EATON — In 2016, Preble County became the only Ohio County to become an ACT Certified Work Ready community.

According to Preble County Development Partnership (PCDP) Director Brenda Latanza, the county is working hard to maintain that status. She presented the Board of Commissioners a quarterly update during the commissions regular meeting on Monday, June 25, where she noted it had been a busy quarter.

“Over the last quarter I met with a few businesses who expressed interest in the partnership’s revolving loan fund,” she said. “We closed one last week for a business in Lewisburg for $15,000. So, really, people are asking about it and taking advantage of it.”

Latanza said the PCDP is now offering an internship.

“The Preble County Development Partnership Workforce Development Committee started its first internship program this year,” she said. “We had a couple of seniors at companies like Neaton, Silfex, Dow, Henny Penny, and Bullen. A couple of those were even offered long term positions, so we’re excited about that. We will start another one this year.”

She thanked the commissioners for their support during a recent business walk in Eaton and Lewisburg.

“We organized and conducted another business walk this year. Thank you for attending that. We visited a total of 22 companies in the City of Eaton and Village of Lewisburg. Every company was so appreciative. That is a good way for us to reach out to those companies.”

Latanza said the latest attendees of the Leadership Preble County program recently graduated.

“The partnership sponsored the Leadership Preble County again this past year and the graduation for that class was held on June 14,” she said. “I love the comments from every person who stood up there and talked about the county and how the leadership class helped them.”

She added, “[PCDP] continues to move forward and build our relationship within the county.”

In other business, administrative assistant Kim Keller updated the commissioners on the Sewer District Six (SD6) contract with CDM Smith, noting after review it was clear the contract was not the same as the last approved contract. She made note of the changes and forwarded them to Sanitary Engineer Bob Kohnen.

“Nothing I asked for is any different from the last contract. The only thing I asked for that is different this time is where they talk about getting us one copy of the printed report and two printed final copies, I asked them to provide us with the printed and electronic,” Keller said.

The Preble County Board of Commissioners meet every Monday and Wednesday in open session at 9 a.m. at the Preble County Courthouse.