The Daviess County Commissioners had a long agenda to work through at Tuesday morning’s meeting. Facing the preparation of the County’s annual budget, most of the business consisted of budget requests. Doug Dougherty represented the Daviess County Historical Society presented it’s request for $80,000 to support the County Museum. Dougherty said half the request would go to help pay the $111,000 debt remaining on the Museum’s elevator. Dougherty said the Museum has seen significant increases in visitors to the Museum in the past year. A request for an increase in funds for the 4-H grounds was presented by Luis Santiago. Santiago said more funding was needed to increase outdoor lighting and do maintenance on the structures on the 4-H grounds. The Commissioners also heard requests from Sherry Davis representing Connections and Steve Sacksteder from Four Rivers Resource Services requesting funding for Red Door, Covered Bridge Apartments, and Ride Solution. Sacksteder noted that 80 Four Rivers staff members reside in Daviess County. He also told the Commissioners that from the ten-county area serviced by Ride Solution nearly 47,000 of the 220,000 rides given were from Daviess County.
In other business, the Commissioners appointed Robin Riley McDonald to the County Health Board. McDonald, a registered nurse, replaces Gwen Steyskyl who resigned due to health concerns. The Commissioners also approved a request from Washington Township to reapply for a grant to fund the construction of a new fire station.
Commissioners President Nathan Gabhart gave an update on the County’s zoning ordinance.
In reference to the controversy in the Painted Acres area, Gabhart said the Commissioners had no intention of closing any existing race tracks in the county. The Commissioners said they were looking at either revising the County Zoning Code or abolishing it altogether. The preferred course is to revise the Code. Commissioner Michael Taylor said the Commissioners are seeking advise on potential zoning changes from the Indiana Farm Bureau, along with other agriculture related agencies. Gabhart said “the dream is to make everyone happy, but that is not a realistic goal.
At the end of the meeting County Highway Superintendent Phil Cornelius noted that corn is starting to get high and asked area farmers to check the king of sight at intersections near their fields. Cornelius noted that taking care of crops that created line-of-sight problems at intersections could save someone’s life.
