Cemetery purchase advances

Jay County Commissioners set in motion this morning the process to obtain two appraisals on 1.77 acres of ground that is the site of Portland Pioneer Cemetery.
Jay County Cemetery Commission members Jane Spencer and Mike Leonhard spoke with the commissioners this morning about the ongoing effort to restore the neglected cemetery, which is located north of Seventh Street, east of the Salamonie River.
Due to an error somewhere in the past, the land that is the site of the cemetery became private property and is currently owned by Dean Poole. The commissioners have been working toward purchasing the land from Poole in order to re-establish the cemetery, which contains graves from some of Portland’s first settlers in the mid 1800s.
In order for the commissioners to buy the land, however, they must have the property appraised.
The commissioners were ready to have the land appraised earlier this month, but held off while their attorneys looked into the matter since they expect the appraisals will cost more than the land appraises for.
“We figured the appraisal will cost more than the land,” commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said this morning.
Attorney Lon Racster confirmed this morning, however, that the work will need to be done.
“The commissioners cannot pay for or purchase it until they have an appraisal,” said Racster, stating that the county needs to obtain two separate appraisals before it can buy.
The county is prohibited from paying more than the average of those two appraisals for the land.
Spencer said she would like the process to wrap up as quickly as possible so that some of the work in the cemetery could be done before the end of the year.
Miller pulled out his cell phone in the meeting and called county engineer Dan Watson and authorized him to contact the appraisers to get the work done.
Spencer asked if the commissioners expected the appraisals and purchase to be completed by the end of the year, to which Miller responded that the process should be wrapped up much sooner.
“Hopefully it will be bought within a month,” Miller said.
In other business this morning, the commissioners:
•Approved an update to the county’s personnel policy to reflect a new state gun law that took effect July 1. That law allows employees in Indiana to have personal guns at their place of business, as long as the guns are kept in a locked vehicle.[[In-content Ad]]