ROSSFORD – City council heard a presentation from Lake Police Chief Mark Hummer Monday on a
proposal to form a regional dispatching authority.Rossford now contracts with Lake Township to provide
dispatching for its public safety services.The proposal would merge all the municipalities now using
Lake Township, also including Walbridge and Millbury, along with Northwood, which does its own
dispatching, in a council of governments overseeing a single dispatching site.In his presentation,
Hummer noted that pending state legislation would cut funding for dispatching if a county exceeds an
assigned number of "public service answering points."Hummer said the county would be assigned
three dispatching centers, and it now has eight.Getting one established covering the northern end of the
county may help in keeping dispatching local.The project is now in the discussion stages. No decision
has been made whether to use the existing Northwood or Lake centers. Hummer noted the Lake center has
new equipment that was installed after the previous station was destroyed in the 2010 tornado.The plan
presented would have Rossford paying 29 percent of the cost.That had Councilman Jerry Staczek
questioning the cost.Councilman Robert Ruse said that would mean the city would pay $185,000 compared to
the current cost of $150,000.But City Administrator Ed Ciecka said that what Rossford now pays Lake
Township "is understated.""I think this is a great idea," said Councilman Chuck
Duricek. "I think Lake Township has served us very, very well."No vote was taken, but Ciecka
said based on his sense of the sentiment on council, the study would continue with Rossford’s
participation.Council also heard a report on another regional service, the Northwestern Water and Sewer
District.Leonard Michaels, a former councilman who serves on the district’s board, reported the district
has spent $5.8 million on new water lines and $1.3 million on sewer lines in the city since Rossford
joined the district in late 2010.He passed around segments of clogged, rusty pipes to give council a
sense of how bad the infrastructure being replaced is. This, he said, is not unusual for an aging
city.He also said that the City of Toledo, the source for the district water, will raise the price 15.9
percent.Councilwoman Caroline Eckel and Ruse both said the district needs to improve its communication
with residents after an incident in which people woke up to find out they had no water service, and
hadn’t received notice.At the end of the meeting Eckel also said the city needs to better police the
crews doing district work. Roads end up in worse shape after the line work is completed, she said. This
is going to make clearing the streets this winter much harder.Council also discussed starting to use
brine on roads to try to keep them clear.With only four public works employees something needs to be
done, Eckel said.The question was where to procure the brine.Council also passed on a 5-2 vote an
ordinance to allow a cell tower on public lands.The city is now negotiating to put a tower on its public
works property on Wales Road.Eckel expressed concern that this would open up the possibility of a cell
tower in a park.Ciecka said since this would be a special use, council would always have a say in the
matter.Still, Eckel and Staczek both voted no.