PHOTO BY JENNA FRISBY / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
COMMISSIONERS ON THE ROAD … The Williams County Commissioners traveled to the Pioneer Senior Center on Tuesday morning where they held their regular meeting as well as held an open forum for any questions. Attendance for the meeting had a total of 36 individuals present.
By: Jenna Frisby
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jenna@thevillagereporter.com
The Williams County Commissioners traveled to Pioneer and held their normal bi-weekly meeting on Tuesday, June 18th at the Pioneer Senior Center.
In attendance were commissioners: Bart Westfall, Terry Rummel, and Lew Hilkert as well as office clerks Anne Retcher and Robin Kemp, and their summer intern Elizabeth Fritsch. Attendance from the community joining the meeting and open forum totaled 28 individual guests.
Commissioner Westfall called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. He then introduced himself and the rest of those involved in his office including the other commissioners, both clerks, and their summer intern.
He then asked Retcher if she had any business to discuss. They handled business as normal, approving Resolutions 213-218. Commissioner Rummel then made a motion to approve the minutes from their June 13, 2024 meeting and another motion to pay the bills.
Rummel then provided information that he had received about Governor DeWine supporting local fairs through giving out a total of $10 million in grants to help support Ohio fairgrounds and enhance experiences for fairgoers.
Rummel in searching about how to apply for this grant found out that Williams County Fairgrounds had already applied for the grant and was approved for $106,000 of which they will be receiving.
Commissioner Hilkert then spoke on the information he had received from Sheriff Tom Kochert about receiving body cams for the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff Kochert informed Hilkert that he had found private funding to cover all the costs of the body cams for the department and that through those community donations the department would be ordering and receiving those body cams in the near future.
Hilkert then commended Sheriff Kochert, though not in attendance, for his resourcefulness in finding a way to obtain these body cams for his department.
Westfall then thanked the community of Pioneer for allowing them to host their meeting at the Pioneer Senior Center, for the use of the building and the time to utilize the space.
He also commended Shanna McKelvey, the new Pioneer Senior Center director, for the work she has done and is doing in the community.
Hilkert then adjourned the meeting at 9:10 a.m. and opened the floor for an open forum for the community to ask any questions they may have.
The majority of the discussion from the community consisted of speaking on the EMS Levy. While the last EMS Levy did not pass commissioners are hopeful that this next levy will for several reasons one of which being the levy cost will be substantially less than what was asked for in their first levy. The first levy asked for 3.5 million dollars.
Continuing in the conversation of the EMS, commissioners drove the point of how important it is for their county to have an EMS and not turn to outside or private run agencies.
While the EMS staff is incredible in what they do and the job they do when they are called out, their vehicles need to be better maintained, hence the asking of the levy.
The EMS of Williams County has always been a self-sufficient department and money hasn’t had to come out of the general fund except for when it was decided that they needed two ambulance units which resulted in $254,000 being given from the general fund to cover the remainder of the costs that the EMS department could not cover. They covered $446,000 towards those two new units as the total cost of them was $700,000 together.
Another reason the EMS need this levy to pass is because of the lower amount of funds coming in at this point, especially with the new hospital takeover.
Before CHWC was bought out by Parkview they made a monthly contribution to the EMS department of Williams County in the amount of $10,000. Now with that gone since the takeover, it is beginning to leave a hole in the department funds that needs to be filled.
The Williams County EMS is a vital department in Williams County and is much needed. The commissioners will be forming a committee in order to better educate the communities within the county on what this levy will mean for the county as a whole and what it will be able to accomplish for the EMS services as well.
