MEDINA TOWNSHIP – A contract to sell a building on Myers Road, known as the Remsen building, was discussed at the March 23 trustees meeting, but a unanimous vote was needed to proceed with the sale.

The contract is with the Medina Soccer Association, which is currently a tenant in the building along with Medina Creative Housing and the Weymouth Preservation Society. The contract protects both Medina Creative Housing and the Weymouth Preservation Society, allowing them to remain in the building. In the agreement, the agreed-to purchase price of the building is $215,000.

After Trustee Chairman Bill Ostmann made the motion to accept the agreement and move forward with the sale, Trustee Ken DeMichael stated he had been talking with another organization that had an offer of $290,000 for the building a few weeks ago.

“If we don’t consider that $290,000, I feel like we’re doing the township an injustice,” DeMichael said before the vote. “I will have them in and we’ll talk about it publicly instead of going in to an executive session so that everyone knows the township will make out on this other deal.”

As plans to sell the building have been in the works for around two years and the contract had been discussed and negotiated for about a year, Ostmann felt the trustees “owe Medina Soccer a vote.” Both Ostmann and Trustee Ray Jarrett voted yes, with DeMichael voting no. Since a unanimous vote from the board was needed to proceed with the current agreement, the board then decided to bring in the group DeMichael has been talking with at the April 20 meeting, as the regularly scheduled April 6 meeting is canceled.

Once the board explores this additional option, steps will be taken accordingly to enter into a new agreement, keep the existing agreement with Medina Soccer or possibly put the building up for public auction.

LST contract

Another topic of discussion at the March 23 meeting was the signing of the contract for life support team services for the township. Medina Township, along with Montville Township and Medina city share LST services from Medina Hospital. Both Medina and Montville have signed their LST contracts, as they were the same as in previous years, but Medina Township Fire Chief Mark Crumley and DeMichael had some new questions regarding the contract.

One of the biggest concerns was the township’s responsibility if the hospital chooses to stop LST services. Crumley pointed out a section that states if the contract is terminated for any reason, the government entities are then responsible for the unemployment compensation and premium rate increases that may occur due to layoffs. DeMichael used the example of Medina Hospital closing their birthing unit at the end of June of this year and wanted to explore the options if the same thing were to happen with LST.

Legal counsel for the township, Bill Thorne, was in attendance and helped clarify as well as give advice on how to proceed. He said that the township would be responsible for compensation as stated in the agreement whether it’s the township that wants to end the contract or if the hospital wants to end the contract, a factor to which trustees didn’t necessarily agree with and DeMichael stated he was concerned with.

He explained after being signed, parts of the contract could be amended and renegotiated, but it would be best to discuss things with Montville and Medina and go in as a group to renegotiate. The current contract is a five-year contract, but terms can be negotiated at any point during that term and the contract could possibly be amended.

“There’s no legal issues with (the contract),” Thorne said. “We don’t like it, that’s a different matter.”

If trustees did not proceed with signing the contract, LST technically would not have to provide service to the township, as there is no contract to do so.

The consensus was to meet with Montville and Medina city and reexamine the contract to work on revisions for the next contract after the five-year term for the current contract is up. DeMichael agreed to get together with the other governments involved with the contract to explore the options and discuss concerns.

Ostmann made a motion to approve the LST contract, to which he and Jarrett voted yes. DeMichael voted no.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Medina Township Board of Trustees is Thursday, April 20 at 7 p.m.