Bradford Council member resigns

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BRADFORD — A seat is open on the Bradford Council after a member resigned on Thursday over attendance issues.

Former council member Sandra Miller, who was absent during their meeting on Thursday evening, submitted her resignation to Mayor Don Stump.

Stump said that he heard from Miller prior to the meeting and said, “(she said) she’s going to go ahead and give up her seat.” Stump said Miller said that she is unable to attend every council meeting and that if someone else is able to, then they should have an opportunity to do so.

The council has 30 days to appoint someone to fill the seat. Afterward, the choice of whom to appoint will be up to Stump.

Also during their meeting, the council gave its consensus to its engineer Brice Schmitmeyer, president of Access Engineering, for the Harrison Street reconstruction project to include replacing sanitary sewer lines on side streets as part of the project. That sanitary sewer work for the side streets — including on Vine, Church, James, Smithfield and Elm streets — was not included in the original scope of the project.

The additional work may require the village to get a loan to fund it as it was previously not budgeted for the project. The village had previously budgeted $460,000 for the local portion of the project, but that amount still came in under approximately $170,000 for the estimated cost of replacing the sanitary sewers on the side streets.

The project will be funded with $50,000 from a Community Development Block Grant allocation; $280,000 from another CDBG grant; $405,000 from a Ohio Public Works Commission grant; $405,000 from an OPWC loan and an estimated local portion of $630,000.

Village Administrator Rick Looker said the village could find those additional funds within its budget, but it may limit the village’s options for other projects in the future versus if the village chose to get an additional loan to pay for that portion of the project.

Schmitmeyer said if the council chose not to replace the sanitary sewer lines on those side streets, the village probably would have to look at replacing them sometime in the next 10-15 years. This project also already included the overlay of new pavement on those side streets.

Council member Jeff Wirrig asked if the condition of the sewer lines were “shot,” and Schmitmeyer said that they were getting to that point.

“If it’s shot underneath there, then it needs to be done,” Wirrig said. The rest of the council appeared to agree.

Later on, Looker went over updates with the wastewater and water treatment plants.

After discussing the possibility of putting cameras at the plants and how they would hook them up to the internet, Looker discussed how the village recently lost internet at the water plant for a couple days, prompting the village to discuss the possibility of having Spectrum connecting fiber internet directly to the wastewater and water plants.

“This past weekend, we had, I would say, a major event that took place, one that we didn’t expect to happen,” Looker said. “We lost some power. When the power got rebooted up, the water plant didn’t respond the way it should have responded. In all observations, it looked like it was running when it really wasn’t running.”

The water plant lost internet for a period of time, and the water tower lost 80 percent of its capacity before the plant was able to get running again.

“Not having a reliable internet system for those (plants) is … like we’re teeter-tottering on danger here,” Looker said.

The village spoke with Spectrum about getting the plants connected with a direct line internet system instead of a wifi system. The plants currently are using Hometown Cable wifi. The village is waiting on a quote from Spectrum to see how much its plan would cost in addition to how much it would cost to connect to the plants with fiber.

Looker also said the village is back in compliance with Ohio EPA regulations in regard to their phosphorus output. Looker explained that they made some adjustments, such as with their blowers, to help the biological processes return to removing phosphorus more efficiently again.

The council also approved the cost of approximately $4,568 for a replacement pump at the wastewater plant.

The council approved ordinances to increase the seriousness of charges for repeat offenses of property maintenance violations for commercial and residential properties after holding the third readings of those ordinances. Property owners cited with property maintenance violations are currently facing a fourth-degree misdemeanor. This ordinance will charge repeat offenders with a third-degree misdemeanor and higher up the scale if needed.

The council also approved the tax rates from the Miami County and Darke County budget commissions. The council waived the three-reading rule on those resolutions, which appear annually before the council and are not an increase.

The council also canceled its meetings on Oct. 11, Nov. 22, and Dec. 27, due to the Pumpkin Show and the holidays.

The ordinance committee will be meeting at 5 p.m. Monday at the municipal building, 115 N. Miami Ave., to discuss ordinances on sheds and fences.

Council has 30 days to fill Miller’s seat

By Sam Wildow

[email protected]

Reach Sam Wildow at [email protected].

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