FIREHOUSE PROJECT … Madison Township Trustee’s discussed the dimensions of the firehouse construction project at their meeting on Monday evening. Construction work for the extension of the firehouse is expected to begin the week of July 8th. (PHOTO BY JENNA FRISBY / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
By: Jenna Frisby
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jenna@thevillagereporter.com
Madison Township Trustees held their normal bi-monthly meeting on Monday, June 10th at 7:00 p.m. Present at the meeting were trustees Rodney Baker Sr., Terry Huffman, President Mark Schmucker, Fiscal Officer Debra Maneval, Township Fire Chief Jon Baker, Fire Captain Jordan Hunkapiller, and community members Merrill Frame, Nancy Frame, Wade Stembridge and Pat Stembridge.
The meeting began with Schmucker calling the meeting to order followed by Maneval reading the minutes from their May 28th meeting. Schmucker made a motion to approve said meetings, seconded by Huffman.
Schmucker then asked for any old business to be discussed. Huffman discussed that he had spoken with Sutton Construction Inc. based out of Kunkle, who will be doing the construction on the firehouse project as they expected to be ready and able to begin that construction the week after the 4th of July.
At this time, the east side of the firehouse has been having some issues, which the trustees have already addressed in this project.
The project will be adding on a 30’x45’ area on the east side if the firehouse resulting in fixing the leaking issues that have been occurring along the way.
Also, the project will allow the firehouse to have much more adequate and much needed space within the building. Right now, without that added space there is not much room to even get around. The added space will also add potential to the building for use.
There would be much more room to hold and host different meetings and to be able to get the fire trucks in and out of the building without having to stress about potentially hitting a wall.
Right now, the firehouse has a total of four fire department trucks including a tanker and a first responder truck.
Each truck serves a separate purpose in emergency situations and has even allowed the township to aid surrounding areas in recent fires as well since they have the needed equipment to fight fires.
The meeting then continued with old business with Maneval requesting a motion to approve the insurance premium increase of $125. Huffman motioned for said approval, Schmucker seconded.
Chief Baker then discussed the purchase of tools for one of the fire trucks that was made. He was originally informed that they would arrive by Wednesday, June 5th, however he still had not received them at the time of this meeting. Chief Baker also discussed the generator that would need to be ordered for the firehouse.
Baker has priorly given the board several generator options to look at which they had further discussed. The board had discussed and chose a generator that would be purchased out of Fremont, IN.
Huffman made the motion to purchase the generator and Schmucker seconded. The purchase, while approved at this time, will likely wait until after the construction is done to be installed.
With no more new business, Schmucker opened up discussion for new business. Nancy Frame asked why the trustees had hired an attorney.
Schmucker explained that it was for confidential reasons at this time, the board hopes to deal with the preparations for any potential issues in a confidential manner.
Merrill Frame then moved the discussion to asking about any new news on the post office issue. Baker Sr., who is following up on this issue closely, informed him that the last he had heard the issue is sitting down in D.C. somewhere waiting on a decision to be made.
He also informed Frame that the last action that he knew was done was that some GIS mapping had been completed on the perspective area for the postal service to use.
That area is located adjacent to the firehouse parking lot in the 100 block of Angola Street in Kunkle. As far as the trustees know, the plan will be for the postal service to install drop boxes in some form of a modular unit for the post office.
Baker Sr. also noted in regard to the postal issue that he had heard from Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s office and that they had suggested that Kunkle residents get something together with as many signatures as possible in efforts to potentially get things moving along faster.
Kunkle resident, Wade Stembridge then spoke to the trustees on his idea for a mandatory clean up in Kunkle. Stembridge and his wife have been concerned with the trash that seems to be piling up around Kunkle with no apparent action being taken in their sight.
The trustees explained that they could not enforce a Kunkle only clean up as they are township board trustees. If they were to pursue a mandatory clean up, it would have to apply for the entire township.
They also discussed that this would be something that wouldn’t be feasible to enforce as they just held a big trash pick-up for two days in Kunkle where residents could bring in their trash at no cost to them, and still those residents who have trash laying around did not participate. That trash haul cost the township right around $2,300.
Chief Baker then asked the trustees if they would be interested in being parade float judges for the Fourth of July Parade. The trustees liked the idea and agreed to participate.
Maneval then passed around purchase orders and checks to be signed by the trustees. After business was done, Schmucker asked for a motion to adjourn at 7:49 p.m. Baker Sr. made a motion and Huffman seconded.
The Madison Township Trustee’s will hold their next regular meeting on Monday, June 24th at 7:00 p.m. in their Township Building located at 105 E Mill St, Pioneer, OH 43554.
