Black River options are heard

Michael Wenning, SJCA engineer, gives the inspection report on the Black River Bridge to the Posey County Commissioners. Photo by Lois Mittino Gray

By Lois Mittino Gray

Michael Wenning, Director of the Engineering Department of SJCA, an Indianapolis engineering firm, spoke on the Black River Bridge inspection, its subsequent closing, and issues involved with its repair or replacement as the main topic of the May 6, Posey County Commissioners meeting. “That bridge has served two lifetimes, but now it has failed,” he said succinctly. “Because it is deemed a historic bridge, there will be many hoops to jump through for this repair or rebuild,” he told Commissioners.

Wenning said state bridges are inspected every two years, but the Black River Bridge was put on a one-year inspection cycle since “It was more probable to have failure there. This year, one of the vertical joint connections snapped and the load limit on the bridge went to zero. The joints are bad and deteriorated, too.”

The Black River Bridge, built in 1892 by the Toledo Bridge Company, is a historic Camelback truss bridge, crossing the river along Griffin Road. It is the only known Camelback built by this prolific Ohio firm, and is the oldest extant structure of this truss type in Indiana. “There is a problem when it is a historic bridge,” explained Wenning. “We must get all kinds of state and federal approvals before you can do anything to repair or replace it, so I can only give you a ballpark figure of what it will cost.”

The bridge is 242 feet long and 16.7 feet wide. It is rated an 8 out of 10 on a scale of state historic bridges and has a rating of 7 on the national scale. Wenning said it will cost about $2 million to replace the bridge, which is in a very rural area of the county. It may cost a million to a million-and-a half-dollars to repair it. He said it would help to get federal funding for this, but federal grants for bridges have already been awarded for 2031.

“If we self-fund the repairs, we will spend about a million and a half dollars. Could we get another 20 years out of that?” speculated Commissioner President Bill Collins. “That would be our goal, but we have to look at the condition of the underlying structure,” Wenning surmised.

Collins then asked Wenning, “You have experience with historic bridges. Is there ever a time officials say you can just tear it down?” Wenning said, “Yes there is, when safety is taken into account and you have seen what is cost-effective, they will allow you to replace it if the numbers work out, but he warned, “If you just knock it down and rebuild, it ties your hands in the future.”

“It would hurt us down the road, Collins observed. Engineers do not recommend a $100,000 retrofit to quickly patch the bridge. “If overstressed, it could fail,” Wenning said.

“No matter which way you go, repair or rebuild, you need to do an alternative analysis to explore your options. We could put a proposal together for you to answer your questions on doing either,” Wenning told them.

“So what will it cost us to find out what this will all cost us?” President Collins queried. Wenning did not have a figure at hand, but Councilman Greg Newman made a motion to explore options and hire SJCA to prepare a fee proposal on costs to do the analysis. Wedding said they could get it completed in about a month and a half. The motion passed unanimously.

In the meantime, the bridge will remain closed. It is not preventing anyone from getting out to the highway if need be. Either side of the bridge will bring people who live out there onto Highway 69. People don’t have to drive on Griffin Road over the bridge in order to get out of the area.

Three nuisance complaints were dealt with under Unfinished Business. Two were dismissed after work was done on them. Building Commissioner Ed Batteiger said the Highway 69S site is “much improved, let the owner be allowed to do his thing, it’s not quite perfect but I’m ready to close the complaint down.” Commissioner President Bill Collins joked, “Come to my house! It’s not perfect either!” The 4224 State Road 69 complaint was also closed out as the old trailer is gone and it is improved. The 6640 Leonard Road site was tabled until the June 2 meeting with a directive for County Attorney Harrison to send the owner a letter about it. “There is still a lot of trash and it is messy. They have trailers loaded to haul off yet,” Batteiger remarked..

Also under Unfinished Business, the ordinance to change the speed limit on Barter Road from forty miles per hour to thirty miles per hour passed after final reading. They also passed the KAJ Tower lease agreement after taking out a sentence on accountability for equipment problems with the company.

Under other New Business, a Health Department Equipment Acquisition was tabled since Director Kyle Jones was not in attendance. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Mid-America Health to provide services to jail inmates at a cost of $2800.00 per visit.

A discussion of use of ERep both at the local and regional level ensued. It was decided to renew the contract with them in July for county regional issues. Commissioners passed a motion to explore hiring someone local here in Posey County to do economic development. “We can still be a member regionally, but we need someone here full-time in Posey County,” Collins noted. Commissioner Eric Koester proposed waiting to cancel the local contract until it is up in July until they see if it works out to hire someone to work here.

Carrie Thompson, Emergency Management Agency Director, brought an agreement for a five-year contract with Rave Alert at a total cost of $28,750.00 and it was approved. She has submitted a grant application for five emergency backup generators. “The State will review the application and them move it on to FEMA,” she hopes. President Collins said, “If we do not get grant money, we should still plan on purchasing these generators as we need them,” he stated. Thompson speculated they may cost around $32,000.00.

Commissioners also approved up to $9,912.00 to replace the chiller fans at the Court House as it is having problems now. Two quotes are submitted for the work and President Collins said he wants to compare “apples to apples” on both. He would like to make sure the lower one of $5,640.82 from MelKay will meet the need. Otherwise, the higher nine thousand plus figure from Train will have to be accepted as it needs to be done.

Under Department Reports, Detective Dustin Seitz gave the Sheriff’s Jail Inmate Update Report as 106 incarcerated from Posey County, 23 from Vanderburgh County, and 9 from the Department of Corrections for a total of 138. The April per diem revenue from Vanderburgh County is $23,520.00.

Veteran Services Officer John Dike said he will be attending a VSO Training conference on June 15-18 in Franklin, Indiana.

EMS Director Paul Micheletti reported his numbers as 236 requests with 174 actual transports. Revenue for the month was $146,995.18. The new Medic 2 Ambulance is in service in Mount Vernon and on the road and ready to go he told Commissioners.

Commissioner Greg Newman commented on how well run the elections were yesterday. Kudos to all involved,” he praised.

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