Latest news from Uhrichsville Council had the mayor thanking members for approving a sidewalk bond. Meanwhile, questions arose about paying some items off early.
Jim Zucal asked council over multiple meetings to repeal the bond ordinance, which required a $50 per foot performance bond to be posted before breaking or sidewalk construction.
“I’m trying to give our constituents a break. You know, if you do several hundred feet of concrete this would be hundreds upon thousands of dollars for some of these projects, and I don’t know of any other city that does that. We’re on the right track. I think that’s a big step for our community. There’s no sense in penalizing our friends and neighbors for putting in sidewalks.”
Meanwhile, Councilman Matt Fox mentioned paying off the remainder of the city’s agreement with the Village of Dennison related to back-owed income tax for the high school. A 1998 agreement had the village recouping 37 percent, but the city’s previous mayor halted the payment, which almost resulted in a court battle.
“I noticed we’ve got 12 payments, and last payment is January 2027 and I was wondering, right now we just made a payment of $4,904.51. Our next payments not due until July 1. It’s every quarter. I’d like to make a motion, it’d be for $49,045.08, to go ahead and pay that balance off to Dennison since we have money from the Clay Museum when we sold the building and pay that off. That shows good faith between us and Dennison.”
Mayor Zucal said he was not prepared to discuss the impromptu topic and Council woman Polly Clark suggested getting the auditors opinion.
Fox also questioned having the funding ready for the Logan Street/1st Street bridge, which is currently closed following an inspection that found structural concerns.
“I’d like to make another motion. I think since we owe $23,000 for the 1st Street bridge, our portion of that, I think we should go ahead and pay that. The sooner that bridge is open that’s traffic in and out of both communities.”
Zucal said, “we don’t, Matt, we don’t know it’s exactly $23,000 yet. That was the contractors estimate.”
The Village of Dennison will contribute a portion of funding. The Tuscarawas County Commissioners allotted $25,000 toward the repair. Materials have been ordered, and work is expected to happen this summer.
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