Manchester Police Department was dissolved in 2017. (Provided)

Manchester Police Department was dissolved in 2017. (Provided)

By Ashley McCarty

People’s Defender

Manchester Village Council met on Oct. 19 to discuss projects and further discourse on a police department.

Government Liasion Angela Veazey from the Regional Income Tax Administration was present to present some information on their compliance programs and credit structures. Veazey informed the council of options that could be taken against delinquent filers.

More information can be acquired at ritaohio.com

“I’ve had a lot of complaints about Unger Construction tearing holes up. Do they have plans of using hot mix [to patch those]? The taxpayers paid for hot mix, they’re not sticking cold mix in the holes. That’s a bandaid. The hot mix plants usually close down November 1; hopefully, in the next couple of weeks they can go back and fix what they’ve torn up,” said Street Commissioner Earl “Buster” Ruark.

Steve Mack with IBI was present to update on the village projects.

“They’ve been raising and lowering manholes. When you do half a dozen of these manholes, you can’t get hot mix just for those manholes. They did put concrete up to a certain level, but you’re still hitting that rut. Their intention is to fill that with hot mix, but they can’t get a truck out here for half a ton of hot mix. If they can’t do that, then I think they’re putting the cold mix in and coming back in the spring,” said Mack.

Councilman Troy Jolly said that would be too late.

“We’ve got the plow truck going to go through and that’s going to cause damage to it,” he said. Jolly alluded to the pallets of cold mix located at the old school on Ninth Street.

“The ongoing Sanitary Sewer Project has been raising and lowering manholes throughout. That was part of that project, so you don’t have low and high spots. There are well over 100 manholes being worked on. I’ll call them tomorrow and ask what the plan is there because I know there is a lip in most of those places. In the process of this, we found one of the manholes was inside of a building. We eventually want to get into that building. At some point in time, Highfield Road turned into a street. I’m not sure it’s clear who, but someone ran a six-inch sanitary line and stubbed it into the village’s sanitary line coming down Cemetery Street,” said Mack.

There was not a manhole put there, he said.

“They just dug a hole, cut the hole, stuck this pipe in and sealed it up. This is problematic because there’s no way currently to see how the flow is going there. So, part of this project was to put a manhole there. That was done. They plugged the sanitary line going from Highfield Road and Cemetary Street — when they pulled the plug, the fluid coming out was clear. It looked like drinking water. The concern coming from Highfield is that there is probably a lot of infiltration coming in from that pipe. There was no odor even from the water coming through at that point in time. Down the road, there may have to be some work done to see what’s really there. There was no village inspection or approval of that pipe,” said Mack.

Mac also reported the completion of the fencing and an automatic gate installed at the wastewater treatment plant. The Cemetery Street Stormsewer Project is slated to begin mid-to-late November.

“There were questions about how the drinking water loan was going to raise the rates in town. The village ended up getting a 50/50 grant and principal forgiveness loan for the bulk of the project. In this last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill. It’s a $300 million grant for shelter-ready projects. Manchester was given $500,000 from that pot of money,” said Mack.

There was a first-read on Resolution 2021-28 A resolution to enter into a contract with the Ohio Auditor of the state’s office, local government services, to provide services to the Village of Manchester, Ohio.

“I’ve been the finance chair for two terms. I don’t know if you are aware, but October marks three years out of fiscal emergency and we have a five-year projected budget with the state. The services that we get from our state auditor and those financial consultants so that this village can stay financially stable — and with our EMS crisis coming up — I feel their services are very valuable for our village. We’re in year three. I’m proud of our village,” said Councilwoman Christine Henderson.

There was a first read on Resolution 2021-30 A resolution to enter into a contract with the Adams County Sheriff’s Department for the Village of Manchester to provide police protection for the said village for a period of one year.

“I’ve taken a major hit in my business. I know a lot of other businesses. The Facebook crowd is really complaining about not having police protection. We can say we have a deputy’s protection every now and then. With that said, I’m putting a motion on the table to [start a police department]. The protection that we’re getting is a deputy that sits here on a Sunday. I went to church, come back, made some errands, he was still here. It doesn’t help us. We need protection in the midnight hours. Very rare do we get that,” said Jolly.

A motion by Jolly to start a police department was seconded by Councilwoman Irene Shively, the council agreed.

“I’m voting for a police department. First of all, the tax money that comes in on the police levy is $60,000. That’s what I’m being told. I don’t think any of us can deny that we don’t need a police department. Can we afford it? We’re going to have to put a tax levy on. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get a police department. I’m for a police department if we can afford it,” said Councilman Shawn Francis.

Mayor Teresa Blythe said it would have to be above 10 mills.

“You can’t put the cart in front of the horse. We have to determine what mills we need to put on a levy to support a police department. I am for a police department. I want to follow a process and procedure to get us there. I don’t want to blindly vote for something that I know right now as finance chair we don’t have the money for. Now, if we go back and put that horse in front, I’m all for it. But I need to get all of the financials taken care of before we can do that. It’s premature. In the general fund right now, we do not have the money to start a police department. Yes, there’s $108,000. That was from things leftover from the last police department. Those monies had to be put in that line item. We’re paying $60,000 right now for police protection. Let me remind you, public, that our citizens voted for that. We were in fiscal emergency. We’re still on a projected budget. We can’t just blindly go into it and start taking money out of the general fund. We have to have a plan,” said Henderson.

Jolly said there will never be 24-hour police protection in Manchester.

“Let’s establish some facts first. But, we can start with a chief, and it will be a trickle-down effect from there. We have to start somewhere. We have a finance committee that’s going to see us there, but we have to start somewhere,” said Jolly.

Solicitor Tom Mayes will begin research on the topic as it will require an ordinance to re-establish a department.

A motion by Francis to adjourn was seconded by Councilman Mike Phipps, the council agreed. Meeting minutes will be approved by the council at the next meeting, subject to revisions.