Town of Osgood Minutes

Regular Meeting
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
7:00 P.M.

Present at the meeting were Tammy Wilhoit, Steve Wilhoit, Norman Kappes, Chris Kuhn, Will Wallace, Roger Eadler, Jeremy Schmitt, Matt Wirth, Tony Wood, Lynn Fledderman, and Jason Smith.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Roll Call - Holley Rose was not present.

Motion to waive the reading and adopt the pre-read minutes. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 ayes

Open the public hearing for the 2022 Budget. Norman Kappes asked if anyone had questions, no one responded, the hearing was closed.

Motion for final adoption of the 2022 Budget and Ordinance 2021-6. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 - ayes

Old Business:

On June 30, 2021 Ripley County Area Plan Commission sent letters to:

4462 Hillcrest Drive: violation of abandoned vehicles, waste matter, junk, and debris. (Section 80.06 (I), Section 80.26 (J), and Section 80.38 (A) of the Ripley County Zone Code.)

401 E Fairground: violation of boats, campers, and trailers in yard. (Section 80.06 (I), Section 80.26 (J), and Section 80.38 (A) of the Ripley County Zone Code.)

230 S. Buckeye: violation of a semi-trailer being used for storage. (Section 80.33 (B)(7) of the Ripley County Zone Code.)

Lynn stated that she filed Ordinance violation lawsuits last week.

Status update:

445 N. Maple Street - car parked over sidewalk, damage to right-of-way. Lynn filed suit on it last week as well, ordinance violation and damages. Served by certified mail.

Motion to have trick or treat on Saturday, October 30^th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 ayes

Commonwealth Engineers - Matt Wirth was present to update the Council on options for the Water Project, since we did not receive OCRA or SWIF grants. Matt Wirth stated that they were extremely disappointed that OCRA and SWIF grants were not funded this time for the Water Project. There is no down side to reapplying. He stated the first thing we need is to have OCRA come down and explain why it wasn’t funded. Mary McCarty was on speaker phone, she stated that we do not have a community liaison that covers our area since Jennifer left. She has sent emails to ask if we can have a meeting. It probably won't be until next week. The project scored past the minimum threshold, they just ran out of funds. Next round of proposals are due the 15^th of October. We will need to hold a public hearing. She will get an ad in next Tuesday's paper. Both foundations are willing to hold the match, if we want to reapply. Hopefully the 3^rd time's the charm. Commonwealth can slow down design. OCRA should be announced in early February.

Motion to approve submitting again and holding the public hearing on Tuesday, October 12th at 10:00 a.m. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 - ayes

Commonwealth - Jeremy Schmitt stated that the 2021Community Crossing substantial completion was September 17^th. O’Mara is stating that the new substantial completion date is November 12th. Any additional inspection needed will need to be covered. They will have more news on that in the next week. Right now, we are okay on inspection until the end of September. We’ve applied for the next Community Crossings Grant, should hear back by late October early November. Commonwealth met today with Steve Wilhoit to talk about an alternate project, if we don’t get awarded the Community Crossings. The Downtown project was discussed and submitted for the READI grant.

2021 Community Crossing Project claims:

Commonwealth Engineers - $23,817.44 for construction and commissioning, RPR

Majestic Electric - $28,781.00 for pay estimate #2

Motion to approve and pay once funds are released. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 ayes

Dave O’Mara - pay application #3 for $115,038.71 and retainage of $6,054.68

Motion to approve pay application #3 for Dave O’Mara. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 ayes

Commonwealth will be responding to O’Mara’s substantial completion extension request.

The Town will be applying to the Reynolds Foundation for street lighting in the downtown areas as well as supplying electric for the mini park connection site. Council signed grant application.

Motion was made to put an ad in the paper for the police department position. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 ayes

Roger Eadler was present and stated that someone tried to put a bridge in at his property. He stated it's all torn up and it's a damn eyesore. Steve Wilhoit stated that we’ve done multiple change order requests at Mr. Eadler’s request: head walls were cut down, filled in 2’’ gap on wing walls, bank was dug out and fabric and rip rap was installed from the structure to the curve in the creek, covered all class II stone at structure with rip rap and placed a head wall to cover overflow pipe, blacktopped entrance next to state road 350 was repaired, repair consisted of adding 5 foot of asphalt to his drive where broken from unloading excavator, final stone was hauled in over work area. Steve requested the council to go look at it. Steve stated the project is closed out and all money has been returned. Chris Kuhn stated that he will go look at it and will contact Roger Eadler when he is there.

Police Department - Will Wallace turned in a monthly statistical report.

Wastewater Department - Tony Wood stated that all compliance schedules have been met. They are getting prepared to haul fertilizer. No issues with sewer.

Water Department - Tony Wood stated that O’Mara has changed out some hydrants from 1949 and 1962. They need to install water and sewer taps on Hillcrest Drive and get pad poured for the generator at the town hall. Most vulnerable issue he has right now is that a valve is stuck open. He had a contractor come down and they are going to try and assemble a crew to get the valve changed. They will need to drain the water tower or shut it off and get the valve changed out. It’s an emergency to get it fixed. He will buy another valve as a backup and have it setting on the shelf. The repair cost will run around $10,000. They have been in the process of covering shifts for people taking vacations. The REMC water tap is in. Some positive ground has been made in the right ways for the budget. He’s requesting to set up a meeting with Council at the end of the year to look at numbers.

Street Department - Steve Wilhoit stated that 408 E. Ripley Street easement will need to be expedited for the Community Crossing project. He said the Bricktoberfest was very successful and appreciates all the efforts from everyone involved including OBC, JCD, and the Town employees. He wanted to update the Council on the Freeman building, Tommy Poole came to look at the building. He requested Tommy to look to see if anything needed to be done right away to secure the building from the elements. He is still waiting to hear back on this. Ratio Design Company was here and will put together some scenarios of what the building can be used for. Steve stated that maybe we can do a public survey to get opinions on what to do with the building. Stacy Gray asked if she could hold some art classes there.

Motion was made to allow JCD to use it for art classes. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 -ayes

Steve also stated that the garbage contract is up in June, and that we need to work out some details. Some problems we are having right now is that when renters move out; they are putting the entire house to the curb for heavy trash pick-up and the trailer court added a lot more trailers. Not sure how to handle the heavy trash issues because it is adding to our tonnage.

Steve brought to Council’s attention that a resident was asking about the house on North Street that had caught fire in April of this year. They wanted to know how long does the house sit there without anything being done to it? They stated there is a hole in the roof. Lynn explained that it could have something to do with the insurance, but we need to look at the county zoning code or unsafe building statutes. Lynn also suggested that she could reach out to the homeowners to see what the holdup is.

Claims were signed

Motion to adjourn the meeting. Chris 1^st, Norman 2^nd
2 - ayes

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