Grand Lake group picks leader to clean up lake

ST. MARYS — The Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission has selected a manager for the campaign to clean up the lake.

Milt Miller was picked from among 24 applicants, said Tom Knapke, facilitator of the restoration commission.

“He brings an intimate knowledge of the lake's problems and possible solutions, which will afford us the ability to forge ahead without any loss of momentum,” Knapke said. “He also has 17 years of management, sales and business development and excellent name recognition regionally and at the state level, which is very important to the lake manager's position.”

Miller is a founding member of the restoration commission and already volunteered hundreds of hours on the effort. He is a past president of the St. Marys Area Chamber of Commerce, president of the Lake Development Corp., and a member of the Board of Directors at Otterbein Retirement Community.

“I'm very passionate, very committed and very optimistic about restoring the health of Grand Lake St. Marys,” Miller told the commission members.

Miller's $72,000 salary is funded by the Department of Natural Resources, the cities of Celina and St. Marys, Auglaize and Mercer counties, Lake Improvement Association and the Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission.

Community leaders and volunteers came together in December 2009 to form the commission; its primary goal is to restore the lake's health and make it functional. The commission has fostered regional cooperation and gathered resources needed for the environmental renewal and sustained health of the lake.