Lot at center will be paved (07/05/06)

In an effort to make the Jay County Retirement Center more handicapped accessible, Jay County Commissioners on Monday afternoon gave the center’s director the go-ahead to have a parking lot at the rear of the facility paved.

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago,” commissioners’ president Milo Miller Jr. said. “It’s just something we’ve dropped the ball on.”

Retirement center director Rob Smith told commissioners Miller, Gary Theurer, and Faron Parr that the cost for paving the back parking lot of the facility on county road 200 North was estimated at $23,000 by Lica Construction Corp., Portland.

He said $14,000 would be used from the retirement center’s maintenance fund and there was an account with $9,000 that has come in from donations throughout the years.

The lot will be built up to meet an existing ramp into the building, he explained, rather than construct a new ramp.

“Get ‘er done,” Miller told Smith.

The donated funds will be added to the county’s general fund and Smith will need to ask the council for an additional appropriation to use the donation funds.

In other business Monday commissioners heard Ralph Frazee, director of Jay County Emergency Management, say that the tornado siren to be placed on the roof of the courthouse has been ordered.

He said some additional paperwork was needed which slowed the purchase process.

The purchase of the siren was approved earlier by commissioners when they expressed concern that there was no weather warning device in downtown Portland.

The siren, which has a capability to be heard at 3,000 to 7,000 feet, depending on conditions, is estimated at $10,000, Frazee said.

The cost will initially be paid from the commissioner’s budget, Frazee added, with plans to seek a Homeland Security grant to replace the county funds.[[In-content Ad]]