Beck reflects on first year on Putnam County Commissioners

It has been a whirlwind year for Putnam County Commissioner Andy Beck. 

After capturing the Republican nomination for Commissioners in 2024, Beck breezed through the general election, following in his father's footsteps and serving on Commissioners. 

"The biggest thing for me to want to serve is to give back to the community, help the taxpayers out, keep everything going the way it is going and help," Beck told The Putnam County Post.

Beck is following in the footsteps of his father, Gene, who spent 26 years as a commissioner and 12 years a county councilman. Beck said his father had quite an impact on his decision to get involved in local government.

"It was quite a bit because I grew up with it. Dad was involved with commissioners or county council for over 32 years. I had some background in knowing what was going to happen, but since dad got off the boards, there have been some changes. There is more of a shift with the commissioners to do more now than it was back then. You don't make everybody happy, but it is part of the job. I have an open policy, and I think quite a few people have my cell phone number in the county. When I ran, I said call me. You may not like my answer, but I will give you an answer," said Beck, who previously served on the North Putnam Community School Corporation School Board. 

The first year county commissioner admits his time on the school board helped prepare him for the role of commissioners. 

"The school board is more about understanding the money situation with how to spend it the correct way or how much is regulated by the state. A lot of people don't understand. When you get on the school board, you think you can do this and this, but you can't because it is more regulated by the state policies. When I was on the school board, I told the teachers I had their back and support them, and I did. Whether you are on a school board, county council or county commissioner, after you get done voting and go home and when you fall asleep that night, you want to make sure you think you did the right thing for the people," Beck said. 

After making his feelings known about solar farms and the proposed Putnam County Courthouse annex project before joining the commissioners, Beck found himself fully ingrained in both projects during his first year on the commissioners. 

"In the first year, what I have learned the most is everyone has to look at the big picture. Before you can start implementing things, you have to look at the money situation. I think Putnam County has money, and this year, we haven't spent as much money out of our rainy day fund or the county war chest. Right now, I think our county war chest is around $2.8 million and the rainy day is around $2.8 million, too. People look at the general fund, and, right now, we have over $5 million in it, but everything gets paid out of the general fund like wages, insurance and insurance on county buildings. People don't like to pay more Putnam County taxes, and we have to watch it going forward on that," Beck said. 

During his first year, Beck and the other commissioners have it a priority to tackle some of the bad roads and bridges around the county. 

"Interest from the money the county has invested has been committed to bridges. The budget we had set up for this year was to get at least five bridges done this year, but we have saved enough without hiring outside engineers and we will get 10 completed. I have been called and questioned on certain bridges we did put in around this county. Some people don't like them, but if you can put in what I call a steel frame bridge that looks like an open grated bridge, those bridges run about $300 to $400 thousand cheaper than a concrete bridge. I know some of us don't like hearing the noise, but it saves us money. We have to keep that approach because Putnam County has around 220 bridges around the county and most of them are not in real good shape. We are trying to work on that. Another big hardship that is going to happen is the county will not receive any Community Crossings money to blacktop roads and that will cost us about a million dollars. What we had proposed, now we have to go back to the drawing board and see what roads really need to get done," Beck said. 

By upgrading the roads and bridges around the county, there could be a possibility for more growth, something Beck welcomes.

"We need growth and have our growth set up in certain areas of the county. Right now, there is a plastic factory just north of Bainbridge, and that is going bring in 50 jobs. When they get into full production, they want 80 jobs. To bring people in, we have to have housing for those people and it has to be affordable housing. If you go price any home right now, you don't think it is affordable, but we need growth and more manufacturing into this county. We have I-70 to the south and that is a perfect place to put in that. To create growth in this county, have met with the Cloverdale people and they are trying," Beck said. 

Earlier this summer, the commissioners voted in favor of giving Cloverdale funding for a study examining running a sewage line from the Putnamville prison down U.S. 40 to U.S. 231 and take it to Cloverdale. 

"If we can do that, that would open up some growth. That is my biggest fear when we start putting up housing or whatever in the rural communities is water. Is there enough to support that many homes, and two, sewage. We have to be able to do that. You can't just have one acre lots sitting everywhere and everyone has their own septic and trying to hit water too. Water is the biggest resource we can have. The county is looking into that and have done a great job so far," he said. 

With growth comes proposals to bring solar farms to Putnam County, something Beck saw and heard quite a bit from residents during 2025.

"On the solar farms, that really brings everybody to a meeting. Everybody knows my take on it. My biggest thing is we are taking up too much of our tillable farm ground for solar. On the solar part of it, we have to look down the road. Will the United States still have enough tillable farm ground to feed the people in the United States? If we get rid of the farm ground, I don't think any foreign countries are going to bend back backwards like the way the United States does to help these countries," Beck said.

In addition, he said there are too many "unknowns" when it comes to solar.

"To power 100 homes with solar, it takes anywhere from 10 to 20 acres of solar to power those homes. There's only 880 billon tillable acres in the whole United States for farm ground. I just don't like seeing farm ground used up for solar. My biggest thing is protecting the farm ground and the people that live around it. They can say what they want. I do think it devalues the people's homes. There are people that want them in the community until they are built right across the road from you, then their minds will change. I don't have anything against the people that want to bring them in, but we have to set rules and regulations to control them," Beck said. 

The county is currently in the midst of a moratorium on solar farms and wind farms, and Beck said beginning in January, there will be some examination done on what needs to be changed and put into place. 

"We need further setbacks for properties for projects like this, and we need to decide how close they can be built to wells. Also, there is an uproar over data centers. My personal opinion is we do not need any of those in Putnam County. I am not for them at all. It takes too many acres. Who knows, in another 10 years, will we even need them? I think your small nuclear power plants will be the thing of the future. You can build one of them on 12 to 20 acres and one of them will power 200 to 300 thousand homes. It takes a lot of acres of solar and wind to power that many homes at one time. What I have heard, it is all in the talks and nothing is set in stone, but the way I read it is you have to have a 300 acre tract of land. If you can put that in the middle, you can still farm around it," Beck said. 

In his first year, Beck also heard a lot about a proposed Putnam County Courthouse Annex, something that has been in the discussions for decades. The measure of an annex passed the Commissioners 2-1, with Beck voting against. However, the Putnam County Council killed the idea of an annex recently after learning the price tag was about $15.8 million. 

"My biggest problem with building an annex is we were going to have to raise property taxes. The minimum would have been $1.10 and a lot of people would look at that and think it's not much, but if you own thousands of acres, it is a big hit. We all know the grain farmers are taking a hit right now compared to the people that raise hogs or cattle. I don't want to keep putting the burden on the major tax payers of this county by raising the property taxes. I think there are other ways and things we can look at to support it, but, my opinion is we don't need to spend 17 million when we have roads we drive on and gravel roads that need blacktop and to fix our bridges. When I came on board, this has been in the talks since 2022, and, maybe myself and others should have gotten more involved when it first came up. It is a big hit to the farmers," Beck said. 

With 2026 rapidly approaching, Beck maintains his focus will be on roads and bridges. 

"It is on all three of our minds. We know we have to get the roads better, and I think they are better than they were five or six years ago. We still need to work on our bridges and come up with creative ideas on trying to get more industry into this county and create more jobs," Beck said.