The Village of Bluffton is preparing for winter. Here's a portion of the report Jamie Mehaffie, village administrator, will give to Bluffton council on Monday. The entire council agenda is in an attachment at th bottom of this story.

Farm Leases
The advertisements for the two farm leases have been published  the last two weeks and we will be accepting those sealed bids until Friday, Nov. 21, at 11 a.m. At that time, the sealed bids will be opened and read aloud.

North Tower
By taking advantage of the few decent weather days that we had in the past couple of weeks, the contractor was able to complete the painting of the north water tower.

Park Restrooms
The Service Department has closed and winterized the restroom facilities at the village parks and removed the drinking fountains. This was necessary due to the freezing temperatures. The portable toilets will remain in place throughout the winter months as is our standard practice.

Airport Crack Sealing
The contractor was able to complete the crack sealing of the runway prior to the freezing temperatures moving in. We are on schedule to have the seal coating and the repaving of the apron completed when the weather permits in 2015.

Hydrant Flushing
The Service Department completed the semi-annual system flushing last week. With the one tower being out of service for maintenance, the flushing took a little while longer than usual out of necessity.

Test Taking
Last week we had four employees go to Columbus to sit for Water and Waste Water license exams. Bryan Lloyd took the Sewer II test while Scott Phillips, Jan Basinger and Jesse Blackburn took the Water II test.

Winter Preparations
With the forecast calling for possible accumulating snow this weekend, the Service Department has prepped the trucks if the need arises to treat the roadways.