Catawba Island Township Board of Township Trustees
Meeting Minutes
June 23, 2026
The regular business meeting of the Catawba Island Board of Township Trustees was called to order by Chairman Diane Belden on Tuesday, June 23rd 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, Lisa Murphy, Jack Madison, Ann T. Rumpf, Randy Riedmaier, Craig McCoy, Flint Heidlebaugh, Jean Hartline, Barb Osterling, Frank Carchedi, Michael Hablitzel, David Belden, Linda Creeger, Gary Strayer, Jackie Jasinski, Dave Jasinski, Marty Auxter, Helen Fegan, Jim Morehead, Janet Kinsala, Marcia Thornhill, Dan Barlow and Emily Cellier.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
Chris Cellier made a motion to approve the June 9, 2026, Board of Trustees regular meeting minutes as presented. Diane Belden 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 $58,913.09. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Correspondence
Three approved permits (26-118, 26-178 & 26-179) were received by Ottawa Co. Engineers Office for work being done within the township by Frontier and Columbia Gas.
DeAnglo Contracting Services advised the township that they will begin weed spraying along Rockledge, West Harbor Boat Launch area and the ditch pumps off of Rt. 53. Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia advised the trustees that we are in year two of the three-year contract that was signed for this service.
The Catawba Island Historical Society thanked the trustees for the recent blacktopping addition to the parking lot at the Union Chapel Museum. They stated it looks great and provides a great service to the Museum.
Linda Huber who is the Co-Chairman for the Ottawa Co. America 250 Committee asked the trustees if they would be willing to provide a porta-potty and folding chairs at the cemetery for the Call to Duty Salute that will be taking place on August 19th. Discussion took place between the trustees and it was agreed that they will ensure that the township administration building will be open and available for anyone needing to use the restroom and the maintenance department will ensure folding chairs be placed at the cemetery.
Follow-up letter read from Brian Barrett who is the CEO of EchoTech Resources Inc. regarding Public Safety Towers, LLC interest in developing a telecommunications facility (tower) to be placed on township-owned property. They provided a map to show the location they are looking at which is by the compost facility. They stated this would consist of a 50’x50’ fenced area with an access easement and a tower designed to support Verizon Wireless as the anchor tenant.
Quintin Smith stated that he spoke to Mr. Barrett and offered other suggestions as to where the tower might be able to go as the one they are proposing is not in a preferred location. Quintin also stated that they do not need approval to erect this tower and if the trustees say no to this request, they can go to another property owner and put the tower on that property.
Quintin was told by Mr. Barrett that they will need to go back to the engineers to see if another site on township property would be acceptable.
Much discussion took place between trustees and audience members who all had many questions regarding this issue.
It was determined that Quintin will be the point of contact on this issue and get additional information and perhaps have Mr. Barrett come to one of the meetings to answer questions and concerns from the trustees and public.
He will advise the trustees once he has received more information.
Maintenance
Supervisor Kevin Johnson stated that they will begin paving the tennis courts and sealing the township administration parking lots tomorrow.
Diane brought up the signage for the compost area and stated the cameras have arrived and that she came up with wording and would like to get the sign made and put up asap. Her example states “The Facility is for Catawba Island Residents Only”.
Chris Cellier stated that from his recollection they were going to state “only materials originating from Catawba Island Township can be dumped here”. This makes it clear that materials being dumped cannot come from out of the township. That way if someone isn’t a resident, but they own property here, they can still use the facility.
Chris also stated that he is working with the Prosecutors Office on draft language for this issue and will come back to the trustees with something to present at the next meeting.
Fire
Chris Cellier asked Chief Gibbons if they had an update on the fire truck. Chief Gibbons stated it could be ready by the end of this month or next.
The Chicken BBQ will be held on July 11, 2026
All AED pads for the AED machines have been updated.
Police
Chief Gangway stated that the hardware for the new phone system has arrived, and he and Karl will be working to get all of that in place.
Quintin Smith asked Chief Gangway about the status of the EMS proposal he was working on. Chief Gangway stated that he has contacted the State of Ohio Board of Health regarding grants that would pay for them to come in and do an evaluation of EMS on Catawba Island. It would be a third-party evaluation to determine the specific needs of the township and what, if any, changes to our current process should be made. The grant deadline is September 1, 2026.
He will continue to work on this and keep the trustees up to date on the process.
William Baker asked Quintin Smith if he is still working on the ECHO unit that he spoke about a few meetings ago. Quintin stated that he continues working with Chief Gutman from Port Clinton on the ECHO plan. He stated he would like to look at all plans concurrently to see which would be best for Catawba Island.
Parks
Jack Madison stated that the Friends of Ottawa Co. Parks is trying to raise money to help with the acquisition of the Bolte property. He stated they will be meeting in July to talk about this.
Jack also stated that the Trail Head Park opening will be coming soon.
Quintin stated that he gave the other trustees a notice from Neal Hess regarding grant writing and project implementation assistance that he would like to look at for help in getting grants for the Bolte property purchase.
The other two trustees stated that they just got this today and didn’t have time to look it over, and actually the notice was missing the second page. They will put this topic on the agenda for the next meeting to give them time to properly look at the document in full.
New Business
Quintin Smith stated that the trustees signed the contract for the Bolte property today which starts the 18-month time period to look into the purchase of the property.
Chris Cellier stated that he invited Ottawa County Auditor, Jennifer Widmer to the next trustee meeting to come in and speak a little about property taxes and answer any questions the residents have on that issue. He stated that there is new legislation out effecting property taxes that she could talk about and give information about the tax base on Catawba Island.
Chris introduced James Atkinson who is our new Zoning Commission member, and gave a brief background. Chris is hoping to get the other new members of the various boards in as well.
Diane Belden stated that she received a letter from Gem Beach regarding their annual Fourth of July parade that will take place Saturday July 4, 2026. They are asking for permission to close a certain section of road for about an hour to hold this parade. All trustees agree to this request.
Diane received an email from James Garber regarding adding a HAM radio to the water tower. Fiscal Officer Garcia and Trustee Smith were not included on this email. It was agreed to hold off until next meeting to read and talk about this issue.
Diane brought up that at the last meeting they designated zoning inspector Jean Hartline to review the ROW permits for the County Engineers Office. They have since decided to change this to Maintenance Supervisor Kevin Johnson. Shelly Garcia will notify the county of this change.
Some BZA members have requested a township email to use for zoning issues instead of using their personal email. The trustees agreed to allow this, however, they will need to complete required Cyber-Security Training. Diane stated she will advise them of this requirement and once completed they will need to send their certificate of completion to the fiscal officer.
Diane stated that in October it will be Catawba Island’s turn to host the quarterly township meeting for all townships in Ottawa County (this happens every three years). She stated that in the past we have used the Catawba Island Club. She brought this up to the other trustees and they said they would like to get numbers regarding how much it will cost to use CIC as opposed to using and catering the event at the community hall. Diane stated she will advise at the next meeting.
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia gave the May zoning report. There were 14 permits and 5 variances issued for a total of $3,097.24.
Dorthy Baker brought up the fact that Catawba Landings hasn’t broken ground yet and wanted to know if Quintin Smith has any new information regarding the drainage issues as he was the one that has been in communication with the owner. Quintin stated that the owner is still working with the Corps. of Engineers and spoke to him about getting a larger pipe to try to fix drainage issues.
Craig McCoy stated that he met with Dan Toris from the Engineers Office and was able to get a CD of the 15 inch line going down Gardner Road. He stated that Mr. Toris is waiting to hear from the trustees as to what the next move is. All trustees agreed that this is the first time they have heard anything regarding Gardner Road. They said they have met with him on several different occasions and it was never brought up.
Quintin stated that he will follow up on this issue.
Flint Heidlebaugh asked if they had questions for Jennifer Widmer when she comes to the next meeting, if they should send them in ahead of time to allow her to time to respond. Chris stated if the public wanted to email questions they had for her ahead of time, that he will make sure she gets them.
Linds Creeger gave the trustees and fiscal officer a copy of the letter she sent in at a prior trustee meeting. This involves issues of tall grass at 111 NW Catawba Road. At the meeting on May 26, 2026 it was mentioned that the issue had been taken care of as the owner mowed his lawn on May 25th. However, Linda stated that he has not mowed it since that date and it is again extremely high and she would like the trustees to contact him regarding this issue.
A brief discussion took place regarding the townships policy on such issue and zoning inspector Jean Hartline stated that she will look into this and try to contact the homeowner.
Quintin Smith made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Chris Cellier seconded the motion.
All voted aye. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 7:54 p.m.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, July 14, 2026 at 9:00 a.m.
___________________________ _____________________________
Diane Belden, Chairman Shelly Garcia, Fiscal Officer