Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 15 1. CALL TO ORDER: President of Council Donovan called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, June 11, 2015 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Fr. Mike Matusz, Our Lady of Victory Church, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 3. ROLL CALL: Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan – present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Pub. Service Esler, Dir. of Finance Shanafelt, Dir. of Law Raber, Economic Developer Loughry and Deputy Clerk of Council Conti. 4. MINUTES: None. FINANCIAL REPORTS:  SMR Transfer in the amount of $200,000 to Council on 5-28-15.  Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 5-28-15.  Fire Fund Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 5-28-15.  Police Pension Fund Transfer in the amount of $50,000 to Council on 5-28-15  Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 5-31-15 to Council on 6-2-15.  Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 5-31-15 to Council on 6-9-15.  Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-15 to Council on .6-9-15  Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 5-31-15 to Council on 6-9-15.  May Financial Reports to Council on 6-9-15. Mrs. Ray moved to accept the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt. Seconded Mr. Sisak. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Shanafelt were accepted by a vote of 7-0. 5. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 6. COMMUNITY INPUT: Pres. of Council: We have no community input this evening. 6.A. ANNOUNCEMENTS: There will be a Board of Control and an Investment Board meeting immediately following the Council meeting. We also have an Executive Session prior to the end of our meeting. 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: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I will be very brief. The Tallmadge Bowling Alley update; we are in the environmental stage of that. There was some . . . the tar paper underneath the bowling lanes contained asbestos. One company says that you do not have to mitigate that and so we are getting a ruling from the EPA which will save about $10,000 on the asbestos removal. There is still some asbestos, but if we can save on that that will help us out. We should get a ruling on that maybe by tomorrow, but fairly soon we will have the Tallmadge Bowling Alley removed from that site. This coming Sunday is the Deyarmin Poker Run. That is the Deyarmin family here up at the Middle School and that is the poker run and there will be a lot of motorcycles and so it will be very noisy in the morning and that event goes on all day. At 2:00 p.m. they are going to dedicate the Tallmadge Post Office to the Deyarmin Post Office and that will be done by Congressman Ryan and so I will be attending that. Hats off to Bryan in the Service Department and the Water Department for the Itron meters. The water meter system that we installed throughout the City; we have been having some glitches with a few of the meters. He worked with the company and they are going to replace every meter . . . the electronic portion, in the City, free of charge to the City. They do not have to get into the residential homes; just the ones that are outside in the pits and so hats off to the Service Department for getting the Itron person to agree to change out every meter at no cost and so that is very good. The North Avenue Project is moving along very well. We are in the land acquisition portion of that and we have already obtained about 20 parcels that are confirmed and signed off of on the land acquisition which is a temporary taking and that is going on. There are a total of 43 acquisitions and so we are moving along on that pretty well. The Comprehensive Plan meeting was last night for those Council folks that were here. Thank you for that. Our next meeting will be July 15th and I would ask Council for their consideration to adopt Item No. 10, Ord. 47-2015, Item No. 11, Ord. 48-2015 and Res. 6-2015. End of report. I do have a little video that we can show at the end of the meeting. I know that we have an Executive Session on what is called the “Hawk.” If you have been on the Freedom Trail at Brittain Rd. where it crosses the four-lane highway; it is called the “Hawk” and you come up and push the button and it flashes yellow and then it stops traffic when it is red and allows the pedestrians to cross. When I was with Metro when we were going on the Freedom Trail and looking at the upgrades all the way into Akron and I thought this would be ideal for Howe Road and so we are working with them on that.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 15 There was a short video regarding the Freedom Trail. Mayor: So that is something that we are looking at. That is at Brittain Rd. It was about a $75,000 cost, but Akron did a lot of the work and so I don’t know what the true cost will be. So we are working with Metro and AMATS for the Howe Rd. crossing. End of report. Mrs. Kilway: That’s great. Mr. Rensel: Mr. Mayor, in the replacement of the electronics for the water meters; are we losing revenue or unable to record the water? Mayor: Not at all. The meter itself is the older meter and some are new meters and the dial reads exactly what is appropriate and the problem is that the electronic portion when it sends out the signal, sometimes it is a corrupt file coming in and so then we have to take our guys to go out and read the actual analogue portion of it. So the analogues are working great. It is just the electronic portion. Mr. Rensel: Thank you for clarifying that. Thank you Mr. President. Dir. of Pub. Service: I would like to give you a little more information on those Itron units. When they fail, they do not give any false readings and so we are not getting any wrong readings when they fail. They just quit working and quite sending a signal. So when the men come in from reading them, we pin a report and we can see what meters are not reading and then those men go out and actually do a physical visual reading on those. After talking to Itron; I had a meeting with them the other day, what happened was that there was a transistor in the board of those hertz and apparently the manufacturer of the transistor did not follow the specifications that Itron had and they are saying these are going to fail. Some of them may fail right now and some of them might not fail until next year, but they will fail. I am very happy with Itron because they did take responsibility and they are going to come in and replace every one free of charge. So we are very happy with that. I will provide any updates as we receive them. We do have a Board of Control tonight to consider the bids for the 2015 asphalt paving program and the 2015 pavement marking programs. Bidding for the 2015 maintenance program and the roof replacement on City Hall will be advertised next week. Milling of West Avenue was supposed to start this week and it has been pushed back until Monday because they had some rain delays on the other project. I sent everybody an e-mail about Ohio Edison contracting to have the trees trimmed. So you may be getting some calls because they do leave some ugly trees but we have no way to prevent the way they trim them. It is to protect people and to protect the electrical lines. Touch a Truck will be on Saturday, June 20th from 10:00 a.m. until noon. The Farmer’s market is tonight. End of report. Pres. of Council: I have a quick question for you on those meters. What powers those; are they run by batteries? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. They are guaranteed for a minimum of five years. Pres. of Council: So in five years we will be changing a bunch of batteries? Dir. of Pub. Service: If the battery goes dead before the five years; they will replace it. Pres. of Council: Oh, they take care of that too? Dir. of Pub. Service: Yes. They can go ten years, but they guarantee them for five. Mr. Stalnaker: Bryan, the group that will be trimming trees; is it Nelson? Dir. of Pub. Service: The contractor that came in didn’t actually give me the name of the company. Mr. Stalnaker: The reason I ask is because my daughter had an occasion today; she lives up there in the log cabin and she just happened to go out with her dog and thank goodness they were in a fenced area, but they were behind her house in the woods. She has an alarm on the driveway and she was looking around and this guy comes up behind her and thank God the dog was penned up because she is a pretty good sized dog and he was the mean gentleman and then the second guy comes up driving the car and they said they were checking for trimming the trees, but behind . . . back in the woods behind her house. Mayor: The contractor is not in town yet. That had to be private for Mindale Farms or someone back in that area behind her because that is where she is at. Mr. Stalnaker: She saw another truck down the street. Dir. of Pub. Service: They are not supposed to be here until the 22nd. Mr. Stalnaker: Pardon? Dir. of Pub. Service: The people that are working for Edison aren’t supposed to start until the 22nd. Mr. Stalnaker: They said they were working for Ohio Edison. Dir. of Pub. Service: This is the first time that any contractor that I know of has actually come to us and let us know what was happening and giving us this information and they were supposed to . . . Mr. Stalnaker: All of the electric lines . . . Mayor: We will look into it. 2  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 15 Dir. of Law: I would just suggest that if someone reports highly unusual circumstances like that then go ahead and call the Police Department and let them come out and just investigate and talk to them and figure out what is going on because obviously concerns for safety are paramount about that, but typically they are working in the right-of-way and typically they are working along the road and so that is a bit unusual and so just if something like that . . . Dir. of Pub. Service: We will investigate it and see what we can find out. Dir. of Law: But, while it is going on, if a resident calls and is uncomfortable then just go ahead and call the Police and they can respond to that. Thank you. Mr. Stalnaker: Thanks. Dir. of Finance: Thank you Mr. President. Our audit is complete and the results are in Columbus awaiting certification of the Auditor of State and once that is released then the document itself and any other accompanying documents then will become public record. The new bonds that we issued to refinance . . . the refinance bonds will close on the 18th of June. The General Fund is on track with the collection of revenues. Income Tax is 2.8% ahead of last year at a little over $4.5 million dollars. The Fire Fund balance is $179,068. The Street Maintenance and Repair is at $379,288. Sewer Operating Fund is approximately $1.15 million. The Water Operating Fund balance is almost $2 million. The Storm Water Fund has collected $138,390. If you have any questions, I will be happy to address them and if not, end of report. Mrs. Ray: I know that we have talked about this and I brought this up last year at about the same time and I know that we do the audit with the State Auditor’s Office and then the CAFR does contain a lot of information, but I think I have mentioned in the past that I think it would be a very nice idea if we did some type of a report to the community. As a matter of fact yesterday I had several hit my desk at work. The City of Dublin does a fantastic report to the community and I know that there would be a cost to the City to do this, but I think a lot of our citizens are not going to go to the Auditor’s website and pull up the audit or the CAFR and they wouldn’t really understand a lot of it because a lot of it is in financial jargon, but I just think that would be something that would be nice that we can do and it wouldn’t have to be something over the top; it could just be a couple of pages; just some highlights and Economic Development could be included in it and information about the Parks and Rec, but kind of a report to the community to let them know how well the City actually is doing and then going forward with some of the things the City is planning. So, just a suggestion. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I have no report this evening. Economic Developer: Briefly, the Verizon store is sold. Denny Thompson bought it and closed on Friday. He is on vacation and so we have not had an opportunity to talk to him regarding his plans for that site. An update on the Bob’s Big Boy site; the last time I think I told you that Mr. Mosholder intended to have a demo permit and a shell permit. When they went to get that from Summit County, Summit County would prefer that an applicant or a developer have all of the approvals needed and then Summit County will issue one permit and so Mr. Jaber needs to come back to Planning & Zoning for lighting and landscaping and be on the agenda for July and then once that is done, they can start the demolition. Other than that, we do have a lot of developers, different types of developers, contacting us and asking questions and wanting to meet. The Ripley farm is officially listed now for sale and there is already interest in that property. End of report unless there are any questions. Mr. Stalnaker: The apartments that were going to come in behind K-Mart; have you heard anything from them? Economic Developer: Yes. When he did more study, Mr. Didato, he felt that he wanted to put elevators in and so he had to redesign a little bit. I saw him at a function about a month ago and he told me that he expected to break ground this year. Basically his wife is doing that project for him. That is all I know about that. Next door; Mr. Testa is supposed to hear, we believe on June 15 th on whether or not they received the OFFA credits on that project. Mr. Stalnaker: Danbury? Economic Developer: Danbury is still planning to proceed and in fact they moved up the timeline. They are hoping to break ground on July 1st. Pres. of Council: Dennis, I have a couple of questions on the Ripley farm; do you know approximately how much land that is? Economic Developer: Approximately 100 to 110 acres. Pres. of Council: What kind of price were they looking at for that? Economic Developer: It is listed at $2.7 million. It is zoned Residential. 3  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 15 10. Ordinance 47-2015 At 3rd Reading FINANCE Authorizing the Mayor to enter into a second renegotiated water tower lease agreement with AT&T Wireless PCS, Inc. through its successor in interest, New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, and to execute all necessary documents and providing for immediate enactment. Mrs. Ray moved for the adoption of Ord. 47-2015. Seconded Mr. Sisak. Roll Call: Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 47-2015 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. 11. Ordinance 48-2015 At 3rd Reading PERSONNEL Amending Ordinance 46-2014 establishing the number of employees by department and position pursuant to R.C. 731.08 and providing for immediate enactment Mrs. Kilway moved for the adoption of Ord. 48-2015. Seconded Mr. Stalnaker. Mr. Rensel: As discussed on Monday, I will be voting no on this ordinance. I do support the position of establishing a Police Captain, but I don’t support the movement that is in addition to this by adjusting the bands for the Assistant Finance Director and the part-time or sometimes what we call the interns in the pay bands. That was established prior to this and I feel that that is sufficient and so I am voting no. Thank you. Roll Call: Mr. Rensel - no, Mr. Sisak - yes, Mr. Stalnaker - yes, Ms. Tricaso - yes, Mr. Donovan - yes, Mrs. Kilway - yes, Mrs. Ray – yes. Ord. 48-2015 is adopted by a vote of 6-1. 12. Ordinance 49-2015 At 2nd Reading FINANCE Authorizing the Information Systems Administrator to advertise and solicit bids and the Mayor to enter into a contract for managed telecommunication services and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 49-2015 is at 2nd Reading and will remain before the Finance Committee. 13. Ordinance 50-2015 At 1st Reading PUBLIC SERVICE An ordinance to approve, adopt and enact the 2015 replacement pages to the codified ordinances: to repeal ordinances in conflict therewith: to publish the enactment of new matter and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 50-2015 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Public Service Committee. 14. Resolution 6-2015 Extending the sympathy of the Council and Administration to Lisa Zeno Carano and members of her family in the death of Patrick J. Carano and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Stalnaker moved for the adoption of Res. 6-2015. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Voice vote 7-0. Mayor: Our hearts go out to Lisa Carano. I was actually with her today and she is doing as well as can be expected. We did send a card around here and I personally took it out to her house today and sat with her for a little bit. She is doing well. She is going through . . . there is a wedding coming up and so there is a wedding shower at their house this weekend and she wanted to keep it going. She wanted to cancel it and then she wasn’t going to, but Lisa is doing extremely well. Pat Carano was just a great employee of the City of Tallmadge. When Pat talked, you really just listened to what he had to say. He was a very wise person. He had some far and extreme comments at times, and we took all of those for granted and listened to those, but Pat was really a good person for the City of Tallmadge and a great employee and he is very much missed and our hearts do go out to the family and I did pass that on to the family from all of us. Mrs. Ray: If I may, I had the great pleasure of meeting Pat Carano on my second day in banking which was 20 years ago and at that point he was still with the Port Authority and working on the Civic Theatre project and he was just a great help to me professionally and personally. We go to be pretty good friends over the course of that project and he was truly one of the most joyful people you would have ever met and just everything he touched was just better because he did and he was a very passionate person and he will be greatly missed. 4  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:00 p.m. June 11, 15 Mr. Stalnaker: I talked to Pete DeAngelis today and we were comparing remarks and he felt the same way. He really loved that guy and Pete took it pretty hard; I know that. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: I would just like to thank Pat for reaching out to me when I first came into the community and taking the time to teach me and show me some of the ropes around town. He was a hell of a fighter. He used to tell me stories when he was growing up and so I enjoyed the time with him and then got to meet Lisa and I think she is a fabulous person as well and really wish her the best and we will all definitely miss Pat. Mrs. Kilway: Yes, I would like to ditto the remarks from Mr. Sisak. He was a great person and when I first came onto Council, he took me aside and he said, “Remember your voice” and that is something that I carry with me every day. Mr. Rensel: I think most of you know that we were adversaries in the political sense, but he was a great guy and outside of the political arena he was a great guy and he will be missed by all. Thank you. Ms. Tricaso: I met him quite a few years ago and he was always very supportive and gave great advice and he will be greatly missed. Dir. of Law: I also want to echo that I admired his enthusiasm and his passion and his drive and his vision. I didn’t always necessarily see eye to eye with that, but I admired the passion in which he pursued it and I just think that that passion for public service is an example to all of us and so I too will miss him and extend my sympathies to the family. Mayor: Everyone is crying and Pat wouldn’t want that. In talking to Lisa today; the reason they did not have calling hours is because Pat did not want to put anybody out and so he did not want to inconvenience anybody and so the family stayed with those wishes and Pat fought to the bitter end and he is in a much better place than he was and some day we will all figure out where he is at and he will tell us one day. Mrs. Ray: Before he lost his voice he said to me, “Well if people won’t come see me when I’m alive, they sure as hell aren’t going to see me when I’m dead.” So when I saw that there were no calling hours, I thought that was just classic Pat; he has the last word until the end. Mr. Donovan: I had a chance myself to talk with Lisa a little bit through the arrangements and through the whole situation and you know when you say his name, Pat Carano; you picture him . . . there is something about him and I always told Lisa that he was always a step ahead of me. What you were talking about or asking a question about; that was old news and he was already moved on to the next thing and I always thought that was funny and I echo again about the drive and the passion and smiling. He smiled continuously. So, thanks to Pat again from all of us. Pres. of Council: We have a motion and a second. Voice vote 7-0. Res. 6-2015 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mrs. Ray: Mr. President, I would move to adjourn into Executive Session . . . Mr. Rensel: Mr. President, there is one event that we have not discussed and I would defer to the Mayor. Karen sent out a memo about June 19th which is Tallmadge Community Day at the ballpark? Mayor: It is Tallmadge Chamber of Commerce Day and it is the Racers and if you want to come see me throw a softball out from the mound; I have been practicing in the back yard because I don’t want to look stupid out there!! I asked if I could throw overhand and they said no! It is a Tallmadge Chamber event and tickets were available. Economic Developer: Tickets are available at the Chamber and it is a fundraiser. I think like 50% comes back to the Chamber. Mrs. Ray: I would now move that we adjourn into Executive Session to consider the purchase of property for public purposes. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. Roll Call: Mr. Sisak, Mr. Stalnaker, Ms. Tricaso, Mr. Donovan, Mrs. Kilway, Mrs. Ray, Mr. Rensel – unanimous. Council, by a vote of 7-0, adjourned into Executive Session at 7:32 p.m. Pres. of Council: It is now 7:45 p.m. and we are back from Executive Session. Is there anything from Council? 15. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: None. 16. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Rensel moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Kilway. The Regular Council meeting of 6-11-15 adjourned at 7:45 p.m. sb Approved: _____________________________________ __________________________________ Susan E. Burton James M. Donovan Clerk of Council President of Council 5