One of the matters discussed at The Windham Township Board of Trustees’ meeting last Thursday evening at the Windham Town Hall was whether the Township needed a new fire siren.
Portage County Regional Planning Committee Member Denise Cain was in attendance as a concerned citizen and raised the issue of the Village not having a fire siren of its own. The only fire siren that the Village had was not even theirs, but property of the Hope Town Ohio Recovery Housing & Ecosystem. It was also an old model, having been made in in 1959. The current model was a diaphone, which sounded with compressed air whenever it went off.
“As a community and Township resident, I must ask who do we go to?” Cain asked the Board. “I am concerned. I wanted to know last year too but where are we with that?”
Vice Chairman, Trustee and Cemetery Contact Rich Gano said that he had tried to purchase a fire siren for Garrettsville when he served on the Fire Board several years ago.
According to Chairman, Trustee and Fire Contact Dan Burns, Mayor Laurence “Mac” Cunningham was having discussions about purchasing a new fire siren for the Village.
Board of Zoning Appeals Vice Chairman Todd Phillips asked if it was possible for the Village to move the fire siren to inside the fence of the water tower. Burns responded that the Village would need to have a three-phase electric system in order to power the fire siren.
Phillips asked that in lieu of a fire siren, if there was any sort of notification through texts or emails to alert residents of impending natural storms.
Burns replied that the Portage County Emergency Management Agency had an alert system, which notified him just minutes before the EF1 tornado struck Windham last year.
He informed Cain that she could reach out to EMA Director Ryan Shackelford to learn more information and the Board provided her with Shackelford’s contact.
Trustee and Road Contact Brian Miller said that Cain was more than welcome to pursue levies or grants that would allow the Village to purchase a new fire siren.
Miller said that a lot of road work had been performed in the last month, including installing a 150-foot culvert on Liberty Street plus repairing a culvert further up the block. Miller lauded the Garrettsville street department for aiding Windham’s road workers, which included seasonal employees.
“We did two different projects with the Village of Garrettsville,” Miller noted. “We had some young helpers running flags back and forth there. Both projects were on Liberty Street.”
He added that road worker Kevin Wert had been cutting grass on the roadside in the past month and the Township also performed some ditching work and inserted another culvert on Horn Road.
Miller notified the Board that the Township’s road workers had also performed chip & seals on Wadsworth, Werger, Brosius and East and West Gotham Road.
He informed the Board that he planned to consult with Freedom Township Road Supervisor Tony Vansteenberg about combining efforts to perform a chip & seal on Hewins Road next year. What made the project complicated is that Windham and Freedom are co-owners of the road, with Windham’s portion consisting a little less than a mile.
“Tony will help us figure out what the cost might be with hard labor on some crack seal issues,” Miller said. “I have not had a chance to talk to him yet. We have some cracked seal spots and there is still some patching that needs to be done on Hewins Road.”
Miller added that the air conditioning was still not functioning on the roadside cutter that Wert had been operating. There had already been issues with the air conditioning and it appeared that the Township fixed the problem, but a new issue has now surfaced.
Gano reported that the cemetery had just received a headstone from Portage Marble and Granite monument maker after filling a double footer, which belonged to a married couple. He added that the cemetery has remained in good condition despite the heavy rain in the past month and credited the summer workers for maintaining the cemetery’s good condition.
Burns read an email from zoning inspector Jake Sweet, who was not in attendance, but notified the Board that he received only one permit in the last month, which came from Gano who planned to build a porch on his property.
Sweet’s email also noted that he had issued a few more letters to residents on Bryant Road for violations, including one resident for having an open fire on their property.
Burns said that the fire department had updated their numbers, having received 336 calls to date, 33 EMS calls, 2 fire calls, 25 runs in the village and 10 runs in the Township.
He said that a renewal levy for the fire department was also on the horizon and would be placed on the November ballot. He said that if the renewal levy failed, the Township would cease to have a fire department.
Gano asked Burns about the status of the used truck that the fire department had received from Burton. Gano wanted to know if Windham’s new truck had a frame problem and Burns said that the frames were fine.
“It does have two frames, an outer and an inner; there was some rust on the outer, but everything is good,” Burns added.
Burns told the Board that American Legion Post 674 had donated $7,500 for the fire department to purchase a 16-foot enclosed trailer, which would house the department’s gator utility vehicle. He added that the Legion also had just purchased a gator for the Windham Exempted Schools so they could maintain the conditions of the football, baseball and softball fields.
Miller said that the Township had just made some repairs to the backhoe excavator and had installed a new ram and replaced a cylinder.
Burns proposed that the Township consider purchasing a new trailer to house the backhoe excavator. Miller said that they could reach out to Leonard Truck & Trailer for a quote and Gano added that he could look at prices from Leppo Rents, a construction equipment supplier.
The Board will reconvene at Windham Town Hall on Aug. 7 at 6 p.m.
