October 2022

NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 10-11-2022

Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, October 11, 2022.  Those in attendance were Craig Knox, Fire Chief, Jake Lutz, Assistant Fire Chief; Larken Slack, Derek Dozer and Randy Elson; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Also, in attendance were, township residents:  Bernadine Swingle, David Gilver, and Brandon Stackhouse.  John Furek, Candidate for Muskingum County Commissioner and Jamie McGrew from the Mental Health Recovery Services Board were also in attendance.

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

Pledge to the flag was led by Randy Elson.

Agenda:  approved. 

Minutes:  approved.

Public Participation:  John Furek had the floor and gave a brief biography since he is running for County Commissioner next month.  He wanted to know if there were any issues facing the township that he should be aware of. 

Jamie McGrew from the Mental Health Recovery Services Board also was in attendance to speak about the levy that is on the ballot next month.

Mrs. Swingle asked about getting the heat fixed in the Auxiliary room in the firehouse.  She also asked about a missing extension cord, also from the Auxiliary room.  Craig said he would look for the extension cord.  The heat will be fixed in the near future.

Fire Department Business:  The department had 113 dispatched calls in September.  Eighty-five were in Muskingum County and 28 in Perry County.  That brings the total for the year up to 1033.  They held an officer meeting on Sunday and discussed staffing and how to get more involvement and training needs for next year.  Training division is completing EMT and FF-1 transition courses.  Their state inspections were completed this year for the- 3-year time period.  They were placed on probation due to some low test scores in the EMS program.  They have been set up on a plan for improvement to address that.  Devin Deaver and Mason Deaver have been assigned as assistant program directors for the training division.  Medic 1081 is having some additional warranty work completed.  The AFG grant has been extended to the end of year as there was still $90 million to be dispersed.  The department has not received a rejection letter, so they are still in the running for their grant.

The lower double doors around the cafeteria has some needs due to the new exterior siding.  Larken noted that and will follow up with the contractor.

Walk in cooler repair / replacement is still in limbo.  He has not found any used units for the cooler.  Craig is going to reach out to Ables one more time and if that doesn’t pan out, they will have to replace the cooler.  Dollar General donated the use of a refrigerated trailer for the chicken bbq, which was very helpful.

Many split units in the building are not working.  They have someone coming in to look at those.

Septic injector pump has gone bad again.  There is a company coming Monday to install a new pump. 

One boiler has been turned on and the second one needs serviced. 

Per the Township insurance agent, the department is not required to offer health insurance and he does not recommend offering that to any part-time employees.  In the event that they have full-time staff, then they would have to offer insurance at that time.

Larken asked if they had heard anything from Atlantic about swapping the old medic toward the bill for the ladder repair.  Craig said he has not heard anything back from them.  Craig said it could be sold out-right at this point since it has been advertised for public bids twice.  He also said that they may even be able to send it to New Lex to the auction house.

The brush truck was in an accident today – he sideswiped the metal base of a concrete pole.  The driver side was damaged and the driver was drug tested on-site and was negative on all counts.

Assistant Chief:  none.

Road Report:  Jeff has finished the mowing and the mower needs some minor repairs.  They are working on ditches.  He is still searching for tires for the dump truck and also tire chains.  The Thorn Drive catch basin is clogged and he is trying to figure out how to get it cleaned out. 

Old Business: 

New Business:  Mona Drive – there is an issue with a tractor (semi) parking there.  It is going to end up damaging the blacktop.  Craig said that if the tires on the road, the sheriff’s office may be able to do something to enforce them not parking there.

Trustees Reports: 

Elson—none.

Dozer— Marcie Rice on Jenkins Drive –texted Derek regarding putting a culvert in Cheryl Tignor’s ditch as well as putting cold patch at the end of their driveway.  Their basement has flooded twice due to the Tignor ditch not getting completed.  Derek replied back that the culvert work was delayed since they needed to get roads ready for paving and chip seal.  He also told her that those projects are completed now.  He also stated that the rain events, that caused their flooding, created major issues all over the township.  Larken stated that putting a culvert in at the Tignor residence is not going to fix the flooding problem due to the slope of the yard.  The Rice’s driveway also slopes toward their house.  There are other houses above the Tignor house with watershed traveling down to the Rice property.  Jason is not comfortable putting cold patch down because the concrete drive will then have black marks once they drive over it.  He will work on the culvert and then discuss the cold patch with them.

Derek wanted to thank Jason for picking up a couch along the road and for picking up stone on that Saturday.

Derek received a call that Larry was in an accident.  The other driver left before Jason got there.  Jason called Larken and Derek wanted him to know that all Trustees needed to be called on situations like this. 

Slack—Side by sides and Razors are tearing up roads and fields.

Fiscal Officer Report:

·         Distributed Grassroots Clippings

·         Right of Way permit application from Neff Investments Ltd. – signed and ready to return.

·         Anthem insurance for the road crew and elected officials is going up 17.44% in 2023.

Trustee Elson 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 8, 2022 at 6:00 pm.

Meeting adjourned at 7:05 pm.

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