By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
Galion City Council focused figuratively not only on keeping the lights on in town at its Tuesday meeting, but having them burn brighter as well.
Three pieces of legislation to continue with the electrical grid upgrade were passed by City Council. This project, which is improving the entire Galion grid system, has been ongoing for several years, and these laws will allow phases four and five to go ahead.
The first, ordinance 2014-72, approves the engineering work for phases four and five, and the second (2014-73) approves the safety-service director to put the work out for bid.
These two phases were supposed to be in last year’s legislation, but the results of the previous law director’s office cause this oversight. As a result, phase three is nearly complete and this legislation was passed as an emergency.
Phase four encompasses the remainder of the grid work outside the uptown upgrade area (Dawcett Substation), and phase five is the uptown upgrade area.
The third bill is to have an engineering firm on retainer for ease of work should maintenance issues come up. This bill was passed on a first reading as it was not seen as having the same sense of timely urgency.
These upgrades will complete the work to the Galion grid system.
Another piece of legislation was a mutual aid agreement with Jefferson Township. The city has never had an agreement with Jefferson Township before, as that area was covered by Crestline until they went to village only. Galion has made runs in this area before, but this agreement formalizes the set up.
Mayor Tom O’Leary commended Fire Chief Phil Jackson and the township trustees for coming to terms with this agreement in light of the untried new vendor for the Central Joint Ambulance District. This organization has been expanding rapidly, and it is yet to be seen how well they will cope with the added area. This agreement gives Galion area residents in this township added ambulance protection. Should the district be tied up, Galion can make a run to these homes.
A preliminary alley vacation approval for the 620 South Boston Street area was tabled pending further investigation. The city requires surveyor work to be done by those requesting an alley vacation, so rather than make citizens pay for such work only to be rejected, the city hosts this preliminary view to see if there is any interest
Concerns were expressed from a number of people about additional alley vacations in general, not just this one specifically.
“My personal feeling is that we shouldn’t close any more alley ways,” Bob Johnson said, “We’ve already closed some we shouldn’t have.”
Shirley Clark also voiced concerns about “so many alleys in town” being closed. Fire Chief Phil Jackson did add that closing this alley would not be a safety concern.
In the end Tom Fellner put forth the motion to table this to give council the chance to visit the area in person.
Upcoming committee meetings:
Finance 7 p.m., Sept. 24
Utilities 7 p.m., Oct. 1 – a Sawvill representative will be on hand to discuss the new electrical study
Laws Ordinances and Zoning 7 p.m., Sept. 25
Parks 7 p.m., Oct. 7