Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Walbridge council members hosted their first post-election regular meeting on Nov. 5.
With newly elected council member Joel Mass in attendance as a spectator, the first topic of discussion was a potential ordinance for door-to-door salesmen in the village.
Mayor Ed Kolanko said that there’s a lot of older people in the village who have people coming to their door, knocking, and asking to see their utility bills and things of that nature, essentially door-to-door salesmen type of stuff. He further said that he’s checked with the city of Northwood, and they have an ordinance that prohibits door-to-door sales solicitation without prior permission from the resident or owner.
Thus, he is looking to put something together like that for Walbridge.
“I think we're going to kind of mimic that ordinance and present it to you guys to discuss, but I think that would be a good thing for us to consider,” Kolanko said. “We do have the individuals that come and ask for a permit. Sometimes we don't give them the permit because they provide us false information. Really what we want to do is protect our residents, and I think that unless we have an overwhelming response from people that like the door-to-door solicitation, it's something I would like you guys to consider.”
Council will continue to discuss the issue, as well as in committee.
ODNR GRANT
After councilwoman Sue Hart-Douglas reviewed the results of a recent parks and recreation meeting, Kolanko said that since then, he received a letter from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), and officials there relayed the news that the village has been awarded another grant for the Loop Park playground for 2026.
The project application cost was $74,080. The village asked them for around half of that, $36,615. ODNR awarded the village $35,615 toward a new playground at Loop, and several council members said that was great news.
In fact, Kolanko said the village has now received close to $1 million in grant money this year.
“Share the good word,” Kolanko said. “It's a team effort. It's not just me, but you guys have to say yes to these applications. Be proud of what we have. We're doing some good things here.”
As another follow up to the parks committee meeting, Kolanko spoke about a resident who lives on South Main who was looking for Christmas decorations in that direction past the tracks. He said there are no provisions on the poles to plug decorations, and there’s not enough time this year to put them up. However, the village will inquire with First Energy about installing those for next year.
Kolanko also said they have purchased new LED snowflakes for the village this holiday season.
SAFETY AND JUSTICE
In the safety and criminal justice committee report, Caryl Stone reported that the security cameras are starting to be installed at both parks and the pool. The plan is to have everything installed by the end of the calendar year.
The village has also received four internal applications for the position of police chief. The review process of that will start this week.
Furthermore, after tabling it for a lengthy period the past several months, the committee discussed and council approved a motion on Nov. 5 to for the mayor to purchase two 2026 Dodge Durango police vehicles from Charlie’s Dodge in Maumee, not to exceed $41,000 per vehicle and to outfit the vehicles with equipment from Jeff Culler of Northwest Ohio Emergency Equipment LLC at a cost of $13,624 per vehicle. It equates out to a cost of $54,538 per vehicle, or $109,076 total.
Stone also said the committee further discussed the police department’s third shift issue that was discussed at the previous council meeting. She said there’s still “a lot more” fact finding that needs to be done. Kolanko has a quote from Northwood, and there’s a need to further discuss exactly what Walbridge is looking to do, which includes some hybrid options that they are going to consider. They also want to look into response time from Northwood, for example.
ROADS
Pending proper weather, Bowers Asphalt should be starting probably sometime this week on Blair, the 100 block of Breckman, the 100 block of Raymond, and the area of the parking lot at the library, and the area next to the mural. Kolanko is also finalizing some agreements with the engineer for next year’s project, which will involve Allen and Holly.
OFF-STREET PARKING
Among a few first readings for ordinances was one that would “amend chapter 1883 of the Walbridge off-street parking and loading code, specifically section 1183.04 paving, section 1183.08 location of parking spaces, section 1183.15 driveways, and section 1183.23 parking lot requirements.”
In simpler terms, village officials found that people have started to create a parking pad on their front lawn. Kolanko said there was a situation on a local village street that prompted the discussion.
“They were parking on their lawn,” he said. “The realization is that you go through our code, which is oftentimes kind of a grayish area, and apparently there was some gravel there from years ago. As long as they were allowed to put gravel back on that pad, they can park vehicles there. Now we have three vehicles parking on the front lawn, which in my opinion is not the look that we're going for as a village. I don't think that it helps property values. I don't think that it's kind of what it's intended to do.
“What this ordinance will do is that it cleans that up, so people cannot create those pads on their front lawn unless they come get a variance because it's no longer acceptable for our code.”
Kolanko said he will provide some photos to councilman Thomas Urbina, who heads the streets committee, so they can discuss the issue at their next meeting.
“Some of these people are living in a house, and they got five, six cars in the driveway in their front yard, and it's not a good look in my opinion,” Kolanko said.
OLD TAX BALANCES
Another topic was council approving the removal of old, uncollectible tax balances of 10-plus years off the village’s books.
“These are tax balances that we can’t collect,” Kolanko said. “Sometimes people move, sometimes people pass away. Those things happen. We need to get our books cleaned up, and that means getting these off the books, but we can’t clear those off unless we get your permission (to discharge them as uncollectible).”
SOCIAL MEDIA
Finally, there was some discussion by Kolanko in regard to a Facebook comment in relation to a village post about posting committee meetings in a timely fashion.
“There is always some additional verbiage thrown on Facebook, which drives me absolutely nuts, because a lot of it is false information,” Kolanko said to his council. “Ignore the noise, for one. Just keep doing the good job that you guys are doing. But one of the things I wanted to mention to you tonight, because I don't like it sometimes ... attacking me is fine. But when you start attacking my admin team, that pisses me off, because they're good people. There was a comment on Facebook that we're not posting our committee meetings in a timely fashion. We are.
“So you guys know, section 121.122 of the Ohio Revised Code indicates that ‘a public body shall not hold a special meeting unless it gives at least a 24-hour advance notice.’ Also, per our code, 111.16, it says ‘all committee meetings shall be posted at the village hall.’ It doesn't say 7-Eleven. It doesn't say the library. It doesn't say anything else. Facebook is really merely a courtesy, and we're doing that.”
Kolanko also noted that all meetings are recorded and posted to the village’s website.
“I really appreciate this administration and all my council members,” he said. “We couldn't be more transparent than we are, as far as I'm concerned. If anybody didn't know, this is all being recorded. Guess where it goes? It goes on our website. If you want to listen to any meeting, you can go to our website and listen to our meetings.
“The transparency is there. You guys know that. I'm just kind of reiterating for the room, just in case. We're not hiding anything. Please don't be afraid to share that word, too.”
