MOUNT VERNON — The Knox County Commissioners had a full day of meetings Thursday, ranging from signing an agreement with New Hope Industries, to discussing the possibility of having a human resources director for the county, to a proposed welcome center in Danville.
In the morning, the commissioners met with several representatives from New Hope Industries to create a “supervised litter collection crew,” according to a statement release from the commissioners. “I think this is great,” said Commissioner Bob Wise. The litter collection crew is funded by a $10,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The project will provide work experience to some of New Hope Industries’ clients, and Linda Montgomery, recycling coordinator at the Board of Commissioners, hopes that it will lead to the appearance of cleaner roadways throughout the county. “If roads are kept clean, they stay clean,” said Montgomery. “Littered roads make people throw more litter.”
Commissioner Bob Wise, Board of Commissioners president, signed the contract. Present at the signing were the three county commissioners, and several members of New Hope Industries, including Dennis Eggerton, CEO; Alex Fenton, project supervisor; Terry Pribonic, community employment services manager; Valerie Hawk; and J.R. Williams, supported employment specialist.
Also in the morning the commissioners met with Director Kelly Lybarger-DeWitt and Assistant Director Bob McIlvain from The Station Break for a monthly meeting. McIlvain reported that The Station Break was currently delivering around 425 meals to homes per day, while they have a maximum capacity of 550. He further noted that almost every week, people are added and taken off the list of people that have meals delivered to their homes. If the capacity of 550 is exceeded, “we will be issuing out frozen meals instead of hot meals,” said McIlvain, “but we hope that doesn’t happen too soon.”
McIlvain noted that meals are only delivered to seniors who are home-bound. Wise asked for clarification of the term home-bound, to which McIlvain replied, “We define it as people who don’t have the ability to get out of their house on their own ... [which] usually [is] somebody recovering from surgery.” On average, the Station Break serves around 55 to 60 meals a day at their location, including the winter, “and it picks up in the summer,” noted McIlvain.
The homemaker services that The Station Break provides were also discussed at the meeting. The program involves people going to seniors’ homes and cleaning floors, bathrooms and kitchens twice a month. However, currently there is “a waiting list of six,” commented McIlvain. Lybarger-DeWitt noted that the waiting list had just begun within the past week.
The chore program, which provides lawn-care services, was also discussed. McIlvain noted that during the previous year of the program, some employees only worked for a week or two, which wasted Station Break money as the processing of each application costs around $200. It was noted that the ideal employees for this summer program would be college students who would be living in the area for the summer.
The final program that McIlvain presented was the transportation program. “We have one driver for in-town, medical transport, and we have one person that’s on call for out-of-town,” said McIlvain. “Is that a donation-basis?” asked Commissioner Allen Stockberger. Lybarger-DeWitt said that they have suggested donations for different types of trips, but many people utilizing The Station Break’s services cannot afford to pay the suggested donation. McIlvain pointed out that when donations are averaged out, it equals 52 cents per round-trip.
McIlvain also presented a countywide breakdown of services and where they are requested according to township. Some final topics of discussion were recent meeting with the advisory board of The Station Break, as well as the possibility of occasionally using the facilities of the Ohio Eastern Star Home. The commissioners agreed to have another meeting with The Station Break next month.
For the final meeting of the morning, the commissioners met with John Thatcher, county prosecutor, and Emily Marth, safety and loss control coordinator. Thatcher is proposing that the county should create the position of director of human resources for the county.
“This is an issue that I’ve been trying to push for about three years,” said Thatcher. Continuing, he noted that he feels that he should be pro-active in the liability area of human resources. “It’s about helping people work together better.”
Currently, human resources-related affairs are handled by Marth. However, Thatcher visualizes a full-time position for a director of human resources to handle all job related issues, from hiring, to performance evaluations, to exit interviews when an employee leaves the service of the county. Thatcher contacted other counties in Ohio and received feedback from several counties, and the ones that responded did have the equivalent of a full-time human resources director.
“My recommendation as your legal advisor is that you make a decision and the first decision is to create or not create a human resources director position for the county,” said Thatcher. Marth and Thatcher had created a job description from the information received from other counties which the commissioners reviewed. Thatcher and the commissioners agreed to further discuss he matter at the next elected officials meeting at the beginning of next month.
In the late afternoon, the commissioners met with David Guffey, board chair of the Knox County Humane Society, Janice Clayton, volunteer manager of the cat shelter, and Jerry Clayton, president of the humane society.
Janice began the meeting by presenting some statistics of the cat shelter, saying that in 2007, they placed 443 cats, and in the beginning months of this year they have received 46 cats. Janice also presented some figures related to volunteer hours at the center, and furthermore talked about the success of the spay and neuter clinics that the cat shelter supports.
Emily Marth also attended the meeting, and asked about certain conditions at the shelter, noting that the last time she visited “some things jumped out at me.” These items were possible fire code violations. Jerry responded saying that all major items, such as stairways that were not clear, have been taken care of. Marth noted that if the shelter wanted to do something in terms of volunteer training, she would be willing to help.
Rochelle Shackle, clerk for the Board of Commissioners, noted that it was time to draft a new lease for the cat shelter and said she would have Thatcher begin to prepare the necessary documents.
Guffey stated that the humane society is always encouraging people to have their cats spayed and neutered at the shelter, which is available for a reasonable fee for Knox County residents. Before the meeting adjourned, Jerry said that he was “thankful for the support that the commissioners provide.”
The commissioners’ last meeting for the day was with various people to discuss a proposed welcome center for the county in Danville. Present were Tom Davis of the Knox County Park District, Kim Marshall, Park District Director, Amy Shocken of Community Development Consultants, and Bob Dile, the mayor of Danville.
Discussions of the project were all very preliminary, as there are several proposed designs and ideas for the building of the center, and funding for the project is by no means approved at this point. A possible funding source for the project is a byway facilities grant. Shocken noted several details that might be problematic if the application was submitted as is.
Towards the end of the meeting, as the discussion was winding down, it was agreed that an architect would be found soon and asked to draw up plans quickly and that Shocken would continue with the grant application process which would require more information from various sources.