Commissioners launch "unbiased" highway garage inspection following council inspection
The Washington County Board of Commissioners met October 6, the day after the County Council heard Ken Temple offer to keep the new highway garage and refund the county. Commissioners voted 2-1 to hire a Corydon firm for a second inspection, then listened as Temple repeated the offer and called the council’s review a campaign to tear the county apart.
Commissioner Phillip Marshall has recently been absent due to suffering a “mild stroke” a few weeks back. However, he attended this meeting virtually from his home.
The meeting began with public comments from Lucy Brenton. She said she had watched the council meeting and was “absolutely appalled at the gaslighting.”
“This reminds me of the charges we have against the federal government when they sell us $600 hammers that take $20 to make,” she said. “All of us in this room, all of the taxpayers here in this county get up every day to go to work and a portion of their labor that should be going to their families taken from them to build facilities such as this.”
She said Temple had “thrown down the gauntlet” and has the money to absorb what she called a boondoggle.
“I say let him. I say don’t stick the taxpayers of Washington County with a building that is insufficient,” Brenton said. “We asked for 8-inch concrete and got six. We asked for four with rebar and we got two. We were promised a three-foot stem wall and we got one. And we’ve got somebody in this county named Mr. Temple who’s trying to just gloss over that and gaslight it as if we can’t see exactly for ourselves with our own eyes. That one foot is not three feet.”
She said core scans showed no rebar, and that any savings from thinner work stayed with the builder instead of the taxpayer. She also tied the dispute to the airport-land transfer.
“The acreage by the airport is a completely separate boondoggle and in my opinion has markers of fraud,” she said. “Giving that up and taking that away from the taxpayer was terrible. And Mr. Temple has offered to give us back every penny. I think that’s the standup thing to do. He can afford it. Let him do it. Give us our 19 acres back over by the airport.”
She said Voyles had asked for the documents that would show what changed, and that those documents never came. She asked the commissioners to let Temple keep the facility “and his heavy trucks can drive over this concrete that is too thin and crack.” She also said dirt remains where gravel was supposed to be, and that a gravel credit she remembered from earlier orders never showed up.
“Hopefully Mr. Temple’s time is up building things in this county for us,” she said, “because it was so important for him to avoid the scrutiny that he would rather buy this back himself than have the light of day shine upon a project.”
The commissioners then approved claims and payroll following Brenton’s remarks.
Commissioner Todd Ewen then brought up an amended service contract with Dynamic Camera Solutions. After the county’s IT contractor retired and Stahl Communications was hired, the new firm did not want the camera work the old contractor had handled. Dynamic Camera Solutions already maintains the cameras at the fairgrounds through Sheriff Brent Miller. Ewen said he believed there are 14 cameras there. The contract would also cover cameras at the ambulance building, the government building, and the courthouse. No new cameras would be added, and the jail is to stay with a separate vendor. He said the work is billed by the hour.
Marshall moved to accept the agreement. Cardwell seconded. It passed unanimously.
Then, Myra Albertson, chief probation officer, spoke for the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council. The council had an application in September to fund the jail services program for 2027: $11,827 from restricted opioid funds and $6,650 from unrestricted funds, $18,480 in all. The program had been paid by a Department of Correction grant that was not funded for 2027.
Commissioner Marshall moved to approve the request, and Commissioner Cardwell seconded. It passed unanimously, with Commissioner Ewen calling it a good program.
Ewen then asked the board to hire Shireman Construction of Corydon for what he called an unbiased inspection of the highway garage. He said neither he nor Marshall was told who would do the council’s inspection or when it would happen.
“There was no vote. Maybe no vote was needed, but out of a matter of courtesy, I would have thought we would have been informed,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and make accusations or point fingers. I’m not going to stoop to that level. I’m just simply going to entertain a motion to do an inspection by Shireman Construction out of Corydon, Indiana.”
Marshall seconded. Cardwell objected.
“I don’t see why we need another one when we’re already getting one done at the taxpayers’ expense,” Cardwell said.
Ewen said the point was to be sure the review was “unbiased.” He added that it is “highly questionable at this point.”
Ewen and Marshall voted yes. Cardwell voted no. The motion passed 2-1.
Highway Superintendent Rick Voyles asked for a road-inventory correction so it can be sent to the state. Fleming Road, inventory number IR19, is listed at 2,930 feet. The corrected length is 4,214 feet, which is an additional 0.1284 miles. It is a dead end off Dutch Creek Road. A caller asking about survey information led the department to a GIS line that stopped short of the end of the road. “For the record, we have not changed what we maintain.”
Cardwell moved to adjust the mileage. Marshall seconded. It passed unanimously.
Voyles also provided an update regarding the highway department’s student training program with West Washington CDL students. Two students are helping, and more may follow. Ewen asked whether they can drive county trucks. Voyles said they may ride along but not drive, and he wanted that clear before anyone got in trouble. They also cannot operate machinery. The point is to let them get comfortable around the trucks, see a stone spreader and an asphalt haul, and do ordinary field work such as patching. “You know me, I don’t let them slide,” said Voyles.
Ewen then called Temple forward regarding the highway garage BOT.
“You do not have to buy the facility. I’m more than happy to take it back,” Temple said. He described critics as “the coalition to destroy Washington County” and said Brenton and others in the room were part of it. “It’s a playbook out of the history of Russia. You take a county or a country, you divide it, you put people against each other, you put friends against friends, you destroy it so you can be in control.”
He called Brad Isaacs, of Janssen & Spaans Engineering, “the hired gun” of that group. Isaacs had told the council the site documents showed 7 acres. Temple said a survey by David Ruckman puts it at 8.7 acres. On the concrete, he raised the overrun he cited the day before.
“Actually have run over 254 cubic yards, which means it’s actually thicker than required,” he said. “Even though I’ll take the BOT back, I will not stop until I prove that it’s been nothing but lies and misconception.”
He passed around a rebar drawing. He said the design Isaacs and the inspection group were using, No. 5 bars at two-foot centers, was inadequate, and that Temple & Temple’s engineers rejected it. The installed design, he said, was No. 6 bar at 9-inch centers, about 60 percent more steel, in the footer. Voyles, asked from the room, said the council discussion the day before was about the slab, not the wall. Temple said the cores were not taken by a testing company under a professional procedure.
“I’m perfectly happy to keep the facility, but I’m not going to stop until I prove that lies and misconceptions are misleading the people,” he said. He also said he would keep coming to council and commissioner meetings, and that people who had lied in public “will be liable for lying… I wanted to show you how real engineering is done. And I’m not sure if Mr. Isaacs is not good at math or what, but his designs were totally inadequate.”
He accused Brenton of refusing “free money” two meetings ago and then applying for grants. Brenton started to answer but was told a sign on the door said to be quiet. Another gentleman from the gallery, who appeared to be with Temple & Temple, said that he was “leaving the meeting because of this lady. I want to speak here, but I can’t” She told him he had to sign up in advance and had three minutes, the same rule she had followed. Brenton then asked the man his name, to which he replied, “Don’t worry about who I am. You don’t want to know.” Brenton took that as a threat.
“Is that a threat?” she asked. “I have it on camera.”
“Do you have to disturb every meeting?” asked Temple.
Ewen cut off a question from the floor about whether the purchase met specifications. “I’m not allowing any questions.” He said he would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Cardwell moved to adjourn with Marshall seconding, and the meeting came to an end.
Temple’s offer to take the garage back and refund the county is now on the record for both the council and the commissioners. The council said Monday it cannot accept that offer, and that the contract is the responsibility of the commissioners. The commissioners did not hold a vote on this matter, but they did vote to send Shireman Construction in for another inspection.
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