LIME CITY — Long-time Perrysburg Township Administrator Walt Celley announced his resignation to the trustees at Wednesday’s meeting.
Celley will continue work for the township until January. His work for the township was praised by department heads and trustees.
His resignation letter was read by Trustee Bob Mack.
“It is difficult to put in words any announcement of a major life change; no matter that it is a long-awaited and positive one,” wrote Celley. “It has been a rewarding and enriching period of my professional career; and although the remaining months will pass quickly, I am sure we can put a few more marks in the win column.”
Celley started as township administrator in 2012 and served as the law director prior to that.
“Obviously, we’re grateful to Walt for his contributions here and for his efforts put toward the township in making it a better place, and we thank you for that,” Mack said. “I’m sure we’ll have more to say as the official date draws near.”
“You’ve been a good guiding hand for us. I think your law background has helped immensely, and you will be missed,” Trustee Gary Britten said. “A lot of townships don’t have to luxury of having someone running the day-to-day business like you do.”
“With Walt as the administrator, it made a lot of things easy, or, let’s put it this way, a lot less difficult,” Trustee Joe Schaller said. “I always appreciated that we had a go-to person. You are definitely going to be missed. I hope everything in your retirement is as smooth.”
Mack also said that Celley’s law background was helpful for the township, as previously all resolutions had to be drawn up by the township legal counsel.
In other business, trustees approved a resolution to proceed with renewal of the 1.5 mill, five-year tax levy for road maintenance.
The Wood County auditor provided a certificate of estimated tax revenue indicating that if all tax valuation remained constant during the life of the levy, it would generate $676,019, based on a total tax valuation of $474 million.
Decisions regarding American Rescue Plan Act funds were again put off by the trustees.
Britten made a motion to vote on a resolution for allocation of ARPA funds, with $100,000 to possibly be used for the Perrysburg Heights Community Association. It died for lack of a second.
“I’m not inclined to second the motion, at this time,” Mack said.
He reiterated a concept that he had mentioned in previous meetings that the township municipal building needed work and that the money might be used for that.
“So I’d like to hold for the moment,” Mack said, but added that the resolution should be kept on the agenda for the next meeting.
Two purchases for the police department, using drug funds, were approved. They included $919 alarm sensor for the the K-9 patrol vehicle and a purchase order, not to exceed $20,000, for a license plate reader.
Police Chief Mark Hetrick said that Bowling Green has a unit and he gave an example of how it could be used. He said that there is a current kidnapping case from Michigan where the plate had been identified in Bowling Green.
“We’ve solved crimes and we don’t even have ours yet,” Hetrick said.
The purchase would include 10 cameras to be placed in the township.
