Banner Graphic, Volume 19, Number 296, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 August 1989 — Page 1

35 Cents

Across-the-board raises of SSOO for county suggested

By BECKY IGO Banner-Graphic News Editor Perhaps one of the most important decisions the county commissioners made came at the end of Monday night’s meeting. The topic was raises for county employees in 1990. The decision was how much. AND AFTER SOME thought, Commissioners John Carson, Gene Beck and Don Walton agreed to recommend the Putnam County Council award SSOO across-the-board raises to all county employees. By law, the commissioners must forward such a recommendation to the Council, since the latter board is responsible for establishing salaries on the county level. County councilmen, however, are not bound by the recommendation, giving members the option to either lower or increase the figure. But, in light of current budget situation this year and the uncertainty of reassessment, employees will be lucky if the Council approves even a SSOO raise. COUNTY AUDITOR Myrtle Cockrell did tell the commissioners most officeholders put in SI,OOO raises for themselves and their employees. Some, however, did ask for more, she said. But, when the SSOO amount was selected, the commissioners basically ended up asking that county employees receive the same raise they requested for themselves in 1990. (If approved, the commissioners will each receive $8,827, plus $1,200 in longevity for a total 1990 salary of $10,027). Commissioner Beck suggested the SSOO across-the-board raise, a

State Farm inmate on trial in battery case

By JOE THOMAS Banner-Graphic Assistant Editor A Putnam County jury will hear evidence in a battery case that could see a former Indiana State Farm inmate sentenced to as many as 38 more years in prison. Larry Lee Brewer, who has been transferred from the State Farm, is charged with battery of. a correctional officer resulting in serious bodily injury. Brewer is also charged with being an habitual offender. The battery charge carries a maximum of eight years in prison, while the habitual offender count

Budget adoption next step for Cloverdale

.. CLOVERDALE With no one appearing to comment at a public hearing Monday night on Cloverdale's 1990 budget, the town council adjourned its meeting Monday night after two minutes. The hearing was to give town taxpayers an opportunity to discuss the town's proposed budget With no audience, the council quickly ended its meeting. THE NEXT STEP IN the budget process for the town will be the adoption of the 1990 budget at a meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28. The town council has advertised

| x - | ♦ - x Rnllinn likp thiinrlpr I twill! Im lliXw lllUIIMv! ■«»

"IRHS cloudySd warm Thwrytay thJSldie the middle 80s to the tower 90s. F&day Oft? from

motion seconded by Walton and made unanimous by Carson. ALTHOUGH THE County Council may acknowledge the commissioners* recommendation during Thursday’s 1:45 p.m. public hearing on 1990 budgets, a decision on salaries will not be confirmed until the Council’s Sept. 5-6 budget sessions. Meanwhile, the commissioners also heard from ATEK representatives during Monday night’s meeting. Mainly, the discussion evolved around Auditor Cockrell asking if a programming change could be made to combine multiple pieces of property onto one tax bill. If not, Mrs. Cockrell pointed out, some taxpayers, who own multiple pieces of property, will find numerous tax bills in their mailboxes. ACCORDING TO the auditor, the problem arises when a landowner owns five, six or more pieces of property. Apparently, ATEK’s computer program for reassessment selects only one of those multiple listings for tax billing purposes. That, in turn, makes the auditor’s office responsible for finding the landowner’s remaining listings and putting them on the tax bill. Also, her office must then search out which one of those multiple listings will be due the $2,500 Homestead Credit, or any other applicable exemption. That’s why Mrs. Cockrell asked ATEK General Mwiager Michael Kennedy, account manager Lisa McCreary and sales rep Ed Koerner if a programming change could be made to list the multiples on a CoL 1, back page this section

carries a 30-year prison term. BREWER ALLEGEDLY assaulted ISF guard Darrell Bower in a March 10 incident, giving what ISF SupL Tom Hanlon called at the time, “a severe bruise to his leg and a laceration on his cheekbone." Bower reportedly was walking through ISF’s No. 2 dorm when he came across some misplaced inmate property. Bower allegedly picked it up, asking whose it was and why it was out of place. Brewer allegedly jumped off his bunk and attacked Bower. The inmate allegedly hit the guard in the

a tax rate of $1.60 per SIOO of assessed valuation. That means a taxpayer with property assessed at SIO,OOO will pay $l6O in town taxes. Based on the town’s assessed valuation of $4,644,560, the tax rate will raise funds of $74,633. The total budget estimate amounts to $175,000. In ocher business concerning the town, another petitioner has been withdrawn from a remonstrance against the annexation of about 700 acres to the town. C. A. Basore Jr., Route, 1, Cloverdale, filed a motion Friday in the Putnam County Clerk’s Office

tom teopper 80s rate ’ iI V’** ; Calendar W x A 4 | Sb . AM9 i Comics AS Obituaries | AM Soorth < rr fiOsS'MtO AM *

**/ 9 i.

‘High’ $8.96 rate proposed for GCSC

By JOE THOMAS Banner-Graphic Assistant Editor Without a word from the public, the Greencastle School Board reviewed the school system’s proposed 1990 budget, taking the first legal step in approving the tentative plan. Assistant Supt. Janett Boling detailed the plan that calls for an $8.91 million GCSC budget for next year. However, only $4.12 million would be raised through local property taxes. The rest of the money will come from state and federal sources. BUT EVEN THOSE figures are tentative, and taxpayers will almost certainly not pay the $8.96 tax rate proposed Monday night. There are two reasons for the tentative figures. First of all, school systems must

face, knocking him down, authorities said. BREWER HAD BEEN at the State Farm for about two weeks when the alleged altercation happened. He is serving a four-year prison term for an Indianapolis burglary which is one of the two felonies cited in the habitual offender count Brewer was convicted of the burglary on Jan. 12, 1989. His earliest possible release on that charge is Oct 2, 1990. However, the habitual offender count alleges

to remove his name from the remonstrance petition. He is the third petitioner to withdraw from the remonstrance, originally signed by 14 people claiming ownership of property in the area to be annexed to the town. BASORE HAD ALSO signed a petition by landowners voluntarily asking the town to extend its municipal limits to include property in the 700-acre area bounded by U.S. 231, County Road 900 South, County Road 475 East and County Road 1000 South. Basore was required to remove his name from one of the petitions. With Basore’s withdrawal from

Cloverdale proposing $5.89 school rate

By JOE THOMAS Banner-Graphic Assistant Editor It took the Cloverdale School Board just 11 minutes Monday night to review the proposed 1990 school system budget in a special public hearing that no one from the public attended. The budget proposal is a blueprint of what the school system will actually spend next year and the figures are preliminary for two reasons. FIRST OF ALL, school systems must figure a budget plan that will be reviewed in October by field examiners from the Indiana Board to Tax Commissioners. The field ex-

prepare a budget proposal which is reviewed and trimmed by field examiners from the Indiana Board of Tax Commissioners. That happens every October in Putnam County, and until that hearing, the school system will not know exactly what its budget will be. The second reason for the tentative figures will most likely confound the field examiners as much as it has confounded school officials. Because reassessment figures are slow in coming in, budget preparers cannot be sure how much total assessed valuation they have to plan with. THE TOTAL ASSESSED valuation in the taxable amount on every piece of taxable property in the school system’s boundaries. Mrs. Boling explained to the

he was also convicted of robbery in Indianapolis on Dec. 12,1985. Brewer is represented by Greencastle attorney Sidney Tongret, white Deputy Prosecutor Del Brewer will handle the case against him. AS JURY SELECTION was about to begin Tuesday morning, the defendant slipped on the rainslickened roadway white emerging from the State Farm car transporting him to the courthouse. Brewer insisted on being taken to Putnam County Hospital for X-rays, delaying proceedings for the time being.

the action, the number of remonstrators on the petition has been reduced to 11. To file a remonstrance, the petition needs the signatures of at tease 51 percent of the landowners. The remonstrance is based on 26 property owners in the annexed area. THE ANNEXATION of the 700 acres was based on 22 landowners in that area. The town has filed a motion to dismiss the remonstrance. A hearing on the motion has been set for 8:30 a.m. Sept 19 in Putnam Circuit Court

aminers almost uniformly trim the proposed budgets, so until that hearing, the school system will not know what its actual 1990 budget will be. Second, reassessment figures have been slow in coming to budget planners, leaving them with last year’s figures to plan with. That is crucial because the budget centers around one key number The total assessed valuation. That is the taxable amount of all taxable property in the school system, and the local tax rate hinges on that value. The current reassessment will change that figure, more than likely raising it.

board that she used the figure 0f546,093,410 to plan her 1989 proposal. But that figure is almost certainly low. When the reassessment figures are finally revealed, the GCSC’s assessment will likely increase, which will lower the proposed $8.96 tax rate. Also towering the figure is the gradual decrease in tax abatements granted Greencastle’s six new industries. MRS. BOLING TOLD the board Monday night that she proposed a $9.79 tax rate for 1989, which was later trimmed by the field examiner to $7.77. That cut came with a decrease in the school system’s total assessed valuation. An increase would have towered the figure more. Mrs. Boling offered a planned budget that would see local tax-

Deputies stick to trail to find a suspect in dough-dropping case

STILESVILLE sticky case, but the Hendricks County Sheriff's Department have recovered the dough and gotten the drop on a stickyfingered suspect. A Stilesville man, authorities said, is charged in connection with an incident in which a 12mile trail of dough, cream filling, jelly and shortening being hauled from an Avon bakery was left along Hendricks County roadways last week. THE DEPARTMENT reportedly received complaints from motorists who reported a “gooey” substance on U.S. 36 and several western Hendricks County roads, Ll Stephen Golden said. Deputies Kell Mites and Jim Stoneking stuck to a trail which ended at a farm on County Road 450 W and CR 200 S, where they found truck driver Paul G. Miller, 28, Stilesville, unloading the materials. Milter was cited for having a leaky load and ordered to appear

But by how much is anybody’s guess. IT WAS A GUESS SupL John McKinney was unwilling to make, basing his 1990 budget on 1989’s total assessed valuation of $18,923,370. If reassessment raises that figure, taxpayers will get a break and the tax rate will be lowered without costing the school system any money. McKinney is proposing a $5.89 tax rate for 1990. That means a landowner with an assessed value of SIO,OOO will pay $589 in school taxes next year. That proposal is a 78-cent increase of 1989 and almost all of

The first full day of school for first-grader Nathan Brooks was a real family affair Monday in Greencastle. Nathan (with lunch box and school bag) is accompanied by his mother, Marilyn, brother David (on mom’s back) and dad Howard as they cross Arlington Street en route to Northeast School for opening day of the 1989-90 school year. Crossing guard Carolyn Leonard provides an escort by slopping oncoming traffic. The Brooks family resides at 1009 Hillcrest Drive. (Banner-Graphic photo by Gary Goodman).

payers paying about 46 percent of the cost for local education. State and federal monies would make up the other 54 percent, she said. The 46 percent share of local monies would be raised through property taxes that would see a person with an assessed value of SIO,OOO paying $896 in school taxes next year. Supt. Gary Druckemiller defended that high proposed tax rate, saying, “With reassessment up in the air, we have to maximize our revenue or we will end up with a shortfall.” STILL, AT LEAST one school board member is hoping the proposed rate will be towered by the state. “It would be nice to lose that distinction of No. 8 in the state,” Col. 1, back page, this section

in Hendricks County Superior Court 2, TYaffic Division. THE LOAD WAS being transported from the Maptehurst Deli-Bake on Rockville Road was oozing from the 1968 Ford truck Milter was driving, authorities said. Milter told police he attempted several times to secure the tailgate but was not successful. State Highway crews were called out and were forced to use a snow plow to remove the material from U.S. 36, where it was said to be 10-12 inches thick in some places. Avon firefighters, meanwhite, were called out to hose down streets in several places where the material literally “stuck to the surface," Ll Golden said. Highway department crews sanded county roads after Maplehurst employees removed the substance from roadways along the route of travel. THE SLOP BEING hauled was described by Ll Golden as “just like Silly Putty,” although not as easy to pick up.

that tax hike is traceable to the CCSC’s new Capital Projects Fund. The CPF is a new fund replacing the now-defunct Cumulative Building Fund. The old CBF was designed to allow local governmental units to build and renovate buildings. However, construction costs eventually outgrew the old CBF while local government was pleading with the Indiana General Assembly for a new fund offering greater flexibility. IN RESPONSE, THEY got the new CPF, which can be used on buildings, just as the old CBF was. However,the CPF can also be used CoL 3, back page, this section