City Council Regular Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 1. Call to Order: Pres. of Council: It is Thursday, July 11, 2024, and this is our regularly scheduled 7:00 p.m. Council meeting. 2. Opening Prayer: Rev. Ken Bulgrin, First Apostolic Church, Tallmadge. Pledge of Allegiance: 3. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mr. Bollas, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino – present. Mr. Pavlik was excused. 4. Correcting and Adopting Previous Meeting Minutes: 6-13-24 Council Meeting Minutes 6-27-24 Council Meeting Minutes Mr. Bollas: I move to approve the Council minutes of 6-13-24 and 6-27-24. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas – unanimous. The minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. Financial Reports: • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $225,000 and Street Maintenance & Repair Fund Transfer in the amount of $250,000 to Council on 6-25-24. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report and Revenue Report for the period ending 6-30-24 to Council on 7-5-24. • June Financial Reports to Council on 7-5-24. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 6-30-24 to Council on 7-5-24. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-24 to Council on 7-5-24. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 6-30-24 to Council on 7-5-24. • Income Tax by Source Report for the month of June to Council on 7-5-24. • Revenue Comparisons for Major Funds for the period ending 6-30-24 to Council on 7-5-24. Mr. Bollas moved for the acceptance of the Financial Reports. Seconded Mrs. Gutman. Roll Call: Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic – unanimous. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride are accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. Public Hearings: None. 7. Community Input: This is the point in the meeting where we ask if there is anyone in the audience who would like to address Council on something that is not on the agenda. I would ask that you come to the podium and state your name and address. 8. Agenda Additions: None. 9. Reports of Administrative Officers: a. Mayor/Dir. of Pub. Safety/Economic Development • So, you all should have received the Fire Department Activity Report. I also have some recognition from the Fire Department. On the morning of July 5th the Fire Department responded to 150 Eastpointe for a report of a structure fire and the resident arrived at the home and found that the house was full of smoke. It was a small smoldering fire that was found in the laundry room of the home, and it was extinguished with a fire extinguisher. The cause was electrical in nature and damage was minimal however there was extensive smoke damage. It was the “C” shift of the Fire Department. • As we all know, 243 S. Munroe was a historic home that had some substantial damage that was done to it as everyone is pretty much aware that on July 7th the Fire Department was notified of a possible roof collapse at the address and it is a two-story brick structure almost 200 years in age and it had a substantial portion collapse including interior floors, roof and multiple exterior walls. No one was in the house at the time that this happened. The Fire Department contacted the homeowner, and it is being taken care of now 1  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mayor (Cont’d.) between the City of Tallmadge and Summit County Building Department. They are working with the property owner to resolve it. It was one of our very most beautiful historic buildings in our City and it is very sad to see it go. • Going on to the Police Department, everyone should have received the Police Activity Report that was forwarded to you as well. Chief Bohon also has some recognition that he has shared with me throughout the last couple weeks. There was a Recognition of Excellence Certificate awarded to Tallmadge Auxiliary Major Short as we all know him as “Rusty.” It is an example of one going beyond one’s basic duties and showing a high degree of empathy and concern and above all taking appropriate action. • Nite Shift A was under the leadership and direction of Sgt. Chochola, and they did an amazing job on a complaint that came into the Detective Bureau. They gathered the information and communicated the complaint to the Patrol Division exactly how things are supposed to work, and the patrol shifts directed their efforts and stopped and investigated and arrested a resident with a large quantity of various narcotics including opiates and counterfeit currency. Each of them received a Recognition of Excellence Certificate. • You should be in receipt of the Parks and Recreation monthly report. • We also have the report from Planning & Zoning. • We also have the ordinance for Sheetz today. We did have a public meeting at the Planning & Zoning Commission, and I would like to thank Mary Gutman, Chair of Planning & Zoning, for attending that. • Follow-up on cannabis. I want to thank those that participated in the meeting earlier this week. Councilwoman Gutman and Councilman Roy and we are going to be sponsoring an ordinance that will be coming before you guys in the next several weeks. • The West Avenue Overlay. As you all know, we did have our initial meeting with the businesses that are right on West Avenue explaining the process. We are going to have a Community Engagement event on July 30th at 5:30 p.m. and that will be at the Community Center, and I would invite all of Council to attend that as well and I will send out some more information on that to you. It will be properties that are within 500’ of the West Avenue Overlay, our business community and the general public will be there as well. We will post this on social media so we can get our community’s input on this very important overlay. • We had a ribbon-cutting for the Royal Union Pet Store. It was actually their second ribbon cutting. The first one was when they first opened up here in Tallmadge and the second one is within a year, they expanded, and they needed more room. They are the second largest fish store in Northeast Ohio and the largest reptile store in the State. • Flock cameras, they are working on getting them installed. Right now, we have one that is currently installed, and the others are in the permitting and various stages so they will be going up relatively shortly. I will share with you as I get the updates as to when they are all live and active. There are 15 of them all together. • In front of you today is an ordinance for an appropriation for the strategic plan. I know we have talked about this for 6 months now and we have a business that we are going to be working with. This was not put in the budget so I would ask for your consideration to get this strategic plan. This is very important to our City. I would really like it to be approved at 2nd Reading. • We are also working on an Administrative Policy which would allow our residents to paint the fire hydrants that are on their property. We have been looking at this and there will be more information coming out. The Dir. of Administration has been working on that as well. 2  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 • Mayor (Cont’d.) I didn’t mention it at the last meeting, but I had my After Hours with the Mayor and I had people here the whole time and it was a great way to interact with our residents and our community and a lot of good things came out of it. If anyone has any questions, I will be happy to answer them. Mr. Bozic: I do have one question. I know it was brought up by some residents at one point, we had some reports of dog incidents in one of the developments that I know I have seen a post since then. Did we have any updates on that if we have been able to kind of address that situation? Mayor: I am not aware of any additional incidents at this time. b. Director of Administration: • Good evening, everyone. I just want to let everyone know that shortly before the Council meeting, I sent out the City’s Budget e-mail to the Department Leaders and to Council and other members of the Administration. There is a timeline in there including . . . it is very similar to last year’s. I have worked with the Finance Director to review this and make sure this is an achievable goal and timeline. We believe we have a solid plan. • We had our monthly meeting between the school and the City Administration. Just a way to keep communications open and share information on ongoing issues and activities between the two entities. It went well and we talked about continuing the newsletter. So, we are looking to potentially expand that as we move forward and more to follow on that. • There is a new ORC that went into effect. The General Assembly passed it just before going on recess and that is requiring all employees of State and Municipal local governments and elected officials to take training on waste, fraud and abuse. It is actually a 7-minute and 55 second video and it takes about 10 minutes to complete. I would ask that when you complete that that you give the certificate back to her (Allie). It has to be done within 90 days of the ordinance passing. • Just to update you that we sent to the State Employee Relations and also to the local Teamsters organization that we will be on notice to negotiate and so we have blocked sometimes for that, and we expect to start that sometime in the near future. We are going to start with the Teamsters and once that gets moving along then we will go ahead and notify the other unions as we move forward. • Lastly the Mayor and I had a couple of great business engagements. We went to Power Tool Repair at 371 West Avenue. A really fascinating business they do there and so it was a great opportunity to find out about their business and to get their views on West Avenue and just good partnership building. • We also visited Petitti’s and ironically as they prepared for the visit just as we prepare for the visit, they realized that this year is their 40 th anniversary for being in the City of Tallmadge and so we were the second location when they opened up and now you know they have many stores and many lines of service out there and so it was a good two weeks in all for the Department of Administration and pending your questions that concludes my report. c. Director of Public Service: • First off, I would like to talk about Ord. 2024-52, and this is requesting the ARPA Funds for restrooms located at Maca Park. This is a safety concern. There are kids that have to cross across that parking lot on a summer day when that parking lot is packed. This idea has been since 2008 when the Park Plan went into effect. You can see the red building there between the ball diamond and the playground. What is this building going to look like? It will be just the one that we have built at Howe Road Park. There again, the cost for 3  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 • Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) that restroom was $360,000 and the engineer’s estimate is coming in at $409,000. The Engineer’s estimate is always high. That is what they are supposed to do. We were really fortunate that we got that price. Right now, I think we have $401,000 in the ARPA Funds left. • In the Zoning Department we had 53 total permits were issued. Code violations are 76. It is high grass season so the majority of those have been high grass, and they are getting mowed. • Moving on to the cemetery. There were 7 total burials. 358 grave spaces and 145 columbariums remain. • Parks & Rec membership was 7,983. That is a 10% increase from last year. 14,795 visits at the Rec Center. That is a 7% rise from last year. • Music on the Circle. Wish Garden on July 18th and that is a rock band. • Summer Camp Overnight at the Rec Center is July 26th. • Music back on the Circle is August 1st with the Bellaires. That is an oldies group. • Women’s Self Defense Class being offered August 3rd. • The Parks, I would like to thank Little League. They have donated all new scoreboards and all the ball diamonds. The City supplied the labor to install these. There were a couple of Little League guys who helped out and the City pitched in by supplying the labor for installing the equipment. • Howe Road Park, the dog park portion is still closed, but the restroom and the new shelter is being reserved so if you want to picnic out there. • Something interesting is we have had a 16% increase from last year on our ball field rentals. Don’t know what the difference is but that is a pretty good jump in a year’s time, and we have actually hosted a few tournaments on those fields. That is the first time that we have done that as well. • Maca Pool is open. Daily visits are 13,902. That is a 33% increase from last year. • Moving on to the Street Department. Concrete maintenance and repairs are completed. They are still doing some of the landscaping, but all the concrete has been poured. Wartko actually did a really nice job for us. • The asphalt paving program began Monday, July 8th and I have to be honest with you, I am not happy with the traffic control at any of the mill sites. I was out there with them yesterday and I was out there with them today and we have gotten rid of that subcontractor that is doing the traffic control and they are bringing in another subcontractor so we will see what that is. That was pretty pathetic traffic control over the last two days so if you are hearing any complaints there should have been. • 3.6 tons of street debris was removed by street sweeping. • 935 lineal feet of ditching was completed. • 97.3 hours were spent on cleanup from the June 17th storm. • 3 catch basins were repaired. 2 drive culverts were replaced, and 4 crossover culverts were replaced and that is a crossover culvert there in that picture at Dunbar and Martindale. • Moving on to the Utility Department there were zero watermain breaks, Zero backups in the sewers. 3,809 lineal feet of sanitary sewer were televised. 7,937 lineal feet was jetted or cleaned. 4 water meters were set. • The lead and copper identification services are still ongoing. • We had a hit and run on one of our hydrants. That concludes my report unless there is anything else. 4  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mr. Bozic: I have a couple of questions. Will there be storage in the back of the restrooms at Maca? Dir. of Pub. Service: It’s not so much storage; it is more of a janitor’s area. Mr. Bozic: Was there or is there a capability of having any storage there? I know that there is a small or there was at one point, a small storage shed behind Stein field. I didn’t know if that was still being utilized by Little League or not. Dir. of Pub. Service: No, that right now, that building is just a utility access is all it is. So, the piping, the heating and everything is just in that, and it is not big enough to have . . . there is a utility sink in those, but that is about it. Mr. Bozic: Then, do we, for the donation of the scoreboard; do we need to approve anything for that donation? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. They submit something at the end of the year on all their donations and we recognize that at the end of the year. Mr. Bozic: So, will we end up giving a letter or resolution acknowledging and thanking Tallmadge Little League for that improvement in our parks? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, we will do that. There again that is one of their donations. Mr. Bozic: Absolutely when you drive through those neighborhoods now and see those ball fields . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: That was a class act. They look great. Mr. Bozic: I definitely want to thank them for that improvement. Any further questions for the Service Department? Thank you, sir, for the traffic control. I know I reached out to Mr. Rorar twice in one day and didn’t mean to bother him, but he was certainly on top of it. Dir. of Pub. Service: It was a good phone call. d. Director of Finance: Everybody received the Financial Reports. We are halfway through the year. Everything is looking good. Our income tax collections are a little bit ahead of budget so that is good. We have seen the net profits rebound. Our interest income is continuing to be very strong. So, I am pleased with where we are at, and I will be glad to entertain any questions that anyone may have. I’m sorry, I do have one more thing. Additionally, the restrooms at Maca, if this was placed in the budget, we would be more likely to use all of the ARPA Funds to finish this out. ARPA Funds need to be committed by the end of the year and so if you could consider passing this at 1st Reading tonight so we can get this bid and get this project moving I would appreciate it. e. Director of Law: Thank you. I just wanted to report this evening that in addition to our normal responsibilities, our office is continuing to work very hard with regard to the recodification and I just want to thank all of the Department Heads and Helene is here in the audience who has been helping tremendously and there are others who we reach out to. We try to make sure that the information that we have is accurate and what they want as we move forward working as diligently as possible on that and we have a meeting tomorrow to continue to move forward on that. Hopefully we will be able to bring that to you here in the next couple of months. End of report. 10. Reports of Standing Committees of Council of the Whole: a. PLANNING AND ZONING Mary Gutman, Chair Jessica Epstein, Vice Chair 5  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 The Planning & Zoning Committee deals with land use, zoning, conditional uses, planning, economic and community development, and public property. i. Second Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-48 – Amended – Approving and granting a conditional zoning certificate to applicant, Ellen Selle, Sheetz, Inc., on behalf of owners, Burton Thompson, Jr., Kevin Thompson, Babara A. Thompson, Joan M. Thompson and Roholt Real Estate LLC, for an automotive filling station located at 592 S. Munroe Road (PN 6009938), S. Munroe Road (PN 6005077), 855-857 Southeast Ave (PN 6004494), and 583 Southeast (PN 6009979). Sponsor: Councilperson Mary Gutman Mrs. Gutman: I call Planning & Zoning to order. We have Ord. 2024-48 before us at 2nd Reading. It is the amended version. The ordinance was read into the record. I will take the privilege as Committee Chair and speak first. I would like to say thank you to everyone who worked on the presentation at the Planning & Zoning meeting; Mrs. Hussing, the Sheetz representatives, and especially our residents who took the time to come and listen and share their thoughts with us. It is helpful. I would like to thank everyone who has e-mailed myself and other Council members to share their thoughts. We are at 2nd Reading and so we are not voting, but I know that I have had some questions that I would like to speak to and then ask of the Sheetz representatives as well. So, I wanted to make the clarification, I guess you would say, and Mrs. Raber, maybe can put a finer point on it if I mess this up. Our responsibility isn’t to decide if Sheetz is right. Our responsibility is to decide if the conditional zoning certificate is appropriate and so just to clarify that that property is commercially zoned C-3 and there are commercial uses permitted and from my understanding, what is not permitted and why it is before Council is because a filling station is not a permitted use. So that is the conditional use that Council is looking at approving and so obviously the whole project is in front of us but I have had questions in regard to why don’t we put apartments there and such and that is not before us and so I want our residents to understand what that role of Council is and Mrs. Raber, if I messed it up, if you could . . . Dir. of Law: No, you did that very well. To clarify, this is not a rezoning where they are asking for a different zoning to be applied to the property. The property is zoned that way and one of the uses that . . . all the uses that they are asking for are permitted uses except the filling station is what is called a conditional use and what that means is it can be permitted with conditions and so it is just an extra way to vet to see if there are any additional conditions. Planning & Zoning made the recommendation to Council to approve with conditions and they sent a pretty extensive list. So, they thoroughly go through the application and the process, and they added quite a few which is part of what you have in front of you tonight. So tonight, you have the amendment that comes from Planning & Zoning recommendations and so you would need to vote on the amendment tonight. That is not a final vote on the actual application itself, it has to go 3 readings. At 2 nd it gets amended and stays at 2nd and so what that does though is it incorporates all those conditions so when you read through the recommendations you can see that there are quite a few things that were required or spelled out with the intention to again make sure that that use is the most appropriate it can be for that particular property. So hopefully that clarifies a little bit. 6  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mrs. Gutman: Very much so. Thank you. So, to that end, there were a few things that were helpful for me to hear during the meeting that I wanted to make sure just to highlight from the amendment and some of these conditions and one of them was that it will be noisy or loud and there is a condition in there to address that so that it is in line with the other noise levels that are permitted within the City so because there is a drive-thru it wouldn’t create an extra noise level burden on our residents. One question that I couldn’t answer is, directly at least, is if the filling station would cause additional big truck traffic issues and if any of the Sheetz representatives that are here would like to speak to . . . I know that the filling station isn’t appropriate for those oversized trucks and the 18-wheelers if you will, but what . . . how will they know not to come to our Sheetz and end up towards the Circle because they can’t get into the driveway? What will stop them from trying to come? Ellen Selle, Sheetz, 351 Sheets Way, Claysburg, Pa. So that is a good question. Our fueling options at this site offer fueling options for your everyday vehicles. They do offer diesel and typically that is at the end pumps, but that diesel is intended for your 150’s, your small box trucks that might be doing like yard maintenance and those types of things. It is not high flow diesel. It is just regular diesel. For a semi-truck to fill they need to use high flow diesel typically. So, we have special locations that have that. It is under a whole separate canopy. They fuel from both sides and typical fueling because it is high flow takes about 15 to 20 minutes. If they were to stop here, they would only fill one side and I can’t even tell you how long that would take. It may be double or triple the amount of time and then to do the other side, same thing. Just like you guys navigate around town, around new places, you are going to use a navigation system. This Sheetz will not say that it offers truck diesel. So, they will know not to come here. If you are delivering somewhere you are going to be using navigation and they will not be directed to this Sheetz. I hope that helps answer but . . . Mrs. Gutman: It does very much, and I know that technology is pretty advanced for truck drivers these days, so I appreciate that. While we have you, could you speak to the traffic control and what measures this Sheetz is taking and has been recommended to take to ensure that the increased level of traffic, if I remember correctly, it is about 25% more. What measures are going to be in place for that? Ellen Selle: Absolutely, so we had to do a traffic study; that is something that we do at most of our locations and your City recommended it and that takes into account our use. We do traffic counts at the different intersections and then it puts like level of service, and it also talks about what would be warranted based on the amount of traffic. What was analyzed was that the majority of this traffic is going to be pass-by which means that if just a vehicle is travelling up and down Southeast or if they are traveling on Munroe, they are going to be pass-by traffic and stop at Sheetz. About 25% would be new traffic generated for our Sheetz. New traffic and the pass-by traffic was all put into the report and based on that, we were warranted to do a left turn lane and so we are adding a left turn lane from Southeast into our site. That will help with any kind of traffic measures and getting those cars safely into our site and not back up anything on Southeast. Mrs. Gutman: OK. Thank you. I had another question related to the condition that was added regarding delivery of products and fuel and dumpster pickup complying with the City of Tallmadge noise ordinance hours which are 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Now, it does make perfect sense to me about the delivery of products 7  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mrs. Gutman (Cont’d.) and the dumpster pickup. I wonder if . . . I am just picturing other situations where I have tried to go into a fueling station and there is a big fuel truck sitting there and that happens during busy morning hours or afternoon hours. It actually backs traffic up. Do you have any concerns that having the fueling being done during the daytime hours would actually create more traffic problems? Ellen Selle: The way our site is designed, all of our sites are larger to be able to accommodate all the different traffic on our site whether that is people going inside, that’s people fueling, that’s our truck deliveries, drive-thru . . . you know we do have a very large site. We have wide drive isles, and it all goes into this. So, we have a special place on site that those trucks would be in, and they would sit but we don’t typically see a restriction imposed from cities on the truck fueling and you know the dumping of their stuff into our underground tanks. This is also . . . I think the reason for that is to protect the residents and the noise level, but you know these tanks and where that truck would be sitting is closer to the intersection. It is not adjacent to the residential side. The drive-thru is a little bit closer and I understand the delivery trucks are the same thing. We will work within whatever we need to but it is not a typical restriction on our part. Mrs. Gutman: But with that all said, you don’t anticipate it causing traffic backups if we were to leave that restriction in place? Ellen Selle: No. Mrs. Gutman: OK. Thank you. I think that is it for my questions. Are there questions from other members of Council? Mrs. Epstein: I had just a follow-up question to what Ms. Gutman had asked. You said in the traffic study that that study predicted or said that you would need a left hand turn lane and I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding correctly that you all are installing that left turn lane at the cost of Sheetz that is not a cost to the City? Ellen Selle: Absolutely, it would be a cost to Sheetz. Mrs. Epstein: OK. I also had received a couple of questions from constituents about the choice of location and what made this location more desirable over I-76 access? Owen Wolf, 351 Sheetz Way, Claysburg, Pa. There were a lot of things that went into the choice of this location. I guess to address specifically your question about the proximity to the interstate. In this particular interchange there wasn’t anything available. This is actually the first signalized intersection north of the interstate. That is something that we really look for in terms of our locations to get people in and out of our sites safely, we look for a signal, high profile location. We like this because it is between Tallmadge City Circle and the interstate. There is a large employer down to the south at Summit Racing. A lot of rooftops like we call housing density. Tallmadge as a whole is a market that we have been trying to enter for a long time. We like a lot about this area the same as most of the businesses do down here. It is a place that we feel we can be very successful as well as operate as a good neighbor to you guys. For the intersection itself, you know the nature of our business is a convenience store. We want to be where existing traffic is and be convenient to the people and get them in and out as efficiently as possible. We pegged this location as a place where we would be able to perform all of those services there. 8  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mrs. Gutman: Thank you and I think this is a good moment just to point out that this is a project that has been a private property owner and the potential buyer for the property is not a City project and I have received some comments that seems like that might be worth clarifying. Does anyone else have questions? Mr. Rubino: How many employees are in these locations normally? Diane Calta: Thank you. I will take that one. My name is Diane Calta and I work with the Law Firm of Mansour Gavin as Land Development Counsel for Sheetz. My address is 1001 Lakeside Avenue, Suite 1400, Cleveland, OH. Just to give a little bit of a longer answer but to let you know that Sheetz has approximately 700 stores in a 6-state location, now a 7-state location. So, they have a lot of data and analytics I always call it, so we projected at this location there will be approximately 3 dozen jobs and those will be split evenly between full-time and part-time positions. To give you a little bit more information, this is also a multi-million-dollar investment by Sheetz and there is some other information that Owen was able to share with the Planning Commission that this is a corporate store. These are not franchises so these are corporately owned and that they are, I won’t say renovated, but completely redone every about 12 or 13 years so you will probably know that there are some other stores in the area that are being completely redone. So, they redo their stores on a rotation of about 12 to 13 years. Mr. Rubino: Can you allude to what the average wage of a location like that would provide? Diane Calta: I don’t have wage numbers, but we can certainly get some general information for you. Mr. Rubino: Have you guys done any studies or have any feedback based on your other locations . . . I have heard people tell me that they are worried about light pollution, the lumens surrounding their properties and such and how that could alter the current area. Diane Calta: So, I know Alan as the engineer can probably speak about this better, but there is a photometric plan that is required and it is reviewed and essentially it has to confirm that there is no light that leaves the site so when you get to the edges of the site, those numbers are zeros, 0.0 or just about. In addition, the canopy does have lighting. The building does have lighting; those things can be adjusted as well. But the photometric was provided and I believe it was reviewed by your team, your engineers and we had some feedback but all of that was positive. Mr. Rubino: I am assuming you know if and when this is built, you guys would be looking for a liquor license. Is that something that you have already secured or is that something that you plan on putting on the ballot to obtain? Diane Calta: Maybe Ellen can . . . I don’t have any information on that. Ellen Selle: We have separate counsel that secures all of those. So, I don’t know where in the process they are with that, but yes, we will be looking to obtain a liquor license. Mr. Rubino: Thank you. That’s all I have. Dir. of Law: Mr. Rubino, I would be surprised if they are not already in a precinct that has that since I believe the Duke and Duchess next door has that. So, it is by precinct. Mrs. Gutman: Any further questions? Mr. Bozic: Yes, I have a clarification question for that. So, about the permit for the sales, I believe the Duke station just did one recently for Sunday sales if I’m not mistaken, so is that something that will obviously have to continue should they 9  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mr. Bozic (Cont’d.) want to do sales on Sunday for alcohol. Will that have to go through a ballot process as well? Dir. of Law: No, so there is a ballot process to initially allow alcohol in the district, but once that is, it is all regulated through the State so what comes to Council is after there is an application made for a permit, then it comes to Council as to whether or not we want to request a hearing typically, but that is the extent of it. I don’t know exactly where that line is; I didn’t anticipate the question but since there is an adjacent neighbor that has that, I would not anticipate that that would need to be on the ballot. Probably the precinct already has that, but they go through the State for that, that is not something that goes through the City specifically. We get notified that they are applying and then you can request a hearing if we think that there is some issue with why we would want to object to that. Typically, we don’t ask for the hearings which occur down at the State at the State Liquor Control. Mr. Bozic: So, if we could just get clarification where that outline is to verify that that precinct . . . Dir. of Law: Is that going to be relevant to the standards that are in the code? Mr. Bozic: I don’t think it is just for general knowledge, that’s all. So, thank you. I did have some other questions. So, thank you again for being present today and helping to answer some of our questions about the location. I did have one question because at the beginning of this when Ms. Gutman had opened up, we were talking about the parcel numbers, and we talked about granting a conditional zoning certificate. Two of the parcel numbers that are listed out are currently zoned commercial and two are currently zoned residential. Can you provide . . . Dir. of Law: Mr. Bozic, if I can correct that, they are all zoned commercial and then there are non-conforming uses, legal non-conforming uses that exist as residential but those are all commercial properties to clarify. Mr. Bozic: So, can you explain like when for example you know when you go on the Summit County GIS and you look at the parcel viewer, it shows up as a residentially zoned property. Can you explain how that . . . Dir. of Law: It’s not residential . . . so you have to look at the zoning, our zoning and Helene is here, our zoning map provides that those are commercial so what happens is when there is a non-conforming use, they are still taxed as a residence if there is a residence there. So, if there is a home on the property they are not taxed commercially; they are taxed residentially. When you are looking at that that may be part of the confusion, but they are legal non-conforming so we have already as a City have said they should be commercial so when that use stops, and somebody wants to . . . like the commercial use is actually zoning on them. Mr. Bozic: So, when did we I guess initiate that as being allowed commercial. That has been many, many . . . Dir. of Law: Many, many years ago. Mr. Bozic: It’s not like we just approved that four weeks ago. Dir. of Law: No, that is from years and years and years as far as I . . . there is nothing new that has happened over there that I am aware of since I have been here in the last 20 years. Mr. Bozic: OK. Thank you. I guess this question is probably more related to internally, but do we have any reports on the amount of traffic accidents that occur within that intersection there specifically on Southeast or Munroe where this property is being proposed? 10  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Dir. of Law: You can speak to it better than I can, but I believe that those sorts of statistics are probably taken into account with the traffic study, and we would have them, but we would have to pull them. Ellen Selle: I believe they are, but I don’t know what those numbers are. There should be a section in the Traffic Study and that all gets reviewed by I think you have a third-party engineer reviewer that will look at that. Mr. Bozic: So that particular engineering firm that we utilize I believe they create the study if I’m not mistaken; correct? They create what the traffic; they give it a rating. Dir. of Law: Typically, the traffic study is performed and that probably has; I’m sorry, I’m not an engineer, I don’t know the logistics of it. It went through the review process where the traffic study was performed and then our engineers reviewed it and that is part of why they are going to be requiring the additional expense to put in the left-hand turn lane if it was approved. Mr. Bozic: Alright and then I guess the other topic . . . Dir. of Law: The Police do review it as well. Mr. Bozic: So, I guess my other question would be more internally would be have we, I know we have discussed this for many years and it has been brought up, but putting a roundabout in that particular intersection; has that been discussed recently or is this part of a larger plan about doing a roundabout in that area and what would that . . . how would that affect your development of that property? Dir. of Pub. Service: It has been discussed, but there are no plans in place, there hasn’t even a study done on whether a roundabout would work there. Mr. Bozic: OK. Dir. of Law: If I could add that they are not the adjacent property to the actual intersection existing now. There is still the insurance company that is the adjacent property to the intersection. So, this is right behind that parcel. They are two separate things so, like just to make sure everybody is clear, this Sheetz thing doesn’t have anything to do with any possible roundabout. Mr. Bozic: Right. Understood, I just from a planning perspective from looking at it as a whole, knowing that a roundabout would change the makeup of that intersection which I would assume would obviously affect the traffic and the flow of the traffic there. Ellen Selle: We asked the same question when we started. We heard that there was the possibility of it, and we asked the question, and we got the similar answer that you got here, and we decided it was OK to move forward and plan out our site plan with these distinct conditions today. Mr. Bozic: So, would that potentially impact your development of that property in a negative light or a positive light? Ellen Selle: From just a site layout perspective, I don’t know the footprint of what that roundabout would be so I can’t specifically say. Mr. Bozic: OK. Ellen Selle: If I could just add that if you are familiar with the City of Green, they just did a roundabout and one of those Sheetz is located on the roundabout and we were able to work with the City with that plan. So, given where this is and how the Law Director just described it being sort of one off and where the access is put, and based upon my knowledge of the City of Green roundabout and how that location worked out, I think that there . . . I’m not an engineer but it looks to be workable, but I think you have to start with a plan and then we would go from there. 11  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Ellen Selle (Cont’d.)_ We don’t have anything to drop in right now. If you had a plan, we would have done that; we would have said, OK here is your plan and we will drop it in and even if it’s something that is projected for 5 to 10 years down, we would have projected it onto the plan to see what the impact would be. Mr. Bozic: Thank you. Obviously because they are kind of hypotheticals here, but I just wanted to get your opinion as to how that would impact, positively or negatively at least for our planning purposes. Mrs. Epstein: I have feed back on that example that you brought up in Green. That was installed directly on the intersection and that was an intersection at the time that that Sheetz was installed. I grew up like 2 minutes down the road so it was like we could ride our bikes up there and it was exciting. But there was no roundabout at the time and since that roundabout has been put in, and I think that is also one of the Sheetz that you were talking about that has reached that 12, 13- year mark and they are rebuilding it. Ellen Selle: It is being redone right as we speak. Mrs. Epstein: Within the distance of the new roundabout. Ellen Selle: Yes. Mrs. Epstein: That is a good case example. Mr. Bozic: Then I guess my last question would be I believe, and correct me if I am wrong here, but is this or will this location be a 24-hour location? Ellen Selle: Yes, they all are. Mr. Bozic: OK. Mrs. Gutman: OK. Thank you. Are there any further questions? If not, if I could have a motion to approve the amendment to Ord. 2024-48? Mr. Roy: I will make the motion. Seconded Mrs. Epstein. Mrs. Gutman: Are there any further questions at this time? Mr. Bozic: Yes, I have one question about the amendment. So, typically in our attachments we have like a red-lined version that calls out the exact changes within the . . . Dir. of Law: With this one you get the memo from the Planning & Zoning Department that outlines exactly what the recommendation was, so it is kind of like in the original there is like a placeholder for it for the conditions. So, it is in that whole section. Mr. Bozic: So, it is not an attachment within the amendment, or within the ordinance? Dir. of Law: No, it was a memo that was sent to Council by Planning & Zoning. Typically, you don’t get a red-lined for these because you get the memo that outlines exactly what the recommendation was. Mrs. Gutman: The conditions are listed out in Section 2. That will be probably what you are looking for that was added. Mr. Bozic: Yeah, I just wanted to have eyes on it to know exactly the differences because obviously we have the amendment in front of us, but it is not a red-lined version, so . . . Mrs. Gutman: OK, any further discussion? Hearing none, Madame Clerk please call the roll. Roll Call: Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein – unanimous. The amendment to Ord. 2024-48 is passed by a vote of 6-0. Mrs. Gutman: Does anyone have anything else for the committee? Dir. of Law: Mrs. Gutman, I know that there are some people in the audience that are here, and I know again that that amendment that was just passed is part of what is the process to just accept the recommendation and then the full 12  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Dir. of Law (Cont’d.) consideration is the next meeting; however, I don’t know if you want to potentially give them an opportunity to speak while they are able to be here on this issue and then you will know what questions they may have. Mrs. Gutman: Absolutely. Thank you. This would be a great time if anyone from the community would like to speak. We do have, as Mrs. Raber said, our next meeting is when we will vote on the ordinance, so this is a good time to share your thoughts. If you could just approach and state your name and address. Paul Van, 383 S. Munroe Rd., Tallmadge. Thank you for this opportunity to address this Council. I like Sheetz; I shop at Sheetz, but this location is a poor application for this type of business. We have lived at 383 S. Munroe Road for 20 years and since then we have seen the Rec Center, the High School, all of the Brimfield JEDD businesses built, and we have seen traffic continue to build over and over until I can barely pull out of my driveway. Now they are talking about a 25% increase in traffic on S. Munroe Road. What is that going to look like for our residents, and I know if any of you folks sign on to Tallmadge Talk on Facebook you would see a lot of different people talking about the traffic on S. Munroe Road. Again, I like Sheetz and I appreciate the Council entertaining the business and what they want to do for the community. That tax base that they want to bring to this community, the investment they want bring to this community, but at the same time, it is the location that is the problem. It is a small business location with Gionino’s across the street, BP; all this business for 20 some odd years and beyond and now with the increase in traffic, you are going to build a big business in this little itty bitty odd ball traffic location where it is going to be a lot of different things and going to the Planning & Zoning Committee meeting, we are talking about a variance in the speaker system, a variance in the light system, a variance in the canopy system. Are we changing the complete type of law system for this one business? What does that sound like to the residents of Tallmadge that one business comes in and we have to change the rule book just for them. Again, I appreciate the idea that we want to bring taxes, we want to bring businesses but at what cost are we trying to do that? That’s the end of my statement. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you Mr. Van. Would anyone else like to speak? Gene (last name inaudible), 47 Southeast Avenue, Tallmadge. As my fellow resident here in Tallmadge just put it, there has been a lot of discussion of this project online within various forums and I am personally of the mindset that this business in that location is beneficial for the community because it will help drive traffic both on foot, and on wheels to the other small businesses in that area and get those business as well brought up and increase the economic prosperity in the area. Now I do understand his concern about the traffic going down S. Munroe. Personally, from the 2+ years that my wife and I have lived in the area, I can’t really state that I have really seen heavy traffic even on Southeast. So, I am not sure personally if it will cause more issues, but I can only think of the benefits this business will have for the community. Thank you. Mrs. Gutman: Is there anyone else? Joseph Flach, 1129 Cobblestone Drive, Tallmadge. Sheetz, one way or the other, doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is traffic safety. I-76 westbound exit ramp is a dangerous, dangerous intersection. I see accident after accident, and I travel through there twice a day. Is there consideration given for an increase in traffic by 25%. Can we add a light at that westbound exit ramp? That is really what I am after. It is a terrible intersection. When I come home from the shopping area, the shopping mecca over there, I won’t come home that way. I don’t want to make a left out of that ramp and so if we are going to increase traffic by 25% maybe 13  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mr. Flach (Cont’d.) we need a traffic light there to help alleviate some of that burden. Thank you. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you Mr. Flack and that is a very . . . I am with you on that intersection, I think that does look at further evaluation made perhaps not in this setting but thank you for bringing that up. Anyone else from the audience? Then I will close Planning & Zoning. Thank you. ii. 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. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions. A. Ord. 2024-50 – Appropriating funds for Round River Consulting, LLC and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Bollas: I call the Finance Committee to order. Tonight, we have Ord. 2024-50. The ordinance was read into the record. This ordinance is at 1 st Reading and based on my notes the Mayor just requested at least giving it one reading. I was just going to ask before we open it up to committee, could we see the agreed upon statement of work for this so that we can see the services that are being provided? Dir. of Administration: Absolutely, I will send that statement of work to Council immediately following the meeting tonight. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. We got one for the inSITE services and what I wanted to do before I ask the next question around that was to just compare them and see the differences and I appreciate it. Dir. of Administration: Just to clarify, inSITE is supporting us, my department of Economic Development; that is a partnership with us, and they are always in support of the City and that is the same way that this contract is written. They will be supporting us and assisting us as we build this strategic plan with involvement from across the community of Tallmadge. Mr. Bollas: With that, I will open up the committee. Any comments or questions for this ordinance? Mrs. Epstein: I would agree with Councilman Bollas, I would like to see the contract so thank you for sending that over this evening. Can you talk . . . I recall the last couple of meetings about going through a selection process and you have selected this vendor. Can you walk us through that process and what made them the most qualified standout to you for this? Mayor: I will let Mr. Ignazzitto go ahead and do that. We did do this together, but he has all of the notes in front of him right here. Dir. of Administration: We were looking for a small business, locally based within the region. And so, after doing some research we came up with two businesses that have done very similar plans for non-profit organizations. We conducted a team interview with the Mayor and other members of the Administration. As we said, we conducted two interviews with each organization. The first one we had discussion on what we are looking for and where Tallmadge is right now and what we are looking to do to set that strategic plan involving a wide swath of community members for 2025 to 2030 and beyond. Really, the first five years are a solid plan kind of to ramp us up for a 10-year period of time. Similarly to West Avenue Overlay, it is not something that is going to happen overnight. It 14  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Dir. of Administration (Cont’d.) is a slow, gradual process. So, we were looking for real compatibility with the type of . . . we were looking for compatibility and a match that would work well with residents of our community that we thought would be an approach that would work. One of the most significant things that they talked about, Round River, was something called “World Café Sessions.” So, these are . . . we are going to have a couple of meetings at the Community Center that we will open to the public and there will be a 15 to 17 planning member team. This was her plan, with Round River Consulting, was a female who presented it. So, these world café sessions really are designed to bring out all different point of views and get them onto the table and then discuss them and then move from table to table with facilitated monitors of those members of the strategic planning team and as I have said previously, we would like 2 members of the Strategic Planning Team to come from Council. So, almost everybody you talk to in preliminary discussions and then the final 2 that we have selected had a very similar plan. So, it was really the world café type sessions to tease out the differences to get everything out on the table so we can openly and honestly discuss that with the community and the team so that we know that we have a plan that has been well vetted coming from all sections of the community and yes, there may be different views, but it is going to be that overarching consensus that we come up with. So, that is really the most significant deciding factor. What is great about Round River is that they are willing to work with us as we are moving through this plan. They are flexible as we go through something. If we need to add or modify how we are doing this, they are willing to do that. They are going to do numerous personal interviews including, as I said, with all 7 members of Council given that opportunity we will provide the questions and I believe Mr. Bollas asked for that. We will provide questions in advance when we get to that stage and we will have individual discussions with members of the community including business owners, and long-term and new residents and so it is an all encompassing process and this was the one that we felt would be the most beneficial and that feeling of just a match; two organizations, Round River Consulting and the City of Tallmadge as a whole. Mayor: I would just like to add as well of the companies we did speak with, all of them indicated that strategic planning for municipalities, while it is not brand new, it is on the edge of being new. Not all municipalities have a strategic plan like what we are working on and they commended us for having the initiative to do that and working with our residents and our Administration and especially with our Council in partnership to develop this for our community. So, this is a joint effort with all of us together. Mr. Rubino: Is this a year-long consultant or is this going to be an ongoing partnership where we work with them for the next several years? Dir. of Administration: No, this is a short-term process. As far as planning goes, it is a 6-month process. We will, if Council approves the ordinance at the next meeting, we would be looking at having an internal kick-off meeting early in August gathering and requesting and inviting people to be part of this strategic plan team. So, we have, as you will see when I send it this evening, and I apologize for not sending it, Round River has a very specific timeline. That is why I said it is a partnership. To me a 6-month timeline is not very aggressive, but it is on the cutting edge of aggressive. Normally this is, Mr. Rubino, it is usually and 8 to 10-month process, but we want to be able to get it implemented in time that we can roll it out, give it to the community and then have it in place for a year from now because we are really going to be implementing . . . we set our priorities collectively with our budget and so next year we will be implementing this strategic plan initially but the real implementation will start roughly a year from now when we start focusing on the priorities of our budget. There may be some minor adjustments once the budget is approved and it 15  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Dir. of Administration (Cont’d.) is rolled out and if we get feedback. This is a continuous process and so while we will have a plan and we want to vet it, it will set us on a path, but it is a roadmap and sometimes your roadmap, you decide to take another road, but the whole idea is to collectively to set our priorities and really be on that leading edge of cities setting strategic plans. We, as a municipal government, really one of our primary duties is we receive revenue for our citizens, and we want to take that and provide those services and opportunities based on what we receive from the citizens. So, instead of one or two citizens or someone from Tallmadge Talk, we are going to take a 6-month process and get everybody’s involvement and set us on a path. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions for this ordinance? Mrs. Epstein: The appropriated amount that is listed; is that the full cost or is there any anticipated cost in 2025? Mayor: That’s the amount. Dir. of Administration: When I refer to changing the budget, it was based on priorities that we all put that we agree on if Council decides to do that to adjust any budget that may be approved. So, that is all encompassing with a date in late January. I forget the specific date. Mr. Bozic: I have one question or comment. I think obviously understanding the scope of work and whatnot, it looks like to really know what areas we are trying to address and what that will mean I guess for us long term because most of the time when we do these sort of things we do this long-term planning there are always additional plans that need to come out of it in the long term. So, whether that be we need to do our Parks and Rec Master Plan; we go back to our Planning & Zoning revision I guess understanding what this particular contract involves and what dominos will fall after that I think gives us a better understanding as a whole. The only other comment that I wanted to make and again, I don’t want to sound like I am bragging on a particular company, but just doing a general search of mine and visiting their website and their website has a banner on the top that says new website coming fall of 2022. So, just something to consider if I was a citizen, well I am, but doing a quick Google search and seeing that I think that would be you know a bit aggressive if we are talking about a 6-month turnaround and we are two years behind on the website. That’s all, and again, I am not trying to . . . I’m sure my website for my business needs updated as well and I did just a general observation; that’s all. Mr. Bollas: Alright, we will give this another reading. ii. B. Ord. 2024-52 – Authorizing the Director of Public Service to advertise for bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for the construction of restrooms at Maca Park, authorizing appropriations and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar Mr. Bollas: Next, we have Ord. 2024-52. The ordinance we read into the record. We did get a request to pass this at 1st Reading by the Finance Director. Any comments, questions or concerns? Mrs. Gutman: I have a comment and it is a little bit tongue and cheek Mr. Rorar. I have to say the first time we had the vote to spend $400,000 on a restroom I thought that was going to be the last time I would ever have to do that. It hurt then and it still hurts now and I want the public to understand that we all had quite an extensive discussion about that cost and why it cost that much and so anyone who is listening knows that we have talked about this in the past and considered it greatly and I do think it is a good use of that grant money. It is an outdoor facility, and it makes outdoor recreation easier even though it is expensive, it is what it is; it is not something that we can change unfortunately. They are great facilities and if you could just speak to how long that restroom is going to last like before it would need an extensive overhaul. 16  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Dir. of Pub. Service: Hopefully 20+ years. I mean, I don’t know we have the one, but I look back at the restrooms that have been in those parks, and they have been in there for 50 years. You are going to get your money’s worth out of these. Mrs. Gutman: Thank you. Mr. Bozic: If I can just comment on that as well because I was very critical the last time we put in a restroom as well in one of the parks, but Mr. Rorar, if you could just kind of touch on . . . because I know what is involved in some of these facilities and everything from the keypad locks that are on the doors to security cameras and those sorts of things. If you could kind of touch on those. It is not just an outhouse that we are building. These are I guess very technologically advanced restrooms if you want to call it that. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah, so that park has sanitary sewer and water which is key. It already has an electrical box right there and there is already conduit in the ground to run that way so that is the first step, so it makes it easier. Second thing is there is heat in this restroom. It will be used year-round. So, it will be open in the wintertime. As you mentioned, the electronic locks, so those locks are on there and you don’t have to have the Police Officers come and lock them in the evening hours and the park folks unlock it. They are coded to open at 6:00 a.m. and close at dusk. Stop out at Howe Road Park and take a look at it. It is pretty nice. Mr. Bollas: Was the proposed location of the bathroom; did you also factor in any future planning about a potential ball field in the back area or any items adding into Maca Park? Mrs. Epstein: While she is pulling that up; this is where the current Port-o-Potty is over there right now? Dir. of Pub. Service: For the most part. Mr. Bozic: Mr. Rorar, I know we probably receive a fair discount because of the length and time that we have those Port-o-John’s out but from my experience as an event manager, they are not cheap to rent. So, there are some sort of cost savings in the long term because of that. Dir. of Pub. Service: So that red circle is where that is going on that aerial view, and you can see the existing ball diamond and the playground. Then if you look south of the playground and west of the shelter, there is still a lot of open space there, but I don’t know if there is enough room to put another ball diamond there, but there is still plenty of open space. I think that restroom location was picked because of the location of the playground and the ball diamond and the first shelter there. Mr. Bollas: Thank you. Any other questions regarding this ordinance? Do I have a motion? Mr. Bozic: I would move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Rubino. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-52 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Bollas: Is there anything else to come before the Finance Committee? Hearing none, I will close committee. iii. Additional Items: None. 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. Bollas: I call Personnel Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Does anyone have anything for the Personnel Committee? I just have one question for the Administration. I know there was a Civil Service meeting yesterday that I 17  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mr. Bollas (Cont’d.): could not attend to certify the Firefighter/Paramedic eligibility list. Mayor: According to our Civil Service Commission there were I believe 15 people took the test and 14 of them passed. They gave a list of the top 10 to the Fire Chief and he will be reviewing those and if anyone of those top 10 gets kicked off, there are still 4 more applicants that would move up to that next spot. So, it is in the hands of the Fire Chief at this point in time. Mr. Bollas: Thank you for the recap. Are there any other topics for Personnel this evening? Mr. Bozic: I have one question or comment for the Administration. When we held those meetings, whether it be you know a Civil Service meeting or anything of that nature where the invite gets sent typically to the Chair of that committee; can we begin to include our Vice Chair as well on those because I know in the past when we have done, obviously we have different work schedules, sometimes for example, Mr. Bollas and I when I was the Vice Chair of Personnel he would notify me and say hey I can’t make the meeting tomorrow, but I had no idea what the meeting was tomorrow because I was not included on the original invite. If we can begin to do the invites by sending it to the Chair, the Vice Chair and I would suggest sending it to the President of Council as well just to keep everyone in the loop. I think that would be a much favorable change for us. Mr. Bollas: Just on that topic, I did inform Councilman Pavlik of that meeting as well and he wasn’t able to attend that I am aware of. But yeah, if the Vice Chair can be copied on the e-mail at a minimum that would be appreciated. Mayor: OK. Will do. Thank you. Mr. Bollas: Any additional items for Personnel? Hearing none, I will close committee. 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. i. First Readings of Ordinances and Resolutions A. Ord. 2024-51 – Authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with the County of Summit for the juvenile diversion program and providing for immediate enactment. Sponsor: Mayor Kilway Mr. Rubino: I will call the Safety Committee to order. We have Ord. 2024-51 before us at 1st Reading. The ordinance was read into the record. Does anybody have any information they would like to share on this? Dir. of Law: Mr. Rubino, this is like a housekeeping ordinance. This is an annual one and it just allows us to accept the diversion program grant money and move forward with the program. Mr. Rubino: Any comments from Council? Mr. Bozic: I just want to make a comment that I am very much in favor of this program and I have seen first-hand when I was at the Rec Center working in that department and being able to witness the work that our Auxiliary Police Department and/or Police Department would do with these juveniles as part of this program. It is usually beneficial at least from an outsider’s point of view and hopefully it makes an impact within their lives and potential change and so I am very much in favor of this. Mr. Rubino: Do I have a motion? Mr. Bollas: I move to adopt. Seconded Mr. Bozic. Roll Call: Mr. Roy, Mr. Rubino, Mr. 18  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman – unanimous. Ord. 2024-51 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. Mr. Rubino: Anything else for the Safety? Hearing none, I will close committee. ii. 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. Mr. Roy: I call the Community Issues Committee to order. We have no legislation before us this evening. Is there anything for Community Issues? Mr. Bozic: I would just like to commend the Administration and the Parks and Rec Department and Mrs. Kidder for the Farmer’s Market. I had a chance to drive by there. Still have not made it out to stop and walk through but absolutely packed parking lot this evening. Probably the most number of vendors I have ever seen in that parking lot. So, again, I commend them for the hard work that they have been doing to expand that. Dir. of Administration: Thank you. We will pass that on. Mr. Roy: Is there anything else? Hearing none, I close committee. i. 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 Ordinances and Resolutions A. Res. 2024-3 – A resolution expressing support for the expansion of Amtrak service in the Akron-Canton region. Sponsor: Councilperson Jessica Epstein Mrs. Epstein: I call the Public Service Committee to order. We have Res. 2024-3 before us this evening. The resolution was read into the record. I will open it up for discussion. I did send an e-mail to all Council members prior to today’s meeting with just a little bit of background information and why I think that this would be something to consider supporting. So, is there any discussion? Mrs. Gutman: I would just like to say thank you for bringing this to our attention. Having more public transportation options within Ohio and specifically within our community would be a great thing for us and definitely a benefit to our residents. Mr. Rubino: I have a question. Thank you very much for the information and I think that with the right planning that would probably be a really great thing, but do you have any more information about what they are planning or where or what will it take past this general resolution? Mrs. Epstein: We are just expressing that support because what was included in this initial planning were the three C’s plus D. Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Cleveland. Summit County was not included the first time. It makes sense to be included because if we have a train going from Cleveland to Columbus it would be great if it came through and we could hop on it on the way down. So, we are just expressing that we think that this 19  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mrs. Epstein (Cont’d: would be a great idea and want to be included. One of the things that I had heard in my research was the reason we weren’t included is because nobody asked and so I think there has been some recent effort to make sure that people ask to be included for the next round of planning. Mr. Rubino: OK, you don’t have any further information as far as if a line were to come to Ohio; where it would go through or what direction it would be going, etc. Mrs. Epstein: For our regions, specifically, the thought of the airport has been suggested as an ideal location. Mr. Rubino: Then going south or going east and west? Mrs. Epstein: That would be . . . that is what we are saying what we want to support is a study to plan that out. Mayor: Just in my conversation with other mayors and elected officials, the expansion of Amtrak, as Ms. Epstein has indicated, has almost completely excluded the Akron/Canton area. They are also going up to Toledo and then across to Cleveland as well. We are really not sure why that happened. We are just being told that it was basically that we were not vocal enough that that was a good area. The Akron/Canton area is a huge area and it would be very beneficial to be able to jump on a train at the airport and go down to Columbus for the day or go up to Cleveland for the day or anything like that or go to Toledo and head up to the lakes or something like that. I think that Amtrak is really missing out on an opportunity if they don’t come to the Akron/Canton area. So, I know there has been a lot of talk about trying to get Amtrak’s attention to say that this is a very important area that needs service and I commend Mrs. Epstein for taking the lead on this and for putting this resolution together. It shows a lot of forethought, and it is excellent, and I really appreciate it. Mrs. Epstein: Thank you. Mr. Bollas: Thank you for the information that was provided yesterday and respectfully asking if we could give this another reading just to kind of review the prepared information. Mrs. Epstein: Absolutely. I know that it was over 40 pages of reading. Mrs. Gutman: I would just like to share a personal anecdote related to this. I think it illustrates how it could benefit us. I took my Girl Scout, former Girl Scout Troup, when they were younger to Chicago and flying there is cost prohibitive and driving is time prohibitive and expensive to park so we decided to take Amtrak. To do that you have to drive to Cleveland and the train leaves at 3:00 a.m. and I don’t know about you guys, but I was not thrilled at taking 4 15-year-old girls to Cleveland at 3:00 a.m. to the train station. We did it and I think the girls learned a lot. It was a great experience and a very affordable way to get us to Chicago, which wouldn’t have happened otherwise without the train. But I am sure that that discourages people from going at all is the thought that they have to drive up there in the middle of the night. They probably just don’t go, and it might not be a fun trip; it might be a trip you know to see a relative that they haven’t seen in a long time or to get home after a funeral or whatnot. Those trains are really important to people and so I think that this is something that definitely is worth supporting. Mr. Roy: I just wanted to comment that a couple of years ago they were looking into that and the biggest thing I think why Ohio turned it down was because they were not high- speed trains, but these are going to be high-speed trains? Mrs. Epstein: That would be part of the planning that this would be Step I. There are the frequently asked questions that I sent out in an e-mail and that was one of the things. This was from “All Aboard Ohio” but in the questions there one of the things that was stated was the last time that Ohio returned Federal funding we paid for a rail in other states and so there was this specific example given that the $400,000,000 grant was rescinded and the funding was sent to California for a high-speed train. Mr. Roy: We need high-speed trains otherwise I don’t think people will use them if they 20  COUNCIL MEETING Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 2024 Mr. Roy (Cont’d.) can get there in the same amount of time as a car. Thank you. Mr. Bozic: If I could just make a comment. Again, thank you for bringing this before us. I think obviously we aren’t going to vote on it this evening, but just as a whole obviously expressing our support of the expansion I think is a good thing and I would just caution us as to maybe if we had a better idea or understanding. I think some of us have asked tonight as to what the actual plan is for the expansion, and I get that they are seeking agencies or governmental support but I think having a better understanding of some of those details would at least probably make us feel a little more comfortable and openly supporting it without any reservations. Mrs. Epstein: Thank you for that feedback. Is there any other discussion on this? Ok, hearing none, we have no other additional items in Public Service. Alright, hearing none, I close committee. Additional Items: None. 11. Reports of Special Committees: a. Council Operations Committee Mr. Bollas: Just wanted to express a thank you to the IT Department, Dove AV, the Service Department and anyone else in the City that helped with the AV upgrades in Council Chambers from the new monitors and displays and we just got the new microphones installed and so again everything is looking great. It was a great project and I just thank everyone for their support. Mr. Bozic: I would second that because I definitely like these new mikes. You can hear them very well. Hopefully I will watch the youtube channel later and see if the sound quality has improved because I know there has been some concern with that as well. Mrs. Epstein: If we could go back one second, I felt that Mary’s microphone was cutting out a couple of times. Mrs. Gutman: I tried really hard to stay centered too. I could tell. i. Additional Items: s 12. Announcements: Mr. Bozic: The only thing I would bring up to Council is the Light Festival. The entry form has been submitted and we are participating so we need to prepare ourselves for no longer pushing a golf cart across the finish line. We will have our golf carts nicely charged and ready to go for this event. We will probably need to discuss at some point as to decorating or whatnot for that. 13. Adjournment: Mrs. Gutman moved to adjourn. Seconded Mr. Bollas. Roll Call: Mr. Rubino, Mr. Bollas, Mr. Bozic, Mrs. Epstein, Mrs. Gutman, Mr. Roy – unanimous. The Council meeting of 7-11-24 adjourned at 8:45 p.m. sb Adopted: ___________________ ___________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Adam M. Bozic, President of Council 21