By Patrick Shade
Richfield Village Council continued to discuss the issue of copiers at the March 19 meeting.
Council decided to take time on a resolution at the last meeting authorizing a contract with ACE, A Division of Meritech, for the purchase of six Ricoh MPC3004EX copiers and the buy out of four Ricoh MP C3003 copiers the village currently leases.
The resolution, amended four days before the meeting, reduced the number of new copiers purchased to four and increased the buy outs to all six MP C3003 copiers the village currently leases.
The new cost to purchase the copiers and buy out the leases is $32,356, according to village officials.
Before the Council meeting, Vice President Michael Wheeler suggested during Council’s caucus to allow the leases of the copiers to run out instead of being bought out, in addition to buying the four new copiers.
Mayor Bobbie Beshara did not believe the current contract would allow the village to only buy the four copiers.
“We really need to get these copiers purchased,” she said. “They went up on price, too. They’re not going down.”
After some discussion on buying the copiers, Council President Rick Hudak concluded the issue was not going anywhere at the meeting.
Wheeler told Service Director Chris Papp he wanted to speak to an ACE representative about the agreement.
In other news, Council unanimously approved a promotion within the Richfield Fire Department.
Mike Humenik Jr. was promoted from part-time to full-time firemedic effective April 1. He was then sworn in by Beshara after Council’s vote.
According to Fire Chief Phil McLean, Humenik graduated from Revere High School and The University of Akron. Humenik, who has been with the department for two years, will soon be certified as an emergency vehicle technician.
McLean said four of the department’s part-time firemedics applied for the position, which will fill the vacancy left by Bob Jones, who retired in February.