Dear Editor and Perry Township residents:

The Perry Township Trustees held their monthly board meeting on Tuesday, June 12. Trustee Dusty Smith and fiscal officer Brenda Hughes brought up the request from Fayette County EMA/LEPC regarding our county’s emergency notification system for residents.

Fayette County EMA/LEPC is using a free system from Nixie that provides text notifications of emergencies to residents. However, Nixie is phasing out this free system and is offering instead an upgraded system that will include calling land lines and cell phones for a startup fee of $600, plus the current yearly price of $6,500.

The City of Washington and the county commissioners agreed to each pay $1,500 towards the upgraded system and the townships have been requested to pick up the remaining amount. For this year the charge amounts to $400 per township. The trustees passed a motion to pay $400 to Fayette County EMA/LEPC for the upgrade.

FO Hughes updated the line-fence situation on Fishback Road. Property owner Ford notified the township that he is not interested in paying a portion of the line fence as he does not own any livestock. The trustees then passed a motion that property owner Everhart needs to fix his own fence.

Among various issues discussed, Trustee Dusty Smith informed that he talked to Fayette County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dan Drake about the water problem on Barrett Road. Smith was told that if anything is to be done, it will have to be done among the county, township, property owners, their neighbors and possibly the state. The township cannot do anything about the situation by itself. Drake suggested that the residents who are concerned about the overflow water onto their property contact him to discuss the situation, and FO Hughes will call them to recommend such.

Trustee Smith also informed that he did not like the look of the newly-placed fence between township lot #2 and Pettit’s, and instructed our part-time hire J.T. to remove the fence. J.T. stated that he had put up the fence to keep trash out of lot #2 because the trash made mowing difficult. The trustees agreed to kill the weeds on township lot #3, formally Tigner’s, and reseed it.

I noticed that the addition to the township building approved in the summer of 2016 now appears underway. The addition will house the township tractor.

Janet Anderson

Perry Township resident