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Road funding central to County Council discussions
A pair of road funding matters – one approved and another possibly on the docket in the coming weeks – were on the mind of Putnam County Council members during their monthly meeting.
Meeting one week later than normal, the council approved $500,000 in additional appropriation requests for the Putnam County Highway Department, while also seemingly moving closer to approving an increase to the local wheel tax and motor vehicle surtax.
The $500,000 will come from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and will go toward two different projects.
Half of the money will go toward a repaving project on County Road 1200 North, while the other will go toward repaving at Heritage Lake.
The paving on 1200 will take place in Franklin and Jackson townships, beginning and Bainbridge-Roachdale Road and continuing east for about 2.5 miles.
There was some confusion over whether the money would go toward cul-de-sacs at the Floyd Township lake community or other roads in the various neighborhoods.
County Engineer Jim Peck noted that plan was to pave the other roads, as there was little point in having nice cul-de-sacs if the roads leading to them were torn up. He also noted that the highway department has no experience with the curved ends of cul-de-sacs.
“We met with some representatives of Heritage Lake, and they thought that would be the best bang for the buck,” Peck said.
The appropriation received unanimous approval.
The matter of the wheel tax/surtax is a longer term solution to road funding shortfalls. Putnam County first passed a wheel tax ordinance in 2012, but discussions in recent years have revolved around how the county’s rate falls well short of what could be collected.
The wheel tax is collected along with vehicle registration fees annually.
While localities such as Putnam County and individual cities and towns get money from a complex road funding formula, the wheel tax/surtax is one way that the State of Indiana is cut out of the formula, with the money collected coming directly back to fix local roads without considerations such as the state taking its sizable cut or how urban and rural counties are funded differently.
Time may not be on the side of the council, however. While the matter has been discussed for several months, no action has been taken.
“It’s been discussed for a long time,” Councilman Jay Alcorn said.
Councilman Phil Gick noted that he hates the idea of raising taxes of any kind, but that the funding is needed. Council President Stephanie Campbell concurred.
“We don’t want to raise anything, but we need to fix these,” Campbell said.
“I was involved the last time we did it (in 2012), and I didn’t like it then,” Gick said.
The funding issues go well beyond roads or even bridges, which are also in the Putnam County Highway Department purview. County officials are moving forward with the proposed construction of a courthouse annex on the old Jones School Property near downtown to help with space, weight and age issues that are affecting the Putnam County Courthouse.
Following a recent wage study, county leaders have also agreed to raises for many county employees to help with retention and overall morale.
Before the discussion ended, Gick advised that if the council moves forward, the tax should be advertised at the highest possible rate, with the understanding that it can be decreased from what is advertised, but not increased.
However, there is a tight window for approval if county leaders want the new rate to take effect in 2025, with the increase sent to the state by Monday, July 1. Before that can happen, the proposed rate increase needs to be advertised in the Banner Graphic at least 10 days before a meeting on the matter. With the council meeting set for Tuesday, June 18, that would mean advertising it no later than the Friday, June 7 publication.
It would also require a second reading of the ordinance before final approval, which would mean a special meeting of the council at some point between June 18 and 30.
However, council attorney Trudy Selvia was not advised to move forward with any sort of draft, so the matter remains somewhat of a question mark with the deadline approaching.
Contacted the day after the meeting, Campbell indicated her intent to get the consensus of the council and then talk to Selvia about how to proceed.
With raises recently approved for a number of different employees and employee classes, the council also approved a $620,470 additional appropriation to fund these raises during the current year. These raises will have to be rolled into the budget in the coming years.
Some questions remained, though, about individual positions that supervisors believe were not appropriately addressed.
The council first approved a $1,129 increase for the case manager/program facilitator position in Putnam County Community Corrections. Appearing on behalf of Community Corrections Director Jamie France, Adult Probation Director Teresa Parrish noted that the position not only involves being a case manager, but also hosting classes on nights and weekends, the only such employee in the department to do so, but that a commensurate raise had not been approved.
The council agreed, approving not only the raise, but the appropriate increased contributions to Social Security, PERF and Medicare.
The council also revisited the issue of a pay increase for the jail matron. Sheriff Jerrod Baugh noted an Indiana law that says the matron should be paid at least as much as a first-year deputy. Councilman Danny Wallace, a 31-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, pushed back on giving the matron an $8,000 raise, noting that raise was about retention.
“I don’t mind giving her a raise but I don’t think the $8,000 like we’re giving your road deputies is right,” Wallace said.
However, following a protracted discussion of the matter, Wallace ultimately made the motion for approval, which was seconded by Alcorn. The motion was approved unanimously.
The subject of the pay for the EMS deputy chief was even more of a protracted discussion with ultimately no resolution.
Chief Kelly Russ advocated for her top deputy position, which she said has been reclassified from deputy chief to “chief of EMS operations” to more accurately reflect the role.
Central to Russ’s argument was that while the county has done a good job of increasing compensation to EMS employees, the pay for the top two employees does not necessarily fall in line with the required level of training, which has been set by both the county and new state requirements.
“I love it, I love every day of it. I am so proud of what we do and thankful to the council for everything we get,” Russ said. “But I think that our compensation should reflect what we do.”
No action was taken on the matter, with council members noting that the county has already obligated a lot of money to pay increases.
“There’s got to be an end somewhere. We just can’t keep dishing out,” Wallace said.
Gick indicated that he would like to see the 2025 budget numbers before approving any further raises.
In other business, the council:
• Approved an $89,700 appropriation from the ARPA fund to Big Walnut Water Co. for boring for a new pipe near Dunbar Bridge.
The county commissioners had already agreed in principle to the matter after spring flooding exposed a pipe along the bank of Big Walnut Creek.
• Approved a $13,000 appropriation to the Putnam County Highway Department for Workman’s Comp insurance.
• Reappointed Barbara Boese to the Putnam County Public Library Board.
Campbell, Alcorn, Gick and Wallace were joined for the 90-minute meeting by councilman Wayne Huffman and Keith Berry as well as Auditor Kristina Berish. Larry Parker was absent.