Carole Pollard, Allyn Road: This was another meeting at which I spoke extemporaneously and therefore have no record of my exact comments. Here is the gist of it: I asked Jason if he had read the information packets that I gave to the Trustees and Fiscal Officer at the May 30 special meeting. He had, and clearly had the opinion that there were other points of view about what was in the packets. [Anyone who wants the whole text can request them from Marie, but I intend to put the most important parts into the blog.]
I also asked Jason if he had thought about one year, five years, ten years from now, since he has said that those time frames need to be considered.
The elephant in the room is what is really going to be done with the school, and the only three options are to keep it and finish it as intended; to sell it; and to level it and put up a new building.
Selling the building gets the township "out from under" the "waste" that was harped on during the election, but makes no provision for the future needs and growth of the township. The township hall is already stretched to the max under some circumstances. Building a new building would cost at least $170 per square foot, meaning that 12,000 square feet--the size of the 1914 building--would cost over $2,000,000 and the building would be done for in 50 years. [If the amount actually already spent and the work already done that would be thrown away are waste, where is over $2million going to come from? And then do it all over again in 50 years? That isn't waste on a large scale?] An architect of my acquaintance said that commercial buildings aren't intended to last, but that a public building like our school is intended to stand for the duration of time. He commented that if nothing at all were done but the building was neglected, even if the roof fell in, the bearing walls would still be standing in another hundred years.
Matt Parsons and Larry Leitzow had no comment.
Phil Derthick: The cloth being put down on the roads: What is its name?
Jason did not really know.
Vic answered: There are several kinds, for different applications. At Old Taylor Woods, there was a complicated process and several layers. Geotex is the customary name.
Phil: On the website--A minor thing: the picture of Yogi Bear: Jellystone Park has not been that for a long time.
Dawn Pechman: I have some concerns about the records and the meetings. I know we have the right to attend and the right to hear and the right to be notified. I have trouble learning when special meetings are. I am concerned that we have to get records in a parking lot. [Marie has stopped letting people come to her house to get records, but arranges to meet people at the Township Hall to give them the records they have requested. She tries to get as many requestors as possible to come at the same time so that it is a more efficient process.]
Dawn, continuing: I have a right to records and the website is up. [The number of records Dawn has requested, at 10 cents per page, amounts to a fair amount of money over time.]
Mediation is a really neat thing right now. You do not have to go to court but can go to mediation for public records. [If a government entity is proven to have violated public records policy, the fine--and payment to the injured party--is significant. A person who could prove such a violation in suffcient numbers of records would make quite a haul.]
Meetings have gotten out of hand.
It is one thing to talk about the Center School use. . . .
[Sorry. I have trouble following both the logic and the content of Dawn's remarks. This was as much as I got.]
Steve Zelinski (sp?) had no comment.
Cal Brant: How big are the trailers? Jason: 20 by 42 feet.
Cal, continuing: About the Duration paint: People are having lawsuits because of issues. I don't know that we want to use that.
John Festa: The warranty on the paint is forever, but the warranty from the painter is 10 years.
Cal: I am suspicious about these warranties. I have been through this a lot.
John Festa: There are some other people concerned.
Cal: Who is going to be making a final decision? An engineering firm could give you concrete facts. For that kind of money to spend on the building, it would be well spent.
Dave Pollard: I looked at that north trailer and I would love to have it, but there is no way to get it out of there. As soon as someone puts in a bid to move it, I would be happy to pay the township for some of the contents. There are counters and cupboards that are easily removed. The wall skirting is all corrugated steel and I have a use for that. IF you are agreeable to that, I will give you this proposal afterwards.
Has the township bought a sickle-bar mower to do roadsides?
Vic: We have not had one of those for quite a few years.
Dan Cozzens: Is the meeting on Saturday public? (Yes.) Also--the trash outside the trailer: Has it been there since June 2?
Jason: It has been there for a couple of weeks. The scene has changed quite a few times.
Vic: Some things have gone, and some things have come back.
At 9:25 a motion was made to pay the bills. To all intents and purposes, most meetings are pretty much over at that point.
About This Blog
The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.
Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.
Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.
This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.
During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)
My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.
Principles
Two ideas guide and support me:
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke
GOOD PREVAILS.
Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.
I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.
