Catawba Island Township Board of Township Trustees
Meeting Minutes
September 22, 2026
The regular business meeting of the Catawba Island Board of Township Trustees was called to order by Chairman Diane Belden on Tuesday, September 22nd 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, Randy Riedmaier, Craig McCoy, Flint Heidlebaugh, Keith Fisher, DJ Litz, Dan Barlow, Genna Blakley, Dan Blakley, Barb Osterling, Matthew Hollis, Rebecca Dubber, Will Moore, Gayle Richter, Judy Smithers, Adrian Warren, Joyce Raymond, David Belden, Dave Perkowski, Sue Piacentino, Doug Newcomb and Jean Hartline.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by all.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve the September 8, 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 $49,981.78, which included payment to Adkins Fence in the amount of $6,720.00. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Correspondence
Ann Rumpf thanked the trustees for a great job in the paving of Basin Drive. She stated it looks great and is much safer for everyone with the installation of the guardrail.
Request received from Elliott Bassett for use of the community hall on October 17th & 18th for a birthday party for his daughter. He also requests the fees be waived as he is a member of our CIT Vol. Fire Dept. All trustees agreed to his request.
Craig Miller from the Ottawa Co. Engineer’s Office sent an email regarding the ROW permit that was submitted by resident Matt Hollis and the Rockledge tunnel project that has been discuss at previous meetings. The Ottawa Co. Engineer’s Office has reviewed the proposed work from engineering, traffic and practicality/feasibility standpoints and have identified no issues. They will complete the permit processing upon approval from the board of trustees.
Matt Hollis gave a brief presentation to inform the public as to exactly what the Rock Ledge tunnel project was, and to notify the trustees of the maintenance of traffic plan for proposed road closures. All trustees were in favor of Mr. Hollis moving forward with this project.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve Mr. Hollis to move forward with the Rockledge tunnel project. Chris Cellier seconded the motion. All voted aye. Motion carried.
Bill Riat submitted a letter to be read at the trustees meeting regarding highway overlay and zoning standards. He stated there needs to be some additional controls for development along our main highways, architecture, landscaping, lighting and signage. He gave several ideas for the trustees to consider.
An email was submitted by Dorthy Baker regarding the “breezeway” that has been in question at 1848 NW Catawba Road. She requests the trustees look into a cease-and-desist order and provided a picture of the home, breezeway and attached garage. She stated a “workaround” to the garage size rule is one thing, but calling a tiny window a breezeway entry should not be allowed. She stated this is a disservice to every Catawba Island resident if this “garage” is allowed to continue.
Fiscal
Fiscal Officer Shelly Garcia reported to the trustees that notification was received from the Ottawa County Budget Commission and the Catawba Island Township’s share of Local Government funds for fiscal year 2027 is estimated to be $24,000.56.
The Fiscal Officer also requested from the trustees a motion to adopt the resolution accepting and certifying the amounts and rates as determined by the Budget Commission, and authorizing the necessary tax levies for the fiscal year commencing January 1, 2027 as estimated by the Ottawa County Auditor. Rates to be levied included 4.2 Inside Mills and 4.3 Outside Mills.
Chris Cellier made a motion to adopt this resolution. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote: Diane Belden, aye. Chris Cellier, aye. Quintin Smith, aye. Motion carried.
Fire
Will Moore was in attendance on behalf of the Fire Dept. He gave a brief run down on the trustees request to know more about why the department was requesting 28 pagers when they only have 21 current members. He stated there are many reasons to have additional ones at hand. He stated they may have new members come on to the department, the pagers might get broke or lost and having extra on hand would be helpful as getting replacement ones is about a two week turn around. He stated that essentially the trustees are asking some members of the department to have new equipment over others.
The trustees brought up the fact that they ask Chief Gibbons for additional quotes for 10, 15 and 20 pagers to see if they might want to approve a lesser amount instead of the full 28. They stated that Chief Gibbons did not respond to their request, and they will put this on hold until they hear back from him. The trustees stated they did not disagree that the department needed this equipment, but at the end of the day they requested information from the Chief and they would like to have this information before making a determination.
Will Moore stated the Vol. Fire Department will be hosting an open house on October 10th at the Fire Station. He stated this falls in line with Fire Safety Week.
Maintenance
Kevin Johnson stated the guardrail at Basin Dr. is now complete and they are trying to get the reflectors purchased to put on it.
Kevin stated fall cleanup is this Friday and Saturday.
Kevin stated the tractor that broke down is fixed, but some of the parts are so old they are no longer available. He stated the maintenance dept. will have to try to fix the parts that they can no longer get. Quintin asked how old the tractor is and Kevin stated it is a 2002.
Parks
The Fall Walk will be October 10th at 10:00 a.m. Jack Madison stated they will have donuts, cider, pumpkins and squash that were donated by Howell Farms.
Jack stated that the tennis courts have been completed and they need to get pictures to Jannah Wilson along with the other required information that was required when securing the grant money from the Ottawa County Parks District. Diane stated that she will get with Jack on this.
New Business
Quintin Smith continues to work on the tower project. He stated they approved a lease agreement of $2,500/month with a 2% inflation rider. There was much discussion regarding this with the trustees and the residents in attendance. The trustees agreed that before any decision is made, they will have James Van Eerten look it over for legality.
Quintin has been working for the past few months on a resolution regarding nuisance properties and methods that the township can use in order to be able to deal with such properties. He submitted a final resolution to the trustees that was approved by James Van Eerten.
Quintin Smith made a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Diane Belden seconded the motion.
Chris Cellier stated that he was not in favor of some of the wording in the resolution, especially the part that states “when tall grass or vegetation on land in the Township which is not agriculturally used land, and is 12 inches high or more, shall be deemed “uncontrolled” and not maintained”. He stated the rest of the resolution is copied from ORC 505.87.
After much discussion, Quintin withdrew his motion. He stated he will come back to the trustees with a policy on this issue.
Quintin stated they received the appraisal for the Bolte property. The appraisal for just the land was $800,00 and the land and house was $950,000.
He stated they now need to start the grant writing process. He provided the other trustees with two resolutions to start this process. They received these resolutions just prior to the meeting and the trustees didn’t have an opportunity to review them. One of the resolutions is due by October 9th and the next trustee meeting isn’t until October 13th. They stated they will need to call a special meeting in order to approve this. They will notify the public via the proper channels once a date for this special meeting has been decided. Both resolutions were put on hold until then.
Chris Cellier stated that he would like to look into getting outside counsel for zoning related issues and ones who are experts in zoning. He found a firm out of Worthington that deals with other townships and is familiar with township issues. The cost for their services is about $235/hour. Chris will continue to follow through with this and will bring back the resolutions once the other trustees have opportunity to review.
Diane Belden spoke to William Market from the Miller Ferry regarding a pedestrian walk way. He stated that he is willing to talk to engineers on this topic and it has been on his radar for a while. He will advise the trustees when more information is available.
Diane stated that at the last meeting they approved trick or treat on Oct. 31st from 5:00-7:00. She was notified that in previous years the time was from 5:30-7:30. She would like to continue with the 5:30-7:30 time as in the past to allow parents to get kids ready after they get home from work. All trustee agreed.
Diane stated they need to pick a date to have the meeting for the Firemen’s Dependent Fund Board. She stated it will need to be in November, and asked if November 10th at 8:30am would be ok with everyone on the board. Chief Gangway stated that he will need to look into that date and will advise.
Rebecca Dubber stated that she would like to see something done about the number of electric scooters on the island as it is getting worse with them riding on the road instead of in the bike lane. She also wanted the trustees to look into the speed limit on Schoolhouse Road, as she feels that with kids playing and blind curves that the speed limit is too fast for that road.
At this time Diane Belden made a motion that the trustees go into executive session. Pursuant to ORC 121.22 to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of a public employee or official. Or the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employee, official, licensee or regulated individual. Unless the public employee, official, licensee or regulated individual requests a public hearing. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote:
Diane Belden, aye
Chris Cellier, aye
Quintin Smith, aye
Executive session entered into at 8:52 p.m.
Chris Cellier made a motion to come out of executive session. Quintin Smith seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote:
Diane Belden, aye
Chris Cellier, aye
Quintin Smith, aye.
The trustees came out of executive session at 9:53 p.m.
Chris Cellier made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Quintin Smith seconded the motion.
All voted aye. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 9:54 p.m.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 9:00 a.m.
___________________________ _____________________________
Diane Belden, Chairman Shelly Garcia, Fiscal Officer