NEWS RELEASE

Thursday, August 30, 2018

The Board of Defiance County Commissioners met in regular session at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 30, 2018 in the in the Commissioners’ Session Room at 500 Court Street, Defiance, Ohio 43512. President Ryan Mack called the meeting to order. Also present were Commissioners Gary Plotts and Mick Pocratsky, and Stephanie Metz, Clerk.

The Commissioners met in General Session; they approved and signed various resolutions, contracts and documents. The Commissioners also reviewed the calendar of events and discussed upcoming meetings.

The Commissioners approved the attached resolution for Non-Support of Aquifer Drilling.

The Board discussed the expansion that Sherwood Mutual Telephone Association has had in Defiance County. Sherwood Mutual Telephone Association, Inc. was recently recognized by NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association as a Certified Gig-Capable Provider for delivering gigabit broadband speeds and enabling technological innovation in the Sherwood Ohio and Hicksville Ohio communities and as the first in the state of Ohio to receive this certification. To achieve certification, telecommunications companies must show that gigabit technology is currently commercially available within 95% of one or more exchanges within its serving territory and that such service can be provided without new trenching or stringing new aerial facilities. This statement must be confirmed by a letter from an engineering firm or other independent source involved in the company’s network planning, deployment or operation. Both Hicksville and Sherwood are certified as One Gig Communities. Of 980 communities in the national registry of Internet Service Providers, there are only 80 communities certified as One Gig communities.

Julie Rittenhouse, Defiance County Public Safety Services’ Coordinator, met with the Commissioners to provide a quarterly update. Julie reported that in the last quarter there were 5 hazmat incidents.

Jamie Gerken and Ron Clinger, Defiance County General Health District, met with the Commissioners and Mark Township Trustees to review options for the Mark Center sewage issue. Ken Maag, Poggemeyer Design Group, and Dennis Miller, Maumee Valley Planning Organization, also attended. Ron presented the following three options to correct the sewage issue:

· Local Lagoons

· Central Sewer to the Village of Sherwood

· Operation & Maintenance of existing sewer systems – Landowners would be enrolled in the operation and maintenance program in 2020 (estimated time). At that time homeowners would be required to provide proof of maintenance and update their systems if determined necessary.

After much discussion, all parties agreed that they would plan to use the Operation & Maintenance option. The Commissioners requested Poggemeyer Design Group to work with Maumee Valley Planning to prepare a study of costs, plan, funding opportunities, and landowner costs (i.e. tap fees, assessments, debt service fees and monthly user fees) if local lagoons or a central sewer system is required by the Ohio EPA.

Lisa Weaner, Fort Defiance Humane Society, met with the Commissioners to request permission to install a 6’ chain link fence on the property. The organization was approved for a grant from the Joint Economic Development District to cover the cost of this project. The Board approved this request.

Release Approved: ____________________________________________________

Ryan Mack, Defiance County Commissioner