Wellsville Business Woman Named To Vacant Council Seat

Wellsville Village Council met this past Monday, January 30, in a Special Meeting to act on four agenda items. Present at the meeting was Mayor Susan Haugh, Council members Don Brown, John Morrow, Diane Dinch, Rosie Goss & Tony Cataldo. Also in attendance was Fiscal Officer Dale Davis, Village Administrator Thom Edgell and WPD Chief Joe Scarabino.

In an 11th hour decision Council voted unanimously to appoint Wellsville business woman Tonda Ross to the vacant Council seat. The seat was vacated by Mayor Haugh when she took office the first of January. The Council term has two years left before it expires. Council had 30 days to name a replacement for Haugh. Had they failed to do so the Mayor could appoint someone.

Ross is a Main Street resident. She and husband Randy run Tonda's Place located in the 4th Street Square. Ross is a Beaver Local alumni and has attended KSU-EL. She ran as an independent in last November's General Election and is a new comer to the political arena. She was sworn into office later Monday afternoon. The picture above was taken at a Meet the Candidates Night last October.

As a member of Council Ross will chair the Streets-Lights & Parking Committee. She was also appointed a member of the Claims-Rules & Ordinance Committee, the VFD Dependency Board along with Diane Dinch and Council liaison to Wellsville's Tree Board Committee.

Other Committee Chair persons named were Diane Dinch – Finance, Don Brown – Water, Sewer & Refuse, Tony Cataldo – Personnel, Rosie Goss – Property, Equipment & Cemetery, John Morrow – Claims-Rules & Ordinances and Cataldo & Brown – EMS.

To close out the agenda items Council placed two ordinances on third & final reading and voted in favor of each. Both ordinances were put on first reading at the January 24 meeting. The first was reappointing Andy Beech to Village Legal Counsel and providing compensation for said job. The second ordinance was consenting to ODOT doing repair work on the Route 7 bridge that crosses Route 39. Fiscal Officer Davis remarked the ordinance was just a formality since the bridge is within Village limits. The repair work will all be at ODOT's expense and will not cost the Village anything. Mayor Haugh remarked that southbound traffic on Route 7 will have to take the exit and re-enter on the other side of Route 39 once work begins. Any detour for north bound traffic hasn't been determined yet.

The meeting adjourned at 1:06 PM. Next scheduled meeting for Council is Tuesday, February 7 at 6 PM.

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