Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Council members in Gibsonburg welcomed Maria Kisha as the village’s newest full-time police officer to highlight the final regular meeting of the year on Dec. 18.
Kisha was approved via ordinance at the end of the old business portion of the meeting, and she was sworn in moments later during the mayor’s report.
Mayor Steven Fought said the hire gets the department back to full staff, and police chief Don Karr said Kisha was slated to begin Dec. 21.
In other old business, council members approved a resolution adopting 2026 temporary appropriations, as well as one authorizing fiscal officer Jeff Holcomb to transfer money from the general fund to the economic development fund.
“(At our) last meeting, we transferred money from the general fund to the economic development fund to cover loan payments,” Holcomb said. “There will still be a couple hundred dollars left at the end of the year, but we need to make sure we can pay other expenses on the industrial park, so we need to transfer $5,000 from the general fund to the economic development fund.”
Holcomb also requested that the January council meetings be pushed from Jan. 1 and 15 to Jan. 8 and 22 due to the New Year’s holiday. It was approved.
Data center update
Fought provided a statement with the latest regarding the data center topic.
“I don't have anything really new with the data center topic,” he said. “I know that comes up every single meeting. There was some speculation earlier this week that there was a push or a pitch from an EDC (Economic Development Corporation) meeting that happened earlier this month.
“I think you guys are all aware that me and (village administrator) Marc (Glotzbecker) attended an informational meeting (with) the Sandusky County Economic Development Corp on Dec. 1 put on by the EDC. Gary Townsend from the RGP (Regional Growth Partnership) was there. He talked, just gave us their spiel with all the information. It was an informational meeting.
“We didn't learn anything more than we had already known from any previous conversations we had reaching out for information, so it's just another instance where we're continuing to gather information on the topic to make sure that we know what's out there, what's going on. If there's anything for us to learn, we're wanting to know those things, but there's been no push. There's no developer that's asked for anything, and there’s nothing new on that front. Everything is pretty much status quo on that.
“I don't have any indication that anything is coming necessarily anytime soon. It's been pretty quiet to be quite honest, so we'll continue to see what we can learn and find out new things when they come. But I just want to make sure you're aware of that. I know these things pop up on Facebook and whatever. I see the comments. I see the posts and stuff going on, so I try to address some things when they happen if I see some things, but that's pretty much all I have on that topic for this evening.”
Admin report
In the village administrator’s report, Marc Glotzbecker updated council on the Omni Fiber, Amplex, and Frontier discussion in the village.
“OmniFiber has reached back out and requested access to our GIS (geographic information systems) information for water and sewer lines,” he said. “We're not against giving them access to the GIS system to review water and sewer lines, but we're working through that request and seeing what kind of parameters we can set up in the ArcGIS system that we have before we get back with them and let them know what they can and can't have, or if we just simply send them paper maps and say, 'Here you go.’ But other than that, we have no other further information from Omni Fiber about their plans or what they'd like to do.
“Amplex has informed us that their project has been put on hold for the time being. Frontier has submitted four separate right-of-way permits and four separate sets of plans for a proposed fiber product they'd like to do inside the corporation limits. We are reviewing the submitted information.
“I have reached back out to all three representatives — OmniFiber, Amplex, and Frontier — to let them know that there's no way possible that we're going to let three separate companies do three separate projects in town. We're not going to let them dig a trench, put stuff in, cover it back up, and then the next company comes, digs the same, etc.
“The basic request (from us) was ... is there any way that you guys, if you're all adamant about wanting to do this here, is there any way you guys can all work together? I mean, because we're just not going to approve three separate projects for the same thing.
“I haven't heard back from any of them yet. We are reviewing the Frontier one because they have submitted the proper right-of-way permit, and they have submitted the plans for review. We are looking through that, and quite honestly, with the holiday coming up next week and the New Year holiday the week after, it's not going to be until early January before we get back with them and discuss it even more.”
A question was then posed about whether the village has the ability to limit a right-of-way, utility-type project in the village to just one.
“We're working on getting a legal opinion on that,” Glotzbecker said. “After the first of the year, I’ll have a lot more information on those three projects. But I just want to let you all know what's going on in case you hear anything in the community. I know residents have seen ads on social media, especially from Omni Fiber, saying ‘Hey, Gibsonburg, we’re coming in town, sign up now, all that stuff.’ I would just tell people just to sit tight, and we'll try to figure this out as best we can with the least disruption to the community.”
Although the trash transition has already taken place, Glotzbecker did provide one statement of relevance.
“There's going to be glitches,” he said. “We get that. It's a unique situation, but both Stevens and Rumpke have been great to work with so far. I can tell you that in talking with Kevin from Stevens this week (regarding) the bulk item pickup ... everything is going to be done through Stevens.
“There'll be no tags sold at Town Hall. If a resident has a mattress, a couch, a chair, a large item to be picked up, they'll simply either email Stevens or call them at their toll-free number. We'll take care of payment through Stevens. Everything will be done through Stevens. There'll be no more tags here at Town Hall. That'll be helpful.”
To conclude his report, Glotzbecker said the village received all the documents and paperwork for the OWDA (Ohio Water Development Authority) loan for the sewer separation project that will begin early 2026.
“Everything's been signed and sent back,” he said. “(It was) a slow (TV) news day in Toledo today because they came to town this morning to do an interview about it. I did tell them numerous times that Gibsonburg didn't win anything. It's a loan. We have to pay it back. But the reporter was very nice. He simply said, 'I need a story for 6 o'clock tonight.' I said, 'Well, welcome to town. Merry Christmas.’ We actually talked high school sports more than we talked sewer separation.”
Police report
In his report, police chief Karr provided an update on the MARCS radio project.
“We're actually going to be getting started on that here in the first week of January,” he said. “There's not much cost to reprogram the radios once the template gets done, so we're going to use the next few months as a testing period to see if we need some additional repeaters and stuff like that. That'll be starting Jan. 2.”
He also said the Shop with a Cop event went very well.
“We had three officers present,” Karr said. “It was a good time with 56 kids we took shopping, and I'm going back Saturday morning for another group that couldn't make it that day.”
Building off that, Glotzbecker made a statement about the community support in Gibsonburg, specifically at the Ugly Christmas Sweater Run and Walk.
“We have an amazing community. I know some of you came around Saturday after the Ugly Christmas Sweater Run and Walk,” he said. “I know some people dropped off donations. This whole back wall was literally just piled with non-perishable food items for the food pantry, toys, bikes, you name it. It's an amazing turnout. The Key Club from the high school was here in force.
“Gosh, there had to be 25 to 30 students here helping out staff members. It was amazing. We had assistance from Sergeant Lahman, the police department, the fire department. The cool thing is that our guests, who come in from out of town, are completely blown away by Gibsonburg, by the community spirit that's here.
“I won't name names because they'll hunt me down, but there's one specific community family that pulls up every year in a pickup truck, loaded with brand new bicycles and gloves and socks and scarves and bags full of Christmas stocking candy that they actually separate and put into little baggies and have it all separated for the kids. It's just amazing.
“I mean, Santa lives in Gibsonburg. I'm certain of that. And he comes out every December to help with that event. The amount of young people's lives and people who need food assistance that are touched every year by this is amazing. It's an amazing thing to see.”
Herman departs
The meeting also represented the last for councilman Jeff Herman, who vacated his seat on Dec. 31 for personal reasons. Thus, the village is still accepting letters of interest and resumes for those interested in filling the unexpired, two-year term of Herman through Jan. 8.
Interested individuals must be a registered voter and live inside of the corporation limits of the village of Gibsonburg, and those letters can be delivered to Town Hall at 526 N. Webster St. until 4 p.m. on the 8th. After the deadline has passed, council will review all materials submitted and schedule interviews with candidates.
Other business
In committee reports, it was noted that softball and baseball registration is currently open through Jan. 31.
