Commissioners prepare 2019 county calendar

It’s barely December, but 2019 was on the minds of the Putnam County Commissioners during their first bi-monthly meeting.

Between county holidays, meeting dates and county highway bids, next year was the main topic of discussion Monday morning.

Perhaps the oddest quirk of the 2019 calendar is that it will feature 27 payrolls, which will affect the take-home pay of salaried employees in particular, as their yearly wages will be divided into 27 paychecks instead of 26.

“All employees make the exact same money, but each paycheck is a little smaller,” Commissioner Rick Woodall said.

Seeing the bright side of a recent pay increase, County Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts added, “At least we got a raise so maybe that helps.”

Besides weekends, county offices will be closed for the following holidays in 2019 — New Year’s Day, Tuesday, Jan. 1; Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 21; Good Friday, April 19; Primary Election Day, Tuesday, May 7; Memorial Day, Monday, May 27; Independence Day, Thursday, July 4; Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 2; Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 14; General Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5; Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11; Thanksgiving, Thursday and Friday, Nov. 28 and 29; Christmas luncheon (close at noon), Monday, Dec. 23; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 24 and 25; and New Year’s Eve (close at noon), Tuesday, Dec. 31.

The commissioners will continue meeting at 9 a.m. on the first and third Monday of the month on the first floor of the courthouse, unless otherwise noted.

The dates on which holidays force a date change include: Tuesday, Jan. 22 and Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Monday was also the morning for the commissioners to open 2019 county highway bids. The companies submitting bids for various services included:

• Gravel, stone, sand: Whitesville Mill, Crawfordsville; S&G Excavating (Lincoln Park Stone), Terre Haute; NALC (243 Quarry), Putnamville; Harris Stone, Bainbridge; Hanson Aggregates Midwest, Cloverdale; U.S. Aggregates, Indianapolis; Martin Marietta, Cloverdale.

• Contractor: Trisler Construction, Cloverdale.

• Hot mix asphalt: Wabash Valley Asphalt, Terre Haute; Day O’Mara, Brazil.

• Liquid asphalt materials and bituminous: Marathon Petroleum, Asphalt Materials Inc., Rockville.

• Road striping: MGI Traffic Control Products.

• Signs: Stello Products, Spencer; Hall Signs, Bloomington; Osburn Associates, Logan, Ohio.

• Bridges, culverts: E&H Bridge and Grading, Bedford; Keith Henderson, Coatesville; St. Regis Culvert, Indianapolis; Civil Con Inc.; Metal Culverts, Jefferson City, Mo.

• Treated Timber Bridges: American Timber Bridge, Portage, Mich.

• Fuel: Co-Alliance.

All bids were approved as presented. However, Ricketts will review and organize them. He plans to have the bids arranged in a binder for the commissioners by their Monday, Dec. 17 meeting.

The commissioners also approved USI Consultants as the county’s consultant for bridge inspections for the next four years at a cost of $387,239, or $99,309.75 per year.

This will help the county keep its 222 bridges inspected and up to standards.

Additionally, Journey Engineering was approved as a sub-consultant for USI on some of the bridges.

Ricketts also reported that Bridge 259, which is north of State Road 236 on County Road 50 West was having its deck installed on Monday.

“In another week or two, it will be finished,” Ricketts said.

He also reported that Bridge 305 of County Road 1050 North is now out, with construction commencing on the new one.

In other business:

• The first building found in violation of the county’s new unsafe building ordinance was set for demolition on Tuesday.

The house at 3435 N. CR 100 West, commonly known as the “tarp house” at Brick Chapel, was actually one of the main reasons the ordinance was created, with an unhappy neighbor asking what could be done with the house.

The owners of the home were given chances to bring things into compliance and never did so. Therefore, County Planner Don Hatfield presented the commissioners with two bids on Monday for demolition of the house, shed and fence, as well as capping the well and septic and hauling in cover dirt where needed.

The L&G Excavating bid of $4,000 was chosen over that of McCullough Excavating, which was $5,100.

Asked when it would be done, Hatfield gave the rather surprising answer of Tuesday.

The commissioners will pay for the work from the EDIT Warchest, though final approval cannot be made until the Putnam County Council meets in January.

• Hatfield also brought a re-plat before the commissioners, which they approved.

A landowner was asking that lot lines be vacated so he could build a house that actually sits on two of the lots.

The lines had been set a number of years ago with hopes of developing the area. When that did not happen, this landowner chose to build on the double lot.

The plan had already been approved by the County Plan Commission and also received the unanimous support of the commissioners.

• The commissioners also announced that in other year-end business, they will be approving board appointments and department heads at the Monday, Dec. 17 meeting.