By Ashley McCarty
The West Union Village Council had a vivacious meeting Oct. 27 as community concerns were addressed.
At the beginning of the meeting, Tom Peterson approached the council about flooding on his property on Mound Street.
“I don’t know if any of you have had a chance to look at it, but there was a ditch filled in. I don’t know how many years ago, it seems like it’s been several, and I’ve been trying for four years to try to [mitigate] the problem over there. Water flows around, and behind, and under my house over there, and it’s created mold from time to time, it’s rotted out timbers, it’s even come in the house a couple of times. When they filled in the ditch, they put in a culvert, but there’s no access for the water to get in the culvert,” said Peterson.
Peterson tried to alleviate the problem by making a raised area when he made an addition several years ago, but to no avail.
“We’re going to have some three-inch rains maybe in a couple of days, and if any of you are out and around in your car, or your rowboats, you might go over by and look how that water is endangering my property. It’s been put off for four years now, at least. I think it’s time some action was taken. The town, I don’t believe, is allowed to run water over on people’s properties,” said Peterson.
Village Administrator Jerry Kirker said that he would fix it any way that Peterson wanted it.
“I don’t care how you do it. I just would like to keep the water from coming into my house all the time,” said Peterson.
Council member Jason Francis said he could meet with the Village Solicitor and Village Administrator.
“That would be fine, whatever they want to do to solve the problem is fine with me. I’ve met with the administrator several times over the various years, and this is why I’m here. I haven’t got much relief,” said Peterson.
A motion by Francis to approve Resolution 2020-19 a resolution authorizing the Village Administrator of the Village of West Union to submit a letter of intent and to apply for Transportation Alternatives [Program] funding for the State Route 41 Pedestrian Walkway Improvement Project was seconded by Councilman Randy Brewer, council agreed.
The Pedestrian Walkway Improvement Project will start from the traffic light at the intersection of State Route 41, Walnut Street, and State Route 125 and end at the new traffic light at CIC Boulevard. Project estimation is around $800/850,000, with local cost estimated around $150/170,000.
A motion by Councilwoman Donna Young to approve the minutes of the regular meeting on Oct. 10, 2020 was seconded by Councilman Mark Brewer, council agreed.
A motion by Mark Brewer to approve the payment of bills as submitted was seconded by Councilman Steve Rothwell, council agreed.
A motion by Mark Brewer to approve second reading of Ordinance 2020-5, the social media ordinance was seconded by Councilman Randy Brewer, council agreed.
A motion by Steve Rothwell to approve payment of property insurance in the amount of $69,769 was seconded by Young, council agreed.
A motion by Randy Brewer to adopt the dates for the 2021 council meetings was seconded by Councilman John Lafferty, council agreed.
Kirker reported that State Route 247 was reopened, both the Crackel Subdivision Sewer Project and the sewer plant were progressing.
West Union Life Squad Chief Danni Studebaker reported that there were 154 runs this month, and 1,859 for the year; last year at this time, there were 2,222 runs made, a difference of 363 runs.
Clerk Tanya Johnson said they had no prices on the niches yet at the columbarium. The issue would be discussed in the next cemetery meeting on Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m.
“I would like to commend Jeff Bowling at the West Union Fire Dept. and Life Squad for last Friday, [at Walnut Street and Lovejoy Cemetery Road] about 3 p.m. I was the first person on the crash scene where the woman was laying in the middle of the road. Two cars into a garage, person deceased from a heroin overdose, it was a very dangerous situation; electric and gas leaking from the vehicle. They did an excellent job. Then, I guess the next day, the gentleman tried to run over Mr. Bowling, and he had to take action,” said Mark Brewer.
Francis reported that the zoning board were going to review the zoning ordinances.
“We also talked about hiring an enforcement officer if we could create the job position. That’s why I asked to call the finance committee, just to see where we are with the police budget,” said Francis.
Francis said the next Community Meeting regarding homelessness and crime would be Nov. 12 at 6 p.m.
Francis gave the rest of his time to community member Robin Young. Young said that Aug. 10, her husband had hip replacement surgery; on Aug. 12 she called the squad due to complications.
“The members of the squad that came out were less than empathetic, to say the least, and I asked them three times — this is the result of a surgery he had, this is a very serious surgery that he had, will you please take him to Anderson Mercy? The answer was no, three times, without really an explanation why. So, when they get him to the hospital, further things happened that I feel was a result that he was not taken to where the surgery was performed. I want to know why that on a surgery he had, that we were told no three times,” said Young.
Young said at Adams County Regional Medical Center, her husband was overdosed with fentanyl and had to be brought back with Narcan. When her husband had to be transported a second time, her husband refused to go in squad.
“When I got him to Anderson [Mercy], their question was, why didn’t you call 911? I don’t trust 911 enough to do it, because I still feel that there are people in this town that hold grudges. I don’t care what any of you do personally, you shouldn’t care what I do personally, but this, to me, you have violated my trust in anything that you all do. On a surgery this serious, and as a result of something from the surgery, I feel that we should have had the right to take him to Anderson Mercy. I want a copy of all your SOP’s, and the way that’s handled. I would appreciate if I could get that by the next meeting,” said Young.
Young said that when the squad got her husband to Adams County Regional Medical Center, the staff assured her they could fix the problem.
“Their way of fixing it was overdosing him on fentanyl and bringing him back with Narcan. So then, when it happened again, it took 45 minutes to get him from our house to my car to drive him to Anderson Mercy,” said Young.
Studebaker said that they can only transport to Meadowview Regional Medical Center, Adams County Regional Medical Center, and SOMC Portsmouth.
“The reason it’s written that way, and this goes back to when Dr. Ashley was here, is simply because — you’re talking when we take a patient to someplace like Mercy Anderson, or even Clermont, you take that squad out of service for almost five hours. We need to be here for the whole community,” said Studebaker.
Young asked if they only had one truck; Studebaker said they had two.
“Do you call for assistance for any other one if you have to?” said Young.
Studebaker said lately they are the assistance.
“It’s an issue everywhere. We don’t always have two squads anymore. We had an instance Friday when all of that stuff was going on from the wreck. We had every squad in the county over here, so if we take a squad out of service for five or six hours, that’s a long time when somebody else needs something,” said Studebaker.
Francis said that maybe they could look into the old procedures in place and see if they need changed.
Studebaker and Randy Brewer said they didn’t know how you could change it.
“This is the state of Ohio. The little village of West Union is not going to change the state of Ohio. We have to take them to the closest hospital if it’s an absolute emergency, or we can fly them. That could have been an option, too, if you needed to get there that fast,” said Studebaker.
Studebaker said she didn’t know her husband’s name, but if Young could write it down she would look it up and see who was on the run.
“Friday during an accident there was another patient while we were taking someone from the nursing home to the hospital. There was an ATV accident that laid and waited for Peebles to come because all of our squads were out. The girl is in critical condition and barely living. That’s why we try not to take so long going to these other places, because it takes so long for other places to get here. I’m not saying anybody is any more important than the other, because nobody is. Taking a squad out of service for four and five hours is a long time. It’s just a long time,” said Studebaker.
Studebaker said that if the hospital feels someone needs to be transported, they have a private entity come and get the patient.
“We have a citizen who lacks confidence in us, so I wanted it to be addressed, maybe you guys can meet or call each other and kind of discuss. Maybe the employees didn’t give them that option because they didn’t know,” said Francis.
Studebaker said they knew.
“Maybe they just didn’t offer it because they were busy, but we are getting paid to offer a service, we need to make sure that our service, if it’s not being offered, we need to make sure that we are offering it,” said Francis.
Randy Brewer said that if he or a family member were in a lot of pain, he’d want them to go to the nearest hospital.
Young said had it not been two days after surgery, she would have agreed with that.
“If my wife had surgery, and she started having pains and stuff like that after a surgery, I’d still want her to go to the nearest hospital. If she had surgery on her heart, I wouldn’t want to take her down to Christ Hospital,” said Randy Brewer.
A motion by Steve Rothwell to enter into executive session for personnel and pending litigation was seconded by Francis, council agreed.
With no more business before council, the meeting was adjourned. The Village Council meeting minutes will be approved by the council at the next meeting, subject to revisions.
