Milford Center’s first meeting of the year started with a call for rules of procedure to be set in stone.
At Monday night’s meeting, village council member Ron Payne addressed how there’s no established rules of procedure for the village. He said having a written list of how the village conducts its business is important, and can be amended by future councils.
“We have things we do regularly but have nowhere written down where our rules are,” Payne said. “We don’t have that anywhere.”
He presented council with a draft of a rules of procedure document. He said he took inspiration from Mount Gilead’s rules of procedure. He said he amended topics such as its quorum amount and rules pertaining to when the mayor is absent and a temporary chairperson is voting on an issue.
“I looked at what they had and found out they pretty much do what we do,” Payne said. “I added things that we do or have done.”
Council member Dan Johnson said Ron’s proposed looked like “common sense” to incorporate.
“As someone coming in totally cold as I did, this would have helped me feel a lot more confident in a meeting,” Johnson said. “Had I been privileged to read this first and say, ‘Oh, I see that’s how we conduct business,’ I would have been more comfortable with it.”
Council members received copies of Payne’s proposed rules of procedure and will decide on it at a future meeting.
Also at the meeting, council passed a resolution to appropriate $11,746.23 as a payment to Marysville for sewage treatment.
The village estimated it would pay around $100,000 for its sewage services, but ended up owing an extra $11,746.23.
Council member Don Jones suggested in the future, the village should build its own water treatment plant, and “it’s not out of reach.”
Council member Terri Kean and Jones asked how the village is always underestimating its water treatment payments.
Mayor Virgil Reisinger said some factors to that Marysville increasing its costs and the infiltration in the water line. Payne said it means the village “guessed wrong.”
“That’s just something we, all as a whole, need to work on and get a better grasp so we’re not always coming in and saying, ‘we need to appropriate this much more to this account,’” Jones said. “It’s going to happen, but maybe we can curb it a little bit.”
In an interview with the Journal-Tribune, Payne explained that these appropriations have to be made so there’s evidence when the auditor’s office performs an audit.
Later at the meeting, council approved of appropriating $30,186.50 for the purchase of the VFW building, located on 16 W. Center St.
Kean asked if this was already approved through a resolution, and the money should have carried it over. Reisinger explained though the village already acquired the building, council needed to approve appropriating the money for the purchase, as it was planned in the temporary budget for 2019.
The vote passed 4-1, with council member Jeff Parren absent and Kean voting no. The vote to waive the second and third reading to close on the purchase was approved 4-1, with Kean voting no.
Also at the meeting:
-Council approved of a resolution to purchase new high pressure water pumps for the village’s wells for $14,400.
Council will hold its next meeting at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11.