Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, April 10, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Silent prayer. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber and Clerk of Council Burton. Economic Developer Loughry was absent as was the Dir. of Public Service Esler. 4. MINUTES: 3-13-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mr. Rensel moved to adopt the 3-13-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The 3-13-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  SMR Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 3-31-14.  Fire/EMS Capital Fund Transfer in the amount of $10,000 to Council on 3-31-14.  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 3-31-14 to Council on 4-1-14.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 3-31-14 to Council on 4-8-14.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-14 to Council on 4-8-14.  March Financial Reports to Council on 4-8-14.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 3-31-14 to Council on 4-8-14. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Financial Reports submitted to Council were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Pres. of Council: Due to a business relationship with Mr. Siciliano, I will abstain from voting or conducting the public hearing on Ord. 32-2014 as will Vice President of Council, Carol Kilway. At this time, I will turn the meeting over to Craig Sisak, Chairman of the Planning & Zoning Committee. Mr. Sisak: I would like to go ahead and call the public hearing to order at 7:03 p.m. on Ord. 32-2014. It is amending the zoning map by rezoning the property of applicant Edward A. Siciliano-Circle Mold and Machine Incorporated on behalf of owners Edward A. Siciliano and Agnes F. Siciliano from Commercial-4 to Industrial-1 consisting of approximately 0.320 acres located at 95 South Thomas Road. rd Ordinance 32-2014 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending the zoning map by rezoning the P.H. ON 4-10-14 @ 7:03 P.M. property of applicant Edward A. Siciliano- P&Z RECOM. APPROVAL 4-0 Circle Mold and Machine Incorporated on behalf of owners Edward A. Siciliano and Agnes F. Siciliano from Commercial-4 to Industrial-1 consisting of approximately 0.320 acres located at 95 South Thomas Road. Mr. Sisak: At this time is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 32-2014 please step to the podium. Dir. of Law: Mr. Sisak, before we go ahead and swear in the person that is coming forward right now, I just wanted to note for the record that Carol Kilway’s abstention is due to the family relationship in case anyone looked at these minutes individually from the others. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Please state your name and address. Edward A. Siciliano, 630 Ambler Circle, Tallmadge. I am in favor of the ordinance. The reason I want to rezone that is so that both my properties; the property next door is mine as well and I would like to have them both the same and eventually I would like to join the two properties and put an addition on that would give me room for my shop vehicles and some storage. That is the reason for this. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. At this time; is there anyone that would like to speak against Ord. 32-2014? No one came to the podium. At this time; is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of Ord. 32-2014? No one came to the podium. At this time; is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 32-2014? No one came to the podium. At this time; is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of Ord. 32-2014? No one came to the podium. Is there anyone who would like to speak against Ord. 32-2014? No one came to the podium. Seeing none; I would like to call the public hearing closed at 7:05 p.m. Pres. of Council: I will recognize the Planning & Zoning Committee. Mr. Sisak: I would like to call to order the Planning & Zoning Committee and members present are myself, Mrs. Ray and Mrs. Kilway. We had a poll of 2-0-1 on Monday evening. Would you like to go ahead and make a recommendation to Council at this time?  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 Mrs. Ray: I certainly would Mr. Sisak. I would recommend that we adopt Ord. 32-2014 as presented. Mr. Sisak: I will second that and Mrs. Kilway will abstain. So the recommendation to Council would be 2-0-1 in favor of Ord. 32-2014. I would like to go ahead and close the Planning & Zoning Committee. Pres. of Council: Can we just go right into it? Mayor: Yes. Pres. of Council: Is there anybody who would like to make a motion regarding Ord. 32- 2014? Mr. Sisak: Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a motion in favor of Ord. 32-2014 at this time. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Mayor: Mr. Chairman. Dir. of Law: Mr. Sisak actually keeps the gavel and so he will conduct the vote. You will actually conduct the vote and ask for any discussion on the matter. Mr. Sisak: Is there any discussion on Ord. 32-2014 at this time? Mayor: This is a good project. If you look down at the area where this is abutting; this is just a perfect thing and it should have been done a long time ago, but it is a residential house. There are still people that occupy this house, but eventually if those folks move out then we will give them the opportunity to expand or they can still expand to the back portion of it. Planning & Zoning looked at it and they had no problems with it and the Administration has no problems with it. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Anyone on Council? Mr. Rensel: Thank you. If this ordinance passes will the assessment value by Summit County change and cause the current owners additional outlay? Mayor: I would think it possibly could because now it is going to be valued at the industrial price instead of residential, but he is . . . the Siciliano family is the owner of that property and so that . . . of the property and of the structure. Mr. Rensel: That’s fine. That answers the question. When you said that the current residents . . . Mayor: Renters. Mr. Rensel: Renters; OK. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: I will ask for the roll call. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway – abstain, Mrs. Ray – yes, Mr. Rensel – yes, Mr. Sisak – yes, Mr. Stalnaker – yes, Ms. Tricaso – yes, Mr. Donovan – abstain. Ord. 32-2014 is adopted by a vote of 5-0-2. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: I would like to welcome the students tonight. Thank you; we know you are excited about being here and so we will go easy on you. Council meets on the first and third (second and fourth) Monday’s and Thursday’s of the month. Monday meetings are our Committee meetings where we discuss the legislation and Thursday’s are our business meetings where we actually vote on the legislation. We do allow for some community input at both meetings. So, if there is anybody who would like to address Council; now is the time. No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 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 have created a special committee that will then start reporting on to Council and it is going to be a committee to evaluate the Fire Station 1 and Fire Station 2 regarding the age of them and do we need to remodel, relocate; should we go to one fire station in town? This committee is comprised of Pat Gaffney, the Fire Chief as the Chairperson of the committee; I am on the committee, Dr. Pascarella, Mike Passarelli, Shift Commander, Dave Gatie, Part-Time Firefighter Dave Gauer and Councilman Craig Sisak, and Bruce Wagner who is a citizen of Tallmadge and is also a former Cuyahoga Falls Fireman. He retired from there and then Laurie VonGunten from the Fire Department as the Clerk to it. The task for this group is to again evaluate both fire stations. Fire Station 1 was built in 1977 and back then they didn’t even think we were going to have full-time people sleeping in the station and yet, we have both male and females sleeping in the quarters and it is just . . . we are making due. We need to remodel or relocate or rebuilt that station and Station 2. You know we are talking about putting a Roundabout in at Southeast Six Corners and if that is the case, then Station 2 would be relocated to a different location based on the development around town; is that the best location and so this committee’s task is to make a report back to Council so we can then make some educated decisions with what to do in the future with the Fire Department. So that will be . . . and their task is to be done by October of this year. On Economic Development; you have seen some different articles in the Beacon Journal and Tallmadge Express about us meeting with Rootstown for the JEDD. Those are exciting meetings. Those have been going very well. We will be meeting back with them at their request and there is no date set at this time to meet with them, but I think there is a lot of good that can come out of it for Rootstown and also the City of Tallmadge and Brimfield. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 Mayor (Cont’d.) Linda’s Kitchen broke ground finally on Northwest Avenue on the site that they worked on for those that were on Council back then; they finally broke ground and so they are doing well. Park Ford, if you see the front of their building; the plans are just beautiful and so I think it is going to be a great building when it is done and I am glad that Park Ford is spending money to stay on West Avenue to help develop that. Serpentini is also doing some renovations to their building and so that is exciting. 145 West Avenue, the doctor’s office broke ground. Actually there is a ribbon cutting on Tuesday I think it is at 8:30 a.m. I will make sure that Council . . . Council may have already been e-mailed on that; the formal groundbreaking at 145 West Avenue; Dr. Schmeiser’s office. You can see the equipment down there working. They have been doing the curb cuts which will be the joint curb cut for 125 West Avenue and that belongs to the City of Tallmadge and Council has already authorized that to go into the CIC. We have a very strong potential of a person to build on that site and so that curb cut is really a joint one for both of us. The trees that came down across from Delanie’s between the substation and the old Firehouse; their goal is to be able to have their building built by the end of this year, but due to the Indiana Bat; you are not allowed to tear down trees or take down trees after a certain date in April and so that is why they put those trees on the ground and chopped them up because they don’t even have the plans through Planning & Zoning yet, but they are going to do that so they can get moving forward and try to build that building. It will be a medical building also at that site. So there is a lot of activity on West Avenue. I am pretty excited about that. So Dennis has been doing his job. Council ordinances tonight; there are three of them that are brand new and I did not talk to you about them on Monday night, but I would like your consideration on Ord. 43-2014, which is tearing down a house on Perry Road and when that comes up; I will talk to you about that. Ord. 44-2014, which is our Solid Waste Management contract which is part of the $15,000 that we will get so we can start advertising some different recycling programs. Pat Sauner asked me if I could get that adopted tonight. Then Item 16, Ord. 45-2014, which is Taylor Communications authorizing some money and that was for part of the carpet that was replaced downstairs and there was an insurance claim involved and we will talk about that when it comes up, but those three ordinances and then the two resolutions. Thank you. Dir. of Finance: Next to me here is Chris Koza; he is a senior at Tallmadge High School and one of the classes that he is taking there is called, “Senior Project Class” and they arrange shadowing opportunities for the students in the area of their interest. Mr. Koza has expressed an interest in the area of finance and so for the next couple weeks or so he will be shadowing our department. I asked him to sit with us tonight and so this way he can see out toward where he usually would be sitting from school. I will give a very brief description of the financial issues that we saw during the first quarter. First of all, General Funds collected 23% of what was estimated. The General Fund Balance is a little over $5.2 million. The Income Tax is 11% ahead of last year. Recreation Center ended the month with $22,000 net operating profit, however, there was a late payment by the third party administrator for the Silver Sneakers Program and it was nd supposed to be with us in March and we didn’t quite get it until the 2 of April. So that would have boosted this $22,000 by almost another $24,000. So that figure is skewed a little low just because of that reason. We received $119,777 in Local Government Funds. The Fire Fund currently has a balance of $21,474, but we think by tomorrow the real estate tax monies should be coming in and so that will fill that void and up that balance. Street Fund has a balance of $211,122. Sewer Operating is up over $1 million again to $1,147,000. The Water Operating Fund is at $1.7 million and then the Storm Water ended the month at 24% of projected revenue. So, that is the end of my report. If you have any questions, I would be happy to address them. Mrs. Ray: I was just looking at the Revenue Report on page 5 and the ambulance billing year-to-date of $91,000. I just wondered if that was due to a change in billing or . . . I mean it is good to see that . . . it is not normally that high for the first quarter. Dir. of Finance: Yeah, it is slightly up. It just depends on when the collections are made because that is also done through a third party administrator. Mrs. Ray: Right. I just didn’t know if we had changed third party administrators or if they had changed billing procedures. Dir. of Finance: That is being investigated, but at the current time, it is still the same one. Mrs. Ray: OK, and then in the Rec Center Report, the membership line seems to be down by about $43,000. So; do we think that that is the impact from the new gym in town or it was just so cold that no one wanted to go out to work out. Dir. of Finance: You have hit about all of the nails right on the head. Yes, it is a combination of issues we believe having to do with the weather, number one; the weather has also really hurt the Silver Sneakers Program simply because yes, they can be there for 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 Dir. of Finance (Cont’d.) free, however, when it is so cold; who wants to get out in that weather and as well with the membership situation and we are feeling the pinch from the two organizations that just recently opened. Mrs. Ray: The Summa lease payments are a little bit ahead of 2013 by about $3,400. Is there an escalator in that contract or is it just a timing difference? Dir. of Finance: Again, a timing thing. Dir. of Law: No report. rd 10. Ordinance 31-2014 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ordinance 103-2012 approving P&Z RECOM. APPROVAL 3-0-1 and granting a conditional zoning certificate for special nonresidential development to applicant Mota Design Group, Inc. on behalf of owner Circle North LLC at 76 North Avenue. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 31-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 31- 2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. rd 11. Ordinance 39-2014 At 3 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Granting a conditional zoning certificate for special nonresidential development to applicant John Elsey, GBC Design Inc., on behalf of Owner Wesley Fair, Shelter Care Inc. to operate a residential teen pregnancy shelter at 262 South Avenue. Mrs. Ray moved for the amendment to Ord. 40-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 40- 2014 is amended by a vote of 7-0. nd 12. Ordinance 40-2014 At 2 Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Summit County combined General Health District (SCHD) and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker: There was no recommendation on this and that is partly my fault. Is it out of order to make the recommendation tonight or do we have to wait? Dir. of Law: You can go back into committee if you wanted to. Mayor: Or you can make a motion and I can talk on it if you want; either or. Mr. Stalnaker: I will make a motion to adopt Ord. 40-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Mayor: This is a contract that we entered into with the Health Department. They do a lot of our outfalls from the storm water. They go out and measure it and it is a contract that we have entered into as part of our storm water management. Over the five-year period it is about $22,000 for the contract, but it is something that we have done in the past and we just have to continue to go forward with it. st Mr. Stalnaker: Do you want it on the 1 or do you want to hold it up? Mayor: Well, you have made a motion to adopt and it has been seconded and so I gave you the discussion. If you would like to hold it for more information; that’s fine. Mr. Stalnaker: I think that is enough information. Does anybody else have any questions? No one responded. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 40-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 13. Ordinance 42-2014 At 1 Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending the zoning map by rezoning the property of applicant, Americana Develop- ment Inc. (Martin Wheel Division) on behalf of owner, Americana Development Inc. from Commercial-4 to Industrial-1 consist- ing of approximately 2.014 acres located at 360 West Avenue. st Pres. of Council: Ord. 42-2014 is at 1 Reading and is assigned to the Planning & Zoning Committee. I will set a public hearing for 5-22-14 @ 7:03 p.m. Mr. Rensel: Do you want to tell the students that the reason that there is very little discussion is that we met on Monday. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 Pres. of Council: I tried to address that earlier. At our Monday meetings we discuss the legislation. That is when we go through everything thoroughly and go through more questions and try to cover all the bases. There is a recommendation made at that point as to adopt, or not adopt, or hold legislation until another time. Then on our Thursday meetings, we vote on the legislation as recommended by the committee at that time. That is further clarification. Business meetings and committee meetings. st 14. Ordinance 43-2014 At 1 Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Determining the structure at 722 Perry Road to be blighted; authorizing the Mayor to enter into all necessary agreements pursuant to the Moving Ohio Forward Grant Program and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Ord. 43-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Mayor: Thank you Council for considering this. This is the house on Perry Road; it is the blighted house. The homeowner has signed all of the documents to allow funds to be used from us to demo his house. So, with passage of this ordinance then we will start that process and we have to do an asbestos abatement on the house and then get three bids from contractors to tear it down and then the house will be torn down. His goal, if you can see, Robert Wilson wants to rebuild and his daughter is going to move onto that lot and so that is what it is really all about; removing blighted homes and then rebuilding using funds that we have already received grants on. Mrs. Ray: So, 722 Perry Road; I would assume then that as part of the program and a requirement of the program is that the property taxes are current on 722 Perry Road? Mayor: Yes. Mrs. Ray: OK, and then . . . Mayor: The property owner has to sign off on it and so there is a document . . . otherwise we don’t go after the ones with the banks and that; it gets pretty sticky. Mrs. Ray: OK, so then my second question; how many applications year to date, or I should say last year as well did the City receive for the grant fund? Mayor: This will be I think our fifth house that we have demoed. Mrs. Ray: How much money is in the budget? Mayor: $25,000. So, if you know of anybody that has a blighted house that will sign off; that is the key; we have to have their signatures. If you don’t get their signatures, then it takes forever as Council knows to try to work on a blighted home is very difficult and I can answer some of the questions from Willson Avenue which I forgot to do in my report. Roll Call: Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 43-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 15. Ordinance 44-2014 At 1 Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Authorizing the Mayor to file, on behalf of the City of Tallmadge, an application to the Summit/Akron Solid Waste Management Authority (The “Authority”) for the SASWMA 2014 Community Recycling Access Grant and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Ord. 44-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Mayor: As you can see in the ordinance, this is allowing us to apply for the grant. The monies are there. We are now a City-wide recycler; we will receive about $15,000 from that by applying for this grant. That money must be spent back into recycling within the community either by advertising, new bins or something to do with recycling . . . we can even put money towards our leaf program and purchasing a new leaf machine if we need it or bags or anything to do with recycling; that is what this grant will allow us to achieve. Roll Call: Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. Ord. 44-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 16. Ordinance 45-2014 At 1 Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a con- tract in excess of $50,000 for restoration work with Taylor Companies of Ohio with- out advertising and competitive bid due to a real and present emergency; appropriating the necessary sums and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Ord. 45-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 10, 14 Mayor: Council knows that we put in the budget for 2014 to replace the carpet on the lower level. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we had a sprinkler line break in the foyer which flooded the lower level. Our insurance company hired Taylor Construction to come in and do the restoration and cleanup. Part of that was pulling up some of the carpet to dry the padding and so we got prices from them and worked with the insurance to go ahead, since we already had it in the budget for the carpet, to have them do the work of the installation. With that, it also was required to do some painting of the lower level and down in the conference room, the lower level conference room, the electrical outlets are on the exterior walls and so whenever you have a video or anything to do with setting it on the conference table, you drug the cord across the floor and it was always a trip hazard. So, we went ahead and had them install an electrical outlet in the center of the floor underneath so now we can put the projector on the table without having a trip hazard. In the Capital Budget, we had $56,000. What this ordinance is allowing is a re-appropriation of $14,584.69 to do the balance of the work that was done downstairs. It has to go to Council for their consideration because we have exceeded the $50,000 threshold. We did not know at the time when the insurance company was involved if we would have exceeded that or not. It did exceed that and so that is why I am asking for Council’s consideration. Mr. Rensel: So Taylor, the work that they are doing is in progress if we are re-appropriating $14,000 to finish it up? Mayor: They are pretty much done to be honest with you. Mr. Rensel: So this is not a new purchase order; this simply for . . . Mayor: For billing purposes. Mrs. Ray: So, the total amount of the work was $71,164? Mayor: Correct. Mrs. Ray: And our insurance company paid $19,000 on the claim? Mayor: $18,6. . . . Mrs. Ray: So was it because the City has a deductible that we haven’t met? I mean, why wouldn’t they have covered the majority of the work or the cost of the work? Mayor: They would not replace the carpet. They would only pull it up and dehumidify. The painting of the walls; they would paint the lower level . . . were you down there during the construction? They cut the baseboards up only enough so when they replaced the baseboard they did not have to re- drywall the whole wall. We were fortunate enough that we caught it. There was someone in the building when it broke; we caught it and we brought guys in right away and got it shut off real quick and so we started drying it out that night. The insurance company had Taylor come in with heavy duty dryers to minimize the work, but that is what the insurance ended up paying. Mrs. Ray: I think we need a new insurance company. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – unanimous. Ord. 45-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 17. Resolution 10-2014 At 1 Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to Kenneth Virden and members of his family in the death of Jane Virden and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 10-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 10-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. st 18. Resolution 11-2014 At 1 Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to Lindsey Hindel and members of her family in the death of Bobbi Hindel and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 11-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 11-2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 19. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 20. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting of 4-10-14 adjourned at 7:37 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 6