By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
Roann’s old school building is officially slated for demolition, though the timetable for the work is still unknown.
Roann Clerk-Treasurer Bob Ferguson informed the county commissioners that the town and county officially received a $350,000 grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
“We were granted the grant, as of last Thursday, for $350,000 to raze the old school, which is great news. I wanted to come in this morning to thank the commissioners for coming in with the town of Roann and helping and supporting to get this out of the Town of Roann and out of the county,” Ferguson said.
“We are moving ahead right now; we’ve been working on it all weekend long so we can have all of our ducks in a row. We have a deadline of the 24th – we’ll meet that, and we’re in full motion right now.”
The commissioners agreed to be co-applicants on the OCRA grant via a resolution signed at its Aug. 7 meeting.
“Thank you for your efforts. It’s been years in the making,” Commissioner Barry Eppley said.
Ferguson said that the grant writer hired for this process, Kathleen Weisenberger of Indianapolis, spent last weekend getting paperwork around for the grant.
“Of course, it’s a long process. You have to get bids, you have to get environmental companies to come in, you’re also talking about the historic value, so it’s going to take a lot of time. We are on track to meet all of our deadlines and to make sure that we have all of the paperwork and our i’s dotted and our t’s crossed to get that money and have that project finished,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said they will not have a timeline for the demolition until all the paperwork is filed and the bid process is finished.
“We are working on all the other things that go up to that. We’ll actually be putting in… she’s working right now on getting all the paperwork that needs to go to the Office of Community and Rural Affairs finalized, and once we get to that point, we can move on to the next point,” he said.
“It’s like a train that slowly moves on until it gets up that momentum. Where we’re at right now is at the very beginning of that train.”
The commissioners also signed the 2018 operating contract for Living Well in Wabash County’s Wabash County Public Transportation.
According to Beverly Ferry, CEO of Living Well in Wabash County, the contract is with the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Public Transit Division, and serves as the annual operating grant for Wabash County Public Transportation.
“Living Well in Wabash County works year-round with INDOT and the county commissioners on program and fiscal compliance. It is a true state and local partnership, which includes Wabash County government, the Town of North Manchester and the City of Wabash,” Ferry said.
According to Ferry, the organization’s 2018 operating budget is $591,900.
She said that for 2017, the service projects providing around 32,000 rides to nearly 800 Wabash County residents.
In other news, Sheriff Bob Land reported that there were 89 inmates being held in the Wabash County Jail, with an additional 49 being held in Miami County, four in Elkhart County and four in Blackford County as of Oct. 16.
Land said that of the 146 inmates, 70 were awaiting court action.
The commissioners also heard from a Wabash County resident who wished to remain unnamed, who asked what the county is doing about the drug problem, which the resident called a disease.
“There is not help for our people. I have tried; I’ve dealt with this for a long time. It’s time for me to push further, and we need to do something,” the resident said.
“I don’t know what we need to do, but it needs to go farther than Wabash County. It needs to go to the White House. It cannot be done with one county, and I don’t know where to start so I’m asking for help.
“It needs to be recognized more as a disease, people need to be more aware, more understanding.”
The commissioners thanked the resident for their input, and said that it is a work in progress.
“We have looked into several issues, and I know [Wabash City Mayor Scott Long] is heading up a program that is trying to develop other alternatives to some of the problems we’ve got,” Chairman Scott Givens said.