No funding for JCDC

Jay County Development Corporation didn’t receive funding from the county Monday.

A motion from Jay County Commissioner Rex Journay to give $140,000 to JCDC for its budget died for lack of a second.

During the commissioners’ meeting Monday, JCDC executive director Travis Richards presented his board’s responses to the commissioners’ “points” shared in May regarding a potential contract between the two entities

Richards read from a list, starting with a call to decrease board membership. 

Commissioners asked JCDC’s board to reduce its voting membership count to nine or 11, consisting of mayors or town council presidents from Portland and Dunkirk, one county commissioner, one county council representative and representatives from Bryant, Redkey, Pennville and Salamonia. The board could have additional non-voting members.

Richards said the board unanimously does not support reducing its board membership.

“The overriding basis of this position is rooted in the founding purpose of JCDC to form a countywide coalition of leadership and representation from all corners and sectors of Jay County,” said Richards. “The purpose of this approach to JCDC’s design was to maintain continuity of strategy and leadership beyond election cycles to inform  the county’s mission and decision-making process. To make the request to alterations in size and membership violates one of the major purposes of the formation of JCDC.”

Addressing the points at its Aug. 26 meeting, JCDC’s board agreed to: return unused funds from completed projects back to the county, with the understanding that the money is for projects and not operational funds; approve a new lease agreement with Portland for its office at Community Resource Center, which was done at the same meeting; meet monthly or as needed; require the executive director to set yearly goals and report to commissioners quarterly in person and via email as needed; coordinate better communications between the community coordinator and JCDC executive director.

Richards said the following points have been resolved: amending bylaws to reflect any new changes, which he said are not required by the current proposal; JCDC leading the manufacturing sector and the community coordinator to lead the business section, saying they will work together as needed to serve sectors; divulging confidential information obtained by the executive director to a council and commissioner representative as needed for potential projects, with Richards saying JCDC will discuss infrastructure requirements as needed; the JCDC executive director explaining once annually the benefit package that the executive director and assistant director receive, with Richards explaining JCDC will continue to provide monthly financial reports and answer related questions.

He said the board did not address the point declaring the JCDC executive director to be the head local economic development official for the county with the community coordinator as the assistant, saying the assistant position is not a defined role and not required.

Commissioners president Chad Aker noted a major point for commissioners is reducing the board’s number of members. He said in the past decade, JCDC has been given more than $2 million in county dollars, and he argued it hasn’t proposed significant economic development projects or adequately addressed economic development needs.

“I’m getting constantly bombarded from people wondering, ‘What are they doing? What are they doing?’” he said. “We continue to decline in income … population.”

Aker said commissioners reached out to East Central Indiana Regional Planning District to address making a change and wanted the group to work with JCDC. He accused the board of being “standoffish” to the idea of working with East Central Indiana Regional Planning District as a team.

He also said JCDC board members don’t have a financial stake in county decisions and accused board members of attacking opposing viewpoints at their meetings, with Richards later refuting both comments.

Commissioner Brian McGalliard said “it has been a fight” with JCDC to make change happen.

Journay shared a different perspective.

“We have made it very difficult to work with JCDC in the fact of what we’ve done here in the last three years and continue to make it difficult to work with them, who will then work with us,” he said. “I don’t see that as progress.”

McGalliard pointed to a decision made last week by Jay County Council to allocate no specific funding in the local income tax economic development portion of the county’s 2025 budget. (Commissioners will need to approach the council in 2025 to request additional appropriations.) He also referenced comments made by JCDC board member Josh Atkinson in August suggesting JCDC wait until January to address a potential contract with the new group of commissioners. (McGalliard and Journay’s terms are up in December.)

“I’m fine with that,” said McGalliard. “If the new commissioners want to continue down the same path we’ve been going for the last 20, 30 years, that’s on them, not me.”

He recommended JCDC wait to approach commissioners in January for funding.

Commissioners, board president Angela Paxson and Richards went back and forth in discussion for a few minutes. Aker confirmed to Richards he wouldn’t move forward with a contract or funding for JCDC until the board agrees to a reduction in its membership.

Journay made a motion to approve $140,000 for JCDC’s budget for the current year. His motion died on the floor. 

Aker then recommended JCDC’s board meet again and reconsider “option number one.”

“And if we don’t?” asked Richards.

McGalliard noted the county will have two new commissioners in January.

In other business Monday, commissioners OK’d dispersing the remaining inventory from volunteer emergency unit Rescue 19. Plans are to offer the equipment to Jay County fire departments.

Commissioners have been discussing disbanding Rescue 19, noting a lack of participation in recent years. County attorney Wes Schemenaur said commissioners will likely need to repeal the ordinance that established Rescue 19. (The volunteer service has been in existence since 1965, according to retired founding member Jim Bruner.) Schemenaur said he would prepare the document for commissioners.

Also, commissioners approved a request from highway superintendent Bob Howell to purchase and install a fuel management system on the department’s gas and diesel tanks. Estimated at $19,869 to install with an additional $900 subscription cost annually, the system should help to track fuel usage and eliminate fuel loss. (The system had originally been considered when officials installed new above-ground tanks at the highway department in past years but was cut to save money.)

In other business, commissioners:

•Held a public hearing for and approved raising tax rates to $3.50 an acre and $35 a plot for the following watersheds: Brooks Creek, AB Butcher, Foskul, Lowell Grissell, Ross and Days Creek, J Thornburg and WS Manor. A few residents with properties in the area shared concerns about the increasing rate, with surveyor Brad Daniels explaining the watersheds are in deficit spending.

•Approved the following: paying $184,900 — it’s subject to approval from Jay County Council — out of the 2025 budget for outfitting a chassis and adding a new asphalt distributor tank to the vehicle be used for road resurfacing by Jay County Highway Department; a quarterly claim from Lifestream Services; a $20,000 grant application from Jay County Emergency Management Agency for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness grant; adding additional employees as authorized users on Jay County Purdue Extension Office’s credit card.

•OK’d Jay County Highway Department to trade in a 2016 Dodge and purchase a 2024 Ford pickup truck from Hunter Ford of Marion for $37,845.

•Agreed to seek three-year farming leases for three rural properties owned by the county and inform Chris Muhlenkamp that the county will not be renewing its farming lease for its 68 acres on the western edge of Portland. (Commissioners are waiting to hear back on whether the county will receive additional funding to go toward a housing project on the land.)