OSS announces billboard winners

FREMONT — This year's billboard contest winners were announced at this week's OSS Joint Solid Waste District board of directors meeting. According to the OSS website: "The billboard contest is for fifth grade students throughout the three county district. The billboard designs are to represent a recycling or litter prevention theme. Three winners from each county were chosen. Each winning design will be the featured artwork on a billboard during the month of April" in honor of Earth Day, which is April 22. OSS director Gary Baty said the winners and their schools will receive a miniature billboard with their art as part of the prize. He also said 891 children sent in artwork for this year's contest. "I think kids in the area really enjoy the contest," Baty said. The Seneca County winners are Leah Painter from Hopewell-Loudon Elementary; Charlotte Covert from Seneca East Local Schools; and Leah Cleveland of Noble Elementary in Tiffin. Cleveland's billboard can be seen on South Sandusky Street, north of SR 224; Covert's will be placed at SR 224 and TR 81 in Attica; Painter's will be on SR 224 near SR 18. In other news Baty told the board it had spent $270,000 in legal fees for lawsuits involving WIN Waste Innovations in 2024 and had budgeted $500,000 for legal fees in 2025. Also discussed at the meeting was the joint solid waste district agreement. In past meetings, Seneca County has asked to leave the district, which would dissolve the agreement currently in place. Ottawa County Commissioner and member of the OSS board of directors Mark Stahl asked the board if it was really the place of the board to support the Seneca County General Health District in its pending litigation against WIN Waste. Seneca County Commissioner Tony Paradiso said he was answering the question as a member of OSS, not as a commissioner. "We as a board … feel we can do $100,000," Paradiso said. "Seneca County doesn't agree with that." Stahl later said that though $100,000 is what was agreed to to go to the Seneca County Health Board, OSS has spent an extra $800,000 over two years in ongoing litigation on behalf of Seneca County. "Whether it goes to the health board or not, that is real dollars that came out of here ... We just want to be very clear, we're not capped at that $100,000 right now. That benefits your county and your landfill," Stahl told Paradiso. "We're fighting litigation on your behalf. That's $800,000 over and above what you're asking." The board later agreed to revisit the conversation at a later date. Approved at the meeting were two resolutions regarding the funding of the Seneca County General Health District and the inspection of the Seneca County landfill. The board of directors also passed and approved the winners of a competitive grant totaling $50,000 for several locations across all three counties. Among the grant recipients were the city of Fostoria, Bellevue Parks and Rec, and New Riegel Local Schools. The board later went into executive session to discuss pending litigation. No action was taken.