The Warren County Commissioners have through their support — and dollars — behind a park project in North Warren and a bridge project in Triumph Township.

The commissioners on Wednesday approved Act 13 funding requests for $10,000 to the park project and $45,000 for the bridge.

Act 13 dollars come from unconventional drilling fees with a portion returned to counties for specific uses. Two of those uses are recreation and bridge repair.

Speaking first on the N. Warren project, Commissioner Dan Glotz said the playground across from the N. Warren Presbyterian Church has “been in disrepair for quite some time now” and said that the church in conjunction with a prospective Eagle Scout are undertaking an $80,000 project to rehabilitate the playground.

Glotz said the request was for $10,000 which is “just a small piece of the overall project. Everything else has been raised by the church or the Scout unit.”

The bridge funding request, he added, is for the Youngsville Rd. bridge. He said the total project cost is in excess of $450,000.

“They’ve been dealing with this for quite some time,” Commissioner Ken Klakamp said of the bridge.

Citation of excellence

A half-dozen citations of excellence were presented to Warren County Jail staff in response to a training accident.

The incident occurred back in June during annual firearms training when an officer was wounded in the wake of an accidental discharge.

The officer was treated with first aid on scene before transfer to a hospital. The individual was expected to make a full recovery.

Commissioner Tricia Durbin cited the staff’s “calm demeanor” and ability to keep the wounded officer calm.

“All of these traits you have helped save the life of an officer,” she said.

“I want to commend the corrections staff for a job well done,” Commissioner Ken Klakamp added.

Human services plan

A hearing was also held to gather public feedback on the county’s human services plan.

While no comment was offered, Human Services Administrator Adam McNeill outlined what the goals of his agency are.

Noting that they serve intellectually disabled, mental health, drug and alcohol and early intervention individuals, McNeill said they “provide services to individuals for many needs they might have.”

That means partnering with service agencies and providing case management services.

“(We’re) trying at all times to identify needs,” he said, noting that the work is “about keeping people” out of hospital or jail and in their homes.

What trends is he seeing in that space?

“Housing is a piece I wanted to bring up,” McNeill said. “I don’t think Warren County necessarily has a lot of problems with housing. Everywhere you go, on a national standard, housing is a problem. Homelessness is a problem.”

“One big trend is stabilizing families,” he added, “also looking at the family as a unit” rather than just treating one individual in a family.

“It’s really about the health of the community,” he said.