FR Village amends wage ordinance

FORT RECOVERY — The village has another new employee.

Fort Recovery Village Council amended its wage ordinance Monday to establish positions and set pay for assistant fiscal officer and utility clerk as well as fiscal officer trainee.

Anna Post, a Fort Recovery resident, has been hired to take over the new assistant role. Village council authorized village administrator Randy Diller last month to create the position. 

Post started in the job Monday. She worked for 20 years at The St. Henry Bank in customer service.

“I’m working, now it’s my home village, to give back to the town,” said Post.

She’ll serve as an assistant to former assistant fiscal officer Jennifer Schoonover, who as of Oct. 1 is now serving as fiscal officer trainee. Schoonover is preparing to take over fiscal officer Roberta Staugler’s job after her retirement June 1.

Staugler had been handling fiscal officer as well as utilities clerk duties. Schoonover, who has also served as grant administrator for about five years, will continue with grant administration while also balancing the fiscal officer role, leaving a need for Post to handle utilities clerk responsibilities.

Also Monday, council heard the village’s second water tower is complete.

Located on the north side of the village, the elevated tower holds 250,000 gallons.

The project also included adding 2,600 feet of water line to connect the tower to the village’s distribution system.

Fort Recovery received a $1.25 million grant in June 2023 from the Ohio BUILDS water infrastructure program to build the new tower, and the village planned to contribute about $450,000 from its own water tower improvement and water capital funds for the project. After projected costs came in higher than expected — Caldwell Tanks’ bid came in at $2.44 million — Fort Recovery applied for and received a $600,000 state funding allocation from the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund. The village planned to cover the remaining $140,000. 

Diller noted Monday the final cost will be slightly less than the amount bid. Council then agreed to pay an $8,749.13 bill from Caldwell Tanks for work completed on the project.

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

•Scheduled a second informational meeting regarding the Nov. 4 ballot question about increasing the village income tax by 0.5 percentage points. Residents will have a chance to learn more about the proposed increase at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at village hall, with council’s regular meeting to follow at 7:30 p.m.

•Paid a $235,204.93 pay request from Tom’s Construction for work completed on the Butler Street reconstruction project.

•Heard Fort Street Car Classics will host its fall merchants cruise-in from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday on the brick portion of Wayne Street.

•Learned the annual Halloween parade will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 26, with trick-or-treating hours to follow from 4 to 6 p.m.

•Paid a $967.25 bill from environmental consultant Eagon and Associates for work completed in the study to determine a site for a third well in the village.