ON THE MOVE … Village Administrator Donna Dettling informs council that the villages offices will be moving to 131 Westfield Drive temporarily during the Village Hall renovation project.
By: Amy Wendt
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
Archbold Village Council met on Monday, June 5 with all members present except for Kevin Morton. Councilor Vaughn Bentz was unavailable in person however attended by phone.
During the comments portion of the meeting, Village Administrator Donna Dettling shared with council updated information regarding the upcoming Village Hall renovation project.
“I wanted to give everybody an update at the same time about what’s going on with this project-the Village Hall.”
“Right now we are in the middle of an asbestos investigation and mitigation. We realized very late in the process we had to manage asbestos. We did find some. We just don’t know the extent of the problem yet.”
“It’s a two-step process. We have to bring an environmental consultant in to do the investigation, and then we have to bring the mitigation team in to clean up what they found.”
“I don’t have the lease signed yet, but Sonit has some beautiful office space that we will be able to occupy during the project to get us out of here. That made the most sense.”
“Once the mitigation team comes in, we can’t be in here, so we will be moving out in July.”
Village Hall offices will move to 131 Westfield Drive temporarily. An alternative location for Village council meetings has not yet been finalized, however, the Scout Cabin in Ruihley Park has been considered. The public will be notified of all location changes via the Live Archbold app.
Council approved the meeting Minutes of May 15, 2023, and the May Financials, Bills & Payroll in the amount of $397,931.22.
Resolution 2023-24 approving an application for property tax abatement through the Community Reinvestment Area (CRA Program) for Sherwood State Bank was also passed.
Committee cinutes for the May 30 park board meeting, were briefly touched on. Councilor Chad Kern highlighted that park is looking forward to receiving a bid for installing the new splash pad.
Several reports were brought to council’s attention during the meeting.
The hiring report and recommendation for the new assistant administrator / administrator position were presented to council by the village administrator.
Dettling updated council noting that the position was posted as both assistant administrator / administrator so the successful candidate can come in as assistant administrator and then take over the role as administrator when Dettling retires next year.
Out of eight candidates who met the minimum qualifications, seven were interviewed. During the process, the selection team focused on the essential functions of both positions and matched up each candidate’s prior job experience, expertise, and education.
Dettling elaborated, “The selection team of Mayor Grime, Karla Ball, myself, and Kathy Rupp decided that Aaron Alt would be the best candidate for that position mostly due to his experience with human resource management, planning and zoning, economic development, and managing staff and projects. “
“He is also very familiar with the organization and the people not only in the community but also in the village.”
At the next meeting, formal legislation will be before council requesting approval of the hiring recommendation for Mr. Alt.
Jim Wyse, Economic Development Coordinator was on hand to present his quarterly update on topics that included the CIC Revolving Loan Fund, the new “Welcome to Archbold” video, and renovations to the former Nurse’s Edge property.
He also shared with council that two new businesses will be calling Archbold “home” in the future.
The first new business that will be coming to Archbold is Foundation Construction Automation which is owned by Danny Dymarkowski of Pettisville and will be located in the former Ryder building.
Wyse also announced that Micah Sensenig, owner of Hub Haus Brewing Company has agreed to purchase the property occupied by H&K Chevrolet, formerly Christy Motor Sales, located at 316 N. Defiance Street in downtown Archbold.
Wyse shared that H&K will be moving to its new location “by the first quarter of 2025.”
Other reports reviewed by council included the Income Tax Receipts for May 2023, Police Department Call Response in May 2023, Fire & EMS Call for Service in May 2023, and Street Department Labor & Fleet Reports for May 2023, and the Community Electric Aggregation & PUCO Update.
In correspondence, it shared that effective June 1, 2023, the TTHM Findings & Orders were terminated. It was also noted that the Village received an H2Ohio Grant Award.
The next Archbold Village Council meeting will be held on Monday, June 19, 2023, at 5:30 pm.
Amy can be reached at amy@thevillagereporter.com
