VOTE411 Voter Guide

The IT Department and the County Sheriff would work together to help restore service after a power grid disruption. However, recognizing that cyber-threats can arise without warning, the County IT Department recently took measures to increase our network bandwidth, improve performance, and provide more cyber-security. This included purchasing and installing a protective service, NinjaOne, which proved helpful in stopping a recent cyber-attack. County employees have been trained in cyber-security tactics to prevent access to the County computer system by would-be cyber-terrorists. A logical extension of that program would be to educate local private citizens and business owners through pamphlets and in-person or online training programs.

The Commissioners hold twice-weekly sessions at the Courthouse, which are followed by a public comment period. The results of our work and decisions are recorded in out minutes and are documented and published in the local papers and on social media. We Commissioners also appear at many public and private events across the county. To further increase transparency and communication, I advocate the return of the Commissioners’ pre-COVID practice of holding monthly public meetings that include a question-and-answer period on site in the various municipalities around Wood County. I also advocate expanding that practice to include appearances at Township meetings. Personally, my door is always open to Wood County’s Citizens.

The County' Wood County Soil and Water Conservation District has educational programs for farmers on soil management, and H2Ohio has programs on topics like drainage water management, Subsurface Phosphorus Placement Programs, and many more. H2Ohio also has funds to help Ohio farmers afford best management practices, like underground manure injectors to decrease run-off, and soil testers to prevent excessive applications of manure. We also work with the Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, which provides research funding for pollution control. Ohio EPA helps to find and eliminate improper sewage management polluting our waterways. And the Sheriff's office has a portable scale to keep overweight trucks with CAFO waste off our roadways.

Wood County has a robust Emergency Management System that can handle physical disasters, but I suspect that it, like many other government entities, is behind the curve when it comes to being prepared for cyber threats. The new reality is that cyberspace / the Internet is another piece of infrastructure that helps us accomplish or work and complete our goals in life. We need to start treating it like the rest of our infrastructure and invest in protecting it.

The current commission could be so much more when it comes to coordinating with our cities, towns, and township boards to help each accomplish their individual and collective goals. By implementing a proactive communication plan, the county and its municipalities can bring a wider variety of resources to bear on any problem or opportunity that comes our way. Now more than ever, we need to work together to make Wood County a place for everyone to have the chance to succeed.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are a complicated subject. On one hand they provide the majority of our meat and dairy products, but on the other hand they represent a potentially serious environmental hazard. The EPA has some serious regulation as to how they can be run, but they have been hampered in enforcing these regulations by budgetary restraints. If elected to county commissioner, I would work to ensure the enforcement of these regulations by defending those budgetary line items at the local level, and attempt to find additional funding for them so that we can mitigate the impact CAFO's have on those around them.