Village Council - Regular Meeting

All right, get started. Thank you for coming tonight, January 5th, 2026. Uh we'll start by um doing a prayer and pledge of allegiance. Let's pray. Lord, again, I just uh thank you for your love and grace. And Lord, I pray uh for our village. I pray for um people that work and serve our village. Lord, I pray that uh you help us to move forward here in 2026. Continue to give us gift wisdom and guidance. Open up our eyes. Open up our hearts uh to your will for uh our village, our lives, and our families in Jesus name. Amen.

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Well, at this time we have some new people and uh return e coming on the council. So it is swearing in our new council people along with Tony. So do that next.

Who do you want to start with? Huh? Who?

Okay. Oh, this is

repeat after me. Okay.

I, Tony Eggley, do hereby solemnly swear. I, Tony Egley, do hereby solemnly swear [snorts] or affirm that I shall support or affirm that I shall support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the ordinances of the village of Hixville and the ordinances of the village of Hixville. I shall not be influenced by any consideration. I shall not be influenced by any consideration except that of merit and fitness [snorts] except that of merit and fitness and the appointment or discharge of employees and the appointment and discharge of employees. I shall not make any make or authorize I shall not make or authorize the expenditure of public money the expenditure of public money

except for the consideration except for the consideration and efficient service to the village and efficient service to the village. I shall faithfully and honestly I shall faithfully and honestly and partially discharge the duties and partially discharge the duties of the member of village for the member of of council for the village of Hixel of member of council for the village of Hixel defiance county Ohio defiance county Ohio for the term ending December 31st 2029 for the term ending December 31st 2029 to which I have been elected so help me God for which I have been elected so help me God

thank you to Very good. [applause] Right. [clears throat] I, Brian Z. do hereby solemnly swear I, Brian Zike, do hereby solemnly swear or affirm that I shall support or affirm that I shall support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the ordinances of the village of Hixville and the ordinances of the village of Hicksville. I shall not be influenced

I shall not be influenced by any consideration except that of merit by any consideration except that of merit and fitness to the appointment and fitness to the appointment or discharge of employees or discharge of employees. I shall not make any or I shall not make or authorize I shall not make or authorize the expenditure of public money the expenditure of public money except for the consideration except for the consideration and efficient service to the village and efficient service to the village. I shall faithfully, honestly, and impartially I shall faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of discharge the duties of member of council for the village of Pixville. member of council for the village of Pixville defiance county, Ohio

defiance county, Ohio for the term ending December 31st, 2029. For the term ending December 31st, 2029, to which I have been elected, so help me God. To which I have been elected, so help me God. [applause] Last but not least, Mr. I, Mike, do hereby solemnly swear I, Mike, do hereby swear or affirm that I shall or affirm that I shall support the Constitution of the United States support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the State of Ohio

and the ordinances of the village of Hixville and the ordinance of the V Village village of Hixville. I shall not be influenced I shall not be influenced by any consideration except that of merit. by any considerations of that merit and fitness to the appointment and fitness to the appointment or discharge of employees or discharge of the employees. I shall not make or authorize I shall not make or authorize the expenditures of public money the expenditures of public money except for the consideration except for the consideration and efficient service to the village and efficient service to the village efficient service to the village I shall faithfully honestly and impartially I shall faithfully and honestly and impartially discharge the duties of of discharge the duties of

member of council for the village of Hicksville member of council for the village of Hville divides County, Ohio. Defian County, Ohio. For the term ending December 31st, 2029. For the term ending December 31st, 2029, to which I have been elected, so help me God. to which I have been elected. So help me God.

Very good. Congratulations. [applause] All right. [snorts] New council kind of set. We still have one um council seat to fill. Uh we've had some nominations um brought before us. Um, at this time I want to open up the floor for nominations. Um, for the people that have been in consideration for that role, it is for a two-year term. I know I have not reached out to you. With [snorts] the board of election, we um had never had this happen before. So, it is only for a two-year term. If they decide to stay on council after that point, they would have to run um either in the primary and general election of that year, unless we become a non part not part of city council. So we're going to try to work on that again. So at this time I open the floor for nominations.

Oh I'm sorry. here

Mike if that were to change in the middle of that term does it automatically make it a fouryear term for partisansship versus nonpartisanship uh no that's just that they um would have none anybody who runs for council would not have to run in the primary. They would just run in the general. That's the only thing that would change because we have to declare like Republican, Democrat, independent, um [clears throat] that would be the only change for that. So, if we become nonpartisan, [clears throat] right? Um the the council seats would not have to run in the primary. So, we wouldn't have to pay for the primary. Okay. We tried to do that a couple years. You know if that if it changed in the middle of that 2year term if it then turned into a four year term that was question we had

so they run they'd have to work we have never had that happen before so we went to the board of elections Tanya I think that was the first time for her so she reached out to the state we wanted to do it right sure we started getting question on that so after they got back with I'd like to nominate position.

I'll second that. Is there any other nominations? I will you want to make a motion to close nominations then motion to open nominations [snorts] at this point we can close nominations if there are no more nominations we have a vote for right council vote and Eric Yes. [clears throat]

Yes. Yes.

I want to thank all the candidates who put their name in the hat for this position. Like I said, it's I was happy to see the amount of people that did apply. I congratulate Bo, but again, thank you to all who put in their name. I But I want to tell you, you know, we want to see people run in the election, too. We would love to have that and have more people run for those seats in the future. So, thank you again for your time, your efforts that Bo, you're I, Boon, do hereby and solemnly swear

I, Boon, do hereby and solemnly swear or affirm that I shall support or affirm that I shall support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the ordinances of the village of Hixville and the ordinances of the village of Hicksville. I shall not be influenced I shall not be influenced by any consideration except that of merit by any consideration except that of merit and fitness in the appointment or discharge of employees and fitness in the deployment except the discharge of employees. I shall not make or authorize I shall not make or authorize the expenditures of public money the expenditures of public money except for the consideration except for the consideration and efficient service to the village

an efficient service to the village I shall faithfully honestly and impartially I shall faithfully honestly and impartially discharge the duties of the member of the council for the village of Hicksville discharge the duties of the member of council for the village of Hicksville County Ohio divines county Ohio for for the term ending December 31st, 2027. for the term ending December 31st, 2027, to which I have been elected. So help me God. To which I have been elected. So help me God.

Congratulations. [applause] All right. Again, thank you for everybody on that. Uh at this time, um with the new council president seated at the table, um we have nomination for council president. I can't council president. I would like to second that. Any other nominations?

[snorts] mayor's still nominations [snorts] of nominations. Roll call. [clears throat] Yes. Yes. Miller. Yes. Thank you. Um, we have um December 15th regular council minutes in your packet. Any questions or changes to that?

Motion to approve as written. Miller. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Uh we have approval of bill six. Any questions? You'll know which one I'm talking about. But is that person still an employee?

What would you say about that? I mean, do we have anything in Brighton? She's going to come back and run for it. Why are we paying? I'm talking about a whole different plan. Yes, we have a contract. Okay. Two years. Okay. I'll make a motion to pay the bills. I'll second roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Since it's a new year, uh we don't have no boards and commissions that met. I don't believe um council committee reports. None of those. I don't I believe none of those. I now that we have council set out will have final council committee set out to everybody by next by this end of this week. Cy report. I got a few things. Um, first of all, this spring we'll be going out to bid for the Columbia Hatter Street water main replacement. I think that estimate came back around 600,000. You have a $500,000 grant here recently. A lot of these have come in way under the engineers estimate. I know we had choice one here a while back and they had a whole downtown rendering that nobody liked. Um we are going to look at going and applying for the tap fund which is sidewalks and lighting and traffic control devices for high and main street. Choice one is open to come talk to you guys and explain a little more about exactly what's all going to be included with that. Um, we've had a job position available for a couple months and had three interviews and I'd like to give a recommendation for one of those individuals. His name is Dylan Fogle. Um, in this position for the wastewater department individual in the wastewater is going to transfer to the street department. I think he'd be a better fit within our street department. Um Dylan does have a background in industrial maintenance. He does have certifications um from Northwest State Community College. I feel that he's the best out of the three candidates that we have

interviewed. I have another recommendation. Okay. Uh Cody Berlingame has been with us [clears throat] for a few years now and he's been a labor. Um, in the last couple years, Cody has um has ran skid steer. He's ran the backhoe foot chipper machine. We've had him in the street sweeper. He's um been very efficient with those ran everything safely. Um had him doing a lot of he does a lot of stuff with the street and waste water throughout the winter since he's our mowing guy. currently a grade three and I would like to bump him to a grade two labor couple speed and then the pump house uh it's got the old pump station on Avenue and Oak Street that'll be demoed here in the next couple weeks that'll be completely And then JDY Excavating will come back, seed and straw, finish up the yard, and then top dress the the driveway that goes pulls up to the pump station. And we can have a meeting with with finance or whatever, but a while back you guys had passed something where if you got a water or wastewater license, employees would get an extra dollar an hour. I would like to see something for the um mosquito license as well, the application license because we don't have anybody at this moment that has that license. So, we would not be able to do any spurring come this summer. It's a it's a license that would be needed in order to do the job. Uh it is issued to the Department of Agriculture

in the state of Ohio. Last time we discussed that was they only do so few hours during the year and that that difference the whole year. That was the big reason why we didn't do it last night. If they do 20 hours of spring for mosquitoes and for the whole summer we're paying them 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. I think that was I wanted to bring it up just for discuss it all I got and I don't think I see January 20th hospital that fun. I'll make those recommendations for Dylan and co

yes [clears throat] yes Yes. Yes. You want to say anything about the killer building at all kind of kind of reaching out to us a little bit forward information on the job site sanitary fiber all that kind of stuff. Michael over the weekend and got with me Corey Erica start moving forward and I think they're applying for some type of grant to do this but then Avery has been helping with the American side of stuff trying to get them to give us a sign

she was supposed to get today I know her today but no response so last Friday. I haven't called her phone number. [clears throat] So, Keller is still talking to us. Didn't he initially give us a January 1st deadline? Um, now that I think they're applying, you mean Keller? Um, now that they're applying for a grant, I think they want to keep moving forward. We're to a situation and we talked about litigation against you know I'm sorry but this is crazy for your road access roadies we're going to keep losing money so eventually we are we've lost four years

that's what I mean that got her to answer the last time I threatened litigation but obviously it hasn't gotten us you do a threat I mean do you move forward with some type of movement that way because what we've done is not I'm sure they throw us an email say oh it's in a different department it should be done by we've had two or three deadlines already passed the last month and no response he's applying for a grant does he have someone spec building already

he's had other opportunities over the course of these four years that's what's scary about this different [snorts] I'm tired. I mean, this is we can't lose an opportunity with an industry that we will reach out to her tomorrow, I guess, and and maybe throw some heavier emails at her. [clears throat] They always say it's not a priority. Well, it's not a priority for you, but it's a priority for us. It's not that big.

What's been their Um that you're favor. [clears throat] Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Second ordinance to appropriations.

Second roll call. Yes. Yes. Chief,

I don't have anything. Welcome three new council members. Uh, you should have stats for monthly and I also sent out five years of what the aages are. has any questions for refreshing council memory. If you have questions for department heads, please give them a call, reach out to them, have a sit down with them. I think I'd be glad communication is healthy and good for council and department heads to see how things are operating, you know, questions and answers kind of things. So I would like to welcome all three new or any council that wants to come out through our office go.

I highly recommend it. Choose a warm day. Yeah, it's veryformational. They do a great job of explaining stuff. Just don't realize what it takes to run a building. Thank you.

Officer report as of the end of 2025. You have the December text and utility collection reports along with the police department collection report. And I have my final email for the volunteer fire. I need my two volunteers from council me. volunteer dependence, the volunteer fire dependence. If anything happens to one of our firemen, then you would have a meeting because this has to do with life insurance or if they're hurt on the job.

Is that the one that they like Beverly was on and didn't know for like 10 years? really I mean which is a good thing a good thing but really is but one that doesn't meet very often only I I will I

have a question about the partic also do we still have to do the same I was thinking you have to do that for them also. Yeah. Something we should look into, but I was thinking if [clears throat] they're under PRS, they get hurt on a job. are not they're FIA. They're what?

They're they are under FICA. They don't have a pension. Oh, I thought they don't pay. No, just [clears throat]

Okay. So, might be something. And finally, I have a new permit for liquor control for Charlie. We don't have any objection to tomorrow. Charlie is coming back.

I signed the application portion of the background check income tax. Yes. I have the dates if you want to go people there's three different dates to go take training and guess

I think I sent that to I mean they have that staffing Good. Thank you. I don't have any. Want to thank everybody for coming tonight. I want to w, you know, wish everybody a happy 2026. Time sure does fly by. All right. Council people, congratulations and welcome to council and we work well together with the department. That's what it's all about. So, anybody need anything else?

We'll take pictures. Oh, pictures or something. Next meeting for our website. It'll be on Tuesday instead. Correct. Martin Luther King.

I do just real quick. I don't know. Do we want to talk about the upcoming option? I mean, we could do an executive since it is an option. That's something we look into and discuss or that's something you know. What's your thoughts? We have a new council. I said we this opportunity risen from the hospital not getting sold. So [snorts] any thoughts, ideas? I think we should pursue it [clears throat] online from January 20th. That right?

Yes. 26 26th. Well, we can talk about it next time. So, we get some time to think about this. I mean, this is a big decision. We've had a long time to think about the past uh path that we took on that building. Um, but we could take another two weeks. Everybody can think about it. If you have any questions or anything, Cory's got a lot of that information. Cheryl does. But, um, it's another opportunity. So, Do we have some money for that already? Something a grant want to use it.

Yeah, possibly.

Yeah, it's not a guarantee. we had pass when I fell down to Columbus and was working with there's a lot of hoops that we had to jump through and there were certain things they wanted to see us have in that hospital. One was a sign letter of intent. Another one was like a community room. Um few few odds and ends were down there which none of that would have been a problem $750,000. We have two years to use it. We still have it. You might [clears throat] want to take a look at the hospital. are coming. Yeah, over 100,000 something we can ponder on here for the next two weeks and we come back on decide if that's

Yes. Yes.

Have a wonderful week. They touch.