By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
North Manchester’s Town Council approved two new town employees at its Nov. 1 meeting.
The council approved Tyler Duncan as the town’s newest police officer, and Dwight Basore, a former Water Department employee, as a Street Department employee.
Duncan, a 2011 graduate of Wabash High School, served as a Wabash County Sheriff’s Department jail officer and as a reserve officer for North Manchester Police Department prior to being hired.
“We had a six-person hiring board, and we were unanimous in hiring [Duncan]. Originally we started out with 17 applicants, and we narrowed it down to 10 who had interviews and Tyler made it to the top three,” NMPD Chief Jim Kirk said.
Basore was hired to fill a gap at the Street Department created by hiring Craig Walters as Street Superintendent.
“We had previously made an attempt ot hire somebody who left after a couple weeks, so we brought back Dwight Basore, who worked with the Water Department for a few years. Craig [Walters] and I interviewed him, and it is our recommendation to hire Dwight Basore for the Street Department,” Town Manager Adam Penrod said.
Both hires were approved unanimously by the five-member council.
The council also unanimously approved the first of three readings of an ordinance establishing the 2018 pay rates for town employees Wednesday, Nov. 1.
The ordinance, which sets minimum and maximum pay rates for all elected and non-elected town employees, must pass two additional readings in December.
Additional new business handled by the council consisted of approval of an agreement to collaborate with the county government to rebuild County Road 1100 North, which leads to the town’s industrial park.
“A couple weeks ago, the county approved using an engineering firm to look at doing road improvements on 1100 North, which is the main road that leads into our industrial park just south of town,” Penrod said.
“They also came to the town shortly after that to see if we would like to partner in and extend the road improvements up to our industrial park, for approximately 1,700 feet of additional roadway improvements.”
The improvements would hopefully be covered by funds from next year’s Indiana Department of Transportation Community Crossing Grant, Penrod said.
The council unanimously approved joining with the county for the design services of Indianapolis-based civil engineering firm Butler, Fairman and Seufert, Inc., at a cost of $60,180 to the town.
For more on the council’s meeting, see the Nov. 8 issue of the News-Journal.