Commissioners receive month job report

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EATON — The Preble County Commissioners met in regular session on Wednesday, July 29 to discuss the current state of the Job and Family Services within the county.

During the meeting, commissioners met with JFS officials for a monthly update and discussed a wide range of related items.

JFS was represented by Becky Sorrell and Jeff Centers, who reported a slight increase in unemployment rate in Preble County for the month of June. Unemployment was at 4.7 percent for the month compared to 4.5 percent for the month of a May. However unemployment was at 6.10 percent at the start of the year.

For the month of June, there were 259 recipients for OWF cash assistance and 4,659 receiving food assistance. JFS also saw 334 new applicants for assistance in the month of June for a total of 2,374 for the year.

JFS has collected $89,339.50 in fraud collections since the beginning of the year after collecting $11,877 in June.

Sorrell also discussed the Ohio Benefit system SNAP/TANF implementation which was originally scheduled to be completed by July of 2015 but has since been pushed back to July of 2017.

The system, which Sorrell says cost millions of dollars for the state, works to some degree but a wide range of glitches and bugs continue to cause her workers to spend many hours on the phone with the states help desk according to Sorrell.

Sorrell said the system was designed to better meet a person’s or family’s needs and prevent more costly publicly funded services. She said the system was also designed to help prevent service delivery duplication, waste, fraud and abuse.

In other business:

• Commissioners signed an agreement with Aramark for food services to the Preble County Jail for $100,000. Commissioners noted this is the final year of the renewal and the contract will go to bid next year.

• Commissioners held a bid opening for the West Manchester Pump Station Emergency Backup generator. Lake Erie Electric Incorporated had a bid of $38,770 while Thomas Electrical Services of Camden had a bid of $30,850.

The Preble County Commissioners meet every Monday and Wednesday at 9 a.m. at The Preble County Courthouse. Meetings are open to the public.

By Austin Schmidt

[email protected]

Reach Austin Schmidt at 937-683-4062 or at [email protected]

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