Kosciusko County Commissioners met Tuesday morning and commissioner Ron Truex gave a presentation on expanding the Lakeland Regional Sewer District into two areas.
Truex started his presentation by stating that his comments weren't for or against adding Chapman Lake and Tippecanoe Lake to the Lakeland Regional Sewer District.
"This is to support a vehicle to allow them to join," said Truex.
Truex said the commissioners have attended LRSD meetings and listened to both arguments for and against allowing Chapman and Tippecanoe to join."It's time to get off the fence," said Truex.
"Tippy and Chapman would move at their own progress," said Truex. "But they would have a representative added to the sewer district board."
The commissioners agreed to review all the information and take action on it at their next meeting.
The commissioners next meet July 21 at 9 a.m. at the old courtroom in the old courthouse.
The board also approved a recommendation for a bid, the only one received, for computer software for the assessor's office. The software is required by the federal government and was supposed to be installed last year.
In all, the bid was for $292,000 though that money is available in the assessor's general fund. The decision goes to the county council which meets Thursday evening.
"It'd be nice if we could take that $300,000 and spend it on roads," said Truex.
The board did accept a bid for additional asphalt materials for the county highway department.
County highway department head Dennis Pletcher once again told the board that due to cutbacks at the state level, his crews were stretched thin.
"In a county with at least 1,200 miles of road you want to work on at least 1/10 of that a year," said Pletcher. "We haven't done that in almost 10 years."
Although local government officials can't increase the MVH fund that the highway department pays salaries out of - only state officials can do that - Pletcher asked the commissioners to recommend to the county council that they receive $1.2 million in EDIT funds.
The commissioners didn't give that recommendation saying they wanted some time to do research.
"What we have to be careful of, what we don't want to do is project out money that may not be there in the future," said commissioner Bob Conley.
Commissioner Brad Jackson told Pletcher he understood the lack of funding was an issue.
"Our funding level is the same as it was in 1995," said Jackson. "The state is cutting back funding and keeping money and redistributing it for the state."
"Also in 1995 diesel fuel was 60 cents a gallon," said Pletcher. "It's currently $2 a gallon."
County Clerk Jason McSherry told the commissioners he was researching an e-payment system to cut down on traffic coming to the clerk's office counter.
The new e-payment system would pose no cost to the county.
Kosciusko Emergency Management Director Ed Rock had a trip to Alabama for training.
The trip is being paid for by the federal government.
At the end of the meeting, Truex informed the commissioners that two members of the drainage board - Dorris Harrold and Bud Watkins - recently passed away.
Truex, who sits on the drainage board, said he found James Scott, Pierceton, to replace Harold and that the board will soon look for a replacement for Watkins.
Members of the drainage board are appointed or re-appointed every three to four years according to Truex.
