In spite of a No vote from County Board member Ken Usery and board member Ron McAnulty abstaining, the White County Board agreed Tuesday night to grant raises to 6 of the County’s Elected Officials. Beginning in December of 2020, the Circuit Clerk and Coroner will receive a 4% raise each. Clerk Kelly Fulkerson’s new salary will be $50,049.42 annually while the Coroner will move to an annual salary of $16,739.06. The other 4 offices, who most recently saw raises in 2018, will see a 7% jump in 2022. The new Sheriff salary will be $57,747 beginning December of 2022. The County Treasurer and County Clerk will each make $51,493.42 beginning in December of 2022. The Supervisor of Assessments’ salary will jump to $58,766.12 beginning the last month of 2022. Additionally, the Circuit Clerk and Coroner will receive 1.5% cost of living increases yearly beginning in 2020 and ending on December 1, 2025. The White County Sheriff is also getting an increase from $6,000 to $8,000 for holding the title of White County Safety Coordinator beginning on December 1, 2020.
The White County Board entered into an official agreement with lawyer Brandon Edwards of Jackson County, Illinois regarding the county’s landfill. State’s Attorney Denton Aud mentioned there is currently pending litigation involving the landfill. The agreement will allow the Carbondale lawyer to perform an inventory, serve as a professional engineer representative and secure professional administration for the landfill.
Other news out of last night’s meeting includes a federal aid agreement for a concrete bridge a mile northwest of Enfield at Gowdy Creek. According to the paperwork, federal funds for the project will amount to $188,000 while state support will cost $37,600 leaving White County to come up with the remaining $9,400 for a total project estimated cost of $235,000.
County Clerk Beth Sell reported her office was preparing for the Primary Election to be held next Tuesday saying that she’s already received somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 absentee ballots.
While County Treasurer Pam Armstrong was absent from the meeting, Board Chairmen Donnie Puckett said the board had received reports which prompted board member Ron McAnulty to raise a few questions.
“It shows that for the last three months we have lost $260,000 in the general fund. The cash balance is subqueried of $60 – $71,000 through February. Everybody needs to bear in mind that includes the judicial fund of $168,000 that I’ve always been told that that can only be spent at the direction of Judge Webb that’s including the general fund. We have transferred $303,000 from investments to the general fund. So our investments are down about $303,000. It has taken those funds to substantiate this loss of $260,000. I just want to make everyone aware of that.”
If you live in White County and are expecting a refund, but also owe the county money, you might need to go see Circuit Clerk Kelly Fulkerson.
“Last year we passed a resolution that that debt would be forwarded to the Comptroller, that we could intercept tax refunds on. That just started this year because our report just went in at the end of December. I just wanted to report that since tax refunds are just starting to come out. I received my report last week and within four days, we received over $10,000 in offsets of people who would have been getting a tax refund but they owed money to our county. Now that money has to sit for 60 days so that if they want to question that they have 60 days to question it. If they don’t question it, it’s automatically put into my account and we write the receipts off for that. I just wanted to let you know that was for only 4 days of refunds that are coming in everyday.”
Ambulance Director Adam Allen reports his department is up $2,700 for the month and that there is currently around $27,000 in the account. McAnulty pointed out that for the year, he shows the Ambulance showing a profit of $14,000 year to date.
Sheriff Doug Maier reports that the jail currently has 63 inmates, of which 23 are from in county while 40 are from outside the immediate area. The Jail showed revenues for February of more than $46,000 and expenses of just over $47,000. Dispatch dealt with 958 calls for service in the short month and handled almost 330 calls for service. Additionally, Maier says that this Thursday is the last day after 34 years for Deputy Byrd Huber. Huber took the reins as the jail administrator after the latest jail break back in 2018.
Patrick Scates, EMA Director, says he’s created a facebook page for the agency to help suss out incorrect information and as a means of sharing important details. He says he’s been busy as the IEMA and IDPH continue to work to get ahead of the coronavirus scare.
Coroner Chris Marsh says that cremation fees could soon jump from $50 per permit to $100. Further, Marsh said his office typically makes about $2,000 annually from those permits and says he’d welcome the added income as he’s “able to use it for supplies”.
The White County Board will reconvene for their April meeting on the 14th at 7pm, from Courtroom A of the White County courthouse.
