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Boardman saves money through grants
By ROBERT CONNELLY
BOARDMAN
Township officials highlighted grant money as one way that Boardman is saving money this year.
Police Chief Jack Nichols said during Monday’s trustees meeting that police received federal funding for two unmarked cars through the U.S. Marshals Service as well as Drug Enforcement Agency’s seized money. One already has been delivered, and Nichols expects the second car in about a month.
Nichols explained that the township has two officers assigned to the U.S. Marshals, DEA and FBI. Boardman still pays their salaries even though they work with a different agency.
The grant for vehicles is “one of the ways they give back to us,” he said.
The agency the department works with pays for overtime fees.
Although the township had to pay between $6,000 and $7,000 for its share of the funding from its road and bridge fund, Nichols noted: “We won’t have to buy any more vehicles this year.”
The chief added that the department has about $69,000 left over from a federal police grant used to hire two officers in 2011. The extra funds come from one of those officers resigning in November, and the funds will be applied to a new hire. That grant, about $430,000 in total, was to be used for salaries and benefits for two officers for three years beginning in 2011. It was set to expire in August, but the department was granted an extension until they used all the funding.
Zoning Inspector Sarah Gartland listed 87 residences on the high-grass nuisance list. The limit in the township is a height of 10 inches.
“As soon as it gets to 6 inches, call us, because by the time we get there, it will be 10 inches,” Gartland advised residents.
Trustees approved a resolution to give a nuisance citation to 87 Willow Drive. If the house is not fixed, the funds for that demolition will come from reimbursements the township received through the state’s Moving Ohio Forward demolition program.
Gartland also announced the township will be hosting an informal landlord-registration open house at the township office from 4 to 6 p.m. June 27. Gartland and her staff will ask for written comments and field questions from landlords. They then will use comments to help write the first draft of the new landlord registry and trustees will act on that draft later in the summer.