First commissioners meeting of December

This month the County Commissioners will have two meetings. The second will be on the 21st. It is used to clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up before the end of the year.

On Monday the Commissioners held the first meeting. I arrived a few minutes late, near the beginning of the "Buried Cable" part of the agenda. The buried cable was actually a manure pipe proposal to move cow manure from a dairy farm located in the eastern part of the county to nearby fields. The discussion took about twenty minutes. The Commissioners thought that there would be other, similar requests in the future and they saw the need for county-wide specifications. However, they like the idea of the manure pipes because it reduces wear and tear on county roads.

After a few other items, there was a request for the county to release and waive their right of way for a building across the highway from the KV High School. The building is in the process of being sold and the sale would not go through without the waiver. A title search revealed that the building, constructed in 1979, overlapped county right of way by a foot or two on two sides. The Commissioners granted the release with the condition that if the building is demolished the rights would revert to the county.

The next big item was a discussion of ambulance services. First there was a presentation of whether the county should have township or a county-wide ambulance service. The presenter argued that the county would benefit financially from a county-wide service. It would reduce staff and ambulances. Most counties that have county-wide ambulance service have two ambulances stationed in one end of the county and two at the other end.

The presentation was followed by a discussion of the bids that had been opened at the last meeting. Lake Shore had the low bid, but that was for only one ambulance. Their spokesman said that they would be adding a second for hospital transfers and the second could also be used as a backup. However, the folks in attendance from Franciscan Rensselaer knew nothing about this. The issue was deferred to the December 21st meeting with the hope that the everyone would be on the same page.

After a short recess the meeting reconvened. There was a discussion about ownership of the road that NIPSCO will be constructing to replace a road that they want closed. NIPSCO wants the county to own the road, and after the discussion, the Commissioners decided that the county could do that. (Apparently the land under many county roads is not owned by the county. The county owns an easement.)

The Commissioners agreed to convert the annex north of town that houses the surveyor's office from propane to natural gas.

In what I consider the most interesting bit of information to come from the meeting, a member of the fair board announced that there will be no Fall Festival next year. Instead the Fair Board will have fireworks on July 2 with perhaps a grandstand event and a dinner.

After a few routine items, the meeting adjourned. There were a number of items of interest to parties involved at the Drainage Board meeting in the afternoon, but nothing of general interest.