County receives approved 2014 budget

In what had become a yearly dance with the State of Indiana, the Putnam County Council passed the annual county budget each fall, only to wait until nearly halfway through the following year for an official, approved budget from the state.

There will be no such operating blindly this year, as Auditor Lorie Hallett announced at the January council meeting on Tuesday that the approved 2014 budget has been approved by the state.

Council members applauded the news, happy that they would not have to wait until June, as they did in 2013.

"I want to thank you for the hard work getting it done," Councilman Larry Parker said to Hallett. "Now we won't be running in the dark."

Another piece of good news is that the state approved the budget without making serious cuts.

Hallett also said, however, that funds in the general fund for 2014 are almost entirely spoken for, so additional appropriations will need to be limited this year, or be drawn from other sources.

Council members agreed that any additional requests had better arise from truly unforeseen circumstances.

"If they (department heads) think there's going to be a problem, they need to start cutting back now," Parker said.

The council also approved its officers for 2014, keeping them the same as they have been for several years. Darrel Thomas will be president, with Keith Berry serving as vice president.

In other business:

* The council approved a $7,720 expenditure from the cumulative jail fund for the purchase of a no-salt water conditioning system for the jail.

Dean Frieje of Easy Water, who has twice spoken to the Putnam County Commissioners about such a system, gave a similar presentation to the council.

The system will bypass the jail's salt water softeners, replacing them with two no-salt conditioners that should not only save the county the cost of salt, but should remove mineral buildup that has already occurred in the jail's pipes.

* The highway department was granted permission to use $32,000 in funds leftover from 2013 to purchase road salt and to put toward federal aid projects.

The harsh winter has the department using extra salt, so the approval should help soften the blow to the 2014 budget.