Windham Twp. – The Windham Township Trustees opened their meeting in the usual fashion and moved right to the business at hand. They approved the minutes from February meeting and the expenditures. Rich Gano introduced Sara Blake to the trustees and said Blake was interested in serving on the zoning commission. Blake has been a township resident for about five years. After some discussion, the trustees agreed to appoint her to the zoning commission board.
In roads, Brian Miller reported that the employees have been busy ditching and plowing when needed. Brian stated that he had to call them out on a Saturday as the roads were icy. The road crew got it taken care of before noon. Miller said, they have a lot of ditching projects on the schedule and it will be a challenge to get them completed in a timely fashion.
In cemetery news, Rich Gano reported that they had two funerals last week and when it dries out, he will lay out graves in the last section of the cemetery and will work on drainage problems as well. Trustee Danny Burns stated that they need to enforce the current rules at the cemetery; the other trustees agree. They will be enforcing the current rules. The rules are posted at the cemetery and on the website too. For those who are unaware of them, they are:
1 One gravestone per site.
2. Government markers will be placed on back of grave stone.
3 Township employees will do all the lawn mowing. No individual shall operate or bring in any type of mower in the cemetery.
4 There shall be NO fencing around graves or markers
5 There shall be NO flowers outlining graves or markers
6 There shall be no stones or edging material outlining graves or markers
7 No sod shall be placed on any grave. Township workers will level and seed all graves.
8 No trees shall be planted on or around or near any grave site
9 All winter wreaths and decorations must be removed by April 1st of each year or the township will remove and discard them.
10 The township reserves the right to remove any shrub or shrubs, flowers, urn, etc. that interferes with the normal operations, or not lending to the appearance of the cemetery.
For more questions contact the trustees at windhamtwp@hotmail.org
In zoning, Joe Pinti reported a variance for Stanley Road was issued. There is a public meeting scheduled on March 30, 2020 for that variance. Pinti also wrote an agricultural permit for the Lucas property on State Route 303 for forestry. He received a question on the Wilson property on Liberty Street that is for sale. Currently it is zoned agricultural due to a variance. The caller wanted to know if he could build a house on it. Pinti said the new owner would have to apply for an agricultural variance to keep it as such so if he doesn’t do that it would revert back to the original zoning of residential which would allow a house to be built.
Recently a for sale sign went up on the Windham -Parkman Road property that had a fire and gutted the house. The lot has a temporary mobile home on it, while they construct a new home. The township allows temporary housing of mobiles for a year while they repair or rebuild the structure after a fire. Since they are selling, Pinti needs to find out how long they can allow the temporary housing and what the family’s plan is for their housing on that property.
Lastly, the township trustees congratulated Jayme Neikirk on her 20 years of service to the township. Neikirk retires March 31, 2020. The meeting was adjourned and a cake and punch reception was held in honor of Neikirk.
Neikirk served 40 plus years in public service. Prior to working for the township, she was a dispatcher for Windham Police Department (1976-1998) and then Garrettsville Police Department from 1998- 2007. In 2000, she took over as fiscal officer of the township and in 2010, she became the first fiscal officer of the newly formed WVFD Joint Fire District. Neikirk is a Windham alumnus, has one son, Adam, three grandsons and a great granddaughter.
Congratulations Jayme. Enjoy your retirement.
