Monroe County, Indiana is utilizing it's Aa2 Moody's Bond rating, it's low debt, and it's cash reserves in this economy to: 1) recently purchased about 70,000 square feet of downtown real estate; 2) add additional equipment storage facilities (on-going); and 3) preserve the structure and use of the 1908 built Historic Courthouse. These are the public projects.

Private sector commercial construction has maintained similar numbers to previous years and the Unified County/City Building code enforcement department is remaining very busy in-spite of the decrease in residential construction permitting and inspection.

Jason, I noticed that you are a Unified County/City Building code enforcement department. How long has your department been combined and how does it work for your City/County government. Are the inspectors County inspectors that inspect County projects and issue permits, or are they City inspectorts that inspect County projects with an agreement for each municipality and issue permits? Our City agency is just entering into a study to see if merging our services will be beneficial for both entities and save money.

If there are other City/County agencies that have merged or have combined services, I would be very interested in how it works for your municipality.

Thanks.