By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
.
Buckeye Central passed on a rezoning request to the New Washington Village Council from Verizon Wireless. The cell phone company would like to put a tower on Buckeye Central school property near the gun club. To do this that parcel would need to be re-zoned from residential-2 to general business.

The school district authorized Verizon to act as its official agent in pursuing the request. The school would lease the land to Verizon and is interested from that perspective. Such a tower, with room to provide service for other providers, would also benefit the community as a whole by improving service. There will be a meeting of the planning commission at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 to consider this proposal. Verizon is expected to be in attendance.

Safety committee chairperson Jerri Lucius put forth a motion to have John Berger draft an ordinance to abolish the positions of ambulance administrator, assistant ambulance administrator, and EMT. This is to bring the village in line with their new status as members of the county-wide Central Joint Ambulance District. Starting in 2015, the. village will be no longer authorized to transport and needs to be in compliance with this new status. Police Chief Scott Robertson was also given the go-ahead to research selling the ambulance and replacing it with a first responder vehicle.

Brian Agin expressed concern at the lack of stop signs on the east-west alley between Main and Mansfield streets. While citing that most locals who drive that stretch act accordingly, there is potential for someone from out of town to misunderstand the situation and for problems to occur. Robertson agreed that this would be good for the village to alleviate some liability. Mayor Ben Lash told Agin to look into what could be done.

In some project updates, Paul Forster reported that he is having Chuck Kimmerline look into paving the driveway that runs from the pool parking lot to the parking lot between the baseball fields. The parking lot itself would remain as gravel, but the driveway would receive asphalt. Agin is also looking into paving the surface under the shelter near the field house.

Longtime New Washington Police Officer, Robert Stanley, was laid to rest at 11 a.m. Monday. Robertson asked that his family be in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.