Mayor’s Message – October 2020

Hello Residents,

This has been a very active spring and needless to say, most of the energy has been spent on dealing with situations not normally on our radar. I know it has been challenging for all of us and required actions that aren’t natural for any of us. I mentioned before, we took so much for granted, and I hope the one positive result of the past few months is that we have a greater appreciation for our personal freedom, and the life we enjoy as free Americans. We’ve been conducting all Village meetings on Zoom (which I detest) and our office which was closed to the public is now open but with adjusted hours, frequent cleaning procedures and appointments required for in office interactions. We appreciate your willingness to adapt to the new requirements and hope we are back to normal sooner than later.

I have empathy for every resident and business for the negative impact this has had on your livelihood. The front-line workers are also worthy of our respect and gratitude. As we modified our office procedures, we also made some changes to the use and maintenance of our Village-owned facilities. The parks are back open and pavilions available for rental, our basketball, volleyball courts and baseball fields are open. These also have modified rules for those participants. The rules are posted at each facility stating what is required by individuals using these facilities. In addition to these requirements the Village is sanitizing all these facilities daily. We are asking that as we try to make all facilities available that you respect the rules helping us maintain the facilities safely. In addition to these changes, we will not be opening the spray park in the immediate future. The requirements to run this facility with current local and state requirements make it logistically unfeasible and cost prohibitive. In addition, we will not be opening the public restrooms for the same reason, the cleaning requirements are very cumbersome and costly. I resent the fact that our lives are changed for the foreseeable future but ask for your patience and understanding. Let’s all pray we are soon back to normal.

I also want to address the issue of our local law enforcement. With the recent incident in Minneapolis, I’ve had several inquiries regarding assurances that our police force is properly trained and will treat every citizen without bias and with respect. This topic has been on our radar prior to the most recent incident and I want to assure all, our officers are extensively tested, interviewed and scrutinized prior to being hired. In addition, after being hired we ensure their certifications are current and our annual training exceeds state-mandated training. In addition, our Police Department opted to voluntarily become certified by “Ohio Collaborative Law Enforcement Agency”. This certification takes an enormous amount of time but takes the department to the next level. I’ve attached some of the certificates illustrating the areas of additional training our officers received. The topics of certification are very pertinent and required for effective law enforcement. I am proud of our police officers and appreciate their daily goal of protecting and serving the needs of all residents professionally and appropriately.

Ben Garlich
Mayor
Village of Middlefield