City Council

March 18, 2024 The Fredericktown Village Council met in regular session on March 18, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fredericktown Municipal Building. PRESENT: Council Members Brewer, Hobson, Lanuzza, McKnight and Shoemaker; Administrator Snell; Fiscal Officer Graves. ABSENT: Council Member de Rojas Hobson made a motion to excuse the absence of Council Member de Rojas. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea. Mayor Day called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. INVOCATION: Jerry Ernst, Cornerstone Community Church. MINUTES: Lanuzza made a motion to approve the March 4, 2024 Council meeting minutes with one correction – Rachel Styers should be Rachel Mackall. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except de Rojas. VISITOR COMMENTS: • Helen Fry thought the Streetscape Town Hall meeting went well. Video has had 3,000 views. Mayor Day said the Village may at some point in the future, stream Council meetings live. LEGISLATION (Second Reading) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-06 - A RESOLUTION OF NECESSITY TO LEVY A RENEWAL TAX IN EXCESS OF THE TEN-MILL LIMITATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTINUING CURRENT OPERATIONS (Emergency) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-07 – A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR OR HIS DESIGNEE TO ENTER INTO A PURCHASE AGREEMENT WITH FREDERICKTOWN CHEVROLET FOR THE PURCHASE OF A 2024 CHEVROLET EQUINOX IN THE AMOUNT OF $23,938.80, INCLUDING TRADE-IN OF THE VILLAGE’S 2012 CHEVROLET TAHOE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY Lanuzza made a motion to waive the three readings of Resolution 2024-07. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except de Rojas. Lanuzza made a motion to pass Resolution 2024-07. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except de Rojas. (Emergency) ORDINANCE NO. 2024-08 - AN ORDINANCE MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS McKnight made a motion to waive the three readings of Ordinance 2024-08. Seconded by Hobson. All Yea, except de Rojas. Shoemaker made a motion to pass Ordinance 2024-08. Seconded by Hobson. All Yea, except de Rojas. OLD BUSINESS: • Review Rules of Council, Subdivision Regulations, and Water and Wastewater Regulations. Helen Fry asked if the Village was looking into anyone else to review the Water and Wastewater Regulations. Mayor said we will be working with Wendy from Compass Point. NEW BUSINESS: None. VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: • See March 18, 2024 Report. • Maddie from Smith Paving (Streetscape Project) said the traffic lights will come down sooner than expected. Once we are notified, we will put the information on our website and Facebook page. FISCAL OFFICER'S REPORT: • Council reviewed the bills, financial reports and bank reconciliation statement for the month of February 2024. Hobson made a motion to approve the financial reports, bills and bank statement for February 2024. Seconded by Lanuzza. All Yea, except de Rojas. POLICE CHIEF REPORT: None ZONING INSPECTOR’S REPORT: None SOLICITOR’S REPORT: None COMMITTEE REPORTS: PLANNING COMMISSION: Next meeting to be determined. FINANCE, PUBLIC WORKS, SAFETY: Next meeting, April 15th. MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEE REPORTS: • Recreation - Lanuzza said that the new parking lot at the Ackerman Nature Preserve has been installed, as well as bird viewing blinds, bird houses, and duck boxes. ADJOURNMENT – Hobson made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Lanuzza. All Yea, except de Rojas. Meeting Adjourned at 7:14 p.m. _____________________________________ Mayor Jerry Day ___________________________ Suzan Graves, Fiscal Officer TO: MAYOR & COUNCIL FROM: BRUCE SNELL, VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR DATE: MARCH 18, 2024 SUBJECT: ACTIVITY REPORT ACKERMAN NATURE PRESERVE Construction is underway at Ackerman Nature Preserve, on the Salem Street Extension. Once their Building Permit was approved, the conservatory group began to remove earth for the gravel parking lot. Local private and public parties volunteered their time, equipment and materials to lay out a nice gravel (maybe 80’ x 50’) parking lot so bird enthusiasts and other patrons of the preserve have a designated parking area. We have learned that “birders” from as far away as Oregon have stopped by the Nature Preserve to see rare birds in their natural habitat. In addition to the parking lot, nature blinds are being installed as well. In the near future, a walking trail around the pond will be constructed. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The Fredericktown Community Development Foundation (FCDF) met on March 7th to discuss economic development in the community. We will meet again at the FLS Board of Education Building on March 4th. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS The Board of Zoning Appeals did not meet in February 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. PLANNING COMMISSION The Planning Commission met twice last 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. 1/2 SERVICE DEPARTMENT The Service Department is removing the salt box from the smaller truck today and installing the brush box so they can begin bi-weekly brush collection throughout the Village this week. Brush will be collected the first and third We. SOLAR ECLIPSE The solar eclipse is expected to occur in the afternoon hours of 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. Viewers of the eclipse are strongly warned NOT to view the eclipse without proper protective lenses. I’m told those protective lenses are available at the Fredericktown Community Library. STREETSCAPE Last week’s Town Hall Meeting was a success, the contractor and ODOT their tentative plan for Streetscape Project with the community. They will also took questions from the public. Construction on the Streetscape Project began the week of March 11th and the contractor anticipates the project being substantially completed by July 4th. Last week, they worked primarily on mobilizing equipment, surveying, and saw-cutting asphalt. This week, they plan to remove streets- side trees, remove curb and gutter, and preparing to remove traffic lights. The contractor reiterated that they do not anticipate the Tomato Show being adversely affected by construction as virtually all Streetscape work is expected to be completed by September. The contractor will share weekly updates with the Village so we can in turn post a weekly update on Facebook in an effort to keep the public apprised of the progress on the project. 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. 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. We have heard nothing back thus far but I will continue to stay in contact with ODOT in regards to this potential funding. I’ve been told that we will not likely get two projects funded, although it’s possible, but we may likely get one of the projects funded. UTILITIES I joined the Service Department staff on two field trips within the past two weeks. We visited the City of Mason’s WWTP and watched their centrifuge and gas sludge over work, then we traveled to Galion WWTP to see a smaller plant, similar in concept to Mason’s plant. We are going to reach out to some firms that specialize in designing WWTPs and see what they might recommend for us to look into, given the fact that our sludge press and microwave are close to twenty years old. We are still 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