Mostly commissioners meeting

Over the weekend the Alpine Echos Band performed at the Rensselaer Library. This was a return visit; they had played at the Library two years ago.

The group plays the alphorn or alpenhorn, an instrument that was once quite common in the farming communities of the Alps in Europe. This group is part of a larger German band that is located in Lake and Porter Counties.

 The Alpenhorn can only play 16 notes, which must limit what it can play. The band played music that was especially written for the instrument. Here is a video of the group playing at Milwaukee's German Fest.

The first Monday of the November was busy with meetings. The Commissioners met in the morning. There was an interesting discussion of ambulance service. The County is served by four providers. Three of them are run by townships and the one that serves Rensselaer and much of the center of the County is contracted to a commercial company, Phoenix. This year only Phoenix bid for the contract and its bid was a 65% increase. The County budget was set for a 5% increase, so the Commissioners have decided to rebid the contract.

The discussion involved people from Phoenix and the two ambulance services in the north, Wheatfield and Keener townships. The Keener representative noted that about a third of their calls are not reimbursed, about a third are billed to Medicare or Medicaid, which are very slow in reimbursing and often do not reimburse the true cost of the service, and about a third to private payment, usually insurance, which is getting more restrictive in paying. Because the expense of EMS services is growing more rapidly than reimbursements, there is a growing need for local subsidies. Staffing is a problem and to attract EMTs Phoenix has raised wages. One reason that there were not four bidders for the contract as there were last year is that there are fewer ambulance services in Northwest Indiana.

The population is aging and that is leading to increased calls for ambulances and EMTs. The calls do not always result in a trip to the hospital. Often the problems are minor and corrected on site. Falls are an example.

I recall when Steinke had the ambulance service. At the time it was very common for funeral homes to provide the service and they had combination hearse-ambulance vehicles. 

Another major item on the agenda was opening of bids for reconstruction or repair of two bridges in the far northern part of the County. There were four bids received, ranging from $457,529.40 to $487,885.00. The low bid, from JCI Bridge Group from LaPorte was selected. The contract will be signed at the December meeting.

The Commissioners heard an offer from a fire protection company to do an assessment at no cost of the County's fire alarms and other fire protection equipment. The Commissioners decided they needed to learn more about what the County currently has before they make a decision. The Commissioners approved two rezones that the Plan Commission had recommended. 

An employee at the Surveyor's office resigned and after some internal reshuffling, the Surveyor wants to hire a part-time employee, which was approved. The request of the Sheriff to replace a corrections officer was approved. When fully staffed, the jail has 21 positions and the staff work 12 hour shifts. The Sheriff also mentioned that insulation in ducts on the roof had become waterlogged.

The Commissioners approved signing the juvenile detention contracts with Lake and Porter Counties; this is done every year. Trane gave an update on the what is happening with planning for a solar array at the jail. There was a discussion of the next round of CCMG grants. The County will probably apply to improve roads in more subdivisions. The County will have an auction on December 7. The Council meeting on November 19 will be preceded by a joint Commissioners/Council meeting at 6:00.

Painting has begun in the former PNC bank building. The Commissioners were given a list of three overages that were related to the elevator. Two they had no problems with but they decided to contest one because they thought it was due to an oversight of the contractor that affected the bid price.

Over the weekend I noticed that the house that the City recently purchased next to Brookside Park had been stripped of siding and windows. I thought the City had begun demolition but was told that the former owner was responsible for the removal of items. He left an almost new metal roof.

The City's big green machine is roaming the streets. Here it is vacuuming up leaves in front of the Alfred Thompson house on Park Avenue. Alfred's wife, Mary Ellen Travis Thompson, was one of the characters portrayed at the recent Weston Cemetery Walk.