The Windham Township Board of Trustees fielded several questions about where things stood on the potential of Artificial Intelligence Data Centers being built in Portage County and the Board made their stance clear by placing a moratorium on them last Thursday evening at Windham Township Hall.
“We have no language in zoning right now to prevent it,” Board of Zoning Appeals Chairwoman Becky Phillips told the Board. “If we don’t have the ability to prohibit it, you don’t have anything to stop it.”
Trustee, Vice Chairman and Cemetery contact Rich Gano made a motion for the Board to approve a moratorium on the issue and the motion carried unanimously.
The conversation about AI Data Centers initially began when a resident inquired about the discussions that had previously occurred at a special Windham Township Zoning Commission Board meeting.
Trustee, Chairman and Fire contact Dan Burns responded that the Board was still waiting for a response from the Portage County Regional Planning Committee. He added that he believed that all members of the PCRPC were against construction of AI Data Centers.
Gano said that he received notification from the PCRPC that contained a strikethrough of the initial language but that the PCRPC would convene on May 13 to formally discuss the pros and cons of having an AI Data Center built in Portage County.
BZA Vice Chairwoman Tricia Kendrick said that she was under the impression that the Ravenna Planning Commission had also placed a moratorium on the construction of such facilities.
“What I received in my email is that we discussed the AI Data Center proposed amendment and added wording from public comments and a request to tighten up the language,” Trustee and Road Contact Brian Miller said. “We have sent this to Regional Planning and will provide the feedback and final document once it has been approved.”
Gano said that after the May 13 meeting, the Board would receive a recommendation from the PCRPC and would vote on whether to accept or reject the proposal.
Windham resident Dennis Channel appeared as a guest at the meeting to voice his displeasure at the township for not having a tornado siren installed at the Fire Station
“It’d be nice to have a warning if something like that is going to happen,” he said. “My understanding is that you once had.,Instead of building it next to the fire station why can’t it be hooked to the fire station? Why does it have to go the police station?”
Burns informed him that the Fire Department could not afford to have a full-time dispatcher. The Township did not own the tornado siren, but rather it belongs to the Village of Windham.
Gano said that he would once again explore grants that would enable the township to purchase a tornado siren. Burns added that one siren would not be enough to cover the entire community.
Channel also informed the Board that he was unhappy with all the traffic cameras placed around the area, as he believed they deterred people from wanting to pass through Windham.
Burns assured him that the cameras he was seeing were not traffic cameras but rather flock cameras, which had been installed near schools in the event of any incidents occurring.
“They can read your plates and can tell if you have warrants,” Burns said. “They can call the cops now. These are plate-readers. They don’t call the cops automatically. For people who have warrants, could they? Yes. If the jurisdiction has paid to have all of that done.”
Resident Colleen Thompson also addressed the Board concerning her previous zoning amendment proposal. She provided each board member with a record pack to clarify the agricultural structure of the farm, document the agricultural nature and the operations and also explain the role and necessity of onsite management related to livestock, equipment, hay production, storage, deliveries and security.
Burns said that the board had no new information to provide about Thompson’s zoning amendment proposal.
Miller said that the township’s road workers had performed a significant amount of ditching in the previous month. He added that the township installed a new culvert on Horn Road, cleaned the leaves on the corner and worked on the culvert and the ditch line on the VanKirk property.
He informed the board that some concrete work was needed at the bottom of Wadsworth Road to repair the erosion that had occurred because of water trickling from the top of the road.
“We don’t want it to undermine our roads,” he noted “So, we might have to give this matter some attention there and be more aggressive than normal. It is getting increased water from the ditches from the field. Four of the residents have had their culverts blown out.”
Gano informed the Board that the deadline for applications for new headstones had expired on May 1 and he was still waiting for word on how many had been submitted.
Burns added that inmates would arrive to do some weed work in the cemetery on May 18. Burns said that he planned to meet with Brian McManus of McManus Concrete to discuss laying the foundation for the new columbarium.
Township Zoning Inspector Jake Sweet informed the Board that he issued two permits in April, one for a house on Fraser Road and another for a porch on Bryant Road. He said that he found a disabled car located on Bryant and was waiting for the weather to break before removing it.
He encouraged everyone that when the weather got warmer, they should mow their yards and remove any items that had piled up during the winter.
Sweet added that he had received several requests from residents to add convex boxes, steel-structured storage containers often found on trucks and ships, as permitted items for storage.
“I don’t oppose it,” Sweet said. “I just want to make sure that it is written right so we don’t have the problems of people putting them around willy nilly and not leaving them looking good so I think we should treat it as an accessory building.”
Gano agreed that it would be prudent to place conditions on using the boxes so they could provide an aesthetic compliment to properties.
Phillips inquired if the board had found any candidates to fill the role of alternates for the BZA but Burns responded that they had not.
Fiscal Officer Casey Timmons said that she would once again advertise the vacancies.
Gano informed the board of a property on Bryant Road that had never been cleaned up and proposed adopting a resolution to enforce ORC 505.87, which authorizes the Township to remove any debris or loose vegetation on the property.
After further discussion, Gano said that he would wait on making such a resolution until next month.
Burns informed the board that the Windham Fire Department had responded to 254 calls so far this year, with 117 occurring in the Township, 127 taking place in the Village, 10 happening around the Turnpike and received 182 EMS calls districtwide. He added that 73 of those calls have been fire calls.
He announced that the Fire Department would be hosting an open house on May 16 beginning at noon.
Timmons said that there was going to be a formal session held by the Garrettsville-Hiram Rotary at the Open House, which would educate residents about a lockbox program that allowed first responders to gain access to a residents’ property in the event of an emergency while they were not present in their homes.
“They are going to explain what they are going to do with it and the ins and how it will be kept secret,” she said.”
She said the lockbox program not only applied to both Windham Village and Windham Township but Garrettsville Village, Freedom Township, Nelson Township and Hiram.
Miller proposed to the board that they send a $500 donation to the Maplewood Career Center’s boot and clothing fund as a thank you to the Maplewood electrical students who came to lay the electrical foundation for the new clocktower on the Township green.
His motion was unanimously approved by the board.
Burns informed the board that the village’s new Street Department Representative, Matt Roach, had requested help from the township workers to assist in cleaning up the park, as he was dealing with a ditch between the two baseball fields and that he had approved Roach’s request.
Brian said that it would only be a couple of more days before maintenance on the building’s chimney and the flagpole on the Township green was completed, as the parts needed for the flagpole have been assembled.
The Trustees will reconvene for their next meeting on June 4 at Windham Township Hall at 6 p.m.
