BATH TOWNSHIP — The Bath Township Board of Trustees met Dec. 28 to conduct their 2019 re-organizational meeting.
Township Fiscal Officer Elaine Brown called the meeting to order and conducted the first order of business, which was the selection of chairman and vice chairman of the board for 2019. Township Trustee Tom Pitstick has taken the reigns as chairman; Trustee John Martin will continue to serve as vice chairman; and Trustee Steve Ross will serve as trustee at large.
The township trustees will continue to meet in regular session at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at the township office, 1006 Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road. The trustees will also conduct a third township session on those months that have a fifth Wednesday.
The board of trustees unanimously approved nine resolutions for the new year.
The board first established an hourly wage schedule for township employees and a payment method for trustees in 2019. Starting pay for employees will be $14 per hour. All employees will receive a scheduled step increase of $1.50 per hour for the second and third years of employment and $1 per hour for their fourth year. Employees will receive annual increases thereafter, including a 40-cent raise in 2019. Trustees can grant annual pay increases, based upon employees’ evaluations. The trustees will continue to receive an annual salary, paid in equal monthly payments, taken from the general fund.
Michael Rhoades will continue to serve as township road supervisor and will be paid an hourly rate of $22.15 for a forty-hour work-week and an annual pay of $7,000 for supervisory responsibilities. Michael Burchett, Robert Harris and Larry Kohler will continue to serve as full-time laborers for the road department. Burchett will earn $22.15 per hour. Harris and Kohler will receive an hourly rate of $20.15 and $18.40 respectfully.
All road department employees will continue to receive medical, dental, vision, cancer, short-term disability and accident, and life and accidental death/dismemberment insurance coverage, as well as time and one-half their regular rates of pay for overtime.
Teresa Phillips will continue to serve as cemetery supervisor. Her pay scale is defined in Resolution 6-2019. Patrick Partee will continue to serve as cemetery grounds foreman at a pay scale of $19.40 per hour for a forty-hour workweek. He will also receive $2,500 annually for supervisory responsibilities as well.
Travis Harrell, Matt Trimbach and Seth Treon will serve as laborers in the cemeteries, with Harrell receiving a pay rate of $20.15 per hour, Trimbach earning $19.40 per hour and Treon making $18.15 per hour for a forty-hour workweek. Partee and the laborers will receive the same insurance benefits and overtime pay as the employees of the road department.
Township employees will receive 10 days paid vacation after one year of employment, 15 days paid vacation when employed eight years at the township, and 20 days paid vacation when employed 16 full years or more. Employees will be granted 10 hours of sick leave per month, which can be accumulated up to one year. Township employees will be granted a number of paid holidays as well.
Phillips was also reappointed as zoning clerk for the Bath Township Zoning Commission and the Bath Township Zoning Board of Appeals for 2019 at a salary of $250 per month.
Phillips will also serve as secretary/office manager and supervisor for Byron Cemetery for 2019. Phillips will be paid $21.40 per hour for a forty-hour week and an annual salary of $5,000 for supervisory responsibilities. Estimated time allocation for the dual position will be 25 percent for office duties and 75 percent as supervisor of the cemetery. She will also receive the same insurance benefits provided for all township employees.
The reappointment of a member of the Bath Township Zoning Commission was tabled due to a recent vacancy.
Karen Hawk who will serve a five-year term on the Bath Township Board of Zoning Appeals. Hawk will earn $75 per meeting, but her pay will not exceed $75 each month.
The final resolution the board passed provided for post-retirement compensation of accumulated sick leave and vacation pay. Any employee retiring from Bath Township in 2019, who has unused earned vacation time, will be paid a lump sum amount for time earned, which cannot exceed 2080 hours. Any retiring employee, who has accumulated a minimum of 480 hours of unused sick leave, is eligible for a lump sum payment for one hour for every three hours of unused sick leave, not to exceed the total of 400 hours.
