By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The county will be receiving a lot of money from the national opioid settlement, but who should sit on the opioid committee for the county was a bone of contention for the Kosciusko County Council Thursday.

Council President Mike Long said two new committees were brought to his attention, the first being the opioid committee that needed two members. Long suggested council members Kathleen Groninger and Tony Ciriello.

When no one made a motion for Groninger and Ciriello, Long made it but Councilwoman Joni Truex told him he couldn’t make a motion as he is the council president. Long said it’s been done before. Ciriello then seconded Long’s motion, but the motion failed 3-3 with Truex and Councilwomen Sue Ann Mitchell and Kimberly Cates voting against it and Groninger, Long and Ciriello voting for the motion. Councilman Dave Wolkins was absent Thursday.

Truex asked Long’s thought process for nominating Groninger and Ciriello. Long said Groninger is involved with JRAC (Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council), “which ties into it,” and Ciriello has dealt with opioid addictions and deaths for some time.

Cates said she appreciated the nomination of Groninger, but her concern was that committee would be dealing with “hundreds of millions of dollars” and Mitchell would be better suited for that.

“This is a really big deal for our county,” Cates said and she nominated Groninger and Mitchell. Before seconding the motion, Truex asked Mitchell for her opinion.

“I would assume that this would be the committee that would be looking at the money and figuring out how to spend it best to do the most for the county,” Mitchell said. “And that’s what we learned at the legislative thing this week, is that this is a pretty big deal and it has a very short window. By the 27th of February, you’ve got to have it figured out.”

There’s also a grant that has to be applied for, she said. Truex asked Mitchell if she would be willing to serve on the committee and Mitchell said she was reluctantly willing. Truex seconded Cates’ motion and it passed 6-0.

The other committee Long brought before the council was the security committee, which County Administrator Marsha McSherry said wasn’t a new committee and has been existing for years. New appointments were needed. The council voted 6-0 to name Ciriello to the committee.

The council also approved Ciriello to take Long’s place on the Emergency Management committee, as requested by Long. Long said Ciriello has “many more years of experience in that area than I would ever hope to.”

In other business, the council:

• Heard from Mitchell that the Association of Indiana Counties is doing a fourth-grade essay contest. Children within the school corporations can win $100 and it will be awarded at the Northeast AIC district meeting.

The AIC website is at https://www.indianacounties.org/.

• Revisited the dollar amount for transfers the county auditor can authorize for county departments. The council discussed it previously in 2019 and approved a resolution April 11, 2019, that allowed the auditor to approve all transfers and appropriation adjustments that are $10,000 or less.

After some discussion Thursday of reducing it to $500, as suggested by Truex, or keeping it as it is at $10,000, the council tabled the discussion until the end of the first quarter of the year. Mitchell said the council will be able to look at the transfers that have been made to that date in 2023 and re-evaluate them. She said the number of transfers recently has been “record-breaking.”

• Heard an update on the county park board from the board’s president, Rob Bishop. He told the council they are working hard to finish their five-year master plan, which is required for most grants including those from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The deadline to submitting a master plan to the DNR is April 15, and Bishop said they moved their April meeting up to April 13 to approve the master plan.
• Approved Superior Court I Judge Karin McGrath’s request for two additional appropriations of $12,500 each for her two juvenile probation officers, who are co-coordinators for the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) grant.
• Approved Prosecutor Brad Voelz’s request for additional appropriations from the Senior Prosecutor HUB grant.
• The grant comes from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney Council and is particular to the Title IV-D and Child Support Division ran by Bishop. The Hub grant is for Kosciusko County IV-D staff to do the work throughout northern Indiana.
• Voelz said the money he was requesting the council to appropriate was money rolled over from 2022 to 2023. It includes $4,800 for grant salaries; $384, social security/Medicare; $562, retirement contributions; and $8,115 for operating expenses. Voelz said this year Kosciusko County will discontinue the grant and not be the HUB county any more for the Child Support Division.
• Approved two grant applications as requested by Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Chris McKeand. The first was to apply for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s Local Body Camera grant for $31,920. The second was to apply for the 2023 DNR Marine Patrol grant for $15,000. The commissioners already approved the grant application requests.
• Approved a 2023 salary ordinance amendment for Jared Jones, who was promoted to work release director, as requested by McKeand. His annual salary will be $66,394.
• Approved Community Corrections Director Barry Andrew to apply for a $350,775 Community Corrections grant for 2023 and an $82,746 Drug Court grant. The commissioners approved the applications Jan. 31.
• Approved the additional appropriations for the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) recommendations as presented by County Administrator Marsha McSherry. They have already been approved by the commissioners and the ARPA Committee, and the council was asked to approve the additional appropriations so the funds could be spent.

They included $32,992 for Claypool Police Department radio enhancement; $37,067 for Beaman Home upgrade grant; $18,860 for Combined Community Services transit grant; $14,141 for Syracuse Police Department programming radio system; $18,458 for Milford radio enhancement; and $154,273 for KCSD communication radios.

• Approved a salary ordinance amendment for a full-time housekeeper to be paid $15.60 per hour and a transfer of $26,910 in county general fund from part-time housekeeping to full-time housekeeping to cover the remainder of the year for that housekeeping position.
• Heard from McSherry that the new fire alarm system in the Justice Building hopefully will be fully installed and functional by the end of next week.
• Approved two transfers requested by the county clerk for the printers for the voting machines. One transfer was for $6,250 from election board sheriffs to other equipment, and the other transfer was for $5,000 from voting machine repair to other equipment.
• Was introduced to Kip Shuter, the assistant emergency management director who will take over for Director Ed Rock when he retires at the end of March.