By: Tim Kays
At their February 8 meeting, members of the Montpelier Village Council learned that the proposed acquisition of a 122-acre tract of land may have run into a snag in the form of the Superior Township trustees.
Village Manager Jason Rockey reported that he, Councilor Chris Kannel and Austin Poynter attended the Superior Township trustees’ meeting that afternoon. “At this point,” Rockey said, “…the trustees are unwilling to sign the resolution which would approve the village acquisition of the RRK property.”
The RRK property, Mr. Rockey said later, is the bottom ground off of Mill Street that the village and the Black Swamp Conservancy have been working to acquire.
“They are asking for something in writing that says we would not annex the property into the village,” Rockey reported. “They didn’t say whether or not that would be permanent, or if there was a specific period of time they were looking for.”
“Explained to them that we didn’t even know if that was legal to approve such a document. Also, I don’t know that it goes along with the grant application, if the people at the state would allow that…to be enacted. The state kind of has control over what happens on that property, and there are quite a few restrictions put on that.”
“After the meeting, I called Rob Krain from Black Swamp to update him on the result. He said it absolutely has the potential to sink the project, to sink the grant application. He’s not sure whether or not we’re even able to make application if we don’t have the trustees approval of the resolution. So he is looking into that; he’s going to update me later this week.”
“I asked the trustees if they would at least approve Mr. Poynter’s resolution for him to be able to sell to the Conservancy, which has nothing to do with the village,” Rockey said.
“They said they would look into that. They also said when we said that we didn’t really have the ability to commit to some kind of indefinite restriction on annexation, I said I wasn’t interested in tying the hands of whoever sits in this office in the future from any kind of work at the property.”
“Basically the way that they left it is they said that they’re aware of the March 1 deadline for application, and that they’ll get back to it.”
“I expect that we’re going back to what will be the third meeting that we’ve attended regarding the RRK property. Maybe they’ll have an answer for us then as to whether or not they’re going to sign the resolution, but right now, it doesn’t look very favorable unless we’re willing to sign some kind of document that said we would never annex it.”
Councilor Dan Willis then addressed Council about what he perceived as transparency and potential conflict of interest issues. “Back a year and a half, two years ago,” he said, “…I had requested the Council approve the Iron Horse Trail map, and I was told at that time this is an ongoing project.”
“There was nothing to approve at that time. At the last Council meeting, it was mentioned that it’s done. I’ve had a few people approach me and say, ‘Hey, can I see that map,’ and my response is, ‘Sure, I’d like to see it myself.’
“So why isn’t this stuff coming back to Council for approval? Same thing happened with the lines on the 107 Bridge. I still think all this stuff should come back through Council, because we have to answer for it.”
“And when I told those people within the last two weeks, I’d like to see it too, it makes us look kind of stupid. And then I also realize something else.” I read the article in the paper of Mr. Kannel’s talk at the Commissioners and the township trustees, and I realized he’s Chairman of the Economic Development and Strategy Committee. But one of the rules that we set up, and I quote, ‘…engage in other activities, as requested by the Mayor, or Council President.’
“He’s the Council President this year, and with him being the Chairman, I believe this is a conflict of interest. It’s like he wouldn’t have to answer to anybody. I really think Chris ought to consider this year, stepping down as Chairman of that, and let somebody else do it.”
“Plus,” Willis continued, “…after reading some of the comments, I’m a little confused. Chris, when you first came to Council with this park project, if I remember right, the owner was asking for some $400,000, but was going to lower it if Black Swamp (Conservancy) and the village were interested.”
“So that puts it in the $300,000 range. Your asking for $524,000 doesn’t make sense to me. Something’s funny about this whole thing, Chris, and I really wish Council would reconsider it. Think about it.”
“This is the same property that the owner tried to auction off a while back and couldn’t even get a bid. And now it’s worth a half million dollars? I’m sorry, but something just doesn’t sound right. So I want the rest of you to think about it.”
Mr. Rockey accepted the blame for not getting the project drawings out. “The fact that Council doesn’t have the Stage One drawing from (Architect) Poggemeyer would be my fault,” he said. “I didn’t realize that wasn’t passed along. I’ll get those out to everybody as soon as I can, along with the with the ODOT comments.
Referencing the lane striping issue, Mayor Steve Yagelski stated, “I said it once before Mr. Willis, and I’ll say it again. The village approached ODOT with two different scenarios to try to put a bridge across Main Street; ODOT refused that.”
“We can’t control the striping on the lines; that’s all ODOT funded. We can voice our opinion, which we did. But here again, it’s a state route, and we can only voice our opinion.”
Councilor Kannel then noted that the Economic Development Strategy Committee met in January. “There’s recognition on the part of the committee, some that go along with Mr. Willis’ concerns about not having all of this stuff presented so that everybody can look at it.”
“I think part of the trouble that we’re having right now is that some of these projects are moving along pretty aggressively. In the past, we’ve done a lot of handouts. We’d bring a lot of stuff to Council. We passed around so that everybody can look at it while we’re talking about it at the same time.”
“We don’t always get that opportunity right now, because we’re virtual, so I think that is part of the concern. And in order to address that concern, Economic Development and Strategy Committee would like to recommend that we host a virtual town hall meeting, to talk about some of the ongoing projects that are happening right now currently in the village.”
“Some of the things that the Administration and Council have been working on for the coming year, and just sort of lay everything out on the table so that so that everybody can see what we’re doing.”
“If those are who are interested are available to ask questions, we will try to open up the format so that questions can be asked as we go along and we can try to get some of those concerns addressed, because we recognize that some of these things are moving along pretty quickly.”
In addressing the perceived conflict of interest in addressing the Commissioners, Kannel said, “Mr. Rockey was there, and in presented the project to the Commissioners and to the trustees. But I don’t see that that is in any way a conflict of interest for me to be speaking about a project that I’m involved in at those meetings.”
Rockey then added, “I asked if Mr. Kannel could attend, because he had the most conversations with Rob Krain…the administrator of the project at Black Swamp Conservancy. So in case the Commissioners had any questions that I didn’t have the answers to, I felt it was important that Mr. Kannel be there and help answer those questions.”
In other actions, Council heard the third reading of, and adopted Ordinance 2254, granting a request for the village to vacate a section of Maple Street between Linden and Delaware Streets. Council also agreed to the one-year probationary hire of Tyler Michael to the Montpelier Fire Department.
Tim can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
