<strong>First reading of new septic ordinance is this week</strong>

A new Brown County septic ordinance, which has been revised over the past three years, will have a first reading at a meeting of the Brown County Commissioners this week. It will start at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 21 over Zoom. The meeting ID and link information can be found<a href="http://www.bcdemocrat.com/2021/04/20/government_calendar_for_week_of_april_14/"> in the government calendar</a>.

This is a first step toward getting the ordinance passed and replacing the current ordinance, in place since 1997. The ordinance under consideration is printed<a href="http://www.bcdemocrat.com/2021/04/20/legal-notices-for-week-of-april-20/"> in the legal notices in this week’s newspaper</a>.

Written comments will be accepted until 1 p.m. Monday, April 26 by email at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>; by mail at Commissioners, P.O. Box 151, Nashville, IN 47448; or can be brought to the County Office Building, Salmon Room, at 201 Locust Lane.

After the first reading will come a public hearing, scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday, April 26. Then comes the second reading and a vote scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 5, which is the first commissioners meeting in May.

Most Brown County residents are affected by the septic ordinance because most homes in Brown County use septic systems to dispose of waste. Only three areas have sewers: Nashville, Gnaw Bone and Helmsburg.

The state already has a lengthy set of rules, known as Rule 410, which are the minimum standards with which all county health departments must comply. But counties are allowed to make their own rules for waste disposal and septic system installation and use as long as counties’ standards are not less strict than the state’s.

Critics of Brown County’s septic ordinance have asked for justification for going “above and beyond” minimum state standards.

Members of the rewrite committee have said that there are soil types, land topography, water movement and other factors in Brown, Monroe and Bartholomew counties that are not found anywhere else in the state, so it can’t be assumed that the basic state rules will work to keep septic systems working here and protecting the county’s natural environment. Changes also were made to help make it easier for homeowners and installers to understand what is required if they need to put in a new septic system.

<strong>Officials considering purchase of property</strong>

The Brown County Commissioners met in executive session on April 6 to discuss a strategy about the possible purchase of real property.

At their April 7 meeting, which was open to the public, commissioner Diana Biddle motioned to “affirm the actions we discussed yesterday with regard to the potential purchase and/or lease of proposed real property.” Because the commissioners are in negotiations, the details of the property cannot be discussed publicly, commissioners President Jerry Pittman said.

That motion was approved along with one that made Biddle the negotiator who is able to sign documents necessary for a closing in case that happens.

<strong>Commissioners renew agreement for clinic</strong>

County employees will continue to have the ability to receive medical care from the Brown County Health and Wellness Center after the Brown County Commissioners renewed an agreement on April 7.

The commissioners unanimously approved the agreement with Proactive MD. Proactive MD now operates the clinic; previously, it was operated by Wellness for Life. Their last contract expired at the end of last year.

The commissioners voted in the fall of 2019 to provide clinic memberships to county employees as part of their benefits package. Bringing on those extra patients allowed the clinic to be open five days a week. The clinic opened at the beginning of 2018 at Brown County Schools’ Eagle Park for school district employees. It was a way to save on health insurance costs.

The clinic offers physical exams; acute care, like treating earaches and sore throats; and some urgent care, like splinting, wound care and x-rays. It also offers preventative care including health and lifestyle coaching. The clinic has an on-site pharmacy and lab testing. A 24/7 hotline is also available to members.

Adult clinic memberships are $55 and dependents are $25 per month.

Changes were also made to the contract make sure the labs and medications county employees use are available at the clinic.

The commissioners also approved TrueRX last year as the pharmacy benefits manager beginning this January. The county previously had coverage through CVS, which will still be in the network with True RX.

<strong>Commissioners approve rezone to forest reserve</strong>

A local family is a step closer to getting the appropriate zoning for their logging business after the Brown County Commissioners unanimously approved their request to rezone a portion of their property to forest reserve.

The Brown County Area Plan Commission had recommended that acres of the Buccos property off Gartner Drive be rezoned from R2 (residential) to FR (forest reserve). This area is where members of the Buccos family take cut logs before they are sorted, transferred or made into firewood.

The family has been operating a business there since around the 1960s, but it was only in the fall of 2019 when the planning and zoning office learned that the property’s zoning didn’t mesh with its use according to county ordinance.

Neighbor Sherrie Mitchell expressed her concerns at the April 7 commissioners meeting. She asked the commissioners what they consider to be the “current conditions and the characteristics” of the buildings on West Robertson Road.

“That responsibility is with the Area Plan Commission. We’re not here to argue and debate the pros and cons of what is their job to do,” commissioner Diana Biddle said. “We place that responsibility with the board that we appoint and it’s not the commissioners’ responsibility to re-hear the whole process.”

Mitchell disagreed. She said the commissioners must “pay reasonable regard” to the county comprehensive plan per Indiana Code when considering a rezone along with the characteristics of structures and their uses in the area; the most desirable use the land in the area is adapted for; conservation and property values; and responsible development and growth.

Biddle described the West Robertson Road area being mostly residential with recreational development toward the back of the area. “It is very mixed use, in my opinion,” she said.

Mitchell argued there is no industrial use on the West Robertson Road. She also asked what the commissioners looked at to determine property values in the area if the rezone is approved.

“I don’t think it changes anything. The conditions in that area have been the way that they are for the last 50 years. They are already there and it already exists,” Biddle said. “It will not affect the property values because the conditions already exist.” Biddle said she had sold real estate in the county for over 20 years and was “adequately qualified to give my opinion.”

Mitchell asked if it was unlawful to “change the law to benefit one person when it is detrimental to the other neighbors.” An attorney with Barnes and Thornburg said she was not prepared to address that question on behalf of the commissioners, but would look into it.

“How does allowing 80,000-pound semis to drive through our neighborhood benefit the neighbors?” Mitchell asked.

A petition with around 65 signatures in support of the rezone was also submitted for consideration. “Those are signed by people who live or rent from the Buccos (family). Most of them don’t live in the county,” Mitchell said.

Biddle said some do have a weekend home and own or lease property in the county.

Pittman said that while the rezone may not benefit neighbors, he did not anything detrimental about approving it. “Nothing has changed in what’s been going on for many, many years,” he said.

“(There is) nothing illegal about 80,000-pound semis operating on our roads as long as they don’t cross a weighted bridge. It’s a public road for everyone’s use.”

Mitchell claimed that in one week, she had 36 semis drive past her house.

“Just because you build a home somewhere next to an airport and there turns out to be 50 more people who built there doesn’t make that airport have to go away. These people were there before you were,” Pittman said to Mitchell.

Public comment was closed after Mitchell said she wanted to state her points in the meeting so she could bring them up in court.

“Because this individual has threatened court action, I would make a motion to close public comment at this time and move forward,” Biddle said.

Following the closing of the public session, Biddle motioned to rezone the property to FR.

The Buccoses will now go before the Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals to get a special exception along for their FR zoning, which will enable them to continue operating their business.

<strong>Bridge project to go out for bids next month</strong>

A bridge on Grandview Road will soon be repaired as the Brown County Highway Department prepares to put a project to fix it out for bid next month.

After bridge inspections in 2017, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner reduced the weight limit on the bridge just off Bellsville Pike due to extensive rust on several beams. The weight limit is now 12 tons, which still allows buses to cross it. That restriction was to be in place until repairs could be made.

At the April 7 Brown County Commissioners meeting, Magner said he had been working with USI Consultants through the winter on design plans.

The commissioners then signed the plans so that bids could be taken in May. USI Consultants does bridge inspections in the county.

“We’re going to go back with a steel beam structure, but we’re going to use galvanized steel so we don’t have a rusting problem like we did on the old one,” Magner said.

Magner said his department was working with contractors on three other bridge repair projects. He said his department is also going to do preventative maintenance on the overlays of four bridges in the county. He said he would have more information on those projects by the next commissioners meeting.

<strong>Access BC funding to pass through commissioners</strong>

Grant funding from the Indiana Department of Transportation for the Access Brown County rural transit program will now pass through the Brown County Commissioners.

The commissioners approved accepting that responsibility at their April 7 meeting.

The Johnson County Commissioners previously acted as the pass-through agent for the funding. But the responsibility was moved to the commissioners here after Johnson County was designated as a metro area and now has a different funding stream.

“They are no longer on the rural transit grant anymore, so we have to come up with our own,” commissioner Diana Biddle explained.

“Absolutely we want to support and continue to support the Brown County Access rural transit program.”

Brown County YMCA Executive Director Kim Robinson handles the day-to-day administration for Access. After receiving the approval from commissioners, she will submit the grant application to INDOT by the end of next month.

“The funding will come to the commissioners, then you will issue the funds to Access Brown County,” Robinson said.

The Access Brown County bus operates between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Any Brown County resident may request a ride, 24 hours in advance. Children under age 5 must ride with an adult; older children may ride alone with a parental consent form.

Call the Access dispatch center at 812-988-1085 to schedule a ride and for more information.