Budgets

 Some pictures

On Wednesday I noticed construction had begun on the stage area in Filson Park.

On Thursday what was there on Wednesday was gone, replaced with this.

There is now a bench near the pool. I suspect others will soon be joining it.

Light poles were being erected along Van Rensselaer on Thursday. I believe they were finished by the end of the day.

The concrete curbs that will separate bricks from asphalt at the Harrison/Van Rensselaer interesection are finished. The brick laying on Harrison is slowly working its way up from SR 114.

INDOT posted some pictures on Facebook about work on the bridge south of Rensselaer so I went out to check out the progress. They hope to finish before the end of the month.

There is still work being done at the SJC football field but I cannot get close enough to see what they are doing.

Jasper County Council meeting

The Jasper County Council met Tuesday evening at 6:00. President Steve Jordan was delayed so Gary Fritts called the meeting to order. First on the agenda were transfers and additional appropriations, but one of the additional appropriations, from the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District, had been advertised for 7:00, so the meeting was flipped and the beginning of budget hearings started the meeting.

Budget hearings are long and often boring. The Council is looking at numbers in a thick book that is not available to the audience and asking questions about them. First up on Monday was the Coroner. He wants to find funding to hire a deputy coroner and found it by reducing some other numbers in his proposed budget. He noted that costs keep rising, including those for autopsies and body bags. He has had 59 calls so far this year, a level not reached last year until October. He has a new van that will be operational soon and that resulted in some shifts in budget numbers.

Next up was the auditor. She put in the 10% increase in salaries that all the departments are including. I suspect that number will be adjusted to make the final budget fit revenues.

Emergency management presented a budget with only small changes from the 2024 budget. One change will be expenses for a vehicle. The department is getting a vehicle from the Sheriff's Department. The State pays 50% of salaries in this very small department. 

The Sheriff has one of the biggest and most complicated budgets in the County government. He had a number of pay differentials he wanted to establish; that is, when two positions pay the same but one has greater responsibilities, increasing the pay of the person with the greater responsibilities. There was a discussion of the meal budget in the jail, which has had a large increase because of rising food costs and more inmates. Meals cost about $7.50 per prisoner per day. He has budgeted for three new vehicles, two trucks and one car. When the cars are retired by the Sheriff, they usually go to another County department. He noted that his salaries are below those in some of the area law enforcement agencies and that makes recruitment and retention a challenge. He noted that it is difficult to recruit, train, and retain dispatchers.

With the Sheriff's budget discussed, the meeting returned to transfers and additional appropriations, several of which were for the Sheriff. There was a transfer because repairs for a damaged squad car had been paid from the wrong account. There were additional appropriations for several insurance lines because insurance costs have increased. There were several additional appropriations that were Coroner related. One request was for a new budget line, "Indigenous Pauper Burial" that the Commissioners had requested as a result of the burial of a decomposing stranger, who was later identified. The Council decided that it would not be needed this year so voted to not appropriate the money.

Generally pauper burials are the responsibility of the township in which the death occurs. However, Newton Township has no township cemetery so deaths there (and Newton Township includes a long strip of i-65) become the responsibility of the County. There is a cemetery in the Township, Makeever Cemetery, but it is legally owned by the County. The Commissioners want to give it to Newton Township.

One additional appropriation was for consultants. This was to pay for services the County hires to monitor SolarPack, which then reimburses the County. The reimbursement goes into the general fund so the payments have to be re-appropriated.

There was a large additional appropriation for jail meals, explained above. What I found interesting is that the jail uses inmates to help prepare the meals. They get a bit of pay (which I believe they get when they are released) and they get out of their cells.

There was a very large additional appropriation for EMS. It is needed to finish the year. EMS budgeting continues to be a problem.

The last additional appropriation was for the Northwest Indiana Solid Waste District and because it did not involve County money, the Council quickly approved it.

The Council had a discussion of the Local Income Tax on the agenda but decided to take that up on Wednesday morning at 8:30 when the budget hearings would continue. I have a high tolerance for long boring meetings, but not enough to want to go to that meeting.

A final note

I am on the planning committee for the Memories Alive Cemetery Walk in Weston Cemetery. We have found some interesting stories to tell and have recruited our cast. Here is the announcement of the event.

Most of the planning is finished but we need three or four able-bodied volunteers to help with set up and tear down. If you are interested, e-mail me at rensselaeradventures at yahoo.com and I will give you details of what is involved.