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The Kosciusko County Commissioners listened, but in the end left the answer to the problem for another day.
The question? How to ensure all affected property owners are notified and given a fair chance to provide input before a land-use decision is made.
At issue was a March 2 commissioners' decision to vacate a portion of EMS B6C Lane on Barbee Lake. The action was taken in response to a petition by Paul and Michele Obermeyer, 74, EMS B6C Lane, who own the property on which the lane's turn-around is located.
Area residents had used the turn-around portion for temporary parking and the county had used it as a place to leave plowed snow.
"We should have more people notified than just the people next to the property," said Helen Hoy, representing the residents on the lane. Hoy is not a resident of the street.
Hoy said another reason behind her involvement is an incident which occurred recently while she was on the road visiting a friend.
"I was helping a friend of mine who lives there, and parked in the turn-around like I had always done before," she said. "Then he (Obermeyer) came out and threatened me and followed my car when I left," she said.
County attorney Mike Miner said the notification procedure is set forth by state statute and any additional notification requirements could be established by the county, but a petitioner would not have to pay for the additional expense of any expanded notification procedure.
"The county couldn't put the burden of an expanded notification procedure on the petitioner," he said. "But if the county wanted to pay the additional expense, it could provide the additional notification."
Miner added that any alleged threats should be referred to the proper law enforcement agency, and have no bearing on land-use notifications or decisions.
"If they're threatening people, that's a criminal violation and should be reported to the sheriff's department or the appropriate police department," he said.
The commissioners took no action on the requests, but agreed to further investigate the issue.
In other business, the commissioners received a report from Gregg Nydegger, district operations manager, on the upcoming system upgrade Marcus will undertake in the Warsaw area.
Marcus will replace much of its current "hard-wire" transmission system with fiber optics, Nydegger said. Backup power supplies, to keep the system operational during electricity outages, and an expanded channel lineup are also part of the upgrade, he said.
"This is a large project that will take some time to complete. But we just wanted to let you know what's coming up," he said.
New channels being added to Marcus's lineup include Animal Planet, TV Food, the Game Show Network, Toon Disney, TV Land, Home Shopping Network, the Sci-Fi Channel and Galavision.
The commissioners also approved highway department requests for the purchase of a $37,713 water jet cleaner for county sewer lines. The cleaner was purchased from Sewer Equipment of America Inc., of Glenview, Ill; a new dump trailer for $32,784.04 from Ken's Truck repair in Illinois; and two new tandem-axle dump trucks for $200,988.
Finally, Ron Robinson, county administrator, announced the clerk's office will be closed April 20-21 for the office staff to attend training session in Indianapolis.
