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Transfers for the sheriff’s department and additional appropriations for the new public defender’s office should get some payrolls funded through the end of this year.
Sheriff Jim Smith and Matron Michelle Hyden presented four transfers to the Kosciusko County Council Thursday.
“We’re asking for a total of $26,500 to be transferred from four different full-time payroll accounts that have been open for different periods of time this year into our part-time budget,” Hyden said. “The shortfall in that budget is twofold, partly due to the openings that we’ve had and having to have put in extra staff to cover those shifts.”
The other part, she said, is, “When looking at this, we realized that last year we had to make a transfer and the year before we had to make a transfer. So, it’s underfunded.”
Hyden said they’ve had to increase security in the courts and for probation, along with some other things.
“We’ve never really made those adjustments inside the fund itself. So, that has been taken care of for the 2026 requested, because our hopes are that those positions are going to be filled and we’re not going to have that money to transfer to the part-time budget,” she stated.
Council President Tony Ciriello asked if that $26,500 will get them through the rest of this year.
“We are hoping,” Hyden responded. “We’ve worked the numbers and we’re going to work with what we’ve got.”
The council unanimously approved all four transfers.
The county’s new public defender, Jack Birch, for the new office of public defender, presented a request for additional appropriations for payroll accounts and the salary ordinances to go along with them.
“So, to get our people paid through the end of the year, and we are still just muddling through how we’re doing all of this, and meeting with the auditor’s (office) tomorrow to work through how to get our budget pieced together year after year, but this will get us our payroll going forward, at least we’ll have funds there to do it and we’ll sort it out - get it cleaned up as we get it going,” Birch said.
Ciriello said the total was $567,899 to cover all the positions, and Birch said that was correct. The money is already sitting in the public defender’s fund.
Of that total, $96,063 is for the chief public defender; $72,684, chief deputy public defender; $47,919, deputy public defender; $47,919, deputy public defender; $20,070, public defender office assistant; $20,868, public defender legal assistant; $26,923, public defender paralegal/office administrator; $40,000, part-time investigator; $28,493, Social Security/Medicaid; $37,235, retirement contributions; and $129,725, group health insurance.
County Auditor Alyssa Schmucker said, “This should be good for the rest of this year. Like Jack said, we’re going to meet with him tomorrow morning, so we will come back with some more additional appropriations for his operating type budget in the August meeting.”
The council approved the additional appropriations and salary ordinances.
Earlier in the meeting, County Administrator Marsha McSherry gave the council a couple updates on building renovations.
“The public defender’s office, they were able to move in on July 1. They have walls. The doors came in and they were damaged, so we had to have those reordered, so they’ll have (doors) at some point,” she said. “Everything else is done. The painting and all the flooring and everything was done, so once those come in, we’ll get those installed.”
As for furniture, if everything is shipped and arrives on time, the office will have furniture the week of Aug. 4.
Work in the clerk’s office is wrapping up as well, she stated, “so those two projects will be completed.”
On Monday, July 14, the renovations in the surveyor’s office will start, followed by the personal property office for the assessor’s office in the basement, followed by the assessor’s real property offices on the main floor.
In other business, the council:
• Approved two additional appropriations presented by Kosciusko County Highway Department Assistant Superintendent Troy Kintzel for the 2025 Community Crossings Matching Grant. One was in the amount of $337,519 for bridge 320, and the other was for $19,595 for roadwork.
“We’re not requesting any additional funds, but asking for the funds to be appropriated in ’25. This grant had originated in ’24,” he said.
• Approved a $20,000 transfer from the motor vehicle highway building repair fund to MVH contractual services, as requested by Kintzel.
“This transfer is needed to cover some expenses due to an unforeseen invoice. The requested amount is intended to cover the expenses through 2025,” he explained.
• Gave the Kosciusko County Highway Department permission to apply for the 100% reimbursable Railroad At-Grade Crossing Grant for $39,900. Kintzel said it’s a grant that they apply for annually. The county commissioners approved the grant application at their previous meeting.
• Approved an additional appropriation for $26,000 in the county general fund in the commissioner’s contractual line item, as presented by McSherry. She said the funds are for Reedy Financial Group to assist the auditor’s office with their tax increment financing (TIF) analysis for the remainder of this year.
• Approved the 2026 Records Perpetuation Fund affidavit and ordinance as presented by County Recorder Deb Wright.
“I can tell you that the amount is higher this year, but we’re also running off of the estimated salaries and all of that. I think last year we had it a little bit closer,” she said. “Also, I think there’s $18,000 in there for computer equipment because we pay for our own computer equipment and we’re due for new computers.”
She said the other biggest difference from last year was their employee insurance because one of the office’s employees who previously was not on the insurance is now, along with her spouse.
• Approved an appropriation adjustment request for the sheriff’s department. Cheryl McGettrick, sheriff’s department financial administrator, said the request was to move money from the county insurance fund into the sheriff’s insurance vehicle replacement fund to pay for damages to a vehicle. She said they got a check from the insurance company and it has to go into county fund first, then it goes to the sheriff’s department. The amount is for $2,202.40.
• Reviewed the commissary report as presented by Smith for January through June 2025. Due to new state legislation, the commissary report will now have to be reported quarterly.
• Heard from Schmucker on a number of things, including that for June 1-30 the county encumbered $47,944.26. She reported the spring tax settlement has been done and balanced with the treasurer’s office. The 2026 assessed values have been rolled, but they’re still waiting to get all the deductions updated due to the state. They’re working on the 2026 budgets. On Tuesday, they had their annual audit with the Indiana State Board of Accounts and it was completed without any comments or problems.
• Heard an update from Bowen Health CEO and President Dr. Rob Ryan and Executive Director Mark Groeller. The county commissioners heard an update at their last meeting.
• Heard from Council Vice President Kathy Groninger that the ProPEL U.S. 30 study report has been finalized. They will have office hours from 12 to 2 p.m. July 15 at the Pierceton Library to answer the public’s questions or to receive comments.
