No sale on old saltbarn property

Feb. 13—Daviess County officials will hold onto a piece of land with an eye toward future development. The Daviess County Commissioners indefinitely tabled bids for the property that houses the old salt building.

"It's a process. It is nothing that is time sensitive and it is not costing us anything," said President of the Daviess County Commissioners Nathan Gabhart. "We want to evaluate everything we own and determine whether we need it. In this case, it might be better to hold onto it."

The old salt building is in the process of being replaced by a new facility at the Daviess County Highway Garage. Trusses are in the process of being set on the new building.

In the meantime, the county is still using the old facility on West Van Trees to hold salt and sand for clearing roads.

"We wanted to test the market and the market did not respond," said Gabhart.

The county had appraisals done on that property that averaged $95,000. When the bids were opened the highest bid was for $75,000. That prompted the plan to just leave the bids for the property on hold.

"We may have a need for that property in the future," said Gabhart. "We may need it to create a new home for Community Corrections."

The current Community Corrections facilities are located in mobile buildings on leased land. The operation was considered for relocation into the courthouse following the current renovation but there was no room. To date there have been no formal presentations to either the commissioners or council about relocation, but that could change.

"As far as I am concerned at this time there is no need for us to sell it below appraised value," said Gabhart. "The salt building could be torn down and a new facility for Community Corrections could be built down the road. I want to emphasize way down the road. There is no plan to start in on more construction."

While the county is hanging onto the building and the empty lots surrounding it, there is currently no rush to make something happen.

"We are going to wait as long as we can before we take on another project," said Gabhart. "We are not in the building things business. We do not want to build new buildings until we absolutely have to. We do not need a Community Corrections building now, but down the road, the buildings they are in will need to be updated. I can tell you I will not still be a commissioner when that happens."

The commissioners did hear from West Boggs Park Superintendent Nathan Rihm, who announced the park is seeking several grants.

"Nathan (Rihm) is doing a wonderful job keeping that park looking great," said Gabhart. "He has found two different grants. One to dredge the sediment ponds and an overall comprehensive grant that is much larger to take care of a lot of the other problems. He is shooting for the stars and hopefully will wind up on the moon."

The dredging would be part of a LARE grant through the Department of Natural Resources. Those grants are normally capped at $100,000 but Daviess County is hoping to land a $260,000 grant.

Rihm also told the commissioners that he is seeking an $11 million READI grant from the state to do several projects at the park.

Last year, officials shut down swimming at West Boggs because of toxins resulting from algae blooms. The projects would cut down on the sediment and nitrates that fuel those blooms.

In other business, the commissioners signed several agreements including changes in Workman Comp carrier and dental insurance carrier while agreeing to extend with its cyber security carrier.

The commissioners signed agreements for rentals for facilities to be used for voting centers.

They also approved farm lease contracts, signed a letter of support for RTC to expand broadband offerings and signed an agreement for the Assessors Office to contract with a private firm to distribute information regarding changes in assessed valuation.

The commissioners made some changes in the handling of subcontracts for the courthouse project, and honored the members of the Daviess County jail's road crew for their work in moving the offices out of the old courthouse and into their new temporary offices in the annex and security center.