In the final Windham Township Board of Trustees meeting of the year, the Board approved two motions to spend $33,350.00 of the American Rescue Plan Act funds last Thursday evening at Windham Town Hall.
Timmons said that the Board had $146,706.93 remaining in ARPA funds and had to figure out how to encumber the money. One motion was carried for the Board to spend a portion of the money to fix the garage doors located behind the Windham Town Hall. Another motion for the Board to take $20,000 out of the remaining ARPA funds to pay the balance of the road funds accumulated this year for the chip and seal work on Bryant Road was also carried.
“We will spend $13,350 on garage doors and we are going to use $20,000 to pay the remaining balance of the chip and seal roads right behind here,” she noted.
Trustee and Road Contact Brian Miller said that the township was hard at work to maintain the surface streets of Windham now that the snow had officially arrived. The Township has a sufficient supply of salt, as they had back ordered large quantities of salt for the last several years.
Trustee, Vice Chairman and Cemetery Contact Rich Gano said that the new electrical pole needed for the cemetery still had not been installed. After consulting with Ohio Edison, the Township was required to apply for permits from Portage County before it could install the electrical pole.
Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet presented his monthly report, noting that he had received two applications for permits for building accessory buildings such as garages—one in November—and had just received another permit application this month.
Board Chairman, Trustee and Fire Contact Dan Burns said the Fire Board was in need of a new Fiscal Officer as the current one, Jennifer Derthick, was stepping down following the conclusion of this year after serving in that role for the last four years. The Fire Board had already received two applications and planned to hire a new Fiscal Officer by the next Fire Board meeting.
There was also continued discussion of how Windham could put a levy on the ballot to raise the necessary funds to purchase a new ambulance.
Burns brought up purchasing gift cards at the end of the year and distributing them to the two township workers and Sweet. He made a motion for the Board to purchase three $50 gift cards one for each of the workers, to reward them for another year’s hard work; the motion carried.
Gano said that he recently met with Dan Morganti, Executive Director of the Portage County Land Bank, and had walked through State Route 303 property 9092. He added that after conferring with Morganti, the Township would be awarded a grant that would pay for the demolition and razing of the property but it would not cover all of the clean-up work required.
He informed the board that he was recently contacted by a realtor on behalf of an interested party who wanted to purchase the property.
“I said I would want someone to make sure they are going to clean it up and everything before they even put a new doorknob on it,” Gano said. “They were like well that would be weather permitting and be no problem, but Dan reminded me that it is in tax foreclosure and will get bid on so this person can’t just directly say I want it.”
Gano added that there was also concern that if someone purchased the property, they could just as well elect to not clean it up and allow the property to remain as is for the foreseeable future. He said that he conferred with Portage County Prosecutor Brett Bencze and he recommended to continuing with the plan that the Board and the Land Bank had agreed upon.
The rest of the board agreed with Bencze’s recommendation.
“I say we stick with the Land Bank and let it be demolished,” Burns said.
Burns made a motion that the board proceed with their original plan; it carried.
Gano said that the property would not be demolished and razed until at least May. He was unsure of when the grant would expire but was certain that the property would be completely leveled before the grant’s expiration.
Before the end of the year, there will be an all-boards meeting between the Board of Trustees, the Regional Planning Zoning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals on Dec. 19 at Windham Town Hall at 7 p.m.
The board will reconvene for its first meeting of the New Year on Jan. 2 at Windham Town Hall beginning at 6 p.m.
