By: Tim Kays
Members of the Montpelier Village Council heard updates on the Iron Horse River Trail at their January 25 meeting, including a new development pertaining to the trailhead.
Village resident Alan Word addressed Council and asked if would be possible to set up a date and time to visit Village Administrator Jason Rockey.
“I’ve got a question concerning the Iron Horse Trail,” he said. “I’d like to see if I can stop up and see Mr. Rockey; I’d like to see that engineering for that, and I’m wondering if it’s been put out for bid yet.”
“The stage one design plans were submitted,” Rockey said, “…and we got ODOT’s comments back on those.” Rockey said that he was going to be having consultation meeting on the design details, and invited Mr. Word to attend.
As part of his report to Council, Rockey later reiterated, “Stage one design plans were submitted to ODOT back in December. It takes them approximately a month for them look that over and then get their comments back to us, and the things that need to be addressed.”
“I had a meeting with Tim Bock who is our representative at Poggemeyer that’s been working on this project. The ODOT comments were all expected at Poggemeyer; there was nothing in there out of the ordinary.”
“There were further specifications for different things that have to be submitted in the stage two process, but all that was anticipated and we’ll be ready to go.”
“This will kick off the environmental portion, the environmental surveys and everything that has to be done down there. It can take up to a year for all those environmental surveys to be completed. So that process we’ll get rolling now that the stage one is submitted and accepted by ODOT.”
Rockey reported that there was one irregularity that arose in the stage one process, which had to do with current trail entrance at the Senior Center parking area at 325 North Jonesville Street.
“The only thing that was a little bit out of the ordinary we discovered,” Rockey said, “…and this is something that we’re going to have to work on most likely, we found out that the Senior Center parking lot is not in fact public property. That’s not owned by the Commissioners; it’s owned by a not for profit group that owns the Senior Center building.”
“So having the trailhead start…at the north end of their parking lot in northeast corner is going to require some additional documentation possibly for that. There are a few options associated with that if we can’t work through any of those things. Circle Drive is right around the corner. Circle Drive is very close to the Senior Center parking lot.”
“If we couldn’t work out the right of way issue with that group, we could just run the trail an extra 100 feet over to the end of Circle Drive, as opposed to bringing it through the Senior Center parking lot.”
“It’s an issue we absolutely expect to be able to work through,” Rockey concluded. “Hopefully the Senior Center committee is willing to work with us, and we can do it by right away or prescribing easement. We don’t actually have to purchase it from them or anything like that.”
Mayor Steve Yagelski commented on the growing grumbling surrounding the mailing of paper bills from the village office. “As most of you know,” he said, “…I monitor social media, and I’ve noticed a lot of negativity being thrown out there about utility bills.”
“Just so the people of Montpelier know, the village office…they print the bills, they put them in the envelopes, they seal the envelopes, they take them to the post office on a regular basis, when they’re supposed to. When they leave their hands to go to the Postal Service, it’s out of the village’s control.”
“I understand when they get a late fee because of the postmark, but it doesn’t do any good the call the village hall and act in a vulgar way, a screaming method to the ladies who work very hard to satisfy and work with the residents.”
“The Postal Service has their own problems; the problem doesn’t lie with the village being late and doing their due diligence. They’re doing it on time every day like they normally do, so what I’m asking the residents to do is if you’ve got a late fee because of the Postal Service, don’t put the blame and call up town. Be very courteous with these ladies.”
“In fact, sometimes you’ve got to put yourself in their shoes. Would you like to have someone call you and never give you a chance to explain what’s going on? I know the service is the way it is. I know someone just recently told me they actually got a postcard to reelect Gary Mohre for Sheriff. They just got it in the mail…that was just this week.”
“Let’s be patient and show some respect when you call uptown, because they’re willing to work with you if you give them a chance. Let’s just use some common sense, because there’s more to the story than what people really realize.”
“Sometimes when you’re stuck in the middle, you get it on both sides, so I’m just asking the public to be a little bit nicer and courteous when you call uptown.”
“I’d like to make a comment,” Mr. Word said, “…and your point was well taken. I think you and I have both been on the firing line and got showered with some real interesting conversations.”
“But yeah, the post office sometime really drops the ball, and I urge the Village of Montpelier Council, the Mayor to send a letter of support and recommendation that our Congressman…pursue and try to get support to get our mail drop back to Toledo rather than up in Michigan. I think that would help tremendously.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” replied Mayor Yagelski. “What I said wasn’t against the local mail carriers; they’re stuck in the middle too.
Congressman Latta has been up to Detroit, and Mr. Word, I’ve already sent him a letter just the other day, so he is well aware of the situation. The postal carriers in town, it is not their fault; they’re on the receiving end also.”
“The problem is in Michigan,” Word added. “I’m sure this is going to be in the paper, and I would urge the people, not just from Montpelier but from Williams County or anybody that reads it, send a letter to the Congressman supporting getting that back here. I know he’s doing his best, but numbers speak loud.”
“We do have paperless billing,” said Montpelier Director of Finance, Nikki Uribes. “People can sign up for that…it’s free. You get an e-mail bill, immediately as soon as they post the bill, before we even mail the paper ones out.”
“You won’t get one in the mail anymore if do it this way, But it does guarantee you get an e-mail bill right away. That helps a lot of times. We also offer ACH payments.”
“That’s where you can sign up and we just pull from your account on the 15th of each month. Paperless billing is the best way to go right now to make sure you’re getting your bill on time.”
Council paused to remember Delmar Karnes. The much-loved 82-year old former Councilor, teacher and coach passed away on January 22. “There’s something that needs to be said,” said Councilor Dan Willis.
“I’m sure you’re all aware of it already. We lost a past Councilman over the last week. Delmar Karnes was an elected official for over 30 years. A great man to work with, he’s going to be missed.”
Mayor Yagelski added, “For those of you that never had the opportunity to…have Mr. Karnes as a student, like a couple of us have, and then worked with him on the Council, one of the things Delmar always said, he said, ‘You know, Steve, I don’t think I spoke enough.’ He is going to be missed, but I don’t consider him and gone…he’s always going to be in our hearts.”
Council suspended the rules and adopted Resolution 1304, authorizing Mr. Rockey to advertise for bids, and contract for concrete asphalt crushing.
“We’ve significantly increased the budget for crushing concrete,” Rockey explained. “With the last sewer project that we’ve had, our storage area out on Brown Road has become quite full. We had money budgeted last year; we got through about a third of that pile, probably.”
“So we budgeted twice as much to try to get through the remaining chunks of asphalt and concrete that we have out there. It is then crushed into the material the village uses, and then our crews don’t have to budget for stone and things like that.”
“It’s material that our crews are able to use when they’re when they’re filling for parking lot material and things like that.”
Council heard the second reading of Ordinance 2254, referencing a request for the village to vacate an unimproved section of Maple Street between Linden and Delaware Streets.
“This was introduced last meeting,” Rockey said. “The new owners of property on either side of the right of way that is Maple Street, it is unimproved, have asked that that be vacated. It’s gone through the planning and zoning process and counsel then for the first reading of that ordinance last meeting.”
In other actions, Council agreed to the appointment of Tim Sanders as Assistant Fire Chief, and approved the application of Jarrett Sweezy to a one-year probationary period with the Fire Department.
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
