The Press-Dispatch
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A-10 Wednesday, March 10, 2021 The Press-Dispatch EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Francisco Elementary Gibson County zoning ordinance repealed By Janice Barniak Gibson County Commis- sioners repealed zoning in a 2-1 split on Tuesday night, with Commissioner Mary Key as the dissenting vote and Warren Fleetwood and Kenneth Montgomery in fa- vor. That voting trend contin- ued, with the same 2-1 split as votes stayed the Advisory Planning Commission. The decision followed a public hearing about the drawbacks and merits of zon- ing. PRO-ZONING Former Advisory Plan- ning Commission member Mike McConnell, of Francis- co, said he disagreed with the wording that the APC had "at- tempted" to adopt the plan. "I think that was adopted. Is that not correct? If it wasn't adopted, why are you trying to rescind it? " he asked be- fore wondering if the ordi- nance could be repealed with that wording. It was an argument repeat- ed by Commissioner Key just before the vote; that the past commissioners had passed zoning. Mike Moore, 30 -year res- ident of the county, said his concerns aren't with a neigh- bor building a shed or a house, or with economic de- velopment. "I do have concerns with large corporations coming to our town," he said. He recent- ly found out he'd be border- ing the new Elliott Solar Proj- ect, and in going door to door, he realized many of his neigh- bors didn't know they were going to be near the project. "I think there are better places (for the solar project)," he said. Steve Sheer, 35 -year res- ident of Princeton, said he doesn't fully understand the safety ordinances for wind and solar. "The proposed economic revitalization area is all about money...I don't blame them, that's what it's all about. The money itself will do the talking." He said the project size has not been transpar- ent, however, and he doesn't welcome eight-foot fences that will be around the solar property. Kent Maurer, of Haubstadt, asked for compromise, say- ing that while last year coun- ty commissioners were ac- cused of ramrodding zoning through without input, the efforts to repeal zoning were more swift with fewer discus- sion opportunities. "Montgomery won by one percent, Fleetwood by 54 percent. That shows Gibson County citizens are divided," he said. Fleetwood responded to Maurer saying he was dis- heartened by his treatment at APC meetings when he went. "The APC president at that time told a Vanderburgh county citizen to hush me up. He tried. He didn't succeed," Fleetwood said. Erin Maurer, of Haubstadt, also talked about a divid- ed county, saying that com- missioners were elected by margins of eight percent and one percent, which she said showed a county split about the issue. "No wind company has ever entered into a binding curtailment agreement," she said. "Aren't you guilty of the heavy-handed government that you accused your prede- cessors of? I ask you to find a compromise." APC President Steve Ob- ert said he had every inten- tion not to publicly comment Tuesday because he thought people were tired of hearing him after 35 public meetings. "You got that right," heck- led an audience member. "People that oppose zon- ing are my friends...people who are my neighbors, peo- ple I respect," he said. He said he was proud, however, of the process the APC went through and disputed having tried to silence Fleetwood, saying that it was in a meet- ing in which there was not a public comment portion. "If I offended you...I'll ask for forgiveness. But I'm proud of the advisory planning com- mission and the process we went through," he said. Genie Gard, of rural Ow- ensville, asked if the county would be writing a ordinance every time a new industry came into the county as they had with the safety ordinanc- es to regulate wind and solar. Les Kiesel, of Haubstadt, said licensing ordinances ar- en't different than zoning as far as protecting doppler and placing restrictions, but that previous attorneys have giv- en reasons they don't hold up in court. He also said that the licens- ing documents were in their second and third drafts even though the county had only that night voted to hire the at- torneys that wrote those ordi- nances, which he called an is- sue with transparency in gov- ernment. Beverly Adler, a 45 -year resident in the county, said she doesn't have faith in the wind licensing ordinance, and doesn't like that it doesn't ad- dress thrown blades or infra- sound, which is sound below the level of conscious hearing that she believes will bother her children, who have spe- cial needs. "It's going to affect their health and safety," she said. "Their lives still matter." ANTI-ZONING Bob Schleter, of Francis- co, said he believed money spent on zoning could have been better used. "Our money would have been better spent with in- frastructure," he said. "Do away with the zoning ordi- nance and get on with pro- tecting the citizens of the county." Local Bob Schmitt also protested the cost. "Why did you guys go ahead and spend $ 300,000 bucks? We could have done a lot with that," he said. "We finally got two commission- ers who are going to work for the people. We don't work for them, they work for us," he said. Randy Kiesel thanked commissioners for their fore- sightedness in keeping the "entrepreneurial spirit alive" by ending zoning. Clay Pflug, of Oakland City, disputed the county be- ing divided, saying it was a "pretty big statement a Dem- ocrat won in a county Trump won by 70 percent...Thank you to the majority of com- missioners for sticking your neck out. I've heard we need zoning to protect against big companies, but then they say big companies won't come without it." A resident who didn't give his name at the podium told commissioners he opposed the zoning regulations be- cause they regulated things like yard sales, pool sizes and fence heights, which he called bringing city life to a rural area. He also added that as a living document, people could continue to change it. "If I want to have a cot- ton pickin' yard sale every month, I want to have it," he said. "I'm in favor of rescind- ing this zoning. It's not the way the rural people of Gib- son County want to live." Lifelong resident Cecil "Bob" Allen protested zon- ing because he said he nev- er had a good reason from commissioners on why they needed it. "Folks, we've the best county in southern Indiana... Why? Because no zoning," he said. "I urge you two men to rescind zoning in Gibson County." $2,500 in attorney fees waived for zoning repeal Attorneys Josh Clayborne and Grant Schwartzentruber have decid- ed to waive approximately $2,500 in fees for work completed in November and December on the county zoning repeal after Commissioner Mary Key questioned whether commissioners not yet sworn into office could hire people to work for the county. On Tuesday, Gibson County Com- missioners officially hired Schwart- zentruber and Clayborne for profes- sional services helping the county with repeal and licensing ordinanc- es, at a cost not to exceed $20,000. "Were you ever contracted with Gib- son County prior to this? " asked Key during the meeting. The attorneys were at a meeting in the first week of January, but they had worked on items prior to that time, she said, and the previous commissioners did not to vote to hire them. The at- torneys were officially hired Tuesday night, but Key said they'd been hired without a vote by the council. "I believe they've done this work be- fore tonight," she said, before becom- ing the only dissenting vote in a 2-1 split in favor of hiring the attorneys. According to Schwartzentruber, the attorneys had separately spoken with Commissioner Warren Fleetwood and Commissioner Ken Montgomery about doing the work, and as they had a consensus that would be a majority when the new commissioners took of- fice, they completed the work. He said the question came down to whether a signed and executed agree- ment had to be done to complete work, and added, theoretically, if the mo- tion to pay them had not passed in the March 2 meeting, they would not have been paid for any of the work. "Which, it's not really a big deal either way...Either it's all legitimate time or none of it is legitimate time," he said. He didn't want the charges from No- vember and December of last year to become a distraction in the zoning de- bate, he said, so he and Clayborne re- moved them. Originally, Commissioner Warren Fleetwood said Thursday afternoon he believed County Attorney Jim Mc- Donald had engaged the attorneys; however, McDonald said that was not the case, as the attorneys had repre- sented opposing council against the county in legal action against zoning at that time. "I did not hire Grant (Schwartz- entruber)," said McDonald. He said when he was county attorney, he al- ways brought prospective contracts to commissioners before having work started to have them approved, and he couldn't have initiated legal work for Montgomery and Fleetwood because they were not yet commissioners. "I could not take orders from him, as I was not in his employ," said Mc- Donald. A fter further investigation, Fleet- wood said in November and Decem- ber he was educating himself on the zoning issues, and seeking legal coun- sel for his role as commissioner to re- peal zoning. He likened it to engineering or ar- chitectural services where the person talks out the idea with the prospec- tive client, and comes up with the pro- posed document; in this case, the or- dinance brought in at the first meet- ing in January, and then, if the client likes it, is paid for the work. "I just don't understand the line of questioning other than to prove a de- rogatory stance," he said. "I think too, it's paramount anyone going into an of- fice would want to research with pro- fessionals and make a clear plan." Hopkins Park bids By Janice Barniak Bids for work on Hopkins Family Park were opened in a Gibson County Commission- ers meeting, then taken un- der advisement for the proj- ect that aims to, among other things, put a lake at the park. Bids included Koberstein Contracting at $ 354,107.50 ; Precision Contractors LLC, of Ferdinand, at $281,380.70 ; Parker Excavating at $266,040.75; and Naas LLC, of Haubstadt, with the lowest bid of $209,076.30. 45 inmates COVID positive By Janice Barniak According to Gibson Coun- ty Sheriff Tim Bottoms 45 -46 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus at the county jail as of Sunday, compound- ing the difficulties for the fa- cility, which was under scruti- ny for allegations of overcrowd- ing even before the pandemic began. According to Bottoms, the jail is one of the last to have coronavirus cases in the state, after numerous policies to try to prevent it, including screen- ing of prisoners at booking by asking them COVID medical questions, and heavy use of disinfectant and sanitizer. He was alerted last Tuesday morning by the county health nurse of positive cases; then everyone in the jail was tested, and they separated inmates. "My people have been work- ing really hard trying to pre- vent it," he said. "We're one of the last jails in the state to get it. We didn't want this, but you can only do so much." Inmates and staff have PPE at the jail, but keeping prison- ers apart is difficult, and hav- ing some staff out for corona- virus compounded a staffing shortage the jail was already having. The Sheriff's Office has been continually hiring cor- rections officers over the last few years to try to boost the ra- tio of inmates to staff, but fill- ing those positions has been difficult. "We're just doing the best we can do, housing people in the work release building too, and certain people can't move over there now. This building is 31 years old. It's not designed like Vanderburgh facilities, where there's more room," Bottoms said. "Of course, we already have staffing issues and this just makes it even harder." Ms. Williams, Mr Sparrow, Mrs. Kelley, Mrs. Malin and Madelyn Dill (K) on twin day. Zoey Neal, fifth grad- er, on hat day. Second graders Colbie Ferguson and Cali Livermore were almost in- distinguishable on twin day. Second graders Daisie Ben- ton and Carter Bailey dress just alike on twin day. Left: Which who is who? These second grade boys were hard to tell apart on twin day. Pictured are: Shiv Patel, Bentley McGil- lem, Ryker Georges, Ty- son Sheehe and Gunner Meeks. First grader Hollie Williams and second grader Kadence Fahrner on twin day. Francisco Elementary second graders were all decked out for hat day. Francisco Elementary celebrated Read Across America Week. Students partici- pated in a variety of dress up days and activities throughout the week. Above, the second graders showed off all those wild-colored socks on Francisco Elementary School's crazy sock theme day.