Commissioners receive jobs update from JFS

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EATON — The Preble County Commissioners were given an updated look at unemployment within the county by Job and Family Services Director Becky Sorrell during a meeting on Wednesday, July, 1.

The unemployment rate in Preble County was at 6.10 percent at the beginning of the year and has since steadily declined each month to 4.5 percent for both April and May according to Sorrel’s report.

The national average according to Sorrell’s report is 5.3 percent and is 4.9 percent statewide, putting Preble County below both national and state averages. Mercer County marked the lowest unemployment rate in the state with 3.1 percent and Monroe County was the highest at 9.4 percent.

Sorrell also informed commissioners there were 213 cases that were “auto-closed” by the “new system” in which a lawsuit was filed against the state for closing cases without enough notice and the result was all cases had to be reopened by July 28.

Sorrell told commissioners of those 213 in Preble County all but 26 have been reopened and those were because of “trouble tickets” and were issues the state needed to fix.

David Anderson of the EMA and Kevin Thorpe of Lakengren Property Owners Association discussed the emergency action plan for the Lakengren Dam and informed commissioners there was a plan and chain of command in place if the dam were to break.

Thorpe told commissioners the dam is engineered to handle up to 32 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. He said there is enough vegetation in the Camden area to prevent a “wall” of water from forming and the biggest concern would be the houses directly behind the dam.

Thorpe noted, the ODNR informed him the plan is well ahead of the curve. He also told commissioners it is the same plan that has been in place and it’s simply a precautionary measure to inform commissioners there is a plan in place.

In other business commissioners:

• Approved the bid specs for Camden’s Second Street Project

• Authorized an emergency expenditure for the Landfill to purchase a leachate pump after large amounts of rain forced the landfill to haul off site for the first time.

• Three bids were opened for the Rockridge Road Culvert Replacement: Dearst Brothers for $52,270; Toms Construction Incorporated for $ 41,623 and Brumbaugh Construction for $53,250.

• Three bids were opened for the Gratis Mack Street Waterline Replacement: Dearst Brothers for $55,420 and CJ Construction Utilities for $34,952. The engineer’s estimate was $35,100 for the project.

County commissioners meet every Monday and Wednesday at 9 a.m. at the Preble County Courthouse.

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