Staff report

LIBERTY

Township trustees approved an agreement with Blue Line Solutions, a Tennessee-based speed camera company.

Blue Line will replace Optotraffic, a Maryland-based speed camera company, effective July 1.

Liberty has been contracting with Optotraffic since 2016. The company and the township signed an agreement in February for Optotraffic to send the township $2,700 a month for police overtime costs that stem from operating speed cameras.

Nearby communities, including Weathersfield, Girard and Howland, also contract with Blue Line Solutions.

In other business at the meeting earlier this week, trustees unanimously voted against a 50-percent, 10-year tax abatement for the Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Retirement Services facility on Tibbetts Wick Road.

The nursing and assisted-living units are exempt from taxes because of a state law that exempts nonprofit nursing homes and residential-care facilities.

The tax abatement that the company requested would have applied to the rest of the facility.

The tax abatement “have always been looked at before someone starts breaking ground. That’s when they are supposed to apply for the tax abatement. This was applied for after they broke ground,” Trustee Jodi Stoyak said.

Trustee Arnie Clebone said the tax abatement, which is part of a Community Reinvestment Area Agreement incentive, is meant for companies that need the abatement to get a business off the ground, but this company is already in the process of building its facility.

Trustees also approved a five-year, 1.5-mill renewal fire levy for November’s general election ballot.

Megan Goehring and Chelsea Caggiano were hired as part-time firefighters/emergency medical technicians at a rate of $12 per hour with no benefits pending pre-employment drug testing.