The following presentation was made to the Village of Ada council on Tuesday, January 10. Mayor David Retterer noted that an annual state of the village report is required by the State of Ohio.
Village of Ada, Ohio
State of the Village
Mayor David A. Retterer
January 10, 2023
The state of any organization is in large part defined by the employees of the organization and others who our village depends on to get things done.
The administrative team of the village lies in folks in a wide variety of areas: Safety (police and office workers), Utilities (water and sewer), planning (Village Administrator), Finance (Fiscal Officer), Public Works (streets, etc.), the Ada Pool, and although the Village Councilors are not actually employees of the village they play an important role in all of this.
As of today, we have a new Chief of Police and have the rare opportunity to hold on to our chief of over twenty years for six months to help train the new chief. That decision was made by the Village Council, is very forward thinking and a great advantage to the village and to the new chief. We also have a remarkable staff with the ability to handle problems big and small as well with the understanding of how this differs from big city policing. I am very proud to be working with such a professional and well-trained group of individuals. They are trained and able to handle simple traffic stops, difficult people, emergency situations of all kinds and even animals and individuals who are persistent offenders. It is important to note that the police department office workers deal with nearly anyone who shows up in the office or calls on the phone. Many times, the people they deal with are in a very difficult situation and l've heard from many people on the street that these employees are very good at giving the information or informing the department with the information they need to do a good job. The Chief has been a joy to work with, has been informative about what is going on, where we have problems and working on solutions to problems that arise. I can't say enough good about the PD.
Both of our utility plants - sanitary sewer and drinking water - are well maintained and operated. The operators we have are diligent, deliberate, and experienced. Even when there is a problem, they are able to address it- often quickly and professionally- and always because of preliminary planning for such problems.
The Village Administrator keeps council and me informed about getting ready for new projects as well as about closing finished projects (a task that is not as easy as it sounds). Again, much of this work has to do with careful planning (perhaps for years), obtaining and maintaining grants and loans, managing the payment of contractors and others as well as countless other responsibilities. Much of this has to do with the Fiscal Office and the Village Solicitor as well as individuals such as Mark Doll with Hardin County and others at other levels of government and granting. All ensure that the project will be well funded, within legal requirements and can take advantage of monies are available from outside sources. The Village Administrator has been very successful at funding these projects with good support from external sources. Otherwise, we would not be able to do as many projects or projects that are as complex as some of these
projects have been. In addition to all this all of the people included participate in various ways to keep informed about what monies are available. In addition, the administrator is ultimately in charge of the physical plant of the village including the vehicles, tools, inventories and equipment acquisition and maintenance.
The Fiscal Officer seems to be involved in practically everything going on in the village and has a good sense of actions we need to take to do things "right." For example, the State of Ohio has specific rules that deal with the retention of records, and we attempt to follow those rules with the aid and advice of the fiscal officer. She, along with much of the office staff have worked tirelessly on the process of installing new financial software that improves access to citizens for online payments to the village and integrates the processes of managing the village's money in one system. Reporting is much better and seems to be more configurable. This has been a huge process but was done in addition to the usual management of fiscal issues in the old systems for nearly a year while the new system was being installed, configured and populated with data, and then tested extensively by those same people.
The village swimming pool is supported and funded by the people of the village. It is a huge asset and is quite popular. We were quite fortunate this year to have a good staff of pool employees including the concession stand operators, the front desk crew, the lifeguards, and the management team. Many had worked at the Ada pool in previous years, and some had never had a job before. The entire team together did a nice job of reporting the finances, managing the inventories, testing and reporting water to standards, and recording and reporting the same.
In some ways, the village council is the glue that holds all this together and determines the direction of the village (with input from the citizenry). Council works to build, maintain, and stay within the budget while keeping an eye on debt and ensuring that we participate in enough projects to avoid becoming a stagnant community. This village has been fortunate to have strong council members for many years and hopefully for many more.
