The Windham Township board of trustees’ meeting was once again dominated by various zoning issues last Thursday evening at Windham Town Hall. Among those issues was the reissuing of a search warrant for the property on 10664 State Route 82.
“Jake Sweet said that we issued the original warrant to check the property on State Route 82 and the address was incorrect,” said board chairman and Fire Contact Dan Burns. “He has to redo that, and he has already gotten it done and he has the paperwork done but hasn’t taken it to anybody yet.”
The board had previously received a report that the resident at the property had been living in a barn behind their house. According to the zoning code as interpreted by the Portage County Regional Planning Committee, a barn cannot be used as a legal residence, but the owner was citing case law in their defense. The board had previously approved a search warrant for the barn to be inspected but the address on the warrant was incorrect and a new warrant will need to be issued.
“I’ll make a motion that we get the warrant so that the process can be followed through,” Burns said.
He added that after visiting the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office, he learned that representatives of the Fire, Building and Health Departments would all be in attendance during the inspection.
According to Fiscal Officer Casey Timmons, there were a lot of eyes on how this situation was handled because it was unique and the final ruling would set a precedent for the Township going forward.
Burns’ motion to request a new search warrant was approved unanimously.
Burns then went over an email that updated the board on several zoning policies that kept them in alignment with the PCRPC. One key issue he wanted to reinforce was that if the Township ever had the opportunity to approve a marijuana dispensary to operate in the Township, then they should grant approval.
He said that a significant percentage of the tax that would come from sales at the dispensary would be funneled back to the Township.
“We are not going to get one,” he acknowledged. “There is nowhere in our Township to build one but if they did, I think we should say yes.”
Vice Chairman and Cemetery contact Rich Gano said that it has been an issue that had consistently been raised at the PCRPC but had always been tabled and he was determined to make sure that the issue was properly addressed.
“I think it is time for the PCRPC to get off of the pot because they are always table, table, table,” he noted. “It is time we do something with it. Someone brought it up and they said it was a good question and we never heard of it again.”
Gano added that it was an issue the board would revisit once they had more clarity from the PCRPC but noted that while the board attended the Ohio Township Association Conference in Columbus in January, they learned that while there was no official language that prohibited the Township from approving a marijuana dispensary, that didn’t give the board the green light either.
The board also discussed the installation of solar panels to be used as power sources on local properties. board of Zoning Appeals Chairman Todd Phillips said that if the solar panels generated power in the range of five to 49.9 megawatts, it fell under the purview of the board. If the solar panels exceeded 50 megawatts, then the Ohio Power Citing board would be responsible for regulating them.
“What that means is that they have to determine that the infrastructure is substantial enough so that the power company can handle the amount of generation and any kind of environmental concerns,” Phillips said. “Part of that was the reflectivity that when the sun hits the panels, it does not shine on anybody so before we allow these to be put in, it is going to be very burdensome.”
Phillips added that the five megawatt stations would be more prevalent because the infrastructure was significantly smaller than any potential solar panels greater than 50 megawatts, which spanned approximately 400 acres of land.
The board also discussed some confusion about the frontage of all lots in the Township. The board had previously approved motions on lot variances, but it seemed that the PCRPC still was not on the same page.
“It is just frontage,” Gano said. “There is this whole thing they need to revisit and do what I can see is, we confused the appeals notification for the variance.”
trustee and Road Contact Brian Miller clarified the board’s previous decision to allow road workers to drive themselves home in the snow trucks during storms. Instead of regulating road workers’ discretion to only three inches of snow, Miller emphasized that road workers had permission as long as the board deemed it a proper emergency.
He added that the Township supplied the Windham School District with approximately 25 tons of salt.
“They were running really shy and sometimes it is hard to come by,” Miller said. “Sometimes they can go to the County Engineers office in an emergency situation like that, but they didn’t have it either.”
Miller noted that while in Columbus, he spoke to county engineers in Columbus about possibly doing some road repairs on Windham Parkman Road.
Gano said that he received notification about a headstone being in the wrong spot and needed to be moved. He also said that he was working on moving another headstone from the new cemetery to the old cemetery. Gano informed the board that he was still waiting to run electricity in the cemetery once the grounding rod was installed.
Burns said that the foundation had already been poured and the board will have to wait for the weather to warm up before anything else could be done.
Burns reported that the Fire Department had covered 56 calls so far this year. He added that the Department had recently received mutual aid from the Garrettsville Fire Department and Windham’s Fire Department had extended mutual aid back.
Burns once again raised the issue of the Fire Department needing a new ambulance.
“We are still talking about putting a levy on,” he said. “The person that sent the stuff to the county checked the box wrong and checked the box that we wanted $400,000 a year for four years instead of $400,000 for the next five years.”
Gano said that he was having trouble getting in contact with First Energy Ohio Edison about the pending installation of new LED lights. He also said he recently spoke with an energy official and negotiated a deal that lowered the Township’s utility bill from 12 cents per kilowatt to 9.69 cents. The new deal covered the utilities that were not under the umbrella of the Northeast Ohio Public Energy grants.
Timmons asked the board what they wanted to use the $3444.00 NOPEC grant for this year and still had $3,940.00 from last year’s NOPEC grant available until it expires this November.
The board agreed they wanted to install a new furnace in the Town Hall’s garage and Burns suggested that they use the funds to install a new electric fuse box in the back office of Town Hall.
The board then discussed what property should be covered by the Ohio Township Association Risk Management Authority Insurance policy. They decided that the Township’s generator, furnace, air conditioner, mower and laptops would remain covered under the policy.
The board discussed whether they should change the date of the annual spring clean-up to both days of the weekend instead of Friday and Saturday. The board opted to keep the days the same and the community event will occur on April 25 and 26.
The board will reconvene for its next meeting on March 6 at Windham Town Hall at 6 p.m.
