Tim McCarthy, from left, Kerry Wellstein and Richard Rettig after they took the oath of office.
PERRYSBURG — Two new members were sworn in at the recent Perrysburg City Council meeting.
At the Jan. 2 meeting, Kerry Wellstein and Richard Rettig were sworn in as new members. They were the top-two vote getters in November.
Tim McCarthy, who won re-election, also took the oath of office.
Cory Kuhlman, who also was re-elected, was absent.
Kevin Fuller was chosen by council vote to be its president.
Appointments were made for the finance and economic development, service, safety, recreation, planning and zoning, personnel, public utilities and appointment review committees.
Other appointments to boards include the Volunteer Firefighter’s Dependent Fund Board, the Fort Meigs Cemetery Board of Trustees, Community Reinvestment Area Housing Council and the Citizens’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.
Two Perrysburg residents, Veronica Falter and Jacqueline Barchick, expressed their objections for plans to install a traffic roundabout at the intersection of West Front and West Boundary streets.
Falter said the city share of $1.6 million for the $5.7 million project could be money better spent on other city street projects that would address the traffic problems in a less expensive way.
Barchick asked council members to consider the residents around the proposed project and how Orleans Park access would be negatively impacted.
Both women requested the project be abandoned and the funding returned to TMACOG.
The fire division received council approval to proceed seeking accreditation with their new strategic plan for the years 2024-2028. Fire Marshal Aaron Harwell said that of the 1100 fire departments in Ohio, only 10 had achieved accreditation. They would be the 11th.
Council also approved:
• A $667,139.99 bid by Shelly Company, Northwest Division of Findlay, to rehabilitate a section of Eckel Junction Road, from Ohio 25 west to the railroad tracks.
• A resolution authorizing the Perrysburg fire division to pursue $15,000 of Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation grant money in order to purchase equipment to minimize exposure to dangerous environmental elements.
• A resolution allowing the public utilities department to apply for $6,438 in Bureau of Workers Compensation for substantially reducing or eliminating injuries associated with trenching operations.
• An ordinance amending changes in city rules about privately owned trees on property that abuts to public property and right-of-way. One change is that it is a property owner’s responsibility to prune trees or shrubs in a manner that the trees will not shade or obstruct streetlights, street signs, or obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic on sideways and streets.
• An ordinance to empower the street tree commission, working with the urban forester, to study, investigate, plan, advise, report and recommend to council any action program, plan, or legislate which the commission finds to be necessary or advisable for the care, preservation, trimming, planting, replanting, removal or disposition of trees and shrubs along public ways.
