From the Wapakoneta Daily News:
Continuing to move forward with long range plans for maintenance of Grand Lake St. Marys, commissioners from Auglaize and Mercer counties met this week with the representative of a Columbus firm which provides legal counsel throughout the United States.
“We don’t know if we can go back to the community and ask for another half million,” said Thomas Knapke, facilitator of the Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission. “We need a better structure to apply for grants. This is a unique situation with the lake in two counties. We’ve got to get started somewhere.”
Having met with Scott Ziance of Columbus-based Vorys earlier in the year, commissioners are determining whether he may be the man to guide those efforts. Ziance has previously worked with the city of Wapakoneta and Wapakoneta Area Economic Development Council on the city’s Job Ready Sites, which was one of the first certified sites in the state.
“I think this is the step we need to move forward,” Knapke said. Ziance said the goal of his legal team would be to solve a long-term problem now that short-term issues at the lake have been dealt with as well as possible under the circumstances.