Council transfers $1.25 million

A loss of revenue in 2014 means a larger amount to be loaned from the rainy day fund to cover beginning of the year expenses for the county.
Jay County Council approved Wednesday evening a transfer of $1.25 million from the rainy day fund to the general fund to be reimbursed with the first tax draw in June.
It also heard from Sheriff Dwane Ford about plans for the county’s dispatch system and referred an agricultural abatement to the Jay County Tax Abatement Advisory Committee.
The transferred money will be used to cover expenses paid at the beginning of each year including insurance, pension and loans.
The same process is conducted each year, with last year’s transfer totaling $750,000, but the amount is more this year because of a loss in general fund revenue in 2014. It was down $300,000 from the loss of the inheritance tax and a sharp decline in housing out-of-county inmates and another $300,000 from having to pay wages for jailors and sergeants previously paid out of local option income tax funds.
Auditor Anna Culy estimates receiving all of it back when settling accounts during the next tax draw in June.
“We do it every year,” said Culy. “It will go back when the money comes in. … I’m asking for the county general to be very stringent this year.”
Council heard from Ford on an issue that won’t affect the county until 2017 but one for which he is already looking for a solution.
Ford explained to members that the county’s dispatch system will not be supported after 2017, with any services to its equipment being cut off.
Working with Blackford, Wells and Adams counties, Ford is hoping to team up with the other dispatch systems to have one main unit, splitting the cost of the estimated $1 million network through Motorola. The agreement would most likely come in the form of a 20-year contract.
“I hate to say it, but it’s something we don’t really have a Ford will soon begin looking at grants to pay for Jay County’s share of the system, working alongside emergency management director Ralph Frazee and other local grant writers to complete applications.
The arrangement may work in favor of the counties involved by allowing them to use each other’s radios if something were to go wrong.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, council referred an agricultural abatement for a proposed confined feeding operation to the tax abatement advisory committee.
Arrowhead Poultry Farms LLC, owned by Steve Schwieterman, plans to build four barns on property at the corner of county roads 100 North and 700 East to house 1.2 million pullets.
The new operation is projected to create 11 jobs and bring $2.4 million in investment, qualifying it for a three-year abatement.
“We’re looking to compete with some of these outside operations that are coming in and those that are here to supply them and some of their operations,” said Schwieterman, a lifelong Jay County resident.
In other business, council members Mike Leonhard, Gary Theurer, Ted Champ, Bob Vance, Jeanne Houchins and Cindy Newton, absent Mike Rockwell:
•Elected council officers, with Leonhard as president and Theurer as vice president. They also approved retaining Bill Hinkle as council attorney.
•Approved additional appropriations of $100 to prosecutor secretary for longevity; $1,000 to extension office secretary for longevity; and $968 to the veterans service office for a grant to buy a new computer and software.
•Transferred $800 within the auditor’s office to pay for longevity, and $97,309.60 within Jay Emergency Medical Service to give previously labeled squad leader wages to paramedics.
•Approved a recommendation by Jay County Economic Development Income Tax Advisory Committee to fund monthly visits from the Indiana Small Business Development Center. ISBDC representatives will work with local entrepreneurs and business leaders to boost small business in the county. The first year will be on a trial basis at a cost of $2,000 and will work with Jay County Economic Development Corporation to market the service.
•Revised the 2015 budget for the recorder’s office to be in line with what was allotted in 2014, appropriating an additional $12,000 to the account’s line items. Previous recorder Bev Myers was told by the state that these funds could be paid through the department’s perpetuity fund and so deleted the budget of some items, said Culy, who recently learned that is not the case. The money will be transferred from the rainy day fund.
•Heard a quarterly report from JEMS director Pat Frazee on the department’s new system of taking every transfer called. From October to December in 2014, JEMS took 135 transfers from the hospital, billing $164,087 and so far collecting nearly half.