By Matt Clevenger

For Miami Valley Today

WEST MILTON — Members of the West Milton village council have increased the pay rate for the position of wastewater treatment plant operator I/II, in the hopes of attracting more applicants for a current opening at the village’s water treatment plant.

Village council approved the pay increase during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, March 10. “After reviewing what other communities are paying, we actually are underpaying for that operator’s position,” municipal manager Matt Kline said. “We’re recommending that we should bump this from level 4 to level 5.”

In other business, council members also approved a resolution authorizing a contract with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership for the administration of grant funding for the village’s upcoming Ludlow Falls sanitary sewer project, and authorized a slight modification to the project’s route to avoid potential easements.

“It had to cross several pieces of private property,” Kline said of the planned Ludlow Falls sewer line. “We started negotiating with several of the property owners, and the demands for signing-off on the easement started to became cost prohibitive.”

The project’s new route will proceed down the west side of State Route 48 to Donna Jane Court, and doesn’t require any easements.

“It’s all on the highway; there’s none on private property,” Kline said. “The engineer’s estimate for doing it this way is actually a little over $450,000 less in construction costs.”

Council members also approved a contract with Mendenhall Builders and Contractors of Piqua, to connect two separate buildings used by the village’s service department. “At the service garage we have two buildings,” Kline said. “They are about 40 to 50 feet apart, and it just makes more sense to connect them, and allow us to go from one building to another.”

The project’s budget is not to exceed $60,000.

“We know that we can stay well under that,” Kline said.

Council members also heard an update on the village’s annual paving program, which may have to be postponed this year.

“It was brought to our attention that our paving program needs to include Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant crosswalks at the intersections,” Kline said. “We’ve pulled the legislation, and we did get a cost estimate from a local contractor who does that sort of work; we’re probably looking at almost $2,000 per, and I think there are 22 ramps.”

“We’ll bring that to a workshop at a later date,” he said. “We may not have the money for it this year; we may have to roll over this year’s paving projects to next year.”

Council heard several announcements, and members also voted to approve two new board appointments; Brian Wrench was approved for a position on the park board, and Jessica Jacobie was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the personnel review board.

Union Township is seeking volunteers for a tornado clean-up that will be held on April 25, and the village is also seeking volunteers for several other upcoming projects.

“We have a facebook page called Project Revival,” council member Sarah Copp said. “We’ll be doing some clean-up downtown, and flower-planting.”

Council’s next meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 in the municipal building.