County Council passes property tax abatement, discusses I-67, bridge repair, and disc golf

The first meeting of the year for the Dubois County council was long – over 2 hours and several important issues were handled.

The first order of business for 2012 was to vote on officers for the council. Greg Kendall was nominated for President; Jerry Hunefeld – who was not in attendance – was nominated as Vice President. There were no other nominations, so they were closed and the council passed the two nominations.

The Council is seeking to get the word out to the public concerning the proposed I-67 interstate highway that would go through Dubois County.

The Council wants the public to know that they do not favor a new interstate highway that runs through the WEST side of Dubois County. They prefer the route that was chosen for U.S. 231- which runs around the east side of both Huntingburg and Jasper, then takes a northwesterly course just north of the White River Bridge north of Haysville, to connect with I-69 in Washington.

The council is in agreement that a new terrain highway system needs to be built but is taking a “wait and see” approach for now. The issue will be taken up once again in the February meeting as to whether or not they will allocate money to help fund the traffic study. The Jasper City Council has already done so as has the Dubois County Area Development Corporation, Washington Economic Development Commission, and Owensboro, Kentucky. (more information here)

Council Member Mark Brescher reiterated his point from the December meeting that money has already been spent on initial environmental studies for 231 and there is no reason why they cannot be used along with the proposed east side passage around Jasper and Huntingburg to perform the project.

Cheryl Graff with OFS was in attendance representing the I-67 Development Corporation and confirmed that the east side route is the one that is being promoted by OFS President Hank Menke.

Council President, Greg Kendall tabled further discussion on the topic until next month at which time the council will take up the issue and decide whether or not to allocate money to the traffic study to verify feasibility of building the new interstate system.

Judge Weikert sent a request to the Council for a new court recording system. The one they are using is 8 to 9 years old and is breaking down during court sessions. The cost of a new system was quoted as $8,508. The council passed the appropriation of money for the system.

County Engineer Jason Heile presented to the council the need to replace Bridge 114 on Schnellville road near Klem Manufacturing. Heile says the bridge is badly deteriorated and will cost $400,000 to replace with about $100,000 for design and other costs. The council passed a motion to allocate $500,000 for the project.

View Bridge repairs in a larger map

The council took up discussion of the Property Tax abatement program. Jasper Action Team member Dr. Alan Johnson was in attendance along with Jasper Chamber of Commerce Director Nancy Eckerle and Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz.

Kendall and the council discussed the need to establish an Economic Re-development Commission to handle any abatement petitions that come before the council.

The council debated whether the commission would need to be a 3 member or 5 member board. In the end, they decided on a 5 member board. The Tax Abatement Program was passed in a motion by the Council with several amendments:

• Filing fees for initiation would be $500
• Tax abatement duration would be negotiated per business need
• Re-development commission would have to be created at a future date to help handle the implementation of the plan to businesses

Dubois County Sheriff Donny Lampert petitioned the council for a new hire for the Security Center in the position of cook. The Center has two full-time cooks and two part time, but Lampert reports that he cannot keep part time cooks due to the fact that those who take the position do not keep it based on the fact that there is little room for advancement and the fact that part time workers do not have the commitment to stay with the position.

He advocated hiring a cook to work 32 hours per week as a full time employee, which would save the county from having to pay full time wages. The board balked at the idea and instead chose to make the position full time and voted twice on the issue. The first vote failed 2 yea to 3 nay on Lampert’s initial request. But after the council decided to make the position full time, the council passed the request 4 yea to 1 nay (Martha Wehr).

Finally, the council heard from Jason Schmidt with the Parks and Recreation division on the possibility of putting a Disc Golf course on county property near the 4-H fairgrounds as an attraction for this sport which is catching on in many areas.

Kendall stated that he had never heard of it and was somewhat skeptical of the idea. He asked Schmidt to get statistics from the managers of a course at Patoka Lake to see if it is a sustainable concept. (Click here for more information about the sport)

Schmidt reported that Disc Golf requires little investment but can help bring in tournaments and visitors to the area. He said that Dubois County Tourism director Kevin Manley has expressed interest in the idea. Schmidt was tasked with getting more information to the council so they could make a decision with better data to support the initial and ongoing funding needs of the venture.