GEORGETOWN — The Village of Georgetown held their first village council meeting following the Brown County Fair, and while there weren’t many issues raised, Administrator Art Owens provided updates to council on a number of village matters.

According to Owens, Duke Energy had contacted him recently and told him that this November, they were planning on cutting off electricity for a period of three days in order to undergo repairs. Owens said that he was able to push those repairs back to Spring 2016, but in the meantime he’s begun discussions with American Municipal Power and Duke Energy to find ways to fill the electricity gap.

“We’re going to find a way to beef up the substation, or find portable generation, or a portable substation, to make sure that we do not go out of power when they do the repair, because the repair will take three days to do,” Owens said, adding that the original plan would have knocked out power to most of the village’s business district.

Owens told council that he will begin meeting with insurance vendors to start comparing options for liability insurance, and that the village will be seeking bids for health insurance. Both insurances are up by the start of 2016.

Council was updated on the new salt barn being built for the village by Dale Bonar. The barn is currently in construction and will double the village’s capacity from 150 tons to 300 tons. The barn should be completed by next week, according to Owens.

Lastly, on October 16, Owens said he anticipated some traffic in town as the Brown County Commissioners approved to have a sewer line replaced from the courthouse to the village sewer main in the middle of Main St.

Later in the meeting, village council declined to take any action on a liquor permit transfer, from Roger and Robin Parker to Wade Highlander, who along with his wife Lori purchased Parker’s Pizzeria last month.

During round-table discussion, Councilwoman Susan Bean told council and the administration that the tree commission and Urban Forester Wendy Van Buren from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources found nine trees in one-fifth of the village that have been identified, and seven of them are in hazardous condition. All of the trees identified are on public property, according to Bean.

“They are trees that are not very long lived, and at a certain point they start to fall apart,” Bean said of the ash trees in town that are in poor condition. “At some point we will require the village to take a stand and remove these trees.”

Council President and planning commission chair Kelly Cornette updated council on the latest discussions of the zoning ordnance. Cornette provided all members of council a copy of the latest zoning ordinance and asked if they would read it over and respond by the next meeting. Solicitor Joe Braun said that he could give council notes on the changes that took place in the zoning ordinance between the last two planning commission meeting.

Georgetown Police Chief Rob Freeland gave his monthly status report, discussing incidents that took place during the Brown County Fair, as well as arrest raids conducted by the Brown County Drug and Major Crimes task force on September 28.

Freeland also happily relayed to council that the police department had received another anonymous donation that will allow them to equip their newest police officer, Derek VanDemark.

Lastly, council approved a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel issues. No action was taken following the return to general session.

The next Georgetown Village Council meeting will take place on Thursday, October 22.

Georgetown Mayor, Dale Cahall, and Administrator Art Owens address Georgetown Village Council at their regular meeting on October 8.
https://www.ripleybee.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_GeorgetownVC8815-1-DanielKarell-.jpgGeorgetown Mayor, Dale Cahall, and Administrator Art Owens address Georgetown Village Council at their regular meeting on October 8.
Georgetown administrator works to push power outage back

By Daniel Karell

dkarell@civitasmedia.com