Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Maguire called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, July 11, 2013 to order at 7:01 p.m. Instead of what the agenda says; Minister John Satterfield of Shephard’s Pasture for all Nations Church is here to lead us in prayer. 2. PRAYER: Minister Satterfield, Shephard’s Pasture for All Nations Church, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Public Service Esler, Ass’t. Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Dir. of Law Raber, and Clerk of Council Burton. Economic Developer Loughry along with Mr. Donovan was absent. 4. MINUTES: 6-27-13 Regular Council Meeting Minutes. Mr. Sarver moved for the adoption of the 6-27-13 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council Meeting minutes for the 6- 27-13 Regular Meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 6-30-13 to Council on 7-1-13.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 6-30-13 to Council on 7-8-13.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-13 to Council on 7-8-13.  June Financial Reports to Council on 7-8-13.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-13 to Council on 7-8-13. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 6-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: At this time we invite anybody in the audience who would like to give us any input they have; you are welcome to come forward. If you would please state your name and address and then tell us what you would like to talk about. Jeff Hood, 552 Washburn Road, Tallmadge. Along with some other people in the County and the City, we had a lot of flooding yesterday and you know, they say it is a 100 year storm, but I have had about five of them since I’ve lived here. This is a continuing problem for us. Where I live it is a virtual lake. I think Jack has some pictures of it if you want to see them . . . I mean; it is a lake. I know . . . it has been five or six years ago when we had a big Council meeting and a lot of people showed up for it. At the time, Mayor Grimm stated that he was going to put retention ponds back in Maca Park to try to hold back some of this water. That has never happened. So, that is just why I am here. Mayor: Yes, thank you. Thank you for coming in and we talked earlier, but can you explain your backup . . . was it a storm water backup or sanitary sewer coming out of the floor drains? Mr. Hood: Well, yeah, we did get some flooding in our basement from . . . the sewer did back up and I think it was just because the water overflowed into the . . . Mayor: Right. Mr. Hood: . . . into the sewer system and it ended up backing up into our basement. Mayor: But the surface water . . . did any surface water actually come through windows or come up . . . Mr. Hood: No, no . . . it did get up to . . . the water outside never gets up to the house so far. Mayor: It strictly came up through the pipes? Mr. Hood: Yeah, but I mean . . . Washburn was actually . . . there was a river going over top of the road from one side to the other. The guy directly across the street; his driveway is almost washed out now. He only has half of the driveway he used to have. It was . . . it was a bad storm, but I mean . . . like I say, we have had approximately maybe five of those since I have lived in that house. We have had it that bad before. When we moved here three or four years ago, you know, Mayor Grimm and Mayor Kline; they were both here and like I say, they did talk about retention ponds, but . . . Mayor: We didn’t close Washburn last night, or did you . . . Mr. Hood: They came up and put barrels up. They didn’t close it but . . . Mayor: Cars were going through it. Mr. Hood: A lot of people did go through it. Mr. Sarver: I do have pictures that I will forward to everybody; I neglected to do that to your e-mail today and some of them are video and I don’t know if Tallmadge e-mail system will permit a video. Mayor: Yeah. Mr. Sarver: But, I do have videos. I have a couple of questions because I don’t know the statistics, but you have a driveway that is maybe a 500 feet; a winding driveway off of Washburn; is that about right? Mr. Hood: That is probably about right; yeah. Mr. Sarver: And part of that driveway goes over a drainage ditch; I don’t know what that ditch is called . . .  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Mayor: Maca Ditch. Mr. Sarver: Oh, that is part of Maca Ditch; OK. Mayor: Correct. Mr. Sarver: And your bridge; there is a bridge over that . . . Mr. Hood: Right. Mr. Sarver: . . . from the bottom of that bridge to the bottom of the ditch; approximately how high is that? Mr. Hood: I would say five foot. Mr. Sarver: Five or six feet? Mr. Hood: Five foot; yeah. Mr. Sarver: The water is hitting his bridge; that is how much water came through that ditch. He has a swing with a canopy over top of it and the swing sits what; 30 inches off of the ground in those kinds of swings? Mr. Hood: Yeah, that is in John Western’s yard; yeah. Mr. Sarver: No; in yours? Isn’t that a swing that is by . . . there is a . . . Mr. Hood: You mean by the driveway there? Mr. Sarver: Yes. Mr. Hood: That was a . . . one of John’s benches that washed out of his yard and I was afraid it would clog up that tunnel and so I drug it out of there. Mr. Sarver: OK, well, but the point is that the swing was underwater and the water was up two-thirds of the way to the canopy. I am just trying to give you a feel for how much water . . and it was flowing. If you would have had a canoe; you could have floated down river and not had to put a paddle in the water. Mr. Hood: There was some logs that came through down there; one was probably 12 foot long and 20 inches in diameter that came down and it actually went through the culvert underneath the road and on down. Mr. Sarver: The driveway across the street; the two that he was talking about; one of them the water was so high it was going over top of the guy’s bridge and so his bridge is the same height from the ditch and it was flowing so fast that his bridge has like a curbing on either side and the water was hitting that curbing and shooting up maybe 2 or 3 feet and then down the other side and then on across the street to his place. The two driveways across the street from him don’t go straight up to the house; they kind of dip and then go up, but when you were at the street and you looked at the house; they were flat because they were totally inundated with the water. I went up Washburn to Eastwood and east on Eastwood to the interstate and we have been told in the past that the culvert that goes under the interstate, and correct me if I am wrong; the culvert that goes under the interstate is where the water dumps out and that that culvert is not big enough to handle the water. Well, when I went up there, that culvert was not full. That culvert was maybe two-thirds full. So there was room for more water to go through that culvert and by the time the water got to Washburn or to Eastwood; I’m sorry, by the interstate, the water was not flowing very fast and so between his house and where I was was a half a mile maybe, or a quarter of a mile . . . Mr. Hood: Quarter of a mile. Pres. of Council: Are you on the south end of Washburn? Whereabouts are you? Mr. Hood: Yes; I am on the south end of Washburn. Pres. of Council: On the east or west side? Mr. Sarver: East side. Mr. Hood: East side. Mr. Sarver: So, between his house and Eastwood; something stops it in there and that is where the backup is and I believe . . . there are two detention ponds over there; is that correct? Mayor: In Maca Park? Mr. Sarver: No; by Eastwood. Mr. Hood: There is one right on the road and there is one on the north side and then there is one back in . . . I think in that allotment back there; I think it has its own by the expressway. Mr. Sarver: Yeah, Tallmadge Hills and they are full of vegetation and silt and I believe that if those are cleaned out that that would get that water moving further at least to have some place for the water to go. Also, I believe we have a million gallon detention pond in Maca; is that how big it is? Mayor: It handles 200 acres. Oh, in Maca, no; I am thinking about behind the Rec Center. Mr. Sarver: Oh no; the one in Maca by the baseball field on the west side of . . . Mayor: I don’t know how many gallons; I have never heard of a gallon amount . . . Mr. Sarver: I thought either you or Chris when it was put in said it was about a million gallons. I don’t know if that is ever cleaned out. So, anyways . . . Mr. Hood: The one on Eastwood there on the north side, or the . . . yeah, the north side; I have never . . . was there water in it yesterday? Mr. Sarver: I did see water . . . 2  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Mr. Hood: I have never seen water . . . I don’t know where the water would come to go in there because it is higher than the road and it is higher than the creek and so what that one is supposed to hold; I couldn’t tell you. Dir. of Pub. Service: I will say that a short amount of time can make a big difference on what you see on the water on Eastwood. I was on my way to Eastwood to look at the water and I called my Road Superintendent and he said that he was just there and it was fine and I went ahead and went over there and Eastwood was under water. You couldn’t even see that pipe going under the expressway. Mr. Sarver: Yeah, by the time that I got back, it was under water and I couldn’t get down to the pipe. Dir. of Pub. Service: But that pipe is an issue there. It was just the amount of water and everything goes to that point. Mr. Sarver: Right. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah, that detention basin is not for that creek. It is not a backup for that creek. Mayor: The one right on the roadway actually is coming from Dunbar along Eastwood and that water is supposed to go in there and it was senseless, and I don’t know when it was installed, but it does not function anything in Maca Ditch. Maca Ditch bypasses that. It is not even designed to go into that. Mr. Sarver: OK. Didn’t the Walsh family do something . . . let me slow down; that land was donated or sold to the City; were you the Service Director when that happened? Mayor: No, that was prior to 1990. Mr. Sarver: Oh, OK. Mayor: It was in the 90’s; prior to 2000. Mr. Sarver: You were a City Council member then weren’t you? Yeah. I thought Rusty Walsh told me that his family or his company had something to do with that detention pond and it was supposed to be an overflow for Maca Ditch and that is why I referred to it tonight. I didn’t realize that it’s not even connected to Maca Ditch. Dir. of Pub. Service: No it has never been an overflow. Mr. Sarver: Is it ours; is it the City’s? Mrs. Ray: That was my question. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mr. Sarver: It is the City’s so . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: But as far as the sewer backups; that’s the Summit County sewer there and Summit County was at the lift station at Eastwood and the expressway and over at Newton Street by the tracks. Their pumps just couldn’t handle the volume that was coming down through there. Mr. Sarver: Well, now the water that goes under the expressway; where does it go? Dir. of Pub. Service: It goes down and ends up down in the little Cuyahoga . . . Mr. Sarver: Mogadore Reservoir and down that way? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Mr. Sarver: Because that lift station there; isn’t that a sanitary sewer lift station? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes; that’s correct. Mr. Sarver: But we are talking about water . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: He said he had water . . . Mayor: His backup was sewer. Dir. of Pub. Service: Sewer coming in the basement. Mayor: We are talking two things. Mr. Sarver: Yeah. Well, OK, now I am confused because last night you told me that it wasn’t sewage; it was just water coming up . . . Mr. Hood: You know, it . . . you know, it’s . . . I’m assuming that there is some sewage in there. It was clear water you know, but . . . Mr. Sarver: If there was sewage . . . Mr. Hood: It came out of the drain. That’s why I said that it was sewage. Mr. Sarver: The floor drain? Mr. Hood: Yeah. Mr. Sarver: I think that was storm water. I don’t think that was sewage because if it was sewage; you would see floaters. I had sewage in my basement. Mr. Hood: Yeah, there were no floaters and it was clear. I mean, so . . . that is why I say I think that my water rolled over into the sewage system and flooded it. Mayor: We have this on a list so what we will do is we will go out and evaluate and investigate and see what is going on. Mr. Sarver: Again . . . Mayor: Sanitary sewer; there is nothing you are going to do about it. That side of town is great. Mr. Sarver: If it is sanitary sewer; I agree with you 100%; it was overwhelming you know the amount of water and if it is sanitary sewer; I agree because we have no control over that, but I was under the impression this was all storm water and I know on the other side of town the storm water; doesn’t it go into the Summit County storm water system? Dir. of Pub. Service: Which side of town are you talking about? 3  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Mr. Sarver: On the west side of town? Dir. of Pub. Service: No; that’s Akron. Mr. Sarver: Oh, I’m sorry, into Akron; does it go into the Akron system? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes and they . . . Mr. Sarver: They were flooded. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes on Eastwood down at the bottom of the hill going into Akron. That was beyond capacity. Mr. Sarver: West Market Street; they had it up to the tops of the windows. Dir. of Pub. Service: Right. Mr. Sarver: A friend of mine works over there on West Market and they had to rescue two little kids out of a car. Mrs. Ray: The detention pond that Jack is talking about; are they all on City property and I believe you said that they were and so they really are the City’s responsibility to maintain. Mayor: The one on Eastwood; the one coming off of the allotment is private. Mrs. Ray: And then I was driving in from Brimfield coming down East Avenue today and there was some road work out there and heavy machines and they had the yards torn up; was that a result of the storm or was that scheduled? Dir. of Pub. Service: That is our waterline looping that we are putting in there. Mrs. Ray: So, the work that is being done; will that do anything to alleviate flooding? Mayor: It will alleviate domestic water. Mrs. Ray: Domestic water. OK, but it has nothing to do with the storm water or the sanitary sewer? OK. I was just wondering because as I was driving in I didn’t know if that was a result of something that happened last night or . . . Mr. Hood: One of the reasons that it moves so fast from Maca Park to my property is because from Maca Park all the way up to my property; that creek has been cleaned out. Two years ago, John Westren . . . there was equipment there and they dug his whole creek out for him. They didn’t ask anybody else. They just came over and did his and I know that from Maca Park up to his property has been cleaned out. So . . . not recently, but it is clean. Mayor: We do maintenance on Maca Ditch. Mr. Sarver: Maintenance is done on Maca Ditch? Mayor: There are two flood gates on Maca Ditch. One behind where we were cleaning and then one in Maca Park itself. Those are all to control the water. Mr. Sarver: Yeah; I lived next to the one. Mayor: I know you did. Mr. Hood: There is so much water; those gates weren’t doing anything yesterday. Mayor: It was bypassing the gates. Mr. Sarver: It was going around them. I lived in that house when that one gate was redone and there was a bypass around the gate so it doesn’t go over the gate. Mr. Hood: That’s the one that is actually on John Western’s property there I think. Mr. Sarver: Thank you. Pres. of Council: Thank you for coming Mr. Hood. Is there any other community input? Mr. Stalnaker: I have a question. I am uneducated about water. This was like a volcano coming out of people’s toilets; where is that coming from? Mayor: The sanitary sewer pipe that are typically in the ground are approximately 8 inches to 10 inches and when there is so much storm water, they get infiltrated and then the storm water that gets into the sanitary sewer has nowhere to go except the relief valves and the relief valves are either people’s basements or manhole lids pop off or people’s toilets; wherever . . . it is an open loop system and so water is not sealed. So, if you seal the pipe then it stays in it and it goes downstream to someone else. So that was just an overtaxing of the sanitary sewer system; not the storm system, the sanitary sewer system. Mr. Stalnaker: Is there anything that they can do to prevent this? Mayor: People do have some backflow preventers installed in their properties. That is a device that is installed in the sewer main and it is a flapper valve that stays open normally and sewer flows out of your house. If water starts coming back at it; it shuts the flapper, but then anything in the house will back up into the basement. Storm water, if it is illegally tied in or downspouts or footer drains or your own sanitary sewer from your own house; at least you have your own sewer to deal with instead of the other, but backflow preventers do work. They make floor plugs for storm water and we have talked to a lot of folks today. It is a little device like a boat plug in the back of a boat. You stick it in the hole and twist it and it locks down. They make big ones for floor drains. You can put them down and tighten them down and they also make little devices that are blow up devices that you stick down in the floor drain and then with a tire pump; you pump it up and it prevents anything from coming in. I have seen those and plugs blew out of the water on Washburn before on the house out front. Water pressure just goes pretty strong. Does that answer it? Mr. Stalnaker: I understand we have those for floor drains, but there is a valve for toilets also? Dir. of Pub. Service: That would be hooked into their lateral. It would be hooked into their lateral that comes off the main. They will have a 6 inch pipe going to the house and that is where they put that backflow device. Mr. Stalnaker: The plumber would have to do that? 4  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. They would have to excavate and put it in. Pres. of Council: Any other questions on this topic? Mr. Sisak: I do have a question. So currently, I know with new construction you typically don’t tie into the downspouts. Mayor: That’s correct. Mr. Sisak: Going back; how far do you think that changed? Dir. of Pub. Service: I don’t know if it was 1985 or later. Mr. Sisak: OK, so that makes sense. A lot of the people that are having some problems . . . 1985 and older as far as their house construction. Dir. of Pub. Service: What the EPA would like us to do is to make all those people disconnect from the sanitary and do the smoke test where we put the smoke into the sewers and locate these illegal hookups and make them disconnect. Mr. Sisak: OK. Mayor: Back when the law changed back in the 80’s the City did go around and do smoke test. My house on Overdale . . . I remember Mrs. Campbell coming up to me prior to me being involved and she was my Council person and said that they were going to do a smoke test and if you have smoke in your house, let us know because that means that you have illegal connections. Typically it is not downspouts. It is footer drains and sump pumps; not downspouts. Some communities have a lot of downspouts. Mr. Sarver: But even the houses that had it done prior to 1985 are still illegal; I don’t’ think they were grandfathered; I think they are required . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: That’s correct. Mr. Sarver: If they are aware; they are required to disconnect from the storm water, or from the sanitary sewer and connect to the either the storm water sewer or put them out to the street. Dir. of Pub. Service: Which can be a very expensive proposition for a property owner. Mr. Sarver: So anyways; it is a problem. Mrs. Ray: (Inaudible – microphone not turned on). Mayor: All in all, in the City of Tallmadge and we have 5,500 households in Tallmadge and we have 30 calls that we are dealing with. We will go out and look and try to figure out what we can do and give advice. The streets; all the five streets that we had closed; by 7:00 p.m. last night every street was open in the City of Tallmadge and things were flowing and it went down so hats off to the Service Departments and I am not going to talk about storm water again Jack, so don’t worry. But, you are right. Nobody was hurt . . . Officer Ickes went out on East Avenue and went through water up to his waist and carried a lady out of that car that is on the internet and all over the place. If an electrical line had dropped anywhere in that proximity; this would not be a happy meeting tonight. All in all, I am happy with the City and the people. That is our job to listen to them and get yelled at and take it and figure out what to do next and we pledge to do that. Thank you. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Pres. of Council: I want to commend the Law Director, Megan Raber. I attended a Sunshine Law training seminar this morning and I was overwhelmed by the number of people that were at our Community Center and I saw people from all over the County and she did a fabulous job of getting the word out and getting people there. I assume you are going to cover it in your report. So, I won’t steal her thunder. I just want to applaud Megan. I am not saying what we discussed at the seminar. th Secondly a reminder that the Circle Fest is August 17 and we are going to meet at Jim th Donovan’s (the funeral home) up on the hill on August 5 at 6:00 p.m. to put together the float and so forth and both Kim Ray and Megan are helping with that. Then if need be, we th will meet again on August 8 at 6:00 p.m. A final reminder that we don’t have our next Council meeting until our Committee meeting of th August 19 . We will be on summer recess after tonight. Any other announcements? No one responded. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, AND DIRECTOR OF LAW. Mayor: I am not going to talk about storm water anymore. I think we have handled that unless Council has specific questions about it. On Economic Development; we did have a ribbon cutting this week. RightWay Automotive on West Avenue (the old Nissan building) even though I don’t like the way the poles look; the ugly burnt orange . . . that is their national color and they have 24 dealerships across the United States and this guy said that the store this week has done the best out of any of the other 24 stores and so they are really excited about Tallmadge and they have already joined the Chamber and they want to be in the light parade and all of that. They are doing well. I am happy also to announce that our gas aggregation . . . life goes on in the City besides storm water; and we are going to change our vendor. We will not be with Direct Energy anymore. We will be with Consolidated Energy Choice. We were working out that detail today and if I was able to fix the price today; the price today would have been $4.57 per mcf 5  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Mayor (Cont’d.) fixed for 12 months. If you look at Apples to Apples; it is well in the $5’s. The SCO rate; that is the Standard Choice for residential purposes only for Dominion is at $4.37 and that is a summer rate. This price is a 12 month rate. So, we are really excited about that. You know, we go off of a NIMAX and I won’t belabor this, but you know NIMAX is the New York Stock Exchange of Natural Gas and our adder to what we do is that we negotiate with these vendors what our NIMAX rate is going to be. With Direct Energy it has always been $2.00 or $2.50 or $1.80 was the best and today with Consolidated, if we are able to sign; I wasn’t able to get all of the paperwork done, but it was 57 cents above NIMAX and so we are really excited about that. Buckeye Energy; our broker who we deal with is working everything out and so hopefully tomorrow I will strike a deal and have our natural gas . . . that means everybody who is on Direct Energy will get a letter; an “opt out” letter saying that if you do not want to be with the Tallmadge aggregation you must opt out. People get a little upset that we are doing that, but it is the program that we are in and that is what Council passed and that is what the electorate actually voted on back in the early 2000’s; I think it was in 2003 when we started the program and it was an “opt out” program by the voters. If you are already with Direct Energy you won’t have to do a thing. You will be automatically re-enrolled but if you are with another vendor; you will have to “opt in” but we have plenty of time to talk about it. I know this was your last Council meeting and I will have this done before you get back, but we will be switching from Direct Energy. We had a lot of problems if you recall and we are still dealing with problems. We had a great rate of $4.19 per mcf, but with Consolidated at $4.57 today; it is really a great rate. End of report. Mr. Sarver: Just for clarification; so if we are in the aggregation program now the fact that you are changing . . . the City is changing the supplier; we are changed automatically. We don’t have to do anything; is that correct? Mayor: Yes. That is correct, unless you want to “opt out.” You will receive a letter saying that you could opt out. It is a volunteer thing. Mr. Sarver: I know that. I just want to know for those folks that are in it; they don’t have to do anything; just ignore all the letters they get . . . if they want to stay in it. Thank you. Mayor: Or switch to a different vendor, but . . . Mr. Sisak: Mayor, is that something that you can collaborate with other communities kind of like we were talking about the trash a couple of weeks ago? Mayor: Gas aggregation is City specific. Mr. Sisak: Specific to the City only? Mayor: Yes. Mr. Sisak: OK. Mayor: But a lot of people . . . other communities are also switching to . . . a lot of them were on Direct Energy . . . now actually Direct Energy will no longer accept City aggregations. So we are really forced to go, but we had two prices; one was 57 cents per NIMAX and the other one was 65 cents. Pres. of Council: Any other questions for the Mayor? No one responded. Moving on; the report of the Director of Public Service. Dir. of Pub. Service: I spoke to you before about the trash collection and possibly going with Republic Waste as the only collector in the City. We had some concern about citizens being upset because 21% of the people were picked up by R&R and Republic has purchased R&R now and so they have 97% of the households in Tallmadge and so I think that is going to make this go through a lot easier. So we are still working on getting that done. th Tallmadge Aquatic lease was up for bid. We had a bid opening on the 27 of June and we had two bidders; Tallmadge Little League and Dynamics Resource Group. The Little League bid $1 annually on two areas of the first floor and Dynamics bid $1 annually; for the remaining area. The contracts are for 5 years and will be before the Board of Control tonight. We were concerned about Maca Park with all of the rain that we have had and we looked at the revenue last year and what we are at this year and we are down from last year and we are really concerned. But, then when we looked at an analysis of past years; this is still our second best year since it has been open and so we are very happy about that. The Street Department is still working when it is not raining on making full-depth repairs on streets that we are going to pave and so as soon as they are complete with that; we will have the companies come in and do the asphalt paving for the year. We are doing some sealing of the parking lot at City Hall, the Community Center and the Rec Center and we keep having to push that back because of the rain also, but we are hoping to get that done next week. End of report. Mrs. Ray: Just to refresh my memory Bryan; you said that . . . and we used R&R for years and we got a letter that they had been purchased, but did the City already bid that business out and Republic won it or do we . . . are we still going to bid out because there are other haulers out there. 6  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Dir. of Pub. Service: Our plan is because the City, with 97% of the people who have Republic, and to piggyback onto Barberton’s contract because they already bid with Republic and got Republic and so we would follow their contract. Mrs. Ray: Legally Mrs. Raber; there is no problem doing that? Mayor: It would be through Council to authorize it. Dir. of Law: Council has to have an ordinance in order to authorize that, but there is a Ohio Revised Code Section that allows you to do that if it has been competitively bid through another political subdivision. Mrs. Ray: Thanks for clarifying that. Mayor: If I may just to talk a little bit more about that; it will be a sole hauler in Tallmadge. Right now we have open hauling and we have our own City bid but then other haulers can haul. We are going to go to one hauler with recycling and the price will drop for the residents and with new bins instead of the trash bins for recycling at the side of the street; it will be a roll-out; a blue roll-out with the lid that they can just come by and pick it up. We have to determine if we are going to do recycling bi-monthly instead of just once a week with trash because these bins are big enough to be able to handle every two weeks to really save a little bit more money. Mr. Sisak: Mr. Esler; hopefully that will save wear and tear on the streets as well. Secondly, have you heard any communication from ODOT about the 91 paving . . . like a timeframe? Dir. of Pub. Service: It won’t be until probably August. Mr. Sisak: Oh, OK; right when school starts! Dir. of Pub. Service: Unfortunately. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, just to go back to the trash and recycling; when you get those big bins; we have one at home and you end up recycling more. We fill ours up weekly just to let you know. People will recycle more if they have those bid recycle bins. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yeah; these are just the roll . . . similar to the trash cans. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, I think ours is like a 55 gallon roll-away. Dir. of Pub. Service: That is what they say is that people will recycle a lot more and you actually have less trash and more recyclables. Mrs. Kilway: Yes. We have cut down to like a half bin of regular trash and we are overfilling our recycling bin and so keep that in mind when you contract for recycling. Dir. of Pub. Service: Plus, we can get a grant because of that. We can get money for doing that. Mrs. Kilway: Sounds perfect. Mr. Sarver: That is always good. So the recycle bin is going to be the kind that the truck can pick up? Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct. Mr. Sarver: Is there a possibility they are going to go to the type that they are going to pick up for the regular trash? Mayor: We have that now. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes; we have that with Republic. Mayor: I do that now at home. Mr. Sarver: OK. I am still using my old trash . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: You just have to call them and ask. Mr. Sarver: OK. Mayor: Don’t call them now because we are going to get all new bins and everybody will get new ones once we do this. You could call them. Mr. Sarver: OK great. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Educate me; why is it economically better to piggyback onto Barberton instead of taking out your competitive bids? Dir. of Pub. Service: Well, if we take out . . . remember now that we have 97% of the citizens in Tallmadge on Republic. If we bid it out; it could be a completely different company and then every citizen just about in the City has to switch haulers and the price is going to be lower than what we have now by going with Barberton. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mayor: But, even looking at the communities that do not use Republic, who just went out to bid, their price that we are getting through this Barberton bid are maybe 10 cents different in price. So to disrupt every citizen in town to go out and they are now responsible to cancel their Republic and sign up for the new one because we don’t sign you up. It would just be very seamless by doing this to save a few pennies. Pres. of Council: How long is the contract? Dir. of Pub. Service: Well, we would be following . . . it would be the rest of what Barberton had; normally it is five years. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Mayor: With automatic renewal or with approvals or something like that. Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: No report. Mr. Sarver: Do you have green bar with you? Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: Yes. Mr. Sarver: Can you tell me what the storm water fund balance is please? 7  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: The unexpended fund balance? Mr. Sarver: Yes, the unexpended. Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: The unexpended fund balance is $130,211, but the unencumbered fund balance is actually -$11,000 because of projects that we currently have that are encumbered and waiting to be paid and so we are using that storm water . . . Mr. Sarver: So there is nothing left in the Storm Water Fund? Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: Right now; no. Mr. Sarver: OK. How much do we get per month per household; is it $3 . . . Mayor: $2. Remember, we did . . . Mr. Sarver: OK, so it is $2 a household plus more for commercial; correct? Mayor: Correct. Mr. Sarver: So, we are getting pretty close to $11,000 a month or maybe more than that; do you know how much per month . . . you are shaking your head. Ass’t. Dir. of Finance: That is approximately . . . between $11,000 and $15,000 a month is probably a good estimate of what we are getting. Mr. Sarver: OK. Thank you. Dir. of Law: We did have a very good session I thought . . . I was happy to see two of our Council people there today to listen to the Public Record and Sunshine Law presentation from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. I will pass on the kudos to Karen Liska who did a lot of the leg work as far as the sending out of the e-mails and reminder notices and all of those good things to get people there. I was very pleased the turnout. We knew we had over 100 people that had registered for the event and I think today, I know for a fact, that we had many walk-ins as well. So, I will be interested to hear what the final number was. In general, I will just use this opportunity as a reminder for all of the Council people to just keep in mind that a lot of the things that you do or receive . . . in the course and scope of your position as a Councilperson is creating a public record and you do need to be conscientious about that and need to be keeping that . . . one of the key takeaways today that I will make sure I highlight for you is that just because you are using a personal e-mail account or a personal phone and text messaging, or whatever; does not mean that you are not doing City business and not doing something in the course and scope of your position. So, you just need to make sure that you are keeping that. One of the suggestions, and I would certainly suggest this also. is to limit where you are in telling people to send your e- mails to that e-mail account that you have through the City of Tallmadge because we do have that backup server and it makes things so much easier for you if a public records request comes in for us to be able to look back and make sure that we have that information available to us. So, there is a Records Retention Schedule that I’m sure your Clerk would be happy to provide to you and I would be more than happy to answer any specific questions that you may have about that or Open Meeting Laws. So, please do not every hesitate to come and talk to me about that. Thank you. End of report. Pres. of Council: Ms. Raber, on the Records Retention; is it available on our website? Dir. of Law: I don’t know. That was a note that I jotted down to myself today. I think if it not, that certainly it is something that we can easily put up there as well as our policy and I’m not sure whether that is up there or not, but I did jot a note to myself to make sure that we add that if it is not there already. Pres. of Council: Good. Thank you. rd 10. Ordinance 75-2013 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ordinances 79-1991 and 155- 1990 to applicant, Summit Racing Equip- ment, Owner, Big Zilla Development, LLC, for a conditional zoning certificate for special nonresidential development at 1200 Southeast Avenue by granting conditional zoning approval for parking lot expansion. Mr. Sarver moved to adopt the amendment on Ord. 75-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. Ord. 75-2013 has been amended by a vote of 6-0 and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. rd 11. Ordinance 76-2013 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Extending the approved conditional zoning certificate for special non-residential development at 1134 North Avenue for two years for use as a nursing home, dementia, and assisted living facility and providing for immediate enactment. 8  REGULAR COUNCIL in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 11, 13 Mr. Sarver moved for the adoption of Ord. 76-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Maguire, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Sarver, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 76-2013 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. st 12. Resolution 15-2013 At 1 Reading. Congratulating the Tallmadge Lions Club th on its 75 Anniversary and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 15-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Voice vote 6-0. Res. 15-2013 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. st 13. Resolution 16-2013 At 1 Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to Robert P. Matson and members of his family in the death of Dorothy Jean “Dot” Mattson and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 16-2013. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Mayor: She was a dispatcher up at our Dispatch Center and when I first came on the Fire Department back whenever it was; a long time ago, she was the one that always really took care of you and knew where you were and really helped you out a lot and she will be missed. She was a great person and a great asset to the City of Tallmadge. Voice vote 6-0. Res. 16-2013 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 14. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 15. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sarver moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council meeting of 7-11-13 adjourned at 7:50 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton Robert D. Maguire Clerk of Council President of Council 9