WEST ALEXANDRIA — West Alexandria Village Administrator and Preble County Commissioner Chris Day was in a car accident on Thursday, June 1, but he is okay and no one was harmed. He was driving the West Alexandria village truck and got into a “road rage” situation, he reported.

The incident and discussion of Day’s use of the village vehicle were topics during the West Alexandria Village Council meeting on Monday, June 19.

Council member Deb Smith asked Day about his mileage. According to Smith, Day has not been turning in his mileage logs. She said, “It looks like insubordination here, you need to get those in. The next question is, if you’re not wanting to give us the mileage the only other suggestion I have is requesting a log. Where does the truck go and why? Can you clarify it and justify that it’s for village use.”

Day responded, he does fill out a log, which led Smith to ask why the mileage isn’t getting turned in.

“I just haven’t brought it up here,” Day said.

Smith then asked Day to clarify the truck accident for council.

“I was involved in an accident, I believe the first of June,” he said. “I was coming back from Dayton from the Miami Valley Planning Commission and I got into an accident.”

Smith asked Law Director Richard Faber, “Is there anything that we should be doing regarding a village employee who’s had an accident with the year analysis? I know there are at the school system.”

Clerk-Treasurer Judy Myers-Corn said there is not currently a policy, but Smith countered, asking if there should be one.

Council member Holly Robbins asked Day how long he’s worked in his position, to which he replied “36 years,” and she followed up by asking if he’s ever had an accident in the village truck before.

He replied he had not. “I just wanted to clarify that,” Robbins said.

Smith added, “I think we need to be good stewards of how many miles we put on the vehicle and to be able to speak to the people as far as if we’re being good stewards.”

“I think you’ll probably find out that the miles that are being put on are a lot less than you think,” Day responded.

“Let’s justify it,” Smith said.

There was additional discussion from the public, even though according to council rules, public participation is only allowed if the person requests having their name on the agenda. Public participation is not permitted on discussion agenda items.

One person said, “I was the one who wrecked the ambulance several years ago and I had to take the drug test. I think there’s insurance requirements for that. I had to sit at the hospital for four hours. I wasn’t injured, I just had to wait on that.”

Another said, “I’m not backing Chris Day, but you have a police cruiser that the odometer is broken on it. So, get off Chris’ butt and get on somebody else’s. If the odometer is broke, how can the police department turn in an odometer reading? Do you see what I’m saying?”

“But they’re turning in mileage,” Smith replied.

The resident countered, “How can they do that if their odometer is broken?”

Day then explained, “I got involved in a situation I wasn’t paying attention for and wasn’t ready for.”

Clerk Christine Bitner said, “And nobody was injured, by the way, because nobody asked. Nobody asked if he was hurt or if the person who was hit was. That should have been the first thing out of your mouth.”

Mayor Lunsford broke off the discussion, “We need to stop with the audience participation.”

Administrator Day also presened his report during the council meeting. He said he is working on getting quotes for the brush pile. He said, “My only question is, do we want to continue allowing people to dump? Or do we want to do away with it? If we’re going to allow people to dump, I have verbiage drawn up to get a sign made. I don’t know if that is going to deter anything or not.”

He added, he knows people who do not live in the community use the brush pile and dump stuff there. The village wants to stop that. The brush pile is meant to be used by West Alexandria residents.

Day explained, there is an ordinance against it and the only thing he can think of is to draw up a sign. He added, “You can’t burn that pile. There’s too much moisture. We tried for weeks.”

Council voted to try the signage.

In other news:

•Day reported he met with the village’s insurance provider and recommended the village switch to a different carrier.

•Council had to authorize Fire/EMS to be on site during the village’s upcoming fireworks.

•Rosemary Lane will be re-opened, following a survey done by Kramer Associates.