Catawba Island Township Board of Township Trustees
Meeting Minutes
April 28, 2026
The regular business meeting of the Catawba Island Board of Township Trustees was called to order by Chairman Diane Belden on Tuesday, April 28, at 6:00 p.m. in the conference room of the administration building.
In attendance were: Diane Belden, Shelly Garcia, Chris Cellier, Quintin Smith, John Gangway, Kevin Johnson, Dorthy Baker, William Baker, Barb Osterling, Ann Rumpf, Dan Barlow, DJ Litz, Lisa Murphy, Randy Riedmaier, Jack Madison, Dan Toris, Greg Strayer, Kathy Heidlebaugh, Flint Heidlebaugh, Todd Jagucki, Eric Schramm, Reggie Langford, Craig McCoy and Jim Stouffer.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve the April 14, 2026 Board of Trustees regular meeting minutes as presented. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve and pay the bills, including payroll, in the amount of $136,782.13. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried. This total includes payment of $42,187.50 to the City of Port Clinton for the quarterly EMS payment, and $8,050.00 to Bill’s Implements for the mower lease program and $16,799.00 to Bill’s Implements for the new 72” mower.
Correspondence
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia stated that Frank Harmon from Ohio Insurance Group is asking if the trustees would like him to come in and have an employee meeting to advise the township employees of the new benefit that take effect May 1, 2026 and answer any questions they may have. Trustees agreed that this would be a good idea and asked Shelly to set this up with Frank and advise of the date and time.
The Ottawa Co. Engineers office sent over two approved permits to notify the trustees of work being done by Frontier in the area. #26-095 and #26-101.
Fiscal
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia presented to the trustees the Ohio Plan package proposal from Hylant for the township’s renewal of its property insurance. The yearly premium has increased by $3,777.00 from last year. The increase is due to 3% inflation, addition of two new police cruisers and addition of the new fire engine. Trustees agreed to move forward with the renewal.
Maintenance
Kevin Johnson stated that the clean up last weekend went very well.
He spoke to the paving company regarding the Basin Dr. paving project. He stated they are hoping for the end of May for a begin date with the guardrail to follow.
A bid from Fremont Fence was received for removal and re-install of the fence around the tennis courts at Heigel Park. The fence needs to be removed to allow The Kreimes Co. to come in and pave the tennis courts. This bid was for $9,958.00.
Two bids were also received from The Kreimes Co. for asphalt overlay and acrylic resurfacer, color & striping. The asphalt overlay quote was in the amount of $45,500.00 and the resurfacer, color & striping was $30,000.00. Total for both Kreimes bids was $75,500.00.
Chris Cellier made a motion to accept both Kreimes Co. bids that were dated 11/19/25, as presented, in the amount of $75,500.00. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chris Cellier made a motion to approve the bid from Fremont Fence as presented in the amount of $9,958.00. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Kevin stated he will contact Fremont Fence to see how soon they will be able to come out and start the removal of the fence as the quote states they are 12+ weeks out, and Jack Madison stated Kreimes is wanting to begin the resurfacing as soon as possible.
Ottawa County Engineer, Dan Toris, was present at the meeting and asked to say a few things to the audience. Dan spoke about the MS-4 district that the Ohio EPA will start mandating them to abide by in the Clean Water Act. They regulate pollutants going into the waters of Lake Erie. He stated the EPA has expanded the area and this now includes Catawba Island Township. He gave information as to what this means for the township. Dan also answered questions from audience members and advised as to where they can get additional information on this issue.
Police
Chief Gangway stated that the Rock Ledge platform project is scheduled for the week of May 4th (weather permitting). He stated that Matt Hollis has his approved permits and the road closures will be minimal and traffic control will be handled by the contractor.
Diane Belden brought up the Cyber Security presentation that was done by Falcon Forge last meeting. Discussion took place and it was determined that it would be best to allow Falcon Forge to come up with a Cyber Security program for the township that would be customized for our needs.
Quintin Smith made a motion to accept the Falcon Forge contract, not to exceed a total of $3,000.00 for the Cyber Security program for the township. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chief Gangway brought up the Forerunner quote and asked if a PO was completed so they can begin work on the phone system project that was approved at the last meeting.
Shelly Garcia stated that the amount on the new quote didn’t match what the trustees approved at the last meeting. She is requesting clarification on this. Chief Gangway stated that he will go back to Forerunner to see why the amounts are more on the updated quote and get confirmation as to what the exact amount will be. It will be presented at the next meeting.
Diane Belden brought up signage that they are thinking about posting at the compost facility regarding no longer allowing commercial operators to use the facility. Quintin Smith brought up ideas as to how the township could remedy this issue. The issue is that Catawba’s compost facility is becoming very costly to maintain due to the fact that so much commercial waste is being dumped there and much of it seems to be coming from areas other then Catawba Island. Much discussion took place and the trustees decided that more specifics are needed along with public input. It will be looked in to further prior to any signage being put at the facility.
Fire
Chief Gibbons stated that the annual fire hose testing will be on May 12, 2026 and last two days.
Parks
Jack Madison stated they had a meeting last week and discussed adding additional members to the park board.
New Business
Quintin Smith stated at the last meeting he was asked what the goals were for EMS. He stated that he wants to be the best in Ohio and proactive health care and reactive EMS. He reached out to the Vol. Fire Department, Police Department and different constituents in the community to get them involved in trying to figure out the best way to move forward in finding a solution to Catawba’s EMS. He stated the current EMS contract ends in 2027.
Quintin stated that the screen and projector have been installed at the Community Hall and the picture is very clear. He stated that the smaller screen will be installed in the conference room at the administration building and asked the other trustees where they think it should be placed. After brief discussion, it was determined it would be best to be put on the side wall. The maintenance department will take care of the installation.
Chris Cellier made a motion to appoint Jordan Davenport to the Zoning Commission as a regular member. This term would expire in December 2030. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chris Cellier made a motion to appoint Jerry D. Sprouse to the Zoning Commission as an alternate with the term to expire December 2026. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chris Cellier made a motion to appoint James L. Atkinson to the Zoning Commission as an alternate with the term to expire December 2026. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Chris Cellier gave the zoning report numbers. Year to date there have been 33 permits issued and 13 variances. Total fees collected are $6,084.08.
Chris stated that he has had discussions with incoming Zoning Inspector, Jean Hartline regarding the Land Use Plan. They are looking to see if revisions are needed and if so, how to go about doing this. Jean is looking into this further.
Diane Belden stated that she received a request from Dave Wonnell with the CIT museum regarding black topping sections of the parking lot of the museum. Kevin stated that he will get estimates for this.
Diane brought up the request from Gideon Owen for a letter of support for their application for a historical marker. Quintin Smith left the room at this time. This was brought up at the last meeting and was put on hold to review the request. Chris and Diane both agreed to the request and to sign the letter of support that was written up.
Lisa Murphy stated on the last meetings agenda there was something regarding purchase of property. She stated there was nothing mentioned at the meeting about it and questioned what this was for.
Chris stated that purchase of property was one of the items you can go into executive session for. At the last meeting the trustees entered into executive session for this discussion. He stated you can have discussions about it, but you can’t vote on or make a final decision on anything until you come back to the public meeting to make a motion on it. He stated that given the fact that the trustees did not come back and have additional discussion or make a motion on anything that you can surmise that there was no final decision to do anything on that topic.
Jack Madison wanted to thank the township, trustees and police department for a great boat show this year.
Jim Stouffer stated that they donate the boat show to the community as a “give back” to the industry. He stated they could not do it without the townships help and thanked the trustees for all they have done to help out in this event.
Flint Heidlebaugh asked if there were any updates on the drainage issues across from Catawba Landings. This was discussed at the last meeting and Quintin Smith stated that he has been gathering information regarding this issue, and saw first hand what the problem was.
Craig McCoy stated that the state would be heavily involved in this issue and will take quite a while for things to get going. He stated that the sooner we get them involved the better off we will be.
An audience member asked Dan Toris if there were ditch funds in place to help with the cost of this project, and Dan stated there were not, that it was only for petition ditches.
Flint Heidlebaugh asked Dan if this was under ORC 6131.63. Dan stated that ORC 6131.63 was the group project of the ditch petition. It states a group of property owners can petition and have a drained area put on maintenance after they have constructed the project. Dan stated the standard petition process is much longer and more costly than the group project.
Craig McCoy stated that the nice thing about Catawba is we have elevation to work with. He stated that this can get drained, we just need to figure it out.
Quintin Smith made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m.
The next meeting will be Tuesday May 12, 2026 at 9:00 a.m.
___________________________ _____________________________
Diane Belden, Chairman Shelly Garcia, Fiscal Officer