WEST ALEXANDRIA — The Village of West Alexandria has been chosen for the FY18 CDBG Allocation and Competitive project.
The Preble County Board of Commissioners is required to choose one project to submit for the competitive CDBG project. This year, they reviewed projects submitted by the City of Eaton, Village of West Alexandria, Village of West Manchester, and Village of Camden.
After reviewing all of the projects extensively, the commissioners decided to pass the Village of West Alexandria’s project on to the state level of the application.
This project will remove and replace existing curb and sidewalk on Voge and West Third Street, beginning at West Dayton Street to Main Street (Ohio 503). The project will widen the streets, plane and repair street where needed and install new storm inlets and storm sewer and pave the streets with asphalt.
The project will also build a picnic shelter at Peace Park, install picnic tables and benches at the baseball and soccer park, and install trash receptacles throughout the village.
For the allocation portion, West Alexandria will improve Third Street from the end of previous project proceeding east to Stotler Road, approximately 200 linear feet. The project includes the removal and replacement of 400 linear feet of curbs and sidewalks for both sides of the street, installation of 50 linear feet of storm sewer and three storm inlets, and paving of street area with new asphalt pavement.
This is the fifth and final phase of the ongoing road project in the village.
During a West Alexandria Village Council meeting on Monday, May 21, Mayor Carol Lunsford said, “That was excellent, wonderful news. I want to thank the commissioners for thinking of us. There are some things we have to do, to get information to them, but I wanted to share that news with you.”
In other business:
It was announced West Alexandria Mayor’s Court will now accept checks which are $5 under or over the appropriate payment. This was requested, and is suspected to save time.
Following reports, councilman Jeff Hickey brought up concerns which have been raised to him concerning Fire Chief Jeff Shafer. Hickey and Shafer have a complicated history, as Hickey is the Assistant Fire Chief, on leave due to a “hostile work environment.” Shafer was not present at the meeting when these concerns were brought before council. Village Solicitor Brian Muenchenbach also did not attend the meeting.
“I was hoping Chief Shafer was going to be here tonight, we have had a few concerned citizen phone calls. As everybody is aware, I have been on leave of absence for a year this month. On the leave of absence, I stated a hostile work environment,” Hickey said.
“The calls I received are on two separate public outbursts from Chief Shafer. I wanted to address these with him tonight, so I wish he would have been here. I think we need to either meet with him, or this needs to be addressed,” Hickey continued in open session.
“I was going to ask to go into executive session, but he’s not here. I have received several phone calls as well and have followed up, on my own, to verify. They are valid concerns,” council member Holly Robbins said.
“We can’t discuss it with him not here,” council member Ray Waldeck said.
“I just want to be on record before it goes another month,” Hickey said.
Mayor Lunsford suggested calling a special meeting, but Hickey said he would prefer it to be a public forum and on the record. It was noted, special meeting is a public forum, but Hickey argued, many people don’t attend special meetings.
While on the topic of the Fire Department, Robbins stated, as Chair of the Safety Committee, she would like to be involved in the talks with townships in creating a fire district. EMS Chief Tom Smith asked if the chiefs could be invited as well.
West Alexandria Village Council will meet for its next regular meeting on Monday, June 18, at 7 p.m. in the West Alexandria EMS building.
