Council considers blighted neighborhood issue timesbulletin.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesbulletin.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
DAVE MOSIER/
independent editor
Van Wert City Council approved four improvement project-related ordinances and adopted a Downtown Outside Recreation Area (DORA) proposal, while also discussing the possibility of placing the charter government issue back on the ballot in November during its first meeting of May on Monday.
Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward reads a proclamation designating the week as Apraxia Awareness Week as interested city residents look on.
Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent
Council unanimously approved emergency ordinances authorizing Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming to sign an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation regarding bike/walking path work in the city, and also to seek bids and award contracts for the city’s 2021 street paving program, a street project on Grill Road, Kear Road, and Bonnewitz Avenue, and the Market Street resurfacing project, which would run from Keplar Street to the railroad tracks.
ODNR bike path grant apps OK d; strategic plan updated « The VW independent thevwindependent.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thevwindependent.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
VW independent/submitted information
Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward (right) swears in newly-promoted Fire Captain Brian Ankney .
VWFD photos
Lt. Brian Ankney was promoted to the rank of captain, while Austin Miller will replace Ankney as a fire lieutenant.
Ankney firefighting career began in 1989 with the Paulding Volunteer Fire Department and he attained his certification as a volunteer firefighter in June 1990. In March 1998, he earned his Firefighter 1 certification and, three months later, in June 1998, he became a fire instructor.
Ankney earned EMT-Basic status in August 1999 and, in February 2001, was hired by the Van Wert Fire Department. In August 2001, he completed training for his paramedic certification, and, in October of that year, earned the Firefighter 2 designation. Ankney obtained his fire safety inspector certification in November 2002.
DAVE MOSIER/
independent editor
Van Wert officials discussed the city’s financial position, while Mayor Ken Markward honored the Division IV state champion Van Wert High School football team with a proclamation during Monday’s Van Wert City Council meeting.
Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward (left) presents VWHS Head Football Coach Keith Recker with a proclamation honoring his team’s winning the 2020 Division IV state championship.
Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent
City Auditor Martha Balyeat noted that, with income tax revenues down 3.5 percent (nearly 8 percent down from 2019 projections that estimated a 4 percent increase in revenues) because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is hurting, but the receipt of several hundred thousand dollars in CARES Act funding will help the bottom line especially since the requirements were loosened on those funds to allow the city to use them for salaries, as well as other expenses.