MOUNT VERNON — On Thursday morning, the Knox County Board of Commissioners met with the department heads of several offices of the county. Department leaders reported on progress and projects within their departments.
Ron Simpson, superintendent of the Water and Wastewater Department, reported the rehabilitation work on well No. 3 near Howard would be completed next week. After the rehabilitation, Simpson said, the well will be operating at a higher capacity than it did when it came online in 1978.
When the well was new, it could pump 800 gallons of water per minute; after the rehabilitation work is complete, it will operate at a capacity of 893 gallons per minute, according to Simpson.
Simpson also reported that sludge removal from the north lagoon at the water treatment plant near Howard is complete and the lagoon is now back in service.
He also noted that three employees of the Water and Wastewater Department received their Class I wastewater operator’s license. The license, said Simpson, will allow the employees of the department to work with the decentralized sewers the county is planning to install in several small hamlets around the county.
Trent Ansel, director of the Veterans Service Office, told the commissioners his department was gearing up for the summer season, including the Danville-Howard Turkey Festival. Ansel also said his department will discuss changing to a four-day workweek to help employees save on gasoline costs.
Ansel said he is excited about ongoing fundraising projects.
“I can’t wait to see how much money we bring into the county by next year,” he said. “I think it’s going to be about $5 million; we’re almost there now.”
Scott Snider, GIS supervisor of the Tax Map Department, informed the commissioners and others of projects in his department.
“Our big project that we’re finishing up is we’re changing the way we maintain our maps,” he said.
Previously, said Snider, map updates were done by hand, and the updates took one week every month to complete.
“Since we’ve got the GIS system, we’ve been pushing to make the maps off of that,” Snider said.
The map department is printing off newly updated maps from the GIS system and comparing them to old maps and making the appropriate adjustments.
“There’s still a few bugs we’ve got to work out, but we’ll continue to update them,” Snider said.
Snider also reported the map department is involved in several other projects, one of which is working with townships and municipalities throughout the county in order to add zoning laws to maps. Another project Snider spoke about was working with Kim Marshall, director of the Knox County Park District, to place parks in Knox County on the computer program Google Earth. Also, Snider said, his department would like to work on collecting data on foreclosed properties in the county for use in the future.
Rob Clendening, district program administrator from the Knox Soil & Water Conservation District, reported his office has two recently hired employees. Clendening also said his department has been working with the Central Ohio Joint Fire District to help landowners who want to install dry fire hydrants.
“We want to make sure that those hydrants meet all of their certifications for their fire codes and insurance,” said Clendening.
Clendening also reported his department will soon start working around the old landfill area off of Thayer Road.
“We looked at the site yesterday [and] the wastewater treatment pond that we have out there is ready to be emptied,” said Clendening.
He hopes to have the contents removed from the pond within the next few weeks.
Marie Blubaugh, director of Knox County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told the commissioners of a grant application for her department in the amount of $44,000.
Blubaugh said that as part of the grant application progress, her department must supply work plans for various situations. She said one plan her department is developing is a storm readiness plan for the county; another plan concerns the continuity of government in the event of a large-scale emergency or disaster. The grant would also fund replacement of two warning sirens, one in Fredericktown and one in Centerburg.
Blubaugh said the 9-1-1 program was given approval to hire two more dispatchers; currently, the two candidates are in the midst of background checks and other pre-employment screenings.
Darrel Severns from the Knox County Regional Planning Commission reported that he had been in his new position for about one month. He said things are fairly slow and that he is taking a few classes in order to gain his flood plain manager certification.
Emily Marth of Risk Management and Human Resources was the final department head to report to the commissioners. She spoke about document storage and retrieval.
“How would we continue to do business for the county if all of our documents are spread all over [or] burnt up?” asked Marth. “Can we continue to function as a county if this building [the Knox County Service Center] is inoperable?”
She said that she and others were looking into the possibility of electronic document storage and other options for storing data in other locations.
Marth also asked the commissioners about the state of the county budget. Commissioner Bob Wise said the commissioners didn’t have exact numbers, but thought finances were fine. Wise also said the commissioners are aware that income for the county government was slightly low because taxes were being collected at a slower rate than expected.
