By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The Galion Parks Committee tackled a rather diverse set of discussions Tuesday night. Alley vacations, tree removals, and a water park do not seem like they would be on the same agenda but the committee paid due diligence to all three.
The alley vacation issue has recently resurfaced, with several requests in the last few months. Mayor Tom O’Leary admitted to the streakiness of this particular topic, stating that requests come in “rashes.” The goal of this discussion was to formalize a set of guidelines that could be helpful in determining when alley vacations can be done with harming the city’s ability to maintain the services it must. Clerk Julie Bell has been researching policies in neighboring municipalities and the committee will review her findings.
Next up for discussion were the trees in the devil strip. Whose responsibility are they? Convention has typically held that since the city owns the strip the trees within it are its responsibility. While this might seem logical, the city ordinance actually reads that the city dictates when trees need to be maintained/removed but that financial responsibility falls to the homeowner.
Past administrations may not have been as clear on those facts as maybe they should have been, the result of which is that now there is a list of nearly 100 trees that were promised to be removed. Many of these are not directly endangering power lines and/or were requested to be removed for cosmetic purposes. At about $7,500 per tree removal, an admittedly ballpark estimate by the mayor, this would represent a significant financial outlay should all of these trees be brought down.
O’Leary stated his opinion that he felt the city would be better served by keeping as much of this money in the electrical fund as possible to keep rates as low as possible. Trees directly endangering power lines would of course still be dealt with.
This discussion also led to considerations for next year’s budget. Currently, Galion only has one tree trimmer in the department whereas not that long ago there were three. The attrition is due to changes in jobs by the personnel, one of the entering the electrical department as an apprentice. O’Leary would like to see future tree trimming contracted out and personnel budget invested in apprentices and journeyman linemen.
Final discussion item was the water park, or splash park, that is set to be installed at East Park in 2015. The city is using funds from the Freese Foundation and the .11-percent income tax that was originally passed to do capital improvements around town. During the really tough days of fiscal emergency, these funds were used to help keep the city afloat, so the administration is excited to redirect them toward their original purpose.
The city is looking at a treatment plant on site, about $125,000, and in the range of $80,000 to $100,000 of play features. There have been preliminary talks with some firms to provide some perspective on what such a project would cost, but permission to bid this project had so far not been attained. The committee resolved to submit a “planning number” not to exceed $250,000 to council so that this project may proceed in an official capacity.