With the current Fire Service Agreement between the Village of Delta and York Township set to expire on December 31, 2017 Village Administrator Brad Peebles reported that a meeting was held on Thursday, November 3, that was attended by representatives from Delta, the Village of Swanton, Fulton Township, Swan Creek Township and York Township.
“With the intention of beginning the evaluation or at least the consideration for creating a fire district,” said Mr. Peebles, explaining the reason for the meeting. “Basically, combining the two fire service areas under one taxing authority and administrative board to provide fire service.” He went on to say that all the entities involved agreed they needed to go to the next step which will be to request the Ohio Fire Chiefs participate in the next meeting to construct a study to determine the feasibility of such a venture. Mr. Peebles said the next meeting will be schedule sometime in late November.
The topic of 2017 Village employee pay raises consumed a large portion of the Council meeting, more specifically on how much and should they be across the board increases or merit raises. Citing concerns among Council members of choosing one or the other Mr. Peebles proposed using a combination of both. “We would have a 1.5% across the board pay increase for all employees so we try to eliminate any disparity amongst employees,” he suggested. He then recommended a pool of money be established and used for incentive bonuses based upon a merit evaluation. There were no motions made on the issue and it was essentially tabled until a later date.
In other news, several readings of ordinances and resolutions were passed including the first reading of the ordinance to approve the 2017 Village budget for $12.3 million. The first reading of an ordinance to authorize Palmer Energy of Toledo to represent Delta in the Northwest Ohio Aggregation Coalition for the purpose of bidding aggregated electrical power requirements for Village customers also passed.
The Council also approved monies for a Holiday Appreciation party at a yet-to-be-determined Toledo Walleye game.
The next Council meeting will be held on November 21, 2016 in Memorial Hall.
Bill O’Connell may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com