News

The USDA’s first round of grants for soil and water con­ser­va­tion includes more money to help Lake Erie. Approx­i­mately $19 mil­lion goes towards cut­ting down on agri­cul­ture runoff that con­tributes to the lake’s algae. Offi­cials hope to reduce the phos­pho­rus com­ing from fer­til­izer and wash­ing into the rivers that flow …

Fed­eral offi­cials say 186,000 Ohioans have signed up for health cov­er­age dur­ing this enroll­ment period for the President’s health­care law. Peo­ple look­ing for cov­er­age to begin Feb. 1 must sign up today. Open enroll­ment for the fed­eral mar­ket­place ends Feb. 15. Health and Human Ser­vices says 85 per­cent of Ohioans …

Holgate’s coun­cil has accepted a bid to demol­ish the vil­lage pool. It has cho­sen Punches Exca­vat­ing for the job, and mayor Wally Sny­der says the com­pany can take its time to do it. Sny­der also says the vil­lage plans on sell­ing some of the prop­erty from the pool on the …

Snow removal has come up again at a Defi­ance city coun­cil meeting. Coun­cil­man Steve Waxler says he has received phone calls after the lat­est snow­storm ask­ing why the city plowed Pon­tiac Park and River­side Ceme­tery, but not res­i­den­tial streets. Admin­is­tra­tor Jeff Leonard says he would inves­ti­gate this, but he says …

Start­ing next month, the Ohio Ben­e­fit Bank offers free tax fil­ing ses­sions at the Bryan Library. These ses­sions run most Thurs­days from Feb. 5 to Apr. 9. They run from 10 to 5. If your indi­vid­ual income sits below $65,000, then you could qual­ify for free tax filing.

The Bryan Area Foun­da­tion holds an open house next Thurs­day at its new office. The event runs from 4 to 6 at the new loca­tion on South Wal­nut Street.

The Millcreek-West Unity School Board has cho­sen Sarah Carothers as pres­i­dent for another year. The board has named Brian Wieland vice pres­i­dent and leg­isla­tive liaison.

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 …

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.