Accusations of playing politics have been made by Porter County Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, and Porter County Councilman Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, over their respective views on plans for an $18 million Porter County Highway Garage that Rivas has questioned at county council meetings.
“There’s no basis in what Jeremy is saying. It’s politically motivated,” Biggs said by phone earlier this week. “It started out when we didn’t want to do the build-out, that he didn’t want to pay for the garage,” Biggs added, referring to the former plan to spend at least $8 million renovating the Memorial Opera House and connecting it with an addition to the Sheriff’s Residence.
Biggs and Board of Commissioners Vice President Barb Regnitz, R-Center, scuttled that plan, which had formerly had the support of the majority of both the board and the council, and after months of infighting, the two bodies finally agreed to a scaled-back renovation currently underway at less than the $5 million designated for it.
“I’m not even sure what he’s talking about,” Rivas said, also by phone, about the accusation that his questioning of the highway garage budget is politically motivated. “Asking questions with a $25 million bond is playing politics? I call it doing my job. I’m not going to let them do it without some kind of oversight.”
Rivas said he wanted to phase the building of a new highway garage while the county’s other capital needs – such as the full condition of the Porter County Jail and Juvenile Detention Center – were assessed. He said Biggs sounds like someone playing politics.
Biggs says it’s in the county’s best interest to build a garage that can house all $30 million worth of equipment that currently sits exposed to the elements.
“He has been given so many opportunities to be engaged, but he doesn’t put the time in,” Biggs said of Rivas. “Here is a guy who shows up once a month.”
The county reissued what has been referred to as the jail bond for $25 million at the beginning of the year following the retiring of the debt for the construction of the jail.
The plan, as it stands now, is to spend $18 million on the new highway garage and the remainder on jail renovations. However, there is significantly more work needed at the 23-year-old jail and other buildings than that remainder can cover, and there is talk of taking out a second bond, allowable under Indiana law 366 days after the first.
Biggs said Rivas has commented that he doesn’t understand why the highway garage is so expensive. “Why don’t you get with Skillman and find out why it’s so expensive?” Biggs asked.
Rivas said he and his fellow council members Sylvia Graham, D-At-Large, and Andy Vasquez, R-4th, have in fact done that. He said the three of them met with Skillman representatives and Regnitz. “I believe that’s what had Skillman go out and look at all our other buildings,” Rivas said.
“I doubt it gets held back,” Rivas said of the garage project, which is already in the bid process. A special meeting will be held on June 25 to open bids on the work.
“I’m just trying to keep everybody thinking, to make sure they’re covering everything,” he added. “I think it’s me being persistent on protecting taxpayer dollars. I think this county has a history of that while still getting a lot done.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
