Hartville Village Council appoints former member to fill vacancy

The Repository
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Hartville Village Council

Monday meeting

KEY ACTION: Appointed former Hartville Village Council member Jim Sullivan to fill the council vacancy following the June 13 resignation of Councilman Bill Muncy.

DISCUSSION: After the appointment, Mayor Cynthia Billings brought up for discussion the possibility of reducing the number of council members from six to five. "People have asked why we don’t have [an uneven] number to have a tie breaker," she said, adding that the number of recent council resignations may also be a reason to reduce the number of members. Since March, three council members and former village Solicitor Ron Starkey have resigned. Billings said she was advised by village legal counsel that reducing the number of council members to five would be a two-step process that would include placing the issue before voters in a year in which no council seats are being contested and the five-member council taking effect the following year. Council took no action at the June 27 meeting related to the proposal.

OTHER ACTIONS:

  • Approved the annexation of a 0.2-acre property on Bixler Avenue NE in Lake Township into the village. Councilwoman Bev Green noted the parcel is an access road onto the Giant Eagle grocery store property at 907 W. Maple St.

  • Approved a policy requiring property owners outside the village seeking village sewer service to sign annexation agreements as a condition of receiving of municipal services.

  • Approved the continuation of an electric aggregation agreement with Energy Harbor for one year. The agreement includes an opt-out clause for residents and Billings noted that the final cost is 0.101 cents/kilowatt hour (kWh) less than Energy Harbor’s original 10.78 kWh quote.

  • Approved a change order for paving work in the village completed this year for $45,582 under the proposed $361,302 project cost. Council also approved $3,000 more for engineering and inspection work by CTR Engineering due to the project taking several months longer than expected to complete.

  • Announced mosquito spraying dates in the village for July 5 and 19; Aug. 2 and 10; and Sept. 1.

UP NEXT: Meets for its next regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. July 11 at Hartville Village Hall, 202 W. Maple St., and online at www.facebook.com/VillageofHartville.

Brian Lisik

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Hartville Village Council appoints Jim Sullivan to fill vacancy