MEDINA – Medina County could soon lose one of its seven villages and gain an 18th township.

The law director for the Village of Gloria Glens Park has petitioned Medina County commissioners to detach from Westfield Township and instead become its own township.

Commissioners heard background information about the proposal from officials representing both communities Feb. 28 and will likely approve the request at their next meeting March 7.

Allan Michelson, the Gloria Glens law director, said the detachment petition was prompted by a fire levy which Westfield Township has placed on the May primary ballot. If approved, property owners in Gloria Glens would be subject to the tax increase even though village residents have passed their own fire levy which pays for a contract with Lafayette Township to provide fire and ambulance service to the village’s 475 residents.

“Our residents would be paying about $16,000 a year in additional taxes and getting absolutely nothing in return,” Michelson said. “Our only recourse is to detach from the township.”

Westfield Township Trustee Mike Schmidt said the township was not prepared to offer a formal objection to the request from Gloria Glens, but had just learned about the proposal three days earlier and had not had an opportunity to explore the fiscal implications if Gloria Glens is detached.

Commissioners said they could see no reason to reject the request from Gloria Glens but would delay their decision for one week to allow both parties to give the ramifications further consideration.

Transit report

Transit Director Mike Salamone reported Medina County Public Transit had 6,154 riders in January. That includes ridership in Brunswick, which until January had been reported separately before Brunswick Transit Alternative merged with the county bus system.

January ridership included 3,478 riders picking up buses on fixed routes in Brunswick, Medina and Wadsworth. Another 2,675 riders took advantage of MCPT’s on-demand service in which they call in advance to schedule times and locations to be picked up and dropped off.

Salamone said 93 of the customers who scheduled rides in January did not show up when their bus arrived or had canceled their ride less than an hour before scheduled pickup. Another 237 clients canceled rides more than hour before their pickup but on the same day.

Salamone said MCPT also denied 68 ride requests from 14 clients for rides outside the county, after 4 p.m. or from 3-4 p.m. when buses are in heavy demand transporting dialysis patients.

Biosludge disposal

Commissioners approved the one-year extension of a contract with Agri-Sludge Inc. to dispose of liquid and cake biosludge from the county’s wastewater treatment plants. Agri-Sludge will be paid $141,750 to provide the service through April 2018. Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin said the sludge is free of dangerous contaminants and winds up spread as a fertilizer on area farm fields.

Water tower rehab

L&T Painting of Sterling Heights, Mich. won a contract to sandblast and paint two water towers outside Westfield Village for $336,200.

Personnel expenses

County commissioners authorized the expenses for about two dozen county employees to attend a series of out-of-town meetings and training seminars. Among those expenses were $2,000 for 16 people in the Adult Probation Department to attend a training seminar in Perrysville, $1,400 for County Engineer Andy Conrad to attend a five-day conference in Cincinnati, $800 for a new Common Pleas Court magistrate to attend a three-day orientation in Columbus and $450 for the Job and Family Services director to attend a two-day meeting in Columbus.