P.O. Box 632 Findlay, Ohio 45839 Phone: 419-420-9327

Local
First 100 Days with Findlay’s New Mayor
By
Apr 29, 2008, 22:52

It has been well over 100 days since Findlay's new Mayor, Pete Sehnert, has taken up the corner office at Dorney Plaza. He's been busy getting acquainted with the job, meeting the staff and appointing people to new positions-creating the office that the Mayor has envisioned. Findlay Living sat down with Mayor Sehnert to talk about his first 100 Days as Mayor.

Mayor Sehnert brings his personal experiences of working with the community and many local agencies with 25 years in the Police Department.  Of the numerous issues that confront Mayor Sehnert's new administration, at the top of the list: the Blanchard River and its flooding effect on the people and businesses in Findlay and the surrounding communities.

The mighty Blanchard didn't waste much time breaking in the new Mayor; It seems the river has thrown more water at Findlay in the last year and a half than at any other time since the city  was set up along the rivers' bank. When confronting the flooding issue and where the city currently stands, Mayor Sehnert went into detail as to the current status of how the administration is actively pursuing solutions to this destructive situation.

"First, we need to educate ourselves as to how the flooding occurs," he started. "I know people get frustrated with all the studies that have been done over the years," he said, "some people say, why don't we just dredge the river? Well, we may find that were spending money we may not have to, or that we could negatively affect the overall study or worse yet, dredge up some very bad things that have been laying in the river for many years."

Sehnert is enthusiastic about the Northwest Ohio Mitigation Organization headed up by former Mayor Tony Iriti. "Their objective is to work on getting this problem resolved. It's not just the Mayor of Findlay and the Mayor of Ottawa working on this, it is businesses that have an active interest in this issue."

This privately funded organization of local companies has actively brought our area's watershed flooding issue to Washington and is tenaciously working to reduce the study and action time by years. Our representatives in Washington and the Army Corps of Engineers are working with the group in getting the necessary results become a model for other areas with similar flooding issues.

"We have so much that is going on in Findlay to attract people from all over the area. The Classic Cars will be returning downtown again this year along with the many summer activities provided by the parks. The Quadra-Plex is ready to open this year at the Cube. Lu Draper is doing a great job operating that facility in making it a real asset to the community. "

The not so glamorous issue of sewer maintenance and replacement was also at the top of the list. With the River Place project coming, an inspection of the aging sanitary sewer system was done.
"We found that our number one sewer had collapsed in one area," said the Mayor. It's our largest and oldest system in the city . Overall the system looks pretty good and has worked well for being about 125 years old, but now we need to get in and fix the problem."

With every problem there is a solution. The Mayor has appointed good people that "know there job and do it well."  According to Sehnert, "A positive attitude is the first thing we have to have if we are to be successful in confronting the issues that face our city."

Getting concerns in the community taken care of is the goal, including the flood mitigation along with pursuing a smart responsible plan for continued growth of business and industry. Keeping our streets safe and recreation areas properly maintained along with making sure our infrastructure operates effectively and by watching our finances, we can continue to keep people coming to Findlay, Ohio: one of America's best cities.