County hears update on transportation plan

TIFFIN — Jim Oliver, mobility management coordinator at the Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, updated the Seneca County Commissioners about the Coordinated Public and Human Services Transportation Plan at the board's regular meeting Thursday. "Every four years we have to submit a Coordinated Public and Human Services Transportation Plan to the Ohio Department of Transportation," Oliver informed the board. Overall, he said, the plan is a total of about fifty pages, "most of it is data and statistics." He later praised the North Central Area Transit for providing transportation to local area residents, but reported there are still some gaps in services provided, specifically for seniors and those with disabilities. As a summary of the plan says, the purpose of the plan is to "identify existing transportation resources, assess gaps and unmet mobility needs and outline strategies to address them." The plan allows for agencies like NCAT, Flat Rock Care Center, or the Seneca County Board of Developmental Disabilities to receive funding to buy new vehicles and provide more services. The commissioners later approved a resolution accepting the Seneca County Coordinated Public and Human Services Transportation Plan. Also at the meeting, the board opened five bids for the 2025 county chip seal project. The Seneca County engineer's estimate totaled $891,640 and bids ranged from $869,242.98 from Ward Construction Co. to $951,860.11 from Unilliance Inc. The bids were then passed to Seneca County engineer Mark Zimmerman to review before a final decision is made. In other news, Ryan Santamaria from the Ohio Land and Liberty Coalition appeared before the board to ask about the county's current involvement in renewable energy. "We're a nonprofit organization… trying to build conservative support for renewable energy," Santamaria said, also saying his current project was meeting with county leadership across the state of Ohio to "see how they handled renewable energy." When Santamaria asked about the board's current understanding of renewable energy, Commissioner Bill Frankart told him "we have passed a resolution to support (Ohio) Senate Bill 52 (a bill that went into effect in October 2022 that gives county commissioners power to designate areas in their counties where wind and solar farms are prohibited and to prohibit proposed facilities or limit their size.)" Frankart later said he believed that support of the bill was coming from the residents of Seneca County and he was simply supporting his constituents. "That was the will of the people," he said. "We are in these seats to support our constituents." Seneca County administrator Barb Patterson reported that Austin Chapman recently started his position as maintenance supervisor. "He has some HVAC experience that we appreciate and he's a veteran," Patterson said. She also informed the board that county IT services are now managed by RCR Technology Group in Findlay after the board voted to approve the resolution at an April meeting. She also said she had taken part in some recent interviews of candidates for the director of Job and Family Services after the current director, Kathy Oliver, announced her retirement to begin later this year. Frankart informed the board he had gone to Columbus last week to give testimony in support of Senate Bill 147, which, if passed, will give the Seneca County commissioners more power to leave the Ottawa, Sandusky and Seneca joint solid waste district and create a new solid waste district. The bill has been sent to the governor of Ohio but has yet to be passed by the House of Representatives. The board later approved the following supplemental appropriations: $2,000 from the clerk of courts' title administration fund for travel. $198,500 from the county capital projects fund for agri-buildings. The board also approved the following resolutions: Establishing the state vendor license fund on behalf of the Seneca County Commissioners. Accepting the coordinated public and human services transportation plan. For the appointment of special counsel for the Seneca County General Health District retroactive to May 22, 2025. Authorizing payment of sales tax on Hostgator invoice. The next meeting is at 10 a.m. on Thursday at the commissioners' office, 111 Madison St., Tiffin.