Commissioners set new speed limit

Jay County drivers will notice a new 30 mile per hour speed limit on county road 200 West between Indiana 67 and Indiana 26.
The county commissioners approved the new limit during their Monday meeting after county engineer Dan Watson told them the Indiana Department of Transportation had asked if the speed limit there could be lowered from 55 miles per hour.
The commissioners also heard an update from county clerk Ellen Coats, who is working to get the county’s voting machines upgraded.
The speed at which vehicles are expected to approach intersections is a factor in how the department designs them, Watson said.
INDOT told the highway department a 45 mile per hour limit would be helpful, but given that both Jay County High School and Jay County Christian Academy have entrances on county road 200 West, Watson recommended the 30 mile per hour limit.
Coats told the commissioners Greene County is interested in purchasing two voting machines from Jay County. The commissioners set the selling price at $2,500 each.
Jay County was going to trade in 10 machines and receive $12,500 in credit from the machine company, MicroVote, for upgrades, but will now get $10,000 for trading in eight.
State rules mean the money from the sale of two machines will go into the county general fund, and auditor Anna Culy said the Department of Local Government Finance isn’t likely to approve moving the money to the election fund, which Coats is planning to use to pay the remainder of the $60,000 upgrades.
“If she makes a request like that, they turn that down, I would like to make a formal request for them to attend a commissioners’ meeting and explain to us why they won’t allow such an additional as that to come out of the general fund when it came out of hers to start with,” commissioner Jim Zimmerman said.
But Coats expects to find a way to pay for the upgrades regardless.
“MicroVote’s willing to work with me,” Coats said. “If I’m a little bit short … they’ll let me pay the difference next year.”
In other business, commissioners Zimmerman, Faron Parr and Doug Inman:
•Signed a mutual aid agreement that allows Jay County Public Health Coordinator Amy Blakely to assist surrounding counties and receive help during emergencies.
•Met Cheri Brown, the new health and human services extension educator at the Jay County Purdue Extension office.
•Accepted an application for a new resident at Jay County Retirement Center.