Now that budget hearings have been held the Allen County Commissioners are crunching the numbers to come to a balanced budget.  They are still waiting for the estimated revenues from the budget commissioner before they can make any final decisions on the budget. Department heads have submitted their requests and now comes the hard part, making sure those requests and the increase in items, like health insurance, and utilities, don't exceed incoming revenue.

The land bank is now in possession of the property at 138 East Wayne Street and it is in total disrepair. Because of its location in downtown Lima as a "historic" district, they had to approach the City of Lima's Design Review Board to get permission to tear it down. The board approved the request and the structure will come down.

They have been meeting to process requests for the federal "ARPA" dollars. The American Rescue Plan has supplied the county with 19.8-million dollars to pay for projects that can be traced back to COVID-19. The commissioners have been getting requests from most of the county departments. Once they get a request specific steps are taken.

According to court records filed last week, a judge has rejected the defendant's motion for a change of venue. Castle's lawyer had claimed internet, and news media reports in the case might make it difficult to seat an impartial jury in Hardin County. The court ruled those documents and reports contained information already available in the public file, including information about Castle's past offenses.

Council voted to change the Department of Community Development to the Department of Housing and Neighborhoods, plus create a deputy director position for that department. Council also approved 5th ward councilman Jamie Dixon to be the council representative on the newly formed Community Improvement Corporation, which will also deal with housing issues in Lima. Council voted to create a Workforce and Small Business Development Director and a Communication and Public Information Officer.

Last month, Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, along with a dozen of their colleagues ask the Department of Defense and State Department to speed up the request. Now that the sale is complete, Brown has sent a letter to the President asking that the delivery to the NATO ally be made as quick as possible because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Abrams purchase was worth approximately $6 billion. Brown also says that Poland has expressed interest in buying other military items from the United States and he would like to see that request be granted because of the threat by the Russian Federation.

According to documents filed in Hardin County Common Pleas Court, the attorney for Charles Castle has requested the change of location to ensure their client gets a fair trial. They say they are seeking a location untainted by pre-trial publicity.

The changes are to ensure the meetings are run in a productive and efficient manner. The board provides time for public comments at each agenda and public meeting. If you want to address the board you must fill out and return a public comment request form prior to the start of the meeting. It can be found on the commissioner’s website along with all the rules for public comment. Those include a limit of 3-minutes and no visual aids during the meeting but can be given to the board as supplemental materials

Kenneth Richey in the news again as he is requesting to leave the states and go overseas.