NEWS RELEASE

DEFIANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2007

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met in regular session at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 20, 2007 in the Conference Room in the Commissioners Office at 500 Court Street, Suite A, Defiance, Ohio 43512. Chairman Otto L. Nicely called the meeting to order. Also present were Commissioners Thomas L. Kime and James E. Harris, Jr., Laura Howell, County Administrator, Cara Brown, Clerk, and Joanne Goerlitz, Deputy Clerk

Laura Howell, Defiance County Administrator, presented her report to the Commissioners. The Commissioners are looking at replacing their van. Laura provided the Commissioners with a list of vehicles that are available that will hold 6-7 passengers. Laura will continue to work on gathering specs for the new vehicle.

Laura advised the Commissioners that she will need to have National Incident Management System (NIMS) training. In addition to her, the Board of Commissioners, Elected Officials and other County personnel will need to have the training or additional training. Laura is currently working with Julie Rittenhouse, Public Safety Director, on who needs to have the training and what level of training is required.

The Commissioners and Laura then entered into Executive Session to discuss personnel discipline. Executive Session ended with no decision being made.

Warren Schlatter, Defiance County Engineer, met with the Commissioners to discuss various road issue through out Defiance County.

The Investment Advisory Committee, comprised of Karen Tubbs, Treasurer, Jean Ziegler, Clerk of Courts and Tim Houck, Environmental Services Director, met with the Commissioners to provide the 4^th Quarter update. Karen advised that due to the decrease in interest rates, the credit crunch and economic instability, the investment portfolio is down a bit.

County offices will be closed on Monday, December 24^th and Tuesday, December 25^th in observance of the Christmas Holiday.

Release Approved: ____________________________________________________

Otto L. Nicely, Defiance County Commissioner