This year’s Pride of Williams County Pageant takes place Sunday. The Bryan Arts and Edu­ca­tion Build­ing hosts the com­pe­ti­tion, which begins at 6 o’clock. This year’s event has 22 con­tes­tants for Miss, Teen Miss, Junior Miss, and Lit­tle Miss Williams County.

A Hol­gate man died yes­ter­day after two trains hit him. Author­i­ties say 63-year-old James Junge drove his pickup around a rail­road cross­ing gate. Sheriff’s deputies say Junge went around the gate while south­bound on North Keyser Street. Deputies claim he drove in front of an east­bound CSX train that headed …

Terry D. Taylor, age 79, of Palm Coast, Florida, passed away at his home on Monday, January 12, 2015. Funeral services have been entrusted to Krill Funeral Service, 860 West Mulberry Street, Bryan, where arrangements are pending at this time.

Germaine “Gerry” C. Miller, 98 years, of Blacklick, Ohio, and formerly of Bryan, Ohio, passed away Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio.  Gerry was born April 23, 1916 in Woodburn, Indiana, the daughter of the late Edward and Sidonie (Deconinck) Deneve.  She married Kenneth Charles Miller on July …

Laura M. Cogswell, age 50, of Edon, Ohio, went to heaven at 11:45 A.M. on Monday, January 12, 2015, in her parent’s home after an extended illness. Laura had worked at several area factories during her working career She was a kidney transplant recipient in 1998 and was a member …

Defi­ance County com­mis­sion­ers Mon­day elected Tom Kime chairman. They made Ryan Mack the vice chairman. Mean­while, engi­neer War­ren Schalt­ter informed com­mis­sion­ers that the accu­mu­lated rev­enue report for the year that just ended totaled nearly $4.3 mil­lion. That marked the high­est total since 2006.

Williams County’s com­mis­sion­ers begin their meet­ing tomor­row morn­ing at 8:30 on the fourth floor of the courthouse. The meet­ing includes an update from the Williams County Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion, as well as one from Fron­tier regard­ing EMS. Defi­ance County’s com­mis­sion­ers also meet tomor­row morn­ing at 8:30. This meet­ing includes dis­cus­sion …

Williams County’s audi­tor says real estate tax bills should arrive in the mail any day now. Deb Nester says prop­erty own­ers can use a pair of tax sav­ing pro­grams through her office. Peo­ple 65 and older can par­tic­i­pate in the Home­stead Exemp­tion Pro­gram. This pro­gram also wel­comes per­ma­nently dis­abled peo­ple, …

The phone ser­vice provider for Hill­side Coun­try Liv­ing has given a rea­son why the facil­ity has had phone issues over the last year. Notes in a Fron­tier Com­mu­ni­ca­tions repair ticket blames the prob­lems on “fly­ing squirrels.” Regional gen­eral man­ager Dick Hutchin­son claims squir­rels and mice often cause tech­ni­cal difficulties. Hill­side …

The high­way patrol has a new com­man­der at the Van Wert post. The patrol has pro­moted Sgt. Tim­o­thy Grigsby to lieu­tenant as part of his transfer. Grigsby has spent most of the last nine years at the post in Lima. He did spend a year at the Van Wert post …