Dunkirk applying for more paving

DUNKIRK — While one round of Community Crossings paving is being completed this week, the city will be applying for another.

Dunkirk City Council and Dunkirk Board of Works on Monday approved moving forward with an application for an Indiana Department of Transportation Community Crossings to pave six sections of streets.

The city plans to apply to INDOT for funding to help pay to pave the following:

•The entirety of Broad, Johnson and 5th streets

•Ohio Street between Main and 5th streets

•Shatto Street between High and North streets

•High Street between Indiana and Hoover streets.

Choice One Engineering will be assisting the city with the application process for the 75/25 grant. The total project is estimated at $229,300, which would make Dunkirk’s match $57,325.

Council members Jesse Bivens, Tom Johnson, Bryan Jessup and Christy Curts, absent Kevin Hamilton, approved the grant application.

Meanwhile, during the board of works meeting, street department superintendent Mike Kreps said paving streets approved for Community Crossings grant funding in December will begin Wednesday.

Commissioners asked county attorney Bill Hinkle to review the document and agreed to consider it at a later date.

In other business, commissioners:

•Heard from Jay Emergency Medical Service director Gary Barnett that the number of emergency calls related to drug overdoses have been significantly lower than in past years.

•OK’d Jay County Emergency Management Agency director Amy Blakely and Jay County Sheriff Dwane Ford to pursue grants. Blakely is pursuing a salary reimbursement grant for about $18,000, the hazardous materials emergency preparedness program grant with a maximum amount of $15,000 and the emergency management performance grant with a maximum amount of $40,000. Ford is seeking a federal grant for purchasing more bulletproof vests. He explained each costs between $700 and $800, and his department is looking to purchase 14 new vests to replace their current expired vests.

•Gave permission to Jay County Courthouse superintendent Bruce Sutton to use a 2012 Ford F-250 owned by Jay County Highway Department. Sutton said he would use the vehicle for trash removal each week as well as removing snow from around the courthouse. (The highway department otherwise would have sold the vehicle in a county auction as soon as next year, highway superintendent Donnie Corn said.)

•Selected the following bids: $6,336.49 from D and D Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning for a new air conditioner at Jay County Country Living (formerly known as Jay County Retirement Center); $6,242.04 from Kleem Inc. of West Chester, Ohio, for 24 barricades to use on closed roads. (Corn noted several of the highway department’s road closed signs were stolen during the aftermath of the June tornado, and barricades would serve as an alternative to the signs. Each barricade is 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall); about $1,900 from Franklin Electric of Fort Wayne for upgrading to LED lights at the Dunkirk fire station and Dunkirk base for Jay Emergency Medical Service.

•Signed claims, including the following: approximately $82,000 for a downpayment on new video cameras at Jay County Jail; $5,782 for a new air conditioning unit at the jail; $4,500 contracted amount with Havel, an EMCOR company contracted for maintenance and systems at the jail; about $3,000 (out of designated town economic payments) for the Town of Salamonia to fix the roof at Salamonia Schoolhouse Community Center.

•Heard from Jay County Country Living (formerly Jay County Retirement Center) director Hope Confer that a groundhog chewed through the wiring harness in one of its vehicles. Commissioners suggested the highway department could fix the issue and said they would help make arrangements.

•Signed a contract with Haller & Colvin law firm for its services regarding a tax appeal case out of Dunkirk.