City Council

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING MASSILLON CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2026 COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Good evening. Welcome to the Massillon City Council meeting for Monday, June 1, 2026. We have in attendance the following City officials: Mayor Jamie Slutz, Safety Service Director, Renee Baker, Director of Development, Ted Herncane, Income Tax/Budget Director, Lori Kotagides-Boron and Street Superintendent, Josh McClay. Under #5 on the agenda is where the public can speak on any topic that appears ON tonight’s agenda and under #18 is where the public can speak on any topic that does NOT appear on tonight’s agenda. I’d like to remind you that if you have a cell phone, please set it to mute, vibrate or turn it off. Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Roll call, please. 1. ROLL CALL Roll call for the evening found the following Council Members present: Holly Bryan-Huth, Sarita Cunningham, Mike Gregg, Julie Harwig Smith, Seth Marcum, John Paquelet and Mandwel Patterson Roll call of 7 present COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you, Madam Clerk. Councilman Gregg. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you, President Slater. I make a motion that we excuse Council Members Townsend and Ray for this evenings meeting. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilman Marcum. Roll call to excuse. 7 yes to excuse Councilman Ray and Councilman Townsend 2. INVOCATION COUNCILMAN JOHN PAQUELET 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY COUNCILMAN PAQUELET COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you, Councilman. 4. READING OF THE JOURNAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Madam Clerk, are the minutes of the previous meeting transcribed and open for public viewing? COUNCIL CLERK ROLLAND – Yes, they are. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Are there any corrections to be made? 1  COUNCIL CLERK ROLLAND – No, there are not. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Then the minutes stand approved as written. 5. REMARKS OF DELEGATIONS AND CITIZENS TO MATTERS ON THE AGENDA COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Anyone at this time? TIM PHILLIPS – I live in the 5th Ward. I’m here to speak on behalf of the Bitdeer location. I am and my wife are the closest residents to this facility. I mean, we literally live one hundred feet. I just want to bring up a couple of things. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Is this about on the agenda or not on the agenda? TIM PHILLIPS – This is on the agenda about the data center. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Okay. Just continue. TIM PHILLIPS – First thing I want to mention is is there anything about decibel readings that the Council or the City has come up with? Number two, I think it was a week or two or so when the Bitdeer people were here, data center or whatever you want to call it, were here talking about the water; the flood. I’m here to let you know that has not been resolved. The streets do still flood over Albrecht St. It’s flooded three times in the last six months. So, that’s still an issue; whatever they want to say, but I’ve got documented proof on that. The other thing that I wanted to mention is the Administration here said that there was forty employees at the center. I want to know how many of those actually employed in Massillon or not in the state that work in remote. So that’s another issue that I think should be resolved because where money goes in the City is an issue. Also, the zoning; I guess apparently it was changed after Bitdeer was established here in Massillon on 9th St. I want to know is the data center on 9th St. considered a large or is it considered a small? I want to show everybody here what I’ve taken today because where we are in Massillon, me and my wife, the great wall as they try to say it, 20’, 30’ whatever it is, it may work for the people in Perry Twp. but it does not work for us and I’m going to show you a video I just took today before I came here, if you want me to. Let me get it started here. If you can see this video, this is from my driveway (loud noise) through the forest in my front yard. I hear this all night, all day. So that great wall that this data center is telling you about, it may work for Perry Twp. who lives right outside the wall, it don’t work here. This is what I hear (loud noise). COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you. TIM PHILLIPS – Thanks everybody. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Sure. ERIK HANN – I am not a Massillon City resident. I’d also like to speak about data centers as well. So I’m here tonight speaking on behalf of nearly 10,000 hard working men and women who could actually be building these data centers. I’m the business manager of IBW Local #540 and I’m also the vice president of the East Central Ohio Building of Construction Trades Council and we stand in full support of the construction of data centers. It’s often said that our jobs are just temporary jobs. While individual projects may be temporary, construction employment is permanent. We are permanent jobs, we’re permanent parts of the community 2 and I want to talk about what permanent actually looks like. IBW Local #540 was founded in 1915. We’ve been building and powering this community for over 110 years and in that time we’ve seen a lot of other permanent businesses come and go. We saw Republic Steel which once employed thousands of people from this community for decades and now they’re gone. Over in North Canton, the Hoover Co. was a staple in that community and now they’re gone. And those were the permanent jobs that we were told about would always be here and now they’re gone and the building trades are still here, we’re still here. Still building our communities and we’ve outlasted all of them and it’s not because we got lucky. It’s because the construction of businesses and homes and infrastructure never stops. And unlike manufacturing, our jobs cannot get shipped overseas. Nobody’s outsourcing construction to another country. So when someone tells me that my job is temporary, I push back. I’ve had steady employment in the electrical construction industry for over twenty years and for instance, we have over a thousand construction workers on one data center in Columbus today and they’ve been there for eight years and they’re still not done. Think about that; one data center, eight years, a thousand jobs and we’re still working there and even when that job does finally finish, those workers don’t just disappear. Many of them are going to stay onsite. Upgrading, maintaining, retooling the facility. Others are going to move on to the next project and then the next project and the next. And that’s just the way the construction industry works and it has worked that way for over a century. So, those of us that working in the building trades, our families depend on projects like data centers for our livelihoods and our financial stability and without a fact-based justification, I think it’s irresponsible for us to throw away billions of dollars of investment into our community’s future. We should be focused on mitigating any potential concerns that we have, not just dismissing critical infrastructure projects especially when they have so much benefit for the community and my colleague, Greg, is going to speak to those benefits, the jobs and the economic impact that they have on the community, but what I want Council to know is that we are not temporary workers. We’re permanent members of this community and we’re building critical infrastructure that this country depends on. So we have an opportunity to say yes investing in our future, yes to increased tax revenue for the City of Massillon, yes to good paying jobs for the hard working families of Massillon. So I urge this Council to say yes to data centers. Thank you. I appreciated your time. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you. GREG BAMBENEK – I do not live in Massillon. I want to speak on the data centers. I’m the Director of Membership Development with IBW Local #540 representing electricians across this region. I’m here tonight to speak in support of data center development in Massillon and to thank Council Members if you support it. I want to address something head-on. Governor DeWine announced a pause on new data center tax exemption requests. I want to be clear on what that means and what doesn’t. What it does not mean is that Ohio is turning its back on data centers. In his own words, DeWine called them “A critical component to today’s technology driven economy and 27.2 billion in capital investment in 2025 alone”. The study he ordered is designed to document the local benefits these projects bring. That’s not opposition, that’s due diligence and it will strengthen the case for projects like to one’s we’re discussing tonight. What this Council can do right now is send a clear signal that Massillon is open for investment. The tax exemption pause is temporary; the economic opportunity is not. Here are the numbers; a single data center can bring up to a thousand construction workers on a site for four to six years. Earning eighty to over one hundred thousand dollars a year and those paychecks stay here. Spent at local restaurants, hardware stores, businesses; money that circulates and grows and when a construction facility wraps up, that facility doesn’t go dark. There’s a permanent onsite presence handling security, maintenance and technical services. 3 Employing local people year after year. Even with a tax exemption a data center is still one of the largest taxpayers any Ohio community has ever seen and it’s not even a close call. And there’s a bigger picture worth naming. The data centers are critical national infrastructure. The system that powers our hospitals, coordinates our defense and keeps our financial networking running through facilities like these. Other states and countries are building them aggressively. The question for Massillon tonight is whether this community wants to be a part of that future or wants to watch it happen somewhere else. If the Council Members approves this, you are on the right side of this issue and the working families of this community will benefit from your leadership and I encourage Council to move forward with full support of the data center development in Massillon. Thank you. CURT MOORE – I’m not a Massillon City resident. I am the President of IBW Local #540. I’m the Chairman of the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, a delegate to the East Central Ohio Building Construction Trades and a proud father and husband. On behalf of every member I represent a serve, I am here on record in full support of data centers construction. So there’s a lot of propaganda out there about these data centers that is either flat wrong, misleading, or my personal opinion, complete nonsense. My goal tonight is to set the record straight on water, electricity and noise. So water, I’ve heard data centers consume enormous volumes of water. Again, this is misleading. The water flows from the water department into the facility, fills up the chillers and continues operation by maintaining operating temperature. At no point are chemicals or toxins added to the water. On average, a closed loop system uses less water than your average golf course, which we have a beautiful on right here in Massillon, correct? If and when the system is drained, it is not dumped into the environment, it’s dumped in the sanitary sewer heading back to the wastewater treatment facility and data centers have every incentive to lower their water consumption. It is a business; they want to become more efficient as possible. Electricity; I know everyone is feeling the increase in their electric bills and I’m right there with you, but let’s be clear about who’s responsible, and it’s not just data centers. Prices are rising because of a lack of supply and not demand from the data center alone. Approximately, fifty-four thousand, two hundred megawatts of capacity, have been retired across a grid since 2011 with more deactivations coming through 2030. They have eliminated enough capacity for approximately 225 data centers and are still cutting supply. Data centers are not the single cause of your high electric bill; a shrinking supply is a driving factor. Do you want lower electric bills? The answer is building more supply, not stopping the projects that are demanding them. Noise; yeah, data centers can make noise. They do ninety decibels with inside the facility. At the facility property line, you’re talking forty- five to sixty decibels. That’s the level of a normal conversation. I could take you to plenty of facilities right here in Stark County that are well above those limits. Lastly, I’ll close with this, as President of the Local #540, safety is our number one concern. If these facilities were not safe, we wouldn’t put our members in harm’s way and our communities in harm’s way. We don’t just work here, we live here as well and we would not support an unsafe project. I thank you for your time tonight and we fully support data centers. ADAM PAISLEY – I do live in Massillon; Ward 6. I’m a nosey person. I’ve taken the time to drive down by Bitdeer and check it out and I have heard nothing. I have actual recordings too of sitting there directly across from them where all I can hear is my own radio. I got one daughter here and another daughter I’ve raised in Massillon and very proud of them and I want them to raise their kids here and I wouldn’t let them do that if this was going to be that negative. Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you. Just a heads up, anybody who is talking, please sign-in if you’ve not already have. 4 ADAM PAISLEY – I did. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Okay. Thank you. DONALD SCOTT – I’m not a Massillon resident. I’m a licensed journeyman in the City of Massillon and later this year I’ll begin my 50th year as an electrician in the electrical trade. The building trades remain to be one of the occupations that provide family sustaining wages and I’m very thankful that we were able to raise our family of six on a single income over the years. So, that’s something that we’re very thankful about and don’t take for granted. We do remember, however, the recession of the 1980’s. My family and I received a great education in economics, more likely economic hardship and so we remember that quite well. The Timken Faircrest Steel Plant came along at a perfect time for us. So it provided, again, that family sustaining wage that we so needed in our household. Decades of work as a tradesman has provided our family the opportunity to thrive on that single income as I mentioned and data center construction today provides our area, again, with great opportunity for economic development. Not only through the construction of the data centers, but also the full-time staffing of the people that actually work there and then afterwards the insulary business that’s created from that through several area businesses and economic activities. There’ll be millions of dollars of electrical equipment that’ll be installed in these facilities. They’re just not sat in place and forgotten about, but they’ll also require regular maintenance and upgrading and replacement well into perpetuity as long as that facility’s active. I am concerned about the fears that are being spread about data centers and I believe that a lot of them are based on empty sentiment, social contagion and not necessarily fact-based fundamentals. So it would ask people to question everything you hear and not just sign onto social contagion and consider that your source. Thank you for letting me speak. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Sure. LOGAN HAMMER – I am a resident of Massillon; Ward 3. I have been a resident of Massillon for the last fifteen years and an electrician with IBW Local #540 coming up to eight years now. I don’t often find myself being a centrists on matters, but in regards to data centers, I and many of my fellow union members that I’ve spoken with feel that we are caught in the middle. A lot of us share concerns with the opposition to these projects, but we also understand that this is aiming to be an unprecedented long run of steady work for a lot of trades people, not just electrician. We’re not thugs or soulless ghouls trying to strong arm the community for a paycheck. We are working class craftspeople that live here too and we’re feeling the crushing economic pressure put upon us just like anyone else. I have done my best to hear both sides with the understanding that no one is immune to propaganda and that both sides can be equal parts informed and misinformed, respectively. If these data centers are a new and essential piece of infrastructure as we are being told, then I have, what think are some reasonable qualifiers that the project should meet and these are to be contracts, not promises. One, no data centers over 200 megawatts per municipality. Two, the developers are to cover any and all upgrades to the water and power transmission infrastructure that they will be drawing from to account for their usage and usage of the current residents with an extra buffer of 25% on top. Three, the site is to have a dedicated water treatment facility isolating any used water from circulating back into the public’s supply. Four, pump a standard 75%, thirty-year tax abatement down to fifteen-years to accelerate the point at which they start paying the full value of their fair share back into the community. Five, construction is to be under a project labor agreement to insure that all the trades people are local, qualified, paid fair wages for their work, that quality work is perform and that safety is heavily policed. Six, environmental impact studies conducted by a wholly independent body prior, during and routinely thereafter 5 construction and that their raw data be pre-reviewed and publicly available at no cost. I’m a proud union electrician and also a citizen of the world. I will not be an apologist for mistakes made by previous data center projects or a shell for corporations and its hypocrisy at large. If they wish to become a part of our local economy then they are to understand that it will be a partnership, not a wealth extraction but of wealth injection. If they aren’t willing to abide by bare minimum measures of accountability, then I do not trust that they have any good faith consideration for our safety and security as a people. We can’t count on the Federal or State government to rejuvenate our antiquated infrastructure and build up our struggling social programs. So I ask you, City Council, to proceed with transparency, to not sell us short and to do all that is within your power to get as much for this community as you can while being stewards for the welfare of your constituents. Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you. JAMES LEONARD – Vice President of Hilscher-Clarke Electric. We’ve been doing a lot of data center work. In Columbus for the last six years, we actually, I guess for tonight for what you guys are talking about; Hilscher-Clarke employs, roughly, a hundred and sixty local people to help build those data centers. A lot of them down in Navarre, off the street on Walnut and on Phoenix Ave., by the Shearer’s plant. We’ve been in the area for over a hundred years; they’ve been doing electrical work for everybody in Stark County and surrounding areas. I did grow up in Massillon, I’m not a resident of Massillon anymore. I grew up on the west side on 26th St. This has been my home since up until my parents passed away and I’ve been traveling back and forth again, from Canton to Columbus. The economic impact that we’re having here already before these buildings are arriving is significant. A hundred and sixty people is a lot, but it’s just a start. We started with 30,000 square feet of manufacturing space and we’re up to 600,000 square feet of manufacturing space. That is rivaling large manufacturing business whose whole purpose is to manufacture products. We’re now actually growing that and it continues to grow because the demand is so high. So the things that we’re building here in our community are being shipped to Columbus and around in other areas. So, to develop this here now in our own backyard is a huge injection for the business that we have, the opportunity that we have and to put the control of some of the new infrastructure in the backyard where I and a bunch of my friends and relative have grown up, the industries that we’ve missed out on and watched disappear are not coming back and the infrastructure’s just sitting there. Still waiting to be used. The water and the utilities that are sitting dormant in these places, I don’t want to say they’re up for grabs, but they are sitting there ready to be used. So, we never saw this type of debate if one of the steel mills or refineries or the forge presses wanted expand. Manufacturing job have always been good. This community is based on that. So, I grew up knowing it’s manufacturing; damn the consequences, we’re in. That’s who we are. This is a new wave, a new era. I have a townhouse in Columbus, point eight miles away from a data center. I didn’t even realize it was here. I didn’t even realize it was operational. I had to go out of my way to really find it because, while we weren’t on that project, it’s just nestled in a community of residents. It’s in Dublin, Ohio; you can see on the map. So, from Hilscher-Clarke and a lot of my fellow electricians, we’re obviously in support of this. I think it’s great for the economy, so encourage you guys to think about what the impact is long-term and thank you for considering this and listening to us tonight. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Sure. Thank you. BRETT MCELFRESH – I live 9000 Jane, Massillon, Ohio. Council, thank you for having us. Obviously, the conversation is data centers. As you see on the mural behind here in City Council, we have a lot of things and the one thing that is not there anymore is factory work. 6  And that factory work in an industrial in community’s like Massillon, Massillon will continue to progress forward and take care of its community properly and its citizens. I commend City Council for having these conversations and looking at what is going to be, possibly, the next industrial future of this country and being a part of that conversation. I was real encouraged to congratulate the City at looking at trying to utilize old industrial land which is the Republic Steel land. I understand that some people own houses nearby that area. It does not mitigate the idea that you still live next door to an industrial zone. At the end of the day, everybody from the building trade that has spoken is correct. I myself, I am from Massillon. I went to Massillon High School. I grew up in this community. I would not want to see anything ill-minded come to our community no different than you would. At the end of the day, though, we need to be a part of what the future is in this country and the future of this country is now data centers. Data centers are driving this economy. Everything you see taking place currently, as you’ve heard from one individual is just that data centers and how they are driving this community. You have a new hydrogen hub facility that’ll be coming in here soon to Massillon starting. One of the things that could play and factor to those projects is the heat from this data center could be used as part of the pre-heatment for that hydrogen hub that could be a benefit and also energy saving, cost savings, factor and on and on. Another thing I know that our Mayor has been doing his due diligence on the studying and is a way to pipe waste directly from these facilities to Massillon’s treatment facility and right back is using common sense, technology exist. He’s looking at things that are out there that can be helpful. I believe the citizens of Massillon give this Council time, due diligence to do things right. It will and it always has. At the end of the day, I understand people’s gripes with certain projects, but just like the building we stand in today, the roads that we drive down today, if it was not for the construction worker, modern technology monitored, society would not exist. So for that I can encourage a construction worker to remember that they are indeed the most important part of civilization that is out there. More important, I would argue than a doctor or a lawyer. I’d argue that all day long regardless of who sits on Council. We are no temporary worker. Indeed, our jobs may be temporary at times and last anywhere from a few hours to a few years, but every day we wake up, put our boots on, go to work to put food on the table for our family. So, we are essential in everything that happens. Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Yes sir. Thank you. AMANDA HUMMEL – I am a resident of Massillon, Ohio. So, I am just asking if you can…the data centers. We need an independent grid study for the electric for all the utilities and that needs to be an independent study. Not someone who works in the field, not someone who works for the data center. I also really don’t have a problem with Bitdeer because they explained what they do. That is clear cut crypto currency. As far as the other data center, what is the data? We don’t know. We don’t know what the data is going to be trolling around in that computer. The trade jobs, they’re never going anywhere. I have a trade job. I know tons of people in the trades. Everyone says how long they’ve been around. They’re going to stay around. Industrial manufacturing, way different than a data center. They were making goods for people to use. Nothing for us to use from the data center. Nothing at all and as far as the tax exemption, why not give that to the existing businesses that are already in Massillon and their Massillon residents. That is all I have to say. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Anyone else? 6. NEW AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS 7 7. CONSENT AGENDA COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Ord. No. 59 – 2026. ORDINANCE NO. 59 – 2026 BY: FINANCE COMMITTEE AN ORDINANCE making certain appropriations from the unappropriated balance of the 1433 Parks and Recreation Capital Improvement Fund, for the year ending December 31, 2026, and declaring an emergency. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Gregg. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you, President Slater. We discussed this in our Work Session. Director Pedro was here to talk about it with us as well. This is an ongoing project at redoing the baseball fields and softball fields for Parks and Recreation. As its noted, the Parks and Recreation Board did approve this request 5 – 0. Are there any questions or discussion regarding this from Council? Seeing none, I make a motion that we waive the rules requiring three readings and bring Ord. No. 59 – 2026 forward for a vote. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilman Paquelet. Roll call for suspension. 7 yes for suspension COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – And for passage. 7 yes for passage COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ord. No. 59 – 2026 has passed. 8. INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Ord. No. 60 – 2026. ORDINANCE NO. 60 – 2026 BY: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE AN ORDINANCE amending PART ELEVEN “PLANNING AND ZONING CODE”, TITLE THREE, “ZONING ADMINISTRATION”, Chapter 1121 “Construction of Language; Definitions”, Section 1121.02 “Definitions”, TITLE FIVE, “ZONING DISTRICTS”, Chapter 1169 “I-1 Light Industrial District”, Section 1169.03, Chapter 1171 “I-2 General Industrial District”, Section 1171.04 “Principal Uses Permitted Subject to Special Conditions”, and TITLE SEVEN “ZONING REGULATIONS”, Chapter 1187 “Supplemental Zoning Regulations”, Section 1187.09 “Site Plan Review” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Massillon, Ohio. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilwoman Harwig Smith. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Thank you, President Slater. So, Ord. No. 60 – 2026, just to help break it down, Section 1121.02 defines “a large scale data center”. It’s not going by the megawatts. It’s going by 100,000 square foot of structures, that would be a large scale. “Non-large scale data center” would be less than 100,000 square foot of structures. It did not 8 define single parcel, minimum size. Also, there’s just definitions of electronic information, data center equipment. Under section 1169.03, it’s to be amended, if we want or changed for special considerations. The large scale for light industrial which is I-1, the key things in here are the setback is 80’ from the front, 50’ from the side and if it’s by a residence, it’s 80’ rear 50’, they increase it. Nothing is defined about sound barriers or anything else in this legislation. And as far as I-2 which is large scale full industrial sites, the setback is 100’ from the front, if it’s within 100’ of a residence, the front setback becomes 200’. The side is 75’ if its within 100’ of a residence, the setback is 200’ and rear 75’ setback and if it’s within 100’ of a residence, it would be 200’ setback. Then it goes into things that will be discussed and have to be reviewed concerning kilowatt, electricity, water, wastewater, sewer. The decisions will be made by the Site Plan Review Committee which consist of the Mayor, Safety Service Director, Building Dept., Engineering and Director of Development. Does anyone want to start or have any questions? Councilman Marcum. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – So, I wasn’t here last week, didn’t really have an opportunity to speak about this and I’m sure we’re going to talk about this quite a bit over the next few weeks because we should probably let this go three readings. I just wanted to note that it seems like a lot of recent headlines in the City and the County have been inaccurate, at best, in misleading click bait, at worst. These headlines are saying that we are passing legislation to permit data centers in the City. That is not what we’re doing. We’re curing the problem that Bitdeer has shown us all is here. Bitdeer is in the location that’s it’s at, rightly or wrongly because there’s no regulations in the City telling data centers or similar entities where they have to be or where they can be and can’t be. Our legal counsel has told us that we cannot legally ban data centers in the City. Under current State and Federal law, we have to let them exist in some way, shape or form through our zoning. So that’s what we’re doing. What we’re doing is we’ve crafted these regulations to allow them potentially and I-1 which is light industrial and potentially I-2 which is heavy industrial which some of us have talked potentially about cutting I-1 and leaving them exclusively in I-2, potentially. Again, we’ve got a few more weeks to figure this out. There’s that broad electricity language in there regulating their electrical uses. There’s broad sewer and water language in there regulating their water and sewer usage. Again, two items we can tweak, we can take a look at and I have some proposed potential language on the electric front of including language in there where if they’re going to tie into the grid that they are responsible for the upgrade costs and that they will certify that they are responsible for the upgrade costs, potentially. On the water end, again, closed loop is a great system. It seems to be the trend towards that industry standard. We can clarify the broad water language we have currently to push towards that closed loop system. And there is sound language in there that tells the Site Plan Committee that they have to consider sound moving forward and that they can kill a plan if it does not properly account for any sound issues and potentially what we can do is craft additional penalty in the language in the long run to address those sound issues. Most importantly, I think that everybody in the room and everybody on Council needs to understand is that this is step one out of a hundred. When we had Bitdeer, we had no rules. We had regulations in place that don’t understand the modern economy when it comes to these data driven facilities. These facilities that supply to end users like you, like me, the City and every business out there, everything that we do online whether its ecommerce, data bases, etc. It’s a new frontier, it’s weird. Let’s get these rules in place and once we have rules in place, they’re going to have to design a facility that comports with these rules and if they do not design a facility that comports with these rules, that’s on them. They can’t build in the City. But if they comply with our rules, if they manage their electricity, if they manage their water, then perhaps they can be in a heavy industrial district and we’ll talk about that later. But this is step one out of a hundred. We’re not letting anybody in. We’re just 9 setting the record straight and we’re setting what the rules are going to be, moving forward. So those are my thoughts. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Thank you, Councilman Marcum. Councilwoman Cunningham. COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – Thank you, Councilwoman Harwig Smith. The points that Councilman Marcum just made, I completely agree with. The one thing he did not mention which I am concerned about is tax abatements for these companies. From what I’ve read, the State is giving them a large array of tax abatements and I really think that we need to speak on that behalf and talk about that as well. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – I can note that real quick, Julie. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Councilman Marcum. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – On the local side, nothing in these regulations touch on tax abatements. In the future, all of these companies, if they want a tax abatement from the City, they’re going to have to come hat in hand and ask. That is a future Council’s problem and that future Council can tell them flat out “no” and if anybody in the community is opposed to a tax abatement, that is a great time to come out and oppose tax abatements. Maybe not today, but when there’s a plan in hand and somebody comes hat in hand ask for a tax abatement. But nothing that we’re proposing today would open the door to a tax abatement. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Correct. I think some of the tax abatements that are existing on all their equipment buying and computers; they don’t have to pay taxes on it right now. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – A lot of it is the State. Correct. And the State paused that as far as I’m aware, for now. COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – Thank you, Councilman Marcum. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Councilman Paquelet. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – Thank you, Councilwoman Harwig Smith. The 60-day stay; when is that timeframe up? Do we know? COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – June 22nd. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – June 22nd. Okay. Just so we know if we have to extend this. I don’t think it’s a “stay”. What’s the correct word on this? COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – “Stay” is the word. COUNCILMAN PAQELET – Oh, moratorium is what we changed. Anyways, so make sure if we push up against that so we’re prepared. Thank you. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Councilman Gregg. 10 COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you, Councilwoman Harwig Smith. First of all, I want to thank all of the gentlemen and ladies that came out tonight, came to our sessions and especially the ones that took their time to put together their thoughts and speak this evening for the things that they believe in. It’s a tremendous credit to our community and to the community represented there that people would take their time to do that. So, thank you very much for that and we can see the passion that people have both for these and against data centers. My thoughts on data centers is that it’s not just something we can discount. We have somewhere else and we won’t get the revenue. But, I am in full agreement with the fact that we put together, we’ve started as Councilman Marcum said, it’s the first step to put together regulations and controls on how they would and could be built in the City of Massillon. So, I just want to say that I think City Council will do the due diligence and take the time to thoroughly think through this issue. It’s far reaching. It impacts futures for everyone. Data centers are not going away. Steel mills that also used a huge amount of electricity and used a huge amount of water, did go away. So, we can’t say no if we have the chance to replace those jobs in that industry. Thank you. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Thank you, Councilman Gregg. I asked last week if our Director of Development could show us the I-2, what we have in the City. Thank you, Mr. Herncane. TED HERNCANE – Not a problem. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Go ahead, Holly. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – While Ted’s getting that ready, I wondered, Julie you asked, I believe last week a good question about, I believe it was you, maybe it was Tony; about should the industry go above the sound decibels, what parameters or what did the City have to come back at them? Was that you that asked that question? COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – I think so. With regards to, the Site Plan Review Committee shall consider the noise level. So they would have that opportunity to, if the noise were to be bad, that they could come back and address that issue. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – And if we’re talking about step one of this, I wonder, Seth, if we could add to the list of things to twindle down a little bit is to put some parameters in there to give the entity, whoever has jurisdiction over that, more control over that. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – Maybe Ted could answer this a little bit better. I don’t know is we have industry noise regulations in place where we, potentially, fine companies that are in existence currently because they’re too loud during certain hours of the day. I know like shooting ranges, for example, have pretty strict decibel requirements that change whether it’s dusk or dawn or middle of the day. I don’t know if our factories in the past had decibel regulations in place. I mean, I think that’s probably a little new school for back then. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – Then why is it in there? COUNCILMAN MARCUM – Why is it in here now? COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – If we’re not going to do something about it, why are we saying we can do something about it? 11 COUNCILMAN MARCUM – No. What I’m saying is, I’m wondering if there’s something in there already and I don’t know if there’s something in there already as far as, I’m thinking of a back end penalty as opposed to a perspective restriction. So currently, the language in here gives the Site Plan Review Board jurisdiction to deny an application based upon any potential noise violations. However, I would be interested to see something on the back end, sort of a .999 Section which is usually your penalty section that says, “thou shalt not have such and such decibels so many feet away. If you do, then it is a $50.00 fine day one, $100.00 fine day two, $250.00 for every day in violation thereafter. So, you end up with a week, then it’s seven time $250.00; you end up a month, thirty time $250.00 and then you fine these places into the ground and eventually you foreclose on them. It’s ugly, been there done that. We don’t necessarily want to do that, but that’s the tool that I’m thinking that we’re talking about over here. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – I don’t want to say something that says we can do something when we actually have no means to follow that through. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – Correct. So in theory, what we could do is craft some sort of decibel requirement for these facilities and then have building and code enforcement go out there with a decibel reader and determine whether or not they’re exceeding the allowed decibels off of the property and then cite that property or violation. Probably a warning first and then you moved into the ramped up enforcement for lack of a better term. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Gregg, you have something to say? COUNCILMAN GREGG – I was just going to say that we passed a noise regulation not too long ago. I think when Bitdeer was coming around. COUNCIL CLERK ROLLAND – It was the paper mill. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Okay. Did we not pass it? But we did put decibel restrictions. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – It was tabled. It never came back out Health. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – We can always start it over. COUNCILMAN PATTERSON – Can we research that and kind of get a solution to that? Because I probably would like to see some teeth as well, if possible. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – If something is existing already, maybe we pull what we did last Council. It’s now dead because it got tabled and we have a good starting point and maybe that goes to Health and Welfare to look at and then we talk about it alongside this. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Mr. Herncane. TED HERNCANE – Councilwoman Harwig Smith. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Can you show us what we have, point out I-2, is our full industrial of what we have left? 12 TED HERNCANE – Yeah, I apologize, we had a laser pointer but it doesn’t work on the screen and I don’t have a stick long enough to point things out. The light blue is the I-2 heavy industrial. That is consolidated. The old Republic site down along Rt. 30 by design is supposed the furthest industrial areas away from residential. There is some up along Lake Ave. going north and there’s an I-2 district close to downtown, a couple of blocks that way. There’s some over by the high school which was the old Republic Engineered Products building. Primarily consolidated where you would want it to be from a zoning standpoint away from people. In the I-2 district, I would say, in the code it does say you are allowed to make noise and you are allowed to have dust and things. The code states that external physical effects are restricted to the area, no, that’s the wrong one. The external physical effects will be felt, our code acknowledges that those will be felt to some degree by surrounding districts. So in the heavy I-2 industrial area, the code does allow for these external effects and acknowledges that they could pass the parcel boundaries. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Does anybody have any questions? Do you know which ones are available or most things in use? TED HERNCANE – Obviously, there are several hundred acres at the Massillon Energy and Technology Park which is the old Republic site that is available. There is a lot of I-2 south of Erie that is vacant that’s owned by the Shelly Corp. They own several hundred acres down there. I don’t know what their plans are. There’s not a whole lot of I-2 developable land left in the City. I will say that. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Were you the one who passed out these papers? TED HERNCANE – I did. Also last week when we talked at the Work Session, somebody asked if there were any studies or any papers out there that showed the economic benefit of data centers and what I passed out was a five or six-page document by the Stark Economic Development Board. Kind of a Q&A type of thing addressing several concerns like their economic value, tax revenues, utility usage, community impact; things of that nature for your reading. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Herncane? COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Gregg. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Yes. You talked about I-2. What about I-1? TED HERNCANE – So, I-1 is scattered probably a little bit more throughout the City. COUNCILMAN GREGG – What color is that on the map? TED HERNCANE – That is this purple color here. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Okay. TED HERNCANE – So, you have a lot in the Finefrock Industrial Park off of 9th St. You have a lot in the Nova Industrial Park there off of Nave Rd. You do get pockets of I-1. There’s some I-1’s downtown around the Walnut and Erie area. There’s a lot, actually, by the high school south of Harsh Ave. which was technically the first industrial area in the City 130 years ago. Over time as we more less of being more selective in our rezoning process you’re going to see 13 intermitted throughout parts of town some I-1 pop up, but that doesn’t mean that there’s a factory there. That means that there’s another use there that technically falls into the light industrial category, but it’s not like a factory manufacturing products. It certainly is a valid question and point if you did want to amend the ordinance to remove the I-1, that is certainly within your purview because that could pose a challenge and some other areas of town. The only thing I would caution or at least recommend is that you consider if you did do that, you very well could have a situation where a company that wants to build a smaller scale data center buys and I-1 property and then would come to you for a rezoning to an I-2 if that’s what you wanted to do and then whether it’s this Council or another Council, then the choice would be more selective on that exact end user as opposed to more of a general blanket type of allowance. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilwoman Cunningham. COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – Thank you, President Slater. My question, Mr. Herncane, is does the City own these properties or are these privately owned properties? TED HERNCANE – Which properties? COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – Well, any of those. TED HERNCANE – Well, the City, obviously, owns some property, but I would say we don’t own any industrial land. Those are all owned by either the company that operates there or some type of developer. We don’t own any I-1 or I-2 land, the City. COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – So, if somebody comes in and buys the property or owns it. Thank you. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Patterson. COUNCILMAN PATTERSON – Yeah. Are we done with Ted yet? I was just going to make a comment that’s all. I just want to thank you guys for coming in and speaking to us and telling us about the impact that it has locally with the construction trades. As a former economic development professional, I felt your pain trying to recruit businesses to Stark County. We visited Bitdeer not too long ago and quite frankly, I was pretty impressed. Actually, I have one son that’s an attorney and I have one son that’s in high school and I asked both of them about data centers and their thoughts and things of that nature and they were able to give the down side of it, but also by going to visit I was able to give them the pro side to the facilities and things of that nature. And a couple of things that I wanted to point out were similar to what you gentlemen have pointed out is that Ford, GM, Chrysler, those businesses aren’t coming back here. We’re not going to be able to compete on that level anymore. This is a new time and Stark County has an opportunity and the City of Massillon, has an opportunity to be at the forefront of this new wave of industry also, one of the things that impressed me with Bitdeer and similar businesses is that this is just the beginning. We’re on the verge of this industrial or revolution, so to say, and one of the things that they pointed out was that some of our employees; you don’t have to have a college degree to come work here and with the rising cost of a college education and things of that nature and we’re trying to put more kids into the trades, I think businesses like these are essential to what we need to do in this community. The economic impact that it can have on our quality of life is probably going to be huge. We 14 want to rebuild our downtown. We want to make this a livable, walkable community where our kids want to come back and stay and things of that nature and you do that by expanding the tax base and not limiting the tax base and Massillon has to be open for business. We can’t sit back and say “no, we can’t do it” we have to say “how do we do it”. I just want to applaud you guys and know that we’re going to do everything that we can in our power. One, to protect the community, of course. Address their concerns. And two, do what’s best to grow this tax base and make the City a better place. So, you have good professionals and you have a good Council here and I’m sure we’re going to do our due diligence and make the right decisions. So, that’s all I have to say. Thank you. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Thank you, Councilman Patterson. I wanted to add to that the Ohio House and Senate Select Committee has on data centers started their meetings. You can listen to it and see it; I’ve watched it on ohiochannel.com. There was a three-hour meeting on the 27th about the data centers and they had EPA and stuff on. There was a meeting today. I worked today, so I haven’t listened yet, but it was four hours long for the general public for and against. There’s a meeting scheduled for June 4th, June 8th and June 11th and from these meetings there may be coming legislation to help regulate these in the State of Ohio. So they’re listening to the concerns. I just want people who are posting things or reading things to know that we are listening, we are researching, all diligently. We’re trying to figure out the facts from the fiction and what’s best for our community. This is a struggle for me and the reason being is right now, everyone in my Ward that I talk to, I don’t not have one person who supports this. They don’t want it in their neighborhood, they don’t want it near them; they don’t want to hear it. I told you about Bitdeer and what we went through with them and how our questions and alerts, Bitdeer really has proven and is still trying to prove that they can be a good neighbor to us and be responsible and have as little of impact on people as possible. We did not have a choice in Bitdeer coming. The only thing we voted on was taking two light industrial properties and putting it on one. They were going to build regardless because we had no legislation, just again, so people know that. My problem with light industrial is our wording with light industrial. It says “it is allowed to be up against residential districts”. Full industrial, I think, can be 80 up and they don’t care. So that’s the big concern for me. I don’t think this belongs in light industrial. Like Ted said, if it’s a unique property or they can put it in a closed facility with no noise and no impact on anyone then we could always look at changing it and going from there. But we definitely need to tighten things up. One thing I found interesting in the papers that you handed out to us, Ted, this is talking about a million square foot facility which would be a very large one. Could bring in three to four billion dollars a year. Obviously, we’re not going to get something that big and we wouldn’t want it. But it also talks about industrial land strategy and highest and best use in Stark County under Section 2 in here. And it says we should evaluate each project within the industrial land strategy and not every megawatt site is manufacturing ready. Certain locations with strong transmission access, but limit rail or highway logistics may be more suitable for data infrastructures. Advanced manufacturing remains a priority recruitment target. Site with strong multi-modal logistics, workforce access and supply chain advantage should be preserved for manufacturing recruitment. To me, with our limited area in Massillon, Ohio, limited industrial; I mean, we have the railroad, we have Rt. 30, we have Rt. 21, Rt. 77, we have airports, we have river, water, electricity, we have a lot of good infrastructure. So, do we want to give all that up and just like everything we have left turn into data centers? That’s just something to think about too. But I encourage people to pay attention to what the House and Senate Select Committee is talking about on data centers with all these meetings. Lots of good stuff out there. Puts a lot of these policies that you’re seeing, people just reposting out there against data centers to rest, but it does bring up a lot of questions too. Does anybody else have anything you wanted to add? Mr. Herncane. 15 TED HERNCANE – Councilwoman. If I could add one more thing. For argument’s sake let’s say a data center was located right in the middle of the former Republic site, we all know where that is right? I calculated that that is three thousand feet from the newest home. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – I could live with that. TED HERNCANE – Well, let me put that into perspective. So, three thousand feet is over half a mile where we are all sitting or standing today; if you go three thousand feet east, you’re at the CVS at the corner of Wales Rd. and Lincoln Way. If you go three thousand feet west, we’re at the Top of the Viaduct. If you go three thousand feet north, you’re at the northern most part of the St. Mary Cemetery. If you go three thousand feet south, you are five hundred south of Walnut Rd.; you’re almost at the Cameo. And if you go northeast three thousand feet, you’re at the State and Amherst intersection almost to the hospital. Three thousand feet is a long way. That site is huge should one be located there. I don’t think that there’s anyone that can legitimately look you in the eye and say that is next door to them. COUNCILMAN PATTERSON – And how long has this site been vacant? COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Years. TED HERNCANE – And Councilwoman, I would agree with you; we are currently looking with our economic development partners and some other developers to acquire more industrial land especially down around Rt. 30 which is a good place for it. However, we can give our suggestions to existing property owners; they don’t have to take our suggestions. Buyers and seller find each other every day and it’s not the government’s place to tell them except by law, where can and cannot make a sale. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Councilman Marcum. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – I’ll also just note; we’re better for a data center than on a brown field that’s been out of commission for decades. Nobody wants them in farmland. Nobody wants them to be your neighbor. Put them in the brown fields, let’s redevelop the brown fields and get them cleaned up and make them productive again. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – And the brown fields are basically contaminated, full industrial land that was used for years and there’s nothing on now. Councilwoman Cunningham. COUNCILWOMAN CUNNINGHAM – Thank you, Councilwoman Harwig Smith. When the plant manager Jon was here and spoke and he said we’re transparent. We’ll let anybody come through that wants to and take a tour. So, I mentioned that and there were eight people that went last week. One that was a past Massillon school board member and his wife. One that is a neighbor that owns Stark Glass and one of his assistants and then a couple of regular citizens and I went again and that was my second time and Councilman Paquelet went this time. Again, from the first time that I was there, I learned more the second time and again, like Councilman Patterson said, one of the questions I brought up was, how many college graduates with degrees and all that have to work here. And they basically said that if they can put a computer together from the ground up, so to speak, he said we take you because we know your passion. And again, we were taken through the whole tour and learned what a miner was. Not somebody that digging into the ground like for gold like they used to. But it was very, very interesting and again, it’s open to anybody. Give them a call and they’ll let you 16 take a tour of it for the people that are not really understanding what’s going on and not because they don’t want to, but they’re believing everything they’re reading so social media. So, I just wanted to mention that as well. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Ted, do you know, as the State goes through and they develop laws and regulations we will automatically adopt those and if anything is existing they have to adjust to it? How does that work? Or do people who are here like are grandfathered into it? COUNCILMAN MARCUM – So what we’re doing here today is we are considering amending our zoning code. Our current zoning code is the wild west when it comes to these tech based industries. What that means is you end up like a situation like we did with Bitdeer a couple years back where we can’t control where they go. A data center, theoretically, could round hole, square peg, their way into downtown, depending on the zoning district is there or around downtown; depending on what the zoning district is there. Or right next to a residential home. Depending on what the zoning district is there. I do this for a living. I represent governments on the zoning side and represent developers on the development side and we look for all the loop holes to convince the government to let us build and then on the government side, if there’s a project that’s not so great for the community, we look for the loop holes that get the developer to work with us. Now, bringing that to Massillon, what we’re doing here, again, is zoning. Zoning is what a municipality or township can do to, again, control the rules of the game to the community. This is where our power as a community is the strongest to control and develop development within our political subdivision moving forward. Generally speaking, our zoning decisions will trump State law because State law typically does not intrude on zoning. It’s not necessarily the most accurate statement to say that we’ll trump State law. Sorry, again, I might be a lawyer by day but I’m a Council Member today. I’m not your lawyer. I a lawyer, not your lawyer, so I recommend everybody if you have legal questions, talk to the lawyer because my malpractice insurance doesn’t cover this advice. We all good? So, we the ability to regulate what goes where. We can’t outright ban anything unless the law says we can. Alcohol, 21st amendment and State laws say that we can regulate alcohol. That’s why we have liquor licenses in the State of Ohio. Marijuana; we could ban marijuana facilities or at least we could have a couple of years back when we had the option there because there’s a State law that says we can ban marijuana facilities. We opted not to, now we are allowed marijuana facilities to develop in the City. There are a handful of industries like that, but for the most part, you cannot outright ban a facility from developing in your municipality, but you can control where it can develop and in controlling where you can develop, you kind of restrict it, mitigate its impact and hope for the best. Now when it comes to these State laws, so we’re talking tax abatements, how they do business. Typically speaking, we can’t regulate how they do business in a way that conflicts with State law. The City of Massillon is a statutory city. What does that mean? It means we are governed by Title VII of the Ohio Revised Code. If we would like to do something different than Title VII of the Ohio Revised Code, this Council and all of the voters in the City of Massillon can go form a charter which is like a constitution that gives us greater home role authority under the Ohio Constitution to alter and vary how we operate. We can change the administrative structure. We can change the legislative structure, but we can also give ourselves more authority to regulate residential areas and businesses throughout the City, if that makes sense. And we can conflict with State laws so long as those laws are not police powers. Police powers are like speeding and what not, just think of anything you could get a ticket for or fined for, that’s a police power with some exceptions with more expansion there and it’s complicated. Sorry. So, generally speaking… COUNCILMAN GREGG – I forgot what you asked him. 17 COUNCILMAN MARCUM – What we’re doing here today, what we’re doing here today, won’t change with State law unless State law says data centers are banned in the State of Ohio, there’s nothing we can do. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – But if they come in and say all data centers have to change the way they process water or have to change, they have to be responsible? COUNCILMAN MARCUM – That is a police power. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Then that would be the State that can do that. We cannot do anything like that. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – Correct. So when it comes to police powers, we can regulate their water usage, generally. We can regulate their electric usage, generally. But we can’t control it, necessarily because there’s a lot of Public Utility Commission of Ohio stuff there. So all of these energy companies have, we’re going to talk about tariffs now which are a nightmare. We’re not going to go into it. Anyway, long story short, State law can regulate and we can kind of regulate in the gaps, which is what we’re doing here with the zoning. We’re regulating in the gaps. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Okay. I’m sure we’ll have a real busy Work Session next week. Councilwoman Bryan-Huth. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – Thank you, Mrs. Harwig Smith. Thank you, Seth, for all of that and yes, I did listen to the 27th State House and all of the professionals and organizations that did speak. I didn’t get today’s, as well. But on that same theme, I think it’s very prudent for us to follow the advice and the lead and the data, no punt intended, that we’re getting from these professionals, from the State leaders, from all the work that they’re doing because they have much more access to information and all of these inputs than we do here in Massillon. We welcome all of the input today, but we need to know from a broader spectrum. Data centers are huge and we’re Massillon. So, I think it would be very prudent for us to stay in lined, momentum with what they’re doing so that we’re not making decisions ahead of what’s being done at the State level. I think that’s something to consider. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – I agree. Anyone else? Okay. Ord. No. 60 – 2026, first reading. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Ord. No. 60 – 2026 has finally reached its first reading. Ord. No. 61 – 2026. ORDINANCE NO. 61 – 2026 BY: STREETS, HIGHWAYS, TRAFFIC & SAFETY COMMITTEE AN ORDINANCE approving the collection of an annual yard waste fee from residents of townships and villages in Stark County, Ohio, by the Street Department of the City of Massillon, Ohio, and declaring an emergency. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Paquelet. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – Thank you, President Slater. Mr. McClay would you like to come up? Last week when we discussed this ordinance a few people were in attendance. So Mr. McClay is here to answer any questions that someone may have. What he proposed in 18 this ordinance is to allow people who live in the surrounding townships of Stark County to use the facility in Massillon for their yard waste and charge them a fee to do so. Mrs. Huth. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – Thank you, Mr. Paquelet. Mr. McClay, I wonder you spoke about the pass, so it’s a $50 pass, so regardless of how many times that they just wanted to come one or they wanted to come seventeen, they have to get the $50 pass? JOSH MCCLAY – It’s $50, yes. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN – HUTH – How did you come about that fee? JOSH MCCLAY – So, if you go to Kurtz or Union Topsoil it’s $15 a dump and we were collecting from them, in the past without any type of vetting process or collecting a fee. So, $50 seemed like a reasonable place to start. Because if we’re open eight months, that’s what thirty-two weeks at $50, that’s less than $2 a week to dump your yard waste. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – I think it’s super smart. And maybe you mentioned it last session, but you have the capacity to take on more you’ve noticed since the springtime started? JOSH MCCLAY – Yes. Well, we were taking it before and we were taking contractors too. There was zero vetting process. People would just come in and dump. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – I know. I was one of those people. But I’m a resident so I could do that? JOSH MCCLAY – Right. COUNCILWOMAN BRYAN-HUTH – I’m good. Alright. Thank you. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – Any other questions? Councilman Gregg. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you, Councilman Paquelet. I just wanted to emphasize that, as you just mentioned, residents of Massillon can dump for free? JOSH MCCLAY – Right. COUNCILMAN GREGG – This is strictly for residents outside the City. And the way this is worded, I mentioned this to Councilman Marcum, but approving the collection of annual yard waste from townships and villages in Stark County. I think that should be from residents of townships and villages in Stark County, right? Because we’re not soliciting or wanting waste from an actual government entity like a township. JOSH MCCLAY – Sure. COUNCILMAN GREGG – And not from contractors either. JOSH MCCLAY – Right. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Right. So I think we need to change that to residents of? 19 COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – That’s a great statement. COUNCILMAN GREGG – So, just to be clear, but I guess that’s all I have. But thank you for taking the time to put this together. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilwoman Harwig Smith. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Can you tell us one more time your hours of operation for dumping? JOSH MCCLAY – It will be 7:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday. Every first and third Wednesday, we’ll be open until 6:00 pm and every third Saturday, we’ll be open from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. COUNCILMAN GREGG – And those are listed on the City’s website? Those hours are on the website. JOSH MCCLAY – Yes. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – So, Monday through Friday 7:00 am to 2:00 pm, every first and third Wednesday, 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and every third Saturday, 7:00 am to 3:00 pm? JOSH MCCLAY – Yes. COUNCILWOMAN HARWIG SMITH – Okay. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – Any other questions? Now, so what Mr. Gregg had pointed out so to make a change to this, we can’t vote on it tonight. We need to make a change and so it would have to be a first reading? COUNCILMAN MARCUM – So, what I would recommend, if we want to pass it tonight? COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – I would like to. COUNCILMAN MARCUM – Three steps; step one, move to amend Section One to reflect “yard waste fee from residents of townships and villages”, assuming that passes. Then motion to suspend the rules and then motion to pass. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – So we will do that. I make a motion to amend Ord. No. 61 – 2026 to include the word residents of townships and villages. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilwoman Cunningham. Roll call for the amendment. 7 yes to amend Ord. No. 61 – 2026 to reflect “from residents of townships and villages in Stark County” COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Paquelet. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – Thank you. Now I’d like to make a motion to waive the rules requiring three readings and bring Ord. No. 61 – 2026 to a vote. 20  COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilman Gregg. Roll call for suspension. 7 yes for suspension COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – And for passage. 7 yes for passage COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Thank you, Madam Clerk. Ord. No. 61 – 2026 has passed. 9. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 10. PETITIONS AND GENERAL COMMINCATIONS 11. BILLS, ACCOUNTS AND CLAIMS Visual Edge IT - $ 96.03 Overage Chg. 02/24/26 to 05/23/26 COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Gregg. COUNCILMAN GREGG – Thank you, President Slater. I make a motion that we pay the bills. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilman Marcum. Roll call. 7 yes to pay the bills COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – The Clerk will pay the bills and charge them to their proper accounts. 12. REPORTS FROM CITY OFFICIALS Treasurer’s Report - April 2026 Mayor’s Report - April 2026 13. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Our next Work Session will be Monday, June 8, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. 14. RESOLUTIONS AND REQUESTS OF COUNCIL MEMBERS 15. CALL OF THE CALENDAR 16. THIRD READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS 17. SECOND READING ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS 18. REMARKS OF DELEGATIONS AND CITIZENS TO MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA 19. ADJOURNMENT 21 COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Councilman Paquelet. COUNCILMAN PAQUELET – I’d like to make a motion for adjournment. COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Seconded by Councilwoman Cunningham. Roll call. 7 yes to adjourn COUNCIL PRESIDENT SLATER – Meeting adjourned. ______________________________ ______________________________ DIANE ROLLAND, COUNCIL CLERK MIKE SLATER, PRESIDENT 22