By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com

The City of Galion will be a little bit smaller in size when the next maps come out and it won’t be population numbers that have shrunk.

Galion City Council set in motion a detachment that would give back some of the land in Jackson Township that was annexed in the early 2000s around the US Highway 30 interchange. This land was annexed at the time to be in position for possible redevelopments, but part of the deal was that the city would extend services to this district. It was initially planned for a $318,000 loan to finance the extension of water to this area, but that never came to pass. This sum of money would be to provide services for six property owners.

The residents of this stretch of land are very close to the Village of Crestline, and are candidates to receive services from there. Mayor Tom O’Leary and Council President Carl Watt recently attended a meeting with Crestline administrators about what could be done.

O’Leary was critical of the negotiations that went on there, with Crestline apparently only willing to extend its services if these property owners were detached from Galion city limits.

“I’ve got problems with the Village of Crestline’s approach to joint development,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary believed that some sort of middle ground could have been found, such as Crestline extending services with payment, but such terms could not be reached.

Councilman Steve Rowan expressed his belief that this detachment was a bad idea. “We’re making a big mistake,” he said.

At the end of the day, it seems that extending services for six property owners is being deemed too costly. “Paying $300,000 to water six people, I don’t see the equity in that,” O’Leary said.

The motion to detach passed on a first reading with Rowan abstaining.

Council did vote to annex 5.8 acres of land along Portland Way North. The property of Dave Chandler, which sits roughly north of the car wash and south of Dr. Huggins’ property, will be annexed at his request. The goal is to extend services so that he can develop it along the lines of the other professional buildings in the area.

Tim O’Leary, legal counsel for Chandler, was in attendance to explain and added that Chandler plans to take some of the proceeds from this development to start a scholarship foundation for the city.

Plans for the Freese Grant Advisory Board took their first legislative steps. This panel has been much discussed in committee, and the goal is for it to work with the community on how to use these Freese funds and serve as an internal review board. The city has been working with the Freese Foundation on partnerships for greater access to these funds.

The board will consist of five members: the mayor, safety/service director, council president, an appointee of the mayor, and an appointee of council. It would also switch to a quarterly review of projects, as opposed to the current annual review.

Terry Gribble of the Galion YMCA gave the year end city pool report. He jokingly invoked his presentation of the same time last year, when he said he could not possibly foresee a worse summer than 2013. Naturally, that proclamation came back to haunt him. This past summer was indeed worse than 2013, with 38 of the 75 days that they were scheduled to be open needing either to close early or be open not at all. The slow June was especially painful, as this is a time period when they need to sell a lot of season passes to make up the funds. The weather in June set them back in this regard and they never really recovered.

The contract was for $94 per hour at 51 hours per week. The pool was open a total of 420 hours at a cost of $39,480. Income was only $29,570, meaning the city has to make up the difference of $9,910. The income for 2013 was $32,473 with a deficit of $6,366, and the income for 2012 was $42,000.