MENTONE – The town of Mentone will continue to have Emans Engineering serve as its contracted engineer through 2014. During the town council meeting Monday night, Utilities Superintendent Josh Shepherd requested the council approve the contract with Emans for next year. “It’s a spitting image of what we did this year,” Shepherd reported, with the same amount of hours and money. “I think it was a good deal to have that,” Clerk-Treasurer Barb Ross stated. Emans was able to save the utility department money on wastewater testing, Shepherd noted. At the Nov. 5, 2012 council meeting, Shepherd had presented an idea to the council to name Emans as town engineer. In December the council agreed to pay Emans $4,300 annually for up to 60 hours of work effective Jan. 1. Last night, Shepherd said he may want to increase the number of hours in the future. Tim Croy, council president, later said the town needs to watch its spending for the rest of the year. “If we continue as we are, our general fund is going to be out by year’s end. We have things that have gone way over budget. We need to be skimping,” Croy stated. Toward the end of the meeting, he mentioned to Mentone Police Department deputy Terry Engstrand the police department went way over budget on ammunition. “It’s really, really tight right now and we’ve got two months to survive,” Croy said. Croy also reported Chris Pettit approached him about rezoning some property from industrial to residential. The zoning board voted unanimously to rezone lots 248, 247 and 246 to Residential-3, but the town council has the final say. The property at 104 W. Jefferson St. is at the corner of South Tucker and East Jefferson streets. Pettit told Croy that he plans to use the property for storage, and not as a residence or business. “If we give him the OK, it’s up to him to get it all done,” Croy stated. Councilwoman Jill Gross asked if the rezoning would change his property taxes. Croy said he didn’t think it would. The council approved the rezoning at Pettit’s cost. In other business: • Croy reported the town has set up a demolition of the back porch and garage of the Richard Surface property on Main Street. The cost is $2,500. However, he said they haven’t got anyone to take down the tall tree that’s there. Shepherd said there will power lines around there, too. • Leaf pick-up has started. Croy said residents should not put their leaves in the street. When leaves are raked to the curb to be picked up, Croy reminded people not to park in front of the leaf piles. Shepherd said leaves have started falling late this year, so leaf pick-up will continue until the end of November. • Ross reported she had the terminal service agreement for the police department’s data service through Kosciusko County that needed signed. Next year’s contract includes $500 for software costs. • Croy thanked the Kosciusko Economic Development Corp. for the small business listening session it held in the town Oct. 22. He said there was a good turnout and discussion.
