Internet, sewers on county’s agenda

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Board of Commissioners had a busy day on Thursday, with discussions on county broadband Internet coverage, floodplain areas, an unsewered area along Richey Road and county finances on the agenda for the day.

Cathy Miller of the Regional Planning Commission first met with the commissioners to provide an update on floodplain manager training, followed by Thomas Edison Superintendent Jim Stripe, who provided a history of the Developmental Disabilities Board that operates Thomas Edison and also discussed health insurance and the need for a couple of new members for the DD Board.

County 9-1-1 Coordinator Kim Brandt and a number of city, community and Vantage Career Center representatives also met with the commissioners on Thursday, along with two representatives of Connect Ohio, to discuss broadband Internet and efforts by Connect Ohio to provide those services to all Ohioans.

Connect Ohio will be doing a study of the county’s Internet capabilities and usage, as well as a “gap analysis” for the county to analyze what percentage of county residents don’t have access to broadband Internet service.

Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger said a second meeting was planned in April to discuss the results of Connect Ohio’s study.

Early on Thursday afternoon, Rick Weaver of Poggemeyer Design Group, an engineering and design consulting firm, met with commissioners to provide an overview of the services his company has provided to the county in the past.

That report led to “conceptual discussions” of how to best solve the problems of unsewered areas in the Overholt Addition and along Richey Road — the last of such areas identified by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a few years ago as being in need of a solution to its sewer problems.

The problem in solving the county’s sewer problems comes down to cost, Lichtensteiger said, with all the “easy” unsewered areas already taken care of.

“We know that we’ve got this problem, we know that we’ve got this finding against us, but until we have some money we just can’t afford to do this,” Lichtensteiger said, although he added that, because those two areas don’t met low-to-moderate income guidelines, there isn’t any grant money available to help pay the costs involved.

Furthermore, without grant money, the county doesn’t have the funds needed for a solution, while any privately-funded solution to the sewer problems would likely result in sewer costs residents of the areas could not afford to pay.

Weaver promised to continue efforts to find a solution to the county’s sewer problems.

Meanwhile, Lichtensteiger did have some good news, though, noting that a recently-released report on permissive tax receipts in February show an increase of $91,000 over permissive tax receipts a year ago.