By: Brenna White
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
The Williams County Commissioners met Tuesday, June 24, for their regular session beginning at 9:00 a.m., following an elected official meeting in the EA Conference Room. Commissioner Rummel and Lirot were in attendance, with Westfall absent.
The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call attendance, and the passage of three resolutions approving the June 17 meeting, the payment of bills, and the presented agenda.
A minor amendment was added to the agenda, with Rummel requesting a short update from Dennis Miller of the Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO).
Under old business, the board briefly discussed the GovDeals bidding process involving the proposed purchase of the City of Oregon’s ambulance.
A purchasing account has been successfully created for Williams County on the website, and the commissioners are now waiting for Oregon to finish up the official paperwork on their end.
Supplemental appropriations were approved for the Williams County Auditor’s Office, Board of Commissioners, Common Pleas Court, County Coroner, Hillside Country Living, and the Sheriff’s Office.
Resolution 25-0272, which approved the annexation of 107 acres of property from Madison Township to the Village of Pioneer, was rescinded due to a language error. A new resolution, formally known as Resolution 25-0287, was passed with the correct wording.
An MOU was passed, which solidifies the act of Williams County placing a county ambulance in the Pioneer Fire Station, or whatever building they see fit. This MOU will remain standing until a verbal or written agreement stating otherwise is created between the village and the county.
Further discussions included upcoming credit card appropriations on behalf of the sheriff’s office for July, and a draw request for Grant B-F-23-1DA-1 under the MVPO program.
Dennis Miller, representative from the MVPO, gave a short update on the process of reworking a loan for the Williams County Water District. Miller presented many options the county could take, as state loan forgiveness is not an option at this time.
Flying J, a popular truck stop located in Edgerton, Ohio, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Since then, the million-dollar loan given for the water and sewer rates remains unpaid by the company, and the county has to step in for assistance.
This is a revolving loan deal from the Ohio Department of Development. With over two million to be paid, Flying J has not made a payment since January of this year.
However, even though they filed for bankruptcy, they did make their bi-annual payment for July. This leaves Commissioner Rummel baffled and unsure if they will continue making the necessary payments needed.
“I would think, since they (Flying J) went bankrupt, it dragged out this thing for so many years, so much interest accrued, it makes it not affordable.”
“I don’t want to hand this to the next generation. We just keep handing bad solutions to bad solutions, and I want to come up with a well-documented solution,” said President Rummel.
Many solutions presented to the board were not applicable due to the low revenue that Flying J reports. With such a large amount of the bill left, the truck stop will struggle to even meet current minimum payments.
Miller stated that Ohio is willing to extend the loan by 20 years and drop the interest rate from 3.5% to 1.5%, but the course the Commissioners will take is still unclear.
“I’d like to see us come up with something sustainable. If we are going to start giving them money, they are going to file bankruptcy anyway, because they have no other choice,” continued Rummel.
“This is unfortunate because this still results from the company going bankrupt in 2008. We wouldn’t be in this position if Flying J would have held up their end of the bargain on day one.”
The commissioners will work to continue gathering concise information so they can clearly set a standard rate of pay.
A public hearing concerning the proposed license fee increase of $5 was held. This is a permissive tax levy that will solely be used for highway services from the Williams County Engineer’s Office. This tax will be an addition to the municipalities already collecting and will not exceed the state limit.
Although no one from the public was in attendance for the hearing, Lirot brought up comments from concerned citizens about the Amish buggies that travel the roadways.
Todd Roth, County Engineer, has been in contact with leaders in Holmes County, Ohio, who already have a method of collecting from their Amish communities.
Holmes County requests a “donation” of $75 for each Amish buggy that travels the roadways. The community sends this to a steering committee, which acts like a liaison between the church and state, and it is then forwarded to the county. The commissioners will continue to look into this method.
The second public hearing will be held on June 26. Rummel encourages all concerned citizens to attend the next meeting before the commissioners make their final decision.
With no further business at hand, the meeting adjourned at 10:20 a.m.