FR seeks $ for tower

FORT RECOVERY –– The village may be getting a second water tower.

Village administrator Randy Diller reported Tuesday to Fort Recovery Village Council that a grant application has been submitted through the Ohio Department of Development to construct a new water tower.

Diller estimated the total cost around $1.5 million for the water tower, which would be located on the north side of the village. He said the village applied for $1.25 million in grant funding. That would require Fort Recovery to contribute $250,000.

The village previously had a second tower, but about 10 years ago it decided the cost of repairs outweighed the need for it.

“Now we’re growing enough in (water) usage that we’re getting into some storage capacity issues,” Diller explained. “We’re not there yet, they’re not pushing us, they’re not telling us, but we’re thinking that is coming.”

Ohio House Bill 168, which was signed into effect by Gov. Mike DeWine in June, appropriated funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Approximately $250 million was designated toward establishing a water and sewer quality program that will provide grants to counties, townships and municipalities for addressing “serious water issues that have been building in Ohio for decades and (to) ensure communities have clean and safe water,” according to a press release from DeWine.

The village should hear back on its application within 30 days.

“There’s actually a couple different funding sources made available mostly through the COVID monies,” Diller said. If the village does not receive funding through the department of development, he added, it will apply for another grant.

Also Tuesday, council heard its lease for 13 acres of farmable ground south of the village lagoons will be expiring at the end of the year. Diller proposed the village offer a five-year lease for the land to interested farmers, including Mitch Hemmelgarn, who has been farming the plot between 15 and 20 years.

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

•Authorized final draw requests totaling $134,845.40 from PAB Construction of Coldwater for the Broadway and Elm street reconstruction. (The projects were done with the goal of rerouting Ohio 49 traffic onto those streets and away from downtown.) Diller noted additional seeding and fertilizer work along the route will be completed as soon as the weather permits.

•Approved a second reading of revisions to its sidewalk policy. Most of the changes are for clarity purposes. It will also include construction for removing trip hazards along village sidewalks, with work beginning in 2022 on the west side of the village.