Commissioners approve contracts, hear road update

A pair of copier contracts and an update on county road repairs constituted basically the entire meeting of the Putnam County Commissioners on Monday morning.

Both the assessor's and auditor's office were on the agenda for the commissioners to sign new copier contracts. Both contracts are for Canon copiers through Indiana Business Equipment of Terre Haute.

Assessor Nancy Dennis reported that this is a new contract for her office, as they have encountered problems with their current Xerox equipment and service.

Following a recent problem with the officer copier, it took two weeks for Xerox staff to even respond to their queries.

Besides the likely improvement in customer service, the new equipment comes at a lower monthly rate.

The auditor's office has already been working with Indiana Business Equipment and is simply signing a new contract. However, IBE sales representative Tom Jones reported to the commissioners that the new machine will come at a lower rate, as it will eliminate features the office was not using on its previous machine.

The commissioners approved both agreements unanimously.

County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts, the only other person on the small agenda, gave the commissioners an update on road and bridge work in the county.

Ricketts said the new bridge bypassing the Houck Covered Bridge is now complete and open to traffic.

Additionally, Ricketts said the rain this summer has his crews behind schedule on chipping and sealing, but they remain ahead of pace on pug paving.

Overall, he said roadwork is going well.

"We're actually ahead of schedule from where we were last year so I'm not worried ... yet," Ricketts said.