Water bill issue is continuing project for Cardington council

By Eve­lyn Long –
Card­ing­ton Vil­lage Coun­cil heard another com­plaint related to high water charges when they met in reg­u­lar ses­sion March 19.

Robert McCoy, Mid­land Avenue, said the raises the past two years have affected him because “peo­ple on fixed incomes can­not afford this. I would like to hear what is behind this.”

Mayor Susie Pey­ton asked Vil­lage Admin­is­tra­tor Tom Reynolds to explain the rea­sons for the higher bills. Reynolds explained that it can be caused by “debt, oper­a­tion fees, and improve­ment not sub­si­dized by income tax.”

McCoy asked “why is the debt our respon­si­bil­ity when we weren’t here when you acquired the debt?” He added that “we can’t afford our med­ica­tion now.”

Mayor Susie Pey­ton said because of the econ­omy, other vil­lages are fac­ing the same sit­u­a­tion but, “We are look­ing into it con­stantly.” She said she had met with sev­eral engi­neers that very morn­ing who sug­gested there may be grants avail­able to help the vil­lage with its water– sewer debt.

Also speak­ing dur­ing Com­mu­nity Par­tic­i­pa­tion was Jean Smith, East Main Street, who thanked street depart­ment employ­ees Cheyenne Math­eney for putting up the pole so “we could make the Blue Bird count. She also thanked Bob Mer­mann and Ron Carsner, the lat­ter for donat­ing the bolts for the project.

Jim Row­land, who is with the Friends of Card­ing­ton, said the com­mu­nity fes­ti­val will be held June 23 from 11 am to 6 pm. Rain date is July 14. He said there will be music, games and other events that day and asked for council’s help in prepar­ing for the event.

Dur­ing council’s meet­ing Fis­cal Offi­cer, Deb DiLeo reviewed the Per­ma­nent Appro­pri­a­tions Ordi­nance for fis­cal year end­ing Decem­ber 31, 2012. She pointed out that the prop­erty taxes are down. She had com­pared what they col­lected in 2011 to 2012 and said the first half col­lec­tion is down by $15,000 and man­u­fac­tured homes have decreased, too. She made sev­eral depart­ment adjust­ments accord­ingly, she said. Coun­cil adopted the ordinance.

Also adopted was an ordi­nance autho­riz­ing the admin­is­tra­tor and fis­cal offi­cer to enter into an agree­ment with Pogge­meyer Design Group, Inc. For engi­neer­ing services.

An ordi­nance accept­ing the renewal of Health Insur­ance with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield was also adopted. This ordi­nance included a rein­sur­rance plan with the Stan­dard Life and Acci­dent Insur­ance Com­pany. This pol­icy is effec­tive April 1. The deductible was raised to $5,000 to keep the pre­mium the same.

Coun­cil adopted a res­o­lu­tion accept­ing the online bid for the sale of the village’s 2006 Crown Vic­to­ria police car for $2,275.

A sec­ond read­ing was given an ordi­nance adopt­ing Stan­dard Oper­at­ing Pro­ce­dures for the Police Depart­ment.
Also approved was an ordi­nance autho­riz­ing the mayor and fis­cal offi­cer to enter into an agree­ment with Krock Esser Engi­neer­ing, Inc for engi­neer­ing services.

An ordi­nance amend­ing the subdivider’s agree­ment with Mor­row County Habi­tat for Human­ity to sub­di­vide the devel­op­ment of 3.078 acres was approved. This is related to the Kenny Sub­di­vi­sion where Habi­tat will pay for the grad­ing of the remain­ing street bed, install the nec­es­sary street mate­r­ial and pre­pare and con­struct a T-turna-round, and extend the exist­ing curbs across the entirety of the street frontage of cer­tain lots. In addi­tion, guardrails and bal­lasts will be added. Habi­tat will deposit $3,000 in the village’s con­struc­tion review account for the pur­poses of con­struc­tion man­age­ment admin­is­tra­tion and inspec­tion of the pro­posed exten­sion. Reynolds said Habi­tat is receiv­ing a grant.
Act­ing Police Chief Robert Hus­ton reported that year to date warn­ing by his depart­ment total 139 with 50 cita­tions.
The depart­ment has pur­chased two new Ohio revised code books at a cost of $39 each, he said. He also noted that on March 15 he and Lt. Wal­lace, Offi­cer Sto­ica and Offi­cer Cal­i­coat attended a free sem­i­nar in Columbus.

Vil­lage Admin­is­tra­tor Reynolds, giv­ing his last report before leav­ing this posi­tion for another sim­i­lar one in Wis­con­sin said the street depart­ment had made curb repair, swept roads, patched pot holes and trimmed trees. The water depart­ment had answered ques­tions about water and sewer rates, changed to old meters and the sewer depart­ment had made a sludge pour.

He has received calls about the Kin­sell build­ing request­ing infor­ma­tion and tours.

The Peo­ples Fund grant for Maxwell Park Shel­ter House has been sub­mit­ted and the water sup­ply loan fund appli­ca­tion has been submitted.

He had received word that Card­ing­ton has been named a Tree City U.S.A for the 30th year. There will also be an Arbor Day obser­vance this year, he said.

Reynolds specif­i­cally thanked the coun­cil, the staff, the three may­ors he had worked with — Vickie Wise, Mills Poor­man and Pey­ton, and Danny (Wood), Deb­bie DiLeo, Act­ing Police Chief Hus­ton, Fire Chief Jim Ullom, engi­neer Dan Mount, Jim Row­land and Eve­lyn Long.

Coun­cil adjourned to an exec­u­tive ses­sion at the close of the ses­sion based on ORC 121.22 (G) (1) At the close of the two hour exec­u­tive ses­sion, coun­cil resumed its reg­u­lar meet­ing and approved the appoint­ment of Danny Wood as Act­ing Vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor. Coun­cil adjourned this ses­sion at 9:43 pm and after recon­ven­ing they adjourned at 9:45 pm.
An excused absence was given Coun­cil­woman Sherry Gra­ham from this meeting.

Coun­cil will meet next on April 2, 2012 at 7 pm.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Apr 4 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.