County considers storage, tech upgrades
The disrepair of the former Putnam County Courthouse Annex and technology at the Putnam County Courthouse — both ongoing concerns for the county — were prominent parts of the Putnam County Commissioners meeting on Monday.
The former annex — Greencastle’s Jones School before it was turned over to the county in 2001 — is rapidly deteriorating and putting the records stored inside at risk.
Though it’s been 10 years since the county moved offices out of the 1954 structure at the corner of Liberty and Madison streets in Greencastle, the gymnasium continues to be utilized for storage. However, its leaky roof is making this problematic.
“One of these days, we’re going to get a call from the fire department that the gymnasium has collapsed and every record in it is buried,” Woodall said.
Of most immediate concern is getting something built in which to store the records. Though county officials still have an interest in building a new annex, a less expensive storage building may have to be constructed in the meantime.
“We are at a point where if we aren’t going to build an annex, we have to find a place to store those records,” Woodall said.
Maintenance Supervisor Brian Smith has made drawings of what he feels is needed.
The questions of high material costs and a location remain, though costs are coming down and the building could be put on the grounds of the Putnam County Highway Department southwest of Greencastle.
Though no decision was made on Monday, Woodall urged fellow Commissioners David Berry and Tom Helmer, “We need to get moving on this.”
As for the Jones School property, Woodall said Mayor Bill Dory recently told him a company may be interested in the property for building houses.
A previous attempt to turn the existing building into senior housing never got off the ground, but County Council President Dave Fuhrman, in attendance on Monday, urged the Commissioners to listen to any offers.
County officials are also hoping to have the Putnam County Highway Department tear down the existing structure.
On the technology front, John and J.D. Hendrich of Air-Linx presented several estimates to the Commissioners, some for items in need of immediate attention and others for further consideration.
Air-Linx recently had to replace the battery backups for two of the communications systems at the courthouse, both for the network and the phone system.
The network battery backup came at a cost of $1,691.97 for an extended runtime battery.
The replacement batteries for the aging phone system are no longer available, therefore an external battery pack and extended runtime battery had to be added at a cost of $3,463.85.
Both of these items were turned over to the Auditor’s Office as claims.
However, on the subject of ongoing upgrades and maintenance, the Commissioners will have to consider further, as other companies are also interested.
The Hendrichs are offering ongoing network maintenance at a cost of $19,200 annually, as well as setting up email accounts for all county employees on the county’s domain (co.putnam.in.us). The email would come with a one-time implementation cost of $8,170 and an ongoing cost of $5,760 annually for maintenance.
Additionally, $5 per account per month would be paid to Microsoft for hosting the email, which with an estimated 220 accounts for county employees, would be a monthly cost of about $1,100.
The county had previously been quoted a cost of $15 per account per month for Google to host the email accounts.
The Commissioners will continue to consider the matter in the coming months.
In other business:
• Kristy Jerrell of Jerrell Consulting gave reports on a couple of existing grants.
Monday was the final public hearing for the county’s COVID-19 Phase 3 grant, in which 26 local businesses received $9,600 each.
“It was a great program,” Jerrell said. “We don’t hear of any other programs like that coming up but if I do, I’ll let you know.”
Woodall expressed his approval for the program, but questioned the need for a public hearing, when the checks were cut in June.
Jerrell said the hearing was simply part of the process and the final report would now be submitted.
She also gave an update on the Community Development Block Grant that Van Bibber Lake received for its water project.
The Clinton Township community was awarded the $700,000 grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural affairs.
This comes in addition to a $2.5 million grant from USDA Rural development and a $1 million USDA loan.
Jerrell is also hoping for an additional $4 million grant to fully fund the $8 million project.
“As soon as we hear from that, we’ll begin the bidding process,” Jerrell said.
The project will install new water lines in the conservation district. The current lines run underneath the houses, but the project will move them to the right-of-way.
• The county renewed its contract with Maximus to do the cost allocation plan for the county.
The contract comes at an annual cost of $5,350.
• The Commissioners approved repairs to the Courthouse roof at a cost of $19,823.
While the materials of the roof are still considered to be under warranty, the cost covers the labor of fixing the roof.
• With Smith retiring from his maintenance position at the end of October, the Commissioners received two applications from candidates to replace him.
The Commissioners and Smith will be scheduling interviews with both during the coming week or so.