County emergency lifted (1/10/04)

Life is far from completely back to normal for Jay County residents.

But the situation has improved enough that a state of emergency declared last week by Jay County Commissioners president Milo Miller Jr. was lifted this morning.

That emergency, which was declared Wednesday evening, was a general warning for the safety of area residents, Jay County Sheriff Todd Penrod and county emergency management director Ralph Frazee said this morning.

“As far as the state of emergency, I think we can lift that,” Penrod said.

Miller, who said he made the declaration in hopes of keeping area residents safe, asked commissioners’ attorney Brad Burkett this morning if there are any guidelines or state laws governing the declaration of an emergency.

The answer, said Burkett, is no.

Frazee, who was out of town at a training session last week until Friday evening, said that although there is no county emergency ordinance (with the exception of a snow emergency), it generally means that people should stay home unless travel is necessary.

Asked if the message of what the ordinance means was effectively delivered, Penrod said that it was, despite the fact that local radio station WPGW was off the air Thursday and part of Friday and that The Commercial Review on Thursday had limited distribution.

“All in all, I think things went very smoothly,” Penrod said.

Jim Bruner, a member of the local emergency planning council who served as EMA director until Frazee’s return, said that he believed a generator should be purchased to run the EMA office and a sump pump for the courthouse basement.

But Penrod said he thought that moving EMA operations to the sheriff’s department made sense. “I like putting us together,” he said.

“Sounds like everybody did pretty good,” Commissioner Gary Theurer said.

Bruner said he believed that Jeri Franks and the Hoosier Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross should be recognized for their efforts in opening and manning the local shelter at the Portland Fire Station.

One of the few complications in terms of county law enforcement from the storm, Penrod said, was the loss of a fire pager device on the water tower next to the Tyson Foods-Mexican Original plant west of Portland.

That forced fire paging to be done through the Portland Fire Department.

The county’s 911 system was active throughout the storm and resulting power outage. The jail and 911 center were powered by a generator.

Also this morning, Commissioners Faron Parr, Theurer and Miller met as the county drainage board.

Jay County surveyor Brad Daniels said he would like to purchase a bulldozer or excavator, or both, this year, along with one — and possibly two — pick-up trucks for members of his crew.

Daniels said that there is $80,000 in the backhoe/dozer repair and replacement fund.

Daniels also said he has $26,300 in the 2005 budget for purchase of vehicles. The commissioners told Daniels to look for used models.

He said it is difficult to find stripped-down work trucks with rubber mat flooring and vinyl seats.

Daniels said he was hoping to purchase two new vehicles and pay for them over two years. But the commissioners cautioned against that strategy, saying the county council could deny the requested 2006 portion of the payments.

In other drainage business this morning, the commissioners:

•Elected Parr as drainage board president and Theurer as vice president. Mike Leonhard, whom Parr replaced in office Jan. 1, also served as drainage board president.

•Agreed to resume billing for three Jay County watersheds — Halfway (Richland Township), Darst (Noble Township) and Mason-Grissell (Penn Township). Payments had not been collected on those watersheds because the balance exceeded four times the annual total collected.

•Instructed Daniels to communicate with Portland Mayor Bruce Hosier about using watershed maintenance money to clean trees and limbs from the Salamonie River within the city limits. Miller said he believed those funds could and should be used for that purpose.

•Heard Daniels report that some of his workers are assisting the county highway department in the removal of debris from county roads. Miller told Daniels to keep close track of hours worked at that task for possible future reimbursement.[[In-content Ad]]