The Windham Township Board of Trustees convened last Thursday evening at Windham Town Hall to discuss converting the streetlights in the township to LEDs. They were assisted by First Energy Regional External Affairs Manager Troy Rhoades in reaching the decision to approve a motion to make the conversion.
“There is an opportunity for communities to convert their existing streetlights to LEDs,” Rhoades said. “One of the very first things that I had the responsibility to do was to get a contract signed by your neighbors in Windham Village. They signed an LED conversion “Replace on Failure” contract. What that means is that if one of those lights go out, we come in and we convert that light to a LED for no charge.”
As Regional External Affairs Manager, Rhoades is responsible for overseeing not just all of Portage County but also Trumbull County, Mahoning County and Columbiana County
According to Rhoades, Windham currently has 23 outdoor streetlights and two privately owned streetlights that could be converted to LEDs.
Rhoades presented the board with three payment options for the project: making a direct payment up front, financing the project or to paying to replace the bulbs with LEDs only when they fail.
Rhoades said that if the township decided to finance it, they would not see a tremendous amount of savings instantly, with the highest amount potentially being only $25 per month. If the township had the means to pay directly from a grant to fund the project, then they would save a lot more money in the short term.
Trustee and road contact Brian Miller asked Rhoades if the prices were locked in indefinitely. He responded by saying that prices were dictated by the tariff rate.
“The tariff rate is but one of the charges that go into the price,” he noted. “If the township is paying for these lights rather than assessing the rates for them, this needs to be carefully done to make sure that you are forwarding those new rates to the auditor so that those assessments are adjusted accordingly.”
Rhoades said that if the township had the means to fund the project through a grant, then it would be a worthwhile investment.
Board Chairman and fire contact Dan Burns asked Rhoades when was the earliest they could expect to have the LEDs installed if they wanted to move forward. Rhoades acknowledged that First Energy already had two Townships ahead of Windham on its list for LED replacements so it would be awhile, and it would be surprising if the project were to be completed as early as December.
According to Burns, the total cost of the project would be about $4,800. The Board had two funds that it could use to pay for the project without having to use funds from its budget. Payment could be made from the NOPEC Grant or the ARPA Grant, a state fiscal recovery fund that was created because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which currently has $146,705.93 in it.
Burns said he believed the board should approve a motion to fund the project by paying from the ARPA Grant funds and the motion carried unanimously.
Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet said that he planned to approve a permit for a resident to build a house on Shanks Down Road. Burns then brought up a proposal from the Zoning Board requesting that Sweet attend the their meetings. The Zoning Board had issues concerning two open violations on Bryant Road and felt that having the chance to discuss these types of matters with Sweet would ensure that he would be updated about these issues.
Sweet said he was comfortable adding that responsibility to his list of duties, but Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Todd Phillips expressed concern that the Zoning Board would attempt to take advantage of Sweet.
“They have the right to speak to the Zoning Inspector but not use the bully pulpit of the Zoning Commission board to basically browbeat the Zoning Inspector,” he said.
It was decided that Sweet would not be required to attend every Zoning Board meeting but only the ones that were of great importance.
Burns said that that Portage County Regional Planning Commission was considering adopting a resolution banning the sale of recreational marijuana upon news that there had been interest that a marijuana store would replace the recently vacated Windham Pharmacy building.
“If we can get a marijuana place here then I will vote yes for it,” Burns said. “I will not vote for some resolution to not have it, myself. They are trying to make one and we do not have it yet.”
Phillips said that there was a vacant seat on the Board of Zoning Appeals which left them with only three members and no alternates and they needed to find a replacement. Windham resident Trish Kendrick volunteered to assume that vacancy and the Board approved her appointment.
Miller said that the Township finished work on Bryant Road and was planning on doing additional ditching on Gotham Road. He added that he donated some material to be used for patching along Bryant Road on the edge when coming past the turnpike.
Vice Chairman and Cemetery contact Rich Gano said that he had received an estimate to repair the damage from the tornado which had left a tree uprooted in the cemetery several months ago. The Board agreed to the estimate from Hard Labor Paving to make the repairs.
Burns said that one of the fire department’s ambulances — one that is in line to be replaced — needed to have a headline replaced and was found to have an oil leak. Repairs have been completed on the unit.
The next meeting of the Board will be on Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. at Windham Town Hall.
