JACKSON CENTER — The Jackson Center Village Council met on Dec. 14 and swore in it’s newest Council Member James DeVine.
Jackson Center Village Solicitor Mike Burton administered the Oath of Office to DeVine.
Craig Mescher of Access Engineering updated council on all the grant projects applied for by the village. The village has been very aggressive in applying for various grants and zero percent loans to finance many local projects throughout the course of the past few years.
With the assistance of the Shelby County Commissioners (committing Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Formula money for the Village to use as match money), it enabled the village to apply for and receive CDBG Distress, CDBG Water & Sewer, OPWC, ODOT, and Ohio EPA funds. These funding applications and awards were strategically coordinated to be used as leverage money to apply for other grants in which made the most of each dollar received.
The 2016 appropriations budget was approved by council. Administrator Bruce Metz reported that there were some small changes in appropriations but nothing major. A controller for the traffic light is needed and has been added as well as appropriations for the Hamer Street project.
The council also approved an ordinance, after suspending the three-reading rule, that will allow the issuance of a bond financing agreement with E.M.I. Corp. Revenue obligations do not affect the village’s debt service obligations and the village will not have any out of pocket expenses.
They also read two new ordinances for the first time. One that will adjust the firefighter pay from $12 a run to $15 a run beginning in 2016. This ordinance also sets the per shift pay for part time police officers to $52 for a half shift and $104 for a whole shift. The ordinance also sets the maximum amount to be spent on compensation of part time officers at $29,770 for fiscal year 2016.
The other will increase the cost of a bundle of five trash bags from $11.75 to $12 effective Feb. 1, 2016. It also establishes that the cost of a bundle of five bags will increase 50 cents on Feb. 1 of each year through 2020. Metz stated that the last time the village increased the cost of a bundle of bags was in April 2012. The village has tried to maintain the cost of a bundle of bags, but will have to increase with the rising costs of the contract with Republic Waste for disposal of residential trash.
The Safety Committee met prior to Monday’s meeting and reported they are looking into a potential mobile app for the police department.
