ARCANUM — During its Tuesday night meeting, Arcanum Village Council decided it will hold a special planning session January 16 to further discuss plans going forward to handle the village’s bat-infested municipal building.
Village Administrator Bill Kessler asked council for permission to contract with one of six state-approved companies he contacted to have the building sealed and evacuated of bats. The plan is to seal the building and install reverse doors, whereas the bats will be able to leave but not reenter. As well the bats will be counted. The cost estimate is approximately $7,500.
“In order for us to do anything with this building, we have to seal the building up and get rid of the bats,” said Kessler. “We can’t go in and kill them, they have to be eliminated from the building.” Kessler said it would need to be decided by the end of January so the work can be done in March or April, as there is only a three-week window in the spring or in the fall. Otherwise, the procedure would have to wait until October 2018.
Councilman Greg Baumle questioned the cost of having the work performed, as council is planning to either sell or demolish the building within the next two years.
“I don’t want to run into a situation where we keep putting things off,” said Kessler, noting Chillicothe’s similar problem with bats in its municipal building.
Council will meet for the planning session January 16 at 7:30 p.m.
As far as a new municipal building for the village, Kessler said there are currently three lots under consideration: The parking area across the street from the current building, and lots near the Arcanum VFW and between the substation and street garage. Constructing and funding a new municipal building will require future legislative action by council.
Among other business, Arcanum Fire Chief Kurt Troutwine informed council arrangements had been made to sell its old fire engine to a fire department in North Dakota for $35,000. Troutwine said approximately $19,000 of the proceeds from the sale will go towards funding new MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) pagers for the department, in anticipation of the countywide switchover to MARCS in April.
Arcanum Village Council’s next regular meeting is January 30 at 7:30 p.m. at its temporary meeting location at All American Clothing Company, 1 Pop Rite Drive.
