Starke County is well on its way to becoming compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as ADA Coordinator Ted Bombagetti told the commissioners yesterday morning that the county will meet the Dec. 31 deadline for developing a plan for compliance.
The commissioners passed a resolution to adopt the ADA procedures and self-evaluation, and Commissioner Kathy Norem said the county’s website will soon offer links to view the ADA procedures along with the grievance procedure, which she said would be used in the event someone feels the county has not adequately addressed ADA needs.
The Starke County Commissioners are currently seeking interested, qualified, and community-minded individuals to fill several vacancies on a number of boards.
Commissioner Kathy Norem said they are currently seeking an individual to appoint to the Starke Regular Drain Board for a three-year term. Two appointments are needed for the Kankakee-Iruquois Regional Plan Commission for one-year terms, and one appointment is necessary for the Planning Commission as a four-year term.
Starke County Emergency Management Agency Director Ted Bombagetti will soon be taking on several new responsibilities for the county, as the Starke County Commissioners this week passed a motion appointing Bombagetti as the county’s ADA coordinator.
Commissioner Jennifer Davis told WKVI that the highway garage had received a letter from the Indiana Department of Transportation detailing several deadlines for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Highway Superintendent Steve Siddall forwarded the letter to the commissioners by email in October.
The last Starke County Jail Committee public meeting was held last night at the North Judson-San Pierre High School Auditorium. Commission President Kathy Norem was asked what kinds of questions residents have been asking about the proposed jail project.
“Most of the questions centered around the financing and how the figure was derived,” commented Norem. “There weren’t too many questions asked about the jail itself. The questions were mainly about the financing.”
The Starke County Jail Committee met recently and a consultant from the DLZ Corporation gave the committee options concerning the jail. Commissioner Kathy Norem said several public information meetings have been scheduled to inform county residents of those findings.
“The first will be Thursday, July 26 at the Knox Middle School Cafeteria at 6 p.m., or you can attend one of the other two meetings,” Norem explained. “One will be Tuesday, July 31 at the Oregon-Davis High School Cafeteria at 6 p.m. or Wednesday, August 1 at 6 p.m. at the North Judson-San Pierre High School Auditorium.”
Norem says a number of options were presented by DLZ, and each of them have their pros and cons.
An agreement has been made to house inmates from the Starke County Jail in the Pulaski County Jail. If the population goes over the rated capacity of 62, a certain number of inmates will be transported to the Pulaski County facility.
Starke County Commissioner Kathy Norem explained that the agreement does come at a price.
“We pay them twenty dollars per day, per inmate and that they will house them, feed them and provide their medical care,” said Norem.
Scenes like this one in North Judson were all too common in the wake of weekend storms.
Crews are still working diligently to clean up the damage from last weekend’s series of storms, but Bass Lake Fire Chief Les Jensen says the clean up efforts are going very well. The Starke County Highway Department has been removing branches from roads and power lines, and Jensen says the roads around Bass Lake that were previously closed are now open. However, some branches are still close to the road because cleanup crews had focused on getting the roads cleared and open, but those branches will soon be removed.
The NIPSCO Outage Center reports that only one customer in the Knox area is still affected by outages, with a total of 97 NIPSCO customers affected in Northern Indiana. KVREMC crews are also making efforts to clear lines and undo damages caused by the storm.
Scenes like this one in North Judson were all too common in the wake of yesterday’s storm.
Kankakee Valley REMC has reported over 7000 people without power in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Starke, and Pulaski counties after the afternoon storm that tore through the area on Friday. KVREMC dispatched crews yesterday to affected areas to begin restoring power. Causing the outages are five substations that have been reported down due to transmission feeds from NIPSCO being out as well as broken poles and downed wires.
Starke County Commissioner Kathy Norem says the hardest hit area seems to be around Bass Lake, where boats were reportedly flipped over in the water and even tossed up on land. Several trees were felled and Norem says cleanup crews have their work cut out for them.
“The hardest hit areas seem to be in California Township around Bass Lake and North Bend Township, also around Bass Lake. The crews have been out, the highway department is out, the Sheriff’s Department has been out, but there is a lot of damage in that particular area and it’s going to be a long cleanup,” Norem said.
Starke County Commissioners Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom and Jennifer Davis
Starke County government officials this week discussed finances as they apply to county jail inmates being housed at the Pulaski County Jail.
With the Starke County Jail being rated for only 62 prisoners and the population approaching 80 at times, Commissioner Kathy Norem and Sheriff Oscar Cowen have been looking at ways to solve the problem – but that takes extra funds to pay Pulaski County and transport the prisoners back and forth.
Council President David Pearman explained that this is the most cost-effective solution they have found so far.
The polls are closed and the votes have been totaled. The May Primary Election didn’t have the voter turnout that some may have desired, but the voters made their decisions and their ballots have been cast.
In Starke County, Daniel Bridegroom will have the Democratic nomination for Starke County Commissioner in District Three, having received 801 votes over Joseph Woods’ 787. For Starke County Treasurer, Linda L. Belork fell just short of Kasey “Bula” Clark, who earned 842 votes to Belork’s 760. Interestingly enough, the candidate to receive the most votes out of any Starke County race was Kathy Norem, who raked in 1508 votes– regardless of the fact that she was unopposed.
Starke County Commissioners: Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom and Jennifer Davis
The Starke County Commissioners this week discussed a request regarding a new entrance at the Highland Cemetery. Officials at the cemetery have expressed their desire to open a section of the fence near County Road 300 West to add an additional entrance and exit.
The town of North Judson will cover the cost of the entrance, which was actually in use many years ago, but has since become overgrown and blocked off with a chain. The town wishes to cut down the growth and remove the chain, allowing vehicles to use the path.
Starke County Commissioners: Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom and Jennifer Davis
In the first meeting of the new year, the Starke County Commissioners reorganized and made appointments to several boards. Kathy Norem was elected as the President of the Board of Commissioners with Dan Bridegroom as Vice President and Jennifer Davis as Secretary. The vote for commissioner Norem was unanimous, and she thanked her predecessor, Dan Bridegroom, for his three years of service as Board President. Martin Lucas was retained as the county attorney.
The Starke County Commissioners are gearing up for the future needs of the EMS service in the county by considering the purchase of a new ambulance, or two quality used rigs. At a recent meeting, Commissioner Kathy Norem announced that because $250,000 is left from health insurance savings she would like to spend a portion of the money on ambulances and equipment for Advanced Life Service needs.
Councilman David Pearman commented on the issue that when county begins making ALS runs, that is going to open up a new revenue source, but at the same time there will be more activity for the rigs. Pearman also noted that there are many municipalities that are privatizing their ambulance service, so there as some quality used rigs available if they can just be found.
Commissioner Dan Bridegroom said that the ambulances the county currently owns need to be thoroughly checked for issues, but it’s hard to take them out of service to do so. Another issue is that with the older rigs, parts are not always available.
A motion was made to seek the transfer of the money for the purchase of the new rig or two used ones by Commissioner Jennifer Davis. The motion was approved unanimously.
The beleaguered Starke County Jail has developed more problems recently: I.T. Director Joe Short said the equipment room temperature soared into the sauna range.
“Basically what happened is, the equipment room air conditioner quit working, and it was exceeding 100 degrees in the equipment room. We got McGrath’s out and put the unit in working condition but still its not maintaining anything below 76, 78 degrees. I’d personally like to see it below 70, preferably around 60-65,” said Short.
The problems began after another problem was corrected.
“The rooftop units quit working in the jail for heating, so there was no heat going into the equipment room. Well, now they have the new rooftop units in there and all the duct-work for heating that building goes through the ceiling above that equipment room. In conjunction with that, and air conditioning was running all summer, now that air conditioner is not able to keep up,” Short said.
So what problems are created when the room temperature goes into the stratosphere?
“When we started cracking that 100-degree mark, all the radio equipment for 911, servers, everything is in there. We’re down to 76, 78 but I’d like to see it get a little bit better than that,” said Short.
The plan now is to move another air conditioner to the room to give more capacity for lowering the temperature into the 60-65 degree range. But Short concedes if the main air conditioner dies “we’re in trouble.”
Commissioner Kathy Norem said, “If it dies that would be an emergency, and we would have to address it then.” If you’re experiencing this too, have your air conditioner checked and maintained by Minneapolis air duct cleaning company.
The Starke County Commissioners Thursday removed county treasurer Linda Belork from office. The action was taken after the commissioners received a state audit of the office in which there were a considerable number of irregularities found. The commissioners have filed a complaint for default on the surety bond and damages. The surety bond company, Ohio Casualty Insurance, and Treasurer Linda Belork are named as defendants in the suit. Commissioner Kathy Norem asked for the removal, seconded by Jennifer Davis.
The pension fund for the Starke County Sheriff’s Department has received its necessary fund transfer, thanks to Sheriff Oscar Cowen and the County Council. At their joint meeting with the Commissioners, Cowen asked for $108,514.32 to be transferred to the Sheriff’s Pension Fund. This transfer has been requested annually for several years.
“We call it the riverboat money. It comes in, it goes into an account. The only way it can come out of that account is the sheriff has to ask for it. And if the sheriff doesn’t ask for it, it can’t be taken out,” said Commissioner Dan Bridegroom.
Is Starke County going to get out of the ambulance business? That was one of the questions several County Councilmen and one Commissioner attempted to answer this week.
Getting out of the ambulance business was only one of the proposals made in a session on upgrading the county’s ambulance capabilities to Advance Life Service (ALS) status.
Starke County Commissioners ( L to R ) Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom, Jennifer Davis
On a 2-1 vote, President Dan Bridegroom, Vice President Kathy Norem and Secretary Jennifer Davis were reappointed to their positions on the Starke County Board of Commissioners. Jennifer Davis and Dan Bridegroom voted for the slate and Kathy Norem voted against. Bridegroom and Davis are both Democrats and Norem is a Republican.
Starke County Commissioners ( L to R ) Kathy Norem, Dan Bridegroom, Jennifer Davis
When is a burn ban, not a burn ban? According to the Starke County Commissioners, it’s when a local ordinance is updated that would spell out the penalties for violations. Commission President, Dan Bridegroom, said this week that when the burn ordinance was discussed it came out as meaning a “burn-ban” and that is not what the commission wanted to convey to the public.
“I think the biggest misconception right away was the word ‘ban’ was in everything they read,” said Commission President, Dan Bridegroom. “As soon as I would explain to the people that called me and talked to me and stopped me, it’s not a ban, then they were ok. They were ok almost immediately to know that they can still burn their leaves and burn their brush. I guess that part of the blame should fall back on us in that we didn’t get it out, specifically, what we were looking at.”
