TOUR … Scott Schultz is shown informing Council and all who attended the Water Treatment Plant tour on the process the plant goes through day to day, as well as all the new upgrades. (PHOTOS BY LINDSAY PHILLIPS, STAFF)
By: Lindsay Phillips
Archbold Village Council began their meeting on Monday, October 3 a little different than most with an early start time of 4:30 to meet at the water treatment plant for a tour. Led by Scott Schultz, the tour lasted an hour and had copious amounts of information on the day-to-day life at the plant after the upgrades it received.
Council began the business portion of the meeting at 5:30 with a call to order and a moment of silence. Minutes from the previous meeting on September 19 and Bills and Payroll were approved.
A presentation by Abby Pennington and Timo Acker regarding a community garden was next.
Council was beyond impressed with the well-organized plan to begin the process of Archbold Community Garden.
As a property to hold the garden is crucial toward the next steps of the garden, the committee has taken interest in the lot behind Archbold’s Fish Pantry, to which they asked council for guidance and help.
Pennington, who is the president of Archbold Community Garden Club, shared their mission statement is “to provide opportunities for community involvement though sustainable growth and beauty.”
The garden would not only provide for those in need but also give a place for those who desire to use a community garden.”
‘The garden would include garden beds of all kinds, a compost area, and an invited beautiful place for residents to participate in.
Pennington stated, “We have countless ideas and we’re very realistic about this, that it’s not going to happen all at once and it’s going to be a process, but we believe that we have a good group of folks and are hoping to gain more folks to help really drive this.”
Mayor Brad Grime stated, “I’m always excited when we have someone interested in feeding our community, I think it’s important, but as you can tell this isn’t something that was just an afterthought, it’s very well put together.”
Council then had a discussion regarding challenges and issues with the property behind fish pantry.
The club is in search of used gardening items of all kinds to store toward the Archbold Community Garden and are looking to present the opportunity at the park board meeting on October 19.
Donna Dettling and Aaron Alt are going to further investigate the South Lugbill Park property.
A popular discussion that continues amongst the town is the removal of the no right turn on red at Stryker Street and 66 and when it could potentially come down.
Council is still on track to remove the restriction as they had the second reading of ordinance 2022-56, an ordinance to repeal ordinance 2022-12 prohibiting a right turn on red traffic control for vehicles on Stryker Street turning south onto Defiance Street.
Residents will likely see the change on November 17, a month after the final reading is passed at the next meeting.
A second reading for ordinance 2022-57, an ordinance to amend chapter 72 section 72.020 golf carts of the codified ordinances of the Village of Archbold, Ohio.
This will make it possible for those with proper and registered golf carts to be used in town limits under 40 mph zones.
Ordinance 2022-59, amending appropriation ordinance No. 2021-94 and declaring an emergency was approved.
Resolution 2022-60, accepting the amounts of rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying to the county auditor and declaring an emergency was also passed.
A motion to waive hearing before the Fulton County Budget Commission regarding apportionment of the undivided local government fund was approved.
Minutes from the park board packet on September 28 were approved as well as income tax receipts from the month of September.
Archbold’s mural was finally fixed and even added some new design to it.
During council comments, Kevin Morton stated, “I like the addition that was made to the mural, it was cool the way he did that.”
Mayor Grime is still looking into adding lights on the mural and is waiting to hear back from a company on a quote who would do those.
Grime added, “I just want to go on record and say I’m a little disappointed in Dollar General.”
He went on to add, “They took it upon themselves to protect themselves from anybody intruding in that partial that we annexed, for the remaining four acres we cannot have a Dollar General of any kind, or a drug store.”
Grime shared, “They were not transparent about that, and I feel as if they snuck that in at the very end.”
‘If it had that been presented ahead of time, we as council might have said ‘oh wait a minute here.’”
Going forward, council plans to ask for those sorts of clauses, as they are now limited on what can be put in the remaining acreage.
Hearing no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:47 p.m.
Lindsay can be reached at lindsay@thevillagereporter.com