The Switzerland County Commissioners met on Wednesday night January 23rd.
Prior to the public meeting, the commissioners met in an executive session to discuss the hiring of the current county attorney, Wil Goering.
In the public meeting that followed, the commissioners voted to rehire Wil Goering for another six months.
Switzerland County Highway Superintendent Chris Clerkin updated the commissioners on the situation with the problem at Grants Creek. The Corps of Engineers rejected the plan that the county presented and gave them a deadline of March 29th to resolve and present another plan.
The issue arose when the county did some work in the area of Grant’s Creek, and in the process of doing the work, the creek bed in a section of Grant’s Creek was disturbed. The Army Corps of Engineers got involved, and the agency has ordered the county to find a way to restore the area at Grant’s Creek to the way it was prior to the work being done,
Another issue that Chris Clerkin brought up was the replacement of the Dry Fork bridge. He presented an estimate of $57,782 to purchase a kit to replace the existing bridge. Due to the condition of the bridge, it can be declared an emergency to replace it. The estimate was approved and the commissioners will take bids from local contractors to replace the bridge as soon as possible.
The state has agreed to cover 90-percent of a federal grant to replace all existing road signs in the county, with the county to pay for the remaining 10-percent. This will cover the signs, the poles and the labor for replacing the signs. A motion was made and approved to go ahead with this project.
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In other business discussed by the County Commissioners:
– The county has 280 tires that needed to be disposed of. The Southeastern Indiana Recycling District will pick them up and dispose of them at no cost to the county.
– Randy See presented the commissioners with the 2013 EMS contract. The contract was approved with the stipulation that a non-voting representative from the commissioners be present at the EMS quarterly meetings. John Haskell volunteered to represent the commissioners.
– On the issue of future paving bids, Wil Goering will publish notice for submittal of bids from contractors. The commissioners stated that they would like to cut down on paving and do a “chip and seal”. The commissioners are going to look into buying, or renting equipment for the county to do their own work as opposed to contracting it out.
– Elyssa Swango, of Hummel Insurance requested that the agency be made the ‘Agent of Record’ for all property and liability insurance for the county. This was approved. She also informed the board that the county needed to request a copy of a certificate of liability insurance from all contractors that performed any work for the county.
– The Switzerland County Animal Shelter reported that there would no longer be a sliding fee for the adoption of animals. All dogs will be $100 and all cats $50, with half of that fee being reimbursed.
- Lonnie Harris reported on the problems with the HVAC system in the new Switzerland County Technology and Education Center. The commissioners will meet with the contractor and the engineers to try to resolve this problem.
– Commissioner John Haskell brought up an issue as to how to prevent old documents from being destroyed.
-Commissioner Mark Lohide told his fellow commissioners that a company is showing some interest in building a plant in the Markland Business Park. The owner is from Kentucky and is in the salsa business. If the plant is located here, it would employ 20-30 people.
– The commissioners approved seven appointees to various boards in the county.
– Rosemary Bovard