By Ashley McCarty
People’s Defender
On Sept. 14, West Union Village Council met to receive community concerns and discuss an alleged rumor circulating about the West Union Life Squad.
“My name is Bill Lewis, and I am here to speak on the issue of Trick-or-Treat, specifically the past practice of blocking off Walnut Street for that purpose. Why are we still doing this? Why Walnut Street? I can’t come up with an answer besides that’s what we’ve always done. There’s no reason for us. There are 1,000 people going to swarm the neighborhood. We do for it 90 minutes, which is too long. The last half-hour, people are dragging around, the kids are upset, tired, cold. It’s too long. The kids don’t need candy. I’m not saying to do away with Trick-or-Treat entirely, but blocking off part of Walnut Street is a practice that needs to stop. The other issue I would point out is even having Trick-or-Treat this year because of the COVID-19 situation,” said Lewis. Lewis distributed copies of COVID-19 case rates from May 2020 to the present from The New York Times website.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks, next month, but given where we are right now, I don’t know if it’s prudent,” said Lewis.
Though that’s a separate issue, he said.
“I think that we can move this to other neighborhoods, but we need to put a plan in place to keep everyone safe. If we’re not blocking off the streets, we need designated streets so they know where to patrol,” said Councilman Jason Francis.
West Union Police Dept. Lt. Ryan Myers said there were only four officers. Asst. Chief Danni Studebaker added that there were only two squads.
“I don’t really like the idea of opening it up to traffic and a child getting run over. It could happen. We wouldn’t be at fault, but that’s still not something I want to think about is a child getting run over. Change it to a different location, but I just don’t like the idea of opening up a street,” said Councilman Steve Rothwell.
Councilman Mark Brewer suggested hosting a Trunk-or-Treat on the courthouse square as an alternative. “Pay the police overtime. For all four officers to come out and work it would probably run you about $300,” said Brewer.
The council agreed that it was too early to change Trick-or-Treat plans, and the matter would be explored further in the coming year.
“Most of your discussion, rightfully, has been about the safety of the children. The safety of children in mind, I’ll remind you to look [at the COVID-19 chart], and maybe you shouldn’t do it at all. I may be the boogeyman and the villain for saying it. I didn’t pass out candy last year, and I’m not going to do it this year. I don’t think it’s safe. The crowds are too big,” said Lewis.
Adams County Arts Council President Betsy Miskell was next on the agenda and presented future plans for a fall production.
“As many of you know, we’ve not been able to have our theatrical productions because of COVID-19. It’s still too early for us to do something indoors. What we have planned — and it’s still very fluid [because of COVID-19] — but we’re planning on doing a ghost walk. The tentative title is ‘A Dozen Ways to Die in Adams County.’ It will be set in three locations, the West Union Presbyterian Church for two presentations, the courthouse for three presentations and the [Heritage Center] for one or two presentations. Mr. Lafferty has kindly offered us the funeral home parking lot for parking, and we are hoping to be able to have some sort of transport. This is brand new for us. So, we came to tell you what our plans are,” said Miskell.
The presentations are tentatively planned for Oct. 23.
“We are also looking for volunteers to play our ghosts. If you are interested, please get in touch with me,” she said.
Christine Hutchins and Todd Thatcher of Xtreme Lawncare and Landscaping approached the council about some flooding issues on her McArthur Street property. Hutchins, Thatcher and Village Administrator Jerry Kirker discussed remedial actions for this problem.
“We put the application in on HB 168 for the North Street waterline project and blacktopping. We asked for 95 percent, which is $1,128,436. Our portion would be $56,421. We met with ODOT today on the grant for phase two of the [State Route 41 Shared-Use Path Project]. They came down and walked the sidewalk. The money will be available July 2023; we will bid it in June 2023,” said Kirker.
Kirker also reported receiving a phone call from ODOT for the slip on State Route 125.
“We’re going to have to keep patching it until they can figure out if they’re going to help us,” said Kirker.
Studebaker reported 91 life squad runs for September; 1,519 for the year.
“It was rumored that our squad turned down a run at the courthouse. That did not happen. They even played back the tapes, West Union Life Squad was never paged. Kimmy [Rogers] had actually sent out a message to his people that morning stating — which I haven’t heard this from the commissioners — Adams County EMS will now be paged for calls to the jail for all inmates, West Union Life Squad is not be called. That was something the commissioners and Kimmy took on themselves, we have never refused to help anyone at the jail or respond when asked unless we were on other calls. That run Seaman was paged for it. It supposedly went over the radio that one of our members asked if it was an inmate — from my understanding when the radio traffic was played back that was not said. We were actually on a 3-month-old non-breather when the run came in, so we weren’t going to make it anyway, our crew didn’t even know there was a run to the courthouse. I know everybody has heard it, but trust me, we did not turn down a run at the courthouse. From my understanding — from what I’ve been told from out around the community because the commissioners nor Kimmy has said anything to me — they’re going to have the county squads take care of the jail and the courthouse. Any runs that come to those areas will be through the county. In my opinion, it’s very sad that inmates — or the courthouse if true — have to wait 20 minutes or longer for somebody to get to them in an emergency. What can you say,” said Studebaker.
A motion by Brewer to enter into executive session per O.R.C. 121.22 for the purpose of (G-1) to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion and compensation of public employees and (G-4) preparing for negotiations was seconded by Rothwell, the council agreed.
With no further business before the council, the meeting was adjourned. Meeting minutes will be approved by council at the next meeting, subject to revisions.