By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – At a nine minute Wabash County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday morning, Wabash County Sheriff Bob Land reported a drop in the number of inmates housed at the Wabash County Jail. Land said that there are currently 75 inmates in the facility with 36 overflow inmates held in Miami County. There were six new book-ins last week and eight transports to the Department of Corrections. Land also added that there are currently 20 sentenced individuals in the jail. At last Monday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, Land reported that the jail housed 86 inmates and the Sheriff’s Department had 23 new book-ins. In a telephone conversation with Land, he told MiBash News that he could not explain the drop in numbers, especially the approximate 75% drop in the number of new book-ins.
Several resolutions were also passed by the board. Resolution 2016-85-03 established a tax sale for April 7th at 10 am on the second floor if the Wabash County Courthouse. Barry Eppley, President of the Board of Commissioners, said that the annual tax sale results from taxpayers who find themselves delinquent in their property taxes. While they do have time to restore their property to good standing with the county, those who are not able to will eventually have their property put up for tax sale every year. Many property that do not sell in a previous year get “rolled over” to the next year’s tax sale.
The second resolution was 2016-85-02 which sets the “material thresholds” to which the county would have to report certain discrepancies to the Indiana State Board of Accounts. According to the resolution, accounting errors over $250 and tangible items over $1,000 that coming up missing must be reported to the state. But, Eppley said, this doesn’t mean that the county ignores discrepancies under that amount. He added that he has no recollection of a material items worth $1,000 or more coming up missing but there have been $250 + accounting errors.
Finally, Bev Ferry, CEO of Living Well in Wabash County, brought the fully-executed 2016 contract with IDOT to the meeting for the commissioners to sign. She added that Living Well doubled the number of “distinct” or unduplicated riders in the 2014 – 2015 period. Ferry said that the doubling shows the need for public transit in the county.