ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP — St. Clair Township Police Chief Brian McKenzie sought approval from the St. Clair Township Board of Trustees during Monday’s meeting for a resolution authorizing the police department to charge for the preparation of public records request per state guidelines beginning April 3.

The preparation charges can be up to $75 per hour but cannot exceed a total cost of $750. The charges can only be for cost incurred by the police department such as man hours in preparing the records, the medium the records are stored on and other associated costs.

An example provided by McKenzie was video records such as body or dash cam footage. The fees charged can include the cost of the time spent reviewing, blurring, obscuring, redacting, uploading or producing the video record.

He also noted a 15-minute traffic stop can take up to an hour to prepare the video for a public records request for video.

The police department will provide an estimate on what the cost may be and the person requesting the record will have to pay up front. The final cost cannot exceed more than 20% of the estimate. If the final cost is less than the estimate the requester will be refunded the difference.

The request stems from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signing the law into effect in January to allow departments to recover the costs.

McKenzie noted that many agencies in Columbiana County have already adopted this. The law takes effect April 2.

The resolution was adopted with an all-in-favor vote.

McKenzie also thanked Chris Davis who runs the high school’s public safety service class for bringing the virtual reality training system for officers to participate in virtual training of a variety of different scenarios an officer can be faced with.

McKenzie said it was a cool experience for his guys and gave them the opportunity to participate in a different type of training.

The trustees also approved the 2025 chip and seal program which includes 4.05 miles of roadway.

The following roads will be included in the chip and seal: Laurie Road, McDonald Street, Martha Street, Smith Street, Vale Street, Mary Street, Rankin Street, Melbourne Avenue, Tague Street, Dillow Street, Swickard, Sidehill Road, Oak Street and Winston.

The chip and seal will take place June 24 to 26.

Road Foreman Scott Barrett said as soon as the road department gets the ditching and berming done for chip and seal preparation they can get hot patch done.

He also said one of the department’s trucks is in need of brakes and the grater is still down.

The trustees also passed resolutions approving the annual appropriations for $4,593,585.77 and an extension for AEP to work within the township right of way.

Purchase orders totaling $170,062.59 and bills totaling $297,289.54 were approved for payment.

Robert Barrett was approved for rehire at $17 an hour for mowing services in the township

The Travel and Tourism Board will meet on April 10 at 7 p.m. at the township administration building.

The St. Clair Township Board of Trustees meets every other Monday at 4 p.m. at the township administration building, 15442 Pugh Road. The next regular meeting is scheduled for April 7.