Crews are working on river

Copyright 2017, The Commercial Review

All Rights Reserved

County crews are terracing the north bank of the Salamonie River between Meridian and Wayne streets in an effort to stabilize the bank and increase the capacity of the river channel.

Surveyor Brad Daniels told Jay County Commissioners Monday morning the work will be done by October “if the weather holds.”

Daniels said county crews did similar terracing work — creating what’s known as a two-stage channel — between Seventh Street and the Norfolk and Southern Railroad trestle in 2015.

This year, he said, the work should extend a little bit east of Wayne Street, depending upon the width of the top of the bank.

As each section is terraced, it is hydro-seeded with grass to prevent erosion.

“We’ll be doing more of that just to stabilize the bank,” he said. “Beyond the railroad trestle we just cleaned out the sediment.”

Sediment and sandbars cleared from the river have been placed on higher ground so that they won’t end up back in the channel the next time the river is high.

“What you’re doing is exceptional,” commissioner Mike Leonhard told Daniels, who has been under fire at recent commissioners’ meetings over the condition of the river and flood concerns.

County engineer Dan Watson told commissioners work on Bluff Point Wind Energy Center was moving rapidly, but there will be an estimated $2 to $3 million in work to be done in order to get affected county roads back in shape again.

“Thirty-five towers are completely topped out,” said Watson. “All the component deliveries are completed.”

Blattner Energy, the firm which is constructing the wind farm for NextEra Energy Resources, hopes to have all of the wind turbines erected by Sept. 28, he said.

“They’ve had ideal weather,” said Leonhard.

Though the post-wind farm road work is the responsibility of NextEra, Watson and highway superintendent Ken Wellman said the funds available for other county road work in 2018 are still somewhat in doubt.

A boost in the state gasoline tax that went into effect in July has yet to materialize into an increase in funding at the local level.

“We’re not sure how things are going to work out,” said Wellman.

“I’m hoping that it starts going up,” said Watson. “But we haven’t seen it yet.

Meanwhile there has been no word on two grant applications submitted by the county under the state’s Community Crossings program, also funded with gasoline tax revenues.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but I don’t see us getting both Community Crossings projects we asked for,” said Watson. “They’re going to try to spread it around.”

By some accounts, Community Crossings grant requests totaled about twice the amount of money the state has available to grant.

Wellman said the county did chip and seal work on 86 miles of county roads this year at a cost of more than $700,000. He’d like to do 110 miles of work in 2018, but his budget is about $360,000 short of the amount needed.

In addition, commissioners continue to be urged to convert more stone roads to paved in the 2-mile “buffer zone” around Portland.

Rural Portland resident Pat Miller said he has petitioned the county since the 1990s to increase the amount of paved mileage around Portland. The failure to do so, he said, has been an impediment to residential development in the area surrounding the county seat.

“I understand your frustration,” said Watson, noting that the county has had to deal with a decline in revenue and an increase in costs of the past 15 to 20 years. Some counties, he noted, are converting paved roads back to stone simply because they can’t afford the maintenance. “Our focus has been to maintain what we have,” he said.

Wellman said he’s reviewing what other counties have done to convert roads from stone to paved and hopes to report back next month.

“If you’re going to do it, it needs to be done right,” said Watson.

Wellman agreed.

“It needs to be built to last 20 years,” he said.

One factor, added Watson, is that rural road traffic has changed dramatically in the past 20 years.

“There’s hardly a farmer out there that doesn’t have a semi or two or three,” he said. “These roads were not made for stuff like that.”

In other business, commissioners Leonhard and Huffman, with Barry Hudson absent:

•Agreed to purchase diesel fuel for the highway department from Agbest at a cost of $1.95 per gallon, plus an 8 cent per gallon additive cost during winter months, from Oct. 1 to June 1.

•Took under advisement four bids for a new tandem-axle chassis for the highway department.

•Agreed to purchase a piece of Bosch diagnostic equipment for diesel vehicles from Portland Motor Parts for $7,199.

•Heard John Hemmelgarn, director of Jay/Portland Building and Planning, say that companies continue to erect wind measurement towers. “They’re still exploring,” said Hemmelgarn. He indicated there is a potential for another 60 wind turbines to be erected in the county in the future but cautioned that landowners contracting with companies at this point should have all paperwork reviewed by their attorney.

•Heard Hemmelgarn report that 259 building and zoning permits had been issued so far this year, including 11 confined feeding operations to date and more pending.

•Reduced their 2018 general fund budget proposal by moving items to the cumulative capital improvement fund and the infrastructure fund.