The Darke County Commissioners met on Thursday to discuss Attorney General Training, ODOD Grant for Broadband Internet, and bids for Courthouse maintenance.
Commissioners Matt Aultman and Larry Holmes were present.
The board approved Resolution (R-245-2023), a Revenue and appropriation increase for the Darke County Sheriff. This is to cover the new 2023 Attorney General Training that was unknown at the beginning of the year. The increase will be $25,596 for revenue and appropriations.
The board then approved an ODOD Grant Agreement between the “State of Ohio, Dept. of Development” and the “Darke County Board of Commissioners” for a project to bring reliable and affordable fiber broadband to the county. The total project cost is $2,797,179. The grant covers $500,000. The board is working with Agile Network Builders LLC to extend Agile Network Builders LLC’s hybrid fiber wireless network to fixed tower sites to provide the most coverage throughout rural Darke County.
“The vendor is putting in $840,00, and actually, yesterday, the Darke County Community Improvement Corporation approved $600,000 over three years,” Commissioner Larry Holmes said. “Leaving the county itself with $857,179, which will come out of our Captial accounts.”
Part of formalizing the process of receiving the funds from the Darke County Community Improvement Corporation is the letter of request that the board approved. With this, the Commissioners will receive $200,000 per year for 2023, 2024, and 2025. Making a total of $600,000 for the broadband project.
The board then received Bids for Courthouse Maintenance and Renovation of Exterior with prevailing wage. The received a bid of $412,512 from Arcon, $443,330 from Mid State Contractors, $506,766 from Brian Bros, and $539,500 from Trisco.
“Back a couple of years ago, we hired AP Architecture to do a facilities review,” Commissioner Matt Aultman said. “Some points of consideration were some of the grout between the stones are loose and missing, there are some water and weather permeations on some of the outside structures, and there are windows that are leaking or seeping in certain areas. There are also some general cleaning up and fixing the building because it’s an old building.”
The board approved the bid from Arcon for $412,512.
The Darke County Board of Commissioners holds a regular session every Tuesday and Thursday at 1:30 pm at 520 South Broadway, Greenville, Ohio 45331. For more information, contact the commissioners’ office at 937-547-7370
