By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
New Washington Police Chief Jeffrey Shook is already making strides towards upgrading his department with an increase in the number of officers. However discussion at Monday’s Village Council meeting revealed that may be the easy part of upgrading the department when compared with locating office space.
It was a quick meeting in New Washington Monday night, but some key points of action included Police Chief Jeffrey Shook’s announcement that he was beginning background checks on two potential hires on a part-time basis for the police force. Also in regard to the police department, there was some follow-up discussion about the practicality of using the former bank drive-in for the future police office.
This topic had been brought up before, alongside renovation plans of Village Hall to create this space. At the last council meeting, Mayor Ben Lash and Clerk Julie Cronau had iterated the bank’s position of being unwilling to sell the building. Gert Durnwald stated that, in response to her fielding questions from residents, she approached the bank about the potentiality of a lease. She reported back that the bank would be interested in something like that if terms could be arranged.
Further discussion by council seemed to indicate that they did not find this option to be practical. The list of drawbacks included limited space, not owning the building, and the need to renovate. The idea of putting money in for renovations to a building not owned by the village was particularly unfavorable.
“I don’t think that’s being good stewards of our money,” Cronau said.
Some raw plans for renovating the current setup have been discussed, but that discussion is still in very early days. Up till now it has been under the auspices of the Safety Committee; council agreed it would be a good idea for future discussions to include the Buildings and Grounds Committee.
Also in Buildings and Grounds, council approved a bid from Studer-Obringer not to exceed $3,000 for tuck pointing the bad spots of the New Washington Library. This bid includes a week’s worth of labor.
Joe Blum also raised the question of whether to try and fix some of the tombstones at the Union Cemetery before Memorial Day. They had been in talks with an expert in this line of work, but he was not able to make it in fall of 2014. With this year’s Memorial Day Ceremonies to be held at the Union Cemetery, Blum thought it would be a good idea to get as many of the tombstones straightened as would be possible.
In street maintenance, Administrator Norm Lucius announced that cold patch had been acquired and pothole repair work began last week. The Street Department also recently purchased a 250-gallon “tote” for liquid asphalt to line cracks and patch potholes.
The new signs honoring Scott Robertson and the Buckeye Central state championships have also been posted.
Regarding the cancellation of Saturday’s recycling: Durnwald stated that she received word late from the plant that they would be temporarily closed and could take no new refuse. She apologized for any inconvenience but said she spread the word as soon as she heard. Recycling is set to continue as normal on April 4.