K-9 Csuti chews on a Kong as Columbiana council president Skip Liston gifts his handler Bryan Granchie a framed copy of Csuti’s retirement proclamation Tuesday after city council’s meeting. (Submitted photo)

COLUMBIANA — The city made sure that K-9 Csuti received the send off appropriate for a top dog Tuesday night.

During council’s regular meeting, it started off with council president Skip Liston reading a proclamation declaring Sept. 25, 2025, day in honor of the dog’s retirement from the Columbiana Police Department, where he has served seven years as a dual-purpose dog specializing in drug detection, tracking and apprehension.

Csuti and his human handler, Ptl. Bryan Granchie helped combat drug, human and stolen good trafficking through the Hometown Enforcement Against Trafficking (HEAT) program.

Council agreed to sell Granchie the retired Csuti for $1, but then revealed the city actually paid the dollar providing Csuti a receipt for his records.

Currently, the department still has one K-9 team. No information was available if they were considering acquisition of another.

In other action:

— Barbara Ferrand shared information about the new Columbiana County seniors group, which has been meeting monthly at Columbiana Public Library as well as taking field trips to locations such as Beaver State Wildlife Education Center and Shaker Woods.

— Council removed off the table and voted to approve a Community Revitalization Agreement between the city and Milo Land LLC, which would grant them a 75 percent exemption for 10 years on property value increases resulting from their development on the parcels of land. Estimates put the total investment by Milo at $4.5 million and resulting in creation of 75 full-time and 30 part-time jobs.

— Members also endorsed the city manager’s recommendation to extend the city’s participation in the Efficiency Smart program with American Municipal Power for another three years.