POSEY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT GETTING NEW BUILDING! By

POSEY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT GETTING NEW BUILDING! By Dan Barton, Publisher of The New Harmony Gazette

December 2018

The Posey County Health Department is in the process of purchasing a new building in Mt. Vernon to replace it’s current office at 126 Third Street, Room 20. It has been reported in other newspapers around Posey County that the County Council passed a resolution expressing interest in purchasing the property at 100 Vista Drive in Mt. Vernon. The Council and the County Commission agreed in October on a $125,000 purchase price option that’s good until December 1, 2018.

County Health Officer Kyle Rapp, M.D. has been pursuing the purchase of this building since at least September 2018. He has stated to the Council that in the past three to five years the Health Department has seen significant growth in services and employees and is outgrowing its current space. He has not been specific about how many services have been added or how much of an increase in staff the Health Department has seen over the period he defined. The 2018 Posey County Budget shows that there are five full time employees working for the Department, including Dr. Rapp. The 2019 Budget shows the same number of employees.

Dr. Rapp said in September that the Health Department would pay $100,000 toward the purchase of the building, leaving $25,000 for the County to resolve. The 2018 budget approved a total allocation of $325,000 for the Health Department, without the $100,000 building designation included. The new 2019 Budget shows a total allocation to the Heath Department of $432,326. Included in that number is indeed the $100,000 for a “Building.”

I contacted the Posey County Auditor, Sara Beth Meighen, and asked her how Rapp’s statement could be made with such certainty in September while not having the money already in the Department’s 2018 budget. She couldn’t answer that question, other than to say that County Commissioner Jim Alsop would address any issues before he leaves office on January 1, 2019. Also it must be noted, that in addition to the $125,000 base purchase price, the building will have to be remodeled. No price for the remodeling has yet been set. Neither has the Health Department provided any information, at this writing, concerning how much the annual maintenance and upkeep of the building will be. Also not answered is who will be responsible for the utilities, such as phones, internet, water, sewage and electric for the new building.

This will be the fourth major building project for Posey County in the last three years. The County Coroner’s building cost the County $374,000, the new Storage Building cost $351,000 and now the new Health Department Building will cost in excess of $125,000. In addition, the new County Jail, which went from an initial estimate in 2015 of $11.5 million to the finished product of $16.4 million, was also built in 2018.

The Jail project required a first time ever perpetual Public Safety Tax that will cost every County taxpayer an additional $63 for every $25,000 in income per year that they earn. Posey County’s accounting processes had to be shifted in order to accommodate the tax and the financing of the Jail project, transferring much of the Sheriff’s Department expenditures from the General Fund to a new Public Safety Tax Fund in order to accommodate paying off the huge finance arrangement that the County made on the Jail.

But let’s get back to the new Health Department building! Public records show that the new building at 100 Vista Drive will be purchased from a Vice-Chairman on the Health Department Board, Larry Horton. Mr. Horton bought the building at a William Wilson Auction on

June 18, 2015 for $68,750 and now stands to sell it to the Health Department, that he serves on as a fiduciary, for $125,000; making a $56,250 gain in just over a three year period.

I texted New Harmony’s current County Councilman for this District, Aaron Wilson, and asked him to look into this County purchase transaction. I advised him that many of the details that I have now revealed in this article were never released to the public during the County Council or Commission meetings for the purchase of the Vista Drive building.

I also indicated to Mr. Wilson that it should be part of our County’s goal to spread County government throughout the County. In recent years, part of Indiana’s main goal has been to stem the tide of de-population in rural communities. Interconnecting the small rural towns with our State’s population centers, like Mt. Vernon, our County Seat, was the design that the Regional Cities plan was supposed to address. One sure way to start that process would be to take advantage of situations such as the County government’s building of new County offices that are being built at high prices per square foot. Instead, they could use already existing structures within small towns, like New Harmony, for the needed municipal office space. I’m talking about the former New Harmony School, in this case. It has been offered for sale by the Town of New Harmony several times over the past four years and is currently advertised again on the market for $360,000.

The proposed new Vista Drive Health Department building, before rehabilitation, is selling at a price of $125,000 for it’s 1,683 square feet, with only 18 parking slots, it is going for a price of $74.27 per square foot. The former New Harmony school is for sale on the market at $360,000 and has 56,000 square feet of space with 50 rooms, plus 20 surrounding acres that include 10 acres of parking. It’s sale price is $6.43 per square foot.

Since the County’s on a building spree, I would think that someone down at the County Seat, the Council and Commission, in Mt. Vernon would think about the advantages that can be gained by including the entire County in its plans. Why keep spending taxpayers dollars on boondoggle deals all the time? Is there something we’re not getting up here in North Posey?

C’mon Councilman Wilson, pound the table! Cite Indiana Code 16-20-2-13 or something. Merely suggesting that they use the Harmony Way School just won’t work! Does this Health Department deal have a smell about it?