Efforts to get a Main Street designation for Downtown Knox have gotten the official support of the city council. During their last meeting of 2020, council members agreed to partner with Knox Main Street United.
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Investing in the future of Pulaski County’s leadership was a five-month process for the county council.
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Funding arrangements for Highway Department equipment and jail repairs were considered by the Pulaski County Council last week. Council members agreed to transfer money within the Cumulative Bridge Fund to allow the Highway Department to continue to rent a mini-excavator until the end of the year.
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With the Pulaski County Highway Department expecting a substantial fuel tax reimbursement, the county council has agreed to make funds available to pay the consulting firm that helped them get it.
Continue readingFunding arrangements have been finalized for the Pulaski County Highway Department’s dump truck purchase. Earlier this month, the county commissioners agreed to let the Highway Department purchase the used truck from Pozzo Truck Center that had been traded in by Porter County. Last week, the county council formally approved the payment of the $40,000 cost out of the Local Roads and Streets Fund.
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After months of discussions, the Pulaski County Commissioners have decided to keep TK Lawn Service as their mowing contractor. Maintenance Director Mia Salyers told the commissioners Monday that she went through the three bids the county received, broke down the costs, and determined that TK’s was the cheapest.
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Before the Pulaski County Council finalized one request for additional funds for Superior Court Pauper Counsel, Judge Crystal Brucker Kocher was already asking for more money.
Continue readingThe Pulaski County Council has reversed course on a salary change for a staff member in the Prosecutor’s Office. Last month, the council voted to tie the victim’s assistance coordinator’s pay rate to the level specified by the grant that funds the position, with Ken Boswell and Scott Hinkle opposing. But when it came time to update the salary matrix to reflect the change last week, council members Rudy DeSabatine and Jay Sullivan joined Boswell and Hinkle in opposition, denying the measure by a vote of four-to-three.
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The airing of Pulaski County’s tourism commercial on Sunday night is starting to have an impact. The Community Development Commission got an update from Executive Director Nathan Origer on Tuesday.
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Now that Pulaski County Chief Deputy Coroner Jon Frain has finally gotten his pay raise, county officials now have to figure out where the money is going to come from. Last month, the county council voted to pay the chief deputy 82 percent of the coroner’s salary, which more than quadrupled Frain’s pay rate to almost $8,100 a year. While the Coroner’s Office had about $8,000 budgeted for that purpose in previous years, that figure had been cut to match Frain’s previous pay rate.
Continue readingThe Pulaski County Council will consider several departments’ requests for additional help tonight. Prosecutor Dan Murphy has been asking for another full-time secretary, citing a significant increase in the number of cases being filed, along with the addition of new court programs. A vote on the matter ended in a three-to-three tie last month. Council President Jay Sullivan asked the county commissioners to weigh in, but they sent it back to the council without making a formal recommendation.
Continue readingFunding arrangements for the recent facilities plan that called for the demolition of the Pulaski County Courthouse were approved by the county council Monday, but not without some debate. Newly-elected council member Kathi Thompson was concerned that the county commissioners didn’t ask for council members’ opinions before hiring an architectural firm.
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The Pulaski County Council took action last week to make up a $20,000 shortfall in the county’s phone bill budget. Council members finalized a total of $16,350 in additional appropriations. $10,000 of that was for the telephone budget.
The demolition of a Medaryville home as part of a blight elimination project continues to create headaches for Pulaski County Building Inspector Doug Hoover, a year after the house was torn down. “Everything was done, completed,” he told the county council Monday. “[Building Department Assistant] Karla [Kreamer] and I did everything we were supposed to do. About a week before the last date, the state comes in and says they wanted it cleaned up. It wasn’t to their specs. Six months I waited. They could have told me six months ago. Now I had to jump through hoops.”
The Culver School Board has finalized preparations for the new school funding structure. Starting January 1, each school corporation’s General Fund will be replaced by an Education Fund, while the Capital Projects, Transportation, and Bus Replacement Funds will be combined into an Operations Fund.
Another ambulance-versus-deer crash will mean a repair bill of almost $10,000 for Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services. It happened the day before Thanksgiving, according to EMS Director Bryan Corn. He told the county commissioners Monday that the ambulance was on its way to a 911 call, when it hit the deer.
Higher-than-expected phone bills are causing some challenges for Pulaski County.
Auditor Laura Wheeler told the county council Tuesday that the bill for office phones has come in $20,000 over the county’s phone budget for the year. “They’ve gone over for the last two years,” she said. “I think IT is looking into getting something changed on that, so it drops.”
Housing and transporting federal inmates continues to cause budget challenges for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Jeff Richwine told the county council Tuesday that while the effort is making money for the county overall, the associated income and expenses are in two different parts of the county’s budget.
A shortfall in the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department’s overtime budget has the sheriff asking to move some money around. Sheriff Jeff Richwine told the county commissioners last week that he plans to transfer a total of $17,600 into his overtime budget. “Some of this is due to people not getting moved in the matrix in time, so we have to go back and do back pay, so that’s some of it,” he explained. “Some of it’s overtime.” Richwine said that money will come out of the Dispatch Salary, Equipment Repair, and Part-Time Cooks line items.
