{"id":32553,"date":"2012-12-11T07:35:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T12:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=32553"},"modified":"2012-12-12T16:34:59","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T21:34:59","slug":"council-quashes-speed-limit-hike-amends-utility-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/12\/11\/council-quashes-speed-limit-hike-amends-utility-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Council quashes speed limit increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Councilman At-Large Stan Agler makes a point during a discussion held during last night's regular meeting. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the last regular meeting prior to the Christmas holiday, Van Wert City Council provided financial relief to a local water\/sewer customer faced with a large utility bill and rejected higher speed limits on South Walnut Street in the face of growing opposition.<\/p>\n

Council unanimously approved a measure to provide forgiveness on a large water bill received by city resident Vicki Rayer related to a water leak at her residence. Council members also unanimously voted to reject legislation to increase the speed limit from 25 mph to 35 mph on a portion of South Walnut Street, from Ervin Road south to the city limits. That decision came after presentation of a petition and additional opposition to the higher speed limits, largely because of the low shoulder on one side of the roadway and sight obstructions on a portion of the street.<\/p>\n

Speed limits on a portion of Bonnewitz and Leeson avenues are up for final approval at the next regular City Council meeting on Wednesday, December 26.<\/p>\n

City Council also amended water and sewer rates for the coming year, with increases of a penny or less seen.<\/p>\n

Mayor Don Farmer had several items to talk about during his report to Council, including efforts to increase safety at the former Home Guard Building and problems arising from people soliciting local residents to change their electric power affiliation.<\/p>\n

The mayor noted that a number of broken windows on the downtown building, constructed in 1905 for the Home Guard fraternal organization, have been boarded up using city code enforcement funds to protect the public from falling glass and other safety hazards.<\/p>\n

While the cost of boarding up windows has been added to the building\u2019s tax assessment, Mayor Farmer said city officials were considering creating an ordinance that would allow collection of such costs through a civil action in Van Wert Municipal Court. Doing so would allow per-day fines to be levied on property owners who neglect their buildings, rather than a tax assessment the city usually can\u2019t collect when property is sold at a loss.<\/p>\n

Mayor Farmer said other communities are using similar legislation successfully to force property owners into maintaining their buildings and grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks substantially better,\u201d the mayor said of the former Home Guard Building, which has had a number of windows broken out over the past several months, several of which have results in broken glass on the street and sidewalks around the building.<\/p>\n

In addition to boarding up windows, city workers will attempt to use steel shutters still installed on some windows to secure those windows.<\/p>\n

Also during his report to City Council, the mayor noted that, while income tax collections were down approximately $6,000 in November, tax collections for the year remain up by about $300,000. He added that city officials are expecting to at least maintain that amount at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for a strong finish for 2012,\u201d Mayor Farmer told Council members.<\/p>\n

During his report, Law Director John Hatcher said he was researching why the city police department is being charged more than the sheriff\u2019s department by the hospital when people arrested are treated there. He noted that he would be looking at whether the city would qualify for Medicaid submissions for such treatment.<\/p>\n

With the absence of Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming, the mayor also reported on his behalf that the Wall Street reconstruction project is now completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor During the last regular meeting prior to the Christmas holiday, Van Wert City Council provided financial relief to a local water\/sewer customer faced with a large utility bill and rejected higher speed limits on South Walnut Street in the face of growing opposition. Council unanimously approved a measure to provide forgiveness on […]<\/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-32553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 20:06:10","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\/32553","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=32553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}