Did you know that two websites compile and publish public notices about competitive bidding opportunities and other proceedings in Ohio?
In 2012, the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, Office of Information Technology, in compliance with
Ohio Revised Code Section 7.16, created an online system to publish local government public notices and make them searchable by the public at no charge. Ohio Public Notice (
publicnoticeohio.gov) allows state and local government entities in Ohio to post abbreviated versions of public notices at no cost via the Ohio Business Gateway. Since some notices are required to be published multiple times, public entities may realize significant cost savings by using PublicNoticeOhio.gov.
The Ohio Supreme Court has identified about a dozen instances of
statutes that require multiple notices. The search function for PublicNoticeOhio.gov allows the user to select notice type, entity type, counties, key words and date ranges. Cities, colleges and universities, county agencies, county elected officials, courts, municipalities, school districts, state agencies, state elected officials, townships, and villages may use the site to post their notices. For information on registering to use the site, visit
www.PublicNoticeOhio.gov.
The Ohio Newspaper Association also has a website — Public Notices Ohio (
publicnoticesohio.com) — that offers access not only to competitive bidding-related notices, but to public notices about foreclosures, hearings, financial reports, ordinances, and other government activities. The site collects and displays notices originally published in Ohio newspapers.
Both websites display notices required by law to be published in Ohio and provide an efficient means for members of the public to find notices that may affect them, their community or business, or their local government. In addition, the state site offers public entities a method of posting notices for free, which may reduce costs to government entities when notices are required to be published multiple times.
These websites are valuable resources that provide a wealth of information.