September 2024
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 9-10-2024
Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. Those in attendance were Craig Knox, Fire Chief; Larken Slack, Derek Dozer and Randy Elson; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Also in attendance were Township residents: Brandon Stackhouse, Bernadine Swingle, Renee Stackhouse, Kent Cornett, Shane Stephenson, Sam Lantz, John Hope, and Dana Swingle.
Meeting was called to order by Trustee Slack at 6:00 pm.
Pledge to the flag was led by Larken Slack.
Agenda: approved.
Minutes: approved.
Public Participation: John Hope - thanked the township for cleaning up the Avondale area after the storm. He had some questions about where his property line is and where the road is. He is putting up a fence and currently has a surveyor working on boundary lines. There is some dumping taking place behind him in a culvert that he has been cleaning up. The dumping has now progressed and is in the alley and it is spilling over onto his property. He does realize the alley is not maintained by the township. He is just concerned about the alley filling up and traffic cannot get through when needed. Larken asked how people were getting in there to dump and he said it was through adjacent properties. The resident is also pretty sure there are actual buildings built in the alley right of way. He asked if there is anything that can be done about the dumping. The only answer they could come up with was maybe signage to saying “no dumping” and that there would be a fine. Or having a conversation with the neighbors that are doing the dumping. Derek said he would just have Jason get some “no dumping” signs and have them put up to start.
His neighbor, Dana Swingle, is also here and thanked the board for getting the street light turned on in Avondale. He has also helped Mr. Hope clean up the area that the dumping is occurring.
Kent Cornett wanted to thank them for cleaning up his ditch after the tow truck ran off the road.
Mike Shilling - is asking about the status of the Madison Street clean up. Trustees stated that he has started building a “fence” to obstruct the junk motor vehicles. Larken let the resident know that they are signing a nuisance abatement resolution tonight to send the landowner about cleaning up the other vegetation and junk on the property.
Fire Department Business: There were 136 dispatched calls in August. There were 89 In Muskingum County and 47 in Perry County. Total for the year is 1022.
There were 3 uncovered 12-hour shifts in August due to call-offs.
They are still working with the homeowner on Maysville Pike on getting the porch repaired.
The training division has an EMT basic class starting in October.
Medic 1082 has a cracked radiator that needs repaired. The parts on backordered. The tanker and old engine have been repaired for the issues that caused them to fail their pump tests.
The Ambulance Grant – there were 33 employees eligible for retention bonuses ($2,400.00) and 4 employees eligible for the recruitment bonus ($1,080.50). Those checks will be signed tonight. This money had to be expended by September 30th or returned to the State of Ohio.
They received a grant from the Aladdin Shriners for pediatric equipment for $4,569.98.
They got the report for the generator and they did recommend switching out the big generator with the one that was in the lot. They will list the old one on Govdeals to try to sell it off.
The open houses are Tuesday, September 24th at 7 pm. and Saturday, October 12th at 11 am., for public meetings regarding the levy. Craig said they are advertising on their social media site and they are going to see if the radio station will advertise for them.
They had a Chief officer meeting on Saturday. They have 5 employees that will be receiving letters asking what their intentions are and if they want to remain members. He asked that they move into executive session later to discuss a personnel matter.
Assistant Chief: none.
Road Report: The F-550 will not shift out of park. Jason talked to Crawmer’s and they think it is either a sensor or a cable. Should be easy to fix. The John Deere tractor’s air conditioner needs fixed. It is blowing hot air.
He is finishing up drain clean up on Thompson Run.
Still working on Shaw Road. Sounds like the water department is going to bore under the road with the water line, at least for part of it. They still have 3 culverts to put in before paving. The water department is not giving enough details to know if the new pavement will be torn up, so paving is put on hold temporarily. Larken even mentioned making them sign a performance bond. Derek agreed with that. Larken is going to write a letter to the water department for the board to sign. He suggested they go ahead and pave Shaw and have the water department sign a performance bond to force them to reclaim.
They have cleaned ditches and widened Porter Run. They have started ditching on Slack.
Derek said there is a culvert at Thompson Run and Foxfire that needs fixed.
Jason has made the brine trunk tank usable on the dump trucks. The truck itself can be disposed of however the Trustees wish.
Old Business: Derek read the “minutes” from the Jones property meeting. FO will type those for review at the October meeting.
New Business: Shaw Road – Larken says they are still out about a week from being ready to pave. Art at 20/20 says he is typically done on September 17th if they want to get any chip seal done. Moxadarla is 7/10th’s of a mile. He quoted $17,000 / per mile. They agreed to do 10 miles of additional chip seal for an overall spend on chip seal of $170,000.00.
Discussion started on possibly paving some other smaller roads in case Shaw falls through this year.
Derek asked that they move into executive session at 7:25 pm. Executive session ended at 7:28 pm.
Derek had posted some pictures on the township FB page about some dumping on Huggins Road. He received some hits on who is doing the dumping. The contractor said he was heading down SR 93 and he had two flat tires so he turned onto Crock Road and dumped it until he could come back later. Deputy Williams and Derek agreed to ask the contractor clean up the site and ask the contractor to come to tonight’s meeting and apologize for dumping. Trenton Dusenberry is not at the meeting this evening but he did clean up the dump site but did not show up to apologize for dumping.
Trustees Reports:
Elson—none.
Dozer—none.
Slack— none.
Fiscal Officer Report:
· Distributed Grassroots Clippings
· Presented certification from the County Auditor of what the Local Government Revenues will be for 2025, for signature.
· Presented resolution 08/2024 – Accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor.
· Presented resolution 07/2024 – Nuisance Abatement for Donald Jones’ property located at 4130 Madison Street, Roseville, Ohio 43777.
· Presented resolution 09/2024 – Nuisance Abatement for Robert Boyd for numerous parcels located on 4th Street in Ironspot.
· FO asked Trustee Dozer to clarify the names and addresses of the two junk motor vehicle letters that he mailed in August. And what date the letters were mailed so the tracking spreadsheet could be updated.
· FO reminded Trustee Slack that the AOS Fraud Reporting Training is due by the 28th of this month.1
· The 2024 MORE Grant has been applied for through OTARMA.
· 50 ton of salt has been ordered from Cargill.
· Presented the OTARMA Anniversary packet to the board for approval to make payment for the annual risk / liability coverage for all Township assets. Asked if the board wished to increase our liability from $5,000,000.00 to a higher amount. The board agreed to increase the liability coverage to $6,000,000.00. The replacement value on the tanker truck needs increased to $350,000.00 per Craig.
· Reminded board and fire department of the KLA Risk Management recommendations as a follow up letter was received after the August meeting.
· FO asked the board about their thoughts on an indigent resident’s remains currently at the Delong Baker and Lanning Funeral Home awaiting cremation / burial. Passed out ORC Section 9.15 that covers the Township’s responsibility of the burial of an indigent person whose legal residence was in said Township at the time of death. Ken with the funeral home stated the cost is normally $1995 but they would be willing to accept half that cost to take care of the remains. The board agreed that we would pay half and will request an invoice from the funeral home.
Trustee Dozer made a motion to pay bills. Trustee Elson seconded the motion. Motion carried.
All bills presented were deemed to be valid expenditures and were to be paid as presented.
Next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 at 6:00 pm.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
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