Windham Village Council met Tuesday to address a slew of issues, including setting rental rates for the village community center.
Anyone who wants to rent the village community center for parties, banquets or other events should expect to pay a $200 refundable security deposit.
Rental for village residents is $100. Township residents will pay $150. Outside residents and companies will pay $300, and nonprofit agencies and Windham village employees will be charged $25.
A $50 maintenance fee will be assessed to any renter who does not clean the premises after their event. If alcohol is served during the event, an off-duty police officer will have to be present. The fee for that is $25 an hour, with a four-hour minimum.
Anyone who wishes to rent the community center for a day should contact the village office at 330-326-2622.
Village finances
The village recently sold another piece of land on Maple Grove Road, bolstering the general fund by $6,853. When the village tore down the apartment complexes that were originally used to house arsenal workers, they were left with large chunks of land and have been selling off pieces ever since. A stipulation of each sale is that the buyer must build on the land within two years. Most of the land is zoned residential, council member Mac Cunningham said.
Reviewing finances, council noted that the village has collected $74,397 in tax revenue from the beginning of the year to Feb. 28. That money goes into the general fund. February’s expenditures totaled $124,597. Taking all its funds into account, the village has $1,736,558 on hand as of February, putting Windham solidly in the black.
Eyeing a way to spend some of that money (or receive state or federal grants), council members Cheryl Belknap and Cunningham recently walked village streets to see if the sidewalks were accessible for wheelchair users.
“There are quite a few that need improvement. We’ll see if we can get everybody to improve those,” Cunningham said. After identifying which sidewalks need attention, council must determine who is actually responsible for repairs (different sidewalks have different responsible parties).
Housekeeping
Armed with a state grant, village employees will soon begin cleanup at the corner of East Center and North Main streets. The property once housed a gas station/convenience store that was razed years ago. The grant will enable village employees to dig up the piping and tanks so that the property can be used by a prospective buyer.
Cunningham also noted that the village’s fire hydrant replacement project should be complete in the next week or so. Many of the hydrants were outdated and did not always have sufficient water pressure.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.