OTTAWA, OH (WLIO) - During their last meeting of 2022, we sat down with The Putnam County Commissioners to look back at some of the big accomplishments of the past few years. They are proud that they were able to maintain county operations during the pandemic and keep their residents working year-round.
“Putnam County continues to a great place to live,” says Commissioner John Schlumbohm. “We have a very very low unemployment rate, we always compete with Mercer County, of course, we are back and forth. The demographics are very similar. We are also a county that is very unique that we don’t have any debt. I know the auditor commented to me, we were in a meeting a while back, he said ‘Yea, Putnam County the one without any debt.”
One of the projects that was completed in 2022 was the rehab of the county’s sewer district.
“We are in the process of turning that over to Ottawa,” adds Schlumbohm. “The county is not a situation where we can manage sewer districts so well. We don’t have the expertise that like Ottawa does and so we got that rehabbed, and we are in the process of turning that over to them now.”
But for the spring of 2023, the commissioners are hoping that they can start work making improvements at the fairgrounds, which includes a 900 thousand dollars improvement to the grandstand to keep that historic structure around longer, and at a later date tear down the commercial and junior fair building to make room for a multiuse event center.
“That venue is going to be available for the fair board to lease out to different groups. It will be a fairly good size, it will be bigger than any of them in the county for the large events,” says Commissioner Vince Schroeder. “And also, we want o make it so it can be used for small events also.”
Plus, the commissioners are looking to improve their recycling facility, by making it more efficient by moving the collection bins closer to the bailer, around the corner of its current location.
“Right now, it’s they bring it in up front and separate it from recycling, it’s kind of inefficient,” adds Schroeder. “Sometimes they were setting there and if they were in the back, they could bailing or something in between vehicles.”
The recycling project is currently underway, and the commissioners would like to start the grandstand projects so it is done in time for the fair in June, but that depends if they can get a contractor available to do the work before then.
