The last two weeks have been marked with heavy rainfall, and various residents living alongside Tillie Lane attended the Trustee meeting to demand a solution for the copious flooding which led to many of the Tillie Lane residents’ homes being flooded. The cause of the excessive flooding has been determined to be a local creek intersecting with Tillie Lane.

Present at the meeting was the director of EMA, (Emergency Management Agency), for Clark County was present at Tuesday’s trustee meeting to provide adequate preparation for any future flooding. Four viable solutions for mitigating damage:

1)Extending the grass fields , 2)designing a waterway, 3)designing a levy to stay the water. 4)Diverting the local creek in order to avoid future flooding. Multiple solutions could be used to mitigate further flooding issues. Because the creek is private property, only the move to place a levy would be a viable option for a permanent structure. Due to the fact that the flooding is not directly obstructing a township roadway, the trustees are legally unable to use township equipment for repairs to the creek, placing the jurisdiction of responsibility outside of Bethel Township’s hands.

Three engineering firms were interviewed, and are currently reviewing the current information about the site. The trustees discussed the flooding issues at length with a substantial number of Bethel citizens. Currently, the trustees have decided to contact constructions businesses in order to prepare for a confirmation via the township prosecutor. However, the trustees’ activity with the flooding reparations will be ineffective until receiving a confirmation from the prosecutor’s office.

A special meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 21st at 7:00 PM regarding the Tillie Lane residencies and damage control for the floods. This year’s flooding was particularly unusual, with up to four inches of rain accumulating in roughly 2-3 hours’ time. A special thanks goes out to the Bethel Fire Department from the community. The Fire Department was actively working to deliver people safely from their flooded homes on the worst night of the flooding.

Regarding the fire department, Fire Chief King stated that, as of Tuesday, November 14th, there have been 64 EMS calls and over 21 Fire calls.

The Historical Society requested to use the Styer Lions Den for their yearly garage sale for June 6th, June 7th, and June 8th of 2018. It was stated that it would not affect any rentals of the Den for the following weekend.

The Bethel Township Community Group hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner at the Lions Club on Thursday.

The trustees moved to approve a snow and ice removal agreement with Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority for the 2017-2018 winter seasons.

The trustees moved to approve a Preventive Maintenance Agreement with Applied Mechanical Systems Incorporated. AMS will work on heating and cooling units for Fire stations 51 and 54 from December 1st of 2017 until November 30th of 2018.

The next meeting for the Bethel Trustees will take place on Tuesday, November 28th at 7:00 PM.

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