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Last updated on Wednesday, December 4, 2013
(BEDFORD) - The Lawrence County Commissioners announced Tuesday morning that the county has purchased the former Elliott Limestone building on Mitchell Road. The building will house the Lawrence County Solid Waste Management District and Community Corrections.
The Bedford Urban Enterprise Zone owns the old depot where the Solid Waste Management District is located now, and they had offered to donate the building to the county. But the county had to refuse that donation because the building is in dire need of repairs.
"The repairs, even though the building was being donated, were deemed excessive and we had to look for another alternative," says Commissioner Chris May.
Commissioner Dave Flinn says the county has entered into an agreement to purchase the building for $400,000. The amount will be paid over a five year period, quarterly, with the Solid Waste Management District repaying the county.
Flinn says it should take about a month to move the two facilities to their new locations.
In other business:
Michael Conley of Architura informed the commissioner that they have modified the plans for the replacement of the more than 100 windows at the courthouse and will once again request bids for the project. The first bids were too high.
Conley says the new project should cut bids by $150,000 to $200,000.
Conley says the plans will be available for bidders in two weeks and bids will received by January 14.
The commissioner also reviewed plans for a handicapped accessible ramp for the north entrance to the courthouse. Connely estimated the cost at $120,000. The commissioners says that was too much.
* Richard Vonnegut from the Indiana Rails To Trails was scheduled to be at the commissioner's meeting on the Coxton Road issue, but he was not able to attend.
Commissioner Bill Spreen has requested county attorney Dave Smith to get a copy of the Rails To Trails lease.
"The intent of that land when the railroad first purchased it was, that if and when the railroad stopped using it, it would revert back to the landowners," Spreen says.
The controversy started when Highway Superintendent Dave Holmes had crews ready to remove a hump out of Coxton Road where the old railroad bed was and repave the roadway making it safer for motorists when Holmes received a call from Richard Vonnegut, of the Indiana Trails Fund.
"He ordered me to not do anything and then threatened to take us to court if we moved one shovel of dirt," Holmes says.
Holmes says the road can not be repaired till spring.
"We will have an answer before paving begins next year," Spreen added.
* Lawrence County Sheriff Sam Craig reported there were 131 inmates in the jail Tuesday morning. Of those, 27 were females and 4 were Department of Correction holds.
* The commissioners signed an amendment to the bridge inspection contract.
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