Meeting in person again

FORT RECOVERY –– Village council met for almost three months via Zoom.

Now, it’s back to in-person meetings again.

Fort Recovery Village Council met in the council chambers Monday for the first time since November. (The group initially moved to video conference calls in response to worsening conditions of COVID-19.)

During the meeting, village administrator Randy Diller updated council members on various projects.

The lime sludge press, a tool the water department purchased several months ago, is currently filtering lime sludge from water at the facility. After the village finishes the necessary permits, it will likely be delivering the filtered dry lime to local farmers –– Diller named Bill Knapke as one potential recipient –– to help reduce the acidity in soil, among other benefits.

The village is also planning to use a sludge reducing bacteria program at the lagoons to help remove sludge caked at the bottom of the ponds. In a year, the program removes between 18 and 24 inches of sludge, Diller said.

Precision Concrete Cutting of Carey will be visiting in late March or early April to take sample cuts and allow village administration to see the process and finished project. It is planning to fix offset sidewalks by saw-cutting the concrete at an angle, removing trip hazards, Diller explained.

In order to update the sidewalk policy, Diller and village officials need to know if the process will be an option they can allow and what restrictions they will need to have on it.

In January, Diller and village employees had a virtual training session about the new Geographic Information System. Great Lakes Community Action Partnership will return in the spring to finish mapping Fort Recovery. The group will finalize the map and provide another training session for the new software at that time. Once it is completed, village workers will have a program that will share exact information about utility systems, including the ability to track maintenance and repair records.

Also, the Ohio Department of Transportation has approved changing the speed limit to 35 mph on Ohio 119 (Boundary Street) from its intersection with John Street to eastern village limits. (Village council agreed to hold a speed study and decided to change the previous speed limit of 55 mph.) The speed limit signs will be changed soon.

In other business, council members Erik Fiely, Cliff Wendel, Luke Knapke, Al Post, Scott Pearson and Greg Schmitz:

•Heard from Fort Recovery Police Chief Jared Laux, who discussed purchasing a new cruiser for the village. He also noted the Veterans of Foreign Wars donated $500 to the police department.

•Learned from Mayor Dave Kaup that the Southwest Mercer Fire District looking at a grant to fund another ambulance purchase.