Fairfield Beach Property Owners meeting 24 March 2026 Minutes
Meeting called to order by acting President, Sandy Churchill. Meeting is initiated with Pledge of Allegience to flag of US.
Neighborhood Watch: Deputy Ferrell brought us updates for service calls in the area in February. She makes regular patrols on the beach. She has some familiarity with our issues with kids safety issues that we experience. If we give her specifics she will address situations as deemed appropriate. Deputy Ferrell and Sgt. Williams are both available for contact as issues arrise. Please provide as much detail as possible when you observe an issue that you feel should be addressed.
FBPOA:
Treasurer report $1131.25 on last statement minus payment for insurance of $400, balance $681.25. Deposits pending $160. President Sandy Churchill will help treasurers to file income tax report.
Sandy Churchill is taking lead to facilitate our cat trap, neuter, release project with CatTrapPat, inc. The mobile clinic expects to be able to neuter and treat 60 cats. Date is pending. Donna and Pat run CatTrapPat as a volunteer work for the community. They appreciate contributions to cover the costs of the care of these cats.
Our 2nd annual Easter egg hunt is planned for April 4. 1200 eggs were used last year. Sheila Fryer will facilitate Bunny Bucks again this year. They are donated by Buckeye City Arbor.
Ribbon cutting for our new playground equipment will tenatively be planned for May 2nd.
Earth Day beach cleanup is being coordinated by Deb Huckabaa. Plan to meet at the Buckeye Lake Park shelter on April 25 at 9 am. ODNR will provide trash bags, we will use their dumpster. We expect to have gloves available for your use.
Our annual yard sale will be planned for June 6. Renee Doppes is facilitating the yard sale. We may be able to add a craft show. Bruce Point is looking into and will facilitate the craft show.
Plans are to look into a booth at the Corn Festival for 2027 as membership volunteer strength is not enough to consider 2026.
Sandy will check into obtaining a venders license for the Association.
Jen Young will coordinate mowing for FBPOA lot on Laural. Anyone who can help, please volunteer. If there are enough volunteers then each person would only need to mow a few times. We thank Kim Allen for offering her husbands services for once a month.
We had a very interesting discussion of the history of Fairfield Beach presented by Tom Dempsey. Unfortunately our long business meeting resulted in abbreviating his presentation. He grew up here and continues to follow events. He was fire chief at one time and was proud of getting a station here on the beach. He had a strong takehome message, “Fairfield Beach has the largest number of eligible voters in Walnut Township. If we come together to get what we want, we can control the outcomes in this township!” This is in line with the goals of our Association to give voice to our community when decisions that affect us are being made by other entities and develop infrastructure for the enrichment of our community. We are a neighborhood association to function as a “social club’ and is a collective group of peopole who gather together, share ideas, develop relationships and work cooperatively to make the community or neighborhood a better place to live, raise families, retire or use as a second home/vacation/resort type residence.
Due to so much business and the presentation, we did not do Trustee meeting and BCLR reports but they are included here in the minutes.
Trustees meeting report for 18 March 2026 attended by Bruce Point and Daria Arbogast.
Tornado shelter did not open when tornado alarm went off March 13th. There were several problems including issues with power outage and door stays open only 3 minutes after alarm goes off. The township has quotes and voted to have a lock actuator installed from Silco Fire and Security. This will include a keypad system and wifi access so that lock can be opened remotely. A latch to keep the door open after the alarm goes off will be included. It seems that the door lock had battery backup installed but no batteries so the power outage issue should be moot now.
People on Facebook asked about the shelter being open when there is a power outage. The answer is, yes, the shelter can be opened. Currently we don’t have beds or other amenities for this eventuality but that can be resolved. A diaper station has been obtained and will be installed soon.
People asked about pets. Plans will be made to accommodate pets in the future. This will include pet cages and rules will need to be determined.
FEMA has approved release of the grant funds designated to pay for the shelter but there is a process to close it out.
The meeting agenda included: Further discussion on the amended resolution 11-2026 to enter into a lease agreement between Walnut Township Trustees and Millersport Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. for station 2 (our Fairfield Beach station). This was carried into a closed meeting so we have no details.
Zoning reports 3 new homes and 4 additions but did not specify locations for February. He mentioned he already had twice that for March.
BLRC meeting report for 19 March 2026:
Picnic point project moving forward, may be completed in 2027.
Lot of work to improve water quality continues; dredging, silt traps, wetlands, goose control, aerators, WQ testing with Lake Keepers, grant applications to clean Feeder Creek and Honey Creek. Dr. Sharma of Youngstown State University confirmed that they were able to get the a grant to do Buckeye Lake Hydrodynamic/WQ Modeling . Trying to get Millersport sewer treatment plant that dumps in Millersport canal baseline data before data center comes in. Asked Buckeye Lake Watershed coordinator to take samples every two weeks on Millersport Road and Rt. 37 on Feeder canal; Nitrates, Phosphorus, temperature and observations for baseline on feeder pre data center.
Buckeye Lake for Tomorrow sent in comments to OEPA on the state using radioactive oil/gas brine on our roadways to treat ice and dust. Licking county is the highest user. Two bills before Ohio legislature currently to ban the process.
Egg addling on April 1 at 9 am. Meet on North Shore and bring a drill to help. Wear boots.
Dave Levacy mentioned that folks have had boats in the water with the water level up and the warm days that we had.
There are multiple bills in Ohio Legislature related to property taxes. The latest proposal is Ohio Senate Resolution 7 by Senator Bill Blessing would only apply to local elected boards. It’s permissive, so they don’t have to impose a land tax if they don’t want it. it would need Super Majority support in both chambers before it would go to the voters. It would tax the underlying land instead of the total property including improvements like homes and buildings.
HB 96 had significant Property Tax Reform aimed at Transparency and finding new ways to limit tax growth by limiting
certain levies.
HB 186 Rep. Jim Hoops would try for a reduction in school Districts property Taxes affected by a millage floor.
HB 309 Rep. Dave Thomas County Budget Commissions and Property Taxes.
Hb 335 Rep Dave Thomas. to limit revenue increases from inside millage due to a reappraisal or update.
HB 28 Eliminates the authority to levy replacement property tax levies.
HB 61 Modifies Homestead Exemptions Owner-occupancy tax credit amount.
HB 65 Enact the Agriculture Appreciation Act.
HB 69 Regards taxpayer deduction for depreciation, enhancing expense
HB 85 Requires DAS to conduct a study of the State’s real propertyholdings.
HB 89 Authorizes temporary Property Tax Reduction.
HB 99 exclude certain agricultural entities from insurance regulations
HB124 Modify process for filing property tax sales-assessment ratio studies.
HB143 Authorize property tax exemption for certain long- term homeowners.
There are couple bills addressing data centers in Ohio.
HB 646 Would create a Data Center Study Commission
HB 706 Would impose certain minimum requirements on Data Center Customers
Anticipate Thornville Elementary as site of next Community Meeting. Working date is May 16 and hope to soon confirm.
Next meeting will be April 28. Bruce Point, VP, will take minutes as secretary expects to be out of the country.
Acting officers:
President Sandy Churchill
Vice President Bruce Point
Secretary Daria Arbogast
Co-treasurers Sue West and Jen Young