(PHOTO BY AMY WENDT / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
IMPROVEMENTS …The Pool House in Ruihley Park will see improvements in 2025.
By: Amy Wendt
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
amy@thevillagereporter.com
On Monday, January 20, Archbold Village Council met for its second regular meeting of the month at the municipal building with councilors Gary Dominique, Vaughn Bentz, Kevin Eicher, Aaron Babcock, Chad Kern, and Karla Ball in attendance.
Village Administrator Aaron Alt joined the group representing the village’s admin team. Council President Karla Ball served as the presiding officer over the meeting in Mayor Brad Grime’s absence.
Looking at a very light agenda with no legislative items to address, the council got down to business by approving the regular meeting minutes from January 6 and the December 2024 financials. Council also authorized the payment of bills & payroll in the amount of $208,887.16.
Taking a look at the January 8 Park Board meeting minutes, Councilor Aaron Babcock, shared that it was “overall, a very good meeting.”
The new software system for the Parks and Recreation Department is now up and running, allowing residents to register and pay for programs online. Plans for a pickleball court are moving forward, with a possible final design in development.
Babcock mentioned that issues with the Christmas lights were also addressed, noting heavy rain as the cause of outages during the holiday season.
Alt added that he has been working alongside Parks and Rec Director Jen Kidder, Village Engineer Dexter Krueger, and Brad Meyer to review maintenance lists and identify “catch-up” work.
Three pavilion structures, including a gazebo, are slated for removal. Alt mentioned that a local church has shown interest in relocating the gazebo to its property.
The old bleachers at the Ruihley Park ball diamond will also be replaced with temporary aluminum bleachers.
Councilor Babcock noted that the meeting also included discussions about moving forward with one of the major projects, either the memorial park building or the pool house, or potentially both.
Alt shared with the group that a “good quote” has been received for repairing the pool house, which includes work on the fascia, soffit, and porch removal.
Moving on to reports, Alt then provided details on the 2024 Bond Indebtedness Report and 2024 Investment Report.
“I don’t know how often any of you have seen the Bond Indebtedness Report, but Kathy (Rupp, Director of Finance) shared that with me this month and I thought well, let’s put that in front of you, just so you have an idea on truly how much debt is out there.”
“Now, some of this debt really isn’t that – I mean we don’t want debt, obviously, but a majority of the debt is at like half a percent interest rate.”
“So, even though we’ve got over $13,000,000 in the bank between the different departments, we’re making 4.5 interest on that, and we’re paying a half percent out in debt (interest) so it makes sense to carry that right now and slowly chip away at it.”
“Over the next couple of years, a lot of that debt will fall off and hopefully, we’re in a position where we don’t need to be taking on anymore, at least for a while.”
Moving on to the 2024 Investment Report, Alt noted, “About every quarter we include the Investment Report just so you can see back in 2024 our funds generated $741,000 in interest.”
“It’s gone down obviously a little bit with the interest rates slipping, but if you compare that back to 2017, we made $60,000 in interest. Of course, our fund balances were half of what they are now.”
Council also briefly reviewed the Annual Law Enforcement Trust Fund 213 Report. Archbold Village Council will reconvene for its next Regular Meeting on Monday, February 3, 2025, at 5:30 p.m.