In 2018, the Brown County Council voted to take out a $2 million loan to fund a variety of projects.

As of Jan. 15, $810,527.86 was left of that money. That evening, the Brown County Commissioners approved a plan for how to spend it this year.

In the beginning, the plan was to use the loan money to:

• pay for a new communications tower and radios for emergency personnel;
• replace light poles at Deer Run Park;
• replace bleachers at the Brown County Fairgrounds;
• expand the parking lot at Veterans Hall;
• restore the bell tower, repair bricks and add security at the courthouse;
• install security measures at the Emergency Management Agency office;
• build a new ramp and porch and replace the siding at the Sycamore Valley Community Center; and
• do building improvements at the highway department.

So far, $1,189,472.14 has been spent.

The tower

The majority was for the new communications tower above the Bean Blossom Overlook on State Road 135 North. That project has cost $919,749 so far, according to the plan. An additional $80,251 will be spent to get Federal Communications Commission licenses and to do landscaping in the area, including planting trees.

Brown County Parks and Recreation owned the land where the tower sits, but donated that part to the county commissioners. Parks and rec also owns the area where logging occurred last year in the valley below the tower. That widespread cut was not related to the construction of this tower.

Commissioner Diana Biddle said that the county had been in talks with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on what landscaping should be done to mitigate the logging. Plans include planting tall grasses around the tower’s fence and trees where others had been cut.

The DNR had suggested the county plant endangered yellowwood trees, she said. “We’ve got a lot of Yellowwood in certain places, but they’re older. We do not have a lot of young Yellowwood trees. … We’re looking at what other trees we can find,” Biddle said.

“Obviously, we can’t replant everything that’s there, but we will replant some trees around the tower site and the hill down there, probably a couple of hundred trees.”

The bleachers

Replacing bleachers at the fairgrounds was the second-largest project the capital loan helped to fund, at $125,000. That project was completed last year. The fair board ended up covering additional expenses over that amount, Biddle said.

The humane society

The Brown County Humane Society was not on the original list of expenditures for this loan, but at the Jan. 15 commissioners meeting, it was announced that the commissioners had decided to use $100,000 of the loan to pay for kennels at the new humane society shelter. The new shelter, to be built next to the current one on State Road 135 South, is still in the fundraising stages.

The money also would be used to create a space for the county’s Animal Control services in the new shelter. The county pays Animal Control staff, who work through the sheriff’s department.

“If we don’t partner with them (the humane society), then a facility like that, with 24-hour care for the dogs and the cats, it would cost the county probably $400,000 or $500,000 to build something and then have to staff it,” Biddle said.

“I think it’s a wise use of our money to partner with them because they are providing us a service much less costly than what we could ever afford to do it.”

The money would purchase around six kennels strictly for use for animals that Animal Control picks up, the commissioners said.

“It’s all logical, legal and makes sense in my mind,” said commissioners President Jerry Pittman, saying that the humane society provides a valuable service to the county.

The light poles

Parks and rec will receive $65,000 for new light poles at Deer Run Park. That amount is included in the $810,527 yet to be spent.

The highway garage

Improvements to the highway garage were included in the capital improvement plan, at a price tag of $185,000. So far, $23,070 has been spent, with more to be spent on a new salt dome and putting a concrete floor with a drain in the garage.

The plan is to use $250,000 out of the remaining $810,527 as matching funds for the next round of Community Crossings road paving grant funding.

Veterans Hall parking

Biddle said that community member Keith Baker was still working on extending the parking area and putting up a retaining wall at the Brown County Veterans Hall. In the loan, $35,000 was set aside for that project.

The community center

Siding on the county-owned community center at the fairgrounds has not been replaced yet, so $43,958.80 has been set aside from the remaining loan money to complete that project this year.

The courthouse

Security and other general updates at the Brown County Courthouse were also funded by this loan at a price tag of $20,850, with $9,150 remaining. Expenses related to restoring the courthouse’s bell tower are also covered under the loan.

Other projects

Also set aside was $65,000 to establish a coroner’s office, since current coroner Earl Piper will be retiring from his regular job and the county will be unable to work out of Bond-Mitchell Funeral Home after he leaves.

At the meeting, Biddle said that she was waiting on two phone calls to be returned and then she would be able to announce a plan that would probably cost less than that. “It would give us a year or two to figure out a better solution rather than throwing up a building somewhere,” she said.

Other security improvements were made in the county that were not discussed in the meeting. That work cost $4,700 with about $240 remaining in that line for other improvements, according to the plan.

Also, $96,043.20 was paid toward the fees for taking out the loan, Biddle said.

The loan will be paid off over three years with property taxes beginning this year. A $2 million loan for road work had been scheduled to be paid off in 2019, and county leaders’ intent was to replace that loan payment with these loan payments and keep the tax rate steady in 2020.