The county health board has lost 11 staff members since late 2007, six by layoff, and five by

The county health board has lost 11 staff members since late 2007, six by layoff, and five by resignation, retirement or death, due to a loss of federal and state grants and a loss of permit fee income due to the slump in the construction industry.

Squeezed between declining gasoline tax and license plate revenues and doubling road salt and asphalt prices, the county engineer’s office laid off nine workers, effective Dec. 31.

In the wake of a $5 million loss in federal and state funding for the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, the county commissioners this month authorized a reorganization and job abolitions at JFS.

Due to a 25 percent cut in funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the county MRDD board’s budget for this year assumes two teachers and two aides will be laid off this summer at the Leonard Kirtz School.

Faced with a $3 million budget shortfall, the county sheriff’s department furloughed 11 full-time deputies on Tuesday and will leave four other full-time deputy positions vacant after resignations.

Source: Vindicator files