MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Fire Department honored a retiring firefighter for his long service to the city and a Kenyon College student for her work volunteering and for her service.
Firefighter Bryan Conant retired from the fire department after 32 years of service. He started his career with the city’s police department in 1991 before joining the fire department in 1995, Fire Chief Chad Christopher said.
Melissa Nixon, a firefighter/EMT, was honored for her four years in the Kenyon College student program. She started when the program was under Gambier’s Fire Department and stuck with the program when Mount Vernon took it over two years ago, Christopher said.
Firefighters used two structures acquired by the city for some hands-on training. One structure was used for all three crews to participate in search and rescue training scenarios, he said. The other structure was used to train the firefighters on ladder survival, such as ladder bailouts.
It’s close to the end of the school year when third graders from local schools traditionally tour the fire station.
“We enjoy the kids coming through and teaching them a little bit about fire safety and how the daily lives and activities are and their requirements,” Christopher said.
Police Department fills vacant positions
The Mount Vernon Police Department has been interviewing and filling a couple of vacant positions, Police Chief Robert Morgan said.
Cody Sexton started in March, and Andy Cotter will begin working next week, he said. Both were lateral hires, with Sexton from the Richland County Sheriff’s Office and Cotter from the Ohio Health Police Department system.
The city council approved hiring three new officers whose salaries will be funded through a $1 million SAFER grant. Morgan said the city has begun finding and interviewing candidates to fill these positions.
“That’s probably going to take some time to get those three on board because we really can’t train five people at one time,” he said. “So we’re probably going to spread those three out over the next couple of three months to get him to get them in here and get them on board.”
A Civil Service test was held Wednesday night.
A PAK United movie night was held at the Children’s Resource Center. The group also partnered with Mount Nazarene University on its weekend softball tournament. Free admission was provided for some of the kids to watch the tournament. The police department, in turn, will help with traffic control.
Watch out for speeding and kids
Speed warning signs were set up on Mount Vernon Avenue and Martinsburg Road to get people to slow down, Christopher said. The signs will be left to collect data before moving to other streets.
Christopher said as spring comes, many more kids are walking and biking around town, so he asked motorists to watch for the kids. With the school year nearing its end, kids will be out all over the place, and they don’t always pay attention.
The police chief said they are asking motorists to watch out for them and for motorcyclists, whose numbers on the roads will also increase with the warmer weather.
Engineering opens bids for Catherine, Sandusky streets
The engineering department opened bids for two projects last week. The low bid for the Catherine Street Reconstruction CDBG 2023 project was Smith Paving and Excavating from Norwalk, Ohio, for $1.25 million, City Engineer Brian Ball said. A bid for $188,151 was received from Smith Paving and Excavating for the Sandusky Street Sidewalk Replacement CDBG 2023 project.
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