Road raising pitched for New Corydon (11/22/05)

Two major concerns in the county should be getting some attention in the next few months.

Jay County Commissioners Monday afternoon heard John Speidel, with Butler, Fairman and Seufert Civil Engineers, offer a suggestion that could help during flooding of the New Corydon area, while commissioners also signed an agreement of compliance with Indiana Department of Environmental Management to correct sewage problems in the Foxfire addition, southwest of Portland.

While the flooding in New Corydon can’t be prevented — without straightening out the river — Speidel explained that elevating the road on the south side of the bridge on county road 750 East would prevent the road from flooding so severely and offer residents access in and out of town when flooding does occur.

The bridge carries the county road over the Wabash River, which routinely floods the unincorporated community.

“Our intent is not to find a way to make New Corydon not flood,” he said, but to keep the roadway from flooding. “There’s nothing we can do about the actual flooding. We’ll just fix it so people can get in and out of town.”

Speidel said plans call for raising the grade leading up to the south side of the bridge for 600 feet to a maximum of 1.75 feet above the current grade level.

“If we’re going to raise it for 600 feet, we might as well go 900 feet,” commissioner Milo Miller suggested about the length of the grade.

When flooding occurs in the area, county road 750 East, south of the river, is covered with water.

“When there’s water over the top of the road, it makes it tough to get in and out of town,” Speidel said.

“We’re thinking of doing the same thing on Bridge No. 13 on State Line Road,” county engineer Dan Watson told commissioners.

Additionally, Watson told commissioners two large trees near the bridge on county road 700 East have been removed and should help with the flow of the river water.

Commissioners instructed Watson to come up with a price on raising county road 750 East and bring it back to them.

Concerning the Foxfire situation, failing septic systems have been a concern there for nearly a year.

The county has already initiated a request to the state to be allowed to form a Regional Sewage District. With that, the state issued the agreement of compliance to the county and allotted 180 days for the situation to be addressed.

“The clock started ticking today,” commissioners’ attorney Brad Burkett said. Commissioners Gary Theurer, Milo Miller Jr. and Faron Parr agreed to address the problem as soon as possible.

“We should be ready to go by early spring,” Watson told commissioners.

Commonwealth Engineers Inc. will be directing the project, Watson said, “but we’ll have to have a maintenance contract with residents out there,” once the project is completed.

Also Monday afternoon, commissioners approved Jay County Sheriff Todd Penrod’s request to advertise for two new police cars.

Penrod said the money is budgeted in the 2006 budget.

Commissioners also signed a service contract with Beam, Longest and Neff LLC for consulting for information technology services on an as-needed basis.

A personnel committee meeting has been scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m. to discuss personnel policy issues with Jay County Highway superintendent, Ken Wellman.

Wellman told commissioners he had questions about wording in the policy.[[In-content Ad]]