First January meetings 2024

 Commissioners meeting

The Commissioners began their January meeting by reorganizing. They kept the same officers that they had last year, Rein Bontreger president and James Walstra vice president. 

Sharon Colee from Jasper County Community Services gave an update. She said the Community Services has closed its Remington branch because they were serving only four to six people a day. Community Services sent 1000 postcards to Remington residents asking about what services people wanted and got only 14 back. Ms Colee concluded that other organizations were providing the services that her organization provides. They were using a building that had been donated to the town of Remington for Community Services and the keys would be returned to the town. In contrast, the number of people using their services in Rensselaer and especially DeMotte has continued to grow. Community Services received a grant for $92,000 in 2023. The Commissioners approved replacing countertops in Rensselaer and toilets in both Rensselaer and DeMotte. Ms Colee said that the parking lot in Rensselaer needs repairs because it is difficult for people with walkers and canes to walk on it. The Fase Center has a leaky roof that will need to be repaired or replaced. She also said that the parking lot at the Fase Center in Demotte had flooding issues and the Commissioners thought that the County could fix this problem.

The Commissioners accepted a bid of $80,610 from T.R. Hodges to repair the roof on the Prosecutor's Annex. It was the low bid of three. They also accepted a bid of $4055 to wash the windows on five County Buildings. They approved employee bonds, something done each year.

They then spent about 20 minutes opening bids for various materials and supplies used by the Highway Department. As is their custom, they approved all bids so that if the low bidder cannot provide the material or service on the day it is needed, the Highway Department can go to another supplier.

The Health Department received permission to hire a part-time food/environmental assistant sanitarian. Via Zoom the Commissioners heard a presentation of grant software. No action was taken. The Commissioners want to know how many departments would find the software useful. The Commissioners then spent time making appointments to various positions, boards, and commissions. Most were re-appointments.The head of Human Services wanted to do away with tiered levels of pay. She was told that this was a matter for the Council and received some pushback from a couple of departments who said they found the tiers useful when hiring new and probationary employees. The Coroner had 74 cases in 2023. The meeting was continued until January 22 at 8:30 if needed.

Drainage Board meeting

The Drainage Board had a short meeting following the Commissioners meeting, mostly to reorganize. It kept the same officers that it had in 2023, with Jeff DeYoung elected president, James Walstra VP, Rhonda Elridge Secretary, and Jacob Ahler the Drainage Board Attorney. The Board members who in 2023 served on the joint drainage boards that include Jasper and a neighboring county will continue to serve on these boards. Work has started on the R.E. Davis ditch. NIPSCO now owns Dunns Bridge I, having obtained it from NextEra. A lot of beaver dams have been removed from ditches in the northern part of the County.

The Board of Finance

The Board of Finance had a very short but interesting meeting on Monday afternoon. It also reorganized, with Rein Bontreger elected president and James Walstra elected vice president, the same offices they had in 2023. The Board approved the 2024 investment policy, which added a new type of instrument that the Treasurer can invest in. (The State limits how Counties can invest idle funds, limiting them to low risk investments.) The Treasurer then reported on how funds were invested in 2023. Interest rates were higher last year than they were in many previous years, and the Treasurer took advantage of them, usually getting rates of about 5 percent. Because the County has a lot of money in various accounts, much of which can only be spent for specific purposes, the County earned almost $1.6 million in interest for 2023. The Board of Finance usually meets only once a year.

Notes

City elected officials were sworn in on Friday, December 29. There are pictures of them taking the oath of office in this week's Rensselaer Republican.

I do not have any interesting Rensselaer pictures for this post. Here is one I took over the Christmas break far away from Rensselaer.