The Windham Township Board of Trustees convened for their first monthly meeting of the New Year last Wednesday evening at Windham Town Hall and quickly agreed on what the organizational alignment of the Board would be like for 2025.
The organizational layout of the Board for the 2025 will largely resemble the same organizational structure as last year, with Dan Burns retaining his position as Chairman and Fire Contact, Rich Gano as the Vice Chairman, Cemetery Contact and the Portage County Regional Planning Committee representative and Brian Miller once again being designated as the Road Contact. Fiscal Officer Casey Timmons and Burns will resume their duties as members of the Record Retention Committee and were also confirmed to serve as members of the Audit Committee alongside cemetery sexton Jayme Neikirk.
The Board also agreed that the Portage County Prosecutor’s Office would continue serving as its legal counsel. Monthly meetings will continue to take place on the first Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. at Windham Town Hall.
Miller said that the roads continued to be well maintained by the Township’s two road workers. He added that he had spoken with Portage County Prosecutor Brett Bencze to institute a new policy that would allow the road workers to drive themselves home with the snow trucks they use rather than return the snow trucks to the Township garage after their shift.
“Anytime there is expected to be more than three inches of snow and our guys are out plowing, we know that they have to come back in the middle of the night,” Burns noted. “So instead taking another half an hour to warm their car up, if our guys get stuck in the snow then nobody’s stuff will get plowed.”
Burns made a motion for the Board adopt this new policy to make traveling home easier for the road workers in emergency conditions, which is classified as three or more inches of snow, and the Board unanimously approved it.
Gano said that he was still working on repairing a pole that had recently been damaged in the cemetery which had compromised the electrical output of the building. Gano said that there was a list of things that needed to be repaired before permits could be approved.
Burns said that before the repairs could begin, the Township needed to wait for the approval the Ohio Utilities Protection Service to begin the project. Gano said that because the cemetery did not have an official address, he had to include a nearby address on the work ticket but specifically indicate that it was the closest address to the work site.
Timmons asked if the Board could allocate funds from the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council for this project. Burns said that the Board would explore that possibility.
Burns asked if the Board had a map showing where all 28 lights that were being converted into LED lights in the Township existed. Gano said that he would reach out to First Energy Regional External Affairs Manager Troy Rhoades to help with obtaining a map.
Burns read a report from Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet, referencing complaints about someone living in a camper on Bryant Road. Sweet’s report noted that he spoke with neighbors, and they said it was not being used as a hunting camper and that the owners had already cut down three of their neighbors’ trees. Sweet’s report also stated that he was asking the Board to request a search warrant from the Prosecutor’s Office for a barn on State Route 82. According to his report, the owners of the barn are using it as a residence and told Sweet that due to zoning agricultural policies, they were allowed to use it however they wished. Sweet’s report indicated that he had spoken with the Prosecutor’s Office and they disputed the owners’ claims. Burns proposed the motion to approve a search warrant request and it carried unanimously, allowing the Prosecutor’s Office to present it to a judge so the barn could be inspected.
Gano provided an update for the property on 9092 State Route 303, saying he had spoken with Dan Morganti of the Portage County Land Bank and they would be moving ahead with the demolition of the property. Gano added that demolition was expected to be completed by May, which coincided with the expiration of the grant awarded to the Township to fund the razing of the property. He informed the Board that even after the demolition, the remaining grant money would not cover the complete removal of the remaining debris.
“The downside is going to be that it was not what we thought so they can use whatever is left over of the grant money to clean up some of the property,” he noted. “They will take what they can, but they walked back and looked and saw it was a lot more than what they thought it would be.”
Timmons said that she was preparing to finalize official 2025 language for the zoning resolutions digital copies and also books for the Portage County Regional Planning Committee to use. Gano said that there were still a few issues that needed to be ironed out before the zoning resolution language could be made official, but the timeline indicated she would have it completed before the end of February.
In the final piece of zoning news, the Board agreed to renew PCRPC member Denise Cayne’s term for an additional five years.
Burns said so far in the New Year Windham’s Fire Department had received 25 calls and was covering most of the shifts and there had been no major vehicle breakdowns. Board of Zoning Appeals member Becky Phillips said that she may have a possible lead on finding the ambulance that the Fire Department had sought for over the last several months. She said that her company owned an ambulance, and her boss was considering selling the vehicle.
“I am going to get pictures of the odometer, the VIN and the general condition of the ambulance and I will share it with the Fire Board and they can go from there,” she noted.
The Board acknowledged that the vehicle would probably need to be modified to accommodate the Fire Department’s requirements, but those modifications would be less expensive than the cost of purchasing a new ambulance.
The Board discussed what they wanted to use the NOPEC Community Grant money for in 2025. They decided to split the grant money and donate half to Windham’s Helping Hands and half to the Renaissance Family Center.
They then discussed the matter of Township employee wages and decided to raise wages by an additional $1.00 an hour and also increase the monthly insurance payments to each employee from $666.67 to $700.
The Board’s next meeting will take place on Feb. 6 at Windham Town Hall at 6 p.m.
