Bikes, golf cars, guns, and cats

The Commissioners met on Monday morning, a week later than usual. They began the meeting by approving four buried-cable permits in Walker Township, two for fiber from CenturyLink and two for gas from NIPSCO. They then approved several requests for hiring replacements, for the Health Department, the Prosecutor's office, and Community Corrections. They looked at quotes for various services such as lawn care, carpet cleaning, and building repairs and approved them.

At 8:45 they opened farm-ground bids for four parcels owned by the County or the Airport Authority. There were five bids and the Commissioners and the Airport Manager accepted the high bid, which was $262.53 per acre for all four parcels.

The elevator in the former PNC Bank building is now operating. A DSL line has been installed for Internet connections but it does not provide enough bandwidth. The Commissioners looked at three options to bring fiber to the building and chose one. They also approved using a technology that will give people a menu when they call the Court House rather than having all calls to the Court House number answered by a person.

The Sheriff received a grant for $104,000 for counseling for inmates that needed a County match of $17,000. The Commissioners approved. They thanked him for seeking a grant to pay for something that otherwise would have come from County funds.

Then it was time to discuss bicycles. There is a national bicycling route network in the United States and it includes three routes in Indiana. (You can see them here.  ) A person from Tippecanoe County came to the meeting to seek County approval for a fourth route, US Bicycle Route 37, which will connect Chicago with Indianapolis and then points further south. All the local jurisdictions through which the route will travel are supposed to approve their part of the route. There is no extra obligation to the local governments. If they wish, they can sign the route and use it to promote tourism. The Commissioners want to  examine the proposed route before they commit. The item will be back on the agenda in March.

The next bicycle item on the agenda was information about an event that JCEDO and the Tourism Commission will be hosting on August 1, the Jasper Jaunt. It is a bike tour, with two options, a 33.5 mile ride or a 63 mile ride. Featured stops along the way will be a hops farm, a mint farm, and Jasper County's only winery. (I recall recently posting a picture that had hops in it.) The organizers want to avoid any roads that are being paved or chip and sealed and also roads that have been recently chip and sealed. More info at brinin.org/aug/jasper-jaunt.

Non-traditional transportation was the subject of the next item as well, the question of a golf-cart ordinance for the Valley View Subdivision. This was a followup from a request at a previous meeting. The matter was left unresolved because there were too many unanswered questions, such as whether the ordinance should be for all subdivisions or only Valley View, and whether the carts would be allowed on County roads.

A man who claimed to represent 1100 Jasper County residents asked the Commissioners to consider making Jasper County a Second Amendment Sanctuary County. Apparently some Indiana Counties that have already passed resolutions of this sort, but there are two that have not, saying it is not necessary. Switzerland County had taken this position in 2013, way before events in Virginia got the current interest in this movement started. No actions were taken by the Commissioners.

Next on the agenda was a citizen with a complaint about animal control. She was outraged that the County Animal Shelter kills animals when there is no room and it also apparently kills feral cats. She said that she was willing to foster them, keeping them until she could find a home for them but she does not want to pay a $50 adoption fee to take them. She also said that feral cats could be domesticated. After she ranted for a while, she was told that the proper place to take her concerns was to an Animal Control Board meeting.

The Commissioners were scheduled to go into executive session at 10:30 to discuss insurance, but they had time for one last item, the Joint Council Tax Abatement Ordinance. This ordinance had been passed by the County Council but by having the Commissioners pass it as an ordinance makes it part of the County Code and makes it more difficult to change. Making it more difficult to change reduced uncertainty for businesses planning to locate or expand in the County. After some discussion, the ordinance passed.

The Commissioners were planning to come back to public session after the executive session to discuss county highways, some legal items, and whatever else was left in the file of things that needed a decision. I decided I did not want to wait for that, so I went to lunch.

I did come back in the afternoon to attend the first part of the Drainage Board meeting to see what the bids were like for the Kankakee River project. There was only one bid submitted, for $140,959 for labor only. Since it was the only bid, it was accepted. The rest of the meeting was scheduled to look at things affecting tiles and I did not see anything I thought was very interesting, so I left.

Before I left the Court House after the morning meeting, I wanted to figure out the lineup of candidates for County offices in the upcoming primary. Kim Grow, the current auditor, is term limited so she cannot run again for auditor. Instead she is running for Recorder.  Beth Warren, the current Recorder, is also term limited, but she is not running for any office. Donya Jordan, the current Treasurer is also term limited, I believe, and she is running for Auditor, a position she held before Mrs Grow held the office. Tammy McEwan, who works in the Treasurer's office and who ran against Ms Jordan in the last election cycle, is running again for Treasurer. Only the office for Recorder is contested in the primary. The most interesting of the County races will probably be for Councilman at Large. There are seven people, including two incumbents,  running for three slots.

Finally, have you see the video that Monon has prepared as it seeks to be featured on a TV show that will renovate the downtowns of several small towns or cities? It is embedded below.