Better roads, less flooding

Jay County Commissioners want to provide more hard-surfaced roads and new equipment for the sheriff’s department while continuing an effort to keep the county financially sound. And they’d like to do whatever they can to eliminate flooding problems.
The commissioners — Faron Parr, Jim Zimmerman and Doug Inman — presented those as their main goals Tuesday during their State of the County address as part of the Jay County Chamber of Commerce networking luncheon at Jay County Hospital.
Both Parr, president of the group, and Zimmerman touched on the importance of dealing with the flooding issues in Jay County. Those were especially apparent last summer as downtown Portland flooded three times and a day of activities was washed out during the Jay County Fair.
Zimmerman discussed ideas such as detention ponds north of Portland that could provide solutions to flooding issues involving Millers Branch, a waterway that enters the city’s sewer system near Pearl Street that has backed up during times of heavy rainfall. He said he’s looking forward to getting results of a study engineering firm Butler, Fairman & Seufert is in the process of conducting and noted the importance of the county seat.
“We want to do everything we can to mitigate, in heavy rains, the possibility of flooding,” said Zimmerman. “The downtown is vital. It’s not just vital to Portland. It’s vital to the whole community.”
Parr noted the need to keep such studies current and not allow the flooding issue to fall by the wayside.
Flood mitigation plans, he said, have been developed before, but have not been kept up-to-date or been passed on as new government leaders took office. His hope is to create a plan that will be updated every two years in an effort to keep everyone informed.
Parr and Inman both talked about the state of the county’s roads, with Parr saying he’s been happy with the quality of chip-and-seal work since new equipment was purchased late in 2014. That equipment allows county workers to complete an 18-foot-wide road in a single pass as opposed to the previous two. Parr said that provides for better quality and greater efficiency.
Inman advocated converting some stone roads, which account for about a third of the 750 miles of roads in Jay County, into hard-surface roads.
He was part of the county’s road committee, which in January created a list of candidates to be converted.
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The top priorities on the list 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.
“I still firmly believe that that is a development tool, an economic and community development tool, for this community to have roads be available so homes can be built in the county,” said Inman.
He noted the importance of balancing the need to maintain current roads with the desire to convert stone roads to a hard surface.
“I don’t know if every road will ever be converted. Some just may never happen,” he said. “But there is a plan in place, at least for the first 35 miles that we’ve prioritized, and I’d like to see some headway made toward getting that done.”
Though the county has and will face some financial challenges as it needed $500,000 from its rainy day fund to balance the 2016 budget, Parr pointed to its A-plus credit rating as a source of pride. He also said he’s happy county council chose to hire Greg Guerrettaz of Financial Solutions Group to take a look at the county’s finances and make suggestions about potential improvements.
Parr also addressed the need for new dispatch equipment for Jay County Sheriff’s office. Support for its current dispatch consoles will not be available beginning in 2018.
An estimate provided in August for four office dispatch units and one mobile unit came in at $574,000, but the county is hoping to partner with Wells, Adams and Blackford counties to bring that number down.
“I think other counties are gradually coming on board, and I think it’s going to work out for the best, and we’re all going to share a part of that expense, which will definitely lower the cost for the Jay County taxpayers,” said Parr.
Zimmerman, who is in the final year of his second term and is not running for a third, said that while he and his fellow commissioners sometimes disagree, they are able to come together to make decisions they feel are best for the county. That kind of cooperation, he said, is important both for government officials and the county as a whole.
“I think overall in this community we have good neighbors,” he said.