Serving all the communities of the Buckeye Lake Region

Village acquires new machine to fix potholes




BALTIMORE – Village Council members welcomed Village Administrator Scott Brown to his first council meeting Monday night.

“ I had a wonderful day,” Brown reported on his first day on the job. A few minutes later he asked if the village had a “FOG” (fats, oil and grease) ordinance when Service Committee chair Jim Hochradel was outlining the efforts being made to find the source of grease clogging a sewer collection inlet. Such an ordinance prohibiting fats, oil and grease in wastewater would allow the health department to enforce the ban and could require generators like restaurants and food processors to submit regular maintenance reports on their grease traps. Baltimore doesn’t have a FOG ordinance. Brown will work with Village Solicitor Jeff Feyko to draft one for council’s consideration.

Hochradel also reported that the Service Committee met with a Lions Club representative about the club’s soon-to-expire lease on the shelterhouse at Basil Park. The focus is on what improvements the club could make to the park.

Council members heard the first of three readings of the 2012 Annual Appropriation Ordinance. Hochradel said the Finance Committee went over the appropriations line by line. “I mean line by line,” he emphasized.

Council members also unanimously approved a five year lease/ purchase agreement for a Dura Patcher machine. It is advertised as “a permanent pothole solution.” The machine uses spray injection technology for potholes, alligator cracks,shoulders and washouts. The relatively new technology has been gaining acceptance with at least two Licking County townships purchasing a machine. ODOT District 5 has also recently purchased several units.

The machine uses compressed air to first clean/dry the repair area, then apply the tack coat, spray inject the emulsion/aggregate mix and finally spray dry aggregate to cover the repair. It is towed behind a dump truck carrying aggregrate and can be operated by two people including the dump truck driver.

The Dura Patcher costs $61,654.50 and Baltimore will be paying 4.635 percent interest on the lease after checking with several leasing companies.

In his report, Police Chief Michael Tussey said one of the new-to-the-department cruisers is now in service. He said they are continuing to work with other departments on the recent rash burglaries in the area. Tussey noted that there haven’t been any burglaries in Baltimore since police went public with the problem. He added that two reserve officers had resigned, while a new one was sworn in Monday.

Council members also unanimously approved a motion authorizing the Regional Income Tax Agency, which administers the village income tax program, to take all legal actions to collect amounts due the village of $200 or more. Fiscal Officer Flo Welker said it isn’t economically feasible to take legal action to collect amounts under $200. Legal actions would be heard in the village’s Mayor’s Court.

Welker also announced that the Advocacy for Kids organization had given the village $6,000 to help underwrite the required Americans with Disabilities Act improvements at the swimming pool.

In his report, Mayor Robert Kalish said his term on the Ohio Public Works Commission Public Works Integrating Committee for District 17 expires in May. He and Brown, as his alternate, have been nominated for a new threeyear term. The committee reviews funding applications from Delaware, Fairfield, Knox, Licking, Marion, Morrow and Pickaway counties. Mayors in the district will be voting and Kalish won’t know if he gets another term until late March or early April.

He also recommended that council set a work session with administrators for early April, focusing on long range planning. He wants to set a date at the March 12 council meeting.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *