NEW KNOXVILLE – Mayor Keith Leffel announced a new vacancy at the Wednesday night New Knoxville Council meeting.

Leffel said that since council member Mike Kaup has decided not to run for another term, there will be a vacancy starting Jan. 1, 2022.

The mayor suggested that since the deadline has passed to file to run for the position in the General Election, it might be possible to campaign for a write-in vote. Otherwise, a replacement would have to be appointed. He added that the only requirement is that a candidate have lived in the village for two years.

Three other council members are running for re-election in November. They are Carolyn Bock, Mike Jones and Duane Steinecker.

Council approved several measures. The group voted to allow Village Administrator Larry Kellermeyer to pursue funding to continue the Bremen Street improvement project by applying to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission State Capital Improvement and/or Local Transportation Improvement Program. The proposed Bremen Street improvement project would be between Wirheim and Laura streets and would replace sanitary sewer lines and widen the roadway to accommodate a bike path. The balance of project funding needed would come from the a zero percent loan available from the State of Ohio. No dollar amount was announced. It is projected the project would start in the spring of 2023.

Tabled was an ordinance to permit the village administrator to create truck routes to protect village streets with load limits.

In other action, council approved an ordinance to allow employees to roll over a maximum of 40 hours vacation leave into the following year. Council approved two resolutions to accommodate anticipated funding coming from the federal and state governments. One was to apply for and accept funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The second was to apply and participate in the National Opioid Settlement agreement.

Finally, they approved a resolution to accept the anticipated $44,685.88 coming from the 2022 Auglaize County proposed alternate plan of distribution of local government funds. A large portion of the money comes from the village’s share of sales tax.

The next meeting of council will be Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the village administrative building.