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PERRY TOWNSHIP – Residents voiced concerns with ongoing speeding issue on West Perry Street in the board of trustees meeting Monday.
Resident Maria Harrold explained that drivers are consistently speeding in the area despite the police department having stationed officers in the area previously. Harrold also said there were many children that play in the area and that she was concerned that with the concentration of speeders in the area one might get hurt.
"We have a lot of problems with speeders in traffic, and we brought it up to the Police Chief [Richard Kimble] and they have sent policemen out, but they end up sitting there and when the speeders see them, they slow down, and we'd like them to please catch them," said Harrold.
Fellow resident Laura Dickey echoed Harrold's concerns, noting that while "the speed limit is 25 mph, nobody is going 25 on that road."
Trustee Tony Ieropoli asked if they'd taken note of what time the speeders were going through the area most frequently and report them to Kimble, so he can have officers in place at the appropriate times. Board of Trustees Chairman Steve Bailey echoed Ieropoli, noting that the township had experienced similar situations in the past, and been able to address the issue by stationing officers in the area at the problem time and that officers "couldn't be everywhere all the time."
"If they sit there, they slow down. You can't hide, or anything like that, but our police are out there. I just saw in our monthly report that our mileage is up they're travelling the township a lot more, they're all over the place, so if you have certain times, you do see it, if you let us know, or the police chief know we can send somebody out during that time. We've had that happen in the past where we had someone speeding in the area consistently at a certain time and we could get officer out there to watch for that," said Bailey.
Other police matters discussed included the purchase of both training and duty ammunition for the department. Trustees voted unanimously to approve the purchase of nine-millimeter and 5.56 ammunition for $1,931.70. Bailey said that the cost of the ammunition would be drawn from the money the township recently received for having an officer serve on the Columbiana County Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Trustees also voted to establish a One Ohio Opioid Fund to contain the opioid settlement funds which the township has received, and to appropriate $893.31 in "other expenses." Trustee Jim Armeni asked if there were many restrictions on the use of these funds, which Fiscal Officer John Volio confirmed. Volio said that he suggested the funds be used to cover the expense when the police department placed its next Narcan order rather than department funding.
Other financial matter approved included: a payment of $10,000 to the volunteer firefighter's association of Perry Township in accordance with the agreement for fire protection; payment of the $70 registration fee for the FDIC International Fire Convention in April for Fire Chief Smith and mileage reimbursement; and raises for Road Supervisor Darreck Ferrell to $27.01 per hour, and Street Laborers Jake Aegerter, and CJ Dawson to $23.75 per hour, and $21 per hour respectively all three of which are effective Feb. 5.
The board of trustees will meet next at 4 p.m. Feb. 26.