Club and Committee Reports
Next to be called on was The Mantua Restoration Society. Your faithful blogger handled that.
Carole Pollard: A couple of things: We began discussing the NOPEC community grant. We thought there was not enough time for an Easter egg hunt, and this year, we could be knee deep in snow. [Or mud, now that things are thawing out--3/28.] So we are working on that. We are going to meet on Monday and discuss it.
The other thing is that Vic contacted me and asked about whether we could pay for the work that Terry Hronek has just done. I have that information for you.
[I gave that information to the trustees: A copy of the invoice, plus a copy of the check from The Mantua Restoration Society, Inc., to Terry for $212.00 and some change.]
Vic: MaRSI paid for the flooring, and Terry Hronek installed it. The elevator floor is ready to be put in. [Blogger: I think that is what Vic said. It was very hard to pick up what any of us said on the recording.]
John Festa and Jason both thanked MaRSI, and John suggested that we should probably get a letter acknowledging the payment to Terry.
Garden Club, Sue Skrovan: The first meeting is next week, and we will set plans for the year. We will have a bulb sale we will be working on.
LCA, Amy Janca: We had an organization meeting and elected a new secretary and treasurer.
New Business
John Festa: A couple of things to talk about--Zoning Commission and BZA. I see that an organizational meeting is scheduled for the 19th for the BZA. How many people do we have on it?
Vic: Four. We will have one vacancy and we can put another alternate on.
Jason: BZA is only down one.
Vic: There may be someone else applying to the zoning board also. I learned that two days ago.
Jason: Bob Stehli--his term will be up next year, and this will likely be his last term.
John Festa: So we will discuss a couple of appointments for Zoning Commission at executive session.
[Blogger: Discussion of the website followed. The most important information regarding that is in the beginning of the previous post. I will include a little of the discussion here.]
Jason: I think Brent should give us the courtesy of a written letter. Also we ought to have a list of things that amount to file cleanup.
[He ran through a list of things that should be posted on the site. John Festa had noting else, but Jason clarified that he (John) would contact Brent for answers to some of their questions. Answer: Yes.]
Vic: I received a bid for the roller, which I haven't opened yet. A couple of other people are interested in it.
The other thing is that we have an agreement with Portage County Recycling with Robin Trailer Park. They set a bin by the mailboxes, and they have asked us if we want to sign this [agreement ]
The managers said it is getting used.
He presented the paperwork to be signed.
Jason made a motion to amend the agreement with the Portage County Solid Waste District as described. It was seconded and approved.
Vic, to John Festa: You asked about the license agreement. It ran out on March 1 and is still in the hands of the bank. So do we want to extend that March 1? [This is the license agreement about the driveway for the house at the edge of the bull pen.]
JF: I sent Chris Meduri an e-mail last Thursday notifying him that the agreement was null and void, but he has not answered.
Vic: It is still in the hands of the bank.
JF: But the agreement states clearly that it is null and vioc [as of March 1]. If he can send his opinion to all three of us.
Vic: Sure. Here is the latest on the water damage [in the school building]. This is from the adjuster. He is going to submit it today. It is just an update. Now it goes to the insurance company. It totals $44,000.
The other thing I have is spring cleanup. I was going to get 10 dumpsters this year. We were short last year. We are on target for tires/
[There was some discussion and explanation from Vic to John Festa about how the financial parts of the operation work.]
JF: Should we do more advertising this year? Last year we were filled up by 3 o'clock. Should we advertise starting at 7:00 and run until 3 p.m. or until full?
Vic: That sounds good.
There was some discussion about how much help the trustees and volunteers should give unloading what was brought and putting it into the dumpsters, and maybe having some kind of signage so that people know they should help.
Jason: Baseball: One group wants to use the field closest to the Civic Center. I got a quote from a porta-john company. The question is what is the easiest way to do that: does the company bill us and we pay and then the baseball folks pay us?
Also, the porta-john at the cemetery will be there beginning April 15.
Old Business
John Festa: There will be a pre-bid meeting tomorrow for the Civic Center roof. I sent out 30 letters and received 6 back. I expect 10-15 people. The legal ad is running two times.
He then presented a letter from Olde Taylor Woods. The residents are looking for some help dealing with the entrance. This is about widening it. They are going to be proactive about maintaining the roads we repaired. They are going to see about getting bids from the trash companies and getting only one business dealing with that to reduce the amount of heavy truck traffic.
Jason: I have asked Brian Tayerle to come up with a list of chip and seal roads. We would like to do at least 5 miles of chip and seal and get the kettle for crack seal. Those are our highest priorities. What the county is going to do will be very late summer. As far as doing any paving in there [Olde Taylor Woods], there are sections in back that need it more than the entry.
Vic: The best thing they can do is get rid of the little entrance island.
JF: Multiple haulers beat up the roads, and the trucks are so full they spill trash all over.
The last thing I have is I still have not approached the [?] office. [Blogger: I missed that word. It may be the Building Department Office.]
I [JF] still have too many questions. I do not know why they took the fire recall out of the bid and put it on the township. The money was there. All we had to do was leave it there and those two things would have been paid for. I have a lot of problems over that and that is why I did not pursue the fire safety.
Neither Jason nor Vic had any old business. There was a little discussion among the trustees about insurance.
Jason made a motion to accept Kasmarik Insurance Dental and Vision as proposed in Plan #5. Seconded and passed.
There was another motion dealing with insurance, made and passed. It dealt with an HRA, and your faithful blogger does not know what that acronym stands for.
Public Comment
Dave Pollard, S.R. 82: My last thing is not really about the township but I wasn't really kidding about the concrete because if you guys can find a way to get it to my place, I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee to deliver it to my place. I can make good use of it. [This was something that I did not put into the earlier post. There is broken up concrete paving material that has to be disposed of, and Dave commented that there were plenty of spots on his place that could use something to fill them.]
I am sure you saw about the pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Florida. It had only been put up Saturday. A few years ago, people died in Minnesota when a bridge collapsed. I saw a TV show several years ago about a 100-year-old bridge that people marvel about being so strong. An engineer talked about just building it "strong enough." I am glad our building there [the school] was built before that philosophy came in. We don't have to worry about that building falling down.
Mr. Festa, you are right about the trash trucks spilling things and Kimble is the worst. The blue trash bags can be used again, taken to Heinen's and recycled.
I don't know what to say about Olde Taylor Woods--I saw how vehicles turn short there.
The world today suffered a loss when Stephen Hawking died. A friend of mine died of Lou Gehrig's disease. Stephen Hawking had that disease for over 50 years and has contributed tremendous amounts to the world. I hope that some one will find a cure for that.
Public Comment ended here, and I left. I do not know if there was an executive session to discuss zoning appointments.
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.
