City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 1. Call to Order: President of Council Loughry called the Council meeting of Thursday, May 25, 2023, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance: Prayer: Rev. Scott Low, Tallmadge United Methodist Church. Pledge of Allegiance: 3. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – present. Mr. Bozic and Mr. Sisak were excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting the Previous Meeting Minutes: 5-11-23 Council Meeting Minutes. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to make a motion to approve the 5-11-23 minutes. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mrs. Allman - unanimous. The 5-11-23 Council meeting minutes are adopted by a vote of 5-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. Pres. of Council: Before we go to Public Hearings, we are going to swear in our new full-time Firefighter/EMT, but that requires a motion and a second. Can I have a motion? Mrs. Kilway: I move to, at this time, to swear in firefighter Jack Schneider as a full-time firefighter. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The motion to amend the agenda was adopted by a vote of 5-0. Mayor Kline swore in the new firefighter, Mr. Jack Schneider. 5. Public Hearings: i. 3rd Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-51 Amended– Exhibit A – Tracked Exhibit A – Planning & Zoning P.H. on 5-25-23 @ 7:01 p.m. P.H. ON 5-25-23 @ 7:01 p.m. P&Z Rec. approval 4-0. Amending and supplementing, Section 1108, Signs, and Appendix A3, Sign Specific Definitions of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: It is now 7:07 p.m. and I am going to open the public hearing for Ord. 2023-51 Amended ith Exhibit A and Tracked Exhibit A. The ordinance was read into the record. Is there anyone in the public who has anything they would like to say in favor of or against Ord. 2023- 51 please come to the podium and state your name and address. • Keith Goodwin, Keith Heating and Cooling, 35 Northwest Avenue, Tallmadge. I want to thank Council and personally Carol Kilway. I called Carol as a local business owner when I saw the legislation and I read it. I had some concerns. We spent over 2 hours at Wally Waffle the other day dissecting this thing, tearing it apart, and looking at it. I am in favor of this legislation. I think it is good for the City; I think it is good for the community and I think it is fair to businesses. There were some typos and a couple of concerns. The one thing I would like to see differently in this ordinance is the portable marquee signs. The ones that you can put your name on and they have the arrow that goes over and sometimes they light and flash. I think it would be fair if you would let businesses use those for a period of no more than 10 days once every 2 years. I think they shouldn’t be prohibited from being in the devil strip. I think the flashing light should be eliminated. We are coming up on our 50-year anniversary of being in business and I would like to have one of those signs out when the day arrives. So, I think limited use for those, not abuse, but it would be acceptable. If you don’t, I understand, but I think it is a good idea and I would ask Council to consider that. That’s about all I have to say unless there are any questions. I just want to thank Councilperson Kilway for spending the time with me and listening to my concerns. 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mrs. Kilway: Is there anyone else who has anything to say? Is there anybody else who has anything say against Ord. 2023-51? No one responded. Second time; does anyone have anything to say in favor of Ord. 2023-51? No one responded. Is there anyone who has anything to say against Ord. 2023-51? No one responded. Third and final time; does anyone have anything to say for or against Ord. 2023-51? Hearing none, I am going to close the public hearing at 7:11 p.m. I am going to open the Planning & Zoning Committee. Is there any further discussion on this from Council or the Administration? Pres. of Council: I would just say that number one, it was nice of Mr. Goodwin to come in and number 2, I have not heard any other communication from any other business owners. Mrs. Kilway: With reference to the marquee signs, I don’t think we have ever been allowed to have these portable marquee signs in the City; is that correct? Dir. of Law: It has been prohibited as part of the Code for as long as I have been here which is almost 20 years, and before that from the time . . . I mean the Code predates that. Mrs. Kilway: Is there a reason why it is prohibited? Dir. of Law: I think the concern with that is just the clutter so when people have invested in monument signs I think that the concern is that when you have a portable marquee sign which is far more significant than like a temporary sign might be that we would allow to be made of cardboard or plastic like a typical yard sign that it distracts and could potentially clutter the area. I imagine that was the reason for the prohibition. Mrs. Kilway: Does anyone on Council have any other comments on this? Mr. Bollas: I had a clarification question. When I hear the description of a marquee sign what I hear was that it should be limited to 10 days or less. Would an example of that be like a sign encouraging smoking in the Brimfield JEDD District that is on the curb there as you are pulling into Panera? Would that be an example of a marquee sign? Dir. of Law: We have a sample of it in our Code if you give us a minute, we can pull it up. What we are doing with the amendment that is in front of you is just adding that type of marquee sign with an electronic message center is being added to the list of prohibited signs where before it was always included that the marquee signs were prohibited and this is just also prohibiting an electronic version of it and honestly we could make an argument that as the prohibition stands now, they already are prohibited but we just wanted to be extra clear with that because we wanted to make sure we have consistency with calling out the electronic signs as well. Mr. Bollas: Then the comment on temporary usage was like for anniversaries, celebrations or milestones of a business for example which is currently not in the Code. Dir. of Law: So, there are temporary signs that are permitted in the Code and they must be made of certain material, which is temporary, so it is really . . . the definition is based on what the nature of the material and the format of what the sign structure itself is. So, you are allowed to have temporary signs and one of the big differences is is that the temporary signs, we don’t have people coming in to pay and monitor that through the Zoning Department whereas if we developed a period of time in which the marquee signs for example would be permitted then it would be something that would have to go through the Zoning Department and they would have to follow that. Mayor: Under the current Code, and with this new Code, Mr. Goodwin could put a banner up on his front porch between the two pillars celebrating their 50th Anniversary. That is permitted. This is just the, if you recall, the yellow portable that you drove a vehicle up with the changeable numbers, letters and that; that is what is currently prohibited and we are just adding, like Megan said, the electronic portion of that. Mrs. Gutman: I don’t remember reading; for the temporary signs is there a limit to the size that they can be? Dir. of Law: Yes. It is in the tables. Mrs. Gutman: Because I can appreciate that the marquee attracts extra attention and a business owner might want that attention that brings in business where a banner hanging on their business doesn’t get that and grab your attention from the street and maybe a temporary sign, if it is significantly smaller, 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mrs. Gutman (Cont’d.) wouldn’t necessarily have the attention-grabbing effect. So, I can see how business owners would have an advantage or would generate more business from having that bigger sign. I can see once every 2 years with something that might give them that advantage. But can we accomplish that by letting them have bigger temporary signs? I don’t know; I’m torn because I see how they can clutter things up and then you are creating more work for the City too which is at a cost for taxpayers. So, with all that to say, I can see the advantages and disadvantages right now. Mrs. Kilway: Any other comments at this time? Dir. of Law: So, a temporary banner can be 32 square feet. It is dependent also on the size and location so that is all in the chart. Pres. of Council: While you have that; how long can you have a temporary sign? Dir. of Law: Well, the duration is that it has to be it’s in the definition for temporary signs and the material is of a temporary nature but something like plastic or cardboard or something that is going to deteriorate over time. The duration . . . this is again a more business friendly change so it is allowing for people to have temporary signs for a longer duration than what they had been previously. Pres. of Council: But right now, you don’t know how long that is? Dir. of Law: It is defined as temporary. It is not a definite term. It is not a definitive timeframe. Pres. of Council: So, you can put that sign out until that material decomposes? Dir. of Law: Essentially. Pres. of Council: Well, that’s a pretty long time. Mrs. Kilway: I am just looking through here, but it doesn’t specify a time. Dir. of Law: It does in the definitions. Pres. of Council: I understand what we are trying to do, but it is hard for us to enforce things anyway and so now we could at times be at odds with a business owner over the condition of the sign and what we think is OK and what they may think is OK in terms of appearance and condition and there is no time limit as to what is temporary. Dir. of Law: Well, there has always been that we would have to prove that no matter what that was if you were saying that any sign outside the Building Code or Maintenance Standards; we run into that same issue. Typically, the ones that we would act on would be complaint based. If the Law Department felt that that wouldn’t be a prosecutable case, then we are not going to take that to court if we got into a situation like that. Again, typically what we are doing is working with people and we are trying to find solutions. The benefit to this as you have indicated it is very challenging to keep up with every temporary sign that a business would put up. It is also cost prohibitive for them to come in and have us keep track of OK, you have this sign for this long and then they are going to take it down and put up another one and so this is going to be more about the size and the type and the number than it is about the duration to be honest. The duration becomes an issue more if it becomes something that is clearly deteriorated and just looks bad. Pres. of Council: Well, this definitely makes us much more user friendly, especially for a new business in a new location because you can use a temporary sign before you invest in the permanent sign. Dir. of Law: And a lot of people end up with you know needing to have that timeframe to have something put in. Again, the intent is not to replace those requirements for the monument signs. If it is a sign that is a representative sign for your business, a permanent sign, then you still have to meet those requirements. Mrs. Kilway: So, and I know we have gotten on this discussion with temporary signs but that has gotten off the mark of portable marquee signs. I know they are temporary in nature, but it is a solid constructed item and I just think it would give businesses another tool in their toolbox for special occasions and special circumstances in order to promote their business and we need to limit the duration and limit how many times . . . make them pull a permit for it. Yes, you can have this, but you have to have a permit for it, and you can have it for 2 weeks’ time. I just think if we want to be business friendly that would be another tool in the toolbox to add, but I am one person here and then my next thing would be could we make a motion to make an amendment for something like this and then have Council vote on it to add it into it? 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Dir. of Law: Well, I would say that if you want to amend that, we would have to see what the actual language looks like . . . I mean you are not going to be able to formally amend it tonight based on that. You can take a poll vote as to whether or not people are interested in seeing an amendment along those lines, and then what I would recommend is that we come back at the next meeting and you would have an amendment in front of you and it would go back to 2nd and then you would not be able to take action until the end of June. Mrs. Kilway: Just to let you know too, I wasn’t really going to ask for adoption of this today because I think there are a lot of things in here that we need to make sure we get it right because I don’t want to have to come back in 6 months and say oh we overlooked something. I want to make sure we get this right because every time I read this, I keep thinking of something else. Dir. of Law: There is always something else. So again, with any Code there is always something. Mr. Bollas: Yes, just so I am 100% understanding. Going back to the enforcement of temporary signs; when you are driving down East Avenue and you get into Brimfield; this is not enforceable. It is a whole other process. Dir. of Law: We do not enforce Brimfield. We have nothing to do with Brimfield zoning. The JEDD is only an income tax sharing and not zoning. We do not control; we don’t have jurisdiction over their zoning nor their signs or anything that has to do with how they build or anything like that. Mrs. Kilway: Is there anything else on the marquee signs before I take a little straw poll? OK, so I will just go down and ask individually if anyone is interested in going further with potentially allowing these marquee signs on a very limited basis like what we stated 10 consecutive days every 2 years, and I would allow businesses to do that. Mrs. Gutman: I think yes. It is business friendly. Mr. Bollas: At that duration I would agree. Mrs. Allman: I do feel that we need more discussion on this and if we are only going to allow it every 2 years; who is going to keep track of all that? Who is going to keep track of how many days it is out, and you know, are they going to wait the full 2 years to do it again; that is my question. Pres. of Council: Well in principle I agree with it. I am for anything that helps a business owner promote his business as long as it doesn’t hurt other businesses or other people in the right-of-way. I’m not sure if I agree with the parameters as they are set. I think the location of the sign in relationship to the structure; the main building needs to be looked at so for instance, Mr. Goodwin is on Northwest Avenue and maybe 20 feet from the sidewalk. If someone is leasing space such as Midway Plaza or they are leasing space in Tallmadge Plaza or South Plaza where do those go? In premise, I agree. I just think we need to discuss it more. Mrs. Kilway: We will have some more discussion and I will get with the Law Department on this item, and we will go from there on this item. Another question that was brought up under Sign Materials – 1108.05 – General Regulations, Item B is Sign Materials. The question that was brought up was how you enforce logos because they might not be compatible in character. After my discussion with Mrs. Hussing, she did specify that logos are not regulated. It is just the construction of the materials around it to make the building look more cohesive. We did have a discussion on the 0.3 footcandles and stated that they are very dim. Yes, they are dim but in the description of the illumination it is 0.3 footcandle at a measurement of 50’ away. Section 1108.05 – General Regulations – It is under the footcandle discussion and below that is Item F and that was read into the record. Item A above says all signs must meet the standard as specified in the National Electric Code. Well, F is in the National Electric Code. That section appears to be a little redundant because it is already part of the National Electric Code. So, do we need to state that twice? Mayor: What section are you in? Mrs. Kilway: Section 1108.05 and it is under Illumination. Mayor: We will look at it for you. Mrs. Kilway: OK. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Kilway, to get back to the previous discussion we had on the temporary marquee. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) sign: that is not actually what they are called, but if they are electrified, then we need to have that discussion as well because those are normally just plugged in with an extension cord. Someone is not going to run conduit to get to that sign and so we may need to have that for discussion because those cannot be lit. If we allow them, they are not going to be allowed to be lit. Just to throw that out there. Mrs. Kilway: The next item that was brought to my attention was in Section 1108.06. If there is a three- story building in our City you cannot put a sign up on the top floor and that was a concern. Mrs. Hussing did explain that they would go through Planning & Zoning and would ask for a variance to get something like that on it. There were some sections with wording changes, and I got together with Mrs. Hussing on those. Another area that I think we have to have a little bit more clarification on is in 1108.07 which has been merged into 1108.08 – Temporary Signs. If we go down to Item B – Permitting, and this is I guess for the legal department. The section was read into the record. Do we need to add “business or residential” to the private property? Dir. of Law: We can take a look at it. I don’t know right now. Mrs. Kilway: I think the only other thing that I might have is a question on, in the same section, under Restrictions and Replacement; we all know that we cannot put any signs within the City in any public right-of-way and that only City permitted signs are allowed to go in there. There are a couple of instances where I know there were signs in the middle of the Circle and I don’t know if they had gotten permission from the City or not. When the library has a sale, they have signs in the Circle. Do they get permission from the City to put them up? Mayor: Yes they do. Mrs. Kilway: Is there a formal process that they have to go through, or do they just call up and say that hey, I am having a sale; can I put my signs up? Mayor: That is correct. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Kilway brought up grammatical spelling errors and typos; as a Council, we don’t need to deal with those right? Dir. of Law: Correct and specifically in this Code generally it is everything, but even when we adopt it, all those are at the discretion, and we can make those corrections. Mrs. Kilway: And then the only other question which I thought was a great question because I didn’t know the answer and I found the answer out. Signs in residential and residential overlay districts. Where are our residential overlay districts? We don’t have those mapped out yet; correct? Dir. of Law: That is correct. They are eventually coming. Mrs. Kilway: They are basically an area where there are businesses and residential together? Dir. of Law: Yeah, there is neighborhood development or neighborhood development overlay and that is a mixed use. Mrs. Kilway: I believe that is all that I really have at this time. Anyone else have anything else? Mr. Bollas: So, at this time are we expecting just to seek these clarifications and then just keep this at 3rd Reading. Mrs. Kilway: I would like to keep this at 3rd Reading and I can sit down and talk with legal and zoning and maybe come up with some wording for the temporary marquee uses and then we will bring that back to Council as amended. Is that correct? Mayor: That is correct, and Council can then look at what the amendment is and decide to accept the amendment or not accept the amendment or amend it again and then that will take it back to 2 nd Reading which this could be adopted at 2nd Reading. It would not go into effect for 30 days. Mrs. Kilway: It has to go through 3 readings; right? Mayor: 3 Readings. The end of July. Mr. Bollas: With another public hearing? Dir. of Law: No. The public hearing is done and then anything that comes after the public hearing, and you have had the public hearing and you have made the changes and so people are on notice, and they 5 can come in again. COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mrs. Kilway: OK. So, I think we have talked this one to death right now. Does anyone have anything else to add to Ord. 2023-51? I will close Planning & Zoning . . . Mayor: Nope, you still have one. B. Ord. 2023-52 – P.H. on 5-25-23 @ 7:05 p.m. Planning & Zoning Imposing a six-month moratorium on acceptance of P.H. on 5-25-23 @ 7:05 p.m. any zoning application for a car wash and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Councilperson Kilway Mrs. Kilway: So, it is now 7:42 p.m. and I will open the public hearing for Ord. 2023-52. The ordinance was read into the record. Is there anyone here to talk in favor of Ord. 2023-52? No one responded. Is there anyone here that has anything to say against Ord. 2023-52? No one responded. Second time; is there anyone here to speak in favor of Ord. 2023-52? No one responded. Is there anyone to speak against Ord. 2023-52? No one responded. Third and final time, is there anyone here to speak either in favor of or against Ord. 2023-52? No one responded. It is now 7:43 p.m. and I will close the public hearing and I will open Planning & Zoning again and we will have any discussion that we need to have on this. Pres. of Council: Mrs. Hussing is in the audience, and I do have a couple questions if I could ask them? So, in general, so you understand where my questions are coming from, I believe in letting the free-market system work. So, we have about ten banks in the City and if one of those banks isn’t making money, they will close and then the market determines that. We have many, probably 20 insurance companies and 7 or 8 different real estate brokerages and probably over 100 realtors and so there are a lot of different types of companies that we are saying it is OK for the market to determine whether they are successful or not and the business owner takes the risk and most of these; the bigger they are and the more corporate they are, the more studies they have done and before they invest a significant amount of money, especially the amount of money that it would cost to build a new car wash, they are pretty certain that there is a need for that entity and that they are going to be successful and make a profit. That being said, you and I had a conversation and you said that you feel; that you support the moratorium because you think that we are too broad on where they can go and if I understood you correctly, that the space that would be used for a car wash could be used for other types of businesses right now and you would like to see where they could go in a smaller footprint in our City. Is that fair? Planning & Zoning Manager: It is fair. I think the concern is is that currently they are permitted conditionally in our General Commercial C-3 District and I think it is smart of our City to impose a moratorium so that we can revisit that. We can revisit the general regulations of the car wash in a C-3 if we are going to permit it in that C-3 property. So, if you look at the zoning map, you can see all of the locations where that C-3 is located and I think you will see that maybe those locations aren’t as good of a placement for a car wash where we would probably prefer to see more of a general commercial use. Pres. of Council: Here is what I was thinking. So, I get in line to go through the car wash and I’m probably there 5 minutes, 10 minutes which is actually shorter and there are less cars at the car wash line than there are when I go to McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts. What makes car washes unique? Mayor: Mr. Chairman, I know it is a question to her, but the reason I am also in favor of this moratorium is because in a C-3 District which is abutting residential property, if you go out to the brand new one out at the Cascades, I was in the parking lot at Menard’s and I couldn’t even here my wife talk because the noise that is omitted from the tunnels of these things could be pointed directly to a residential house and so we have to make sure that we can understand the noise factor that is coming out of this and that we either have to turn them or we just have to understand that. On West Avenue, we have had so many complaints of the noise coming out of that brand new facility down there on West Avenue from the apartments right across the street. So, we had to tweak and modify. I really think that is what the moratorium is for. Not so much as . . . we welcome new businesses coming into town, but as an economic development driving tool, I would rather have a McDonald’s than a car wash. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Planning & Zoning Manager: If I could expand on the noise too, he mentioned so we just recently approved that new car wash on West Avenue and yes we have received a lot of noise complaints and at first it was just music playing, but the tunnel itself makes so much noise; the drying machines can make so much noise that it is a nuisance to the residential neighborhood around there. So, again, the placement of it, the regulations that we are going to impose, that is pretty much why. Pres. of Council: Good points. Great answer. Mr. Bollas: Yes, just a question for the floor I guess; is this assuming that Planning & Zoning were to pass an application for a car wash today or could they reject it? Mayor: Someone could apply prior to this ordinance going into effect to go through the process. Mr. Bollas: Right, but there could still be a decision to reject in Planning & Zoning; correct? Dir. of Law: Theoretically but based on the criteria. Mr. Bollas: Based on the criteria they would go through it including noise, lighting, aesthetics, etc., and determine its not feasible or suitable for that location. They could theoretically? Dir. of Law: Yes, but again it gets more challenging when you have . . . Mr. Bollas: Because if they are considering the criteria . . . Dir. of Law: You have situations where we have passed other car washes in similar circumstances and so it is important to re-evaluate what those criteria need to be and if those criteria need to be the same or if they need to be perhaps stricter. Mr. Bollas: So, should there be a WHEREAS clause or edit made to this document to include if that were to pass like as a result of that passing that still would not go through? Like if they passed it, it would still require 6 months? Dir. of Law: No, no, no. This is to put a pause on it. So, if this is passed by Council, then they cannot go through that process for the 6-month period of time. That is what you are voting on. Mr. Bollas: So, we are assuming that all applications for car washes will pass? Dir. of Law: I’m getting a little bit confused. Is it the question that you first asked I thought was that right now, at this moment in time, before you pass this legislation and they would have to go through the conditional zoning process and it would have to be judged based on that criteria, but again it is a little bit more problematic for them to look at those applications and judge them differently as they have done so with other similarly situated car washes. So, what this moratorium does is once, or if you decide to adopt that this evening, we will not accept applications for 6 months and there will be no processing of any car wash applications for 6 months while we continue to explore what the City wants to do. Mr. Bollas: OK, so the restriction would be per Council not per Planning & Zoning? Dir. of Law: Restrictions yes; Council would be saying through this ordinance no applications will be taken for 6 months. Mr. Bollas: Then my follow-up question to that is to Mr. Loughry’s point, my only concern with this was where does it stop like to the point of businesses; right? You know, today it a car wash and tomorrow it is an oil change and tomorrow it is a Mexican restaurant. I am just thinking through this. Dir. of Law: So, it does have to be a facially neutral type and so this is the type of use that is in our Code and is spelled out in our Code. So, it has to be a type of use. Like restaurants you would have to pick all of the restaurants, not just a type of restaurant for example and things like that and if you may have noticed that there have been quite a few other municipalities in the area who have been adopting moratoriums as well. I think in general because these are causing more and more concerns and more and more complaints and people are wanting to further evaluate those. So, you would not be alone if you decided to adopt the moratorium. Mrs. Kilway: If I could just add too to that, these car washes that have been recently going up, these are state-of-the-art, brand-new, high-tech car washes that 20 years ago we didn’t see this type of car wash come through. So, they are a lot noisier, and it does bring additional aspects that we need to consider so all this does is put a pause on car washes. It’s not that we don’t want any more; it is putting a pause on it so that we can determine what criteria as to where they would be located and if there were any additional restrictions that we would have to put on them because of the additional noise and so forth. Any other questions from Council? Then we are at 3rd Reading on this. 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Pres. of Council: I would move to adopt the moratorium. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. Ord. 2023-52 is adopted by a vote of 5-0. Is there anything else to come before Planning & Zoning at this time? Hearing none, I will close committee again. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point in the agenda where if anybody in the audience would like to address Council they can for up to 2 minutes. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to do that? Seeing none, will move on to Item 8. 8. Agenda Additions: None. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Director of Economic Development: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I will try to be brief. o We will start off with Tallmadge Girls Softball. They won again at the Regional level. They play tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m. in New Riegel, Ohio for the Regional Championship against Maumee. Congratulations to the girls and good luck to them. I know Mr. Bozic’s daughter is in a Regional track meet so good luck to her. o The last day of school is tomorrow for the Tallmadge School District. Hats off to all those graduating and moving on to different buildings. o Keep in mind that this coming Monday is the Memorial Day Parade. It steps off from Mack Burleson field at 10:00 a.m. down on West Avenue, around the Circle and to the cemetery. There will be a ceremony going on there and also if you are inclined to run in the 5K run, that is on Northwest Avenue. Then the Tallmadge Chamber Pancake Breakfast is 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the Community Center. o Trash recycling service is running a day behind next week. o The IT Department has been working with the Zoning Department about updates and making our website more transparent and improving the navigation of the wards so you can actually go on to look at the Ward Precinct map and click on it and type your address and it will pop up what ward you are in, and it is very interactive. Then on the zoning map, you can also go to the Zoning Department tab and look under zoning and also do the same thing. Hats off to Helene and Justin. o Also, an update on the Fire Department. The new parking lot has been installed. The asphalt will come next week. The landscapers were out there today completing the underground irrigation system around the new building and then new grass will be planted. o We are still working on the garage doors. Seems like we go two steps forward and one step backwards, so hopefully we have some good news by our next Council meeting on the status of that. o Tonight, you have Ord. 2023-53 and that is the fiber. I am asking for an amendment and we will have a conversation on that amendment. That is the fiber that the County is going to install starting on Thomas Road through the industrial park all the way up to the Joint Dispatch Center adding additional pipe for us. There is an added cost, and we will talk about that when it comes up. I think that is all I have. End of report. b. Director of Administration/Director of Safety: (Mayor) Dr. Cooper is at training tonight. You do have a written report that he sent to Council this week going over what is going on with the Police. c. Director of Public Service: (Mayor) I am happy to announce that Mike’s daughter was married last weekend and he is out of state celebrating with his family. d. Director of Finance: Thank you. I have no report this evening. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I have no report this evening. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 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 for the Planning & Zoning Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. Mr. Bollas: I received some inquiries specific to land usage specifically around the proposed stops for Metro bussing and specifically this does pertain to signage as well. Obviously, residents are seeing the signs going in. Are the stops specifically finalized and the timeline around that and is that considered like for example, this one over here by the school’s property; is a traffic study a part of that where that specific stop is placed. The inquiries are specific to the stop locations and the proposed traffic congestion. Mayor: So, I did have a meeting with Metro this week, actually it was on Tuesday, the stop locations are by their strategic plan of how they go and the distance between stops. It is not done by their traffic coordinator or by the City of Tallmadge. They put it up in the public right- of-way. It is public transportation. The bus stops will be evaluated. The bus goes into play on June 1st, and they will evaluate the need for those stops and then modify the stops shortly thereafter with input and we will make sure that we have input this time. If there is nobody standing at that location, that bus will not stop there, and it will just continue on. Mr. Bollas: Right, but that . . . so right now where those posts are staked or the signs are posted, that can be assumed to be a permanent stop unless the administration feels that it needs to be removed. Mayor: Or in combination with Metro Transit and the City. We could request . . . we have to let it get into play and evaluate it and then we will be able to make a better educated guess especially the one at the school. There might be opportunities for grandparents and kids to be able to go there to the football games or to the baseball games. That school complex is multi- use. Mr. Bollas: Right and the question again was specifically like the stops and the time of day as well with the routing to not interfere with school bussing as well as parent drop-off. Mayor: I told them in the meeting this week that East Avenue Corridor during school when it starts and when it ends is horrendous and the timing of your bus stops will be way off because of the buses. I mean they are going to be in line . . . they have been running for a week now. They are not picking anybody up. They are just doing . . . the bus says “training” on it, so they are training the route right now. Mr. Bollas: Did they ask permission to place those or is it more that that is above our . . . Tallmadge has no authority to have a say in that? Mayor: They did not ask for those locations to be placed. It is in the public right-of-way. Mr. Bollas: Again, the inquiries I was getting were very specific to the stops and the congestion and the time of day. It wasn’t bussing overall. Thank you. 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. i. Second Reading of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-55 – Authorizing the appropriation of funds for wireless access points and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Finance Gilbride 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mr. Bollas: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord.2023-55 at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. This is at 2nd Reading. Do we have any input from the Administration or Council on this ordinance? Dir. of Finance: Just to remind Council that this is to re-appropriate funds that we had set aside in 2021, however we were not able to complete the purchase due to supply chain issues so what we have done is we have let that money lapse from last year’s budget and we are just asking for you to now appropriate those funds in the 2023 budget. Mr. Bollas: We received an e-mail from Justin also asking for adoption of this. This was specific to various hardware for one use as public wi-fi at Maca and others. It was just a supply chain issue of being ordered. This could expedite that. Mrs. Kilway: I move to adopt Ord. 2023-55 at 2nd Reading. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2023-55 is adopted by a vote of 5-0. Are there any additional items to bring before the Finance Committee this evening? I just have one question. Is there any update on the sidewalk project that was proposed as part of the ARPA funding and how that was progressing. I know it was being bid. Dir. of Finance: It has been bid and awarded. So, we are in the beginning stages of finalizing some things. We did discover a little bit of engineering had to be done closer down to the Roundabout due to some grading on some of those properties, but we are progressing with that. I don’t know the exact date that they will begin construction, but I can follow up with Mr. Rorar when he returns back. Mr. Bollas: Any other questions or comments from Council for the Finance Committee? Alright I close committee. ii. 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. Mr. Bollas: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no ordinances this evening. Is there anything to come before the Personnel Committee? No one responded. We did receive an update from Dr. Cooper regarding the Police Chief hiring process so please review that. We did receive another update on the compensation study as well and when to anticipate that. So, again please just review that update that we received from Mr. Cooper. Any other questions or updates for Personnel? No one responded. Alright, I 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. Mrs. Gutman: I call Community Issues to order. We have nothing before us tonight. Does anyone else have anything? Mr. Bollas: So, I have been contacted by several residents specifically regarding the Maca Pool passes selling out this season, specifically to tax paying residents who may have just missed the deadline because life is busy these days and school is ending and they are finally realizing that they need a pool pass and then they make a call or stop down to the Rec and they can’t get one so I guess my question just for us to all ponder is how can this be resolved. Again, you can’t predict the demand per se, but I know you can look at various trends. I would propose looking at it like a percentage base and so I know we were looking at various density and 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mr. Bollas (Cont’d.) population, but maybe instead of looking at it as passes sold; look at it in terms of hey we want to sell “X” number of passes as a goal and then we evaluate our ratio within that is a percentage of where we are targeting “X” percent for resident and “X” percent for non-resident versus just a specific date and time to say that hey by you know whatever mid- May is the cutoff because I just don’t agree that a tax paying resident should be closed out of access to passes and then have to resort to day passes and then be excluded from going to the pool on Tuesday’s when they are already supporting all operations of that pool in the City taxes. So, again, I respect the process but just wanted to bring it up as a community issue that I have been contacted by several residents in the last week and again I think it is because school is getting out and everyone is realizing that they didn’t get their pass this year because life is very busy with children and families. So, I just wanted to bring that up to Council and the Administration that we can look at it from a couple different angles to try to make sure that that doesn’t happen and in the short term maybe look at, as you know, some consideration for those that did miss out. Mayor: Thank you. We will take that under advisement, but the highest number of residents passes we have sold at Maca in the past was 1,400. And if we only relied on the Tallmadge residents to support the pool, we wouldn’t be able to operate the pool for that fee and so that is why we gave a month and a half for Tallmadge residents to sign up and get that membership and then we had to open it up to outsiders. So, I like your idea of percentage. Is it 80/20; is it 60/40; I don’t know. Dir. of Finance: Well, we do have the grant, so we must follow a 2:1 ratio. There are rules because we must allow it to be open to all the public and not just residential public and so that has to follow a 2:1 ratio so for every 2 residents, we should be allowing at least 1 non-resident. Mr. Bollas: But we set the maximum? Dir. of Finance: We set the maximum of passes because of the capacity of the pool. Mr. Bollas: Right. Mayor: The biggest complaint in years past, even last year, was that the amount of people in the water . . . we get yelled at both ways. Mr. Bollas: No, and I didn’t realize that part about the grant. I guess the only other option I could think of to explore next season would be to look at the due date and the cut-off because again, I am just giving people the benefit of the doubt that they just missed it and I also don’t know what the demand is like. I have been contacted by 5 people so far and I don’t know how many that the Parks and Rec have been contacted by that have just been interested and couldn’t get one. I know for example another thing was that the Tallmadge Marlins deadline was Monday evening and so parents interested in joining the Marlins needed to have a pass, but I believe there is a unique circumstance for that situation where they can get a pass to join the team so again, I was just trying to brainstorm how we could solve that. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you Mr. Bollas. Those are good points and I think everyone was caught off guard this year because of the unexpected closing of Maplewood. If that hadn’t happened, I think Mrs. Simons said that we had about 200 passes left when Stow announced that they were closing and then those just got taken up really fast; in a matter of days and so that is not something that anyone was predicting. Next year people are going to be ready for that and we will have a little different situation, but the 2:1 ratio definitely affects things because where we are right now, we have 1,213 resident memberships as a perspective, and they capped it at 2,000. So, you can see that is a significant number of non-resident memberships of what we are selling. We must remember that there are a lot of ways to pay taxes in this community and not just being a resident. Mr. Bollas: Just to add to that with the closing of Maplewood, a lot of them may want to join the Tallmadge Marlins team and then that would bring them to that pool as well. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 Mrs. Gutman: Definitely food for thought and discussion. Mayor: We could still use some lifeguards. Mrs. Gutman: Have we ever considered a lifeguard training course? I don’t know if anyone here would actually know the answer to that. Mayor: We have done it at the pool in the past. Dir. of Finance: We have but we do have issues though because we are an outdoor pool that we have the timeframe to make that happen prior to its opening. We have gone through reimbursement for training in the past, but we don’t kind of have the facilities available. We did discuss maybe seeing if we could partner with some of the local indoor pools to maybe make that happen next year, so we did have that conversation. Mrs. Gutman: Yeah, that’s a great idea. Mayor: We did invite all the Maplewood lifeguards to fill out an application. Mrs. Gutman: Hopefully that will get us somewhere. Mayor: It did not. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anything else for Community Issues? Pres. of Council: So, it is the end of May. Did we make a determination on Halloween? Did we make a decision as to whether we were going to move Halloween or are we keeping it the 4th Thursday? Mrs. Gutman: In talking with the Rec Department staff, it is a discussion that we need to have this year for next year because they plan so far ahead with their budget it was too much to do in time for this year. Pres. of Council: So, we are going to keep it on the 4th Thursday. Mrs. Gutman: We are still talking, but for polling the community and the conversations we need to have that it will be looking into 2024 to make changes and not just necessarily Trick or Treat, but the activities that we have surrounding Trick or Treat. You know we always get different feedback on that. We haven’t made any final decisions about that but for this year we haven’t changed anything. If there is nothing else, I will close Community Issues. i. Additional Items: None. e. Safety Adam Bozic, Chair Craig Sisak, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police, and health. Pres. of Council: I call the Safety Committee to order. We have no legislation before us. Is there anything to come before Safety from Council or the Administration? Mr. Bollas: Yes, as it pertains to communications; I was just going to ask for an update of the cell tower usage and any service providers that have joined. Pres. of Council: Mr. Wood did tell me that things are moving along as they should be. Mayor: Speelman Electric is the contractor, and they are saying that by the middle of June things should be operational at the high school. Not the one on North Avenue. Pres. of Council: Is there anything else for Safety? No one responded. I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. f. Public Service Rebecca Allman, Chair Mary Gutman, Vice Chair 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycle, waste, and trash. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2023-54 Ord. 2023-54 – Amended–Exhibit A – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Summit and City of Tallmadge for installation of conduit along the Summit Area Regional Council of Governments fiber route, appropriating the necessary sums and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kline Mrs. Allman: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Ord. 2023-54 before us at 3rd reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor: Madame Chair, the amendment tonight is for, when we met with the County in this room with quite a few people, they presented us with the cost for the fiber to run from the parameter of the route that I talked about. So, from Thomas Road up through the industrial park to West Avenue, Nottingham, Overdale and Kent Drive to Howe Road to the Joint Dispatch Center. To run parallel conduit with 26 pull boxes strategically along that route. They gave us the price of $94,000 and then they called us back after I had already submitted the legislation and I said that was great and that I thought it was a great deal and I think we should do this and they said that that did not include the material. That was only looking at one side of it that was the labor to bore and so the County had on another document the price for the material which was $47,000. The bottom line is for that length of distance it is $10 a foot to install a 2” conduit with pull boxes installed underground. We could never touch it for $10 a foot. So, that is what the amendment is to be able to interconnect. It would be able to pick up close to Lions Park and so if you ever wanted to run Wi-fi over to that location it would be our conduit in the ground. Connecting Fire Station 1 and 210 Osceola; it is just a good deal. So, that is what the amendment is about. This is at 2nd Reading just so you know. Mrs. Kilway: I just wanted clarification that the amount for . . . was it $92,320? Mayor: That was the original cost for the labor only. Mrs. Kilway: Labor only and then we are adding another $47,137 and so $139,457.44 in order to do the project. You said at $10 a foot? Mayor: Yes. Mrs. Kilway: I don’t have a problem with that. I move to amend Ord. 2023-54. Seconded Mr. Loughry. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway. Ord. 2023-54 is amended and will remain before the Public Service Committee. Anything else for Public Service? Mrs. Kilway: I did have one quick mention. I wanted to thank Mike Weigand. I was working with him because there are going to be some curb replacements in the Village Green neighborhood and I had residents asking me when it is going to start. So, I made a quick phone call and found out when it was going to start. He drafted a letter and passed it around to all of the neighbors, so they knew exactly what to expect because it is going to be quite cumbersome, but it was definitely needed. These curbs are almost 60-year-old and are disintegrating on us. So, I just want to thank him very much for all the work he did in putting these letters together; he and Tina. Mrs. Allman: Is there anything else for Public Service? Pres. of Council: Mrs. Allman, just for clarification for those that are livestreaming so they understand the discussion that if we adopted it tonight until our next meeting to adopt . . . so if we would have adopted it tonight, it would not have gone into effect for 30 days. If we wait and adopt this at our next meeting, it goes into effect immediately and so the Mayor picks up about 15 days for waiting. Just for those that are watching that don’t really understand the technical part that we do. Mrs. Allman: Seeing nothing else for Public Service, I close committee. 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. May 25, 2023 ii. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee Pres. of Council: The only thing I have, and it goes back to the RTA. Frustrated is probably not a strong enough word. If you guys remember that on April 13th, I reported that I had three or four different calls to RTA and never got a call back. Didn’t get a call back until I left a message for their CEO. So, they started calling on Friday and Monday, but all of us have been getting somewhat attacked either through social media or direct e-mail or phone calls basically insinuating that we don’t know what is going on and to some degree they are correct because RTA didn’t communicate with us. You should never ever have to wait 6 weeks to get a call back; right? None of us run our businesses that way and then when you add to that somebody that really gets torqued off at us or the Administration and they leave a voice mail that nobody should have to listen to; it is just bad and so the conversation that I had with RTA on Friday or Monday of this week; they said Mr. Loughry we would love to come and talk to you after they explained to me all the reasons why they did not have to come talk to us a year ago. I said great, we would love to have you come Thursday night and they are the ones that said, Mr. Loughry, we would love to come and talk to you and I said great and as soon as I said that we would love for them to come Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. and they said they weren’t sure if they were available then. So, I just want everyone to know and everyone that is watching exactly what we are dealing with here. I am very disappointed with that agency. You should not have to go to the top to have someone below the top do their job from a customer service point of view. All we wanted was a phone call; a return phone call so that we could communicate with our constituents what is going on and if we don’t know we can’t communicate that and if the Mayor doesn’t know, he can’t communicate it to us. So, anyway, that is not good. That is not the way government should operate because what the public does; they lump us all together and so you have the RTA not doing their job right and then we have the public thinking that we are not doing our job right. Well, our employees do their very best to try to provide good service to our residents. We work hard as Council people, the Administration works hard, and I don’t like it, well none of us like it, when you are being penalized or you are being chastised for something that you had no input and no control of. That’s bad. For them not to send one person here tonight when they know . . . the Mayor had a meeting with them. I finally had two or three phone calls and for them not to free up one employee out of that whole agency to come here and explain to us the process so our residents that are live streaming could watch and understand the process. Shame on them. That’s all I got. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: None. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Bollas moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Allman, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Gutman, Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry – unanimous. The Council meeting of 5- 25-23 adjourned at 8:32 p.m. sb Adopted: _______________ _______________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Dennis K. Loughry – President of Council 14