The Council of the Village of Woodsfield
January 7, 2025
The Council of the Village of Woodsfield met in Regular Session on January 7, 2025.
I. Roll Call:
Present: Council Members; Dale English, Tom Kirkland, Kaylee Sefert, Tiffany Ramsay, Matt Schaber, Mayor Carol Hehr, Fiscal Officer Lori Cunard, and Village Administrator Kevin Brooks.
Absent: Council member Anthony McDaniel and Solicitor Ryan Regel.
II. Pending Meeting Minutes Approval:
Tiffany Ramsay made the motion to accept the December 16, 2024 meeting minutes as written. Matt Schaber second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr stated that before going on to visitors Council needs to elect a Council President. Tom Kirkland made a motion to elect Dale English as Council President. Tiffany Ramsay second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Dale English – abstain. Motion passed 4-0. Dale English will remain as Council President.
III. Registered Visitors/Guest:
Lewis Hill, Electric Superintendent – Lewis Hill attended the Council meeting to give a re-cap on the Electric Department for 2024 and a preview of 2025. Mr. Hill said there were 16 reported outages in 2024. Two of the outages were due to transmission lines because of lightning strikes at the substation, two were from trees, which one of them was a tree off the right-of-way so nothing could have been done about it, one due to a bad pole, one due to a turkey vulture landing on top of the transformer, nine in the Guilford Addition due to squirrels, and one major outage due to MCTV drilling through a primary underground at Monroe Manor. Lewis Hill said they have ordered squirrel guards that are going to be installed starting with Guilford Addition. The guards will not necessarily keep the squirrels off the lines but will keep them from climbing the poles. They had 44 hours of peak shaving in 2024. They pass out an average of 30 – 40 yellow slips each month between he and Brian Harrigan, Water/Wastewater Superintendent for shut-offs and they have an average of 4-5 shut-offs each month. They repaired and replaced security lights on about 50 streets, and they average 5-10 O.U.P.S. and locates each week. Lewis Hill said they also had normal house services, and they hang banners. They hung the brackets on the poles for the flower baskets and then hung the baskets. Mr. Hill said he just completed the EPA permits for peak shaving for 2025 to 2030. Dale English commended Lewis Hill along with Mayor Hehr and she asked for Lewis Hill to pass on a Thank you to the rest of the guys in the department.
Lynn Parker – Mr. Parker attended the Council Meeting to discuss the consideration of doing due diligence and looking into outsourcing or possibly a merger of our complete electrical grid. During the last meeting Anthony McDaniel had asked for a copy of Mr. Parker’s resume’ and Mr. Parker had offered his services at no charge if Council decided to look into this idea or see if it is even feasible. Mr. Parker did email his resume’ to Kevin Brooks and asked if there were any questions and he asked if Council was even interested in pursuing this idea. Mayor Hehr asked if he could give a better idea of what his plans are. Mr. Parker said he did not check into how many Villages across the country are in the electric business, but he knows it is a source of revenue for the Village. Mr. Parker replied that he had asked for some numbers to be sent to him and as of November 2024 it looked as though the electric generated about $2.5 million in revenue but when he looked at the expense line associated with it, it appeared that there is a shortfall of approximately $250,000.00 each year. Mr. Parker’s proposal would be to look at possibly merging with South Central or AEP, but he is not sure if they would even have any interest in doing this. Mr. Parker said that Tina Tubaugh and Lewis Hill are doing a great job, they are very responsive and helpful, and we need to keep good people like them. Mr. Parker said if we went with an electric company they would have the training, the liabilities, the protection, assets, technology and all we would need to look at sustaining and growing our electric grid to make it better. He said he is sure the residents would appreciate it if we had better technology within our electric company. He said the question isn’t as much about revenues as it is how much is it costing us. He also said that with our antiquated system we probably would not see any kind of Artificial Intelligence or digital currency because of the power they would require to run their computers. Mr. Parker said he does not think the
Village would have a chance at landing a business in town such as those because of the power grid we have today. He said if we decide to outsource or merge, we will have to make sure that we look at all the details and financials and make sure all of the non-disclosures are in place, and he could help with that.
Council member Matt Schaber asked Mr. Parker who would control the rates. Lynn Parker said he would say that it would be the power company but, he would think Council would have control over that. Kevin Brooks, Village Administrator, spoke up and said that the electrical business is territorial and yes, we would probably get $5-7 million but they would take over the utility and control the rates. Dale English asked if they would control everything regarding the utility and Kevin Brooks said yes. Dale English said he is not in favor of this idea. Mr. Parker said they are getting ahead of themselves, and he feels this is something that would be discussed during the due diligence process. He said he thinks by Dale English saying he is not in favor of this he is being short-sided because he does not even know what the deal is.
Mr. Parker said he knows the Village electrical system we have now is antiquated and Kevin Brooks asked him what he is basing that on and if it is just an opinion. Mr. Parker said it is his opinion and Mr. Brooks stated that he did look at Mr. Parker’s resume’ and he is not well versed in the electric business. Mr. Brooks agreed there are some issues with the grid that we are dealing with, but he corrected Mr. Parker by saying the electric department does make money. The department has also made a significant investment in infrastructure. In 2016 there was a substation fire, and the Village borrowed $850,000.00 from American Municipal Power to rebuild the substation because it was not covered by insurance. Then in 2019 half the substation burned down again but this time it was covered by insurance, and it was rebuilt for around $442,000.00.
There was a time during 2019 that we were internally calculating the Power Cost Adjustment. The Power Cost Adjustment is the difference between what we are charging and what we are purchasing the power for. It was calculated on a monthly basis downstairs, and when calculating it on a monthly basis it fluctuates significantly, particularly in the winter months and then in the hot summer months. The other issue we had was system losses which are unbilled energy. We had a multitude of unbilled accounts, most of which were the school. Mr. Brooks said when he started here in January 2019 the system losses were approximately 45% and we are now under 10%.
Mr. Brooks said once you lose control of the utility, whether it be South Central or AEP, you will never get it back. They will absolutely come in and give us a fair price but within 2 months the facilities will be shuttered, the employees will be transferred to a regional call center so the response time will be a lot different, and they will sell off all of the equipment.
Kevin Brooks said we average about 25 minutes on an outage and most of that is the drive back into town. There has always been an issue to change the whole Village to 7200. We explored that in 2019, and the first question asked was if we have utility maps. At that time our utility map was a loose-leaf notebook with hand drawn pictures of poles, lines, and transformers. So, in 2020 we consulted with CT Consultants to get our system mapped. We invested $47,000.00 to get our system mapped. Also, in 2019 we paid $75,000.00 to repair all 6 diesel generators, none of which were operational in 2019 and on top of that the permit to peak shave expired in 2014. We went through the process with the EPA to re-permit the generators once they were repaired. We are allowed to operate 3 generators to peak shave to a maximum of 500 hours per year. Since 2019 we have saved our customers over half a million dollars in transmission costs. Mr. Brooks said transmission is a lot more lucrative than energy so South Central or AEP will probably not peak shave. We know that with the generators being 60 – 70 years old we are going to have to do something else for peak shaving in the next 4 years, which is why we have been actively looking at the solar proposition.
Mr. Brooks said it is not that the system is antiquated but the issue is that we have one section of town that needs to be changed over to 7200 from 2400. We couldn’t do it because we didn’t have the mapping, so we contracted with GPD to do the evaluation of the grid because there are some things in the distribution system we want to change, particularly in the transmission substation of our grid for our residents. Due to their significant workload, they could not come to evaluate our grid. There is only one other engineering company in the state of Ohio that will map out grids and that is SSOE but we have not
been successful at getting them to come out. When mapping our grid there is a $400,000.00 investment for a step-down transformer right off the top.
Mr. Brooks also wanted everyone to know that the $850,000.00 loan from American Municipal Power (AMP) for the transformer fire was paid in full last January. The remaining balance was $440,000.00 at the time and Council voted to pay it off in full.
Kevin Brooks said we have done over $125,000.00 in tree trimming. AMP used to run a forestry program and would come in and do $25,000.00 in tree trimming each year, they dis-banded the program in 2016 and for some reason the Village quit trimming trees. We started again in 2019; we systematically did the $25,000.00 and also some internal tree trimming and removals as well.
We are a member of the American Municipal Power footprint. We have a strong energy portfolio, and we also have long term contracts with AMP. There are some of these contracts that are transferable and South Central or AEP would love to see our portfolio because our energy is cheaper. But we also have some contracts that are not transferable and there will be a significant penalty to getting out of the contracts if they even let you out. In April of last year, we purchased our 24/7 baseload power, and we locked in at $27.75/mwh, prior to that it was $57.00/mwh.
In 2008 the Village invested in an AMP project that never got off the ground. The Village paid approximately $175,000.00 in stranded costs for a contract that was signed by a previous Mayor. In 2014 AMP asked if the Village wanted to pay the remaining cost, we made our final payment in 2021. In 2022, we found out the Village still owed $135,000.00 which we still are paying on.
Kevin Brooks said that mistakes have been made along the way and there are still improvements to be made. We signed on with AMP in September 2024 and Mr. Brooks and Lewis Hill have been working through the grant committee and are about to submit an application through the Grid Resiliency Program which will allow us to switch everything over to the 7200 and do some system upgrades.
When Lewis Hill gave his report this evening, he reported there being 16 outages in 2024 and 10 of them were animal related. He also reported an outage due to a bad pole. In the 1970’s when poles were put in resident’s backyard’s it was a good idea but now those poles are harder to get to due to more homes being built and trees growing up. Kevin Brooks said once the weather clears, we are hiring someone to come in and do a pole inspection to let us know where the bad poles are. This will probably be at a cost of $15 – 20,000 so we know the status of all the poles.
Mr. Brooks is giving caution to the idea of outsourcing or merging our electric utility. He said it will probably cost $1,000.00 to change a traffic light and South Central or AEP wouldn’t even consider hanging banners or flower baskets and they also won’t send anyone in to check the sound system for Music in the Park or the Christmas Tree Lighting.
Kevin Brooks said we would also lose the billing. The only thing that South Central or AEP offers that we do not is the budget but even on the budget at the end of the year they are going to do a true-up. We do 20-30 payment arrangements a month with customers, we take as little as $5.00/week from customers to keep their utility on and help the customers. We have not had a rate increase since 2017, it is highly unlikely that an investor-owned utility would go 7-years without a rate increase.
Kevin Brooks said we did outsource the income tax to the Regional Income Tax Agency (R.I.T.A.). It only made sense to do so because our collections were going down because of the changes in the laws and there was only one person working income tax. We do not have all of the capabilities that R.I.T.A. has. Since outsourcing income tax our collections have steadily increased because R.I.T.A. gets 2% of what they collect so the more they collect the more they make. In 2020 when we contracted with R.I.T.A. there were one in five residents not filing income tax. Mr. Brooks said he is not saying they were not paying, but they were not filing and now that number is under 5%.
Mr. Brooks said he feels they have done a miraculous job of paying down long-term debt and continuing to get the system where it needs to be. He said Council can do what they deem necessary or appropriate but understand the electric utility is a different animal.
Mr. Parker asked to make a few comments, mainly on professional courtesy. He said that if you recall, at the last meeting he was asked if he had any experience in the utility field and he stated that he did not. He said he felt like Mr. Brooks made it sound as though he is coming in as a “know it all”, that is not the case at all. He also said that as professional courtesy, all the details that Mr. Brooks just gave out to everyone would have been met on with Council so that when he came to the meeting this
evening, they could have just said they were not interested in changing the utility at the present time. Kevin Brooks said it is not up to him but up to Council, it is their decision. Mayor Hehr stated that a month or so ago Mr. Brooks had gone over the whole explanation with Council that he just gave this evening.
Mr. Parker said that he is backing out because he was going to give his time and his ability to help do the due diligence but based upon what he has heard he will not do this for free. Also, based on what Mr. Brooks said and trying to add up all the improvements needing done the Village would have to come up with about $1.5 million and where is that going to come from? Mr. Parker said his intent was to come in just to ask if this could be looked at and he would offer his services, but he does not feel we’ve got the right “temperature” to do this. Mr. Parker said if Council does decide to do something later, he would help but Council would have to sign a committee to do so.
IV. Old Business:
None
V. Administrator Report:
Village Administrator Kevin Brooks reported that Auston Hogue, Water/Wastewater has turned in his resignation. He is already gone but Council will need to make a motion to accept the resignation. Dale English made a motion to accept the resignation of Auston Hogue, Laborer in Water/Wastewater. Tom Kirkland second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
VI. Fiscal Officer Report:
Fiscal Officer Lori Cunard said there is a Finance Committee Meeting on January 23rd at 10:00 a.m.
with Nikki Lude regarding the Cemetery investments.
Mayor Hehr reminded all of Council to check the Committee report. She changed some of the Committees for 2025.
VII. Committee Chair/Council Reports:
Dale English – Nothing to report.
Tom Kirkland – Nothing to report.
Anthony McDaniel – Absent.
Kaylee Sefert – Nothing to report.
Tiffany Ramsay – Nothing to report.
Matt Schaber – Nothing to report.
VIII: Solicitor’s Report:
Absent.
IX: Mayor’s Report:
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the payment of bills. Kaylee Sefert made the motion. Dale English second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the Mayor’s Court report, December 2024. Dale English made the motion. Tom Kirkland second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the Income Tax Report, October 2024. Matt Schaber made the motion. Kaylee Sefert second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr wanted to remind everyone that according to Ordinance, if there is 2 or more inches of snow, residents are supposed to move their vehicles off the street. She knows this can be an issue because there may be nowhere to park. She said they did not ticket anyone this time, but the next time
they will be ticketed or towed. Kevin Brooks said we do this every year. It was very frustrating because we knew we were getting snow but there were cars parked everywhere, and it made it very hard to snowplow. Mr. Brooks also wanted everyone to know that guys from the Electric Department and the Water/Wastewater also helped plow. Mayor Hehr said the Village has great employees that work together very well, and it makes Council’s job much easier. Kim Schaber asked how many cars were left on the street because she had shared the post on her Facebook page. Dale English said there were cars left parked on the street everywhere. Kevin Brooks said to be fair, some are left because the residents do not have anywhere else to park and we try to be sympathetic to a point, but it just makes it so much harder to do the plowing and get the roads clear. Kim Schaber just wondered if sharing it on other facebook pages may help. Mayor Hehr said she doesn’t know if putting an ad in the paper or doing an all-call would help. Kevin Brooks said if bad weather is coming in doing an all-call may be good protocol.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to pass Ordinance #01-2025, An Ordinance Providing for Amending and Revising the Work Week Structure for the Village of Woodsfield Municipal Law Enforcement Officers. Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to suspend the three-reading rule and pass this ordinance as an emergency measure. Kaylee Sefert made the motion. Tiffany Ramsay second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Dale English – yes, Tom Kirkland – yes, Matt Schaber – No. Motion passed 4-1. Ordinance #01-2025 adopted.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to pass Ordinance #02-2025, An Ordinance to Increase Water and Sewer Rates to Consumers, by its First Reading. Matt Schaber made the motion. Tiffany Ramsay second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Dale English – yes, Tom Kirkland – yes, Kaylee Sefert – yes. Matt Schaber said a correction to the effective date is needed in section 2 of the Ordinance. Kevin Brooks and Mayor Hehr said it will be corrected for the second reading at the next Council meeting. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to pass Ordinance #03-2025, An Ordinance to Modify Rates, Rules, Regulations, Terms and Conditions for Electric Service Provided by the Village of Woodsfield, Ohio, by its First Reading. Mayor Hehr said she had spoken to someone who has South Central, and our customer charge is going up to $16.00/month while South Central is already charging $27.00/month customer charge. Dale English made the motion. Matt Schaber second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Tom Kirkland – yes, Kaylee Sefert – yes, Tiffany Ramsay – yes. Motion passed 5-0.
X. Un-registered Visitors:
Anthony McSwords – Mr. McSwords asked at the last Council meeting did he understand correctly that we are selling the EMS Building. Mayor Hehr said it was discussed but she can’t say we are
definitely doing it. Kevin Brooks said Solicitor Ryan Regel is preparing bid specs for review. He will submit those to Council and then Council will have to make a motion to put it up for bid.
Mr. McSwords asked how long visitors are allowed to speak from visitors’ seats. Mayor Hehr said she would prefer un-registered visitors to wait until this time during the meeting and come forward to the podium so everyone can hear them. She said it is best for visitors to wait until the end of the session and then come forward to the podium and they are allotted 2 minutes.
Mr. McSwords also asked if we follow Robert’s Rules of Order for the Council meetings. Mayor Hehr replied that we do. Mr. McSwords asked who is in charge of the meetings. Mayor Hehr replied that she is in charge. Mr. McSwords said he believes that Mr. Brooks was out of order earlier during the meeting by not giving Mr. Parker his 5 minutes to speak. Mr. Parker had not made it through his 5 minutes when Mr. Brooks interrupted with his 25-minute dissertation. Mr. McSwords said he does not see harm in getting more advice concerning the electric, his 5 minutes was hijacked, and he does not think it was respectful to Mr. Parker, the rest of the visitors sitting in Council, and not respectful to the residents who voted Mayor Hehr in as Mayor, expecting her to be in charge of the meeting.
Mayor Hehr said it was just Mr. Brooks’ way of trying to explain why we do not want to merge or outsource the electric. Mayor Hehr apologized if Mr. Parker did not get his 5 minutes but she felt she gave him the opportunity at the end to continue and he did not. She also feels that everyone in attendance learned a lot from what Mr. Brooks said.
Mr. McSwords said he does not think a bigger business will ever come into the Village because the electric grid cannot handle the load of a large business. Mr. Brooks asked what Mr. McSwords
experience is to make that statement because it is totally wrong. Mr. McSwords said being the loudest doesn’t make you more experienced and Mr. Brooks said making statements such as those does not mean it is correct either.
Dale English spoke and said that the visitors were talking during the meeting to the point that he had trouble hearing everyone.
Kim Schaber – Kim Schaber spoke to say that the level of rudeness this evening has been disgraceful. She stated that we have had Mr. Brooks’ lecture regarding the past for the last 3 meetings. Mr. Parker attended all 3 of the meetings as well and he said we had an antiquated system. Mr. Brooks said he was looking for grants and had contacted someone to do the grid mapping and they never got back with us, so we then contacted someone else who never got back with us. He left Mr. Parker standing here for 20 minutes while Mr. Brooks said what he did, disrespecting the fact that he was only offering his help to look into other options. It was obviously clear no one even wanted to talk about it. Mrs. Schaber said she does not want to hear anything else from Council and she said this is why people will not come to the meetings and when people do come Council acts like it’s a big inconvenience they are here. She said Council complains about no one coming to the meeting and the only ones that do come are one’s wanting to sell an idea or a plan. When people do come, they are disrespected and treated rudely, but not by everyone. Transparency is far more obvious than you realize. Mrs. Schaber said no one knows what has been accomplished. Mayor Hehr said that is what Mr. Brooks was trying to tell people this evening. Mrs. Schaber said it needs to be posted on the Village website or the Village Facebook page. She said we should post what we have paid off in debt or what projects have been accomplished. Mrs. Schaber said Mr. Parker started speaking at 5:48 p.m. and was interrupted within 3 minutes and she said Council was also disrespectful to Mr. McSwords. Mayor Hehr stated that was Mrs. Schaber’s opinion and Mrs. Schaber said it was a fact.
Ashley Johnson – Ashley Johnson is a writer for the InnFormer newspaper. Ms. Johnson said they do not typically speak at these meetings; they just sit and listen. During the meeting she went to the Woodsfield website, and she found it interesting that the elecrtric department was started in 1898 and on the description, it states that businesses with power capacity requirements or other needs may contact the Village Administrator. Businesses that are interested in coming to Woodsfield have been invited to talk to the Administrator about what is capable of Woodsfield. Ms. Johnson is newer to the Council meetings, but she felt what Mr. Brooks said to Mr. Parker was very informative except he did not touch on the history. She does not know Mr. Parker’s history with the County but sometimes outsiders want to come in and take hold of things and make them their own. She does not know if that is what is going on or not, but it sounds to her that Woodsfield is proud to have its own power company and we don’t want to give it up. There has been a lot of work done to get the electric department on the right track and she wanted to thank Mr. Brooks for what he said. Mayor Hehr thanked Ms. Johnson for the positive thoughts.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to go into Executive Session regarding Personnel/Employment, action to be taken. Kaylee Sefert made the motion. Matt Schaber second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0. Executive Session entered at 6:50 p.m.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to go back into Regular Session. Tiffany Ramsay made the motion. Kaylee Sefert second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0. Regular Session entered at 7:05 p.m.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to accept the resignation of Jacob McNerney, Police Department, effective December 20th. Dale English made the motion. Matt Schaber second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to transfer the ownership of K-9 Tito to Jacob McNerney contingent upon McNereny signing a separation agreement that Solicitor Ryan Regel will write up. Tom Kirkland made the motion. Kaylee Sefert second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to advertise for a full-time Police Officer. Dale English made the motion. Tom Kirkland second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0.
XI. Adjourn:
The Mayor asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Kaylee Sefert made the motion. Matt Schaber second. Anthony McDaniel – absent. Motion passed 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
ATTEST:
___________________________ ____________________________
Carol Hehr, Mayor Lori Cunard, Fiscal Officer