Botkins agrees to join land bank

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BOTKINS — During Tuesday night’s Botkins Village Council meeting, the village agreed to be a part of a county wide effort to take control of and clean up abandoned properties.

Shelby County Commissioner Bob Guillozet presented to council how this non-governmental agency plans to work, and asked the village of Botkins for a 50 cent-per-capita assessment, $577.50, to fund the corporation’s start-up.

As The Sidney Daily News has reported in the past couple of weeks, the Shelby County Land Reutilization Corp., or land bank, has the ultimate goal of taking tax delinquent properties and turning them into tax paying properties.

Even though the village doesn’t currently have any tax delinquent properties, for the one time start-up cost of $577.50, the land bank will take care of the property much quicker than the current method of taking down these properties if they ever have a delinquent property in the future.

Guillozet is currently visiting all village council’s to ask for their participation. The amount each would have to contribute is determined by the 50 cent-per-capita assessment.

Also at the meeting Tuesday night, Village Administrator Ryan Piche announced the Botkins Community Garage Sales will be held May 13 and 14.

He also gave an update on the progress of the Woodland Subdivision. He said the sewer systems are in and they are working this week on a storm sewer. He anticipates they will be done soon, and then the water line will be installed. So in just a few weeks they will be adding the base coat of pavement to the street.

The village will be sending out a business employment survey to all business in the village of Botkins to get a sense of how many people are working in the village on a daily basis. Piche said this will help them with grant applications and better serve the businesses in town.

By Alexandra Newman

[email protected]

Reach this writer at 937-538-4825.

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