By Paul Garrod
Staff Writer
news4garrod@gmail.com
LAWTON -The Lawton Village Council at the Feb. 25 village council meeting continued discussion on the Lawton Youth Softball Baseball program. During Citizen’s Comments, Pam Stermer, a resident of E. Third Street, addressed the Lawton Village Council with more thoughts and questions as follow-up from the last Lawton Village Council meeting. Stermer felt that if the community were to let go of the Little League fields, she believed that the program would not re-turn to Lawton. She also told the village council that following the last meeting, she felt there was not a concrete path going forward.
Stermer said she was curious if the council’s letting go of the property was a done deal at this point. Stemer said another parcel of land located on White Oak Road has seen a reduction in price. She questioned the turn-around for the village to sell property based on that property’s sale. Stermer provided a list of questions to the village council for committees to consider.
Village Council member Eric Dudek said talks on the Little League parcel are very early in discussion.
Dudek said Doug Lawrence, treasurer of Lawton Youth Softball Baseball, was in attend-ance at the meeting to help spearhead the committee that will go forward with talks with village officials and Lawton Little League. Dudek also said there are plans to work with Porter and Ant-werp townships on the youth baseball fields. Lawrence said he was going to serve as a liaison for communication between the village and Lawton Little League Board. Lawrence said six other people serve on the subcommittee.
In another area, Beth Middleton-Pompeii of Zoning Solutions, told the village council that 23 new letters have gone out in the village regarding blight. She said there has also been an in-crease in responses, which signaled that blight remediation is working within the village.
The council approved a quote of $29,542.29 from Kubota, for the purchase of a new side-walk plow with attachments.
The council approved to turn the Reid’s Corner rules, regulation, planning and events scheduling over to the Lawton Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
Following an earlier public hearing, the council also approved the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget that began on March 1 and ends Feb. 28, 2026.
The village council was informed that the Village of Lawton Planning Commission ap-proved a site plan for Alternative Fuel Technologies for property at 825 N. Main St.
