Council approves routine minutes, jail medical appropriation and equipment transfer; introduces new library director

Sullivan County Council approved routine business at Monday’s meeting, including minutes from the previous session (one member abstained because they had not been present), an additional appropriation to cover jail medical costs, and a transfer request to the highway equipment fund for a new dump truck.

The sheriff explained the medical appropriation request, saying three inmates required “pretty serious surgeries” this fiscal year that exceeded contracted healthcare coverage for the jail and that staffing and outside medical procedures accounted for the extra costs. Council moved and seconded the appropriation and approved it by voice vote; the transcript does not record a roll-call tally.

The highway department asked to transfer encumbered Peabody funds into the new equipment fund to help purchase a truck; council members discussed the truck’s estimated all-in cost (roughly $250,000) and current equipment outages (several trucks down). A motion to approve the transfer passed by voice vote.

The council heard an EMS operations report noting April had 155 runs with 90 billable and discussed billing challenges, write-offs (including cases involving patient deaths), and efforts to improve collections through rate adjustments and billing follow-up.

The council also introduced April Cox as Sullivan County’s new library director. Cox described the library system’s services beyond books, noting 503 programs last year with 9,624 program attendees across eight county-owned buildings; she said the system ranks in the top 10% of Indiana’s 235 library systems by some internal measures.

The meeting ended after additional agenda items and a motion to adjourn.