Roads account for largest increase in county budget

The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the courthouse to amend the current year budget, for increased expenses of $447,858.

The largest increases in the FY2013 county budget are $375,000 in roads and transportation and $120,000 in public safety and legal services.

This leaves a projected $2.7 million total fund balance at the end of this fiscal year, June 30.

Supervisors reviewed a request from Brian Taglauer to split a property lot.

?The property owner [Taglauer] wants to split the lot and it already has development on it,? said county engineer Scott Cline. ?He?ll keep the barn and his brother has the house there.?

Supervisor Dick Reed said the board will refer the request to the county attorney?s office and table the request until next week.

Supervisors unanimously approved Jefferson County Sheriff Gregg Morton?s request to raise the jail room and board fee by $10 for county inmates immediately.

?The fees haven?t been raised since 2007,? said Morton.

Morton said he wants to take some of the burden off the taxpayers.

The Jefferson County Jail room and board rate increased from $25 per day to $35 per day for time spent in jail since arrest to trial and sentencing.

?When a person is arrested and comes to jail, we keep track of the time they spend in our jail and if they are sentenced for that crime, we go back and count the days that they spent prior to sentencing and charge them $35 a day,? said Morton.

?If a person?s sentence includes returning to jail to spend more time ? if the court issues a mittimus ? and the person comes to serve time, we charge $35 a day unless they want to serve this on a weekend, then we charge an additional $10 per day, or a total of $45. And if they are in to serve a mittimus and want work release, the charge is $45 a day.?

Jefferson County Jail charges $55 per day to house inmates transported from another county if the jail in the originating county is out of space. That rate did not increase.

?We?ll use the increased revenue for infrastructure,? said Morton.

In other business Monday, the supervisors:

? Agreed the board had no choice but to refund $25,365 in property taxes paid that were not due.

? Signed an agreement allowing use of federal funds to replace Ash Avenue?s truss bridge over Cedar Creek.

? Signed an agreement to allow use of federal funds to re-deck the Brookville Road bridge over Mitchell Creek. Supervisors also agreed to move the project up in the county roads department schedule, amending the 2013 fiscal year IDOT Secondary Road Construction program to re-deck and repair piers on the bridge and seek bid letting for July 16.

?We will wait until after RAGBRAI for contractors to set up there,? said Cline.

An official route for the annual bike ride has not been announced other than the overnight stops. Fairfield is the final, Friday night stop for the bicycle riders.