Council expresses frustration with highway department, worries about a lack of funding for INDOT Community Crossings
NOAH Woods - Reporter
Harrison County Council Meeting - 3/22/21 - 7:00pm Harrison County Government Center
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS MEETING IN FULL.
"At somepoint, we're out of money...the casino was down for a year and it hurts."
"I don't know where we're going to end up...we're going to have to say no on stuff."
These are direct quotes from councilman Kyle Nix at Monday night's county council meeting regarding a request from the Harrison County Highway Department to fund the Community Crossings Matching Grant via INDOT. We are still curious as to why this was never said to the Harrison County Parks Department when they asked for $166,000 to renovate the Wright Center.
Councilman Brad Wiseman, again expressed disapproval of allocating additional funds to maintain the newly acquired 32 miles of road in the south of the county.
Kevin Russel of the Harrison County Highway Department asked for $400,000 in additional funds as part of the Community Crossings matching program with INDOT. He stated that "whether it's been our road for six days, for six months, or for six years, it's our road."
Wiseman expressed further frustration at commissioner Jim Heitkemper for going forward with Community Crossings Matching Grant without consulting the council stating "that's a grant that you all went forward with, without talking to anybody specifically tying it to this road...knowing how everybody on this board felt about it and yet you went and did it anyway." Wiseman then directly addressed Heitkemper and Russel with the following:
"So you put us behind an 8 ball, where you c an say in front of us: we have a million dollars here and if we don't use it, we lose it."
You've heard us talk about the dysfunctional relationship between the Harrison County Council and the Commissioners. This is the best example of that we've seen yet.
We highly recommend you skip to 45minutes into the video to watch this exchange and learn more about our leadership.
FULL NOTES HERE:
Call to Order & Roll Call:
All 7 members present, as well as their attorney
Communications from Public and County Officials:
Boone Township Fire District & Posey/Taylor Township Fire District
One rep from Boone, one from Elizabeth
Requesting $460,000 and $250,000, respectively
Said even if they ordered it would take at least an estimated 14-16 months to receive trucks.
Plan to take the $500k allotted in 2021 budget from the current 3 year plan (2021 last year of this plan) and roll it into their 2022 budget because Palmyra was “not ready and needed to collectively regroup.” Therefore, rather than spend anything in 2021, they will plan to spend $1M in 2022 due to the time it takes to assume possession of new fire trucks.
Council members made inquires about if there was a plan for a situation where the new plan starting in 2022 is less than what was budgeted in the previous 3 year plan since no discussions have occured around what the new plan will look like (10 min)
Palmyra’s plan to build a firehouse/community center now estimated to cost $1.8M
Cappelle stated she was “not on board” for using funds allotted to firefighters to fund the building of community centers, rather she would rather see money spent on “firefighting types of things”
Wants to “iron out” the parameters for what funds are spent on.
Circuit Court Judge
Judge Evans from Harrison Circuit Court
Harrison Circuit Court operates 2 court rooms, records all proceedings as required, both have the same equipment that were installed in 2011
Equipment is beginning to fail and is outdated (analog rather than digital system)
Shouldn’t be continuing cost associated with upkeep/maintenance.
Hoping to get another 10 years or more out of the new system, but uncertain due to the rate at which technology becomes outdated.
$12,200 per courtroom ($24,400 total) + $500 installation fee + misc. cost for pulling old wiring.
$25k total request
Highway Department - Kevin Russel
$400k additional request for match in Community Crossings Matching Grant via INDOT
There was a heated exchange between Brad Wiseman and Kevin Russel regarding allocating money towards a road recently acquired by county from the state compared to roads that have been long owned by county (starts at 45:57 mark in video)
Russel explained that this project was applied for because of the highway department’s use of Indiana Department of Traffic prioritization schedule.
Project is estimated to bring an estimated excess of $40M into the county in an infrastructure project from INDOT
One point of contention coming from the council seems to be that much more than 5% of budget is being allocated to this newly acquired 33miles of road that accounts for approx. 4% of the total county road mileage
Another point of contention is budgetary concerns for further increases in allocations to highway department because, as councilman Kyle Nix states “at some point were got to start having these very real conversations about what were committed to funding and how we are going to get there because were out of money, and were into the endowment, and so what are we going to do as a community...about money.” (1:03:00)
Highway department rep. rebutted by pointing to the approx. $132M in the community endowment fund, which he stated is described as a “rainy day fund” and if 2020 wasn’t a rainy day then he isn’t sure what would be.
Donnie Hussung clarified that only 5% of the market value of that fund is available for use.
Highway Department wants to pursue these projects because they want to maximize money through federal and state fund matching programs - i.e. not spending the $400k now loses out on $1M in funds matching
Also explained that while this project might be unpopular with some people, it will be very popular with other people. Feels that this project would greatly benefit the communities good - gives very specific examples of how (1:09:00)
$50,000 additional request from the overtime budget, had a lot of overtime due to snow storms
Ran 12 hour shifts for over a week for snow storms, many trees down on roads that needed to be removed
Budgeted $50,000 for entire year of overtime, but this has been exhausted already - account is currently “in the red” and needs $550 transfer to simply bring out of the red
Additional $50k request is to replenish fund for the rest of year
$60k additional request for motor vehicle highway truck and tractor repairs
Down to less than $70 in the truck and tractor repair account due to repairs made to several trucks and tractors
Additional Appropriations Advertised:
Prosecutor requesting an anticipated $15k for expenses relating to murder trial
Passed 7-0
$35k to Replenish contract services courthouse account
This was based on an agreement to reimburse expenses for generator repair paid out of this account
Passed 7 -0
Another $50K related expense for generator repair
Passed 7 - 0
$50k for building repairs at government center
Passed 7 - 0
$323,993 request byHarrison County Sherrif for additional officers
Cappelle brought up that it should be noted that if decisions need to be made due to budget concerns this is an area that should be considered (this is a call back to council’s comments over concerns regarding additional funding for highway department projects)
Apparently county needs more officers because it is growing
Passed 7 - 0