Saving county money… one dime at a time

Carroll County Commissioners must be reading the Comet. Not too long ago we ran an editorial pointing out to them that they do, in fact, make spending decisions. We gave them examples to support our thesis. They must have taken that to heart and we are glad that they are listening.

And they responded! Okay, they did not insist that the Area Plan Commission immediately increase the building permit fees nor did they decide to back out of the ill-fated Yeoman/EMS garage grant now that the county really cannot afford ambulance service in that area. (We won't even talk about what could have been done with the museum space or Carroll Manor.)

They did approve an increase in highway department fees and for that they should be applauded. But they took another measure about which readers might not be aware.

They decided to advertise the county's unapproved claims and personnel wage scale in paragraph form rather than in line form. You will notice in this week's paper, the county wage chart is printed in paragraph form which, we think, is difficult to read. It is on page 5B. We dare you to read it without a ruler and magnifying glass.

You might remember in the Comet two weeks ago, the unapproved claims were printed in the same style. (You do read the claims don't you? They are a wealth of information about who the county might be paying and how much.)

These public notices are run as advertisements in the Comet. The State of Indiana dictates to the publisher how large the font is to be and how much to charge for them.

The new paragraph style for public notices may be difficult to read, but hey, it does save the county a little bit of money.

Congratulations, commissioners, on your spending decision.