City Council recognizes volunteers and makes progress with cruiser purchase
COSHOCTON – The July 14 Coshocton City Council meeting started off with a big thank you to the Coshocton is Blooming volunteers who spruced up the town for a recent visit from the America in Bloom judges.
“I think we have at least four representatives from Coshocton is Blooming here tonight and I hope everyone was able to see the work they did in the city,” said Mayor Steve Mercer. “You don’t have a lot of people working under you. You are the ones out there doing it and I thank you.”
Deb Wallace with Coshocton is Blooming presented several citizens with special mention awards that the judges left with her group.
“We won’t receive any real feedback until the end of September or first of October when we go to the symposium in Philadelphia, but the judges saw some things they wanted to pay special attention to,” she said. “We are excited about these awards and they are definitely very well deserved.”
The awards were for work done by Terry and Ann Miller, Kervin Williams, The Oaks, Knob Hill Design, and the courthouse restoration project.
During the meeting council also passed ordinance 17-14, which established tree rules and regulations for the city of Coshocton.
“This has been bounced around for a couple of years, but we’ve worked together with people from Coshocton is Blooming and I think we’ve gotten all the little issues ironed out,” Mercer said.
City council will appoint a five member tree commission board that will help share the responsibility of making decisions dealing with city trees.
After a little bit of discussion, council also passed ordinance 21-14, which authorizes the mayor to purchase for no more than $40,000 a new fully equipped vehicle to be used by the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office.
Councilman Tom Grier wanted to make sure that when the sheriff’s office is done using the vehicle that the city gets the exact one back.
“Lt. (Dean) Hettinger can identify one of ours as having at least 200,000 miles on it,” Mercer said.
Hettinger also assured the council that the sheriff’s office tracks the vehicles.
“We keep them separate and know which car is which,” he said.
Jim Ruby, public works director, also shared that his crews are busy working on catch basins and culverts that are in need of repair throughout the city. They also are looking at ways to improve the condition of Otsego Avenue until next year when it hopefully can be paved.
“I just want to say again that I am so grateful that our street levy passed,” Mercer said. “With everything that has happened (with the weather) this year we’ve had roads just disintegrate, but the levy passing gives us the opportunity to begin to make plans to address the problems.”
The meeting ended with a Hometown Hero Recognition by Councilman Brad Fuller. He shared with those in attendance details on the military career of Master Sergeant Scott Stubbs.
Stubbs is a 1989 graduate of River View High School and enlisted in the Marine Corps during his senior year. He was honorably discharged in December 1993 and joined his wife and children at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky, where she was assigned to the 101st Airborne. Stubbs, however, didn’t stay out of the service long. He soon started drilling with a Select Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Lexington, Ky. Stubbs then moved on to become an MP, but in November 1996 his wife was assigned to Ft. Hood in Texas and he transferred to MWSS-471 and returned to working with the weather community, which is what he originally started out doing in the service.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Stubbs was recalled to active duty and his reserve unit was activated and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. In 2005 he transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve and joined his family in Japan. In July 2008, he was recalled to active duty and once again deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Stubbs reenlisted back into the active component of the Marines in 2009 and was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from July 2010 to February 2011. He was promoted to his present rank in August 2011. Stubbs was sent to Afghanistan one more time and is now stationed in North Carolina, where he is serving as the METOC Chief within the Intelligence Section at the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Headquarters.
Stubbs personal awards include: Three Meritorious Masts; three Certificates of Commendation; Letter of Commendation; Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal; Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal; and several others.
“We are going to keep doing these recognitions as long as I’m up here and there are men and women from our county serving our country,” Fuller said.
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: Government
