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 Members of the Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council pose for photo outside the classroom earlier this year. To date, the group has raised nearly $2,300 in which they have donated to various local and area organizations throughout the 2009-2010 school year. Photo provided By KRISTA HAYES
Staff Writer
With the end of the school year nearing, Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council members are hoping to end their term on a positive note.
During the school year, the school government raised nearly $2,300 for various local and area organizations.
“Each year, we try and raise as much money as we can for various clubs and organizations that we vote on and decide to help support at the beginning of the school year,” Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council President Neal Maxson said.
Elected a Student Council representative of his homeroom, Maxson, a seventh-grade student, said this is his second year serving on the council. This year as president, his main responsibility is to set forth an agenda and preside over the group’s monthly meetings which are held the first and third Thursday of each month.
“I joined the Student Council because I was looking for a new activity to do and thought it’d be challenging experience,” Maxson said. “Politics have always been one of the things to stick out in my head and when I grow up, I want to be a lawyer.
“Overall, as president I think I have done a pretty good job,” he said. “Being president is a lot harder than what I thought it would be since I have to make the agendas, run the meetings, and keep the advisers in the loop. I have the whole weight of the council on my shoulders, and at times it can get frustrating, but I would recommend it to all the kids coming to the middle school next year because it’s a fun activity to be involved in.”
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Asking for less: County clerk reduces her budget demands |
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Thursday, 12 November 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
At $298,000, an Auglaize County official is asking for approximately $4,000 less from the Aug-laize County Commissioners to run her office in 2010.
“We’re taking it back to about the 2008 level,” Clerk of Courts Sue Ellen Kohler said. “We were able to decrease from what we originally asked for. We’re trying to be very conservative, yet realistic.”
In May when she submitted her first proposed budget for 2010, Kohler requested an increase of $8,730, but since economic conditions remain a concern she revised that figure again. She is no longer accounting for a 3 percent increase in employee salaries and subsequent increases in workers compensation and the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS).
In her latest proposal, which asked for $298,081 for 2010, Kohler decided against requesting a change in salaries, a hot button for elected office holders and department supervisors, as she knew that would be up to the Auglaize County Commissioners to decide.
“The salary line is what you make it,” Kohler said as she submitted her proposed budget to commissioners recently. “I can’t do anything about that. I’m at your mercy.”
In May she submitted a request for an $11,000 increase to the Municipal Court Budget. This time she decreased the budget by more than $9,000 in her latest submittal at nearly $310,000.
She asked for $3,000 more to consider a copier management agreement, but $2,000 less in services because the new credit card system is up and running, allowing for cheaper rates in that line item.
Again, she withdrew her request asking for 3 percent increases in employee salaries.
Kohler asked for the same amount down the line for the Certificate of Title Office in 2010. At $169,184, it’s a decrease of nearly $11,000 from her May request.
She said since the state Legislature enacted additional fees in July, they have collected $28,000 more than they would have been without it.
Since Cash for Clunkers ended, the office has seen a decrease in sales, but that is typical through mid-March since people steer away from purchasing new cars during the winter months.
“We would like to set that money aside for further renovations of the building as needed,” Kohler said.
Two computer funds supported by fines charged in each court case should be well funded for 2010, she said.
Ten dollars from each case, excluding traffic cases which charge $5 each, goes into the funds for the municipal and common pleas courts.
“We try to be realistic,” Kohler said. “We are not charging people to come before the court or for money we don’t need.”
She said they are charging below the maximum allowed by the state per case.
Judges approve expenditures from the accounts, which have combined funds of $241,000.
They are working on using a portion of that money to image court documents, something Kohler is hoping to have solidified next year.
“We’ve got 16 boxes of files that we have no place to put,” Kohler said. “We hope with money saved we can offer summer internships to image those old cases and get rid of those files by 2011.”
She said everything could be regenerated in paper format, but she is hoping that more work could be done from documents imaged on computer screens.
“We would keep the original documents through the appeal process and then the document would never have to leave the office,” Kohler said. “As we get a piece of paper imaged, we could write it to a disk and store it a more secure way.
“I’ve taken all the offices from paper, pen and typewriter to computers,” she said, “and imaging is where we need to be with technology today.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 13 November 2009 )
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