Andover Village Board Meeting 2/11/2025

It turns out they keep holding Village board meetings even if you stop going to them for over a year. A few things have changed since we stopped by for a visit. Brian Black has joined the board, BJ Cornell is now at the helm of public works, and there is a new cop in town.

The meeting started promptly at 6:03pm with the mayor and all board members in attendance. There were also 4 members of the public as well as a potential future police officer in the peanut gallery. Honestly pretty good attendance for a board meeting that doesn't involve chickens.

Mr. Cornell kicked things off with bringing up the electric rates that everyone is hot and bothered about. As it turns out those won't be improving since the power provider is charging the village more so that increased cost is reflected in the bills.

After the unpleasant electrical news Mr. Cornell moved on to discuss the state of Rochambeau Avenue, which is not good. As many Andover residents know you can experience your soul briefly leaving your body if you hit some of those potholes just right. Fixing the issue requires the weather to cooperate which it has not been as of late. Mayor Truax suggested placing a temporary "rough road" sign to prevent out of body experiences until the issue could be addressed.

Salt is also a major concern for the public works department at present. Apparently we have less than they would like to and their dealer has cut off the salt supply. Mr. Cornell is looking into alternative sources to make it through the rest of the snow season.

The water project was then discussed at length. Like a serious amount of length. If you'd like to hear about the water project, at length, I suggest you come to a meeting as I'm for real not going to type it all out. I took a full page of notes about water. There was a solid half hour of water discussion. Very water. Much wet.

Chuck from code enforcement popped in for it a bit. Apparently a Dyke Street issue is now in the Village lawyers hands. There are still some paperwork that the solar people haven't handed over. Also, Chuck would like to add a sheet to the building permit application to better explain what is needed to successfully apply for a building permit. The board approved the application addition after Samantha Gavin had everyone read it.

The police department gave report next. Apparently Officer Sherman gave 3 traffic tickets last month and clocked 21.5 hours of patrol. The department also responded to one domestic call and a fire. So pretty busy month here in the 'Dover.

Officer Sherman introduced a potential new officer, Jared Mattison who briefly introduced himself for the board's consideration. Training stuff and budget things were discussed. Then parking tickets were discussed at length. Who knew that parking tickets could generate such rousing discussion. Officer Sherman is going to look into some things and discuss it at a later board meeting. Oh and also there is some FOIA request that needs sorted out.

After all the reports were given and approved the board paid the bills... but not until they discussed the water some more. The board did also approve a resolution to join other municipalities to express their dissatisfaction with the rate increases for electricity. So hopefully that will have some impact.

This meeting was unfortunately a 0/10. Mayor Truax let the meeting get out of hand at 67 minutes, which was 7 minutes too long. It was great to see some citizens out participating in the governance of this fair village. The board and mayor were very welcoming and stayed to chat and answer questions after the meeting adjourned. Maybe we should live stream the next meeting?

©️ Andover Exclusive 2025