Catawba Island Township Board of Township Trustees
Meeting Minutes
August 11, 2026
The regular business meeting of the Catawba Island Board of Township Trustees was called to order by Chairman Diane Belden on Tuesday, August 11th at 9:00 a.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, Mary Jane Porozynski, Jack Madison, Eric Schramm, Brian Gutman, Kim Mulholland, Ann T. Rumpf, Craig McCoy, Flint Heidlebaugh, Greg Strayer, Dan Blakley, Genna Blakley, Geena Bishop, Joan Smith, Thomas Smith, Keith Fisher, Lisa Murphy, Barb Osterling, Alison Falls, David Howell, David Belden, Judith Smithers, Scott Hines, Linda Fox, Michael Hablitzle, Nancy Oreskovich, and Randy Reidmaier.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
Chris Cellier made a motion to approve the July 28, 2026, Board of Trustees regular meeting minutes as presented, and also the minutes of the special meeting that was held on August 5, 2026. Quintin Smith 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 $186,153.47. This includes payment to 7L Construction for the paving of Basin Dr. in the amount of $57,483.00 and also payment to Lake Erie Tree Service in the amount of $23,000 for compost grinding. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Correspondence
A thank you note was received from Pat Adkins thanking the trustees for the opportunity to speak to the residents at the last meeting on behalf of the PC School Board.
Notice from the Ottawa County Board of Elections notifying the township of the next election and what they are requesting the maintenance dept. have set up for them. Copy given to Supervisor Kevin Johnson.
Letter read from Bob Christiansen asking the trustees to waive the fee for use of the community hall for his mother’s bereavement luncheon that was held on August 3, 2026. He is a lifetime member of the CITVFD. All trustees agreed to waive this fee.
Letter from Alison Lanza Falls was read regarding use of the Community Hall on September 16th at 7:00 p.m. Alison is a board member of Magruder Hospital and they would like to hold a 1-hour program regarding Magruder’s initiative of bringing a world-class MRI to the community. This will be free and open to the public, and she is asking the trustees to waive the fee as they are a non-profit organization. All trustees agreed to waive the fee for this event.
Fiscal
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia provided the July 2026 financial reports and bank reconciliations. There were no questions or concerns.
Maintenance
Kevin Johnson advised the trustees that they are down an employee at the maintenance dept. due to medical leave. He has brought in one of the casual labor workers on a part-time basis to help out. Trustees had no issue with this.
Kevin presented a proposal from A.T. Emmett for installation of a new Generac generator for the administration building/police dept. The cost for the generator, installation, transfer switch, gas pipe change over, cold weather kit, concrete pad and relocation of 8 circuits is $15,302.00. Discussion took place between the trustees and it was agreed that we are having issues with the current generator not working as it is over 26 years old.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve the A.T. Emmett quote as presented in the amount of $15,302.00. Diane Belden seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Kevin stated that the tennis courts at Heigel Park have been completed and they are just waiting for the fence to be put back up. Kevin stated that he was told it is on the schedule. Chris asked Kevin if he could get a more definitive date so he could advise residents when he gets calls. Kevin stated that he will ask the fence company for a date and advise.
The guardrail at Basin Dr. should be installed within a week or two.
The maintenance department is working on cemetery clean up for the America 250 Call to Duty Dedication Ceremony that is to take place at 2:00 pm on August 19th.
FIRE
Eric Schramm gave the run totals for July. There were 44 total fire/EMS runs. 16 fire and 28 EMS.
Eric Schramm advised that they have been getting calls regarding golf cart battery charging in unventilated areas causing build up of hydrogen gas. They made a FB post to advise everyone to make sure they are charging in a ventilated area.
They have began training on the new fire truck (Engine 224).
Police
Chief Gangway stated his department will be randomly audited by OHLEG from the Attorney General’s Office. He will advise the trustees as to how the audit went once complete.
Chief Gangway reminded the trustees that they still need to approve the Cyber-Security manual/date and dedicate someone as a point of contact. Chris Cellier stated he would like to look at the manual and they can make a decision at the next meeting.
Diane Belden asked Chief Gangway if he would be willing to be the point of contact. He stated he would.
The new phone system will be switched over on August 18, 2026. Training for the employees will be on August 17, 2026.
Parks
Jack Madison stated the tennis courts are completed, except for the fence being put up. He stated if the township buys nets, they can use these courts for more pickleball courts. Discussion took place as to where to store the nets, how many would be needed, and additional questions. The trustees said they will look into this option, and get back with Jack.
At this time, Quinin Smith introduced Breann Chistiansen and Chief John Ganway to do a presentation regarding another option for EMS on Catawba Island.
Breann’s model included hiring a full-time EMS Administrator, 12 part-time paramedics and 12 part-time EMT’s to staff 24/7, 365 days a year to work strictly out of the township. Daily staffing on a dedicated ALS ambulance would be 1 paramedic and 1 EMT with the salaried administrator working as well. The cost for staffing alone was estimated at $410,000.00/year.
She stated that the preliminary estimate for a levy to cover these costs was a 1-mil levy = $670,000/year = $35/year per $100,000 home value.
Much discussion took place between the trustees and the audience with Breann answering questions from both.
Quintin thanked Breann and John for their presentation and stated that this was just another option that the trustees can look into before the contract with Port Clinton for the EMS service expires.
New Business
Quintin brought up the topic of nuisance properties regarding grass that is out of control. He stated there is an option for the township to have a nuisance resolution where you can have someone go mow the grass and possibly be put on as a tax lien. He will continue to look into this issue in order to be able to keep Catawba looking nice.
Quintin then spoke about the appraisal for the Bolte property. He stated that he received a quote of $2,000 to appraise the land with the house. Quintin originally quoted the appraisal as being about $1,500 when he spoke about it at past meetings, but that was just for the appraisal of the land.
Diane had questions regarding request for additional spending for the acquisition of the Bolte property. She stated the township spent $5,000 for the option to purchase the property, and then another $3,500 to Neal Hess to look into grants to purchase and now a request for $2,000 for appraisals. Quintin clarified that the $3,500 for Neal Hess was not correct that it was to be billed at a rate of $65/hour for his services not to exceed $3,500. Diane stated that it seems like there are more and more requests for money for this project.
Discussion took place and Chris Cellier stated that this is the road we decided to go down and an appraisal is needed and this did not seem like an unreasonable amount of money. Chris asked if this was the only company that can do this appraisal. Jack Madison stated that there are only so many appraisers that are ODOT approved to do such appraisals, and we need to use one that is ODOT approved.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve The Robert Weiler Company as presented in the amount of $2,000 to complete the appraisal for the restricted use fee. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Quintin stated that he would like to get the word out to all Catawba Island residents regarding the 2.5% owner occupancy tax reduction. He stated he came up with a mailer that he would like to mail out to all residents that gives a QR code that will take everyone to the Auditors website so they can fill out the form and get the reduction.
This will be put on the township website and also on the Facebook page to notify as many people as possible that this reduction of taxes exists if they aren’t already taking advantage of it.
Quintin received notice from a resident that they are having a drainage and flooding issues. Quintin stated that it is unclear as to who is in charge of these issues. He has reached out to the Ottawa County Engineers office to get clarification and education on drainage and/or stormwater issues. He will continue to work on this and report back to the trustees.
Chris Cellier addressed the audience and stated that the trustees are taking EMS seriously. He said he hears uniformly that Port Clinton does a great job in handling EMS for the township. But he is hearing proposals to totally overhaul what is currently being done.
He stated that he still thinks that getting an independent assessment done by a third-party to advise as to what the current status is, what areas need improvement, and what options are out there for such improvements is needed.
He also stated that the Fire Dept. is an essential player in all of this and he wants to make sure we understand their position on things and what they think can be done better.
Chris stated that the zoning inspector is working on the RFQ draft for the Land Use Plan and should have it done in the next few weeks.
Diane Belden introduced Genna Blakely with the Fire Dept. who also runs the CPR classes on the island. She said the next two classes coming up are already filled, but to please contact the department and sign up for the other classes. If they have enough people, they may add another class.
Diane stated that she is working on a job description for the maintenance department as one has been requested for an employee. Diane is working with the supervisor to get one written up, approved and on record.
Diane said that the safety signs for election day have been approved and will be placed at the community hall along with traffic cones.
Dorthy Baker thanked Kevin and his maintenance crew for the wonderful new benches they made for the park.
Keith Fisher brought up the nuisance property that he brought up at the last meeting. He stated there is a car on the property that hasn’t had its tags updated since 2012 and the house has completely been absorbed by nature. He asked the trustees if they can clean up this property and put the cost on the owner’s tax bill?
Diane stated that she has called the Health Dept. and they will send someone out to look at it. She will advise when she hears back. Quintin stated that there are several issues on this that need to be addressed and they will hopefully have an answer at the next meeting.
Quintin Smith made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Chris Cellier seconded the motion.
All voted aye. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 11:04 a.m.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, August 25, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.
___________________________ _____________________________
Diane Belden, Chairman Shelly Garcia, Fiscal Officer