Owen County Highway Department fills open positions, commissioners approve America 250 event, health grant application

The Owen County Highway Department announced six filled positions during the June 4 county commissioners meeting, with plans to ramp up road and pothole fixtures throughout the summer.

The department filled two laborer and four operator positions, creating a team of 20 with the "manpower" to flesh out the patching crew, highway superintendent Chad Walker said at the meeting.

"The majority of them will start Monday," Walker said. "Once they're there, it is full throttle on hot boxes and filling pot holes."

Hot boxes are machines that keep asphalt at the optimal temperature for patching roads throughout the day. As long as it isn't raining, Walker said, the crew expects to be working on the roads everyday.

"Once these guys get there, that's gonna be their bread and butter every day," Walker said.

Walker also said Tower Road, between U.S. Highway 231 and Fidler Road, would be closed for about a week starting June 9 to replace a box culvert — a concrete structure used to allow water to flow under the roadway — so the road can be resurfaced, which will take place in late summer or early fall of this year.

"We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but the result will be a much smoother and safer road surface to drive on," the department wrote in a Facebook post. The post also said the resurfacing is funded through the Indiana Department of Transportation 2026 Community Crossings Matching Grant.

In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, Connie Murphy, the county's connect chair for the Indiana anniversary committee, came to the commissioners to request a public reading of the Declaration of Independence on the Owen County Courthouse steps by Mark Rogers at 6 p.m. July 8, the same day the document announcing the 13 colonies' separation from Great Britain was first read publicly in 1776.

The commissioners approved the request.

Another option to celebrate the anniversary was to plant a "Liberty Tree." Spencer Main Street board member Jacob Balash requested the commissioners approval to use a grant from the state to plant two trees with commemorative plaques flanking the sidewalk at the front of the courthouse.

Commissioner Norman Warner said he likes trees and the idea of the anniversary plaques, but he had concerns over security. Courthouse security and their cameras need to have an unobstructed view, and growing trees could hinder it, he said.

One audience member suggested Veteran's Memorial Park, an idea Warner said would be fitting. The commissioners ultimately denied the request due to security.

Also at the meeting, the commissioners approved a bid from Servpro, a professional restoration and cleaning services company in Bloomington, to clean, strip and wax the floors and landings on all three floors of the courthouse.

Warner said the maintenance was "long overdue" and said the floors are part of "our view from the public."

The commissioners also approved the Owen County Health Department to apply for the annual Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grant. The grant helps the department keep response plans for different public health scenarios updated. This could be infectious disease outbreak, tornadoes, water contamination and bioterrorism, among other situations.

The grant also currently contributes to paying the contract for Allan McBride.

The commissioners voted to adopt a revised county building permit fee schedule. County attorney Tony Overholt said the amendment, Ordinance 2026-008, is designed to bring the fees more in line with what nearby counties are doing to fund the county building department and make it self sufficient.

"We hadn't updated those fees forever," Warner said. "What we were charging was, quite frankly, ridiculous compared to other counties and municipalities around us."

The county building department will lose revenue from the storage units it owns. They sit right next to the jail and will be torn down and sold with the rest of the property to offset the jail costs.

"We're gonna try to make that up in some other ways, and this is one of the ways we're gonna try to do that," Warner said.

According to a proposed new fee schedule that will become effective Aug. 11, Class I structures will be $1,000 plus 20 cents per square foot over 2,000 square feet. Additions or alterations to Class I structures are $700 plus 25 cents per square foot over 1,250 square feet.

Previously, Class I structures were $750 plus 20 cents per square foot over 2,500 square feet. Additions or alternations to Class I structures were $450 plus 20 cents per square foot for over 1,250 square feet.

Class II structures in the new schedule will be $400 plus 20 cents per square foot over 650 square feet. Unfinished porches and decks are 10 cents per square foot and additions or alterations to Class II structures are $200 plus 20 cents per square foot over 500 square feet.

The previous fee schedule had Class II structures as $200 plus 10 cents per square foot for over 720 square feet. Additions or alterations to Class II structures were $125 plus 10 cents per square foot for over 500 square feet.

The new schedule also set fees for demolition permits, electrical and re-inspection, among other fees.

The fees cannot be changed for a five-year period following amendment, Owen County Auditor Sheila Reeves said.

Beginning with the June 4 meeting, the commissioners announced a three minute limit to public comments. Warner also announced the community picnic scheduled for June 20 was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with the organizers.