Search continues for answers to Superior Court problems
With the announcement last week that county officials were no longer interested in pursuing a joint city-county building, county officials are still searching for answers for a new home for the Adams County Superior Court and the Adams County Probation Department.
The City-County Building, as proposed, would have housed Superior Court, the Probation Department, and Community Corrections, along with various Decatur City Offices and the Decatur Police Department.
Currently, Superior Court and the Probation Department are housed in the old Carnegie Library Building, next to the new library building on Third Street in Decatur. There are several structural issues, roof issues and security issues with the building that need to be addressed, and the needed repairs make maintaining the building a very expensive issue.
On Tuesday, the commissioners decided to have the Schenkel and Shultz Engineering firm look into using the old Shaffer Building in downtown Decatur and also look at moving the Superior Court into the Annex Building at Third and Jefferson on the edge of the downtown area.
Schenkel and Shultz sent the county a bill for $2,800 for preliminary work they did on the proposed city-council building and have estimated preliminary work on the Shaffer Building would be $3,200.
Commissioner Doug Bauman added that using the Annex would solve some security issues for several county offices.
The commissioners began the meeting by paying $79,956.23 in health claims and also approved a workmen's comp claim of $476.99.
Auditor Bill Borne said that he had enough payroll checks to get through two more pay cycles. He suggested that rather than buying more checks, that the 19 county employees still receiving paper checks be converted to direct deposit checking along with the rest of the county employees. The commissioners also approved this. This change will start with the February 17 paycheck.
County Engineer Tim Barkey said that the contractor working on the Ceylon Covered Bridge had started pile driving new supports for the bridge and that he would be gone from Wednesday through Friday attending a County Bridge Conference in West Lafayette and a Land Surveyors Conference in Indianapolis.
County Highway Superintendent Mark Mitchel said that due to the mild winter so far, he may have a problem storing salt. His salt barn is about half full and he is obligated by contract to purchase another 160 tons of salt this winter.
Before adjourning, the commissioners appointed Paul Zurcher and Katherine Strickler to the Adams County Hospital Association Board for four year terms.
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