ROSSFORD — There was definitely a celebratory mood on Monday night during the council meeting. Nearly all
the city officials were wearing matching Amazon white T-shirts in celebration of the announcement made
earlier that day that the online shopping giant was going to build one of its two new Ohio fulfillment
centers in the Crossroads area of the city.
The writing on the back of the shirts read, “That’s what we do here.”
There was more good news.
Lori Brodie, the northwest regional liaison for the Ohio Auditor of State was on hand and presented the
city with an award of distinction given to the city and Karen Freeman, the city’s finance director. The
award is given to only a small minority of entities for having a spotless audit with no infractions,
blemishes or warnings.
“Only 3 to 5 % are eligible for this by having a clean audits,” Brodie said.
She said the award recognizes the effort of the entire city including council, the mayor and department
heads within the city, along with Freeman. Freeman has regularly been awarded for flawless audits and
reports by the state.
“This means that every department was very complete and cooperated to meet the requirements and were
extremely transparent,” Freeman said after the meeting.
“This was a surprise. I did not know that we were going to receive this. I’m very excited.”
In other business, Councilman Jerry Staczek talks about the need for electrical modifications at the
Marina. Councilman Bob Densic echoed the sentiment, noting there are cases in Ohio this year where
people have been electrocuted because of similar issues that had not been addressed.
Staczek asked for a transfer of emergency funding to get the situation rectified as soon as possible. He
was informed that because of the expense amount — roughly $55,000 — it would need to be passed as an
ordinance.
The measure was postponed until the Aug. 12 council meeting.
“This is one of the drawbacks of the working of local government. It is just the levels of red tape and
going through the committees,” Staczek said after the meeting.
Also at the meeting, council:
• Approved an ordinance approving the city administrator to pursue debt funding for the Colony
Subdivision renovation project.
• Approved an ordinance for recreation funding.
• Removed from the table and passed the pending ordinance regarding placement and use of trash cans.