By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
A routine utility permit sparked a brief discussion on the permitting process at the Monday, Sept. 25, stated meeting of the Wabash County Commissioners.
County Highway Superintendent John Martin presented a permit allowing Indiana Fiber Network to lay fiber optic cable along county roads 400 East and 150 North, a type of request that is usually approved unanimously with no discussion from the commissioners.
Chairman Scott Givens took the opportunity to discuss potential changes to the way the county handles utility permits.
“At some point, I’d like to look at charging people to run fiber optic,” Givens said.
“I’d also like to look at reducing the amount of time that we’re allowing them to get these projects done. I know the last project from [Indiana] Fiber Network still has a pile across the road from my house, and that’s been going on for close to a year. I don’t think they’re done yet.”
Companies are not currently charged to lay the cable, but Martin said that some Indiana counties do charge, and that several are considering the idea.
According to Martin, the current permitting process allows for up to one year to complete the permitted project.
“To me, a year’s too long to allow for a project,” Givens said.
“I’d like for part of the permitting process to be to give us a timeframe of when it will be done, so that way when people call us and say, ‘hey, they dug up my house six months ago, what’s going on,’ we’re not like, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s no way for us to know. I’d like to be able to call John [Martin] and [get start and completion dates].”
County Attorney Steve Downs said that he would look into adding the timeframe requirement to the current utility permit forms.
After the discussion, the commissioners unanimously approved the permit for Indiana Fiber Network.
“This one’s not a big project, but it just seems like there’s more and more of these projects all the time,” Givens said.
The commissioners also approved a liability insurance payment of $799.43 to cover the legal fees for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Stephanie Gottschalk.
“Gottschalk… is in a lawsuit along with several other county officials. There was some issue in regard to insurance coverage, a dispute over whether she would be covered as a CASA employee under the county’s insurance because they’re essentially volunteers,” Downs said.
“In negotiation, we talked to the insurance company, and we also talked to the Attorney General’s office, who ultimately took over Stephanie’s defense in this case. We agreed as part of that arrangement that we would cover up to $5,000 of her defense costs. We have a bill of $799.43 for those defense costs. It should be the last bill because the Attorney General has taken over her defense.”
Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros LLP, of Fort Wayne, previously represented Gottschalk in the case.
According to Downs, several county employees are defendants in a federal lawsuit resulting from a parent taking issue with a recommendation that Gottschalk made to the court regarding their case, and suing those county employees and Gottschalk.
Downs said that the case is currently pending in the U.S. District Court in South Bend.
The commissioners also heard a report from Doug Bogert and Steve Hicks from the Wabash County Animal Shelter.
According to Hicks, the shelter is at nearly double capacity, with 14 dogs (capacity of 13) and 50 cats (capacity of 24).
Bogert noted that the overcrowding issue stems in part from the recent hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.
“Adoptions are down a little bit. We had been up, but things such as hurricanes down in Texas and Florida actually affect us because they moved a lot of animals out of there,” Bogert said.
“It’s making it hard for us to adopt right now, just because of the influx of animals coming up.”
The pair also noted that financial support from the county and the City of Wabash is crucial to their success as a shelter, saying that, while they do fundraise, the city and county’s contributions are still necessary.