Hancock County Board of Commissioners & Drainage Board/Solid Waste: 8/4/26

Hancock Council/Drain Board/Solid Waste District

08/04/26

Terry Bynum

Drain Board–Usual business–nothing of consequence to anyone other than the drain owners seeking variances.

Commission Meeting

Hiway department–Gary Pool stated the department is trying out some truck mounted and body mounted cameras for hiway dept personnel. Not as sophisticated as Law Enforcement uses.  Will help forestall problems with accidents, etc. 

The Jack and Sons situation should be resolved by Dec.--delayed due to death of Jack. 

The county has received reimbursement from the state for money lost in the gas tax holiday. 

If the county decides to continue the County micro-tansit (Hancock Sr. Services), they will need a contract by January, to be able to get any reimbursement from the state. 

The America 250 committee in Hancock county asked for permission to bury a time capsule on the grounds of the courthouse–exact place and contents TBD–approved. 

HR asked the council to continue taking part in the Samaritan Fund–a fund to help employees with catastrophic medical expenses.  There is no up front cost.  If an employee applies and is approved, it will cost up to 55K 

The county's insurance agent pointed out that since the county moved to self insurance, they lost their pollution/environmental insurance protection.  He proposed purchasing a policy with a 5 million dollar cap, for $38K a year.  The commission sent this to the county council with a positive recommendation. 

The commission also approved a contract for PT help in the planning department, at $32K.

SOLID WASTE DISTRICT

The District wants to partner with Republic Services for a Hazardous Waste event–cost will be between $80 $90 per vehicle, depending on whether the District puts a temporary building on site to hold the waste, or if it has to be removed at the end of the day.  I think this was put off till next spring. 

The Commissioners spent an inordinate amount of time hearing a presentation from two attorneys they have hired to represent the district. They had done a historical search for documents concerning the formation and operation of the district since the 70's and 80's.  What they found is the Solid Waste District is not a county department, the coordinator(Dede Allendar) is not a county employee.  There is supposed to be an advisory board suggesting what the District should be doing.  A MOU with Purdue regarding the District expired 3 years ago.  Purdue is changing its' focus, so Dede-who has office space in the Purdue Extension building, which is owned by the county-will be losing her email address, and the software owned by Purdue which is installed on her county-supplied laptop. The attorneys think the District should have a stand alone website, rather than being a "department" on the county website.  Stay tune for more interesting developments. 

Public Comment

    Citizen George returned from 4 months away, and complained about the county's Flock cameras, and about the use of Geo-fencing.