By GLEN WERLING
It’s official.
By a 4-0 vote, the Ossian Town Council adopted a pay matrix for the Ossian Police Department for 2023.
It’s not exactly what had been proposed by the police department, but it’s a big step forward to what the department wanted.
For instance, the new matrix maxes out at 20 years. That was not in the original proposal.
But the matrix does bring Ossian closer in-line with area departments — and that was the original intent of the proposal. Ossian loses officers on an all too frequent basis to surrounding departments which have better pay (and in some cases, better benefits).
The starting wage for a new officer now advances from its current rate of $49,747.10 to $51,250 starting in 2023.
For an officer, the matrix tops out at $61,917.12. For the position of corporal, the matrix starts at $52,513.78 and reaches its maximum at $62,814.23 in 20 years. For the sergeant’s position, the matrix starts at $54,855 and reaches the top at $63,684.95 if the officer reaches 20 years of service. For the chief, this might not apply because the council has recommended the new chief be paid a salary, not hourly.
Sgt. Stephanie Tucker and officer Brian McClish have maxed out the matrix range. Officer Russ Mounsey is squarely in the middle of the range in 2023.
All of these salaries do not include a 3 percent across the board employee pay increase proposed for the 2023 budget.
Tucker had asked the council to expedite a decision one way or another as she is trying to compose the 2023 budget — one of her final acts as sergeant as she and Chief David Rigney have both announced their intention to retire.
Regarding the benefits side of an employment package for the department’s personnel, Dennis Ealing, who has been appointed as council’s liaison to the Ossian Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners, said that he had been checking with businesses around the area to see what they offer as far as sick leave.
Rigney countered that Ealing needs to be looking at what other municipalities offer as far as benefits as they are the competition for police officers.
Council President Josh Barkley countered that the council also has a responsibility to the taxpayers when considering benefit packages.
In related business, the council approved a recommendation from police commissioner president Caleb Chichester to make the next chief a salaried position instead of hourly, which is how Rigney is currently paid.
The council also approved of a timeline of events for hiring Rigney’s replacement as proposed by Chichester.
Also in a related matter, one of those employee benefits — heath insurance — was renewed by the council Monday night.
The town will still be getting its health insurance through Anthem Blue Cross. The renewal rate saw a premium increase of 3 percent for next year. The features of the plan remain the same as this year’s.
Two competitors of Blue Cross — Physicians Health Plan and United Healthcare — as well as a different plan from Blue Cross were also explored, but all would have meant a substantial increase in premiums, Town Manager Martin explained.
In other business, the council heard a lengthy presentation from promoters of the Poka-Bache Connector Trail who requested the council pass resolution 22-8-1 seeking to establish a task force to which the council would appoint a person to represent Ossian.
The proposed trail — connecting Ouabache State Park with Pokagon State Park in Steuben County, a distance of 81 miles. The trail will connect existing trails together with a new trail that will tie into the Interurban Trail on the north side of Bluffton, and travel north out of Bluffton paralleling Ind. 1 through Ossian and into Allen County where it will tie into the existing Fort Wayne trails system.
About 50 percent of the trail has already been built or is currently under construction, explained Jennifer Sharkey of the Poka-Bache Coalition.
Sharkey, Wells County Area Plan Director Michael Lautzenheiser, John Bomberger and Dan Avery, executive director of the Northeast Indiana Regional Coordinating Council, explained the importance of the task force to represent each of the municipalities that will be connected by the trail and to — they hope — expedite the trail construction process.
Council member Jeff Kemper asked who will be responsible for the maintenance of the trail. Sharkey explained that the responsibility of the day-to-day routine maintenance will be the responsibility of the individual municipalities. Major upkeep could be accomplished with donations, grants or by other means, she explained.
The council adopted the resolution by a 4-0 vote with Barkley, Kemper, Jason House and Dennis Ealing voting yes. Council member Brad Pursley was unable to attend Monday night’s meeting. A decision on who will represent Ossian on the task force is forthcoming.
The council members also approved of contracting Brooks Construction and gave the Fort Wayne-based company the notice to proceed with the reconstruction of Woodcreek Drive in the Sandalwood housing addition.
The contract includes the replacement of a pipe over the William Smith Drain with a culvert. Brooks’s bid of $1,258,461 was the lowest of two received. The other bid was $1,276,300 from API Construction of LaOtto.
The bids were opened two weeks ago and reviewed by the town’s engineer, Jim Breckler of Engineering Resources.
The town has a Community Crossings Fund grant that will pay for $893,370.75 of the project with the town covering the remainder of the contract.
In both the vote to contract Brooks and the notice to proceed, House abstained because he will directly benefit from the street’s reconstruction as he lives on Woodcreek Drive.
The council members also approved of new tax abatement for Energy Controls, which is planning to purchase automatic form, fill, and sealing machine, a new palletizing system and a stretch wrapper at a cost of $1.7 million.
The request has been made by President David Bell of Energy Controls, but was presented to the council Monday night by Wells County Economic Development Director Chad Kline.
Kline added that Energy Controls plans to purchase all of the new equipment from Rethceif Manufacturing of Ossian, the first time Kline could recall when a company seeking tax abatement for equipment made the purchase 100 percent local.
Kline also sought, and was granted permission from the council, to accelerate the abatement to 100 percent the first three years and 80 percent the fourth year, meaning Energy Controls will not have to pay any new property taxes on the equipment for the first three years and only 20 percent of their assessed value the fourth year. However, after that, the equipment will be 100 percent taxable.
The equipment is expected to assist in the retention of 20 employees and the addition of one. The new employee will be paid $39,520.
The council also approved of trading in the John Deere 1600 Series 3 mower for a more rugged alternative.
TTG Equipment of Bluffton will charge the town $8,250 for the new 3046R compact utility tractor and 9-foot Frontier rear discharge grooming mower. The total package is $44,045 but the town is receiving $35,795 in trade in for the “BAM” as the town employees refer to it (The “B” stands for big, the “M” for mower).
The BAM was purchased just a couple years ago, but the problem with it is it’s more of a finishing mower and struggles with the rougher surfaces the town has to mow, Martin explained.
Martin also informed the council members that area businessman Preston Kaehr was planning to locate a Kooler Ice bagged ice and bottled water machine in the parking lot of the former Computer Genius store on Dehner Drive. The machine will draw its water from the former Computer Genius tap, she explained.
The next regular meeting of the council will be 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, at the Colliers Comfort building, 215 N. Jefferson St.
glenw@news-banner.com
