TOLEDO – Tuesday marked the first Lucas County Commissioners’ meeting of the year, where the first order of business was electing the new president of the Board of Lucas County Commissioners.
Like last year, the three commissioners elected Lisa Sobecki to be their president, and similarly decided to continue holding their meetings on Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
The third item designated the commissioners to seats on various boards and committees.
Commissioner Lisa A. Sobecki:
- County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO) Alternate
- Community Corrections Planning Board (CPBB)
- District Advisory Council of the Lucas County Health District
- Downtown Toledo Improvement District (DTID)
- Family Services Planning Committee
- Lucas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC)
- Lucas County Data Processing Board
- Lucas County Economic Development Corporation
- Lucas County Emergency Planning Committee
- Lucas County Family & Children First Council
- Lucas County Land Reutilization Corporation (Land Bank)
- Lucas County Plan Commission
- Lucas County Solid Waste Management District
- Lucas County Workforce Development Board
- MacArthur Foundation’s Safety + Justice Challenge
- National Association of Counties (NACo) Board of Directors Representative
- Toledo Zoological Society Board of Trustees
Commissioner Pete Gerken:
- Corrections Commission of Northwest Ohio (CCNO)
- County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO)
- Downtown Toledo Improvement District (DTID)
- Lucas County 9-1-1 Regional Council of Governments Administrators Technical Advisors Committee
- Lucas County Convention & Visitors’ Bureau
- Lucas County Economic Development Corporation
- Lucas County Land Reutilization Corporation (Land Bank)
- Lucas County Plan Commission
- Lucas County Board of Revision (BOR)
- Lucas County Solid Waste Management District
- Lucas County Solid Waste Management District Policy Committee
- Pathway, Inc. Board
- Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board
Commissioner Anita Lopez:
- Emergency Food & Shelter Program (EFSP) Local Board
- Healthy Lucas County Executive Committee
- Lucas County 9-1-1 Regional Council of Governments Administrators Technical Advisors Committee (alternate)
- Lucas County Common Pleas Drug Court Committee
- Lucas County Economic Development Corporation
- Lucas County Integrated Justice System
- Lucas County Plan Commission
- Lucas County Solid Waste Management District
- Lucas County Records Commission
- Toledo-Lucas County Sustainability Commission
This year’s appointments to the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG) were as follows:
Matt Killam will serve a three-year term on the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) Board of Trustees commencing immediately and expiring on April 30, 2026.
Part of the summary reads, “There is one (1) vacancy for a board term set to expire on April 30, 2028. Matt Killam has expressed interest in and has been recommended to serve on the TARTA Board of Trustees for the remainder of the current 3-year term which is set to expire on April 30, 2028.”
County Engineer
Lucas County Engineer Mike Pniewski set the times for the annual township meetings and then had the County Highway System Mileage Certification approved. From Dec. 2024 to Dec. 2025, the county’s highway grew from 252.605 miles of highway to 252.607 miles of highway.
Then Pniewski accepted a bridge report concerning Lucas County’s 194 bridges. When presenting the information, he warned of the county’s aging bridges. Bridges, he said, have a service life of about 75 years, and said the average age of a bridge in Lucas County was about 50-years-old.
Pniewski then said the county does have a plan to upgrade most of the aging bridges over the next ten years.
Lucas County bridges on county and township roads were rated as follows:
15 were rated as excellent.
54 were rated as very good.
42 were rated as good.
33 were rated as satisfactory.
12 were rated as fair.
5 were rated as poor.
None were rated as “serious” or “critical.”
Lucas County bridges inside municipalities were rated as follows:
1 was rated as excellent.
17 were rated as very good.
4 were rated as good.
7 were rated as satisfactory.
3 were rated as fair.
1 was rated as poor.
None were rated as “serious” or “critical.”
The County Engineer then accepted roads on the following plats:
Monclova Township
Crimson Hollow Plat 11
Stoney Creek Plat 5
Stonegate Plat 8
Springfield Township
Hidden Grove
Sylvania Township
Bridgecreek Plat 5
Bridgecreek Plat 6
Brookside Plat 10
Brookside Plat 11
Eagle Creek Plat 11
Quarry Ridge Plat 5
Rivertree Plat 2
Village at Twelve Lakes Plat 4
Waterville Township
Coventry Glen Plat 5
Coventry Glen Plat 6
Sheriff
Frank Cody of the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office presented approval for Lucas County to reinstate the Inter-Governmental Communication Tower Site Agreement with Monroe County, Mich.
Common Pleas
Eric Zatko, the director of Common Pleas Court, presented a refund for a software system with Tyler Technologies, refunding $142,387.94.
“You wanted this and now you don’t want it?” Gerken asked, an inquiry into the reason for the refund after Zatko gave a basic overview.
Zatko explained that the software from Tyler Technologies did not have enough “functionality” to be used for the county’s pretrial bookings, despite being able to perform the functions dealing with probation adequately.
Juvenile Court
The Juvenile Court presented two items for approval:
An agreement with Unison Health for mental health services and treatment, and a memorandum of agreement with the Mental Health & Recovery Services Board to provide funding for youth mental health support.
Facilities
Asked for permission to advertise for the demolition of the Former Child Studies Institute located at 428 10th Street.
Job and Family Services
Item 16 approved a revenue generating agreement with Zepf Center.
Item 17 approved an intergovernmental contractor agreement with Lucas County Family and Children First Council for the Provision of Intersystem Coordination.
Items 18-24 approved transportation contractor agreements for non-emergency Medicaid and Title XX (TXX) transportation services.
Item 25 approved an intergovernmental agreement with Lucas County Family and Children First Council for the Bridges Out of Poverty Program.
Support Services
Two separate purchase orders were approved by the Commissioners, and travel for all three Commissioners for the year 2026 was approved.
Solid Waste Management District
$25,000 was approved for the maintenance and upkeep of four walking floor trailers, used in the recycling process.
There was some confusion initially while approving this request, as Nate Inkrott, the sanitary engineer for Lucas County, initially said the total cost was $10,000. When questioned by Commissioners Gerken and Sobecki about the price, Inkrott corrected himself, and assured the Commissioners the amount was in fact $25,000.
Administration
The commissioners authorized Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful (KTLCB) to accept, hold, and administer sponsorship funds on behalf of the County for EcoFest Toledo 2026.
And the final item before going into executive session was the approving the Ohio Department of Health’s Tuberculosis Funding Agreement.
