Friday, July 29, 2011

Commissioners Corner - July 2011

The rain has shut off, the temperature is in the nineties, and humidity is there as well, so it must be summer here in Darke County. Although it has been hot, this seems to be a typical summer for our area. The crops are looking better after a slow start to planting season, and the sporadic rain showers are helping everything to grow a little bit in this weather. This may be a typical summer for the County, but this has been an untypical year here in the Commissioner’s office. As of this writing, we are still waiting to hear the final numbers from the state on our budget. Hopefully by August we will have a clear indication of what we have to work with. We do know that there is going to be less to work with, so we are making plans to deal with the loss of revenue. The Commissioners have several options, but we cannot implement anything until we know for sure what we are dealing with. We will keep you informed as soon as we know something.

On the economic development front, Darke County continues to move forward. Marc Saluk and Melanie Nealeigh have been very busy with new contacts and with established businesses for the past several months. Because of the change at the state level making a Jobs Ohio Board, things are a little confused right now, but Marc is on top of things. We continue to be a hot spot right now, so the C. I. C. Board, the Economic Development Dept. and the rest of the county are working together to continue our success. In talking to all the members of the C. I. C., all of us agree that the communication and cooperation between the villages, city, and county has never been this good. We all are on the same page, and see this as a win-win situation for the county. We are happy to see that in the last month Continental Carbonic and Integrity Ambulance have made huge commitments to have their businesses in Darke County. We welcome them as part of the Darke County community. We still have other businesses looking to either expand or locate in the county, but as of now, we cannot elaborate on these potential business developments. Hopefully, very soon we will have some news to report. The courthouse parking lot project is moving along nicely, and the public should be able to use the lot sometime in August. It should be noted here that this is a public parking lot, and not for exclusive use of the patrons of the courthouse as has been rumored. Arcon Construction is doing the work and if the weather co-operates they should be able to maintain their time schedule. The work done so far looks very good and we are pleased with the way they are completing the job.

The Commissioners are very pleased with the response we are getting on the radio program, and with the columns in all the media. We have made a commitment to keep the citizens informed as we feel that government works best when the people are involved. It is also nice to see people come to our meetings and watch and ask questions. We meet publicly every Monday and Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Office located at 520 S. Broadway in Greenville, just south of the Courthouse. Everyone is always welcome and we hope to see you here soon.

The Darke County Commissioners

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