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An additional appropriation of $1,640,872 from the cumulative fund for land and improvements was approved Monday by the Kosciusko County Council.
According to County Administrator Ron Robinson, the money will help the county continue with the demolition of the buildings at the corner of Lake and Center streets for the Justice Building expansion project until the bonds have been issued.
Robinson told the council they must re-advertise for bids for the demolition of the building. The demolition project bids will be opened Feb. 1 and awarded Feb 15.
According to county commissioner Eddie Creighton, a prebid hearing on the building construction will be March 16, with construction bids opened on March 28. Bids will be awarded April 11 and bonds will be tentatively sold for the project April 18.
Creighton said the architect's estimates have been on the high side, so far, but the costs have come in under those estimates.
The council also discussed a jail inspection report from the Indiana Department of Corrections.
According to the report, Kosciusko County Jail is the third most overcrowded jail out of 92 counties. Only Jackson and St. Joseph counties are more overcrowded.
Kosciusko County Jail is 59 beds short. Kosciusko is also ninth out of 92 counties with the number of Indiana Department of Corrections inmates, with 34.
"This data reflects the need for more jail space," said council president Brad Tandy.
In other business, the council approved the appointment of William Musser to serve on the Syracuse-Turkey Creek Library Board of Trustees. The council's current representative, Paul Stoelting, recently resigned from the board.
County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell explained the new format of the property tax bill to the council.
She also said that at a future meeting, the council will need to decide what to charge the public for copies. New legislation regarding the open door law allows the county to charge for document copies but requires them to charge actual costs. Instead of charging a quarter per copy, they would have to charge a nickel or dime.
"Because we need to go to real copy costs," said Mitchell, "we need to think about how we're supposed to do this."
She said the various department heads have said charging nothing for copies will be out of line. If the county charges a quarter, someone has to track that money. If the charge is reduced to 5 or 10 cents, she said, she is not sure it is cost effective to track that nickel or dime.
Councilman Harold Jones said he was concerned it would be abused. The council made no decision on copy charges.
Council members present include Tandy, Jones, John Kinsey and Kathryn Teel. Not present were Tom Anglin, Lewis Bertsch and Jim Tranter.
