Galion Council stays short and sweet

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Galion City Coun­cil held a reg­u­lar meet­ing Nov. 13, which was over in about 35 minutes—the short­est ses­sion it has had in months.

Ord. 2012–88 autho­rized a lease-purchase agree­ment with PNC Equip­ment Finance, LLC for a new fire truck in the amount of $360,000. City Man­ager Gene Toy explained that the pur­chase was included in the city’s bud­get recov­ery plan; the ordi­nance approved the spe­cific financ­ing for it.

Ord. 2012–89 autho­rized the city man­ager to apply for and accept a State Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Pro­gram loan under Round 27 of the Ohio Pub­lic Works Com­mis­sion fund­ing, which totals $318,265. The loan will be used to cover project costs for the State Route 61 water­line instal­la­tion. The water­line will extend from the inter­sec­tion of SR 61 and SR 309, north to Mid­dle­town Road.

Both ordi­nances passed as emergencies.

Coun­cil also approved four res­o­lu­tions. Res. 2012–13 trans­ferred a total of $95,000 from the CHIP grant fund to sev­eral accounts within it. Finance Direc­tor Karen Wal­ters explained that the city already has that money, the res­o­lu­tion sim­ply autho­rizes her to divide it into the cor­rect accounts.

Res. 2012–14 trans­ferred $5,400 within the air­port fund to the fol­low­ing accounts: air­port sup­plies and mate­ri­als ($3,500), air­port main­te­nance con­trac­tual ($1,000), air­port main­te­nance sup­plies ($500) and air­port main­te­nance cap­i­tal ($400).

Res. 2012–15 and Res. 2012–16 were for spe­cial appoint­ments; the first was a sec­ond term for Coun­cil mem­ber Wal­ter Keib as a trustee of the Egbert M. Freese Foun­da­tion, the sec­ond res­o­lu­tion reap­pointed Sharon Barnes, Carol Dayne and Coun­cil mem­ber Cathy George to the Galion Street Tree Commission.

Com­mit­tee reports were also offered, begin­ning with Finance. Wal­ters announced that the depart­ment is work­ing on an online bill pay sys­tem and hopes to have it run­ning soon.

Also, Finance Chair Roberta Wade set a ten­ta­tive date for a com­mit­tee meet­ing, which is Dec. 6 at 9 a.m.

Laws and Ordi­nances was to meet imme­di­ately after the Coun­cil meet­ing to con­tinue dis­cus­sion on inter­net cafe regulation.

Only one cit­i­zen addressed Coun­cil that evening. After Coun­cil Pres­i­dent Gail Baldinger explained the rules for cit­i­zens, in which they must address remarks to the whole Coun­cil and refrain from address­ing an indi­vid­ual mem­ber, Cit­i­zen Paula Durbin addressed Coun­cil mem­ber Ken Bod­kins directly.

“Mr. Bod­kins, I was won­der­ing when we can expect your res­ig­na­tion from Coun­cil?” Durbin asked.

“Prob­a­bly the end of May,” Bod­kins replied.

Before dis­re­gard­ing meet­ing deco­rum, Durbin men­tioned that Amer­i­can Munic­i­pal Power, based in Colum­bus, is hav­ing a sem­i­nar on Nov. 29. She called and asked about attend­ing, but was told the event was not open to cit­i­zens. She then asked if any­one from the city planned to attend.

Toy responded that him­self or a mem­ber of the Finance Depart­ment typ­i­cally goes to such sem­i­nars and one of them would be attend­ing on the 29th.

The Decem­ber Galion City Coun­cil meet­ings are Dec. 11 at 18 (the sec­ond meet­ing was pushed up one week due to the hol­i­days). Also, there will be a pub­lic hear­ing on the 11th dur­ing the meet­ing in regards to a rezon­ing request from prop­er­ties on State Route 598. Meet­ings begin at 7 p.m. in Coun­cil Chambers.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Nov 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.