Army Corps will visit Jay Co.

Representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be in Jay County next week to get a first-hand look at the Salamonie River and potential solutions to perennial flooding issues.

Jay County Commissioner Barry Hudson said Monday that Corps representatives will meet with local officials at 11 a.m. in the office of Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman and plans call for a group to walk the route of a proposed open ditch that would re-route stormwater from Millers Branch to the Salamonie.

County surveyor Brad Daniels was asked to take part in that process.

Currently, Millers Branch flows underground through downtown Portland, but a study conducted by the engineering firm of Jones and Henry a number of years ago proposed routing that water to the river east of the city.

While the weekend’s rainfall caused serious flooding in parts of east central Indiana, the Salamonie was largely unaffected.

“It didn’t stay up more than four or five hours,” emergency management director Ralph Frazee told commissioners.

Frazee based his comments on a river level monitor located west of Jay County High School which tracks the data electronically. River levels are then posted on the internet at bit.ly/Salamonielevel.

As a precaution, Frazee said, the city had prepared a supply of sandbags that could be put to use had flooding occurred.

Also Monday, Commissioners unanimously agreed to commit another $100,000 for a total of $250,000 to serve as local match dollars that would leverage a major Community Crossings paving initiative for three of the county’s smallest towns.

Community developer Ami Huffman outlined plans which would re-pave virtually all of the streets in Bryant, a number of streets in Pennville and all of the streets in Salamonia.

The local match — $105,000 in the case of Bryant, $89,000 in the case of Pennville, and $39,000 in the case of Salamonia — would come from economic development funds provided by NextEra Energy as part of the development of Bluff Point Wind Energy Center.

“The money’s there to use,” said Hudson. “We need to keep the little communities’ streets nice.”

County engineer Dan Watson said a Community Crossings grant application this month will seek $862,500 to help with the cost of repaving Boundary Pike and county road 500 West. The local match on that project is $287,500.

Watson said next year’s Community Crossings application will focus on Mount Pleasant Road and Como Road.

Huffman also told commissioners that plans to apply for a broadband internet grant had fallen through after the state said Jay County had less than 51 percent of its households qualifying as low to moderate income.

“There’s a disagreement on the statistics,” said Huffman.

In fact, state officials told her that based upon census data, no county in Indiana qualified.

It may be necessary, she added, to conduct an income survey to prove those statistics wrong and move forward in seeking a broadband grant.

Though no action was taken, commissioners expressed support for taking that step.

“We’ve been talking about the broadband problem for 15 years,” said Hudson. “This is what drives business for the future. … We’ve got to get the broadband service.”

County highway superintendent Ken Wellman told commissioners that chip and seal work is done for the year, with 109 miles taken care of at a cost of about $8,100 per mile.

The work used 540,000 gallons of emulsion and 13,600 tons of stone.

“We had a pretty good price on oil this year,” said Wellman.

Wellman also said the highway department may have to invest in new computer software in order to correctly categorize expenditures and meet new requirements from the State Board of Accounts.

“We absolutely need to do something,” he said. “They’re wanting to track every penny you spend.”

In other business, commissioners:

•Acting as the county drainage board, opened bids on a new excavator ranging from $168,070 to $183,900 and bids on a new bulldozer ranging from $214,958 to $238,875. All those bids were taken under advisement and will be brought back to the commissioners for action at a later date.

•Heard Daniels say he is still awaiting word on an insurance settlement after fire destroyed a county excavator this summer.

•Approved the purchase of a locator to be used by county ditch crews at a cost of $4,815. Daniels assured commissioners the equipment will only be used in conjunction with calling 811 to locate underground transmission lines.

•Granted an easement to the City of Portland for stormwater sewer work near the county courthouse.

•Discussed the need to sell unneeded and outdated equipment at a public auction this fall.

•Approved the necessary changes that will allow the public to pay for Jay Emergency Medical Service ambulance runs via credit card.

•Approved the purchase of a Hillyard floor scrubber for Jay County Jail at a cost of $3,605.33.

•Tabled a request for a new computer for the county coroner until specifications can be reviewed.

•Said they expect to hear a proposal Sept. 24 for use of the barn and pasture land at Jay County Retirement Center by Jay County FFA.

•Said nearly all county employees have taken the first internet security training session by KnowB4. A few remaining email accounts may be inactive or dormant.

•Discussed the growing problem with stray dogs in the county and the lack of facilities to handle them. “There’s no place to take the dogs,” said commissioner Chuck Huffman. “Everybody’s full.”