OATH OF OFFICE … Brooke Baumgartner is seen here at the May 3, 2021 Wauseon City Council meeting, being sworn into the office of Clerk of Council by Wauseon Mayor Kathy Huner. (PHOTO BY REBECCA MILLER, STAFF)
By: Rebecca Miller
Brooke Baumgartner was sworn in as the new Council Clerk at the May 3, 2021 Wauseon City Council meeting. Mayor Kathy Huner stepped out and read the Oath, which she repeated before taking her seat to record the minutes for the meeting.
Deputy Clerk Trudi Mahnke called the roll and took the votes for the evening while Baumgartner is in training for the position.
Council voted to approve the agenda and the minutes of previous meetings, after which guest, Pastor Vic Cales presented an update on the Wauseon Beautification Team.
So far, since the team was formed a little over two years ago, they have raised funds to beautify the city, purchased and planted flowers in the city planters, helped with the city mural project, weeded and cleaned around town.
Currently they are helping the Wauseon High School Art department and art teacher, Mike Colon, to provide opportunities for students to use their artistic abilities to beautify the city and to serve.
They are helping with the new Christmas project that puts new Christmas decorations in the parks and to enhance the downtown area. They are also assisting in putting new lights on the downtown trees to create a more nostalgic beauty to promote businesses and create an environment for people to walk and shop.
They have put hanging baskets on the city lampposts and are helping with the Homecoming Trails project, working with Rotary and the city, specifically planing hosts and assisting with natural landscaping along those trails.
In organizational ways, they are creating vision to serve the city and assist Public Works, Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor and City Council. They promote and help to market any city projects and help recruit and gather skills and resources to help their beautification projects.
“We pretty much just help what is already going on,” Cales said as he wrapped up his report. Memberships cost $15 a year, include a tee shirt and hold no requirements. Members are welcome to serve as much or as little as possible.
To join or get more information, email wauseonbeautificationteam@gmail.com. Donations can be given through Venmo@WauseonBeautificationTeam, cash or check.
Council member Harold Stickley, gave a report as Chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, concerning the April 20 committee meeting. He made two recommendations to council from the committee, with both receiving approval.
The first topic about which he spoke was that Haas Door wants to put two crosswalks and pour sidewalks on city property at Ditman as they are expanding their parking lot and dock area.
They also want to take care of some lighting and have offered to pay for the 14 light poles, at $1500 each, for Ditman and Creager Streets.
The second issue he proposed was to hire Daniel Dunlap as an independent contractor at $25 per hour for residential zoning inspections, to work 6 to 8 hours a week. Director of Public Service, Keith Torbet, said that Dunlap would need more hours than that at the beginning, but that it would evolve into the six to eight hours a week.
In regular business, council voted to approve Third Reading of Resolution 2021-6 A resolution joining the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce in strongly urging the U.S. Postal Service to consider returning mail processing operations to its sorting facility in Toledo, Ohio.
In New Business, President Shane Chamberlin brought it to the attention of Torbet that someone has mentioned a need for the back stops at the T-ball parks to be replaced as they are rough.
With no old business, council voted to approve the payment of bills and adjourned.
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com