Cemetery Building Addition Transfer Gets Scrutinized
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jennifer [email protected]
However, the vote was not unanimous, with councilman Kyle Babcock voting against the transfer ordinance.[[In-content Ad]]Council President Joe Thallemer and councilmen Jeff Grose, Charlie Smith, George Clemens and Dan Hampton voted in favor of the transfer ordinance. Councilman Jerry Patterson was absent during the meeting.
The approval is pending Board of Public Works and Safety approval at is meeting Friday when three quotes will be reviewed for the building's addition.
Clerk-Treasurer Elaine Call said the council needed to approve the transfer ordinance before the board reviews the building addition request.
During Monday's council meeting, the council approved an Oakwood Cemetery ordinance to transfer $45,000 from the cemetery's permanent land fund into the permanent buildings fund.
The transfer is for a request to build a 40-foot by 40-foot addition to cemetery sexton Hal Heagy's existing shop to store seasonal equipment. Plans are also in the future to include a break room for cemetery employees in the building.
"From the start I felt it was necessary to have a building addition," Heagy said.
Heagy said cemetery equipment is currently in several different locations and has to be dragged from the front to the back of the current storage shop.
He said he has seen two years of fuel bills increased, and he doesn't want to ask his employees to sit in a 120-foot building that is only 50 degrees when it takes a lot of fuel to heat the shop and could be heated a lot less in a smaller area.
"We thought the addition would be a way to centrally locate equipment with a break room to heat more efficiently than heating the whole building," Heagy said.
Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins said Heagy approached him with the building addition request prior to Monday's meeting.
"The reason for transfer ordinances, even though you scrutinize them in the budget, is to give you the discretion to look at them again," Wiggins said.
Babcock said he had concerns with transfers and voted against the transfer ordinance.
"My concern is when we do the budgets each year we look at line items and put things in and take them out of the budget and spend a considerable amount of time deciding what funds go into each category," Babcock said.
He said it makes sense that the cemetery needs a building addition, but when the council spends time going through its budget, he didn't think they approve a pool of money, but look at specific items for the budget.
"I'm inclined to vote no for this tonight because I don't think we should approve a pool of money to move around to buy different items," Babcock said.
He said he doesn't oppose all transfers, but says they should be scrutinized.
Thallemer said he also has had concerns with transfer requests in the past.
"Unfortunately, the way the budget process works is that there is a pool of money," Thallemer said.
"I think that's why transfer ordinances need to come before the council so that we can decide if it's an appropriate transfer or not," Thallemer said.
Thallemer said while he agrees spending needs to be scrutinized, he feels the council has some latitude with funds when certain things come up.
"Department heads like to show us where they are headed, but I don't think it sticks to those exact projects," Thallemer said.
Also during the meeting, Grose said the deer management committee has approved additional reduction zones. Trained task force archers will begin hunting in the zones this week, according to Grose.
The additional reduction zones are Logan Street, north of Rozzela Ford Golf Course; the area west of Country Club Road; and Hidden Lake behind Smith Tire along Ind. 15N.
At its Sept. 8 meeting, the council approved task force members hunting in reduction zones in Springhill Addition and the area around Kosciusko Community Hospital.
The archers have hunted in the reduction zones since Sept. 15 and will continue until Dec. 18. They do not hunt on weekends or holidays.
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However, the vote was not unanimous, with councilman Kyle Babcock voting against the transfer ordinance.[[In-content Ad]]Council President Joe Thallemer and councilmen Jeff Grose, Charlie Smith, George Clemens and Dan Hampton voted in favor of the transfer ordinance. Councilman Jerry Patterson was absent during the meeting.
The approval is pending Board of Public Works and Safety approval at is meeting Friday when three quotes will be reviewed for the building's addition.
Clerk-Treasurer Elaine Call said the council needed to approve the transfer ordinance before the board reviews the building addition request.
During Monday's council meeting, the council approved an Oakwood Cemetery ordinance to transfer $45,000 from the cemetery's permanent land fund into the permanent buildings fund.
The transfer is for a request to build a 40-foot by 40-foot addition to cemetery sexton Hal Heagy's existing shop to store seasonal equipment. Plans are also in the future to include a break room for cemetery employees in the building.
"From the start I felt it was necessary to have a building addition," Heagy said.
Heagy said cemetery equipment is currently in several different locations and has to be dragged from the front to the back of the current storage shop.
He said he has seen two years of fuel bills increased, and he doesn't want to ask his employees to sit in a 120-foot building that is only 50 degrees when it takes a lot of fuel to heat the shop and could be heated a lot less in a smaller area.
"We thought the addition would be a way to centrally locate equipment with a break room to heat more efficiently than heating the whole building," Heagy said.
Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins said Heagy approached him with the building addition request prior to Monday's meeting.
"The reason for transfer ordinances, even though you scrutinize them in the budget, is to give you the discretion to look at them again," Wiggins said.
Babcock said he had concerns with transfers and voted against the transfer ordinance.
"My concern is when we do the budgets each year we look at line items and put things in and take them out of the budget and spend a considerable amount of time deciding what funds go into each category," Babcock said.
He said it makes sense that the cemetery needs a building addition, but when the council spends time going through its budget, he didn't think they approve a pool of money, but look at specific items for the budget.
"I'm inclined to vote no for this tonight because I don't think we should approve a pool of money to move around to buy different items," Babcock said.
He said he doesn't oppose all transfers, but says they should be scrutinized.
Thallemer said he also has had concerns with transfer requests in the past.
"Unfortunately, the way the budget process works is that there is a pool of money," Thallemer said.
"I think that's why transfer ordinances need to come before the council so that we can decide if it's an appropriate transfer or not," Thallemer said.
Thallemer said while he agrees spending needs to be scrutinized, he feels the council has some latitude with funds when certain things come up.
"Department heads like to show us where they are headed, but I don't think it sticks to those exact projects," Thallemer said.
Also during the meeting, Grose said the deer management committee has approved additional reduction zones. Trained task force archers will begin hunting in the zones this week, according to Grose.
The additional reduction zones are Logan Street, north of Rozzela Ford Golf Course; the area west of Country Club Road; and Hidden Lake behind Smith Tire along Ind. 15N.
At its Sept. 8 meeting, the council approved task force members hunting in reduction zones in Springhill Addition and the area around Kosciusko Community Hospital.
The archers have hunted in the reduction zones since Sept. 15 and will continue until Dec. 18. They do not hunt on weekends or holidays.
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