2/28/19 – 11:34 A.M.

A routine item approved by the Hancock County Commissioners Thursday ended a piece of county history. The commissioners authorized the final flood mitigation payment to the Maumee Watershed Conservancy District.

The more than $287,000 payment came from money raised by a quarter percent sales tax that started a decade ago. The sales tax set aside money for mitigation projects following the devastating 2007 Blanchard River flood.

The tax expired at the end of 2018. The county commissioner replaced it with a new quarter-percent sales tax to pay for construction of a new juvenile and probate court and a possible jail expansion.