Galion City Council hears resident concerns about Keller Hall, Sunshine Laws

By Rachel Mendell

Inquirer Edi­tor

Galion city coun­cil met in reg­u­lar ses­sion Tues­day, Sept. 27. The coun­cil room was full of con­cerned res­i­dents with ques­tions about the pro­posed sober house to be placed in the old Keller Hall. Before the pub­lic com­ment period, city man­ager Gene Toy explained Galion’s stance on the situation.

“It’s not going to hap­pen, if at all,” Toy said. First, he explained, the pro­posal must come to the Galion Zon­ing Office, which it has not.

Toy explained that he first became aware of the pro­posed sober house Aug. 24 in a meet­ing with all three Craw­ford County com­mis­sion­ers who orga­nized a meet­ing in the devel­op­ment office. The plan revealed to Toy at that time was to replace the Children’s Ser­vices Office with a half-way house for heroin addicts. Toy said the com­mis­sion­ers said the build­ing would not “likely be empty soon.” At that time Toy relayed his con­cerns about zon­ing prob­lems to the com­mis­sion­ers and advised them the plan would have to go through the zon­ing office and the zon­ing com­mis­sion. To date the zon­ing office has not been noti­fied of the plan, nor has a per­mit been requested.

Toy also stated he had not seen the lease agree­ment granted to the Together We Hurt sup­port group by the com­mis­sion­ers. “The use that’s pro­posed is not con­sis­tent with zon­ing,” he said. The amend­ment process will take months.

Tom O’Leary said he sus­pected the Open Meet­ing Laws had been bro­ken at the Aug. 24 meet­ing, with all three com­mis­sion­ers present with­out the ben­e­fit of noti­fi­ca­tion to the pub­lic. They have an oblig­a­tion to the pub­lic to hear their dis­cus­sion, he said, and how they arrived at their deci­sions. Dur­ing a series of ques­tions and answers between O’Leary and Toy, more facts about the meet­ing were revealed. Also present at the meet­ing were the county pros­e­cu­tor and the county audi­tor. The meet­ing was held in a sec­ond floor office and not in the commissioner’s hear­ing room. “They related their plans and deci­sions,” said O’Leary. “Dis­cus­sions should have been in public.”

Coun­cil mem­ber Walt Keib said “The thing I resent is the way they han­dled it. That meet­ing was not pub­li­cized. They didn’t want pub­lic com­ments. No min­utes were taken at their meet­ing. I want pub­lic opin­ion. Let me chal­lenge the com­mis­sion­ers to think beyond 602.”*

Fur­ther pub­lic con­cerns were voiced.

Can they use that build­ing any way they want? Toy said all plans must go through the zon­ing process first. The res­i­dent sug­gested the sup­port group con­sider the recently emp­tied Fairview Manor in Bucyrus for the project.

For­mer com­mis­sioner Carl Watt said com­mis­sion­ers have to abide by the Sun­shine Laws. He also said other ques­tions must be raised such as how many extra calls will there be to the Galion Police Depart­ment, what about super­vi­sion, and how would they fit 58 beds in that build­ing? Fairview Manor already has 85 beds. Watt also said he under­stood the pres­sure the com­mis­sion­ers were under with 300 peo­ple push­ing for the sober house project. “There’s a bet­ter place for this, and it’s not Keller Hall.”

Another res­i­dent spoke as a grand­fa­ther and was con­cerned for his grandson’s safety.

One res­i­dent said more ques­tions are still out there such as, will those in the tran­si­tional hous­ing pay for rent, will there be weekly drug test­ing and 24-hour super­vi­sion? He also asked, what do 58 ex-cons talk about at night.

Near­ing the end of the pub­lic com­ment period and a coun­cil meet­ing last­ing over two hours, Keib gave the res­i­dents the phone num­ber of the county com­mis­sion­ers’ office – (419) 562‑5876. He encour­aged res­i­dents to call the com­mis­sion­ers with their ques­tions and concerns.

In leg­isla­tive mat­ters, the ordi­nance propos­ing changes to the labor agree­ment with the Fra­ter­nal Order of Police gar­nered much dis­cus­sion between coun­cil and res­i­dents. Con­cerns were dis­cussed includ­ing this being a bad time to give any­one a raise (2.5 per­cent salary increase) and ques­tions about the mat­ter going to arbi­tra­tion. Toy said this was the last of all the nego­ti­ated con­tracts to be done this year. He added that the lieu­tenants were still work­ing under the old con­tract which had expired in January.

After tabling the mat­ter was voted down 4 to 3, the ordi­nance went to a vote. It failed 4 to 3.

The coun­cil passed ordi­nances deal­ing with rolling over debt and issu­ing bonds for the improve­ments at the Prim­rose and Dawsett sub­sta­tions. The changes in zon­ing code deal­ing with churches and places of pub­lic assem­bly were passed on the sec­ond read­ing, as well as the changes in the sign ordinance.

In com­mit­tee reports, the Park Com­mit­tee is still look­ing into an ice skat­ing rink at Heise Park, sign-up con­tracts for the shel­ter house at East Park, Taber­na­cle of Praise offer­ing hot cider and donuts and a pos­si­ble Thanks­giv­ing Din­ner offered at East Park.

Plan­ning, Zon­ing and Util­i­ties Com­mit­tee is work­ing on the reword­ing of the elec­tric com­pany let­ters that went out with the bills recently. The shut off notices need to be revised. The com­mu­nity will give the com­mit­tee the guid­ance for the final draft of the letter.

The Laws and Ordi­nances Com­mit­tee is work­ing on rules for farm­ers mar­kets within the city lim­its, the issue of recy­cling “a friend’s” cop­per wiring, and the increase in calls about vicious dogs.

The next reg­u­lar meet­ing of the Galion City Coun­cil will be Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. The pub­lic is encour­aged to attend.

*State Route 602

Rachel Mendell — Staff

Galion City Coun­cil plays to a full house dur­ing its reg­u­lar meet­ing Sept. 27. On the agenda for dis­cus­sion were the FOP con­tract and the pro­posed sober house at Keller Hall. (Inquirer photo/Rachel Mendell)

Posted by Rachel Mendell on Sep 28 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.