By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday to discuss a bond redemption. Commissioners Matt Aultman, Mike Stegall, and Larry Holmes were present.

In a matter of examination and allowance of bills there is $50,990.87 in the General Fund and $26,066.98 in the Outside General Fund; for a grand total of $77,057.85.

The commissioners approved a bond redemption for the county’s outstanding various purpose improvement bonds. The Boards of County Commissioners of Darke County has previously issued its $3,580,000 Various Purpose Improvement Bonds, Series 2012, dated Jan. 10, 2012, of which $1,615,000 principal amount currently remains outstanding.

“This process was started three months ago,” Aultman said. “The board has the ability to pay off the balance, in December, of the January 2012 bond series.”

As part of the process, the commissioners need to give a 30 days notice to the bond holder thus pushing the bond payment out to December, but they need to lay the money in the bank for 30 days.

“That’s why we are doing it in the beginning of October to give us the 30 days prior to all the obligations they need to make to get our money in escrow and to get it paid off by the end of the year,” Aultman said.

The board of commissioners had determined that it is in the best financial interest of the county to use county funds currently available to optionally redeem all of the outstanding series 2012 bonds that mature on or after Dec. 1, 2023 in the amount of $1,380,00.

“I would just like to say thank you to all the people in Darke County and to Matt for coming in, and this is one of the things I wanted to do before I left was to get the county out of debt,” Stegall said. “This is a reality, and I am very happy about that.”

Aultman said the county will have one more debt concluding the payment of this one, and it is an OPWC loan that is out on the old south industrial park. Due to the rules and regulations regarding the loan, the county cannot pay it off prior to the 30 year sign in.

The commissioners also approved the transfer of various appropriations. For the Darke County Board of Developmental Disabilities, $20,000 was transferred due to the unanticipated retirement of a custodial worker. It was needed to transfer funds from salaries to facility maintenance. For the Darke County Commissioners for permanent improvement, a total of $5,000 was transferred to cover the remaining tank removal project at the jail. A total of $1,400 was transferred for the Darke County Sheriff for the need to transfer for equipment repair and support.

Revenue and appropriation decreases were approved for the 2022 FAA AIP Grant. The grant originally included Electrical Vault and Terminal Building construction. The grant is now only for the Airport Electrical Vault. A total of $1,069,609 of total revenue and appropriation decreases were approved.

“The reason for this change is the auditor’s office wants to show them as two separate projects, so we needed to separate all the money. This is to get up into the right line to make everyone happy at the auditor’s office,” Aultman said.

He said the money is there, but it is just being moved to get into the right organization.

A contract was approved between the Darke County Sheriff and Ansonia Local School District where the Sheriff agreed to maintain a regularly scheduled School Resource Officer to the District. The SRO will provide whenever possible 40 hours of service to Ansonia Local School District per week while school is in session for the length of the school year.

“I’m glad to see it for Ansonia,” Stegall said.

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].