Jay Co. will get $1.78 million

By the beginning of summer, every government unit in Jay County will have a little bit of extra money in its pocket.
Now they have to decide how they’re going to use it.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Wednesday signed House Bill 1001, which releases $430 million in local option income tax reserves to local government units. For Jay County, that will mean a total influx of $1.78 million to the county, cities, towns, townships, school corporation and libraries.
The money is scheduled to be transferred to each county by May 1, with the county auditor then moving that money to each individual government unit by June 1. For the county, cities and towns, at least 75 percent of the funds must be used for road and bridge improvements. There are options for use of the other 25 percent, including placing the money in the rainy day fund.
By far the largest chunk — $933,494 — will go to Jay County. That is more than the $722,458 the county has in its 2016 budget for maintenance and repairs.
“We haven’t talked in great detail, but we have talked about … using it to get some roads done,” said Faron Parr, Jay County Commissioners president. “We’ve just been waiting to see if this was finalized. I do think there’ll be some roads that we chip and seal, maybe convert some roads from stone to chip and seal.”
County highway department superintendent Ken Wellman points out that some of the money will likely need to be used to help the county catch up on its regular road maintenance. While his staff was able to chip and seal 97 miles of road in 2015, the number was about half that from about 2008 through 2012 because of a lack of funding.
The highway department needs to chip and seal between 80 and 100 miles of road each year to stay on a regular maintenance schedule, Wellman said.
“The high-speed roads, the high-volume roads — 300 North, 400 South, 200 South, 200 West going to the high school, the angle roads — we’d like to do some maintenance on them,” he added, also saying the south end of Como Road in Jefferson Township is in need of some work. “That’s getting so undulating now … It’s got so many dips and stuff in it. You’ve just got to get that leveled out.”
County engineer Dan Watson pointed to about 3 miles of county road 300 South and 3.5 miles of county road 700 East from Indiana 26 to county road 300 North as other priorities. Those areas are in need of repair after having heavy traffic from the construction of confined feeding operations.
A county road committee also evaluated stone roads in an effort to form a list of those that could be converted to chip and seal if funding became available. Its top three priorities were county road 200 West between county road 400 South and Mt. Pleasant Road, county road 275 South between U.S. 27 and county road 100 West and county road 350 South between county roads 100 West and 200 West.
Parr also mentioned State Line Road, which is pavement in the areas maintained by Mercer County but stone in the areas maintained by Jay County.
The cost to chip and seal a road is about $8,500 per mile, Wellman said, while Watson estimated the cost to pave 1 mile of road with asphalt at $150,000.
County officials agreed the money will help, but said more is needed.
“We need that every year,” said Watson. “I was so disappointed that they didn’t come up with something better than what they did … A long-term solution is what we need.
“It’ll help. Everything we get will help. But it’s a Band Aid.
“That’s what they just keep giving us is a Band Aid. If we knew we were going to get that much money every year where we could start programming stuff and making some headway it would be nice, but we haven’t been able to do that.”
“I’m happy to be getting … our money back … because we could definitely use it. But I would like to have a little more of a standard of how much are we going to get on a fixed basis versus this guessing,” said Parr. “We’re up, we’re down and then, ‘Hey, we’re giving you a million dollars.’
“How do you stay on top of something when the money is a guessing game? I’d like to have more consistency.”
The next largest chunks of funding will go to the cities, with Portland set to receive $441,851 and Dunkirk $134,697.
The Portland funding could go to a project to pave Main Street from Jay County Historical Society’s museum to Western Avenue, Mayor Randy Geesaman said. Other streets that are on a list of priorities are Western Avenue, Arch Street between Morton and Boston streets and between Middle and Williams streets, Shank Street between Fifth and Seventh streets and Williams Street between Votaw and High streets.
Like those in the county, Geesaman said the money will help, but that the annual budget falls far short of the city’s road maintenance needs.
“It barely scratches the surface,” he said. “It covers, at the most, 20 percent of our actual road maintenance that we need each year.
“Both the federal and the state need to come up with a long-term solution.”
Geesaman noted that the 25 percent of the funding not earmarked for roads could go to projects to help mitigate flooding or needs for the police and fire departments.
The next largest benefactor of the release of tax funds is Jay County Public Library, which will get $87,647. That represents nearly 10 percent of the facility’s annual operating budget.
While the library board has not discussed the funds specifically, director Eric Hinderliter said it’s time to look at building maintenance needs. There are no pressing problems, he added, but the roof, carpet and heating, ventilation and cooling systems will need to be addressed in the future.
“We’ve been blessed with a new building and for 20 year we’ve had very few problems with it,” he said. “But you can only go so long before some big ticket items have to be addressed.
“Those are some big things that we just have to get planned for.”
Jay School Corporation will get the next largest chunk of funding at $69,961. Other government units receiving more than $10,000 are Redkey ($30,880), Dunkirk Public Library ($14,643), Wayne Township ($13,700) and Pennville ($10,009). Each of the other townships will get between $1,282 and $6,067.