COVID-19, other costs rolling in for county

Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Putnam County Jail

With unknowns already surrounding county revenue in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, costs continue to roll in for Putnam County government, both in response to the pandemic and in areas unrelated to the response.

At this point, county and local governments cannot be sure when the next tax draw will come in, considering that property and income tax deadlines have been moved back by the state to encourage social distancing and abiding by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Stay at Home orders.

Besides this, future revenue from local option income taxes such as Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) and Public Safety Local Income Tax are unclear in the face of skyrocketing unemployment.

With both these in mind, a number of costs brought up during the Putnam County Commissioners’ Monday meeting are likely to only bring them more headaches.

One is a request for hazard pay for Putnam County Sheriff’s Department employees as they continue to respond to calls and manage the Putnam County Jail in the face of COVID-19.

“Everybody’s at risk,” Stockton said. “We have to do our job. We’re going to do our job.”

The City of Greencastle recently enacted a similar move for its police officers and firefighters.

The proposal would be fore each deputy and jail officer to receive an additional $250 each week until the threat of coronavirus has subsided.

Commissioner Rick Woodall added that it’s a bigger issue than the sheriff’s department, as responders for Putnam County EMS also deserve such measures.

Upon further discussion, the Putnam County Coroner’s Office and Putnam County Health Department were added to the discussion.

Even if it’s only a question of the sheriff’s department and EMS it would come at a price tag of nearly $80,000 a month.

The question is a revenue source in a county whose budgets are always tight.

“I’d love for them to have the money but I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Auditor Lorie Hallett said.

“We have to figure out where almost $80,000 a month comes from,” Woodall said. “Understand that it’s not something we can decide today. Six months is $474,000.”

Putnam County Council President Dave Fuhrman, also in attendance on Monday, said the council will support the commissioners on any such decision, but emphasized that county funds will reach a limit at some point.

Woodall and fellow Commissioner David Berry will further consider the matter.

Commissioner Don Walton has been staying home from meetings since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Indiana.

The commissioners also considered the possibility of buying additional personal protective equipment for local responders.

Emergency Management Agency Director Tom Helmer was recently contacted by officials in Sullivan County, who are buying N95 masks and non-surgical masks from a vendor in the Carolinas.

Representatives from Sullivan County plan to make the trip, but would bring back masks purchased by other counties.

At a price of $3.20 each, the N95s must be ordered in a minimum quantity of 5,000. At 55 cents each, at least 1,000 non-surgical masks must be ordered.

That’s a minimum expenditure of $16,000 for N95 masks and $550 for non-surgical masks.

“Once again, here we are, where are we coming up with $16,000?” Woodall asked.

When asked to whom Helmer planned to distribute the masks, Berry said he believed it was mainly to firefighters and EMS workers.

No final action was taken regarding the masks.

Finally, the commissioners had to grapple with how to pay for the public relations firm that is helping local officials with daily press releases regarding COVID-19 and the local response.

The messages are coming from the Putnam County Health Department, Putnam County Hospital, Putnam County Government and the City of Greencastle.

It is up to the commissioners to pay the monthly $3,000 fee for this service.

The contract presented was on a month-to-month basis, with 30 days notice required to cancel this.

The commissioners expressed some displeasure at the price tag, but felt they are obligated, authorizing the contract, not to exceed 60 days, which would carry through the end of May.

County Attorney Jim Ensley advised the commissioners to utilize the firm, Beck Communications of Indianapolis, in anything regarding county response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are a number of ways it can be used in the next 30 days, in my opinion,” Ensley said. “If we’re going to do it, we need to get our money’s worth and utilize it.”

Beyond the current daily updates, some other ideas floated included using the firm to notify the public of changes to the primary election, income tax deadlines and payment process and even things as simple as office hours during the continuing Stay at Home order.

Woodall and Berry voted unanimously to approve the contract

One light at the end of the tunnel for all of these matters is the promise of emergency reimbursement from FEMA, though it’s unclear when this will come and how much there will be.

The commissioners continue to advise all department heads to track any expenses related to COVID-19.

Besides responses to the pandemic, the county is facing several other upcoming financial obligations, including:

• PCSD needs to lease five new vehicles.

With a total lease of $217,500, PCSD is purchasing five 2020 Chevrolet Tahoes from Kelly Chevrolet in Fort Wayne.

Chief Deputy Matt Demmings advised these were the most reasonably priced vehicles PCSD could locate that also met its needs.

The three-year lease with First National Bank comes at a fixed interest rate of 1.97 percent.

While the commissioners expressed their worries over future revenues, they also said they understood that the vehicles still in use by the deputies in question have a minimum mileage of 115,000 to 120,000.

The commissioners approved the lease 2-0.

• The PCSD lease comes in addition to a $1,182,132 already obligated to six new dump trucks for the Putnam County Highway Department.

The lease with Tri-County Bank was agreed to in March.

The new trucks — which are several months from arriving — can’t come too soon, as the highway department has already spent $78,000 of its $180,000 budget for equipment repair for the year.

Rick said he and Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts will sit down and further discuss options for the rest of the year.

One piece of good news for the highway department came on Tuesday, when the state announced that Putnam County will receive $1 million in Community Crossings funds this year to aid with repaving.

• Finally, the county will have to spend a minimum of $29,546 on repairs to the limestone of the Putnam County Courthouse.

A recent inspection revealed damage to the limestone of the century-old building.

Atlas Services will perform the work at a cost of $14,773 per week, with a minimum of two weeks required.

Woodall made the motion to hire Atlas for a period not to exceed three weeks without further approval.

The motion passed unanimously.

Comments
View 11 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • I find myself wondering why the Tahoes are being purchased from Fort Wayne when we have a local Chevy Dealership here in Greencastle?

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Wed, Apr 8, 2020, at 9:06 PM
  • Lowest bid

    -- Posted by Geologist on Wed, Apr 8, 2020, at 10:00 PM
  • *

    Why is "hazard pay" being discussed for PCSD?

    Hazardous duty is in their job description.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Thu, Apr 9, 2020, at 8:37 AM
  • If they are gonna be giving hazard pay out to the jail and the other places they mentioned in this article, I hope they throw in ALL of the long term care and assisted living facilities in this town, as well as the hospital.

    -- Posted by momof2ingreencastle on Thu, Apr 9, 2020, at 12:31 PM
  • *

    momof2 -

    PCSD, GPD, GFD, Coroner, Health Dept, and PC-EMS (and any others I missed from the article) are all county/municipal employees.

    Nursing homes, long term care, and assisted living facilities,and even the hospital are privately run enterprises (even if funded in part with tax dollars) and are outside the purview of any government body to set wages or hand out "hazard pay".

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Thu, Apr 9, 2020, at 4:46 PM
  • Who’s hand is going to be outreached for hazard pay next? Does one not know and contemplate the putative risks of a job before taking the job? Should I get a hazard discount for going grocery shopping?

    -- Posted by Koios on Thu, Apr 9, 2020, at 6:50 PM
  • Is hazard duty pay warranted? I don't know but this I do know 250.00 a week is way over the top! Our soldiers get 255.00 a month if they are in a hostile war zone. If they decide to give this "bonus" it should not surpass the military pay.

    -- Posted by Workingthesoil on Fri, Apr 10, 2020, at 8:26 AM
  • What about all the firefighters(paid and volunteer) that respond with PCEMS?

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Fri, Apr 10, 2020, at 12:51 PM
  • Tahoes purchased in another county due to lowest bid. What happens to supporting local? So we should go to other county's for lower gas, grocery costs, furniture, cars, etc. Gas prices are over the top in Greencastle. Save money but Plainfield or Avon. Much lower prices in Cloverdale or Bainbridge. Very smart decision to buy out of county. Everyone in Putnam County should remember this!

    -- Posted by Hoosier Proud on Fri, Apr 10, 2020, at 8:44 PM
  • All the jobs/people listed above have hazardous jobs. That’s what they sign up for. Take extra safety precautions and do your job. Hazardous pay shouldn’t be even be a topic.

    -- Posted by computer on Fri, Apr 10, 2020, at 8:45 PM
  • I sure hope the commissioners verify how this money will be used for our roads. Using a grader to pave roads is a lazy way of doing your job. A paver uses less material and keeps our roads somewhat clean. Mike is lazy. He simply wants the number of roads on paper than actually done correct. New vehicles are a waste of our tax dollars, money can be used in better places. Sure hope our new commissioner can stand up against all of the corruption.

    -- Posted by FedUp tax payer on Fri, Apr 10, 2020, at 9:34 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: