By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
Center Township Trustees met in a regular session on Tuesday, May 19, with trustees Matthew Grube, Terry Collins, Ryan Muehlfeld, and Julie Davis in attendance.
Also, cemetery sexton Kurt Roan, maintenance employee Sheila McGill and zoning inspector Todd Burkholder were present.
Following the Pledge of Allegiance and approval of the May 5, 2026, meeting minutes, the trustees heard a presentation from Adam Froelich of Ohio Monuments.com of Waterville regarding cemetery restoration involving Williams Center and Brown Cemeteries in the township.
Froelich showed the trustees several laptop photos regarding the restoration work Ohio Monuments.com has already done.
“Basically, we straighten up stones, markers, tablets, and bases, and we square them up on the foundations if they have one,” said Froelich.
“We take a lot of pride in making the cemeteries look good. We straighten them up and put them back together as best as we can. We try to dry brush them if we can maybe knock off a little dirt or moss a little bit.
“And we also do power washing, and that’s a different service altogether. To do a whole cemetery with pressure washing would be kind of expensive.”
Grube suggested beginning the restoration work at Brown Cemetery, which is mostly made up of memorial stones and monuments dating back to the Civil War era.
“We have a lot of foundations are tipping now, but there are some that are now straight or they may not be because how they were set back in the day,” Grube commented. “When I was told from history that Brown Cemetery really started was almost like a pasture and they had almost stoned areas around.
“If you go into Brown Cemetery there are some areas that they poured concrete footers around because the people can find the gravesites.”
Trustees then made a motion to approve Ohio Monuments.com to do the restoration work at the Williams Center and Brown Cemeteries.
The cost will be $1,200 per cemetery for eight hours of work. The township will be providing materials for the restoration, which is expected to be completed either late summer or early fall.
The trustees entered into an agreement with M&M Asphalt of Edon to perform crack and fill road work at a cost of $14,680 this summer.
Township roads to be done include all of Troder Street in the Krohn’s Subdivision off State Route 576; all of Hickory Creek off County Road E; and all of Quarry on County Road E-35.
Action was tabled regarding the paving and wedge coating work on the township building parking lot until the next meeting. Grube will be discussing this further with Dylan Mason of Gerken Paving, Inc. of Napoleon.
Roan reported there were two burials this past week held in the township cemeteries and sold three cemetery lots.
He also noted that the township hall will be rented three times this month.
McGill reported she had trimmed six trees at Brown Cemetery, which resulted in three loads of tree branches being taken to Oberlin Recycling.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 2 at 8 p.m. in the township office.
