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Hedge stepping down from mental health post

The Delaware Gazette - 6/9/2017

Steve Hedge told Delaware County Commissioners Thursday that he will be stepping down as the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Service Board executive director.

“There is always a time in your career when it’s time to move on,” Hedge said. “That time is for me, it’s time to pass the torch to a new director.”

Hedge said his he wasn’t sure when he was completely stepping down as his final day with the board is yet to be determined.

Hedge said he had been in the position for 21 years and before coming to Delaware County.

“I can tell you that Delaware County is number one in many, many, many things,” he said. “You are a great group to work with; your leadership is unbelievable as far as this community.”

Hedge said the torch is being passed to Deanna Brant, who has been on the job for a week.

“She has hit the ground running,” he said. “She has learned more in a week than I did in five-years.”

Hedge said the board is excited about Brant as the new director and she brings a wealth of experience and background in areas of mental health and addiction services.

“We’ve a great board of directors,” he said. “I feel we’re in good hands with Deanna coming on.”

“Twenty-one years, that’s quite a record of success,”said Commissioner Jeff Benton. “The board has done such great work over that time period.”

Brant said she has been in northeast Ohio for the past 25 years. She said she is happy to be leaving the “life altering phenomena called lake-effect snow” behind.

Brant told commissioners she had looked into living in Bexley, but decided to move to Delaware. “I didn’t want to commute from Bexley,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to being a part of this organization and this community.”

In other business commissioners:

• Appointed Joseph Gigliotti as member of the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board with his term starting July 1, 2017, and expiring June 30, 2021.

• Authorized the use of a procurement card for the recorder’s office with a monthly spending limit per card of $5,000.

• Approved a master agreement and addendums with Cott Systems Inc. from Columbus, Ohio for products and services related to historical index load, redaction and preservation of paper records and back-filing.

Melissa Jordan, Delaware County Recorder, said the cost for the service was lower than she had expected. She said the service will bring all records before 1990 online for a historical search of documents.

• Approved an amendment to a contract between the Sheriff’s Office, the board of commissioners and Language Line Services Inc. to provide interpretation and translation services.

Major Jeff Balzer, Sheriff’s Office, said the translation services are a valuable resource especially for the jail during bookings. He said the service is used for Spanish and Mandarin Chinese than any other languages.

• Approved a request for proposals for Emergency Medical Services to engage a consulting firm to perform a master plan study.

Chief Michael Schuiling said the study is to identify the sufficiencies and insufficiencies in the county’s EMS department’s delivery service model.

• Approved an invitation for bids on the court facility’s audio visual court reporting systems.