1. A planned closure of State Road 45 has been postponed again, to Monday, June 3. A culvert will be replaced between Indian Hill Road and Carmel Ridge Road. The work has been pushed back twice since it was first announced in April. The closure is expected to last about five days.
2. Helmsburg Regional Sewer District rates are officially changing. The board voted 3-0 in favor of changing sewer billing to a flat fee instead of based on water usage. The flat rate is $92.50 per month for up to 6,000 gallons of sewer use, plus $20 per 1,000 gallons for any use above 6,000. The ordinance the board had advertised put the cap at 2,000 gallons for that base price, but the board amended it to 6,000 gallons before adopting this change. They estimated that customers would see bills change in June. New sewer bills will be paid directly to the board, no longer to Brown County Water Utility.
3. The Nashville Town Council is still on track buy the former First Merchants Bank building on Commercial Street and turn it into a new Nashville police station. In a 1-minute-long meeting April 25, the council voted to proceed with the purchase as well as dispose of the current police station at the end of Hawthorne Drive.
4. If you’ve always dreamed of having a backyard cottage or a garage apartment — or you went ahead and did it already — good news; those are now officially legal in Brown County. The Brown County Commissioners and the Brown County Area Plan Commission both voted unanimously to add rules for accessory dwellings, as well as a definition for what an “accessory dwelling” is, to the county’s zoning ordinance. Accessory dwelling units are limited to one per lot; the unit must be at least 400 square feet; the maximum size is 1,300 square feet or 75 percent of the primary building’s size, whichever is smaller; and the unit must be on sewer or be served by a functioning, legal septic system. Accessory dwellings can be rented, but not as tourist homes. Detailed rules can be found at the county planning office.
5. Deer Run Park will not be home to a cellphone tower anytime soon. A land lease easement was presented at the April 17 Brown County Commissioners meeting to place a cell tower at Deer Run Park on land that was jointly purchased by the commissioners and the Brown County Parks and Recreation Board. It included a lease payment of $1,000 a month for the first five years, then going up 15 percent every five years for 30 years. At the May 1 meeting, commissioner Diana Biddle suggested the commissioners decline the offer because there was not a clause in the contract that says the lease is nontransferable. The contract also did not define the area where the tower would be built. “It’s our asset. They can sell it and make money on our asset. I have an issue with that,” she said.
