ROSSFORD –
City Council unanimously voted to put a five-year 1-mill levy for fire apparatus, equipment and
operations on the November election ballot.
In May voters rejected a request for a 1-mill renewal plus an additional 0.5-mill for the Fire
Department. The additional money would have been used to buy a new ladder truck.
City Administrator Ed Ciecka said that the 1-mill levy would raise enough to purchase a new ambulance in
accordance to the department’s equipment replacement schedule. Additional money could go toward
addressing the need for a ladder truck. That could mean refurbishing the department’s 1977 vehicle.
City resident Pam Simenski accused the administration of trying for "an additional bite of the
apple." The voters, she said, had already rejected the proposal in May.
Mayor William Verbosky said that the levy in November is only a renewal without the additional 0.5 mills
and would not be enough to buy a new ladder truck, a purchase that proved controversial in spring.
In May voters did approve a separate 0.6-mill renewal for the Fire Department.
In other business, the council accepted a bid from Wolfe’s Roofing for $90,495 for roof work on the
recreation center and the police station on a split 4-3 vote with Caroline Eckel, Jim Richards and Chuck
Duricek voting against.
As submitted Wolfe’s bid reversed its estimate for how much it would cost to do the recreation center and
police station. City officials confirmed the mistake with the bidder, but they deemed the mistake
inconsequential to the bid since it didn’t affect the final total, which was what the determination was
made on.
Neil MacKinnon, a vice president Nordmann Roofing Company, which had the second lowest bid, objected,
saying the city could save money
by splitting the bid into two, and giving Wolfe’s the recreation center job for $34,454 – the figure
later determined instead to be for the police station work – and his company the police station for
$32,852.
The other option presented was rebidding as two separate jobs.
Ciecka said that the roofing work was bid as one job because he believed that would get the city the best
price.
Eckel, however, said she was concerned by Wolfe’s mistake, and that in her experience as a civil
engineer, such errors often portend further problems.
Richards said, though he’d favored the single bid approach originally, he now favored rebidding as two
jobs because of the possibility of saving money for the city.
Councilman Greg Marquette, however, said that throwing out the bids would be a bad business practice and
not one the several businessmen on the board would favor.
Councilmen Ken Hermes, who works for Pilkington, said in his experience splitting a bid never results in
a lower price.
Also, council approved 6-1 an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation, to have the state
assume responsibility for maintaining four traffic signals in the Crossroads of America area of the
city. It will cost the city $12,000 annually.
Ciecka reported that over the last five years the city has spent $35,700 with an outside contractor to
service three of the four lights. ODOT had already been taking care of one. Last year the amount was
$18,000, he noted.
Those figures, said Eckel, do not include city employees time.
Richards also noted that if ODOT does the work and needs help directing traffic, ODOT would use the state
highway patrol, while the city would use city police officers. He said he’d rather not have city police
tied up directing traffic when they could be patrolling.
Hermes argued at past meetings that it was cheaper for the city to continue to service the lights.
Council also approved unanimously three resolutions related to the annexation of about 40 acres of Ohio
795 in Perrysburg Township that includes the Glenwood Elementary school. The Rossford School District is
planning to further develop athletic facilities on the site. The annexation must still be approved by
the Wood County Commissioners.
