November 2023
NEWTON TOWNSHIP MINUTES 11-9-2023
Newton Township Trustees met in regular session on Thursday, November 9, 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: Shane Stephenson, Neil Cornett, Kent Cornett, Bernadine Swingle, Sam Lantz, Brandon Stackhouse, and Jon Stottsberry.
Meeting was called to order by Trustee Dozer at 6:00 pm.
Pledge to the flag was led by Derek Dozer.
Agenda: approved.
Minutes: Larken stated the measurement should be 180’ on Huff’s culvert.
Public Participation: None.
Derek had a call from Kayla Rosser at 5470 4th St., Roseville. Boyd’s sanitation is piling up trash on the road; blocking the road with trash trucks and trash. She is concerned about the rats and other rodents that are congregating due to this issue and coming up to her house. Derek told her to contact the Health Department. Craig stated that the last time they had a run down there, they had issues getting to the house the run was at due to the trash and trucks being in their way. Since this is residential, they really cannot enforce it under a fire code issue. Discussion followed about how the township could enforce cleaning that up. Larken wondered if each of the trustees personally sent the health department a letter, if that would help. Derek noted there are a lot of junk trash trucks sitting there so they will take the first step and send the first letter for junk motor vehicles.
Larken stated that Mr. Jones in Avondale has a neighbor that stated she has rats due to the junk in his yard. Derek also stated that Mr. Jones is building a building on the property line, according to another neighbor.
Fire Department Business: There were 93 dispatched calls in October. 75 in Muskingum County and 18 in Perry County making the total for the year - 1062. There were 2 fully uncovered 12-hour shifts in October. They had a chiefs meeting in October and another scheduled the end of November. They will be meeting with all the officers on November 16th.
Craig proposed changing the pay date for the last 3 pays this year and then forward. The every two week pay schedule will in due time cause there to be 27 pays in one year. This would occur in 2024 with how the weeks work out. If we change it this year, then we have 27 pays in 2023 so that is out of the way and there will only be 26 pays for the next few years. Derek made a motion to change the fire department pay from the 2nd Monday to 1st Friday. Randy seconded. Motion carried.
EMT class is finishing up tonight and the FF 1 class will be complete next month.
The department has been approved by OMEGA and are now moving the state level approval. They are still joining with the vocational school. The fire department was chosen to be the primary applicant and the vocational school will be an add on to them. This gave more points to both entities for the grant process.
Medic 1082 – the transmission went out right after the motor was replaced. That has been repaired and it is now back at the station.
The reserve engine had some rear brake issues and those have been repaired.
The oldest Lucas device is at the end of its life. This is the last year it is covered under the maintenance agreement. Lucas has offered a trade-in and a discount. The new version is $12,000.00. They need to order it this month but it would not be payable until 2024, upon delivery of the device. Craig says it is worth replacing because those devices take a beating when in use. This device is 8 years old and this is the last year the device is able to be covered under the maintenance agreement.
They have a heart monitor that needs replaced as it is 12 years old. There is a new heart monitor being created so he does not want to replace that quite yet. Larken made motion to allow them to purchase a new LUCAS device. Randy seconded. Motion carried. Larken went on to inquire if there were any grants available to purchase a new heart monitor. Craig says there are several that are available and they are always looking at those options. Derek asked if they would bring the heart monitor back up in the near future and Craig said he would. If the new version isn’t going to be available, they will go ahead and purchase this current version.
They received a community grant from Walmart in the amount of $1000.00 and a donation from the Newton American Legion for $4,000.00. The department is going to buy electric chainsaws and light towers for the rescue and the ladder.
The department Christmas dinner is Sunday, Dec. 3rd from 4pm to 7pm.
They have a new employee, Barry Isreal, and he was at the meeting to be introduced to the board. Barry gave the board a brief history of his experience and why he chose to work here.
Assistant Chief: none.
Road Report: All paving is complete and it looks good. He needs to do some berming still. The dump truck’s engine light was on so they took it to Freightliner for repair. The new track-hoe is ready for its first oil change.
Larken said when we get bids for asphalt next year he would like to set guidelines for the bidders. They are currently bidding from the GPS program it is not an accurate measurement.
Spots on Workman have been fixed.
He plans to work on Ridgley and the ditches. Larken says Butcherknife has the same issues.
Old Business: Phase III letters for junk vehicles are ready to be signed and mailed via certified mail and regular mail.
New Business:
Trustees Reports:
Elson—Five roads he would like to see paved in 2024 – Butcherknife, the rest of Payne, Shaw Rd, Slack and Opera.
Dozer—Five roads he would like to see paved in 2024 - Hill on Ridgley, Hill on Butcherknife, Shaw Road, Lincoln St. in Avondale has a dip that holds water so needs filled in, and Harlen Rd between SR 93 and Rosehill Rd. The rest of Payne Road and Slack and Opera.
Slack—Larken presented an invoice from Jon Stottsberry for the seeding. He has 33,100 square feet complete. The total on the bill is $3,972.00. Larken would like to have additional seeding on Shaw. Larken’s roads he would like to see paved in 2024 – Shaw, far end of Slack from Wesley Chapel to Ford, and address some of the hills that need paved – East Darlington, Ridgley, and Butcherknife.
The Trustees will ask the County for some reimbursement for the repairs on Shaw Road due to the detour they created with the closure of Darlington Road for bridge replacement.
Fiscal Officer Report:
· Distributed Grassroots Clippings
· Gave the trustees the clock for Larry Taylor’s retirement.
· The 2021/2022 audit is complete. The report is included in the Trustee’s packets. There were three items noted on the audit: Debt proceeds and corresponding capital outlay expenditure for medic lease were not recorded in UAN software, 3 purchase orders were dated after the invoice date and two trustees whose terms ended 12/31/2021 did not attend the required public records training.
· Lexipol policies need to be finalized prior to our contract ends with Lexipol.
Trustee Slack 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, December 12, 2023 at 6:00 pm
Meeting adjourned at 7:29 p.m.
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