Redkey gets update on town finances (09/22/06)

REDKEY - Financial concerns continue to be the main focus of town council meetings here.

At Thursday night's regular monthly session, topics ranged from delinquent water bills and budget fund transfers to saving electricity and limiting the use of the police department's four-wheel-drive pickup truck in an effort to save gas.

Redkey clerk-treasurer Sandy Kirby provided a short update on the status of the town's water billing problems.

She said that since her last report 46 notices to disconnect water service were sent out by the clerk-treasurer's office. Some sort of arrangments were made in all but seven of those cases, and consequently the water was shut off at those seven locations, she said. Since that time, one of those seven water customers has paid. She said that service there has since been turned back on, but the other six are still shut off until satisfactory payments are made.

Also she said 31 accounts remain unpaid with outstanding balances and no attempts being made to make any payments. Of those accounts 25 of the customers have apparently moved out of town leaving no forwarding addresses, she said. Attorney Leslie Horn, representing the law firm of town attorney John Brooke, said these individuals could be taken to small claims court. She noted that current addresses for some of these people were available while others were unknown.

On a brighter note Kirby said that 20 delinquent accounts have now been paid in full.

However, she also noted that 17 people have signed agreements to keep their current bills paid while making payments on their past-due accounts, but are not living up to those agreements.

Since these people have already signed the agreements, their water could be shut off, Horn said. In response several audience members urged town officials to follow Horn's advice, and council unanimously passed a motion to that effect.

Also Kirby and town council president Dottie Quakenbush pointed out that in recent weeks several checks, written to the town concerning water bill accounts, have bounced. They said the town does not have a policy on bad checks.

Kirby said that when she served as clerk-treasurer roughly 20 years ago, her response was to have the water service turned off immediately if someone gave her a bad check. However, that has not been done in recent years and in the past few weeks, the clerk's office has received several bad checks, Kirby said.

Establishing a bad check fee in addition to shutting water service off, was proposed by Horn. After further discussion town council members directed her to draft an ordinance establishing a bad check fee of $30 and calling for water service to be turned off in such cases as well.

Meanwhile, in other discussion at the meeting, Redkey resident Donna Fuller complained that she had made payments on her water bill account more than a year ago which apparently were never credited to the account. She also raised the question of whether or not she had incorrectly been charged penalties for being behind on her water bill account since that time.

Town council members said those payments would have been made while former clerk-treasurer Brenda Adkins was in office.

Adkins submitted her resignation as clerk-treasurer late last year while Indiana State Board of Accounts auditors were in the midst of conducting a review of the town's financial records. Subsequently, Adkins reimbursed the town about $40,000 and an investigation by Indiana State Police was launched with a special prosecutor appointed. No results of that investigation have been announced.

In other business at Thursday night's meeting, Redkey council members:

•Conducted a public hearing and approved budget estimates for 2007 totaling $311,955 for the general fund with an maximum tax levy (or money to be raised through property taxes) of $233,833. However, Redkey's tax levy has been estimated by state officials at $181,609.

Consequently, council members also approved a resolution designating areas where $35,500 could be cut from the budget, if "required to do so by the (Indiana) Department of Local Government Finance." These cuts were discussed at a previous budget work session and include reductions for the park department, the police gasoline and equipment budgets and projected insurance expenses.

•Approved a motion to keep the police department pick-up truck parked at the town hall unless one of the regular police cars breaks down. This was done to save gasoline expenses.

Also the truck and its snow plow attachment will be advertised for sale with bids scheduled to be opened at the Oct. 19 town council meeting. Money from the sale of the pickup truck and snow plow blade will be put toward the purchase of a 2007 squad car, town officials said.

Currently the department is operating with two standard police cars and the pickup truck. The town plans to trade-in or sell the truck as well as one of the squad cars and keep the best of the two current squad cars, in addition to purchasing a new car. This will leave the department with two standard squad cars.

•Heard a report from Kirby that finances were improving for the sewer department which currently had a balance of $8,000. However, she noted that the water department was still operating in the red.

•Set trick-or-treat hours for Halloween as 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 31. The Redkey Volunteer Fire Department will hold its traditional Halloween costume parade and contest at the fire station on Oct. 31 with lineup at 5 p.m. and the judging at 5:30 p.m.

•Learned that the volunteer fire department has sent letters to area residents about a fund-raising program involving the taking of family photographs at the fire station on a date to be announced later.

•Set a tentative date of Oct. 14 for Fall Cleanup Day in Redkey when special pickups of unwanted items will be made.[[In-content Ad]]