City Council

April 15, 2024 The Fredericktown Village Council met in regular session on April 15, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fredericktown Municipal Building. PRESENT: Council Members Brewer, de Rojas, Hobson, Lanuzza, McKnight, and Shoemaker; Administrator Snell; Chief Myers; Fiscal Officer Graves. Mayor Day called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. INVOCATION: Pam Gillette, Fredericktown First Presbyterian Church. MINUTES: McKnight made a motion to approve the April 1, 2024 Council meeting minutes. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea, except Shoemaker, abstained. VISITOR COMMENTS: • Mickey Cochran spoke about an organization in Ohio, “Guitars for Vets” that fixes old guitars/stringed instruments and distributes them to Veterans throughout Ohio. Would like to establish two drop off points for the instruments. Council discussed drop off points and agreed that they can be dropped off at Village Office and EMS (per Lanuzza, EMS Chief). LEGISLATION (First Reading) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-09 - A RESOLUTION TO PROCEED WITH SUBMISSION OF THE QUESTION OF LEVYING A RENEWAL TAX IN EXCESS OF THE TEN- MILL LIMITATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTINUING CURRENT OPERATIONS RESOLUTION 2024-10 – A RESOLUTION TO AMEND APPROPRIATIONS Brewer made a motion to waive the three readings of Resolution 2024-10. Seconded by McKnight. All Yea. Lanuzza made a motion to pass Resolution 2024-10. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea. (First Reading) ORDINANCE 2024-11 - AN ORDINANCE IMPOSING A SIX (6) MONTH MORATORIUM ON THE ACCEPTANCE, CONSIDERATION AND/OR GRANTING OF ANY APPLICATIONS FOR LOCAL LICENSING APPROVAL, AND/OR ANY ZONING, OCCUPANCY, OR OTHER PERMITS RELATING TO CULTIVATORS, PROCESSORS, OR RETAIL DISPENSARIES OF MARIJUANA PRODUCTS WITHIN THE VILLAGE OF FREDERICKTOWN CORPORATION LIMITS, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY OLD BUSINESS: • Mayor Day said Wendy from Compass Point will be sending draft of new Subdivision regulations. Council will review these, not the Planning Commission. • Snell submitted application for water/sewer infrastructure grant that Taylor Nimeth, from Congressman Troy Balderson’s office, had discussed with the Mayor. It seems this might be more of a revolving loan application, not a grant. • Lanuzza said Streetscape Project is looking good, on target to be done by Memorial Day. • Snell talked with K.E. McCartney about different options for the sewer plant. They would charge around $21,800 to do this. Looking into to getting a quote from Smith Environmental as well. NEW BUSINESS: None VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: • See April 15, 2024 Administrator’s Report FISCAL OFFICER'S REPORT: • Council reviewed the bills, financial reports and bank reconciliation statement for the month of March 2024. Lanuzza made a motion to approve the financial reports, bills and bank statement for March 2024. Seconded by de Rojas. All Yea. • Scheduled Public Records Committee meeting for May 20th at 6:30 p.m. POLICE CHIEF REPORT: • Officers did Use of Force Simulator training last week • Will do self-defense training again this year with Mount Vernon Police Department. • Gave recruitment presentation at North Central State College last week. • Neighborhood Watch meeting, Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 p.m. • Eclipse Day, April 8th, went well. Short backup on 13 Southbound was cleared up by 4:30 p.m. ZONING INSPECTOR’S REPORT: None SOLICITOR’S REPORT: None COMMITTEE REPORTS: None PLANNING COMMISSION: Next meeting to be determined. FINANCE, PUBLIC WORKS, SAFETY: Next meeting, May 20th. MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEE REPORTS: • Shade Tree Committee met Thursday, April 11th. A&D Tree Service will cut down tree on Knox Alley. On April 26th, Arbor Day, trees will be planted at Levering Park. ADJOURNMENT – McKnight made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by Shoemaker. All Yea. Meeting Adjourned at 7:29 p.m. _____________________________________ Mayor Jerry Day ___________________________ Suzan Graves, Fiscal Officer TO: MAYOR & COUNCIL FROM: BRUCE SNELL, VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR DATE: APRIL 15, 2024 SUBJECT: ACTIVITY REPORT ACKERMAN NATURE PRESERVE Construction is still 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. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The Fredericktown Community Development Foundation (FCDF) met on April 4th to discuss economic development in the community. We will meet again at the FLS Board of Education Building on May 9th. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS The Board of Zoning Appeals did not meet in March as there was no business to discuss and we do not anticipate a BZA Meeting being scheduled in April. 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 only the top thirty-one projects were selected for funding at this time. I was assured by the Executive Committee, which scores the applications, that not all thirty-one projects will actually materialize, once the requesting party is required to begin executing the project, and our project will likely be funded after all. PLANNING COMMISSION The Planning Commission met February 26th to continue discussing a proposed lot-split for John and Marsha Ashcraft. The lot-split was discussed and was conditionally approved. The public highway required for the split had not been properly surveyed, so we had Sam Vance rectify/complete the surveying, so the Fourth Street Extension West goes to our western property line at the pickleball courts now and the proposed lot-split will be legal when the Ashcraft’s have it recorded with the Knox County Recorder’s Office. SERVICE DEPARTMENT The Service Department is removing the salt box from the larger truck next week and thereby declaring the snow/ice season over until next November, or so. Brush will be collected the first and third Wednesday of each month through October. We had a mild winter, which means we spent significantly less on salt than we had anticipated. 1/2 SOLAR ECLIPSE The solar eclipse occurred in the afternoon hours of April 8th. There was a nice turnout throughout the Village and the entire 43019 and the event seemed to go as smoothly as could have been expected. STREETSCAPE Smith Paving has removed existing sidewalk and poured a great deal of new sidewalk this past week and Miller Cable has removed traffic light poles, traffic lights, cable/wire, and pole foundations throughout the downtown area. Also, abandoned coal chutes have been mitigated and back-filled under the subgrade for the sidewalk. The contractor is communicating regularly with merchants in an effort to minimize adversely impacting local downtown businesses. This project will indeed negatively affect their businesses during construction to some extent, but the merchants will benefit greatly once the project has been completed. Smith Paving plans on pouring concrete next week where they have removed sidewalk and curb, particularly on the east side of North Main Street. They also hope to remove storm infrastructure and additional sidewalk. Miller Cable will continue to work behind them, pouring foundations on both sides of Main Street. Miller Cable plans on installing new street lights within the next two weeks. Once the new lights are energized, the old street lights will be removed and the remaining new sidewalk will be poured. Smith Paving has indicated that they still plan on wrapping most of this project up by Memorial Day Weekend, which would be ideal. Kokosing may perform the asphalt work later in the summer, but the rest of the construction will likely be completed by Memorial Day Weekend, if the spring weather cooperates. 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. I spoke with ODOT regarding the status of our requests and they indicating that we would get something from them later this month in regards to this potential funding. UTILITIES We have been discussing the future of the WWTP. As you know, the current biosolids press and microwave (for killing harmful bacteria) is over twenty-years-old and, like any mechanical equipment, has a finite life. We are currently exploring options as to how we will approach this In addition to asking for state funding, we have also requested federal funds 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 cover our local share. We obviously have no way of knowing what our chances of getting funded are but we know we have zero chance of getting funded if we don’t ask for funding. 2/2