Village Government

While I was away I missed a Council Meeting and a couple of committee meetings. All we got to go on is newspaper reports and word of mouth. I did make an effort to talk to some Village officials and others.

There was a Sewage Committee meeting a week ago this past Monday. The following Thursday there was a Finance Committee meeting. Inside of four days members of those committees decided to scale down the installations of 45 catch basins to five. Along with that they are shooting to get funds to pave portions of three streets. The difference in cost went from applying for $303,000 in loans to $167,000. The village has to come up with roughly 10% front money for the loans. The loans are going to be applied for with the Rural Development program with 3.8% annual interest and to be paid back over 20 years. Catch basins are drains for ground water that now cause ponding in several areas in the village every time it rains. The reason for the drastic cutback is because the Fiscal Officer said there is no way he can come up with an extra $30,000 by March, 2010. Before anything can be done with adding catch basins a $7,500 environmental study has to be done. The catch basins and paving being talked about is for next year.

Fiscal Officer Dale Davis was quoted in the paper stating the Village would be hard put to come up with $30,000 over all of next year without a lot more cutting back. He added "the money's just not coming in."One would think these committee members would check with the man that controls the purse strings before planning anything. Council approves an annual budget to work with.

Also at that Sewage Committee meeting there was discussion on getting one of three Ranney wells that were drilled several years ago operational to be used as a back-up source of water. Ranney wells collect ground water and one of the three was equipped with a pump when they were drilled. This came up with two months of consideration after the village water supply was shut off when a main line break occurred the first week-end of August. Once the Highland Avenue water tank was emptied we were without water for nearly two days.

The newspaper stated the committee was uncertain where the funding would come from at this time. They want to install a bigger pump capable of pumping a million gallons of untreated water per day. It will also require purchasing pipe for the line from the well. No mention was made if the line would be tied in to existing water lines or whether they are planning on a simple shut off valve. Committee members are thinking that residents can boil Ranney well water for drinking and cooking. I'm wondering if the EPA even allows that with an untested and untreated supply of water. Again the question of money comes into play.

At Tuesday's Council meeting former Councilwoman Diane Dinch was answered about the cost of the police investigation and the new police manual. According to Jo Ann Bobby-Gilbert's report the investigation cost $31,416 and the new manual cost $47,389. Now it seems the finger pointing is about to begin on who authorized what, especially with the manual. The same firm that drew up the police manual is also negotiating on behalf of the village for a new union contract for our four union employees. Their contract expires at the end of this year. In the past it was negotiated with a joint committee that included members of the union, council and Village administration. One council member was quoted in the newspaper account as say "I don't like this spending money and council doesn't have a clue". I'm wondering what kind of clue is needed. On 1/29/09 there was a Personnel Committee meeting with Mr. Lencewicz and another on 4/21/09 that I attended. Mr. Davis informed me that every invoice paid for both the investigation and the manual was brought before Council for their consideration. In the April meeting there was discussion on the forthcoming contract negotiations.

Also at the Council meeting it was announced that the Cemetery caretaker's office will remain at the old Hammond house. Seems Fire Chief Smith inspected the office and deemed it safe to use. There is no water or restroom facilities in the office section at the rear of the house.

One of the WFD three full time fire fighters submitted his resignation effective at the end of the month. Marty Thorn is moving on but the papers didn't give any reason what he's up to. Now council has to decide whether they will replace him or not. The Fire Dept. is already down one full time member and uses paid volunteers to fill in the schedule gaps. Wellsville is indeed fortunate to have the volunteer members in the WVFD.

Council ordered in legislation to budget 10% of the Magistrate Court fines into a line item to pay the cost of the 4th year required as part of the COPS grant program. That was part of the deal WPD Chief Scarabino worked out with council to get two full time officers added to the ranks. The Village had to agree to pay for the 4th year for the officers when they applied for the grant.

EL's Brian Kerr presented council with a copy of an EL ordinance that he and his fellow council members passed agreeing to keep EL Municipal Court if Wellsville is approved to switch from the County Court to there. As a cost saving measure earlier this year a motion was passed to seek state approval to switch Wellsville court cases to East Liverpool's Muncipal Court. That move has to be approved by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Council candidate Jack Cataldo announced he has been working on securing a DOT grant for the new truck road proposed earlier in the year by the Mayor. That's the road that would go from the Nevada Street area to the Intermodal Park and directly to Route 7. If funding can be found to build it - it would eliminate truck traffic off 17th St. & Clark Ave. Unfortunately Mr. Cataldo had no figures on what the Village share would be for such a grant. With the STAG grant appeal still pending some question whether the Village would even be considered for such lucrative grant money. No amount was reported in the papers on what the grant amount would be but when the Mayor applied for OMEGA funding earlier in the year it was estimated to cost to be in the neighborhood of $1.0/$1.5 million to construct.

Wellsville's Fix-up/Clean-up Committee was given the Chamber-of-Commerce's Community Service Award at their annual dinner recently. Nunzio Lombardozzi who chairs that committee thanked all the members and officials for the recommendation. Lombardozzi reporter that there is $440 left to get started next year. According to the newspaper account the first clean up date is already set for May 1, 2010. Are you ready Jan?

To close out it was reported that there was a balance of $42,313 in the Village General Fund as of the end of September. By October 22 that balance was down to $22,982 with a little over two months to go in the year. The books for October haven't been balanced yet but we mention that just in case any of our legislators need a clue.

ole nib