Minster hires fiscal officer

MINSTER — Village councilors approved the hiring of a new fiscal officer Tuesday night during their meeting.

Brittany Hemmelgarn will take over the position on Monday, May 9, following council’s approval.

Hemmelgarn, a native of St. Henry, comes from the Mercer County Auditor’s office where she has worked since 2017. She’s the chief deputy of the budgetary department.

Hemmelgarn will be replacing John Stechschulte, who is retiring after more than 30 years with the village.

Councilors appointed Stechschulte to assistant fiscal officer at a salary of $60,000, with Hemmelgarn’s salary set at $75,000.

Village Administrator Don Harrod said that John will remain onboard as assistant fiscal officer to help Hemmelgarn out until she gets accustomed to the position and feels comfortable doing it on her own.

Also Tuesday, councilors held a first reading of a resolution declaring it necessary to improve certain streets in the village by repairing and replacing concrete sidewalks.

“At the last committee meeting, we talked about developing a sidewalk repair program. It’s been since 2010 since we went out and did sidewalk repairs for sidewalks that don’t meet our standards,” said Harrod.

He said the village has a set of construction standards that includes deterioration of rough slopes, cracking and trip hazards.

“We’ve identified about 450 areas throughout the village that had problems with the sidewalks that did not meet those criteria,” said Harrod. “There may be a few more out there as well.”

The village’s sidewalk repair program would evaluate the condition of sidewalks each year in the village.

Council discussed breaking the village down into thirds or quarters and do one section of town each year.

Harrod said many of the repairs are on the west side of Main Street, as there’s a lot more newer development on the east side of Main Street.

Property owners would be notified of which sidewalks aren’t up to standard and they would have the choice to repair them themselves or the village would hire

a contractor to do the repairs and assess the cost to the property owners.

Also Tuesday, Harrod reported that Brumbaugh Construction remains on schedule with their progress on the Seventh Street reconstruction project. Crews began removing the existing street to install curbs and gutters. Councilors decided not

to reconnect the new section of the street with exiting parts between Hamilton and Paris streets because plans call for Seventh Street from Hamilton Street to the village east corporation to be worked on next year. The move will save the village $50,000 by doing so.

Also Tuesday, council approved a proposal to upgrade the village’s utility meter reading system as the current system is no longer supported

through updates.

The new meter reading system is manufactured by Tantalus Systems at a cost of $252,000 and it will build off the village’s current system, as opposed to installing a whole new infrastructure.

Harrod explained the new system will automatically collect usage data without the need for a physical person to conduct meter readings. He said the system will provide details regarding

usage, leaks and others that can be accessed by village residents and businesses, and it’s updated in 15-minute intervals.

In other business:

• Council passed the first reading of an ordinance that would establish a second handicapped parking spot in from of the Minster Eagles lodge on West Fourth Street.

• Council approved a payment of $6,317.40 to Washington, D.C. law firm Duncan and Allen for services rendered through March in relation to the village’s solar lawsuit filed by Alabama energy company Empower Solar. The case is set to go to trial on Aug. 2 in U.S. District Court.

• Harrod reported that Choice One has completed plans for the Dues Ditch project and the village had obtained all the easements it needed. The project will see construction of a new storm water inlet to the west of Line Drive, relocation and installation of a new 36-inch storm tile to replace the 100-yearold 24-inch tile, a retention pond in the back to hold some of that water up and a 60-inch drainage outlet that goes into Dues Ditch which drains into the existing tile that exists now.

“The entire project is designed to alleviate the flooding we get when we have heavy rains,” said Harrod. He added that Choice One’s estimate for the project was a little over $1 million and the village will go out to bid on May 10 and May 17 and then open bids on May 24. The village was awarded $285,000 form the Ohio Public Works Commission for the project.

• Council approved the hiring of additional employees at the village swimming pool, bringing the total number of employees to 24. Harrod said 32 to 36 employees would be ideal to operate the pool this season.

• Council entered executive session to discuss pending litigation. No action was taken.