NEW PARIS — The New Paris village council passed a motion to approve the layout of the village’s new splash pad during their regular meeting on Monday, Aug. 3.

Mote & Associates Grants & Funding Manager Susan Laux updated the council on steps that need to be taken, saying they need to keep moving forward on the splash pad so they are in a position to finish it by the end of the year.

Parts will be ordered from Rain Drop Products in Ashland, Ohio, which specializes in sprayground and waterpark equipment.

Once the order is placed for the different water features, Rain Drop can provide layouts and plumbing information to the village so that excavation can begin.

Laux then reminded the council of what features they had previously agreed on.

“There was a tulip and then the water came down from up above,” she said. “There was a frog and the water shot out, and then there was a snake and the water shot up out of the snake in different patterns. There’s also some pieces where if you run across it, it will spray up water. It doesn’t spray continuously but the kids run across it and it sprays up water.”

Laux added that the features can be changed into something different in the future if they want something added or removed from the splash pad.

“I’ll get ahold of Rain Drop and get that ordered,” she said once the motion was passed. “Once they send me the layout…we can work on trying to figure out what work we can do, what work we need to try to [subcontract] out and get some prices on any that we need to [subcontract] out. So we’ll move forward with that.”

In other business:

• The New Paris Community Park Foundation received just under $6,000 from the Reid Foundation for the new basketball court goals and rims as well as a $20,000 TimkenSteel grant to go toward the basketball courts.
• The council passed Ordinance 2020-06 establishing a sanitation enforcement officer in the village of New Paris. At the first meeting of each fiscal year, the council will designate one of its members to serve as sanitation enforcement officer for a one-year term. Ordinance 2020-11 was then passed to establish a board of sanitation.
• The council passed Ordinance 2020-07 to regulate animals in the village of New Paris.
• The council passed Ordinance 2020-08 establishing a records retention policy for the village of New Paris. Ordinance 2020-09 was then passed which assigns a designee to participate in public records training required by the Ohio Revised Code.
• The council passed Ordinance 2020-10 which establishes a clothing allowance reimbursement policy of $150 for employees in village departments including the street department, water department and waste water department.
• The New Paris Police Department for July reported 90 calls for service, 23 warrants, eight reports, three issued citations and zero arrests.
• Mayor Kathy Smallwood said the upcoming meetings will see the council going through resolutions and ordinances to clarify procedures so that they are all updated by January.

The next regular meeting will be held on Sep. 14 at 7 p.m. in the City Building. Masks are required for entry.