By: Bill O’Connell
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
On Monday, 3/14/16, at 7:00 PM, Mayor Ann Roth called to order a meeting of the Swanton Village Council. All council members were in attendance including Tamara Haselman, Jeff Pilliod, Gary Moore, Paul Dzvak, Dianne Westhoven and Michael Rochelle. Village Clerk Kathy Kreuz was present as well.
Also in attendance, for the first time, was Rosanna Hoelzle, the new Village Administrator who began her duties on 3/7/16. Her predecessor, interim administrator Edward Ciecka was in the audience. The Mayor and the council members thanked Mr. Ciecka for his six months of service and applauded his efforts.
Minutes from the previous council meeting on 2/21/16 had been distributed on hard copy and were approved unanimously by the council.
Councilman Dzvak gave the Water and Sewer Committee report. He reported that the department is still waiting on parts to fix a backwash switch that were ordered about a month ago. The department will also be looking into trading in a John Deere mower and purchasing a new one at a cost of approximately $3500. They are also wanting to purchase a 2016 Ford F150 pickup truck with a blade. It would be paid for in three annual installments of just over $11,000. “Everything seems to be going well in both departments,” said Dzvak. “That’s Water and Sewer.”
Two guests, Tracy Zuver of Archbold and Jon Rupp from Franklin Township, were in attendance and were next on the agenda. Zuver was running for Fulton County Clerk of Courts and Rupp was a candidate for Fulton County Commissioner. Both men gave a brief speech to the council outlining their credentials for office and left soon after.
The council moved on to new business addressing Ordinance 2016-05 which allows the Village Administrator to enter into an agreement to provide agricultural services for property owned by the Village of Swanton. Included in the council’s meeting packet of information was a bid for the rental of the farm land. It was the only bid submitted and was less than what was received last year.
“I think you should award it,” recommended outgoing Village Administrator Ciecka. “It was advertised in the paper. We sent out notices to everybody that bid last year by mail. We didn’t just rely on the public notice.” A motion to accept the bid was put forth by the Mayor and was passed unanimously by the council. The council then retired to an executive session to discuss personnel discipline and personnel appointment.
Upon returning the council heard the first reading of Ordinance 2016-06, the ordinance approving the appropriation to provide for current expenses and other expenditures for the fiscal year ending 12/31/16.
Mayor Roth reported that a notice in the paper looking to fill a vacancy on the Swanton Planning Commission has generated just one application. The notice may run again.
She also informed the council that the Emergency Management Agency(EMA) of Fulton County has scheduled a speaker from Waco, Texas to talk at two different sessions at Sauder Village on 4/21/16. The speaker was a first responder to the fertilizer plant explosion near Waco in April of 2016. The Mayor will be attending the evening session.
With a permanent Village Administrator now in place Councilman Rochelle turned over his position on the Fulton County Planning Commission to VA Hoelzle.
VA Hoelzle also reported that there were some discrepancies in the bidding of the Clark Street sewer project and recommended the project be rebid. The council approved the recommendation unanimously.
The Ohio Department of Transportation’s widening project of Airport Highway in Swanton is still scheduled to begin in July and will include the repairing of the South Main Street bridge and the repaving of Main Street through town and out to the north corporation limit. The repairs and repaving will be scheduled to begin just after the 8/22/16 Swanton Corn Festival. The village will assume the responsibility for re-striping the parking spaces uptown after the project is completed.
There will also be a repaving of the walking path at Pilliod Park scheduled to start the week of 4/15/16. Most of the cost will be covered by a grant.
In other business, work on the new community center is continuing at a slow pace but is getting close to completion and the new electronic display sign for Memorial Park will be ordered once the new budget is approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.
Bill O’Connell may be reached at
publisher@thevillagereporter.com