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Canfield Township tables vote on hiring part-time worker
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Township officials tabled a vote on hiring a part-time worker and discussed street-lighting concerns.
The part-timer would have worked for $10 an hour for 15 hours a week.
Trustee Marie Cartwright opposed hiring more help and thought hiring someone without advertising the job could be against the law.
The worker was set to help fiscal officer Carmen Heasley with year-end work and typing up minutes from trustee meetings.
Heasley said the woman who trustees were to sign off on had done similar work as an independent contractor and was paid $50 per each set of minutes she produced using her own equipment.
“I do question why we’re taking this action,” Cartwright said of the part-time position.
That conversation led officials to discuss needing to advertise and find back-up winter workers, such as plow men.
Trustees approved the contract not to exceed $875 to install an 18-foot-wide gate to block off the entrance to the township’s salt dome.
Gabriel’s Fence, based in Canfield, is doing the work and it is expected to be installed next week.
During the public comment section, Ohio Edison spokesman David Turner talked about streetlights.
Turner encouraged the township to look at putting a link to Ohio Edison’s website to report streetlight outages on its township website.
He added surrounding communities do that, such as Canfield city and Boardman.
“One of the benefits of using our online system is that for every resident that puts in a streetlight, they receive a notification and a work order number they can use to track that,” Turner explained.
Customers just need to put in an intersection and an address of where the pole is in front of.
Turner even recommended residents tying a ribbon around the pole that needs to be changed. That’s because most lights are changed during the daylight.