DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 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 Thursday, October 30, 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.        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. 

 

 

9:25 a.m.        Bruce Fortier and Charlotte Williams, County residents, stopped in to briefly speak to the Commissioners about Garden Ridge Nursery.  They wondered, if something happened to Mr. Richter and/or the employees, and the business closed, who would be responsible for clean-up of the facility?  They also informed the Board that the Class 4 EPA permit that Mr. Richter applied for was denied. 

 

 

9:30 a.m.        Becky Wagner, Administrator, presented her weekly update at this time.  Becky had Sherry Carnahan, Deputy Clerk, come in to assist in a presentation concerning imaging for the County.  All of the County offices are in dire need of additional space for document storage and the Commissioner’s office has been meeting with various companies who offer imaging services to get ideas and pricing information.  By utilizing imaging, County offices can store documents on various media, instead of keeping the information in paper form.  Amy Galbraith, from the County Prosecutor’s office, has also been involved in this process. 

 

Sherry has also been gathering information from various cellular phone companies to get a better deal in regard to phone service for county employees who need to utilize cell phones for county business.  49 new phones need to be purchased for various County employees.  Currently, Alltel appears to be offering the best price and options.  However, Centennial, the County’s current cell phone company, is working to improve or correct the problems the County has with the cell phones.   

 

Becky then continued with her agenda items.  The boilers are up and running at Evergreen Lane Office Complex.  The only remaining item is to insulate the pipes. 

 

She submitted the minutes from the October 22nd Safety Committee meeting for the Board’s review. 

 

She noted that Bob Arend, County Computer Consultant, is requesting authorization to update the intranet system.  Total cost for this project is $9,500 and the money is available in his budget.  This project was planned for a year ago but the costs were too high to implement it at that time.  Becky was asked to see if Bob had received two quotes or state bid prices for this project before a decision will be made.   

 

  

 

 

10:30 a.m.      David Westrick, County Sheriff, met with the Board with a brief update.  The Sheriff informed the Board that he had attended a meeting with the Prosecutor, the Clerk of Courts and the Common Pleas Judge regarding improving the speed of completing the paperwork process before sentencing.  The longer a prisoner remains at CCNO while waiting for sentencing, the more it costs the taxpayer.  The average time a prisoner remains at CCNO while waiting for sentencing is 10 days.  Defiance County’s turnover is 6 days.  Those concerned are consciously working to insure paperwork is processed quickly to keep the time a prisoner spends waiting for sentencing to a minimum.     

 

 

11:00 a.m.      Liz Keel, from Maumee Valley Planning, met briefly with the Board to obtain signatures from Tom for a subordination request.

 

 

11:15 a.m.      Jerry Hayes, Economic Development Director, along with Jim Stewart and Lynn Bergman, representing Northwest Ethanol Development, met with the Board to discuss financing sources for the Mark Township/Northwest Ethanol waterline.  They reviewed guidelines for a local economic development program which will assist in funding the waterline project for the proposed ethanol plant.  The dollar amount in this program is determined, administered and funded by the Ohio Water Development Authority.  The group discussed other possible funding sources, the timeline of the project and when to begin submission of the paperwork for possible funding.  Maintenance of the waterline, after completion, was also discussed.  The Ethanol group will meet with Will Burns of Maumee Valley Planning, who will assist in compiling the information required for submission of the funding requests.

 

John Ferland, representing the Airport Authority, stopped in at 11:35 a.m. to let the Board know he heard hunters shooting on Airport property this morning.  As this is not allowed, John was given approval to purchase and post NO HUNTING signs in the woods around the airport.          

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Approved for news release: _____________________________

                                                            Thomas L. Kime, Commissioner