Commissioners to discuss EDIT, employee appointments next week

Still easing their way into 2021, the Putnam County Commissioners will be making some important decisions at the second meeting of January, set for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19.

At that meeting, moved one day due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the three-person board will consider the 2021 Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) plan as well as making employee appointments for the year.

During the commissioners’ first January meeting last week, County Attorney Jim Ensley advised them of requests that had been made for the EDIT plan, including $15,000 from West Central Economic Development, $50,000 from Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development, $15,000 from the Putnam County Senior Center, $27,196.25 for the Edgelea Paving Project, $10,000 for Edgelea debt contingency and $20,000 for People Pathways.

In 2020, the EDIT plan had a total budget of $1,075,641. Other line items in the 2020 budget included the Putnam County Senior Center, Rural Transit, Beyond Homeless, courthouse annex, highway equipment, Putnam County EMS and the EDIT Warchest.

West Central Economic Development (now rebranded as Thrive West Central) has been a point of contention in recent years, with the commissioners opting not to fund the request in 2019 or 2020, and only partially funding it in 2018, due to what local officials see as a lack of services to the county.

Also on the agenda will be employee appointments for 2021, business normally taken care of in December.

Among the commissioners’ annual appointments are Putnam County EMS director, Veterans Affairs officer, Planning Commission director, maintenance supervisor, courthouse head custodian, courthouse custodians, highway supervisor, highway administrative assistant, highway secretary, weights and measures inspector, GIS director, Emergency Management Agency director, 911 director and county attorney.

They did, however, make a number of board appointments, both to boards on which the commissioners represent themselves and on which they appoint others.

Moving forward, Commissioner David Berry will serve on the Thrive West Central board, West Central Solid Waste board and 911 board.

Commissioner Rick Woodall will serve on the boards of Operation Life (which still meets once a year), Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development and the County Plan Commission.

New Commissioner Tom Helmer will serve on the West Central Solid Waste Board (which now requires two commissioners), Board of Health and the Emergency Management Agency board. Helmer had been EMA director until he resigned to take his commissioner post.

Other appointments included:

Cemetery board: Richard Lyons and Sheila Morrison

Airport Authority: Jim Spore

Convention and Visitors Bureau: Scott McCormick, Steve Jackson and Paige Cotton

Floyd Township Fire Protection District: Ken Rozelle, Barry Barger

Greencastle Planning Commission: Emily Knuth and Wayne Lewis

Board of Health: Dr. Troy Quiz

Hospital board: Dr. Keith Ernst, Matt Headley and Janice Fry

Putnam County Public Library Board: Alan Zerkel

Putnam County Plan Commission: Randy Bee and Kevin Scobee

Roachdale Fire Protection District: Larry Windemiller

West Central Solid Waste District: Byron Allen

Walnut Creek Fire Protection District: Russell Birch

West Central Economic Development: Ken Eitel

Board of Zoning Appeals: Ron Sutherlin

In other business:

• Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts announced the work is done on Bridge 45 on the Putnam-Hendricks line in Jackson Township.

He gave the Banner Graphic an update on Monday, saying the bridge has passed inspection, but the department is waiting on a load rating and will do some cleanup work before it reopens. He estimated it could reopen during the week of Jan. 18.

• The commissioners opened bids for demolition of the old Cedar Crest Motel in Jefferson Township, which the BZA deemed an unsafe building.

Three bids were submitted for the work: $99,660 from Huber Land Control of Cloverdale, $32,240 from Norman Excavating of Greencastle and $59,275 from Denny Company of Plainfield.

Woodall made the motion to accept all three bids and then send them to the BZA for consideration.