Post-meeting release 7/15/21
Commissioners receive bids for airport taxiway project, learn about H2Ohio
*** See the video recap at the bottom of this page!
[Tiffin, OH — July 15, 2021] — The Seneca County Board of Commissioners received six bids for the Seneca County Airport taxiway drainage improvement project.
The Engineer’s Estimate for the project was $847,153.50.
The bids received were as follows:
• Geo Gradel, of Toledo, for $789,024.80
• Rietschlin Construction, of Crestline, for $817,352.80
• Kwest Group, of Perrysburg, for $650,614.80
• Mark Schaffer Excavating and Trucking, of Norwalk for $686,813.80
• Unilliance Inc., of Oak Harbor, for $839,870.10
• JDR Excavating, of Findlay, for $680,389.69
Stantec, the county’s engineering consultant for the airport, is to review the bids before moving forward with the project.
Brian Crosier, of Stantec, said typically the Federal Aviation Administration covers 90 percent of similar projects, with a five percent match by the state and local government working on the project. In this case, he said the FAA is to cover 100 percent of the cost. This is due to American Rescue Plan funds being made available.
Crosier said the work to improve drainage on the taxiway is a great project to continue protecting the county’s investments at the airport.
In other action, Seneca County Conservation District Team Leader Beth Diesch updated the commissioners on the latest happenings from her office. She informed the board of the H2Ohio program.
Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine announced that Seneca and nine other counties in the Western Lake Erie Basin were added to the H2Ohio’s farmer incentive program. The program includes $120 million over two years to continue and expand funding to farmers working to reduce phosphorous runoff. Phosphorus runoff has been determined to be a primary factor behind harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie.
Diesch said farmers must sign up for the program at the conservation district office. The deadline for registration is Aug. 31. She said the program is not competitive, and every farmer who applies will be accepted. The plan is about reducing and managing nutrients.
Each participant is to create a four-year plan for how nutrients will be used on the farm. For creating the pan, each farm will receive a $10 per acre incentive.
During County Administrator Stacy Wilson’s report, she gave a positive sales tax report for July.
She said $988,632.13 was the figure collected for July, which reflects sales tax from some of April and most of May. The number was about 31 percent higher than the same period in 2019. Through the first seven months of the year, nearly $6.3 million has been collected via the county’s portion of the sales tax, outpacing 2019 by more than $1 million (a roughly 21.8-percent increase). Wilson compares 2021 figures to 2019 because the comparison is misleading when considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on 2020 figures.
In other business, Wilson informed the board that the county had received a $20,025 dividend refund from the County Risk-Sharing Authority (CORSA) on its premium.
In new business, the board approved all resolutions from the pre-meeting release except the FY20 COSSAP Fund appropriation, which will be considered at a later date.