Meeting Minutes: October 19, 2021
Council called to order by Mayor Amy Joseph, Tuesday, October 19, 2021
at 7:30 pm.
Invocation – The Lord’s Prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
Those present: Yoder, Stephenson, Now, Heitkamp
Searight and Pontsler – absent
Also attending: Srgt Stetler, Marge Gehle, Robbie Peel, and Sydney from the Daily Standard.
Motion Stephenson. Second Now to accept the agenda as orders of the day.
Yoder called for the question. Stephenson = y, Now = y, Yoder = y, Heitkamp = y, Passed 4 yes.
Motion Yoder. Second Stephenson to accept the minutes from the October 5, 2021 council meeting as presented. Heitkamp called for the question. Yoder = y, Stephenson = y, Heitkamp = y, Now = y. Passed 4 yes.
Visitors to Address Council:
Mayor’s Report and Correspondence:
Received Mayors court bank statement and bank reconciliation. – No pay in this month.
Community Announcements and events:
Join us October 30th for a full day of festivities in Rockford. Starting at 10am at the heart of it all – Rockford’s Main Street! Enjoy the vendors market and retail specials at participating businesses. Take in the fall decorations, fresh air, and local eats, while socializing with your community.
** Full list of events and vendors on the Rockford Ohio Chamber of Commerce Facebook page **
10 am- Opening Ceremony – Rockford American Legion beside the fire house
10-2 pm Main Street retail specials / vendor market / Food
Get your photo with BLU THE VELOCIRAPTOR from 12pm-1pm @ The People’s Bank Parking Lot
2 – 4 pm The Ohio Village Muffins @ Shanes Park –
Vintage baseball Club
5 – 6:30 pm Trick or Treat in the Village –
7 pm – Costume Judging and food at the Fire House –
Business Decorating Contest — Vote on the Chamber Facebook page by November 1st.
Monday – November 1st – 6 pm — Ground breaking at New Horizons –
$2.3 million expansion begins.
Tuesday – November 2nd – General Election –
voting @ Rockford Community Building.
Tuesday – November 9th – Brush pick up
Friday – November 12 — St. Teresa Chili Soup and Sandwich supper
4:30-7:00pm Dine in or Carry Out – Free will donation
Rockford Community Building
Saturday – November 13th – Night at the Races – doors open at 6 pm
Rockford Community building
Thursday and Friday – November 25 & 26th — Thanksgiving – Village office closed.
Village Administrator’s Report – Aaron Temple
No information on grant application for the water tower project.
Aerators are here and will be installed next week.
Received an inquiry for the business park – good news. We are working with Access Engineering to get topography done for the designated business park area and working to get all the property annexed.
Residential property maintenance – we have had to removed some bushes recently from a property. We sent out 15 violation letters and we have had to do 16 property maintenances this year. Several of them repeat offenders. We have a couple more coming in the next week or so. Fees that have not been paid have been sent to the county auditor as assessments to property taxes.
Leaf pick up — could begin next week. We are ready once the leaves start falling.
Mayor asked about Pearl Street tree —- Yes – we are aware of the tree. We will get to it.
Committee Reports
Finance Committee: Ron Searight – absent report by Brad Now.
Motion Yoder. Second Heitkamp to pay bills as submitted – $ $18,328.60.
Stephenson called for the question. Yoder = y, Heitkamp = y, Stephenson = y, Now = y. Passed 5 yes.
No Mayors court pay in this month.
RESOLUTION 06-21
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM ACCOUNTS THAT ARE NO LONGER ACTIVE TO THE WATER FUND AND TO THE SEWER FUND AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
1st reading – 09/07/2021
2nd reading – 10/05/2021
3rd reading – 10/19/2021
Motion Stephenson. Second Heitkamp. Yoder called for the question. Stephenson = y, Heitkamp = y, Yoder = y, Now = y, Passed 4 yes.
Finance meeting was held on Wednesday – October 13th – 7 pm —Aaron, Brad and Ron in attendance. Reviewed the 2022 appropriations with Ron to get him up to speed. November we will have the ordinance for the budget and pay schedule for 2022.
Service Committee: Greg Pontsler – absent Report from Mayor Joseph
Park meeting was held last week. We have some volunteers to remodel the Santa House at Shanes Park. They will also supply the needed materials. Will be installing a mail box and Mrs. Claus will be replying to letters that have return addresses included with letter. We will be reaching out to local businesses and organization to get sponsors to take care of decorating sections of the park. This responsibility includes setting up and taking down of decoration. There are decorations available for use at the Village office or you can use your own.
Please do not hook up extension cords throughout the park until all the leaves are picked up !
Rec programs finishing up for the season. We will be closing the bathrooms after Fall Fest Village Muffins vs local athletes October 30th.
Pickle ball nets will be put away for the winter.
Safety Committee: Chris Heitkamp – (Mr. President) –
Some trees have been trimmed – more needed done. On the list.
Economic Development Committee: Brad Now –
Shanes Crossing Subdivision – 7 Lots left for sale – contact Tammy Cheek with Homes at Ohio’s Edge Realty.
Reminder – The Village of Rockford is a Community Reinvestment Area –
• Percentage of tax exemption on the increase in assessed valuation resulting from improvements.
• 50% for 5 years for construction or remodeling of dwellings of at least $2,500.00
• Also some incentives for commercial or industrial facilities
Contact Village office for more information.
WRKD – doing a good job. Things going well.
Public Utilities Committee: Luke Stephenson –
Cell phone providers – customer service numbers — letters don’t work – providers want to hear from the customer directly.
AT & T – 1-800-331-0500 – mention ‘service issues’
Sprint / T-mobile – 1-800-937-8997 – offered to come to meeting and/or have a Rockford Day at the Village office ?
Verizon – (most requested) 1-800-922-0204 – mention ‘representative’ x 2
We have heard from Sprint / T-Mobile they were in the village running tests — they had very good results with the 5G signal. They have offered time for residents to speak to representatives with concerns and information on upgrading older phone systems that might not be compatible with the new technology. Maybe you have another carrier and interested in switching services.?
Sprint / T-Mobile day will be held at the Rockford Village Office on
Friday, November 5th from noon – 7 pm. Stop by ! There will be several representatives to answer questions and get you set up for better service.
Rules Committee: Jessica Yoder –
Old Business:
DORA —- Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area — we touched on discussion about this earlier in the year. The Economic Development committee will contact local businesses for discussions / look at designating an area. If we get positive feedback we will proceed with filling out the application. This will create other opportunities for outdoor events in the downtown area.
New Business:
In other economic news – we have been contacted by several medical marijuana dispensaries wanting information for zoning regulations for the Village. In doing some research there area 3 located in the general area – Wapakoneta, Bowling Green and Dayton. Ohio is looking at tripling the number of dispensaries in the next several years. The committee will be looking into restrictions, zoning and contacting Wapakoneta to see what they view as benefits and negatives to having a dispensary in their city.
Meeting adjourned 8:21 pm
_________________________ _________________________
Mayor Fiscal officer.
