Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The village of Walbridge officially received grant money for improvements to Railway Park at the latest council meeting on May 20, and members also discussed safety improvements due to visibility concerns on local roads.
Chris Smalley, who serves as the director of the Wood County Parks District, opened the meeting by presenting a check for $2,743 to council member Karen Baron, who heads the parks and recreation committee.
“You guys have been a long-term partner in the local community parks grant program,” Smalley said. “We appreciate what you do to improve recreation and parks in your community.”
The money will cover the cost of a new bike rack and tire repair station at Railway Park.
Smalley said he goes in person to the different communities that have been awarded money from Wood County Parks District grants. He also brought along signage for the village to install near the new bike rack, and he praised the village for its participation in the grant program.
“You've been a long-time participant (in the program),” he said. “Please, I encourage you strongly to continue to take advantage of this program. It's going to be around as long as I can keep it up.”
The Park District awards around $100,000 to local communities each year.
“We set aside (that money) from our tax levy specifically for parks that we don't maintain, but the communities of Wood County maintain, in an effort to support what we do,” Smalley said. “We do this throughout any municipality in Wood County.”
Smalley said he brings in the director of the Hancock County Park District, as well as the director in Sandusky County and the retired director of Erie Metroparks to review and score the grants.
“(Those are) folks who have, combined, well over 100 years of service,” he said. “They know what they're doing ... we appreciate what you do, seriously. The little things here and there (such as) a bike fix station. Those are things that are important to your community. You'll have folks using that that you don't even realize.”
Dry Creek project
Kolanko also spoke about the village’s work on the Dry Creek improvement project, which has lasted about six years. Northwood city administrator Kevin Laughlin has helped with the project, as well, and Kolanko said there will be a grand opening in the near future, and the Park District will be kept in the loop when that ceremony happens.
“It’s all about partnerships,” Smalley said. “In this day and age, together we’re stronger. Whether that’s on a local park, whether that’s on a county-wide level or state level or even greater. You guys have always been great to work with. We appreciate it. I appreciate all that you do for your community.”
As far as Dry Creek, council discussed the project further. Council president Thomas Urbina urged council members to sneak back there and take a look at the brand-new park if they get a chance.
“What a great thing we have in our community. It's really cool,” he said, while adding it can be deceiving. “You look at it from the road, and it looks small, but you get back there, and it's really big. It’s all about maintaining and conserving, and I'm excited like the mayor is. I know he's been working hard on it for longer than I’ve been here. It's kind of cool to see that come to fruition, and I'm excited to see it open.”
Kolanko said more will be known soon about that project’s official debut, which is an 80-acre, half-mile public walking path through nature.
“It's something that we should all be proud about, and we should all be thankful that these things are happening within our community … we need to continuously look at the positive things that we do. Getting new parks, this is a whole entire new development for the village of Walbridge.”
Culvert project done
In related news, Kolanko said the culvert work on Walbridge Road is finished. It was a joint project with Lake Township.
“If you guys saw the pictures of the culvert, it’s very cool,” he said. “When they cut the culvert underneath … I was able to see the old stone that was there when they took off the culvert and was still there. It's still there. There's no reason to take it apart. But those stones are pretty old.”
Kolanko said he wanted to thank the Wood County Engineer’s Office for coming out to do that. It had been scheduled for years down the road, but in recognizing the OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) project going on, they pushed it forward and did it at their expense.
Kolanko also thanked Lake Township administrator Mark Hummer, who was helpful in connecting to that office to make sure all the work happened.
“There’s been a lot of collaboration behind the scenes,” he said. “The paving of that should be happening potentially later this week. If not, it'll be next week that you'll see Walbridge Road repaved.”
Pool passes for summer reading
Baron and council also approved the distribution of 200 single-day pool passes to the Walbridge Library for its student reading program. Council member Joel Mass said he believes students have to read three books to earn a day pass.
“The pool passes are the one thing that kids really look forward to,” council member Sue Hart-Douglas said, while others said that this could potentially get 200 kids to participate in the program.
In related news, Kolanko said the pool passed inspection the week of the meeting and will open in the near future.
Citizen safety concern
Hart-Douglas, who heads the safety and criminal justice committee, said that a citizen concern was brought forward regarding parking issues around the curb at Elm and Allen. She said her committee had a good discussion about the limited visibility that drivers have due to either parked cars or different things going on.
“The committee agrees that ‘no parking’ signs should be started because the area has a lot of activity around there,” she said. “It could be a safety hazard. If a car is coming around from Holly to Allen to Elm, they can't see.”
Hart-Douglas said they asked the police chief to consider a 200-foot stretch from Elm, around the bend, and then 200 feet on Allen.
Kolanko said he wanted to make sure of where the driveways fall in terms of foot distance.
“Thank you for taking the time in your committee to look at that,” he said. “When we hear about e-bikes and things of that nature, it's different than it used to be. These bikes come flying across, and they go a lot faster than the bike I had when I was 10 years old, and these individuals don't see things. They're not looking for those individuals. They're not looking for those bicyclists.”
Kolanko said the garage sale weekend highlighted the issue even more.
“We have to address things when we see them, and we need to be fair across the board,” he said. “If we see something else in a different area, we need to address it the same way.”
Urbina asked if there will be discretion for the police to monitor the area as far as the footage, and village prosecutor Brian Ballenger said police always have discretion on those kind of things.
Kolanko said the signs would be placed once approved by OUPS, or Ohio Utilities Protection Service. They have to make sure that nothing such as a water line, gas line, or anything else is under the area in which any sort of digging will be done.
“We just can't stick stuff in the ground,” he said. “Once OUPS comes out and approves it, we then can place the no parking signs in,” he said.
Kolanko wanted to make sure it was known that they aren’t going to hammer people with immediate tickets.
“We’re going to send out some education pieces to the people that live in that area to remind them what we're doing, the new changes and why (we’re doing it),” he said. “We really feel it's important to promote safety, but (also) to educate about that safety prior to it because it's new, like anything else. We want to make sure that people know that.”
Council members then passed a motion to implement the change, except for Kristen Angelo, who voted against placing the signs.
Trash contract
Council also had the first reading of an ordinance for the village to enter into an agreement with Republic Services.
“Is there a full proposal?” Angelo said.
“No, we don't have that,” Kolanko said. “That's what we have at this point in time. We're basically extending that contract into a new five-year agreement with some modifications that are listed in that paper.”
Angelo said she was confused as the new ordinance says they are repealing and voiding the original 2021 ordinance, and that there was no replacement in the packet.
“It will not be identical because some of the things have changed,” Kolanko said. “I would really encourage you — great questions — (to) have a committee meeting. This is a great time for you to have your first committee meeting since you took office. We can bring in the Republic rep. We can sit down and answer those questions and get that stuff for you.”
Angelo said she thought it would fall under the budget committee, which is headed by Mass.
“There's always room for collaboration, right?” Urbina said. “We can sit down with Joel and the finance committee and have that joint discussion. There's nothing wrong with that either.”
Kolanko said he would arrange it after the meeting, while emphasizing that it’s the first reading.
Cheer lease agreement
In other new business, council members held a first reading for the authorization of a lease agreement with Ohio Elite All-Stars Cheerleading for the rental of 417 Main Street. Kolanko said the expense to rehab that building is approximately $86,000.
“That includes some roof repairs,” he said. “That includes some rehab of the electrical. The potential renter is going to put in some sweat equity, too. They have a plumber in the family that they can help do that as long as we get the fixtures. The idea is that this lease is going to pay for, if not pay for a little bit more, the repairs that we're doing to it to make it the viable building. It’s a good fit.”
Workers’ comp
Another ordinance, which authorizes the village to enter into a service contract with Sedgwick Claims Management Services for third-party administration services in the amount of $330 for an annual contract beginning Sept. 1 for the Ohio Workers Compensation Group Rating Program, was approved via emergency since it has to be back before the next council meeting.
“We currently pay into workers' comp,” Kolanko said. “Our approximate premium is about $10,000 a year. We don't have a third-party that manages our workers' comp program. By us signing up with Sedgwick, who is a third-party administrator for workers' comp and workers' comp claims, we become part of a group. And because we're part of a group, we also get a discount on our bureau workers' comp premiums.”
Hart-Douglas said that Sedgwick also provides, if there is a claim, defense attorneys.
“It seems like a very good $330 to save potentially $4,000 a year,” Kolanko said. “I believe that Sedgwick is also the recommended party from OML (Ohio Municipal League).”
Other business
Another ordinance had its first reading, which was for the collection of assessments to the Wood County Auditor for the cutting of grass and weed whacking and placing those in the tax duplicate under provisions of the Ohio Revised Code for 208 Breckman.
“As a reminder, we started kind of moving forward with getting some more properties addressed, so this will probably be a common thing you're going to see on the agenda going forward.”
In the administrator’s report, it was noted that the village is scheduled for mosquito spraying, and that if the wind is 18 miles per hour or better, they won’t spray. New flags have also been ordered and placed on the Main and Union street poles.
In the mayor’s report, Kolanko said the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) application has been submitted to Wood County.
“What we applied for, if you remember, is (from when) I came almost late to one of the meetings,” he said. “I had to go to Bowling Green to attend a CDBG meeting. A lot of times you have to go to the meetings to get the application and you have to sign in and that way, if you don't go, you're not going to get probably the grant award.
“One of the big issues we have in that section of town on Ivy and Clinton streets is a lot of the flooding. I know back in that area, the asphalt's really in bad shape, so we applied for that project. That is about a $130,000 project.”
Kolanko said the CDBG requires the village to have a low to moderate income (LMI) ratio for them to apply.
“We need to do an updated LMI study of the entire village,” he said. “We haven't done that, so a lot of our areas of the village have actually fallen out of the LMI situation. A lot of things here in the village would not be applicable in this grant.
“After some collaboration, our (OHM Advisors) engineering partner was able to come and interview about 37 different residents in that area. She took her time one evening to go and knock on doors, explain who she was and did the study and was able to get the answers to those questions. She was able to determine that that area would be an LMI-approved area and thus the grant could potentially be awarded to the village of Walbridge.
“A lot of things happen behind the scenes to make this stuff happen, so we'll see.
Kolanko said there will be a grants meeting on June 2, which he will go to in order to see if they can get additional money.
“What they do is that the county actually gets money from the state that is awarded to three programs,” he said. “They look at all these applications, and they will award it to three grant applications, or communities. I think this year they have around $320,000, (which means) they would award, probably, on average, about $105,000 per grant approval. If we're able to get this one, like I said, the project's about $130,000. We would be responsible for about $25,000 (of that) out of village funds.
“We've been fortunate, and I think our residents see that, but we can't stop either — a lot of improvements still to be made.”
