ThisWeek CW 12/18/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/12/15/year-in-review-officials-teamwork-aided-madison-township-in-2014.html

Madison Township tackled several residential issues aimed at improving neighborhoods and services, while dealing with decreasing revenues and some significant losses in staff in 2014.

Township trustees and Administrator Susan Brobst agreed that despite the challenges placed in front of them this year, Madison Township is better off now than at the beginning of the year.

“Overall, the community and township departments worked and involved themselves collectively on a number of issues involving teamwork with our residents, neighboring cities and other entities and ending mostly on a positive note,” Trustee Gary McDonald said.

The township partnered closely with the Franklin County Land Bank program to demolish nine nuisance properties, with another eight properties being demolished by the mortgage companies, according to Brobst.

“Additionally, three properties have been rehabbed by their owners,” Brobst said.

Other improvements included the completion of the Aqua Ohio water softening facilities. Residents have told trustees they are seeing significantly improved water quality.

An electric aggregation program which began the end of 2013 despite some residents’ protests produced savings in 2014, providing residents in Groveport and the unincorporated areas of the township with savings of at least 15 percent, according to aggregation agreement documents.

Canal Winchester, Madison Township and the Canal Winchester school district agreed to cooperate on a joint project to build a fueling station at the north end of the high school parking lot. The city’s share of the $90,000 project was estimated at $15,000, with the township paying $8,800 and the school district $67,000.

A reorganized community block watch program has been working closely with township staff, holding monthly meetings throughout 2014 to provide greater communication between residents and officials, in particular, Madison Township police and fire departments.

One program which was particularly well received by block watch members and residents in general, has been the reinstatement of the police bike patrol after a nearly eight-year hiatus.

Budget cuts and staffing shortages forced the department to suspend the bicycle patrol unit after money from a federal Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant ran out, according to Madison Township Police Capt. James Dean, but with additional resources made available over the past year from the passage of a police levy, the department now has one officer trained and back on his bike, with others preparing to join him.

“Officer Jacob Short is an experienced bike officer and shows good presence and will be happy to talk with the community about preventive measures in regards to the current concerns of wrongful activities,” Dean said.

The township also brought back the reserve officer program aimed at saving money while providing additional support for special-event duty.

The reservists work on a volunteer basis to help meet their required 16 hours of monthly service to maintain their certification while they look for permanent police work.

Dean himself was part of several significant changes this year in the police department. After a department shake-up in 2013, Chief Michael Ratcliff led the department until he died unexpectedly June 22.

Dean was appointed to his new role as captain following Ratcliff’s death, and Capt. Kenneth Braden was promoted to chief.

Other township staff changes included the retirement of road superintendent Terry Spangler. Spangler had followed in his father, Paul’s, footsteps — both men served in the same role for several decades. In July, the township honored both men by renaming the facility they ran the Spangler Public Works Building.

Other township news in 2014 included:

* New regulations requiring vendors to register with and obtain permits from the township went into effect. New rules also limit the times when vendors may go door-to-door during the week and on Saturdays. No solicitations are allowed on Sundays or holidays.

* An application from Aqua Ohio for an 11.75-percent rate increase received approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio staff in July and was sent on for board approval.

* Because of a shortage of road salt — which has risen in price from $53 a ton last year to about $116 a ton this year — township officials announced in December that crews would only salt hills, corners and intersections on a regular basis this winter. Rural roads and outlying developments will be treated with calcium-coated sand mixed with salt and will be pretreated with salt brine.