DARKE COUNTY — The Darke County Board of Commissioners held its last bi-weekly meeting of 2017 Wednesday, and passed measures involving increased appropriations for the coming year and service agreements between county entities, Greenville City Schools, and a local HVAC company.
According to a letter presented to the commissioners by Darke County Auditor Carol Ginn, appropriations for the 2018 Darke County General Fund were submitted in the amount of $24,111,535.35, an increase of $738,803.54 over the previous year. Including outside funds, 2018 appropriations for Darke County totaled $71,879,787.51.
Revenue for the Darke County General Fund, meanwhile, was estimated at $18,604,370.25, an increase of $802,027.48 over 2017.
Ginn attributed the increase in appropriations to a number of sources, including increasing health insurance costs for county employees, and funds from reimbursable departmental grants.
“I just want to commend Carol and all the department heads for doing a great job again this year,” County Commissioner Mike Stegall said after the measure was read and passed.
“I can remember a few years back we actually worked on Christmas getting this done,” Commissioner Mike Rhoades recalled.
Commissioners also approved an agreement with Comfort USA Systems to service HVAC controls for the Darke County Courthouse, the county facility on Garst Avenue, and the Darke County Sheriff’s Department. Charges for the three locations for the coming year totaled $8,040.
“They’ve been a really big help,” Commissioner Rhoades said of the Hamilton, Ohio-based company. “They know our systems well enough, anyhow.”
Finally, commissioners approved an agreement between Greenville City Schools and Darke County Job and Family Services for the former to provide educational services, including job training classes, to eligible Darke County residents, including members of at-risk families, children in danger of being removed from their homes, disabled residents, those with felonies, and those referred by the county courts, as part of their “Taking Charge of Your Life” program. The program aims to help introduce or, in some cases, re-introduce unemployed residents into the workforce.
“This is something we’ve been doing for a few years now,” Commissioner Stegall said. “I think they’ve done 56 or 57 classes. It’s done an awful lot of good for an awful lot of people.”
Commissioners will hold their first meeting of 2018 Wednesday, January 3.
