(PHOTO BY JESSE DAVIS, THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
NEW DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF … New Swanton Fire and Rescue District Deputy Chief Barrett Dorner stands with Mayor Neil Toeppe after the Village Council voted to approve his hiring at its meeting Monday evening.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
The Swanton Village Council approved the hiring of Barrett Dorner to fill the new deputy fire chief position with the Swanton Fire and Rescue Division following an executive session at its meeting Monday night.
Dorner’s work in the field began when he was commuting from home to Rossford, where he was a part-time volunteer firefighter.
“I worked on a couple other departments as a volunteer, and ultimately ended up getting lucky enough to work for Toledo Fire for nine years,” Dorner said.
“That was a blast, just running that many calls and getting that many different perspectives, but there was part of me that wanted the administrative side. I like helping with budgets and writing policies as much as I enjoy going to calls and helping people.”
He eventually switched to part-time at Toledo and served simultaneously as fire chief of the Portage Fire District in Oak Harbor in order to pursue that interest. For the last roughly year and a half, Dorner served as Lake Township Fire Chief.
Dorner’s early career was in journalism, working at Fox Toledo starting at age 16 for six years before moving to WTOL for two years. He served a brief stint as a dispatcher in his transition between reporting and firefighting. Dorner will receive an annual salary of $75,000 for his work in Swanton.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Village Administrator Shannon Shulters gave the council an update on several construction projects going on in the village, including on the status of the project at the intersection of Airport Highway and South Main Street.
According to Shulters, the contractor would switch its work to the north side of Airport Highway in the next few weeks, and that they were still working on how to direct traffic.
She said it was likely they would maintain a westbound through-traffic lane rather than switch to eastbound and confuse motorists now that a more consistent traffic flow has been achieved.
Shulters said the intersection should be completely paved with Airport Highway completely open by mid-September, but that work would then continue on South Main Street, with the entire road torn up and remaining closed. “That’s just the nature of the beast, it’s going to be October,” she said.
Shulters also reported that work in the “tree streets” was not yet complete, and that village staff would do a checklist walkthrough of the neighborhood before the contractor could consider its work done. At that point, all project work will be covered by a one-year warranty.
The council later voted to award phase one of the Hallett Avenue improvement project to Ebony Construction Company, based out of Sylvania, at a cost of $855,421.15.
OTHER BUSINESS
Following discussion on the matter in executive session, the council voted to restructure the Public Service Department by creating the positions of laborer, shop foreman, and operations foreman, and established a more consistent pay structure for those positions, effective in the September 5 pay period.
The council approved a handful of minimal updates to the village’s capital improvement plans proposed by Finance Director Holden Benfield, who said the changes were limited to those required by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Benfield reported to the council that a proposal to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to raise electricity base rates by just over 24 percent will, if approved, require the village to raise its street lighting fee by the same amount in order to cover the difference. The current annual rate of $32 per property owner was approved by the council at its June 10 meeting.
The council voted to accept the resignation of part-time Water Resource Reclamation Facility operator and part-time public works laborer Treyden Dunning effective August 21.
The council voted to accept the resignation of public service seasonal laborer Dennis Watchowski effective August 16.