DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

MONDAY, JULY 14, 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, July 14, 2003. The meeting was called to order by Thomas Kime, Chairman. Present were Commissioners Thomas L. Kime and Richard L. Cromwell. Commissioner Otto Nicely was absent as he is attending a NACo (National Association of Counties) Conference in Wisconsin. Also present was Becky Wagner, Administrator, Alison Grimes, Clerk and Joan Brown, Deputy Clerk.

8:30 a.m. General Session – Commissioners approved and signed various resolutions, contracts 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.

At 9:30 a.m., Karen Tubbs, County Treasurer, stopped in briefly to review information and clarify several issues regarding sewer project loan payment schedules with the Board.

10:00 a.m. Gaylon Davis, County Engineer, presented his weekly update at this time. He distributed the latest ODOT traffic report for the Commissioner’s review.

He reviewed the progress of various bridge projects. The Hopkins Street Bridge project should be completed by the end of September and the Clinton Street Bridge project may be begun before the Hopkins Street project is completed.

The Scott Road project is ongoing, but has been slowed due to weather conditions and flooding; the same is occurring with the Bend Road project.

Gaylon also requested and received approval to proceed with the hiring of consultants for inspection of upcoming bridge projects, pending review and approval from the Prosecutor’s office:

10:30 a.m. Conrad Cape, representing the St. Joe River Project, met with the Board to present information regarding log jam removal. Also attending were Lynn Army, District Manager for the Maumee Valley Watershed Conservancy District and Brad Blevins, First Deputy, DeKalb County Surveyor’s Office. Mr. Cape discussed combining efforts for log jam removal. Although most of the river is in Indiana, the St. Joe meanders twice into Ohio – through Williams and Defiance counties. There are 14 individual log jam sites in Indiana and two sites in Ohio. The group has already met with the Williams County Commissioners to present this information. The Board will review the information discussed today with Jim Harris of the County’s Soil and Water Conservation District.

1:00 p.m. The Board met with the Henry, Fulton and Williams County Commissioners regarding Workforce Development’s One Stop facility. Attending from Fulton County were Commissioners Jack Graf and Paul Barnaby and Vond Hall, Administrator. Attending from Henry County was Rita Franz, Rich Bennett and Steve Baden. Williams County Commissioners were Duane Votaw, Marv Stuckey and Tom Strup. The group met to discuss whether or not to

form a joint regional One-Stop. Defiance, Henry and Williams were in agreement to join together and form a One-Stop; Fulton County has not yet made a decision. The group will wait to hear Fulton’s decision.

1:30 p.m. The Defiance County Commissioners attended a Solid Waste District meeting in the Second Floor Conference Room.

2:30 p.m. After the Solid Waste meeting, Defiance and Williams County Commissioners met with Jim Harris, Soil and Water Conservation, for an update on the Lick Creek Ditch project.

Today’s meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Approved for news release: _____________________________

Thomas L. Kime, Commissioner