All Trustees No-Shows At Grafton Township Meeting (updated)

When Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore called Thursday's Board of Trustees meeting to order the bang of her gavel echoed more than usual. None of the four trustees was present at the Faith Community Church meeting site so Moore called the meeting closed.

The board had been scheduled to try to find a solution to the latest township offices crisis, the expiration this past Saturday of the township's temporary lease with the township road district, its current landlord.

What the trustees' absence meant wasn't evident.  At its past two meetings the board had seemed to be trying to cooperate with Moore who replaced former Supervisor John Rossi over the issue of building new township offices. Attempts to contact trustees Thursday evening were unsuccessful but this morning Rob LaPorta replied to a message left on his answering machine.

LaPorta said Moore refused to place trustee-requested items on the Thursday agenda.  He said a letter from newly-hired township attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer said trustees could boycott the meeting and call a special meeting of their own.

"We as a group of trustees decided to do that," LaPorta said.

Thursday evening some would-be spectators including Tammy Lueth, suspected there had been some sort of trustees' agreement.  "What a coincidence," she said. "Is it possible that it was a violation of the Open Meetings Act since all four trustees failed to appear?"  Lueth was part of a group that stopped construction of new township offices and placed the question on next November's ballot.

Township Road Commissioner Jack Freund was disappointed Thursday at the latest development. Freund said he'd like to just go back to the way things were 18 months ago.  "They're on the Road District's property.  We were hoping we could work together and, what is it, unwind the sale and loan," he said.

In the pic:  Grafton Township Supervisor Linda Moore (right) presided over a meeting that didn't happen while landlord Jack Freund (left) looked glum.