The Lorain County Board of Commissioners met Friday, Jan. 17, and approved the items on the published agenda, including personnel appointments, salary adjustments, contracts, change orders and routine highway actions.

Why it matters: The board’s routine approvals set payroll and staffing levels for county-supported municipal court positions, direct capital spending for building work and highway repairs, and authorize grant-funded housing-remediation projects and local subgrants that affect county services and contractors.

What they approved (Votes at a glance):
- Resolutions and appropriations (agenda items 1–4): motions to approve standard investment, appropriation, transfer and advance/repayment items were approved by roll call.
- Requisitions (item 5): pages 1–5 of county requisitions were approved.
- Travel (item 6) and bills (item 7): approved as presented.
- Executive-session notice (item 8): commissioners recessed into an executive session for personnel and legal matters as described on the record under Ohio Revised Code references; executive session took place later in the meeting.
- Personnel summary / board appointments (personnel summary sheet, pages 1–5): approved; the board noted that roughly 95% of the listed positions are citizen advisory boards.
- Minutes (item 9): approved and waived reading for Jan. 13 meeting minutes.
- Salary adjustments (items 10–12): approved salary adjustments reflecting the county’s stated 2/5 share for municipal court and municipal support employees (examples recorded on the agenda: biweekly rate for the indicated municipal clerk set at $2,014.21; biweekly rates for two municipal support employees listed as $846.15 and $1,296.11). The board also approved 2025 compensation amounts for law directors for a range of municipal jurisdictions as listed on the agenda.
- Appointments / alternates (item 13): appointed alternates to several county boards and committees as listed on the agenda.
- Contract awards and construction (items 14, 15, 16): awarded a $281,000 contract to Williams Brothers Builders Inc. for alterations to the fourth-floor commissioners’ reception area; awarded a $189,420 contract to Cody Construction for Lead Safe Ohio remediation at LMHA Fulton Homes buildings; and awarded a $20,917.60 contract to the listed painting/remodeling bidder for another LMHA Fulton Homes building. Bids were described on the record as the most responsive and compliant with specifications; projects will be paid from the capital improvements or Lead Safe Ohio accounts as stated on the agenda.
- Job & Family Services subgrant (item 17): authorized a subgrant agreement between JFS and Lorain County Neighborhood Alliance for $176,969 for the Family Promise affiliate program, effective retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2025, paid from the TANF account.
- Airport items (items 18–19): approved change order number 3 to Aerie Blacktop Inc. for work at Lorain County Airport and extended the project completion date; approved an access agreement with JobsOhio to allow environmental investigation work on airport property with work to be completed by March 1, 2025.
- Engineer and road actions (items 20–27): approved a change order to Aerie Blacktop increasing the Butternut Ridge Road resurfacing project by $12,096.75 (total revised funding shown in the agenda), authorized force-account maintenance for county roads and bridges for 2025, authorized temporary 25% thaw/moisture period load-limit postings on various county roads effective Feb. 1–May 1, 2025, certified the county-maintained highway mileage at 266.983 miles for 2024, authorized advertising for bridge replacement and materials bids, approved specific township thaw load limits, and entered a consulting agreement with CTL Engineering, Inc. for engineering material testing services (task-order basis, $25,000, paid from the engineer project account).

Votes and roll-call: For the items listed on the official agenda the board recorded affirmative roll-call votes; the meeting record shows commissioners answering “Aye” as each item was called. Where individual vote roll calls were read on the record they show the commissioners recorded as voting in the affirmative; no item on the published agenda was shown as failing on the record.

Funding and accounts: The agenda identifies funding sources for specific items (for example: capital improvements account for the fourth-floor contract; Lead Safe Ohio account for LMHA remediation work; TANF account for the Family Promise subgrant; 80% ODOT / 20% county split as stated for the Butternut Ridge Road funding increase). When funding detail was read aloud the board recorded the source as shown on the agenda.

What the board did not decide today: The board recessed into an executive session for personnel, legal and potential litigation matters; no votes were taken during executive session, per the record.

Looking ahead: The board announced upcoming meetings and public hearings, including a Jan. 21 commissioners meeting regarding a ditch extension hearing and a Jan. 28 investment advisory meeting and commissioners meeting.