Putnam County Judge Keith Schierloh swore in eight elected officials for the county. Among those eight, Tim Wehri and Brad Brubaker have been sworn in as new Putnam County commissioners. Wehri has filled the commissioner seat held by incumbent Vincent Schroeder, while Brubaker has filled the commissioner seat held by incumbent Michael Lammers. Wehri and Brubaker will join current Putnam County Commissioner John Schlumbohm, whose term expires at the end of 2026. 

Candidates for the Putnam County Commissioners seats open on the March 19th Primary were put in the hot seat Tuesday night to answer tough questions ahead of the election. The candidates attended the "Putnam County Meet the Candidate Night" in Ottawa Tuesday evening where county residents had the opportunity to come, listen to their stances on certain topics, and then presented on-the-spot questions about important local, state, or national issues to help guide them in the voting selection process. Before the candidates took stage, we had the opportunity to ask each of them what things they would like to see happen in Putnam County.

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.

As the Auglaize County Commissioners wrap up 2022, they are looking a head to starting some projects that they have been working on this past year.   Thanks to a $900,000 grant from the State of Ohio, Auglaize County was able to remove some blighted structures so the land can be used for redevelopment.  Plus, they have been getting some things in place to start a renovation project at the county jail.  The roughly $5 million project will add more bed space to the facility, especially on the women’s side of the jail.

Commissioner Cory Noonan saying this proposal can be done and is the closest they have been to making the new facility a reality. The commissioners have received several "referral for qualifications" from architects to design the facility and will review those in the near future. Today they asked department heads to voice their concerns and needs for office space. With recent federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, commissioners say now is the time to act.

Allen County commissioners say that retention and recruitment of employees were at the top of the list and they will be working with department heads on wage increases for non-union general fund employees. Early this year they approved an equitable wage adjustment increase for the sheriff's department's union employees. Commissioners also say that utilities, fuel, and food costs have increased and they had to look at department requests as a want or a need.

Commissioners approved the contracts for the gold, blue, and support unions at the Allen County Sheriff's Office. This covers most all employees at the sheriff's office. There are no re-openers for wages in the agreements and commissioners say that is a great help with the budgeting process by knowing what salaries will be for the next three years.

The port authority is managed by the Allen Economic Development Group and the Ohio Revised Code allows the county to transfer the land to the port authority. The building has sat empty for more than a decade with no bids at several auction attempts. This move made the most sense to commissioners as the port authority received a $700,000 loan from the Ohio Department of Development to take the building down.