Letter ready to send to Corps

A letter of intent requesting help with flood mitigation from the Army Corps of Engineers will be sent this week.
Jay County Commissioners president Faron Parr and Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman signed the letter at the commissioners’ Monday meeting.
The letter notes that the county and city requested help in October 2011 after flooding that spring, and that three floods occurred this summer.
Along with the letter, the Corps will receive a binder of supporting documents assembled by Ralph Frazee, director of Jay County Emergency Management Agency. It includes photos and other materials that show the extent of the flooding.
The commissioners and Geesaman, along with State Rep. Greg Beumer and staff from the offices of U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman and U.S. Sens. Dan Coats and Joe Donnelly, met Aug. 7 with Brandon Brummet, outreach coordinator for the Corps’ Louisville district. They learned that a project in Jay County could be completed through Small Flood Damage Reduction Projects or the Emergency Streambank Protection Program.
Both processes start with a letter of intent, which lets the Corps know Portland and Jay County are interested and government officials understand the potential costs involved.
If the Corps has enough funding, it will conduct a study of the Salamonie River area. The first $100,000 is federally funded; Jay County and Portland would then be responsible for half of the rest of the cost while the Corps would cover the other half.
If a project is feasible, Jay County and Portland would be responsible for a minimum of 35 percent of the cost and no more than 50 percent. The local parties are responsible for “provision of lands, easements, rights-of-way, relocations and disposal areas,” according to the letter, plus 5 percent of the total cost in cash.
If that’s less than 35 percent, Jay County and Portland will provide additional cash to reach the minimum. If it’s more, the local governments would continue paying those costs up to 50 percent of the project’s total.
Jay County and Portland could back out of any potential project if a study is completed and it appears the solution would cost too much.
In other business, the commissioners:
•Learned Sheriff Dwane Ford would like to purchase a vehicle to replace one totaled in a July 18 accident. Deputy Tony Lennartz was responding to an accident when he drove into standing floodwater on county road 200 West near county 200 North. The patrol car, a 2013 Chevrolet Impala, went off the road and flipped several times.
County auditor Anna Culy will check to see which Jay County Sheriff’s Office fund money could be transferred from to supplement the $10,500 the department received in insurance money.
•Heard from Ford that Wells County may join the effort by Jay, Adams and Blackford counties to purchase new dispatch technology for the sheriffs’ offices in those counties.
Making the purchase as a group lowers the price for everyone, and a fourth county would likely further decrease the cost. At a meeting Aug. 12, when a three-county deal was anticipated, Jay County Council was presented with a $574,000 quote for four Motorola dispatch units and one mobile unit.
•Gave permission to Laura Coleman, Jay County Health Department public health nurse, to purchase from Helmer Scientific a refrigerator in which to store vaccines. The purchase will be made with $7,372 from a bioterrorism grant.
•Approved spending $13,840 to fix a compressor on an air conditioner at Jay County Jail.