Crestline Village Council backs off new ambulance fee

By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

The Crestline Village Council agreed on Monday night to repeal a controversial ordinance that imposed a fee for ambulance calls when patients refused service. The ordinance would have charged residents $50 if the ambulance service was called and they chose not to be transported.

Council member Clayton Herold proposed the repeal of ordinance 3120 explaining that council shouldn’t have passed the ordinance without a proper enforcement policy in place.

“We need to go back to step 1 and review everything before putting a policy in place,” Herold said.

The motion passed 4-2 with Allen Laffertey and Allen Moore voting against the repeal.

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Accusations of bullying and discrimination by the Crestline Police Department were brought up during the meeting. Crestline resident Tonia Keeler took issue during the public participation portion of the meeting when she noted that she was cited when her neighbor was throwing beer cans at her son and 2-year-old granddaughter.

“I am tired of being disrespected to the point that it feels they’re trying to chase me out of the village,” Keeler said. “When the captain cited us he may as well have been chucking beer cans at us.”

Mayor Dave Sharrock asked Keeler to file a complaint with the police department and to speak to him about the issue in his office.

Council approved amending the codified ordinance on the sale of water outside the municipality by allowing the Village Council to regulate those sales. The ordinance is set in place in order to provide water rights to subdivisions or areas not within the corporation limits.

In Crestline Police Chief Joe Butler’s first quarter report to council he noted that with over 8,000 calls into the department the amount of calls have increased from the over 5,000 calls during the same period last year.

Butler also said that while calls have increased breaking and entering crimes have decreased by 45 percent and burglaries have decreased by 50 percent. Butler finished saying that checkups on businesses have increased significantly.

Ohio 61 will be getting some road work coming in September. During his report Village Administrator Marc Milliron said it was due to the state having extra money for road projects. Milliron noted that the project would begin next week and would be a fiber seal like the one used on Ohio 181.