By: Andrew Walsh
Awalsh@wbcowqel.com

With lots of the usual year end housekeeping legislation, the last meeting of the Galion City Council for 2014 was pretty straightforward.

Council approved year interior funds transfers and increases and decreases in appropriations according to what was needed to balance the books. The necessity for this was explained by Auditor Brian Treisch. The City of Galion is obligated to end the year with each fund having either a positive or zero balance. When the appropriations are made at the beginning of the year, best guesses are made, but there is inevitably some cleanup that needs to happen at the end of the year.

During the public comments, a presentation by Mark Sanford of Galion brought attention to a project that will feature heavily in the New Year. Sanford was speaking on behalf of his company about the recent power outages due to some of the work that has been going on with the Dawcett substation recently. He stressed the importance of deadlines in his business, like any business, and the damaging effects these power outages are having. A short power outage can cost between $5,000 and $10,000, and a longer power outage can lead to people being sent home for the day. These results in lost wages for employees, lost productivity for the business, and lost tax revenue for the city.

“We do have a real concern,” Sanford said.

Joe Kleinknecht, of the Galion Chamber of Commerce, stated that he invited Sanford to make his presentation. Kleinknecht wanted to point out that this was not, “Business against the City,” but that these are very real grievances that should be heard.

“We’re all in this together,” Kleinknecht said.

Mayor Tom O’Leary addressed this subject during his presentation. He laid out some points that he hoped would provide for some “forbearance,” as the City works through this issue. For starters, the City has $2 to $3 million planned in spending to correct this next year. They are entering Phase 4 of the infrastructure modernizing project that has been going on for some time now. The task at hand is updating some pieces of infrastructure that date from the 1940’s and 1950’s, what O’Leary termed “deferred maintenance.” There will inevitably be some hiccups along the way when such a drastic upgrade is needed.

In the meantime, Tony Sloan and the electric department are working on interim procedures that can make this transition as smooth as possible.

Ordinance 2014-117 clarified the position of assistant law director after the change in government had made for some ambiguity. Law Director Thomas Palmer explained the situation as such: Mr. Keller has been the Assistant Law Director for 16 years. In that time he has been a fulltime employee with benefits. However, he is not a fulltime employee in the standard nine to five sense. He works many non-traditional hours due to the fact that he is on call a good amount. Some legislation passed since the change in government extends benefits conveyed on collectively bargained employees to non-collectively bargained employees. The particulars of this case deal with health insurance for Keller. He has received insurance all the years of his employment, and Palmer urged that he continue receiving it. Council agreed and passed the ordinance clarifying this situation.

In Council President’s comments, Carl Watt stated he “enjoyed working,” with the council people this year. He thanked all the City workers who have worked this year toward achieving the goals laid out, and expressed special gratitude to the men and women who protect Galion in the form of Fire and Police Officers.

“How fortunate we are in Galion to have the dedicated people we have,” Watt said. “They do a great job for our welfare and our safety.

He summarized some of the accomplishments of the year: the Hesby Drive and bridge projects, the street paving, making the last payment on the $3.5 million loan to First Citizens Bank, and the 2013 audit getting a clean bill of health from Belinda Miller.

He also touched on some things to look forward to in 2015: the Southeast Storm Sewer Project, Portland Way South Project, and, of paramount importance, continuing the march out of fiscal emergency.

“Overall, I think we’ve had a good year,” Watt finished.