Chester Government Update
The Chester Township Board of Trustees met on Nov. 19. Gary Neola, of Cornerstone Architecture, presented a set of recommendations for improvements to the forestation to cure an issue with the living arrangements, which do not meet current COVID-19 compliance and/or building codes...
The Chester Township Board of Trustees met on Nov. 19. Gary Neola, of Cornerstone Architecture, presented a set of recommendations for improvements to the forestation to cure an issue with the living arrangements, which do not meet current COVID-19 compliance and/or building codes.
The federal CARES Act provided significant dollars to the township to be used to offset COVID-19 related expenses. The dollars were given to each township, the county and other government organizations and the only choice was to give it back for others to use.
Chester Township received $529,726.11 to offset COVID-19 expenses. To be clear, there are different opinions on the board about the money, including if and how it should be used. There have been many open, honest and hard conversations. Some think it is great and that every dollar should be used. One trustee, however, expressed strong opposition to using the dollars because doing so contributes to the national debt and lowers the value of every dollar in the pockets of hardworking Americans. It is debt that the nation will have to repay. Moreover, the township is sound financially, did not have significant COVID-19 expenses and does not need the dollars. At least one trustee thought the money would have served a better purpose if given directly to struggling businesses or suffering out of work citizens. There was agreement across the trustees that if valid COVID-19 expenses were identified, it was easier to justify use of some dollars.
All said, there were several CARES Act motions in the meeting that were discussed and passed. They covered: $15,000 for firefighter gear; $1,629.96 for fire department non-contact thermometers; $1,881.65 for fire department binder lifts; and $166,858.22 in salaries and benefits for public safety forces.
There have been ongoing discussions about using some to the COVID-19 dollars to modify the fire station to provide more comfortable and safer living arrangements for the firefighters. The cost to make the modifications was estimated to be approximately $200,000. Given the legal and audit requirements and constraints associated with the money, it was decided to use the money to offset salaries, freeing those salary dollars to be used to make the modifications.
In other business, the senior trash pickup schedule is being worked out for the spring of 2021. Legal fees were approved for RLS & Associates.
AeroMark Company LLC was approved for repainting lines on Cedar Road at a cost of $6,088.96. The resignation of paramedic Austin Georskey was approved.
Motions were made to approve Chagrin Valley Paving for work to be done on various roads in the township. Trustee Skip Claypool discussed a plan to reduce the township phone bills by approximately $13,000 per year along with plans to modernize the system.
The planning committee met to discuss the recent township survey and future actions. The outcome was to develop a tool that allows prioritization of the most important issues and areas of interest to develop an action plan.
There is ongoing discussion to create improvements to the recycle park that will lead to reductions in abuse and to provide ongoing monitoring.
Submitted by Walter M. “Skip” Claypool, Chester Township Trustee
