By Martha Jacob –

About a dozen people attended the Oct. 4 Aberdeen Village Council meeting along with a full council present.
Following the approval of two corrections on the minutes from the previous meeting, council suspended the rules and voted to sell an old van and a vehicle owned by the village but keep another vehicle, a Dodge Dakota.
Aberdeen Chief of Police Fred Hampton then explained to council why a towing bill of $75 had to be paid by the village.
“We received a call that a suspicious vehicle, had been sitting in the bowling alley parking lot for a couple of days,” Chief Hampton said. “There were several prescription bottles laying inside it and the windows had been left down. So, because it just didn’t seem right I had it towed to the department.”
Chief Hampton said the tow was for $75, and he said in hindsight, he should have let the towing company take the vehicle to its facility. He said the owner of the vehicle, from Portsmouth showed up and left with the vehicle without paying the towing fee.
In the end, council paid the towing fee but advised that any other vehicle be towed somewhere else. Chief Hampton added that he looks forward to his department owning its own holding lot.
A couple of residents from the audience questioned council about when they would be receiving their first water bills from Brown County Rural Water which now serves the village. The residents were told their first bills should arrive by Oct. 15.
Council said Trick-or-Treat in Aberdeen would be held on Monday, Oct. 31 between 6 and 7:30 p.m.
In other actions, fiscal officer Nathan Pfeffer asked for approval of the minutes from a special Sept. 12 meeting, where council approved an ordinance accepting and approving the re-plat of .05 acres in vacated Beech Alley in the John Beasley’s Addition to the village.
Three additional resolutions were also approved at the Sept. 12 meeting including:
• A resolution enacting preliminary consent legislation to construct the last phase of the Shared Use Path within the village;
• A resolution amending the 2016 appropriation budget;
• A resolution authorizing the fiscal officer to set up an account in People’s National Bank in order to satisfy the Ohio Income Tax requirements.
Aberdeen Mayor Jason Phillips, also informed  everyone at the meeting that he wanted to stop a rumor in the village that Brown County Rural Water might not be able to handle  a fire in the village due to a lack of water pressure.
“My phone has been blowing up with calls, but I want residents to know that Brown County Rural Water Company will be taking good care of our village,” Phillips said. “We do have good water pressure and more water than we’ve ever had before.
“Someone is trying to scare people into believing that if we had a big fire they would have to pull water from the Ohio River to put it out. That’s absolutely false, we will have all the pressure we need from our hydrants.”
Phillips added that the wells in the village by the Dairy Queen and at the park will soon be tapped off and the land where the towers are will most likely be returned to it’s original owner.
Councilwoman Shari Stafford reported to council that she has been working with Brown Economic Development Director Kelly Cole regarding applying for a multitude of grants for the Village of Aberdeen.
“Unfortunately,” Stafford said, “We haven’t been able to find any kind of grants or anything to help us defray the cost of getting the old school house torn down. Because of the asbestos and black mold issues no one wants to deal with it.”
Stafford said she has been very busy looking for any grants that might be available to help the village, but most of the grants are for matching funds.
Council also discussed the following issues:
• Council will continue looking for ways to tear down the old school;
• Some residents in the village have no problem with sewer lines passing their properties, but wish to opt out of hooking on;
• Approved moving police officer Eugene Longo off his hiring probation;
• Agreed to find out exactly what the cost of hooking on the sewer line would be;
• Considered running water lines in the park to the pavilion;
• Advised that residents should always report noise violations to the police department immediately.