Williams work won't happen

Fort Recovery had planned to make Williams Street its 2016 reconstruction project, but cost will prevent that from happening.
An estimate from Choice One Engineering for work including widening the road came in at $500,000, village administrator Randy Diller told village council Monday.
Council also decided to purchase one tablet after hearing details from village solicitor and grants coordinator Erin Minor about the proposal.
The village had planned to spend up to $275,000 on a street reconstruction project.
Diller knocked some costs off, including street lights, which were budgeted elsewhere, and got the estimate to just under $400,000.
“Maybe this year we back off and we do one of these other smaller blocks for $125,000, carry some of that money over for next year,” Diller said.
The village may also receive grant money for the Williams Street project
Diller will get estimates for other potential reconstruction projects to bring to council.
Minor spoke to a representative from Loudy Office Machines about the Continued from page 1
village considering tablets to cut down on paper usage and increase security.
He recommended an 8-inch Asus Android tablet, along with screen protectors and cases, making the total cost about $221 per unit. The village would get six for council, one for Mayor Dave Kaup and one for office usage.
Diller estimated he spends about two hours preparing papers to hand out at council meetings. Minor pointed out that while council usually doesn’t receive sensitive documents at meetings, a tablet would be more secure than paper floating around.
The council decided to buy one device to test it out, using limited free versions of Microsoft Office products.
In other business, council members Dave Bretz, Erik Fiely, Dave Garman, Scott Pearson, Allen Post and Cliff Wendel:
•Heard from Minor that Gibson Township and owners of three properties have appealed the Mercer County Commissioners’ decision to allow Fort Recovery to annex their property. The case will go to the Mercer County Common Please Court.
•Set a public hearing for 6 p.m. March 7 to discuss two zoning changes approved by the Planning Commission. Both requests are from Dan Carr.
One would change three lots at the northeast corner of Broadway and North Wayne streets from R-3 residential to C-1 commercial. This includes Carr’s chiropractic office. The other change would be switching part of a lot he owns in the industrial park to R-3 residential.
•Learned from Minor the village received an environmental review from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for a trail planned to loop around Community Park. ODNR recommended the village work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because the project is potentially in the range of endangered or threatened species such as the Indiana bat and the pondhorn mussel.
Diller said concerns like these are typical, and unlikely to be a problem because the village isn’t dealing with waterways or cutting down trees, so the habitats should be unaffected.
•Heard from Fiely the Southwest Mercer Fire District purchased a new fire truck for $890,000. The ladder truck will be picked up in May.