Author Archives: Mike Emery

Wayne County Council began shaping the county’s 2025 budget July 17 with six hours of budget presentations from elected officials and department heads. Those presentations often contained good news with budgets remaining unchanged from 2024 or having minimal increases. Clerk Debbie Berry even had a decrease in her election budget because there is no election […]

Wayne County’s commissioners are considering options for its employee insurance program. Dunn & Associates, the third-party benefits administrator based in Columbus, discussed the insurance program with commissioners July 17 during their weekly meeting. Commissioners conducted the meeting simultaneously with Wayne County Council’s daylong budget meeting. Commissioner Jeff Plasterer said the county’s insurance program is healthy […]

Sara Pizano told about 60 people July 18 that Wayne County’s animal welfare problems are not unique. They’re the same problems the animal welfare strategist finds in communities across the country. The good news, Pizano said, is that there are solutions. “I promise you that everything you’re facing here is common to every other organization […]

Through communications with Indiana’s other auditors, Wayne County Auditor Mark Hoelscher has learned other auditors are resigning their positions. Ten, so far, Hoelscher said. That led Hoelscher — in the 19th month of his term — to gather his staff July 9 and announce that he has no plans to resign and, in fact, will […]

Fifty-five applications were submitted for $2 million available in the Hoosier Enduring Legacy Program’s downtown revitalization effort. Beth Fields, the county’s HELP coordinator, told Wayne County Council members on July 3 that 42 applications were received in Richmond, seven in Cambridge City, three in East Germantown and one each in Spring Grove, Dublin and Economy.  […]