DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2003

NEWS RELEASE

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met at 8:30 a.m. in the Conference Room of the Board of Defiance County Commissioners, 500 Court Street, Suite A, Defiance, Ohio 43512 on Monday, June 23, 2003. The meeting was called to order by Thomas Kime, Chairman. Present were Commissioners Thomas L. Kime, Otto L. Nicely and Richard L. Cromwell. Also present was Becky Wagner, Administrator, Alison Grimes, Clerk and Joan Brown, Deputy Clerk.

8:30 a.m. Russ Herman, County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, met with the Board to review the status of several documents pending his review/approval.

9:00 a.m. General Session – Commissioners approved and signed various resolutions and documents, approved several travel requests, reviewed the agenda items and the calendar of events, discussed upcoming meetings and updated information for the calendar of events.

Commissioners signed the Solid Waste District May fee report.

In-District tonnage 5.549.24

Out-of District tonnage 114.02

Out-of-State tonnage 38.19

Total due to the District for the month of May is $5,853.66.

9:45 a.m. Jim Harris, Soil and Water Conservation District Administrator, met with the Board to review the 2004 Ditch Maintenance Inspection Assessment Report. The report listed all the ditches in Defiance County which are under Soil and Water’s Ditch Maintenance Program. $402,669 is the projected 2004 Ditch Maintenance fund balance.

Jim also submitted information on the joint Henry/Defiance, Paulding/Defiance and Williams/Defiance Counties ditches. Resolutions will be prepared to approve these joint ditch assessments. These respective resolutions will be forwarded to Henry, Paulding and Williams Counties for their approval.

10:00 a.m. Gaylon Davis, County Engineer, met with the Board with his weekly update. The Scott Road Bridge replacement should be completed in several days.

Estimates on flood damage in last weeks flash flood in Sherwood is on-going.

Gaylon reviewed the requested changes to the KeyBank parking lot. Gaylon will check pricing on various bumper types – concrete, asphalt, recycled plastic. His department will also handle the pavement marking.

10:30 a.m. Mary Ann Husted and Wayne Olsson, Board of Elections, met with the Commissioners regarding new voting computers and storage issues. The Federal Government has mandated the purchase of electronic voting booths to be in place by the May 2004 Primary. On August 1, the State will issue a list of approved vendors for voting booth purchases. By September 1, local Boards of Elections will need to notify the State of their vendor choice.

The storage area at the Board of Elections should hold about ¾ of the total number of booths; the rest will need to be stored elsewhere. The voting booth units weigh about 25 pounds each. Transportation and weight of the units are the two major concerns of the Board.

Dean Wagners, Attorney General Kenneth Blackwell’s office, came in to the meeting at 10:44 a.m. and answered several questions for the Board.

Financing for the voting booths is contingent on the Federal Government allocating the funds to the State. If financing becomes available, each County should be able to receive one voting unit for every 200 registered voters. Funding will also be set aside for voter education and poll worker training. There are about 7 million registered voters in the State of Ohio. About 25,000 registered voters are in Defiance County.

11:00 a.m. Karen Tubbs, Treasurer, Jean Ziegler, Clerk of Courts and Tim Houck, Landfill Manager, met to hold the Second Quarter, 2003, Investment Advisory meeting. After review, it was found that all County investments are currently in order and Commissioners approved the Second Quarter report.

11:30 a.m. Lisa Karcher, Maumee Valley Planning, presented the second public hearing for Formula 2003 projects. Also in attendance were: Rick Hall, Tiffin Township; Kent Miller, Village of Hicksville; Jim Speiser, Delaware Township; Loren Plassman, Jewell Community Center; Robert Layne, Defiance Township and Kristina Noe, The Ability Center. Lisa reviewed the various projects submitted, the funding of which will become available in early 2004.

1:30 p.m. Commissioner Marv Stuckey, Williams County and Commissioners from Paulding County: Ron Lane and Tony Burkley, Job and Family Services Directors Susan Jackson (Williams), Dennis McKay (Defiance) and Sally Gross (Paulding) met with the Defiance Board of Commissioners for a Joint Workforce Development meeting. Paulding had sent in a resolution resigning from the Workforce Development Group effective June 30, 2003. Dennis McKay and Susan Jackson will review information discussed at this meeting with State WIA personnel regarding the regrouping of the remaining counties and the group will meet again once the information is obtained.

Today’s meeting adjourned at 2:18 p.m.

Approved for news release: _____________________________

Thomas L. Kime, Commissioner