City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, April 28, 2022, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Rev. Ken Bulgrin, First Apostolic Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Ethan Malish, student at Cornerstone School. 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 4-14-22 Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Sisak moved to approve the 4-14-22 Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman – unanimous. The 4-14-22 Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: This is the time of the meeting when anybody in the audience would like to address Council on something that is not on the agenda, you can do it at this time. 8. Agenda Additions: Pres. of Council: We are going to change the order and we are going to do the swearing-in first and so Mayor. • Swearing-in of Doug Bohon to the position of Captain in the Tallmadge Police Department. • Swearing-in of Patrick Fairhurst to the position of Sergeant in the Tallmadge Police Department. Pres. of Council: Next we have Mrs. Billow. She is our representative on the Summit County Public Health Department. She is going to give us an update this evening. Patricia Billow: The Health Department is located at 1867 West Market Street. I am just going to highlight some of the important topics. We have a walk-up window. One of the primary functions of the Health Department is to keep the vital statistics, the birth certificates and the death certificates. People sometimes need a copy, and it can be obtained on-line and mailed out to you or now you can just walk up. As of last night, based on our dashboard, there were 113,883 cases in Summit County. 83,863 of those were confirmed cases and 30,030 were probable cases. There were 1,954 deaths in Summit County over the two years. That is a 1.7% death rate. In the long-term care facilities, there was a 19.4% death rate. Here in Tallmadge, we had 3,941 cases and of that 3,115 were confirmed cases and 846 were probable cases. There were 89 deaths in Tallmadge from Covid. We did have a little bit higher number in the long-term care; we were at 20.5%. Home test kits are still available. If you go to www.covidtests.gov you can obtain four (4) free antigen tests to do at home. They will be delivered to your home through the mail. We are still doing the vaccination and booster clinics. We are doing the drive-thru clinics. If you go to scph.ord they have the schedule. We do these drive-thru clinics, and they are very slick. You stay in the car, and you can receive either your vaccination or your booster and then you wait and then you are on your way. If you prefer to go indoors, you can make an appointment. I did want to mention that Covid vaccines are not the only vaccines that the Health Department offers. If you have kids that are going to be starting school and they need their measles, mumps, chicken pox; we also have that and we have hepatitis, flu vaccines, shingles and all you need to do is make a call. We also have full-service dental. So, If you don’t have a dentist, Summit County Public Health will help you out with dental services. If you have a home that was built before 1978, you probably have lead paint. It is a serious problem. There are probably 99,000 homes in Summit County. The problem is when you have pealing, or when you have chips in the window seals, chips on the outside of the home that gets into the soil, 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Mrs. Billow (Cont’d.) what I wanted you to be aware of is that HUDD has rehabilitation grants, and the applications are available on our Summit County Public Health website. So, if you do have a little bit older home, there is help. I also wanted to remind you that it is in the United States that we are concerned about lead if there are imported products; children’s toys or wooden toys that are painted. The lead rules do not apply so be very careful. Discussed radon stating that it is a radioactive gas that is released in the soil, and it is when uranium is decomposing. It comes up through your slabs. If you have a crack in your basement or through your foundation walls, I wanted you to be aware that in Ohio you can get a kit; a free kit to test for radon. It is done over a two to seven-day period to determine if you have a problem and then Summit County Public Health has a list of those who are licensed to treat radon. We are going to be doing the mosquito control again. We have been at this for over 40 years. It started out in 1976 when there was an outbreak of lacrosse and encephalitis here in Summit County and in 1999, we had an outbreak of West Nile, and we continue to have problems with the West Nile virus as well as the Zika virus. We use a bacteria-based treatment of larva that is found in standing water and then we have the spraying. If you want to know when your neighborhood is going to be sprayed, go once again to scph.org and you have the schedule. You can also have them text you when your neighborhood will be sprayed. Mayor: I would just like to thank you for representing the City of Tallmadge for us. This is your second term. Thank you very much. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Safety: Thank you. A reminder that the Ohio Ethics reports are due if you have not done yours online, I think it is May 16th for the deadline. Summer help: We are doing pretty well at our parks. Jill has been very busy onboarding folks for the Rec Center. The Sunshine Law course is online. It is a challenge, but make sure you do it. That’s it; end of report. There is the fire station. The only thing left for bricking are the arches. The shingles will start on Monday. The wood decking: this whole side was completed today and then on the back side they are halfway up. It’s really moving along pretty well. We are hoping to get drywall delivered next week. b. Director of Administration: Good evening, everyone. I have no report this evening, but I am happy to answer any questions. There was discussion regarding cost containment. c. Director of Public Service: Good evening. I just wanted to mention real quick that we are doing OK with hiring the seasonals. Where we are hurting is the summer camp. The lifeguards on the other hand; I think we are one shy of getting all of them. It is a hit or miss on who wants to work and not everybody wants to do that summer camp and so if you hear any problems, we did cancel it. d. Director of Economic Development: On economic development, we have done a couple business retentions. I was out at East End Welding today. They are doing pretty well out there. They are only down 3 employees. Everyone is trying to hire. We have been out to a couple of them in the JEDD. Martin Wheel has signed the contract to go on the Maplecrest Golf Couse. I talked to Camel Construction today when I was at the Portage County Development Board meeting that I was at this morning. They are moving along with that. They also have another client that will be going into the annexed portion. Joe Scaccio’s Carmen Develop- 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Mayor (Cont’d.) ment out there off of Progress Blvd. so he is working on that, and they have that in front of Planning & Zoning next month. Pres. of Council: I will give an update at this time because some of you may be getting questions regarding the earth moving at the old Munroe School property site. The district if moving dirt during the rough grade for where the baseball field will go because that ground needs to settle for a year before you could hope to play on it. So, the stadium at this time is not slated to be built, but they are doing the ground prep work if you get asked. Mr. Sisak: What is the plan for the roller-skating rink? I know it is coming down, but . . . Mayor: It is going to come down and be green space right now. The owner of the property, Joe Scaccio is meeting with them to come up with a strategic plan. He thinks he has a couple folks that would like to come in. We did have a ribbon cutting on that site, Big D’s Barbecue. I would encourage you to swing by there and grab some barbecue. That is right there beside the roller rink. Hopefully we can come up with a plan for the 23 acres that he has. e. Dir. of Finance: Thank you. We have just been very busy in my office with the audit and preparing the year-end financial reports. If anybody has any specific questions about the City’s finances, I would be glad to answer them. End of report. f. Director of Law: Thank you. I will take this opportunity to do one final plug for our Drug Take Back. It is this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at the Tallmadge Police Department. I will also take the opportunity to mention a renewed reminder that the City of Tallmadge, City of Stow, and Cuyahoga Falls in cooperation with the University of Akron does offer a neighborhood mediation program. We have been doing this for years now and it is a great free opportunity for a free program to try to help neighbors resolve disputes that they may have. Certain disputes are not as appropriate as others to be referred to the mediation program, but if you have any questions or concerns or think that there might be residents that have an interest in that, please direct them to contact the Law Department and then we take it from there and kind of see whether or not it would be appropriate for referral. Thank you. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. Planning and Zoning Carol Kilway, Chair Rebecca Allman, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development and public property. i. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-45 – P.H. on 5-12-22 @ 7:03 p.m. – Repealing Tallmadge Codified Ordinance Section 1103.06 R-6 Residential Open Space Planned Development Districts and amending the Table of Contents, Code Index, Section 1101.04 and Section 1102.14 to eliminate references thereto. Sponsor: Council and Administration Mrs. Kilway: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-45. Ord. 2022-45 was read into the record. We do have a public hearing scheduled for May 12, 2022 @ 7:03 p.m. Is there any discussion on this at this time? OK, so we will just give it a 3rd Reading. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-49 – Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to appli- cant Nelson Rivera/Iglesia Pentecostal Todavia La Puerta Esta Abierta on behalf of property owner Yajnik Properties, LLC for a religious place of worship located at 23 Erie Road, consisting of 2,592 square feet, being a portion of Parcel 6007037. Sponsor: Carol Kilway 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 iii. Additional Items: None. b. Finance Craig Sisak, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, and reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. Additional Items Mr. Sisak called the Finance Committee to order. We have no legislation this evening. Is there anything for the Finance Committee? Seeing none, I will go ahead and close committee. Thank you. c. Personnel Jonathon Bollas, Chair Adam Bozic, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. i. First Readings oi Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-50 – Tracked – Establishing the number of non-collective bargaining employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Bollas called the Personnel Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-50 before us this evening at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: There are two amendments in this ordinance. That is for the Safety Director . . . currently has the PT in parenthesis and I am asking that to be removed so I can make that a full-time position and the other one is in the Police Department; the Clerk’s job, I would like to remove the classified employee to unclassified. It is a little difficult at times when we just need a part-time clerk up there to go through the process of Civil Service testing a couple weeks posted out and then it is just hard to find someone to fill that spot. That has to be vetted through the Civil Service Commission. This whole ordinance has to be vetted through Civil Service and they are going to meet hopefully prior to your next meeting. Dir. of Law: Mr. Bollas, we do need to set a public hearing for May 26th at 7:03 p.m. Mr. Bollas: I will set a public hearing for Ord. 2022-50 for May 26th at 7:03 p.m. Is there any discussion? Mr. Bozic: Before we open this up for discussion, I just want to make everyone aware that I will be abstaining from this vote due to potential candidates that could be taking this position as a Public Safety Director that are of family relation. Any other discussion. Seeing that this will go through Civil Service and there is a public hearing set for May 26th, and we have no other ordinances or resolutions this evening, I will go ahead and close committee. ii. Additional Items d. Community Issues Mary Gutman, Chair Carol Kilway, Vice Chair The Community Issues Committee deals with Parks and Recreation, civic affairs, and liaison between Council and the Recreation Board and intergovernmental affairs Mrs. Gutman called the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for Community Issues? 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Mayor: Keep in mind that the Memorial Day Parade is coming up at the end of the month and also the pancake breakfast at the Community Center and the 5K run at 8:00 a.m. through Ritchie’s Sporting Goods. So, if you want to run in that, the applications are down there. Mrs. Kilway: I just had a quick question and I think it would be in Community Issues because it is a service that we have always offered our community. Are we going to be opening up the passport office anytime soon? Pres. of Council: No, we are not. So, during Covid we lost; the ladies certification ran out and correct me if I say something wrong Mrs. Burton, and so I don’t know if it required CE or what the process was, but in the meantime, Summit County’s office on Tallmadge Avenue is a total turnkey one stop there. Because of the close proximity of that office to this office, we decided not to do that any longer. Mrs. Kilway: OK, I just thought that Susan and Gina had gotten their recertification. Pres. of Council: No, they did not. They did not and again, it is 2 miles away and a 5- minute drive. Mrs. Kilway: I just know it was a lot easier especially for our older residents to come here to City Hall to do that as opposed to . . . Pres. of Council: You still had to make two stops though because you had to go somewhere else to get the picture. If you go to Summit County, it is a one-stop. Mr. Bollas: What was the level of volume we saw with that at its peak? Clerk of Council: Probably close to 100. Mrs. Gutman: Anything else? If there is nothing, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with Disaster services, communications, fire, and para- medics, police, and health i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-48 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Mutual Aid Agreement with Summit County and the Summit County Sheriff for the Tallmadge Police Depart- ment participation in the County of Summit Sheriff’s Office Special Weapons and Tactics Team and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mr. Bozic called the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-48 before us. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: Yes, this authorizes us to be on the SWAT Team. The Summit County Sheriff’s Department had a couple positions open, and they asked Tallmadge if they would like to join. If we need SWAT here in town, they do come here, and this would just allow some opportunities for us to enter into that agreement. Mrs. Kilway: Just real quick; how soon would you like to have this? Do you need three readings on this? Mayor: At least give it a 2nd Reading. Mrs. Kilway: Is there any additional cost associated to the City on this? Mayor: The training is free. We do have to provide some items and they will provide some of the equipment. We pay their salary if they leave Tallmadge. Mr. Bozic: Any other input regarding the Safety Committee. I do have one other question and I will put it under the safety category, and we have talked about it a couple of times. I believe there is something circulating about a cell tower going in and it being possibly done in the later part of this year. I am just curious if anyone had any further information on that. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Mayor: The Tallmadge School District is looking at putting a cell tower on their site. There is no application in front of Planning & Zoning. They have the material that they know they have to supply to us, but they are vetting that. I think they went to the School Board, and they agreed to allow it to happen, but they have to go through the process, and you have to have the cell company willing to come in and do it. Pres. of Council: Right and they have a vendor selected and actually that vendor does a lot of work with Speelman Electric, but their backlog is like 18 months. So, to make sure that when they come to us for Planning & Zoning, they have a year window or whatever it is they want to make sure that those timelines align. Mr. Bozic: So, is there anything on behalf of the City that we can do to expedite that or assist the school district with getting that tower up? Mayor: They have to get the application in, and we don’t know . . . it is a conditional zoning and so it depends on what the public comes out and that is about all we can really do. I can’t make them make the application. We’ve talked to cell companies quite often trying to say come to Tallmadge. We have it on our water tower and we have it on Northeast Avenue, we have it by the expressway corridors down on Gilchrist Road. There are towers down there that have helped Tallmadge. The cell companies would like me to sell the water tower to them and then they would have sole control over it, but there is comingling on the water tower with a few different vendors on there and they just . . . we are at the mercy of them and based on the customers in Tallmadge that are willing to buy their product. Mr. Bozic: With the project of East Avenue going in, I know there are streetlamps now that produce 5G cell service from those streetlamps. Is that something that we have been looking at as we potentially plan for the East Avenue Project? Mayor: 5G service is available if they do it along there. I know we went with a firm coming up with the rules and regulations, but if it is in the public right-of-way; are they a PUCO person or what kind of regulations are we allowed to regulate on them to start putting monopoles up and down our rights-of-way and it has to be a little higher than the light post. Mr. Bozic: So, from what I was understanding is that the light manufacturers are working with the cell companies to produce a lamppost that is aesthetically pleasing but still provides the cell service. I’m not sure if we are looking at that or are aware of that. Dir. of Finance: Just a reminder though, East Avenue; the widening project really is not going to start until 2026 and so probably the school’s cell tower in a year and a half is probably a better thing, but it is definitely something to look into as we are doing that if that does not come to fruition. Hearing no more input, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements; water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycle, waste, and trash. i. Third Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-44 – Recognizing the outcome of the 2020 Census reaffirming the Ward boundaries as provided in Tallmadge Codified Ordinances Chapter 106.01. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Allman called the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2022-44 before us at 3rd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: This is at 3rd Reading and it is ready to go. We will do it again in 10 years and go through the same process. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Mrs. Kilway moved for the adoption of Ord. 2022-44. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2022-44 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. ii. 1st Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2022-51 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with Equix Integrity Inc. for CCTV inspection and cleaning consulting services related to City sewers and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mrs. Allman: Next we have Ord. 2022-51 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. This is the second year we have done this. This is a special service. It is an engineering firm, and we went out and solicited companies and they came back and Equix was the lowest quote and they come highly recommended from one of our engineers and so this is televising about 28,000 lineal feet of sanitary sewer as well as cleaning it. Then at the end, they give us an assessment of valuing the sanitary lines; which ones need to be replaced and which ones are still good. Mrs. Allman: Do you want this passed tonight? Dir. of Pub. Service: It doesn’t have to be. Mr. Sisak: This was in the budget this year I take it? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mr. Sisak: Do you have a timeline on doing this. I mean, is it better to televise those during the summer. I would recommend adoption at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2022-51 is passed by a vote of 7-0. Is there anything else to come before Public Service? Mr. Bozic: How involved are we with the District 8 public works grants and applying for some of those. I know we received some funds in the past and I just didn’t know if we have anything in the works in the future? Mayor: That is the whole East Avenue Corridor. So, we are applying and that is over Phase I and Phase II; it is like a $30 million project which 20% will be the City’s portion and 80% will be the ODOT. District 8 is our district and then we are always looking at different things that we can apply for through District 8 through AMATS also and through CDBG which is all related to all of that. Mrs. Allman: Anything else for Public Service? Hearing none, I will close committee. iii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: Pres. of Council: I would like to end the Council Operations Committee Mrs. Raber, if I could just do that. The purpose of setting that up to begin with was to help keep us on track and work through live streaming and that has been accomplished. Mr. Bollas: Yeah, just a question on that. The only thing I have a question on that I have asked Dove to kind of observe their average hours per meeting and try to, as we are approaching budget season again, just try to get an idea what that cost would be and if it could be refined at all, so that is one thing and another thing was if we were going to get an upgrade that could be mobile. I know that that was a budgetary item that was being discussed between Dove and our IT. Lastly, I wanted to get a sense if we were able to monitor the views or clicks on the website itself for views of the video and then potentially gauge the volume of viewership, not just live but thereafter if the website has that capability and that is a follow-up item I would like to give to Dove and our IT Department as well. My recommendation would be to keep Council Operations open through at least the fall just so we can work out any additional questions, but if you would like to, if it is your desire to close the committee permanently and then just incorporate it into additional items. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 28, 22 Pres. of Council: No, we can keep it open. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: • Cub Scout Pack 3361’s Annual Spring Freedom Trail Clean-up. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. The Council meeting of 4-28-22 adjourned at 8:11 p.m. by a vote of 7-0. sb Adopted: ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Denis K. Loughry, President of Council 8