Monroe Chat

REX renigs on Indiana agreements

By John Estridge, editor
Published: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 9:01 AM CDT
County officials from across Indiana are banding together with one thought in mind, holding the fire to REX officials’ feet.

Apparently, REX is not going to honor any of its road maintenance agreements with any of the counties in Indiana.

That was the topic of discussion by officials from Decatur, Shelby and Franklin counties at the Franklin County Commissioners’ meeting Monday morning.

And that may mean the county is out a couple of million dollars.

REX constructed a 42-inch high pressure natural gas pipeline from Colorado to Ohio’s eastern border. It went through the width of Franklin County south of Brookville and north of Batesville.

REX is currently pumping natural gas through the pipe.

Kem Anderson, highway superintendent for Shelby County, and Mark Mohr, highway superintendent for Decatur County, attended the Franklin County Commissioners meeting. They were there hoping for a chance to talk to REX officials.

REX officials were scheduled to be at the meeting to discuss Franklin County’s road maintenance agreement. REX officials and county officials toured the county on Wednesday, July 29, to view the county’s damaged roads from the construction process.

An engineer from CRIPE Engineering hired by REX was supposed to draw up an engineering report and present it at Monday’s meeting.

However, REX officials, through a message from Franklin County Attorney Gene Stewart, said they would not attend the public meeting and wanted to meet at another time in private with the commissioners.

“They don’t want to meet with us in public, that’s bullcrap,” commissioner Tom Wilson said.

That is when Mohr from Decatur County spoke up.

“We have some major concerns,” Mohr said. “They’re dragging their feet. We all need to join forces, put our heads together and go after their bonds.”

Mohr said the Decatur County attorney began the paperwork for taking REX’s bond, it is $2 million with each county, but then REX showed up and drove the county with the Decatur County officials.

“It gave us hope,” Mohr said. “I heard they were going to meet with you guys, and I could get a jump on it and see how you guys were going to react to it.”

Anderson said Shelby County is getting the run around. Johnson County is in the same situation.

Franklin County Commission President Eric Roberts said he knows the son of a Putnam County commissioner, and that county is having the same problems with REX.

Commissioner Don Vonder Meulen suggested the people that were at Monday’s meeting get together later and have another meeting on the situation.

Instead, the officials then spent some time at Monday’s meeting discussing what steps are involved in taking the bonds REX has in place.

Roberts said he has asked the question before, and he is not sure of the process.

Officials acknowledged REX could fight the process in federal court.

“They know federal court is going to cost us a ton of money,” Wilson said.

Wilson said all county officials and residents in the counties should contact their Congressmen, Senators and Gov. Daniels.

“We need to have a town hall meeting with Obama,” Wilson said.

The hope is concerted action by the counties will make REX honor its road maintenance agreements with the counties without everything going into litigation.

“If nothing else, maybe this will scare them into doing something,” Wilson said. “Our attorney will get with the other (county) attorneys and make one big effort.”

The problems for all the counties are while the process is ongoing, the clock on when paving can be done is ticking, and all the counties are facing the same financial problems. Franklin County is probably in the worst position of all the counties, however.

Mohr said the state highway department is beginning to let loose of the federal stimulus money on road projects, meaning large asphalt companies will be busy with major projects and will not want to deal with the relatively small projects each county will have from the REX damage.

Also, if REX would pick one contractor to fix all the damages of all the counties, then how long will that take across the state, he asked.

Then, there is the steady ticking of the clock.

“The problem is we’re 45 days from cold weather,” Mohr said. “The situation we have now is we don’t have enough cash to go out and spend $1 million and hope they pay us back.”

“Neither do we,” Roberts said. “We just talked about $400,000 (flood damage to roads and bridges). The tax bills were late and motor vehicle (funding) is low. We’re all in the same boat.”

Jon Leach with O’Mara Paving estimated it would take between $3 to $4 million to fix Franklin County’s roads. REX’s bond is just $2 million.

“We have 27 miles of pipe,” Roberts said. “No other county has as much roads (negatively affected).”

Franklin County Highway Department District One Foreman Chester Ball summed up the unfair quality about the whole situation.

“It’s very upsetting that they’re not here,” Ball said. “The engineer said he’d get back with us in one week. Now it’s three (weeks). They got what they wanted. The gas is flowing.”

Commissioners exchanged phone numbers with the representatives from the other counties. Promises of a concerted effort were made.

“Go back to your commissioners and tell them we’re all together,” Wilson said.

“This will either stir them up, or we’re in it for the long haul,” Mohr said.