WILMINGTON — Joshua Schlabach was appointed by Wilmington City Council to fill the vacant first ward seat at a special meeting before Thursday’s regular council meeting.

The appointment duties fell to the council after the Clinton County Republican Party was unable to convene to select one.

“I’m honored to have been nominated and appointed to the first ward council seat, and I look forward to serving the residents of Wilmington,” Schlabach told the News Journal.

The first ward seat was previously held by Jonathan McKay, who was appointed by the Clinton County GOP to fill in the vacant at-large seat, previously held by Matt Purkey. Purkey was appointed to the council president position after Mark McKay’s resignation in June.

Schlabach won the Republican primary for the first ward seat in May against Kelly Tolliver. He faces no opposition in the November election.

In a candidate profile of Schlabach published in April, he stated he’ll work on promoting healthy residential growth, strong city schools, maintaining a balanced budget, and wants to find a common ground to work together with locals despite differing opinions.

Schlabach owns Ellis Fence and Home Exteriors and serves on the Wilmington Planning Commission.

Workforce group proposal

Members of the Clinton County Workforce Collaborative Steering Committee spoke to council about creating a Clinton County Workforce Development Program with a full-time Workforce Development Director.

Dessie Rogers, committee member and executive director of the Wilmington-Clinton County Chamber of Commerce, told the council that despite the successes they’ve achieved, they’re still seeing issues arise.

“The issue surrounding employee retention and recruitment is the number one issue that businesses and industries are facing today,” said Rogers. “As a collaborative, as a city, county, community, we cannot stand back and let this crisis work itself out.”

She advised businesses are facing “internal challenges on top of external challenges from outside counties.” She told the council that local students are sometimes made to feel their only path to a successful career was leaving the community upon graduation. According to her, the collaborative can do more to help but they need help as well.

“The members of the collaborative and the (Southern Ohio Education Service Center) per initial request from superintendents of all four county (school) districts and representatives from major county employers have requested the creation of formal Clinton County Workforce Development Program, as well as a newly-created Workforce Development Director position,” said Rogers.

The new position, according to the committee’s proposal, would lead efforts for the collaborative to “tackle the critical and multi-faceted issues surrounding workforce development, retention, and recruitment in Clinton County and our surrounding region.”

The position would serve as a single point of contact for workforce-related needs in the community and build relationships with employers, employees, schools, students, service providers, and community partners.

“Utilizing these relationships, the director will lead strategic planning and implementation of initiatives to enhance local career opportunity awareness, current industry skill and credentialing needs, and employee recruitment and retention efforts,” the proposal states.

The next step for the group will be to submit a formal request to the city. The group is hoping to get $15,000 from the city to help with this endeavor.

Also during council:

• The council approved an amended version of the policy for the public comment section. The biggest change from the previous guidelines states that speakers are “not to engage with Council or anyone else in conversation or debate” and that “the three minutes is strictly for the speaker to share their thoughts.” Purkey indicated the council will discuss the guidelines further at a future meeting.

Reach John Hamilton at 937-382-2574