Wellsville’s 18th Street blues

WELLSVILLE - The members of Covenant Presbyterian Church and Wellsville village council have the blues when it comes to the 18th Street playground.

Since it officially opened, the playground has faced an endless list of vandalism issues.

"It's almost like mission impossible (to keep the playground equipment safe)," village Mayor Joe Surace said.

Covenant Presbyterian Church member Paul Waggle addressed council Tuesday on his concerns with the vandalism.

Waggle stated that the latest act of vandalism was the destruction of a picnic table that he had purchased.

"They were breaking two by fours in half," Waggle said.

Waggle stated that he has called the Wellsville Police about the problem many times, but that he understands the playground cannot be under 24-hour surveillance. He is offering a $200 reward for information that leads to the apprehension of the vandals.

Adding to the problem with surveillance, council member Joe Soldano stated that the church did not receive a grant this year, as it had in 2008, to allow the hiring of playground supervisors.

Council has considered placing a fence and gate around the playground so that access to it may be prohibited at night.

Waggle agreed that he will research price estimates for such a project and return to council with the results.

The village is also looking for a person who is certified to install playground equipment. Anyone with the certification should call Village Administrator Jim Saracco.

In other business, Saracco announced that sewer smoke testing in the village has been completed.

Saracco stated that he has received a list of homes that need to remove their gutter downspouts from underground.

"All we are requiring them to do is remove the downspouts from the sewer," Saracco said.

In 2008, Saracco sent letters to homes to request they move the downspouts. The requirement is not from the village but from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Saracco stated that the extra runoff from the downspouts increases the cost of operations at the sewage plant.

Animal Control Officer Leslie Dean presented council with her activity report, covering May 23 - June 23.

According to the report, 49 calls were received. Two dog bites, three wild animal issues, and 17 dogs running at large were reported.

Dean also requested two pieces of legislation from council.

Dean stated that while dog tags are required by the state, there is no ordinance which requires owners to have tags for their dogs in the village.

"I just want to be able to cite people who don't have dog tags on a village level," Dean said.

Council approved a motion to prepare an ordinance which requires owners to get tags for their dogs, but no fine amount was set for violations.

Council also agreed to allow Dean to charge an owner redemption fee for dogs brought to the village dog pound as strays. The fee will be $15 with an additional charge of $5 for each day following the day the dog was brought in.

After 72 hours in the village dog pound, Dean said, the dogs will go to the county dog pound.

Dean also announced that the dog pound facility will be repainted both inside and out. The Alley Cat Aid Brigade will assist Dean with the project.

The group will be painting over the dog drawings that are on display on the outside walls of the building. The drawings were done by Wellsville students.

However, Dean stated that she plans to invite Wellsville High School students to do more drawings on the building after the painting is finished.

Fire Chief Bill Smith stated that the fire department's flood wall training, which took place on June 27, alerted him to the deteriorating conditions of several timbers used to hold the wall in place on the street.

"I don't even want to offer any type of a guarantee on how well those gates would hold," Smith said.

Smith stated that an inspector from the Army Corps of Engineers was present at the training to inspect the wall.

However, Smith stated that he was not sure who should be contacted to replace the timbers. Smith also noted the possibility of replacing the timbers with another type of longer-lasting material.

Smith also stated that five of the 11 dilapidated properties in the village should be torn down sometime this month. The remaining six properties, Smith said, still have paperwork pending.

In a 4-1 vote with council member Don Brown voting against, council approved the payment of four invoices totalling $28,140 from LSW for sewer jet rodding.

Brown later stated that he voted against the payment because of the total price.

"It's (the project total) over $25,000 so far," Brown said. "Anything over $25,000 needs to be bid out, and this was not put out for bid."

Two council members shared their appreciation for village activities.

Council member John McMahon commended the caretakers of the Route 45 park for their great work.

Soldano thanked the Riverside Reunion committee for allowing him to be Master of Ceremony at the opening night's festivities.