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Summary of news stories last updated June
27th, 2008 - listen to Tiger Country, 97.5 FM WTGR for up to the minute news
coverage.
Darke County Commissioners Take Steps
on Wagner Roof Project
Darke County has approved a proposal
that will allow work to move forward on roof repair at the Wagner Avenue
government center in Greenville. At
Monday’s meeting, the commissioners approved an intent to sign a contract with
Design-Build Solutions that paves the way for Kremer Roofing of Versailles to
begin work after the 4th of July holiday.
Low bids on several types of new roofs for the center were presented at
the meeting with Kremer’s bid being accepted at $624,909.
Contracts will be signed in two weeks.
Marshall says that work will take between 60 and 90 days to complete,
weather permitting.
Greenville Schools Gets Final Junior
High Report Next Week
The Greenville Schools administration
may only be a week away from the final report from engineers’ on the
districts’ junior high school building. According
to Director of Administrative Services, John McGreevey, yesterday (Tuesday) was
the final day of testing at the site. Last
week, Superintendent Susie Reigle reported that no new problems had been
discovered through the current laser testing of the buildings inner structure
through about 70% of testing. McGreevey,
who met with engineers yesterday as well as updated school board members at last
nights’ meeting, says that the administration is proceeding as if the report
will come back clean. Moving ahead
with plans to repair the school is the only way work can be completed by the
time classes’ resume in the Fall.
Versailles School Board Awards More
Construction Bids
The Versailles School Board has
officially awarded two of the final three bid categories- food/kitchen equipment
and fire suppression systems- for their new school construction project at
Tuesday’s meeting. Technology
systems is the lone bid package yet to be awarded on the approximate $29 million
K-12 project which broke ground off of St Rt 47 in May.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, a resolution was passed to re-bid the
technology bid systems package. Doseck
explains that the primary bidder had omitted a view items necessary for the job
when bids were originally opened two weeks ago.
Versailles Council Passes Several
Ordinances and Resolutions
The Versailles Village Council
approved several pieces of legislation at their Wednesday meeting.
Council approved final passage of an ordinance that raises village refuse
rates of collection by 7%. The new
rate will become effective with the bills that are due on August 10th.
A resolution was also given final approval that will authorize a 1.4 mill
fire replacement levy on the November ballot. The levy is being proposed to
provide for funds for a replacement pumper truck.
In other meeting news, council authorized the village to apply for grant
money for the North West Street Improvement Project.
Work would begin in 2010 and include the stretch from CSX to Greenlawn
Avenue. A public hearing was set for the proposed 2009 tax budget for Wednesday,
July 9th at 7:15 PM
School
Bus Inspections Underway By OSHP
The
Ohio State Highway began school bus inspections last week in District 5, which
includes Darke, Miami, and Mercer Counties.
The bus inspections will take all summer and will include surprise
inspections as well at each school during the school year.
The teams that will go district by district all this summer
consist of a trooper and patrol inspectors. Most problems are fixed while
inspectors are on site. If nothing is found wrong with a bus, it takes a team of two
to three about 10 minutes to inspect each bus.
Area schools still to be inspected include Versailles and Russia, which
will be checked tomorrow, Fort Recovery on June 27th, Franklin Monroe
and Bradford on June 30th, Tri Village on July 8th,
Mississinawa Valley on August 6th, and Greenville on August 18th.
Greenville Township Fire Department
Settling Into New Roles
Six months after the official
creation of the Greenville Township Fire Department, officials say that their
first year of independence is going well. Until
last year, the township paid the city for fire services through its fire levy.
When service cost negotiations famously broke down during 2007, the
township looked to form it’s own unit. After
substantial number crunching, township officials saw that, after start-up costs,
they could run a fire department on about $50,000 a year.
According to Chris North, Public Information Officer for the department,
average response time to alarms this year has been about five minutes. Through May 31st, the township fire department had
answered 92 alarms and has been fairly independent, having only received or
asked for mutual aid six times. Despite
public talk of animosity between the city and the township departments since the
split, North says that Fire Chiefs Chris Greer and Mark Wolfe speak almost every
week.
Wind Energy Show Hints at New Direction
For Randolph County
Randolph Economic Development
Director Greg Beumer’s trip this week to wind energy show could yield
long-term results for Randolph County on several fronts.
According to Beumer, contact was made with several companies that were
seeking manufacturers of parts for wind turbines and related equipment.
That need could prove lucrative for manufacturers in a county already
being looked at by the wind energy business for future development.
The AWEA is predicting that Indiana could have 20,000 additional jobs by
2030 in the renewable energy industry. Beumer
states that Randolph has a chance to brand itself as a hub for renewable energy
through its wind farm development, turbine manufacturing and bio-fuel
production. Additionally, Beumer
and Randolph Eastern Superintendent Cathy Stephen have been discussing the
potential for energy related classes at the school corporation.
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