Council agrees to pay on bond

The regional sewer district will get some help — long-term.

Jay County Council on Wednesday agreed to the option Jay County Commissioners indicated their preference for last month, deciding to provide the funding for payments on the bond for Jay County Regional Sewer District.

Council members also approved changes to payroll policies, OK’d several additional appropriations and adopted the 2019 budget.

County council last month settled on two options for helping the regional sewer district customers, some of whom were projected to see monthly bills clear the $100 mark beginning in 2019. Commissioners expressed their preference for a plan in which the county would provide funding for the bond payment — $28,495 annually, with installments paid Jan. 1 and July 1 — to allow some flexibility for bills for the 74 customers to be reduced. The money will come from the infrastructure fund.

“This is what the commissioners want to do right now. It’s probably the best solution, right now,” said council president Jeanne Houchins. “But I would imagine we’ll probably revisiting this down the road again.”

The impact of the financial commitment from the county on bills for sewer district customers is not yet clear. In order to make changes, the district board would need to revisit its ordinance. 

Sewer rates were increased on Aug. 1, and monthly charges for Dunkirk area residents are set to jump to $101.85 on Jan. 1. Portland area residents’ charges are scheduled to go through annual increases up to $92.80 by 2021.

Currently, $27.21 of the monthly bill is dedicated to debt service. It is likely that customers will not see the full amount of that savings, as the sewer district may need to build up a reserve in order to deal with future maintenance.

The district serves 74 customers in the areas of the Foxfire Addition southwest of Portland and the Skeens Addition and Willow Drive near Dunkirk.

Council members Gary Theurer, Faron Parr, Cindy Newton, Mike Rockwell, Amy Runyon Barrett and Houchins, absent Ted Champ, voted in favor of providing the funding beginning with the Jan. 1 bill. Parr, as he has for months, pushed for negotiation with the cities of Portland and Dunkirk to take over the sewer system if/when the bond is paid off.

County council approved several payroll policy changes as well, one in order to comply with Indiana code and others in order to get a better handle on comp time. They are as follows:

•Requiring time sheets to be turned in with payroll forms.

•Adjusting pay periods to put all county employees on the same schedule.

•Requiring comp time an employee has accrued over 40 hours to be paid out on June 1 and Dec. 1 respectively. It had previously been required on Dec. 1 only, but some department heads have not been following that policy.

The county’s personnel committee said the comp time change is an initial step, and that if it does not fix the problem additional changes could be made. That could involve quarterly payouts of comp time or the elimination of comp time altogether.

Also Wednesday, council gave its approval for several additional appropriations, but not without some discussion.

The appropriation that was called into question was $75,000 for the “other compensation” line item for Jay County Jail to pay employees through the rest of the year. Newton questioned how and why the jail was running so far over budget for its payroll.

Sheriff Dwane Ford responded that he has had several jail employees leave jobs, which has led to overtime both to cover shifts and to train new employees.

Newton expressed her feeling that such issues need to be managed better in order to avoid running over budget.

Council approved the additional appropriation on a 5-1 vote, with Newton dissenting.

The other additional appropriations — $2,000 for janitorial supplies at the jail, $2,500 for institutional supplies at the jail, $2,000 for location of cornerstones for the surveyor's office, $3,000 for backhoe parts and repairs for the surveyor’s office and $120.38 for a grant — were approved unanimously.

Also approved were the following transfers: A total of $2,732.75 to close out a pair of Community Corrections grants; $6,000 to part-time custodian from full-time custodian in the general fund; $1,300 to training from medical and hospital in the county corrections fund; and a total of $81,712 from several funds to the highway equipment fund and $25,000 to labor from the equipment repair fund for the highway department.

Council also adopted its 2019 budget at $18,123,366, including $7,998,490 in the general fund. That number is almost 10 percent higher than the current year’s budget of $16,482,181, with the largest increases for the highway department and to cover the expected spike in health insurance costs.