Village of Edgerton Council Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, March 16, 2021 at 7:00 PM
- Mayor Day called the meeting to order at 7:00PM with the Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer.
- Y – Yes, N – No, A – Abstain, Abs – Absent
- Roll Call:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
6 Members Present
Other Village Representatives Present:
- Chris Walker – Law Director
- Denise Knecht – Fiscal Officer
- Dawn Fitzcharles – Village Administrator
- Amanda Herman – Administrative Assistant
Media Present:
- Cindy Thiel, The Edgerton Earth
- Jeremy Scott, The Village Reporter
- Ron Osborne, The Bryan Times
Public Present:
- Justin Coffman
- Stacey Pelland
- Motion to Approve Meeting Minutes from 03.02.21:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y 2ND |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y MOTION |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
Introduction of Probationary Part-time General Laborer- At the March 2, 2021 meeting Council gave the authority to hire a part time general laborer. Stacey Pelland began working for the Village on March 8. He will be working up to 29 hours a week and will be working at the Town Hall, street and park departments. He has 6 years’ experience in the military and recently finished his mechanical engineering degree at Northwest State Community College and is ASE electrically certified. We are excited to have him on board and look forward to adding his skill set to our well-rounded team. Stacey addressed Council thanking them for the opportunity and stated he is looking forward to the future.
Discussion: Probationary Full Time Street Maintenance Employee Hire- At the Council meeting held on February 18, 2021 permission was granted to advertise for the open street maintenance position. We received 19 external applicants and 2 internal applicants. Of the 21 total applicants, there were 11 first round interviews held, followed by 2 second round interviews. The 11 candidates were evaluated based on 20 identified top skills that the position is responsible for, as well as if overtime is an issue and if the candidate was available to serve as an on call employee.
Our primary candidate, Bowen Aldrich, attended Owens for HVAC, holds a CDL and comes to us with 12 ½ years of service with Ohio Department of Transportation and 2 ½ years with Northwest Ohio Propane. Bowen possesses 19 out of the 20 identified skills such as; road maintenance, snow removal, insecticide and pesticide control and application, water main replacement and is familiar with equipment operation and repair. Statements from his references spoke of Bo being reliable, dependable, honest, trustworthy, a fast learner, and a great team player.
We respectfully request to hire Bowen Aldrich as a probationary full-time street maintenance employee to fill the open position pending successful completion of pre-employment screening, at $20 per hour and two weeks of vacation.
- Motion to hire Bo Aldrich as probationary Full Time Street Department Maintenance @ $20.00/hr and two weeks of vacation :
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y 2ND |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y MOTION |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | NO |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 5-1
Rules Committee Update- The Rules Committee met on 02.02.21 to discuss multiple topics that have been discovered since the approval of the Village of Edgerton Personnel & Procedures Manual update on 8.3.2020. Some of the items of discussion have been flex time, Federal labor laws and the 2021 holiday schedule. Future topics needing attention include job descriptions and organizational chart updates and a wage & compensation area study. The current updates were completed and circulated to Council as a draft version. Rules Committee chair, Leslie VanAusdale approved the addition to the agenda and with that we respectfully request that Council approve the recommended changes from the Rules Committee for the Personnel and Procedures Manual.
- Motion to approve updates to the Village of Edgerton Personnel and Procedures Manual:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | NO |
| Gruver, Jason | Y MOTION |
| Karnes, Tom | Y 2ND |
Motion PASSES 5-1
Discussion: ODOT Salt Agreement- Each year the Village participates in the Annual ODOT Salt bid in which local municipalities can join the Ohio Department of Transportation bidding for the annual salt contract. This resolution authorizes the Village Administrator to apply for 110 ton of road salt. The contract requires the Village to take at least 90% and up to 110% of the contractual amount. By participating in the ODOT road salt bid, we agree to pay the salt supplier a delivered price per ton, based on the lowest most responsive bid and we are included with other entities across the state. In 2019-2020 the amount was $81.60 per ton and 2020-2021 $53.74 per ton; we purchased around 110 tons this season. Our salt bin can hold roughly 200 tons of salt. We are required to submit the legislative authorization to participate by April 30th, 2021.
VILLAGE OF EDGERTON RESOLUTION NO 2021-002
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING PARTICIPATION IN THE ODOT ROAD SALT CONTRACTS AWARDED IN 2021 AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY
- Motion to suspend the three reading rule for Resolution No 2021-002:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y 2ND |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y MOTION |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
- Motion to pass and adopt Resolution No 2021-002 as an emergency:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y MOTION |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y 2ND |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
Discussion: Resolution 2021-003 Natureworks –The NatureWorks Grant program provides up to 75% reimbursement financial assistance for local government subdivisions for the acquisition, development, and rehabilitation of recreational areas. Since NatureWorks’ inception, the grant has funded over 2300 public park projects in all 88 counties. Two projects were completed in Edgerton, both located at Miller Park. In 2014, ADA playground equipment and picnic tables were successfully installed and in 2017 the pathway in between diamonds at Miller Park was paved. The 2021 Williams County allocation is $29, 510 and we are submitting an application titled Miller Park ADA Bathroom project for roughly $39,000. With that we are seeking approval to complete, execute and file this application for financial assistance of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and to provide all information and documentation required to become eligible for possible funding assistance.
VILLAGE OF EDGERTON RESOLUTION NO 2021-003
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR TO APPLY FOR NATURE WORKS FUNDING THROUGH THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND DECLARING IT AN EMERGENCY
- Motion to suspend the three reading rule for Resolution 2021-003:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y MOTION |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y 2ND |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
- Motion to pass and adopt Resolution 2021-003 as an emergency:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y MOTION |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y 2ND |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
Discussion: MARCS Grant- In June of 2020, Williams County Commissioners announced a site for construction of Williams County’s fourth 180-foot tall, 700/800 MHz Multi-Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS) tower to be located at 13065 County Road D.50, northwest of Bryan. This tower is intended to improve and modernize emergency communication capabilities in Williams County and give the County’s first responders complete coverage via the state-managed, digital radio and data network, which extends across Ohio and a 10-mile radius beyond its borders. In December of 2020 it was announced that ten fire departments in Williams County received a little more than $287,000 in the first round of the 2021 MARCS Grant awards. The 10 local fire departments were among 242 fire departments in 46 counties throughout Ohio to receive about $1.5 million in funding in this first round of MARCS grants. The request before you is authorization for Edgerton Fire Department to accept the $41,436.12, which has been awarded to the Village. The grant is for 15 portable radios, 3 mobile radios and for the fire trucks to be fitted with radios. There have been questions centered around if the radios will provide our primary radio service. Chief Blue has worked with the State to clarify this requirement as we provide mutual aid to not only neighboring Ohio counties, but neighboring states.
- Motion to approve 2021 MARCS Grant Agreement Division of State Fire Marshall :
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y 2ND |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y MOTION |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
Administrator Update by Dawn Fitzcharles:
- Webinar- On March 11, 2021 we held a webinar presentation “Village of Edgerton – Earn Money through Demand Response”. The webinar discussed the electrical grid demand response program and the opportunity for local large power customers to earn annual income by committing to electric load curtailment in the event of an electrical grid emergency.
- APPA Legislative Rally- Mayor Day and I took part virtually to discuss issues impacting local electric rates and rising transmission costs.
- SCADA- there are 3 main sites; alarms will sound when there is power loss, pumps on and off, high water level, generator on or off if applicable; MESA has discovered an issue with interconnected networks within the Village and the solution is being addressed with IT and Metalink.
- LMI study- Approximately 220 studies have not been completed, would like Council assistance to go door to door in hopes of completely before the end of March.
- SRTS (Safe Routes To School) task force- E-mails have been sent to help develop a Travel Plan to encourage and implement safer methods of traveling to school. Kick off meeting will be April 5 from 4-5pm at the Town Hall.
Fiscal Officer Update by Denise Knecht:
- Credit card statements were not ready at the time of the meeting
- Doug Zimmerman, from the State Auditor’s office has been in contact and informed that annual audit will be taking place in mid-June. Audits are being completed remotely so it may be a slightly longer process since auditor’s time on site will be limited.
Council Discussion: Asset Management- Muehlfeld inquired if that was on hold; Fitzcharles informed that she has been in contact with Tim Bock from PDG and there was an agreement to get through the bidding process of the Laubach Drive Drainage project before moving forward with Asset Management.
- Motion to pay bills 03.16.21:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y MOTION |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y 2ND |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
- Motion to enter into executive session to discuss the employment and compensation of public personnel at 7:35 PM :
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y MOTION |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y 2ND |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
- Motion to exit executive session at 7:50 PM:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y MOTION |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y 2ND |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y |
Motion PASSES 6-0
No action taken.
- Motion to adjourn at 7:51 PM:
| Muehlfeld, Roger | Y 2ND |
| VanAusdale, Leslie | Y |
| Thiel, Dean | Y |
| Wallace, Chuck | Y |
| Gruver, Jason | Y |
| Karnes, Tom | Y MOTION |
Motion PASSES 6-0