{"id":207812,"date":"2026-07-13T22:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=207812"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:13:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:13:49","slug":"city-council-holds-marathon-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/07\/13\/city-council-holds-marathon-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council holds marathon meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Unless there\u2019s a change of heart (or two), it appears smoking and vaping will be banned at all Van Wert city parks, with a change to the original proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday night, members of Van Wert Council discussed at length proposed legislation by Councilman At-Large Hall Block that would prohibit smoking cigarettes, cigars, vapes, pipes and other smoking devices at all parks. Marijuana is already banned on all city-owned property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after some pushback from several people who attended Monday\u2019s meeting and identified themselves as smokers or former smokers and by a couple of council members who questioned the need for such legislation, the ordinance was revised to allow smoking in a designated area \u2013 the parking lot of each park.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Councilman At-Large Hall Block talks about his proposed smoking ban at all city parks. His proposed ordinance received some resistance. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The legislation had the first of three readings. The vote was 5-2, with Councilwoman At-Large Jana Ringwald and Fourth Ward Councilman Eric Hurless voting no. At least four votes are required to eventually pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topic of smoking at parks was one of several during Monday\u2019s marathon meeting, which lasted two hours and 45 minutes, not including a two minute tax budget hearing held prior to the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another topic that led to a lengthy discussion was legislation proposed by Hurless that would repeal an existing ordinance requiring the city to have a tree commission. The city\u2019s tree commission was established in 1981 but has not been in use in decades. However, Block said he knows of 10 people who are willing to serve on the volunteer commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to have this commission to have people associated with the city advocate for planting more trees, improving our urban tree canopy,\u201d Block stated. \u201cI think trees are a critical element of cities \u2013 they\u2019re not just the icing on the cake, they\u2019re what makes our community attractive and welcoming. We can look at historic photos of Van Wert 100 years ago\u2026our streets were just lined with trees and I feel like we\u2019ve lost some of that charm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurless responded by saying while he agreed with Block\u2019s thoughts, he\u2019s not sure it needs to be a law to have such a commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that there\u2019s a group of people that want to improve and increase the amount of trees in Van Wert, but I\u2019m not so sure it\u2019s part of our responsibility unless it\u2019s city property,\u201d Hurless said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The legislation to repeal the tree commission ordinance had its first reading and a 5-2 vote. It will have two more readings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council also heard the first reading of an ordinance that would ban new private wells in the city, but a potential noise ordinance was tabled for more revisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On its second and final reading, council passed an ordinance allowing Mayor Ken Markward to enter into a lease agreement with Butterfly Meadows Solar Project LLC on approximately 38 acres of city-owned farmland. It\u2019s a tiny portion of the project, which will span about 4,000 acres in Hoaglin, Union and Pleasant townships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his report to council, Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming said the Ohio EPA has approved plans for the city to address high levels of total trihalomethanes, commonly referred to as TTHMs, in drinking water. The fix is expected to cost approximately $2.1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re requiring us to replace the gates on the reservoir structures,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere are three structures on each reservoir that allows water to come in for three different depths. The reason it\u2019s so expensive is the sluice gates of that size are extremely expensive and it\u2019s all going to have to be done with divers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday\u2019s meeting also featured two public speakers. One was city resident Mark Davis, who spoke about speeding motorists along Frothingham St. and requested the intersection of Frothingham and Race St. become a four-way stop. The other speaker was Nick White, who proposed a sidewalk along Fox Rd. in 2015, when he was a student at Van Wert High School as part of a capstone project. The sidewalk is now under construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council members learned that groundbreaking for Hampton Inn will be held next Wednesday, July 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday July 27, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Unless there\u2019s a change of heart (or two), it appears smoking and vaping will be banned at all Van Wert city parks, with a change to the original proposal. Monday night, members of Van Wert Council discussed at length proposed legislation by Councilman At-Large Hall Block that would prohibit smoking cigarettes, cigars, […]<\/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-207812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-21 05:15:56","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\/207812","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=207812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207827,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207812\/revisions\/207827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}