Corcoran resigns from county airport bd.

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council President Gary Corcoran announced Monday that he was resigning his position on the Van Wert County Regional Airport Authority Board because of what he perceives as times when that position and his Council job are in conflict.

The announcement on Monday was a culmination of a request for a beer concession to be located at the airport that generated controversy, Corcoran explained, where support and opposition flowed back and forth between both entities, “which put me in the position of not being able to vote objectively on both sides,” he added.

The fact that council president is a position that could have had to cast a tie-breaking vote in the matter was even more uncomfortable, Corcoran said, adding, “I couldn’t do both” in deciding to resign from the airport board.

Corcoran’s resignation does pose a problem for City Council, with his pointing out the possible conflicts involved in having a Council member on the airport board, while the airport board bylaws require that Council appoint one of its members to serve on that entity.

With Airport Board President Clair Dudgeon recently announcing a review of those bylaws, Council members decided Monday to wait and see what that review leads to before appointing a replacement for Corcoran.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming gave a report on the utility projects Mayor Louis Ehmer’s administration wants to spend Issue 1 dollars on.

Proposed projects include repainting the city water tower beside Greif Bros. on Glenn Street, purchasing a new lime slacker for the water treatment plant to replace ones that are old and obsolete, and a blower unit and a roof for the sludge storage facility at the wastewater treatment plant.

Council also approved some mostly housekeeping matters related to streets and zoning, formally approving the plat for the Towne Center retail development and the naming of one of the streets there North Towne Center Boulevard, while also banning parking along a portion of North Franklin Street from Sycamore Street to the north city limits.

City Auditor Martha Balyeat provided some good, and not-so-good, news about the city’s fiscal standing. It was the not-so-good news that came first, as Balyeat noted that the city is not seeing the kind of increase in tax revenues that would be expected if more people were going back to work. The statement seemed to indicate that employment in Van Wert remains sluggish, at best.

The good news, though, is that the city remains fiscally responsible, with city departments spending $116,761 less than was received from taxes and other revenues.

Two ancient city ordinances are either being repealed or retooled because of discussions in Council committees and legislation being sought during Monday’s regular meeting.

Council approved preparing an ordinance that would repeal a measure first adopted in 1937 that deals with the use of bullhorns and loudspeaker systems on city streets. Fleming said the ordinance has been made redundant because of a more recent noise ordinance.

A second ordinance, first passed in 1916, that provides licenses and fees for street entertainment will have a good portion of the ordinance stripped out and the rest modified. A request was made by Main Street Van Wert Program Manager Seth Baker to look at the ordinance after he discovered it would hamper plans to have some street performances downtown as part of the One Wonderful Weekend (Peony Festival and ArtRageous on Main) celebration.

Earlier in the meeting, Van Wert County Fair Board Trustee Ann Marshall attended to request the city’s support to bring a Blackhawk military helicopter to this year’s Van Wert County Fair. The helicopter would be brought in for “Veterans Day” at the fair, which will be held this year on September 2. Marshall said that, while everyone but military veterans would have to pay to get into the fair that day, the helicopter could be seen for free by anyone attending.