By: Jacob Kessler
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jacob@thevillagereporter.com
The Fayette Village Council held their meeting on Wednesday, July 10th. The meeting began at 6:02 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.
Council first moved to approve the current agenda with additions, before also moving to approve the following meeting minutes.
Council meeting minutes from June 26th, Special Council meeting minutes from July 1st, Safety Committee minutes from July 1st, and Governmental Affairs meeting minutes from July 1st.
Next, recognition of visitors took place next, with Tom and Kathy Schmidt of B.A.R.K. in attendance to present Fayette’s newest K9. Kya is a female Belgian Malinois and will be riding with Officer Jordan Wehrly.
Chief Bingham informed council that he had previously used B.A.R.K. at Waterville and that they have been lucky enough to pay for almost all of this program. Normally, these kinds of working dogs cost around $15,000.
However, this dog, which was just born recently, has been donated to the village. Not only has the dog been donated, but training for the life of the dog has been donated as well.
The dog should be fully trained and certified within the next 13-14 months. Kya also comes from a good pedigree, with her father now serving on the force with the Cleveland Metroparks.
This can be attributed to the Schmidt’s wealth of knowledge, being trainers now for 50 years.
Kya is also the program’s 125th dog donated so far, with it being stated many town K9 programs wouldn’t be around today if it wasn’t for B.A.R.K.
Bingham stated Officer Wehrly has signed a five-year contract with the village to be the K9 officer and also gave a message to the public.
If dope is brought into the Village of Fayette, Kya is going to find it. Lastly, Bingham stated the department is back up to full staff, with five part-time officers and five full-time officers.
Moving on to the mayor’s report, the farmers markets are still being held and Bull Thistle is coming up on August 3rd. The men’s softball leagues are still playing on Friday nights, with games starting at 6:30 p.m.
Revive Ohio will be held at the New Beginnings Church from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on July 20th, a garden beautification meeting will be held on July 21st, and a Summer Reading Magic Show will be held on July 21st at 10:00 a.m. at the Nazarene Church.
Lastly, council was invited to the Northwest Ohio Mayors and Managers Association steak fry and information meeting. Discussion will go over recreational marijuana and how it affects the community.
Moving to the administrator’s report, Phase 1 continued this week with the installation of service lines taking place on West Main Street and heading East.
Work will continue on from there. Information was then given about the splash pad bench that the mayor had traveled to pick up. The new bench will also be paired with new guardrails.
Next, a new basketball backboard was received that will be used to replace the one that had been vandalized.
The ongoing park project was then discussed. Grant opportunities were looked into for this project and recently a call was received from Ohio Representative Jim Hoops stating the village had been awarded $46,500 for the project.
Thank yous were then given to the Garden Club and the CDC for improvements to the village limit signs and the Fayette Proud signs. The administrator’s report was then accepted by council.
Moving on next to the VFO’s report, the bill list was reprinted for council due to some last-minute items needing to be added.
Revenues and expenditures were then discussed before moving on to talk about the Bull Thistle permit and new VFO.
The new VFO has been working full-time for three weeks as of this meeting. She was, at the time, attending an Income Tax seminar in Columbus but will be back for the next council meeting.
The VFO’s report was then approved, along with payment of the bills in the amount of $114,473.69.
Police Chief Bingham then spoke next and delivered his police report. Numbers are still high. Last year there were 48 incidents in the month of June, but this year the numbers were up to 156.
There has been far more activity and arrests conducted by the department. Next, Marysville Police Department reached out to Fayette after Chief Bingham had put of a request for taser equipment.
Marysville had a good amount of equipment they freely gave the department which saved the village thousands of dollars.
The chief also stated he would be traveling down to Franklin, Ohio to obtain a printer for the new K9 vehicle. Vehicle printers are currently hard to come by, with quite a long back order.
This department has informed Fayette that they have several they are not using, and the chief hoped to obtain two or three for Fayette.
Next, the department received another donation in the amount of $500 from Phantom Fireworks for Kya and another business will be donating money as well.
Additional fundraising opportunities were discussed before moving on to speak about zoning enforcement.
Bingham stated enforcement activities had begun, but he would like direction from council in regard to how far to take things.
The chief stated individuals could be taken to court either civilly or criminally for this matter, with fines possibly ranging from $250 to $1000 a day.
The chief also stressed that this method would only be used on individuals who gave no indication as to their willingness to cooperate.
The chief further explained that the only amount of time that has to be given is three days, but, have been giving people 10-14 days after initial contact, and another 10-14 days after sending out a second letter.
He also iterated that several individuals have complied or begun to comply with the letters sent out and that this is what they would rather see.
Council decided to let the police chief proceed with enforcement, but that they would also like to see a personal approach, with a face-to-face conversation taking place first, before filing with the courts, if possible.
Lastly, the chief discussed insurance for the new K9 with council members. An exhaustive list of insurance options and what each option brings to the table was given to council.
Ultimately, council moved to approve a motion to purchase the Platinum Plan from SPOT. The chief also informed council that the fire department had donated a first aid kit and Narcan kit for Kya.
Council next moved to approve the following legislative actions. The third reading of Ordinance 2024-07 to amend income tax reciprocity for the village. The third reading of Resolution 2024-03 declaring the necessity of an election on the question of approving the passage of an ordinance, in order to provide for an increase of .025% in the existing income tax, with said increase to provide funds for police operations.
Motions were also approved for the Bull Thistle Festival and Parade Permit, and financial transfers.
Council was then informed that the Bull Thistle would be donating $500.00 to the parks department. With all items attended to, the meeting was adjourned at 7:24 p.m.