The Council of the Village of Woodsfield
June 15, 2026
The Council of the Village of Woodsfield met in Regular Session on June 15, 2026.
I. Roll Call:
Present: Council Members; Tom Kirkland, Bill Allen, Alicia Gardner, Kim Schaber, Tiffany Ramsay, Rusty Atkinson, Mayor Carol Hehr, Fiscal Officer Lori Cunard, and Village Administrator Kevin Brooks. Absent: Solicitor Ryan Regel.
II. Pending Meeting Minutes Approval:
Kim Schaber made the motion to accept the May 27, 2026 Special Council meeting minutes as written. Tiffany Ramsay second the motion. Motion passed 6-0.
Kim Schaber made the motion to accept the June 1, 2026 Council meeting minutes as written. Alicia Gardner second the motion. Motion passed 6-0.
III. Registered Visitors:
Kathryn Longwell – Kathryn Longwell attended this evening to ask Council when the streetlight will be fixed on her street. She said it lights up four other houses. She has called in 5 or 6 times since October 2025 to inquire when it would be fixed. She said it started as a flicker, then a strobe and now is completely out. She said another light that is 2 poles down started doing the same thing, it was reported and they came out and fixed it. She asked if they have been waiting on a part since October 2025. She is asking that someone please come out and fix it. Mayor Carol Hehr said she talked to Lewis Hill, Electric Superintendent, today and he said the particular light for that pole is on backorder and it takes 22-29 weeks to get them in. He said as soon as it comes in, they will get it fixed. Mayor Carol Hehr said she will give Kathryn Longwell her phone number and if it is not fixed by Wednesday, June 24th she will call Lewis Hill to see what the status is.
Kevin Brooks said he does want to go over the protocol when streetlights are out. He said the first thing is residents can report it to the Utility Office so they can do a work order. Second, the Police Department documents the lights because the Electric Department employees do not work at night, so they don’t know when or which light is out until it’s reported to them. Kevin Brooks said it has been taking as long as 28 weeks to get the bulbs when ordering them. He said as the lights are going out, they are changing them all to LEDs to get longer life from them.
IV. Old Business:
None
V. Administrator Report:
Village Administrator, Kevin Brooks, said we were notified by OPWC last week confirming our paving project. The contracts will be sent in the first week of July and once we sign and send the contract back to Columbus and get the notice to proceed, we can go to bid for our large street paving project. Mayor Hehr asked if we could now submit a change order since we have received the notice? Mr. Brooks said not until we get the notice to proceed. Mayor Hehr said she was being very optimistic and thought we would qualify as LMI after doing the surveys and then receive funds through CDBG. However, there weren’t enough people that responded to the survey so she would like to take off some of the smaller streets and do Sycamore Street at least from St. Rt. 78 to Marietta.
Kevin Brooks said that is not what we applied for and we need to do what we said we were going to do. He said we can request a scope change but that is totally up to OPWC, and they may not approve a change of adding on and eliminating streets. Mr. Brooks said he would like to bid the streets as they are and see where the bids come in. He said if the bids are low and we could add on a street then there would be a good chance we could do a scope change and we could do part of Sycamore St. He said we really need to bid the project as we applied because that is how the project was scored and that is the right way to go about it.
Kim Schaber asked if we were to add Sycamore St. if that would include taking up the brick and putting down new base or if it would just be paving. Kevin Brooks said it would be a grind and resurface,
the brick would not be removed, which would be called Full Depth Reclamation, and he does not see a scenario where we would have the funds to do that because that is very expensive.
Kevin Brooks said John Williams, Street Superintendent, and his crew will be painting lines tonight in the downtown area.
VI. Fiscal Officer Report:
Lori Cunard said the Village received OWDA funds in the amount of $214,529.05 to pay an invoice for the Storm Separation Project.
VII. Committee Chair/Council Reports:
Tom Kirkland – Tom Kirkland said the Utility Committee met and they have a proposal of a 5-year plan for water and sewer rates. He said there will be no action tonight but would like everyone to look it over so we can vote on it at the next Council meeting.
Tom Kirkland said the Finance Committee met but they will be meeting again because there are a few more things they need to work out.
Kevin Brooks said when talking about utility rates we are talking mainly about water and sewer. He said the electric fund is very healthy, even with the conversion project coming up he sees no reason to adjust electric rates.
Mr. Brooks said the last increase to water/sewer was in March of this year. He said we have been alternating between increasing water one year and sewer the next. Mr. Brooks said the 5-year plan that they had discussed was to begin January 2027 so there is time to vote on it and we would want to do three readings on a utility increase.
Bill Allen – Nothing to report.
Alicia Gardner – Alicia Gardner said she spoke with Mike Young and he said they sealed the parking lot at the Fire Department and they are wanting to install new sirens at the Fire Department but have been waiting a year. Bill Allen asked if they had a price for Council to approve. Kevin Brooks said he has not gotten anything from Mike Young but he will talk to him about it. Mayor Hehr asked if Lewis Hill, Electric Superintendent, installs the siren and Kevin Brooks said Lewis Hill has done it before but it would be ordered by the Fire Department.
Kim Schaber – Nothing to report.
Tiffany Ramsay – Tiffany Ramsay said the Property Maintenance Committee met this evening but there was a misunderstanding and not everyone was present for it.
Tiffany Ramsay said Community Strong will have a band Friday night after the alumni parade on the lot next door.
Tiffany Ramsay said there is a banner displayed at the front of the Municipal Building. The banner is a sponsor banner, it was the fundraiser that the Community Strong Committee did this year. She said the banner will be displayed at any event they do the rest of the year.
Kevin Brooks asked if they were good to go with the speaker system for the Alumni parade and Mayor Hehr said she would call Lewis Hill. Mr. Brooks also said he would let the Police Department know to unlock the building for Friday night.
Tiffany Ramsay said the next Property Maintenance meeting will be on July 6th @ 4:30 pm.
Rusty Atkinson – Nothing to report.
VIII: Solicitor’s Report:
Absent
IX: Mayor’s Report:
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the payment of bills. Bill Allen made the motion. Tiffany Ramsay second the motion. Motion passed 6-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve the Mayor’s Court Report, mid-June 2026. Kim Schaber made the motion. Tom Kirkland second the motion. Motion passed 6-0.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve 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 Third Reading. Mayor Hehr said the reason we did three-readings was to give residents the opportunity to come in and voice their opinion of whether they are for or against it. Mayor Hehr said if we pass it on the third reading tonight it will not be effective until 30 days, but if we pass it on the third reading tonight as an emergency it will be effective immediately. Kevin Brooks reminded everyone that the whole premise of this was to have it available for Alumni weekend which is this weekend. Bill Allen also reminded everyone that if it is passed as an emergency tonight, you will still have to have an inspection by the Police Department and that will be enforced. Council agreed to pass the Ordinance as an emergency.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to suspend the rules declaring it an emergency to pass Ordinance #08-2026. Bill Allen made the motion. Kim Schaber second the motion. Tom Kirkland – yes, Alicia Gardner – yes, Tiffany Ramsay – yes, Rusty Atkinson – yes. Motion passed 6-0. Ordinance #08-2026 adopted.
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to approve Ordinance #12-2026, 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 to suspend the rules Declaring an Emergency. Bill Allen made the motion. Tom Kirkland second the motion. Alicia Gardner – yes, Kim Schaber – yes, Tiffany Ramsay – yes, Rusty Atkinson – yes. Ordinance #12-2026 adopted.
Mayor Hehr said they had a superintendent meeting this morning and John Williams, Street Superintendent, talked to Mayor Hehr about benches for Alumni weekend. The Village will be borrowing benches from the fairground.
Mayor Hehr said she is working on a NatureWorks grant which is due July 1st. She said she checked today and they have not come out with the funding. Mayor Hehr said she cannot come to Council with a resolution if she doesn’t know what the funding is. Kevin Brooks said he thinks we should pass the legislation so that we can apply and then worry about the match later. He said whatever the project is to put a dollar amount to it and apply for the funds.
Mayor Hehr said a gentleman was in today regarding Property Maintenance. He had got a letter from the Property Maintenance Committee about his property, and he said he is going to make some repairs and start fixing up the house so the Committee is giving him until October and will then re-visit. Mayor Hehr said she does not want people to get these letters and think they have to tear the houses down. She said that is not the case, she would rather see houses fixed up than torn down. She said the letters are just to bring them in to discuss their plan and the committee will help them along if we can.
X. Un-registered Visitors/Guests (each allotted 2 minutes):
Matt Payne – Mr. Payne said he understands that Council is discussing raising water and sewer utilities. He asked if that would include a filtration system for the water because he said the water in the Village is terrible. Mr. Payne said he would like to know how it is determined how much is charged for sewer on the bills. Mayor Hehr said it is based on how much water is used. Mr. Payne said all water does not go down the sewer. Kevin Brooks said there is no such thing as a sewer meter and virtually every community that he knows of measures your sewer based on your water consumption. Mr. Payne said he understands but there is no way all of the water used is going down the sewer.
Mr. Payne asked how many of the Council members live in the Village. Mayor Hehr said everyone lives in the Village, you have to be a resident of the Village for one year before you can run for Office.
Kevin Brooks explained to Mr. Payne that the Village is in the middle of a multi-million-dollar water and sewer project, and we are continuing to work on upgrades at the Water Plant. He said he has heard a lot about rates in other communities, but it is not a fair comparison because each community has their own set of issues to deal with. Mr. Brooks said each community’s rates reflect the condition or the
needs they have with their infrastructure. He said we have made significant improvements, but we can only go as fast as the money is available.
Mr. Payne said his main issue is that he is getting charged the same amount for sewer as he is water and not all water is going in the sewer. Mr. Brooks said that is standard practice. Mr. Payne said normally there is a certain percentage of water consumption, that determines the sewer charge. Mr. Brooks said he had not heard of that before.
Rachel Cariddi – Ms. Cariddi said that when the lengthy outage happened in the Village a few months ago that AEP had come in and mentioned providing residents a larger account number so when the power goes out and there is no communication in the Village whatsoever regarding the timeline residents could call AEP. She asked if this had been followed up on with AEP. Kevin Brooks said he believes she misunderstood. He explained that AEP is a transmission provider for the Village, we run our electric utility. Mr. Brooks said during the lengthy outage it was a transmission line which was AEP’s outage, but when the electric was out over the weekend it was due to a storm and the outage was on our end.
Ms. Cariddi asked why there was no communication with residents regarding the outage. Mayor Hehr said the Village had just lost the all-call provider and had to get a new one. She said we have signed a contract with a new provider but have had numerous problems but we have been working on it. Mayor Hehr said she had Chief Jones post on Facebook during the outage that the all-call was down so residents would not be receiving calls regarding the outage. Ms. Cariddi asked why there was not more put on Facebook stating that the outage was being worked on. Mayor Hehr said it is hard to get answers because Lewis Hill, Electric Superintendent, was busy working on the line and it can be hard for him to stop, and she also questioned how late people want all-calls. Mayor Hehr said it was probably midnight until Lewis Hill could give an estimated time of when the electric would be back on. Ms. Cariddi said there is an option for the all-call so that you can receive a phone call or a text message. She said residents can make the decision on how to receive information and she doesn’t think information should be withheld because of the time of day. Mayor Hehr said as a text message residents would probably want it anytime, even during the night but a phone call she is not sure. Ms. Cariddi said she is hearing that in a potential emergency situation we do not want to wake people up that sign up for the all-call. She asked where we stand in the town, deciding it is too late to provide information to residents. Mayor Hehr said she can call at 3 a.m. but then she guarantees we will get several calls complaining about being called in the middle of the night. She said she knows there are some that are ok with being called in the middle of the night, but others are not ok with it so how do we decide which to do. Ms. Cariddi said if you have residents that are signing up for all-calls as a phone call then that is on them, she feels the calls should be made no matter what time it is. She feels there is a lack of communication.
XI. Adjourn:
Mayor Hehr asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Alicia Gardner made the motion. Tiffany Ramsay second the motion. Motion passed 6-0. The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
ATTEST:
___________________________ ____________________________
Carol Hehr, Mayor Lori Cunard, Fiscal Officer