Starke County Council Ratifies Travel Policy

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Courthouse
Starke County Courthouse

Starke County employees who travel on county-related business are not allowed to accept dinner, drinks or any good or service of value from contractors or vendors.  That’s now the official policy of the county, as adopted Monday by the council.

Other revisions to the county’s travel policy include setting mileage reimbursement at the IRS standard mileage rate. Generally travel less than 50 miles from home is considered a day trip, but overnight travel can be authorized if a meeting starts early the next morning. This is done at the discretion of an employee’s supervisor but does require pre-approval. Also, when two or more employees are traveling the same general route for the same general purpose, one vehicle should be used if possible. Reimbursed mileage cannot exceed map mileage for a trip, and other expenses, such as parking and tolls, may be reimbursed if receipts are provided. The policy also sets limits on meal reimbursements, with a maximum of $6.50 for breakfast, $8.50 for lunch and $13 for dinner. Continue reading →

Starke County Council Opts to Wait on Wheel Tax

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Courthouse
Starke County Courthouse

The Starke County Council is waiting to see if a mandatory wheel tax proposal gains traction in the state Senate before voting to implement one locally.

The state Senate is pushing a plan that would require all 92 Indiana counties to implement an excise tax on annual vehicle registrations in order to get their full share of road money. Currently only 45 counties have such a tax on the books. St. Joseph is the only county adjacent to Starke that collects the tax. House members have backed away from the controversial proposal.

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Starke Council Approves Payment of Negotiated Attorney Fees for Dotlich Case

Posted on Author WKVI

 
 
The legal case between George and Betty Dotlich and the Board of Zoning Appeals is still causing commotion, as the Starke County Council this week approved a motion to pay a to-be-negotiated amount in attorney fees as ordered by Special Judge Patrick Blankenship. The pair had valiantly fought tooth-and-nail over a commercial structure that had been permitted as a single-family residence, ultimately winning the appeal in the Starke Circuit Court, where it was ruled that the BZA failed to follow proper procedure and made a permitting decision unsupported by substantial evidence.

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Community Services of Starke County Suffering Funding Woes

Posted on Author WKVI
Community Services of Starke County
Community Services of Starke County

While donations have been steadily coming in to the Community Services of Starke County Food Pantry, Organization Director Joan Haugh said other programs offered by the organization are suffering from a lack of funding. Haugh told the county council this week that they are incurring further reductions in funding from both the state and federal government, primarily affecting their transportation program.

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Starke County Approves $100K for Pulaski Inmate Housing

Posted on Author WKVI

Starke County Sheriff's Department
Starke County Sheriff’s Department
With the overcrowding still a concern at the Starke County Jail, the county council this week approved an appropriation of County Adjusted Gross Income Tax funds to continue to house inmates at the Pulaski County Jail. County Attorney Martin Lucas told the council that this has been very helpful for the county, particularly with the ongoing litigation.

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Starke County Council Transfers Nearly $200,000 to Rainy Day Fund

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

After failing to reach a quorum at their last meeting, the Starke County Council last night met once again before the end of the year to wrap up end-of-year business. Council President David Pearman passed out a spreadsheet detailing county budgets and line items with what the council expected to be leftover funds at the end of the year – funds which, if nothing is done with, would disappear.

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Starke Commissioners, Council To Meet Today

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Commissioners

After failing to reach a quorum at their last meeting on Dec. 17, the Starke County Commissioners and the County Council will meet once again tonight to wrap up end-of-year business.

Items that had been on the council agenda for the last meeting included a request for funding from Community Services Director Joan Haugh, a third-quarter commissary fund report from Sheriff Oscar Cowen, and a report from the county auditor on anti-nepotism certifications of department heads.

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Starke Commissioners, Council Unable To Reach Quorum

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Commissioners

Yesterday was a boring day for the Starke County commissioners and the council, as neither body was able to form a quorum. For a variety of reasons including sickness and prior engagements, four members of the county council and two commissioners were absent from last night’s meeting.

A quorum is the minimum number of members of an assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group; in this case, the council requires at least four members while only three were present, and the commissioners require at least two. Only one commissioner, Jennifer Davis, made it to the meeting.

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Starke Commissioners To Make Final Jail Site Decision Soon

Posted on Author WKVI
A full audience was in attendance for the jail discussion.

The Starke County Commissioners this week met with the county council for a discussion regarding the proposed site for the new county jail facility. A huge public turnout filled the meeting room with concerned residents who were uneasy about the idea of having a jail for their neighbor.

Commissioner Kathy Norem explained that they’ve looked at a number of properties over the last several months as prospective jail sites, but the top contender at the moment is a piece of property located at the intersection of State Road 8 and 550 East.

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Majority of Starke Commissioners, Council Republican for First Time in Decades

Posted on Author WKVI

For the first time in several decades, the majority of both the Starke County Commissioners and the Starke County Council are republican, but how much does that really matter? Republican Kent Danford beat out Democrat Dan Bridegroom for a seat on the Board of County Commissioners, and the lone democrat commissioner, Jennifer Davis, said it’s going to be a bit different but they’ll work together to improve the county as best they can.

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Starke County Council Discusses Innkeeper’s Tax, CVC

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Council this week heard from the Convention and Visitors Commission as they discussed the goals of the organizations. Council President Dave Pearman explained that the council and commissioners felt that there have been a lot of unknowns with the commission, such as an unsurety toward their mission, and unsure how their funds are being handled. He said they need to ensure funds are being used correctly and not going missing, but he emphasized that both boards recognized there is a value to the organization if they can get these issues sorted out.

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Starke County Council Discusses Levy Growth Options

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

The Starke County Council this week discussed a number of options available to grow the county’s levy, specifically three options regarding income tax and property tax.

Council President Dave Pearman explained that the state froze levy growth for the majority of Hoosier counties back in the 1970’s, and several counties are now wondering how to go about unfreezing that growth. He explained that the levy was frozen to prevent counties from extending their levy growth beyond the means of their local growth – essentially spending beyond their means.

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American Oak To Develop Industrial Park Property

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

The Starke County Council last week passed a motion to approve a proposed ordinance to allow American Oak to develop property in the North Judson Industrial Park.

Council President David Pearman says this is a great opportunity to expand the development in the industrial park. He says next to the American Oak property is some land with a lot of scrub trees, and American Oak is interested in putting some money into that property.

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Starke Council, Commissioners To Discuss Jail Project Tonight

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

The Starke County Commissioners and the Starke County Council will meet tonight at 6 p.m. to discuss the proposed jail project.

Council President David Pearman said the council and the commissioners hope to approve a proposed ordinance that would enable the officials to utilize a 0.65 percent tax rate that would help fund the construction of a new jail facility.

Once the ordinance is approved, Pearman said the project will start to take shape

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Starke County Commissioners, Council Discuss Jail Project

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

The Starke County Commissioners and the Starke County Council met in a joint session Monday night to discuss the proposed jail project.

Council President David Pearman talked about the overall objective of the meeting.

“The overall goal of the meeting was to finally end up with getting the first look at the proposed ordinance that would enable us to utilize the 0.65 percent tax rate,” said Pearman. “However, what we did for the benefit of the rest of council, was basically go through the jail presentation but also, during each slide, kind of give a feel and some flavor of what the public had during our presentations.”

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Public Information Meetings Scheduled For Starke County Jail Project

Posted on Author WKVI
Starke County Jail

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.

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Starke County Council Considers Purchase Of New Tax Software

Posted on Author WKVI
David Pearman

The Starke County Council discussed the purchase of new software for the Sheriff’s Department to help automate tax warrants and the cash books.

Starke County Council President David Pearman said the biggest concern is the cost for both components which were explained in the proposal given by Rick Culiver from Lieberman Technologies.

“The biggest issue is that it has a pretty substantial cost behind it and it has a pretty substantial maintenance cost,” said Pearman.

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Starke County Council Approves Software For Auditor, Treasurer Offices

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Council recently voted to fund a request for new financial software for the auditor and treasurer’s offices. A representative of Low attended the council meeting with Interim Treasurer Kasey Clark.

It was explained that the new tax and auditing software would be beneficial to not only the auditor and treasurer, but office holders and department heads alike.

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Knox City Court Suffers From Lack Of Funding

Posted on Author WKVI
Charles Hasnerl

Members of the Knox City Administration, City Judge Charles Hasnerl, and Prosecutor Nicholas Bourff came before the Starke County Council this week seeking guidance in a request for Pretrial Diversion funds. The city administration is trying to find ways to lessen the $80,000 loss in the funding of Knox City Court.

Although no action was taken, it became apparent to City Attorney David Matsey and Starke County Attorney Martin Lucas that there was no way the $9000 in question could be used for the funding of the court.

At one point in the discussion, it was again mentioned that the city might discontinue city court and return the cases that come before Judge Hasnerl to the county. That, however, didn’t seem to be an area anyone wanted to explore at the meeting.