The village of Panama talked with County Legislator Travis Heiser about a potential Government Efficiency Fund that is included in the county budget for 2026. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

PANAMA — Panama village officials are learning more about a possible county-backed government efficiency grant.

During their October meeting, County Legislator Travis Heiser said nothing is set in stone for this so far, but essentially what the county is looking to do is, as has been outlined in the County Executive’s budget, establish a fund of $500,000 to put aside for various government efficiencies. The legislature is scheduled to vote on the budget later this month, which will include this fund. This is something Heiser said they do not know what it will look like yet.

“It’s coming into focus slowly,” Heiser said. “It kind of looks like that this fund will be for merger, dissolution, enhanced shared service projects and those projects could get up to $100,000 up front. I think the key word there is upfront; there’s a few things that do things on the tailend and I remember when I was in Clymer we merged the court system for French Creek, Sherman, Mina and Clymer and we put everything over there in the Findley Lake School. So that would’ve been a perfect project for something along this type of line.”

While Heiser said the application process is still unknown, it appears that each application will be brought to the legislature to be voted on. They do not currently know how it will get there or where it may go first, with things still needing to be flushed out. Heiser said he should know more next month following the budget vote.

“It’s interesting; I applaud the County Executive for thinking along that type of line,” Heiser said. “Just, some starter money might help various entities, so we’re talking schools and villages and other municipal courts, things like that.”

Heiser said his understanding is that there are a number of municipalities thinking about these types of projects and have been for a while, so this money will help with that. The funding is coming from the general balance for 2026 and will be appropriated for this work. Right now, he said nothing is to be done besides starting to talk about it and maybe begin working on making resolutions and potential paperwork. He reemphasized that nothing is sure for this as of yet as the budget has yet to be passed, and that he will let Panama know what happened so they can talk about it more next month.

“I think it’s an interesting thing to have, especially with everything going on and all of the shared services we have,” Mayor William Schneider said. “I mean, we’ve now merged our courts with North Harmony, so I think that’s a good thing to help, especially as a start up to get you over the hump because that might not be something you have before.”

Later in the meeting Schneider addressed that the county has asked for Panama’s support for the fund, but that he wished to wait and table it until they know more from the county. More information on this fund will come at next month’s meeting.

The village board also briefly discussed the upcoming Christmas in Panama event, set for Nov. 29, and trick-or-treat hours in the village, which are set for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Halloween.