2012

With nearly 500 veterans and their spouses taking advantage of a unique training and hiring event aimed exclusively at transitioning military families, Franklin County Commissioners are calling the Hiring Our Heroes Job Fair a successful first step in combating unemployment among the region’s veterans.

With national reports suggesting that as many as a third of all children are dangerously overweight - and children in low-income families are most at risk - Franklin County Commissioners are taking aim at preventing childhood obesity by keeping children active and engaged with an investment of more than $1.3 million into a variety of youth summer camps across the county.

With the calendar showing the first day of Spring just two weeks away, Franklin County Commissioners are launching a new season of community gardening across the county, by investing up to $20,000 in local garden grants and offering available space at the Franklin County Gantz Road Community Garden.

As part of the celebration in Westerville to officially open the nation’s first municipal community data center, Franklin County Commissioners are recognizing that this world-class connectivity hub for local and regional business is a direct result of investing federal stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

With the latest Central Ohio census figures showing that the age group between 50 and 69 years old grew by nearly a third over the last decade, Franklin County Commissioners are investing more than $2.35 million in 41 different programs designed to meet the varied needs of senior citizens.

Bringing to end a nearly decade long environmental predicament in the southwest corner of Franklin County, County Commissioners are ordering the shutdown of a failing privately-owned water and sewer treatment facility serving the Timberlake Subdivision in Pleasant Township.

In the ongoing fight against neighborhood blight in Central Ohio, Franklin County Treasurer Ed Leonard and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners are unveiling the county’s newest tool to address the persistent problem of vacant and abandoned properties.

After completing its reviews of Aaa issuers that had recently been assigned a ‘negative’ outlook due to indirect linkages to the U.S. government’s credit rating, Moody’s Investors Service revised the outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ for Franklin County’s outstanding general obligation debt, along with 118 other local governments.

As part of the continued partnership to modernize the management of Franklin County’s safety resources and investments, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott will launch in March an innovative assessment study of the Sheriff’s Office.

Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech - in which he focused on federal efforts to stimulate the nation’s economy and protect the nation’s safety net for middle class families - Franklin County’s Board of Commissioners is receiving official word on nearly $2.6 million in federal funding to aid low-income families, offer affordable housing, and provide homelessness assistance.