Starke County Receives First Insurance Payment For Storm Damages

IT Director Joe Short

The Starke County Commissioners this week approved a motion authorizing Auditor Kay Chaffins to create a separate fund for funds that will be received from the county’s insurance company. The county will receive $75,000 to get started on repairs and pay vendor claims stemming from the June and July storms.

Unfortunately, County IT Director Joe Short says that chunk of change is hardly enough to cover the cost of repairs from the storm – and they haven’t even accounted for all of the items that need repaired or replaced.

Short says the total cost of repairs for the damage wrought by the June storm is $3900, but that figure is preliminary and doesn’t include the cost of repairs to an antenna for the Koontz Lake voter radio system. He says that cost came to $2100, but when that replacement was complete, the company repairing it found a coax cable was damaged as well. Short says they aren’t yet sure if that damage was caused by the storm or regular wear and tear, so they are waiting to learn whether or not the cost of replacing the cable will be covered by insurance.

From the July 24th storm, Short says they’ve come to a preliminary figure of $48,944.85 for repairs, not including the cost of establishing the new Sheriff’s Department’s radio tower that was badly damaged in the high winds. He says the cost of that tower is likely to exceed $30,000.

Fortunately, the $75,000 received from insurance is just to get the first repairs, estimates, and vendor claims out of the way. Short says they will likely receive another sum from their insurance carrier.