St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting

Agenda/Minutes 11/20/2024

1. Call to order, pledge of allegiance

Chairperson Carianne Meng calls to Order the St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting of November 20, 2024 at 7:00PM

2. Committee Member Roll Call:  

Baer: Present / Not Present 

Barnes: Present /Not Present 

Burton: Present / Not Present

Lodder: Present / Not Present

Meng: Present / Not Present 

Robertson: Present / Not Present 

Schiller: Present / Not Present 

Taylor: Present / Not Present

Thorpe: Present / Not Present  

Zanks: Present / Not Present 

Additional Attendees:

Mr. Lees, Mr. Peters, Ms. Morrison
David James (Locate Strategy) 

3. Review and Approval of Minutes

Minutes from St. Albans Township/Alexandria Merger Commission Meeting 10/16/24

Lodder made a motion; seconded by Baer, to approve the 10/16/24 minutes. All in favor?

Chair declares motion failed / carried. 

4. Old Business 

Ensuring quorum for next meeting, December 18

Lodder proposes we cancel 12/18 and reconvene in January; seconded by Barnes. January 22, 2025 is the next meeting.

Income tax research

Locate Strategy (David James) is visiting us tonight regarding a proposed statement of work to determine the earned income for the Township as we work to determine financial viability of a merged entity.  Mr. James is a CPA and former CFO consultant with many years of experience with finances and lives locally. Mr. James uses Census Block Groups – the Township has 6. It is a massive estimate, but everyone is using the same estimate. His goal is to give us a realistic benchmark.

Questions:
-Income in these reports reflects average income on tax forms (total income)
-Timeframe for completion of this work? Once we give the go-ahead, the work will be returned in 2-3 weeks max
-How do you get the 2029 data? How do you control for/ consider the unique situation of Western Licking County? Gives a benchmark to work from
-Demographic data is based on where people live, not where they work
-The calculations are based on gross income, before deductions

Lodder moves that the Merger Commission enter into a contract with Locate Strategy that includes the 3 promised reports (1. Demographic Report for the entire Township, including the Village 2. Demographic Report for just the Village 3. Demographic Report for the entire Township excluding the Village (main deliverable)) by January 15 at an expense of $1600 to the Village and $6400 to the Township, seconded by Burton.

Roll-Call Vote:
Baer: Y

Barnes: Y

Burton: Y

Lodder:  Y

Meng: Y

Schiller: Abstain

Road maintenance: Big Greens based in Western OH that villages and cities contract with for work like mowing, etc. They charge by the acre. Using 15ft “batwings” is the fastest and least expensive. Their price is $75/acre in 2024. This is a possible option for doing accessory mowing work. Using Google Maps, the acreage for 161 from 310 to Raccoon Valley Golf Course is 92 acres (N and S sides of road, median, exit and 37 interchange). 92 x $100 = $9200 per mow x 3 = $27600. A high estimate is $100,000 a year.

5. New Business

Failed Levees Discussion
-Reduce the Village income by 17% – Village citizens mentioned they prefer an income tax to a property tax; something to think about as we consider income tax for a merged entity
-Fire Levy reduced their income by 50%

-Road and bridges levy failed – 3mil ($320,000/yr)

-Discussion of how to reformat the Merger Conditions re: Fire/EMS. Could absorb it into the municipality through income tax (continue discussion in January)

-We also get income from Liberty Township for supporting their fire needs – could extrapolate that and guess what it would cost to contract out our Fire/EMS needs

Drafting Merger Conditions 

General Updates:

6. Citizen Comments (3-minute time limit) 

Tad VanNess – financial projections for the Village

7. Meeting Announcements
Next meeting is January 22, 2025 at 7PM at the St. Albans Firehouse Meeting Room

8. Adjournment
Lodder made a motion; seconded by to Burton adjourn.
All in favor? Chair declares motion carried / failed. 

Chairperson Meng declares the meeting adjourned at 8:20PM