The Medina Township Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Purpose:  Regularly Scheduled Board Meeting

Present:  Shawn Garner, Supervisor

Mike Molohon, Trustee 

Cam Parr, Trustee 

Cindy Greene, Trustee

Frank Gerke, Trustee

Mary Sundermeyer, Clerk

Other Officials and Township Staff Present:  

Frank Sturm II, Road Commissioner

Mark Brabant, Assessor

Deputy Ben Davison, Community Police

Others In Attendance:  7 Residents

Call To Order:  Supervisor Shawn Garner called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm

Approval of Minutes:  Clerk Mary Sundermeyer presented the minutes from the regular board meeting held on January 12, 2023. Frank Gerke made a motion to approve the minutes.  Cindy Greene seconded. The minutes were approved by a unanimous voice vote.

Community Policing Report: 

Deputy Ben Davison gave the report for January 2023. There were 75 reports made involving 27 reports of 9 original reports of crimes. 

The renters on a Fairview St. property have been given an evection notice and the house on Medina St. has been cleaned up. Deputy Davison will track vacant homes to make sure there is a paper trail to keep squatters out. Supervisor Garner will let the Deputy know of any abandoned houses. Deputy Davison has been stopping many drivers for ignoring stop signs and has given many tickets and made one arrest.

Public Input: 

Rick Schotthofer attended the meeting of the Peoria City Planning and Zoning Board on February 2 to speak against the Pre-Annexation Agreement #PZ1208-2023 for property being subdivided along Cedar Hills Rd. Rick owns an adjoining property and does not want the City of Peoria to take over this and perhaps nearby properties in the future. The residents were not given enough advance notice on this case and wonder why this agreement is being fast tracked by the city. Any property within 1.5 miles of any city owned property is required to sign a pre-annexation agreement if it is being subdivided. There are two parcels with over 90 acres that are being subdivided into four smaller plots. Rick has canvassed his neighbors and none of them want this annexation. He also has obtained 100 signatures on a petition against this pre-annexation. He has personally spoken with 8 out of the 10 Peoria City Council members to let them know of the residents’ opposition to this annexation. The County of Peoria currently has control of this land and that control is all that is needed to subdivide the property. This land is in the flood plain and it would be very difficult to put in sanitary sewers and to properly handle run-off.  Rick is concerned that if the city gets this land, they will be able to annex other township lands. He is organizing people in opposition of this pre-annexation. There is a Facebook page, “Friends of Medina” that has more information about this issue. Rick is working to inform residents and the city council members about this issue. Rick encourages Medina residents to let the city council members know their thoughts on this issue prior to the meeting of the City Council on February 28th at Peoria City Hall at 6 pm.

Mike Krost – Handed out information and maps regarding the proposed pre-annexed land. If the city takes over this land and other parcels, it will be a detriment to the Chillicothe Fire Department and the Medina Road and Bridge fund through loss of tax money. He also mentioned the problems with flood plain, run-off and the difficulty of adding a sewer system due to the geography of the land.

Kurt Stepping – A red lined version of the Pre Annexation agreement had included multi-family dwellings for the properties. Now “multi-family” has been removed and only single-family dwelling and agriculture are left. A public sewer will be needed if the properties are further subdivided and that would be expensive due to the topography of the land and it being in a flood plain. Kurt is worried about the city fast tracking this decision and making last minute changes. 

Old Business:  

Shawn reported that the new office furniture has a planned delivery date of February 17th.

New Business:  

  1. Shawn received Assessor’s Budget from Mark Brabant in compliance with statute.
  2. Mary presented the Board Schedule for FY2023-24. Mike made a motion to approve the schedule and Cindy seconded. The schedule was approved by a unanimous voice vote.
  3. Discuss Annexation City Case #PZ1208-2023 – Shawn and Frank Sturm attended the Plan and Zoning committee’s meeting discussing the pre-annexation of Medina Township land. Shawn presented a letter stating the Township Board was opposed to this annexation. Shawn will have our legal counsel review the current statues on the city annexing further property in Medina Township.  Cam made a motion that the Medina Township Board of Trustees stands opposed to the Pre-Annexation of the parcels of land in Medina Township off of Cedar Hills Drive. Further, a letter stating such will be written and sent to the Peoria City Council. Cindy seconded. The motion was passed by a unanimous voice vote. Each person (trustees and residents) should send a letter to Peoria City Council members ahead of February 28th meeting to state their reasons for opposition to the pre-annexation. We will try to get many residents to attend this meeting at Peoria City Hall.

Department Correspondence:

Supervisor Shawn Garner:  

  1. Investment Report:  the report ending on February 8, 2023 was previously presented to the board.
  2. There are no General Assistance cases. 
  3. There are no cases before the Plan Commission.
  4. Shawn attended the advisory meeting of the Peoria Planning and Zoning committee on 2/2/23. He presented Medina Township’s opposition to this. The committee voted (but not unanimously) to approve pre-annexation of Township land. This will be presented to the Peoria City Council on February 28th.
  5. The resident of 1517 E Fairview St. has been fined and has until April 5 to abate the property.
  6. Will work with Road Commissioner regarding testing and permit to accept fill dirt at the property adjoining the township office as a potential site for a new township office. No action will be taken at this time with further details to come.

Road Commissioner:  Frank Sturm: 

  1. A few weeks ago, a driver hit a power pole on Krause Rd. Medina Road Department was asked to close Krause Rd. at Rome West and this was done. The driver left the car and removed the license plates and scratched out the VIN number. Ameren made the needed repairs.
  2. Frank has been working with our attorney on code amendments for the Employee Handbook to include new laws that go into effect January 1, 2023. This might be a good time to update the handbook, which was last updated in 2018.
  3. Frank did attend the Public hearing regarding the land parcels south of Cedar Hills Rd. near Singing Woods Rd. 

Assessor:  Mark Brabant  – Budget was presented to the Trustees. See Mark if there are any questions.

Plan Commission:  Jim Manning  – No report, no cases before the commission.

Trustees:  No reports

Township/Road District Bills:  

Frank made a motion to pay the bills of the township.  Cam seconded the motion. The motion was approved by a unanimous voice vote.

Adjournment:

Mike Molohon made a motion to adjourn and Frank seconded it. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 7:14 pm.

Respectfully submitted this 8th day of February, 2023

Mary Sundermeyer, Clerk