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 Area residents used snowblowers, snow plows and snow shovels to dig out from a winter storm that hit late Friday and Saturday. Another storm is to hit tonight. Staff photo/William Laney MIKE BURKHOLDER
and WILLIAM LANEY
Staff Writers
A winter snow storm, which dumped as much as 3 feet in the Washington, D.C. area, hit the area with as much as 9 inches of snow in Wapakoneta and some areas of Auglaize County.
The snowfall came with high winds which created drifts as tall as 4 feet causing hazards for the city and county roadways.
Wapakoneta weather observer Dan Dietz calculated 8.5 inches of snow fell in Wapakoneta Friday and Saturday. The National Weather Service is predicting as much as 10 more inches starting with a light snow at midnight with most of the snow falling throughout the day Tuesday before tapering off early Wednesday morning.
Wapakoneta Public Works Superintendent Meril Simpson said city crews hit the roads at 4 a.m. Saturday, but the high winds hampered their effforts.
Crews worked until 4:15 p.m.. Saturday and returned Sunday and worked from 7 a.m. to 1p.m. before heading back out early this morning.
“We are attempting to clear the roadways the best we can and we are dumping more salt and grit this time,” Simpson said this morning. “The temperature is still too cold for the salt to work, but if we get enough sun it may warm it up enough to help.”
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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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