City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, April 13, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Pastor James Case, Tallmadge Lutheran Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Kline. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – present. Mrs. Allman was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 3-9-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to make a motion to approve the 3-9-23 minutes. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The 3-9-23 Council meeting minutes are adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $175,000, Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $450,000 to Council on 4-4-23. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 3-31-23 to Council on 4-6-23. • March Financial Reports to Council on 4-6-23. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 3-31-23 to Council on 4-6-23. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-23 to Council on 4-6-23. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 3-31-23 to Council on 4-6-23. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of March to Council on 4-6-23. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 3-31-23 to Council on 4-6- 23. Mr. Sisak moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The Financial Reports were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: PLANNING & ZONING Ord. 2023-34 – At 3rd Reading – Amended – P.H. on 4-13-23 @ 7:01 p.m. – P&Z Rec. approval 5-0. Amending the zoning map by rezoning the property of Applicant, Todd Meighen for GT Brazilian Jui Jitsu, Porra LLC, Owner, located at 51 Southeast Avenue, Parcel 6000098, consisting of approximately 0.3884 acres from Industrial District (I-1) to General Commercial District (C-3) and approving the existing general development plan. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: We do have a public hearing today and it is for Ord. 2023-34. It is 7:04 p.m. and I am going to open the public hearing. The ordinance was read into the record. At this time, we are going to open it up to the community. Does anyone have anything that they would like to discuss for this ordinance? No one responded. Is there anyone who has anything to discuss against this ordinance? No one responded. Second time; is there anyone in the community who has anything to discuss for this ordinance? No one responded. Is there anyone who has anything to discuss against the ordinance? No one responded. Third and final time; is there anyone that has anything to discuss either for or against this ordinance? No one responded. It is now 7:05 p.m. and I will open it up to the Planning & Zoning Committee. Is there any discussion on this ordinance? Mayor: Thank you Madame Chair. To put this . . . this is the old Pool Town and most of us 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mayor (Cont’d.) have realized where this is located. This is zoned currently I-1 which clearly that whole region right there should be a C-3. They are purchasing the building and it is a great operation and Planning & Zoning approved it 5-0 and the City’s Administration is definitely behind the recommendation to make that zoning change. Mrs. Kilway: I would have to agree 100% with that as well. I remember when it was all industrial there and I remember when there were machine shops and everything in that area and that is totally not what is in there now. It is all commercial and this is a no brainer in my opinion. Does anyone else on Council have anything? Mr. Bozic: I just have one question about the actual overlay for the parking lot. Currently you can turn directly into I guess the side lot from Erie. Will that still remain the same or will there be an actual curb? Mayor: The parking will stay the same as it is now, but they know that in part of the Planning & Zoning that if they . . . they have room in the back to extend their parking and to actually add parking but that must go in front of Planning & Zoning to be able to do that. Mr. Bozic: And then I don’t recall if Pool Town had a dumpster or not. Is that part of that plan; I am assuming that it is part of that plan approval process. Mayor: Behind the building is a dumpster location. Mr. Bozic: That is all screened off. Mrs. Kilway: Anything else from Council? No one responded. Mr. Sisak: I move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Ord. 2023-34 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. At this time, I will close the Planning & Zoning Committee. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This evening, we are pleased to have our new State Representative in our new redrawn House District 35, Representative Steve Demetriou is here to speak to us this evening. Steve Demetriou: Good evening. Great to be here tonight. Thanks for what you do as local leaders here in Tallmadge and you know as Dennis said, my name is Steve Demetriou, and I am the new State Representative for District 35, so I live in Geauga County and then I also represent parts of Portage and Summit Counties as well. So, it has been a lot of fun getting around Northeast Ohio this last year on the campaign trail and now serving my first time as an elected official down in the State House. I try to make my way to as many Township Trustee meetings, village, council meetings as I could. Obviously, I didn’t get here to Tallmadge during the campaign, but I guess I am fulfilling the promise now after the election and I look forward to engaging with you and the residents of Tallmadge in whatever capacity you need me. I am also here tonight to honor a long-time public servant for Tallmadge, Chief Mike Passarelli and I would also like to acknowledge his wife Patricia, who you know, as an Army veteran myself, I know that the wives often get overlooked, but they are holding it down at home when we are doing the dirty work and so I appreciate the Chief’s long service; nearly 50 years to the community and I was joking with him because he is world famous; my aide was calling me this morning telling me when he was home last weekend he saw the Chief on a commercial and he was staying with his parents in Medina County, so he must be a pretty big deal out here. So, I am honored to be here today to give a commendation from the State House. I have to come back because I was talking to Pastor Case, and he just retired too and so I kind of came up empty handed so I apologize Pastor. Mike is in the paper, and he is on the tv now and so I have an excuse to come back to another meeting if you will have me. I am just going to read this because it was pretty well-written, and I think it sums up his legacy of service. The proclamation was read into the record. Thank you for your service. You are a true servant leader Mike, and it has been great to meet you tonight and I look forward to getting to know both of you better. Let’s give him a round of applause. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Pres. of Council: This is also the time in the meeting where anybody in the audience that would like to address Council on any item that is not on our agenda can do so at this time. Is there anyone that would like to do that this evening. Seeing none, we will move onto to Item 8 Agenda Additions. 8. Agenda Additions: • Liquor application from Crighton Family Ventures LLC, formerly Delanies. Pres. of Council: This evening we have a liquor application for the Crighton Family Ventures LLC which was formerly Delanies and if I understand this correctly it is just a reapplication of the license that they already had. Mrs. Raber. Dir. of Law: That is my understanding also. Pres. of Council: So, do we need to do this like a public hearing, or do we . . . Dir. of Law: No, you can take a roll call vote and just ask if anybody wants to . . . basically what your decision is is whether you want us to request that the State hold a public hearing because we need that something out further. I do not think that would be an appropriate course of action, but that is up to you to decide that. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Does anybody have any comments or are we ready to have Mrs. Burton call the roll? Mrs. Kilway: I would just say that we don’t need a hearing. Mr. Sisak: I’ll second. Mr. Bozic: I had one question. This application there is one typo at the top and I don’t know if that is on us or if the applicant . . . where it says patio. Dir. of Law: This is paperwork that all goes through the State and the applicant has nothing to do with this. We just get a copy. Pres. of Council: So, we are noting that we do not want a hearing. So, if you do not want a hearing, we will vote yes. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Tallmadge City Council voted 6-0 not to hold a public hearing. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development Thank you. I am very pleased tonight to recognize Captain Doug Bohon and Dave Chochola and the Tallmadge Police Department for their efforts on bringing to a closure a case that is very old. I am very happy with Ron’s leadership and those men who worked very hard to bring that to a closure. • Let’s talk next about economic development. There is some construction in the annexed portion. DermaMed out there off of Crystal Parkway and Progress Blvd. back in there is doing very well. Apollo Heating, they are well under construction out there. Planning & Zoning approved last week Dayton Freight who is also out in the annexed portion. A parking lot expansion for future development and a future addition to their building. McDonald’s on the Circle was approved in Planning & Zoning. They are going to build a brand-new McDonald’s. It is going to be in a new location. They will close their current building for a period of time. The building is going to be flipped over one spot closer to the Circle. They were approved through both the Appearance Commission and Planning & Zoning. • This past month we conducted a few business visits. Industrial Tube and Steel is doing very well. • StoreTek is looking for an expansion. That is a 5-year goal. • R.W. Martin Company also out in the annexed portion of the JEDD they are doing very well. • Master Precision Machining received a grant for $50,000 for a project they want to do out there. 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 • SD Meyers is reporting the best quarter they have ever had and so we are happy for them. • Also in the JEDD, Chase Bank broke ground not too long ago and that is the vacant lot that was beside the Meijer gas station. • Aldi is still plugging away and they say it will open this spring, well spring is going to be here and gone before you know it. • The Joint Dispatch Center up at the old Weaver Workshop at the corner of North Avenue and Howe Road, we went through a couple of days ago. It is phenomenal what that is transforming into. The carpet is in and some of the cabinets and so we are on target to have that turned over to the COG sometime in July. We hope to have dispatchers moving in by the end of the year so hopefully by December we will be dispatching from that location. • The cell tower on North Munroe behind the football stadium, as you can see the tower is up in the air. Just because it is up in the air people are saying when will my cell phone get better. There is still a lot of work. They are doing the trench work for the fiber optic from the street back in and by August hopefully that will be up and operating and the first vendor I am told will be Verizon. • This Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the Tallmadge Rec Center is the Expo and I am sure most of the Council folks will show up there. We will be there from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. • Very happy with my staff. They have been very active with the public and very transparent with the public about electrical aggregation. As you can see Betty Lin Fisher has posted a lot about it. What is going on with First Energy. Tallmadge aggregation rate is 4.96 per kwh and we are good through May of 2025. So, our rates will stay that even though you are hearing from the PUCO and from everyone that it is going to go up to 11 cents per kwh. I am happy that I locked it in for a longer period of time. I usually don’t do that, but I did and it worked. • Also, with gas aggregation keep in mind that we are $3.73 per mcf and that ends in November of 2024. So, we are good with gas also. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: • One other thing, Dr. Cooper is out. He is in training. He did send Council a memo last Saturday referencing the personnel study and he gave you the dates and that is going along pretty well. Jill is working a lot on that. So, we should have a meeting coming up here within the next couple weeks. • The Police Chief position was posted April 1st and will be open until May 1st. That process has been underway. Getting a lot of folks inquiring about it. Some applications are already being turned in. Mrs. Kilway: Just in case residents ask us, because our rates are so great with the aggregation for the electrical and gas, if they want to opt-in what is the process. Mayor: If you are on electric and you are currently with someone else, you have to call your supplier that you are with today because there is an opt-out penalty for a lot of those folks and some of those are as high as $100 and some are not opt out. You have to know what it is. You have to go with what your contract is. When you talk about 4¢ per kwh versus 11¢ so you are not talking . . . it is not a lot of money each month, it sounds big because it is a big jump. It is probably a $5 to $10 a month increase so divide that by your $100 opt-out fee. Is it worth it to opt out. If you can see that photo up there, that is the fire station today at 11:47 a.m. Pres. of Council: They were still working there at 6:40 this evening. Mayor: I’m disappointed that this main wall is still standing, and I will tell you why it is still standing, because they were not supposed to get the trucks to offload the material or the trash out but 3 trucks said they would be there and so they stopped with the wall demolition and started loading the trucks. So tomorrow morning that site will be pretty 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mayor (Cont’d.) much cleaned up and they will be just about completed with the demo portion. Our contractor for the sitework will be there probably starting Monday to complete the final sitework. The station is working out really well. It is a lot of building to clean. Mr. Bozic: So, with that demolition, do they currently have the safety fencing around the perimeter of that now? Mayor: They do not. Mr. Bozic: Is that something they were required to do? Mayor: Yes, they are. Mr. Bozic: You had mentioned Dayton Freight in the annexation or JEDD portion. My question would be for Mogadore Road, I don’t know the street, but they go down Mogadore Road and they turn left to get back into their facility. Is it Tallmadge, Kent or Brimfield that would be responsible for any widening of the road there or putting in a turn signal. Who would be . . . Mayor: Brimfield and Portage County. Portage County Engineers. Mr. Bozic: So, has there been any talk about potentially doing something like that? Mayor: Not on Mogadore Road. They did some widening of the intersection coming out of the development, but there has not been talk at this point. They did the expressway portion if you have been down that way, it has really helped out that whole area. Mr. Bozic: I do agree that the widening has helped in that area. The only thing I had noticed when you go down that road, you could get stuck behind a truck for quite some time sometimes because they will have one coming out and one is trying to go in and so that particular road that they turn down; that would still be Brimfield and Portage County then? Mayor: Where are you talking about? Mr. Bozic: Where they turn . . Mayor: Oh, to go into the annex; Tallmadge. Mr. Bozic: That would be Tallmadge, and so have we looked at potentially widening that road? Mayor: No, it’s pretty wide right now. I mean it makes the turn radius. There has not been a problem there. When you are traveling are you going through the industrial park there in your travels to get in and out? I mean, it is an industrial park. Mr. Bozic: Right. I am thinking long-term in the future here of the increase of trucking and things like that. Mayor: At Howe Road and Crystal Parkway, we just updated that whole intersection through the Portage County Engineers. Mr. Bozic: Alright, but there is nothing else? OK. Thank you. Mr. Bollas: Yes, just regarding the PD Chief, process of recruiting and going through the applications; has the public or technical panels progressed on selecting individuals to serve on those panels? Mayor: We are working on that as we speak. Mr. Bollas: OK, so it is not finalized at this point? Mayor: No. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Mr. Sisak: In regard to the same Police Chief hiring process; why 30 days? Is that something that is pretty standard across the industry for the application? Mayor: It is such an important position in the City that we wanted to have it out there longer. A lot of times we go two weeks, but the way we are advertising and the national search that is out there. Mr. Sisak: Yeah, 30 days seems short. I am sure it is a pretty robust packet. Mayor: We are getting a lot of inquiries from across Ohio. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mr. Sisak: What is the likelihood that it is extended beyond 30 days? I mean is there a threshold that you guys are looking for as far as for applicants or anything? Mayor: He is here until August. Mr. Sisak: Well, I know, sometimes you are looking for 5 qualified applicants to move forward or 3; is there a number? Mayor: No. Pres. of Council: Is there anything else for the Mayor. c. Director of Public Service • 89 East Howe Road – Equipment and furniture auction started yesterday. It will run through the 19th. • Zoning – You can see there were 48 total permits issued. 24 were the zoning certificates and that is fencing and decks and that stuff. Code violations were at 42; 15 of which were property disrepair with the weather breaking, that number should go up just because everybody can view around. • 6 total burials; 5 were full and one was a cremain. We have just received a first rendition of the concept plan for the cremains park and that is off the columbarium where we are putting cremains in the ground. It is a concept plan because we are running out of real estate. • Parks & Rec – You can see the membership at the Rec was 7,468 and that was a 9% increase from last year. The visitors had a 15% increase from last year. • Summer Camp – Registration for residents was April 11th and that is like Black Friday. That is the best way to sum it up for everybody. Long waits. We were just discussing alternatives for that. The issue though is people get shut out and those that got shut out last year I believe crammed that line early and it didn’t log jam it, but it was more excessive than normal. The only thing I can think of is that Covid is over and people are getting back into the swing of things and a lot of places closed from Covid and those that got locked out last year jumped in there pretty quick. • The Community Center – They are supposed to reopen tomorrow. We have a wedding so it’s turning out pretty good. We have a final walkthrough to do. It will probably take another month to wrap things up. I will be coming back with a change order. As we were walking around and wrapping it up, one thing I didn’t look at were the counters in the restrooms. The countertops in the restrooms need to be updated and replaced. I never went up past that point because that wasn’t underwater. • Maca Pool Memberships – as of April 4th was at the 1,452 number and we cap at 2,000 this year. The water slides were inspected and repaired; we are hoping to be completed before the season opens. • Hiring Lifeguards – We are hiring lifeguards and counselors. We are still looking for 12 qualified lifeguards and then 10 counselors for the camps there and believe it or not, males and boys are needed. We have a short number of boys staff in the counselor section. • Tennis and Pickleball Courts – We are resurfacing the tennis and pickleball courts at Lions Park and keep in mind that this is part of the ARPA funds. There is excessive cracking all throughout every court there. • New Net Poles – The new net poles have been installed and that is the picture to the left. That on the right isn’t snow, that is fabric that is laid down before they pave and what the hope is when they pave that they will migrate up through the new asphalt. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 • Director of Public Service (Cont’d.) That is the layer to stop that cracking. Is it foolproof; no, but it is better than milling that all down and trying to pave it and the asphalt is 11” thick and so those cracks are pretty deep so this should remedy this for a little while and keep your fingers crossed because we are coming into paving tomorrow. We can all thank mother nature because it is unbelievable that we will be paving tomorrow. • Howe Road Phase 2 Park Layout – This is it. - of that is the new shelter and the new restroom and parking lot expansion. So that is the Phase 2. • Street Department – As you can see there, snow and ice control. They actually had some; 262 hours last month. They removed 6.6 tons of street sweepings. Did 300 lineal feet of ditching and did 2 culverts, swept the sidewalks along West Avenue. We do that annually. We try to do that right before Circle Fest, but the best time of the year is to do it right there as they are coming off of the second shift and that way we are not messing up the traffic pattern. • We completed the 2nd Round of Street Light Inventory. • Change order for sidewalks already. Usually I come in after the fact; I know Mollie loves that, but I am coming in early just because like everywhere else, once you start sending out the letters and start marking the sidewalks then the neighbors come out and they point out someone else’s that need to be done and so we have picked up some other sidewalks and so we are around $31,000. • Utility Department – Zero water breaks. 2 so far for the year. One sewer backup. That is the first sewer backup that we have had in our main in 3 years and it was right here at the Circle between Northwest and North Avenue. It was the strangest thing because the top part of the pipe was missing, so I don’t know if it deteriorated or broke down and was sucked down with the rest of the stuff, but the whole top of the pipe was gone. • We spent 72 hours televising all the sanitary sewers on the streets where we are going to pave, that way, we are not paving streets that are going to get ripped up. • Lastly, we passed our Ohio EPA audit. That was in January. This was just the illicit discharge and elimination of it so every time there is an oil spill; remember the tanker that got hit on the Circle, we have to show that that was cleaned up and so we have about 5 a year. Also, the dry weather screening so the Summit County Health Department comes around and does about 20 of our outfalls during the dry weather. In dry weather you should not see any waterflow. Good job. Mrs. Kilway: Just real quick, congratulations on the satisfactory award from the EPA. That is fantastic. You had mentioned that they had gone through and audited the streetlights twice now. So, how soon does Ohio Edison come out to repair those? Dir. of Pub. Service: The same guys that come out and repair them are the same guys cleaning up from the wind damage from back-to-back weekends. So, we probably won’t see them for a while. Ohio was hit pretty hard. Mrs. Kilway: Then the last thing too was the Summer Camp. If you can hire more counselors, are you going to open up more slots? Dir. of Pub. Service: Maybe. If we can get the first 10 hired that would be great. Mr. Bozic: I just wanted to thank Mr. Rorar and the rest of the Street Department for the work they did on Washburn Road with the signage, painting everything. The signs look great up and down Washburn. I can’t say it changed the speeds, but it definitely looks nice, and those guys did a great job. Mr. Bollas: Thank you again to Jessica for getting back to me with all my questions. I just wanted to bring this up again. Just wanted to put it at the top of the list again to see what we could do. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mayor: I will give you a little bit of an update. The fiber optic from Dan Street up to the Joint Dispatch Center that is out to bid and what we did as a City is we added a strategic location for pull boxes that will be part of our fiber connection and there will be an ordinance coming to Council to re-appropriate the money for the purpose as part of our system but what comes with that is the CDBG Grant that we will also have legislation for that and they are willing to pay for and install all fiber optic throughout the Industrial Park, Osceola and that whole quadrant. It is a pretty large grant that we are going to be eligible for, but we still have to do some reappropriations for our portion which is roughly $100,000 and that fiber is going to go on Thomas Road, West Avenue, Nottingham, Overdale, Kent Drive, and Howe Road to dispatch center. So, you can see that there are strategic locations where there can be another pull box that will be dedicated to our customers but with that route we are going right past Osceola; that whole quadrant down there. They are going to run fiber for us. Pres. of Council: That would greatly increase the value of that vacant land down there; those 30 acres. Mr. Sisak: Is it that Fairlawn Gig that is getting pulled in? Mayor: The County is actually doing this for the Joint Dispatch Center. Mr. Sisak: But through like what entity. Is it Fairlawn Gig or . . . Mayor: Fairlawn Gig. Mr. Sisak: Last night and it seemed very innocent up at the old Weaver school next to the Joint Dispatch Center, there were about 75 hot rod cars having a little bit of a car showcase. I didn’t know if we were trying to secure that and prevent any type of future liability or issues with that building while it is still up. I don’t know if we want to put some Road Closed barricades up. I would hate to see vandalism or somebody trip and fall and get hurt and then come back to the City since we currently own that. Mrs. Gutman: Mr. Rorar, looking at the Camp Counselor hourly rate it looked like it was $10.80 an hour. Have we compared that to what other areas are offering to their counselors? Dir. of Pub. Service: I believe Ms. Simons has, but off the top of my head I don’t know. Mrs. Gutman: It seems on the low side for what teenagers are getting paid these days at various things they can do and you know what is required of them to be responsible for children, but I was thinking that day camp is such a valuable service that we offer to the community parents. I know when my daughter was little it was a lifesaver because it is so affordable. If we could expand that through hiring more counselors, offering a few more dollars, it would be worth looking at. Mrs. Kilway: Just really quick, going back to the fiber that is going in at the industrial park that is over on Osceola and Commerce, Thomas and all of that area; so, if that is going to be done through the County will those businesses be able to jump in and get Fairlawn as their fiber instead of their current internet provider. Mayor: We are working on the details, but the quick answer is yes, but will it be called Fairlawn Gig, or will it be called Tallmadge Gig? There will be legislation and there is a lot to do to figure this out. Mr. Bollas: I had one call and I have one question, I was just going to say that veteran memberships are up to 13. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but since we instituted the discounts, it is double from last year, so that was a good call. Regarding the cemetery spaces, unfortunately I have had the chance to spend time in the cemetery in March. Can you clarify how many spaces are remaining for couples like together like side by side. Is that down to none, or when you look at that total number of spaces; it’s OK if you don’t know off the top of your head. Dir. of Pub. Service: I think it is zero. I think I reported a couple meetings back that we sold our last side by side spaces. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mr. Bollas: I just wanted everyone to be aware of that and I apologize if I missed that in the meeting. Having been there observing all of that it is getting pretty tight over and I just wanted everyone to be aware of. Mr. Bozic: I just had one question for the Mayor about the fiber. So, I believe you said this is going to be on the north side of West Avenue or it will be on the south side of West Avenue. Mayor: We are not sure yet. Mr. Bozic: I guess my thought was where the Rocky’s skating center used to be. It is a big open area right now. I don’t know what is going in there. I’m not sure if you are. There is a lot of potential there for that piece of property and as Mr. Loughry said could increase value for the attractiveness of that area and so I just want to make sure that if we are going to do this project and if the City needs to chip in more to get additional fiber runs or whatever is required to kind of build that out, I think the City should. d. Director of Finance: Good evening. I have submitted my reports. We are a quarter of the way through the year already. Our income tax has been a little up and down in areas, but still running within budget. With that, just a reminder to everybody that income tax returns are due Tuesday, April 18th this year and we have been having some residents coming in for help and so we are glad to help anybody who needs assistance filing their local tax return only. No Federal or State help. Other than that, I will be glad to answer any questions people may have about the financial reports. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I just want to take the opportunity to publicize our next Drug Take Back. We participate in the Drug Take Backs with the Tallmadge Police Department, and they are doing the next one on April 22nd from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. In case you have not participated before, you are welcome to bring any prescription or unused over-the-counter medication to the Drug Take Back. When we do those days, you don’t even have to get out of the car. We have the back parking lot of the PD set up so you can just stay in your car. It is very convenient for people. You may want to black out your name and identifying information on the labels or peel those labels off yourself. If you do not do that, we will do that for you before we dispose of the bottles after we separate them. We encourage people to do that and get rid of those things from their medicine cabinets in a safe manner and we have also have a dump box so if you can’t make it on that day, you can come by at any time to the lobby of the Police Department to drop them off. 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. Mrs. Kilway: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. Is there anything from Council? Anything from the Administration? Mayor: I would just like to recognize Helene Hussing down in the Zoning Department who puts all the documents together. She is doing a phenomenal job. So is Kelli. i. Additional Items: None. b. Finance Craig Sisak, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-39 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the replacement of the culvert and deteriorating storm sewer on Elton Dr. and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Sisak: We currently have Ord. 2023-39 at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Does anyone have any comments on this; Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: It can go 3 readings. Mr. Sisak: We will leave that at 2nd Reading then. B. Ord. 2023-41 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for demolition of 89 East Howe Road, appropriating necessary sums and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2023-41. The ordinance was read into the record. We will leave this at 2nd Reading. ii. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-43 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a contract for the purchase of integrated security, software licenses, and related equipment from Johnson Control, Inc. through Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Program and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline. Mr. Sisak: Next we have first readings of ordinances and resolutions. First we have Ord. 2023-43. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Finance: I apologize, I am going to have to ask for this at 1st Reading. We had actually adopted a previous ordinance to authorize this purchase, however, it was incorrectly identified on that ordinance that this was through the Ohio Dept. of Administrative Services State Purchasing Program when we went to approve it at Board of Control, we identified that this was actually through the Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Program so we are reintroducing a previously approved ordinance with the appropriate purchasing authority in it and because we had had that adopted in March, we need to get the contract signed with the vendor if everybody would be agreeable to that. Mr. Sisak: Do I hear a motion? Mrs. Kilway: So moved. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Mrs. Kilway: I am sorry, but just for clarification, I remember when we did adopt the previous ordinance. Do you happen to know what the previous ordinance number is and how does that ordinance . . . does that just become obsolete and we don’t use it anymore, or do we have to repeal it? Dir. of Law: It just wouldn’t be accurate, so it just becomes obsolete. Mr. Sisak: These items I believe based on the last one was in the budget for this year, and they are for the Rec Center controls? Dir. of Finance: This is for the door access controls I believe. Mr. Sisak: Any further discussion or questions on this? Hearing none please call the roll. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway - unanimous. Ord. 2023-43 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 B. Ord. 2023-45 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the Lions Park Shelter Project and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Sisak: Next we have Ord. 2023-45. The ordinance was read into the record. Dir. of Pub. Service: This can go 3 readings if you want. Mr. Sisak: OK, so we will just give this a 1st Reading. C. Ord. 2023-46 Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Summit and City of Tallmadge for Summit County Special Operations Response Team (“SORT”) vehicles and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline. Mr. Sisak: We also have Ord. 2023-46 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: This is a vehicle that will be stored out at Station 2 in one of the open bays out there. This is a unit that is available to the City of Tallmadge if we need that vehicle but it is also for anybody from Summit County that need a response for that special unit, but they would send someone to there to pick it up 24/7 to take it to whatever that emergency scene is. That vehicle used to be stored down in Green and now it is coming up closer and I know Chief Passarelli was an advocate of getting that request to move it into our area. I’ll answer any questions that you may have. Mr. Bozic: I have one question; so, we are housing that vehicle within the fire station, so I guess who is liable for that piece of equipment. Dir. of Law: That is what is outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding. We have mutual insurance; it is actually owned by Summit County, but both parties will have additional insurance on their policies, but they have the primary, but that is all outlined in there. Mr. Sisak: Are there any questions or discussion on this? Mr. Bozic: Can we get a copy of that memorandum. Mayor: If you go on the ordinance and click on it, it is all the way down. All the details were attached. D. Ord. 2023-47 Exhibit A – Expressing intent to sell unneeded, obsolete, or an unfit vehicle and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar. Mr. Sisak: Moving on, Ord. 2023-47 Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar? Dir. of Pub. Service: That can go 3 Readings. Mayor: If you click on the link, you can see that it is Truck 3, an F250 which is no longer needed. It is already out of service. Mr. Sisak: Can I get a motion for adoption? Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt Ord. 2023-47. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. Ord. 2023-47 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Sisak: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee this evening? Hearing none, I will go ahead and close committee. iii. Additional Items: None. 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. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We are all present. There is no legislation on the agenda for Personnel. I will open it up for questions or comments from the Administration or Council. I just had a general inquiry on the Police Department advertising for officers if there was any update on the number of applicants or where we were with Civil Service; or anything to do with that? I saw a couple of ads out there. Mayor: I know the applications are coming in. I did not get an update from Civil Service; I apologize. I will send you that tomorrow. Chief Williams: There were 15 on Tuesday. Mr. Bollas: Are there any other questions for Personnel? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-48 – Amending Section 5 of Ordinance 96-1974, repealing. Ordinance 36-2004, and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Councilman Loughry Mrs. Gutman: I call the Community Issues to order. Tonight, we have before us Ord. 2023-48 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. So, this deals with the Richardson Trust Fund. Maybe Mrs. Raber, it would be better for you to decide what made this necessary. Dir. of Finance: So, we . . . Council decided to fund $5,000 to the Richardson Trust fund this year and as part of that process we are looking at, because it is more money than we have ever done improving some of our processes, tightening up some controls in place and as part of that we met with the committee that is responsible for reviewing the applications and they had an interest in increasing that to $500. That obviously, as you can see, has been $200 since 2004. It doesn’t go quite as far for anybody in that limit so they wanted to request to Council that you would consider increasing their limits to $500 per applicant moving forward. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you. That seems reasonable. Do we want to keep this at 1 st Reading or did you need this passed? Dir. of Finance: It does not need to be passed if you want to give it a 1st Reading and have discussion on it or think about it, that is not a problem. Mr. Sisak: I have a question for Ms. Gilbride. Is it $500 per applicant per year or $500 per application? Dir. of Finance: For applicant per year. So, it would be a family unit so like you couldn’t have the wife come in for one application and the husband. So, yes. Mr. Bollas: Quick clarification; the amendment . . . so the repealing of the Ord. 36- 2004 what was that that is being repealed? Dir. of Finance: That was I believe the $200. That is the one that established the $200. Mr. Bollas: OK. Got it. Dir. of Law: It has a long history. I had to go back through all of the old ones from 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Dir. of Law (Cont’d,) 1974 forward. So, the bulk of the ordinance basically establishes the Richardson Trust application process in general, but that section is the section that talks about the actual dollar value and the calendar year and everything, so the majority of that hasn’t changed since 1974 and the rest of that is just each time that it has been amended it has really only been that section. So, we are just repealing the last one and replacing it with this. If you are interested, I can send a copy of all the previous ones if you like. Mrs. Gutman: We will keep this at 1st Reading. B. Res. 2023-5 – A resolution declaring the month of May 2023 as Mental Health Awareness Month in Summit County and encouraging the residents of Summit County to join in this acknowledgement, for the Executive, and declaring an emergency. Sponsor: Council and Administration Mrs. Gutman: We also have before us Res. 2023-5. The resolution was read into the record. I think as I did for Summit DD, I would like to read this one if you will just be patient with me. She read the ordinance into the record. This is a difficult topic to talk about publicly so I think I wanted to read all of that just to bring it to the forefront and also add the mental health crisis hotline number; the new one of 988 that you can call, text or chat with a trained crisis counselor. So, if I could have a motion? Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt Res. 2023-5 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Thank you. Res. 2023-5 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Gutman: We have nothing further. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, I just had something really quick under Community Issues. Councilwoman Christine Higham, the Summit County Council District 6 representative and myself co-sponsoring a Building and Age Friendly Community Program that is going to be on Tuesday, May 9th at Danbury here in Tallmadge. It is going to be put on by Direction Home of Akron Canton and in conjunction with Ilene Shapiro’s County Executive office, and it is just basically how to age friendly in your community, how to age in your home and I would just advise everybody to come. It is going to be a great program and I would just invite everybody to come. Mrs. Gutman: Anything else for the committee? Mrs. Kilway: Sorry, I forgot. I did receive an e-mail from Barbara Fernandes about Autism Awareness in Tallmadge and she has a program, and it is called “Smarty Symbols” and what it basically is there are a lot of children that are not verbal especially people with autism and it is just basically a picture board that helps them communicate when they are on the playground. She had reached out to me and asked if the City would work with her. What they do is they supply the communication boards and the City just has to put them in their parks. Before the meeting I had shared this with Mike Rorar and he thought we could take a look at it and put these in the parks to help those with disabilities. Dir. of Pub. Service: Absolutely. I would love to take a look at it. Mrs. Gutman: That sounds fantastic. Mayor: Microphone not on. Mrs. Gutman: If there is nothing else, I will close my committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police, and health. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Res. 2023-6 – Recognizing Captain Douglas Bohon (RET.), Officer David Chochola, the Tallmadge Police Department, Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Brian Loprenzi, Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel and Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jacquenette Corgan and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Council and Administration Mr. Bozic: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no ordinances before us but we do have one resolution. Res. 2023-6 was read into the record. The resolution is quite lengthy. I will read a snip-it because I do want to recognize these men and women from the Police Department and the effort that they put into reopening this case and all of the investigation work and just everything behind it. They did such a great job. So, I will start by just kind of reading part of it. Great job Chief. Chief Williams: Thank you. Mr. Bozic: So, with that, do I have any other comments from the Council or the Administration? Dir. of Law: I did draft the resolution and I meant every bit of what is in there and I am just so proud of the work that the Tallmadge Police Department did especially retired Captain Bohon and Officer Chochola who assisted him in the more recent years. I had an opportunity to go to court as I was able to observe the trial proceedings and it was a complicated case and to say that it is an understatement. The amount of information that had to be gone through and collected and put together and the years and decades that had passed and the various past acts that were also involved in this case and the other survivors who were able to come forward and were able to testify and other officers that were involved in the 1970’s that testified and then of course Captain Bohon and the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office and their team did an excellent job as well. It was awesome to see justice to work the way it is meant to. Mr. Bozic: Thank you and that is a great point that you made and I failed to mention that this was decades of work and obviously the guys that last touched it will get the most recognition for sure, but absolutely the officers in all of those decades had some involvement and course of action to bring this case to a close. So, thank you everyone. Is there anything else? Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 2023-6. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Res. 2023-6 is adopted by a vote of 6-0 Mr. Bozic: Anything else for the Safety Committee. Mr. Bollas: I recently saw an article about the departure of AMR Services from Akron, and I was just curious regarding what that means for our firefighters and paramedics in Tallmadge with the upcoming construction of St. Ed’s and the current run volume. Are we looking at that? I know we are consistently looking at staffing and I just wanted to bring it up tonight because I was absent for the last meeting, and I didn’t know if it was discussed. I think that it could become an issue if not already fairly quickly. Mayor: AMR has not done emergency transports in Tallmadge for a long time; 10 years. They used to go into all of the facilities, but they backed out of that a long time ago and that is why our calls for service have increased over the years. 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Mayor (Cont’d.) All ambulances do not do emergency transports into the nursing home facilities. Mr. Bollas: OK. I think my question was more to reverse that scenario where we are called to pick up the slack where they are currently servicing. Are we? . . . Mayor: No, we will not do the transport from the hospital back to the nursing home. We will only do emergency transports from Tallmadge out to the hospital. Mr. Bozic: Without hearing anything else, I will close the Safety Committee. 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. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2023-44 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into contract for sealing parking lots and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mrs. Gutman: I call Public Service to order. We have Ord. 2023-44 before us this evening. The ordinance was read into the record. Mr. Rorar. Dir. of Pub. Service: We are going to try to seal as many parking lots that we have within the City and Town Hall here and the Police Department, a couple of the parks and some of the Rec Center. It can go 3 readings. Mr. Bozic: When you say sealing; are we doing an actual sealing or are we . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: If we were going to do what I want to do I would really be excited about it. Mr. Bozic: Let’s not chip seal if we can do that that would be great. Dir. of Pub. Service: We are just sealing. Mr. Bollas moved to adopt. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2023-44 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anything else before Public Service tonight? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: Pres. of Council: I had nothing. I just wanted to thank Mrs. Gilbride for her work with both Mrs. Conti and Mrs. Burton and the Richardson Trust Fund Committee to make that process better. It will be much better. a. Council Operations Committee i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Pres. of Council: There was an article in the Beacon Journal I believe on Sunday or Monday about I think they called it “Metro Reimagined” and what the article was about was an expansion and change in routes from Metro RTA. In the article it said that they would begin having service to Brimfield, so I am thinking if they are going to go to Brimfield, they are going to go down East Avenue, but I have three different messages into them this week and had not had a reply. 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 13, 2023 Pres. of Council: If anyone ever calls me back, I will give you an update on if Tallmadge will be affected in any way by the increased service to Brimfield by Metro. Mr. Bozic: I have also heard that and I talked to one of the bus drivers and he had said the same thing that they are going to start transportation out to Brimfield. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The Council meeting of 4-13-23 adjourned at 8:30 p.m. sb 16