I attended the meeting at the fairgrounds regarding the sales tax increase to fund Capital Improvements in Allen County and was disappointed in the small number of people attending. The success of this tax increase is very important to the future of Allen County and the current County Commissioners have worked very hard to present a complete proposal to solve complex problems.
The Juvenile Detention facility, the court house, the administration building, and the County Engineers facility.
JDC was built when incarceration was the norm. Currently we look to rehabilitate and train the young people to manage their problems and the facility does not support this type of use.
The various county courtrooms are currently in three different buildings which create security problems when moving defendants from the jail to the courtroom. Consolidating all the courts into the court house will eliminate this problem.
Putting all of the administrative county offices into one building will enhance the citizens use of these offices.
And finally the County Engineer’s facility has only 4 acres of land and the study recommended a much larger area to adequately maintain the large trucks and other equipment necessary for him to perform his work and to allow the purchase of road salt and other supplies in larger quantities to allow for bulk purchase when prices are good. The commissioners have also designated an additional $500,000 yearly to road and bridge work.
This very small additional tax will allow an orderly plan to take care of problems that have been building up for years and the efficiencies gained with this plan will save taxpayer money and improve services for years to come.
Phillip C. Sellati, Lima
