Dear Editor and Perry Township residents:
Our Perry Township Trustees at their Aug. 13 board meeting ran through a series of old business items with no new updates reported for most items. Trustee Tom Creachbaum noted that it had been a quiet month. Trustee Dick Wilson informed he heard that Pfeifer will tear down his house in New Martinsburg at his own expense. At the July meeting Trustee Wilson expressed his wish that the Pfeifer house, which is across the street from his own residence and next to his son’s residence, be torn down and stated that the house had already been condemned.
Fiscal officer Brenda Hughes then noted that at the July meeting the trustees asked her to send Pfeifer a bill for the township’s mowing of the property. Hughes said that J. T., our part-time hire, has checked his records and the township has mowed the Pfeifer property 55 times. Hughes asked how much she should charge Pfeifer for this mowing. Trustee Smith responded that he thought it was in 2013 when the board passed a motion to charge a certain amount for mowing, but he could not remember the specific amount. Smith asked Hughes to check the township minutes to find the amount.
Hughes clarified with the trustees that the mowing charge had been passed way back in 2013, but the township has never billed the property owners for the mowing. Richard Cole, from Leesburg, has been hired to do the alley project that involves graveling an alley running from the Christian Fellowship Church on Zimmerman Road to Washington-New Martinsburg Road beside the Huddle property, as had been requested by the property owners of 9892 Washington-New Martinsburg Road.
Trustee Wilson said he has not had time to work on the township garage addition as there has been too many things to do in his cemetery. Trustee Creachbaum reported that he had another estimate to clean and seal the 604 square feet township parking lot from Marion Whitley for $472. The board then passed a motion to have Whitley do the cleaning and sealing for the estimate amount. (I am not aware of a prior board discussion about the need to seal the parking lot.)
Creachbaum questioned FO Hughes if she could make Whitley a check for his work once Creachbaum notifies her that the work is done, as Creachbaum did not want to string Whitley out. The board made the arrangement to do so. In new business the board discussed the problem that not all people who rent the township hall clean up the hall after their use and take the garbage with them. For example, Trustee Creachbaum reported that the last people renting the hall left several bags and one garbage can full of garbage. All of the garbage was full of maggots when he found and disposed of it.
The trustees decided to charge a deposit of $50 to rent the hall with $25 being returned if the people renting the hall clean it up a little and get rid of their garbage. Currently the township charges $40 to rent the hall with no money returned. FO Hughes noted that the township is not making much on the hall rental. Trustee Creachbaum answered that the hall is for us and the township to use.
Janet Anderson
Perry Township resident
