BOTKINS — The Botkins Village Council and The Botkins Local School Board of Education met together Monday night to address a few concerns, and discuss upcoming items.

First the council brought up maintenance of the old playground and old storage building over by the pool, and asked what the school might have as a vision for that ground going forward.

The groups pretty much agreed the best thing for the old storage building is for it to be razed because of the poor condition it is in. They discussed several other options, like having someone in the community purchase it, but that person would be responsible for keeping it up to code.

They agreed the playground equipment is used frequently, so it would be best to leave it, but maybe look into mulching that area.

Next they cleaned up some language in the ownership of the old tennis court property next to the pool, allowing the village to do what it pleases with the property.

The village gave a brief overview of their new Botkins Community Park Governance Ordinance, which again, just cleaned up some language and clarified items regarding to scheduling events, including sports, and the rules regarding alcohol.

The village updated the board on the projects and additions to the park happening this summer, including the $50,000 tennis court project, center field writing on the baseball diamonds, installation of a windscreen and batting cage.

The board shared their ideas, and working plans for adding bleachers to the track. The projected cost of bleachers, and parking lot requirements for handicap access seemed daunting to the board, so the committee handling the project is going to look into some fundraising campaign ideas.

The council shared some concerns about sidewalks and traffic out in front of the school. They thing the sidewalks need to be extended on the one side of the driveway from State Street, or some sort of crossing guard needs to be present to help children cross the street. The school said they’d investigate getting a crossing guard, and the village said it’d ask the village police to increase presence around the school in the mornings.

Council Member Josh Meyer shared that he has been approached about the addition of a signs at the entrances to town displaying the names of the school athletes that have made it to state competitions. The main questions was, who pays for it?

With the sign ultimately needing to be in a village owned right-of-way, but the sports being affiliated with the school, some discussion took place about who would maintain the signs and who would determine what gets put on them. More discussion was needed on this topic, but the village and the school said it would look into getting this done, agreeing it is a nice thing to see when entering other villages, so why not have it in their own.

The village and school will also work together for snow and ice removal in the future.