The City of Union Municipal Building is located at 118 N. Main St., Union.
Ron Nunnari | The Register-Herald
UNION — With an increase in property valuations in Montgomery County the city of Union adjusted its calculations to hold the cost of street light assessments to the same level as last year.
The city recently received property values from the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office that are necessary to determine the appropriate assessments. The county also notified the city that the assessments must be determined and in effect by September 9.
In 2023 property owners were assessed at $3 per $1,000 of their property’s valuation. This year it was reduced to $2.25 per $1,000 of valuation.
Street light assessments were set as follows:
Concord Farms North walkway lights – $40.76 per lot.
Concord Farms West walkway lights – $46.13 per lot.
Irongate subdivision – $45.75 per lot.
Union Ridge subdivision – $38.06 per lot.
Lindeman Commons subdivision – $49.79 per lot.
Concord Meadows subdivision – $41.76 per lot.
Stoney Crest subdivision – $60.45 per lot.
Union Springs subdivision – $50.80 per lot.
The amount of the city’s street light assessments for parcels located in Montgomery County totals $443,712.50.
Mayor Michael O’Callaghan said the city is still seeking nominations for the Spirit of Union award, which recognizes the efforts of city residents that have enhanced the beauty of their neighborhood by making improvements to their property or home.
Nomination forms can be found on the city’s website or by using the following web link: https://bit.ly/46Mve4J
Councilmember Lynne Thomas-Roth related that one of her friends that lives on Fox Road in Clayton was impressed with the quick response provided by the Clayton-Englewood-Union Fire Collaborative when a barn on a neighboring property caught fire.
“She said they were there so quickly, of course there are no hydrants out there, but the water trucks worked beautifully and they had nothing but good things to say about the response,” Thomas-Roth said.
She also said she went out to Minnich Cemetery to look at the situation that was brought up by an area resident about the lack of privacy after a subdivision was built very close to the edge of the cemetery.
Thomas-Roth asked City Manager John Applegate if anything had been discussed about addressing that issue.
Applegate said he had never been asked a question like that about a cemetery until it was brought up at the July meeting. The city inherited the cemetery from the former Randolph Township.
He said research was done of the Ohio Revised Code and it contained no ironclad statement about how far away a subdivision had to be built from the edge of a cemetery site.
“In all my years of driving I around I have driven by a cemetery and I know I have seen them where there is a same situation with houses very close to it,” Applegate said. “There is no regulations that we know of.”
Thomas-Roth felt the city should be able to do something to provide a buffer, like planting trees.
Applegate said the city could take a look at it, but the main expenditure planned for the cemetery right now is to replace the plantings out in front of the stone wall along Phillipsburg-Union Road. The city will also need to pour concrete to make the wall sturdier.
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
