Report: Mingo Junction post office to return following repairs
Trending
MINGO JUNCTION -- The village mayor confirmed during Tuesday's council meeting that the village's post office will be returning.
"We will be getting our post office back," Mayor Judy Ruckman said, citing conversations she had with the post office building's owner. Ruckman said the owner has been overseeing ongoing repairs to the building's roof, and individuals are on site during all working hours to make sure repairs are done correctly.
This follows the post office's unexpected closure on Jan. 30, which redirected village residents to the Steubenville office for retail services, although mail delivery services remained intact.
Council later discussed possibly modifying a tree, above the village's veterans memorial, the leaves from which have contributed to the roof damage, said village Administrator Darrin Corrigan.
Separately, in his report, Corrigan showed council quotes from World Radio Telecommunications for new phone and camera systems.
The price came to about $11,160 to upgrade six cameras and 10 phones throughout various village departments, Corrigan said. Unlike the current village system, the new phones will be able to accept voicemail messages, display caller identification and provide callers with a department directory.
Corrigan said the new phones would be a major improvement, costing the same monthly rate that the village currently pays for its phones.
Other prospective upgrades through World Radio were discussed, including expanding the village's Internet bandwidth and adding more cameras, possibly with help from a parks and recreation grant from the Jefferson County commissioners.
Also in his report, Corrigan said service department employees have installed a handicap parking sign at 682 Commercial St., extended a guardrail on Vine Street, replaced parts of a guardrail on Cemetery Lane, installed a traffic mirror at Oakland Cemetery's exit, filled all potholes in the lot across from Indian Village Apartments and been filling other potholes with cold patch, with some purposefully left unfilled until the weather warms.
Additionally, Corrigan said a torn-up patch across Commercial Street from the Mingo Junction Senior Center has been filled with concrete and will be finished when the weather warms. He said also that a longtime water leak problem at 314 Lincoln Ave. has been resolved through work by the village water department.
In other business:
• Council scheduled a finance committee meeting for Monday at 6 p.m.
• Council gave the first reading to Ordinance 2024-2, eliminating the individual zoning and planning committees and combining them into a singular committee, and Resolution 2024-3, authorizing the village to sell unnecessary property -- junk vehicles and office supplies, for example -- by internet auction, pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 721.15(D).
• Council discussed several village playgrounds, in need of various levels of attention and repair.
• Council discussed the possibility of selling or leasing its trash compactor, currently on Ewusiak Development's Commercial Street property, to the company itself. Village Solicitor Craig Allen said that, by statute, the village would not be able to lease but may be able to sell the compactor to Ewusiak, which Corrigan said is interested in cutting a new access road to the compactor if purchased.
• Council announced that Christmas decorations must be removed from graves at Oakland Cemetery by March 2, or they will be disposed of. Individuals should remove the decorations and place them by the road inside the cemetery to be picked up later.
• Dr. William Johns said he is having difficulty finding a purchaser for his former office building, which he hopes to sell for around $120,000. Council discussed possibilities for bringing in another practicing medical professional or repurposing the building.
• Corrigan said $50,000 has been paid to the village by residents with water bill delinquencies since the village began cracking down on payments earlier this year.
• Corrigan said he received a letter from an attorney representing an Elizabeth Street property owner, alleging that the village has been dumping gravel on his property, and he would like it to be cleaned up.
• Diane Pernick, secretary of the Mingo Junction Senior Center, claimed Prime Time Office on Aging does not extend its services to the village.
Speaking of an upcoming 1.2-mill levy renewal supporting Prime Time that Jefferson County will vote on this year, Pernick said, "Everybody we talk to, they're not going to vote for that levy because (Prime Time doesn't) support Mingo. They don't bring the food like they used to. ... If they're not going to support Mingo, why should we vote for that levy?"
• Kyle Moffat, chief operator of the village's wastewater department, claimed Ewusiak Development has been hauling dirt onto its Commercial Street property spreading it across its property, encroaching on the Mingo Junction Sewage Treatment Plant's property.
• Hugh McGuire of 2616 Commercial Ave. claimed a previously broken fire hydrant near his house was removed without being replaced last summer, and he asked to know when it will be replaced, concerned with the possibility of another fire. The hydrant, he claimed, had low water pressure, resulting in a nearby home being a "total loss" after a fire three years ago.
Corrigan said the hydrant would be replaced in the next two or three weeks, though he disputed claims that the hydrant was broken and knowingly had low water pressure.