Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Indiana wants to increase the safety at railroad intersections and decrease the number of car-train fatalities.
As such, Kosciusko County Highway Superintendent and Engineer Rob Ladson applied for a grant from the state to improve the road signage at railroad crossings in the county. Thursday, the Kosciusko County Council approved the appropriation of the approximate $34,000 grant the county received to do just that.
The money will be used, Ladson said, to upgrade the advance railroad signs and install stop signs at crossings that don't have any signs. He also said Kosciusko County has a fairly high rates of car-train accidents.
In other business:
• Four transfers were approved in one motion for the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department. The transfers, all from grants, are for $15,046.71; $7,358.61; $9,064.27; and $9,401.33.
• County Administrator Ron Robinson, on behalf of county clerk Marsha McSherry, said there is a need for an increase in money to pay for the meals for election workers. The county council approved a $5 per worker increase for a total of $4,340. The primary election is May 2.
• County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell said the county's Internet site is making strides.
She also reported the county commissioners approved an ordinance which will allow 50 cents of each dog tag purchased to go toward the animal shelter. There will be no increase in the price of dog tags.
• County Prosecutor Charles Waggoner told the council April is national child abuse month. Over the next few months, he said he will be soliciting support for his prosecution against child abusers as well as domestic violence. He said he will present examples to the council on cases his department is working on so that when budget time and grant deadlines come around, the council may be more supportive of hiring more clerical workers and a paralegal for his office to work on such cases.
• Councilman Tom Anglin told Robinson some of his constituents were asking him if the office building at the county fairgrounds was a "dead issue." The building would be built by the county for the Purdue Extension Service department, Soil & Water Conservation District and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service offices, 4-H meeting rooms and fair association offices.
Robinson replied that it isn't a dead issue, but the Justice Building expansion project is the primary concern at this point and that more planning has to be done.
Anglin said he understood that but he didn't want the fair building to be pushed to the back burner. The objective of that building for those offices, he said, was to create more space in the courthouse.
Currently, the Extension offices are in the courthouse basement.
Members of the county council include John Kinsey, Kathryn Teel, Jim Tranter, Brad Tandy, Tom Anglin, Harold Jones and Lewis Bertsch.
