[Blogger Foreword: Although this was a short meeting and fairly routine, the blog will cover many of the details. This meeting was an example of the unexciting but necessary business of the township. Having attended almost every meeting since maybe early 2005, I wish more meetings had been this uneventful.]
Present: Matthew Merchant, Record Courier reporter; Stacy Turner, The Weekly Villager reporter; Amy Janca; Sue Skrovan; Carole Pollard; Dave Pollard
The Commissioners are reducing the load limit on the [county?] roads by 25% by January 31.
Sue Skrovan reported on the Civic Center activity: income was down somewhat, bu activities were up. There were a fair number of cancellations.
Garden Club: The Garden Club does not meet during the cold weather, but members will take down the decorations over the weekend. [They did.]
Ladies Cemetery Association: Nothing to report. Meetings will resume in April.
The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc.: Work is going forward on the Art Auction, Cookie Walk, and Mini Art Quilt silent auction. A new category, Whimsies, has been added for things that do not fit the obvious categories but are worth offering. Your faithful blogger joshed Jason about baking some cookies for the event, and he declined with good humor.
[Note: The event is at the Mantua Center School building on Saturday, February 11, from noon until 5 p.m. The live auction will begin by 1 (I think that's right) and bids for the mini art quilts will close at 2:30. Cookies until they run out. One way of participating would be to contribute cookies, which could be brought to the school around 10 a.m. They will be sold for $6.00 per dozen--50 cents a cookie, which is a good price if you have checked what they go for at Heinen's. ]
John Festa reported that the Mantua Shalersville Fire Department answered 1417 calls last year--up by 141 from the previous year.
Neither John Festa nor Jason had anything in the way of trustee reports, but Vic did.
Vic: We got the bill for the heating system work. He treated us fairly. He billed us for 10-1/2 hours, and I know he had more than that. The bill was about $900. Since then it [heat] has been shut down twice, but it had nothing to do with him. The plumbers came in on Saturday and shut down the water. Right now the boiler is hooked jup through a garden hose. [This will keep it going.] The plumbers did not even hook the line back up. This is typical construction, with everyone doing their own thing.
On the pit, they have decided the size of the sump to be put in: 24" x 36". Today the mason was in shoring up under the beams. They will have to undermine that [area] so they can get down further and begin on the pit.
John Festa asked about the boiler, and Vic suggested that he read the bill, which apparently had a lot of information about the work done.
Also, the pole outside the township hall has been reset. [It had fallen over earlier in the year or near the end of last year.]
Elevator: E-mails have been going back and forth about the positive pressure smoke curtains.
John Festa reported that at the Fire Board meeting,he had asked about why we have to have all of these when the code specifically says that they are for a building of or over three stories. Matt Roosa has made inquiries on our behalf, and a letter has been sent to the state elevator inspector. His response was that the code was under the Ohio Building Code. Matt and Chris Mullins [Blogger: I may not have translated my shorthand correctly for that name] talked with the building department and then asked if we wanted to have a meeting with the Building Assessment Committee, building department, Hal Stamm, and the trustees.
[Blogger Note: Apparently the height of the building is open to some interpretation. When Dave Sommers Architects did a study of the school after it was purchased in 2004, it was described as 2-1/2 stories because only half of one story is above ground. However, a different point of view is that it is a three-story building.]
John Festa: I think that would be a wonderful idea other than putting fire blankets up. We could meet at the fire department. For us it would be a fact gathering mission. I wanted to get your take on that.
Vic: I think it would be excellent.
John Festa: I think they wanted to share with us on these types of things. I will check Matt Roosa's schedule and keep you informed. Hal Stamm had a bill for $1400. [Blogger: My notes do not have any more than that about the bill.]
Jason: [The township is working out the details to purchase] a new truck, an F350 with a plow. Brian and I both thought there was a decent need for a new truck. The total quoted was $34,000.
There was some discussion about this, and also about when to make the payments in relation to the times when the township receives its funds and when payments for the new Mack are due. The terms are 0% down and then three payments of $11,000.
After a few more comments, Vic made the motion to purchase the F350, a 2016, for a price of $34,352.60, to be financed with the state bank for three years. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
Jason mentioned that he would e-mail information to the other trustees about the shared services between the township and the church.
The next meeting (on February 2) will begin at 6:45 to do road crew evaluations. That will be executive session, and the regular meeting will follow. That will be announced/advertised.
No movement on the logo.
Jason reported on having checked with Terrie Nielsen, co-chair of the Grants and Funding Committee, about renewing the township's membership in the National Historic Preservation Trust. After a little discussion, Jason made the motion to renew the membership, at a cost of $250 per year. [One of the benefits of this membership is that the cost of plans can be applied for. Other grants do not provide that benefit, and plans can cost tens of thousands of dollars for some projects.]
John Festa raised the subject of the license for use of land at the edge of the bull pen. Apparently no response has been made by either the owner of the house there or the Webers, who are renting it and hope to purchase it. John Festa's view is that he wants to be fair. The license would grant the right for the owner to use the property (a relative sliver, but one that puts township activities or the use of the bull pen practically at the east wall of the house). It could be revoked by the township at any time.
Public Comment was over at 8:10.
Dave Pollard had no comment.
Carole Pollard added some details about the art event.
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.
