Commissioners sign contracts, hear department reports

BEDFORD – The Lawrence County Commissioners Tuesday morning, signed several contracts.

One was for an LPA consulting contract for $181,000 for the railroad bridge over Mill Creek Road.

The second was to rent the Lawernce County Fairgrounds Expo Hall at no charge to be used as a voting center.

They also signed a landfill monitoring proposal for 2022. The contract was increased in cost by $2,167 or around 8 percent due to an increase in lab cost.

“We have paid $25,000 to monitor the landfill for years,” said County Attorney David Smith. “I don’t believe we have had a positive dye test in more than 10 years. I don’t see IDEM will continue to require us to do testing, but for now, we are required to do it.”

In other business

Highway crews are patching potholes.

Rodney Fish

“They are doing the best they can with our changing weather,” said Commissioner Rodney Fish. “I want to thank the crews for their work during this last winter issue. I am proud of our employees and that they do their very best to keep us all safe.”

Valerie Luchauer

Emergency Management Director Valerie Luchauer will be speaking and attending workshops. She will be speaking about cyber security attacks and the lessons learned.

Sheriff Mike Branham reported there were 138 inmates in the jail this morning. Included in the count were 116 males, 22 females, one Level 6 felon, and 20 Department of Correction holds.

Sheriff Mike Branham

Sheriff Branham did make a call to the director of Indiana Corrections to address the problem of inmates not being taken to the Department of Corrections.

Sheriff Branham also praised the services of German American Bank which handles the department’s retirement and benefits package.

“They have outperformed all the benchmarks we were looking for by 80 percent,” he added.

County Attorney David Smith also gave an update on the opioid litigation.

“It is too early to know if the legislation will be successful but it is pending and I am optimistic and hope to opt back into a settlement agreement. The matter is not laying dormant.”