Blogger Foreword: When Vic presented information at the beginning of the meeting, it included mention of $55,000 related to the elevator project. There wasn't a lot of detail, but it got my attention. The following exchange between Vic and me occurred in public comment and clarifies what the earlier mention was about. Its content is correct, but it is not verbatim. There is always a certain amount of "filler" in any of these exchanges; I don't need to spend the time keyboarding them, and you, dear reader, would not gain a whole lot by reading them.
Public Comment:
Carole Pollard, 5359 Allyn Road: This $55,000 is on top of what has been paid?
Vic: It is out of Eklund's grant.
CP: What got my attention since none of the paperwork is in front of me is that Terrie Nielsen said at the last meeting that we only have $57,000 left and this number shows up as $55,000, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
This is just a general question about how the bids and contracts are done. Does the county or Lisa Reeves do a "not to exceed" bid?
Vic: Apparently not.
CP: That's like a blank check, isn't it?
Vic: When I worked on Federal jobs, if it was on the print, that was what I did. Now, "I didn't bid that, I didn't bid that."
[As a result, the project has been confronted with one change order after another, which costs time and money, in case anyone was wondering why a job that should have been done by the end of June now looks iffy for the end of January in the next year.]
Vic, continuing: It is not a township project, it is a county project. I am sure that amount of money . . . .The other was $5300, and $2700 of that was paid for by MaRSI for the generator switch. I think Lisa Reeves has received that.
CP: I think she has--I think Lynn Harvey was there the next day.
Vic: There are two lights . . . .
CP: How much does that come to?
Vic: $218.00. $109 each.\
CP: We have discussed this. MaRSI is willing to pick up the tab for those.
Vic: I am not supposed to be involved. [Vic made that remark with a tone of wonder in his voice: he isn't supposed to be involved, but if he were not, this project would not be as far along as it is.]
CP: If the lights are a holdup, consider them paid for.
V: I have them. I picked them up the other day.
CP: When I walked in tonight, I wasn't going to say anything, and then the $55,000 got my attention.
This post completes what was said in public comment.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Mantua Twp. Trustees 12-7-17, Public Comment
Blogger Foreword: Although I was first in public comment, I am going to do the other speakers' remarks first, since I will have to listen to the recording for what I said. None of us made remarks dependent on anyone else's, so there is no continuity to be damaged.
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: The only thing I have is technically township business. There was another accident last week. The cars got beat up, but no one seemed to have been hurt. I really hope we can get something done to improve this.
The next thing--I wondered why the flag was at half staff and it was Pearl Harbor Day. I did not have any relatives there. Mr. Buonpane, the band director [for many years] was a Pearl Harbor survivor. I hope people with children and grandchildren will sit down and talk with them about the importance of this day. It changed the world. I hope we never get caught that way again, although 9/11 was reminiscent of it. We owe the people who were there a lot.
Looking at the news, we are getting to the season when people are going to be complaining about snow--but look at California. I would rather drive down a road with walls of snow, not walls of fire. They will have rain next, and then mud slides. But we don't get hurricanes, earthquakes, huge fires. Reading in one of my grazing magazines, some of those fires could be prevented by enough people running herds of goats which would keep the brush down. But that will probably not happen. There were multi million dollar homes lost. There was nothing they could do.
I hope we can get the elevator working before we are all too old to get onto it.
Sue Lilley, Mantua Center Road: We had a truck come down Mantua Center Road, and we were informed that a line is down. It hits the trucks coming down the road. [Blogger: This confused me, because Mantua Center Road is closed.]
Jason and Vic both stated that Brian Tayerle is aware of it.
Sue Lilley asked about follow up and Jason with check with Brian.
Vic: I sent Brian to check on it. [Blogger: My understanding is that that was done within about 10 minutes of the event.]
Sue Lilley: There are some little tags hanging on it [the wire] to warn of it hanging too low. I wondered if it was going to be fixed.
I learned that Vic is the zoning inspector. [Correctly, he is the interim or acting zoning inspector while the trustees interview and choose a replacement for John Dickey. They made their choice at the end of this night's meeting.]
Sue, continuing: A resident applied for a zoning permit. Any building down there has to go through the Army Corps of Engineers. It has to go through them first. I wanted you to know that to give a permit in a wetland you have to go through the ACE. This is all on our websitye. I talked with ACE and they said the zoning inspector was aware of that.
Vic: We approved the zoning requirements. This is not a bulding permit.
Jason: That does not mean he can start building. He has to go to the building department first. Anyone on Mantua Center Road should be informed of this.
Sue Lilley: Mr. Korner has been trucking in dirt for the last 2-1/2 months.
Jason: That is out of our hands--wetlands, for example, is out of our hands. We do not have any documents that will let us enforce that. We can only do what is covered by the Ohio Revised Code. In a situation like this, it is out of the township's hands.
SL: The ACE has been contacted, butI hoped you could do something about this.
Jason: I understand your concern, but there is nothing we can do about it. [The website mentioned is the Army Corps of Engineers'.]
Vic: I will check the website. [He cited the relevant section of the ORC: 600.]
SL: Can he build up the property?
Vic: There is nothing in our regulations to cover that.
Jason explained the township's powers and limitations. He can not build without the building permit.
SL: Is there a way to inform people so that they know?
Vic: I will review Section 600.
Jason: Said more about the wetlands and what the township can designate. It has been deemed a wetland by some other agency, like the ACE.
SL: If a citizen wants to build there, I would like for something to be in zoning so people know.
Vic: In our zoning, it is referred to as residential.
John Festaasked about Portage County Soil and Water.
SL: We talked to them.
John Festa also asked about Portage County Water Resources giving any help.
SL: They don't have a clue who we are. The Portage County Building Department was not aware of the full extent of the regulations.
Vic: I know there are a few things that deal with drainage but I don't know how much is in our zoning.
SL: The ACE told me this has been in effect for five years.
Dave Pollard was recognized at this point. [Dave was an alternate on the zoning commission for a number of years, and also a member of the Land Use Committee before that.]
I don't think zoning was aware of ACE superseding our regulations. If you can get maps and information from ACE, we can put it into the zoning regulation.
Vic agreed and added, I will check the zoning and make sure at our next meeting . . . .
John Festa pointed out a new chart/map from the county which may be relevant. [It is on the east wall of the township hall, just to the right of the door there.]
Vic: I will follow up on it. The new zoning book went into effect in 2011, so if this happened in the last five years, we need to make some changes.
To Sue: Did he apply for an agricuiltural permit?
SL: He is doing everything right now, but before he learned all of this he went through a lot of extra work.
[That ended public comment. I will do one more post with my own comments and include the information about the new zoning inspector.]
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: The only thing I have is technically township business. There was another accident last week. The cars got beat up, but no one seemed to have been hurt. I really hope we can get something done to improve this.
The next thing--I wondered why the flag was at half staff and it was Pearl Harbor Day. I did not have any relatives there. Mr. Buonpane, the band director [for many years] was a Pearl Harbor survivor. I hope people with children and grandchildren will sit down and talk with them about the importance of this day. It changed the world. I hope we never get caught that way again, although 9/11 was reminiscent of it. We owe the people who were there a lot.
Looking at the news, we are getting to the season when people are going to be complaining about snow--but look at California. I would rather drive down a road with walls of snow, not walls of fire. They will have rain next, and then mud slides. But we don't get hurricanes, earthquakes, huge fires. Reading in one of my grazing magazines, some of those fires could be prevented by enough people running herds of goats which would keep the brush down. But that will probably not happen. There were multi million dollar homes lost. There was nothing they could do.
I hope we can get the elevator working before we are all too old to get onto it.
Sue Lilley, Mantua Center Road: We had a truck come down Mantua Center Road, and we were informed that a line is down. It hits the trucks coming down the road. [Blogger: This confused me, because Mantua Center Road is closed.]
Jason and Vic both stated that Brian Tayerle is aware of it.
Sue Lilley asked about follow up and Jason with check with Brian.
Vic: I sent Brian to check on it. [Blogger: My understanding is that that was done within about 10 minutes of the event.]
Sue Lilley: There are some little tags hanging on it [the wire] to warn of it hanging too low. I wondered if it was going to be fixed.
I learned that Vic is the zoning inspector. [Correctly, he is the interim or acting zoning inspector while the trustees interview and choose a replacement for John Dickey. They made their choice at the end of this night's meeting.]
Sue, continuing: A resident applied for a zoning permit. Any building down there has to go through the Army Corps of Engineers. It has to go through them first. I wanted you to know that to give a permit in a wetland you have to go through the ACE. This is all on our websitye. I talked with ACE and they said the zoning inspector was aware of that.
Vic: We approved the zoning requirements. This is not a bulding permit.
Jason: That does not mean he can start building. He has to go to the building department first. Anyone on Mantua Center Road should be informed of this.
Sue Lilley: Mr. Korner has been trucking in dirt for the last 2-1/2 months.
Jason: That is out of our hands--wetlands, for example, is out of our hands. We do not have any documents that will let us enforce that. We can only do what is covered by the Ohio Revised Code. In a situation like this, it is out of the township's hands.
SL: The ACE has been contacted, butI hoped you could do something about this.
Jason: I understand your concern, but there is nothing we can do about it. [The website mentioned is the Army Corps of Engineers'.]
Vic: I will check the website. [He cited the relevant section of the ORC: 600.]
SL: Can he build up the property?
Vic: There is nothing in our regulations to cover that.
Jason explained the township's powers and limitations. He can not build without the building permit.
SL: Is there a way to inform people so that they know?
Vic: I will review Section 600.
Jason: Said more about the wetlands and what the township can designate. It has been deemed a wetland by some other agency, like the ACE.
SL: If a citizen wants to build there, I would like for something to be in zoning so people know.
Vic: In our zoning, it is referred to as residential.
John Festaasked about Portage County Soil and Water.
SL: We talked to them.
John Festa also asked about Portage County Water Resources giving any help.
SL: They don't have a clue who we are. The Portage County Building Department was not aware of the full extent of the regulations.
Vic: I know there are a few things that deal with drainage but I don't know how much is in our zoning.
SL: The ACE told me this has been in effect for five years.
Dave Pollard was recognized at this point. [Dave was an alternate on the zoning commission for a number of years, and also a member of the Land Use Committee before that.]
I don't think zoning was aware of ACE superseding our regulations. If you can get maps and information from ACE, we can put it into the zoning regulation.
Vic agreed and added, I will check the zoning and make sure at our next meeting . . . .
John Festa pointed out a new chart/map from the county which may be relevant. [It is on the east wall of the township hall, just to the right of the door there.]
Vic: I will follow up on it. The new zoning book went into effect in 2011, so if this happened in the last five years, we need to make some changes.
To Sue: Did he apply for an agricuiltural permit?
SL: He is doing everything right now, but before he learned all of this he went through a lot of extra work.
[That ended public comment. I will do one more post with my own comments and include the information about the new zoning inspector.]
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Trustees 12-7-17: Routine business
In Jodie Thompson's absence, Vic presented the correspondence and some paperwork regarding the elevator grant.
He announced that Carl Zeleznik's (sp?) son and grandson have taken over the graphic design/sign business that Carl owns in the Village.
Brian Tayerle, Road Crew Supervisor, reported that 50 tons of salt have been ordered, and then that they were working on the trucks for the winter. Any patching now will have to be cold patch, since the hot mix plants have shut down for the winter.
John Festa commented that he had heard something about grants available to townships for things like generators. His comment was that I thought maybe we could find the application and stay ahead of this. Jason thought nothing was available at present, and then there was something about NOPEC. Apparently there is some kind of overage that NOPEC has accumulated and is tring to figure out how to get it back to customers.
John Festa reported that the township has gotten a check for about $22,000 for the Civic Center roof. He wanted to get out specs for sealed bids and commented that the spec sheet Terry Hroneck (sp?) had given the trustees seemed pretty good. John Festa hoped that maybe we could save enough money on the roofing to be able to paint the building.
Jason talked a little about restoring the historic ceiling in the gym/auditorium (Civic Center) to preserve the historic feeling.
[Blogger: This all strikes me as very interesting, given the previous indifference and resistance to anything having to do with the school--also a historic building. No matter--the buildings have kind of fended for themselves for a fair amount of time.]
Vic: When the roof is off, that would be a time to insulate.
Vic had no new business, but did have the insurance papers top sign from Mr. Kasmarik, who had planned to be at the meeting but could not make it.
[Jason, I believe.]: Update about the wireless tower: Our certified letter went out, but not sure if we got anything back on that. It is now up to them.
The next step if they want to continue would be to contact Zoning, who at this time is Vic. Then they would apply for a conditional use permit.
Vic: In June John Dickey (former Zoning Inspector) was notified about putting a tower in that area. I haveno idea [about the relationship between the two companies], because it was not the same as the one that hjas juist shown up.
Jason [to the Bainses, who came to the last meeting because of the wireless tower]: As soon as we know something (about7-8 different residents have contacted us) . . . .
Vic: The City of Aurora has also contacted us. The City of Aurora law director wrote a letter oppposing it. Residents from Auburn and Aurora and Mantua Township are all involved. No word from Bainbridge.
There was no additional old or new business.
John Festa: I am still concerned about the heat upstairs in the township hall. There is no heat up there.
Vic: We can turn the gas back on.
John Festa: There is a lot of stuff up there that will not make it if it goes without heat for very long.
Vic talked about a way to get some heat up there and commented thjat they would get the heat turned back on.
John Festa: Joel Holt was the attorney for Mrs. Taylor and is no longer the attorney for her. He hadtried to get her to sign the agreement and they did notsee eye to eye. She now hasno legal representation. I don't know how [things will work out now.] I will reach out to Chris Meduri and see what he has to say. If we get a bunch of snow, we will have problems.
There was some discussion about that.
Then there was something technical for the elevator.
John Festa: The recall system still has to be gotten in. Vic explained some things about that.
Public Comment came next and began at 8:10. Your faithful blogger needs to get the recording for that. Dave Pollard, Carole Pollard, and Sue Lilley all spoke; I could do Dave's and Sue's remarks without the recording and do mine when I get it, since this time the content of each speaker's remarks was not related to the others'.
He announced that Carl Zeleznik's (sp?) son and grandson have taken over the graphic design/sign business that Carl owns in the Village.
Brian Tayerle, Road Crew Supervisor, reported that 50 tons of salt have been ordered, and then that they were working on the trucks for the winter. Any patching now will have to be cold patch, since the hot mix plants have shut down for the winter.
John Festa commented that he had heard something about grants available to townships for things like generators. His comment was that I thought maybe we could find the application and stay ahead of this. Jason thought nothing was available at present, and then there was something about NOPEC. Apparently there is some kind of overage that NOPEC has accumulated and is tring to figure out how to get it back to customers.
John Festa reported that the township has gotten a check for about $22,000 for the Civic Center roof. He wanted to get out specs for sealed bids and commented that the spec sheet Terry Hroneck (sp?) had given the trustees seemed pretty good. John Festa hoped that maybe we could save enough money on the roofing to be able to paint the building.
Jason talked a little about restoring the historic ceiling in the gym/auditorium (Civic Center) to preserve the historic feeling.
[Blogger: This all strikes me as very interesting, given the previous indifference and resistance to anything having to do with the school--also a historic building. No matter--the buildings have kind of fended for themselves for a fair amount of time.]
Vic: When the roof is off, that would be a time to insulate.
Vic had no new business, but did have the insurance papers top sign from Mr. Kasmarik, who had planned to be at the meeting but could not make it.
[Jason, I believe.]: Update about the wireless tower: Our certified letter went out, but not sure if we got anything back on that. It is now up to them.
The next step if they want to continue would be to contact Zoning, who at this time is Vic. Then they would apply for a conditional use permit.
Vic: In June John Dickey (former Zoning Inspector) was notified about putting a tower in that area. I haveno idea [about the relationship between the two companies], because it was not the same as the one that hjas juist shown up.
Jason [to the Bainses, who came to the last meeting because of the wireless tower]: As soon as we know something (about7-8 different residents have contacted us) . . . .
Vic: The City of Aurora has also contacted us. The City of Aurora law director wrote a letter oppposing it. Residents from Auburn and Aurora and Mantua Township are all involved. No word from Bainbridge.
There was no additional old or new business.
John Festa: I am still concerned about the heat upstairs in the township hall. There is no heat up there.
Vic: We can turn the gas back on.
John Festa: There is a lot of stuff up there that will not make it if it goes without heat for very long.
Vic talked about a way to get some heat up there and commented thjat they would get the heat turned back on.
John Festa: Joel Holt was the attorney for Mrs. Taylor and is no longer the attorney for her. He hadtried to get her to sign the agreement and they did notsee eye to eye. She now hasno legal representation. I don't know how [things will work out now.] I will reach out to Chris Meduri and see what he has to say. If we get a bunch of snow, we will have problems.
There was some discussion about that.
Then there was something technical for the elevator.
John Festa: The recall system still has to be gotten in. Vic explained some things about that.
Public Comment came next and began at 8:10. Your faithful blogger needs to get the recording for that. Dave Pollard, Carole Pollard, and Sue Lilley all spoke; I could do Dave's and Sue's remarks without the recording and do mine when I get it, since this time the content of each speaker's remarks was not related to the others'.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
11/16/17 Public Comment & 2 Trustees holding township regulations in low esteem.
Public Comment began at 8:45.
Jan Oros: I have a question on the shared services [with the church] which was talked about last meeting. I did not see iton the minutes. ou talked about charging the church for plowing every time. I had some questions on how it all might work.
Jason: Everything needs to be taken into consideration. I hope Brian Summerlin can take that back to the church. [Brian and Dottie Summerlin were both in attendance.] I tried to put a dollar figure to everything.
Jan: There are three entities using the services.
Jason: Nothing that I put onto the sheet I submitted to them is iron clad. I juist tried to split those costs up.
Jan: [Blogger: Some hypotheticals that I did not follow came here.]
Jan, continuing: The second thing is that a friend of mine told me they were in the Civic Center and there were a lot of bees.
Sue Skrovan: They sprayed last Wednesday. There was a craft class _____ [missed a word]. There were a couple of bees, but we swept up a lot of dead ones.
Terry Ronak: If you need anything from Warehouse Club, I have a membership and drive there every week. You don't need a membership.
Terrie Nielsen: I noticed some blacktopping was done at the school at the handicapped spaces. Whenever that is done, because I work for the Board of Elections, I need to check to make sure the lines are correct. They are not.
Vic was startled at that.
Terrie: Spaces have to be eight feet wide plus five feet of white line. For a van it has to be eleven feet.
Vic: That was from the contractor. I was cleaning at the same time and asked them and they said they were doing the lines right. They said, the contractor. This was the elevator contractor. If I would have known we would have paid to have the whole thing done. Now that I know it is wrong, I'm glad we didn't. Please do check.
Terrie: It is flat. The level is good.
Dave Pollard: Three things. First, Susan and I hosted an after voting get together after the election. We had our best turnout. People seemed to be pretty much in favor of it. We got enough donations to cover our expenses and put aside some for the next event. We are hoping (I will check with Terrie Nielsen) to be able to use the room on the top floor at the opposite side of the school [eventually].
People have accepted it and are looking forward to it. The poll workers would like to be able to just go inside the building.
About the bell tower: If Hummel puts in a bid at least it will be done in a professional manner, unlike the elevator. We are about 6 months behind where we thought we would be for completion.
The other thing is that it is over and done now, and some people will say it doesn't matter. But a couple of days before the election a bunch of signs sprouted up along SR 44 and SR 82. I doubt that anyone asked permission. The state owns that property. It violated the Zoning regulation. As a sitting trustee [to Jason] you should have known that. You didn't put the signs up, but someone working for you did. Someone from outside said it looked trashy.
I know for a fact [still to Jason] that it cost you and Matt some votes. [Somewhere in his remarks, Dave cited the township zoning resolution by number.]
You can laugh, Mr. Festa. Go right ahead. It is just an indication of how you . . . . [Even after three repeats on the recording of the meeting, I could not get what Dave actually said.]
[Blogger: Just to remind everyone of what they already know: John Festa was not up for election, and so he didn't have a dog in this hunt. But he sure launched himself into it. In case he hasn't ever noticed, Jason has absolutely no trouble taking care of himself, including threatening to call the sheriff if someone disagrees with him strongly enough.
[What follows reveals character and the real attitude toward our township government of several people.]
John Festa: This is one of the most cordial elections we have had in a long time. I am proud of all the candidates that ran this year. It doesn't matter about where the signs were--it was very cordial.
[So if you rob someone, for example, it's OK if you are cordial and smile while you do it? Apparenly, for John Festa, the answer is yes.]
Jason: The election is over, and thje signs are down. Time to move on.
Dave: It still violated zoning. The people who feel they were unnecessarily hassled and cited and threatened with legal action by Mr. Dickey would have every reason to feel to feel bitter that an elected official did not have to observe the laws.
John Festa: I just wanted to make known that it was a very cordial election.
Dave: Thank you for reminding me of that. That was what I wanted to say. It does not take away from the fact of the violation.
There was more back and forth with John Festa.
Jason: Call the state and have them taken down. [Blogger: Because I was smoking my pen across the page, I did not see Jason when he said that, but his tone was odd and contained a hint of mockery--the kind of tone that is used against someone on the playground or as now in adult life when one person has the power or has gotten by with something and the other can do nothing about it. Class.]
Carole Pollard, 5359 Allyn Road: I wasn't going to say anything tonight BUT the issue was observing out zoning regulations.
Jason: We have already talked about that.
CP: No, we have not, because John Festa said you would not ignore or violate your own zoning regulations in regard to the bullpen. Now you have done that.
John Festa: We didn't put the signs up.
CP: So who's running the township?
JF: We didn't have time to make any kind of action about the signs. That night they were gone.
[Someone, not I, said, "So that makes it right?"]
John Festa: Are you going to turn a very cordial election into a shouting match over the signs?
CP: That's a nice spin.
JF: Let's move on. The election is over.
CP: And there's another one in two years.
[Blogger: Somewhere in the swirl of comments, Jason said something about the blog. I could not pick it up off the recording. Someone said it was, "Put it in your blog, Carole. Yep. Done.]
Sue Skrovan: This is not what I wanted to say, but I am glad it was brought up. Two years ago the same thing happened. This year they were up for two days. They looked terrible. I hope that our elected officials would follow our zoning standards. We hold you to a higher standard. John Dickey was trying to address them but failed miserably. It looks bad.
As cordial as people may be, the people running the campaign have the responsibility.
John Festa: We had no control over this. What are we supposed to do as trustees?
[Blogger: In my experience, this is the last resort of the completely ineffectual: There was nothing I/we could do.]
Sue: We are talking merely about your own campaign committees, the people that are helping you.
John Festa: Now you are insinuating that someone from a candidate's committee. . . .
Sue: Anyone putting a sign out should know what their campaign was doing.
John Festa: There were three different signs. [Blogger: There were four: those for Matt and Jason, those for two school board candidates, and those for Vote No on the school levy. Count much, JF?]
[Blogger: I think there may have been more wrangling, but Vic stepped in at that point.]
Vic: I think everybody agrees that it makes the township look bad. This is freedom of speech and is hard to address. We have talked to Chris Meduri about it a lot--it is very hard to control
Sue: My concern is that when one is seen doing it, it makes it worse.
My original reason for signing in was to congratulate you--Jason and Vic--for a successful election.
Vic thanked everyone who supported him.
Jason: An election occurs on our own personal time. Everybody knows that for any election things go on that are ? and it gets nasty and ugly. The township here is all very cordial. The people running for school board can't say the same thing.
Jan Oros said something about the law.
Dottie Summerlin: I want to thank the trustees and the Garden Club for getting ready for the Christmas walk. We had 58 people come through, total, on both weekends. We didn't up on the program, bur we had an insert that went with the ticket. All of the houses were in other parts of the township and beyond. We got some people who came just because we put a sign out. One person was a KSU student who needed to do photos of historic places. This was a gold mine for him.
Historical Society officers have been elected: Dottie is the president; your blogger cannot decipher my note for vice president; Jodie Thompson is the treasurer, and Dottie commented on how nice it is to have an officer under 60. Linda Ehlert and MaryLou Selander are the trustees.
Dottie said, We are trying to take the museum to a new direction. So thank you.
That was the end of public comment. There was an executive session, but I did not stay until the meeting resumed following that.
Jan Oros: I have a question on the shared services [with the church] which was talked about last meeting. I did not see iton the minutes. ou talked about charging the church for plowing every time. I had some questions on how it all might work.
Jason: Everything needs to be taken into consideration. I hope Brian Summerlin can take that back to the church. [Brian and Dottie Summerlin were both in attendance.] I tried to put a dollar figure to everything.
Jan: There are three entities using the services.
Jason: Nothing that I put onto the sheet I submitted to them is iron clad. I juist tried to split those costs up.
Jan: [Blogger: Some hypotheticals that I did not follow came here.]
Jan, continuing: The second thing is that a friend of mine told me they were in the Civic Center and there were a lot of bees.
Sue Skrovan: They sprayed last Wednesday. There was a craft class _____ [missed a word]. There were a couple of bees, but we swept up a lot of dead ones.
Terry Ronak: If you need anything from Warehouse Club, I have a membership and drive there every week. You don't need a membership.
Terrie Nielsen: I noticed some blacktopping was done at the school at the handicapped spaces. Whenever that is done, because I work for the Board of Elections, I need to check to make sure the lines are correct. They are not.
Vic was startled at that.
Terrie: Spaces have to be eight feet wide plus five feet of white line. For a van it has to be eleven feet.
Vic: That was from the contractor. I was cleaning at the same time and asked them and they said they were doing the lines right. They said, the contractor. This was the elevator contractor. If I would have known we would have paid to have the whole thing done. Now that I know it is wrong, I'm glad we didn't. Please do check.
Terrie: It is flat. The level is good.
Dave Pollard: Three things. First, Susan and I hosted an after voting get together after the election. We had our best turnout. People seemed to be pretty much in favor of it. We got enough donations to cover our expenses and put aside some for the next event. We are hoping (I will check with Terrie Nielsen) to be able to use the room on the top floor at the opposite side of the school [eventually].
People have accepted it and are looking forward to it. The poll workers would like to be able to just go inside the building.
About the bell tower: If Hummel puts in a bid at least it will be done in a professional manner, unlike the elevator. We are about 6 months behind where we thought we would be for completion.
The other thing is that it is over and done now, and some people will say it doesn't matter. But a couple of days before the election a bunch of signs sprouted up along SR 44 and SR 82. I doubt that anyone asked permission. The state owns that property. It violated the Zoning regulation. As a sitting trustee [to Jason] you should have known that. You didn't put the signs up, but someone working for you did. Someone from outside said it looked trashy.
I know for a fact [still to Jason] that it cost you and Matt some votes. [Somewhere in his remarks, Dave cited the township zoning resolution by number.]
You can laugh, Mr. Festa. Go right ahead. It is just an indication of how you . . . . [Even after three repeats on the recording of the meeting, I could not get what Dave actually said.]
[Blogger: Just to remind everyone of what they already know: John Festa was not up for election, and so he didn't have a dog in this hunt. But he sure launched himself into it. In case he hasn't ever noticed, Jason has absolutely no trouble taking care of himself, including threatening to call the sheriff if someone disagrees with him strongly enough.
[What follows reveals character and the real attitude toward our township government of several people.]
John Festa: This is one of the most cordial elections we have had in a long time. I am proud of all the candidates that ran this year. It doesn't matter about where the signs were--it was very cordial.
[So if you rob someone, for example, it's OK if you are cordial and smile while you do it? Apparenly, for John Festa, the answer is yes.]
Jason: The election is over, and thje signs are down. Time to move on.
Dave: It still violated zoning. The people who feel they were unnecessarily hassled and cited and threatened with legal action by Mr. Dickey would have every reason to feel to feel bitter that an elected official did not have to observe the laws.
John Festa: I just wanted to make known that it was a very cordial election.
Dave: Thank you for reminding me of that. That was what I wanted to say. It does not take away from the fact of the violation.
There was more back and forth with John Festa.
Jason: Call the state and have them taken down. [Blogger: Because I was smoking my pen across the page, I did not see Jason when he said that, but his tone was odd and contained a hint of mockery--the kind of tone that is used against someone on the playground or as now in adult life when one person has the power or has gotten by with something and the other can do nothing about it. Class.]
Carole Pollard, 5359 Allyn Road: I wasn't going to say anything tonight BUT the issue was observing out zoning regulations.
Jason: We have already talked about that.
CP: No, we have not, because John Festa said you would not ignore or violate your own zoning regulations in regard to the bullpen. Now you have done that.
John Festa: We didn't put the signs up.
CP: So who's running the township?
JF: We didn't have time to make any kind of action about the signs. That night they were gone.
[Someone, not I, said, "So that makes it right?"]
John Festa: Are you going to turn a very cordial election into a shouting match over the signs?
CP: That's a nice spin.
JF: Let's move on. The election is over.
CP: And there's another one in two years.
[Blogger: Somewhere in the swirl of comments, Jason said something about the blog. I could not pick it up off the recording. Someone said it was, "Put it in your blog, Carole. Yep. Done.]
Sue Skrovan: This is not what I wanted to say, but I am glad it was brought up. Two years ago the same thing happened. This year they were up for two days. They looked terrible. I hope that our elected officials would follow our zoning standards. We hold you to a higher standard. John Dickey was trying to address them but failed miserably. It looks bad.
As cordial as people may be, the people running the campaign have the responsibility.
John Festa: We had no control over this. What are we supposed to do as trustees?
[Blogger: In my experience, this is the last resort of the completely ineffectual: There was nothing I/we could do.]
Sue: We are talking merely about your own campaign committees, the people that are helping you.
John Festa: Now you are insinuating that someone from a candidate's committee. . . .
Sue: Anyone putting a sign out should know what their campaign was doing.
John Festa: There were three different signs. [Blogger: There were four: those for Matt and Jason, those for two school board candidates, and those for Vote No on the school levy. Count much, JF?]
[Blogger: I think there may have been more wrangling, but Vic stepped in at that point.]
Vic: I think everybody agrees that it makes the township look bad. This is freedom of speech and is hard to address. We have talked to Chris Meduri about it a lot--it is very hard to control
Sue: My concern is that when one is seen doing it, it makes it worse.
My original reason for signing in was to congratulate you--Jason and Vic--for a successful election.
Vic thanked everyone who supported him.
Jason: An election occurs on our own personal time. Everybody knows that for any election things go on that are ? and it gets nasty and ugly. The township here is all very cordial. The people running for school board can't say the same thing.
Jan Oros said something about the law.
Dottie Summerlin: I want to thank the trustees and the Garden Club for getting ready for the Christmas walk. We had 58 people come through, total, on both weekends. We didn't up on the program, bur we had an insert that went with the ticket. All of the houses were in other parts of the township and beyond. We got some people who came just because we put a sign out. One person was a KSU student who needed to do photos of historic places. This was a gold mine for him.
Historical Society officers have been elected: Dottie is the president; your blogger cannot decipher my note for vice president; Jodie Thompson is the treasurer, and Dottie commented on how nice it is to have an officer under 60. Linda Ehlert and MaryLou Selander are the trustees.
Dottie said, We are trying to take the museum to a new direction. So thank you.
That was the end of public comment. There was an executive session, but I did not stay until the meeting resumed following that.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Trustees 11-16-17: Summary of various items
Blogger Foreword: After skimming what was discussed between the end of the previous blog post and the beginning of public comment, I thought that getting a sense of the meeting required at least a summary of that section. So here it is.
Jason read a letter/notice about a wireless communication tower proposed on Bartlett (?)/Crackle (sp?) Road. Robert and Jeanie Wilson had come to the meeting to discuss the proposed location.
Jason read the letter, which had been sent to people owning property contiguous to the proposed site of the tower. He also commented on the very tight time frame to respond, and the timing just before a holiday. That very narrow window is unusual. Also, something that the trustees should have received had not been received.
There was some discussion about the actual locations and the owners. Some of the residents affected are probably in Auburn Township.
Jeanie Wilson: The owner of the property intended for the tower has much other land to put it on. Those towers are not good for people to be around.
Jason thanked them for coming to the meeting and promised to follow up.
Sue Skrovan reported on the Civic Center: During the summer months, rentals drop off but pick up in the fall. Weekends in October, November, and December are filling up quickly. The yellow jackets are 99% gone.
Vic: If any more are flying around, the exterminator will come back.
John Festa: We are going to get a check [from the insurance company] for $21,000 for the Civic Center. I thought this was mighty generous and we will get a lot of benefit. At the next meeting maybe we can talk about getting bids.
Vic: While you are talking about that, Terry Ronak had provided us with a spec sheet. Thank you, Terry.
Are we reponsible for paying for the one repair?
John Festa: $450.00.
Vic: It looks like we can take bids on it.
John Festa asked Terry Ronak about metal roofs.
Terry: A metal roof is noisier, and the [existing] shingles have to be pulled off anyhow. Shingles have come so far they are almost lifetime. The Owens Corning Kevlar is very difficult to rip off in a wind.
Vic: Terry did drop of a couple of samples with the Kevlar.
Other business: Letters have to go to zoning commission members Kathy Kelley and Joy Brunetti, whose terms are expiring.
Vic mentioned talking with the road crew about some money that we get every year from our insurance company [I think I have that right] for safety-related items.
Vic, continuing: Also, we had a meeting at the school for the elevator yesterday. I think it was pretty productive. There are a few things the township needs to address.
Yesterday morning I attended a District 7 meeting about roads. It is here in black and white that Chamberlain Road paving was approved. It is high on the list, so it should not get dumped.
Jason: I called and asked when Mantua Center would be re-opened. They are going to try to do that in house, which would save quite a bit. The goal is to begin and complete it next summer.
He asked Vic about Chamberlain.
Vic: Chamberlain scored 69 on the point system; the highest was 71. I am not sure how much of it will be paved.
I have a meeting with Larry Kasmarik, who suggested that we may want to stay with who we have [for health insurance]. He will meet with Jodie Thompson and me next Tuesday here.
There was some discussion about the Baker residence, but I am not sure what that was about. The people who live there, on Chamberlain Road, were at the last meeting. When Jason asked about whether Vic should handle it, Vic passed it back to Jason.
Blogger: This ends a quick pass between Terrie Nielsen's presentation about Grants and Funding and the beginning of public comment.
Jason read a letter/notice about a wireless communication tower proposed on Bartlett (?)/Crackle (sp?) Road. Robert and Jeanie Wilson had come to the meeting to discuss the proposed location.
Jason read the letter, which had been sent to people owning property contiguous to the proposed site of the tower. He also commented on the very tight time frame to respond, and the timing just before a holiday. That very narrow window is unusual. Also, something that the trustees should have received had not been received.
There was some discussion about the actual locations and the owners. Some of the residents affected are probably in Auburn Township.
Jeanie Wilson: The owner of the property intended for the tower has much other land to put it on. Those towers are not good for people to be around.
Jason thanked them for coming to the meeting and promised to follow up.
Sue Skrovan reported on the Civic Center: During the summer months, rentals drop off but pick up in the fall. Weekends in October, November, and December are filling up quickly. The yellow jackets are 99% gone.
Vic: If any more are flying around, the exterminator will come back.
John Festa: We are going to get a check [from the insurance company] for $21,000 for the Civic Center. I thought this was mighty generous and we will get a lot of benefit. At the next meeting maybe we can talk about getting bids.
Vic: While you are talking about that, Terry Ronak had provided us with a spec sheet. Thank you, Terry.
Are we reponsible for paying for the one repair?
John Festa: $450.00.
Vic: It looks like we can take bids on it.
John Festa asked Terry Ronak about metal roofs.
Terry: A metal roof is noisier, and the [existing] shingles have to be pulled off anyhow. Shingles have come so far they are almost lifetime. The Owens Corning Kevlar is very difficult to rip off in a wind.
Vic: Terry did drop of a couple of samples with the Kevlar.
Other business: Letters have to go to zoning commission members Kathy Kelley and Joy Brunetti, whose terms are expiring.
Vic mentioned talking with the road crew about some money that we get every year from our insurance company [I think I have that right] for safety-related items.
Vic, continuing: Also, we had a meeting at the school for the elevator yesterday. I think it was pretty productive. There are a few things the township needs to address.
Yesterday morning I attended a District 7 meeting about roads. It is here in black and white that Chamberlain Road paving was approved. It is high on the list, so it should not get dumped.
Jason: I called and asked when Mantua Center would be re-opened. They are going to try to do that in house, which would save quite a bit. The goal is to begin and complete it next summer.
He asked Vic about Chamberlain.
Vic: Chamberlain scored 69 on the point system; the highest was 71. I am not sure how much of it will be paved.
I have a meeting with Larry Kasmarik, who suggested that we may want to stay with who we have [for health insurance]. He will meet with Jodie Thompson and me next Tuesday here.
There was some discussion about the Baker residence, but I am not sure what that was about. The people who live there, on Chamberlain Road, were at the last meeting. When Jason asked about whether Vic should handle it, Vic passed it back to Jason.
Blogger: This ends a quick pass between Terrie Nielsen's presentation about Grants and Funding and the beginning of public comment.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
And Now to Resume: Trustees November 16, 2017
Blogger Foreword: Well, the hiatus was longer than intended thanks to computer problems that kept me from doing anything but curse technology--and realize that, in spite of disliking the computer intensely, it would almost be easier to do without my car than without this idiot box on the desk.
OK, enough of that. Here we go again. My intention for the November 16 trustees meeting is to cover only two things: Terrie Nielsen's report for the Grants and Funding Committee, and public comment. And probably make a nod to anything else that seems to warrant it, but mostly only a mention.
Garden Club, Sue Skrovan: The members will be electing officers and working on new ideas.
Restoration Society: Another cookie walk and art event will be held in mid February. This also looks like a good time to have a grand opening celebration for the elevator. Surely it will be operational by then. [Summarized remarks.]
Terrie Nielsen, Grants and Funding Committee: The state capital money: no work has been done [using that money for the next phase]. $87,000 has gone to the elevator. We have until the end of June 2018 to use the money. We have been requesting companies to give us quotes to essentially restore the bell tower. A number have been approached. The only one providing a quote/scope of work is Hummel Construction.
We have $57,000 remaining in the capital fund grant. The work on the bell tower is $62,380. I forwarded each trustee a copy of that quote. This is a not to exceed quote. I sent it to the Ohio Facilities group, and they said it looked to be in order. The reason I am here is the discrepancy between the two amounts: what is available and the bid. It is $6,850.
I asked Hummel what they would have to take off to get it down to $57,000. They would have to eliminate the scraping, caulking, and painting.
Part of the pricing is scaffolding around the tower. It they do the other work and then take that down, then whoever comes back to do the painting will charge for erecting the scaffolding again.
Do the trustees have any money to cover that gap? No should be coming to the township before the next fiscal year. I sent the trustees a letter from the state that the dob does not have to be bid on.
[If] the trustees are in a position to make a contribution there are other entities that can contribute, but that will be influenced by whether the trustees kick in.
Jason asked a question which your faithful blogger missed.
Terrie: Once I get a bill, I send that to the state and then the state deposits it in the township's account. There is a 2-3 week time lag between submission and the receipt of the money here.
Jason: We can only spend so much on a mile of road, it must be bid out. The elevator had to be bid out through the county. I don't know with something this large whether there is something in the ORC that will require us to bid it out because the money goes through our funds.
Terrie: I can talk to Jessica again. Most of the entities that get these funds are political subdivisions. I will lay this out to her and make sure about whether it has to be bid ouit.
Vic: I can find out tomorrow.
Terrie: Generally there is a $50,000 threshold, but I don't know if that applies here. I will talk with Jessica tomorrow and find out.
Vic: I will talk to Chris Meduri.
John Festa: I don't mind our helping out with something the township owns. My first concern is the ORC, which has been addressed.
My second concern is the optics of Hummel Construction. I think Chris Meduri will give us an OK. My concern is that Hummel is part of the committee and then he might get the contract. The problem is how it looks from the outside and if Chris Meduri is OK with it, I am also.
Terrie: The gentleman who did the work on the elevator was asked at the beginning of the summer to give us a quotre, and it never happened. I started working on it then. I would be more than happy to explain that to anyone who asks. To my knowledge, the only committee that still meets is Grants and Funding.
John Festa: We as trustees have to protect the people's money. We can accept l;ow bid or best bid, but if we only have on on paper . . . . If the difference was a few thousand, then the best bid would be Hummel. [Blogger: Sounds all very pious, doesn't it?]
Vic: Has Jessica accepted that bid as OK?
Terrie: It is a three or four step process. I had originally sent her Cal Brant's bid before he passed away. She said that would not work because of the vocabulary. The terminology has to be satisfactory. Then I sent her Hummel's bid and it was OK.
Because the building is on the National Register, the Ohio Preservation office must give it their blessing and then there is another agreement and blessing. The same process has to be followed for the bell tower.
If she had said that this would not work, we would have to start over.
Vic: As John Festa says, we are looking at more outlay on the elevator. We just had a meeting yesterday. The township still has to come up with some of the financial[s] [this] year.
John Festa: We know you put your heart and soul into this. There warethingswedidn't anticipate, but we are dealing with it.
Vic: It is just too early tonight to come up with it. But I feel that oneway oranother we can come up with some help, township or other.
Terrie: I will continue.
Vic: Do you expectto getany other quotres?
Terrie: No. I will continue to work with Ohio Preservation. Maybe at the next meeting that will give time for Chris Meduri, and I can talk to Jessica and we can cross t's and dot i's.
John Festa raised a question about something in Hummel's bid, and Terrie explained that.
Terrie: They will do the flashing around the bell tower but that is all. I am going to suggest that he put in no roofing work except for the flashing around the bell tower.
John Festa thanked her again.
Jason confirmed with Vic that Vic would talk with Chris Meduri.
End of Post
OK, enough of that. Here we go again. My intention for the November 16 trustees meeting is to cover only two things: Terrie Nielsen's report for the Grants and Funding Committee, and public comment. And probably make a nod to anything else that seems to warrant it, but mostly only a mention.
Garden Club, Sue Skrovan: The members will be electing officers and working on new ideas.
Restoration Society: Another cookie walk and art event will be held in mid February. This also looks like a good time to have a grand opening celebration for the elevator. Surely it will be operational by then. [Summarized remarks.]
Terrie Nielsen, Grants and Funding Committee: The state capital money: no work has been done [using that money for the next phase]. $87,000 has gone to the elevator. We have until the end of June 2018 to use the money. We have been requesting companies to give us quotes to essentially restore the bell tower. A number have been approached. The only one providing a quote/scope of work is Hummel Construction.
We have $57,000 remaining in the capital fund grant. The work on the bell tower is $62,380. I forwarded each trustee a copy of that quote. This is a not to exceed quote. I sent it to the Ohio Facilities group, and they said it looked to be in order. The reason I am here is the discrepancy between the two amounts: what is available and the bid. It is $6,850.
I asked Hummel what they would have to take off to get it down to $57,000. They would have to eliminate the scraping, caulking, and painting.
Part of the pricing is scaffolding around the tower. It they do the other work and then take that down, then whoever comes back to do the painting will charge for erecting the scaffolding again.
Do the trustees have any money to cover that gap? No should be coming to the township before the next fiscal year. I sent the trustees a letter from the state that the dob does not have to be bid on.
[If] the trustees are in a position to make a contribution there are other entities that can contribute, but that will be influenced by whether the trustees kick in.
Jason asked a question which your faithful blogger missed.
Terrie: Once I get a bill, I send that to the state and then the state deposits it in the township's account. There is a 2-3 week time lag between submission and the receipt of the money here.
Jason: We can only spend so much on a mile of road, it must be bid out. The elevator had to be bid out through the county. I don't know with something this large whether there is something in the ORC that will require us to bid it out because the money goes through our funds.
Terrie: I can talk to Jessica again. Most of the entities that get these funds are political subdivisions. I will lay this out to her and make sure about whether it has to be bid ouit.
Vic: I can find out tomorrow.
Terrie: Generally there is a $50,000 threshold, but I don't know if that applies here. I will talk with Jessica tomorrow and find out.
Vic: I will talk to Chris Meduri.
John Festa: I don't mind our helping out with something the township owns. My first concern is the ORC, which has been addressed.
My second concern is the optics of Hummel Construction. I think Chris Meduri will give us an OK. My concern is that Hummel is part of the committee and then he might get the contract. The problem is how it looks from the outside and if Chris Meduri is OK with it, I am also.
Terrie: The gentleman who did the work on the elevator was asked at the beginning of the summer to give us a quotre, and it never happened. I started working on it then. I would be more than happy to explain that to anyone who asks. To my knowledge, the only committee that still meets is Grants and Funding.
John Festa: We as trustees have to protect the people's money. We can accept l;ow bid or best bid, but if we only have on on paper . . . . If the difference was a few thousand, then the best bid would be Hummel. [Blogger: Sounds all very pious, doesn't it?]
Vic: Has Jessica accepted that bid as OK?
Terrie: It is a three or four step process. I had originally sent her Cal Brant's bid before he passed away. She said that would not work because of the vocabulary. The terminology has to be satisfactory. Then I sent her Hummel's bid and it was OK.
Because the building is on the National Register, the Ohio Preservation office must give it their blessing and then there is another agreement and blessing. The same process has to be followed for the bell tower.
If she had said that this would not work, we would have to start over.
Vic: As John Festa says, we are looking at more outlay on the elevator. We just had a meeting yesterday. The township still has to come up with some of the financial[s] [this] year.
John Festa: We know you put your heart and soul into this. There warethingswedidn't anticipate, but we are dealing with it.
Vic: It is just too early tonight to come up with it. But I feel that oneway oranother we can come up with some help, township or other.
Terrie: I will continue.
Vic: Do you expectto getany other quotres?
Terrie: No. I will continue to work with Ohio Preservation. Maybe at the next meeting that will give time for Chris Meduri, and I can talk to Jessica and we can cross t's and dot i's.
John Festa raised a question about something in Hummel's bid, and Terrie explained that.
Terrie: They will do the flashing around the bell tower but that is all. I am going to suggest that he put in no roofing work except for the flashing around the bell tower.
John Festa thanked her again.
Jason confirmed with Vic that Vic would talk with Chris Meduri.
End of Post
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)