By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County Board of Commissioners met Thursday to discuss the OSU Extension and professional services. Commissioners Matt Aultman, Mike Stegall, and Larry Holmes were present.

Roseanne Scammahorn met with the commissioners to give an update on the USU Extension. She advised the commissioners Taylor Dill has a program up for safety training for the Anderson Grain employees. Not only is Dill conducting a Safety Day, he has an extensive list of research projects under way in Darke County.

Dill gave a corn crop update stating corn and soybeans had a rough start to the season, but they are coming along well and most of the crops are rated from fair to excellent. Soybeans are behind in development compared to other years because they were planted a bit later.

“In my disease monitoring and checks, disease pressure is low on corn and soybeans, with some insect pressure in soybeans,” Dill said.

Dill said the drier weather has helped to reduce disease inoculation. Scammahorn said there will be a Shared Harvest Event on Aug. 31 from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 at the Ansonia Local Schools.

“We are going back to our food drive through food distributions,” Scammahorn said. “Last month was our first one back since Covid, and we had 331 families come through.”

The other event highlighted was Generation RX at the New Madison Public Library on Aug. 12.

“This is a grant that Darke County had received in the amount of $5,000 to do education opportunities for our senior population in regards to reduce opioid use and abuse within our community,” Scammahorn said.

Rhonda Williams is busy preparing for the upcoming Darke County Fair. Williams did highlight the Ohio State Fair non-livestock competitions in her report.

“Darke County 4-H members received two clock trophies, eight outstanding of the days, and two honorable mentions,” Scammahorn said. “We are quite proud of our 4-Hers.”

Williams and Scammahorn hosted their first Mental Health First Aid Class. 21 participants completed the program.

“We had a good turn out from our local schools, so we were happy to have a good turn out from almost every school in the county,” Scammahorn said.

The next Mental Health First Aid program already has a waiting list of seven people and the extension will be working with Final Bow for location once again.

A master agreement between the DC Commissioners and Bruns Consulting, LLC was approved for the CHIP program.

“In the past you may have heard Dave Ballinger’s name being rolled around,” Aultman said. “Dave had done a lot for the county with our engineering services on our CHIP program. Dave was retired out of the system last year, and I believe contracts of services went out to find someone who could do what Dave had done. That is what is presented here.”

Bruns Consulting, LLC has picked up the task of the job, and the agreement was approved.

A Fund Advance for the 2020 Critical Infrastructure Grant was approved. The commissioners are requesting the following fund advance be completed to cover Key Funding June-Aug. Revenue will advance back once revenue is received. A total of $5,118.75 was moved from the General Fund into the Outside Fund.

A fund transfer for the Michael Resource Treatment Center monthly support was approved for April through June. $127,500 was transferred out.

The Darke County Board of Commissioners meets every Tuesday and Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at their office located at 520 S. Broadway Street in Greenville. To contact the office, call 937-547-7370.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].