The Sandusky city council met for their regular bi-weekly meeting Tuesday evening, handling as laundry list of issues, perhaps none more controversial then when Trick-or-Treat hours would be this year. It took three votes of the council to finally settle on the hours of the popular event, moving up the time for begging by an hour.
Two council members supported keeping the regular hours, 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 31st. However, the motion failed when three members did not support that motion. A second vote for the hours to be 3 to 5 p.m. also failed by the same 2-3 count before council voted 4-1 to have the hours be 4 to 6 p.m.
One member did not want to have trick-or-treating at all, due to COVID concerns.
In other council news, members gave their approval for the purchase of a new vacuum truck that was made possible by the awarding of a State grant that will help cover half of the cost of the new vehicle. City Manager Dave Faber told council the truck, estimated to cost just under a half a million dollars, will be used to clean sewers and catch basins along with copper lead line inspections and other uses.
The City will also continue their working relationship with Marlette who pays to have the Sandusky equipment and DPW employees provide similar services in their community. Faber said the new truck will be the largest piece of equipment the city owns. The City’s share of the cost of the truck will be nearly $245,000 dollars with the grant funding picking up the other half of the total $488,400 price tag.
The City expects delivery of the truck in the spring of 2022.
Faber also told council the city’s emergency sirens had been inspected, after one experienced an issue during a storm earlier this year. A recommendation has been made to purchase one new emergency siren, to be placed at the Sandusky fire hall.
If the siren is purchased, it would replace the current siren that was installed several years ago. Faber said he has not received quotes as of yet, but hopes to bring the information back to council at a future meeting with the new siren in place before next Spring.
