By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Darke County Board of Commissioners met Thursday to discuss airport bids and grants. Commissioners Matt Aultman, Marshall Combs, and Larry Holmes were present.

Garber Electric was awarded a $146,600 bid for the electrical upgrades at 300 Garst Avenue in Greenville. Bids were opened on Dec. 6, and were approved to be received for review by Dale Musser at that time. It is his recommendation the bid be awarded to Garber, as their bid was the lowest cost while still meeting the needs for the project.

The 2022 ODOT Beacon Grant Fund Advance of $212.50 was approved. This grant will advance back once revenue is received, and it is to cover the CMT professional services bill from Jan. 28 through Feb. 24 of this year.

The commissioners approved a contract agreement for Buschur Electric, Inc. out of Minster for the relocation project at the Darke County Airport. Buschur will be in charge of relocating the electrical vault, and the project shall not exceed $224,000.

“It’s part of the AIP Project process that we had, and this was last summer. We had awarded the bid to Buschur Electric, and we just now got the signed agreements back,” Aultman said.

He advised This was from an award in June of 2022, and this is just a formality of approving the contract that was awarded then.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Margaret B. Hayes, attended the meeting to sign off on a grant contract once the board of commissioners approved and signed off on the contract. The Grant Contract is between the Darke County Commissioners and ODOT Office of Aviation.

The county will be responsible for $30,762 of the $381,075 total. The rest of the expenses will come from the state.

“This is part of the crack sealing we talked about and put out for bid. This is just formalizing the contract,” Aultman said.

The commissioners discussed an Ohio Bureau of Workers Comp with Employer Statement for Group-Experience Rating Program and Rating Plan Agreement between CCAO Service Corporation and Darke County.

Kelly Everheart said they had been in a group retro rating for a while and were able to move into a group rating plan as of last year.

“What that meant for us as a county is a pulled savings of about $40,000, so with that, we did have to implement a couple different programs,” Everheart said.

The county has received refunds due to implementing those programs, and this year the county gets about $6,000 back in money saved.

“What this would be is a renewal to stay in that group rating program. We are actually eligible again this year,” Everheart said.

Out of 60 counties, Darke County is one of seven to be eligible. This in itself manifests additional savings.

“The reason we are able to be in this program in the first place is just from all of the work that the county has done to keep our employees safe,” Everheart said.

She recommended the commissioners approve to stay in the group program with all the other program spin off functions in order to maintain the refunds.

“We are eligible because we’ve been showing we’ve been participating and putting in the effort in this group?” Marshall questioned.

Everheart said that it was a small part of why the county is able to gain the refunds. She advised the loss ratios and workers comp claims are another part of the process.

“Getting our folks back to work, making sure we don’t have big claims, and making sure that those claims are taken care of right away,” Everheart said.

Holmes advised Everheart did a nice job putting together a transitional work program which he said “goes a long way to controlling those costs, not letting those claims get out of control, and getting the employee back into the work status – which is a win win for the employee and us.”

“I also want to thank Holmes because he went through the process with Everheart last year and figured out how to get us through this program. We got to give a big thanks to both of them,” Aultman 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].