Commissioners want more info

The Jay County Commissioners want to send a letter of intent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers soon, but they’d like more information about damage first.
The letter, which will express interest in two Corps programs that could help alleviate Jay County’s flooding, should include as much information about flooding-related problems as possible, Corps outreach coordinator Brandon Brummett told the commissioners and others at an informational meeting Friday.
At their Monday meeting, the commissioners also accepted a $10,000 donation to the highway department from Green Valley Ranch, LLC.
Some business owners have been reluctant to take the time to submit information about damages, given that doing so in 2011 failed to result in help from the Corps, said Ralph Frazee, director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency. Still, it’s a necessary step if the county hopes to be considered for a project this time.
Any business owners or residents who have not yet reported damages can still contact the EMA to do so.
“We know we’re getting in line, but we need to get in line as quickly as possible,” commissioner Doug Inman said.
Frazee and commissioners Faron Parr and Inman, absent Jim Zimmerman, discussed other facts that show the severity of Jay County’s flooding: 100-year floods have been occurring more frequently than they should, and mid-July’s bout of flooding was severe enough that Gov. Mike Pence visited Portland.
Mike Osterholt, a co-owner of Green Valley Ranch, LLC, came to the commissioners’ meeting to donate $10,000 to the county highway department.
“If we can help the county out, we want to,” Osterholt said.
Confined feeding operations such as Green Valley Ranch have been criticized for the damage that traffic related to them causes to county roads.
As far as Parr and Inman were aware, this was the first donation a CFO in Jay County has made to help mitigate that problem.
“This has got to be a first, for an organization that’s doing this, that knows they’re doing damage to the county roads to give money to the highway department to help fix stuff,” said Inman.
“They want to let (people) know ‘We’re not just going to dump on Jay County,’” added John Hemmelgarn, Jay/Portland Building and Planning director. “They don’t live in the county. They live in Mercer County. They’re farming here, and they get a lot of heat from that … but they want to let them know that ‘Hey, we’re not just reaping everything from the county. We are trying to put back into the community.’”
In other business, the commissioners:
•Agreed to write a letter of support for the Indiana DNR Division of Nature Preserves’ effort to purchase land surrounding White Oak Cemetery north of Loblolly Marsh. The division would like to restore the 39 acres, half of which is currently farmland, to its original state, said Ben Hess, ecologist for IDNR’s Division of Nature Preserves east central region.
The $300,000 purchase already has financial support from the Friends of the Limberlost and ACRES Land Trust, but the division is also applying for the Bicentennial Nature Trust grant. The division’s chance at receiving the grant is better if it can show community support through letters like the one the commissioners will write, Hess said.
•Approved Comcast’s request to install a fiberoptic line in the right-of-way on county road 125 South. The 690-foot line will serve U.S. Aggregates, 2228 W. 125 South, Portland.
•Heard about the Chamber of Commerce from executive director Dean Sanders. He expects Stars in the Park attendance this year to top last year’s total of 1,345. He also reported a 97 percent retention rate of Chamber membership from 2014.