Shalersville Township Trustees Special and Regular Meeting
March 18, 2025
5:30 p.m.
Shalersville Town Hall
9090 OH-44
Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Attendance: Chairman Ron Kotkowski, Vice-Chairman Frank Ruehr, Trustee Jack Bias, Fiscal Officer Kristine VanAuken
Audio:
Summary
The trustees updated zoning regulation to require non-residential projects to have plans for emergency response and clean-up incidents. They are also required to provide the fire department a copy of the plans every year.
The Shalersville Historical Society will host a community potluck and dedication ceremony on July 13 to celebrate the one-room schoolhouse that has been donated and restored. Chairman Ron Kotkowski explained how the building came into their possession. He also went over ongoing and future plans to improve township park facilities.
Concrete will be poured for the new gazebo and pavilion once winter temperatures end. The pavilion will have three picnic tables that the township already owns installed, and the gazebo will be available for rent for certain events in the future.
Documenter’s Notes
The trustees approved the minutes from the previous meeting on March 4.
Zoning update
The meeting began with a public hearing regarding changes to zoning laws. The Zoning Board recommended an amendment to add a section that requires non-residential projects to maintain emergency response and spill clean-up plans in order to be in compliance with zoning design guidelines. Copies of these plans must be provided to the local fire department annually. This amendment was approved and recommended by the Regional Planning Commission. The amendment was passed unanimously, and there was no public comment on the change.
The special meeting was adjourned and the regular meeting began.
The trustees opened the floor for public comment, but no residents had any. Trustees authorized the bills to be paid.
Historical Society Potluck & Dedication Ceremony Celebration
Kotkowski said that on July 13, the Shalersville Historical Society will have a community potluck and dedicate schoolhouse number 3. Grant money will be used to rent a tent. Food will be provided by the historical society, but residents are encouraged to bring their own favorite dishes to share.
The historical society is currently finishing work on restoring this schoolhouse. Kotkowski added that they are also working on adding a steeple to Hillside Chapel.
Kotkowski then explained the history of the schoolhouse. Shalersville originally had a total of eight one-room schoolhouses, but most of them were torn down or turned into residential houses. The building they will be dedicating was turned into a farmhouse and relocated from its original location. When the owners, Jane and Henry Mesko, passed away, the property was purchased by developers, but the building was donated to the historical society and once again relocated. The historical society is owned and operated by the township, so the schoolhouse is also township property.
He also explained that grant money received from the state in 2024 is being used for park improvements and to repaint historical society buildings. There are plans in place to use grant money to pour concrete for the new pavilion and gazebo area, but this work can’t begin until after the last frost. Other money that is currently being used to improve park grounds was donated by Bob Corbett in his estate. Corbett was a lifelong Shalersville resident and Crestwood teacher and coach who passed in recent years. This funding will be used to improve the baseball fields, and a plaque will be installed to honor him.
The trustees also discussed repurposing several picnic tables the township has and installing them at the new pavilion.
Kotkowski explained that he had a conversation with the head of the baseball committee about the committee taking over responsibility for the park’s concession stand. The historical society is currently in charge but is not capable of running it anymore.
The trustees discussed whether or not they would rent out the new gazebo for events. Kotkowski is in favor and Vice-Chairman Frank Ruehr added that they should have some restrictions on which types of events may rent the space. The trustees agreed that any scheduling needs to be checked against other events like football games to prevent parking issues.
Trustee Jack Bias thanked Kotkowski for his contributions and labor to get the schoolhouse relocated; then, the meeting was adjourned.
Transcript
The following transcript was generated by a transcription bot and is not 100% accurate. The Portager does not edit the AI-generated transcript. We understand the automatic transcript can be very inaccurate.
Ron Kotkowski 00:12
Pledge of Allegiance to the Republic for
Speaker 1 00:18
which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice. For
Speaker 2 00:32
special meeting is about the amendment. One can do the minutes first? Oh, yeah, good. Everyone have a chance to look over the minutes,
Ron Kotkowski 00:40
yes, I’ll make a motion that we approve the
00:43
minutes. I’ll second that
00:54
Ryan, I mean, Frank, yes,
Speaker 2 01:06
you’d like to read the amendment one, yeah,
Ron Kotkowski 01:10
so this is something that our zoning board brought to us, and it is shares with township zoning text amendments. Amendment One, amend Article Three, section 369, residential uses and light industrial to add Subsection B, existing section 369, non residential use, uses in L, i, d, light industrial non residential projects shall comply with shalersville design guidelines as amended. And the proposed is section 369, residential uses in L, i, d, by industrial. A non residential project shall comply with the shaders Bill design guidelines as amended. And B is the new language all industrial uses shall maintain an emergency response plan and spill prevention control and countermeasure plan, SPCC. Current copies of these plans shall be shared annually with the local fire and rescue and this was recommended and approved by the Regional Planning Commission and then sent to us. Thank you. Are there
02:29
any public comments? I
Ron Kotkowski 02:34
think it’s pretty straightforward. I
02:35
think so. I think yeah, controversial at all.
Ron Kotkowski 02:39
Okay with it? Frank, yeah, I’ll make a motion that we approve this.
02:49
Frank,
02:51
yes. Ronnie, yes. Jack, yes.
Speaker 2 03:01
Any further discussion on this. Adjourn our special meeting, and again, our regular trustee meeting. Good start. No, everybody,
Speaker 3 03:16
yeah, everybody. Don’t have anything this week. Just now, see what the weather’s doing and see we’re going to transition to spring here, if we still got a little still got a little winner at it. So no, we’re pretty good. Okay, thank
03:28
you. Time did you close that meeting? 530 Okay.
Speaker 4 03:38
Hopefully we’re transitioning. I’m ready. You have to be too.
03:42
Okay, I’m sorry,
03:45
Bethany, Bethany, you’d like
Speaker 5 03:47
to say, Oh no, I’m just, I’m just observing, taking notes. I’m just visiting, okay, nothing. Oh my gosh, that’s
Ron Kotkowski 03:56
going to be a quick meeting.
04:02
I Well, Greg’s not here or something, guys,
Speaker 1 04:09
I just like to make a motion we pay the bills. Okay, I’ll second that. Well, that’s quick.
Speaker 6 04:17
Well, they’re not done yet. Okay, yes, Ronnie, yes, Jack, yes, that’s
Ron Kotkowski 04:37
all I got. I don’t really have much for this meeting. I think we mentioned earlier that we’re thinking about July 13. It’s a Sunday or wouldn’t have a community potluck and dedication of the shadowsville schoolhouse, district number three schoolhouse. And I. We’ll use some of that money to, like, rent a tent and that sort of thing. So we will, we will make use of money
05:09
that we get from the
Ron Kotkowski 05:12
grant money, just a few things going on with the Historical Society, finishing up the schoolhouse. We’re a little steeple on the chapel that came from hillside cemetery, and should have that all wrapped up until the 13th of July, and hopefully we’ll
05:32
have a nice day and have one
Speaker 7 05:35
steeple on the hillside chapel. It looks like an oversized house, but it actually was a chapel for cemetery. Yeah.
Ron Kotkowski 05:44
Oh yeah. And then also the the coup low for the bell at the schoolhouse level. Yeah. So in years past, shadersville had eight one room schoolhouses, and most of them either got torn down or turned into houses. And this was one that got turned into a house, and then it was moved a little bit, and then up the hill from where it was. It was on 44 and it was turned into a farmhouse and used that way for many, many years. And then the couple that owned it, the Mesko family, Frank and Jane and Henry. Henry and Jane Mesko both passed away, and the developer bought the property, and so the Historical Society talked him into donating it to the Historical Society. We moved it to our site, and we’re restoring it. Yeah, it’s going to be a cupola for a bell that’s going on the schoolhouse. And so we’re real happy with it. It’s been a long adventure. It’s not easy to move a house, but we’ve got it done. It’s going to be a real nice addition. Last year we got grant money from the state that did a lot of work at our park, and it also paid paint all the buildings at the Historical Society. That’s probably the book so nice right now, the Historical Society and grounds are owned by the township historical society as a 99 degrees it, and I’m kind of glad that this is working out this way with the money, as if she wasn’t getting much of response for her truck or treat, this is going to be a better use of the funds. I start, I don’t have anything new. Frank, is there anything with the electric for the gazebo? Monday, I I’m thinking, I want to get going. We got grant money, and we have it in house, and so I want to get the concrete poured for the new pavilion and the new and I think as soon as it’s done freezing at night, we’ll do that. I’ll talk to Jack. He’s the one that gave us bid on that. We’ll get it going. And also talk to Mark Bergman about keeping in mind the picking
Speaker 4 08:51
tables we have four, yeah, took apart that are still good, and we’ll probably never hear them if we don’t put them in there. So I don’t know
Ron Kotkowski 08:59
four would be enough. I think four is, I don’t know. I think maybe three is plenty. We got three perfect ones, and a fourth is questionable, but usable. Likewise, we just keep
09:10
moving around there. So I get broke, so we might as well
Ron Kotkowski 09:12
use them. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because once you set them, they’ll last for a long, long time. And maybe we could even think about this port of pad somewhere and having a picnic table outdoor. You know, that might be another thing that we can do for our park. We’ve, we’ve done a lot of improvements to our park in the last couple of years. And we’re also going to do a dedication to Bob Corbett for
09:38
the donation, for the
Ron Kotkowski 09:41
Bob donated a large part of his estate to shadow Township, and we’re using it toward the park. He rebuilt all of the deck stops the baseball field because he was a baseball coach, and we’re going to have it a plaque and a name that. Education. We’ll do that different
Speaker 4 10:06
fields and then under undesignal, safe, teacher, coach, friend, probably, or something like that. We
Speaker 6 10:14
decided, yeah, so the dedication on the 13th is,
Ron Kotkowski 10:19
but it’ll be a community potluck, also community pot life. Everyone brings their favorite
Speaker 4 10:31
Historical Society, supplying a lot within grant too, right? They’ll get chicken and
Ron Kotkowski 10:36
supply everything that we can. The sign that we’re
Speaker 8 10:40
going to do for the for the Bob Corbett, you know,
Speaker 3 10:43
fairly large sign or small sign, whatever we say we’re going to do, two by four, two by four. I thought two by three. I let you mentioned the only thing I didn’t know Judy, the lady from the historic side. She brought to my attention down here last week, not knowing what was going on with the concession, right? She was wondering if we could have a map sign made up showing the field locations and having the numbers on because so many people come to the concession asking, Where do I go for this field, this field now that they can’t drive back there, they’re not going to walk back and find out the wrong field. Could that maybe be a small picture on that? Bob Corbett,
Speaker 4 11:15
something separate? Yeah. Man, yeah.
Ron Kotkowski 11:21
I did also talk to Elaine, the lady Patterson from the baseball Yeah, yeah. Is it Elaine? Elaine Patterson, I talked to her today. He’s head of the baseball committee down there at the park, and I talked to her about taking over the concession stand at our last meeting the Historical Society. Everyone’s getting up in the airs years, and they’re just not capable of running that anymore. So I talked to her, we’re still kind of in negotiations, because elected, you know, that was a fundraiser for the Historical Society. So I’m gonna, I told her, I said, talk it over with your committee. We talked about all the aspects of it, how they would handle it. They’ve, they’ve worked with cash before, so they know how to have several people look watching things, so that, you know, nothing happens that’s bad, and they’re going to, I said, come up with a proposal
12:25
they can make a donation to historic society. Yeah,
Ron Kotkowski 12:29
right. And obviously, even if they don’t, it’s, it’s time to pass the torch. It used to be run by the baseball committee, and then they kind of let it go. And so the Historical Society came in and took it over. We were all 15 years younger back then. And you know now, most of them are getting up in years and not able to commit to that anymore. So also, I had a question. Someone questioned me about running the gazebo. Do you think we
13:01
will do that, not the new one? I don’t think,
Ron Kotkowski 13:03
well, that’s a question, because people do rent those at times, I guess so that’s something I think we should consider whether we do it or not. We’ve got the one that we were at, the pavilion, the big pavilion, and
Speaker 9 13:17
the gazebo, the gazebo, I think in this other Yeah, no, not this pavilion,
Ron Kotkowski 13:21
the gazebo.
Speaker 4 13:22
It has to be for an event. I mean, it wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t think you’d want it for a picnic or something. Well,
Ron Kotkowski 13:27
yeah, we’re not gonna have tables in so it wouldn’t be unless someone brought their own tables and chairs. But it could be if someone wanted to have a band there, polka band, maybe. Well, a Pokemon. That’s always a good idea.
13:39
That’s my dream. I want the shark. Well, we don’t
Ron Kotkowski 13:44
want to spread it out. That’s that potluck will be for that. And maybe we could do it later in the summer or something. You know, we could pick a different date for the for the dedication of the field. Yeah,
Speaker 4 13:54
I would, hey, I was thinking the pavilion gazebo would be good. We’d have to be real, probably picking what, you know, what kind of events, because I don’t think we’d love it for, I mean, that could seem both nice. I don’t know if we’d love for kids birthday parties or something. I don’t know, no tables,
Ron Kotkowski 14:10
so it’s really going to cut that sort of thing out. Yeah, and I don’t think we should put tables in there, but it would be for an entertainment event. Water either. And right, there’s no water. No, that’s something
Speaker 4 14:27
to look at. You know, some organization wanted to do something. We wouldn’t rent it. If somebody come and said, Yeah, we’d want to get something on the weekend, or we’d have to be real careful with the parking and correlation with the football and baseball. Well, it was a good fool, right?
Speaker 9 14:48
But, well, I think from here they could park here for that was not a fire walk to
Speaker 4 14:53
get to the gazebo. No, the football was coming clear this driveway last year, if you remember. And then if you had. Something here at the town hall. So we’ll just have to, yeah,
Ron Kotkowski 15:03
we should be prepared for if people want to rent it, yeah? You know, not. It may never happen, but, you know, occasionally might happen. If we’re prepared for it, you know, we can just say, well, here’s our fee, and, you know, here’s when you’re allowed to use it, put something
15:18
on the internet. Yeah?
Ron Kotkowski 15:24
Okay, that’s all I have.
Speaker 2 15:27
I don’t really have anything. But talking about the Historical Society and the schoolhouse, Ronnie was instrumental in getting that move, and we provided a lot of labor and work and cash, it would have happened without
Ron Kotkowski 15:46
that was a lot. I’ll tell you. There were times when I looked at that project and I moved to house when I was, like, 21 years old, and I’m like, I’m 62 What am I doing?
15:57
Yeah, looks good.
16:02
That’s all I have in Ben, okay, if we adjourn the meeting that 545,
16:09
okay?
