Galena appoints Adams to Council; votes to sell its Municipal Building

Galena Vil­lage Coun­cil appointed Dave Adams to a Coun­cil posi­tion vacated by Rudy Rodriguez who resigned recently. Adams will com­plete the term that runs through 2013. He is in the con­struc­tion indus­try and has worked for the Trucco Con­struc­tion Com­pany for the past 14 years and is cur­rently a superintendent.

Coun­cil also voted to adver­tise for bids to sell its cur­rent Vil­lage Munic­i­pal Build­ing at 9 West Colum­bus Street. Coun­cil will hire Mur­phy and Asso­ciates Real Estate to mar­ket the build­ing which was built in 1906 as the Galena Bank. The stone and brick build­ing sits on the busy Vil­lage Square and fea­tures a large walk-in safe with a vault under­neath. The Vil­lage uses the lower level of the build­ing for Coun­cil cham­bers. The 1,064-square-foot upper level has three staff office areas with 11-foot ceil­ings and large win­dows over­look­ing Big Wal­nut Creek. The build­ing must be adver­tised for bids accord­ing to Ohio Revised Code require­ments. Coun­cil placed a min­i­mum bid at $190,000.

The Vil­lage will move within the next sev­eral months into the ren­o­vated Galena Vil­lage Hall on Har­ri­son Street in the for­mer Galena United Methodist Church. Ren­o­va­tions are pro­gress­ing. A new Amer­i­can with Dis­abil­i­ties Act (ADA) bath­room and park­ing space have been added. Asbestos has been removed from the mechan­i­cal room. A sound/recording sys­tem is being installed and the entire build­ing has been cabled for new tech­nol­ogy. New emer­gency light­ing and fire exit signs are being added and elec­tri­cal and light­ing fix­ture improve­ments are being made. The stage is being recon­fig­ured for a more flex­i­ble arrange­ment in the old Sanc­tu­ary which will serve as Coun­cil Cham­bers. Then, fin­ish­ing touches such as paint, ceil­ing tiles and floor­ing will go in.

Delaware County Gen­eral Health Dis­trict Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nancy Shapiro was in Coun­cil lob­by­ing for tobacco-free play­grounds. Shapiro talked about how sec­ond­hand smoke is harm­ful even out­doors since it is a car­cino­gen with no safe level of expo­sure. Increases in asthma and other res­pi­ra­tory dis­eases in chil­dren are related to sec­ond­hand smoke. Shapiro added that cig­a­rette butt lit­ter is harm­ful to chil­dren and the envi­ron­ment since the butts are not biodegrad­able and leach harm­ful chem­i­cals such as cad­mium, lead and arsenic.

Res­i­dents from Alexan­der Road came before Coun­cil to com­plain about long-term crime on their road that they believe is linked to the Berk­shire Lakes camp­ground and restaurant/bar. The Vil­lage pledged to send a let­ter to the camp­ground own­ers since the camp­ground is in the Vil­lage and rec­om­mended that the Berk­shire Town­ship res­i­dents also con­tact their trustees regard­ing these concerns.

Coun­cil heard an update on the Wal­nut Street recon­struc­tion project which is planned to fea­ture storm water friendly per­me­able pavers. The project runs from High to Church streets. Del-Co Water will move its water line from the west side of Wal­nut Street to the east side in the next few weeks. Coun­cil passed an ordi­nance approv­ing an ease­ment for related future water line work as well. Colum­bia Gas plans to move its lines from High Street all the way to Har­ri­son Street, but can­not start until late Sep­tem­ber or Octo­ber. That will most likely delay road con­struc­tion until next spring. The Vil­lage is prepar­ing to bid out mate­ri­als and con­struc­tion separately.

Paper­work is com­plete to cre­ate the Galena His­tor­i­cal Foun­da­tion and John Bland will be its pres­i­dent. The Vil­lage is work­ing on details to lease a room in the new Vil­lage Hall to the foun­da­tion for a museum. Bland has accu­mu­lated a vari­ety of his­tor­i­cal items that he intends to donate to the foun­da­tion. Sharon Bland and Ken Mol­nar also serve on the foun­da­tion board and more vol­un­teers are needed.

By all accounts the Greater Galena Civic Association’s Sum­mer­fest was a big suc­cess. The Village’s his­tor­i­cal and parks wagon tours were pop­u­lar and nearly 100 peo­ple attended the chim­ney swift pro­gram at the Galena Vil­lage Hall.

Main­te­nance Super­vi­sor Jeff Stokes has been busy prep­ping the grounds for Sum­mer­fest and assist­ing with Galena Vil­lage Hall work. He has worked on clean-up fol­low­ing four major storms and arranged for removal of sev­eral trees on Vil­lage prop­erty. Chip­ping is occur­ring on an ongo­ing basis rather than monthly now. AEP is also plan­ning to do lots of trim­ming around its lines. Stokes also inven­to­ried street lights and reported out­ages to AEP.

Fis­cal Offi­cer Marty Mazzie gave an overview of income tax trends which have increased dur­ing the first quar­ter, but decreased dur­ing the sec­ond. With new res­i­dents, she expects taxes to level out. Coun­cil passed an ordi­nance cer­ti­fy­ing delin­quent sewer bills to the county audi­tor for tax liens.

Posted by Gary Henery on Sep 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.