Windham Twp. – While many townships, cities and municipalities are struggling to get road salt, Windham Township seems to have dodged that bullet for now. According to Road Supervisor Brian Miller they are currently doing all right with their salt supply after securing a delivery from the county engineer earlier in the year. For now they are holding their own so to speak with their salt supply. In other road news, the township workers have done a great job on keeping the roads clear and even found some time to do the sidewalks so the students could safely walk to school. Trustee Rich Gano looked at their secondary broken salt spreader and tightened up the chain. It seems to be working now. Gano suggested they consider selling it since they only use one anyway. No decision was made on the spreader.
The trustees approved the certified mileage of 9.369 miles of township roads. This is the number of miles they receive tax dollars for and are responsible for plowing and maintaining. They also approved the minutes from January, along with expenditures and the permanent appropriations of $867,126.
Zoning Inspector Joe Pinti reported that the demolition of the Robbins house was delayed due to the electric company’s failure to remove an electrical meter from the premises. After contacting the electric company the meter will be removed and demolition is expected to be completed by the end of next week. Residents were in attendance and were concerned about all the feral cats in the house and were worried they would take up residency in their accessory building once the house is gone. The residents claim the animal control will not help with feral cats. They wanted the zoning code to address the issue. Trustee Dann Timmons said there was nothing they could do about the feral cat issue, as the current zoning code is vague on nuisance issues; however they are working on updating the zoning code.
Pinti said no zoning permits were issued but folks have been inquiring about accessory buildings and he has been doing follow-up visits at the Horner property because debris has started to pileup there again.
In cemetery news, Gano reported that here have been a lot of funerals and they even did a double burial recently and all went well. Gano said they would need to mark out more plots soon. Timmons said drainage in the one section needs to be addressed, to which Gano suggested they consider adding more tile for better drainage to the one section. This will be addressed in the future when the weather breaks.
A discussion was held on pricing of the burial plots. Timmons will see what other area townships are charging to see if Windham’s are comparable. The plots have been the same price for quite some time now, and they are wondering of they need to adjust the price with the cost of inflation.
In fire news, Timmons reported that the most pressing issue is to fill the at-large position on the board. They did receive a few résumés from interested parties. The fire board meets on February 13, 2014 and they will look at the résumés at the meeting.
The trustees passed a resolution to approve the recycling contract with the Portage County Solid Waste District. This brought up questions from the residents on who maintains the recycling area. Timmons said it is on village property so they should maintain the area. Residents complained that it is not kept neat, it is not plowed and difficult to get to in the winter. Timmons suggested they address the issue with the village, as it is their property.
Timmons reported that the township trustees were added to the Soinski vs. the County Commissioners’ lawsuit as they have a vested interest in the outcome. There is a pretrial hearing set for February 7, 2014 at 2 pm in Judge Enlow’s court room.
Various questions were raised about the website, Timmons said they were working on it but a death in the family of one of the folks who are working on it has delayed the process. Gano suggested they put a zoning map on the website so folks could see what is allowed in their region. The township trustees meet once a month on the first Thursday of each month at 7pm at the town hall.
