The Jasper City Council held there regular meeting last night at Jasper City hall. The Council heard several presentations from an update on the Parkland project to drug activity within the county.
Police Chief Nathan Schmitt address the council to request funds to replace the COPS grant that was budgeted for 2018, due to the department not receiving the grant.
The new additional funds for the 2018 budget, will come from the Cigarette Tax fund, which will be used to pay for the salary of an additional police officer designated for drug enforcement.
So far this year, Jasper’s Police K9 Unit Officer has made 71 drug related arrests. Schmitt stressed the seriousness of the growing drug epidemic.
Schmitt told the council that currently, there has been ongoing dialog and cooperation between the County & the city of Huntingburg, about joining drug enforcement officers to form a task force that would better combat the growing problem. The council approved the request.
In an update of the Parkland’s project, Jasper Park and Recreation Board President, Roger Seger, presented the council with information regarding budgeting and project development of the site.
Featuring a walking trail, splash park, playground, exercise pods, and even a waterfall, the park is slated to be a significant addition the quality of life here in Jasper. It was noted that a few roadblocks have popped up, between having to repaint a bridge and some difficulty with building a well for the water ways, however everything is coming together as the council viewed a slideshow of the work so far.
Seger says, for the amount of funds that were allocated and the quality of work that has been done, the project hasn’t gone very far over-budget.
Currently the project is on track to be completed by May, though Seger did caution that with the newly seeded grass and wild flowers it will take a year or two to grow the beauty that has been planned.
In other council business, a public hearing was held for an ordinance to revise electric rates for the city of Jasper, which passed.
Potentially the average residential customer could see an 8.7% decrease coming to their electric bill in February of the upcoming year.
The reason for the decrease has to do with the Indiana Municipal Power Agency lowering some costs, along with a reduction in capital expenditure projects for the city in recent years.
Fixed monthly facility charges will increase, along with the demand charge, while the variable energy charge will decrease.
Demand customers, usually industrial, that see huge peak usages will see an increase, though there are incentives to improve their load factor.
This is all part of an effort by the utility board to carve out fixed costs, which make about 10% of rate user’s bills.
5 years ago, the board previously looked at this issue and decided not to move forward due to the potential of rates raising significantly. However, with the states Municipal Power Agency lowering electric costs a new opportunity was present.
Jasper Utility Board Member and Electric Commissioner Wayne Schuetter spoke to the council about the perception of the rate rate change.
In three years another rate study will be conducted to look at how the rate changes have worked for the city’s electric utilities.
