Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, July 10, 2014 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Rev. Bechtold, Tallmadge Church of the Nazarene. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Pub. Service Esler, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Clerk of Council Burton. Mrs. Kilway was excused. 4. MINUTES: 6-26-13 Regular Council meeting minutes. Mr. Rensel moved to adopt the 6-26-14 Regular Council meeting minutes. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Voice vote 6-0. The 6-26-14 Regular Council meeting minutes were adopted by a vote of 6-0. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  SMR Transfer in the amount of 1,000,000 to Council on 6-30-14.  Fire Transfer in the amount of $200,000 to Council on 6-30-14.  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 6-30-14 to Council on 7-1-14.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 6-30-14 to Council on 7-8-14.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-14 to Council on 7-8-14.  June Financial Reports to Council on 7-8-14.  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-14 to Council on 7-8-14.  Maca Park Summary for June, 2014 to Council on 7-8-14. Mrs. Ray moved for the approval of the Financial Reports submitted by Finance Director Shanafelt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Voice vote 6-0. The Financial Reports were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Ordinance 61-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Amending Ord. 106-2012, Ord. 26-1981, P.H. ON 7-10-14 @ 7:03 P.M. Ord. 113-1986 and Ord. 33-2000 to permit P&Z Rec. Approval W/Conditions a revised site plan at Stone Creek Allotment No. 1 Parcels A & B and Lot Number 11 of Stone Creek Allotment No. 3 Pres. of Council: It is now 7:03 p.m. and I call the public hearing to order for Ord. 61-2014. Is there anybody who would like to speak in favor or Ord. 61-2014? Please come to the podium and make sure the microphone is on and give us your name and address please. John Walsh, GBC Design, 575 White Pond Drive, Akron. We are the engineers and architects for the project. We are representing both the current land owner, Mr. Brown and then the developer, which is Premier Development, which is Mr. and Mrs. Didato. We have before you a 40-unit apartment project consisting of five eight-unit buildings and each building has a . . . they are going to be kind of similar to the one building that is out there now. They will have a secured entrance to get into the building and it will be locked and then what you see is the front elevation. The rear elevation will be similar, but it will be a walkout and on that elevation there will be garages. There will be one garage for each person and again they will enter the garage and into a secured area into the stairwell to access their apartments. These apartments are market rate apartments; they are not subsidized. We received Planning Commission approval on June 4th with their conditions and we are fine with complying with all of those conditions and I guess with that, I would be happy to answer any questions the Council may have. Pres. of Council: Are there any questions? Mr. Rensel. Mr. Rensel: Because of the elevation changes in the area, do you have . . . or what discussion did you have with Planning & Zoning about detention . . . water detention and parking? Mr. Walsh: Can you see the . . . Mr. Rensel: Oh, yes. Dir. of Law: If you would . . . you can pull that microphone out. Mr. Walsh: As you go from Colony Parkway . . . this is kind of . . . I think we are going south if we are going that way; is that correct? The topography is higher here and it drops down to there. When the overall project was originally put in there was some storm infrastructure put in up there and there was a detention basin planned for there and on the original plan it was probably that big (he showed how big on the map). You can see what it is today and that is so it can comply with today’s storm water runoff requirements and also the post-construction water quality runoff and so the retention will be designed to current Tallmadge standards and then, I mean there is probably adequate parking, or even more parking when you consider that there are parking spaces underneath each unit. Mr. Rensel: When the original proposal was made a number of years ago, one of the concerns was that there was not enough space for a playground and just activities. Have you addressed that in your proposal?  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 Mr. Walsh: I mean we have not addressed that in this proposal, but I . . . and I am not familiar with the overall area, but I think wasn’t there considerable open space gifted either to the community or . . . I mean there is open space here and then I think the street to the further south, there is more open space that is back in behind that, but we weren’t planning on any on site playgrounds. Mr. Sisak: Sir, will the garages underneath have garage doors? Mr. Walsh: Yes sir. Mr. Sisak: Great, thank you. Pres. of Council: Do you have any further comments Mr. Rensel? Mr. Rensel: No, I am just trying to recall . . . Dir. of Law: Mr. Rensel, I’m sorry, but I think your microphone might not be on or if it is, it is just not capturing you very well. I’m sorry. Thank you. Mr. Rensel: I am speaking softly. I’m just trying to recall . . . and I remember in the previous proposal . . . that turned out to be a major complaint and it wasn’t just the fact that there was open space. The people that were here at the time; they wanted to see some playground or so so the kids, the young kids . . . and I assume because this is open that a family could move in with children and so forth and that there was a place either for a basketball net or some sort of playground where they had swings or something that they could deal with and they didn’t have to play for example in the parking lot or whatever. I don’t know that . . . I mean . . . for me . . . I mean you are the developer and you are going to sell it and so those may be objections down the road. I am just trying to understand what . . . what . . . I know what transpired then and I was trying to understand what transpired now. Mr. Walsh: I think the key marketing feature is that there is an attached under garage. Most apartment complexes we have designed have detached garages that you have to walk 100 feet to maybe 500 feet to get to your unit. With this in inclement weather, you can pull underneath and be in a dry environment and then have access . . . both security and access inside and out walking through. To be honest, to comply with the storm water management requirements from where they were, a little pond to where it is; I mean, that is really taking a lot of available green space to comply with the storm water management. Mr. Rensel: I can see that and that is a good thing. Mr. Walsh: I can take the suggestion back to the Didato’s and see if they can look to incorporate something like that. Mr. Rensel: Sure. Thank you. Thank you kindly. Economic Developer: Mr. Donovan; to my recollection we have never required a developer to put a playground in; just to provide the open space that is required in the Code. Mr. Rensel: Mr. Loughry, I wasn’t making a point that it was a requirement, but that it is a concern or a point that was raised by the public as to whether Council was in favor of or not in favor of the development. It had nothing to do with the Code. Pres. of Council: OK. Is there anybody else? No one responded. Is there anybody who would like to speak against Ord. 61-2014? No one responded. For the second time; is there anyone who would like to speak in favor of Ord. 61-2014? No one responded. Is there anybody who would like to speak against Ord. 61-2014? No one responded. Third and final time; is there anybody who would like to speak for or against Ord. 61-2014? No one responded. It is now 7:11 p.m. and I close the public hearing and I will turn the meeting over to the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Committee; Mr. Sisak. Mr. Sisak: I would like to go ahead and call the Planning & Zoning Committee to order; myself and Mrs. Ray are present. With just finished the public hearing; Mrs. Ray do you have any comments. Mrs. Ray: I would move for the adoption of Ord. 61-2014. Mr. Sisak: I will second. Does Council have any comments on the motion and the second? No one responded. So it will be 2-0 to recommend adoption of Ord. 61-2014. I will go ahead and close the Planning & Zoning Committee. Thank you. Pres. of Council: Do we have a motion regarding this ordinance? Mr. Sisak: I move to adopt Ord. 61-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Pres. of Council: We have a motion and a second for the adoption of Ord. 61-2014. Any discussion? Mayor: Thank you. I would like to thank Council for considering this project. This has been on the books off and on for the past 10 to 15 years and I think we have finally got a local person . . . thank the Didato’s for coming in to work on this site. This is about the last site in that area to be developed. It changed from more units in the past due to storm water quality; they had to reduce it to get that storm detention in and so I think it will be a good project and good for the neighborhood and so I am happy to see this finally getting off square one. Ms. Tricaso: Mr. President, I need to abstain from voting on this because the Didato’s are relatives of mine. Pres. of Council: OK. Thank you. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray – yes, Mr. Rensel – yes, Mr. Sisak – yes, Mr. Stalnaker – yes, Ms. Tricaso – abstain, Mr. Donovan – yes. Ord. 61-2014 is adopted by a vote of 5-0-1. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: We do allow some time at the Council meetings on Monday and Thursday if anybody would like to address City Council; now would be the time. Apparently there are no takers. 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, DIRECTOR OF LAW AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPER Mayor: Just to be brief; don’t forget this weekend starts the Concerts in the Park series on Saturday night from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and then the movie will be following directly after that. So I am pretty excited about that. You can see that the tent has been set up. Today we attended our quarterly Service Directors’ Meeting and part of the Governor’s office was involved. State Auditor Yost’s office was there today and the good thing that came out of that today is that the City of Tallmadge will be hosting a meeting here at City Hall on September 4th to talk about storm water with the strategic groups; the NEVCO Group that is working on storm water, the Phase II Storm Water people who Bob has been working with on that with the State and the mapping and the storm water stuff; both Summit and Portage Counties, Summit County Soil & Water Conservation and Portage County Water Conservation because we know that water is not stopped at our boundaries. It goes all the way through and so therefore, the goal of that meeting is to apply for a LGIF Grant through the Governor’s office to do some study on how to handle the regional storm water. They contacted the Governor’s office at the meeting; they were texting back and forth and they thought it was a good grant to go after as long as we can pull it all together with all of these entities. So, I think it is a real good thing that we are looking not only for Tallmadge, but regionally. The ordinances that are in front of you tonight; I think just about all of them should be adopted and then when you get to Ord. 64-2014, Ord. 65-2014 and Ord. 66-2014; we will talk about them. Mr. Stalnaker: September 4th at what time? Mayor: We will send out notices to you, but it is at 8:30 a.m. Dir. of Pub. Service: We did purchase a new Recreation Department bus. It is an old school bus from the school system. We bought it for $100. We are probably going to scrap the other one for $1,000. So we made money on that deal. You may have seen some of the stakes along North Avenue and that is still part of our engineering for the North Avenue Project. We are actually potholing the waterlines and the AT&T undergrounds to verify where they are and how deep they are and so that is what those are all for. As the Mayor said, the concerts and movies in the park have started and the Chardon Polka Band is going to be there this Saturday. You asked about the progress with the water meter installation. On that map, the areas that are highlighted in blue are the areas that are completed as of this moment. Heather Knoll has approached us again. They are probably going to go ahead with their expansion. So we will meet with them next week. Republic Waste; the reason they are not delivering the trash cans to everybody is because as they are doing it, half of them are being called back and told to take back those things. People don’t want them. They are going to put a notice in the bill that if you want one; please call because it has been a problem where they deliver them and people call them and they have to go back and pick them up. As far as the late service, what they told us today was because of broken down trucks later in the day and they weren’t able to replace them, but they did get them the next morning. End of report. Dir. of Finance: You have the reports in front of you. Believe it or not, we have completed the first half of 2014 already. The General Fund has collected 53% of the estimated revenues. Income Tax is almost 2% ahead of last year. The General Fund balance is almost $5.2 million. The Rec Center ends the month with an $11,000 net profit, however, we had a later receipt of the Silver Sneakers money and so there is actually another $19,000 that was received July 1st and so that would adjust that slightly. Maca Pool opened May 31st and ended the month with almost $87,000 net profit. Local Government Funds are on track. The Fire Fund has a balance of $150,389. The Street Maintenance balance is $1,145,907. The Sewer Fund balance is $1,125,095. The Water Fund balance is a little over $1.7 million. The Storm Water Fund in on track. That is the end of my report and if you have any questions, I will be happy to address them. Mr. Sisak: I do have a question; it might be a hybrid question for you and Mr. Esler. We were talking about the main meter going back into Akron storm water and the rates of the sewer going up; is that . . . have we seen that effect yet? 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 Mayor: What was the question? Mr. Sisak: So, the City of Akron raised the rates on the sewers. Have we reflected that on our balance sheet yet or have we felt any of that because I know that they are about a quarter behind. Dir. of Finance: About a quarter behind; yes. Mr. Sisak: So we really haven’t see that yet? Dir. of Pub. Service: No. Dir. of Law: No report this evening. Thank you. Economic Developer: The Mayor and I attended a ribbon cutting at Enterprise Truck on West Avenue this week. It was a nice event. More significant though is it is just an example of what is going on on West Avenue. West Avenue is actually just transforming in front of us from retail to more business and again we are very thankful for the development and the updates that Ford and the Serpentini’s are doing. When Ford and GM let you stay on West Avenue which is not near an on/off ramp on the expressway; that is huge for us. So we are grateful for that. In the JEDD, Murphy’s Oil is open and so we have a gas station up there now and we are hoping to get another. Taylor Construction has moved from Suffield into the vacant HRM building that was on Mogadore Road. There will be 50 full-time jobs and it is projected to be 80 full-time jobs within a year and a half. I had a conversation with Mr. Jaber just this afternoon. He expects to make formal application with us in August on the Bob’s Big Boy site and so that is very encouraging. Then I have an update regarding Tallmadge sales information. This would go from July 10th of 2012 to July 12th of 2013. That will be the first set of figures that I give you and then the second set will be the next year through today. In 2012/2013 we had 140 sales or transactions and the average days on the market was 98 days and the median price was $143,000. Of those days on market, we had 20 listings over 200 days. So that kind of skews the results. In the following year, we had 150 transactions, so that was July 10th of last year through today and the days on market were reduced to 66 days and that is significant. That is less than two months inventory. The median price increased to $146,500. Another significant figure there is that the sales price relative to the list price is over 96% so that is very good. The condo figures are actually even better. In 2013 we had 42 units and the days on market was 164 days and the average price was $126,500. Now we have similar units sold which is 40 and the days on market was 96 and the average price was $127,500. So that increase will always be slower because we have a lot more condos than we do single family housing listed at any one time. What that is telling us all is that because we are not competing with new construction because we do not have a lot of available lots for development that is raising the price of our existing homes. So that is a good thing. Any questions? No one responded. End of report. 10. Ordinance 59-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Authorizing the creation and acceptance of a cross easement for access and utilities between the City of Tallmadge and West Avenue Family Practice Land LLC for adja- cent properties including 125 West Avenue and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 59-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 59-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 11. Ordinance 60-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Authorizing the creation and acceptance of an easement at 111, 125, and 145 West Avenue and providing for immediate enact- ment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 60-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 60-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 12. Ordinance 62-2014 At 3rd Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Tallmadge, City of Munroe Falls and Learning for Life for the creation of a Law Enforcement Career Exploring Pro- gram and providing for immediate enact- ment. Ms. Tricaso: Mr. President, I recommend that we adopt Ord. 62-2014. Dir. of Law: Excuse me. Mr. Rensel: Second. Dir. of Law: Amend. You need to amend first please. Ms. Tricaso: OK. Amend and adopt. Pres. of Council: We have a motion to amend Ord. 62-2014. Dir. of Law: For technical sake, if you can just withdraw your motion and just rephrase that motion as a motion to amend that would be appreciated. Ms. Tricaso: I withdraw my motion to adopt and I move to amend and adopt Ord. 62-2014. Dir. of Law: Just amend first and we will vote on that. So, if I can offer a friendly amendment and if you want to make that be a motion to amend Ord. 62-2014. Ms. Tricaso: OK. I make a motion to amend Ord. 62-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak – unanimous. Ord. 62-2014 is amended by a vote of 6-0. Ms. Tricaso moved for the adoption of Ord. 62-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Roll Call: Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker – unanimous. Ord. 62-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 13. Ordinance 63-2014 At 3rd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Authorizing the creation and acceptance of an easement at 125 West Avenue and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 63-2014. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Roll Call: Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso – unanimous. Ord. 63-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 14. Ordinance 64-2014 At 2nd Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the appropriation and advance of money for purposes of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 64-2014. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – unanimous. Ord. 64-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 15. Ordinance 65-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Accepting the 2014-2015 Ohio EMS Priority 1 (Training and Equipment) Grant; appro- priating the necessary funds and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 65-2014 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Mayor: We were fortunate to receive a grant of $2,500 and what this allows us to do is re-appropriate it back into the Fire Department for the purpose of training and safety equipment within the Fire Department. If you weren’t going on break, I would just have it go to 2 nd Reading, but this is just money in and money out. Mrs. Ray: Is this the first time we have been awarded this grant? Mayor: No. Pres. of Council: Any further discussion? No one responded. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray – unanimous. Ord. 65-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 16. Ordinance 66-2014 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to apply for funding from the 2015 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program year and to enter into a contract for the same and pro- viding for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 66-2014 at 1st Reading. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Pres. of Council: Any discussion? Mayor: This is the CDBG grant that we are going after and Council has to allow us to go after it. So, therefore, with this we are working on the grants now. Pres. of Council: Thank you. Is there any further discussion? No one responded. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Ord. 66-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 17. Resolution 15-2014 At 1st Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Barbara Schartiger upon her retirement from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 15-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Mayor: Just to . . . Barb Schartiger, I think everyone in this room knows Barb and the hard work that she did for the City for the many years and she will be very well missed. She lives here in Tallmadge and she still goes to the Rec Center and right now I think she is traveling a little bit, but it is a well deserved retirement and I am happy for her. It seems just like it was yesterday that we hired her. She is a good person. Mr. Rensel: She was the glue for the Recreation Department. Pres. of Council: Any other discussion? No one responded. Voice vote 6-0. Res. 15-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 18. Resolution 16-2014 At 1st Reading. Expressing the appreciation of the Council and Administration to Roger A. Lyons upon his retirement from service with the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 16-2014. Seconded Mr. Rensel. Mayor: Again, I would like to thank Roger for his years of service here at the City of Tallmadge. Even though he was retired and came back part-time; that really worked out good for us because of eliminating the Building Department; it was a great transition period and now Roger is out enjoying himself on the golf course I think every day and so I am happy for him for that. He will be missed. He had a wealth of knowledge, but we will get through it and we will struggle a little bit, but with the help of Bryan and Dennis and the Law Department and a group effort; we will make it. Good for Roger and Sue (his wife). Mr. Donovan: I would like to comment personally. After having a fairly decent building project in Tallmadge and a lot of red tape and a lot of struggle; I appreciated Roger always being there and willing with his advice and help on the side and guidance and so I felt a big connection after the project and how much faith I had in our local building inspectors and the Building Department here and he was a huge help to me. Mr. Rensel: Yes, in fact over the years his knowledge of the Code which is where it all rests was great; excellent. When we would sit in Planning & Zoning meetings and he would recite chapter and verse of our Code and to those of us who were somewhat volunteering and Council people that was well appreciated as his service has been and I am sure it was to the Administration as well. Pres. of Council: Any further comments? No one responded. Voice vote 6-0. Res. 16-2014 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 19. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Mrs. Ray: I do. I apologize that I didn’t speak up during community input or announcements, but there are two events that are coming up in Tallmadge and I would just like to make Council and the Administration aware of as well as the Tallmadge Express. The first being the annual Rotary Good Neighbors Food Drive that we hold at the Circle. It is on July 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and it is a Saturday and Council is welcome to come out and man a spoke to help out our local food pantry; Good Neighbors. The second is also a project of Rotary’s with Warriors Journey Home. We are doing a benefit baseball game at the Rubber Ducks stadium on August 7, 2014 which is a Thursday evening and you and your families are welcome to attend. Tickets are $9 and can be purchased from a Rotarian or Rev. Schleup and there are several other locations or people you can get them from in Tallmadge. So it should be a fun evening and so again, everyone is invited. 6  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. July 10, 14 19. ADDITIONAL ITEMS (Cont’d.) Mayor: Speaking of tickets; we do have Zoo tickets in the office that are going pretty darn quick and so if you would like to visit the Akron Zoo and it is a specific weekend and I apologize . . . it is sometime in September and it is the Tallmadge Day at the Zoo. We have the tickets in the office, so stop in and see Karen Morgan. Pres. of Council: The only other thing that I have is that Council will be on summer break and will return on Monday, August 11th. (It should have been August 25th). 20. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sisak move to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Ray. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council meeting of 7-10-14 adjourned at 7:39 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 7