Commissioners approve ARPA fund requests

Commissioner Tom Brown seconded the motion made for the ARPA fund requests. The motion passed.

During the Spencer County Common Council meeting held in November, it was discussed that the remaining ARPA funds that the county had available was $332,853. During their meeting, the common council will have to review the above requests and decide on their decisions for each project and where the requests would be funded out of, if they are approved.

Department reportsVeterans Service Officer Butch Meredith updated the commissioners on the canned food drive courthouse employees participated in.

Each floor of the courthouse competed to collect the most cans for The Christian Resource Center and The Little Yellow House in Rockport. Altogether, the courthouse collected 4,343 items. They plan to do the competition next year, starting even earlier.

Gina Mullen with The Spencer County Highway Department explained they will be giving a presentation in January to INDOT regarding the federal funding for the County Road 100 East paving project. This presentation does not guarantee the county will receive the federal aid but it is one step closer to the process.

The commissioners approved to sign a new on-call services contract with consultant Tara Lloyd with BLN. Lloyd has been assisting the highway department with this federal grant opportunity.

All of the previous CCMG projects are complete and in the process of being closed out, with the exception of the CCMG 2022-02 projects, which were just awarded this month.

Sylvia Holbrook with Spencer County Community Corrections presented on the topic of community corrections starting their own drug testing program.

Holbrook added that this program would save the county money and generate funds for a salary of part-time position for the drug screening program.

The commissioners requested for Holbrook to present the numbers at their January meeting on how much they spent last year on drug screening accompanied with the savings community corrections are predicting with hiring of this new position.

Sheriff Kellene Reinke was requesting approval for the county to pay out the remaining number of 2022 vacation days for two officers with the Sheriff’s department.

One officer was unable to take all their vacation days due to staffing. The other officer was unable to take all of their vacation days due to being injured on duty, and their return date from injury being close to the end of the year.

Sheriff Reinke was asking that the commissioners at least pay out the vacation for the injured officer due to their financial situation and the fact that the officer was injured while on duty.

The commissioner’s attorney, Jeff Lindsey, referred to the Spencer County Employee Handbook, which states the county commissioners can approve for vacation to be rolled over to the following year, and no employee will be compensated in lieu of taking their vacation. Employees are entitled to unused vacation compensation at time of separation or retirement.

Based on the handbook policy, the commissioners approved the motion to roll over the vacation time for both of the officers.

Indiana Public Employers’ Plan Inc. (IPEP) presented before the Spencer County Commissioners on a proposal to become provider for the county’s workers compensation.

IPEP offers safety meetings and training for the various county departments. They offer the same coverage as the county’s previous workers compensation provider.

The commissioners passed the motion for IPEP to become their provider.

Attorney Lindsey has continued to work on the codification of the ordinances. The commissioners and the attorney will be holding work sessions to go through the ordinances and make any needed changes and updates.

The commissioners passed the motion to accept Lindsey’s proposal as the Spencer County Commissioner Attorney for 2023.

The commissioners discussed the contract renewal with Stanley Convergent Security Solutions Inc.

The company had installed electronic security systems at the Spencer County Sheriff’s Office and Jail. Sheriff Reinke explained they are still having issues with the system and some work has not been completed, which have all been documented.

The county has not issued final payment for the work done by Stanley Convergent Security Solutions Inc. The commissioners asked for the sheriff to provide all the documentation on these issues to discuss them with the security company before any payment is issued or the contract renewal is signed.

Chrisney Clerk-Treasurer Kim Litkenhus presented a letter of thanks on behalf of the town to the commissioners for their support and approval of ARPA fund request for their wastewater infrastructure project grant matching funds.

The next meeting of the Spencer County Commissioners will be held Tuesday, Jan. 3.