NEWS RELEASE

DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2005

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met in regular session 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 November 17, 2005. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Otto L. Nicely. Also present were Commissioners Thomas L. Kime and Richard L. Cromwell; Becky Wagner, Administrator, Lyla Gurwell Clerk, and Joanne Goerlitz, Deputy Clerk.

8:30 A.M. General Session Clerk, Lyla Gurwell presented various resolutions, contracts and documents for approval of the Commissioners. Commissioners also approved several travel requests, reviewed the agenda items and the calendar of events, discussed upcoming meetings and updated information for the calendar of events.

Ohio Family and Children First – Help Me Grow will be sponsoring the live broadcast for the Christmas for Kids. Once again, they will be calling on all county agencies to collect new toys for the kids of Defiance County and bring them out to the broadcast at the Defiance County East Building located at 1300 East Second Street on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Health Department will be co-hosting this year since they collected the most toys at last year’s event.

9:30 A.M. Defiance County Administrator Becky Wagner updated the Commissioners updated the Commissioners during session this morning. Becky reported that the Hicksville Fire Department has moved their equipment to the multipurpose building at the Defiance County Fairgrounds.

There were some hot water issues at the new Defiance County East Facility but according to Becky, that issues has been addressed and taken care of.

Becky also reported that insurance meeting for Defiance County Employees were held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The employees were notified of impending changes and slight rate increases. Overall, Becky reported that the meeting went very well.

10:30 A.M. Randy Vogel, Defiance County Humane Office came in to updated the Defiance County Commissioners with his October, 2005 report.

Randy reported that his office investigated 120 complaints, took 40 dogs to the shelter, made 247 personal contacts and issued 31 citations.

License were reported by the Hicksville Police Department and the Dog Warden – 5, by agencies & shelter – 22, by the Auditor – 40.

Penalties issued were at 19 and the miles driven for the month of October stands at 2,587. The Dog warden took 780 pounds of euthanized animals to the landfill.

Randy also reported that he and Mike Zipfel, Assistant Dog Warden re-qualified for firearms for another year.

11:00 A.M. Members of Defiance County Safety Committee came in along with Mona Weiss and Doug Farmer with Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Comp. came in to discuss the new safety manual.

The manual has been revised from its 1995 version and will be a continuous work in progress. The new plan is more work site specific and the employees will be better served.

The new program implements a ten-step business plan that will be beneficial to Defiance County employees and will better serve department heads by enforcing on-site safe work procedures.

The ten step business plan specifies employee involvement and recognition, medical treatments, communications, timely notification of claims, orientation and training, written and communicated safe work practices, and written safety and health policy, involves record keeping and data analysis and better involves senior management.

Upon acceptance of the new plan, the Commissioners will schedule meetings with elected officials and department heads to discuss the new plan. Mona Weiss indicated that she would be available to attend the meetings to answer any questions that may arise.

The Commissioners would like to thank Safety Committee Members, Mark Hopper, Julie Fowler and Doug Engel for their hard work on getting this revision in place.

Approved for news release: _____________________________

Thomas L. Kime, Commissioner