NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 10-12-2021

Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, October 12, 2021.  Those in attendance were Craig Knox, Fire Chief; Jake Lutz and Jeffrey Cohen, Assistant Fire Chiefs; James R. Smith, Derek Dozer and Randy Elson; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Also in attendance were:  Jim Sprankle, Brandon and Kacey Stackhouse.

Meeting was called to order by Trustee Dozer at 6:00 pm.

Pledge to the flag was led by Derek Dozer.

Agenda:  approved.  

Minutes:  approved.

Public Participation:   Mr. Sprankle would like his road maintained – Holbert Road.

Fire Department Business:  Ladder had service done today.  Hose testing is finishing up.  September run total was 117 and the year to date total is 938.  Mr. Dozer asked what the highest number of runs in a year we have had and Craig said just over 1000.  The grant for the exhaust system – Ohio First Responders wants $150/hour for help receiving the grant funds.  Plus $2500.  Craig thinks the FD can manage the grant themselves.  They are already under contract for the hose and appliance grant.

Training division started a basic EMT class last week.  The second phase of the concrete pour was yesterday and today and the last of it will be poured Thursday.  Should all be done for by Veteran’s day.  He asked if we could get the contact info for Adam Foshee at Shelly to see if they would do some “in-kind” work to finish up the approach.  The Fiscal Officer will get him that information.

The plan for next year will be to work on the exterior of the building before going back to the parking lot repairs.

The Association bought a new snack / vending machine for the lobby.

The Association and Auxiliary will host a Christmas dinner on December 20th at 6 pm.

Per discussion with Mark Zanghi – he did verify that all of the upgrades to the cybersecurity, etc will be allowable with ARP funds.  He corrected his figures from last meeting regarding what Keytel was charging for their services from $11,000 per year when it was actually around $18,000 per year so abandoning their services will be a huge savings to the department.

All computers in the station are no longer Windows compliant and they cannot be upgraded.  They are getting quotes from vendors to replace some of the computers but they are going to downsize the number that they currently have.  He thinks $12,000 will cover all of those expenses to include the $7,000 already spent with GoDaddy.

Mark also said the funds could be used to purchase each firefighter new turn-out gear which would be about $125,000.  The Lexipol software specializes in risk management.  The OTARMA risk assessment shows that our policies and procedures are out of date.  Lexipol can provide new policies that are written at a 6th grade reading level and $2242 annually will cover an employer with 1 – 5 employees which would be for the township itself.  They recommend a full implementation package where they build your account for you, with all of your policies, at a cost of $9818 which includes a 5% OTARMA discount.  They are checking but it looks like we can pay 3 years up front with ARP funds.  There are 160 policies for the Fire Department side at a cost of $3049.50 annually for 44 employees.  These fees include 10 hours of set up support and two classes for administrators.  OTARMA will reimburse $1,000 per year toward the annual fee.  The total for the fire department for the 1st year is $7,787.50.  They can link protocol that they currently have.  The total for 3 years would be $25,139 for FD and Township policies.

Stryker power cots are also allowed under ARP funding.  They are self – loading cots that cost $55,000 per truck.  These cots have a 700-pound weight limit.  There is also a “stair chair” for use when getting someone out of their home that the cot cannot access.  They are thinking this is something that could be added to the new medic and possibly the 2017 Medic but not the oldest Medic.

So, with those four projects, that is a use of $242,139.00 of the ARP funding.

There was a fatal fire on Leffler Road on Saturday and they had to have a patient air lifted from an incident on Baughman Run yesterday.

Assistant Chief – none.

Road Report – Jason was talking with someone from Springfield Township about the striping being painted down the center of Thompson Run Road.  He thinks the cost is $300 per 1/10th of a mile to stripe our portion of Thompson Run.  It would be $3000 for our mile of the road.  The trustees told him to go ahead and get pricing from the company.

The John Deere tractor was down for 2 days – the radiator went bad and they had to get a new one.  Jeff is mowing on Mahon and Yost now.  

Old Business – Browning fence – will be taken down by the end of the week and Jason will lay it by the trees.

New Business – none.

Trustees Reports:     

Smith— none.

Dozer— Mr. Dozer asked to go into executive session at 6:31 pm to discuss a personnel issue.  Executive session ended at 6:36 pm.

Elson— none.

Fiscal Officer Report:

• Distributed Grassroots Clippings 

• ODOT Stimulus program for townships – deadline is November 19, 2021.

• Clean Sky Energy – contacted FO about locking in the kw/h rate for the next 3 years on our AEP accounts at $.05822/kw.  They provide the electricity to AEP that we use.  Derek and I discussed it and the FO signed the agreement.

• The $500 MORE grant has been received.

• Policy & Procedure from the Auditor of State’s office regarding Fuel Inventory.  Discussion followed about the need for this at the FD and garage. 

• Wrapping up the KLA Risk Management suggestions and will get that all back to them asap.

  • Craig said Coshocton Materials has crash barriers for $50 each for us to possibly use around our fuel tanks.  Derek asked him to find out how much they would charge to deliver because we are definitely interested.  

  • Derek asked if the sexual harassment training is done.  Craig said he would check.  He will donate his time to go over that training 

Trustee Smith made a motion to pay bills.  Trustee Dozer seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

All bills presented were deemed to be valid expenditures and were to be paid as presented.

Next regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 6:00 pm.

Meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.