Logan County welcomed mayors new and returning during a Wednesday evening mayors’ association meeting.
Municipality leaders had the opportunity to discuss their regions with one another in a roundtable fashion.
Bellefontaine Mayor Ben Stahler said he was happy with the turnout of the mayor’s meeting — nine of 11 mayors were present.
“We try to touch base with all the villages and make a worthwhile hour of the meeting,” he said. “We have a good roundtable discussion of the joys and concerns. I find it becomes a think tank of sharing ideas. We think relationships are very valuable.”
Logan County Commissioner Paul Benedetti agreed.
“I’m really excited about the synergy and collaboration going on between different municipalities,” he said.
DeGraff Mayor Stephanie Orsborne reported that although her village has stable finances, it is tasked with building a new water treatment plant — mandated by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency.
“The initial cost came in at $2 million,” she explained. “We are looking at different options like instead of building new, can we remodify the old and whether or not the EPA will let us do that to cut the cost down.”
Orsborne said the biggest concern is saving the village in costs.
Lakeview Mayor Ryan Shoffstall said his village has a lot of projects put together through a lot of hard work from individuals including a water main replacement, light retrofitting and drainage improvements.
“A lot of its infrastructure,” he said simply. “We’ve got a lot of hoping here. In the next six months (we) have some nice projects and a lot of things we’ve got going on.”
Another potential project Shoffstall mentioned was looking into the possibility of reinstituting a mayor’s court.
West Mansfield Mayor John Newland said his village is also in need of infrastructure repairs.
“We need sidewalks, (they) are horrific (and the) curbs are in bad shape,” he said. “We do have some drainage problems, too.”
West Mansfield did have a drain repair at the end of 2019, but it merely helped one end of town.
“These are things I’d like to see done, but we don’t have a lot of revenue. Our revenue is water and sewer but can’t profit from that,” Newland said.
West Liberty Council President Jill McKelvey represented West Liberty as acting mayor until Chance Carroll returns said the village is still rebuilding from the massive floods in 2019.
“We were impacted majorly,” she said. “It’s expensive to fix and we are working on that.”
A bigger concern for West Liberty, however, is empty storefronts, she said.
“How do we keep our small businesses thriving? We lost four businesses in December. What can be done to encourage people to start their businesses?”
West Liberty Clerk and Treasurer Cindee Boyd had some more positive news to share — she and a committee in charge of the 1,400 square-foot splash pad going into Lions Park has raised $92,000.
She estimated the grand opening would be some time around May 23.
The splash pad is the first in Logan and Champaign counties.
Zanesfield Mayor Jason Deal said he was hopeful to get a bid on a drainage project that has been in the works between two and three years.
He also expressed concern about receiving complaints about dilapidated areas in the village.
In other business, Stahler discussed the importance of getting their communities to participate in the 2020 census during a Wednesday evening meeting.
“We encourage a complete count in our community,” Stahler said. “It helps all of our communities large or small to bring in the necessary grant dollars and support from the state and federal government … Grant dollars and funding are tied directly to population.”
The next mayor’s meeting will be April 15 at 6:30 p.m. in Quincy.