LIME CITY — Township trustees have chosen Jon Eckel, the recently retired assistant city administrator for Perrysburg, as the new township administrator.
Eckel’s hiring was announced at the Oct. 19 regular trustees meeting.
Eckel has spent his career working for the city of Perrysburg. Prior to his year as assistant city administrator for Perrysburg, he worked as director of the service department for 20 years. That position was preceded by 15 years as director of the wastewater treatment plant, which he moved into after working as an operator.
“I put in, roughly, about 45 years of service with Perrysburg, in one capacity or another,” Eckel said. “I’m genuinely excited to take this position on. I’ve loved working in my capacity with the city of Perrysburg and I’m going to really enjoy this job. I’ve known the trustees for a good many years. They are good people. I’m going to enjoy working for them and I’m going to enjoy meeting the staff. I’ve met the fire chief and the police chief here and there and I’m going to enjoy meeting everyone else.”
His starting salary will be $100,000 per year.
“I’ve known Jon for almost 40 years and couldn’t recommend a better man for the job. The township is lucky to have him. His practical experience, from working in water treatment to directing the Service Department for Perrysburg will all be helpful in the new position,” Administrator Walt Celley said of his replacement.
Celley will be working with Eckel until Jan. 6.
“The idea is to have me shadow Walt for as long as I can before he leaves,” Eckel said. “It feels like I’ve known him forever, so I look forward to working with him and learning the details of the position from him.”
In other business, Marvin Conner, maintenance department director, introduced a discussion on vehicle replacement, which included input from the police and fire departments.
“Since it’s taking so long to get them, I’d like to start looking at getting at least a couple,” Conner said.
He would like to get them this year, but recognizing the current lead times, he said that next year is a necessity. Since the pandemic, the lead times on some vehicles, most notably police vehicles, have taken an increasingly long time to get, with some taking more than a year.
They are also considering leasing options and have already spoken with the Enterprise fleet division representative, in order to get quotes.
Conner said that there is money left in the current budget to buy one truck this year.
“Our pickups, we have two that are fairly old,” Conner said. “We keep our trucks quite a long time.
The maintenance department does much of the regular maintenance on all of the township vehicles.
The four maintenance department pickup trucks are 10 years old, 13 years old and two are 15 years old. Two trucks have more than 200,000 miles and one has 190,000.
Trustee Gary Britten, with a nod from Trustee Joe Schaller, told Conner to “Go ahead and start the process.”
Both fire and police are also interested in the leasing concept.
Fire Chief Tom Brice said that they are also getting leasing quotes on replacement of four vehicles.
Trustee Bob Mack was absent, and excused. from the trustees meeting.
