County to modify its truck law

Jay County Commissioners will look into altering a no-truck ordinance on a stretch of county road east of Portland to accommodate an incoming industry.
Fort Recovery Industries’ Dean Jetter and Barry Hounshell approached the commissioners to ask about setting up a truck route between Ind. 26 east of Portland and an incoming expansion in the Portland Industrial Park on county road 100 North.
Fort Recovery Industries wants to use county road 300 East between Ind. 26 and 100 North for deliveries between its two locations. Jetter showed the commissioners photos of the company truck — a single-axle box truck.
“At full capacity we’re estimating up to 12 round trips a day,” Jetter said.
“This way they wouldn’t have to come all the way through Portland,” said Jay County Development Corporation Executive Director Bill Bradley.
The commissioners and county engineer Dan Watson expressed that they had no issue with the light truck using the county road to shave time off its deliveries.
“I don’t have any problems with it,” Watson said.
Jetter told the commissioners he noticed a “no trucks” sign while driving the route. Watson said that in some areas the county has signs up as a deterrent although there is no specific restriction set in an ordinance.
After digging out the county’s road restriction ordinance, however, the commissioners discovered that the ordinance does explicitly forbid all through truck travel on county 300 East between Ind. 26 and 100 North.
Commissioner Milo Miller Jr. said back when that stretch of road was restricted, the goal was to stop sand and gravel haulers from using it while going to and from Ohio.
“If we’re going to permit it, you’ll have to adjust your ordinance,” Watson said.
Watson suggested perhaps amending that part of the ordinance to remove the restriction but leaving the signs up. The commissioners also considered altering the wording to add an exception for local deliveries.
The commissioners, however, gave a verbal assurance to Fort Recovery Industries that they’ll work out a solution so that the route will be available.
Watson said he would work with attorney Bill Hinkle on the issue.
“We’ll work on that,” Miller said.
In other business this morning, the commissioners:
•Were informed by Jay/Portland Building and Planning Director Bill Milligan that he believes he discovered a mistake on the county zoning map.
Milligan told the commissioners that a landowner ran into an issue while attempting to sell some property north of New Mount Pleasant because the property was classified as environmentally protected. Milligan believes it is a mistake and that the property south of it, which used to be a salvage yard, was supposed to have the EP classification.
The commissioners forwarded the issue to the Jay County Planning Commission to review and correct the mistake.
•Were presented a county bridge inventory report from R.W. Armstrong by Watson. Watson said the review identified four bridges that will need to be replaced in the near future.
Watson also informed the commissioners that four bridges are in need of new support beams, since when they were constructed in the 1980s the county installed used beams provided by the state which are now in bad shape. Watson said he may seek federal aid for those repairs, which could run about $75,000 per bridge.
•Spoke with Watson about the possibility of building a storage garage for the Jay County Sheriff Department across from the jail at the southwest corner of Ship and Water streets.
Watson said he will look into what size building might be appropriate as well as looking into necessary steps for obtaining building permits for the location due to the land being within a flood plain.
•Were approached by Jay County Prosecutor-elect Wes Schemenaur about office space in the courthouse.
Since the Jay County Emergency Management Agency office will move to the Jay County Jail when the renovation is complete, Schemenaur was asking if it would be possible to shuffle some offices so that the prosecutor’s office could expand into the space north of the prosecutor’s office, which is currently occupied by the assessor’s office.
The commissioners told Schemenaur they would consider the request.
•Were informed by Jay County Auditor Nancy Culy that not enough employees signed up for the “traditional” health insurance plan, so the county will only carry the Health Reimbursement Account plan.
•Were informed by Culy that the Internet service at the courthouse is getting slow due to increased use by all the offices.
Culy informed the commissioners that the courthouse could increase its bandwidth from a 5 megabit per second ($79.95 per month) to a 10 megabit per second connection for $99 per month.
The commissioners agreed to make the upgrade as long as the county doesn’t have to enter into a long-term service contract.[[In-content Ad]]