Commissioners approve to vacate road as safety concerns arise
Pulaski County Commissioners approved to move forward with vacating a road as safety concerns are raised.
During a regular meeting on Monday, commissioner Terry Young requested the county vacate CR 1150 W., between CR 900 S. and CR 1000 S. He said the road is not worth it and continues to cost the county money.
“It is basically a path between the two landowners. Someone could go down it and have an accident,” said Terry Ruff, Pulaski County Highway Assistant Superintendent. “I don’t know what we would get out of it. It is not suitable to plow.”
Commissioner president Larry Brady suggested discussing it a little more because the road is a dividing line between two properties.
Young indicated that further discussion wasn’t needed.
“We put more into that road than we could ever receive in a year,” said Young, who was indicating lawyer fees that accumulated because of disputed drainage issues in that area.
The road will now need to be officially vacated with the proper paperwork.
Ruff also gave an update regarding the status of the county roads. He said patching is underway but there is still a lot to be done.
According to Ruff, about 19 miles were repaired last year because of the winter weather. This year there’s an estimated 20 miles of roadway that are in poor condition.
“The bottom line is that most of it is in the southern part of the county. It seems like everything is worse down there,” Ruff said.
Ruff would like to fix the roads with chip and seal layers after fixing the damaged spots. He feels that grinding the roads will just make more work.
“We are basically going to have to repair all this and our regular maintenance is thrown out the window,” Ruff said.
The idea of a frost law was again discussed during the meeting. At a previous meeting, Young suggested the county move forward with a frost law that might prevent some road damage and also collect some revenues.
Ruff said the damage to the roads happened in about a two-week span. If a frost law was in place it may have prevented some of the damage.
“If word got around it would slow everything down,” Ruff said.
There was a question as to which county fund the frost law violation fees would go into. It was suggested that commissioners research the idea more this summer.
In other business:
• Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer said the county needs about 400 more surveys to complete an income survey for a potential EMS planning grant. Origer said 500 surveys are needed but only 100 have been submitted. The county is looking at grant funding to help build a new facility for EMS and the emergency management agency. Brady said maybe the county can encourage residents to complete the survey through the local media.
• The agreement with Sheila Hazemi Jimenez regarding the revolving loan funding for the Warrior Den restaurant was approved.
• Origer said changes to the zoning ordinance are in “full swing” and on schedule. Origer requested having the ordinances reviewed and changed several months ago. At the time he said the changes were needed because some of the ordinances could cause legal issues for the county.
• The young professionals organization that Origer has been working to get started will soon gather at an informal meeting. It will be followed up with a lunch and learn.
• The Pulaski County Assistant Building Inspector Dave Webber gave an update on a few properties that the county is watching. Work should begin soon on one of the properties located in Medaryville. Another property has several trailers on property causing a large amount of debris. Webber said a letter has been written to the property owner, prior to any orders being issued.
• Commissioners reviewed a letter regarding the demolition of the Countryside Bowling Lanes. The county has been in contact with the property owner who said she would work to have the building torn down. Webber said it appears that she is having problems paying for the demolition of it. He suggested that an unsafe building order can be issued or a warning of an order being filed could be done. If the county demolishes a building then the costs would be recouped by a property lien.
• The county continues to work toward equipping the transfer/recycling center with a credit card machine. The county is waiting to hear from the state on how to handle the money collected electronically such as which account the money would be deposited in and how to keep it separate from other accounts.
• Transfer/recycling center superintendent Brad Bonnell requested permission from the commissioners to try a trial period of picking up a number of county residents’ recycling. He would like to see if it can be feasibly done. Commissioners granted permission for a trial run.
• The county is looking to add cameras to the recycling/transfer center buildings to monitor illegal dumping. The county is having problems with the dumping of tires and trash. Violators could be prosecuted.
• Pulaski County Sheriff Jeff Richwine gave commissioners a heads up in regards to purchasing a new computer server and new 800 MHz radios. Richwine said there is money in the budget for the server. Purchasing new radios and upgrading others could come from the 911 funds. The county could then work on new radios for other emergency responding agencies.
• An agreement with Pulaski County EMS and Pulaski Memorial Hospital regarding inpatient transfers and returns was approved. The agreement had been tabled at the last meeting until county attorney Kevin Tankersley had a chance to review it.
• Conference requests for Larry Hoover, Shelia Garling, Holly Schultz and Ruff were approved.
• Several letters from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management were presented to the commissioners regarding information about a confined feeding operation farm, a concentrated animal feeding operation farm and a general permit for discharge water.
• Brady read a letter regarding the Pleasant View Rest Home as being entered in the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 2015. He commended those who made that national recognition possible including Janet Onken, who made the honor possible.
• Claims were approved with the exception of one involving dry cleaning.
• Minutes from the April 6 regular meeting were approved.