County budget hearing yesterday; appropriates money for Jasper Wood grant

Public Hearings were held Wednesday evening for the 2013 Dubois County Budgets. Those budgets are: The Dubois County, Solid Waste, Airport, Northeast Dubois County Fire Protection and the Northeast Dubois School District.

The Council met, minus council members Bonnie Lubbehusen and Mark Brescher, but with enough for a quorum so that the hearings could proceed.

Each of the five separate budgets were given individual hearings, but the only member of the public that attended was Northeast Dubois School Superintendent Bill Hochgesang. The Northeast Dubois School District budget comes under the auspices of the County, since the County appoints the School Board members.

Hochgesang told the council that of the $11,138,464.00 for the school system, $6,664,932 comes from the state. The rest is the local budget.

After the budgets were given a hearing, County Auditor Kathy Hopf reiterated that the final adoption meeting for the budget would be held on September 24 at 4:30 p.m.

After which, the budget will be sent to the Department of Local Government Finance where they will set the final tax rate and final total amount for the budget.

The total advertised amount for the 2013 budget is $22,144,769.00.

After the budget hearing the council heard a request from Hopf to appropriate $70,000.00 to go towards the costs associated with applying for the grant for the Jasper Wood Products demolition. The grant would be applied for if the sale of the property to Paul Voegerl Sr., falls through. The council passed the appropriation.