MINSTER – The Minster Alumni Softball Tournament will go on at Four Seasons Park after permission was given by the Minster Village Council at their meeting Tuesday night.
Jeff Roetgerman of the Alumni Tournament Committee said they were expecting approximately 19 teams to compete Aug, 14 to 16.
Residents of StoneGate Subdivsion were on hand to discuss the condition of Seventh Street. Their greatest concerns were that the narrow street was not adequate to accommodate increased traffic flow from the new subdivision and that the lack of sidewalks made it difficult for children to walk to school safely.
It was agreed the Street Committee, chaired by Curt Albers, would meet Wednesday to discuss ways to alleviate the problems. The village of Minster had been unable to obtain a grant in 2019 to improve the street
In his report to council, Village Administrator Don Harrod said the village will be installing new entrance signs on state Route 66 thanks to the efforts of Eagle Scout Ethan Huwer. He said the signs have been delivered to the village and crews will be working over the next week or so to get them installed on both south and north of town. Once in place, the electrical department will install solar activated lighting and landscaping around the signs.
In other news, Harrod said Vaughn Electric had completed the replacement of the electrical wire on the transmission line from 4th Street to 1st Street. The village administrator said now the entire transmission loop around the village is strung with 336 aluminum wire.
All contracts have been finalized with Eitri Foundry on the second phase of the solar field which will double the capacity by 4.2 megawatts. Harrod said Christopher McCabe, Director of Operations from Eitri Foundry is planning to begin installation on the solar field within the next one to two weeks.
The public works department with the assistance of Paulus Excavating has completed the installation of the water line on Minster-Fort Recovery Road. Crews need to complete a service extension to one residence, replace a portion of a concrete drive and patch the asphalt on the project.
Work toward building a future water tower continues. CDM Smith has begun work on the water modeling portion of the engineering for the new water tower to replace the aging one on Ohio Street. Harrod said they are using village GIS data on the water system and billing data to begin the development of the water model. In addition, engineers from CDM Smith were in last week working with the water department and public works department to do some hydrant testing.
The chassis for the electric department’s replacement bucket truck has been delivered to UTE in Circleville and work has begun on the installation of the box and aerial lift onto the chassis. Harrod and other staff are expecting to go inspect the work in the next couple of weeks.
He said work on the new electric substation continues to occur as time permits. Crews are currently installing the ground grid. Once that is installed, the ground will be leveled and stone will be placed around the site.
Finally, Harrod reported that the motor for well six is being rebuilt after it failed two weeks ago. In the interim, a spare motor was put in its place.
In other action, approved was a second reading of an ordinance adding an extra strength surcharge rates for waste water coming into their treatment system that exceeded normal levels of waste products.
Also approved was a resolution to accept $86,850 in CARES funding to pay for extra expenses related to COVID.
Under new business, council appointed Joel Wuebker to a three-year term with the Minster Community Fund. Andy Schmitmeyer had previously served in this position.
Approve were invoices over $3,000.00, which included a $9872 bill from Vaugh Electric to pay for new aluminum electrical transmission lines.
Receipts for the village totaled $1,893,471.25 and invoices were $ 1,135,762.99 .
