ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Co. Rd. B Drainage Is German Township Topic




The German Township Trustees have grant money available to resurface Co. Rd. B between Co. Rds. 20 and 21, but until storm water drainage in the area is addressed, repairing the pavement makes no sense.

That was the consensus among the trustees at their Monday, Jan 14 meeting.

Joe Short, who was elected president of the trustees that night, said he and Kenneth “Skip” Leupp, trustee, met with representatives of the Fulton County Engineer office, Thursday, Jan. 10.

During that meeting, Short said county engineers recommended re-contouring the ditches along the road.

Adding drainage tile and catch basins to the ditch work was estimated to cost $89,000.

He talked about scaling back the project to save money and doing at least some of the work with township employees to reduce the project cost.

But at the same time, work on the road needs to be done. The road surface has fallen into disrepair.

Leupp suggested contacting Tim Schumm, Henry County engineer, about an alternative to re-contouring the ditches.

Leupp said in places, Henry County doesn’t even have ditches.

They slope the earth away from the road, then use a wheel-type trenching machine to install draining pipe.

There is no “back” side of the ditch.

Also discussed were issues of obtaining necessary right of way for a project along Co. Rd. B.

Leupp said right-of-way agreements would have to be obtained from 16 separate property owners.

Vaughn Bentz, Archbold village councilman, told the trustees the village is planning on doing paving work on Rosewood and Dogwood Courts, in the Woodland Oaks II subdivision.

Bentz suggested the trustees could go together with Archbold to see if they could get a reduced cost on a paving contract.

Other Projects

Josh King, township road superintendent, discussed a problem with storm water drainage on Co. Rd. 25 between St. Rt. 2 and Co. Rd. D.

The drainage line, which is mostly made of clay tile, has problems with roots from trees along the road clogging the pipeline.

When the drainage pipe clogs, a resident complaints that his basement floods.

A crew from the village of Archbold brought out the village “jet truck,” which uses high-pressure water to clean out sewer lines.

To fix the problem properly, King said the old tile should be replaced with about 350 linear feet of new pipe. He told the trustees he and Jeff Aeschliman, township road maintenance worker, can do the work, but the new pipe itself would cost $800 to $1,000.

Cooperation

King said that on Sunday, Jan. 13, while they were plowing snow, a part of the plow assembly broke off and damaged a tire and rim on one of the township plow trucks.

King said Jason Martz, Archbold superintendent of streets, had a wheel and tire available, ready to install.

With the help of the village, the plowing was finished.

The next meeting is Monday, Jan. 28, 7:30 am, at the German Township garage.



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