MINSTER — At their May 7 meeting, Minster village council had readings of ordinances to ban through trucks from Seventh Street and marijuana sales or propagation in the village.

In regards to truck restrictions on Seventh Street, the decision was made to ban truck traffic after a traffic survey showed that 92 trucks passed down the street in one day, according to village administrator Don Harrod. He said the road is where children are either crossing to go to school or the municipal pool.

Anyone wanting to buy marijuana will have to go out of town with the emergency passage of a new ordinance banning all sales, growing or processing of marijuana in village boundaries. This was done by amending the codified ordinances of the village of Minster, adding a new Chapter 111.

Council approved contractor Purpose Energy’s request for two variances of the restrictive covenants in the South Industrial Park. One request was to extend the time needed to build the facility from 18 months to 36 months to allow the company to get permits from the EPA. The second variance was to waive the requirement to have 15% masonry in the construction. The company plans to build digester tanks for waste from Danone.

In other action, council approved the third and final reading of an ordinance vacating a portion of an alley south of Sixth Street and between Jefferson Street and Hamilton Street within the village.

A second reading was approved of an ordinance to establish a four way stop at the intersections of Third Street and Garfield Street and at the intersection of Seventh Street and Hamilton Street within the village.

Second readings were approved for ordinances establishing a new rate of pay of $14 per hour for part time seasonal employees and establishing the pay rate of village employees during mutual aid response to double time.

Also, council granted permission for Lane 19 Softball Team to hold a softball tournament at Four Seasons Park on June 28 through the 30.

Under committee reports, the Parks Committee said they were planning talks with Shelby County commissioners about building a bikepath between Minster and Fort Loramie.

Under personnel action, council approved a motion to hire Morgan Raible as the administrative assistant for the village. Also, Adam Krouskop and Ben Bonvillian were both promoted from Police Officer I to a Police Officer II.

In his report to council, Harrod said village crews have completed the ground prep around the new playground area at Paris Street Park. Crews hauled in dirt, leveled the dirt and then planted grass seed in those areas. Even though, the newly seeded areas are fenced off, we opened the playground equipment for use on the 3 rd of May.

He said Newcomer Concrete has poured the curb and gutter on both Sixth Street and West Seventh Street and they are beginning to work on the concrete flat work on both projects. It is expected that this will be wrapped up in the next few days. After that Fenson will begin prepping the area for asphalt.

HA Dorsten has set a date of May 17 for completion of the first phase of the $2.1 million police department construction and renovation project, reported the village administrator. The first phase consists of building the new addition onto the department. On Monday, May 20, village crews will help the department move everything over to the new addition so renovations on the existing building can take place.

Hohenbrink Excavating and the village have completed testing of all underground utilities on east Seventh Street and Paris Street. It is expected that Hohenbrink will start prepping the area for curb and gutter shortly.

The electric department with the assistance of Vaughn Electric have begun to replace the old wooden 69 KV transmission line poles along the golf course. These wooden poles which have been riddled with woodpecker holes are being replaced with ductile iron poles. Vaughn’s assistance is needed as village employees cannot reach the static line on the top of the poles with their equipment.

He said Moody’s have completed the 24-hour pump test on one of the new dilution wells and have completed the 4-hour pump test on the second well. Results of the 24-hour pump test indicated that the well should be good for approximately 300 gallons a minute. Early indication from the 4-hour pump test, indicate that the second well may only be able to produce around 200 gallons per minute. They have also taken samples from both of the wells to determine what levels of TDS they may both have. This will help in making a determination of their ability to dilute the effluent from the waste water treatment facility.

America’s Decorative Concrete have begun work on the installation of the sidewalks along state Route 119. ADC has moved the fire hydrant that was in the middle of the proposed sidewalk and have begun to dig out and form up the new sidewalks.

Finally, council approved receipts of $2,764,821.07 and invoices of $966,960.64

Council then moved to executive session to discuss employee compensation for the police chief and the fiscal officer, now that their probation periods are over. However, no decisions were announced when council returned to regular session.

The writer is a regular contributor to the Sidney Daily News.