Commissioners return to the past, look to the future
Even as they returned to a meeting place from their past, the Putnam County Commissioners looked toward the future in their monthly meeting.
Conducting business in the Putnam County Courthouse commissioners courtroom for the first time in more than a decade, the commissioners spent much of Monday's meeting planning for 2013.
County offices will be closed for 12 holidays during 2013: New Year's Day on Tuesday, Jan. 1; Martin Luther King Day on Monday, Jan. 21; Good Friday on Friday, March 29; Memorial Day on Monday, May 27; Independence Day on Thursday, July 4; Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 2; Columbus Day on Monday, Oct. 14; Veterans Day on Monday, Nov. 11; Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 28 and 29; and Christmas on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 24 and 25.
Gone is the half day off for a holiday party in early December, with employees opting not to have a party this year.
Additionally, county employees will not get a half day off on Dec. 23 or 31.
President Kristina Alexander said the schedule adopted by the county for 2013 matches that of the State of Indiana.
The commissioners also approved their 2013 meeting schedule. Except in two instances changed by holidays, the commissioners will meet on the first Monday of each month at 9 a.m. and on the third Monday of each month at 6 p.m.
All meetings are at the Putnam County Courthouse.
The first exception is in January, when the commissioners will not meet on Martin Luther King Day, meeting instead at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22, prior to the Putnam County Council meeting.
Labor Day will force the first September meeting to be held at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
An additional event on the county calendar for 2013 will be a Wednesday, March 13 commissioners sale.
Treasurer Sharon Owens presented the details of the sale to the commissioners. The live sale is set for 10 a.m. in the courthouse lobby.
When properties are not sold in a tax sale, the liens go into the name of the county commissioners. Following the most recent tax sale, this list included 201 properties -- 174 of which are at Heritage Lake.
The commissioners have the discretion to choose what properties they want to sell and to set a minimum bid for each property.
The minimum bid for the March sale has been set at $25 per parcel.
Unlike a tax sale, in which owners have one year to pay the delinquent property taxes, costs and penalties to keep the property, in a commissioners sale, owners have only 120 days.
The idea of both tax sales and commissioners sales is to return delinquent properties to the tax roll so the county may again collect tax money from them.