Galion Council approves 2013 tax rates, recommendations from TIR

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Galion City Coun­cil passed some impor­tant pieces of leg­is­la­tion at its Oct. 23 meeting.

Ord. 2012–85 increased appro­pri­a­tions for the Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Block Grant fund in the amount of $11,529. The CDBG is an annual grant awarded to the county, which is then passed on to the indi­vid­ual communities.

In addi­tion, Ord. 2012–86 autho­rized the city man­ager to exe­cute an agree­ment between the city and the Craw­ford Regional Plan­ning Com­mis­sion for the admin­is­tra­tion of the fis­cal year 2012 CDBG For­mula Grant.

City Man­ager Gene Toy explained that the funds cov­ered only admin­is­tra­tive fees. Accord­ing to the agree­ment, the RPC assists the city in apply­ing for and admin­is­ter­ing the grant funds each year.

Those ordi­nances were passed as emergencies.

Ord. 2012–87 autho­rized Galion res­i­dent Ken­neth Saun­ders to tap into the city water sup­ply sys­tem for his South Street prop­erty. At the pre­vi­ous Coun­cil meet­ing, Saun­ders made the request to tap into the city’s water because his well went dry and he did not want to install a new one. The ordi­nance, which spelled out sev­eral terms and con­di­tions, was passed as an emergency.

Matt Echel­berry — Staff

Galion res­i­dent Ken­neth Saun­ders sits in on the Coun­cil meet­ing. It approved an ordi­nance to allow him to tap into the city’s water system.

That evening was the sec­ond read­ing for Ord. 2012–79, to adopt new build­ing and zon­ing fees. City Build­ing Inspec­tor Matt Ross said that, as motioned at the last Coun­cil meet­ing, he added in a line item for build­ing per­mit fees for res­i­den­tial hand­i­cap ramps.

Coun­cil mem­ber Roberta Wade moved to cre­ate a sep­a­rate zon­ing per­mit fee for the ramps as well, reduc­ing the fee from $25 to $10 (for a total cost of $20.10 for the ramp build­ing per­mit and zon­ing per­mit). Her motion passed.

The ordi­nance then passed as a sec­ond read­ing and an emergency.

It was also the sec­ond read­ing for Ord. 2012–84 for an alley vaca­tion at the rear of 421 Sher­man Street. A pub­lic hear­ing was held regard­ing the vaca­tion at the pre­vi­ous meet­ing. The sec­ond read­ing passed.

Coun­cil also passed three res­o­lu­tions. Res. 2012-10 accepted the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Tax Incen­tive Review Coun­cil. Tax agree­ments with Schwan’s, Elliott Machine and the Cen­tral Hotel will be con­tin­ued and the agree­ment with Buck­eye Pumps will be mod­i­fied to reflect actual real estate investment.

Res. 2012-11 trans­ferred a total of $21,946.28 within util­ity accounts for water, sewer, elec­tric and stormwa­ter to the Finance/Contractual Ser­vices Fund. Finance Direc­tor Karen Wal­ters explained that this is an end of the year trans­fer because too much money was bud­geted for those accounts.

Res. 2012-12 accepted 2013 tax rates from the County Bud­get Commission.

More on Galion City Coun­cil will appear in the Sat­ur­day edi­tion of the Inquirer.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Oct 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.