Dust control options eyed (4/5/05)

Jay County’s stone roads — at least most of them — could be considerably less dusty this summer if the price is right.

Jay County Commissioners agreed Monday to at least explore the possibility of applying a calcium chloride dust control product to the majority of the county’s 270-plus miles of stone roads.

Ken Wellman, superintendent of the county highway department, was asked to obtain quotes from several firms.

For years, residents who live on stone roads have been asked to pay for the dust control on a per-foot basis. The cost in 2004 for the first year of the calcium chloride (salt) product was about 30 cents per foot.

At that price, doing 250 miles of gravel roads would cost the county almost $400,000.

Wellman and Commissioners Milo Miller Jr., Gary Theurer and Faron Parr are guessing the price will drop dramatically for a large-scale job.

Wellman, who said the large majority of those who had the calcium chloride treatment done last year were satisfied, was also asked to obtain a quote on a program paid for by residents.

Also Monday, the commissioners agreed to extend a $500,000 line-of-credit to GFT Corp. of Pennville from economic development income tax funds.

The company, which has been developing high-tech insulation products, plans to begin manufacturing operations in the Pennville Industrial Park by mid-to-late May.

Robert Quadrozzi, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, made the request on behalf of Phil Griffith, the CEO of GFT.

Also supporting the request were Ray Scott, president of the Pennville Town Board, and Lee Bone, a Pennville resident and JCDC board member.

GFT will request draw-downs on the line-of-credit through Quadrozzi.

The interest rate on the loan, which will have a payback schedule of five to seven years, will be 1 percent higher than the prime rate.

In other business Monday, Parr, Theurer and Miller:

•Learned from Ralph Frazee, director of Jay County Emergency Management, that a weather alert siren at the former Portland Fire Station across from the courthouse is not operable.

Portland Fire Chief Mike Thomas said this morning that the siren was hit by lightning about six months before the department moved to its new location on the north side of Portland.

The siren at the former fire station location was manually operated and was not part of the city’s automated alert system, which is triggered for a tornado warning by Portland police.

Those three sirens, which are tested each Saturday at noon, are located at Charles and Water streets; at Portland Pool; and at Milton Miller Park.

Thomas said that testing of the downtown siren on Saturdays at noon was stopped when nearby residents complained that the noise was “waking their kids.”

Nancy Culy, first deputy auditor, told the commissioners Monday that she and others in the courthouse can not hear the city’s other alert sirens and would like to be alerted in the event of a weather emergency.

Frazee said this morning that he planned to meet with city officials to find a possible solution to the lack of a downtown siren.

•Scheduled a meeting of a courthouse safety committee for Monday, April 25, at 1:30 p.m. The committee includes a variety of county officials, including all three commissioners.

•Agreed to allow the director of Jay Emergency Medical Service to apply for a grant to pay 90 percent of the cost of installation of a ventilation system at the JEMS bases in Portland and Dunkirk.

The new systems, which would cost a total of $37,600, would reduce the amount of emissions in the bases when the ambulances are left running.

The county would have to provide a 10 percent matching share for the grants, which are offered through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The commissioners agreed to allow Teresa Foster-Geesaman to apply for the grant, but said they want her to return for more discussion before making the purchase.[[In-content Ad]]