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Weathersfield trustees will develop plan to improve community
By Mary Smith
MINERAL RIDGE
Weathersfield Township trustees have agreed to work with the All-American Community Initiative, a national group that can help with planning and generating ideas for improving and developing particular community areas.
Trustees will target state Route 46, Route 169 and Robbins Avenue under the initiative, and will enlist the support of community members to develop plans for developing and revitalization of those areas. Zoning also will be used to help accomplish the goals.
Trustees plan to construct a large, illuminated flagpole on Route 46.
In other business at the trustees’ meeting this week, township Administrator David Rouan informed the panel Weathersfield received an additional $14,000 grant from the Ohio Attorney General Moving Forward Ohio Grant Program to help pay for the demolition of a home that has been condemned at 2185 Gardenland Ave. in McKinley Heights.
Trustees also adopted an agreement, based on state language, concerning the use of bullet-proof vests in the police department. The agreement requires any new police officers or part-time officers to stay with the department for 18 months and the vests will be theirs at no cost.
The custom-fitted vests cost $800 each. If an officer leaves before the 18-month period, he will have to pay 50 percent of the cost of the vest on a prorated basis.
The township has received an Ohio Township Association Risk Management Authority Grant for $500 which will be put toward the purchase of new vests, Rouan said.
The township is providing seven vests for officers and will have to start planning for vest replacements in the spring or summer, Rouan said, when they are due to be certified for use.
The vests are considered a “perishable item,” and after a certain date they are no longer certified, he added.
Trustees will ask the Ohio Department of Transportation to provide Quick Clear training to the township’s safety forces and highway department at no cost to the township.
The training is to teach township personnel how to clear a large accident scene.