Cheryl Allgeyer

Cheryl Allgeyer
By Martha Jacob
Sun staff

The Goshen Township Trustees hired a part-time administrative assistant during the March 22 meeting, who will replace, in part, former administrator Lou Ethridge, who resigned in January.

Following an executive session at the meeting, trustees voted to table a motion to appoint a candidate to the position of probationary township administrator citing that the trustees were waiting for a written response from Ohio Police and Fire regarding pension. Also, after the executive session trustees named Cheryl Allgeyer to the position of probationary part-time administrative assistant at an hourly rate of $19.25 per hour up to a 24 hour week, effective April 4.

At its Feb. 23 meeting, trustees chose to create two positions, an administrator’s position and an administrator’s assistant position in an effort to save the township money.

Also at the Feb. 23 meeting, acting police chief Rick Combs was fired and Captain Bobby Rose has since been acting as officer in charge of the department. Trustees are currently reviewing several applications, but no decision has been made on who the new police chief will be.

In other actions by the trustees, Fire Chief Steve Pegram, interim administrator, read aloud a letter from the Goshen Township Historical Society. The letter was in regard to replacing a historical sign in the village that was mistakenly taken down by a construction company that made the improvements on state Route 28 last year, and was then given away. The sign was a 200th anniversary historical sign that belonged to the township.

“At request,” Chief Pegram said, reading from the letter, “the replacement sign is now at the administration office and it is our hope that the sign will be replaced.”

Pegram said the historical society had replaced the sign but felt that this time the new sign should be re-located by the roadway in front of the town hall.

Following a brief discussion, the decision was made to erect the sign in front of the town hall next to the flag pole. Plans were in motion to get the sign back as soon as possible.

A motion to approve out of town travel for Fire and EMS Chief to attend the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis on April 17 to April 23 was made and approved. Pegram will be the keynote speaker at the event.

The trustees, as well as community members in the audience expressed their appreciation to Allgeyer, who will step down as fiscal officer affective March 30, after two years serving in that role. Allgeyer received a standing round of applause from the audience. Brittany Koepke will fill her seat.

Trustees approved the following motions:

• Approve participation in the National Drug Take Back Initiative on April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Last year’s initiative netted over eight pounds of dangerous, expired or unused pills to get them off the streets, Rose said;

• Motion to apply for the Ohio Police Community Relations grant for an amount up to $10,500 for use to bring bicycle patrol back to Goshen. It would require a 25 percent match. Pegram added that his department has also applied for another grant which would help fund the cost of two new cruisers which would be $52,000 and if awarded it would be a 100 percent funded grant requiring a match;

• Motion to participate with Miami Township Police Department in the Junior Police Academy program in June. The program will include Goshen, Loveland, Milford and Miami Township;

• Motion to approve the police department to advertise for and host a Citizen’s Police Academy Class starting in April 2016;

• Motion to increase EMS billing fees from $100 for each category Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support and Advanced Life Support 2 and mileage from $13 a mile to $15 a mile in accordance with the recommendations of Medicount Management;

• Motion to accept the resignation of Park Board Commissioner, Amy Thompson effective April 30;

• And motion to advertise for two weeks, the vacant park board, on the township website.