Bethel Township Trustees met for both a special business session and a work session at 7:00 pm on Aug. 16. All Trustees were present.

During the special meeting session, Trustee Don Minton moved to declare the property at 7570 New Carlisle Rd., parcel # 0100500011000058, a nuisance. Trustee Nancy Brown seconded the motion and the motion passed.

During the work session, it was announced that the Board of County Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 10:00 am on Aug. 24 to consider the petition of Boling Investments Ltd. to rezone 11.98 acres on the east side of Lake Rd. and south of Schiller Rd. The change would make the area a Residential District for the purpose of building a number of duplexes or triplexes with specific parameters as outlined in the petition. Concerns were raised that Boling Investments Ltd. is trying to make changes that were previously not discussed with local authorities.

Complaints have been raised about people parking vehicles overnight in Medway Park. Several ideas were presented about how to best handle the problem, keeping in mind that the area often serves as parking for local businesses that are open in the evening.

Assistant Bethel Twp. Fire Chief Brian Ludwick reported the fire dept. has some gear that will be expiring next September. The department has one quote that sets the price for replacement gear at $1,875 per set. Ludwick also reported he is working with a professional grant writer to try and get grant monies to help cover the costs of the gear.

Ludwick also presented a first draft of proposed changes for the fire department’s employee handbook. After some discussion with the trustees, Ludwick said work would continue on the manual, keeping the trustees’ suggestions in mind.

The “extra-duty” agreement and follow-up letter recently presented to the Bethel Township Trustees from Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly received a lot of attention during the work session. Lengthy discussion took place about how the Township might go about requesting deputies to do extra-duty in the township based on who has worked out well in the past and on the area’s most urgent needs.

During the discussion, Township Trustee David Phares expressed frustration about feeling that the trustees are being forced to make decisions about the policing needs of Bethel Township.

“Part of this shouldn’t have to be done, or paid for, by the Township. It should be taken care of by the Sheriff’s Department...It shouldn’t come back to Township Trustees to say, ‘We need to authorize this money to go towards (specific policing needs).’ It should be in the Sheriff’s budget or program to provide services to the residents of his county, no matter where they live, to do this and to take care of the drug problems and everything else...The public in this area voted on a levy to take care of that and (the trustees) are administering (those monies). I don’t mind aiding and assisting--but we’re not trained police, or fire, or anything else...and we shouldn’t have to make these (policing) decisions.

The Trustees plan to make their final, official decision about the extra-duty agreement at the next regular meeting at 7:00 pm on Aug. 23 in the Bethel Twp. Hall located at 3333 Lake Rd. in Medway.

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