Clerk: Election equipment damaged by pipe leak

Election equipment stored in the basement of the Brown County Law Enforcement has been damaged following a kitchen pipe leak.

Clerk Kathy Smith asked the Brown County Commissioners on Oct. 6 about the status of a professional cleaning company to come and sanitize the electronic equipment so that it could tested to see if it was damaged. Smith said several ballot bags were damaged and will have to be replaced.

A leaking cast iron pipe from the jail’s kitchen located directly above the locked cage in the basement caused the damage. The cage holds electronic poll books, ballot bags and other election equipment.

Commissioner President Jerry Pittman said that they need to look into replacing the pipe with something different that the leak does not happen again.

The cage cannot be moved and would require building a new one in a different location. Some court documents were also in the cage, Smith said.

The electronic poll books will have to be sent down to the vendor in Florida to be tested or it may be possible to pay for a tech to come here to test the 15 machines, Smith said.

“If they have someone willing to come up here, we can figure out a hotel room. It’s cheaper than sending units down there with insuring them and transporting them. I am not opposed to that,” Commissioner Diana Biddle said.

She said there may be money in the commissioners’ travel budget line to cover those costs.

At the Oct. 13 meeting, Smith asked again about getting the equipment sanitized for it to be tested. Biddle said that the county’s maintenance director Ric Fox was working on getting bids from two different cleaning companies.

At the meeting last week, Biddle said there were at least two machines that needed to be looked at by the vendor, but those machines have to be cleaned first.

Biddle said the commissioners were also looking into if insurance will cover the damage since it was a leak and that she expected to have an answer by the Oct. 20 commissioners meeting. We will have an answer for you for sure next Wednesday.

Fox was able to identify a cleaner kitchen staff was using that caused the leak. The leak was fixed, she said.

“We’re starting to have a few more maintenance issues there now that the jail is getting closer to being about 20 years old. That is to be expected. That’s what happens with buildings like that. I know they are looking at it and we have had one of our engineering firms look at it as well,” she said.

New county website launched last month

A more user friendly Brown County government website, at browncounty-in.gov, launched last month after the county commissioners approved a redesign of the site earlier this summer.

The commissioners approved the redesign in June.

The cost approved for a one year with web development company CivicPlus is $24,373 and an annual reoccurring service fee will be $4,725.

Redesigning the county’s website was brought up once COVID-19 hit when the government officials realized they were lacking a web presence that was accessible to the public, said IT Assistant Laura Minett earlier this summer.

At the Aug. 18 commissioners meeting Minett said the website was to roll out at the end of this month.

“We finalized the design plan and they are doing content migration, so the website will be a lot more user friendly and updated with a lot more,” she said.

Employees and department heads will receive training on how to update their own pages.

“Right now our current site is so funky no one can get on there and edit what they need to do. It will be a lot easier for the user and for us to update for the general public,” Minett said.

The new website will also feature an interactive agenda feature where document links will be discussed in the meeting can be uploaded.

The county is also trying to eliminate its Zoom subscription and use Microsoft Teams instead using the county’s Office 365 subscription.

“It is very much the same. The platforms are about the same. We’re going to try to work on details for that,” Minett said.

At the Oct. 6 commissioners meeting, Commissioner Diana Biddle said the plan is to now incorporate the website into the county government’s continuity of operation plan.

“It’s not just the pandemic, it’s what happens if a tornado takes out part of our building? What if we have a fire? This website will allow our offices some measure of ability to continue doing their functions even if it’s remotely,” she said.

“This website will give us the ability to have a very robust system if we use the things available.”

The website comes with 30 to 40 different modules that the county can use to expand the website offerings. Currently the county uses a dozen modules right now.

The commissioners agenda will also look different now as it will be created using the website. There will now be a consent agenda section where items like minutes and claims can be approved with one vote.

“I would like to see meetings shorter than they have been in the past for everybody’s time and efficiency. That will help some, too,” Commissioner President Jerry Pittman said.

To see the commissioners agenda, and other agendas, and minutes visit the new website and click the “government” then the “agendas and minutes” tabs.

When downloading agendas from the website there will be an option to download board document packets if available.

Reassessment contract approved

The Brown County Commissioners recently approved the contract for reassessments that are done every four years.

The contract with Nexus Group for cyclical reassessments was approved at $90,000 and the cost will come out of the reassessment fund. The contract was increased for the first time in years by $5,000.

Properties in Brown County are reassessed every four years with 25 percent of the county being done in one year, explained Assessor Mari Miller.

The contract is for four years.

Nexus was the only bidder and has been the contractor doing reassessments here.

The commissioners approved the contract at their Oct. 6 meeting.

At that meeting, Miller said with the prices of real estate constantly increasing it makes it difficult to study land values and sales here. She said land in the county has been at $5,000 per acre for decades, but that it’s starting to increase slowly.