While there was no contention over acceptance of the Putnam County county budget from the county council during its meeting this week, there was some question about how the county would fund potential future bridge work. 

The questions come after a summer full of covered bridge closures around the county and the county highway department working with a summer engineer from GIS. 

The county council has previously discussed the idea of paying for work through bonds and were notified by the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) that any bonds would have to be in place by Jan. 1, 2024 in order for the county to receive monies for next year. 

Councilman Phillip Glick stated he had concerns about bonds for bridges. 

"Right now, I have questions about bonds for bridges," Glick told the council. 

Glick said the reason he has concerns and questions center around the fact the county is currently borrowing money to fix bridges and roads now, where will the money come to do future projects. 

Glick said he is more interested in where the county will get more revenue from to pay for bridges rather going into debt. 

"That's just my case. I'd rather focus on how we get a revenue stream and plan together," Glick said. 

County officials admitted they hadn't funded bridges and maintenance at the level they were supposed to for a period of time and now have to figure out how to not only catch that up, but maintain a consistent level for the future, something Glick agreed with. 

While agreeing, Glick countered by saying he again wanted to know how the county would generate enough money to do that. 

"Again, if we do that, I want to know how we generate enough money to not only pay that but also maintain the ones that aren't at the tip of the spear," Glick said. 

Council president Stephanie Campbell said she has asked for the county's representative from Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to come to next month's meeting and offer suggestions and feedback to help the county come up with a "solid gameplan, specifically, for bridges." 

"That's the one I have more reservations about because there's so many bridges," Glick said. 

The county has also looked at the possibility of constructing an annex as well. 

Glick said an annex has been talked about on and off for years. 

"We held a meeting about it before I ever came onto council. When we coming up at the end of the jail bond, I kept said we need to take x amount of money out of the EDIT money every year once we finish paying the jail off because you know, at some point, you're going to need money for an annex. We did it for a couple years and then we stopped and we have been spending that money on things that needed that needed to be done, but that's the trouble with that money. You get used to spending it and then it becomes a real challenge when you have to service a debt for a bond. I'm just trying to figure out, again, how do we service multiple bonds," Glick said. 

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