Elyria, Ohio – At each county commissioners’ meeting a variety of items are voted on. Many involve financial expenditures. When the commissioners discuss any of the items, I report that discussion. At the 6/9/21 meeting none of the commissioners offered any input on the 19 items on the agenda. All were passed unanimously.
In four of the 19 agenda items a grand total of $1,668,136.20 was approved for four different projects.
Following votes taken on the 19 agenda items each commissioner reported on his/her activities for the previous week.
Matt Lundy followed Michelle Hung’s report on county support of the Lorain County Fair. While he expressed his personal support for the fair in general, he took the opportunity to continue to express his never ending opposition to what he described as the fair board “marketing” of the confederate flag. In his words the flag is “a symbol of hate and more recently insurrection”.
He went on to express his support for Sam Felton of the Lorain County Veterans who he described as a “Big man with a big heart.” Sam has been a great voice for Veterans, and Matt is pleased that a park is being named in Sam’s honor.
Matt also expressed his support for Carvana coming to Lorain County. He credited the previous administration for their work in bringing Carvana here with 400 new jobs, $23M in investment, and $13M in payroll. This was all done without the need for any annexation. He said it is a great example of what can be accomplished when government works together. Six entities were involved in bringing the project to fruition—Lorain County, Elyria, Elyria Township, Lorain, state of Ohio, and the schools.
Matt attended the Genesis House Silent Witness Exhibit which shows women and children victims of domestic abuse. The fatality rate is staggering with three women per day in the U.S. being killed. Every 15 minutes a woman is being abused by someone who supposedly loves them.
Matt provided covid statistics from the Community Protection Team (https://www.morningjournal.com/news/lorain-county/lorain-county-community-protection-team-dr-rebecca-starck-cleveland-clinic-avon-hospital/image_4433cb08-9190-11eb-9196-77efb68f04da.html).
There are 67 active cases in the county with 50% of residents having taken the covid shot. Matt would like to see more getting the shot. Currently there is a push for 12 to 16 year olds to get the shot. The county currently has 1300 units of J&J which will expire at the end of the month. If not used, they will be destroyed because they cannot be shipped elsewhere.
Matt’s final comments were that he did not get the chance to review the Commissioner Newsletter that has just been distributed thru out the county, and he wants to make sure that does not happen again.
In the past week Dave Moore met with Keith Faber, Auditor of Ohio. It was Faber’s 2nd visit to Lorain County.
On Friday Dave met with Michael Dowd, new director of MHARS. Dave feels Mr. Dowd is sincere and that the Board made the right choice for filling the position. Mr. Dowd has 30 years service with Cuyahoga County. Mr. Moore and Mr. Dowd had some discussion on the crisis center. Dave says it is time to stop talking and time to start building.
On Monday Dave attended a meeting at LCCC put on by Jobs Ohio. Marcia Ballinger and Tracy Green were in attendance along with a number of local politicians. They discussed Synergies-how government and non profits can work together.
Tracy Green is the head of GLIDE. According to information available on the internet (http://www.glideit.org)
The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) helps Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs wrap sound business practices around great business ideas. GLIDE’s experienced Entrepreneurs-in-Residence provide professional business assistance to companies at every stage of development and connect entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed.
GLIDE is a partnership of the Lorain County Commissioners, Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and Lorain County Community College. Dave reported that when he was a commissioner in March of 2001 $6.5M of excess funds was uncovered. As a result, some of those funds were used to form an Economic Development Fund. Over the last 20 years due to the business successes funded by EDF, EDF (known as GLIDE) has received national awards and has been an example for entrepreneurs all across the U.S.
Dave indicated that GLIDE tours are available to the public and encouraged people to take advantage of those tours.
Dave ended his report with a challenge to Commissioner Lundy regarding Matt’s earlier comment accusing the fair board of “marketing’’ the confederate flag. Dave pointed out that the correct comment would be that one vendor at the fair has sold the confederate flag. Dave said he hoped Matt had misspoken and would take the opportunity to correct his comment.
Mr. Lundy made no public response.
(Note: This is a report on the Lorain County Commissioners’ Meeting held June 9, 2021.)