December 2023
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 12-12-2023
Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, December 12, 2023. Those in attendance were Craig Knox, Fire Chief; Larken Slack, Derek Dozer and Randy Elson; Township Trustees and Paula Frank, Fiscal Officer. Also in attendance were Township residents: Jon Stottsberry, Brandon Stackhouse, Renee Stackhouse, Kent Cornett, Dave Huff, and Drake Prouty.
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: Drake Prouty, candidate for Muskingum County Commissioner was present to give his background and to ask for the Township’s support in the upcoming primary election.
Dave Huff was asking what 5 roads were discussed to be paved next year. Derek let him know the list that was discussed and also told him that information is always available on the website. Mr. Huff also wanted to discuss the culvert under Shaw Road dumping water into his yard and his drain pipe cannot contain the amount of water coming through the culvert. Derek responded that the Township would not install pipe on private property but the board would need to discuss if further.
Fire Department Business: There were 109 dispatched calls in November, 90 in Muskingum County and 19 in Perry County making the total for the year 1171. There were no fully uncovered shifts in November.
The Appalachian grant project in conjunction with the vocational school was denied but they have been added to the ORCA district application. ORCA district is Morgan, Athens, and Hocking counties. The ORCA grant is for wilderness trails, outdoor activities that have staffing for trail rangers. They needed an entity to train the staff in wilderness emergencies. Many of the department’s students are from those counties. They are hoping this will keep them in the running. They asked for an explanation on the denial but received none.
They have held a budget meeting and Craig feels they can replace the Life Pack monitor next year. It will be a little over $29,000.00. Derek made a motion to purchase the Life Pack monitor out of EMS funds for 2024. Randy seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Dumpsters currently being used were purchased by the Association around 20 years old. The current waste removal company will supply a dumpster for about $40 more per month which is what they plan to do instead of purchasing a new one.
Awards banquet January 20, 2024. Social hour starts at 5 pm, dinner is at 6, and awards at 7.
Radio tower update – Craig has emailed the group that is working on that and let them know we need a days’ notice when they are ready to do that so the road employees can be available.
Larken inquired about the Lexipol policy manual. Craig said that as the law changes, Lexipol will make the required changes and send it out for approval and updates to current manual.
Assistant Chief: none.
Road Report: Jason has been putting up road signs including the No Parking sign in Fultonham. He has been catching up on some vehicle maintenance. He thinks everything is in pretty good shape for the first snowflakes.
He went out to Ford and Workman to grade. They discussed the fact that someone tried to steal the guardrail off the bridge on Workman Road but failed to complete the task. The bridge on Lower Kroft is complete and the road is open. The approach needs some work so Jason hopes they come back to clean it up.
Randy brought up the stop sign on Pete Hope Lane. Jason thinks the post is still good.
Lincoln Street in Avondale – Jason and Larken came up with a drainage solution for it.
Old Business: Larken went over the numbers on the Shelly invoice and he said it is close. The invoice was less than the original contract. Also discussed the invoice for Shelly that Springfield Township supplied for Grant Cliff. Larken does not think the $36,241.50 is correct for that road. He will contact Dale Phillips this week to discuss it.
New Business: Muskingum Water Department plans were discussed. They were sent to the Trustees for their review and approval. There were no changes needed.
Derek got a call from a guy asking for permission to drive his side-by-side down 22. The gentleman was told he needed permission from the Township to do that by the State Highway Patrol. Derek is not in favor of doing that. Randy got the same call.
Trustees Reports:
Elson—none.
Dozer—none.
Slack—none.
Fiscal Officer Report:
· Distributed Grassroots Clippings
· FO asked the Trustees if it was ok to give Jason a $100 Christmas bonus. If so, the check is in the bills to be paid this evening. Derek feels that it could be raised to $150 since they have done $100 for the past 20 years. They also agreed to pay Larry Taylor $150 since he was employed most of 2023.
· Presented Resolution 18/2023 – to increase the appropriations budget in fund 2031 to account for the loan issued by Huntington National Bank for the purchase of the backhoe, per audit regulations. Also, to move money within the general fund to cover payroll expenses for December 2023 for the Trustees and Fiscal Officer.
· Presented Resolution to establish fund 2231 (Permissive MVL License Tax Fund) for money distributed by the County to the Township.
· Presented Resolution provided by the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office regarding prohibition of cultivation, operation, processing or the opening of retail dispensaries within the unincorporated areas of Newton Township, of recreational adult cannabis. The Trustees agreed to table the signing of this resolution until a later time.
· Presented status of Junk Car certified letters.
· Asked when the Trustees would like the legal ad placed in the newspaper for the cemetery mowing for 2024. How many years would a new contract cover? Trustees asked to review the ad prior to that ad being placed. Tabled until January.
Trustee Elson made a motion to pay bills. Trustee Slack 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 Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 6:00 pm, to close out the 2023 books.
Meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 12-28-2023
The Newton Township Trustees met to close out business for the year 2023, close the books for same, and organize for 2024. Those in attendance were; Randy Elson, Derek Dozer, and Larken Slack, Township Trustees; Fire Chief, Craig Knox; and Fiscal Officer, Paula Frank. Also in attendance was Township resident: Shane Stephenson.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm by chairperson, Derek Dozer.
There was no public participation or other business to open.
Fiscal Officer had requested the following to be updated/closed for the year:
*O.T.A. Conference is scheduled for 2024, at the Columbus Convention Center. Refer to the Grassroots Clippings from December for additional details.
*Trustee to chair the township meetings for the year 2023 was agreed to be covered by Trustee Slack.
Budgets were submitted for Fire and EMS for 2024 by Chief Craig Knox. Let it be noted that internal training instructors will be paid $25 per hour include training instructor supervisor, Josh Bryan.
*The following wages were discussed and raises were made accordingly;
All three Trustees will make $1,153.84 per month and the Fiscal Officer will make $2,019.42 per month, as outlined in the 2024 Compensation Charts supplied by the Ohio Township Association.
Jason Taylor currently is making $22.50 /hour, he will make $23.50 / hour in 2024.
New road employee, to be hired in 2024, will start at $20.00 / hour.
Diana Latier; fire department custodian is currently receiving $475.00 per month with a cap of 30 hours / month unless otherwise approved. Latier will make $475.00 per month in 2024. Latier is expected to work a minimum of 6 hours each given week, unless extenuating circumstances prohibit it. She should come in on the same day each week, as per Trustees request, and she needs to get her timesheets in on time each month.
Jeff Swingle; part-time Road Maintenance, is currently being paid $17.00 and will be paid $17.00 / hour in 2024.
Sam Lantz; part-time Road Maintenance, is currently being paid $16.00 and will be paid $16.00 / hour in 2024.
The Township will pay the Kimpel family $400 per year to maintain Goshen cemetery.
The Trustees agreed to bid out the mowing for the other cemeteries within the township for a contracted time of 2 years. Bid specs to be furnished by the January 2024 meeting so it can be bid out at that time.
Craig Knox; Fire Chief receives $1000.00 per month currently. Knox will receive $1050.00 per month in 2024.
Hourly wages for Fire Department personnel are currently at: FF = $14.00, EMT = $15.50, Medic = $17.00, FF/A-EMT $16.50. Wages will increase to FF = $15.00, EMT = $16.50, Medic = $18.00, FF/A-EMT $17.50. These wages will take effect January 7, 2024.
Motion made by Trustee Dozer and seconded by Trustee Elson to give those raises as noted above. Motion carried.
*All elected officials will continue to receive a $70.00 cell phone allowance per month.
*A resolution, No. 20/2023 was presented for temporary appropriations for 2024, to be presented to the Muskingum County Auditor.
*A resolution, No. 19/2023 was presented to establish new fees for ambulance service.
*All township meetings will continue to be held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month with the following dates put in place. January 9; February 13; March 12; April 9; May 14, June 11, July 9, August 13, September 10, October 8, November 12 and December 10, 2024, with closing of the books to occur on December 26, 2024. All meetings will begin at 6:00 pm in the township meeting room. Any variance from this will be posted on the “Marquee” in front of the fire department, on the front door, on the Township’s website, and/or will be noted in the local newspaper.
All books were noted to be in order and will be closed.
The next regular meeting of the board will be held on January 9, 2024 in the township meeting room at 6pm the fire department.
Meeting adjourned at 7:22 pm.
Newton Township has made every effort to ensure all the information listed on this website is accurate and up to date. This information can and may change without notice. Meeting overviews are meant to serve as short informational updates on township business. We can not be responsible for any inaccurate or omitted information.