Milford Center’s village council tried to make a decision on how it was going to annex a property on Reed Street at a meeting earlier this week. The draft resolution to connect water and sewer services to that property, owned by Larry and Sharon Beach, before annexation happens, however, failed. Council members were stuck between sticking to code or showing compassion to Larry, a man with terminal cancer. Council members gave long pauses between their votes; Don Jones and Terri Kean voted “no,” and Ron Payne, Derek Wilson and Dan Johnson voted “yes.” After Jeff Parren, the deciding factor, chose to abstain, a pause took over the room. “Reed Street is such a mess,” Kean said. Last month, council passed a resolution to hook up water and sewer services to the property once the county commissioners approved it. Solicitor Alison Boggs said the annexation process will take longer to account for acreage and other specifications. Monday night’s resolution was attempting to provide those services before they had to wait for official approval. Council would normally not make an exception to expedite this process, especially if they weren’t technically in the village. However, council members were emotionally moved by the fact the owner of the recently finished residence had failing health. “The gentleman is dying, and he really just wants to be in his home before he dies,” Boggs said. “The process is getting going, but it’s going to take a couple of months. They just would like to get into the house.” Boggs reminded council the Beach family is already willing to pay $8,000 to connect. Boggs said she’s working on a petition to the commissioners to enact the annexation. She said, once the petition is completed and sent to the commissioners, they have to set it for a hearing, but “they’re probably not going to be in until Christmas or January, and that’s if things go smoothly.” Parren expressed concern about the property owners backing out of annexation once they “got what they needed.” Boggs said she will consider adding a statement protecting the village from that to her petition draft. Mayor Virgil Reisinger said the issue has been going on since March. He said the property owners “didn’t want to pay the tap fee or an attorney to do what Alison is doing at our expense,” and the village is fronting all of the money for the annexation. “I feel the compassion for this guy who wants to be in his house before he expires, but I don’t think we can do anything about that,” Payne said. “He knew he was terminal in March…The county already told them they couldn’t use the septic system. They knew way back then there was only one way to do this.” Other council members expressed how difficult the situation is, and wondered if exceptions could be made. “In this one case, we have a health concern,” Johnson said. “If that wasn’t the case, then I’d say, ‘no way.’” Payne asked Boggs if there could be any communication with the township trustees or commissioners on this, but she wasn’t sure because the petition hadn’t been filed yet. “I want it done right the first time, as I haven’t done a petition like this before,” Boggs said. “I didn’t appreciate how long the process took when I mentioned it last month.” She said since the corporation line goes through the Beach property, she feels confident the commissioners will approve the annexation.