In addition to passing the county’s 2026 budget and moving forward the emergency radio tower project, the Warren County Commissioners acted on other agreements and issues during the December meeting.
Union agreements approved
The commissioners signed off with new, four-year agreements with two of the county’s three collective bargaining units.
The agreements cover 2026-2029.
“One more we will start in January,” Commissioner Ken Klakamp said. “My understanding, (the vote) was almost unanimous for both contracts.”
Outside legal counsel
The commissioners also approved an agreement with the law firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter for outside counsel to represent the county in the property tax assessment appeals filed in the wake of this year’s reassessment.
“We are retaining outside counsel as the taxing bodies normally do,” Solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt said.
He said the agreement provides “joint representation” with other taxing bodies “to help manage those appeals. Many, if not all, will be settled.”
Commissioner Klakamp said that approximately 60 appeals were filed with the Court of Common Pleas.
Broadband future discussed
The Commissioner also discussed the 10-county CoreConnect broadband expansion effort.
Planning Director Michael Lyon said that the entity was awarded around $90 million in federal BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment) program funds.
“It sounds like an enormous amount of money,” he said, but noted that “when putting up fiber, it doesn’t go very far.”
He said the 10-county region is “all adjacent communities similar to Warren County.”
“It is our hope that what will occur (is that) we can manage our own future footprint,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said, and “move at the pace we can.”
More information on the initiative is available at https://www.coreconnect.community/.