Starke County Commissioners Question Claims

The Starke County Commissioners discussed a claim submitted by Treasurer Linda Belork for stamps that she says are required to send out delinquent bill notices. The claim, which was for $6,000, was denied because the Commissioners felt they were unable to justify spending such a large amount of money on stamps with the necessary data to back up the claim. Belork was informed that she will need to pull her records and find a more specific number of stamps required for mailing.

Also, the Commissioners examined the Treasurer’s Report that was recently filed. Aside from being filed late, they also noticed that numbers in the report do not match and the budget is not balanced. They will be investigating this matter further and it will likely be discussed at their next meeting.

In addition, the Commissioners encountered some issues while paying the bill submitted for the Animal Control officer. The bills were much higher than expected, causing the Commissioners to transfer $1,200 from their Travel Expense account, as well as $746.30 from their Dues account, in order to pay the delinquent bill. A separate meeting with the animal control officer is expected to take place in the near future, and the duties of the animal control officer will be defined specifically to prevent some of the unnecessary calls he has been called out to.