by Sue Miklovic
The North Baltimore Village Council met on Tuesday, July 18th for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting.
Council President Bill Cook was absent and excused. Councilwoman Dee Hosmer shared that she has changed her name to Dee Hefner because she was recently married.
There was no public participation during this meeting.
Mr. Swartz, finance officer reported that he had successfully closed the books on June 2023. He reported he was currently working on various funding requests for many projects that are underway and other upcoming planned projects as well. The general fund is currently above $1.5 million,” the best shape we have been in for a while” he said. He also said, “We can also thank the large (manufacturing) employers in the village as they continue to contribute a lot of money to the village general fund that they are collecting through the village income tax.”
Resident and EMS worker Becky Walter was appointed as Village Clerk to fill the empty position created after elected Clerk Kathi Bucher resigned from that position. Mrs. Walter previously served as Village Clerk , the most recent term ending in 2004.

Village Administrator Chase Fletcher also gave an administrative update:
1 Water main project- a pre-construction meeting for the water main replacement project was held June 28th with members of our NB team, a CT Consultant engineer, a CT Consultant project manager, and a CT Consultant project inspector who will be the daily field inspector. Also present was the project manager from Underground Utilities. The meeting went very well according to Fletcher. Underground Utilities is finishing up a job right now and noted to the village that they can most likely push up the start date to later July or early August, instead of late August early September
2 Water St. Bridge- The bridge replacement the project footprint has been submitted to ODOT for their review. They can now make comments or request adjustments if they believe the area should be larger or smaller. Now that ODOT has the project footprint they can begin to plan and perform the environmental study of the project’s impact on the Rocky Ford Creek.
3 Sheetz The village received their stage one submittal for site planning from Sheetz where they will review it and send back for comments for corrections for additions or subtractions. The village has reviewed the plans and given them tentative approval, pending some requested additions to the site. Once those are received again, they can issue an updated tentative approval but cannot issue full plan approvals until the site is annexed into the village. After speaking with attorneys involved with the proposed annexation, that process should be picking up steam soon and once it does, it should move fast.
4 AEP Poles-since the last meeting Mr. Fletcher has received and signed a contract from AEP where they granted the village permission to install banners and flags on a list of approved poles. the Department of Public Works should begin hanging the banners soon. Again, thank you to Mike Julien for his assistance on this project.
5 Downtown revitalization Mr. Fletcher has received several quotes from different packages from Lorie Vincent, a presenter that he has spoken to before who gave a great presentation on her success with working on downtowns and working with downtown building owners.He has included the packet she sent for review for council. They then can discuss and determine if this is something they wish to pursue.
6 Vacating alleys from the old football field– As everyone knows, Mr. Damon purchased the old football field property awhile back. He is requesting that the alleys that run through that piece of property be vacated. Adjoining property owners Donald and Annette Slagle have also signed a letter requesting the same vacating of alleys. (The alleys basically run down the middle of what was the old football field) Village legal counsel Brian Zets informed the administrator the village does not have to post or advertise any special notices, however, council must read the legislation three times. On the second reading council should formally hold a “public hearing” on the legislation to vacate the alley/right of ways The meeting minutes should reflect the public hearing was held and what if any public comments were made. (That legislation was given its first reading during the July 18th meeting)
7 Village Website Mr. Fletcher reported he has been working with someone from the creators of the village website to make changes to it. So far they have been making small changes like updating things to 2023, filling in missing information, and adding more items to make the website truly functional. there are more additions to come.
8 Landscaping the village continues to work on a blight policy for the village to follow in order to make the town more attractive and welcoming. “We at the village office believe we need to do the same here at village hall. We want citizens to maintain their yards and buildings, so we should lead by example.” They have received a quote for landscaping on the side of the building and are looking to begin soon.
No submitted reports were received from the EMS chief, Fire chief, Police chief, Utility director, or DPW Superintendent
The resolution approving the draft amended Wood County Solid Waste Management plan as presented was read for the third reading. As of right now, the recycling bins have not yet been installed at the village building at North Baltimore Park where the recycling will continue to take place.
The Council approved the payment of bills totaling 196,960.01
The next meeting of the Village Council will be the Committee of the Whole meeting on August 8th. The next official Village Council meeting will be August 15th, with both of those meetings beginning at 5:30 PM.