Tallmadge City Council Regular Business Meeting (2013-2019)

REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 1. CALL TO ORDER. President of Council Kilway called the Regular Council meeting of Thursday, July 12, 2018 to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. PRAYER: Deborah Wissner, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Tallmadge. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 3. ROLL CALL: Mr. Carano, Ms. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman - all present. Also present were Mayor Kline, Dir. of Pub. Service Rorar, Dir. of Economic Development Weinberg, Dir. of Finance Gilbride, Dir. of Law Raber and Clerk of Council Burton. Dir. of Administration Cooper and Mr. Donovan were excused. 4. MINUTES: 6-28-18 Regular Council Meeting minutes. Ms. Tricaso moved to adopt the Regular Meeting minutes of 6-28-18. Seconded Mr. Carano. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council Meeting minutes of 6-28-18 were adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5. FINANCIAL REPORTS: • Local Government Innovation Fund Return of Advance in the amount of $43,500 to Council on 5-30-18. • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $150,000 to Council on 5-30-18. • Street Maintenance & Repair Transfer in the amount of $200,000 to Council on 5- 30-18. • Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 5-30-18. • Fire & EMS Fund Transfer in the amount of $150,000 to Council on 7-2-18. • Street Maintenance & Repair Transfer in the amount of $250,000 to Council on 7- 2-18. • Bond Retirement Transfer in the amount of $100,000 to Council on 7-2-18. • Police Pension Transfer in the amount of $70,000 to Council on 7-2-18. • Appropriation Report, Fund Report, Revenue Report, and Encumber Report for the period ending 6-30-18 to Council on 7-3-18. • Tallmadge Recreation Center Profit and Loss Report for the period ending 6-30-18 to Council on 7-5-18. • Income Tax Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-18 to Council on 7-5-18. • Revenue Comparisons for the period ending 6-30-18 to Council on 7-5-18. • June Financial Reports to Council on 7-5-18. • Consolidated Investment Portfolio for the period ending 5-31-18 to Council on 7- 5-18. Mr. Sisak moved for the acceptance of the Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Voice vote 6-0. The Financial Reports submitted by Dir. of Finance Gilbride were accepted by a vote of 6-0. 6. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None. 7. COMMUNITY INPUT: Tallmadge City Council meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month with the Council Committee meetings starting at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Regular Council meeting. At the Committee meeting legislation is discussed thoroughly with Council deciding to adopt, amend, reject, hold or table legislation. We do allow time for community input at this time in the meeting. Is there anyone who would like to address Council, please come forward and state your name and address for the record. We have no community tonight. OK. Thank you. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. 9. REPORTS OF SPECIAL COMMITTEES: None. 10. AGENDA ADDITIONS: None. 11. REPORTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS: MAYOR, DIR. OF PUBLIC SERVICE, DIR. OF ADMINISTRATION, DIR. OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DIR. OF FINANCE AND DIR. OF LAW. Mayor: Thank you. Last Saturday was our first concert in the Circle and I thought it was very well intended. It was the “Symphonics” and they did a great job and I think the people loved it and the best thing was the weather. It was just a gorgeous night. This coming Saturday is polka. So if you are into polka; it is a great night to go. Keep in mind that the Summit County Fair starts on July 24th up on 91. So it will be very busy for Mr. Sisak and Mrs. Gilbride. So make sure you go up there. You are welcome to come to the opening day ceremonies at noon on the 24th that is when I will be up there cutting the ribbon. Outside of that, I’m sure the Service Director has some photos and I will defer my time to him. If you have any questions, I will answer them. Mr. Loughry: I have one. Mayor; do you know when we should expect an update on the Fire Department Committee? We have two things. Number one, we had a committee meeting and then number two, I believe in the budget they wanted to buy a new truck this year? Mayor: It will be in the 2019 Budget. Somehow we will have to get that, but there is a lot of discussion going on and we are trying . . . I said at the last Council meeting that I would have one before this Council meeting, but we are working on a couple of details to pull the committee together and so when you come back from recess, we will have an update for Council; a direction.  REGULAR MEETING in Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 Mayor (Cont’d.) We are looking at land acquisition for Station 2. There are multiple different sites that we have been investigating and there are some appraisals going on throughout those different sites and so I will have a lot to update the committee. Then coming up with financing. How do we finance the $1 million fire truck and not only that but the rest of the capital needs in the Fire Department and then how to fund renovation, replacement or different things on the different stations. Mr. Loughry: What is the date to have something adopted to have on the November ballot? Mayor: It depends on what it is, like the ordinance that is in front of you; it is 60 days prior to the election, but if it is a levy or . . . I think it is 75 days prior to . . . I’m not sure. Nothing will be on this November ballot. It is not our goal. That would be . . . one, I couldn’t do that to you nor would I want to do that to the residents without having better education with what is going on and a better game plan of what is going to go on and we have stations now and we are functioning OK; there is not a problem. You know, they are old and they are aging, but we have to think about what we are doing and there are some other things with joining communities that we have to look at also. Mr. Loughry: Right, so I guess this is my third question and I will be done for the night. Have we ever had any . . . or since I have been gone; entertained any thoughts of opening the JEDD agreement to have discussions with Brimfield on a more formalized mutual aid or joint department? Mayor: Well, the first answer is no, but we have had those conversations to figure out ways to better handle the Fire Department and EMS. We have created what is called Auto Aid so if there is a fire call in the Cascades, Tallmadge is automatically called without being asked to be called. If there is a call-up on the expressway corridor; there is auto aid on that also for both. If we get the call in Tallmadge then Brimfield comes and if we get it on 43 to Route 18; Tallmadge goes and there is one for the blocking of the traffic with our bigger vehicles on either side or EMS requirements. But, we can always turn around if we are not needed; both sides. We had meetings with the Fire Chief and their whole administration about doing some other collaborative things and those are going along, but there are other communities that we are also talking to; Mogadore. Dir. of Pub. Service: Good evening. For the month of June I wanted to start with . . . last month we talked about the Volkswagen mitigation grant through the Ohio EPA. I said that we are going to do two trucks and after watching the second webinar, we are going to drop it down to one. They suggested more than once that they would appreciate even though this is a 75/25 grant, they said we would probably score better if we went for 50%. So we will take the hint and considering that we will have to budget for this truck; 50% equals the two 25’s that we had set aside and so we are just going to go after the one plow truck instead of the box truck that is seen in this picture. Just to bring you guys up to date. I was approached the last couple weeks over an issue with recycling by just not our company, but it is across the country. Is anywhere aware of the China Sword which was something that was started in 2017? China is on the band wagon . . . this has nothing to do with any of the tariffs; this was started last year, but it was actually implemented this year. China is actually not taking the recyclables that they choose as trash now. So there has been a huge hit. There are like 1,000 of these ships that go out a day to China and they have turned them back and so we have a growing amount of recyclables sitting here in the states that aren’t going anywhere. All of these trash companies are getting concerned because they don’t know what to do with it. If you look at this slide, always recyclable, so it is the common paper, plastic, metal, and cardboard. Never recyclable, and it should be common sense, and the one that they want to throw out there is pizza boxes even though that is cardboard; that is not recyclable because it has grease and cheese in it and so that is an unclean contaminant. That is the kind of stuff that China is kicking back. Here are the other new ones that they are proposing; the plastic bags that you get at the grocery stores are not recyclable anymore. Glass is killing them. They are losing $10 on every bottle or $10 on some load amount and so they are actually losing money there and then if you go down to the detergent bottles; and then over to the foil packs that are now coming with detergent as well as your food; those are killing them as far as they are not cost effective because of the amount of recyclables in those packets is minimal and then that Tide bottle; it is that orange color. You cannot re-dye that color and so even though that is kind of a branding for Tide; they said that they don‘t want those types of bottles anymore and so the last thing is that we don’t clean our recyclables. It has almost become like a trash; at one time you used to have to rinse your cans and then you know . . . we just throw them in there dirty and we don’t clean out the mayonnaise jar and those are unacceptable to China as well and so they are sending all of this stuff back. It is going to cost . . . either you stop recycling or it is going to cost more money to put into this. So, just an FYI if you are hearing something . . . I’m surprised that it is not on more news channels because other than the trash company; I haven’t heard anything. Moving on for the month of June, we had 9 burials; 5 of which were full burials. All the water spigots are repaired over at the cemetery so you should be able to get water even though I heard a complaint that they are not. We will check that tomorrow. 2  REGULAR MEETING In Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) Zoning had a descent month with 48 permits. As always, keep in mind that that is fencing and that sort of stuff are the biggest ones. There were 7 street openings for the parks. Membership is up at the Rec Center. The spinning studio, which is a cycling class studio that was budgeted for and discussed; it is set to start July 16th which is this coming Monday and there have been signs so you might hear some complaining from a handful of racquetball people that they have nowhere to play racquetball. Just an FYI. It should take a month. They are projected to be done by the middle of August. The Park Master Plan was started and there have been some on-line surveys as well as some printed surveys going out and we are hoping for a pretty good feedback from that. Maca membership is actually down right now and most of that is probably due to the weather. If you think back, we have had some crummy weeks even though it has been hot; almost every day it seems to rain and that is probably the number one complaint is that we either don’t have the staff because of the threat of rain or the sound of thunder has also been a complaint. I mean, we are not going to take a chance if we hear thunder and the second person hears thunder, that park is shutting down for 30 minutes. We are not going to be playing Monday morning quarterback. So if you are hearing any complaints, yes; we are shutting it down due to the thunder and lightning. The new playground has been started at Lion’s Park. That should be completed this week and that is it there and what is left to be done is the rubberized surface and you can see the rubberized material and that should be done by Friday of this week. Also, Kaine Koerner, an Eagle Scout, has initiated the installation of a gaga-pit. Is anyone familiar with the gaga-pit? It is like a new age dodge ball that the kids play bouncing off of the walls. I had never heard of it until this year and the kids know all about it. I mean, this is a hot thing here. The same rubber surface that we are putting on the playground we are going to put inside this gaga-pit and so there again you put mulch or whatever, but at the end of the day, anybody that is maintaining; it is going to get weeds, and so at least this rubber surface will be safe for the kids to fall on and it also should eliminate any weeds from growing up in there. Moving on, the Mayor already brought up the Concerts at the Circle and here is the. . . the July 7th one is obviously over and then you can see the dates to come and so we still have four more to go and it was pretty well attended. We had one water main break and that was down on Southwest this month and so far we are three away from getting to the average and we are only half way through the year. Four sewer repairs; now we are being proactive in those repairs. Those weren’t actual . . . we weren’t responding; we actually did some videoing and saw that those pipes needed repaired and two of those are on streets that we are paving and that way we are trying to be proactive. I would hate to pave the street and go back out and cut it open in a year because we didn’t look at that. All the hydrants have been operational from when we were flushing them and several of them broke and tonight somebody ran into one and so we are down one again. Then the big thing is that we are projecting that 1/3 of the City’s sewers will be cleaned and televised this year. So we are hoping to get around the City every three years and make sure that sewers have been cleaned and televised. In the Street Department; they have been busy. There were five driveway culverts; street sweepings hauled out 44 tons in 6 months. We changed the sweeping program and we averaged for the course of a year we were averaging 30 tons and so we have already surpassed that in 6 months. Crack sealing started and that is for 11 streets. The Street Department has also jumped into the parks and they have done a great job in preparing the Hole for the Little League and All Star Season coming up here and we re-landscaped a lot of the Memorial Park. There are a lot of large flower beds over there and it is just manageable for the staff we have and so we really scaled them back and put mostly sod and grass. Councilman Loughry; you and I must be on the same wavelength here because on training; I want you to note that header on there; training; laser training for equipment operators in the Street Department; this is key. You can see the laser in the background and this actually shows you that the pipe is being laid properly. I want you to note the green pipe to the left of the black pipe; see how it is coming out of the ground; that was installed without laser. So the issue with that pipe why it wasn’t blown was because it was coming back out of the ground and wasn’t letting the water go and so training is important. We believe, I think, set aside $20,000 in the Street Department this year for training so that is a pretty good jump. Then just an FYI, most of the sidewalk work is done. The concrete work is starting on Monday and that is on Clark Drive and Munroe to . . . Canterbury will not be accessible to anybody in that allotment. We are putting street signs out tomorrow to warn everybody who lives over there and we have notified the three homeowners that are going to lose access to the driveways. I have stopped and talked to everybody over there and we sent out letters, but if you guys would just let anybody know that they cannot access Munroe from Clark. Jennifer Trail is the only road that has been completed as far as the actual road goes. 3  REGULAR MEETING In Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 Dir. of Pub. Service (Cont’d.) Here are the streets being paved and that is due to start the last day of July. We are starting up near the school. The Recreational Drive; I think Councilman Sisak brought that up; is actually getting repaved right there behind where all of the potholes always occur and so that road will get beefed up. We are not removing anything; we are not milling any of that; we are just doing an overlay and so you will have a thicker asphalt there and that will hopefully help. But those are the streets to just kind of let you guys know. So that is the report. Any questions? Mr. Loughry: Just a comment; number one, to thank you (Mr. Rorar) for being so responsive. I had a resident complaint on Maca and Mr. Rorar handled it immediately and then communicating on Jennifer Trail, or excuse me, on Clark and I just told one of the residents that he could park in my driveway. Then there was another, but anyway, you are so responsive and I appreciate it. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you. You’re welcome. Mr. Sisak: Thanks for tearing down that house on Nottingham. Dir. of Pub. Service: Thank you, but that was actually Ms. Kidder. Mr. Sisak: Well, you can send her my thanks. Dir. of Pub. Service: I will; I’ll let her know. Pres. of Council: Up next is Dir. of Administration; he is not here, so Dir. of Economic Development. Dir. of Econ. Development: Good evening. I don’t know if anybody has noticed, but on the home page of the City’s website; it has been out there for about a month; there is an RFP for an update to the Zoning Code and the deadline to receive those proposals is coming up on August 3rd. I have had some interest. I haven’t received any actual proposals, but that is coming up. Then out to Maplecrest; the grading continues and they are working on the widening of Tallmadge Road and so there is a lot of work going on out there. End of report. Mr. Loughry: I would just like to thank Rita for getting back with us on the estimated projected job count. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: I have a question; across the street I saw there was a For Sale or For Lease sign up for the Akron General building. Dir. of Econ. Development: I really don’t know anything about that. Mr. Sisak: OK, I didn’t know if they had some vacancies or if they are actually looking to vacate that property or not. Dir. of Econ. Development: I can check into it, but I would imagine that it is just some vacancies within the building, but I will check. Dir. of Finance: Thank you. Everyone should have received the financial reports. We did have a little bounce back on our income tax so hopefully we will continue to be seeing that gradually go back up. The net profit taxes just continue to be the issue and so we will keep an eye on those and I have an inquiry to RITA to see if they can give me any further insight into why we are seeing that decline. I did meet with the software vendor today who will be doing our software conversion for my department. I was anticipating actually at the meeting to find out that that probably wouldn’t happen until sometime into next year, but they are looking like they may be able to get us onto the schedule for the conversion in November. So, if that is the case, we may be very busy doing a lot of reconciling and looking at data and then at that time there will be new financial reports and stuff and so any input that Council would like to provide me in additional information that they would like to see; what they do like and what they don’t like in terms of what they are receiving from my office; I will be glad to take that into consideration when reviewing what kind of reports and what kind of information going forward. Then I would ask Council if they would consider 1st Reading adoption of Ord. 63-2018. End of report. Dir. of Law: Thank you. I just wanted to make you all aware that unfortunately my Assistant Law Director, John Scavelli, has been recruited to become the new Law Director in the City of Wooster. So he will begin that job in September. I am looking to fill his position, but he does such a fabulous job that that will be a hard thing to do. Of course, I wish him well, but we definitely will miss him here. Just wanted to make you all aware of that. Thank you. Mr. Sisak: Good for him. Pres. of Council: Yeah, good for him is right. 12. Ordinance 53-2018 At 3rd Reading. PUBLIC SERVICE Supplementing the Tallmadge Codified P.H. ON 8-9-18 @ 7:33 P.M. Ordinances by establishing Chapter 1192 Management, Administration, and Control of the Use of the City’s Public Rights-of-way. Pres. of Council: Ord. 53-2018 is at 3rd Reading and will remain before the Public Service Committee and there is a public hearing on 8-9-18 @ 7:33 p.m. 4  REGULAR MEETING In Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 13. Ordinance 56-2018 At 2nd Reading. PLANNING & ZONING Approving and granting an amended conditional zoning certificate to the Tallmadge City School District Board of Education for educational and athletic facilities purposes on an 85. 2549 acre consolidated parcel on North Munroe Road and amending Ord. 106-2005. Mr. Sisak moved for the amendment of Ord. 56-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Roll Call: Mrs. Kilway, Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano – unanimous. Ord. 56-2018 is amended by a vote of 6-0 and it will remain at 2nd Reading and remain before the Planning & Zoning Committee. 14. Ordinance 61-2018 At 1st Reading. PERSONNEL Authorizing and directing the Tallmadge P.H. ON 8-23-18 @7:33 P.M. Civil Service Commission to adopt rules and regulations that differ from those pro- vided by general law by excluding the Tallmadge City Schools from Tallmadge Civil Service and inserting Section 137.04 of the Tallmadge Codified Ordinances. Pres. of Council: Ord. 61-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Personnel Committee. Mr. Loughry: Just for discussion; is there a reason that we should not adopt this tonight since it really doesn’t concern us? Dir. of Law: Yes, because anything that has to do with changing the rules and regulations to the Civil Service Commission must be given three readings and a public hearing and to that end, I would ask that the public hearing be set tonight. Mr. Loughry: Thank you very much. 15. Ordinance 62-2018 At 1st Reading. COMMUNITY ISSUES/SAFETY Providing for an election on the adoption P.H. ON 8-23-18 @ 7:36 P.M. of a Charter amendment to be submitted to the electorate of the City to establish a primary election date for municipal elec- tions in the City of Tallmadge and providing for immediate enactment. Pres. of Council: Ord. 62-2018 is at 1st Reading and is assigned to the Community Issues/Safety Committee. Dir. of Law: There is also a public hearing on this matter. It is the same; it is August 23rd. Pres. of Council: I will set a public hearing for 8-23-18 at 7:36 p.m. 16. Ordinance 63-2018 At 1st Reading. FINANCE Establishing the Evergreen-Mark Drive Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Fund; appropriating and reducing appropriations in various funds and providing for imme- diate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Ord. 63-2019 at 1st Reading. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Dir. of Finance: I just want to let Council know that this was in the budget in our Sanitary Sewer Infrastructure Fund; that is how we budgeted it for in the 2018 budget and it came to my attention as we were signing these documents that the Auditor’s office requires us to account for the Ohio Public Works Commission in a separate fund. They wanted that segregated from our other funds and so that is the reason for the establishment of this fund and moving the appropriation into that fund and then reducing the appropriation in our Sanitary Sewer Infrastructure Fund. Roll Call: Mr. Loughry, Mr. Sisak, Ms. Tricaso, Mrs. Allman, Mr. Carano, Mrs. Kilway – unanimous. Ord. 63-2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 17. Resolution 17-2018 At 1st Reading. Extending the sympathy of the Council and the Administration to James M. Donovan and members of his family in the death of Barbara A. Donovan and providing for immediate enactment. Mr. Sisak moved for the adoption of Res. 17-2018. Seconded Ms. Tricaso. Voice vote 6-0. Res. 17- 2018 is adopted by a vote of 6-0. 5  REGULAR MEETING In Council Chambers @ 7:30 p.m. July 12, 18 18. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: Pres. of Council: I just want to remind Council that the July 26th Council meeting is cancelled for our summer break and we will be back here on August 9th. Dir. of Law: Mrs. Kilway, I just wanted to raise the issue of Circle Fest; it is going to be coming upon us very quickly and I was wondered if we were planning on doing anything; historically I know we have some newer members, but historically we have had a float and it was kind of a combo of Council and the Administration. Mr. Sisak: Great idea Megan; run with it! Dir. of Law: Carol has done a ton of work on it in years past and I didn’t know if we were going to try to do that or not and I just thought because we are going to be on recess that we would be able to do that. Pres. of Council: Yeah, we talked about it at the last meeting. Dir. of Law: OK; I’m sorry. Pres. of Council: No, that’s OK; you weren’t here. The only thing was that Jim did indicate that he might not have his trailer, so if anybody knows of another trailer; we kind of need to know quickly. I think the last one was about 20’ long. I mean, we don’t need one that big. Mayor: It will start at Mac Burleson Field and come up Wright Road to the Circle; around the Circle . . . the reason we are doing that is because West Avenue has four lanes there and there is always such a safety hazard on East Avenue that is only three lanes because they always crisscross and so you have people still coming onto the Circle while the big floats are going off of the Circle. Mr. Loughry: I thought we they were coming up Sperry? Mayor: Sperry . . . Mr. Loughry: Well, that’s important because I was renting space for seats and tents and stuff. Mayor: It’s right beside your office. The fireworks will be shot off behind World Elite; over close to the sub-station and pointing towards the Circle. The Chamber has also authorized to have food trucks on the roadway. We had to change from North Avenue to East Avenue. So the food trucks will line up on East Avenue now instead of North Avenue. When we submitted the alcohol permit; this precinct in front of City Hall is a dry precinct and so therefore we cannot apply for the “F” Permit in a dry precinct. So the alcohol would have to be shut off at the Circle and the food trucks up there and so no one could carry a beverage from the Circle up to the food trucks and so it is easier to move the food trucks over to East Avenue. Mr. Sisak: All the food trucks are going to be up there or just some? Mayor: Just food trucks. The maximum is six. Mrs. Allman: On North Avenue they told me six, but I don’t know about East Avenue yet. I have five confirmed and paid. I am trying to get one more. Mr. Loughry: That will be a big additional benefit. Mayor: It will help pull people to the east side now. Mr. Sisak: So they will still go around the Circle; the parade and then back down? Mayor: Go down West Avenue and go around the Circle and then go back out West Avenue back to the Hole. Pres. of Council: Is that going to cause any problems because I know there is always a big crowd at Delanie’s. Is that going to cause any problems? Mayor: They will have front row seats. Pres. of Council: Do you think you will have any problems navigating that right hand turn? Mr. Loughry: I know, Ms. Weinberg, that you have probably talked to people along the parade route, but I did let La Mexicana know, because we are friends, I said, you know you have a great location now and so if you want to bring a band or someone in, you know; because before West Avenue didn’t get a lot of activity other than Delanie’s. So, but this is a whole new ballgame now. Mayor: The shuttle busses will still come from the Rec Center from the Middle School down East Avenue to Erie Street and back around. Mrs. Allman: You said the Middle School, but it is the Rec Center; we changed it to the Rec Center. Just the Rec Center to Erie and back. Pres. of Council: So everyone kind of look for a trailer. I am going to get back with Jim and find out if he still has it. Anything else to come before Council? No one responded. 19. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Sisak moved to adjourn. Seconded Mrs. Allman. Voice vote 6-0. The Regular Council meeting of 7-12-18 adjourned at 8:07 p.m. Adopted: _______________ ____________________________________ ______________________________________ Susan E. Burton, Clerk of Council Carol A. Kilway, President of Council sb 6