ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT

JUNE 2017

 

PAULDING COUNTY VISIONING GROUP:

Erika Willitzer of Paulding Putnam Electric has headed up a county-wide effort to develop a county-wide comprehensive plan.  The Paulding County Commissioners have agreed to fund the plan and the group has contracted with Maumee Valley Planning Organization to assist in the development of the plan.  Dave Burtch, the interim board president of the group will be attending Monday night’s council meeting to give a brief description of the ultimate goal of the comprehensive plan and ask for a representative to be on this board.  I had been attending the initial meetings last year before I fell and haven’t been able to attend regularly.  I can represent the village on this board if council would like to nominate me to represent the village.  I had given the group early on the village’s comprehensive plan to show we had identified some of our goals as it pertains to community and business development.  There is a great article in the Paulding County Progress which I have attached so you will have a better understanding of the goals of this group.

 

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TO BUILD ANOTHER HOME:

Habitat for Humanity conducted a groundbreaking for their next home to be built on Weber Street in Antwerp.  Jan Reeb and this writer attended the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday.  Representative Reidel was also present.

 

PAULDING COUNTY HOSPITAL’S NEW MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING AND EXERCISE ROOM TO BREAK GROUND SOON:

The Paulding County Hospital will be conducting a groundbreaking in the next few weeks on their new medical office and exercise room.  The Village has met with their engineers in working out storm water retention issues and will conduct a public hearing on their request for a conditional use permit.  The lots where the hospital intends to build is zoned R-1, single family.  Medical offices are an allowable conditional use.  The public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 21, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. at town hall.  No objection to the conditional use permit is anticipated.  The hospital wants to have the new building completed by the end of the year.

 

STORM WATER ISSUES CONCERNING NORTH GARDEN APARTMENTS:

Residents of Buckeye Drive have contacted this writer concerning storm water runoff that occurs from the North Garden Apartments into their yards.  Councilman West can further explain what is occurring from the apartments lack of property storm drainage at Monday night’s council meeting.  When the project was built in 1989-1990 approved EPA plans were submitted to the Village.  Noted on the plans were numerous swales to handle the runoff from the roofs and parking lots of the new development.  Very little actual storm drainage is seen on the blueprints.  I cannot find any review by the village or village appointed engineers on the storm water containment.  I have on numerous occasions during my 11 years as the administrator contacted Deardorf Properties, owner of North Garden Apartments, to complain of the storm water issue to no avail.  Most recently, after talking to Councilman West and Buckeye Drive resident Katie Scharr, I again spoke to Deardorf Properties and followed up with a letter noting the continuing problem.  To date, I have not received any response from the company.  At this point, I am unsure what our next step might be to force the owners into addressing this issue.

 

NAPOLEON, DEFIANCE AND WESTERN RAILROAD LEASE AGREEMENTS:

The new owner of the railroad contacted the undersigned concerning prior agreements entered into with the Village for lease agreements for several sanitary line crossings under the railroad along with the Oasis parking lot lease.  The agreements are on the sanitary line leases were approved by Council in Ordinance 79-8 which called for a $134.50 per year payment.  No payments have been made or requested until this year.  With the purchase of the rail line from Maumee and Western, it was discovered that these payments needed to still be made.  An invoice for $538.00 is being requested for the sanitary line crossings to cover years 2013 through 2017.

The Oasis parking lot rental is for $120.00 per year with a total due through 2017 of $480.00.  As you recall the village didn’t enter into a new agreement with Maumee and Western several years ago due to the fact that they were requiring exorbitant liability coverage and the village let the new agreement drop.  The Napoleon, Defiance and Western Railroad is not asking for this liability insurance and it is felt that this is a reasonable amount for a heavily used parking lot.  I did forward the agreements and request for Melanie to review to ensure I haven’t missed anything detrimental to the village in the agreements.

 

VILLAGE OWNED LOT BETWEEN SMALL TOWN BLISS BEAUTY SALON AND LAUNDROMAT:

The Village of Antwerp owns a lot between the beauty shop and laundromat off of W. River Street.  The lot has been used for a public parking lot.  Please note this lot has never been an alley but was instead a lot that had a building on it in the past.  In the past, the lot was posted with signs stating no vehicle could be left for more than 72 hours according to Basic Code 95.05.  The sign was taken down sometime in the past.

Problems have arisen from the tenants of the Video Junction building.  The tenants have parked their vehicles in the lot for days, sometimes weeks on end without moving them.  The cars have had to be towed as they were non-functioning, have had expired plates, and in one case the car was reported stolen.  Additionally, in the last few weeks, a deer was field dressed in the lot which required one of the village utility workers to dig bloody stone out of the lot.

This writer posted signs once again, simply stating public parking, no overnight parking.  I have had reports that the owners of the apartments are upset and will be attending a council meeting to air their concerns.  Patrons to the beauty shop are unable to park in the lot and Real Waste Disposal has had to come back day after day to be able to get to a dumpster to empty it due to tenant cars parked in front of the dumpster.  No Parking Signs have been posted on the dumpster so Real Waste can get to it and there are still cars parked in front of it.  I don’t know what else I can do to keep this lot open to the public.

After speaking with Melanie, she has informed me we have to post the lots as “No leaving a vehicle for 48 hours or longer without notification to the Police Chief”  I will post our old signs that say 72 hours until I get the new signs made.

 

W. CANAL SIDEWALKS MARKED:

Sidewalks have been marked on W. Canal and there has been some uproar on the requirement to replace marked sidewalks.  I wanted to reiterate that the Village is not marking sidewalks due to their appearance, but rather we mark sidewalks due to the liability of a trip or fall.  The Village can be held liable just like the property owner if we are aware of a trip/fall hazard and didn’t take appropriate steps to have the sidewalk sections replaced.  The program has been in place because of this for 10 years.  We have had a property owner state he would simply pull his sidewalk out and plant grass seed in its place.  I have enclosed a copy of our sidewalk ordinance for your information should a property owner question our authority to marked sidewalks and why.