County to increase support to Development Center

A larger portion of Putnam County’s Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) will be going to, well, economic development in 2018.

Set to approve the 2018 EDIT plan on Monday morning, the Putnam County Commissioner instead opted to make a change to its contribution to the Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Center.

Instead of the original proposed amount of $40,000, the county will contribute $45,000 to the Development Center.

The change will push back approval of the EDIT plan to the next commissioners meeting, set for 9 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 5.

Commissioner Rick Woodall proposed the change based upon the amount requested and the amount given by the City of Greencastle.

“The city gives $45,000 and she (Economic Development Director Kristin Clary) asked for $45,000,” Woodall said, “and nobody could explain to me why we were giving $40,000.”

The proposed additional amount to Economic Development comes on the heels of proposals approved two weeks ago to give an additional $10,000 to the Putnam County Senior Center and another $5,000 to the Putnam County Emergency Food Pantry.

This is a year of change for the more the approximately $1 million that comes in annual from EDIT. Earlier this month, Putnam County Auditor made the final payment on the Putnam County Jail bond, freeing up about $230,000 in EDIT funds in 2018 and about $460,000 in future years.

With that money freed up, the commissioners have opted to put $250,000 to save toward a future courthouse annex.

As now proposed, the $1,029,984 EDIT Plan will include $230,218 for the jail bond, $10,500 for West Central Economic Development, $45,000 for Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development, $15,000 for the Senior Center, $27,883.75 for the Edgelea Project annual payment, $10,000 for the Edgelea debt contingency, $5,000 to Rural Transit, $10,000 to Beyond Homeless, $10,000 to the Food Pantry, $9,000 to People Pathways, $250,000 to the Annex project and $407,382.25 to the warchest.

The proposed changes have reduced the warchest amount by $20,000, which is still less than 5 percent of the total in the line item.

Based on questions from Woodall and Commissioner David Berry, there are still some unresolved issues before the EDIT plan is approved.

One question Woodall had was what the county gets out of its annual $10,500 contribution to West Central Economic Development.

“I haven’t seen those people in four years,” Woodall said of West Central representatives.

Commissioner Don Walton, who is the board liaison to West Central, was not in attendance Tuesday and could not answer Woodall’s questions.

Additionally, Woodall asked about the $10,000 proposed for the Edgelea debt contingency.

He discovered that the debt contingency has helped the county build up a $46,648.18 surplus in the account for the Edgelea repaving project.

However, those funds may get used up quickly if recent trends continue. The idea is for the contingency to cover any shortfalls in what Edgelea residents don’t pay in the assessment that is paid with their spring and fall tax bills.

In the spring of 2017, that brought in $52,625. In the fall installment, only $36,529.63 was collected.

The commissioners will continue to monitor the situation, especially since the excess funds can also be used for repairs to roads in the subdivision.