Council hears positives on city finances

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council heard some positive financial news, but didn’t get much accomplished other than approval of several then-and-now certificates in a 45-minute meeting on Monday.

Van Wert Police Chief Joel Hammond attended a Health Safety Service Committee meeting prior to the regular City Council meeting to discuss greater restrictions on local residents’ ability to text and use cell phones while driving.

Currently, state law makes texting while driving a secondary offense, which means that a motorist must be stopped for another offense before they can be cited for texting while driving. For teens under the age of 18, though, texting while driving is a primary offense, meaning they can be stopped in an officer sees a teen believed to be younger than 18 texting while driving.

Law Director John Hatcher said he had researched the proposal, but feels that some time needs to be spent tracking the situation first to see if there is a problem that warrants local action.

“What the chief and I thought might be a good idea is, before we just go passing legislation to pass legislation, maybe it might not be a bad idea to take six months and actually track what’s going on with it to see if it’s a problem that needs to be addressed,” Hatcher said.

The issue was first raised by Health Safety Service Committee Chair John Marshall, who admitted distracted drivers are a personal issue with him, since he nearly got run over by one a few years ago.

Both Mayor Don Farmer and Auditor Martha Balyeat had positive financial news to present to City Council on Monday. The mayor noted that income tax revenues were again up in March, with an increase of $137,548 collected in the first quarter of 2014 over the same quarter last year – an increase of 9 percent.

Mayor Farmer said he feels April’s tax collections — usually the highest collections of the year — will exceed $1 million this year.

“We haven’t broken a million dollars in several years here, but I’m going to anticipate we’ll be over a million dollars in the April collections,” the mayor said.

Balyeat noted that, if windfall revenues from last year are taken out, revenues are up this year. Both withholding and declarations (non-W-2 wages) have increased in 2014, the auditor said, noting that was a good sign for city finances.

During his report, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming requested legislation that would allow the city to participate in the Small Cities Grant Program. The money from the grant would be used to pay for bridge inspections in the city.

The mayor also noted that infrastructure work on the 1,600-acre Jobs Ready Site north of Van Wert is nearly complete, with certification of the site the only thing left after work is completed.

“We’re now nearing the completion in days, not weeks,” Mayor Farmer told City Council. American Electric Power has some work remaining at the site, but most everything else is completed, the mayor said.

Judiciary & Annexation Committee members were asked by Main Street Van Wert Program Manager Adam Ries to move a meeting scheduled for Monday, April 21, to discuss economic development, since it conflicts with his organization’s annual dinner meeting, which is also scheduled for that evening.

After some discussion, committee members agreed to move the meeting up an hour, to 5 p.m., to accommodate the Main Street Van Wert event.