The Council of the Village of Woodsfield
May 18, 2026
The Council of the Village of Woodsfield met in Regular Session on May 18, 2026.
I. Roll Call:
Present: Council Members; Tom Kirkland, Bill Allen, Alicia Gardner, Kim Schaber, Tiffany Ramsay, Mayor Carol Hehr, Fiscal Officer Lori Cunard, and Village Administrator Kevin Brooks.
Absent – Solicitor Ryan Regel.
II. Pending Meeting Minutes Approval:
Tiffany Ramsay made the motion to accept the May 4, 2026 Council meeting minutes as written. Kim Schaber second the motion. Motion passed 5-0.
III. Registered Visitors:
None
IV. Old Business:
An Ordinance was drafted by Solicitor Regel for the operation of low-speed vehicles, under-speed vehicles, utility vehicles, and mini-trucks. Bill Allen asked for Council opinions and if they wanted to take a vote on it. Mayor Hehr said if someone wanted to make a motion to go ahead but she thinks it needs three readings to give people in the Village an opportunity to voice their opinion if they want. Kim Schaber said she agrees with the three readings and made a motion to pass Ordinance #08-2026, An Ordinance Establishing Chapter 343 of the Codified Ordinances of the Village of Woodsfield, Ohio, Titled “Low-Speed Vehicles, Under-Speed Vehicles, Utility Vehicles, and Mini-trucks” by its first reading.
Tom Kirkland said his concern is the state highways, he is understanding they can only cross state highways but not be on the state highways. Bill Allen said they can be on the state highways as long as the vehicle goes above 25 mph, but he said we can knock out any streets we want to. Tom Kirkland asked how everyone else feels about that because he has some concerns. But a lot of the state highways would be above a 35 mph speed limit, and the low-speed vehicles cannot be on highways or streets that are above a speed limit of 35 mph.
Kim Schaber asked what we are going to do about lawn mowers. Mayor Hehr said they cannot be licensed so they would not be included in the Ordinance. Kim Schaber asked if we are still going to overlook it as in the past. Mayor Hehr said if you are riding your lawn mower to work because their work is mowing yards, then we will allow it because that is how you get to work. Kim Schaber said she has seen some people at Family Dollar with their lawn mower. Mayor Hehr said if this Ordinance gets passed, she thinks Chief Corey Jones will not be as lenient as in the past.
Bill Allen said he did see that Caldwell is having trouble with electric bikes and electric scooters. Mayor Hehr said she did have a discussion with Chief Corey Jones the other day regarding electric bikes and skateboards on the sidewalks as well as people not picking up after their dogs.
Alicia Garner second the motion to pass Ordinance #08-2026. Tiffany Ramsay – yes, Tom Kirkland – yes, Bill Allen – yes. Ordinance #08-2026 passed by its first reading.
V. Administrator Report:
Kevin Brooks said John Williams, Street Superintendent, has made a request to move Regan Rucker from Laborer to Operator with a 2% wage increase. Bill Allen made a motion to move Regan Rucker to Operator with a 2% wage increase. Tom Kirkland second the motion.
Kevin Brooks reported that the Street Department painted the lines downtown last night. They will be spraying sidewalks because of weeds and doing some other maintenance items over the next 30 days.
Mr. Brooks said they signed an agreement with ODOT to have the state routes patched inside the Village Corporation. The only thing we will have to pay for is the equipment which will be taken from the State Highway Fund. The cost will be $20,000-$25,000, depending on the price of materials when the patching is done. Mr. Brooks said we are also still on pace to have the OPWC paving to start in August or September.
Kevin Brooks said we are looking for part-time summer mowing help if anyone knows of someone.
VI. Fiscal Officer Report:
Lori Cunard said there is an Ordinance in Council packets for funds received for the water, sewer, storm water project.
Kevin Brooks said the next project meeting will be Monday, June 1st @ 10:30 a.m. here at the Municipal Building. He said they started the project at the Water Treatment Plant today.
VII. Committee Chair/Council Reports:
Tom Kirkland – Nothing to report.
Bill Allen – Bill Allen asked about the Giving Box outside the front of the building and relocating it. Kevin Brooks said his understanding from Angela Beardmore is that someone was building a larger box and they are going to relocate it to the lot next door. Bill Allen said he would contact her about it.
Bill Allen asked if we had an ordinance about burning trash, not brush, in town. Kevin Brooks said there is an ordinance, Bill Allen said he would get with him later about this.
Bill Allen asked about employees wearing badges. He said he has had residents’ comments on people walking through their backyards, not knowing who they are. He said he would get with Chief Corey Jones next week.
Bill Allen asked if the idea of the fence at City Park that was talked about at the last Council meeting could be abandoned. He said due to the cost and also because the fence would be over water/sewer lines. Mayor Hehr said at the last superintendent’s meeting there was concern about putting the fence over the line because we do not allow anyone else to do that. Tiffany Ramsay also agreed.
Alicia Gardner – Nothing to report.
Kim Schaber – Kim Schaber would like it on record that at the superintendent’s meeting she reminded Lewis Hill, Electric Superintendent, the flags in front of the building needed changed. Mayor Hehr said he changed them today.
Kim Schaber said she reminded John Williams, Street Superintendent, that she requested a No Engine Brake sign be put at Eastern and Shady Lane. She said there is already a reduced speed limit sign there. She said the sign could be put below the speed limit sign to remind people.
Kim Schaber was wondering if she and a group of volunteers could put small American flags on the fence in front of Oaklawn Cemetery. She said her and the volunteers would then take them down at the end of the summer. Council agreed that she and the volunteers can put up the flags.
Kim Schaber said based on previous Council experience, she doesn’t think Council interviews people who submit their letters of interest for a Council position, they just go by what is put in their letters of interest. Mayor Hehr said she had planned on talking about it in her report this evening that they are going to interview for the open council position.
Kim Schaber asked if we could have Daniel Denbow restore the meeting minutes to the website. She said after the site went down last fall there were probably 4 or 5 years of minutes that were never restored. She would like to have them restored back on the website for public records. Kim Schaber said he still has not updated the minutes or the other pages she had asked about. Lori Cunard said she will talk to Daniel Denbow about it.
Kim Schaber would like to make a motion that Council scrap all previous plans and any future plans for the $4 million Municipal Complex that was proposed in July 2022. She is not denying that the building needs updated, but with all of the infrastructure that we are looking at and also there has been no money raised for the building itself. She feels the new building is not essential and she feels that the upcoming infrastructure concerns are far more pressing. Kim Schaber said there is $1.6 million in a Capital Fund, but she is not sure how much of that is earmarked for the new building in the future. Lori Cunard said we are dealing with the USDA now and they have concerns about the current building being ADA non-compliant. Kim Schaber said she realizes something is going to have to be done but a huge Municipal Complex is ambitious and she does not feel it is in the best interest for the near future or at this time. She feels some of the things on the architectural renderings are not needed but are a wished-for list. Kim Schaber is open to suggestions and would like everyone else’s opinion. Mayor Hehr asked what the point is of making a motion. We are not spending anymore money and if grant funds become available then we have to come back to Council for approval to accept the funds.
Mayor Hehr said we did have someone come in and look at what would need to be done for the current building to be ADA compliant and the cost was apparently going to be astronomical. She said the Police Department definitely needs a place of their own.
Kim Schaber said the one grant possibility that she is aware of is through Congressman Ruli’s office and she is not sure if the $500,000.00 has been turned down once or twice but that is the only possible funding she has heard of to go towards a $4 million project. Mayor Hehr said her feelings on grants are if you don’t apply, you aren’t going to get it and she would hate to not continue looking for funds because if someone is handicapped, they cannot get into our building.
Kim Schaber said the former Rite-aid building is empty and she knows what the asking price is and it is a lot less than a $4 million building. She said that building could potentially house the Police Department because they are the ones with the most pressing needs.
Mayor Hehr asked if anyone would like to second the motion. Bill Allen second the motion.
Kevin Brooks said the estimate for the new building is $3.5 million and to date we have spent $175,000.00, which $100,000.00 was grant funds from the state and the funds were spent on design.
Kevin Brooks said the grant was applied for first through Bill Johnson’s office, then it was Sherrod Brown, and now it is Congressman Ruli and we have applied for the entire $3.5 million. We were asked what we could realistically match and we said we could match $1 million. We have around $1.6 million in the Municipal Capital Projects Fund but will be spending $250,000.00 on street paving in July. We intend on putting another $250,000.00 towards an Ohio Public Works application for 2027 to do another $450,000.00 in street paving and hope to do it again for 2028 which should get us caught up on paving projects.
Kevin Brooks said the main focus for the new building is the Police Department. He said our current Police Department is an embarrassment. He said we have spent over $100,000.00 in the last 6 years on police cruisers that sit outside so we included a garage area in the new building to get the police cruisers out of the weather and extend the life of the cruisers. We also want to give them a holding area and other amenities that they currently do not have.
Kevin Brooks said we have looked at renovating the current building and it is actually going to cost $6 million to renovate. He said we would need an elevator in the current building and none of our entrances or restrooms in the building are ADA compliant. He said upstairs there is no private office area because everything is open and downstairs the offices are so close together that they are not private either.
Mr. Brooks said if they were to offer us $3.4 million in grant funds, we would be foolish not to take it, and it has not cost us anything to apply other than the first year. He said he agrees there is other infrastructure that needs done but that is why we decided to shelf the design and not put any more money into it. He said in the last 6 years we have done millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements and have made significant progress on where we need to be.
Mr. Brooks said when the Forshey property next door was purchased, we said we were not going to buy it just to cut the grass. He said it is 6 years later, and we are using it for Farmer’s Market and Community Strong but there is still a lot more we could be doing with it.
Kim Schaber said Mr. Brooks has explained this all during meetings before and it does help but she is still hesitant in regard to the project. She asked if it would be possible to separate the Police Department from the Municipal Building because there is at least one empty building in town as potential for a Police Department. Kevin Brooks said he is aware and he knows some other people have been approached about taking their business to that building but when they did their research there was a reason they did not take it and it would have taken a lot of money to get the building to where it needs to be and functional. Mr. Brooks said there is another building in town that would work for administrative offices and we could use the current building as a stand-alone Police Department, but we would still have to renovate it to make it ADA compliant. Regardless of where we go or what we do we have to follow the ADA guidelines. Mayor Hehr said they have talked several times about focusing on getting a grant to build a building for the Police Department and then adding on to it later as we get more funds.
Tiffany Ramsay said she doesn’t know that it would be a good idea to pull this plan from the table without having a Plan B in place.
Mayor Hehr asked Bill Allen if his vote was still yes for the motion. Bill Allen said his main reason for getting on Council was to improve infrastructure in the Village and not to build a new building. He said if his vote of yes is to do away with the plan for a new building then his vote is still yes. Tom Kirkland – no, Alicia Gardner – no, Tiffany Ramsay – no. Motion failed 3-2.
Tiffany Ramsay – Tiffany Ramsay reminded everyone of the dumpsters being at the Municipal Building the first week of June.
VIII. Solicitor’s Report:
Absent
XI: Mayor’s Report:
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the payment of bills. Tiffany Ramsay made the motion. Bill Allen second the motion. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the Mayor’s Court Report, mid-May 2026. Alicia Gardner made the motion. Tom Kirkland second the motion. Motion passed 5-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve Ordinance #11-2026, An Ordinance Providing for Amending and Revising Specific Line-Items in the Appropriations of Expenditures for the Village of Woodsfield for the Calendar Year 2026 and Declaring an Emergency. A motion to suspend the three-reading rule and pass this ordinance as an emergency was made. Bill Allen made the motion. Tiffany Ramsay second the motion. Kim Schaber – yes, Alicia Gardner – yes, Tom Kirkland – yes. Motion passed 5-0. Ordinance #11-2026 adopted.
Mayor Hehr said as of the end of this month we will no longer have our all-call system because the company is going out of business. She has been getting information from another company and will come back to the next Council meeting with more details.
Mayor Hehr said she has spoken with the Park Committee because she has had a request for a pickleball permanent net because at the current time the net is temporary. Bill Allen and Alicia Gardner both agreed that if it can be done at a reasonable price, a permanent net can be put up. Before ordering the net, she will bring it to Council for approval.
Mayor Hehr said the hanging baskets were put up last Thursday and flowers were planted by Kathy Kahrig, Beth Leachy, Kim and Missy Knowlton, and Diane Burkhart. She also purchased some banners that the guys are going to be putting up in town.
Mayor Hehr noticed on Facebook that someone posted that recycling is over in Monroe County. She contacted the Solid Waste District, and they are having a problem with people dumping things they are not supposed to. They have a policy where the first time it is a warning, the second time they will suspend services for a period of time, and the third time they will stop services and Woodsfield will no longer have recycling. She hopes that people who are putting things in the bins that should not be put in the bins will stop so the Solid Waste District will not suspend services in Woodsfield.
Mayor Hehr said the Health Department has started a committee to look for someone to sell fruits and vegetables. They are in need of someone to sell fruits and vegetables at the Farmers Market. If anyone knows of someone please tell them they can contact Mayor Hehr.
Mayor Hehr read a resignation letter from Matt Schaber dated May 4, 2026, resigning from Council effective immediately. Mayor Hehr said they have advertised on Facebook and MC Beacon, as of now they only have three letters of interest. She would like to have a special council meeting on May 27th @ 5:30 p.m. as long as everyone can attend. Mayor Hehr said they would interview candidates in Executive Session when they come out of Executive Session they can appoint someone or they can wait until the June 1st Council meeting.
X. Un-Registered Visitors/Guests:
None
XI. Adjourn:
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Alicia Gardner made the motion. Bill Allen second. Motion passed 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
ATTEST:
_________________________ _________________________
Carol Hehr, Mayor Lori Cunard, Fiscal Officer