County building work approved

Jay County Courthouse and Jay County Health Department are slated for building maintenance. 
Jay County Commissioners approved Monday to use $35,000 out of the infrastructure fund for work at the two sites. 
Courthouse superintendent Roger McBride presented three bids to commissioners Faron Parr, Jim Zimmerman and Doug Inman for courthouse work, which includes, in part, water testing windows, tuck pointing and water washing on the chimney and roof brick walls and cleaning granite entries. 
The projects will cost $21,950, with commissioners choosing Atlas Building Services, Inc. of Wabash for the work. 
McBride also submitted bids for consideration from Trisco Systems Inc. of Lima, Ohio, and S.A. Boyce Corp. of Muncie, but both came in at a higher price than Atlas. 
“We’d like to get it done … before it gets cold,” McBride said of the work. 
The money approved Monday also includes funds to rectify water leaking issues at Jay County Health Department. McBride said he is still waiting for quotes to come back on the work, but estimated Monday it will cost $10,000 to $12,000.
Meanwhile, Dick and Loretta Corle read a letter to commissioners regarding comments made by retirement center assistant director Tammy Davis at Wednesday’s Jay County Council meeting regarding a maintenance worker approved for a 4-percent raise next year. 
At the meeting, Davis issued concerns about the employee, Mike Shawver, receiving the pay bump and questioned his job description, describing his role as more of a “groundkeeper.”
The Corle’s, who are neighbors with Shawver, said Davis “does not seem to be professional in her work ethics with what is being said about other employees and to the retirement center.” 
“Maybe it is time for your assistant director to pay more attention to what this employee is doing before describing him as a grounds keeper doing minimal tasks,” the letter also states. 
Attached to it was a three-page report the Corle’s asked Shawver to compile of his work duties. 
In other business, commissioners: 
•Signed a proclamation, presented by Jay County bicentennial committee members John Boggs, Gyneth Augsburger and Vicki Tague, declaring Sept. 27 as the official celebration of Indiana’s bicentennial in Jay County. 
•Approved a claim in the amount of $16,177.83 for work and labor on the retirement center’s garage and barn.
•Heard from John Speidel of Butler, Fairman and Seufert that quotes will be sought for soil testing in the location where the engineering firm has proposed a detention plan to help mitigate flooding. The firm presented its plans to commissioners in July. 
•Signed release forms for Ralph Frazee, Jim Bruner and Addie Weesner for duty as members of the District Response Task Force.
•Discussed with clerk Ellen Coats and highway superintendent Ken Wellman placing signs to help direct voters to the Jay Scout Complex/Freeman Scout Cabin polling place. Coats told commissioners in June that some voters had complained about struggling to find the polling location.