Local News

LaRose meets with area government, law enforcement officials

CALDWELL -- Ohio Secretary of State and U.S. Senate candidate Frank LaRose met with county government and law enforcement officials from four area counties at Lori's Family Restaurant in Caldwell Saturday afternoon.

"I'm here for a job interview and I'm here to listen, too." LaRose said. "The job interview for the primary election is just over eight weeks away, on March 19."

LaRose said the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate had a mission.

"We face a time for choosing. We're going to choose a nominee in March and that nominee's mission is to defeat Sherrod Brown in November," he said.

LaRose said the outcome of the Ohio Senate election had national implications.

"This is not just important for Ohio, it's important for the whole nation," he said. "The reason why America is watching this election is this is the one we have to win to take back the Senate majority."

Officials from Noble, Morgan, Monroe and Washington Counties were in attendance. Washington County was represented by four officials: James Booth, county commissioner; Mark Warden, Chief Deputy of the Washington County Sheriff's Office; Flite Freimann, director of Job and Family Services; and Mike Stump, Belpre Police Chief.

Freimann asked LaRose if the Secretary of State's office had implemented any policies to make filing paperwork to start a new business in Ohio during his term.

"We know there's nothing easy about growing a business. There's nothing easy about being an entrepreneur," LaRose replied. "We at least want to make it easy to start your business. You can ask people across the state line how hard it is to incorporate a business in other states. It takes weeks in some cases with fees and forms to fill out. For us, we can file your business in 24 hours. We charge the lowest fees in the Midwest."

Warden said Washington County is experiencing the highest rate of opioid use he's ever seen in his 30 plus year career.

"I've never seen it as worse as we see it right now in regards to fentanyl, methamphetamines, and human processed opioids. I think it's very important to understand that it's just not a law enforcement suspected problem. This is a trickle down effect that affects the economy. It affects everybody in this room," he said.

Freimann added to the conversation, stating out of the 88 children in Jobs and Family Services custody, 72 are due to a drug related offense.

"We have multi generational poverty and multi generational trauma," he said. "We have families where grandma has been in prison, mom has been in prison and now daughter has been to prison. I think [LaRose] is exactly right that we need to break the cycle of poverty and part of it is the intervention of drugs and alcohol."

Warden compared percentages of inmate populations being admitted for drug charges.

"Back 36 years ago when I was in the jail, 85 percent of the population were sentenced, 15 percent were pretrial. Right now, 85 percent of the population are probably pretrial as a result of crimes being committed as a result of just narcotics," he said.

"This impacts the whole county. It impacts our whole area," Booth said. "The sheriff's department makes an arrest, they confiscate a car. There might be children in the vehicle or in the home. Now, Children's Services has to make a call and children may have to leave the home due to safety. That puts a financial burden on the county."

Freimann said Jobs and Family Services spent approximately $3,300 per child in their custody and in their previous month, they spent over $500,000.