GALION, Ohio – It was standing room only at Tuesday’s Galion City Hall for the council meeting which included a full agenda with plenty of discussion. Council tabled the detachment petition, approved a sewer rate decrease and passed the establishment of a Freese Grant Advisory Board.
Detachment petition
Galion property owners along state Route 61, or about 177 acres, are asking to detach from the city of Galion. The petition has been through committee and was given its first reading before council last month.
Councilman Steve Rowan read a statement written by him stating that those residents were annexed in back in 2003 and were expecting city water. He said they have waiting 11 years for water to be piped out to them, all the while paying income taxes and property taxes. The project was never done.
Rowan said that in 2012 council had approved the then city manager Gene Toy, to go after a grant for the project from Ohio Public Works Commission for about $318,000 in the form of a no-interest loan. The project got lost in the shuffle when the new form of government came in. He said those residents are detaching because they never got water.
“It’s a big mistake not to provide water. There’s enough in the fund to provide water to those seven residents.” He urged council to table the ordinance requesting the detachment and take the water issue back to the utilities committee and work out a way to get them water.
Belinda Miller from the state auditor’s office said the city was never awarded the grant money, and it was never appropriated. It was never added to the budget. The city’s recovery plan (needed because of the city being in fiscal emergency) was not amended to show that project.
Mayor O’Leary said he did not see an assessment fee in the 2012 ordinance. He also questioned the wisdom of such an expensive project for only seven people.
With two dissenting votes, council voted to table the issue and send the ordinance back to the utilities committee.
Sewer rate decrease
The Galion council passed a new rate schedule for sewer service to residents of Galion inside and outside the city limits. O’Leary stated that after reviewing revenue in the sewer fund the adjustment was possible. “Residents will see a reduction in the sewer rate,” said O’Leary. “It went through committee unanimously.” He said residents will see a decrease of about $8.75 per month. New rates go into effect Jan. 1.
Freese Grand Advisory Board
The Egbert M. Freese Foundation was established by Horace E. Freese and is a source of income for many projects including some for the city of Galion. The council approved the creation of the advisory board which will form rules and criteria for the use of the money, and bring recommendations to the city council. Members of the advisory board will include the mayor, the safety service director, the president of council and two residents, one chosen by the president of council and the other chosen by the mayor.
The two residents will be announced at a later date, and the board will meet quarterly.
Law Director Thomas Palmer reported that the city offices have received over 100 requests for public records this year. He said the requests that are interdepartmental are more cumbersome and require collating.
“If you want things as they are collected [instead of all at once] then just ask,” he said.
Mayor O’Leary said the southeast portion of Galion had another power outage lasting four hours. The culprit this time was a burned line at the Dawsett Substation. The city is waiting for engineering plans for the project to be completed so the city can go out to bid. Until then, the line department is researching ways to deal with the problem until the substation can be rebuilt.
