Security questions remain

The committee working on security at Jay County Courthouse still has some key questions to answer.

“How controlled do you want the courthouse?” Sheriff Dwane Ford asked Jay County Commissioners Tuesday morning. “It’s your building.”

Ford, who has been heading up the security committee, said he has been working with three different security firms on proposals for camera surveillance equipment to be installed in the building.

“Right now, we’re still in the study process,” said Ford. “I don’t foresee this going into place Jan. 1.”

Among the questions still on the table is how best to control access to the building. Plans call for the public to use only the south entrance to the courthouse off Main Street. Visitors would then encounter a security officer and a metal detector and would use a beefed-up version of the current handicapped ramp.

Courthouse employees would be issued key fobs that would allow them access electronically to the north door of the courthouse. But it’s still unclear whether the east and west doors would be limited to exit only.

“I’d like to get (this) out of my hands,” said Ford, noting that the committee was to meet Tuesday afternoon.

Installation of poles for overhead electrical transmission lines related to Bitter Ridge Wind Farm should begin this week.

“You’ll start seeing a lot of work on 500 South,” county engineer Dan Watson told commissioners. “Things are going real well down there.”

He also reported that all paving projects for 2019 have been completed.

Monday’s early snowfall had Jay County Highway Department crews busy overnight.

“I’ve had the salt trucks out since midnight last night,” highway superintendent Donnie Corn told commissioners. The county’s snow plows have all been serviced, and all the warm weather equipment has been stowed for the season.

Corn reminded commissioners that an auction of old equipment will be conducted at 10 a.m. Nov. 23 in the Bubp Building at Jay County Fairgrounds.

Loy Auctioneering and Real Estate is handling the sale.

In other business, commissioners Chuck Huffman and Mike Leonhard, absent an ailing Chad Aker:

•Agreed to contract with VFP Fire Equipment, Fort Wayne, at $1,084 a year for work at Jay County Retirement Center, ending a contract with Koorsen.

•Declined — for now — to accept a new resident at the retirement center who would be coming from the Muncie Mission. Though the resident would be full-pay, Huffman declined to second a motion from Leonhard to accept him. “I appreciate the fact that he would be full-pay, but as I’ve said before, I’m opposed to out of county residents, so I can’t second the motion,” Huffman said. The matter may return before the commissioners when Aker is present.

•Learned Jay Emergency Medical Service continues to improve its financial situation. “We had a very good financial month,” said Gary Barnett of JEMS.

•Offered a reminder that commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. today with Platinum Benefits about county employee health insurance renewal rates.