Board of Election repairs continue

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SIDNEY — An update of the repairs associated with the June 22 fire at the Shelby County Board of Elections was given during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Shelby County Engineer Bob Geuy told the board he wasn’t sure of the exact schedule for construction to repair the portions of the building that was damaged by the fire.

“I know the commissioners are getting the quotes together to get the work done,” said Geuy. “I’ve been out of the look since the initial burst (after the fire) and we got you back on deck.”

A high-speed pursuit on June 22 ended with a 2-vehicle crash at the intersection of Miami Avenue and Court Street. The crash took out the power lines, causing the board of elections to lose its electricity. Dante Bradford, 28, Cincinnati, has been charged with felonious assault, failure to comply with order or signal of police, failure to stop after an accident and driving under financial responsibility-law suspension in connection with the crash.

Initially, there was a small fire in the storage room and some electrical damage occurred before of the power lines’ damage. The Sidney Fire Department responded to the office and discovered a fire in the attic.

At first, the board thought the office would have to be moved to the Shelby County Courthouse until repairs were completed. Because of various agencies, companies and individuals pulling together, the office was reopened in its current location days after the fire.

“The crisis calmed down in one day,” said board member Jon Baker.

“The credit goes to the community, the county and the fire department,” said Chairman Chris Gibbs.

The ceiling work where the fire was located, said Geuy, is mainly cosmetic work which needs to be completed.

“It didn’t get up into the rafters,” said Geuy. “They’ll be able to cut out all the burnt areas and replace it. I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal (to get work done). We just need to get the contractor in here and get it done.”

Thanks to NK Telco and DP&L the internet and power were quickly restored to the building.

“At first you didn’t have a connection to the courthouse,” said Geuy. “The cable was looped around where the fire was. NK Telco came that night and spliced it up. They came back the next day to finish it. The computers all came up and there was no problems. I think we were really lucky.”

Gibbs expressed his appreciation to Geuy for his assistance after the fire.

“Bob, thank you for what you did,” said Gibbs. “You took the lead and got us up and running.”

Geuy said when he first saw the damage he thought it would be six months before the building would be ready for occupancy again.

“You were here to make the decisions quickly,” said Geuy.

Gibbs said you can know people — spouses, employees, organizations and board members — but you don’t really who “who they are until you put pressure on them. The first responders, the government, maintenance and employees — none of them folded.”

County employee Chris Roediger spearheaded the mission to get the equipment out of the building, said Gibbs.

“A firefighter brought him into the building so he could point out what needed to be brought out,” said Gibbs. “There were four firefighters inside putting the fire out and another three were carrying out the equipment.”

“And two days later you were approved to reoccupy the building,” said Geuy. “We called cam Haller (Sidney Fire Department assistant chief) got on board with it. He was here within 5 minutes of calling him.

“DP&L and NK Telco where here within 30 minutes of us calling them to give the approval to get back into the building,” said Director Dawn Billing.

Billing also said the insurance company sent an inspector to make sure the e-poll books were not damaged in the fire. No damage was found. Another inspector will be looking at the scanner and other equipment this week.

“We were up on Wednesday (June 28) at 6:30 p.m. and on Thursday, June 29, we were handing out petitions in the dark,” said Billing.

In other business, the board approved revisions for four policies in the board’s manual. Policies which were revised dealt with procedures for ballot preparation and proofing; procedure for logic and accuracy testing and pre and post election tests on voting machines; and the procedure on voting machine acquisition and allocation.

The board also combined two policies into one policy which deals with processing voter registration.

The board also approved a bill fled for audit which dealt with the purchase of ES&S DS scanners at a cost of $10,288.33.

Elaine Herrick, field representative for the Secretary of State’s Office, was welcomed to her first meeting with the board.

The board changed its August meeting to Aug. 14 at 7:30 a.m. As part of the meeting, the board will be certify all petitions received for the November election. The filing deadline for petitions is Aug. 9. The petitions must be certified by Aug. 21.

By Melanie Speicher

[email protected]

Reach the writer at 937-538-4822.

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