PHOTO BY AMY WENDT / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
INCOME TAX RECEIPTS DOWN … Village Administrator Aaron Alt shares the latest income tax numbers with council members.
By: Amy Wendt
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
amy@thevillagereporter.com
On Tuesday, September 2, the Archbold Village Council convened for a regular meeting with council members Chad Kern, Aaron Babcock, Kevin Eicher, Vaughn Bentz, and Gary Dominique in attendance.
Council President Karla Ball was absent. Mayor Brad Grime, Village Administrator Aaron Alt, and Clerk Casie Storrer were also on hand.
Upon presentation of the expenses, Councilor Aaron Babcock inquired about one invoice regarding payment for a street department employee’s CDL exam. Alt explained the process village employees who aren’t exempt must go through in order to obtain their Class B CDL.
Following the discussion, the council approved the minutes from the August 18 meeting and authorized the payment of bills and payroll in the amount of $609,427.73.
Council reviewed minutes from the August 18 Income Tax Review Committee with no discussion. Moving on to the August 2025 Income Tax Report, Alt shared that revenue numbers were down once again.
“Yeah, unfortunately, we’re down again, and we continue to be. But keep in mind, we’re still 9% above 2023 numbers, so that’s the target, and overall, I’m still pleased with what’s coming in; I’m thankful every day for what comes in,” Alt added.
Councilor Bentz raised a question about the employment outlook of local businesses, including Sauder Woodworking, which announced in August the layoff of approximately 150 workers.
“I met with Nolan Pike (of Sauder Woodworking) two weeks ago – a week and a half ago, I guess now, and we had some good conversation.
“I think they’re just continuing to align themselves to where they need to be and in hopes that even if the jobs don’t increase, they’re in a more profitable state where they start seeing higher-paying jobs, which will turn, drive our income tax collection up.”
Mayor Grime weighed in, “I think the important thing to know is that it’s our job to keep our costs and our spending in line. So that we’re not bothered by this.
“You know, I have a lot of people throw that up to me, and I said, ‘you know, we’ve been making adjustments all year long, a lot of adjustments,’ and we’ve been fortunate that, you know, the (project) bids – we’ve had a lot of bids coming in way below or under (engineer’s estimate),” Mayor Grime continued.
“We’ll do what we need to do accordingly until things turn around, and I think we’re in good shape, I really do,” said the mayor.
Alt added, “New business would not be a bad thing, though. We’d gladly take new businesses, more businesses. But we’re doing ok where we’re at.”
Moving along to the August 2025 Park Board report, Councilor Babcock took a moment to share highlights from the last meeting, noting that concession sales were down in part to some “rainouts” during the spring and early summer months. It is also planned that the splashpad will remain open until the end of September.
Park Board members were “very impressed” with the number of businesses that came forward to sponsor “free swim” days over the summer.
Babcock added that the South Park shelter is currently being worked on, and in the near future, considerable repairs to the pool will be necessary.
Babcock also noted that the Parks and Rec. Department is working on upcoming events with the new director of the Archbold Chamber of Commerce, Wendy Gericke.
With that, Mayor Grime added that he feels Gericke is “gaining traction” in her new post as director and has secured many new Chamber members, including some from outside of the village.
Council briefly looked at expenses from the concert event held earlier in the year, and it was noted that there will be additional expenses associated with upcoming fall and holiday events.
Alt pointed out the need to consider overall event costs and to begin planning donation strategies for 2026.
He indicated that he advised the Parks and Recreation Department and the Fire Department to collaborate on a coordinated fundraising strategy to avoid overlapping requests to local businesses. He stressed the importance of being cognizant of other community projects when approaching businesses for donations.
“We’re just mindful of everything that’s going on in this community with projects between the MAC – Phase 1, Phase 2, Fairlawn – everybody else’s obligations for giving to different events.
“Just ensuring that we’re working together to try and come up with a plan that doesn’t feel like we’re coming at all the businesses from two ends for Archbold-related fundraising.”
With no other business, the meeting adjourned. The next Archbold Village Council meeting is set for Monday, September 15, at 5:30 p.m.