LaGrange County Council
Tuesday November 13th was a
busy morning for the LaGrange County
Council and Commissioners. Individual
meetings by County Council and the
Commissioners were followed up by a
joint meeting of the two.
Recorder Elect Jennifer McBride
asked the council to consider reinstating the position of Chief Deputy rather
than Deputy in this office. The request
also asked to have the pay increased.
Since the 2013 budget has already been
submitted to the Department of Local
Government Finance (DLGF) for approval, the Recorder will need to make
her request for the additional appropriation again after DLGF approves the
2013 budget.
Sheriff Terry Martin requested an
amendment to the Sheriff Department
Pension to extend vesting rights from
eight to ten years. He explained that
this had been presented to the officers
and the Merit Board with a majority of both agreeing this was acceptable. There was a motion to accept the
change and the motion was approved.
Commissioner George Bachman
gave the council a report which included a presentation of the ambulance
service for LaGrange County. The
county is responsible for supplying
ambulance service to the citizens of
the county. At present this is done by
the county being responsible for the
capital equipment and having an EMS
budget which is presented and appropriated each year by the council.
All of the personnel and benefits are
being handled by Parkview LaGrange
Hospital (PLH). The change will put the
responsibility for the capital equipment expense as well as the personnel
expense to be paid for by PLH. For this
change, LaGrange County will pay PLH
an annual amount and PLH will be
responsible for all of the capital equip-
ment as well as all of the personnel
costs. This presentation was for informational purposes only for the council;
the commissioners would act on this
request later in the morning.
Council voted to approve monthly
fund transfers, additional appropriations, and legal claims. The motion to
adopt each of these was approved.
Council will need to fill a number
of boards and commissions within the
next sixty days. These openings are as
follows. Library Board, Alcohol Beverage Board, County Board of Zoning
Appeals, County Redevelopment Commission (three positions), and Property
Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.
Anyone who would like to serve on any
of these boards is asked to please stop
in at the County Auditor’s office to fill
out an application for the particular
board on which they are interested in
serving.
Council was recessed to be reconvened later in the morning.
The County Commissioners went
into session to consider the EMS
amendment to the hospital contract.
Having heard the earlier presentation,
with no objection from the council,
there was a motion to approve the
amendment as presented. This motion
was approved.
The commissioners were asked by
the LaGrange County Redevelopment
Commission (RDC) to use TIF dollars
to pay the interest on a proposed shell
building. Since a decision had not yet
been made to build a shell building, LaGrange County Economic Development
(LCEDC) Director Keith Gillenwater
was asked to present the shell building
proposal. After the presentation there
was an extensive discussion on this
project. There was a motion to construct a shell building in partnership
with Garmong Construction Company.
The motion was approved on an eight
in favor, one opposed vote.
The commissioners voted to recommend to the council the extension of
the waiver to repay the Major Moves
Fund from TIF dollars for a period not
to exceed 120 months. They also voted
to accept the recommendation from
RDC for payment of the interest on the
shell building project.
The joint body next was asked
to adopt a resolution to establish a
Revolving Loan Fund with the LCEDC
and a loan to MEC. After discussion on
both of these requests, which were in
the same resolution, there was a motion and approval of the request.
There was an update on the
proposed water and sewer project to
Lippert Industries, north of LaGrange,
with the possible extension north
and also an update on the proposed
upgrade of 200 North from 450 West
to 675 West. There will be a committee
which will be working on the details of
this project. With no other business for
the joint meeting there was a motion
to adjourn.
The Council reconvened into regular
session to consider the extension on
the waiver of payment of TIF dollars
to repay Major Moves Fund. There was
a motion to extend this waiver for
a period not to exceed 120 months.
There was a motion to accept the commissioners’ recommendation to pay for
the interest on the shell building from
TIF dollars. This will be done by using
existing tax revenue and not imposing
any additional tax liability on property
owners. With no further business to
come before the council there was a
motion to adjourn.
As always, we will try to be good stewards of
your tax dollars.
The Hometown Treasure · December ‘12 · pg 67