DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 22,
2003
NEWS RELEASE
The Board of Defiance County Commissioners
met in regular session at 8:30 a.m.
in the
Conference Room of the Defiance
County Board of Commissioner, 500
Court Street, Suite A, Defiance, Ohio 43512
on Monday, December 22, 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 were Becky
Wagner, County Administrator,
Alison Grimes, Clerk and Joan Brown, Deputy
Clerk. Sherry Carnahan,
Deputy Clerk, attended the 10:30 a.m. meeting.
8:30 a.m. Russ
Herman, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Defiance County, met with the
Board to review any documents pending his review and/or approval. He is currently up-to-date on County
paperwork.
9:00 a.m. General
Session – Commissioners approved and signed various resolutions, contracts and
documents, approved various travel requests, reviewed the agenda items and the
calendar of events, discussed upcoming meetings and updated information for the
calendar of events.
During General Session, the Board reviewed, approved and
passed the 2004 General Fund budget in the amount of $9,441,184.16. This represents only a 1.41% increase over
the 2003 budget.
10:00 a.m. Gaylon Davis,
County Engineer,
met with the Board for his weekly update.
He also held a public hearing regarding a resident’s blocking of a
public right-of-way. In attendance for
this meeting was Ken Zachrich, Highland Township Trustee. The hearing concerned James Ankney, Ankney
Auto Service, Ayersville/Pleasant Bend Road,
who placed steel fence posts in the road right-of-way on the Defiance/Ayersville/Pleasant
Bend Road.
He was asked to remove the posts, both verbally and by certified letter,
by the date of the hearing, but he did not comply. The hearing was held to review the situation
and determine the outcome. At the
request of the Engineer, the Board authorized Mr. Davis’ department to remove
the steel posts currently in the road right-of-way. The costs related to this removal, per Ohio
Revised Code Section 5547.03, will be certified to the county auditor to be
placed on the tax duplicate against the property.
The Board also reviewed their upcoming meeting with Gaylon
and Warren Schlatter on Wednesday where they will visit various potential canoe
launch sites.
10:30 a.m.
Marlene Goodwin, Auditor, and Deputy
Auditors Sharon Scheuerman, Barb Lasek and
Jill Little, met with the Commissioners to review the Sanderson CMI quote. This Windows-based software (their current
software is DOS-based) will run a majority of the Auditor’s necessary programs
– payroll, general finance programs, fixed assets and others. Total cost of this software (which includes
implementation, training and support) is $39,750.00. There is also an annual license fee of
$8,300.00. The Board had several questions concerning
this quote and Ms. Goodwin will check with CMI for the answers. The Board authorized the Auditor to proceed
with the purchase of the software.
11:00 a.m. Mark Hopper,
Public Safety Services Director, met with the Board to review the Hazard
Mitigation Plan. The Board called Bruce
Clevenger, OSU Extension Office Director, and spoke to him via conference
call. The Plan is completed and has been
sent to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency for review and approval; however,
the Emergency Management Agency has given an extension of 30 days (to January 31, 2004) so they may have
time to review Defiance County’s
Plan. The Plan cannot be adopted until
the Board receives approval from the EMA.
The Board did, however, approve the preparation of the Plan.
At 11:15 a.m.,
Diane Mayer, Defiance County Senior Services Center Director, stopped in
briefly to review the status of the Dial-A-Ride program. When the Hospital discontinued the
Dial-A-Ride Program, the Senior Center,
by default, assumed the additional transportation load. Diane noted that the Senior
Services Center
is handling the additional transportation load as well as can be expected.
From 1:30 p.m.
on the Board met in Study Session to review and discuss the County’s facility
Study.
Today’s meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
Approved for news release: _____________________________
Thomas
L. Kime, Commissioner