The City of Lima joined the Allen County Commissioners on Thursday morning to discuss collaborative efforts in the community.
Precious Grundy | The Lima News
LIMA — The City of Lima and the Allen County Commissioners are embracing the idea of working together. Allen County Commissioners invited the City of Lima to its agenda meeting Thursday morning.
This is not the first effort of the two government offices to come together. The city of Lima invited commissioners to city council on Dec. 19, 2022. The two entities discussed their ongoing partnership and the projects they continue to work on collaboratively.
“We want the public to know that we do work together,” said Mayor Sharetta Smith. “We hear a lot about relationships around the city and myths about how we do not get along and that we do not collaborate. It (the partnership) is important for economic development. We want people to know we have a healthy functioning government that is not afraid to talk with one another and do what is best for all of the citizens.”
The city staff, council members and the county commissioners’ office also discussed their ongoing communication.
“The dialogue between the city and the council happens on a regular basis,” said Commissioner Cory Noonan. “Picking up the phone, meetings or committees that we are on. This is a public forum where the mayor was able to bring her staff and city council to be here with the commissioners to have a public discussion. This is something that happened at council. We were able to meet with the mayor, her staff and her office. This is a public example of a public dialogue to have everyone hearing different things we are working on. The ability to pick up the phone when you hear something or how can we work on this or I have this idea. That happens whether it’s the council calling one of the commissioners or staff. That communication happens pretty regularly. It is pretty exciting. This is not uncommon and we just look forward to the future.”
The city and the county work together on many different projects, such as with housing, sanitary engineering and much more.
“There a few things this year that are really important, like the CIC (Community Improvement Corporation) for example,” said Peggy Ehora, 4th Ward Council member. “The process that we are going through now to acquire property and start the process for us of rehabilitating our neighborhoods. That to me is one of the biggest collaborations with the county this year to work through the land bank properties to get what we need to move our neighborhoods forward. I see that as a real positive.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
