By Jacob Terrell
WABASH,Indiana — Monday night at the Wabash City council meeting, Wabash Mayor Scott Long gave an update on the GDX site on Stitt Street. Mayor Long stated that a report came back and said there was run off contamination near the railroad tracks by the city park. Mayor Long says there will be a remediation of the run off ASAP. He says its more complicated then just excavating and replacing 6 inches of top soil, because a plant biologist must determine what plants are indigenous on site and everything has to be returned the way it was before they started.
Matt Stone then brought to the council’s attention that the Wabash City Schools budget two years ago was about 10.9 million and this year is about 9.6 million, with the student population staying the same. He went on to say that Wabash City Schools is one of the “unlucky” school systems that saw a cut from state funding, while the student population stayed the same. Ending on a positive note, he says that the state has said after this year’s re-do of the funding formula there will be more money per student. Stone says it may not be a lot but the corporation will take it.
The council also heard from Jeff Traver, who runs the Wabash airport, who stated that the Wabash Municipal Airport has a runway of 4,400 feet and anything under 5,000 feet is considered a liability to insurance companies. He explained that this isn’t a liability of landing the air craft but actually taking off. This reduces jet traffic in Wabash in turn hurting the city’s jet fuel sales.