THANKS! … Williams County Judge Karen Gallagher and Craig Bills joined with the Williams County Commissioners on October 21, 2021 and she made sure to thank them for all they have done to make the past ten months go well. (PHOTO BY REBECCA MILLER, STAFF)
By: Rebecca Miller
The Thursday morning, October 21, 2021 sessions for the Williams County Commissioners were quite short, with a half hour Executive Session in the middle. Scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. that morning, the Commissioners began regular session at 10:18 and approved the following:
-Supplemental Appropriations, Minutes of previous meeting, and payment of bills
-Resolution 344 Advertising for Sealed Bids for MVPO Project #5-2021
-Resolution 345 Amendment to Provider Agreement
-Resolution 346 Entering into a Cooperative agreement
-Also Signed – Contractor’s application for payment no. 3 – Williams County Tower Project; ARPA Funds request from Shalom and WC Recorder; and Hillside Country Living’s Policy on Employee Recognition
Commissioner Terry Rummel reported to the others that the MARCs radio is 90% complete. New consoles are all in and the Sheriff’s Department along with most local police agencies are on it.
“The links are all in place and everything seems to be working,” he said, “They are still tweaking. EMS should go live next week, or sooner.”
Following a short recess, Judge Karen Gallagher and Craig Bills joined the Commissioners to talk about the 2022 budget. Judge Gallagher thanked the commissioners “from all of us in the Juvenile and Probate Courts, Common Pleas Court.”
“We want to tell you how much we have appreciated over the last ten months the relationship that we have been able to build with the three of you in the Commissioner’s Office, including Anne (Retcher) and Robin (Kemp). We certainly appreciate that as we move forward.”
She went on to share that this was their first budget presentation and they were open to questions. She clarified that the DR Court and the General Division have Kim Herman as the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court, which is equivalent to the Probate and Juvenile Divisions with their own clerks.
She is the Chief Clerk and is responsible for docketing, taking in filings, taking in money, etc. She reported that during the past ten months they have tried to work out what the budget would be, “taking it very seriously and dividing out, two separate budgets for Probate and Juvenile.”
They are making sure that nothing passes to the other or has any overlapping as they feel that is very important.
It was determined that since the Commissioners had not received copies of the budget to look at, she will return at a later date to go over the details. She expressed a need to talk with them about personnel issues and it was determined they should go into an Executive Session for that.
Rummel made a motion to go into Executive Session to talk about Personnel Compensation, with Commissioner Lew Hilkert seconding the motion. They were in session from 10:30- 11:06 and came out with No Action Taken.
Judge Gallagher thanked them for the time and their feedback. She apologized for not having the budget copies and said that some of the line items had not been complete anyway, so those should be done when she returns to discuss it further.
With no further business the session was adjourned at 11:07 a.m.
Rebecca can be reached at rebecca@thevillagereporter.com