Cordry-Sweetwater, county discuss road funding
Representatives from county government, the Cordry-Sweetwater Conservancy District and Sen. Eric Koch met to discuss possible funding the district could use to maintain private roads there.
At the April 19 Brown County Council meeting, President Dave Redding said he wanted to acknowledge the meeting he had along with Highway Superintendent Mike Magner and conservancy district representatives at Koch’s office.
“I want the public to know that it’s very important to the council and that we’re supporting this process. We’re seriously looking for what the conservancy is asking for, and we’re all residents of Brown County,” Redding said.
Redding said he was unsure what the next steps would be. He said the meeting happened after an attorney with the conservancy district requested a meeting with Koch to explore “any kind of funding mechanisms that the conservancy could tap for their 30-some miles of private roads they have.”
Currently, conservancy district funds pay to maintain, repair and enhance roads there because they are private. That’s opposed to public county roads, which are paid for with gas and excise taxes, wheel taxes, grant money, and sometimes property taxes if the county takes out a loan for road work.
Appropriations made from CARES Act, general fund
The Brown County Council approved nearly $34,000 in appropriations from CARES Act funding and the county’s general fund on April 19.
Of the requests, $29,300 was approved to come out of CARES Act funding for a county job description update and to cover the election board’s postage expenses for last year’s election.
The county received $494,248 in payroll relief funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The county now has $144,933 of CARES Act funding remaining to cover costs related to COVID-19 after the council approved moving $27,000 for the job description update and $2,300 for the postage costs.
The county is also set to receive nearly $3 million in relief funding from American Rescue Plan.
The initial price tag presented in February for the job description update was $45,000 for the Brown County Commissioners to engage with Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele & Associates.
That initial request was tabled. At the April 19 meeting, the request was lowered to $27,000. There are around 170 county employees, but Human Resources Coordinator Melissa Stinson said there will not be that many job descriptions to look over since deputy clerks in different departments, for example, have the same job description.
At the April 21 commissioners, meeting Stinson said the job descriptions would be updated with necessary codes for workman’s compensation and the Family and Medical Leave Act. She said elected officials and departments would need to answer questions about their jobs via email.
“Your old job descriptions may say you use an adding machine or typewriter. Make sure those are all out and that you don’t duplicate again,” she said.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said that adding the workman’s comp coding will allow the county to get a discount on those rates.
“The coding determines how much we pay. An office person is relatively very inexpensive compared to an employee who works in the field, driving a truck or operating heavy equipment or police officers,” commissioners President Jerry Pittman said.
“It is very important we get this right. It will probably save us a lot of money.”
The $2,300 from CARES Act money to the election board is to help cover additional mailings sent ahead of the election, like polling location changes, due to COVID-19.
The council also approved moving $2,500 from unappropriated funds in the general fund to Brown County Parks and Recreation to help cover their water bills due to a leak that was discovered last year at Deer Run Park.
Parks and Rec Director Mark Shields said the department hired three different contractors to find the source of the leak, but none were able to find it. After several months of rising water bills, the board hired Wagler Brothers Excavating Inc. to replace the water line and they found the leak source.
“In the process, they determined our culprit was where our main water line T’d off to go to Veterans Administration building,” Shields said.
On average, the parks department spends around $4,000 a year on water. Last year, the department spent nearly $13,000.
“Once the line was replaced, that cost is significantly decreased now,” Shields said.
Shields said the parks board had suggested he come to the county council and request $2,500 — the same amount the council appropriated to them for water bills at the beginning of the year. “That would hopefully help ease some of the cost we’ve incurred dealing with this water issue,” he said.
All the requests were approved unanimously.
Contract awarded for Helmsburg stormwater project
King’s Trucking & Excavation Inc. will be responsible for constructing the Helmsburg stormwater project this year after the Brown County Commissioners voted to award the project to the Seymour company earlier this month.
Last August, Brown County received a $600,000 grant to improve flood drainage in Helmsburg from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs with a local match required. In a special session on April 12, the Brown County Council authorized the temporary transfer of $250,000 from the unappropriated part of the motor vehicle highway fund to the stormwater grant fund. The hope is that part of the county’s American Rescue Plan money will be able to cover that part of the local match.
The county’s redevelopment commission also put up $156,000 toward the local match.
King’s Trucking was not the lowest bidder, but John Simpson, owner of Monroe LLC — the lowest bidder — did not have the required certification to work on a public work project through the Indiana Department of Administration.
Simpson attended the May 5 meeting and said he was not withdrawing his bid, but he wanted to see the project rebid through a quasi-government unit because his bid saves the county money.
Because the project is funded by OCRA, commissioner Diana Biddle said that rebidding through a quasi-unit was not possible.
“Since this is an OCRA grant, we have no choice but to go by the most responsive and responsible bidder. It cannot go through a quasi-agency. It has to go through Brown County,” said Kent Anderson, with Kenna Consulting, who helped to secure the grant.
The award to King’s Trucking was contingent on OCRA releasing the money, which was expected to be the same day. Biddle said the engineering company for the project, Lochmueller Group, had recommended awarding the project to King’s Trucking and that the bids were reviewed by Barnes and Thornburg, the law firm representing the county.
The commissioners also gave authority to President Jerry Pittman to sign all contracts with King’s Trucking. Pittman abstained from that vote.
The completion date for this project is Feb. 21 next year.
Contract approved to audit homestead deductions
The Brown County Commissioners approved a contract on May 5 for a homestead deduction audit, which could result in more property tax dollars being collected if homes are found collecting the deduction that shouldn’t be.
To get a homestead deduction, homes must have full-time residents, so second homes wouldn’t count.
The contract with Tax Management Associates Inc. was approved unanimously on recommendation from Brown County Auditor Julia Reeves.
“Basically, what they do is they come in and work with the auditor’s office to identify homes that are either on the homestead list and should not be and also homes that aren’t there that should be (for property taxes),” commissioner Diana Biddle explained.
“They will audit all of our homestead exemption properties. If they don’t find anything, basically there is no charge. If they do help us identify non-compliance with some of these homestead deduction provisions, then they just take a percentage for the first year.”
Biddle said if the company’s audit found a lot of people erroneously claiming the homestead exemption, then the county would collect more taxes from that property and the company would take 35 percent of that additional money collected.
The company would also get a percentage of any tax penalties paid in the future on those properties.
