By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
After Monday’s meeting of the county commissioners, the historic old Wabash County Jail is no longer county property.
The commissioners approved the transfer of the title for the old jail to Indiana Landmarks, along with the $75,000 matching donation to begin the restoration process, at their March 6 regular meeting.
“When we looked at tearing this down… and turn it into a parking lot, the cost was around $150,000. We found out that Indiana Landmarks was interested in redeveloping this building, and they’re going to move their offices into it. We are going to help them out with a $75,000 donation, basically, to start the renovation,” Chairman Scott Givens said.
“It’s an opportunity for the county to get it back on the tax rolls. If they ever sell it or if they rent any building space out beside what they’re going to use, it will go on the tax rolls. So therefore, we thought it was a better use of our money to save the building, plus we had a lot of people who were passionate about saving that building.”
This was the final step in a months-long process that began in August 2016. As part of the agreement, the county is paid for a survey, will cover half of the $150,000 exterior renovation and handled the building’s asbestos issue. According to figures provided by Indiana Landmarks Northeast Field Officer Director Paul Hayden to the commissioners last August, the total cost of restoring the building $650,000.
Additional news from the commissioner’s meeting included the replacement of a county bridge.
“At this time I would like to request that we replace Bridge 155, which is on Meridian Road over Clear Creek. This bridge has been slated for replacement for some time, due to deterioration and the high volume of traffic on that road, along with the truck drivers on that road. It’s got a 13 ton weight limit, and I know we have several garbage trucks going over it,” County Highway Superintendent John Martin said.
“I have an estimated cost of about $350,000 to replace it.”
He noted that the cost is lower than what the county paid four years ago, around $447,000.
The commissioners approved the request, along with the use of Bulter, Fairman and Seufert, Inc. of Indianapolis as the engineering firm for the project.
Commissioner Barry Eppley presented a service agreement Lori Shipman Consulting, LLC for grant administration services associated with a workforce development grant the commissioners applied for with Huntington and Kosciusko counties. Eppley said that there is a $13,000 fee associated with the contract, of which Wabash County’s $4,333.33 portion has already been paid.
The grant is being used to offer free certificate courses in CNC machining, welding and industrial maintenance through WorkOne of Northeast Indiana, WorkOne North Central, Ivy Tech and Heartland Career Center to qualified applicants.
The grant is a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. An additional $125,000 is being invested by various partners.
Sheriff Bob Land reported that the Wabash County Jail currently has 79 inmates, with 48 being held in Miami County, five in Elkhart County and three in Wells County.
“Of those in our facility, 55 are pending some sort of court action, and 29 are sentenced,” he said.