By: Amy Wendt
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
amy@thevillagereporter.com
It’s back to business for the Archbold Village Council as it kicked off 2024 with a regular meeting on January 2.
Several visitors filled the public seating area as supporters attended the swearing-in ceremony of several elected village officials.
A local Girl Scout Troop (Brownies) also came to witness the proceedings so its members could earn Local Government Badges.
With Mayor Bradley Grime beginning a new term, the Village’s Law Director, Mark Hagans was on hand to issue the Oath of Office to the incumbent.
Mayor Grime then had the honor of swearing in Councilors Karla Ball, Kevin Eicher, Aaron Babcock, and Gary Dominique whose terms commenced on January 1. The council elected Karla Ball to serve as its president for the new year.
Getting down to regular business, the minutes of December 18, 2023, were approved as well as Bills and Payroll in the of $280,564.95.
After an emergency declaration, council adopted Ordinance 2024-01 appointing officers and board members to serve the village in 2024 with Mayor Grime noting that there may be a few adjustments made to the list presented to council.
Resolution 2024-02 authorizing the sale of personal property by internet auction in 2024 was then adopted with Village Administrator Donna Dettling noting that the housekeeping measure allows the village to dispose of any unneeded supplies and equipment on Gov.deals.com.
“Gov.deals has been a very good vehicle for moving property and getting the best dollar we can,” elaborated Dettling.
Following a declaration of emergency, Ordinance 2024-03 providing for reimbursement of the cost of operation of the General Fund including Mayor/Administration, Council, Finance, State Audit, and Legal Services was adopted by council.
Dettling offered further clarification to the measure. “We don’t normally have to adopt this every year but there was a small tweak made to Income Tax Fund – that one went down a percent.”
“And then we added a couple percent to the Water and Wastewater (funds) because of some shifting of duties.”
“This item is needed so that General Fund gets paid for processing payroll, accounts payable, and doing HR for each of the other cost centers.”
So water department, wastewater department, engineering, everybody has to help pay for the services that general fund provides.”
Council moved on to address Resolution 2024-04 accepting “Change Order #3” for the Archbold Municipal Building Project.
Assistant Village Administrator Aaron Alt noted that the change order, totaling $11,752, encompasses structural items to be addressed relating to the project.
Dettling added that the change order brings the new total project cost in at $1,586,045 and the resolution was adopted following a declaration of an emergency.
Ordinance 2024-05 providing for the annual deposit of $50,000 from Income Tax to the Archbold Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) was adopted following a declaration of emergency.
The $50,000 was an increase recommended by the Finance Committee from $20,000 deposited in previous years.
Committee and board minutes before council for review included those from the Police & Fire Committee and the Trustees meeting from December 18, 2023.
Reports for council to review included Income Tax Receipts for December 2023, Income Tax Predictions for 2023, and the Annual Law Enforcement Trust Fund 213 Report.
Dettling added, “There are about $358,000 in refunds and rebates that come out of that (Income Tax) number.”
“So, I mean it’s great that it’s a number that’s really high – you will notice that’s the most we’ve ever collected. But again, most of that – all of that is due to the .3% increase that we got.”
“When you compare last year to this year, if we hadn’t gotten the .3% increase, we would have been down about $166,000 in receipts, so that made a huge difference. Overall withholding is down about 3%…”
Council then moved to go into executive session to discuss real estate matters and no action was taken following the session.
Council will be meeting with the Park Board on Monday, January 8 at 5:30 p.m. and will see its next regular meeting on Monday, January 15, at 5:30 p.m. A German Township Trustee Meeting will be held on Monday, January 8, at 6:00 p.m.
