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Fillmore board compliments residents' emergency response

Friday, December 5, 2008
By MARIBETH WARD, Staff Writer

Fillmore Town Board President Jeff Osborn complimented the people in the town who responded so quickly to an emergency with the town's water system last Sunday night.

At 2 a.m. last Sunday morning, vandals opened two fire hydrants in the town. Over the next three hours, the town's 100,000 gallon water tank was drained and another 114,000 gallons was spilled onto the ground.

Additionally, it took another 100,000 gallons to refill the water tank (for a total loss of 314,000 gallons)," said Osborn.

The vandalism is being investigated by Town Marshal Tom Helmer and those responsible will be prosecuted.

When asked who would be footing the bill for the loss of water, Osborn told residents the town appeared to be financially responsible and the cost would not be passed on to residents.

"We are checking with the insurance. The water loss is not covered, but there may be coverage for the damage to the road," Clerk Wanda Sedlak told the council.

Local residents like Jackie Miller from Bert and Betty's Restaurant expressed their appreciation for the quick action of all the people involved in resolving the issue.

"I just want to thank you guys. When I got up and ran out of water I panicked. Everything was fixed very quickly. I really appreciate your hard work," said Miller.

The council also passed an ordinance allowing ATVs on the town roads on the second reading. The ordinance sets limits on the driver's age, riders and insurance liabilities and allows for repercussions for those who violate the ordinance.

Council members also heard an update from Ron Astin, a certified public accountant hired by the town to help straighten out the books.

Astin has recreated the books while keeping all of the old records.

"Things were such a mess that it was better for Ron to make new books than to fix the old ones," explained Osborn.

Among the issues are mispostings, customer deposits not properly handled and disbursements made to balances instead of to deductions.

"A lot of things are just human error. When you have people working with these kinds of things you get errors," said Astin.

Osborn publicly thanked Astin for all his work.

"He volunteered a lot more time than he was paid for to help us straighten things out," said Osborn.

Another presentation was given by People Pathways volunteer Joy Marley and Greg Midgley with the National Road Heritage Trail. Marley told the board about an opportunity Fillmore has to be part of the National Road Heritage Trail as well as to expand the Fillmore/Greencastle People Pathways trail to Coatesville.

In Coatesville, it would meet with a brand new trail already developed between Coatesville and Amo. Midgley presented a proposal to the board to review about the project.

"We wanted to give people plenty of time to hear about this project and get their input. We'll have public comments at the January meeting before we agree to it.

More information will be published about the proposed project in an upcoming edition of the Banner Graphic.

In other business:

The issue of salting roads and the recent hike in price for salt was discussed. Sand will be used to supplement salt use. Intersections, bridges and hills will be hit with salt in bad weather, but other areas may not be salted. Sand will be used when possible.

There will be 120 address changes in the town. This is being done to bring the town in compliance with Putnam County Emergency Management. A list of the changes with new numbers is posted at Town Hall.

Residents also heard an update on a county-wide plan for animal control being developed by several groups. Board member Alan Jones attended a meeting this week and explained he had a copy of an ordinance being developed by the town of Bainbridge to consider. This ordinance calls for the spaying and neutering of all animals captured with the cost being passed on to the owner and a feral cat removal program. More information will be coming from this group.

The Fillmore Town Council regularly meets on the first Thursday of the month at the Fillmore Town Hall.

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  • It will be interesting to find out who let the water out.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Fri, Dec 5, 2008, at 3:51 AM

  • is there some type of alarm,to call some one on the water dept to alert them to let them know the are using so much water in such a short time? this would save money in an emergency such as a fire ,water line burst or vandalism.

    -- Posted by blk on Fri, Dec 5, 2008, at 10:29 AM

  • first off all i live in fillmore and the tower has not had water init for years. we get our water from greencastle. no hydrants were ever opened. the school is right across the street from the tower and had now idea of the water and nobody was told of a boil or anything. i drove up and down the road in question and there is nothing wrong with it . as for tom helmer he has not been seen in town for at least 3 months. as for the books sedlak is there only 10am-3pm tues,weds,thru. except school approved holidays. at least that is what they say. it realy is whenever she feels like being there. sedlak and osborn are the ones doing the books and trying to take as munch money from the town as possible. as for the salt and sand what a joke. they use water softner salt for the town hall and that is it. they do not sand or salt any of the roads or bridges. they rather buy new trucks to drive around town and waste gas that the people of the town pay for. the road osborn lives on witch is next to one of the hyrdrants that was supposed to be opened looks good but the rest of the roads they think fixing them is putting gravel and tar in the holes. there is no address changes in the town hall BIG LIE. there is no animal control plan being talked about and if they were going to do something about the cats bert and betty's would be ticked because they have alot of them and they are right behind the town hall. bainbridge is not considering anything i know because i have a causin there. i myself have dogs and cats all are fixed but all i know according to what it says if they were to catch them. one they are fixed and if they were not they would not be doing it at cost to me. they also need to think about if they do that to a pruebread animal that the owner makes money off of. i am sure if they take someones way to make money by haveing there purebread animal fixed that could be a lawsuite.

    -- Posted by sherrie0196 on Sun, Jan 11, 2009, at 10:46 AM
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