Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Members of the village council in Walbridge held their latest regular meeting on July 15 in the administration building.
The first portion included a visit from Rick Rettig, the current president of Perrysburg’s city council who is running against Haraz Ghanbari to secure a spot as Ohio’s 75th House District Representative this November. He shared information on his background and why he is running for office.
In committee reports, the chair of the parks and recreation committee, Karen Baron, shared that her committee discussed things to consider while applying for the Wood County Parks Grant, which is due Oct. 16. Those ideas included getting some new benches, as well as bird houses or bat houses for the new park. Another thought was new fencing at both Loop and Railway parks. They’re working on getting quotes for those ideas.
Another discussion point was the liner for the pool, which is approximately 15 years old and could need replacement. That will have to be revisited at the end of the year. Another item was potentially adding lighting at the basketball and pickleball courts at Railway.
Mayor Ed Kolanko said that the administration team, including village administrator Dave Shaffer, had a recent discussion about it.
“In a general sense, we saw a very large uptick in the activity at both our parks this year, Railway Park and Loop Park,” Kolanko said. “When Dave and I talked, it's kind of like, ‘Well, what can we do to make that park better, and I think that we all collectively share that same feeling. Dave has a map of the park and is looking at, ‘Can we have some concrete here instead of stone? Can we change the split rail fence and update these things? Can we improve parking?’ Parking obviously is something that, with increased activity, there's limited places to park. Those are all things that we're working on. We need to know where we want to go and how we're going to get there.”
In safety and criminal justice, Kolanko said that police officer Daniel Bushey has come back from medical leave. Council approved an extension of his probationary period through Dec. 31.
In streets, committee chair and council president Thomas Urbina complimented the new sign installed in front of the administration building, as well as the new signage around town.
“We have signs at every entrance to the village and now a nice crown jewel sign right in front of the administration building,” he said. “It looks really good, and it makes a big difference.”
Kolanko said that they will be adjusting the brightness of the sign at different times in front of the administration building.
The mayor also reported that the Walbridge Road project is complete, which was the joint project with Lake Township.
“I thought it worked out well,” he said. “There was some good collaboration between (Lake Township) administrator (Mark) Hummer and myself for sure. Steve Fry from Lake Township was helpful in getting it done. The Wood County Engineer’s Office did the culvert, and it worked out great.”
Kolanko said a bid opening for the Allen-Holly project took place, and there will be a pre-construction meeting sometime in the next few weeks. That project will likely start sometime in September.
He also reiterated that he knows they have more roads to fix locally. The staff is aware, and they are doing what they can as soon as they can.
“We see it. We're not ignoring it,” Kolanko said. “Sometimes when we get OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) grant money, sometimes we get various kinds of grant money that different projects have to jump ahead of other roads because we have to use that grant money within a certain period of time. Those things shift. We're aware of what we need to do. We wish we had an empty coffer of money, but we don't.”
Kolanko also addressed the recent heavy rain and flooding locally. He said the village experienced approximately four inches of rain.
“There’s not a lot of systems out there in a small village that can handle that kind of capacity in that short period of time,” he said. “It worked pretty well. It didn't work great. There was some people complaining about backup, some of the basements and things like that. Those things did happen. It doesn't make me happy. I'm not saying that's great, but what we did was we also drove around that day. We went and drove around and looked at various parts of the streets that were flooded that don't normally flood so that way we were able to identify getting our back truck out and starting in those areas to make sure that those catch basins, those sewer lines, are clear because some of them are obviously plugged up. We're working on that, too, and that's just going to be an ongoing process. I share that because we see things. We're working on them. We want you to know that we see them, and we are working on them.”
In new business, council passed a resolution as an emergency authorizing the village administrator to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission state capital improvement and/or local transportation improvement programs.
“All this is at this point in time, we have to have legislation passed to participate in the OPWC grant application,” Kolanko said. “We're still working on a couple different grant possibilities with our engineering team at OHM. We haven't applied yet, but this is simply allowing us to apply.”
The next item on the agenda included a first reading of an ordinance to create a budget line item for waste and recycling collection.
“We already passed the Republic Services contract change,” Kolanko said. “We need to create a line item in our budget to receive those monies and then to pay them out.”
Following that, an ordinance was passed via emergency authorizing Kolanko to enter into a contract with Midstates Recreation for the Loop Park playground updates in the amount of $118,568.
The playground improvements will be similar to, but on a smaller scale, as last year at Railway Park. Everything will be removed, and the new playground will be installed. It will be all-inclusive and ADA compliant.
“We did get some NatureWorks state money to improve the playground at Loop Park, approximately $40,000,” Kolanko said. “I think everybody's kind of excited that this takes the next step, which is asking council to approve the amount of $118,568.”
In Shaffer’s administrator report, he gave an update on the old Carroll’s gym building, which is being renovated for lease.
“Some of the interior walls have been removed,” he said. “All the electrical circuits have been removed all the way back to the main panel. Roof repairs have been completed. Flooring has been removed. The walls and ceiling have been painted, and the bathroom is being updated. We've done a lot of work in there, and it's coming along very nicely.”
Shaffer also reported that new windscreens have been installed at the ball fields and backstops. “No parking” signs were installed at Elm and Allen, and they are collecting quotes for new fencing, backstops and fences for Loop and Railway.
In his mayor’s report, Kolanko reported that police officer George Plascencio submitted his letter of retirement. He was a part-time officer for a couple of years.
The last item of discussion was the replacement of an HVAC unit in the police station.
“The compressor is failing,” Shaffer said. “It's a very, very old unit. It just would not be cost effective to replace the compressor for something that is old.”
The unit of discussion is from 1978. There is another from 1983, but they aren’t doing anything with that at this point as it’s not presenting issues.
Thus, council approved a quote in the amount of $9,348 to replace the unit.
The next council meeting will be on Aug. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the administration building.
