FR Council makes appointments

FORT RECOVERY — The village wasted no time assembling its 2017 government. 

Fort Recovery Village Council on Tuesday appointed its leader, committee members and members for various village boards. 

Dave Bretz will remain village council president, and council committees and representatives will see no changes. 

Bretz, Dave Garman and Al Post will comprise the finance committee. Cliff Wendel, Scott Pearson and Erik Fiely will remain as the members of the research committee. 

Garman will continue to be council representative to the police department and Pearson will be representative to the planning commission and design review board. 

Wendel and Fiely will be representatives to the design review board and Southwest Mercer Fire District respectively. 

Meanwhile, council appointed nine members to five village boards. 

Angie McAbee was appointed to a three year term on the income tax board. Bill Bechtol will serve another five-year term on the park board. 

Council appointed George Stammen, Scott Zehringer and Diana Grile to five-year terms on the village zoning board. 

Tina Bechtol and Paul McDaniel were each appointed to two-year terms on the design review board and Linda Zehringer and Janet McCain were appointed to the tree commission for three-year terms. 

Council is still working to fill an open slot on the cemetery board, to replace Mike Fullenkamp.

Council heard on Tuesday from village solicitor and grants administrator Erin Minor that she and village administrator Randy Diller attended Friday’s Fort Recovery High School boys basketball game to seek input on the color of basketball/tennis courts to be installed later this year at Community Park along with opinions on other potential park projects. 

Minor said she is reviewing the results of the survey and will discuss them with Fort Recovery’s park board at their meeting on Monday. 

The village was awarded $125,000 in state funds through the Capital Improvements Grant program for basketball/tennis courts project. 

Input has also been sought through a survey regarding the color of the courts and Minor said Tuesday that more than 300 responses have been received online. 

In other business, council members Garman, Bretz, Wendel and Fiely, absent Post and Pearson: 

•Heard from Minor the Mercer County Commissioners passed a resolution Thursday approving the village’s annexation of properties along Ohio 49. The village is waiting to receive the transcript, which Minor said will begin the 60-day waiting period before Fort Recovery can act on the resolution. 

•Heard from Diller that curtains have been ordered for a wastewater lagoon improvement project, which is expected to be completed in the late winter or early spring.