EDC President gives tourism update to County Commissioners; Liberty Township trustee appointed

The Henry County New Castle Economic Development Corporation (EDC) had some business to present to the Henry County Commissioners at their meeting Wednesday.

EDC President Corey Murphy presented cards to the Commissioners highlighting local restaurants and other tourist sites in Henry County.

“We don’t have a brochure yet, we have these cards instead,” Murphy said. “These are simple and easy to read, and we had a lot of different things that could have been featured on these. Our website is also on this, and we expect to get our site up and running by the end of this year.”

Murphy told the Commissioners he also recently wrote a column in the New Castle Chamber of Commerce magazine about new tourism efforts.

Penny York, Special Projects Coordinator of the EDC, was also in attendance to present some business to the Commissioners. York mentioned that the EDC is excited because they are getting ready to apply for a another EPA grant.

These grants allow the EDC to fund studies on property around Henry County that could have chemicals in the soil. Identifying the contaminants can help property owners clean up their land, and then possibly develop it for more commercial or industrial growth in the county.

The commissioners made a motion to support the grant, and it passed 3-0.

York also mentioned that interest to participate in the EDC is stronger than ever from the community.

Other business

Commissioner Ed Tarantino brought up the next order of business which was the yearly contract for bedding for the probation department, since New Castle doesn’t have a Youth Juvenile Detention Center.

The price went from $125 to $130. The total cost of the contract went from $78,125 to $81,250 The motion was made to accept the contract and the motion passed 3-0.

Liberty Township has been without a township trustee since Jamie Owens resigned Oct. 6. The Commissioners received one application for the position. With a 3-0 vote, they named Steven Coffman as the new Liberty Township Trustee.

The Commissioners also approved the contract again for Highway Engineer Joe Copeland to be shared between Henry and Randolph counties.

Due to language in the agreement, the commissioners had some changes made to the document. The commissioners voted 3-0 to the modifications to the agreement.

– Story by Dakota Locker (DLocker@TheCourierTimes.comof The Courier-Times. Read more local stories at TheCourierTimes.com.