At Pierceton’s Town Council meeting on Monday, Oct. 11, at the Pierceton Community Building are Town Council President Tom Barker, left, and Council Member Mandy Espinoza. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

PIERCETON — Pierceton plans to have $1,508,457 in its 2022 budget.

At its meeting Monday, Oct. 11, at the Pierceton Community Building, the Pierceton Town Council adopted the budget. That follows a public hearing at its Sept. 13 meeting.

The budget breaks down to: $20,000 in the rainy day fund; $482,667 in the general fund; $20,500 in the local road and street fund; $115,240 in the motor vehicle highway fund; $230,000 in the cumulative bridge and street fund; $4,500 in the continuing education fund; $14,550 in the park fund; $8,000 in the cumulative capital improvement fund; $30,000 in the cumulative capital development fund; $120,000 in county economic development income tax (CEDIT); $313,000 in the redevelopment general fund; and $150,000 in the ARPA Fund.

Radio Grant

The council also heard from Pierceton Police Chief Tim Sammons that the state denied a grant request the police department was hoping to use to pay for new radios.

Across the county, fire and police departments had applied for the grant to get radios to correspond with state standards and with new public safety communications’ towers going up in Kosciusko County.

The state ended up rejecting all applicants for the grant across Indiana, explained Sammons.

“My understanding was that the state was overwhelmed with the amount of requests, so they decided not to award anybody,” he said.

The police department had planned to get eight portable radios and four in-car radios, which would be approximately $56,000.

Sammons was to attend the Kosciusko County Commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 12, to see if they had any advice to offer him. He also knows of an organization that might be able to help get the radios.

Rate Changes

At Monday’s meeting, Town Council President Tom Barker shared a quick recap of what the council discussed during a special public meeting on Thursday, Oct. 7.

The focus of the meeting was talking about raising rates for various town services. One of those is related to wastewater.

That’s to address rising costs of chemicals, testing and cleaning. The town authorized Baker Tilly to do a rate study on the issue.

Baker Tilly’s Ross Hagen presented findings at the council’s August meeting. The general plan calls for around an $11 increase on customer bills per month. That’s based on the usage of 4,000 gallons per month.

The council is considering following the recommendation, with public hearings planned for the council’s November and December meetings.

The council also discussed raising trash rates Thursday, with Barker noting Monday that those might go to $2 more per month.

In other business, the council:

• Heard from Sammons that “Officer Ashley Jones is still doing well at the (police) academy.”
• Heard from Town Superintendent Casey Boggs the town will begin leaf pickup in “about a week or two.”
• Set trick-or-treat hours at its special meeting Thursday. Those are 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30.

The council’s next meeting is 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, at the community building.