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Getting started for the 2002 budget hearings, the Kosciusko County Council approved their own budget Thursday.
For salaries and wages for the seven councilmen, the council budgeted $40,221. Legal counsel and consulting was approved at $5,500, with mileage, meetings and travel expenses and telephone tolls budgeted at $1,400. Two-hundred dollars was budgeted for membership dues.
The total 2002 council budget is $47,321. In 2001, their budget was $46,069; $44,674 in 2000; $43,260 in 1999; and $31,010 in 1998.
Not-for-profit agencies will present their budget requests to the council July 5. County department heads will present their 2002 budgets July 30, 31 and the budget hearings will conclude Aug. 2.
In other business, the county council:
• Approved requiring that if someone wants to be on the county council's agenda, they must submit their request to county auditor Sue Ann Mitchell by Friday prior to the council's meeting.
"It's sort of like a newspaper," said council president Jim Tranter. "If you don't get it in by such and such a date, you don't get it in."
In emergency situations, Mitchell may make exceptions or the county council can be contacted for an exception.
Mitchell said the reason for the advance notice is because "when it's thrown at you the last minute, you have no time to prepare."
• Approved a $5 charge for deed transfers in the county auditor's office. The charge begins July 1 and all monies will go toward plat book maintenance.
• Approved an additional appropriation of approximately $1.98 million for the commissioner's cumulative capital development from the County Option Income Tax fund.
The approximate $1.98 million is the county's share of a revenue growth exceeding the Indiana State Budget Agency's forecasts of the County Option Income Tax.
Tranter said the Justice Building project is moving faster than anticipated and the monies are needed to pay for the remodeling part of the project. By approving the additional appropriation, the money will be available to pay for the project as needed.
Some things are right on schedule," said county administrator Ron Robinson. "Some things are ahead of schedule."
He said Wednesday the construction crew began cutting holes in the older section of the Justice Building to connect it to the addition.
• Heard from Rob Ladson, Kosciusko County Highway superintendent and engineer, who told the county council that a committee to help develop the scope for the Western Route Project has been formed. Members of the committee include Ladson, county commissioner Ron Truex, county councilman Larry Teghtmeyer and area resident Chris Garza.
The council and the county commissioners will meet jointly at 7 p.m. July 26 in the Munson Building, Lake Street, to discuss the potential agreement with the Troyer Group, the engineering firm working with the county, on their work on the project.
• Approved three additional appropriations for the county sheriff's department: $40,000 for gasoline; $6,811 for motor vehicles; $1,763 for other equipment. A transfer of funds for $891 was also approved.
• Approved an additional appropriation of $42,355 for the county assessor's office from the reassessment fund. A transfer of $5,000 also was approved out of a deputy position not filled for overtime.
• Approved an additional appropriation of $3,000 from full time to overtime for the Wayne Township assessor's office.
• Approved a transfer of $550 and two salary ordinances for the county health department.
• Took no action on Milford Public Library's request to levy a capital project fund rate of 4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for three years.
The library received approximately $61,000 for their share of the COIT revenue growth exceeding the Indiana State Budget Agency's forecasts of COIT. The library board has not met since the library received the COIT funds, and the county council wants the library board to meet and discuss whether or not the tax rate increase is needed. A rate of 4 cents over three years will raise approximately $61,000, the same amount the library received from COIT.
The library is working on acquiring property for expansion.
Members of the Kosciusko County Council are: president Jim Tranter, vice president Brad Tandy, Larry Teghtmeyer, John Kinsey, Tom Anglin, Harold Jones and Maurice Beer. They meet at 7 p.m. in the Kosciusko County courthouse, Warsaw, on the first Thursday of every month.
