Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 24, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, April 24, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Rev. Bill Michaels, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Tallmadge. 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 Public Service Esler, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughery and Clerk of Council Burton. 4. MINUTES: 4-10-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mr. Rensel moved to adopt the 4-10-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Voice vote 7-0. The 4-10-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 7-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS: None. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: I would like to welcome the students tonight. Council meets on the first and third Monday’s and Thursday’s of the month (second and fourth). Monday’s are our Committee meetings where we discuss legislation and Thursday’s are our business meetings where we vote on the legislation. We do allow community input at both meetings. If anybody would like to address Council; now is the time. No one responded. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 7. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: Mayor: Just to give you a quick update of the special committee that I formed for the study of the Fire Department. They did meet on Tuesday afternoon. It was a great meeting; it was a kick-off meeting to set some ground rules and they will continue to meet on a monthly basis. They will be touring Fire Station No. 2 and then Fire Station 1 and hopefully they will get back to us by October. I will keep Council updated as this goes on. Pres. of Council: How many members? Mayor: Eight including myself. Councilman Sisak is on the committee. Mr. Rensel: Mayor, could we have a memorandum showing the names of the people on the committee? Mayor: Absolutely. Everyone is allowed to come. We will tell you when the meetings are. End of report. 8. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 9. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, AND DIRECTOR OF LAW. Mayor: Very briefly, I did pass out to Council, but I do think most of you had the updated City map and it is brand new off the press. Feel free to take some and if you need more . . . there is a great City map on the inside. I really like the four seasons on the front cover showing the Tallmadge Church in all four seasons. I think it came out very well, compliments to Karen Morgan and the staff that worked on it. End of report. Dir. of Pub. Service: We had one bid for the columbarium for the cemetery and that was a bid of $55,700. We have Board of Control tonight and we can get that approved hopefully. We are bidding the water meter installation and the bid opening on that is May 9th. I passed out the proposed paving program if anybody has any questions. Also, last year, towards the end of the year, we were trying to come up with a way so we could all VPN into the City where we could work from home. We looked at a piece of equipment and it was $7,000. We started a purchase order for that last year and we found out later that that piece of equipment was not quite up to speed. We have found another piece of equipment and so I will be proposing legislation to close that P.O. and re- appropriate that $7,000 to this year’s so we can get that project going. End of report. Pres. of Council: Mr. Esler, I have a question for you; in the paving somebody brought up to me some of the park parking lots and one in question was on Maca there. I think that is Washburn; the ball field. Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes, we are paving those in-house. Pres. of Council: So, those are planned on being done this year sometime? Dir. of Pub. Service: Right. Pres. of Council: Are there any other ones? Dir. of Pub. Service: We will be doing some paving up on the soccer fields. We will be doing the south driveway to the concession stand and the parking area for the handicapped and those are the kind of projects that are . . . Pres. of Council: OK. I didn’t know what was on the schedule for that. OK. Thanks. Mrs. Kilway: Looking over the list of streets that you have in here for repaving and ones that you will be asking for in addition; you have two of the streets in Tallmadge Woods that are in here and I had asked if you would look up the cost and everything to add that final street; Timothy and that would be another $93,000. Dir. of Pub. Service: Correct.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 24, 14 Mrs. Kilway: I think it would be a good idea just to get the whole rest of the neighborhood done especially Timothy; it is one of the streets going into the neighborhood. It is probably one of the worst ones around there too. That way when you go to redo the asphalt ten years from now when we mill down and redo it, you can do it all at one time instead of doing these two streets this year and these three streets this year and this street the next year. Dir. of Pub. Service: That is the nature of our paving program anymore. Mrs. Kilway: Even with a neighborhood like that? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. Up in Bierce allotment we may do one road here and two roads there. Some of the roads may not need it. Mrs. Kilway: The ones that are dead ends probably would not need it as often. Dir. of Pub. Service: Some have a better sub-base. Mrs. Kilway: I just think that adding Timothy might be a good thing. Dir. of Pub. Service: I would be happy to do that. Mayor: If I can just comment on that. I know that John has his hand up too. We are trying to keep it down to what we said; about $300,000 to $400,000, but I totally agree with you. Timothy is probably the worst street, but that is the street where we are working out of the allotment, but we will gladly add that to the appropriations . . . I really don’t want to go over $500,000, but we are approaching that and so with that, we will add that to that. Mrs. Kilway: OK. Thank you. Mr. Rensel: I just wish to add that I concur with Ms. Kilway and you folks and I think with interest rates as low as they are; I think we can afford to do that. Dir. of Pub. Service: I would be very happy to do it. Mayor: It is either going to be done this year or next year and so . . . we will just keep it lower next year. Mrs. Ray: We are trying to get you to spend money! Mr. Sisak: I would agree. I would see doing this allotment because I would imagine the phones would be ringing off the hook. Dir. of Pub. Service: We didn’t have the funds when we just did Ivywood and Ambler. Mr. Sisak: About the VPN; who do you think . . . who is proposed to access that? Dir. of Pub. Service: Council would be able to access it . . . Mr. Sisak: We are not allowed to take our devices home. Dir. of Law: Yes you are. Dir. of Pub. Service: You can access it from your home computer. Mr. Sisak: Oh, OK, so you would . . . so it would be anybody within the City then? There would be certain parameters? Dir. of Pub. Service: It would be Administration . . . Mr. Sisak: OK, but it would have to be from your personal computer? My question would be; does that open up to viruses and fire wall issues? Dir. of Pub. Service: Well that is . . . barracuda is a piece of equipment and that is where it prevents that from happening. Mr. Sisak: OK. I know I VPN in from home, but I use a company computer and so I just didn’t know if there was any complication with that. Dir. of Law: My understanding is that you are permitted to take your laptops home and that the only reason that Council has decided not to is because they didn’t want to take on the responsibility of the potential loss of the computer or damage, which you do assume that risk if you are taking it off of the premises. Mr. Sisak: No, I was told not to take it out of the building by the Director of IT. Dir. of Pub. Service: That’s not . . . Mr. Sisak: So that is why it is always sitting here and you know, I can’t read when I get the e-mails because I look at my phone and I am scrolling back over and scrolling back. Dir. of Law: That is not my understanding, so we will verify that for you. Mr. Sisak: That would be fantastic I think if we could VPN and I don’t know what we would do per say, but . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: Our employee handbook says you can take it. Mayor: For clarification, there is already a purchase order for it. The money is already encumbered to do this. We have to change vendors. Anytime you go over the calendar year; last year’s purchase order can be spent in the following year as long as it is the same vendor, but since the vendor is changing, therefore, we have to send the money back to the General Fund and then ask Council to re-appropriate. So it is not new money; it is just changing the vendor and so this is the process that has to be done. Mr. Sisak: Thank you. Dir. of Finance: I have no report this evening. I would entertain any questions if you wish. Pres. of Council: Do we have any questions? Mr. Rensel: Do you have any update at all with RITA and the income tax or where we stand? Dir. of Finance: Regarding the subpoena program that was done? Mr. Rensel: Well, the current . . . Dir. of Finance: Oh, the extension to the 21st? Mr. Rensel: Yes. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 24, 14 Dir. of Finance: I haven’t heard of any further extensions if that is what you mean. I’m not sure of the questions? Mr. Rensel: Well, I mean do we have 50% of the expected revenue or has all of it been collected? Dir. of Finance: We don’t have that information. We don’t have that yet. Dir. of Law: I will just briefly comment on the direct indictment program that we started in January of this year. It has been very successful so far. We are very pleased with the program. It is saving City resources and so I just wanted to give a report back to Council that so far it has been going very well. Economic Developer: Thank you. I actually have quite a bit this evening. I gave each of you the new brochure from the Portage Development Board and on the inside first page there, the very first quote is from Mayor Kline and the significance of that from Council’s perspective is just how hard the Administration has been working for a number of years to build a relationship with Portage County and not only upstairs but with Brian working with other Service Directors and there is just a lot of collaboration going on and where most communities are totally in one county; when you are in two, it requires a lot of work to be involved in both and so that is that. Wal-Mart; we have been waiting for a long time to get a gas station in the Cascades and Murphy’s is under construction and they should be open in July and we are also receiving inquiries from other vendors to do something with that on/off ramp. Penara will be open in September. A local group . . . Adam Ray; some of you may remember Adam; John Ray’s older son is the manager and one of the principles of a company called Sweet Amanda’s and they were founded in New York. Adam wanted to come back to Tallmadge and he started in Akron and he has moved the company to Tallmadge. They are leasing 6,000 square feet and they negotiated a major contract with a chain of movie theatres; Regal, and they make and manufacture and supply candy machines. I believe all but one of employees are Tallmadge grads. So anyway, that is kind of a neat story and we are hoping that Holly would follow up on that. We had a ground breaking at 145 West Avenue. That is Dr. Schmeiser’s office. We will soon finalize the lot split and place the lot in front of the “Y” into the CIC. There is a lot of interest in that lot. Linda’s Kitchen has broken ground on Northwest Avenue. For those of us that have been around a long time; this is a celebration. In my mind the beginning of that was the lowest of the lows in terms of a business relationship and now you know, years later, it is good and I think that shows the business climate in our City as a whole. We have a ribbon cutting for Café Italiano and so now the whole plaza is filled up; what was vacant just four or five years ago. The name of the plaza is Bumpas Commons Plaza and I think that is kind of nice that they are paying homage to the Bumpas family. West Avenue next to the sub-station, where you see the trees cut down; those trees should be removed and the owner of that property hopes to be in front of Planning & Zoning within two months. We had a meeting today on the Bob’s Big Boy site and so that is getting very close as well and so that was a lot to update you on, but there is a lot going on and so that is all good. Mrs. Ray: Enterprise on West Avenue; it is not the rental cars; they are different? Economic Developer: They are presently located on the corner of East Market and Exchange. Mrs. Ray: Oh, yes. Economic Developer: And they are moving that operation here and Enterprise car rental will still be on top of the hill. Then there is also a private ambulance company that is leasing a building on Geneva that will create 15 to 20 jobs and they should be operational within the month. Mrs. Ray: That building looks very nice. I just drove by there today and I noticed that they put the sign up and they were working on the parking lot. There was quite a lot of improvement to that location. Economic Development: The parking lot at Summit Racing; typically no one can believe that that is just a parking lot. Everyone wants to know when the steel is going up. It is a parking lot. Mr. Stalnaker: Mr. Loughry on West Avenue where the trees have been removed; did you mention that they had to stop removing the trees in the back of the lot? Economic Developer: If a tree is dying or dead . . . there is a bat that likes to live in those trees and so you need to have the trees down before April 1st or you can’t take them down until September 1st or October 1st; there is a fall date. If you have any plans of building something where those trees are in the summer in Northeast Ohio and that is when you want to do that; you have to make sure that you get those trees down and so that is what they did. Mr. Stalnaker: You have probably been familiar with the 800,000 acres out west where the militia has come in and fought the Federal Agents over the cattle grazing on Federal land. They are protecting . . . and this has been going on for years and years and now they want to protect the tortoise out on the land and they have to remove the cattle and I guess there 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. April 24, 14 Mr. Stalnaker (Cont’d.) has been some shooting between the militia and the Federal Agents and they finally called the Federal Agents back in and called them off, but it was all over the tortoises in the land with the cattle. Economic Developer: They would not just fell those trees and just leave them and they would be down for a year or whatever and it would just look horrible. The property owners have been very cooperative and want to get them out of there just as soon as he can. Mr. Stalnaker: All they need to do is get a bat in their attic and they will change their minds! 10. Ordinance 39-2014 At 3rd 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. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 39-2014. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 39- 2014 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 42-2014 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending the zoning map by rezoning the P.H. ON 5-22-14 @ 7:03 P.M. property of applicant, Americana Develop- ment Inc. (Martin Wheel Division) on behalf of owner, Americana Development Inc. from Commercial-4 to Industrial-1 con- sisting of approximately 2.014 acres located at 360 West Avenue. Pres. of Council: Ord. 42-2014 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee and there is a public hearing scheduled for 5-22-14 @ 7:03 p.m. 12. Ordinance 46-2014 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Ordinance 39-2013 establishing the number of employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 46-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 13. Ordinance 47-2014 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Creating one full-time position of Deputy Fire Chief and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 47-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 14. Ordinance 48-2014 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Creating one part-time position of Adminis- trative Clerk/Fire and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 48-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 15. Ordinance 49-2014 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Creating two part-time positions of Adminis- trative Clerk/Zoning and establishing the pay band and benefits therefore. Pres. of Council: Ord. 49-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 4 16. Ordinance 50-2014 At 1st Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact the 2014 replacement pages to the codified ordinances; to repeal ordinances in conflict therewith; to publish the enactment of new matter; and providing for immediate enact- ment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 50-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Public Service Committee. 17. Ordinance 51-2014 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Amending Ordinance 60-2009 and repeal- ing Ordinance 61-2009 to clarify Regular Auxiliary Police Officers of the City and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 51-2014 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. 18. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Pres. of Council: The only thing that I have is the liquor application for the Dollar General Store at 1551 Brittain Road in Tallmadge. I think everybody got a copy of that. We can revisit that. Is there anything else from Council? No one responded. 19. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Dir. of Law: I’m sorry, if I could just ask; on the liquor thing; you are just going to have it on the next time? Pres. of Council: Correct. Voice vote 7-0. The Regular Council meeting adjourned at 7:26 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 5