The Union Township Board of Trustees discussed drug seizures, police uniforms, property taxes, new businesses coming to the township, and much more at its April 12 meeting.
Scott Gaviglia, police chief, presented to the Board on the subject of drug seizure in the township. He said the department obligates two of its officers to the Clermont County Drug Unit, which is run by the Sheriff’s Office.
But of course, patrol officers with the department encounter drug seizure cases as well, which they then collaborate with the CCNU to recover the drugs. Gaviglia highlighted some of those cases to the Board.
Under federal law, five grams of methamphetamine is enough for the government to consider someone to be engaging in a conspiracy to traffic the drug; it’s 10 grams in the state of Ohio. Gaviglia said in one of their stops earlier this year, patrol units recovered 76.5 grams of methamphetamine from one vehicle. In addition, police found 28 grams of heroin, and 7.6 grams of fentanyl.
Gaviglia emphasized that it was a transportation and attempt to distribute methamphetamine, but they don’t usually see it in that bulk.
Officers also recover currency, which is usually evidence used to demonstrate trafficking and intent to distribute. In one February case, patrol officers stopped a vehicle that had 15 grams of methamphetamine, 24 grams of fentanyl, and $11,030 in currency.
“When your methamphetamine and fentanyl, when you hit that kind of number, you’ve hit home because usually the lower level dealers don’t have any money, it’s pass-through service, so this was a good stop and it yielded big results,” Gaviglia said.
That particular vehicle was coming from a motel, which Gaviglia pointed out, the police department has “a lot of cooperation” with the hotels — they have a hotel/motel interdiction unit — to try to capture “transient individuals,” particularly ones staying at hotels right off the interstate.
Tony Rees, lieutenant with the police department, then presented about police uniforms, with his recommendation to the Board for a change in uniforms. The department has had the same color scheme since 1992 consisting of a white shirt and navy blue pants, he said.
Rees said they are recommending a change to a navy blue uniform shirt, and a black external carrier instead of white.
He argued that the change is necessary, first because night shift officers are at a disadvantage wearing white; and secondly, from a maintenance standpoint, over time with cleaning the white shirts, they start to look dull.
Michael Logue, trustee, said with federal grant funding, that gives the township an opportunity to give officers a color they want, and that is “more comfort and capability.”
Next, John Becker, trustee, presented on property tax allocation.
His impetus for doing so is because he said he hears a lot of complaints from residents about property taxes, and he wanted to show residents where those taxes are going, although of course, that depends on which school district the resident lives in. Between the police, fire, and school levies, as well as the auditor’s property revaluation, it’s been something of a “quadruple whammy” on the property tax front, Becker said.
In Becker’s case, he showed his property taxes went to West Clermont (60 percent), Union Township (27 percent), Clermont County (9 percent), Great Oaks (3 percent), and the Public Library (1 percent). Specific to the Union Township piece, 45 percent of the tax revenue goes toward police, 44 percent to fire and EMS, 7 percent to roads, and 4 percent to administrative and other obligations (parks and cemetery, for example).
Craig Flaute, interim director of planning and zoning, presented two public hearing zoning cases to the board. The first concerned rezoning a R-2 single family residential district to PD Planned Development, with Mona and Kunjal Patel as the applicants.
The two parcels are 1.7 acres, located at the southwestern corner of the intersection of Paul Drive and old State Route 74, and the applicants seek to develop a multi-tenant building with five leasable tenant spaces, along with a drive-through, parking, and water retention area.
The Patels own the Exxon gas station across the street from the proposed location.
Carl Hartman, engineer on the project, explained to the Board that with all of the road development coming down the pike in the area, that the property at question was no longer fitting for residential use.
Mona said she already has two tenants lined up; she added, with Eastgate and Jungle Jim’s developing, why not old state Route 74?
“We don’t have good food where people can sit and eat; we want something that people come in, sit, and eat since everything is developing that should develop also,” she said.
One of the tenants is Diego Tacos, which would take up two tenant spots, and the third concept would be a soft serve ice cream establishment, Mona said.
Hartman added that one of the key things they did was have parking for employees behind the building, so there won’t be interference of employees and customers for parking.
He told the Board with the usual things that go along with zoning approval, site work, storm water and so on, that construction should start within six to seven months, and that the place would open sometime in summer 2023.
Joe Dills, trustee, thanked Mona for investing in the community, and added that when the facility opens, he’ll “definitely be a customer.”
Trustees approved the zoning resolution.
Flaute then introduced the second zoning case, concerning a major amendment request to an approved PD Planned Development Formal Plan, with KBA Inc., and William Schalk, as the applicant.
The property concerns Smyth Automotive, Inc. Paint Center, located at 4275 Mount Carmel-Tobasco Rd.
Flaute explained that the company is looking to expand its existing warehouse westward, and a future expansion to the northern portion of the site comprising a 5,000-square-foot addition to the 15,200-square-feet existing structure, along with a future plan that would add another 16,500-square-feet of warehouse space.
Schalk spoke on behalf of the project, saying the 5,000-square-foot addition is their immediate need, but they included the 16,500-square-foot addition in the application at the recommendation of former zoning and planning director Cory Wright to save time in the future in coming back to the Board.
The trustees approved the zoning resolution.
In other news from the meeting, the Board approved the 2022 Roadway Resurfacing Project bid award to Barrett Paving Materials Inc., in the amount of $891,588.
The bid covers 25 roads in the township.
Susan Ayers, township administrator, said while it was the lowest and best bid, it’s still unfortunate that it’s this high; she attributed that to the materials cost and gasoline, things have “gotten so exorbitant that we’ve seen that passed along in these bids,” she said.
Matthew Taylor, service director, added that they’ve seen about a 35 percent increase in the price of asphalt compared to last year.