Initial report ready

Jay County Commissioners have some homework to do.
Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group Inc. has sent the commissioners a half-inch thick initial draft of his analysis of the county’s finances.
That’s going to require some study this spring as the county moves into the budget process for 2017. Commissioners began sifting through the nearly 150 pages of financial data Monday morning and asked county auditor Anna Culy to forward the initial Guerrettaz report to members of the Jay County Council for their review.
The council and commissioners agreed in November to hire Financial Solutions Group to assess the county’s financial situation. The firm will receive no more than $17,000 for its analysis and up to $5,000 more for working with the county to implement a plan based upon its findings.
Commissioners gave a tentative green light Monday for a Verizon system of tracking the county highway department’s fleet of trucks. Plans call for installing the system in the last three months of this year and including sufficient funds to have it in place on all 19 trucks in 2017.
The system requires no contract and is on a month-by-month basis. The upfront cost would be $110.23 to install the monitoring equipment, then a monthly charge of $18.95 per vehicle. That comes to an annual cost of $4,320.60.
“I see value in it, especially in the winter months,” said county highway superintendent Ken Wellman.
The system tracks the location of each vehicle and would also be used to help with the maintenance schedule as it monitors engine time rather than miles driven.
Commissioners asked Wellman to check with Barnett’s Heavy Wrecker Service to make sure the local company would be certified to work with the Verizon system.
In other business, commissioners:
•Approved having county highway department employees work four nine-hour days and one four-hour half day from the first week of May to the first week of November in order to make more efficient use of time when working on county roads.
•Told Wellman to go ahead with the purchase of a laser level for the highway department department. It is expected to cost less than $500.
•Reappointed Jay King to the Jay County Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
•Scheduled an executive session for 11 a.m. March 29 for employee performance review.