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Wednesday, 02 November 2011 16:50 |
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by Don Amber
I’m writing this report following what I consider my favorite Commissioners’ meeting yet.
We held our October 17 meeting in the auditorium of Churubusco High School. Attending was the Senior Government class taught by Mr. Gary Smith. I publicly want to thank Mr. Smith and the Smith-Green Administration for allowing us to have this meeting. Our goal was to educate the class on county government and to answer any questions they had. We achieved both goals in my opinion. Mr. Smith had the class write their questions on cards and presented them to us before the meeting.
Interestingly enough, most questions pertained to roads. At least I found that interesting. Other questions included: What are the benefits of being a Commissioner? Are you taking any action to improve the Churubusco Skate Park? (This question allowed us to explain where county/town/park administration is different). How much power do you hold over the spending of the county money? This question let us explain the difference between the County Commissioners (Legislative Branch) and the County Council (Fiscal Branch). Excellent question.
It’s my intention to try and visit the class again and answer all of their questions.
In other county business we recently looked at a program that would review all of the county telephone lines to see if we have any underused or over-charged lines. It’s an interesting concept and while it looks good on the surface, we must compare the cost of the program to any subsequent savings.
We are done milling roads for 2011 after a very good season. The milled roads will sit through the winter and will be sealed next spring.
Debbie Beers, Whitley County Clerk, along with her election staff advised the Commissioners in October that redistricting of County Council members might have to take place. The Commissioners are looking at population numbers for each district to make certain they are as close to equal as possible. Redistricting, if necessary, will take place before the 2012 election process begins. By the way, good luck to all the candidates in the town and city election on November 8. The county is blessed with good candidates in all three of our communities.
It’s hard to believe but county elections take place in just a year but for those running, the season officially begins with filing to run right after the first of the year, about 90 days from now. by Don Amber I’m writing this report following what I consider my favorite Commissioners’ meeting yet. We held our October 17 meeting in the auditorium of Churubusco High School. Attending was the Senior Government class taught by Mr. Gary Smith. I publicly want to thank Mr. Smith and the Smith-Green Administration for allowing us to have this meeting. Our goal was to educate the class on county government and to answer any questions they had. We achieved both goals in my opinion. Mr. Smith had the class write their questions on cards and presented them to us before the meeting.
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Wednesday, 20 October 2010 21:29 |
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by Don Amber
Whitley County Commissioner
First of all I apologize for failing to keep up with this column. I honestly believed that I could miss a month or two and no one would notice. It has been humbling to hear from several folks (but mostly the Editor…) that they indeed missed the column and wanted me to get off of my duff and write again.
Twenty-two months have passed since I was sworn in and I continue to love the job. One of my areas of responsibility is the county highway department. This department has been very active the past two summers under the leadership of Michael Barton. That said, I continue to be asked why we “tear up roads and then not fix them?” There are several examples of our “milling” projects here in Smith Township. What is “milling?” Milling is a process where a large machine literally grinds up the asphalt pavement into small pieces then we mix 2,000 tons of stone per mile with the grindings. The mixture is then smoothed out and usually left to settle through the winter. In the following spring or summer we then seal the road and it looks like a newly paved road. Actually we seal it two and sometimes even three times. If you want to see an example of the finished product drive out and see 450 North between the Blue Lake Road and 800 East. If you can remember what it was like two years ago you’ll be amazed.
This year we milled many, many miles of roads around the county because Mr. Barton was able to make a great deal on the rental of the milling machine. In previous years we paid a company $4,000.00 per mile to mill. Mr. Barton found a company willing to rent a machine to us and allow us to operate it. The rental bill was $32,000.00 which would only mill eight miles under the old method but we milled almost 25 miles using the rental agreement. Of course that means we have lots of roads turned from bad asphalt to “stone” for several months and believe me we hear about that!! Please be patient because beginning next summer we will start sealing those roads and they too will look as good as 450 North. Good things take time!
My final “road report” will concern the Anderson Road. Originally we were going to mill Anderson from 450 East to 650 East last year. Before we got started on it we learned that since Anderson Road is considered by the Fed’s as a “Major Collector” road, we could use stimulus money to repave it. It was a tough decision but we decided to “wait it out” and see if we could get stimulus money. We’ve waited a year now and still no funds have become available so nothing more will be done with the Anderson this year. Currently we are thinking that if no stimulus money is available by next spring we’ll likely mill and seal soon after without waiting through the winter. The good news is the road will be done sooner, the bad news is it won’t have a winter’s worth of driving and packing on it. Sort of darned if you do, and darned if you don’t…..
I think for this edition I would like to end by asking you to please carefully consider how you vote on the question “Should Property Tax Caps be placed in the Constitution?” The premise is that your real estate taxes will be capped at one percent of the assessed value of your home. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Just consider the old saying, “ if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
When you look at who pushed this legislation through you will find it was done by state legislators, driven by the Governor, major real estate groups and chamber of commerces. The premise? So they can help their campaigns by saying “We cut your taxes!”
What the State of Indiana wants is for all taxes to be funneled through the Indiana Department of Revenue and distributed back to the counties, cities, towns, townships, etc as they see fit to make the distribution. What they don’t want is for you to write checks to the Whitley County Treasurer with local cities, towns, townships, etc receiving funds from the County Treasurer.
Do you want the State of Indiana disbursing money as they see fit, or do you want the taxes you pay kept at home for such things as fire protection, police protection, EMS, etc. Ask the Smith-Green school administration if they like having the money sent to them from the state as opposed to coming from local taxes. You, as the taxpayer, lose control of your own taxes when it goes to Indianapolis.
What it all boils down to is while you might ( this will happen only to a small percentage of real estate owners) have your property tax capped, you will lose your Homestead Credit and your local governments will have less money to provide essential services. I guess I call police, fire, EMS protection essential services, perhaps you don’t. Think about it at election time.
Thanks for listening, feel free to call with comments or complaints. My number is 609-2833. by Don Amber Whitley County Commissioner First of all I apologize for failing to keep up with this column. I honestly believed that I could miss a month or two and no one would notice. It has been humbling to hear from several folks (but mostly the Editor…) that they indeed missed the column and wanted me to get off of my duff and write again.
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 22:20 |
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(Amber, a Churubusco resident in his first term as Commissioner will write a monthly column telling about his trials and tribulations as an elected representative of Whitley County.)
by Don Amber
As I write this month’s column, I’m still full of …..turkey! For the past several Thanksgivings my family have enjoyed the fellowship and food prepared and served at the Masonic Hall here in Busco. It was just as good this year.
Hopefully you got some meaningful information from my article about the recycling program and the humane shelter. Please feel free to contact me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
if you have more questions.
At our first meeting of November we approved a contract with Accurate Assessment, Inc. to continue to perform our “new construction” inspection for assessing and also to perform the state mandated “trending,” again an assessment project. We have been working with Accurate Assessment for a lot of years and their work has always met or exceeded our expectations. They perform work that as a township assessor Patty and I used to perform. When a new home, barn, actually any structure is built it must be assessed. The county assessor noticed that similar homes in the county were assessed differently so as to have equal assessments for equal buildings; we decided to have one company do the new construction assessing. It’s a good thing our county was ahead of the game because in July of 2008 our legislature did away with township assessors.
Next on our agenda was the report of Mr. Dan Sigler, our county attorney. Mr. Sigler reported that the county and humane shelter had reached an agreement where the county would pay the shelter $5,000.00 and the shelter would again accept animals from the county. Furthermore there would be no agreement or contract for 2010 but a committee will look at other options. Mr. Sigler then asked the commissioners if they wanted to expand the proposed “barking dog” ordinance to include a “noise” ordinance. The commissioners indicated that for now they only want to deal with barking dogs and perhaps a noise ordinance could be considered at another time. Mr. Sigler then stated that he would have a barking dog ordinance ready for us to sign at our next meeting.
Brandon Forrester P.E., our county engineer advised the board that USI (our current bridge inspectors) were present to discuss the reason why our next four year proposal increased from $60,000 to $107,495. The explanation included new state and federal regulations along with a newly mandated software program as the reasons. The board was reminded that this program is 80% funded by the state with the county having to pickup about 20 percent an actual increase of about $ 9000.00. Further discussion indicated that since this was a proposal and not a “bid,” this amount is further capable of negotiation and Mr. Forrester was asked to continue negotiations. The commissioners did approve the contract with the negotiation stipulation.
Sheriff Hodges came before the commissioners to request three new sheriff vehicles with a total cost of $74,000.00. It is essential that we purchase two to three cars each year to keep from having to replace the entire fleet at one time. Normally we try to place the used police cars in the hands of other county departments that require transportation. To be honest with you, I’m opposed to giving used sheriff vehicles to other departments because I feel that the cars are beyond their useful life and we should consider giving more fuel efficient cars to the departments that require transportation in their daily duties.
Chairman Tom Rethlake has received complaints from citizens about vehicles passing school buses that have their stop arms out and flashers on. While this isn’t a responsibility of the commissioners, we felt that inviting local police agencies and school transportation directors from the Whitley County Consolidated Schools, Smith-Green Schools, and Whitko Schools to our meeting in an effort to discuss this problem would be prudent. It was a great discussion. One school transportation director lamented that his drivers were no longer calling in these infractions because it appeared that nothing was being done about it. Brian Bills of the Indiana State Police told us that he used to be the contact person when these problems were called in; however, the ISP had taken the issued cell phones away from the officers so he no longer could receive calls. He stated that if he had a way to be contacted he would pursue each case. I asked our county coordinator, Amy Crickmore, if we had any county cell phones available and she said that we have one. I made a motion that we assign this cell phone to Trooper Bills if he agreed to carry it. He did agree and the transportation directors all stated that they would again request that their bus drivers report any further cases as soon as they happen. Student safety is not just the responsibility of the schools but everyone’s responsibility.
In other business, we were informed that the first annual “Veteran’s Day Marathon” would take place on Saturday November 14th. The commissioners approved the use of the courthouse lawn for marathon activities. In addition to a very healthy activity, this marathon brought about 400 folks to Whitley County and I understand that every motel room was full! A great economic boost to the county as well.
Under the heading of “you can’t win them all,” I suggested that the impact of H1N1 illness was such that we should give our employees additional time off so that they could stay home with not only their ill children but non-infected siblings as well (they would soon be infected most likely) . At the time, Dr. Lisa Hatcher, our County Health doctor had suggested that ill children be kept in the home for seven days and unaffected siblings kept in as well for five days. This would get the unaffected siblings through the incubation period. Unfortunately I had no support for my request as it would be very hard to “police” the additional time off.
On the subject of H1N1 I want to thank the entire health department and especially April Waugh, RN from our immunization clinic. April and her staff have worked tirelessly to see that immunizations are administered. I’m also happy to report that we have had some volunteers from the EMS help with our shot clinics. Volunteers include Robin Holloway RN/Advanced EMT, Duane Ginder EMT/P, and Doug Reed EMT/P. Again thanks to all who have worked so hard to see our citizens are immunized against this current flu. As I write this it appears that the flu has gone on Christmas vacation but with family gatherings soon coming up you can bet that another wave of flu will soon be here. Currently we have enough vaccine for everyone so if you see a clinic available please go and get immunized. There is no cost for this immunization.
Other items discussed, or worked on in November was a combined grant initiative between the county and Columbia City about the sewer project that is needed in Coesse, and the need to apply for a grant that would allow the county to become “greener” and save the taxpayers money with regard to energy situations. One of the things the grant would cover would be replacing all light bulbs in the jail with energy efficient lighting. We also re-appointed Dr. Lisa Hatcher as the County Health officer. Dr. Hatcher is NOT a “behind the scenes” medical director but a very, very hard working and conscientious medical professional who has made a significant impact on keeping Whitley County residents healthy. It was a pleasure to re-appoint her.
Also, we heard from David Sewell, the planning director, that we are getting closer to having an updated “Comprehensive Plan” for Whitley County. Our last plan was dated 1993!! We all agree that this plan needs updated more often. We selected Ground Rules of Indianapolis to perform the work but a final contract will not be signed until we have finished negotiations with them that will give the county “the most bang for the buck.”
From the inception of computers the county has never had an “IT” (Informational Technologist) but instead used a variety of computer repair agencies. For the past few years we’ve used one man in particular and have been very happy with his work. His name is Jim Becher and he is very responsive to our needs. In an effort to feel a little more comfortable with knowing that he will always be available and so that the county does not have to fund a new “full time” position, Jim and the county have reached an agreement that will make him our “IT” person. He will not be a full-time employee, but a contracted employee for now. We all agreed that eventually the county will require a full time IT person.
In closing, I want to bring up another situation that I want to hear comments on. Awhile back I mentioned that EMS funding is going to have to change from using CEDIT (Economic Development Income Tax) and instead be funded by another method. Folks, this is a significant expenditure each year and I won’t deny that I don’t want the EMS service downgraded. We have had an EMS service in Whitley County unmatched by any others for quite a few years; however, it has been downgraded on at least one occasion and I don’t want that to happen again. The citizens of Whitley County deserve the best pre-hospital care possible. Here’s the deal. Currently it costs the county about $380,000 annually to keep the EMS at a breakeven point. Medicare reimbursement rates are going lower and no one knows the outcome of the current healthcare initiative at the federal level. Furthermore, it’s becoming obvious that within a few years volunteerism in Churubusco and South Whitley will wane to the point that full time personnel are going to be required. A knowledgeable guess is that the $380,000 EMS expense will go to about $610,000 by 2014. When I was the EMS Director I suggested to the county council that they put EMS on the tax role but that never happened, so now we must find an alternate way to fund it. A couple of ideas being considered are the incorporation of a Local Option Income Tax (LOIT) which, while adding an income tax, would decrease your real estate tax or, initiating a fee similar to the fee for recycling on your annual real estate tax statement. I have to guess that such a “fee” would have to be in the area of $50.00 to $60.00 annually. I’d love to hear your comments and would request that you send them to me at
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or by regular mail at 3977NW Carlin Court, Churubusco, IN 46723. I’m always glad to take your calls but it’s hard to compile comments received by phone.
I hope your holidays are happy and thanks for listening.
(Amber, a Churubusco resident in his first term as Commissioner will write a monthly column telling about his trials and tribulations as an elected representative of Whitley County.)
by Don Amber As I write this month’s column, I’m still full of …..turkey! For the past several Thanksgivings my family have enjoyed the fellowship and food prepared and served at the Masonic Hall here in Busco. It was just as good this year. Hopefully you got some meaningful information from my article about the recycling program and the humane shelter. Please feel free to contact me at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
if you have more questions.
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Thursday, 03 December 2009 08:16 |
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by Don Amber I recently realized that I had promised another article about recycling and the humane shelter . . . ok, actually I didn’t remember as much as the editor reminded me!! Sorry about that. I’m really happy to tell you about the outcome of our recycling vendor selection. For the past several years recycling in the county, Columbia City, Churubusco, and South Whitley has been contracted to National Serv-All.
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Wednesday, 04 November 2009 14:57 |
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Commissioner’s Corner
by Don Amber
At a recent meeting, Commissioner Tom Rethlake stated that in his nine years as a Commissioner he’s “never seen a busier time.” Geesh, I thought it was just me. It was a month of meetings, meetings, and more meetings. This past month has definitely been a busy time not only with Commissioner things but with Solid Waste business. Speaking of Solid Waste, I was reading the bio of a former member of the Solid Waste Board and the bio said he was “a member of the Solid Waist Board.” It was nice to have a little laugh for the month.
Our Commissioner’s month started in Busco. We held the first of our two monthly meetings at the Churubusco Town Hall on October 5th. It is my hope that we will continue to have at least one meeting per year in Churubusco and one in South Whitley. I was very pleased to see a large turnout for the Busco meeting.
Alan Tio, President of the Whitley County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), was present to tell the board about a request for CEDIT incentive funds. There is a desire to start a consortium of businesses at the intersection of State Road 14 and CR 600 E near Micropulse. The businesses would revolve around the orthopedics industry and in fact the area will be called “The Orthovation Center.” It’s nice to see Whitley County become more diversified and not be so dependant on the auto industry. Here in Churubusco we’re blessed as C & A Tool realized a long time ago that the orthopedic industry is a very important market segment.
Chairman Rethlake reported to the Commissioners that tile has been ordered for the interior stairways in the courthouse and that quotes are being received for window repair/replacement. Additionally, he reported that work is started on repairing the dome of the courthouse.
County Attorney Dan Sigler had a shorter than normal report (or so he thought) about possible ordinances involving wind devices. Whitley County is not pursuing companies to install wind generators as our area is not conducive to mass numbers of the generators. However, there seems to be interest by individuals to install “personal” wind devices so it will be necessary to provide some regulation. Mr. Sigler has contacted other counties and will continue to research other ordinances.
Before Mr. Sigler left the meeting, I brought up the subject of barking dogs and the need for an ordinance. In the two weeks prior to the Busco meeting I had received two calls asking me for help as neighbors’ dogs were barking, resulting in sleep disturbance. It seems that the Sheriff’s department has no ability to investigate barking dog complaints as there is no ordinance. There is an ordinance that takes care of dogs running loose, but not for causing a disturbance by barking. A Busco resident was present and asked that such an ordinance include noise caused by peacocks. It seems that a resident north of Busco raises peacocks but fails to keep them on their property. We were told that the DNR had been contacted for help but they too reported that there was no law or ordinance that would cover peacocks. I’m sure most of you are chuckling about noisy peacocks but honestly, if you’ve never heard them, they emit a very loud and shrill noise. That said I will have to stick with a barking dog ordinance for now in an effort to get some relief. Commissioner Chairman Rethlake assigned myself and Mr. Sigler to create an ordinance. We reviewed a similar ordinance from Noble County and agreed that it’s a simple but complete ordinance so I would guess that we will follow that closely. In the meantime, if you have problems with a barking dog, continue to call the sheriff’s department and make a phone report but remember that at this time there is nothing they can do but log your call.
County Sanitarian Scott Wagner reported to the Commissioners that an out of county well driller had not bothered to contact the Whitley County Health Department prior to installing a new well. The well was drilled only seven feet from a new home instead of the mandated ten feet. It was necessary for the Commissioners to approve a variance for the home owner, who was present, or they would not be able to occupy the new home the following day. The Commissioners agreed to accept the variance on a 3-0 vote but at the same time the board agreed to fine the company $500.00 as this was the second time they had done this and the first time they just received a warning. All Whitley County well drillers are well (good pun!) aware of the ruling so perhaps keeping the business local would be a prudent decision.
Michael Barton, County Highway Supervisor, discussed much of the department’s accomplishments in 2009. Their presence in Smith Township was certainly noticed in 2009. Currently they have milled up CR 450N between Blue Lake Road and CR 800 East. This road will be stone throughout the winter before receiving a double or triple seal in the spring of 2010. I drove this road the other day and it’s a nicer road in stone than it was in the pot hole filled asphalt.
Our second meeting of the month was held on Monday, October 19 where I was surprised with a real nice chocolate birthday cake!!
County Attorney Dan Sigler opened the meeting with his report. He has had little time to review the proposed barking dog ordinance but we will meet soon to finalize it. He did report that finally after several months the Whitley County Consolidated Schools had signed the fuel depot agreement. He also spoke about the previous agreement between the county and the Humane Shelter. I won’t go into that subject here but will prepare separate reports to the Busco News about the Humane Shelter and one on the new recycling contract.
SDS Communications, a local (Columbia City) business, presented a program to the Commissioners about the county telephone system. For as long as anyone can remember, the county has used Sprint/Embarq for phone service and phone equipment. We recently were notified that Embarq would no longer support our equipment as it is outdated. SDS for the past few years has been contracted by Embarq to work on our system but SDS is interested in taking on the total system and selling us updated equipment. They presented a proposal to replace our system. It would be very nice to know your support is two blocks away and as always it would be nice to spend our money locally.
Micheal Barton of the highway department reported that by moving some equipment around at the highway facility they have been able to create an enclosed structure where our salt/sand can be stored. While this is a temporary fix, it’s a step in the right direction. We need to stop keeping the salt/sand out-of-doors where rain and snow can wash part of it away. Additionally Mr. Barton reported that he had found a reasonable solution that would allow a more permanent structure for less than $10,000.00. He was directed to pursue the information and return to us at our next meeting. Finally, he reported that while the supervisor at Huntington County he established a salt and sand agreement with the smaller towns of the county by which the county would provide the material if the towns would store it inside. That seems like a win-win for both the county and towns but unfortunately it looks like neither Busco or South Whitley has such a facility. The winning part for the county is that the county trucks would not have to drive all the way back to Columbia City every time they needed to reload. Hopefully we can keep working together to see if such arrangements can be made in future years.
Mr. Brooks Langeloh was present to request a “vacation of an easement” at Goose Lake. Mr. Langeloh and/or others are interested in reopening the Goose Lake Restaurant. It seemed like a reasonable request so we approved it.
Finally, Mr. Michael Clement, our local representative of the federal census bureau asked the Commissioners to create a proclamation stating that as a group we support the work of the census bureau. Naturally we support the census since most funding is dependent on the numbers created by the census. Hopefully everyone in the county will cooperate and do their part by being counted!! You’ll hear much more about the census as the time gets closer but allow me to tell you how it’s going to work in 2010. The census forms will be sent out in February and March to households. They will ask you to complete the form on April 1, 2010 as that is the “Official Census Date” ( I know, I know it’s also April Fool’s day !) A vast majority of the households will receive a very short form consisting of only 10 questions, NONE of which are financial. I truly do not believe that answering census questions is an invasion of your privacy and I think you’ll agree when you see the questions. Your response is essential for future funding in Whitley County.
Have a great month and look for my articles on the Solid Waste District’s decision to select a new vendor and on the Humane Shelter.
(Amber, a Churubusco resident in his first term as Commissioner will write a monthly column telling about his trials and tribulations as an elected representative of Whitley County.) by Don Amber At a recent meeting, Commissioner Tom Rethlake stated that in his nine years as a Commissioner he’s “never seen a busier time.” Geesh, I thought it was just me. It was a month of meetings, meetings, and more meetings. This past month has definitely been a busy time not only with Commissioner things but with Solid Waste business. Speaking of Solid Waste, I was reading the bio of a former member of the Solid Waste Board and the bio said he was “a member of the Solid Waist Board.” It was nice to have a little laugh for the month.
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