[Blogger Foreword: Well, there's a little before public comment.]
Old Business
Jason: We talked about the civic center. The guys did a nice job painting the handrails. They look real nice.
Sue Skrovan: I noticed how nice the front ones looked--they were working on it today.
John Festa: The license agreement across the street. I got an e-mail from Mrs. Taylor's attorney. I invited hin to come to a meeting do discuss it with us. We need to discuss what he is asking for.
Vic: Take a look at his response. I think he thinks it is [on] October 1.
Now public comment can begin.
Linda Ehlert: In searching for grants, I went to Home Depot's website. I found that there is a grant program for updating veterans' homes for safety. I think you already know Bud Foster, a Korean War veteran with a bronze star and a purple heart. I contacted the store manager, who lives on Pioneer Trail, and when I told him what Bud's situation was, he said Bud sounds like a good candidate.
I contacted Ronnie Kotkowski, and we met with the store manager from Streetsboro and we met at Bud's house. He will need quite a bit of updating. They said absolutely, this is the kind of project they are looking for.
A couple of days ago we got the approval for the grant money. We scheduled them this October 26. They will bring 40 volunteers from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. They will clean up the entire yard and mulch. They will do things in the house--flooring and bathroom.
They will be here all day and will need restrooms and water. Sam Eisely [sp?] heard about it and said he would provide all of the food. I hve spoken with the Shalersville and Mantua Historical Societies and MaRSI. We would like to use the civic center--Vic, you said it would be available all day.
Vic: We can open the basement door for the bathrooms and upstairs will be available.
Linda: We will contact the Record Courier. Home Depot needs to approve of everything.
Ronnie Kotkowski: We are also going to try to get the house painted. We have a couple of guys to spray it. It will be a nice restoration project that will help the town center. In Shalersville we like to do some community outreach. Bud Foster has been a member of the historical societies.
Vic: I make a motion to go ahead with this project with Home Depot and the historical societies for the use of the civic center.
Vic: The building will work out for that.
Linda: We will have people park over behind the church.
There was applause for Linda, and the motion passed unanimously.
Rick Pemberton, Wayne Road: Is anything on the table for the east side of Wayne Road and 44?
Jason: No, just patching.
Rick: They were down several weeks ago. There are a couple of bad holes. [He named a couple of other places as well.]
Vic: I talked to the guys about it and they are going to talk to Todd Lamb and see if he can do something. If they can't do that, they will try to do something about it with the excavator. But I did talk to them about that.
Rick: Two years ago I had culverts replaced and now it is eroding around that. I know they were there. I need stone. I can't put dirt in the ditch. All of my drain tile pipes are [sticking] out 2'-3'. I would like to fill the ditch in, but need to get drain pipe to do it. I will need about 800 feet.
Jason: A lot of money.
Rick commented further about the problem and thought he needed about three wheelbarrows of 3's for it.
Vic: Crushed 3's or 4's--you want them to lock in. I will catch them in the morning and have them take a load to it.
Matt Parsons, Wayne Road: Is there anything that we can do in regards to the detour sign at the intersection? I have nearly been rear-ended a couple of times trying to get around it.
Vic: I have contacted Doug [county engineer] about that. Since we widened the road, trucks are hitting the trees and now we have to do something about that. I have asked him about the sign also.
Jason: The same question came up last week.
Carole Pollard, Allyn Road: No comment this week.
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: Three things: You said a $9,000 minimum bid on the TW. I don't know how many hours are on it, but it seems a little low for that tractor. I have seen 5000's go for less than that. I have seen them in Farm and Dairy for as much as $15,000.
Vic: Do you know how many hours?
Jason: 6500 hours; that's getting up there.
Dave: If it were mine, I would have put $10,000-$12,000 on it.
Continuing: This business with the budgets, it is funny that the people with all the population which is supposed to be a desirable thing are the ones considered to need the money more than the townships with the low budgets: Kent, Mantua, Streetsboro . You hear people say that if we had more people, we would have more money. But those places are the ones always looking for more. It would be nice if the townships could get more than that.
Third, I haven't looked back, but it seems to me that the little trees that were moved from the bullpen to the west side of the mound, it seems to me that they were supposed to be on the east side of the mound.
But to John Festa, you were concerned with snow removal. But where they [trees] are, it will be very difficult to move the snow. I just wonder if that was the best place to put those trees.
Sue Skrovan, Wayne Road: We discussed it earlier, so this is why I signed in. I just wanted to reiterate--I wanted to thank Brian Tayerle and Dan Wyznski for the nice job on the hand rails.
[Blogger: There are now two mounds in the bullpen: One runs parallel to S.R. 82 and was originally made to block people from driving through there when Square Drive was closed. The other runs north-south and now houses two burning bush shrubs and a weeping cherry. Or its skeleton.]
[Blogger: I think that was the end of public comment, at which time I usually leave even though the meeting does not adjourn until after the bills have been paid. Sometimes that has meant that I have missed some interesting things, but not often. My notebook contains more shorthand notes after Sue's comments, but I think those were from a conversation to clarify a couple of things I didn't understand during the meeting. That information got built into the discussion about the budget commission and how State funds are allocated to local governments.]
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.
