In Hancock County, in the race for Hancock County Commissioner, Incumbent Brian Robertson defeated Findlay City Councilman John Harrington with 63% of the vote.  In the tightly contested race for Hancock County Recorder, incumbent Tracey Coldren won over Heather Pendleton with 57% of the vote.  Hancock County residents said yes to the Hancock Park District’s levy request by a large margin, as did the Van Buren Village Tax Levy and Arcadia Local School District Levy.

In Seneca County, in the two races for Seneca County Commissioner, incumbent Holly Stacy bested challenger Richard Focht with 53% of the vote.  Shayne Thomas received 57% of votes in beating challenger Christopher English.  Stacy and Thomas will not face anyone in the November election.  The Tiffin Municipal Tax also passed with 61% of the vote…

Robert Sprague has again easily defeated challenger Kevin Rettig for the Republican nomination for the 83rd District seat in the Ohio House.  He will now face Democrat Mary Harshfield in the November election.  Wes Goodman won the Republican nomination to represent the 87th District.  Goodman, of Cardington, won a three-way race for the Ohio House seat representing Wyandot, Crawford and Morrow counties, northern Marion County and the southwest corner of Seneca County.  He defeated Steve Reinhard and Tom Whiston and will not face a challenger in the November election.

Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland defeated Cincinnati councilman P.G. Sittenfeld for the Democratic nomination to the US Senate.  He will now face former House member Republican Rob Portman in November.  In the race for a state Supreme Court judgeship, Republican Pat Fischer defeated Colleen Mary O’Toole and will face Democrat John O’Donnell, who was unopposed, in November.

The Hancock County Commissioners approved a settlement agreement with Phillip Beatty of Findlay who filed suit against the county, Bluffton Paving and W.L. Markers of Columbus after suffering brain injuries after being hit by a road reflector that was scraped off Hancock County Road 220 by a snow plow in January 2013.  A total of $500,000 was awarded to Beatty with Bluffton Paving paying $20,000 and W.L. Markers paying $465,000.

Hancock County’s sales tax posted record collections for sales made in December.  Collections were $1.6 million.  19% higher than numbers reported for the same time period in 2015.  According to Hancock County Auditor Charity Rauschenberg, sales tax collections for the year are now 10 percent higher than those reported for the same time period in 2015.

Fostoria City Council received the 2016 budget at their meeting last night as officials asked for its passage less than to week before the April 1 deadline.  Finance Committee chair Brian Shaver expressed frustration about the timeliness of the budget submission because council did not have enough time to see the final copy.  An emergency meeting will now be scheduled by the end of the month to approve the budget by the April 1 deadline.