By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The conversation from Tuesday night’s Galion City Council meeting spilled over into the Wednesday night Finance Committee meeting. After the extended public discussion Tuesday, Council President Carl Watt invited those wishing to raise some of these issues at committee meetings and Don Faulds and Paula Durbin accepted the invitation.
Faulds revisited the subjects of “vague” invoices from McKeever and Associates and the Schumacher Ditch Project. He cited a number of documents, admittedly from the previous administration, about payments made to the McKeever group about the Schumacher project totaling around $65,000. He also questioned why, after such a large outlay so little work had been done. Although they were from the previous administration, Faulds attested that current invoices from this group maintain the same level of vagueness.
“This is billing that needs to be scrutinized,” Faulds said.
Mayor Tom O’Leary addressed the issue of why the ditch project has not advanced beyond the preliminary engineering work first. This project has been dormant for two main reasons. Work done to ditches is under the auspices of the county government, so to change plans the Ccity would need to work through that level of government.
The other main reason was that when the current administration took over, they scrutinized the project and were dissatisfied at what would be gained following a further $1.3 million outlay.
“It didn’t seem like it has a whole lot of utility,” O’Leary said.
During the subject of the vagueness of the bills from McKeever and Associates, Finance Chair Tom Fellner conceded that perhaps there could be a bit more transparency. The city has a long standing relationship with McKeever, although Fellner disavowed the notion that he is the “city engineer,” but stated that perhaps there was a slight convenience factor in some of their dealings. This does not mean that the city would accept substandard work.
“If we find that the firm was lacking, we aren’t afraid to move on,” Fellner said.
O’Leary agreed with Fellner that more transparency would not be a bad thing, but took umbrage with the notion the city is not scrutinizing the bills as charged by Faulds.
“The repeated suggestions of no scrutiny,” O’Leary declared, “I’m not sure how you’re coming to that conclusion.”
O’Leary leveled further accusations of, “coming to meetings and making allegations and bringing people’s names up.”
Fellner brought the discussion to a close, thanked the people for their input and respected that they had a right to do so, but said, “I’m not going to engage in an all-night debate.”
The discussion items that were approved and will be passed along to regular council are as follows:
A Then-and-Now payment for JW Didado in the sum of $6,300.51 for work done during an emergency power outage in March. The city called them in to work on some submerged lines, but Didado was slow in invoicing which calls for the Then-and-Now payment.
An authorization for application and submission of the Victims of Crime Assistance Grant (VOCA). This grant, which Galion has received for 17 years running would provide $16,000 to $17,000 of grant money with $5,000 input from the city. This program sustains the office of point person Barb Leitizia as she directs victims of crime to the appropriate resources.
Approval to bid on the SE storm Sewer Project was also sent forward to City Council. This is a project that will take place in 2015, but council wants to sell this project this year. The project is expected to be $929,140. The OPWC has agreed to loan a number not exceeding $729,140 over 20 years at 0-percent interest, with Galion paying the other $200,000 in cash. If the project comes in lower than the $929,140, the OPWC has agreed to loan 78-percent of the project at the 0-percent interest.
This project will alleviate “chronic drainage problems,” in the words of O’Leary, in the region of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad line, roughly south of Harding from East Church Street to Cobey Park.