BATH TWP.: During the Bath trustees meeting Monday, all of the department heads in the township presented year-end reports for 2012. The presentations provided an overview of activities that took place last year in the township’s six departments.
Administration
During his year-end report, Administrator Bill Snow outlined the township finances, detailing how those funds were allocated to operate the township. He showed $10,401,959 in income in 2012, even with a revenue loss of $470,000 due to cuts in the local government fund portion of the state budget as well as a decrease in property tax valuation. The police department’s share of the budget was $2.9 million; the fire department’s portion was $2.8 million, while the service department accounted for $1.9 million.
Snow also explained the breakdown of each dollar in property taxes, with 54-1/2 cents going to Revere Schools; 20.7 cents to Summit County and 21.7 cents to Bath, with the remaining small portion divided among Cuyahoga Valley Career Center, Metro Parks Serving Summit County and the Akron-Summit County Public Library System. Of Bath’s 21.7 cents, 8 cents goes to police; 6 cents to fire; 4.8 cents to roads; and the remaining 2.9 cents to administration, parks and zoning.
Among the highlights listed by Snow, he referenced the number of personnel changes, from retirements to new hires; the agreement to lease the radio tower equipment by Bath, Copley, Fairlawn and Norton, to Summit County; the installation of the third state Historical Marker in Bath at Ira Cemetery; implementation of the Yellow Dot Program for medical information in vehicles; the first and very successful Bath Electronic Recycling Event; the increase in recycling throughout the township’s Solid Waste Program; and the ability to pay Solid Waste bills online.
Police
To start his year-end report, Police Chief Michael McNeely explained that the department received 6,237 calls for service.
Crime statistics broke down as: Rape – 1; Robbery – 2; Aggravated Assault – 1; Burglary –20; Theft –149 (primarily from the Montrose area); Stolen Auto – 1; Traffic Crashes – 579; and Arrests – 460.
McNeely listed the extensive training undertaken by department personnel, as well as noteworthy incidents, including the arrest of two Canadian suspects who were part of a Toronto crime syndicate that installed “skimmer” devices on ATMs, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout the Midwest before their arrest in Bath.
Additionally, McNeely cited the Montrose Retail Theft Alert Network, which Bath organized as a proactive network designed to alert retailers about incidents of shoplifting, theft, etc. McNeely also pointed to the Summit County Child Abduction Response Team field exercise held in Bath last year, as well as the 932 pounds of prescription medications collected in Bath’s Going Green Drug Box and disposed of through the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Fire
The report of Fire Chief Walt Hower began with the three new vehicles the department received in 2012, including the new fire tender (which had been ordered the previous year), a medic unit (paid for through billings collected for non-resident emergency medical services) and a fire chief’s vehicle.
The department saw two long-time members retire and hired two full-time and four part-time people. The department responded to 1,336 calls from the two fire stations; 947 were for EMS and 409 were fire-related.
Service and Parks Departments
More than 40 streets in Bath were improved last year, according to Interim Service Director/Park Director Mike Rorar. He also talked about the new boiler in the Administration Building, along with the window replacements, also in that building. There were 24 burials in the township cemeteries and 44 cemetery lots sold last year.
For the parks department, Rorar estimated that there were more than 110,000 visits to Bath parks, many of that number were accounted for in the 2,000-plus events scheduled in the parks.
The aerial seeding of the Garden Bowl area of the Bath Nature Preserve; three successful, controlled burns at the nature preserve to help eliminate invasive species; and the dugout enclosures for two of the baseball fields were also highlights. Rorar did add that more than 12,000 mutt mitts were used.
Zoning
Bill Funk, Bath Zoning Inspector/Administrator explained that his department issued 131 zoning permits in 2012, which included 34 for residential additions, 30 for accessory structures, 14 for swimming pools, 13 for fences, and two subdivisions. There were 16 permits issued for new residences, seven more than were issued in 2011.
The three zoning boards were busy last year: Appearance Review Commission held 22 reviews, mostly for sign applications and site changes; Board of Zoning Appeals heard 27 cases in 2012, 16 were residential, 10 were commercial and one subdivision review, and the Zoning Commission approved the rezoning application of 4655 Medina Road from Single Family Residential to Restricted Business, which trustees approved in June. In addition, that commission is nearing completion of the years-long process to update the Bath Zoning Resolution.
