Madison Trustees delay decision on fire station upgrades
The Madison Township trustees will wait until their next meeting before deciding whether to approve some upgrades to Fire Station 2 on Belmont Avenue. Board members say they want some clarification on proposals that were presented by Fire Chief Ken Justus at their meeting on Monday.
Last month, Justus proposed work in five areas including removal of rotting siding, repairing the wall and replacing the meal siding, replacing all the windows, replacing two window air conditioners with central air conditioning, renovating the bunk room, replacing carpeting with laminate flooring and converting light fixtures to LED lighting. Trustee’s chairman Tom Craft said he did not believe the current furnace is capable of moving the air and asked Justus to come back with some figures.
During his administrative report on Monday, Justus presented two estimates for the renovation work — one from Rainbow of North Central Ohio for $84,593 and the other from Village Enterprise and More for $56,622. Rainbow currently is repairing the township hall through the township’s insurance company.
“They both did their measurements and did their math and came up with proposals,” Justus said.
In addition, Justus presented an earlier quote he received from Ebert’s Heating and Cooling for a new furnace and air conditioning unit for the living section for $17,063 with an additional $3,620 for a heater for the apparatus bay. Rainbow estimated their HVAC portion of the project at $10,200 while Village Enterprise estimated their HVAC portion at $12,200.
Craft said he is concerned that the Village Enterprise proposal did not include any engineering drawings.
“We could tie up $8,000 to $12,000 in engineering permitting so that takes (theirs) to $56,000 and makes it $70,000 or close to it,” he said.
Justus explained, “Both contractors said that because we are doing minor repairs and basic things and since we’re not actually physically changing the building, we don’t need architectural drawings.”
Craft said another area he is concerned with is that while Ebert’s stand-alone quote for heating and air conditioning included replacing all ductwork, it does not appear that the other two firms included that cost. He called the current duct work “junk” that was “not installed correctly” and asked Justus to check if replacement is included in the proposals as well as the issue of the drawings before the board acts on the request.
Justus has proposed that trustees use some of the township’s federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation to pay for the repairs. The current balance according to the fiscal officer’s report on Monday was $866,576.
Township Hall repairs from April storm nearly complete
On another renovation issue, Trustee Jim Houser reported that Rainbow International expects to finish repairs to the township hall, which was damaged by an April storm, by the end of this month.
“That’s not taking into consideration all the records that are now sitting in the meeting hall that need to go back upstairs or into some type of storage,” he said. “So physically moving out of here (rented space on Ashland Road) may be at the end of September. Our lease is good until the end of October.”
Fiscal Officer Leanna Rhodes reminded the board that they will have to review the records under the township’s record retention guidelines before any action is taken.
Houser also reported that remediation work has been completed on contaminated soil that was under the pad of a former commercial building that was demolished next to the main fire station on Expressview Drive. He said the original demolition contractor still needs to remove some foundation concrete and grade and finish the site.
Road Department rehire questioned
During public comment, Beal Road resident Tom McGinty asked if Road Department Supervisor Jim Baker will continue to receive the same pay, the same vacation and “the same everything as if he never left” under a retire/rehire that the trustees recently approved.
“PERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System) allows him to do it, and we do not pay the 8½% we used to pick up on his retirement,” Trustee Cathy Swank explained, adding that Baker is expected to completely retire in several years.
McGinty asked if the retire/rehire was a “wise decision on the township’s behalf.”
“We were able to retain his experience,” Houser responded.
In other business on Monday, trustees:
Agreed to buy a used 2016 sign truck from Mifflin Township for $25,000 to replace Madison’s 2001 model.
Voted to recertify six lighting districts for tax years 2023 through 2026 including Cairns Road, Dresden Drive, North Stewart Road 3, Manner Drive 2, and Neil Circle.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Madison Township trustees delay decision on Fire Station 2 upgrades
