By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The City of Galion started the process of adding to its electrical line staff on Tuesday night. Ordinance no. 2014-8, on recommendation of the mayor, would preserve a crew chief position and add a linesman position. The crew chief position is currently vacant due to an injury, and Mayor Tom O’Leary wants to fill the position and add one linesman position to bump that crew to four.
“This, in effect, creates two positions,” O’Leary said.
This ordinance was passed on first reading, to give the public a chance to weigh in and discuss. It also puts the city in the position to offer a job to an apprentice they have spent two years grooming, if that is the course of action they end up taking.
O’Leary wanted to add that they were not promising a job to anyone, but with two years invested they want to have the ability to do so if that is what they choose. If everything goes ahead as planned there would be two crew chiefs and four linemen.
In further utility news, there is set to be a workshop meeting on April 29, at which the city’s fees and rates schedule will be reviewed. This will, of course, encompass water, sewer, and electricity fees, and decisions will be made about what levels these fees will be maintained at going forward.
The electric department is also introducing an online bill paying option. An informational insert will be included in the May electrical bill that will instruct residents on how to navigate to the website and sign up for this service. Debit and credit card options will be provided, and O’Leary explained how this widens the city’s ability to work with people on payment plans rather than needing to resort to shutoff.
By providing credit card access, the city can charge a resident’s credit card an agreed upon, smaller portion of the bill, which increases negotiating abilities of both sides while ensuring that Galion is receiving as much bill payment as possible.
It should be noted, as was discussed in the meeting, that online bill pay is not mandatory, rather an option that residents may make use of if they so wish.
The Parks and Recreation Committee will be having an open forum meeting at 7 p.m. on May 20, at the East Park Cabin. Committee chair Shirley Clark will preside over the meeting, and she encouraged citizens to come and present ideas that could improve Galion’s parks.
This has been, in part, spurred on by the continuing efforts of the Galion Disc Golf Association. This group is working to put in a disc golf course at Amann-Amick reservoirs and so far has met with success. Clark announced the purchase orders have been approved for the disc golf baskets and should be shipped shortly. The committee is hoping that this example of success will inspire others to speak up with their ideas how community life can be improved in Galion.
A then and now payment of $79,948 was approved by council for the payment of the city’s insurance bill to Midland Service Agency. The reason that this payment had to go through this channel was due to a change of ownership with the city’s insurance agent. In December of 2012, the city received a bill for the year with a May payment deadline. This year, the city received the bill last week, with the same May payment deadline.
Auditor Brian Treisch called it, “a learning curve for the new company and the new auditor’s office.”
Law Director Thomas Palmer reported that the last piece of litigation for the easements on the 598 widening project has been concluded. The lawsuit with McDonald’s was dismissed after hefty research concluded that this particular easement was not necessary.
Three liquor permit requests were presented by Police Chief Brian Saterfield. Trackside 30 on Market Street, and the Zimmerman Building LLC on Harding Way are requesting liquor permit transfers, and Payne’s Pizza on Harding Way is requesting a new liquor license. Saterfield stated that he ran background checks and he found nothing untoward in any of the cases.
“Typically councils don’t jump in the middle of these things unless there is a blatant problem with one of the owners.” Saterfield stated.
Mike Schiefer, a candidate for the Crawford County Commissioner’s office, made a presentation about his campaign. He outlined his platform as centering around the drug problem in the County, and called for a “more concerted effort,” to combat this crippling problem.
In particular, he felt that leadership from the County Commissioners’ office has been lacking. He did cite their skills at, “writing checks, balancing the budget, etc.” but it was clear that he felt more could be done.
“My worthy opponent has done a good job, but I think I can do better,” Schiefer stated.