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Commissioners eye annex progress in ’24
The Putnam County Commissioners hit the ground running on a number of issues during their first 2024 meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 2.
Perhaps most notably, county officials are looking to 2024 as the year to finally get the ball rolling on building a new courthouse annex.
Before moving ahead with other business, though, the commissioners organized for the coming year.
Tom Helmer, who served as president of the commissioners in 2023, made a motion to make David Berry the president in 2024 with himself as vice president.
Commissioner Rick Woodall seconded the motion, and Berry made it a 3-0 vote.
All three men have served as president at some point in their tenures.
Once the meeting began in earnest, the annex was one of several weighty issues on the docket. “This annex thing — it’s 2024 and it’s time to go,” Woodall said.
The issue of a new Putnam County annex has run hot and cold since the county moved several offices out of the old Jones School property at the corner of Liberty and Madison streets on the city’s west side in 2011.
More than once in that period, the county was close to selling the old school and 3.08 acres of its accompanying property to be developed as senior housing. However, when state funding for the developer fell through, the county still had a rapidly-deteriorating building on its hands.
With these plans possibly in the works in 2018, the county even looked into buying the Greencastle Masonic Temple and turning it into an annex.
It all came to nothing.
In early 2023, the commissioners pulled the trigger on demolishing the 69-year-old building, leaving the county with 4.08 acres of land on which it could build a new annex.
An estimate from 2023 put the cost of a new annex to meet the county’s needs at $12,255,000, with about $2 million saved. This will likely mean a bond issuance by the county.
In looking at the various options for an annex and funding, the commissioners formed a committee on Tuesday that will include Berry, Woodall, County Council President Stephanie Campbell, Auditor Kristina Berish and County Attorney Jim Ensley.
The first step will be to prepare a request for proposals on building an annex.
Given that the committee contains a quorum of the commissioners’ board, the meetings of the committee will be public and subject to the Indiana Open Door Law.
No date or time has been established for the first meeting, though Ensley will give notice when it is set.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Appointed Alexandra Chamberlain of Greencastle to the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau board.
Chamberlain replaces Page Cotton, a long-term board member who chose to retire a year before his term expired.
The appointment came at the encouragement of CVB Executive Director Eric Freeman, who reported that the CVB officers for 2024 are Marilyn Culler as president, Gail Smith as vice president, Michele Faison as secretary and Laura Monnett, another commissioners’ appointment, as treasurer.
• Moved forward in the process of hiring a new weights and measures inspector to replace the recently-retired David Wilborn.
Berry and Helmer will conduct interviews with interested parties on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 4 p.m.
• Heard from Berry that this year as president will be his final year as a commissioner.
First elected in 2010, Berry has served three terms as District 1 commissioner, which is the northernmost of the three districts.
“You will be missed,” Woodall told his longtime colleague on the board before adding “let the floodgates open” regarding anyone seeking the position.
Woodall is halfway through his third term from District 2, with the position next up for election in 2026.
Meanwhile, Helmer’s District 3 position is also up for reelection in 2024, though he has announced no plans on whether or not he plans to seek a second term.
The next regular meeting of the Putnam County Commissioners is set for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at the Putnam County Courthouse. The commissioners will again meet one day later than normal due to a federal holiday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in this case.
Additional matters discussed and decided by the commissioners during their Tuesday meeting are detailed in stories that will be posted to bannergraphic.com and printed in the Friday, Jan. 5 edition of the Banner Graphic.