By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – At a relatively lengthy Wabash County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday morning, County Highway Superintendent John Martin told the board that the work on the aqueduct removal on 700 W is all but complete. Martin advised that a heavy layer of dirt has been put on the road in the area and there should be no other work done to the roadway except in a few places.
Wabash County Sheriff Bob Land also reported that there are 87 inmates in the Wabash County Jail with 41 overflow inmates being housed in Miami County. Last week, the Sheriff’s Department had 27 new book-ins, four transports to the Department of Corrections. When the Miami and Wabash County Jails are combined, there were an average of 124.42 inmates last week.
Wabash County Corner Carol Whitesel also discussed a morgue with the commissioners. Whitesel said that the new Parkview Hospital will not contain a morgue and that the county should look to options such as outsourcing autopsies to Kokomo or building a morgue between the police station and the city garage out on Manchester Avenue. When asked how many autopsies are performed in Wabash County each year, Whitesel responded an average of 9.7 per year. Commissioner Scott Givens commented that a new building may not be appropriate if less than 10 autopsies are performed annually.
Bev Ferry also presented the board when her annual 5311 grant application for the functioning of Living Well in Wabash County. Ferry said that this year’s application has changed little from last year and that the total grant amount is $600,000 with one-third of that amount coming from local sources.
Finally, Tom Polk, President of Intrasect Technologies, LLC, gave a services update to the commissioners. He said that he will recommend some infrastructure upgrades in the upcoming county budget and recommend changes to password policy for county employees.