By: Rebecca Miller
Before meeting with the District Administrator for Soil and Water Conservation District, and the District Technician III on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, the Fulton County Commissioners approved the following in regular business:
-Minutes from September 30, 2021 and agenda for present meeting
-Payment of bills and Increase and Transfer of Appropriations for various departments
-Resolution 710 Transfer funds for disbursement of 2021 Fulton County Auction revenues
-Resolution 711 Approve amendment #3 to Contract 2020-72 with Current Office Solution – JFS
-Resolution 712 Approve amendment #4 to Contract 2020-71 with Current Office Solutions – Treasurers
-Resolution 713 Approve amendment #5 to Contract 2020-72 with Current Office Solutions-Juvenile Court
-Purchase orders and travel requests
They also reviewed the Month End Financial Report and the September Sales Tax Report and had a short recess. When they went back into session, Pete Carr – District Technician III and Jackie Savage – District Administrator for the Soil and Water Conservation District were present to give an update.
Savage began with the 2021 Accomplishments for all of the conservation practices installed through grant programs. She then announced the 2021 Fulton SWCD Award winners – Allison Herr for Scholarship; Ken and Becky Thatcher won the Big Tree Contest; Bracy Gold Bison Ranch was the Cooperator of the Year; Brookview Farm Meats and BBQ was the Booster of the Year; and Ken Frey recieved the CREP Achievement Award.
She reported that the “Monarchs and More Family Fun Day” held at Sauder Village had 400 attendees. They also held the 2021 Ag Fest with the local 3rd and 4th graders and Savage thanked the Commissioners for coming out and serving lunch to the students.
Carr continued the presentation with the current SWCD Grants. The first grant was the Western Fulton Grant with Great Lakes Commission, which they have been working with for ten years.
This was a three year grant to Deer Creek and Brush Creek and that grant ends now. “We have the Brush Creek/Flat Run Grant with Ohio EPA,” he continued, “in which we put in several waterways.”
The third grant is Fulton/Williams Grant with the Great Lakes Commission for Beaver Creek, Brush Creek, Deer Creek and Mill Creek. Next he spoke about the Goll Woods Wetland Project that is two thirds completed. “It was eight prairie pot holes on the Henry/Fulton line.”
He also shared about the Archbold Wetland Grant saying that it deals with two wetlands at Sauder (they are adding another one) and the Brush Creek Two Stage with Ohio EPA that will start in July 2022 and will be a two stage ditch.
The commissioners thanked these two for coming and for their presentations, held a short recess and then welcomed Lauren Lester, Marketing and Communications Director to discuss the County Video Program.
Ms. Lester shared that she had been made aware of a program through NACO (National Association of Counties) using CGI Communications, a branch of NACO. They have chosen Fulton County as the county they would like to work with “if we choose to follow through,” Ms. Lester said.
“They want to coordinate and produce a series of educational videos highlighting our county and what our county has to offer. We would get four videos and we could determine the subject matter. CGI would work with a third party company to vet business sponsors for the videos which is how they pay for them.”
CGI would assume all costs that go with producing the videos. Commissioner Jon Rupp asked if it would be free to the commissioners and how much it would cost the local businesses.
Lauren said it would be free for the commissioners and she will check into the overall cost, but she assumes it would depend on how many participate. She showed a short sample video to the commissioners so they could see what they would be like.
Commissioner Joe Short asked her to also find out if this would be a one time cost or if it is an ongoing cost. They thanked her for bringing this to them and with no further business, the meeting adjourned.
Rebecca can be reached at rebecca@thevillagereporter.com