Saturday, August 23, 2008

News-Gazette reporter

Union City, Ohio council member Sandy Moore Monday demanded the immediate cutting of a $1,000 check to Darke County Parks because village officials had not completed the project in time.

Mayor Jim Nelson said either, "I finally talked him out of it," or "I'm still trying to talk him out of it," an apparent reference to Roger Van Frank, director of Darke County Parks.

Moore asked Nelson when he had talked to Van Frank, and Nelson said two weeks ago. Moore said she had talked with the director two days ago, and he said Nelson had never contacted him.

Nelson said he was in Van Frank's office two weeks ago, but the man wasn't there.

"It's no big deal," Nelson said.

Moore replied, "It's time for us to take care of business."

Nelson said, "What's that old saying? The check is in the mail."

Members voted unanimously to direct the village financial officer to cut the check for Darke County Parks for the grant that was never used.

In other news, Neil Butt, owner of A & W Root Beer, said he had talked to the engineer of the Elm Street project, and the engineer said he would have no problem eliminating the green space from the sidewalk area. Butt said when the workers put the stakes in the ground, it showed exactly how much of his property and the Marsh property would be taken.

Butt called for the elimination of the green space strip by the sidewalks in the commercial area for reasons of safety, saving costs of moving utilities and not impinging on the parking areas of the two businesses.

Nelson said he was meeting Tuesday morning with the engineer and the owners of the Marsh property.

In an initiative by the mayor, Nelson asked council members if they wanted to consider installing village-owned fuel tanks. He said the village purchases diesel fuel from Pak-A-Sak on the Indiana side and does not see any return of the tax charged. He complained that the price of fuel is cheaper in Greenville than in Union City and said the village could save tax money by having its own gas tank. The village currently buys its gas from Aukerman's Service, which gives the village a 5-cent a gallon discount.

Butt asked if Nelson had compared the cost of installing its own fuel tanks with the cost from the local business or if he had talked to Aukerman's about installing diesel. Nelson said he had not.

When Nelson said he couldn't understand why gas was cheaper in Greenville, Cindi Aukerman, whose mother owns Aukerman's Service, replied that some locations, such as convenience stores and grocery stores, sell the gas at a loss to attract customers for their other offerings. She said sometimes those locations sold gas cheaper than her family's station can buy it.

Council member Bill Bruggeman said, "You guys don't set the price in Union City anyway, do you?"

Aukerman said, "No we don't. Sometimes if my brothers think the price is too high, they try to bring it down, but they have to be careful. A company with outlets in many towns can afford to sell gas in Union City at a loss and make up for it in other towns, but we can't."

Nelson said the village is spending $2,000 a month on fuel, and he was just looking into village-owned tanks as a possibility of saving tax money. He said he would get some figures together on the cost of buying and installing fuel tanks.

Nelson also asked council members what they felt about getting panic buttons for the municipal building. Council members asked him to get figures for that proposal.

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