Friday, June 24, 2011

Wellsville's Property Committee Meets

Tuesday – June 21: The Wellsville Village Council Property Committee met this past Tuesday to go over some items of interest. Present at the meeting was Committee Chairwoman Susan Haugh and Committee Members Rosie Goss & Randy Allmon. Also attending was Mayor Joe Surace, Village Administrator Jim Saracco, Legal Advisor Andy Beech, Fiscal Officer Dale Davis and Councilmen Tony Cataldo & Joe Soldano. The meeting took place at Village Hall at 3 PM.

The first item discussed was going after community workers that are paying off court fines for so many hours of community service. Haugh announced she has discussed with the Legal Advisor about the possibility of trying to get more help for the Village through this program. Beech's only concern was making sure community workers are supervised. Haugh stated that if only one Village Street Department employee is supervising five community workers common sense would tell you there would be five times more work accomplished. Cataldo inquired about liability and workers comp on these workers and was advised that has been covered for some time now. Saracco advised that he has had one worker so far this summer for 20 hours of service. Haugh advised she will contact authorities in Lisbon about possibly getting more community service workers. Grass cutting would probably be the number one goal.

Second item Haugh brought to the attention of the committee were the fountains in Broadway Park. Saracco advised that all the fountains have to be cleaned and sealed. Haugh advised she is in the process of trying to get volunteers to accomplish that. Saracco said the pumps are all ready to be reinstalled. He later told us if he can get some extra help he could free up his worker that has past experience in getting the fountains in operation. Rosie Goss brought up the replacement of the decorative street light that was demolished from a car accident. Saracco reported that Cardello sent the wrong size lamp for the post and they are waiting for the right one to come in.

Thirdly Haugh reported that she is waiting for Associated Landowners of Ohio Valley (ALOV) officials to schedule a meeting date in regards to representing the Village for natural gas drilling at the old reservoir and City Dump. Haugh stated she has contacted them and is waiting for a response. ALOV is a non-profit organization that has represented landowners in seven counties, including Columbiana, in dealing with drilling companies such as Chesapeake.

The fourth item of business was taking back the old reservoir from Buckeye Water. The reservoir was deeded over to Buckeye back when the water district was first formed with the understanding that it would be returned to Village ownership once Buckeye no longer was using it for a water source. With the new pump station and water treatment plant now fully in operation Buckeye has announced it will be returned to the Village. They originally tried to do this two years ago at a meeting in April 2009. Back then Village officials balked because of an ODNR report concerning the 100 year flood plan and there being no Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for the reservoir. BWD District Manager Al DeAngelis advised there was an EAP in the district's office. Also at the 2009 meeting DeAngelis advised there are three valves that can be used to slowly drain the water if necessary. The ODNR report was written without very much investigation put into it. The Village officials were originally going to apply for grants to do any necessary repairs but nothing has been done since then. This all took place before Haugh was even elected to Council.

At Tuesday's meeting the Committee went into a 20 minute executive session with Legal Advisor Beech to discuss the agreement with BWD. Upon returning Haugh announced they will contact ODNR to go over that inspection and proceed from there.

Before closing the meeting Councilman Joe Soldano advised the Committee that members of the Hammonds Park Commission has inquired about the playground equipment that was donated to the Village by LSW. The equipment was located at the old MacDonald School and LSW gave it to the Village when they purchased that property on 9th St. Village officials intended to have it installed at the Jim Kenney Center. Haugh reminded Soldano that that piece of equipment was all one unit and a licensed installer is required before it can be erected. Fiscal Officer Dale Davis advised that the licensed installer is required by the Village insurance carrier and also requires that the installer has liability coverage. Cataldo remarked that when the company put in the new playground equipment at 18th Street they quoted a price of $6,000 to erect that playground unit. Cataldo noted that company could not find any specifications on that particular unit. Haugh advised that before that unit was removed from the LSW property she got several pictures. At the time she had worked out a deal with another company to have a licensed installer supervise volunteers for $1,000 putting it together. That never worked out. Other Council members brought in another company for 18th Street without her being advised. Bottom line is there isn't any funds to get the equipment erected. Until money is found Haugh noted she would like to see that equipment stored in a secure location. Soldano said that a neighbor on 1st Street stopped someone trying to haul it off for scrap.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:41 PM. Next regular Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 5 at 6 PM at Village Hall.


ole nib

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why don't council start storeing stuff in the house at Spring Hill Cemetery that sits empty.Pretty expensive storage shed, but could be put to use,considering how much money was WASTED in restoreing it, just to get Lombardozzi out of it and see it empty and destroyed with no heat in it. AGAIN, What a joke! OOOOHHHH,here is another idea. Let's wait on Baard to come to town and save us all!

Anonymous said...

Baard well had anyone ever thought about the flipside of what their coming would mean? When a rep was asked at what point the coal would be covered as it would come in, the reply was "on the conveyer belts". The public would be breathing in coal dust worse than now. Homes covered, swimming pools etc... Is it wise to hang on to a dream of liquid coal when the product could result in long term illness for many people. As a child I remember when Midland was a rusty orange town. Many people were employed by the source of the pollution, but at what point is the desired result not worth the risk? I'm interested in seeing the results of East Liverpools health studies if they do them.

Anonymous said...

How about the STINK??? I had out of town friends visit this past month. We couldn't even have a cook out it smelled so bad, I live right by the city hall. Shame on the Town for the dam STINK. They knew of the problem years ago. They should have fixed it then.

Anonymous said...

What more could be shown by any more health studies? They've "studied" East Liverpool to death and already shown there are high rates of cancer. The causes will never be known.
Only 3 percent of cancers are caused by the environment, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Anonymous said...

We should count our blessings instead of just complaining. We have new street signs, a new bear trap, a refurbished 18th street playground, a re urban forested Broadway Park, a dysfunctional floodwall, trash fires in approved burn barrels almost every night, and grass as high as an elephants eye on foreclosed properties all over town. Life is good.

Anonymous said...

That's interesting I didn't know that about the cancer. I have asthma and the stink from the sewage problem doesn't help. Some people would say move but should people have to and moving isn't cheap. I don't think that smell can be healthy for for anyone. Why was this area chosen for Baard?