Questions were raised as to what the Resolution said pertaining to the White County Asylum Seekers. Dustin Harmon, with Bellwether read,
“The first one is to address Chicago and the state’s sanctuary status. So there’s only so much room in Chicago, they’ve already started to evict, they evicted 600. They include language in their action for sanctuary counties, so the opposition to sanctuary is to say that we don’t want to be one of those sanctuary counties. The second one is about local spending in regards to this and that we are not going to spend local dollars..”
The board unanimously approved the Resolution, saying White County will not be a Sanctuary County.
Two items were tabled once again so the board members could read a very thick packet given to them by Greenkey Solar Farms, which was back in January of this year. The tabled items were text amendments to the White County Ordinance Regulating Commercial Solar Farms and Commercial Wind Farms. Reuben Grandon, with Greenkey Solar Farms, was in attendance to go over the changes that had been made back in January within the packet. Grandon stated that the location will be Southwest in Crossville in the Phillips Township, spanning 32 acres which is 4.99/5 mega watt project that will ultimately power 1,000-1,200 homes every year. Once members of the board started discussing the possibility of tabling the items once again Grandon chimed in,
“May I offer something? We submitted it, I think it was January 27, 2024, you know it’s been with the county for, what is it, almost two months. Same materials, same exact packet.”
Some members claimed to have never seen it, but County Clerk Kayci Heil explained that she had made copies for everyone. In the end, not only were the items tabled, but they will be hosting a public hearing before their monthly meeting in April.
Board member David South brought to the board’s attention that the White County Fairground board members were wanting to make the county wet. Sheriff Weiss gave his concerns about the idea,
“However you guys vote for it, it doesn’t matter to me, the only thing I ask is that there is something to put in there that they provide their own security for alcohol. I can’t put it on the tax payers that seven deputies get over-time, because they just want to have alcohol. They do it in Evansville all the time, if they have a wedding that has alcohol you have to provide security in the event you personally pay for it. You have to have an insurance policy, Evansville has it that you have to provide your own armed security, so that individual or group or whoever it is, they hire off duty police officers. Now that’s perfectly fine, there’s a lot of off duty cops here that would probably take 35-40 bucks an hour to stand around and be security, but I can not in good conscience put that on the taxpayers because people want to have an event to drink.”
Moving along with the meeting, the consent agenda was approved with the resignation of Andrea Hays from the Greater Wabash Regional Planning Commission Board and appointing Austin Rahomeller, and the resolution opposing sanctuary status.
It was also approved to pay Republic for dumpster rentals out of the ARPA fund for a total of $777, with a credit back of $192, Sheriff Weiss gave the update and stated that Bulldog was too expensive compared to Republic.
The Highway Department updated the board stating that resurfacing on Epworth will begin on April 15th and will last between 3-4 weeks, it will be the two miles starting at Old Coal Mine Road up to Carmi.
The board adjourned and will meet back with a Public Hearing at 6:30pm that will consist of the Greenkey Solar Farms, with their regular board meeting beginning at 7:00pm on April 17th.
