County Council discusses public defender program, a clerk’s office filing upgrade and a new economic program…

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PUBLIC DEFENDER PROGRAM

 

The Public Defender program in Knox County continues to be a concern of both the county and the state.

Knox County has one of the most expensive public defender programs in the state.

Bob Lechner, County Council President,  says the county spends over 1 million dollars a year on the program.

He feels locally the county needs to step up and work together to make the program something they can be proud of.

Lechner says the idea is not to provide lesser services, but to do it more efficiently.

He says they will be working with officials from the Public Defender B oard of Indiana to look at contracts and see what they can do to better the program, and make it more financially sound.


CLERK’S OFFICE UPGRADE

 

The  Knox County Clerk’s office filing system is in desperate need of an upgrade.

The court reporter has to move all of the heavy documents manually which is putting a strain on her time management and her physical health.

Clerk Terri Allen says they have been having the issue since last summer and nothing has been done to fix it.

The architect firm of Myszack and Palmer were hired by the Knox County Commissioners to perform a feasibility study to find a way to correct the situation.

They have until March 21st to complete the study, which Council President Bob Lechner says he believes will be the solution.

Lechner says right now its a bit of a waiting game.

The track on which the court documents originally moved around on was destroyed during the addition of a new elevator.

Lechner says as soon as they have suggestions from the study, they will start making physical changes to remedy the matter.

 

 


 

LOCAL ECONOMY

 

The Knox County Council is looking to help grow the local economy.

Although the idea is preliminary,  Council President Bob Lechner introduced the idea of a Business Incubator.

Basically, a Business Incubator provides a central management system that small business can plug in to.

Fishers  and Huntingburg  have adopted this idea and have reported good success so far.

Lechner says he hopes the council will take interest in this idea.

Officials in  Fishers Indiana have invited the The Knox County Council to their city to see how their program works.