PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN/ THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DISCUSSING PROJECTS … Pioneer council members from left, Brock Zuver, Joseph Nickloy, and Dean Frisbie discuss the Lakeshore Drive and High Point Drive resurfacing project at its regular council meeting on Monday, June 8.
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
Pioneer Village Council met in a regular session on Monday, June 8 with council members Joseph Nickloy, Dean Frisbie, Brock Zuver, Al Fiser, and Bryan Gendron in attendance with Trevor West being absent.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited followed by a prayer and the approval of minutes of the May 11 council meeting, the May financial report and payment of bills.
Council gave its support behind a Brownfield project in the village that will be done by the land bank.
Village Administrator Anthony Burnett told council the Williams County Land Revitalization had $130,000 left over in Brownfield money from the 2025 fiscal year. He said the money needed to be spoken for as of Friday, June 5 or sent back to the state.
The property located next to the Pioneer Branch of the Williams County Public Library is owned by Kidston Consultants. Mayor Ed Kidston excused himself for several minutes during the meeting.
Burnett noted Maumee Valley Planning Organization had no other Brownfield projects in the county; such sites are primarily gas stations.
“The only property the organization was aware of was the one owned by Kidston Consultants, which was previously a gas station several years ago,” said Burnett.
“They had reached out to Ed (Kidston) to see if he was willing to sign an entrance agreement allowing testing to be done on the property, he was in agreement with it. I see it as a good opportunity.”
He said the land bank needed a letter of support from the village the property is in, and council then approved it. The money will be coming from the land bank.
“This $130,000 will basically start up the environmental process, do phase one testing,” Burnett said.
“If they find a heavy source of contamination, then the land bank will continue on getting funding for remediation and additional testing.”
Even though the building is not owned by the village, the village is not involved in the project or how far it goes.
“For the future generations of Pioneer, we need to clean up everything we can,” said councilman Dean Frisbie. A local resident asked if there is going to be any kind of profit for Kidston, and Burnett said no.
“He’s (Kidston) going to lose the building because he’s got a tenant in there right now,” added Burnett.
LAKESHORE DRIVE & HIGH POINT DRIVE RESURFACING PROJECT
Despite no response regarding the public question or comment participation period regarding the resurfacing project, Burnett had sent out letters to property owners on Lakeshore Drive asking for input on it.
Burnett received an engineer’s estimate on the project which was around $3.5 million and is focused on as the next project for the village.
Kidston commented on the chances of the village being successful and getting a grant for the entire road is a long shot.
“The chances of being creative and dividing that project into two parts, that betters our chances,” said the mayor. “Trying to absorb $3.5 million dollars in debt service, I don’t think that’s in the cards right now.”
Councilman Al Fiser said after looking at the submitted written comments, it looked to him as a split deal on either of them.
“That tells me that they’re relying on council in making a decision,” Fiser said.
Kidston said if the village decides to patch the roads for now, the village will not be going to access property owners.
POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORT
Two new police officers were welcomed with Ryan Damitio, as a full-time officer and Dan Shipley as a part-time officer who were appointed and approved by council.
With the two new officers, there are now five full-time officers and five part-time officers in the department.
FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT
Fire Chief Dan Bertke welcomed two new probationary firefighters for the Pioneer Fire Department in Josh Arvay and Katie Pennington. They were approved by the council.
Arvay is currently a police officer in the village and will be relocating to Pioneer within the next year from Toledo. Pennington is a resident of Pioneer.
Both firefighters have already taken the volunteer firefighters’ class and successfully passed their class final last weekend. They are now scheduled to take their state test on Thursday, June 11.
“There has been a precedence set and the fact we are down in numbers and need help,” said Bertke. “I just feel like we take the help where we can get it.”
Bertke updated council on the five overhead doors at the fire station that were completed last week. The roof project will take place at the end of this month, and the siding work will be done in July.
He reported on the status of Engine 71 in which Bertke had some of the estimates back for some of the critical items on getting the fire truck repaired.
Bertke got an estimate from Interstate Truck and Trailer of Pioneer which involved two additional things that Atlantic Emergency Solutions of Findlay had quoted regarding the rocker box leak and the power steering leak as well as adding in the LED headlights.
They were able to save around $1,000 if the department had Interstate Truck and Trailer do those items instead of Atlantic Emergency Solutions.
“We’re still into Atlantic Emergency Solutions for at that point I think it’s less than $15,000 to take care all of the critical items,” said the fire chief.
Bertke asked council to write a purchase order for Interstate Truck and Trailer and Atlantic Emergency Solutions to get those items fixed. Council approved the motion to write up purchase orders.
“What I like to do is to get the truck scheduled to get into Atlantic Emergency Solutions and have those guys down there do a thorough look through the truck to give us a good estimate on what it’s going to take to repair the remainder of the items that are on that list,” said Bertke.
VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR REPORT
Burnett told council the village had received OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) small government grant of $500,000 which goes towards a $534,000 zero percent interest loan for the South Elm Street and one block of Church Street total reconstruction project.
The loan is a 20-year note with an annual payment of $26,700. The council approved the grant.
The engineer’s estimate for the project is $1 million, with ten percent contingency built into it. The engineer’s contract was $16,500 which council had approved.
Burnett updated council on a change order with Virginia Transformer not to exceed $41,000 for their contracted assembly and testing for the two transformers of the Kexon Substation located on the north side of the village. He asked for a motion from the council to approve the order and it passed.
Two other items approved by council pertaining to the Kexon Substation involve final components needed to be done before the village is energized.
One contract went to Power Construction Group, who is an on-site contractor at $63,280.
They will do all the testing and submit their testing for the village engineer so they can review and make sure all the parameters are okay.
The other contract went to Entrust for relay and functional testing at $33,400.
He also noted cameras have been installed in the Crommer Park areas, splash pads, and ball diamonds.
Burnett was recently notified that the Pioneer Church of Nazarene will be closing its doors via a decision at the district level. He said they have done a lot in supporting the community over the years.
OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS
Council adopted a resolution establishing a policy for interconnection of distributed resources and declaring an emergency.
Kidston told council the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) was telling the village this is the last document being made to set up and release the funds.
He will be giving the resolution on Tuesday to the USDA and hopefully the village will see the money flowing to them.
NEXT COUNCIL MEETING
Due to a scheduling conflict, the next regular council meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 8 at 7 p.m.