WAPAKONETA, Ohio (WLIO) - A strong foundation and building to the future was the message from prominent leaders of Wapakoneta speaking to the community at the annual State of the City, County and Schools luncheon on Thursday.
First to speak was Wapakoneta Mayor Dan Lee, covering everything from their historic fire department to infrastructure, which he knows locals are eager to get back one of the main roads in town.
"We've done a lot of street work; Water Street was a complete reconstruction from 20 feet down up - it was our water, it was our sewer, it was our electric, and that's been an ongoing project," said Lee. "It actually started in March of 2024, and we're going to finish that up here in late April, early May of '25 and it's really one of the arteries of our city. To have that torn up for so long has been a headache to a lot of people, but it's going to be great. It's not going to need to be touched for another 50 years, and it's a huge improvement for our utilities to have that done."
The next insightful update came from Auglaize County Commissioner David Bambauer who highlighted plans of a new healthcare facility along with the promising sales taxes from Wapakoneta. One thing paramount to him is for residents to be aware of Issue 2 on the ballot for the May primary election, which brings funding for projects such as roads, bridges and waterways by using grants and low interest loans with no cost to taxpayers.
"To me, it's a big deal because each entity gets money every four years to catch up on some projects that they want to catch up on," said Bambauer. "I know townships are in line next year, and talking to those people, most of them are not doing a lot of paving this year, because when they add that money into next year, they can actually get something done, like a mile or two at a time, instead of just little short spots. So it's a big deal, and hopefully people realize it and they get to the ballot box, because we're not looking at probably having a very big turnout here in May."
The final speaker was superintendent of Wapakoneta City Schools, Aaron Rex, who showed not only enthusiasm for the school district but also optimism for the future of students in Wapak.
"I have people come and talk to me about coming to us from other schools as well, and they talk about all the courses that we offer, all the opportunities are there, whether that's academics, whether that's athletics, whether that is getting kids out into the workforce while they're in high school," Rex said. "We just have so many opportunities, we have a great staff. Our staff really care about each other, and they, most importantly, care about the kids. We love our kids, and we care about their success. That's our best stories - where our kids go on to college, the workforce, create families. You know, that's our that's our pride, what happens to our kids when they graduate."
