MRT establishes meeting dates, officers

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By Linda Collins

For the Herald

MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP — The Mad River Township Board of Trustees held their 2016 organizational meeting Monday, Jan. 4 and established routine meeting dates and times, selected officers and conducted certain business for the new year.

The township trustees will continue to meet on the first and third Mondays of each month at the Enon and Mad River Township Fire and EMS station, 260 E. Main St. in Enon. Informal sessions will begin at 7 p.m., followed by regular sessions at 7:30 p.m.

However, when a regular session falls on a legal holiday, township trustees will meet the following evening at the usual time of a regular session. The next regular session, which falls on Martin Luther King’s birthday, would be held 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18.

“Since we scheduled a meeting with First Energy representative Tim Suter, and the media has already placed that notice in their newspapers, we will observe the regular scheduled meeting time,” Mad River Township Trustee Kathy Estep said.

Work sessions will be held at 7 p.m. on the fourth Monday of the month when needed. Trustees will also provide a 24-hour notice to the local media prior to the time set for a special session and post any changes in meeting times on the township website. All regular and work sessions are open to the public.

Township trustees unanimously approved the routine rotation of officers. Trustee Robert McClure Jr., who held the office of vice president last year, will serve as president of the board of trustees for 2016. Estep, who previously served as the member at large, will perform the duties of vice president, and Trustee Joe Catanzaro, who was the 2015 board president, will serve as the member at large.

The trustees agreed to continue to jointly oversee the Hustead and Enon and Mad River Township Fire and EMS Departments, as well as the Planning and Parks Committee, township roads, cemetery and sheriff’s deputy. The trustees unanimously approved retaining McClure as the township’s representative to the county’s Planning and Parks Committee. Estep will continue to serve on the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee. Estep also reconfirmed that residents living in any area of the township could contact any trustee regarding a road issue or township matter.

In a 3-0 vote, the trustees approved renewing the 2016 contract with Clark County Sheriff’s Department to retain Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Wise as the deputy permanently assigned to patrol all of Mad River Township. However, Estep pointed out that the cost of the annual contract had increased for the second year in a row.

“There was an increase last year due to an increase in salaries and medical insurance costs. Now will are faced with another increase and will have to consider these increases when determining the sheriff’s levy which is up for renewal this year,” said Estep.

In April 2015, Clark County commissioners unanimously approved raises for sheriff’s deputies, department nurses and dispatchers as part of new contract agreements with three of the county’s four Fraternal Order of Police and Ohio Labor Council Unions.

Following the annual organizational meeting, trustees reconvened for a regular session.

Linda Collins is a freelance reporter for Greene County News.

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