Hostetler’s Store
Discount Groceries
Forks County Line
With locations in Shipshewana
and Middlebury to serve you best.
On the north edge of town, in
Shipshewana North Village
just east of State Road 5
On the east edge of
Middlebury at
508 E. Warren Street
Hours: Mon.-Thur. 8-5:30, Fri. 8-7:00, Sat. 8-4:30
260-768-7888
Chess Tournament Party
Extravaganza
A chess tournament is planned for September 17 at
The Elkhart Sports Center. This event is a homecoming
celebration for six-time Indiana State Chess Champion
Emory Tate Jr and will feature him as a speaker at 9 am.
For more details on how to enter or what to expect:
www.emorytateextravaganza.com; 574-323-3293.
Phone: 260-463-4901 • Fax 888-439-6528 • The Hometown Treasure
by Jac Price, Council Vice President
As the summer is moving into fall and our young
In other business, Economic Development Director
people are returning to school, the County Council Keith Gillenwater presented the annual report that
continues to struggle with the County General Fund informed the council that the three companies which
Budgets. We just met these past few weeks working to have tax abatements are in compliance with the
trim some $800,000 in expenses from the 2011 General requirements of their abatements. These companies
Fund. This was accomplished by transferring some large have added or retained 253 jobs with a total payroll of
expenditures to funds that are not considered general $9,199,662.00 annually. These are jobs in the county
fund dollars. Some of these came out of the Rainy Day which cause our employees to have money to spend in
Fund, Hospital Trust Fund, and Major Moves Fund. LaGrange County business and which generate local
The situation with the payment from these funds is income taxes for the CAGIT and CEDIT taxes.
that Rainy Day and Hospital Trust have no revenue
Legal claims in the amount of $6,062.59 were
stream to replenish them. Major Moves also has a very allowed. Additional Appropriations and transfer of
restrictive criteria for its use.
funds within individual budgets were approved. There
The council spent Monday, August 8 and Tuesday was also an amendment to the County Salary Ordinance
August, 9 accepting the budget requests from all of to establish a part time hourly wage for two part time
the county Department Heads. The amount requested people to replace a full time person in the recorders
from the General Fund is $10,702,539.60. In addition, office and an hourly wage for a part time employee
the request from non-general fund accounts is $21, in the Treasurers and Recorders office to replace the
415,974.48. These dollars are for Highway, Parks and two departments Chief Deputies. All of these requests
Health Departments as well money from other sundry were granted.
accounts that are paid from other than General Fund.
As always, we will try to be good stewards of your tax dollars.
Over the next four to six weeks, we will be analyzing
all of these different requests to determine where we
can trim out dollars. Although we do not know yet
Main & Morton • Shipshewana
what the impact of these amounts will have in 2012, we
are sure that these amounts will exceed our revenue
Offers High
stream. We will be working with our financial consultant
Speed Copies
and the Department of Local Government Finance to
Color • Black & White
determine the amounts that need to be cut out.
September 2011
County Council Update
Al’s Trimworks
New Home
Trim, Cabinet & Door Installation
Page 51
Al Fry
(260) 768-7830 ext. 3