Hancock County Board of Commissioners: 1/6/26
Recorder: Terry Bynum
SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT AGENDA ITEMS AND KEY POINTS:
First meeting of 2026. Elected new officers for Council. Gary McDaniel President, Janine Gray, VP. Immediately opened Drainage Board meeting–retained officers–Steve Hill, Pres,
Retained Attorney Steve Ellsbury, Retained Cory Sambar as secretary. Also changed the appointment terms of Bill Spalding and Janine Gray for 3 year terms, to last through their time as Commissioners, and to avoid having most of the members appointments expire at the same time.
Transacted normal business–drain variances, etc. Also postponed the Public Hearing for the Cranberry Mutual Drain until Feb. 3 at 8:30AM.
Re-started Comm. meeting
Normal business–Hiway report..Gary Pool and Ann Schiedler re-appointed to Ind. Mun. Planning Org. board.
Pointed out that due to severe weather in Dec., running low on salt for the roads, and competing with INDOT for remaining supplies.
Sheriff Burkhart requested 5 full time positions for courthouse security, due to retirement of part time deputies and increased demand for security. Voted to send to Council with favorable recommendation.
Did a number of board appointments. Hancock Regional Health Board, Citzens. Energy Advisory board. Alcohol Beverage Board, Area Plan Comm, BZA, Econ Dev. Council, Econ Dev. Commission, 911 Op Ctr. Mgmt Brd. Propery tax appeal board, employee benefits board.
Some of these appointments came from outside county government. A large number were filled by McDaniel, Gray and Spalding.
Solid Waste Board Meeting
New President, Bill Spalding, VP, Gary McDaniel
Dede Allender reported normal business. Reviewing grant applications.Commission spent a lot of time dealing with her contract. She is not a county employee, but is a contract employee. Commission wants her to work with the Co. Attorney to come up with a log of projects she’s working on and how much time she’s spending. They want to be able to figure out how she spends her time. Approved contract pending legal review.
She also presented the 2025 Solid Waste Board Annual Report. Board accepted it.
911 Center Report
John Jokantas presented invoices for alarm installs and hardware at the new Prosecutor’s office and the Purdue Extension Building.
Aso mentioned that he wants to issue an RFQ for windows for the 911 center–approx 1.5 million.
All Commission members now have a Panic Alarm at the desk in the Commission chambers–to call 911.
IT director Bernie Harris revealed that some County employees and elected officials(township trustees) are using their personal email addresses for county business. Board want everyone who does county business to have a county email. He also mentioned that the cost of memory has gone up about 177% due to AI, so he will probably be asking for additional money for hardware in the future.
