May 29, 2007

Auglaize County Commissioners

Auglaize County Commissioners John Bergman, Ivo Kramer and Doug Spencer were guest speakers for the meeting and gave the club an update on various programs and accomplishments from the past year as well as for some ongoing projects. 

Mr. Kramer shared some background on the county as well as some recent accomplishments within the county.  Having originally been parts of Miami, Darke, and Allen counties and Indiana, the current borders of the county were established in 1848.  The county consists of 14 towns, over 255K acres and varies in elevation from 800 to 1105 feet above sea level.  About 80% of the water flows from county ground north to Lake Erie and the 2005 population was a bit over 47.2K people.  The population is fairly well balanced with 282 births and 246 deaths in 2006.

The county owns over $50M in property and maintains 165 vehicles and 280 acres of land.  The commissioners are responsible for providing police protection and law enforcement for its citizens, stability for children through health department and related services and to provide a balanced budget for county operations.

Recent accomplishments he reported include improvements to the airport with new taxiways and runway lighting, establishment of the West District Court in St Marys (mandated by the ORC), renovation of the Job and Family Services Building, rework of 16 bridges and 19.4 miles of roadway and 13 drainage improvement projects to name a few.

Mr. Spencer shared that whereas '06 was a year of procurement of technology and equipment, '07 is the year of its implementation.  The GIS system provides residents the ability to identify detailed geographic information for parcel boundaries and setbacks and building placement.  GPS systems identify the source of 911 emergency calls and will identify the quickest route for emergency response personnel to tend to the needs of the caller.  Wireless signals to police cruisers allow law enforcement officers to access information directly from the cruiser.  Also, the phone systems have been updated in the Law Enforcement Center.

Mr. Bergman highlighted some financial issues including that there are 8 loans representing outstanding debt of about $1M.  Family Services handled 3469 cases for unpaid child support and assisted in the collection of over $7M in 2006.  For the first 4 months of '07, over $2.5M has been collected.  He reported that the pending courthouse renovation is on track and they would like to have all of the funding in hand prior to the start of the project.

For more information on the County Commissioners, please follow this link.