June 2026
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 6-9-2026
Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. Those in attendance were Fire Chief, Craig Knox ; Larken Slack, Derek Dozer and Randy Elson; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Also in attendance were Township residents: Sam Lantz, Jim Smith, Tim Lutz, Shane Stephenson, and Brandon Stackhouse.
Meeting was called to order by Trustee Dozer at 6:00 pm.
Pledge to the flag was led by Derek Dozer.
Agenda: approved.
Minutes: approved.
Public Participation:
· Tim Lutz the residents in Roberts Addition are looking to move their mailboxes that are on Limestone Valley Road, and bringing them to the actual road on Roberts Addition. The mail lady comes a different direction now and there are several residents that are getting older and crossing the street is dangerous. There is a strip of grass on Gary Roberts property that is township right of way, and they would like to move the strip of mailboxes to that stretch of grass. He has not checked with the post office yet but wanted to check with the trustees first. Larken asked how deep the grassy area was off the road. He said the post office will likely have the final call on that. The Trustees were all in agreement that it would be fine as long as they can plow snow along the road.
· Jim Smith asking about mowing. He would like the alley beside his block garage to get mowed. He would like to meet with Derek so they can discuss the new garage. He is going to take out the old block one.
Fire Department Business:
· There were 126 dispatched calls in May 78 Muskingum County and 48 in Perry County. They are at 593 for the year which averages to 3.9 per day.
· There were 34 call-offs that left 15 uncovered 12-hour shifts. One employee had emergency surgery and another has a broken hand.
· EMT class finishes up on Saturday and a 36-hour FF course starts on June 25th.
· The sewer mound someone called Allen and said that he would have to be involved when that gets moved or fixed. The guy is supposed to come to the station and look. He thinks they may be able to refurbish the existing mound. They think they need to have those pumped out. Craig asked permission to call around and get pricing to get that pumped.
· Craig asked Larken about Paul Construction picking up some metal to repair something on the building. Larken said the cap on the parapet wall is what they were going to repair.
· Some water got into the cafeteria due to clogged roof drains. The tar they used to cover the roof is cracking along the seams. Craig asked Larken if Paul Construction could come back and put a layer of something over that. Larken said he will give them a call and see if they fix that.
· The tax abolishment initiative they are not submitting this year due to lack of signatures. They are going to let those signatures ride and see if they can add more to those next year.
· Robert McDonald and Shane Patterson have resigned. Tyler Turnes has been hired and they are setting up interviews with four more candidates.
· Jake and Craig will be at the Ohio Fire Chiefs Summer Leadership Conference July 12-15. Craig will not be in attendance at the July meeting.
· Craig has construction drawings for the driveway project that can be used to get bid wording ready as long as the Trustees are okay with proceeding with that project. The cost of concrete has gone up so rough figures are $100,000 to $110,000. That will include saw cutting and replacing an existing slab of concrete that has broken down. Derek asked where that money would come from and Craig said he set aside $80,000 in 2191 for improvement of sites and in $20,000 in 2281 for improvement of sites and $15,000 for buildings. Larken asked how deep the concrete would be and Craig said he believes it is 8. There was discussion on the saw cutting and the angle of the edge of the finished concrete. Larken thinks the saw cuts need to be deeper like 2 since the concrete is going to be 8 deep. Larken suggested making the concrete deeper next to Route 22. Derek made a motion that they go forward with bidding out the concrete project, once adjustments are made to the drawing based on discussion at tonights meeting. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Assistant Chief: None.
Road Report:
· The John Deere tractor a/c is finally repaired. Jeff had to adjust it because at one point it was freezing him out.
· The International went in to have the clutch adjusted and one of king pins was bad.
· Ford and Payne have been graded. They cleaned out a culvert on Payne so the water will run under the road instead of down the middle.
· Filled holes in Ironspot and hauled away a downed tree.
Old Business:
· None.
New Business:
· Larken is looking at grinding up some roads. He priced a loader to haul the zipper. It is more economical to rent it for a month. $7300 and that includes pick-up and delivery. It is $2266 for one week. Larken is thinking around the first of the month. Derek made a motion to rent the Case 621 loaded starting on July 1st for roughly $7300 for the month. The loader will be rented from Southeastern. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
· Larken would like to zip Workman and Lower Kroft first.
· Larken brought up chip n seal. He is opposed to any blacktop at this point because it is all falling apart. It is all junk! He has talked to 20/20, Dick McClelland and one other person. The general consensus is they can chip seal with 57s and then go back through and chip seal with 8s on top. To double coat an 18 wide road for every mile is about $37,000. In comparison, if you would blacktop all of Slack from Bagley to Ford to Wesley Chapel 18 wide it would be $291,000. You can do the whole road with the double coat chip seal $54,000. Larken has break downs of pricing on several different roads. The down side would be it takes 185 tons of 57s per mile and 158 tons of 8s per mile. That will add more cost to the chip seal. Larken thinks maybe they should start stock-piling some stone for these projects.
o Three roads they could get ready are Porter Run, Butcherknife and Bush Run estimated cost of $137,000. Maybe in September they could do Slack and Workman estimated cost of $144,000.
o Derek broke down the following prices:
§ Bush Run - $37,000
§ Porter Run - $74,000
§ Butcherknife - $26,000
§ Workman - $88,900
§ Opera - $82,900
§ Slack - $55,000
§ All estimates include stone, which will be purchased separately it will not be provided by the chip seal vendor.
· Derek wondered if doing Huggins, Carson, and Payne with a single coat.
· Derek made a motion to get on 20/20s schedule for Bush Run, Porter Run, Butcherknife. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
· Derek made a motion to get on 20/20s schedule to do Slack and Opera in September. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
· Derek made a motion to get on 20/20s calendar to do Workman Road. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Trustees Reports:
Elson
· None.
Dozer
· Email from Eli Peller regarding noise from the new Shelly mine on Route 93. He sent Derek a video and Derek says the sound is a lot louder than he expected.
· Gerry Kimpel the place on Butler Road actually has a truck on their property so he is going to go down and put up some property line stakes.
· Jeff Clossman called bout a dumpster on Carson Road it has been moved.
· Mary Jo Hicks / Theresa Wise fencing issue in Avondale. Larken and Derek stopped and spoke with Theresa Wise. Theresa built a fence first and then Mary Jo built a fence, so there are two fences with a gap and there is a culvert which is being blocked by dirt that is being placed there by Mary Jo.
· Colonial Hills mowing.
· Theresa Barnes called about holes on Workman Road Jason has addressed.
· Sharon Thomas regarding property at the end of Sunset Drive she wanted to know if she could fence in a little area there for horses. She is looking to purchase property there.
· Nate Wahl Broadvue Circle the gas company came through and did not do a good job of repairing the road. Craig said that has been repaired.
· Trees that were down over the weekend.
· Culvert on Rebecca and it has been repaired.
· Derek was driving by the Township garage and noticed the field behind the garage needing mowed. Derek would like to pay Tad Lantz to go ahead and mow that field along with the cemetery mowing. FO will have Tad invoice the Township for his time to mow that field through the summer.
Slack
· None.
Fiscal Officer Report:
· Distributed Grassroots Clippings
· FO distributed a letter from Englefield Oil about a price increase starting this month.
· FO gave a letter to Derek from Tom Petry with Arrowhead Land Co. regarding the purchase of land.
· FO presented Resolution 05/2026 for nuisance abatement of the Presley property located at 5260 Limestone Valley Road, Zanesville, Ohio 43701 Tax parcel # 47-41-01-10-000 to accompany a letter from Chris Cook, Redevelopment Specialist, Muskingum County Commissioners, adding that the Land Bank will remove two derelict trailers at 5100 Limestone Valley Road as well as the building located at 5230 Limestone Valley Road all in exchange for the cleanup of 5260 Limestone Valley Road.
· FO gave audit information to Derek to sign and return for audit close-out. One additional trustee will also need to sign one of the documents.
Trustee Dozer made a motion to pay bills. Trustee Slack seconded the motion. Motion carried.
All bills presented were deemed to be valid expenditures and were to be paid as presented.
The next monthly meeting will be held on July 14, 2026 at 6:00 pm.
Meeting adjourned 7:50 pm.
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