Tim Bubb, Licking County Commissioner

Two months into my term as your newest Licking County Commissioner I would like to offer a few thoughts on County Government and areas of achievement. It is no understatement to say that moving from the observer row to the middle seat on the Board of Commissioners is the equivalent of moving to the ‘hot seat’. The scope of the Commissioner position is far reaching and varied. Yet the administrative oversight and spending issues were overshadowed by the fury of mother nature early in 2005.

Taking office at the turn of the year, the recovery from the’ ice storm of the century’ was continuing when more problems arrived. Melting snow and heavy rains brought flooding to southern and eastern Licking County. Reacting to these severe weather events County employees provided assistance to thousands of people, as well as working under difficult conditions to protect public property.

As a Commissioner, I am proud of the efforts of our Sheriff’s personnel and dispatchers, EMA staffers, Highway Department personnel, Health Department staffers, MR-DD personnel, social workers, maintenance staff and others for their extra ordinary efforts to safeguard lives and protect property during the winter weather extremes.

It may be some time before all the costs are known, but the winter of 2004-05 will be an expensive proposition. The flooding damaged three county bridges including one on Frampton Road that is requiring $190-thousand worth of repair. The good news is a majority of the cost of storm recovery for public property will be reimbursed by FEMA.

On a day-to-day basis we as Commissioners hold the purse strings and act as the ‘appropriating authority’ for your County government. The County began the year with an interim budget, which is fairly routine. This gives our Board an opportunity to monitor early revenue and fine-tune the spending plan for 2005.

As a cost savings to the you the taxpayer, we chose not to replace the retiring Finance Director and instead named a team of five existing staffers to fill the role. It is an experiment that initially appears successful, and final number crunching is underway in anticipation of a final budget by the end of March.

In reflection I believe a few words about economic development are in order. Licking County Government’s ‘Development Team’, led by Rob Klinger, is off to a great start working with various public entities and private firms to bring jobs and growth to the area. The Prologis development in Etna Township, the relocation of Victoria’s Secret to Reynoldsburg, the new military workload being transferred by Boeing from Texas to ‘The Base’ in Heath, and several other deals in process will mean ‘jobs and progress’ here in the years ahead.

Also of note, recently Cabot Supermetals began operations at their new high-tech manufacturing site in Etna Township. This collaboration of Licking County, Etna Township, the Southwest Licking Schools, and Southgate Corporation means over 60-new high paying jobs and unlimited high-tech growth potential for our County.

Indeed, if these first 60-days are any indication, County Government will be an exciting place to be in 2005!

A special note - on Tuesday, April 12th in celebration of County Government week - we will again host a special luncheon at The Reese Center. Tickets will be sold from the Commissioner’s Office. This will be a great opportunity to learn about those County employees who are ‘hometown heros’. My fellow Commissioners Marcia Phelps and Jay Baird, and I, invite you to join us for this event.

To contact me with questions or suggestions regarding County government - my office number is 740-670-5118 and my e-mail address is Tbubb@LCounty.com I look forward to hearing from you!