11/29/17 – 5:20 A.M.
Parts of South Main Street are under a boil water advisory this morning. The city’s water distribution department says the alert affects several homes in the 2400 and 2500 blocks of South Main. This area includes the businesses in the Servus Center shopping complex.
The water department says residents in the affected area should boil water for at least a minute before using it.
Affected Homes:
South Main Street: 2431, 2435, 2447, 2449, 2455, 2473, 2500, 2501, 2514, 2516
11/29/17 – 5:15 A.M.
The Hancock County ADAMHS board is getting a grant to expand addiction and mental health services. A release from the agency says the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is giving ADAMHS a two-year grant worth $85,000 each year.
Director Precia Stuby says the grant will help the agency partner with the Allen-Auglaize-Hardin and Putnam County Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services boards. They’ll put in place a new program for youth addiction services. Stuby says they’ll use “evidence-based substance use treatment strategies as well as alternative peer groups.”
ADAMHS also received a two-year federal grant for more than $149,000. They’ll use the money to improve mental health care in the county’s justice system.
11/29/17 – 5:04 A.M.
A panel of Ohio Senate Republicans has recommended State Representative PRob McColley take the seat left open by Cliff Hite’s resignation. The Courier reports the screening committee announced their decision Tuesday night. Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof said the Senate Republican caucus will meet soon to accept the recommendation. He added the goal is to seat McColley by early December.
McColley will serve the remaining 13 months of Cliff Hite’s unexpired term.
Hite stepped down in October following a sexual harassment complaint.
McColley currently represents the 81st House District, which includes Putnam, Henry, and Williams counties. It also covers part of Fulton County.
MORE: The Courier
11/29/17 – 12 A.M.
Findlay City School Board held a special meeting Tuesday evening. Superintendent Ed Kurt said that damage caused by the straight line winds earlier in the month is looking to be expensive.
Kurt said that they’ll have the final amount at their next meeting on December 11. He added that the work needs to be done to avoid letting moisture get through the roof an into the buildings. They also need to make repairs to the auxiliary gym. The winds made the gym unstable and unusable.
11/28/17 – 5:21 P.M.
Some University of Findlay students are working on a video project to talk about area flooding. Megan Adams is teaching a class on digital storytelling and said that this will help people talk about what happened to them.
Findlay Floods is the name of the continuing project. Adams added that she hopes this process will start a dialogue among concerned rural, urban, and suburban groups.
You can share your story this Sunday from 1-4 p.m. at UF’s Center for Storytelling and Participatory Media.
11/28/17 – 5:03 P.M.
Fostoria has taken to social media to enhance workforce development. Fostoria Economic Development Corporation president Renee Smith said that using Facebook has helped get more information out.
Smith said that this will help improve Fostoria’s reputation.
You can access the Facebook page at JOBSFostoria.
11/28/17 – 12:00 P.M.
Hancock County hunters tagged more deer during the opening day of deer-gun season compared to a year ago. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says local hunters checked 133 deer on Monday. That’s compared to 95 in 2016.
Putnam County hunters checked 34 more deer on opening day this year compared to last year.
The Department of Natural Resources says numbers were higher in every area county. That follows a statewide trend. The total number of deer tagged Monday came to more than 22,000. That’s nearly 3,600 more than a year ago.
11/28/17 – 11:17 A.M.
Hancock County is taking a step to keep employees at the Department of Job and Family Services. Starting in 2018 employees will work under a new pay scale. The new system allows employees to get to the top of the pay scale in six steps rather than 12.
Assistant prosecutor Cindy Land says the change doesn’t impact the department’s budget, just the step process for employees.
In other Job and Family Services news, the commissioners approved a new three-year contract with JFS Director Diana Hoover. The contract says Hoover will make $85,000 in the first year of the deal and a little more than $88,000 in the final year.
The commissioners also appropriated another $50,000 for Job and Family Services to help deal with children affected by the current opioid epidemic.
11/28/17 – 10:57 A.M.
Part of State Route 12 in Columbus Grove is closing starting Wednesday. ODOT says railroad repair work will close the highway between Main and Turner streets. The agency is detouring traffic onto State Route 65 and Sycamore Street to get around the work area.
The project should take a week to finish.
11/28/17 – 10:47 A.M.
The latest round of Blanchard River flooding earlier this month created more logjams along the waterway. Assistant Hancock County Engineer Doug Cade says crews will start removing them again next week…
Audio: Doug Cade
Cade says there are also smaller logjams underneath bridges on County Road 140 and County Road 169.
Cade says crews inspect bridges over the river after every flood…
Audio: Doug Cade
Cade adds debris from upstream created the logjams, and not trees removed from along the river in Hancock County. Some in the agriculture community have the process of leaving downed trees behind the tree line neat the river.