NEWS RELEASE

DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2008

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met in regular session at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 17, 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 James E. Harris, Jr. and Otto L. Nicely, Laura Howell, 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.

Warren Schlatter, Defiance County Engineer, opened bids for the Stever Road Bridge Deck Replacement. Two bids were received as follows: Fort Defiance Construction & Supply, Inc. in the amount of $173,861.10 and Miller Bros. Construction, Inc. in the amount of $269,727.55. The Commissioners took the bids under advisement and will award said bid at a later date.

Greg Reinhart, Wastewater Director, and Jan Roehrig, Wastewater Clerk, met with the Commissioners to provide their monthly update. Greg submitted his monthly income and expense report for February, 2008. Greg advised that they have installed a new breaker at the EMA Pump Station. Also, a seal on this pump has went bad.

Larry Woods, First Insurance & Investments, and John Ferland, Airport Authority Board Chairman, met with the Commissioners to discuss the Airport Authority’s liability insurance. Larry suggested that the Airport Authority increase its limits for Hangarkeepers to $1,000,000.00 for any one occurrence and to $500,000.00 for any one aircraft.

Larry also reviewed the County’s flood insurance coverage and County property that may be located in flood zones. The County’s current insurance will cease to cover buildings in flood zone A effective April 1, 2008. The County will work with Larry and the Engineer’s office to obtain elevation certificates for those affected areas to try to remove them from the flood zone.

Tony Burkley and Martin Harmon, Paulding County Commissioners, and Lee Sonnenberg, Rural Development, met with the Commissioners to discuss the Auglaize Sewer Project. The Defiance County Commissioners advised that they have a letter from the EPA stating that the project is expected to be completed by May 2009 and in order to meet this deadline, the project needs to move forward. If the project is not completed by the specified date, the EPA may take additional enforcement action.

DeKalb County Commissioners (Indiana), Keving Hancock, Defiance County Ditch Maintenance Administrator, and Warren Schlatter, Defiance County Engineer, met with the Commissioners to discuss the Hicksville-Spencerville Road Project and the Gordon Creek Watershed.

Warren advised that there are a few curves on Hicksville-Spencerville Road that the Engineer’s department is going to begin working on, but the road crosses over into Indiana and Dekalb County Commissioners and Defiance County Commissioners would need to work together to complete the full project. Dekalb County advised that the would like to look into the project a little more before making a decision.

Kevin then advised the Board and Dekalb County Commissioners in the early 1980, Gordon Creek was put onto Ditch Maintenance. However, there is a watershed in Dekalb County that drains into Gordon Creek and those landowners have benefited from the upkeep of the ditch without paying any assessments for that upkeep. Kevin requested that a Joint Board of Commissioners be formed to consider assessing Indiana landowners maintenance assessments for the upkeep of the ditch since they also benefit. The Joint Board was formed, but no further action was taken. Dekalb County Commissioners advised that they would like to look at the ditch before making a decision.

Tim Small, Defiance County Port Authority Chairman, met with the Commissioners to provide an update on the Port Authority. Tim advised that things are going well and he is working with a law firm out of Columbus on getting the Port Authority changed over to a regional port authority. The members of the regional Port Authority will be Defiance, Henry, Fulton and Paulding Counties.

The Commissioners attended the Public Hearing for the Lick Creek Project last night in Bryan.

Release Approved: ____________________________________________________

Thomas L. Kime, Defiance County Commissioner