• City will reimburse Ossian for new officer’s training
• License plate camera locations changed
• Four residential demolition orders approved
… and it’s back to a weekly meeting
By DAVE SCHULTZ
Bluffton hired a new officer Tuesday and agreed to pay Ossian for the cost of his training.
Evan Holliday, who has been a jailer and a dispatcher at the Wells County Jail, was chosen to fill a vacancy on the Ossian Police Department in November. Ossian sent him for training at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and he is about to complete his work there.
However, Holliday — the son of Wells County Sheriff Scott Holliday — has now chosen to fill a vacancy on the Bluffton Police Department’s roster.
The topic was a matter of discussion at Monday night’s Ossian Town Council meeting, and town representatives were none too pleased at losing an officer that they had provided the training for.
The three members of the Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety agreed to hire Holliday for the position. They also agreed to reimburse Ossian for the costs of sending him to the ILEA.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mayor John Whicker said. Whicker and the other Board of Works members — Roger Thornton and Scottt Mentzer (who was present by Zoom) all approved of Randall’s requests to hire Holliday.
Holliday’s hiring will be effective immediately, Police Chief Kyle Randall said.
As it turns out, the BPD had a vacancy on its roster because a new hire, Alex Monce, resigned from the city’s police force to join the Wells County Sheriff’s Department.
“As it happens, the police carousel was in motion,” Randall said.
The Bluffton Fire Department also filled two spaces on its roster, hiring Josh Hall on a lateral transfer from the Peru Fire Department and Dontrell Anderson as a part-time firefighter.
Both had applied for the full-time openings that were created in the department’s 2022 budget. Fire Chief Don Craig emphasized that Hall’s transfer was agreed to by fire officials in Peru.
Anderson was one of the candidates for the full-time positions but did not quite make the cut, Craig said. The decision to hire him on a part-time basis will give him a chance to eventually become a full-time firefighter.
Board will resume
weekly schedule
The Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety will return to weekly meetings, effective March 29.
The board went to twice-monthly meetings at the first of the year as the Bluffton Common Council did the same thing — deciding to meet on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
The move has been good for the council, but it has created some problems for the Board of Works. Meeting agendas have become crowded and Clerk-Treasurer Tami Runyon said it has created some problems with payments. While the city years ago gave the clerk-treasurer’s staff permission to pay bills in a timely manner before formal approval from the Board of Works, it has created additional work.
As Mayor John Whicker put it, “I’m thinking this was not a good idea.”
Runyon said her recommendation was for the Board of Works to go back to weekly meetings. If the agenda is too light to warrant a meeting, it could be canceled, she said.
The primary beneficiary of the change in schedule was board member Scott Mentzer, who works in Fort Wayne. Mayor John Whicker noted that he and Roger Thornton, the other two Board of Works members, had a more flexible schedule than Mentzer did.
Mentzer said he was in favor of the move. He said he wanted to do what was best for the city.
Changing the time or frequency of Board of Works meeting is different from doing that with the Bluffton Common Council, in that such a decision does not require the passage of an ordinance for the Board of Works. The three members — Whicker, Mentzer (who was virtually present for Tuesday’s meeting via Zoom), and Thornton — approved the change.
Cameras will be further
north and south
The license plate cameras from Flock Safety will not be placed on the Crosbie Bridge which carries Ind. 1 traffic over the Wabash River.
Instead, the camera will be placed on the north and south sides of the city — at the intersections of Main and Monroe and Main and Spring streets.
Main and Monroe is the intersection where Walmart, Lowe’s, Walgreens, and RediMed are located. Main and Spring is the intersection where CVS Pharmacy, Save-On Liquor, and the former Wells Community Hospital are located.
Police Chief Kyle Randall said if the cameras at those locations alert on a plate, officers have a better chance of a timely response than if the cameras were located on the bridge.
The plans for the other two cameras on West Wabash Street and East Harrison Street (Ind. 116) are apparently unchanged.
daves@news-banner.com
Council meeting canceled
The Bluffton Common Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled due to a lack of a quorum.
Mayor John Whicker said two council members were sick and a third was out of town, forcing the cancellation.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, March 22, Whicker said.
A work session on city construction standard had also been scheduled for Tuesday, but Whicker said it was delayed until Scott Mentzer, who was out of town, could be present for the discussion.
