Council approves several additional appropriations

GREENCASTLE -- The Putnam County Council approved additional appropriations Tuesday night for several departments.

The largest of the appropriations were approved for the highway department -- one for $100,000 for sand, gravel and stone, and a second for $100,000 for repairs on Bridge 248 on C.R. 650E in Jackson Township.

Those funds will come of the highway department's cumulative budget.

The council also approved an additional appropriation for $49,902 for the sheriff's department for a new air handling unit.

The money for that appropriation will be taken from the jail cumulative fund.

"The one we have is 15 years old," said Ashley O'Hair, sheriff's department representative. "It's a rather large expense, but if we wait it'll be the middle of August and it'll go out."

O'Hair noted that if that happened, there would be "a lot of unhappy inmates" at the jail.

O'Hair said County Planner Kim Hyten had taken three bids for the job. The old unit will be scrapped, she said, and a small percentage of the money being spent on the new unit would be recouped.

Another appropriation for the sheriff's department for $759.99 was also approved, and will also come from the jail cumulative fund. That money will be used to outfit a new interview room with video cameras, which is now required by state statute.

Dave Costin of the Putnam County Emergency Operations Center asked for a $5,950 additional appropriation to cover a shortfall in funding for insurance.

"It was a miscalculation on my part," Costin said.

Costin requested that the additional appropriation come from the general fund, which now stands at just over $480,000.

The council balked at the request, asking Costin if there wasn't another place he could pull the money from within his own budget.

"At the end of the year I may have a little left in utilities," Costin said. "Would you rather I requested a transfer?"

Council President Darrel Thomas said that would be his suggestion.

"This is April; we still have seven months to go," he said. "I'd much rather do an additional in October or November. Right now, we might have to rob Peter and pay Paul later."

An additional for a potential expense of $85,000 was approved for unemployment expenses. Currently, seven former county employees are drawing unemployment, and the $85,000 figure was derived using their benefit payouts.

There is no dedicated account within the county budget for unemployment, a situation council member Nancy Fogle found exasperating.

"It should be in one place, not taken out department by department," she said.

Thomas agreed.

"When it comes budget time, we need to establish, somewhere, a budget for unemployment," he said.