SWANTON — On Monday, village council approved a third and final reading to prohibit marijuana sales within the village.
The plan, as discussed in an earlier council meeting, has the council’s planning committee charged with investigating how other towns had dealt with marijuana shops in their municipal limits.
Mayor Neil Toeppe told council that statistics about population versus shops indicate the village could have one to two shops in town. The mayor said his contacts in the Ohio legislature indicated that it would be seven to 12 months before every detail from licensing to tax collection is decided.
Before the vote, council member Mike Disbrow said the decisions coming from the planning commission should be made sooner rather than later so the village can establish itself in the new market instead of having the marijuana shop income going to neighboring villages.
In other matters, reports were presented from the superintendents of three village departments.
Neil Tedrow, public service department superintendent, said the recent snow storm had been hard on the equipment with three plows breaking down while plowing.
Two were minor fixes, while the other went to Swanton Welding for a temporary fix. Tedrow said they also removed two downed trees on Saturday. He said the traffic light on State Route 64 south and Airport Highway had issues because of snow covering up the sensor.
Ryan Yackee, superintendent of the water department, said Kirk Bros. were on site Jan. 4 to work on punch list items for the membrane projects. He noted that with the new system, there is roughly a 40% drop in chemicals costs so far. He also said the lead service line inventories are due to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency by October.
Council member Dianne Westhoven told Yackee she was very pleased with the leak warning program set up by the village last year.
“We had left the water drip from the faucets during the cold weather last week and we got a call from the water department that we may have a leak,” she said.
Yackee said the system was quite sensitive, with a loss of a tenth of a gallon per hour triggering the leak alarm. For example, he said one time they kept getting a leak warning from a home, but could find nothing.
“It wasn’t until we heard the furnace come on, that the detector went out and we realized the furnace’s humidifier was using the water,” he said.
Joe Tillison, the new superintendent of the wastewater plant who began work for the village Monday, thanked the council and village administrator for giving him an opportunity to serve. He said he lived near Bowling Green and had 20 years of experience with wastewater recovery systems.
Shannon Shulters, village administrator, said she met with RJ Lumbrezer of DGL Consulting Engineers regarding paving a number of alleys, the creation of a parking lot across from the V.F.W., the parking lot next to DeEtte’s Dream Diner and the park road. She wanted to see how much it would cost to make this one project.
Shulters also said the first Planning Commission meeting was held Jan. 9 and discussed the Holly Jolly sheds and to grant a variance on their locations since the fire chief and the fire marshal did not see a need to have them moved. She said that while code requires them to be 10 feet apart and 10 feet away from the original structure, their locations of six feet apart and eight feet from the original structure will be fine.
Finance director Holden Benfield reported the switch in village employee insurance to Medical Mutual insurance from United Healthcare was saving them approximately $81,000 per year.
Two members of council, Bob Schmidt and Derek Kania, were absent from council that night, so votes on three emergency resolutions were tabled until the next meeting. Those three resolutions were to certify the county auditor’s assessment and lien on 208 Carriage Lane, to certify an assessment and lien on 206 Cass St. and to authorize support for an application to the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation Firefighter Exposure to Environmental Elements grant program.