BRADFORD — Mayor Don Stump appointed a new council member to the open seat on the village council during the council’s meeting Thursday evening.

Stump appointed Randell Nicks of Bradford to the open seat vacated by former council member Tom Moore. Nicks expressed an interest in filling the open seat at the council’s last meeting in February.

Nicks, who has been living in Bradford for about 15 years, is an IT manager and has been interested for a while in serving the village by taking part in the council. “I just found out there was an open seat,” Nicks said.

The village is also moving forward with the community’s veterans’ banners project after the council’s buildings and grounds committee recommended allowing the Community Club to hang the banners on village light poles. The banners will feature different local veterans, similar to the veterans’ banners in West Milton and Piqua.

Council member Jeff Wirrig said the committee recently met with Julie Wombold of Bradford, who originally proposed the idea to the council in December, along with other community members working on that project.

“After the discussion, we got the following recommendation, and that is that they can use 50 light poles for the banners, that they could be up for a year — basically from May to November, from Memorial Day to Veterans Day — and if they get too many, we would be willing to rotate them out every three months at their discretion of who they want to take down and put up,” Wirrig said. “Club will store them, and the lines of communication will remain open.”

Wirrig said that they are getting prices for banner arms and supports for the light poles in the park, as those currently do not have any.

The council approved the committee’s recommendation.

Council member Bob Daughtery updated the council on the insurance committee’s decision to renew the employee health insurance for the village employees. The village’s premium will decrease by 0.3 percent, and employee deductibles will increase by $100.

The council also approved this committee recommendation. The council also later approved offering the same health savings accounts as last year, which are $3,000 for family plans and $1,500 for one person plans.

During Village Administrator Rick Looker’s report, Looker that village is working on the 2018 budget as well as on a contract with Rumpke for their garbage and recycling collection.

Looker said, “We’re looking at going to actual toters,” instead of the small bins they currently use for recycling.

Looker also said that he would like to include a clause in the contract that would get Rumpke to pick up bulk items as needed by the village. The council will then have the option as to whether or not they want to go out to bid for trash collection or to accept Rumpke’s quote without going out to bid.

Looker also updated the council on the wastewater plant working to meet Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements in regard to removing phosphorus from their affluent wastewater. He said that the Ohio EPA’s compliance team has met with the village, and the village is working on a letter to send to the Ohio EPA with the village’s compliance schedule to lower their phosphorus levels. Looker added that the village’s engineer has another recommendation about how they can help lower those levels.

“I think we’re all optimistic that we can find a solution to this,” Looker said.

During Stump’s report, he approved garage sale days to take place in the village from June 7-10.

Stump also met with the Miami County Sheriff’s Office in regard to a request from a local pastor for an increased police presence on Sunday mornings. He said that the sheriff’s office agreed to have their deputies check the area more often at that time.

During public comment earlier in the meeting, a resident voiced complaints about newspapers being left piling up outside, noting free newspapers delivered throughout the village, as well as about junk items being left on the curb for long periods of time that do not get picked up as part of the trash collection. “There was a TV on Church Street for three weeks,” he said.

The resident also expressed concern about vicious dogs, particularly pit bulls.

Stump recommended calling 911 about any vicious dogs.

Council member Sandra Miller was absent.