About 150 members of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG) re-elected its officers and added two seats to its board of directors at the 2013 General Assembly held Jan. 29 in Perrysburg.
The TMACOG membership re-elected its 2012 officers to serve in 2013, including Lucas County Commissioner Carol Contrada as chair, Perrysburg Mayor Nelson Evans as vice chair and Fremont City Council member Don Nalley as second vice chair. Perrysburg Municipal Court Judge S. Dwight Osterud swore in the officers at the meeting.
The membership also approved a resolution amending the TMACOG by-laws to add two seats to the board of directors, one representing Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) in Southeast Michigan and another for Bowling Green Transit. Prior to the amended by-laws, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) held the only seat on the board for a transportation organization.
“No matter what happens in Washington, Columbus or Lansing, services still need to be provided to their constituents by cities, villages, townships and counties that are members from Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan,” Contrada said.
“We are the center of the Great Lakes region so we better make sure that we put on our best face as a region,” said Tony Reams, president of TMACOG.
“We have the brainpower for solutions to the problems we face. TMACOG must continue to take a leadership role in the challenges the region faces,” Reams said.
TMACOG also recognized its former chair Kenneth Fallows for extraordinary service to the organization. Reams said Fallows was an outstanding ambassador for TMACOG for many years, making TMACOG a force on the state and federal levels.
“This is really an honor and I thank you,” said Fallows, who called TMACOG “very adaptable.”
Vice Chair Evans said, “We need to retain businesses in our region.” He cited the move of Owens-Illinois from Downtown Toledo to its current campus headquarters in Perrysburg as a recent example.
Another example was the decision by La-Z-Boy to keep its corporate headquarters in Monroe, which was the subject of the keynote address by La-Z-Boy President, CEO and Chairman Kurt Darrow and Monroe Mayor Robert Clark at the TMACOG meeting.
Darrow and Clark related the process by which the company, established in Monroe in 1927, came to the conclusion to remain in that community.
Following the keynote address, individual caucus sessions were held for cities, counties, townships, villages; public schools, colleges and universities; special districts and authorities; and nongovernment members.
TMACOG sponsors many events throughout the year to promote economic development and transportation in the region, including the annual Transportation Summit on March 22, National Train Day on May 5 and the Ohio Freight Conference in September.
Rick Hodges, executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission and Fulton county native, will present the keynote address at the Transportation Summit. He will discuss the details of the recently announced Ohio Jobs and Transportation Plan and how it will affect the future of the Ohio Turnpike.
The Transportation Summit will be held at the Holiday Inn French Quarter, 10630 Fremont Pike, in Perrysburg and will feature three panel sessions covering all modes of transportation in addition to the luncheon keynote session.
For more information, go to www.tmacog.org.
