The Tiffin Municipal Court stands to benefit after Fostoria Mayor Eric Keckler approached Judge Mark Repp last month.
"We are in talks to merge our municipal court with Tiffin," Keckler said.
Keckler said he may invite Tiffin to share Fostoria's municipal court space and a study is under way to assess the plan.
"We are waiting for the OK from Fostoria City Council," he said.
Operational cost for Fostoria Municipal Court is $400,000 a year.
"What we are looking at is an efficient provision in services to the community," Repp said. "There has been a need to expand Tiffin's Municipal Court facilities for the last 15 years."
"The court has also needed to expand for security purposes and for filtering people who come in to court," he said.
Fostoria is considering of sharing its facilities and keeping a court presence.
"We want to make sure there is a court in Fostoria for our people to go to for paying their fines," Keckler said.
There may be several advantages to sharing municipal court services.
"When court districts work across their boundaries to share services, it can create capital improvements, improved technologies and a better healthcare plan," said Randy Cole, policy adviser to Ohio Gov. John Kasich's Office of Budget and Management.
Regional pooling of resources can create a larger healthcare plan, shared licenses and a more sophisticated public records system, which save money, Cole said.
As is, the Fostoria Municipal Court is in flux. After the recent death of newly elected Municipal Court Judge Barbara Marley, local committees are waiting to hear back from Kasich's office on appointment of her replacement. The Republican Central Committee has recommended Barbara Dibble.
"Fostoria case numbers have remained steady," Dibble said.
Dibble is a prosecutor in Fostoria and regularly works at the Fostoria Municipal Court.
"I'm not sure how this could affect all of us," Dibble said. "It will be somewhere down the road."
The idea of merging courts is not new to the area. Sandusky County is in the process of combining its court system.
Ohio House Bill 433, introduced by Rep. Rex Damschroder (R-Fremont) in January, proposes merging municipal court operations in Clyde and Woodville. The bill has been approved by the Ohio Senate and is awaiting response from the House.
"We should know more in mid June," said John Kolesar, presiding judge in Clyde.
Kolesar, who worked in the public defender's office for 12 years in Fostoria, said a Sandusky County Court merger would have an immediate impact of $17,000 annually in savings.
