May 2020
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 5-12-2020
Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, May 12, 2020. Those in attendance were Jason Taylor, Road Maintenance Employee for the Township; Allen Deaver, Fire Chief; James R. Smith, Robert Stephenson and Derek Dozer; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Jeremy Yarger and Jeffrey Cohen, from the fire department, were also in attendance.
Meeting was called to order by Trustee Smith at 6:00 pm.
Pledge to the flag was led by Trustee Smith.
Agenda approved.
Minutes approved.
Public Participation: None.
Fire Department Business:
Chief Deaver—Ladder truck and ground ladders were all tested and passed. Still working on software but it is moving forward. June 1st they will go live. The statehouse delivered some nice tables to the fire department. There have only been possibly 2 COVID-19 related runs. There is one fire department member that has COVID-19 but did not contract it here.
Chicken BBQ—there has been some discussion, and it is still a while off, so they will probably wait a few more weeks to make a decision to go forward or not.
Trustee Dozer asked if there is any way to get the canopy in front of the building fixed so the birds stop building nests and dropping their business all over the concrete. Trustee Smith offered to get some prices together to get it fixed
Road Report – Jason Taylor— Both tractors will be up and running within the next few weeks. They will start ditching soon as well. They finished Leffler today and will be going to Payne tomorrow. Trustee Stephenson has contacted the Health Dept about a nuisance complaint, on Payne, and they have not gotten back to him. Trustee Smith suggested they open the ditch up so people cannot get in there and dump more garbage.
Township has grinding coming from ODOT per Mr. Stephenson. He is also waiting to hear about the salt delivery so we do not have to pay storage fees any longer.
Old Business – The township did not receive any bids for banking services, which were due at this meeting.
New Business – There was much discussion regarding the roads that would possibly be getting chip seal or pavement during the upcoming season. The trustees will accept sealed bids for the 2020 paving season at the next meeting, June 9, 2020.
Trustees Reports:
Stephenson—FEMA—things are progressing but it sounds like we might get around $80K. Feds would pay around $60K and the state would pay the other 25%. He is working on another one for all the culverts that would be around $8K. That one is still up in the air. We may not see any money for a while. Workman, Ford and Mahon are all out of consideration for FEMA money.
E. Fultonham streets will be bid out in June or July using Block Grant money.
The list of roads that will be bid out for paving are: Stine, Malibu, Thompson Run (from Foxfire to township line), Old Glory, Freedom, Heckel, Sherman and Freda.
This issue of the Browning fence has come up again. The fence has not been moved and Mr. Browning does not plan to move it. Mr. Stephenson has a survey of Rodayle Drive and the fence is definitely in the right-of-way.
Smith—More paving discussion.
Dozer— Asked that we go into executive session to discuss personnel changes at 6:40pm. Executive session ended at 7:00pm. The decision was made that we would continue to employ Allen until September 1st.
Stephenson made a motion to extend Allen’s employment until September 1st and the motion was seconded by Dozer. All three trustees were in agreement to extend the time of Chief Deaver’s employment. Official word needs to go out from the Trustees that the department is looking for a replacement fire chief. Trustee Dozer will get an email together and send it out to the department members to notify them of the time extension and that the trustees will accept internal candidates for the Fire Chief position effective immediately. All information should be received by the Fiscal Officer by 5 pm on June 5, 2020.
Fiscal Officer Reports
Distributed Grassroots Clippings and other correspondence that had come in the mail from various vendors.
Trustee Smith made a motion to pay bills. Trustee Dozer seconded the motion.
All bills presented were deemed to be valid expenditures and were to be paid as presented.
Next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 at 6:00pm at the Fire Department.
Meeting adjourned at 7:25 pm
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