MILLBURY — Rains are deluging Lake Township subdivisions and officials need to get on top of the issue before it sinks to an unsolvable level, the fiscal officer said.
At Tuesday’s trustees meeting, Buddy Ritson said that he is pursuing a solution to alleviate flooding in township subdivisions.
“I’ve fielded quite a bit of complaints about Moline drainage lately, and I understand there’s a lot of water this time of year and that it’s all over the township,” he said.
The Wood County Engineer’s Office has also received complaints about flooding in Ced ar Valley, Country Meadows, Freedom Estates and Lakewood, Ritson said.
“There is a potential solution for this,” he said.
According to his research, the trustees would have to petition the county to get the areas under maintenance.
The commissioners would decide if a subdivision gets into the program, after holding hearings, Ritson said.
“There would be a cost,” he said. “It would be the cost of the homeowners draining into the retention basins, which would go straight onto the property tax.”
Homeowners could appeal if they do not want to be part of the process.
“But if we continue to do nothing, there’s going to be even worse problems,” Ritson said.
The issues from long-term flooding could be rotting fences, sidewalks caving in, damaged foundations, and water on the roads, he said.
“The engineer’s office is willing to sit down and talk,” Ritson said.
Trustee Chairman Ken Gilsdorf said this sounded like a good solution.
Ritson said that Delaware County has a similar program and is excelling with it.
“This is new to Wood County,” said Ritson, who is running in November to become a township trustee.
Township resident Bill Keller said everyone needs to be realistic about the historic amount of rain that recently fell in the area. He estimated it was 6 inches.
“At least this could be the start of a remedy,” Gilsdorf said.
Riston said he is planning on having a meeting with the engineer’s office and the trustees are welcome to join him.
Also at the meeting, the trustees:
• Approved buying two 2023 Dodge Durango vehicles with all emergency equipment for the police department. They were purchased from John-Jones CDJRF, Corydon, Indiana, for $107,344.
Two of the vehicles now in use are approaching 200,000 miles, said Trustee Richard Welling, adding that it’s a safety issue.
“We need them,” he said.
• Voted to purchase 20 multi-threat ballistic vests from Safe-Line Defense, Henderson, Nevada, for $10,921.
• Approved the purchase of two doors for the Millbury fire station and the administration building for $3,195 from Northwood Door LLC, Walbridge.
• Purchased a pediatric computer application for EMS personnel. The Handtevy mobile pediatric application will be bought from Pediatric Emergency Standards Inc., David, Florida, for $2,457. Fire Chief Barrett Dorner said it will be used to calculate pediatric medications during emergency runs.
• Voted to pay $2,375 to Federal Field Services, Wauseon, for the annual testing and maintenance of the township outdoor warning sirens.
• Changed EMS billing rates to $650 for basic life service, $1,050 for advanced life service 2 and $15.50 for mileage, effective April 1.
• Hired Brandon Rosebrock as planning, training and community engagement representative for the fire department at $28.76 per hour. The trustees also hired Briana Giron and Ryan Camargo as firefighters/EMTs at $17 an hour.
• Accepted the resignation of full-time EMS trainer Jeff Dawson.
• Heard Welling say that 10 phone poles blew over during a recent storm. He said that the federal infrastructure bill gives companies money for improvements, which the township is not seeing.
“We need to go to the next level and demand it,” Welling said, adding that the state attorney general should be contacted.
