In spite of a presentation and plea from Pulaski County Community Development Commission executive director Nathan Origer, the council stuck with a decision made at its last meeting to cut the funding for the CDC's project coordinator position held by Krysten Hinkle. The vote was again 4-3, with Sullian, Tiede, DeSabatine and Scott Hinkle (no relation) voting to cut the job, one of only two in the entire department. Origer provided a detailed synopsis of the accomplishments of the efforts of the CDC, and much of the audience present was there to support Hinkle in her project coordinator position.
Council member Kathi Thompson suggested there were other county departments where a job could be eliminated with far less impact, and thus, she made a motion to cut a clerical position in the prosecutor's office instead, but the motion failed for lack of a second.
The CDC position was one of two county jobs eliminated at the council's previous meeting in an effort to trim the 2020 budget in the face of looming deficits. The council had also eliminated the entire microfilm depatment and its part-time employee, and no effort was made to reconsider that action Monday night. Thomposon did raise concerns about compliance with state laws regarding records retention, but the majority of the council was unmoved.
The county council has held meetings the past several months with individual county departments to discuss their 2020 budgets, seeking areas to cut expenses.
Also Monday night in final actions in the 2020 budget, the maintenance department's building repairs budget was sliced from $250,000 to $100,000; and $20,000 was cut from the EMS department's building repairs budget.
The budget now goes to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for final approval or further cuts.
Courthouse Report
The Indianapolis architecture firm Rowland Design made a final report resulting from a rehabilitation study of the Pulaski County courthouse paid for by Indiana Landmarks.
Architect Eric Rowland noted that their architectural numbers have been augmented with contractor numbers.
As in a preliminatry presentation made in August, Rowland emphasized the courthouse is structurally sound. Their goals were to stabilize the structure and modernize systems (which would lead to increased energy savings).
He again outlined three options:
Option 1 - Keep the circuit court in the courthouse, renovate the courthouse. (This would include NO RENOVATIONS to the justice center).
- 4,880,129
-
14,750 assignable square feet
Option 2A - Renovate the ourthouse and move circuit court to an enhanced justice center. (This includes renovations to the current justice center structure).
-
$7,650,917
-
19,950 assignable square feet
Option 2B - Renovate the courthouse, move circuit court and clerk’s office to justice center. (And renovations....)
- $8,583,667
- 22,240 assignable square feet
Option 3 - The original proposal from December 2018, augmented to allow for appropriate space requirements: Add to the justice center and demolish the courthouse.
-
$9,784,100
-
14,640 assignable square feet.
At the August presentation, Todd Zieger, of Indiana Landmarks told those at the meeting that most courthouses in the state have had some renovation, and that Rowland has completed a lot of historic renovations.
We "haven't lost any historic courthouse in Indiana since the 1970s," Zieger reported.
Also at that meeting, Rowland observed, "We understand that counties don't have deep pockets. But you want to do this right. It costs more not to do it right."
