The Warren County Commissioners approved several amendments to the county’s 2025 budget following a public hearing on Aug. 26. 

While most of the changes were clerical, and will not have a significant impact on the budget, there were several line items of note approved. 

The first was a line item accepting Chapter 100 payments from the Bluebird solar project in northern Warren County. As part of their Chapter 100 agreement the solar development has to pay $2,500 per megawatt generated in the solar district for the next 35 years. That fee increases by 2% each year. 

The county is projecting just under $632,000 in revenues from the payments in lieu of taxes. That revenue will be redistributed to the taxing entities with authority over the solar districts, like the Warren County Ambulance District and Warren County R-III School District. 

Another amendment that was approved was a $150,000 purchase by the Warren County Sheriff’s Department for a full body scanner in the department. 

Sheriff Kevin Harrison said he expected the scanner to be delivered some time in the next four to six weeks but he is waiting for the completion of maintenance work being conducted on the elevators at the Warren County Courthouse. 

“There’s one doorway and then there’s one corner that, it just won’t fit,” said Harrison. “They would have to disassemble it. Personally, I’d rather wait than have them take it apart.”

The county also accepted two community development block grants, each for roughly $600,000 that will be distributed to Turning Point and FCC Sharehouse. 

Presiding Commissioner Joe Gildehaus said they will also be moving some money around in the Warren County Health Department’s budget. 

He said they have several employees in the health department that are being paid through a grant, so the funds, roughly $41,000, are being moved from the grant fund to the payroll fund.