Flooding progress

The Army Corps of Engineers is ready to take a look at flooding problems on the Salamonie River.
“I am happy to say that on Friday I was contacted (by the Corps of Engineers), and there will soon be a meeting with the local team to discuss plans to move forward with this project,” Jay County Commissioner Faron Parr said Monday. “I was very excited to get that call.”
Commissioners met Aug. 7 with Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman, staff members from the offices of U.S. Sens. Dan Coats and Joe Donnelly, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman and Brandon Brummett of the Louisville office of the Corps of Engineers in the wake of flooding in June and July.
But no further word had been received from the corps of engineers until Friday’s call.
The City of Portland has an engineering study in hand which recommends re-routing Millers Branch so that it enters the Salamonie east of Portland rather than entering the city’s sewer system just north of Pearl Street.
Meanwhile, the commissioners have contracted with the engineering firm of Butler, Fairman and Seufert to look at alternative approaches to control the flow of storm water from the north during times of heavy rain.
Also Monday, commissioners received the written report from the Jay County Plan Commission recommending revisions to the county’s controls on confined feeding operations.
The plan commission approved those revisions in March. With formal receipt of the recommendations, a 90-day window begins during which the commissioners can accept, reject or amend the proposal.
If commissioners reject or amend the proposed changes, the issue bounces back to the plan commission for consideration. The plan commission would then have 45 days to respond, but the ultimate authority rests with the county commissioners.
“The clock is ticking now,” said Parr.
The revisions the plan commission advanced to county commissioners call for a two-tier system with a setback of 750 feet from residences for confined feeding operations with 100 to 500 cattle or horses, 300 to 8,800 sheep, 300 to 10,000 swine, 500 to 24,000 ducks, 500 to 48,000 starter turkeys, 500 to 30,000 turkeys and 5,000 to one million chickens. Operations with a greater number of animals would require a setback of 1,100 feet (slightly more than a fifth of a mile).
Current regulations require a setback of 750 feet for all operations with more than 200 cattle or horses, 400 swine or sheep, 5,700 foul or ducks dry and 5,000 ducks wet.
No action was taken on the recommendations Monday.
In other business, commissioners:
•Heard a report from county engineer Dan Watson on road paving plans for the season ahead. Two major projects totaling more than 6.5 miles are on the agenda: County road 700 East between Indiana 26 and county road 300 North, and county road 300 South from U.S. 27 to county road 300 East. Watson estimated the cost of those two projects at between $700,000 and $800,000.
•Signed revised standard operating procedure documents prepared by JEMS director Pat Frazee.
•Set in motion the transfer of eight properties to the City of Dunkirk. The eight were among those that received no bids at a March 29 sale for back taxes. Dunkirk intends to raze the houses on those properties under its blight removal grant.
•Agreed to release a portion of an initial study of county finances conducted by Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group that will be the subject of a joint meeting of commissioners and the Jay County Council on Wednesday.
Commissioners declined to release that portion of Guerrettaz’s initial study that included “expressions of opinion.” That decision was in accordance with the Indiana Public Records statute, which grants government discretion in certain instances.
Release of the report had been sought since last week by The Commercial Review and had originally been declined.