By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – At Monday morning’s Wabash County Board of Commissioners meeting, the board approved a bid from Francesville, Indiana-based Debco Metal Culverts to replace a drainage structure on 100 W. Debco submitted the low bid of $43,250. County Highway Superintendent John Martin informed the board about the need for the replacement of the structure at the May 31st meeting. The funds will come out of out of the county’s Cumulative Bridge fund.
Sheriff Bob Land then reported that there are 82 inmates in the Wabash County Jail with 46 overflow inmates in Miami County and 6 overflow inmates in Elkhart County. Last week, there were 24 new book-ins, with a peak combined total of 128 inmates. Land also said that there are four pending transports to the Department of Corrections this week. He then reiterated to the commissioners that the inmates housed in Elkhart will be serving sentences which will not require their transportation back to Wabash County.
County HR Director Jim Dils also congratulated Dave Monroe for the restoration work he did the courthouse sign before the commissioners approved the appointment of Barb Burdge to the Roaan Paw Paw Township Library Board.
Regina Hiple of the Friends of the old LaFontaine Cemetery also spoke at the meeting and requested that the commissioners keep the restoration of old cemeteries in mind. She described the state of disrepair in many of the county’s old graveyards, what her organization has done to fix the problem and then pointed to Indiana code which states that a county’s Board of Commissioners may appoint a five-person cemetery commission to look after the county’s burial grounds. But Hiple said that the latter option is not necessarily what she is after. Instead, she told MiBash News that she would like to see a small amount of money allotted by the county to be used – in conjunction with private funds – to take care of Wabash County’s old cemeteries.
She added that out of the seven townships in Wabash County, only Paw Paw has a cemetery fund.