City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 1. Call to Order: President of Council Bozic called the Council meeting of Thursday, February 22, 2024, to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Opening Prayer: Elder Kurran Bishop, Shepherd’s Pasture for All Nations Church. Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Kilway. 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Robino – present. Mr. Bollas was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 02-08-24 Regular Meeting Minutes 02-08-24 Richardson Trust Fund Trustees Meeting Minutes Mr. Pavlik: I will make a motion to approve both meetings’ minutes. Seconded Mrs. Gutman: Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. The 2- 8-24 Regular Meeting Minutes along with the 2-8-24 Richardson Trust Fund Meeting Minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: None. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: Pres. of Council: This is the point in the meeting where anyone from the audience may address Council on anything that is not on the agenda. So, with that, is there anyone who would like to address Council? Hearing none, we will go on with the agenda. 8. Agenda Additions: a. Presentation by Police Chief Bohon. Chief Bohon: Thank you everyone, Madame Mayor, Members of Council and our appointed officials for letting us come here tonight. We would like to recognize one of our own tonight for her exceptional work, our Records Manager, Tina Alarcon. We spent a long time trying to figure out what the appropriate mechanism would be for all of her hard work, and I think we came upon something that we feel is acceptable to her and the entire department. Thank you all for supporting Tina tonight. There are a lot of you who came in on your own time. It’s a great team. So, I am going to go ahead and just kind of read the citation for the award that we are going to be presenting to her and then we will go from there. “For exceptional service while serving as the Records Manager for the Tallmadge Police Department from March, 2019 to the present. You were instrumental in the development and building, training, managing and implementing of a county-wide records management system which enhanced the services of Police and Fire to the citizens of Tallmadge and the surrounding metro area. Your efforts were critical to the success of this large-scale project. Not only did you devote your time and expertise to the City of Tallmadge, but you were called upon time and again to support other agencies by assisting in the building of their systems and the training of their employees. Additionally, your expertise assisted in the creation of the Summit Emergency Center, a regionalized emergency dispatch center serving most all of Summit County. Your knowledge of records management leads the duties and dispatching services, and provided the government committee with critical information regarding personnel and operational consideration. Your contributions helped foster an organizational culture of teamwork and made maximum use of the various talents of a very diverse team into a cohesive unit. Your distinguished performance, efforts and accomplishments were far above your listed job description and greatly exceeded your normal working hours, of which I know your husband can testify. You directly enhanced the capabilities and effectiveness of the safety forces and first responders to tens of thousands of citizens. Your conduct is in keeping with the highest values and traditions of the Tallmadge Police Department and it reflects great credit upon you and the City of Tallmadge.” 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Police Chief Bohon (Cont’d.) Just one short story that I know Tracy will remember, Tina’s husband. It was in the middle of the build and there was something going on with a meeting that she had to attend and some work that she had to get done and she was so sick. I don’t know if you had Covid or what, but she was deathly ill and so she is at home and she calls and she is asking for her laptop so she can finish this project and she sounded just horrible. I said, no, you need to rest, and she made it very clear that she was not going to rest and that I had to deliver her laptop computer so she could get the project done. That is just one example of the dedication that she shows and the work ethic that she has and why I was in front of Council before around budget time last year to kind of highlight all that she does for us and so much of it is unseen. So much of it is just kind of unknown. It is in your own special world of where you live, but her knowledge of software, her knowledge of the entire system is just . . . it just enhances our department and we are so lucky to have it right here in Tallmadge because we could have lost it and other people just don’t have it as good as we do with that resource in- house. So, when we were trying to determine what the best way, which is always difficult for our civilian employees, to recognize all of this performance and dedication and in looking through our policies on how we can recognize our employees, I read a passage of one award that just seemed to fit perfectly and that is, “that demonstrating a high degree of personal initiative, performed substantially above normal requirements in an exemplary manner and in doing so contributed to the achievement of law enforcement goals for the department’s mission. I think that that is exactly for the last 5 years what you have done and while you continue to do. So, while this is highly unusual for us to do this, and in my limited research I don’t think that we as a department have ever done this before; we are going to issue Tina a Moratory Service Medal which normally goes to sworn-in law enforcement officers. Since you don’t have a uniform that we can pin it on, I have taken the liberty of presenting it in a different way. This is an honor to present this to you. Thank you very much. Tina Alarcon: I am not going to say much. I am very fortunate for the men and women that I work with both inside and outside of the department and our fire guys too and I greatly appreciate this. Thank you. Mayor Kilway: You don’t know how important this is to, like you said, not just the Police, but the Fire and all of our safety forces; the whole county. Thank you for everything that you have done. I really appreciate it. b. Presentation of Certificate of Appreciation to Mike Srodawa, Tallmadge City Schools Track Coach. Pres. of Council: Alright. Thank you. So, this evening I have the pleasure of introducing someone who has played a very important in our community for many, many years and that is Mr. Mike Srodawa, who is a teacher and coach at Tallmadge High School. So, Mike has been a coach since 1998. He has coached the boys’ teams, the two Suburban League Titles in 2021 and 2022, two District Runner-up finishes in 2005 and 2019. He has coached the girl’s team to 2 District Titles in 2006 and 2009 and three runner-up finishes in 2018, 2021, and 2023. During his time as Head Coach there have been 52 different events that have qualified to run at the State meets. Those were not all individual events, some of those were team events and so when you think about that if it is a relay team with four runners plus usually one alternate, he sent a lot of student athletes to the State down in Columbus. I can speak from a personal standpoint of my daughter who is a student at Tallmadge High School and she has run indoor track and outdoor track under Mr. Srodawa and he has an incredible way with the athletes finding them and helping them to find ways to push themselves mentally, physically on the track and off the track, in the classrooms and just sending personal messages sometimes of hey can you check in on your daughter on this or on that and just having a 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) coach that has a passion like that for students and cares about students in such a way that they go above and beyond outside of their normal hours. It just means a lot to me as a parent, and I couldn’t think of a better person to present this to tonight than Mr. Mike Srodawa. Mr. Srodawa: I had no idea this was happening so thank you. This community means a lot to me and working with the kids. My family allows me to do this, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention them; my wife Karen and my two boys and I have great Assistant Coaches that help as well. Thanks. Pres. of Council: I do have to say that when I decided to do this I had to kind of surprise him so he didn’t really know why he was coming tonight, but I also had a very difficult time in deciding which coach to bring in because there are so many fantastic coaches up there as part of the High School Track Team. Thank you. c. Architectural Review Board – Jim Donovan replacing Mark Pouliot and Jamie Rager replacing Darrell Ayers. Pres. of Council: I will turn this over to the Mayor to speak about these individuals. Mayor: Thank you. As you know, these are appointments by the Mayor and they just need to be approved by City Council so that is why I have given you the list. I have added a little bit of information on each person. For BZA, Matt Aloisi is an Employee Benefits Advisor with Ohio Health Benefits, and he is also a substitute bus driver for the City of Tallmadge. For Civil Service, Dave Kline will replace Lisa Zeno Carano. I don’t need to explain too much about former Mayor Kline, but for Civil Service I think he would be a very good choice because of his historical knowledge especially in that field. On the Architectural Review Board, I took those people who have historical buildings in the area and former Councilman Jim Donovan owns the funeral home and cremation services and he owns two century buildings on Southwest Avenue and like I said, he was a former Councilman and Jamie Rager is replacing Darrell Ayers, who by the way he indicated that if you do need an alternate, he would be available if there happens to be a meeting where he would be needed. She is the Executive Director of Retail Banking for JP Morgan and her and her family live in a century home on North Avenue. Pres of Council: Great, so a question for our Law Department. So, it is stated that these are confirmations and so my question is, are these confirmations being voted upon by Council and what percentage of yeas and nays do we need to actually have confirmations? Dir. of Law: For the confirmations you just need a simple majority, and we will do that by roll call vote. You can do them all at one time or you can do them individually. Pres. of Council: If, for any reason, because we do have 6 Council members this evening, if one of these were to not pass what happens? Dir. of Law: It remains on the agenda for a majority, so it will come back unless the Mayor would decide to make another appointment, Pres. of Council: OK. Alright, thank you. Mayor Kilway: Does anyone have any questions on any of these appointments before we start that maybe I can shed some light on some information? Pres. of Council: Do any of our members on Council have questions for the Mayor? Mayor Kilway: I did forward the bios to everybody, and I know it was not required but I did put the party affiliation next to the name. Pres. of Council: So, I will ask a somewhat obvious question here, with the appointment of Dave Kline on the Civil Service Commission being that Civil Service is a paid position and going from elected to a paid position within the same City, I didn’t have time to do the proper research but is there anything within the Ohio Code of Ethics that would say that that is frowned upon or 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) maybe borderline not something we should do because of a conflict . . . for example for a cooling off period when you leave City government? Mayor Kilway: In my opinion it would be similar to former Mayor Chris Grimm coming back as a Councilman and just to let you know they do, because it is a paid position in their retirement and so they are not doing it so they can make more money; they are doing it as a service so their retirement does get dinged by taking on this role. Pres. of Council: Is there, within the Ohio Code of Ethics, a section that talks about confidential information or privileged information that an individual would have from their prior employment or an elected position that would potentially become relevant in the future for this new position and using that privileged knowledge would be not allowed. Do we have any concern that this is an issue? Dir. of Law: So, I think what you are referring to Mr. Bozic, is applicable to hiring someone as like an independent contractor or having them come back and . . . they can’t utilize information that they obtained in their office to then benefit them in like lobbying for something that would be coming back in front of that entity for some decision that they had knowledge about when they were in office. So, I believe that is probably what you are thinking about and that is not the same thing with an employee . . . we have a lot of employees that will technically retire and rehire immediately. Pres. of Council: Alright. I just want to make sure that we are staying within the rules and. . Dir. of Law: This is not . . . he is not asking to be contracted for; it is an employee position, so it is a little bit different. Pres. of Council: OK. Is there any further discussion on these appointments? So, I think it would be appropriate to do these one at a time. So, for the Board of Zoning Appeals for the appointment of Matt Aloisi replacing Ted Roy. Madame Clerk, please call the roll. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. Mr. Aloisi is appointed to the Board of Zoning Appeals by a vote of 6-0. Pres. of Council: Moving on to our Architectural Review Board we have Jim Donovan replacing Mark Pouliot. Is there any discussion? Madame Clerk, call the roll. Roll Call: Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Mr. Donovan is appointed to the Architectural Review Board by a vote of 6-0. Pres. of Council: Next, we have Jamie Rager for replacing Darrell Ayers for the Architectural Review Board. Any discussion? Hearing none, Madame Clerk call the roll. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik – unanimous. Jamie Rager is appointed to the Architectural Review Board by a vote of 6-0. Pres. of Council: Next, we have the Civil Service Commission replacing Lisa Zeno Carano. Is there any discussion? Mrs. Gutman: Yes, I would like to say that I think this appointment makes a lot of sense. Pres. of Council: Anything further? Please call the roll. Roll Call: Mr. Roy – yes, Mr. Rubino – no, Mr. Bozic - no, Mrs. Gutman – yes, Mr. Pavlik – no, Mrs. Epstein – yes. Pres. of Council: So, we are at a 3 to 3 vote. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Economic Development: Thank you very much. First off, I do have with me this evening Catey Breck from InSITE, and I would like for her to do a brief presentation in reference to Ord. 2024-30 and if it OK with you could she do that prior to the ordinance? Pres. of Council: Yes, that’s fine. Mayor Kilway: She has a PowerPoint that I had forwarded to Mrs. Conti as well. I had my second After Hours with the Mayor today. I had a great conversation with a resident that is very involved with the Tallmadge Chamber. I had a lot of good conversation out of that. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 • Mayor (Cont’d.) We spoke for probably an hour and a half. Part of that conversation segways into the next which is what I have been really working hard on the last several weeks which is the economic development within the City. With InSite we have gone to several business retention and expansion meetings with area businesses; StoreTek, JetPack, Mr. Scaccio, Individual Outcomes, Heyden Molding and Bench, Pyramid Rebuild and we also met with the City of Akron. We are starting that conversation with the West Avenue/Brittain Road Corridor and there will be a lot of discussion and meetings going forward with them. • I also had meetings with Brad Ehrhart with the Portage Development Board and Mike Lab which is Brimfield’s Economic Developer, and he did say that I can disclose what is going to be coming into the JEDD. The VA is going to be bringing in a cancer infusion center into the JEDD right between Kohl’s and the apartments down there and they had to do some rezoning so there is that park that is behind there which is Portage County off of Robey Road that comes into Tallmadge and they are going to be putting the trailhead or the parkhead; they are moving that around a little bit. But that is a definite go and that is going to be fast-forwarded so we will be able to see the benefits of that facility to come into our area. I am very pleased with that. • There is also an engineering firm that is committed to bringing a project of a total of 4 buildings onto Mogadore Road in the JEDD as well. • The Village of St. Edwards in front of Aldi’s is also a go as well. We do have a very nice, open communication and so hopefully we will be able to get information before we hear it on Tallmadge Talk. • We had All Breed Training Club of Akron come in. They celebrated their 75 years in operation, and they are a total volunteer company that has their facility in Tallmadge at the Fairgrounds, and they do obedience training and agility training for dogs and so that just a nice little feel-good moment. We did give them a nice award for celebrating 75 years of being in business. • We have been having a lot of meetings over the Solar Eclipse and like I am telling a lot of people, Summit County is urging us to stay home because we can view it from our house. The Summit County Fairgrounds is having campsites available so that could cause extra traffic into our City and I feel it is important that we use our safety resources to help facilitate traffic and any type of emergency services to help with that. We are not going to have any extra events within the City because of that. I don’t want to stretch our safety forces too long and the total eclipse lasts for 2 minutes and 43 seconds just to let you know. I am going to make some phone calls to the Summit County Fair Board so I can keep abreast of how many campsites they are going to be renting out. Right now, it is slow. I think they had a total of 8 like as of last week. Maybe it was 8 parking spots; I don’t remember. • We did have an active shooter drill at the Middle School and the Elementary School last Friday. It was very impressive. It was very impressive to watch our safety forces; our Police Department and our Fire Department go through the drill. It was a little bit scary too to think that this has happened in some schools, and it is very sad, and I am glad that we are actually getting prepared so hopefully that never happens here. • We did also on the 14th the 20-year anniversary of the Tallmadge Rec Center. I hope everyone was able to stop by. It was very well attended when I stopped by in the morning. • Community Gardens is getting up and running. I know there is an ordinance in front of us for that. 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 • We are getting ready for the State of the City and we will have that ready for Primetimers on the 19th and the Tallmadge Chamber of Commerce on the 20th of next month. Mayor: Are there any questions? Mr. Roy: That is my ward over there. Are we going to have signs on the streets so people can’t park in the neighborhood? Are they going to be patrolling people? Mayor: Yeah, we are working through all of that. We are having meetings on that. Dir. of Pub. Service: We are obviously going to have barricades and signage put up prior to that. Mr. Roy: So, it will be like the Summit County Fair? Dir. of Pub. Service: Very similar. Mr. Pavlik: On working on the West Avenue Corridor; who from the City of Akron are you working with? Mayor: We met with . . . Catey Beck (inaudible – spoke without microphone) Mr. Pavlik: Second question, St. Ed’s that is in the JEDD, correct? Mayor: Yes. Mr. Pavlik: So, responding to any kind of medical emergency . . . Mayor: That is considered Brimfield, but of course, Tallmadge has mutual aid. Any other questions? Hearing none, end of report. b. Director of Administration/Dir. of Safety: Pres. of Council: We already covered that. c. Director of Public Service: I would like to request that Ord. 2024-32 be passed at 1st Reading. I would appreciate that. • This is the pavement condition rating for the concrete. If you look to the right of the two squares the streets are color coordinated and it shows how good or bad they do. You can see the 5-year difference. We are actually doing pretty well on concrete. We have improved. If you note in 2018, we were at 41% and we are at 54% now. We were at 11% and were fair to poor and that is gone. The 12% and very poor is East Howe Road. Keep in mind that 5 years ago we made the strategy to move into the allotments because they needed upgrading and I think it is important that everybody’s allotment that has concrete that those roads are in better shape than East Howe Road. We have engineering at 90% complete so we should have the engineering of East Howe Road done by the end of this year. We can also look at the budget on doing it. We have it broken down into 3 phases. Maybe we just do it in-house. That could be another option. There are a couple of things to talk about in the budget. • The bid came out and the base bid for the concrete program was awarded to Don Wartko. The bid waws $466,506. Those are the streets that are getting done. That is a fair amount. We have some in reserve because keep in mind sidewalks start expanding pretty quick as we go out to do them. We will be back to add to sidewalks. Keep in mind that that pavement rating is done by the consultant and not by me. It would have been worse if it was done by me because I don’t like how our streets look, but that is neither here nor there. Our asphalt has gotten worse. That 62% in 2018 that is kind of a falsehood because there were a lot of those streets at the 70% mark and they slipped down to the fair mark pretty quickly and we had the same problem in 2023 that 50% and a lot of them were at 70% and by the time we do the next rating I’m sure we will be less than that. You can see the difference there. There are a lot more colors on that if you are looking at the poor streets, Thomas Road and Indian Hills are probably the worst two. Thomas Road is on the list to get done this year. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) We went out to bid and Cardinal got the bid which was $1,073,076.45 and that was the most we had ever had in paving since I have been here. In 2020 to give you an example, it was $500,000. So I appreciate the increase. Also, in 2020 the amount that we spent in concrete was $80,000. So, I definitely appreciate the increase. Those are the streets and there are a couple of sections like Howe Road Park is getting a paved section of the drive and then Lions Park the walkway section has to be done. But other than that, the rest of those are streets. • Just wanted to bring up how do you improve that? Right now, we are more or less paving conditions with reactive maintenance. If you look there the green like is roadside drainage and we do that every year. If you look at the mill and fill and that is when you repave a road. A couple years in we started crack sealing. About five years the pothole repairing and 7 or 8 years you are still doing it and then 10 to 12 years you have to unfortunately repave that road. What can we do different. One of the things that we don’t do is pavement preservation. Mill and fill in the first year. Roadside ditching: we do that every year. Crack seal. Then you can do some seal applications to lengthen that road. You could end up getting 25 years out of a road if you did some things differently that we don’t do. Why don’t we do them? Well, you saw . . . I don’t think it is right to have a $1 million budget for paving roads and then I have to take money out of that because I should still be paving $1 million of roads to do maintenance. The money is not there to do the maintenance. I am just throwing this out there. I have thrown this out there about every year and it is something that we really need to start looking at because we need to put more money into paving roads, but we are not catching up as you can see from those other graphs. We are losing ground. We are gaining ground on the concrete, which is good news, but losing ground on the asphalt. So, we have to start looking at things a little bit differently. Are there any questions? Good bids and great numbers. Mrs. Epstein: I have a question as a resident of Howe Road, I am really excited about the possibility of getting it repaved and also as somebody who has walked and knocked on almost every door on that road, I think a lot of others would be as well. Would the road stay as 4 lanes, or would it be reduced? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, the width would remain the same and we will take it down to 3 lanes with a center turn lane and then you would have two bike lanes as well. Mrs. Epstein: OK, and in your opinion will that help with people coming off that smaller circle on Howe Road and gunning it? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. I believe. Mrs. Epstein: So, is there . . . by reducing the lanes is their cost savings, or it is the same width; it is just the way that we are painting it? Dir. of Pub. Service: It is the same width, but it will be with asphalt instead of concrete. Mr. Pavlik: Did you say you are changing it from concrete to asphalt? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mr. Pavlik: Estimated; how much would that cost? Dir. of Pub. Service: I should have that cost here in probably within a month. I just got the 90% plans and it is 148 pages so it is a lot. I have not gone through it, but when I’m done, I will give you the cost. Mr. Pavlik: Got it. Does it make sense to turn that to asphalt? Dir. of Pub. Service: Oh yeah because that is what is so costly about it. I mean it is killing me to do concrete and to turn that over to asphalt would help. Mr. Pavlik: Like they did in the Falls? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah. Mr. Rubino: Do you have an estimate on what the maintenance would be like to do the maintenance plan that you are talking about? 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service: I can get you one. Mrs. Gutman: So, Mr. Rorar, if you are looking at the plan that you have up here is potentially doubling the width of any particular road; how much . . . I am assuming there are cost savings from all the different things you are laying out in there. Do you know how much you are talking about in cost savings? Dir. of Pub. Service: So, cost savings so 5 years ago we needed to pave Maca parking lot and we decided to do a chip seal. To pave it was $120,000 and to chip seal was $39,000. Five years later it still looks good so that is the preventative maintenance that we are talking about. Now, at the end of the day we laugh, and we snicker, and we giggle about chip-seal but at the end of the day the facts are the facts. I mean, it is working. You can’t be throwing that much money into paving without trying to stretch that existing pavement out. I am not saying chip-seal everything because there are other options but at the end of the day, we are not doing the right stuff. Mrs. Gutman: So, what stops us from doing the crack-seal, the fog-seal and micro- surfacing as part of the maintenance program? Dir. of Pub. Service: Funds. We don’t have it budgeted. Mrs. Gutman: Well, it would be interesting to see if in the next budget cycle how those numbers all play out. I don’t think I was here the last time we looked at it. Dir. of Pub. Service: Because I don’t want to take money out of the paving budget to maintain it, I want to keep it for paving if that makes sense. Mrs. Gutman: But it sounds like we have a bucket with too many holes in it right now and we have to spend some money to plug some holes, or it is just not going to work in the long run. Dir of Pub. Service: It is one or the other; get me more money for paving or get me micro- maintenance as well. Mrs. Gutman: And if we do the maintenance in the long run, we are saving money. It is just a bigger investment up front. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, take Maca Park; chip-seal that is $80,000 I could put in something else instead of paving it for $120,000 I did it for $39,000 to stretch it out for 5 years so that is another $80,000 I could have put towards something else; right? Mr. Rubino: Do the lower trafficked roads have asphalt that generally lasts longer, or would that need some sort of protection also to get the longevity that would create a cost savings? Dir. of Pub. Service: It all needs longevity. Asphalt doesn’t last. Concrete is not the answer though. Mr. Rubino: There are different types of asphalt I understand. What type are we seeking or what type would we seek going forward. Would it be a lower grade or would it be higher quality . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: It is a recycled product, and they recycle the millings and all of those grindings they put right back in the asphalt and that is an inferior product so why would you put that down. I don’t think it is right for the surface. We have a virgin asphalt surface at the end of the day. Now, what we can do is richen up the emulsion and there again you go back to that list of $1 million and that is a lot of roads to pave for $1 million. If you keep richening up that asphalt and you should, and we do but at the end of the day we still need more money. Pres. of Council: So, if I could interrupt because I think we could talk about roads all evening, but I think Mr. Rorar, if you could, I think a lot of us would probably like to see prior to budget season if you could put together kind of like your dream plan of here is what it is, as the Mayor rolls her eyes not because of disappointment but because of the cost. Maybe you could put that together as a guide for us to understand just how expensive this 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) could be in the long run and then on a side point on Washburn, I saw that there was a section getting redone. The section that is getting redone from East Avenue to Robey never gets double-lined. Is that just because it is not curbs like there are on the rest of Washburn? Because I have people ask me why there was no double-line on Washburn that it stops right at Robey Road. Dir. of Pub. Service: It is because of the curves, but what we are going to do differently this time is the whole road is going to get edge-lined, which that is definitely necessary. Why it wasn’t edge-lined before; I don’t know. Pres. of Council: So, if anything, if we can put those double lines, that would be . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: There are engineering reasons, and I will have to double-check with engineering if we can put them but the edge lines we can do. Pres. of Council: And then the other point that I would like to bring up is about the Howe Road Project and I understand the width of the road is not going to be shortened it is going to be maintained where it is with a turning lane down the center. My only concern would be in years of future development we know what is on that road and we know there is property that is available there and my concern would be as in the future things develop and even all the way down to the JEDD area, the far end of Howe Road, as things continue to develop down there I worry about it being too congested meaning that we are funneling people into one lane when we already have two lanes available. So, just something to think about a little bit but I think looking into the future, you will aways hear about cities that are doing a road expansion, road expansion and then here we are talking about getting rid of a lane on both sides. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, before we can do that, we had to have a study done to see if you could reduce with having expansion of that farmland and we will never match the traffic count of Chapel Hill. Pres. of Council: Meaning that . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: That reducing the lanes would be perfectly fine with expansion of the farm. Pres. of Council: OK. Dir. of Pub. Service: Because the draw on that road is not there anymore because of the loss of Chapel Hill. Pres. of Council: I find that very odd because of the traffic study that we had done for the development of the property on Northwest or Northeast. Dir. of Pub. Service: That just rated an F-. Pres. of Council: I find that very odd, but anyways, any further questions for Mr. Rorar? I believe we have one comment from the audience if you would like to come to the mike and state your name and address. Lee Gidden, 1602 Timbertop Drive, Tallmadge. So, this is the first time I have heard about the reduction. I travel Howe Road a lot and we are stopped by traffic a lot by turning into the condominiums that are there. Is that Howe Road area going to be reduced also in that section? Dir. of Pub. Service: That is not the section. I probably should have said that it is from North Avenue to the Roundabout. Mr. Gidden: Oh. OK. Well, we had that road reduction not too long ago. So, that would just eliminate it all the way then? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yup. Pres. of Council: Are there any further questions? Mr. Pavlik: No, just thank you for your dedication. Also from residents; thank you for keeping our roads in shape. Pres. of Council: On to our Item d., Reports from Dir. of Finance 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Dir. of Finance: I have nothing to report this evening, but I would be glad to answer any questions if anybody has anything. Mrs. Epstein: I did enjoy talking spreadsheets with you earlier this week and thank you for taking the time to meet with me and walk through our City’s finances. I appreciate it. Dir. of Law: I have no report this evening. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Mary Gutman, Chair Jessica Epstein, Vice Chair The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. Mrs. Gutman: I call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for the Planning & Zoning Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. i. Additional Items: None. b. FINANCE Donald Pavlik, Chair Jonathon Bollas, Vice Chair The Finance Committee deals with budget, appropriations, reappropriations, bonds, franchises, investments, and expenditures. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord 2024-30 – Authorizing the Mayor to contract with inSITE Advisory Group, LLC for economic development consulting services without competitive bidding; appropriate the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Pavlik: I call the Finance Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-30 at 2nd Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor, do you have any comments? Mayor: inSITE is a consulting firm that does economic development for a variety of municipalities. I did, when I was first elected into this office, I did go out and solicit resumes for people to fill the position for economic development. We had advertisements out through Indeed and many different venues and received very few applications and resumes from people interested in doing economic development. The couple that would have been great rock stars for our City said we were too small for them. They did not have a desire to come to the City because of that. But, all along I have worked with inSITE as someone on Council and I was very aware of what they did and I liked what I saw that they brought to the table and I knew going forward that I always wanted to keep inSITE because of what they bring to the table, their broad umbrella and all that they have and their potential to bring projects to our City. So, my plan has been to keep inSITE as a consulting firm and still add someone to my staff for Economic Development. As you know, my Dir. of Administration will be coming in in May and the Economic Development person will be working under that individual. I would like my Dir. of Administration to be able to hire that individual and we are reimagining what that position is going to look like. It will not just be economic development; it will have some other aspects as well and I would like them to work with inSITE and be the face of economic development for the City. So, that is my plan and I do want a robust economic development team for our City and I want to do it in the most economical way we can within our budget. This ordinance is not asking for any additional money, it is just asking to move some money from my Personnel section of my budget into my Other Expenses item of my budget. So, it is not asking for any additional money to come out of the City’s finances. With that, I would like to have Catey Breck from 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) inSITE come up and do a presentation on what they do for the City of Tallmadge and other municipalities. Catey Breck, Dir. of Economic Development for inSITE Advisory Group. I have had the privilege of working with the City of Tallmadge since I started with this company in April of 2023. We contracted with Tallmadge under the previous administration to provide economic development consulting services for the City. We are very grateful for the potential to continue our work here with Mayor Kilway. Some background on inSITE Advisory Group. We are an economic and community consulting firm that works with municipal governments and corporate clients. inSITE is a business unit of Welte Building Company. Welte is most known for its construction business, but we also have Welte Development and Property Management, our office furniture group, Environments for Business, and Welte Energy that works with First Energy and other utility companies to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. We are a team of 3 people. Sean Joyce is our President, Scott Hartington is our Economic Development Program Manager and I serve as the Director of Economic Development and as I mentioned I joined the team in April of 2023 after working for the City of Akron’s Mayor Dan Horrigan as the Director of Strategic Development. I also have a decade of experience for the U.S. House of Representatives in a variety of positions in economic development, grant work and I also served as a Legislative Assistant on Capital Hill. Sean is a CPA with a strong background in non-profit management and most recently he served as CEO of Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens. Scott joined our team in August of 2023 after 14 years managing various strategies for the Greater Cleveland Partnership. As far as our accomplishments over the last 9 months for the City of Tallmadge, we focused our efforts on business retention and expansion visits with local employers. It is important to build strong relationships with local employers because 80% of job creation are created by businesses that are already here. These visits are ongoing throughout the year and we also joined forces with our local economic development partners, Portage Development Board, Greater Akron Chamber and Team NEO and Summit County and Jobs Ohio. Both counties both conduct regular touchpoints with the businesses so we found what works best for companies is that if we join the forces so that way they do not need to book additional meetings as we can all meet with the company at the same time and help to maximize the visit so it is the best use of time. Our major focus has been building a robust strategy in Tallmadge. I included some of the meetings that we participated in and led back in 2023 as well as some of the meetings that we have already covered for the first part of 2024. I also added that we did do two rounds of business visits. These were drop-in meetings that we did for a total of 77 visits leading up to Circle Fest. I did some of these visits on my own and then Mayor Kline attended about 30 visits with me last summer to promote Circle Fest. In 2024 we are thrilled to partner again with the City of Tallmadge and thank Mayor Kilway for her confidence in us. Economic Development is the top priority for her administration, and we will deliver on solidifying a strategy and move it into implementation. Once the new Economic Development staff person is in place, we will help orient and onboard this person to ensure a seamless transition. Our goal is to continue to develop the strategy that will best position the City of Tallmadge for success. We have already begun connecting with, as the Mayor mentioned, with the City of Akron to help find ways to improve economic conditions at our borders. We are also focused on improving West Avenue and working towards the visions by the West Avenue Overlay. Another focus is how to best connect the City to the unprecedented level of investment and economic development at the State level. Most recently the governor made available $750 million for site development. So, we are reviewing how we might tap into this program and 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Catey Breck (Cont’d.) keep a watchful eye on other opportunities that may come into view. Lastly, we work with Planning and Zoning to evaluate new businesses that are interested in moving into the City. We are also in the process of strategizing with the Mayor how to be more proactive in our business attraction effort. So, as I close tonight, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and also, I want to thank you for your service. I have a tremendous amount of respect for people in public life especially our public officials. Thank you for your service to Tallmadge and at this time I would welcome any questions that you may have for me. Thank you. Mr. Pavlik: Kate, what other municipalities do you work with? Catey Breck: So, in the past, prior to my work with inSITE, we worked with Conneaut, North Olmsted and we have worked with the City of Medina, Norton, and currently I serve New Franklin and Barberton as well as Tallmadge but we also have some opportunities up in Lake County that we are pursuing. Mr. Rubino: What areas of Tallmadge are you most concerned with bringing these new businesses or helping businesses grow or are you more concentrated in the JEDD. Where is your primary focus? Catey Breck: Right now, as I walk the streets as I did back over the summer, I am most concerned with East Avenue and some of the vacancies that we have around the City. I think that there is a tremendous opportunity to engage with the residents and ask them what are the amenities you wish to see here. Then also our visits, what has been most fruitful is finding out that there are companies who are located here but are looking at other areas and if we wouldn’t have dropped in and visited with them, we wouldn’t have had that opportunity to help them find a new location here in the City. So, it is just being ahead of that curve. My focus and concentration are really on the vacancies and how we can improve the facades of some of our buildings and just the overall look and feel. Mr. Rubino: How long have you been contracted with the City? Catey Breck: Since April. Mr. Rubino: And have you . . . I know you brought some of the businesses you have worked with; have you done any community research as far as what the residents are looking for? Cateu Breck: That we had not pursued under the previous administration because that was not the directive we were given, however, I think with Mayor Kilway being that I would be interested in pursuing it if given the opportunity. Mr. Rubino: Are there any projects, you say West Avenue is definitely a focal point for you. Are there any projects that you can currently talk about that are in the works for West Avenue that are a direct result of the relationship with your company? Catey Breck: I cannot speak to . . . I can give you some examples of the work that we are doing so one of my concerns is once Kenda Martin Wheel moves, what will become of that building? So, we were aware of a company that was looking in the City of Akron to consolidate some and they have operations in Tallmadge, but they were looking in Akron to consolidate a lot of their work. It was kind of like one of those opportunities where the Mayor and I went, and we heard that they were interested in expanding and they expressed interest in that location. So, once that listing became available, we maintained the connections and connected their broker with Martin Wheel’s broker and allowing them to have that conversation to tour, but I have not followed up on that. That is obviously a business decision as to whether or not they want to move forward with that. That is part of the work that we do. Additionally, I have been in conversations with the realtor representing the old A&W and obviously that is a site that we want to see filled and so I shared with him that there is a whole West Avenue Overlay Plan and he asked to see that plan because he wants to work 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Catey Breck (Cont’d.) with us on beautifying West Avenue and finding a suitable business for that location. So, those are some of the things that we have been doing but to be honest with you, when we arrived here the positions had been vacant for about a year and so there was quite a bit of housekeeping needed to happen before we could hit the ground running, So, there was a lot of work that needed to be done before we started, but I think that we are on a good track for successes in 2024. Mr. Rubino: Are there any current vacant land properties that are being focused on for development right now with you guys that you can talk about? Catey Breck: Well, I think Midway Plaza would be an area of focus for us. Also, the properties where Rocky Roller-Skating Rink used to be and looking at a property owner or two to get those sites back online because currently those listings aren’t being advertised and so those are very initial conversations that we are having. But yes, resident engagement I think will be key to helping bring the amenities that we want to see here. Quite honestly, I would appreciate the assistance of Council in connecting me with any residents in the future if we could potentially pull some people together to have those conversations, I think that would bring a lot of value. Mr. Rubino: I really appreciate your time and I have one last question for you. How much time a week would you say your company spends on Tallmadge related issues? Catey Breck: That is a great question and I do track my time weekly on all of the jobs that I am assigned to. I would say that between Scott and I we are probably spending about 20 hours per week although our contract currently is for 25 hours per month. But that is how much we love working here. We are very committed to the City and helping it grow. So, it always, you know sometimes if fluctuates but I would say it just because we are so excited to work with a new client that we have been putting in extra time. Mr. Rubino: Thank you. Catey Breck: You’re welcome. Mrs. Epstein: You had mentioned that obviously one of the top priorities is job growth and expansion. You also mentioned that this last year coming in after it has been vacant for some time that there was some time to get yourself set up in this new role. Is there anything that you are looking at in the future so we can look and say what our goals are and are we achieving them. Do you have any of those that you could share from maybe the past year? Catey Breck: So, currently I would say that all that we have been tracking, our contacts, visits scheduled and meetings, we had not set up at the beginning of our work here in Tallmadge but I have had conversations with the Mayor that if it were the desire of the Administration both Mayor and Council to set metrics to track our work, then we would be happy to think through what those would look like and begin tracking. Mrs. Epstein: Thank you. Pres. of Council: I have one or two quick questions because we are looking at your statement of work in front of us as well. I think one of the main questions that I have is giving kind of an inventory of the City and knowing here is what is available, here is what is actively being listed, and you know you have on here property data based developed and I am assuming that that might be part of what this would include but for example, you know I have lived here pretty much my whole life and there have been some areas in Tallmadge that have been vacant or back and forth for many, many years and so I think we can identify those and determine why these are actually vacant. Is it more than just a business visit to determine that yeah, this business is doing great, but you know what is good tomorrow might not be good next week for them. So, I think my question would be do we have an inventory of all available properties, spaces that are available for lease and ones that aren’t and how do we determine that like for example across the street I don’t know if that professional building is fully occupied or not. And if it is not, are there plans to talk with that site owner to maybe redevelop into something different to kind of go beyond 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Pres. of Council (Cont’d.) just well, we will help you get somebody into the space, but to look at it as a master plan for the City to say let’s redevelopment this area to make it a three-story building with something different, something that you would see like in downtown Kent or something. I just want to know if that is the route that we are going with this company or if we are just simply you know, for lack of better words, putting a band-aid on a problem that has always been. Mayor: Mr. Bozic, if you don’t mind if I just kind of answer that. I am 50 days in on this job and I campaigned on economic development and moving the City forward and I campaigned and I door knocked on thousands and thousands of homes stating that my plan was to keep inSITE as our consulting firm and add someone in-house and work hard knowing that it is going to take more than 50 days to do that and 65% of the people in this City agreed with me. So, I am just asking that if you . . . if we can work together to all get there at the same place at the same time and to help move the City forward because it is going to take a joint effort between all of you on Council and all of us here on the Administration to move the City forward and I believe that this is our best route moving forward. Mr. Rubino: Mayor Kilway, where is . . . if you are taking money from one part of your personal budget for this and you are still planning on opening that position, where are you taking the current money from as far as what position . . . Mayor: So, in my Personnel it was budgeted for a full year of a Dir. of Economic Development, a full year of Dir. of Safety, and a Dir. of Administration. A full year of an H.R. person as well. H.R. came in about a month later, economic development is into going to come in until after my Dir. of Administration comes in and he comes in in May. So, there is money available even with moving this $50,000 out of there. Mr. Rubino: Does that mean that you are only keeping inSITE until the end of the year? Mayor: We will evaluate that as it goes forward and if I need to increase my budget for next year that will be reflected in that budget. If they are going to perform the way that I think they are going to perform, and we would like to keep them, that will be a decision that we will all make together. OK? Mr. Rubino: Thank you. Pres. of Council: Mayor Kilway, don’t by any means think that we are you know waiting for 50 days of miraculous things to happen. We understand that things do take time and you know obviously we are just having a discussion here about what it is exactly that we are hoping to accomplish and I think my question still means is that part of the plan; is it to look at the bigger picture of areas to say maybe this isn’t the right kind of building for this area or maybe we need to redevelop this entire site. I understand it is kind of an odd philosophy for City government to be the one maybe pushing that a little bit but if that is what it takes to develop the City in the proper way or in a way that our citizens would like, then I think that is maybe the direction we should be going. So, that is my only question and as long as . . . Mayor: And I appreciate that. Pres. of Council: We are on the same page as saying that collectively as a group between our outside resources and Council’s vision, your vision; if we are all seeing that then that is the direction that we should be going, but if we are simply talking about doing a business visit and making sure we are going to maintain them which is obviously very important, but if that is the scope of it I think that is where we might be getting hung up on. Mayor: Right. Don’t get me wrong. The past couple of years have not been kind to the City in regard to our economic development based on circumstances and I want to improve that. I think you guys know that I have Tallmadge’s best interest at heart, and I want to work to get there with everybody to get this accomplished. It is going to take time and it is going to take everybody’s ideas to move forward. I am not going to say that no, I don’t 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) want to redo that corner; I am never going to say that. I am going to do what is best for the City. If it is not something that I like but it is best for the City, we are going to do it. Pres. of Council: Great to hear. I will turn it back over to Don and Council member Gutman has something. Mrs. Gutman: I would just add something to an additional aspect of the business owner that we could have all of the great ideas and the business owner in the end it is their business and their property so that can’t be overlooked that a lot of these current situations we are in is because the business owners have their own opinions and thoughts and needs and so I appreciate that you are taking that personalized approach to meet with them individually and listen to those needs and work with them on that level. So, I think that is really an advantage for us right now that you are here doing that before we have an Economic Development person on board so that we can have that transition coming in. I was discouraged to hear that we are having a hard time attracting somebody on our own and so I wondered if inSITE has the ability to help recruit that person once our Dir. of Administration is here; can you help us find the right person? Catey Breck: Certainly. We would be happy to once the Dir. of Administration is in place and maybe working through our network for other contacts or maybe there are professional organizations that we could be reaching out to and making sure that the posting is being shared. I am a member of the Ohio Economic Development Association and so perhaps that may be an avenue to share the posting for Tallmadge with their membership. Mrs. Gutman: Good. That is good to hear and also, I wanted to thank Mayor Kilway for her time yesterday in meeting with me and spending probably more time than you planned on answering questions. Mayor: That’s OK. Mrs. Gutman: And filling in all those little pieces, and so I would encourage everybody you know to take that time if she is willing to give it so we can all work together and move forward like you are saying. I am excited about all of this. I think it is great. Mayor: If I could say one more thing too. Remember the slides that Mr. Rorar had up here earlier about the streets and all of this that he wants to do, that is going to cost money and the best way to raise that money is through improving the economic development of this City and I think the best way to do that is to create that team that I want to create. So, it all boils down to money. It really does. Mrs. Gutman: Absolutely. Mr. Pavlik: Are there any other questions or comments? No one responded. Is there a motion or do we move this to 3rd Reading? Pres. of Council: I would like to see it go to a 3rd Reading. I think that we have some questions still in the back of our minds. I’m sure I am going to come up with more tomorrow so I would like to see it go to 3rd Reading. Mayor: That is absolutely fine. I think I said that in my e-mail too that it could go another reading. Mr. Pavlik: I was going to say that with Mr. Bollas not being here and we just received the contract yesterday and I would like to talk to Mayor Kilway because I have been a member of Tallmadge Grow for 12 years and that is an entity that is for economic development. Mayor: I understand. I had a long conversation with one of your counterparts earlier today too. So, I look forward to that conversation. Mr. Pavlik: Thank you. Ms. Breck, thank you for your presentation. Catey Breck: Thank you. Mayor: Thank you very much Catey. Pres. of Council: Mr. Pavlik, if you could close your committee. 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Mr. Pavlik: That is all before us. Are there any questions? Hearing none, I will close the Finance Committee. II. Additional Items: None. Pres. of Council: Great to hear. I will turn it back over to Don and Council member Gutman has something. c. PERSONNEL Jonathon Bollas, Chair Donald Pavlik, Vice Chair The Personnel Committee deals with personnel, labor relations, insurance claims, Rules of Council and State Statutes. Mr. Pavlik: I call the Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Are there any questions or comments for the Personnel Committee? Hearing none, I will close the Personnel Committee this evening. i. Additional Items: None. d. SAFETY Nicholas Rubino, Chair Ted Roy, Vice Chair The Safety Committee deals with disaster services, communications, fire, and paramedics, police and health. Mr. Rubino: I call the Safety Committee to order. We currently have no legislation before us this evening. Does anybody have any questions or comments? Pres. of Council: If I could just make a comment. I just want to commend the Administration and our safety forces on a job well done for the active shooter training that they conducted at the school because I heard from a lot of different teachers and some student involvement that they had as well on how professionally it was run and I look forward to hearing more about it from either our safety forces or from our Mayor. Obviously in private probably. We don’t want to share too much of that information publicly, but it definitely would be worth hearing more about that. Mayor: Absolutely. Anytime, just let me know. Mr. Rubino: Any other comments? Hearing none, I will close the Safety Committee. i. Additional Items: None. e. COMMUNITY ISSUES Ted Roy, Chair Mary Gutman, 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 2024-31 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a lease with Tallmadge Lutheran Church for approximately 1.555 acres of vacant land off East Avenue and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Roy: I call Community Issues to order. We have Ord. 20242-31 at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor Kilway, do you have any comments? Mayor: This is just the annual lease or every 5 years I think, or you say it is for 10 years. 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) This is a lease for the Community Gardens that is very well attended throughout the year, and we will be ready to start our advertising for residents to come and reserve those plots here very soon. Mr. Roy: Is there a cost? Mayor: It is $1. Mr. Rubino: How many community members are currently using that? Mayor: I don’t know the number, but I know there are a lot of them to the point where this year Andrea is going to try to limit the initial sign-up they can sign up for 2 plots initially and then when they have gone through the first round, then they can come back and ask for more because there are people that like to use . . . they live in apartments or they have small houses and they like to have gardens. It gets tilled. Mr. Rubino: Does that have any cost to the resident? Mayor: That is the $1. Dir. of Law: It is $1, and we take care of turning the soil. Mr. Rubino: That’s a great program. Mr. Roy: That is for Tallmadge residents? Mayor: I believe so, yeah. Mrs. Epstein: All the gardeners say every year that they can’t plant until June 1 st because you do till it. Is there a possibility of moving that date up and tilling it earlier so they can plant earlier? Dir. of Pub. Service: I’m not sure why it would be June 1st. There must be a reason. Mr. Rubino: With the recent legislation that was passed, are we permitting drugs to be planted in our Community Gardens? Dir. of Law: We have already discussed amending the rules to prohibit that. Mr. Rubino: Thank you. Mrs. Gutman: Does this speak to improvements to the land like if the City decided since it is 10 years if we wanted to do anything to make it more accessible or improve the drainage which I know . . . I haven’t been there in a few years, but I know there used to be a section that didn’t drain well and was not usable and now that it is getting more popular those plots, we might want to use them. Are we limited or does it specify who is responsible? Dir. of Law: It really doesn’t get into that because the property is still the church’s, and they have the ability to . . . either party can terminate in a short period of time and they can decide to use that for some other purpose at any point in time and they have just been very gracious over the years to allow us to do that. So, the City has not put a substantial investment into it. The church has allowed us to do that and so it is a mutually beneficial relationship right now without a large investment at this point. We could probably have conversations with them, but I don’t know. I don’t know if they want to have anything and invest a lot of money because they still own that property and want to have the flexibility, I’m sure for future things depending on what that congregation would want to do. Mrs. Gutman: So, we will just kind of like cross that bridge when we come to it situation. Pres. of Council: I have a question for the Administration. I know in the past I have gone by, and I have seen the cars pulled up in the grass closer to the garden area. Is it possible to maybe have like a crushed limestone parking pad area that is near there to allow them to park on that instead of just kind of pulling up over the curb. Dir. of Pub. Service: Anything is possible. Pres. of Council: Would it be permitted by the church or is that something the City would be interested in doing? Dir. of Law: I mean, we would have to talk to them about that. You have to have a re- appropriation and we would have to get permission to amend the contract. 17  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Pres. of Council: Just something for the Administration to think about. I imagine they probably don’t want to have to deal with the ruts in that property so at least the gravel can always be removed. Thank you. Mr. Roy: Is there anything else? Dir. of Law: Mr. Roy, if you are so inclined to entertain a motion for that. Mr. Roy: I would like to make a motion. Mrs. Gutman: I will second that motion. I have a point of order question. Are we allowed to do that at 1st Reading because it is not a purchase of real estate; it is just a lease? Dir. of Law: Correct. This is like a use agreement type of thing. This is just a temporary lease. Again, any party can terminate it. Mr. Roy: So, we have a motion and a second. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy – unanimous. Ord. 2024-31 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Roy: Is there anything further for Community Issues? Pres. of Council: I do have one question. This is related to Parks and Recreation. There has been obviously a lot of talk on social media in regard to our Parks and Rec Department and how we go about doing the Summer Camp registration and I just wanted to hear input from the Administration if you could provide any details or clear up any misconceptions. Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t know that there are any misconceptions. Last year we didn’t like the way that the registration went. It was long and so we just decided to change it up this year and try something different and see how it goes. Pres. of Council: Alright. Mr. Pavlik: Is there any talk about expanding the amount of kids that we take or is that even allowed? Dir. of Pub. Service: That would have to go back to the budget because you are set with “x” amount of kids and that is what we are planning on hiring and that is what the money was budgeted for. Dir. of Finance: The size of the camp is based on transportation, so they do field trips and they tried to limit the camp’s size so when they take a great level it is one bus, and it is not one bus with 40 kids and another bus with like 10. So, the transportation for the field trips is a major consideration in the sizing. Mr. Pavlik: I am told by multiple parents that certain age groups are sold out; right? Could there be any way that we can work with the schools to better understand what or who would be using that beforehand, so we don’t run into a situation where if we choose to expand it that we have a bus full of 40 kids and a bus full of 10. Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t see why not. Mr. Pavlik: I would think that if you could do some sort of . . . something now where there is something brought home where the families can entertain or answer the questions about what weeks they are going to be using; what weeks they aren’t. Are they going to be used for all 10 weeks. To kind of better prepare because I know that there were some families from what I have been told where their kids, certain kids, age groups were able to get in, but other kids weren’t, and they had to be wait-listed. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, we will look at that. Mr. Pavlik: Thank you. Mayor: And I do know that Jessica Simons did adjust the age groups so that the potential of that happening again would be minimal. Dir. of Finance: That is why we also focused on allowing those that wanted to utilize the camp for the full summer first because a lot of those complaints were that parents needed their kids to be in the full summer but in one age group their child could not and 18  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) the other they could because some parents had already come in and taken you know two or three weeks and that’s why we changed the focus on the initial registration being those who are going to consistently utilize the camp every week for the whole summer so that those families who need that whole summer camp because it is being basically their childcare for the summer, they had those first opportunities to get in and didn’t have other families taking weeks here and there in those more popular age groups. Mr. Pavlik: Did we open that full childcare up to non-residents first before offering it to the residents? Dir. of Pub. Service: Next week. Mr. Rubino: Do residents get an option to apply for it first before the non-residents for the full . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: It is this week. Mr. Pavlik: And even the ones that just want to use it for 6 weeks? Dir. of Pub. Service: No, that is after. We have a little history on that. In 2022, 49 residents registered for the 9-week period and one non-resident. Last year 44 residents registered and 3 non-residents. So, there again, let’s wait and see. We may have to make an adjustment and at the end of the year I will tell you whether it was good or bad. Mayor: Another thing that Mrs. Simons did was the one week that is very, very popular is the one age group that has an overnight and she has pulled that out of it being like a camp event and it is just like a stand-alone event so anybody can sign up for it. Mrs. Epstein: Can you just clarify if I were a parent in need of the services, where could I find the information? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct under Rec Center. Mr. Roy: Are there any other items tonight? Hearing none, I will close Community Issues. ii. Additional Items: None. f. PUBLIC SERVICE Jessica Epstein, Chair Nicholas Rubino, Vice Chair The Public Service Committee deals with streets, highways, sidewalks, buildings, and improvements: water, sewer, electricity, gas, energy resources, recycling, waste, and trash. i. First Readings of Resolutions and Ordinances A. Ord 2024-32 Allowing the Director of Public Service to apply for and accept. the Connecting Communities Planning Grant, appropriating necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have one ordinance before us this evening. It is Ord. 2024-32. The ordinance was read into the record. Mayor Kilway do you have any comments? Mayor: I am going to defer it to Mr. Rorar because he can explain it better than I can. Dir. of Pub. Service: So, at the end of the day we have the opportunity to apply for this grant. It is a 100% grant and the City has no percentage into it. What it would help us do is to do a study of the feasibility of walking of East Avenue and into the neighborhoods and what that will help us do is score better in the next funding round. If you remember, we took 4th, and you have to score in the top 3. We were only off by a couple points, and this should help us score in the top 3 next time. Mrs. Epstein: You are looking for 1st Reading adoption? 19  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. February 22, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service: I would like to request that; yes. Mr. Pavlik: I would like to make a motion for the adoption of Ord. 20242-32. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – unanimous. Ord. 2024-32 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Epstein: Is there anything further for Public Service this evening? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee Pres. of Council: Mr. Bollas is not present, but obviously the biggest improvement is in front of us with a very, very large tv. The very largest I have ever seen. It is definitely a much-needed addition, and you can actually see it, so thank you Mr. Bollas if you are watching for the improvements and I believe there are some other upgrades that are happening or have happened in relation to the microphones and that sort of thing. Mr. Davis is in the room, so thank you sir for that. i. Additional Items: None. 12. Announcements: Mrs. Epstein: We do have a little presentation here with an update on our Hearts for Heros Event. So, it was pretty successful, and we just wanted to share that with the community. We did have over 40 guests in attendance. We had a lot of Girl Scout troops, and some elementary girls interested in crafting. Crafting is pretty popular, and we were able to make over 100 cards and so there is a photo of a lot of the residents that came out and this was for troops that were deployed overseas. Some troops are currently in South Korea, and they are in receipt of the cards. So, I just wanted to thank everybody for coming out and participating in the event and thank you to Councilman Bozic for participating with me and the other Council members who came out to this event. Pres. of Council: I just want to thank Councilwoman Epstein for kind of taking the reigns and doing most of the legwork and so I appreciate that, and it was a great turnout. It was great to see the kids and their creativity and then my trouble of staying within the lines when coloring. So, thank you very much for organizing that and I think as a Council as a whole I really look forward to being able to do more community events such as these. I know I have talked to a few of you before with different ideas, so I think these are a great outreach to our community members. 13. Adjournment: Mr. Pavlik moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Pavlik, Mrs. Epstein, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The 2-22-24 Council meeting adjourned at 8:39 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________ ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic – President of Council 20