{"id":112586,"date":"2019-01-29T07:51:30","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T12:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=112586"},"modified":"2019-01-29T07:51:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T12:51:36","slug":"city-council-to-discuss-barking-dog-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/01\/29\/city-council-to-discuss-barking-dog-law\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council to discuss barking dog law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL<\/strong>\/<\/strong>independent writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogs left outside that bark excessively will be a topic of discussion at a future meeting of Van Wert City Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilman At-Large Bill Marshall brought up the subject during Monday night\u2019s meeting and acknowledged there is an ordinance currently on the books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert City Council President Jon Tomlinson presides over Monday night’s Council meeting. <\/strong>Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt think it\u2019s something we need to look at as a committee, whether it\u2019s strong enough or if it speaks to what we want to do or if it\u2019s doable,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cI think it is an issue and I\u2019ve heard this from other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council President Jon Tomlinson weighed in on the subject and said it\u2019s a matter of policing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout a full time code enforcement officer the police are capable, but there are things that take priority obviously over animal issues,\u201d Tomlinson said. \u201cThe dog warden\u2019s an employee of the county and is responsible for the entire county, not just the city of Van Wert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy only concern is that we\u2019re going to take time and look at an ordinance; are we going to have a policing function, are we going to be able to do anything about it?\u201d Tomlinson added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

First Ward Councilman Jeff Agler said he\u2019d like to see a provision added that requires owners to bring in their dogs during extremely cold conditions or face a fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshall noted the current ordinance has a fine of up to $500, but doesn\u2019t state how it\u2019s handled. Law Director John Hatcher agreed to look into existing legislation and report back to council. Tomlinson said he\u2019s willing to discuss the matter more at a future meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business, Council approved legislation establishing a credit card policy for cards used by city employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Jerry Mazur said City Tax Administrator Jennifer Adam will serve as compliance officer, and City Auditor Martha Balyeat provided council with more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Ohio Legislature passed House Bill 312 in November regarding credit cards, which we have both bank credit cards and store credit cards,\u201d Balyeat explained. \u201cOur policy will be for the bank credit cards — the employees that have those issued to them, they will retain those cards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince they\u2019ll retain the cards and they\u2019re not kept in my office and signed out per use, we have to have this compliance officer,” Balyeat added. “The compliance officer has to be someone who does not have a credit card, cannot issue a credit card or approve a credit card and will not use a credit card. It just so happens that Jen is one of the department heads that doesn\u2019t currently have a credit card,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStore issued cards — Walmart cards are retained in my office and have to be signed out by users because they are issued in the name of the city and not in the name of the employee,\u201d the auditor noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balyeat also said the change in policy will bring the city in compliance with state law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Council approved a new fire protection agreement with Cooper Farms. The three-year deal is renewable for another three years and calls for a lump sum payment of $21,000 at the beginning of each calendar year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council members also approved legislation to sign over five acres of land at Vision Park to the Community Improvement Corporation for possible future expansion, and Council passed a resolution allowing the sale of municipally owned personal property not needed for public use or obsolete or unfit for the use for which it was acquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, February 11, in Council Chambers, on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 East Main St. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent writer Dogs left outside that bark excessively will be a topic of discussion at a future meeting of Van Wert City Council. Councilman At-Large Bill Marshall brought up the subject during Monday night\u2019s meeting and acknowledged there is an ordinance currently on the books. \u201cIt think it\u2019s something we need to look at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 03:48:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}