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.

The Putnam County Commissioners state that plans for the facility are progressing. A local architect has submitted a concept drawing for the building, which will replace the old Junior Fair Board and Merchants Building at the Putnam County Fairgrounds. Both of those buildings were built between 1940-1950. Maintenance on the buildings is expensive, which led to the idea of building a facility that can hold multiple options in the county.

Putnam County will see a slight increase in their budget in the upcoming year. The budget for 2021 is around 10.7 million dollars. This is up from 10.4 million last year due to inflation.

The Putnam County Commissioners are taking the next steps toward the county's courthouse renovations. Tuesday, the commissioners and the the designers of the project, Technicon Design Group, met with contractors to answer any questions they might have. Bidding is under way for the project that looks to restore parts of the courthouse. Included in the plan is to restore the exterior stone walls, replace the roof, replace the east entrance entryway and move the ramp from the north side of the building to the east side. The commissioners are looking for bids that will be cost effective and not rushed.

The Putnam County Board of Elections met with county commissioners Tuesday morning to discuss budgets and new voting machines. The board sent in requests to the commissioners to appropriate more funds, as well as discussing new voting equipment as part of the grants that are being given by the state to counties.