APRIL 2006

NEWSLETTER April, 2006

SPRING CLEAN-UP DAY: New date from original schedule:

The annual Spring Clean-up Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 20^th and will once again begin at 6:00 a.m. The following rules apply as they have in the past:

- Only Village residential customers are eligible. Please do not allow others from out of town to abuse this service.

- All smaller debris must be boxed or bundled.

- Nothing in lengths longer than six feet will be picked up.

- Absolutely NO – tires, concrete/stone/brick items, yard waste-tree limbs, railroad ties, wet paint cans, pesticides, antifreeze, hazardous waste, gas cans or motor oil.

- Appliances and other metal items will be picked up

Please be sure to have everything out to the curb area by 6:00 a.m. as the entire village will be covered in one day and there will be no call backs. Also, please follow the above rules in order for the Village to maintain this as a service to our residents without any additional charge.

BRUSH PICKUP:

With the spring weather arriving, we have returned to our regular schedule of doing brush pickup on the 1^st and 3^rd Mondays of each month. As in the past, it is not necessary to call the Village office to let us know you have brush to be picked up…we will get to it as our schedule and the weather allows.

Please remember the following basic rules regarding brush pick-up:

- If you have your trees trimmed or cut down by a paid tree serviceman, it is their responsibility to remove all brush. Our Village service is designed to pick up those branches that fall during storms or the small amount that individuals trim on their own trees.

- It is not the Village workers responsibility to rake your piles up. All the smaller debris should be placed in yard waste bags.

- Do not use this service to put out your grass clippings, leaves, shrubs, plants, flowers, fruits, acorns, walnuts, etc. These items will not be picked up.

Thank you for your cooperation!

SWIMMING POOL IMPROVEMENTS:

With a great deal of assistance from the recently started Fort Recovery swim team, there are many improvements going on at Ambassador Pool. We are currently in the process of cleaning and preparing to paint the pool walls, pool decking and the pool house. Also planned is the addition of a pool heater that is being made available through donations being collected by the swim team committee. We will also be adding a new small slide for the shallow end that was donated by the Cooper Family Foundation. We are excited about these additions and the Park Board, Village Council and Administration certainly appreciate all the donations and volunteer labor that is being provided to make these improvements possible. On another park note, if you child did not get signed up for summer baseball or softball, please be sure to contact John Rammel (baseball – 419-375-2789) or Marie Osterholt ( softball – 419-375-2523).

As you may be reading in the area news coverage, the village continues to move forward with plans to begin work on the sewer separation project as required by the Ohio EPA. We recently received approval of our separation plan and this will certainly be on our priority list for the near future with much work being necessary to many different areas of town. This project will include not only new sanitary and storm lines for the Village but also in many cases for each of the affected homeowners as the older lines will not be acceptable. A big factor in the timing of the proposed projects will be based on the availability of funding that will be coming from a combination of grants, loans, and increased user fees. The scheduled beginning date is for 2008 / 2009 for the first phase (S. Wayne Street) but again that may move forward or backward a year based on funding availability. We will provide updated information as we get closer to implementation.

As for other work being planned for this year, we will be doing a street reconstruction project on the block of Fremont Street from William to John Streets. This will include new water line, storm sewer service, curbs, sidewalks and a wider street surface. Plans are underway now with work on the utilities to begin in the next month or so. This will make a nice improvement for traffic that utilizes Blue Jacket Drive to access the high school. We also will be doing some asphalt work on S. Wayne Street and Blue Jacket Drive later this summer.

The annual Park Work Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 6^th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The public is invited to come on down and assist in sprucing up our parks, along with the Historical Society Parks, prior to summer activities. Rain date is May 13^th. We will meet in the Ambassador Pool parking lot. Your help is appreciated!

As most of you are aware, the Cingular cell phone tower is constructed just north of town and at early indications should be activated very soon. Also, I have received notification that construction on the Nextel tower just south of town will take place sometime between July and September of this year with activation within 60 days of the time they break ground. I was told by the Nextel representative that only Nextel (& eventually Sprint as they are now merged) will be providing signals from this tower with no plans now or in the future for Verizon to lease tower space. L

We are seeing some additional activity in our Industrial Park this spring and hope to announce some lot sales very soon. Anyone needing any additional information concerning industrial lots should contact Randy at the Village Hall at 419-375-1056.

As always we welcome your input and invite you to our Council meetings on the first and third Mondays of each month, 7:30 p.m. in the Village Hall. If you have any specific concerns or questions, feel free to contact Randy, Mayor Broerman or any of the Council Members.

Upcoming Dates of Interest: (Check out the website at www.fortrecovery.org for a list of all local events)