Magner said.

“We bring them in as a laborer. As long as they have their permit, we can use one of our certified drivers to help train them and ride with them. … As soon as they’re ready, we can send them up to be tested.”

Contract approved for new financial system

The Brown County Commissioners unanimously approved a contract to bring a new financial system to the county, replacing an older system that often kicks users off while they’re in it.

The commissioners approved the contract with LOW Associates at the Oct. 23 meeting.

The cost for the software is $85,000, which will be divided up over the next three years. The price tag for ongoing maintenance is $23,000. Currently, the county pays around $30,000 to Harris Local Government for financial software; that is the system being replaced.

Auditor Julie Reeves will need an additional $10,000 a year in her budget to help cover the cost of the new software, but commissioner Diana Biddle said the commissioners have extra money within the cumulative capital development fund. The treasurer’s budget will also help to pay for the software, she said.

“The issue with Harris has been for years is they’ll put a Band-Aid on it, but they won’t upgrade their software,” Biddle said. “It’s very cumbersome and pretty much everyone hates it.”

LOW Associates is offering the county a $20,000 conversion discount since the contract was approved before the end of the year.

More than 50 percent of the counties in Indiana now use LOW software.

“When (former auditor) Beth (Mulry) was here, Beth and I talked about the possibility of going to LOW. I think if she had been re-elected, I think we would still be where we are today. I’m pretty confident we probably still would have made a change,” Biddle said.

Harris only offers a limited number licenses to access the system, but LOW will provide a site license, which will accommodate 60 users.

“The problem we had last year, if three people in the auditor’s office was on and I was on, nobody else could get on. I’ve had privileges since I became a commissioner because we’ve got basically five different budgets to follow,” Biddle said.

Last year, the county spent $1,300 to buy additional license from Harris.

The commissioners are responsible for approving contracts for department heads.

Commissioner Jerry Pittman noted that the system is more transparent because private individuals can look at the county’s financial records in a read-only format. “The more transparency, the better,” he said.

Shawn and Andy Low, representatives with LOW, attended the Oct. 21 Brown County Council meeting. The council gave its OK to the plans.

The representatives told the council that the biggest feedback they receive from customers is about their level of support.

“We do a lot of things on site that other vendors do not. We have a budget projecting system that a lot of other vendors do not. We have remote payroll for the departments. We have remote financial reporting for the departments that a lot of other vendors do not,” Shawn Low said.

LOW software does not require county IT to run updates, either.