By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The New Washington Village Council returned from executive session after Monday night’s regular council meeting and announced their acceptance of the resignation of Street Department Superintendent Steve Aichholz.
Aichholz is moving on to a position with Buckeye Central Local Schools, after many years serving the Village.
“We’d like to thank Mr. Aichholz for his many years of dedicated service and wish him well in his new position,” Mayor Ben Lash said.
The Hatchery Festival Committee opened the Sept. 14 regular meeting of the New Washington Village Council by offering their extreme gratitude to the village for the opportunity to run the 2015 Hatchery Festival, and to everyone from the village who helped make the even such a huge success. Tim Suver, Andy Suver, and Joe Niedermeier thanked Police Chief Shook, Fire Chief Ackerman, Village Administrator Lucius, and Steve Aichholz of the Street Department for all the assistance they gave.
“We really appreciate it and had wonderful help all the way through,” Tim Suver said.
The group is looking forward to hosting again next year and some of the pieces are already in place. The contract with the carnival company runs for another year, and everyone was very pleased with the group who handled the fireworks. As a sign of gratitude, the group presented the Village Council with a donation check of $2,000 for all the work they did.
Jerri Lucius thanked them on behalf of the village. “If you hadn’t gone ahead with it we wouldn’t have had a Hatchery Festival this year.”
Speed limits were a topic of discussion as council passed Ordinance 971 on its third reading. This ordinance will raise the speed limit on Tiffin Street from 25 mph to 35 mph on a stretch spanning from the westward village limit 1,881 feet inside the limit. Shook also mentioned how he and Lucius have been working with ODOT to get the appropriate speed limit postings installed along Ohio 103 in town. The 25 mph and 35 mph zones are currently not clearly marked.
Shook also brought up that Officer Krystal Kessler has submitted her two-week notice as she is moving away from the area. Shook stated he is currently going over applications and will come back to council for permission to move ahead with the hiring process once the time is appropriate.
“We’ve got a good rotation of hours right now and I would like to see that not interrupted,” Shook said.
Council received one bid for the vacant property at 603 Scharf Street of $105. Council elected to decline the bid, and reopen the process for a renewed round of bidding. This next round will include a stipulation that bidders submit a set of plans for what they intend to do with the property should their bid be accepted.
Several bids for projects around town were accepted. A bid of $41,000 from Premier Concrete was accepted for the storm sewer work that is pending. This was the low bid of several, but Mayor Lash expressed some concern that this bid was $15,000 below the estimate provided by Makeever and Associates. He wondered if such a low bid would provide adequate work.
Lucius said that although he was unfamiliar with the company, Lynn Makeever knew them and assured they would do good work.
Studer-Obringer had a bid of $2,150 accepted to install replacement, vinyl windows on the upper floor of the library. Five windows will be redone. Olde Towne Window was the low bid at $1,800, but Council elected to go with the local company coupled with the fact that Studer-Obringer was familiar with the project as they installed the originals.
On the horizon is budget season, with October being the deadline for department heads to submit their 2016 budgets. There will be a safety committee meeting at 9:30 on Sept.22, with police and other safety service budgets top priority.