Adena swears in new council members

Two new council members were sworn in during Adena’s meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13.

Along with incumbents RJ Konkoleski and Alex Donley, newcomers Megan Vinci and Justin Dudzik took the oath. All four candidates were close in the voting, with Dudzik, a former mayor of Adena, receiving the second-most votes. Mayor Brenda Roski thanked everyone who put their names on the ballot and contributed to Adena.

“I thank you very much and I’m looking very much forward to working with you,” Roski said to open the meeting. “As long as I’m here and if I can be of any help to you at all, I will do it personally or officially.”

Clerk-Treasurer Denise Geanangel gave a brief financial report and said the general fund was “climbing again.”

“Things look good,” Geanangel said.

Roski also updated council on the engineering grant for the Blairmont Road waterline project. She said after one meeting the village was told it could not enter an agreement with the Community Development Block Grant program “for what we wanted to.” Roski said officials would have to “switch things around,” which prevented them from signing a contract that evening.

“But it will be coming up in the near future,” she told council. “We should get that project done under $900,000 with not one penny coming out of the village if all goes well.”

Roski said the Blairmont Road area has seen many waterline breaks and the project will likely take two to three years.

Konkoleski also discussed several grants the village has pursued and said the regional grant is doing well and remains on schedule. He said the budget has been maintained despite “a couple surprises in the building,” referring to the former bank building that has been under renovation since last summer. He said Grae-Con Construction has worked with the village to help save money.

Roski also thanked Chad Nagurski and Cindy Hunter for decorating the Green during the Christmas season, calling it a “nice job.”