February 2023

NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 2-14-2023

Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Tuesday, February 14, 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:  Kent Cornett, Brandon Stackhouse, Shane Stephenson, Renee Stackhouse and Sammy McCarthy with Kimble Midwest.

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:  Sammy with Kimble Midwest passed out a flyer promoting their services for the road department.

Fire Department Business:  The department responded to 80 calls in January – 58 in Muskingum County and 22 in Perry County.  There were 1-1/2 12-hour shifts go uncovered due to call offs.  They started to form the committee for the 10-year plan and to determine the financing for the fire department during those ten years.  The Auxiliary and Fire Dept. Association went together and purchased new mattresses for the duty crew.  Coconis gave them a $500 discount per mattress. Training division is starting a volunteer fire course, a firefighter II course and an EMT course.  Those courses all start in the next two weeks.

The ladder is back from Atlantic and then went to Crawmer’s for some scheduled maintenance.  It has a gasket that needs replaced that they were aware of.  Atlantic does not have room right now to work on it.  Medic 1082 developed a leak on the top side of the motor and an injector went bad.  They had some issues finding somewhere to get it serviced but finally sent it to Hughes Truck Center.  The estimate is $4600.00

Assistance to Firefighter Grant has been submitted.

Assistant Chief:  none.

Road Report:  Jason is getting a lot of maintenance done around the shop.  He ordered posts for signs for the new flashing signs for Thompson Run Rd. 

Derek is meeting with a gentleman from AEP regarding a project on Railroad Street.

A stop sign on Dona Drive got taken out by a car.  The property owner has the sign so it can be put back up.

The bucket truck is up and running but there is an air leak in the mast that they are trying to figure out.

The brakes went out on the dump truck today so they will replace those tomorrow morning.

Old Business:  Karen Powell at the corner of Thomson Run Rd and Foxfire has been in contact with Larken and she does not want the trees taken out since they block the wind.  There is just one that needs removed and it is not a real valuable tree.

New Business:  Larken would like to purchase a new scraper blade for the back of the tractor.  The grader is too heavy to use in wet conditions so this would be valuable during spring / rainy season.  The price is $6600.00.  Larken made a motion to purchase the Rhino 950 scraper blade from Shaw Ag Equipment.  Dozer seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

White Cottage Property near the Township Garage.  Larken has been in contact with the property owner and he said his bottom line is $18,000.00.  Garrox property on map attached to minutes.  Dozer made a motion to purchase the property for $18,000.00 and take the money from the road and bridge fund.  Elson seconded the motion.  Motion carried.

Trustees Reports: 

Elson—none.

Dozer— Suggested that the trustees look for properties with junk cars and get that process started again.

Slack—Had property owner in Avondale contact him about people tearing up the yards. 

Fiscal Officer Report:

·         Distributed Grassroots Clippings

·         Diana Kimpel texted and asked if they could receive $400 per year for cemetery maintenance due to the increased in fuel cost.  Dozer said we could do that starting in 2024.

·         BWC Audit is complete for year 2021 and there were no findings.

·         FO asked Prosecutor’s Office if the road and bridge fund could be used to purchase land and Mr. Zanghi replied back that yes it could.  He also stated that the Motor Vehicle Tax fund could not be used to purchase land to erect a building to be used for storing and housing road machinery.  He also stated that he could prepare the sales agreement, etc., required to close the transaction.

·         Presented resolution 03-2023 adopting permanent appropriations for fiscal year 2023.

·         Presented policy 8-2023 and resolution 04-2023 to make an annual payout to road employees for unused vacation time, in December of each year.

·         Opioid Settlement – FO asked the trustees if the township wanted to pursue “additional” opioid settlement funds.  The township has not received any funds under the OneOhio Opioid settlement based on information found online.  The only entities in Muskingum County that received funds were, Muskingum County, the City of Zanesville and the Village of New Concord. Gave packet that will need signed via DocuSign to Derek to review and address at next meeting.  Document needs signed by April 18^th.

Trustee Dozer 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 Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 6:00 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.