Winamac’s property taxes will soon be going up slightly. The town council voted Monday to reestablish the Cumulative Capital Development Fund at its maximum rate of five cents per $100 of assessed valuation. It’s currently at 4.23 cents, since it decreases over time.
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Pulaski County is seeking funding to continue its Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. A rough draft of the grant documents is due to the state by the end of February.
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The Pulaski County Council may be looking to crack down on additional appropriations in 2020. That’s when the council lets a department spend a certain amount of money beyond what’s in the budget.
Continue readingA Pulaski County Council member says a lack of information is hurting the council’s ability to manage the county’s finances. During Monday’s meeting, Kathi Thompson said the council needs monthly updates on how the county’s expenditures compare to its budget.
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A proposal to redirect some of the Pulaski County Community Development Commission’s funding to the county’s towns drew several concerns during a special CDC meeting Tuesday.
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The Pulaski County Commissioners took steps to solidify the county’s IT services Monday. They voted to officially contract IT services out to DeGroot Technology, following the elimination of the county’s IT Department last month.
Continue readingPulaski County officials continue to voice concerns with the county’s IT arrangements, but organizing a discussion is proving to be a challenge. Some county council members had wanted to discuss IT plans with the county commissioners and had apparently asked to have it included on Monday’s joint session agenda. But when it was sent out, the only item listed was the approval of the prior joint session minutes.
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The Pulaski County Council will continue looking for ways to cut expenses tonight. For the past month, the council has been meeting with department heads for preliminary discussions on their 2020 budgets. The goal is to avoid a $2.7 million deficit that’s projected to develop over the coming years. Meeting with the council tonight will be the two courts and Probation Office, according to the Auditor’s Office.
Continue readingPulaski County’s judges are worried that resistance from the auditor and county attorney is putting court programs in jeopardy.
In a lengthy and heated discussion during Monday’s county commissioners meeting, Circuit Court Judge Mary Welker said the county’s seen great success with its Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, but when coordinator Dr. Natalie Daily Federer tried to renew its funding, Auditor Laura Wheeler prevented it.
Continue readingPulaski County can do a better job of sharing its government records with the public. That’s according to County Council Member Brian Young. During a recent meeting, Young noted that while there’s an online archive of meeting minutes on the county’s website, it hasn’t been updated since October, at least for the council and commissioners meetings.
Continue readingThe Pulaski County Government is getting its own drone. Commissioner Jerry Locke announced Tuesday that the county’s local emergency planning committee voted unanimously to buy a drone last week.
Continue readingThe Pulaski County Council has finalized a significant pay raise for Chief Deputy Coroner Jon Frain, but not without some opposition. Council members approved a pair of wage revisions Monday.
Continue readingThe amount of time spent processing excise tax will soon be reduced for the Pulaski County Auditor’s Office, thanks to some new software. On Monday, the county commissioners approved the payment of a $6,000 invoice for the new system, at the request of Auditor Laura Wheeler.
Continue readingThe Pulaski County Council is streamlining the county’s salary matrix. Last week, council members approved a revision that does away with a probationary pay level for new employees.
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More of Pulaski County’s public records will be available online in the coming months. On Monday, the county commissioners agreed to let Recorder Sue Fox hire CSI to scan documents predating the 1960s. She said that anything newer has already been made available online. “What we’ll do is we’ll have it complete, every record that we have in our vault right now, back into the 1800s,” she said. “And this is important, too, because of people who do searches just for homestead, hundred-year homestead checks, and people are just doing family histories. They use it quite often.”
Cremation will soon require a $25 disposition permit in Pulaski County. The county commissioners Monday adopted a pair of fee-related ordinances recommended by the Coroner’s Office. One of them creates a formal system of releasing bodies for cremation, according to Coroner John Behny. “Any time someone would be cremated, they would contact us and we would authorize, and they would send the money to the Auditor’s Office,” he explained.
The Pulaski County Auditor’s Office isn’t getting any additional help any time soon, as the county council this week denied a request from Auditor Shelia Garling to hire an additional full-time employee.
Garling said her request was denied because the county council felt the office did not need any additional staffing, despite the auditor’s office being down one full-time employee. Fortunately, she said things should change at the start of the new year, when she expects to have three full-time employees and two part-time employees.
