Windham – Windham Village Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting on June 22, 2021 with all but one council member in attendance. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Scott Garrett.
The fiscal officer, Cheree Taylor, reported that they had collected $221,648.77 in income taxes this year to date (05/31/21). There expenditures for the month of May were $108,340.18. All funds reconciled as of May 31, 2021 are $1,916,663.76. Council approved the fiscal report, along with the minutes, and the fire, police and rescue reports as well.
Mayor Garrett reported that he had received two correspondences. One letter came from the township trustees and the other one was from the county on appointing a representative to the planning commission on county growth. The mayor said, he appointed Deborah Blewitt to the commission. The mayor is unsure about what the trustees want from the village regarding the fire district but stated he was willing to listen. He then went on to say he was a part of the commission to establish the fire district, that the reason they made the fire district a separate entity was to keep politics out of the fire district. Councilwoman Cindy Cale, who is also the village’s representative to the fire board stated that she was concerned about the district’s future as they have a lot of Medicare and Medicaid calls in the village and the calls don’t really even pay for the staffing to run those calls. The mayor and village administrator commented that it was nothing new, it’s always been that way. Garrett said, he would attend the next trustee meeting as a fact-finding mission and report back to council his findings.
An item on the agenda had council members going “hmmm, what’s this?” Ordinance O-2021-10 states, an ordinance finding further prosecution of pending failure to file income tax cases not merited and directing the village solicitor to dismiss those cases. Wanting it passed on the first read. Council had no clue what this was and the village’s solicitor Tom Reitz apologized that he was under the assumption they had discussed this in the committee of the whole meeting. The fiscal officer and village administrator had discussed it between themselves and it found its way to the agenda. After an explanation as to what it was, council approved it on the first read. The ordinance basically dismisses some old pending cases that would cost the village more to pursue than they make from them if they were even paid. So, council agreed they should dismiss, them with council paying court costs affiliated with the dismissal.
Council approved Ordinance O-2021-13 entering into a contract with Workman Industrial Services, Inc, to do Phase ll of the water system improvement project. Council approved the measure.
They also approved the agreement with Windham Exempted Schools on ordering salt through the county salt consortium. The school will get the same price as the village does but use the village to purchase what they need. The village delivers it and bills the district at the consortium’s price for the salt. They also passed legislation on how they will pay overtime and passed the Portage County Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.
A question was brought up on the status of the clean-up on the Owen’s property. Zoning Inspector Tom Brett said, Gibbs Construction has the contract now and will work on it with police protection. (The resident has threatened village personnel before.) Council voted to set a financial limit on the Gibbs’ contract and capped the amount of pay at $12,000 for the job.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
