September 2020

NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 9-8-2020

Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, September 8, 2020.  Those in attendance were Jason Taylor, Road Maintenance Employee for the Township; Craig Knox, Fire Chief; James R. Smith, Robert Stephenson and Derek Dozer; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer.  Larry Geiger, from the fire department was also in attendance, as were township residents, Randy Starner and Bernadine Swingle.

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:  Randy Starner from Foxfire Drive asked when the township would be making improvements to his road.  The trustees told him next year is the plan for paving Foxfire Drive.  He asked that they at least do some patching and Mr. Stephenson told him to give them a couple weeks and they would get to it.

Fire Department Business: 

Chief Knox—He met with the officers a week ago and they want to keep their current positions.  He has asked Larry Geiger to become his Deputy Chief and Larry has agreed.  Craig will have two assistant chief positions and five people have put in for it.  They have an assessment set up for them to go through to help choose the best person for the position.  The Chicken BBQ is going to be a drive through only.  It will be the last Sunday in September beginning at 11 am.

CARES Act money—using touchless drinking fountains and bottle fill stations.  He is working on getting a price for those.  Hand sanitizing stations for throughout the firehouse and the township garage, which are also touchless.  There was discussion about adding a drinking fountain at the garage as well, once Craig gets pricing.  Hose testing—a lot of sections are failing. 7 out of 15 and 8 out of 12.  They are going to need to purchase fire hose.    A truck or two will have to be out of service to get the hose replaced.  They will complete hose testing on 9/22/20.  He is thinking around $10,000 as an estimate.

Derek made a motion that Craig can and Bob seconded the motion.  The motion carried, to allow FD to purchase hose sections as needed.

Assistant Chief— n/a.

Road Report – Chip seal has been put off for another 2 weeks.  Started on the Mahon Road slip on 9/8/20. 

Old Business –State is going to give us roughly $48,000 from FEMA for the Mahon slip.  Jason and Bob estimated $35,000 for a cost of repairs.  The township gets to keep whatever does not get used on the slip.  Mahon is closed from 3590 Mahon to 3595 Mahon.

New Business – Mr. Stephenson made a motion to raise Craig Knox’s salary from $800 per month to $850, with his promotion as fire chief.  Mr. Smith seconded the motion.  The motion was carried.  Mr Knox also stated that there will not be a paid position for his previous position so that will leave more money in the salary line item.

Trustees Reports:   

Stephenson—none.

Smith—none.

Dozer—none.

 Fiscal Officer Report:

The Fiscal Officer presented resolution 11/2020 to be adopted and signed by the board to appropriate FEMA funds that have been added to the 2020 Revenue budget.  Increasing the amount available for expenditure from $35,000 to $110,260.75, and to appropriate those funds to the Capital Outlay fund.

·         Distributed Grassroots Clippings. 

·         Township has received an additional $7,291.93 from the State of Ohio for FEMA.

·         The township will receive an additional $5,000 (roughly), from the State for CARES Act, as the state has release an additional $175M to be distributed to local government.

·         Presented Resolution 12/2020, accepting the amounts and rates by the budge commission for the Tax Budget for Fiscal Year 2021.

·         Presented Resolution 13/2020, accepting the certification of street light assessments beginning on January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2030.

·         Presented Resolution 14/2020, to be adopted and signed by the board, to appropriate Coronavirus  (CARES Act) money in the amount of $10,838.34

·         New Lexington has made their final $7500 payment on the Horton medic they purchased from the department in 2019.

·         Verizon account that has been closed, now has a credit of $52.80.  Verizon will not speak to current FO, so current FO is requesting that Mr. Dozer call and ask about getting our money refunded.

Trustee Smith made a motion to pay bills.  Trustee Stephenson 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, October 13, 2020 at 6:00 pm at the Fire Department.    

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.

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