City Council

February 20, 2024 The Fredericktown Village Council met in regular session on February 20, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fredericktown Municipal Building. PRESENT: Council Members Brewer, Hobson, Lanuzza, and McKnight; Police Chief Myers; Administrator Snell; Fiscal Officer Graves. ABSENT: Council Members de Rojas and Shoemaker. Hobson made a motion to excuse the absence of Council Members de Rojas and Shoemaker. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea. Mayor Day called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. INVOCATION: Tony Castillo, First Baptist Church. MINUTES: Lanuzza made a motion to approve the January 16, 2024 Council meeting minutes. Seconded by McKnight. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. VISITOR COMMENTS: None LEGISLATION (Third Reading) ORDINANCE NO. 2024-01 - AN ORDINANCE SPECIFYING THE STAFFING AND WAGES OF EMPLOYEES OF THE VILLAGE OF FREDERICKTOWN, OHIO Hobson made a motion to pass Ordinance 2024-01. Seconded by Lanuzza. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. (Emergency) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-04 - A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING MEMEBERSHIP IN THE KNOX COUNTY REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION Hobson made a motion to waive the three readings of Resolution 2024-04. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. Hobson made a motion to pass Resolution 2024-04. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. (Emergency) ORDINANCE NO. 2024-05 - ANNUAL APPROPRIATION ORDINANCE Lanuzza made a motion to waive the three readings of Ordinance 2024-05. Seconded by Hobson. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. Lanuzza made a motion to pass Ordinance 2024-05. Seconded by Hobson. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. OLD BUSINESS: • Fiscal Officer Graves put Active Transportation Plan Folder on the Google Drive, contains List of Projects. NEW BUSINESS: • Bob Snavely from Palmer Energy discussed the recommendations for electric and gas aggregation renewals for the village. • Recreation district filed a building permit for a parking area, windmill and two bird viewing blinds at the Ackerman Nature Preserve. Permit fee was waived. VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: See Report. FISCAL OFFICER'S REPORT: • Council reviewed the bills, financial reports and bank reconciliation statement for the month of January 2024. Lanuzza made a motion to approve the financial reports, bills and bank statement for January 2024. Seconded by de Rojas. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. POLICE CHIEF REPORT: • April 8, Eclipse day, all officers will be on duty. • Patrolman vacancy: have received 30 applications overall, three since updated salary has been shared from upcoming payroll ordinance change. Have spoken at Marion Tech, and will speak at Central Ohio Technical College and North Central State about the vacancy. • Reported 26 Street Lights out in January, 15 have been repaired by AEP. ZONING INSPECTOR’S REPORT: None SOLICITOR’S REPORT: None COMMITTEE REPORTS: PLANNING COMMISSION: Next meeting, February 26 at 5:00 p.m. FINANCE, PUBLIC WORKS, SAFETY: Next meeting, March 18. MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEE REPORTS: None ADJOURNMENT – Hobson made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by McKnight. All Yea, except de Rojas and Shoemaker. Meeting Adjourned at 7:35 p.m. _____________________________________ Mayor Jerry Day ___________________________ Suzan Graves, Fiscal Officer TO: MAYOR & COUNCIL FROM: BRUCE SNELL, VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR DATE: FEBRUARY 20, 2024 SUBJECT: ACTIVITY REPORT ACKERMAN NATURE PRESERVE The conservation group has submitted a building permit, which includes a 50’ by 50’ parking lot, a windmill for aeriation, and several elevated decks for bird viewing. We would like to waive the permit fee, since this is a public park of sorts and work is being done primarily with donations and largely through volunteerism. ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION Suzy has put the Active Transportation Plan on the Shared Drive. Mayor day and I attended a meeting at the County to discuss the possibility of connecting the Owl Creek Trail with the Kokosing Gap Trail at some point within the next five to ten years. There is tremendous local interest in connecting as many municipalities as possible via bike/pedestrian trails. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The Fredericktown Community Development Foundation (FCDF) met on February 8th to discuss economic development in the community. Due to me attending a meeting in Licking County, I could not attend the FCDF meeting but the minutes for the meeting on January 4 th are on the Shared Drive. We will meet again at the FLS Board of Education Building on March 7th. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS The Board of Zoning Appeals did not meet in January as there was no business to discuss and we do not anticipate a BZA Meeting being scheduled in February. OHIO PUBLIC WORKS COMMISSION We had requested grant funding in the amount of $129K for a $268K project for the 2024 Street Improvements. The project finished thirty-two in scoring but on the top thirty-one projects were selected for funding. I was assured by the Executive Committee, which scores the applications, that not all thirty-one projects will actually materialize, once the rubber meets the road, and our project will likely be funded after all. The proposed project consists of replacing dilapidated curb and gutter, milling and overlaying approximately 600 linear feet of E. College Street, from Mount Vernon Avenue to where the Streetscape Project ends on E. College, about 110’ east of Main Street. Three overgrown maple trees will also be removed as they have destroyed to existing curb and are in danger of breaking during heavy storms. A resident on the northeast corner of College and Pleasant Avenue has expressed opposition to us removing the two large trees in front of her home. I explained to her why we were planning to remove the trees and I indicated that she could make some suggestions to the Shade Tree Committee as to what species she would care to see the two trees in question replaced with. We will work to appease her while striving to complete the project within our budget. 1/2 PLANNING COMMISSION The Planning Commission met earlier this month to discuss a proposed lot-split for John and Marsha Ashcraft. The lot-split was discussed but was not actually voted on, due to a lack of road frontage. We will further discuss this proposal when the Planning Commission meets again on February 26th. The meeting will be held at 5 PM, in the Council Chambers. SERVICE DEPARTMENT The Service Department repaired a significant 4” water leak on Ebersole Avenue earlier this month. The staff is also on a village-wide sign repair/replacement campaign of sorts. Also, the staff was out over the weekend of February 17th plowing and salting as we got around 4” of snowfall over the weekend. SOLAR ECLIPSE The Knox County Emergency Management Agency hosted an online meeting with officials throughout Knox County in regards to the anticipated solar eclipse, which is expected to occur on April 8th. Many officials expect a potential influx of tourists to arrive in Knox County for this event, depending on the weather, and they are partnering to prepare for such an influx. STREETSCAPE The Streetscape Project is scheduled to begin in March and the contractor anticipates the project being substantially completed by September 2024. We will be hosting a town hall for the contractor and for ODOT to share their plans for Streetscape Project. They will also take questions from the public. The contractor also says they will share weekly updates to put on Facebook in an effort to keep the public apprised of the progress on the project. I will share a list of facts, for lack of better phases, with Council prior to this meeting. Considering we have been planning, designing, discussing, and engineering this project for the past five years, we are about ninety percent of the way finished with this endeavor. The construction itself is expected to be started in mid to late March and be completed before the 2024 Tomato Show. TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM FUNDING We have submitted our applications for TAP funding for the proposed SR 95 overpass enhancements and for the Bollinger Drive and W. Sandusky new sidewalk construction. The deadline for submitting grant applications is January 31st and Jason says we will have no problem meeting that deadline with both applications. UTILITIES We are waiting to hear back from the state in regards a grant funding request from the Ohio Department of Development for replacing roughly 18,000 linear feet of antiquated 4” water main and twenty-five fire hydrants, replacing the 4” water line with 8” PVC. The estimated construction and administrative costs for the project is $2,999,150, with the local share being ten percent ($299,915). The Fiscal Officer has indicated that we do have the cash reserves in the Water Fund to easily cover our local share. We obviously have no way of knowing what our chancing of getting funded are but we know we have zero chance of getting funded if we don’t ask for funding. 2/2