Commissioners approve funding for Nord Center

NORWALK — The county commissioners approved funding for the Nord Center. The Nord Center is a community mental health agency that serves adults, adolescents and children and provides comprehensive sexual assault services to the county. The center provides a forensic interviewer, who works with law enforcement, sexual assault advocates and child protective services to ensure a high-quality, trauma-informed interview is conducted as a part of the investigative process. This interviewer dramatically reduces the number of times a child has to share their story. The Huron County Commissioners contributed $20,000 for the services of the forensic interviewer. In other actions, the commissioners will continue to participate in the County Commissioners Association of Ohio Workers' Compensation Group Retrospective Rating Program. The group provides the best option for savings in the cost of workers' compensation premiums. Commissioner Skip Wilde said the group just delivered 1,800 masks to Huron County. Terry Boose, president of the board, said the county's been involved in the program for several years. "It's a really big benefit," he said. "I think it's a good idea that we've continued to be in that program." The board is also moving forward with computer equipment upgrades for the commissioners and human resources division in the county. Joel Riedy, the IT specialist for the county, also discussed equipment updates that will occur at county buildings in uptown Norwalk. He said the updates should improve speeds, security and network traffic. Tacy Bond, 9-1-1 coordinator of Huron County Emergency Management Agency, attended the meeting Thursday morning to discuss a new license for the county radio system. Bond said getting a fourth license will open more channels to be used and improve communication amongst the agencies in the county. The county currently has four "talk paths," Bond said, but with the additional license, it will add two more paths. This will decrease the likelihood of anyone having to wait to communicate. "As it's public safety, we'd like to lessen that possibility," she said. "It would also open up the ability for all the agencies in Huron County to have those extra channels, not just one specific agency." The new license would include a one-time fee. Bond said she hopes to have all of the county's fire departments on the system in the next month. Bond said even schools in the county will be able to use the system to communicate with bus drivers and dispatchers. "If there was an emergency, they could just flip over and contact dispatch," Bond said. "We have been contacted by schools wanting to come on, contacted by townships who want to bring their highway departments over." Before going into executive session, Wilde said Habitat for Humanity has been utilizing the county's land bank. On Thursday afternoon, a home recently built by Habitat for Humanity in Norwalk was turned over to the new homeowners. "We don't try and make money off of these, especially because we know they're going to start paying real estate taxes," he said. "That's exactly what we want to do is turn these properties around."