BATH TOWNSHIP – The Bath Township Board of Trustees wrapped up business for 2019 on Dec. 30 by conducting the 2020 reorganizational meeting, followed by the swearing-in ceremony of newly-elected Township Trustee Kassie Lester.
Township Fiscal Officer Elaine Brown
The first order of business included the selection of chairperson and vice chairperson of the board for 2020. Township Trustee Steve Ross will serve as chairperson of the board, Trustee Tom Pitstick will serve as vice chairperson; and Trustee Kassie Lester 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 in Fairborn. The trustees will also hold a third regular session on those months that have a fifth Wednesday. These meetings are open to the public.
The board established an hourly wage schedule for township employees and a payment method for trustees in 2020 with the approval of Resolution 1-2020. 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 the fourth year. Employees will receive annual pay increases thereafter. Trustees can also grant annual pay increases, based upon employees’ evaluations.
Trustees approved a 40-cent pay increase for all township employees for 2020. The trustees will continue to receive an annual salary, paid in equal monthly payments, taken solely from the general fund per ORC Section 505.24.
The township trustees also approved Resolution 2-2020 which provides the 2020 rates of compensation for the township road supervisor and laborers appointed by the trustees. Michael Rhoades will continue to serve as township road supervisor and will be paid an hourly rate of $22.55 an hour for a 40-hour workweek, plus an annual pay of $7,000 for supervisory responsibilities, including attendance at township meetings when trustees determine his attendance to be necessary.
Michael Burchett, Robert Harris and Larry Kohler will continue to serve as full-time laborers for the road department. Burchett will receive an hourly rate of $22.55 per hour. Harris will be paid $20.55 per hour and Kohler will receive $18.80 hourly. Fulltime employees will receive time and one-half their regular rates of pay for overtime. Temporary employees will be hired at a pay scale of up to $14 per hour.
All full-time employees of the road department will continue to receive full premium payments for medical, dental, vision, lump-sum cancer, as well as short-term disability and $25,000 life and accidental death/dismemberment policies.
Approved Resolution 3-2020 details the duties and compensation of the township cemetery supervisor, grounds foreman, and laborers for Byron and Funderburg Cemeteries. Teresa Phillips will continue to serve as cemetery supervisor. Her pay scale is defined in Resolution 6-2020.
Patrick Partee will continue to serve as cemetery grounds foreman at a pay scale of $20.55 per hour for a 40-hour workweek plus $2,500 annually for supervisory responsibilities.
Travis Harrell, Seth Treon and Todd Mullins will serve as laborers in the cemeteries, with Harrell receiving a pay rate of $20.55 per hour, Treon earning $19.55 per hour and Mullins receiving $15.90 per hour. Temporary employees will be hired at a pay scale of no more than $14 per hour. All cemetery employees will also receive the same insurance benefits and overtime pay provided for road department employees.
Resolution 4-2020 established paid vacation, holidays, sick leave, health, vision and dental premiums, as well as fringe benefits for full-time employees, effective Jan. 1, 2020. 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. Township employees will be granted 10 hours of sick leave per month, which can be accumulated up to one year, and will be granted a number of paid holidays as well.
Resolution 5-2020 established the reappointment of Teresa Phillips as zoning clerk for the Bath Township Zoning Commission and the Bath Township Zoning Board of Appeals for 2020 at a salary of $250 per month.
Resolution 6-2020 provided for the reappointment of Phillips as secretary/office manager and supervisor at Byron Cemetery for 2020. Phillips will be paid $21.55 per hour for a forty-hour week and an annual salary of $5,000 for supervisory responsibilities, including her attendance at township meetings when the trustees determine it to be necessary. She will also receive the same insurance benefits provided for all township employees.
Resolution 7-2020, established the reappointment of Marc Smith as a member of the Bath Township Zoning Commission. Smith will serve a five-year term and receive a fixed rate of compensation at $75 per meeting attended.
Approval of Resolution 8-2020 provided the reappointment of Ken Schroeder as a member of the Bath Township Board of Zoning Appeals. He will also serve a five-year term and will receive a fixed rate of $75 per meeting attended.
The final resolution the board approved, Resolution 9-2020, detailed post-retirement compensation of accumulated sick leave and vacation pay. Any township employee retiring in 2020, who has unused earned vacation time, will be paid a lump-sum amount for time earned which cannot exceed 2,080 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.
In closing, Ross explained his vision of dividing the workload among the three trustees. He suggested that Trustee Lester concentrate on the fire and EMS contracts. However, Lester stated that she would prefer to assist Ross with the contracts for the first year.
Ross noted that he would like to introduce Lester to the various funeral home administrators who are major clientele of Byron Cemetery and the fire chiefs of the three fire and EMS departments Bath Township contracts for annual fire protection and emergency medical services.
Pitstick will continue to serve as the township’s representative to the Greene County Regional Planning and Coordinating Commission for 2020, and Lester will serve as alternate.
Following the meeting, Brown administered the oath of office to Lester who will be serving her first term on the Bath Township Board of Trustees.
“I wish Kassie well, and I look forward to working with her,” Ross said following the brief ceremony.
