Business View - May 2015 171
the overarching public works department. “We took a
hit like everybody else, but we’re slowly moving back.
I wouldn’t say (the perception of a declining Rust Belt
region) is old news, I’d say it’s still kind of lingering.
“The housing stock has a lot of vacancies and we’re
demo’ing properties left and right whenever we get
funds available – both commercial and residential –
just because our population has declined. A lot of our
kids leave state or go to Columbus, Cincinnati or Cleve-
land for the more readily available technical-type jobs.
But what keeps the local economy going is that it’s a
strong agricultural area and we serve as a retail and
medical center for an eight-county area.
“That’s kept things more vibrant than what they would
be.”
These days, Niemeyer and his team work with city de-
partments, the administration and the city council in
the planning, review, management and inspection of
public works projects. With staff engineers, the city
has the unique capability to provide and coordinate
the authorized engineering design services, capital
improvement projects and storm water coordination.
Division tasks include oversight of the maintenance
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
City of Lima
WHAT:
Municipality that was founded in 1831
serves as both the principal city of the Lima Met-
ropolitan Statistical Area and the county seat of
Allen County
WHERE:
Northwest Ohio, about 72 miles north
of Dayton and 78 miles southwest of Toledo
WEBSITE
:
INFRASTRUCTURE
