Steve Higinbotham, the county administrator, has spent extra time working in planning and zoning since former Plan Administrator Laura Miller’s January retirement. He announced during Wayne County Council’s April 1 meeting that Angela Ebacher was promoted to fill the plan administrator’s role. That promotion and another employee leaving the building department leaves two closely connected […]
Author Archives: Mike Emery
Mike Emery is a reporter and layout editor for the Western Wayne News.
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Credit union to leave city building
The credit union serving city employees will soon leave the Richmond Municipal Building. Mayor Ron Oler told the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety during its April 2 meeting that Kemba Credit Union and the city have agreed the institution will vacate its second-floor office space by June 30. Kemba, which is a Kroger […]
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County budget warning: ‘You need to cut’
Beth Leisure laid the 2027 budgeting groundwork during Wayne County Council’s April 1 finance committee meeting, and it was not an April Fools’ Day joke. “Just another reminder: Anything you can cut, you need to cut,” Leisure said to county department heads. “Don’t be coming to us with a bunch more requests for more employees […]
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Property tax bills soon will arrive
Property tax statements will soon arrive in Wayne County mailboxes, but will they provide the relief Gov. Mike Braun and state legislators intended? In 2025, the General Assembly approved and Braun signed Senate Bill 1, a comprehensive bill that began a multi-year plan to reduce local government’s reliance on property taxes with other taxing forms, […]
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Plan commission sees RP&L zoning request favorably
Richmond Power & Light needs to combine four tracts into one parcel prior to executing its plan to contain roughly 400,000 tons of coal ash stored on its property. The first step occurred March 25 when the Richmond Advisory Plan Commission unanimously gave a positive recommendation for rezoning two tracts adjacent to RP&L’s main facility […]
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Milton FD requests county’s K-9 help
Tempo flopped on the chambers floor inside the Wayne County Administration Building when not sniffing around or checking on proceedings during the March 25 Wayne County commissioners meeting. The 2-year-old Belgian Malinois was purchased for $5,100 by the Milton-Washington Township Fire Department Association for training as a human remains detection dog and was the topic […]
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Richmond dog receives 2nd chance
A Richmond dog deemed vicious by the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety has a second chance. During their March 26 meeting, board members opted against pursuing euthanasia for Andrew Mowell’s dog that bit Mowell’s mother’s face Oct. 10 inside the South A Street home they shared. Citing the severity of the injuries and […]
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County officials OK countywide land bank
A nonprofit land bank funded by public money received Wayne County government’s go-ahead March 18. During their combined workshop, council and commissioners both unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with Richmond to form the land bank, which will be governed by a seven-member board. The land bank will accumulate residential properties countywide and search for developers […]
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Fire department works with youth, inexperience
Richmond Fire Department has hired five new members fewer than three months through 2026. That follows 14 new members hired during 2024. When providing Richmond Common Council members a departmental update during their March 16 meeting, Chief Jeff Kinder said hiring and retention remain important issues facing the department that have robbed it of important […]
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Parks get a boost, on borrowed time
If you had a leaky roof and the income to fix it wasn’t coming for a while, would you borrow some cash to cover the repair, or just live with the leak a while longer? At least in the case of fixing up Richmond’s parks, the city is choosing to borrow. On March 1, diners […]