(PHOTO BY BRENNA WHITE / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
MONEY MATTERS … Job and Family Services Fiscal Officer, Christie Roan, updates commissioners on the continuing budget crisis.
By: Brenna White
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
The Williams County Commissioners met for their scheduled meeting on July 17, 2025, in the Commissioners’ Session Room. The meeting began at 9:00 a.m. with President Terry Rummel, Scott Lirot, and Bart Westfall in attendance.
Under old business, the commissioners approved minutes from the previous meeting. The presented agenda was given a slight amendment, providing an additional meeting with Williams County Engineer Todd Roth concerning infrastructure coming to Edon.
Supplemental appropriations were approved for the Williams County Common Pleas Court, Engineer’s Office, Prosecutor’s Office, Recorder’s Office, and Hillside County Living.
A resolution entering a IV-E Contract for Inner Peace Homes was passed. This is for the purpose of child placement, with a cost not to exceed $35,000. With a term limit of July 9, 2025 to December 31, 2025, this is to help the county combat rising child placement costs.
An official authorization to submit Residential Public Infrastructure Grant (RPIG) program applications was approved. This includes the Village of West Unity’s South Liberty Street pump station replacement and the Village of Edon’s new wastewater treatment plant requests.
A joint ditch meeting was held with neighboring counties DeKalb and Steuben, regarding the Tamarack and Buell branches.
Williams County has taken the forefront for watershed cleanup and maintains the majority of the area. The Tamarack is a man-made waterway used for drainage and irrigation, with locations mainly set in Edon, Ohio.
For the Tamarack Main (11-444), a total clean-up cost of $5,265 was reported. In regard to the billing break-up, the costs remain as follows;
-Williams County: (95%) $5,002.19
-DeKalb County: (3.70%) $194.81
-Steuben County: (1.30%) $68.00
For the Tamarack Branch (11-444B), a total clean-up cost of $934 was presented to the counties as follows;
-Williams County: (74%) $691.12
-DeKalb County: (7.4%) $69.12
-Steuben County (18.60%) $173.72
Two resolutions approving the maintenance assessments were passed, confirming the continued partnership of the Tamarack with DeKalb and Steuben Counties.
An additional joint meeting was held with JFS Fiscal Officer, Christie Roan, and representatives from the Williams County Auditor’s Office.
Roan updated the Commissioners on the budget battle that Job and Family Services continues to face. She reported that while the predicted cash balances remain in the red, they are slowly improving.
With the original report, JFS noted a negative cash balance of $750,000 in the upcoming months, but that has improved to a projected negative balance of $250,000.
With 47 children and teens currently in the care of Williams County, they will pursue the search for applicable grants and programs to help aid them further.
Roan will continue to provide the county monthly updates and will include further clarification from the director, Kylee Towne. “Good projection,” Rummel comments, “It’s a moving target.”
Vickie Grimm, County Auditor, announced that the county’s funds continue to remain on track, with nothing appearing out of the ordinary.
She noted that the county property tax collections increased, with a $369,000 higher collection reported than last year in the most recent six months.
A proposal from Amazon, an online American shopping company, was sent to Grimm offering an umbrella account for the county offices. This is a program being offered to all 88 counties in Ohio.
By consolidating all county department Amazon accounts, it would allow them to avoid shipping and membership fees. However, due to the hassle and possible complications that would occur when asking offices to give up their current accounts, the commissioners moved to reject this offer.
With $50,000 used on Amazon products in the last six months alone, the commissioners decided to ask their offices to try and shop locally instead.
At 11:00 a.m., the commissioners joined Todd Roth in a meeting to discuss potential economic development coming to Edon, Ohio.
A new convenience store with a gas station is proposed to be placed adjacent to the existing wastewater treatment plant, the site where a Burger King was formerly located.
A significant investment of eight figures was introduced, with the project originally to begin late last year. However, the company had the assumption that the current wastewater plant had significant capacity for wastewater.
The plant in question was originally created as a temporary plant around 2008. A recent study in May reported that Flying Jay uses 619,000 gallons a month, while Love’s uses 300,000 gallons. This is currently at max capacity, and rerouting the plant is not applicable.
The commissioners expressed interest in continuing to pursue this plan but requested that the Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO) help them in expanding the plant further.
While this may cut into the original design of the company, they also seemed open to moving forward with the project. A discussion is to be held with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to continue the discussion on controlled discharge.
Commissioners entered into an executive session to explore the pending litigation of the Opioid Litigation with the county prosecutor. The meeting was closed to the public at 11:30 a.m., with no further actions taken.