Meeting Minutes: November 16, 2021
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph, Tuesday, November 16, 2021
at 7:30 pm.
Invocation – The Lord’s Prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Yoder, Searight, Stephenson, Now, Heitkamp
Also attending: Marge Gehle, Robbie Peel, Cassie McMurry and Sydney from the Daily Standard.
Motion Searight. Second Yoder to accept the agenda as orders of the day.
Stephenson called for the question. Searight = y, Yoder = y, Stephenson = y, Now = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Stephenson. Second Searight to accept the minutes from the November 2, 2021 council meeting as presented. Now called for the question. Stephenson = y, Searight = y, Now = y, Yoder = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Card of thanks from Greg Pontsler’s Family.
Congratulations to the 2021 – Citizen of the Year – Reed Shaffer.
Congratulations to Chris, Brad, Ron and Jessica for winning your election for council seats. Thank you for stepping up to serve the Rockford Community.
Oaths of Office will be held in January.
Mayor notes receipt and review of Mayors Court pay in,
bank reconciliation, and bank statement.
Community Announcements and events:
Thursday and Friday – November 25 & 26th — Thanksgiving – Village office closed.
Sunday – November 28th —- Santa visiting Shanes Park – 6 pm
Tuesday – December 14th – Brush pick up
Thursday – Friday – December 23 & 24 – Village office closed for Christmas.
Saturday – December 25th – Together at Christmas – Free meal @ the Rockford Community Building – All are welcome. Sponsored by local churches.
Village Administrator’s Report – Aaron Temple
Good News – The Village was granted $850,000 for the water tower project. We are waiting for some updated estimates and timing for disbursement of funds.
Leaf pick up has been going slow – have been having equipment problems. Using a back up system to get by.
Finance meeting discussions over 2 different meetings regarding lawn care. The Village has hired Tom Beahrs to mow the village and pick up leaves at the park.
Business park – TOPO of the area has been started. Will be meeting after Thanksgiving break with engineers and TWT Farms for the updates and next steps.
The troublesome line at the park cost estimates to fix $3-4,000 just in the pipe plus labor.
Semi trucks in the village continue to be a problem. The trucks trying to get to Fremont are trying to turn around in residential areas and in other business parking lots. We will contact Fremont to have them contact all their delivery companies and will get some more signs – no trucks and no truck throughs — once we have in place. Police will need to ticket drivers not following the signs. We have contact google maps on several locations and have yet to get them to change the GPS route to the correct entrance. Problems also in the J & B Trucking area – semi trucks going down residential areas.
Several reports of additional street lights not working — please call the office with the MLV number on the pole to report problems. If lights are cycling on and off we may not notice the problem.
Committee Reports
Finance Committee: Ron Searight
Motion Stehenson Second Now to pay bills as submitted – $ 14,291.23
Heitkamp called for the question. Stephenson = y, Now = y, Heitkamp = y, Yoder = y, Searight = y. Passed 5 yes.
Motion Yoder to accept the Mayors Court pay in of $454.00. Second Stephenson. Now called for the question. Yoder = y, Stephenson = y , Now = y, Searight = y, Heitkamp. Passed 5 yes.
ORDINANCE 04-21
AN ORDINANCE TO MAKE APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE CURRENT EXPENSES AND OTHER EXPENDITURES OF THE VILLAGE OF ROCKFORD, STATE OF OHIO. DURING FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2022.
1st reading – 11/02/2021
2nd reading – 11/16/2021
Service Committee: Jessica and Chris
Open council seat — we have received several letter of interest. Will be setting up some interviews.
Safety Committee: Chris Heitkamp – (Mr. President) –
Economic Development Committee: Brad Now –
Shanes Crossing Subdivision – 7 Lots left for sale – contact Tammy Cheek with Homes at Ohio’s Edge Realty.
DORA updates – nothing at this time
Business Park updates – Meeting after Thanksgiving — moving forward – good news.
WRKD updates – in the process of trying to get a meeting scheduled just hasn’t happened yet. Should have before the next meeting.
Public Utilities Committee: Luke Stephenson –
The T-Mobile visit to Rockford was well attended. Was a steady flow of questions until about 6 pm. Finished up at 6:30 pm.
We are still hearing of some Verizon issues — please continue to call them with concerns and service issues – also mention safety concerns – wanting to make sure signals are good in case of emergency.
Rules Committee: Jessica Yoder –
224 Rogers Ave —- Fencing — Committee meeting was held and discussed what has been done in the past with other subdivision lot. We will allow the same variance — we allowed rot iron fencing and nothing else. Will review the minutes to see if there was anything else mentioned. Another solution would be to install an invisible fence.
Rockford Shopper Stop liquor license transferred to Vaani dba Rockford Food Mart — if not contesting this – Lisa to verify name change only – not leaving the location.
Old Business:
Working on Chamber Guide — will need Mayor photo and council photo
Motion Searight to go into Executive Session – regarding personnel –. Second Stephenson. Now called for the question. Searight = y, Stephenson = y, Now = y, Yoder = y, Heitkamp = y. Passed 5 yes. 8:11 pm
Motion Searight to come out of Executive Session. Second Yoder. Heitkamp called for the question. Searight = y, Yoder = y, Heitkamp = y, Searight = y, Now = y. Passed 5 yes. 8:35 pm
No action taken.
New Business:
New business coming to Rockford – Hole Shot Accessories – building on Main Street.
Meeting adjourned 8:35 pm
_________________________ _________________________
Mayor Fiscal officer.
