NEWS RELEASE

DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met in regular session at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 31, 2008 in the Conference Room in the Commissioners Office at 500 Court Street, Suite A, Defiance, Ohio 43512. Chairman Thomas L. Kime called the meeting to order. Also present were Commissioners Otto L. Nicely and James E. Harris, Jr., Laura Howell, County Administrator, Cara Brown, Clerk, and Joanne Goerlitz, Deputy Clerk.

The Commissioners met in General Session and approved and signed various resolutions, contracts and documents, approved several travel requests, reviewed the agenda items and the calendar of events and discussed upcoming meetings.

Carson Slade, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney and candidate for the position of Defiance County Prosecutor requested to meet with the Commissioners, to discuss her position and plans for the Prosecutor’s office should be elected. She advised that whoever is elected Prosecutor, will most likely need office space. Ms. Slade also advised that she would be a full-time prosecutor.

Laura Howell, County Administrator, provided the Commissioners with her weekly Operations update. Laura advised that Randy Vogel, Dog Warden, will be returning to work on Monday, February 4, 2008 on light duty. Tom Sanders will still be helping out in the Dog Warden’s office until Randy can perform all functions of the job at full capacity.

Laura advised that she and Ron Cereghin, Maintenance Supervisor, have attend the City of Defiance’s meetings on the Combined Sewer Overflow project. Laura, Ron and other personnel involved with the project will be developing an action plan on how County offices will conduct business while connections to the new storm and sanitary sewers take place.

Laura made a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners on the bids that were received for the Commissioner’s vehicle. Laura recommended that the bid be awarded to Beckman Chevrolet in the amount of $26,179.65 for a 2008 Chevy Uplander. The Commissioners accepted the recommendation and awarded the bid to Beckman Chevrolet.

Dennis Miller, Maumee Valley Planning Organization Director, met with the Commissioners to discuss personnel matters. Dennis also updated the Commissioners on various programs that are offered through the Maumee Valley Planning Organization.

Tony Saxton, TAS Aviation, and Larry Woods, First Insurance & Investments, met with the Commissioners to discuss a proposed agricultural operation working out of and/or being based at the Defiance County Airport. Tony advised that this ag operator will only have his airplane “tied-down” at the airport and that no chemicals will be stored on site. The chemicals are brought in by an outside vendor only to be loaded into the plane for application on appropriate fields. Larry advised that the Board of Commissioners would want to make sure that this operator has an appropriate amount of insurance coverage before beginning this operation.

Tim Small, Port Authority President, met with the Commissioners to discuss the intention of the Port Authority and developing a regional port authority. The Board of Defiance County Commissioners cannot stress enough the idea that a regional port authority is to market the region as a whole, not as individual counties. The regional port authority would work to attract business from all over the country to this region and then the individual county Community Improvement Corporations (CICs) would compete to bring the businesses to their respective county.

Release Approved: ____________________________________________________

Thomas L. Kime, Defiance County Commissioner