City Council

August 19, 2024 The Fredericktown Village Council met in regular session on August 19, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fredericktown Municipal Building. PRESENT: Council Members de Rojas, Brewer, Hobson, Lanuzza, McKnight and Shoemaker; Administrator Snell; Chief Myers. Mayor Day called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. INVOCATION: Bernie Douglas, Berlin Methodist Church. MINUTES: • Hobson made a motion to approve the July 15, 2024 council meeting minutes, amending the information about Finance, Public Works, and Safety not meeting. Seconded by Lanuzza All Yea. VISITOR COMMENTS: • Justin Hoffman, new patrol officer, was sworn in by Mayor Day. He begins working for the Village on August 19, 2024. • Tina Cockrell, Knox Public Health discussed West Nile Virus, and ticks. Opportunities for teen community members for free drivers’ education. Grant money for homeowners for repairing/replacing sewage treatment. • Mickey Cochran, Guitars for Vets program. Took a couple of guitars to donate to Akron, 20 vets were there taking guitar lessons. Handed out material about the program. Wants to set up drop off points at Municipal building and Fire Department. LEGISLATION: (First Reading) ORDINANCE NO. 2024-19 - AN ORDINANCE MAKING SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS (First Reading) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-20 - ACCEPTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 2023 KNOX COUNTY TAX INCENTIVE REVIEW COUNCIL CONCERNING PARCELS OF COMMERCIAL REAL PROPERTY IN THE VILLAGE OF FREDERICKTOWN RECEIVING TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR PURPOSES OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (First Reading) RESOLUTION NO. 2024-21 - A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE AMOUNTS AND RATES DETERMINED BY THE BUDGET COMMISSIONS AND AUTHORIZING THE NECESSARY TAX LEVIES AND CERTIFYING THEM TO THE COUNTY AUDITOR (First Reading) ORDINANCE NO. 2024-22 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 709.09 (9)(d)(1) OF THE VILLAGE OF FREDERICKTOWN ZONING CODE TO ALLOW COMPACTED GRAVEL DRIVEWAYS IN RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS OLD BUSINESS: • Planning Commission will discuss draft of new Subdivision regulations at next meeting on August 26, 2024. • Water Improvement Grants: U.S Representative Troy Balderson, likely get about $900,000. State Senator Andrew Brenner, about $750,000. Total 1.65 million.  • Snell, Steve Awwiller, Mike Hannan, and Mike Warner visited city of Barberton, looked at their sewer plant. Will visit Shelby for sewer press demonstration. Anticipate, getting new press, and dryer at sewer plant. Clarifiers were cleaned out at sewer plant. • Hobson, generator cost? Snell will get with Howie Miller about cost. We may be able to use generator that we already have and retrofit it. NEW BUSINESS: • Mayor thanked Chief for hosting this year’s National Night Out event. Chief said, they had about 200 people attend, and several vendors. Location at Merrin Park was much better. VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT: • Snell noted that long-time street department retiree, Larry Ullman passed away. • Police Department front parking lot. Best quote is Buckeye Paving $66,479. Lanuzza made a motion to move forward with paving the Police Department parking lot. Seconded by Brewer. All Yea. • de Rojas asked Snell to share more about Fredericktown Community Development Foundation. Share more on Google Drive and Administrator’s report for Council. Lanuzza shared that county, along with the City of Mount Vernon, is process of redoing the comprehensive plan for the county. FCDF is working on signs/banners for light poles. • de Rojas asked if we had heard any more about OPWC funding. Snell reported that he has not. We may not want to do the paving now. If we get the Water Grants, it would be repaved then. • Benches for streetscape project have been placed. • Plans for Schafer Driveline were dropped off showing expansion and plans to add more staffing. FISCAL OFFICER'S REPORT: • Council reviewed the bills, financial reports and bank reconciliation statement for the month of July 2024. Hobson made a motion to approve the financial reports, bills and bank statement for July 2024. Seconded by Lanuzza. All Yea. POLICE CHIEF REPORT: • Neighborhood Watch Meeting, Tuesday, August 20, 6:30 p.m. • Chief will be attending police recruiting and training event on August 20. • SRO Chilcote has been working with school on reunification plans. • Police Department is now up to full staff. ZONING INSPECTOR’S REPORT: None SOLICITOR’S REPORT: None COMMITTEE REPORTS: PLANNING COMMISSION: Next meeting August 26th at 5:00 p.m. FINANCE, PUBLIC WORKS, SAFETY: Next meeting September 16th. MISCELLANEOUS COMMITTEE REPORTS: None ADJOURNMENT – Hobson made a motion to adjourn. Seconded by McKnight. All Yea. Meeting Adjourned at 7:38 p.m. _____________________________________ Rick Lanuzza, President Pro-Tempore ___________________________ Suzan Graves, Fiscal Officer TO: MAYOR & COUNCIL FROM: BRUCE SNELL, VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR DATE: AUGUST 19, 2024 SUBJECT: ACTIVITY REPORT BRIDGE ENHANCEMENT We have been formally notified that our applications for TAP funding for the proposed SR 95 overpass enhancements. We have been awarded up to $550,000 in federal funding for the bridge enhancements, which will cover ninety-five percent of the costs of construction, based on the engineer’s cost estimate. Construction of this project will likely occur in 2027. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The Fredericktown Community Development Foundation (FCDF) met on August 8th to discuss economic development in the community. We have starting meeting on the second Thursday of the month, so FCDF will meet next at the FLS Board of Education Building on September 12th. BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS The Board of Zoning Appeals did not meet in July as there was no business to discuss and we do not anticipate a BZA Meeting being scheduled in August. OHIO PUBLIC WORKS COMMISSION We are tentatively planning on requesting OPWC funding for the new bio-solids dryer, to replace our aging and antiquated microwave. We don’t have a quote as of yet, but we anticipate the new dryer will cost approximately $1.5 million. We anticipate asking for the maximum amount allowable for a grant, which I believe is $500K, but I will find out in OPWC training next month. We have heard nothing new back from the OPWC in regards to our finding request. We had requested grant funding in the amount of $129K for a $268K project for the 2024 Street Improvements. PLANNING COMMISSION The Planning Commission recommends that Council revise the Zoning Code to allow alternative driveway surfaces, as opposed to requiring a hard surface, such as asphalt or concrete. We have asked Adam create legislation for this proposed amendment to the current Zoning Code, so one Adam get this to me, we will bring it to Council for consideration. The Planning Commission will meet on Monday, August 26th to discuss the draft version of the revised Subdivision Regulations and any other relevant business as necessary. SERVICE DEPARTMENT The service department has completed flushing fire hydrants throughout the Village and to Woodridge Subdivision and FT Precision, which are also serviced by the Village (but not located in the Village). STREETSCAPE We performed a preliminary walkthrough of the project last month. The only real significante issue we saw was moving the decorative stop sign on East College Street to the west as far as possible in an effort to make it more visible to motorists. Several manholes will be adjusted to grade, as will several water valves. In addition to this, thirty-plus trees will be planted when it cools off in the 1/2 late summer/early fall, as the trees will have a much better chance of survival if planted in cool weather. SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENTS We have also been awarded $800,000 for new sidewalk funding. This is federal funding is administered by ODOT and there will be no local match required for the sidewalk work. This project will begin roughly around Carol Drive, on West Sandusky. The new sidewalk will run west on Sandusky Street to Bollinger Drive, continuing north to the existing sidewalk near Bollinger Drive and Malibu Court. Several safe crossings will also be added for pedestrians to cross Sate Route 95 within the scope of the project. Construction of this project will likely occur in 2027. ODOT posted the Request for Proposals for engineering & design of the sidewalk improvements. I worked through the Planning Commission in evaluating the Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) and ODOT requested those evaluations so they could notify the highest scoring engineering firm, of the three firms that had submitted SOQs. KE McCartney (KEM) scored the highest of the three firms and ODOT will work with KEM on negotiating a contract for the design and engineering of the sidewalk improvements. UTILITIES Service Department Staff recently visited the City of Barberton’s waste water treatment plant (WWTP) last month, looking particularly at how they handle their bio-solids. We were impressed with how efficient their operation was and, unlike us, they used a screw-press, as opposed to a belt press, to press water out of their bio-solids so they can completely dry. We will ne visiting the City of Shelby’s WWTP on August 21st next and then we feel like we should be ready for Gibson Chen to make a recommendation to Council, as far as what type of belt press and bio-solids dryer unit he recommends. We have recently been notified that the Village will receive $1.65 in state and federal funding for the Water Infrastructure Improvement Project. We had formally 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, which should now only be around $183K. We will need to scale the project back to closer to $1.83 million as we actually received sixty-one percent as much funding as we had initially requested, but we can certainly be extremely grateful for the funding we received from both the state and federal government. In a day and age that most Americans feel over-taxed, it is great to see state and federal monies coming directly back to the Fredericktown Community. WILLIAM “BILL” BURGETT MEMORIAL HIGHWAY HB 380 was passed by the House and this bill will include the naming of the William “Bill” Burgett Memorial Highway, which will cover the State Route 13 Bypass. This bill will now go before the State Senate for consideration. 2/2