Street repairs, park scheduling discussed at Adena council meeting

Work is ongoing in Adena for line work on North Main Street, where crews will have to dig up the cobblestone for repairs underneath. The issue was addressed at the March 10 meeting under the street report. Mayor Brenda Roski said she received an estimate for the project and said it will be fixed as soon as possible.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “I know it’s terrible, but I want to get something else verbally stated.”

She reminded council that the money being put into the corner building at the square cannot be used for streets.

“People are so uneducated about where money goes and where it doesn’t,” Roski said. “We don’t say, ‘Take the money from the general fund and put it on the water bill.’”

Roski said the funds from the grant received for the corner building must be used for that project. Grants from the federal government dictate where money is to be spent, and she said people need to understand this. She also discussed flooding that caused problems and said it will be fixed, noting the estimate is between $12,000 and $13,000.

She said she would not spend that kind of money without council’s approval, but it will be fixed as soon as possible.

“But we have to do it. It’s a safety issue,” Roski said.

She also spoke of an individual who was taking pictures of the damage to send to the mayor and was cussed out and told to “take that ‘GD’ money from the square and put it into road issues.”

“It’s ridiculous,” she said of the incident. “You know, none of us are making any money sitting here. We’re trying to do the best we can, and it’s kind of disheartening when you have people criticize you for something they don’t understand what it’s all about.”

Roski then warned that if a no-property tax proposal were approved, there would not be funding for lights or street repairs.

Also, Roski asked the status of the teams that will be playing at the park, along with scheduling and who would be in charge. Councilmember RJ Konkoleski said of last year’s scheduling that he didn’t want to charge fees because it was too much trouble.

“We probably need a memorandum of understanding with the ball teams, each one,” he said. “Because they’re a corporation like we’re a corporation.”

Councilmember Marla Bechtel said from what was passed down to her, she wasn’t sure if there would be softball played this year.

“It breaks my heart, but at this point I don’t know if that’s even going to happen,” she said.

Konkoleski said Smithfield had so many players sign up they had to cut off registration and asked, “What’s wrong here?”

After a brief exchange about other towns and their moves, Bechtel said there are people who want power and wish to control things and “don’t want to negotiate or get along with people.”

“And it’s horrible because it’s hurting the kids more than anything,” Bechtel said.

Regarding spring cleanup, council decided to go with the closest date to April 24, with Kimball setting the date. As of March 19, no date had been set.