The next item in the meeting was Township Hall updates and the work that needs to be done.
Vic: I haven't taken the doors down because every day it has rained. We are still trying to see what money is there. That is the main thing.
John Festa: I had Rhino Seal come out. They will provide us with a formal proposal. He still says it is permanent stuff, the best out there. It is twice the cost of a regular paint job with a 25-year pro-rated deal.
[Blogger: The trustees passed a resolution last fall to accept Steve Coon's offer to paint the building at no cost to the township, and Linda Ehlert negotiated a deal with Sherwin Williams to get a certain amount of paint donated and the rest at a substantial, maybe 50%, discount. It has been purchased. Readers should remember that John Festa is the same person who, after the trustees had accepted a contractor to do 3 days' worth of work on Pioneer Trail, told the contractor at the end of the second day that he wasn't needed any more. The road crew could do it. As I understand it, with all of their other jobs, the road crew took a month to finish up.
Furthermore, by the time you read to the end of this section, it will be clear just how much money we don't have--but Trustee Festa seems willing to spend twice the amount of a normal paint job, and never mind preparation of the building, to use something probably not recommended by historic preservation guidelines.]
Jason: There is $500 in Improvement of Sites for the town hall. I would like to move a couple of things.
Marie: We have $1900 unencumbered.
Jason: Asked a question on tax collection and other audit fees.
Marie: We will need more than . . . . We have used $1400 of the $2,000 available, and the state charges back.
Jason: Asked about charging back to the county for use of buildings.
Marie: They are public buildings. We can not charge them (the county).
[Blogger: Jason is now in his second term. It seems reasonable to expect that he should know what can and cannot be charged.]
Jason: Other Professional and Technical Services for the Town Hall. What are those?
Marie answered the question.. This is a contingency.
Jason asked if she could move the $1,000.
Marie: It is your budget--you can do whatever you want but in the future you will not have it [in that fund].
Various funds were examined to find money. For the most accurate information, check the minutes when they are posted after having been reviewed and approved at the May 15 meeting.
Repairs and Maintenance, Mantua Center School Building. That was the next item Jason looked at.
Marie: I am showing $1125 in that account. We use that for repairs and maintenance when the furnace goes down. I suppose we can leave that in. You don't expect anything to break down, but you can't tell.
Operating Supplies for the school building. $2500.
Jason: What comes out of this?
Marie: Cleaning supplies, light bulbs, etc.
Jason: Can we trim $1,000 out of that?
Next was contracted services. Marie said, flat out, "Don't touch that."
Part of one fund was for security (police) for the Civic Center.
Jason: Looked at a fund used for t he Civic Center repairs.
Marie: If something breaks, you need to have money in there.
Jason: We have only used 2% of the account.
Marie: One repair can be the whole $3,000.
Jason: Take $500 out of it.
The running total at this point was $6598.
Jason: That will give us a start.
There was some more discussion about this.
Marie: At different times of the year we use these things. For example, some things come due in August, and we need to have the money there until August.
Jason (to the people in the room): This is painful but it is a necessity. [Given the approach to the township finances for the past few years, doing this is a necessity. Would it be a necessity for anyone sitting at the front table? Doubtful. This isn't how Shalersville does things, and it isn't how this township did things until John Festa was elected and Jason and he could vote together.]
Jason made a motion to transfer the funds discussed to the Improvement of Sites, Town Hall fund, total to be approximately $8757.07.
Note #1: The funds from which the money was taken for this purpose are supposed to last for their designated uses until December.
Note #2: Towards the end of last year or at the very beginning of this year, the need for repairs to the township hall in preparation for painting was brought up, and a figure of at least $10,000 was cited, two estimates already having been requested and submitted. That information was ignored and nothing was appropriated. The above process is the result, with the amount found only about half of the higher bid of about $15,000.
John Festa: So we are looking to do it again on Tuesday.
Vic: If it isn't raining.
Next was road repair for 2014.
Jason: I had contacted Anthony Zumbo to see if they would be willing to put together a bid book and they agreed. Any comments?
Vic: I was just going to go ahead and try to get quotes on crack seal..
There was discussion of the cost and the roads in general.
Vic: I will call Chris Meduri to see how we should handle it. [There is $15,000 for repairs that Vic wanted clarification on.]
John Festa: I want to make sure we don't drag our feet on this so we end up in September.
Jason: A quick announcement: a meeting about focus groups will be 5/7 at 6:30p.m. [That meeting has been held and posted in the blog.]
Vic: Do you think it would be wise to see if Todd Peetz can come to that meeting?
Jason: Yes. Why don't you ask him? To Marie: Did you advertise?
Marie: I thought you were advertising.
Next was the rental agreements: Jason asked if there was anything from the insurance company.
Vic replied that it was still in their legal department.
John Festa: About recording meetings to incorporate that onto the website.
I have a couple of models [of camera] in mind. I wanted to ask Frank Horack. We will not be able to control a wireless camera. It will have to be hard wired and put on one of the poles. If it is too much of an interference, we just get a stand somewhere and run a line to a laptop. If there is no problem, I don't mind using one of these posts. I wanted to ask Frank Horack about that.
Jason reported that the school board is just beginning to record their meetings. They can have students as part of the project. Ed Judd might be a contact.
Bogden Rental, Vic: That will be filed in small claims court on Monday.
John Festa: I was hoping to have a conversation with him but tried to reach out to him but didn't get too far.
Larry Leitzow: Bogden is still out of town.
Website: There was some discussion about what to put onto it. The 2014 budget could be posted under "Documents--Budget."
John Festa: I would like to get the pictures for the service department [road crew] updated. [As of the May 1 meeting, the website still had photos of three workers, despite one having been let go at least a month and a half ago. I asked Brian and Dan to take some pictures. I don't know how you [to Jason and Vic] want to handle that.
Vic said he wants to look at it.
Jason: Brent Simon does some photography at an hourly rate and was gracious enough to come to the garage.
Vic: I can take the pictures. I will get them.
[Blogger: "Gracious" and "For Pay" do not come out of the same slot.]
John Festa: I would like the residents to know what we are doing. I don't know if there is a space where they can give you a schedule [of projects and planning].
Brent Simon: Yes. [Note: If you are a little new either to the blog or the township, Brent is the webmaster. He also video records the meetings for posting on a private website that is often mistaken for the township's site.]
John Festa, continuing: The bull pen--we have a flagpole without a flag.
Vic: It has been taken care of.
JF: Are we ever going to get a light?
Vic: I can hook it up. The flags are on their way. I will donate a flag for the administration [school] building. The POW flag might have to be replaced.
John Festa then asked about the audit committee.
Marie: The audit committee is the four of us.
JF: Do we get a chance to talk to the auditors?
Marie: She is done. She has been and gone.
JF: She's gone?
Marie: They do a lot of work through computer systems now.
Jason: I guess I forgot to mention that Heidi from Love Insurance will be here at the next meeting. We will have to make a decision on our risk insurance at the next meeting.
Blogger: Public Comment came next and will be a separate post.
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.
