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By: Bill O’Connell
Swanton Village Administrator Rosanna Hoelzle made a recommendation to the Village Council during their meeting last Monday night to find a community-friendly use for three Village-owned connected parcels located on the west side of South Main Street, directly across from the All-Spray building.
The Council agreed and tasked Ms. Hoelzle to send out a survey soliciting ideas. A survey was posted on the Village’s Facebook page which read, in part, “This is a survey to garner ideas for future use of these parcels. Please understand that this is in the infancy phase and no design consultants have been retained.
The result of the survey is the first step in identifying if the community is interested in development.” The survey offers eleven recommended choices and asks for an importance rating for each one.
Council also approved moving forward with offering a one-time credit on utility bills for those who sign up for an Automated Clearing House (ACH) account and/or paperless billing. The program is funded through Ohio House Bill 481 which went into effect on March 1, 2020. Only those who have signed up since March 1, 2020 and those who will sign up by at least September 30, 2020 will qualify. The credit is expected to be $10.
On a related issue, there are approximately 30 upgraded meters yet to be installed. The first billing for these new residential meters will be October 15, 2020. Customers with billing issues are urged to call the Village at 419-825-9515.
Mayor Neil Toeppe made a proposal to discuss amending Ordinance 2009-24, Street Tree Commission. “The Tree Commission Ordinance as amended in 2017 provides great autonomy and authority to the commission, does not provide any ongoing oversight, nor any regular reporting responsibility.”
“Other than reporting to Village Council once a year. There is no elected official that this commission reports to. The ordinance provides no means to remove or hold accountable any commission member,” said Mr. Toeppe in explaining his proposed amendment which seeks, among other things, to change the Tree Commission from an advocacy group to an advisory group reporting to the Village Council.
“I’d like to push this so we can have a discussion down the road. Perhaps when we’re back together in face-to-face meetings,” remarked Council President Craig Rose, later explaining the that the amount of time required to discuss all the points in the proposed amendment was too long for a regular Council meeting. Councilman Paul Dyzak agreed with the decision.
When asked if he could be more specific on when the Tree Commission Ordinance might be addressed, Mr. Rose said, “We’ll have a discussion in the next week or so of what’s the best way to approach this.”
“I want to have much more time to discuss it than what we just did. I don’t think I have to give a specific date and I’m not going to. The same answer. In the future, when we’re ready to do that we’ll have discussions coming up.”
A site plan for a storage unit service to be located on Airport Highway next to the Car Wash was approved by the Planning Commission after the owner withdrew his request for several variances. There will be two buildings with a combined 84 storage units. No date has been set for the ground breaking.
Fire Chief Anthony Schaffer gave an update on a fire engine that is in need of repair. The repair costs would be approximately $28,500 and the price of a new unit would in the neighborhood of $580,000. Buying a used unit is also another possibility.
The next Council meeting will be on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at a time yet to be determined.
Bill can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
