City Council

T H E C I T Y O F Zanesville 401 Market Street • Zanesville, Ohio 43701 Phone (740) 617-4875 Council – Mayor E-mail: council@coz.org Government Zanesville City Council Ways and Means Committee Agenda Council Chambers, 401 Market Street, Zanesville, Ohio Monday, April 21, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. This meeting is open to the public to attend in person or remotely by using the information below. This meeting is for discussion pertaining to the upcoming Ordinances and discussion items of the Ways and Means Committee for review as follows: 1. Roll Call 2. Approval of Minutes of March 17, 2025 Ordinances 3. None Discussion Items 4. Discussion with Baker-Tilley Next scheduled meetings of the Ways and Means Committee 2025: Monday, May 19, 2025 Monday, August 18, 2025 Monday, November 17, 2025 Monday, June 16, 2025 Monday, September 15, 2025 Monday, December 15, 2025 Monday, July 21, 2025 Monday, October 20, 2025 This meeting is open to the public who may attend in person or attend by phone or Internet using the information below. Phone 1-844-621-3956 US Toll Free or 1-415-655-0001 US Toll Use Access Code: 1267508098 # Online with WebEx – Enter zanesvillecity.webex.com in web browser. Enter Meeting Information 1267508098  WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE MEETING BUDGET HEARINGS (PUBLIC SERVICE) March 17, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Mr. Roberts: All right. It is 5:00. I’m going to call this meeting of Zanesville City Council Ways and Means Committee to order. May I have roll call, please? Committee Members Present: Councilperson Andy Roberts, Chairperson Councilperson Joey Osborn Councilperson Mark Ballmer Councilperson John Taylor-Lehman Committee Members Absent: None Others present: Scott Brown, Public Service Director Bill Rosser, Fleet Manager Billie Corns, Clerk of Council Matt Schley, Community Development Director Jamey Brannon, City Maintenance Supervisor Ross Shuster, Master Electrician Kade Haddox, Budget/Finance/Safety Director Dan Vincent, President of Council Don Mason, Mayor APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 19, 2025 Mr. Roberts: We are all here. I’ll entertain a motion on the minutes from February 19, 2025. Mr. Ballmer: So moved. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Second. Mr. Roberts: All those in favor, aye. Opposed same sign. A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Roberts: Motion carries. ORDINANCES Ordinance No. 2025-22 – Introduced by Council – An Ordinance providing appropriations for use during the fiscal year 2025, and declaring an emergency. Page 1 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Kade Haddox: This is just the appropriation ordinance for our working budget for fiscal year 2025. This is the Public Service hearing. So we’ll be hearing from all of our Service Departments tonight, their upcoming expenditures, and what they would like Council to approve for the year. Mr. Roberts: I’ll entertain a recommendation on this legislation, or if you guys would rather wait until after, we could do that too. Mr. Ballmer: I’ll make a motion to go ahead and approve. Mrs. Osborn: Second. Mr. Roberts: A motion and a second to recommend this legislation as emergency passage to Council as a Whole. Is there further discussion? All those in favor, aye. Opposed same sign. A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Roberts: Motion carries. BILL ROSSER, FLEET MANAGER Mr. Roberts: Go ahead and start whenever you want to, Bill. Bill Rosser: Okay. We’re not looking for a whole lot this year. You guys did give us a bunch last year. We had the building painted, custom garage doors replaced, was able to purchase a new trailer to haul the new milling machine around, and a tractor to pull with. That brings us to this year. There’s not a whole lot that we’re looking for this year with everything you gave us last year. We’re actually full staffed for the biggest part of the year this year. That helped a lot. Scott Brown: Any retirements coming up this year, Billy? Bill Rosser: Maybe have one, and he’s up now, but he hasn’t mentioned anything about retiring. So we have one guy that is real close. He has his time in, age and years, but he hasn’t mentioned it yet. That’s pretty much it for us. I mean, just helping the other divisions get their equipment they need, keep them running, and keep plugging away. Mr. Roberts: Are there any questions from the committee? That was easy Bill. Thanks, sir. Mr. Ballmer: Thank you. MATTHEW SCHLEY, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Matthew Schley: I kind of wanted to just run over a few things that we did last year, just so Council is aware. So, last year, my department made total grant requests in about just shy of $15 million. Of that just shy of $15 million, about $10 million was approved/received and used it for projects that have either been complete, in process, or in progress. Some highlights on that, including obviously our Appalachian Community Grant Program, which we went through OMEGA, our Community Development Block Grant. We were Page 2 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 successful in getting an Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization, otherwise known as AMLER that was $750,000 for Putnam Landing Park. We completed an NRAC grant. Number of grants, we still have some outstanding that we hope to hear from soon, but we have a similar slate of grants selected for this year for community infrastructure on different projects. Zoning undertook over 500 different zoning applications, 250+ board and commission applications, and 153 separate zoning code violations that were addressed last year alone. We did work with IT and we’re in process to bring the Tyler EnerGov permitting system to the Zoning Department. That way the Building Department, Code Enforcement, and Zoning will all be under one technological umbrella, which will speed things up and make things much more efficient for the division. We also undertook a number of community projects. That includes working with the Zanesville Community Improvement Corporation to do a number of rehabs as well as address slum and blight projects. And then we worked on the number of outreach things, such as our Good Neighbor Day, which is a biannual cleanup day in some of our neighborhoods. We typically work with residents to try to address where you need help, and we go and we coordinate volunteers. We’ve also done Arbor Day. Last year was the 26th consecutive year as a Tree City USA. We’ll be going for 27 this year. We did a number of Fair Housing outreach. And then we did Downtown Property Improvement grants; key recipients Market House, The Downtown Exchange, and St. Thomas Church. All in all, we plan to continue these initiatives. In terms of budgeting, there were no major changes that we’ve requested, nothing substantial out of the Redevelopment and Community Development funds. Andy, do you just want me to go straight into Code Enforcement and Building? Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I have a question. Mr. Roberts: A question from John. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: As I was looking at these funds, there’s one for EPA Brownfield. Is that… Matthew Schley: That is a former grant fund that we had received in 2015. We typically keep these lines so we can recycle them at a later date. We just don’t rename them until we need to recycle them. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Okay. Same with the critical infrastructure one? Matthew Schley: Yes, and in fact one of the grants we planned on applying for this year would be critical infrastructure. So, if and when that program gets approved, we’ll just update the FY to FY ’25 instead of FY ’17. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Okay, I have one other question about #311, revolving loan. So, there were no funds there? Is this something new? Matthew Schley: No, it’s not. It’s been ongoing since the early 2000’s. The program was deemed defunct by the State of Ohio in mid-2009, 2010’ish range. We still had some outstanding loans. I anticipate that fund to be closed out this year. Mayor Mason: Is that the one that had the one loan where the person took our loan then “went bankrupt?” Page 3 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Matthew Schley: Yes. Mayor Mason: And didn’t pay us back. Matthew Schley: So, we have one loan that was paid back I think two years ago. And the funds originated from the State of Ohio. We are required to spend those within their specified programs, and our anticipation is to use those funds towards our 2025 Community Development Block Grant Allocation. So, I think it’s $48,000 issued in that fund. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Okay, thanks Matt. Mr. Roberts: Are there any other questions? Move on. Matthew Schley: So, Building/Code Enforcement. So, the Building Department processed just over 1300 permits last year. We did 4500 inspections and resolved about 1700 code violations. For reference, that is about 12,000 residential structures. So, they were getting after it. Our goal is to continue the work, and addressing these violations is often a difficult process. Our goal is not to, obviously, take people to court, but our goal is to get these violations resolved. We did have a retirement last year or earlier this year. John Benson retired as the Building Official. So we are in process of hiring his replacement. Unfortunately, we lost a key member of our staff, Ronnie Grant, last year, and we ended up hiring his replacement as well. But Ron has been missed. Ron was the head of our Weed & Litter and Property Maintenance Control Division. Speaking of that division, that division is strong and well-staffed at the moment. They are the ones that do what we call the dirty work. They’re the ones to go and clean up trash, weed, and litter. Obviously that’s in the name, but they also clean up homeless encampments, and board up abandoned houses. They kind of serve as our eyes and ears on the road. They are out and about every single day. They tip us off on when they see code violations such of that nature. It’s not all bad that they do. They do help with a lot of the set-up and teardown of neighborhood events such as the Downtown Scarecrow Initiative. They’ve helped out with the Summer Concert Series in the past, cleaning up, and they genuinely assist where they can with other divisions in need. They’re also the ones that pick up all the yard signs that people leave in the right-of-ways. In terms of that budget, there’s only a handful of small capital expenditures. We’ve asked for some money to purchase a new zero turn, a couple weed eaters, and some maintenance items that we need. Last year we did purchase a new dump truck which has been instrumental in helping with that division in getting their jobs done. So, that’s all I have for you on that. Mr. Roberts: Are there any questions on the Code Enforcement? Thank you, Mr. Schley. Jim isn’t here yet. Ross? Do you want to go? ROSS SHUSTER, MASTER ELECTRICIAN Ross Shuster: Sure. Hi, my name is Ross Shuster. I’m the electrician for the City of Zanesville. I’m responsible for all of the electrical work in the city buildings and the street lighting. Projects that we did last year, we wired in the new Cemetery Administration building from start to finish. That was a good project. I also am an instructor for Mid-East. We had the class over there and did a little bit of the work. It kind of gave them some practice out in the field. We also wired in the new Sanitation garage from start to finish and put all new service in for that building specifically. The Safety Center, we’ve been doing a lot of fire inspections. We did Page 4 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 new exit signs throughout all of the buildings and updated a lot of things that needed to be updated. For next year, we’d like to relocate the electrical service on Main Street that does the street lighting and the traffic signals. It is on the side of a building in between The Exchange and the parking lot. We’d like to move it up by Main Street a little bit accessible for us, and it needs updated. Mayor Mason: He’s talking about, if you look at the south side of, I just call it the, it’s a governmental building, it’s the red building. You can see those electrical panels there. Those are city. Ross Shuster: We are also putting cameras and lighting in Goddard Park and the skate park by the VFW. We are in the process of doing that. We got the poles set. We’re just waiting on the weather to kind of break so we can get the power and the cameras installed. One of the things that we did at the beginning of this year and I forgot to mention was nightlights on Joe’s Run Subdivision. One of them was out. We did have a company come in, Hazen’s. They did boring for us to repower that light because we lost both legs in the ground. It’s up and operational. I haven’t heard from anybody if they’re okay with what we did. But there was very little cleanup to do since it was all underground. One of the projects I would like to do this year is, or start anyway, is to change the street lighting on Main Street is a 480 system. We’d like to change it to 240. The 240 is better to get LED light fixtures. 480, if somebody is around that doesn’t know what’s going on, it’s kind of dangerous. We’d like to get that and try to start that this year. The electrical upgrading for Putnam Landing, we have the commemoration going on there in the last two or three years. We haven’t had any problems, but it is 40 years old. The panels are in bad shape. It needs updated pretty bad. And we’re also going to hopefully upgrade some disconnects on Riverside ballfield, the diamonds. A lot of the disconnects are in bad shape. So, we’re in the process of doing that also. Mr. Roberts: Are there any questions from the committee? Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Yes. Mr. Roberts: Mr. John Taylor-Lehman. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I hear periodically, are the pickleball courts ever going to get lit at Riverside? Ross Shuster: That was discussed a couple of years ago, but I haven’t heard anything on it. Scott Brown: I can answer that. So, we have a backbone of electricity that is in Riverside, but it is a dedicated source just for all of our wells. So we are not in a position where we’re going to piggyback off of that infrastructure to try and run lights for pickleball. The closest drop that we could get to the pickleball would be out on 666; we could have them create, essentially they would set a canister out there on one of those poles and then run electric overtop all the way in and then put electric there that we can then put lights. But that’s really what is slowing that process down is that even though when you look around, it looks like there’s plenty of electric. There’s not electric that’s not already part of our drinking water infrastructure that’s anywhere near that specific area. Mr. Roberts: Mr. Vincent? Page 5 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mr. Vincent: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, doesn’t the park close at dark? Scott Brown: So, it is true that the majority of our parks are from daylight to daylight, let’s call it. But Riverside is a little bit unique in that with softball and having lights for the softball, they have tournaments sometimes that are 24 hours for the entire weekend. So, there are weekends when there are people playing softball starting maybe Friday morning and they don’t leave until Sunday afternoon. So that park is a little unique in that it gets used specifically when the sun goes down. Mr. Vincent: Okay. Is there a sign that says until dark except for these special events? Scott Brown: That’s correct. Mr. Vincent: So, I guess I was just thinking of how that would fall in place as far as pickleball. Do we allow pickleball then 24 hours? Scott Brown: If we had lights for pickleball. Obviously we would put lights up for the basketball as well. And so yes, then you would be looking at opening up the park to be available later at night and for people to use. Again, it would take a modification to the rules and regulations, along with adding lights. Mr. Vincent: I guess I think as far as pickleball typically a directional person is probably a little more reserved. Whereas basketball courts, I guess that could bring in some people that are younger and a lot less reserved. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Did you say they’re more reserved? Mr. Vincent: Pickleball, yes. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I’ve played with a lot of people that take it pretty seriously. Mr. Vincent: I’m saying reserved as far as having fun, getting a little carried away compared to a younger person in my experience. Mr. Roberts: General demeanor. Scott Brown: I would say that there is certainly call for sports to be played after dark. The only place that I know of in the area that does is at Dillon. Their basketball courts have lights, and so people will play out there after dark. That’s not uncommon, especially when it’s July and August and it’s piping hot. People want to play after the sun goes down. Mr. Roberts: All right, any other questions for Ross? Thanks Ross. Jamey Brannon, City Maintenance. JAMEY BRANNON, CITY MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR Jamey Brannon: Good evening. Currently we are fully staffed with seven employees, including Ross’s department. We switched him over last year in our department. So we have essentially divided up into three different groupings. We have a construction division, a mechanical division, and the electrical division. Our construction side handles all the new builds, remodels, and then the building repairs, along with concrete Page 6 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 work. The mechanical side is all HVAC installs and repairs. We do all the backflow testing throughout the city for the city buildings. And then Ross mentioned all the electrical stuff they do. So, in 2024 we completed the new administration building. We erected that building from the ground up. Ross’s group wired it. We completed 95 percent of that in-house. We had a few little things that we had some subs do just for scheduling purposes. We completed the sanitation building for Ike’s department. We laid it out, dug the footers, poured the footers, and allowed Britespan to come in erect the hoop barn. And then we came back in and poured the floor, then infilled the sidewalls, and then built in two end walls with metal siding and garage doors and man doors. Then once again, they wired it all up. So, there was a lot of in-house work there. For 2025, we had a couple remodels scheduled, one here in City Hall and one for Ike’s department. And then we have seven roofs to replace throughout the city. We have four at the sewer plant, one at Litter and Fire Station, Streets and Sanitation, and then the City Jail is a big one. Garland is the company we’ve partnered with for all the roofs. They install flex base 80 Weatherking membrane. It’s kind of a foreign language to most of us, but it comes with a 30-year warranty; so we’ll be protected for quite a few years. And then also we’ll be replacing our roof at Hamline Fire Station; that’s our shop. It is 20 years old. The plywood is starting to delaminate a little bit, so we’re going to come back in and strip it and put a metal roof on top of it. We got the permits ready to go for that. And it was all budgeted last year. It came into the end of the season, and the weather got us. So that’s the first on the list for this year. On the mechanical side, we maintain over 150 HVAC units throughout the city, from rooftop units to mini splits to split systems, a couple of chillers, 12 boilers, radiant tube heater, PTAC units. You name it – if it has refrigerant in it, we take care of it. We have four employees that have EPA certification to handle all of the refrigerant. So the city kind of works under our license to do all of that maintenance work legally as far as that goes. A couple of projects from last year, we installed a new water softener system at the jail, along with a domestic hot water boiler and a holding tank. That all kind of goes together. The water system had failed. The softener system had failed, which took out the tank and the boiler as well. That’s all back up to date. We did two boilers here at City Hall, took out the old inefficient ones and put in two new condensing boilers, along with a Metasys control system. It’s the same system that we use at the jail and at the Secrest Auditorium. It’s all computer based. Basically, it’s your thermostat on our computer. We monitor that every day. Usually we can find the problem before we get a phone call that there is a problem. We keep an eye on all the zones. Most of the time we’re ahead of the game on that. At the water plant, we are replacing a 20-ton dehumidification system that keeps all of the humidity out of the pipe gallery area. So, we’re working on it right now. Training-wise, we do a lot of continuing education through Habegger Company in Columbus for all the refrigerant. There’s a new A2L refrigerant that’s coming out that is flammable. We have to keep up on all that stuff. Vehicle-wise, we’re in great shape. We have a 2021 ProMaster van, a ’24 ProMaster van, a ’23 half ton truck, and then you guys allowed us to purchase a new F550 flatbed last year. We use it for lumber and hauling heavy equipment. That’s about it. We appreciate you funding us and look forward to this year. Mr. Roberts: Thanks for the report, Jamey, appreciate everything you do. Page 7 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Jamey Brannon: Yes. Mr. Roberts: Are there any questions from the committee? Mr. Ballmer: Thank you. Mr. Roberts: Thank you, sir. Jamey Brannon: Thank you. Mr. Roberts: Jim’s still not here. Scott Brown: I had forgotten to be honest with you. I can’t believe that 8:00 was still this morning. It feels like it was last week, but he’s down, and so I’ll just have to fill in for him. Mr. Roberts: Okay, do you want to do that at the end, Scott? Scott Brown: Yes, that’s just fine. Mr. Roberts: Ike, are you ready? IKE VANDYNE, STREET & SANITATION SUPERINTENDENT Ike VanDyne: Good evening, Mayor, Directors, Council. Most of you know who I am. I’ve been here for a minute. Mr. Roberts: Just a couple. Ike VanDyne: I’ll start with that I’m over two divisions, the Street and the Sanitation. So, we’ll start with the Street, no equipment needed this year. We've been fortunate under this administration for the past five years to get what we needed, and we’re in good shape. So, we appreciate that. For our projects this year for the Street Department, we’ll just continue with our street maintenance, some alley paving, street sweeping, road painting, leaf collection, pothole patching, and some more in-house paving that we do with the mill machine and stuff that we’ve been doing the last year. As far as Sanitation, we are hoping to purchase a roll-off truck, which it transfers the refuse from our site down to the landfill. The one we have is about eight years old, so we want to replace it. And then we’re looking to purchase some more refuse totes to get distributed out to the city. We did get the automated truck last year. You’ve probably seen it in your neighborhoods. It’s doing well. Just to give you a little insight on it, one of our regular trucks with a driver and two collectors on the back, they get about 450-500 stops a day. It’s already getting, with one person, 500. So, it’s doing pretty well. We did get the hoop building, the Sanitation building that Jamey mentioned. It given us more space down there for the Street Department equipment, and it has really worked out for us. So, we were happy for that. I really don’t have a whole lot. We’re in good supply of salt still. We did get to use some. So we’ve used about 2400 ton. Everything seems to be going okay. Page 8 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mr. Roberts: Ike, back to your statement about the Sanitation truck. With the totes and everything and being able to cable them up, have we seen a decrease in workers’ comp claims or just general injuries? Ike VanDyne: I think we have had one in the past two years in our division. Mr. Roberts: Okay, but have we seen a reduction in that? From them having to pick everything up? Ike VanDyne: We haven’t yet because we just started it in November. So, we’re hoping, and we know it will because we’ve had some education from other cities that do it. And it really decreased it. Kade Haddox: We still have young backs in the department. We’ll tell you in 20 years. Ike VanDyne: No, it’s crucial now that we have the trucks that lift it and have the dippers on the back because the guys just can’t lift those totes. We don’t like them digging in them for needles and stuff like that. But yes, things are going good. Do you have any questions? Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I have a question. Mr. Roberts: Mr. Taylor-Lehman. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I was down in your area visiting with the SEAT people, and I saw that there are a lot of totes. How does a citizen get one of the totes? Ike VanDyne: So, they can do that by the internet, reach out to us by email, or they call in. The majority of them call into the office. We require that they be an owner of the residence requesting it, and then we get them out to them. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I had a quick look at it, and there were a lot of the trash ones, but I didn’t notice that there were many recycling ones. Ike VanDyne: So, recycling, we probably have on hand about 150. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Oh, okay. Ike VanDyne: On the other side of the building. We probably have about 300 of the refuse totes. Mr. Roberts: So, John, years ago when we first started doing the totes, the original reason we bought them was for recycling. And Ike, remind me if I’m wrong, but I think we bought enough recycling totes plus some more for every account that we had. So there should be… Ike VanDyne: We started out with 5000. Mr. Roberts: Okay. Mayor Mason: And then we rented a warehouse to store them in. Page 9 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Laughter in the room. Mayor Mason: I’m not kidding. Mr. Vincent: Didn’t we switch some lids then too? Ike VanDyne: We did, yes. We utilized so we didn’t just have them sitting and sitting. So we did buy some lids and switched them out for refuse when we started the program. Scott Brown: So, we have roughly 10,000 customers? Ike VanDyne: 8900 customers, not counting the commercial, yes. Scott Brown: And we probably have what? About 1700 or 1800 customers with recycling totes? Ike VanDyne: I thought my last count was about 2300. Before we started the totes, we only had about 800 customers that recycled with the bags. So we’ve over doubled. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I wonder if we could make the citizenry knowledgeable that there are available totes? Mayor Mason: It’s a lot easier now. A couple of years ago, you were really limited in what you could recycle to. To what? Number one and two plastics? Metals like aluminum or cans. And we quit taking paper for a while. Didn’t we? Ike VanDyne: We did, but then we quit taking the plastic bags because they were getting caught in the rollers of the machines. They now take pizza boxes. I mean, they take about anything. They can get on the website for the recycling center for Muskingum County that shows everything, and we have a flyer that we put out. Whenever we take a recycling tote out, we give the rules and regulations and what we take on that flyer. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Once when we toured Rumpke, it’s just like stuff everything in there except plastic bags. Scott Brown: I don’t know what the national average is for recycling, but it sounds like we’re around 30 percent. That’s actually probably pretty good. Mr. Roberts: Mrs. Osborn. Mrs. Osborn: Is there a limit or a specific number that you are aiming for people to have? Like the totes? Like if folks want more of one or the other? Ike VanDyne: No more than two to three. We are giving out two now. We started with one, just to kind of get the ice broke for people to get used to them. So we are giving out two now. If you get a family with ten people, you might think that two’s enough, but it’s not. Mr. Ballmer: Mr. Chair? Mr. Roberts: Yes, Mr. Ballmer. Page 10 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mr. Ballmer: Is there a cycle on the paving? I’ve had people ask when’s my street going to be repaved again. Is there like a four-year cycle where by the time it goes through, it goes all around? Or is it just as needed? Ike VanDyne: So, there are some streets out there that haven’t been paved for 15 to 20 years. So, we look at that. We turn that in to the Service Director and Chip, and then we go from there on the money they have. Mr. Ballmer: Okay, thank you. Ike VanDyne: But we’re always out on the streets looking and talking and meeting with Scott every two weeks in a division update and talk to him about what needs to be done. Some of them now, we can just do an overlay on them until we can get funding to pave them. But usually that’s mine or Scott’s decision of what we need to go do at this point in time until we can get Shelly & Sands in, or whoever, to do it. Mr. Ballmer: Thank you. Mr. Roberts: All right. Any other questions for Ike? Thank you, sir. Scott Brown: I can go a little bit more in depth just to give Mr. Ballmer a little bit more information. So, the city hired a consultant a number of years ago to drive up and down every single street in the city, and those streets then are graded. ODOT, well DOT, not specifically Ohio’s DOT, but DOT created a scale of 0-100, 0 being the worst and 100 being the best. And what we did was we had that consultant then graded all of our streets. Based off of that grade is where we start to attack trying to make things better. To Ike’s point though, if you spend all of your money on only the worst streets, what happens is you have a very small amount of money and pave very few streets and all these other streets just continue to deteriorate and you never get caught up. And so we have to kind of do a mixed bag of things which is why we have lots of equipment now that we didn’t five years ago. We have a DuraPatcher. We have two Hot Boxes. Then we bought our own mill machine, we have our own paver, and we have multiple rollers. So we’re able to then go in and do repairs on streets to get them to at least hold steady while we’re paving the worst so that we can then eventually get to those. So, it’s not necessarily just throwing a dart at a dartboard, which some people probably would feel is, why did they do this one and skip me and then go to that one? We get those complaints. Well, this one scored a 20, yours scored a 50, and this one scored a 30, and so that’s why. That’s how it works. Mr. Ballmer: Thank you. SCOTT BRYANT, WATER SUPERINTENDENT Mr. Roberts: Scott Bryant? Scott Bryant: Good evening. Our Water Division report for 2024, I’ll start out with a couple statistics. Last year our pumpage was 1.5 billion gallons of water. That’s about a 3 percent increase from last year. The average daily pumpage is 4.2 million gallons per day. Some of our projects that were completed last year, we had the new Mitchell Tank installed last year. It’s a 2 million gallon tank. We had the test well installed for the new well 21. The testing had been completed, water analysis completed, and everything looked okay. That’s submitted to the EPA, so pending their approval, to move forward with the next phase of the well installation. Page 11 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Some of the waterlines that we replaced last year, we did a waterline on Peters Alley; 1000 feet of 8-inch line; St. Johns Street, 700 feet of 6-inch line; Potts Lane, about 500 feet of 2-inch; Kirk Drive, 500 feet of 2- inch there. In addition to that, we rehabbed wells #9 and #14. We saw the kickoff of the Dresden Road Water Main Project. It got a pretty good start on that last year and is scheduled to be completed this year. We did rehab on three different tanks; two of the old Mitchell ground tanks were rehabbed and the Fairview Water Tower was rehabbed last year. This year some of the projects we’ve got in either the design phase or shelf ready are Water Meter Replacement Project is a big one. We would like to see some traction gained on that project. West Main Street Waterline Replacement Project, that’s still under design. Country Club Water Main Replacement Project is in design. In addition to that, Blandy Waterline Relocate is being designed as well. That’s one that’s been on the books for a while. They’re looking to relocate those lines for that property at the old Blandy Reservoir and can be reclaimed. Also under design for 2025 is a high pressure to low pressure interconnect system. That’s going to allow us to back up our low pressure system in the event of a major water leak to keep the downtown supplied in water pressure. We’ve still got on the books for 2025 several of old 2-inch steel lines we’re looking to replace. All those projects likely will be done in-house. In addition to that, we’ve got a 6-inch waterline on Caleb Drive to be scheduled for replacement. As far as equipment goes, we’re in pretty good shape, probably the best shape we’ve been in, in quite a while. We are looking to add to our fleet a hydro excavator and also replace our valve exercising equipment. Some of the initiatives that we done last year and continue this year is a valve exercising hydro flushing program. Last year we started a leak detection survey with a grant from the Ohio EPA to purchase some acoustical listening devices. We are going to continue that project as well. It’s been pretty successful in finding some of those smaller leaks that’s out there. In-house we’ve done some job shadowing in efforts to develop a succession plan. Our staffing levels right now is in pretty good shape, except we’ve got some positions we know is going to become available due to retirements. We’ve been working on our lead service line inventory. We’re partnering with USEPA and a contractor that’s paid for by USEPA, General Dynamics. They’re going to help us complete the lead service line inventory and develop a lead service line replacement plan. We’re partnering with the Zanesville High School. We’ve done it last year and will continue to do it this year with a pre-apprenticeship program, hoping to get some younger folks that’s interested in working for the city in various departments. Other than that, I think the Water Division is doing pretty good. Do you have any questions? Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I’ve got a question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Roberts: Mr. Taylor-Lehman. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Is the Center Drive Project going to begin this year? You said it’s under engineering? Scott Bryant: Under engineering, probably at the earliest we could probably see maybe fall, I’m hoping, depending on once the design is complete. The EPA has to review that project. It’s a pretty good-sized project. And of course, there’s going to be the funding application that will follow that as well. So probably at the earliest, get it out to bid late fall. Would you say, Scott? Page 12 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Scott Brown: Perhaps. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Okay, thanks. Mr. Ballmer: Mr. Chairman? Mr. Roberts: Mr. Ballmer. Mr. Ballmer: With all these projects, is the water quality okay? Everything is staying okay that way? Scott Bryant: Yes, we’re meeting all the USEPA and Ohio EPA requirements. Scott Brown: I would add to that, that when Scott Bryant and I came onboard, we got handed a, basically a list here at the same time as the Mayor, and they said nobody has done anything with those three water towers that he mentioned for 20+ years, and you’re now in violation, so you better get busy. So, we had to quickly put together about a $2.1 million project that you guys thankfully agreed to fund so that we could completely rehabilitate all three of those water towers. We’re now back in compliance with the EPA. Scott Bryant: Yes, we’ve got those scheduled on five year inspection intervals to make sure we don’t get in that situation again. Mr. Ballmer: And I forgot, I know some have already left, but please thank your crews because the crews are doing a great job. I mean, I think we forget sometimes. We’re inside when the weather’s bad, and they’re out there waist-deep in mud and all kinds of stuff. Just make sure you thank the crews, everybody, because they’re doing a good job, and we appreciate it. Scott Bryant: I appreciate hearing that, and I’ll certainly pass that along. Mr. Vincent: Mr. Chairman? Mr. Roberts: Mr. Vincent. Mr. Vincent: With that, I know going way back, there were concerns as far as capacity. I think we’re in good shape now, but we were looking at do we need more land and need to extend further north so we have more land for wells. But I know we’ve taken some wells offline. I know some wells are producing much greater quantity with the upgrade and stuff. So, could you touch base on where we have capacity, what’s the long- distant future look like? Scott Bryant: Yes, we had our wells evaluated like two years ago by a consultant. They recommended that an additional well, which is #21 that will allow us to take the two older wells, to basically decommission those because they’ve extended beyond their life expectancy. I think according to that report, we should be good for the next 5, 10 years. Unless we see a large expansion, a higher demand for water, I think you’ll be in good shape for the next decade. Mr. Vincent: And do we have additional land for drilling or are we tapped out? Page 13 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Scott Bryant: I don’t believe we have any additional land. We would have to purchase land if you want to go beyond. Are you talking wellfield, I assume? Mr. Vincent: Yes. Scott Bryant: Yes. Scott Brown: Yes, I can summarize the report. As it sits right now, our water plant has a maximum of 10 million gallons a day is how much it can treat. We’re doing 4.2. You guys have a contract for consideration that would allow us to sell up to 2 million gallons a day to the county, which would maybe bring us up if they max that out to 6.2. So, we still would have a lot left in our treatment plant. Our wellfield currently, if we wanted to max out our wellfield as it sits today, our wellfield can do 13 million gallons a day. For a very short amount of time, we could get as much as 19 million gallons a day out of the wellfield in case of an emergency. So, we currently have enough water to suit our current infrastructure that we have. To Scott’s point, if the city doubled in size, then we would need to make some considerations as to what we want to do from that standpoint. Could we do more wells at Riverside? Yes, but we would sacrifice recreation. Mr. Vincent: And it softens the water at the plant? Scott Brown: So, softening is about a 2 to 1 expense. So, if it costs $40 million today to build a brand new water plant, it would cost about, well not 2 to 1. The last cost estimate conversation was about a $25 million addition. So it would mean that if we wanted to put in softening today, we would be looking at roughly $25 million in order to do that. A lot of people would probably argue we could buy everybody in the city a water softener for less than $25 million, which is probably why they’ve just never done it. Mr. Vincent: And then the plant, a quarter million dollars, you threw that number out. Is that…? Scott Brown: I threw that out is if our plant didn’t exist today and we wanted to build a brand new 10-million gallon a day treatment plant, at the rough estimate about $40 million for our type of plant, and you would need to add another $25 million for softening. So the bill would be about $65 million for our size water plant with softening basically, just to give you an idea in value of what we have right now. Mr. Vincent: That’s expensive for softening water. Scott Brown: Yes. Mr. Vincent: Some cities do that though. Scott Brown: They do, for lots of different reasons. We’re kind of an in between community. We’re not really big enough to justify having a huge reservoir for surface water and the type of treatment you do for surface water already softens the water just by the treatment process. Typically you’re using some sort of chemical coagulant. Ground water, you don’t need to do that, but it’s hard because it has minerals in it. And so, you’re either looking at very small communities that the softening is not all that much of an addition to the cost of building the facility or you’re looking at huge facilities and it’s part of the treatment whether they wanted to or not because the type of treatment they have to use just automatically softens the water. Page 14 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mr. Vincent: And then significantly increases the cost to the consumer. Scott Brown: Correct, yes. Mr. Vincent: Thank you, appreciate it. TUCKER RANDLES, WASTEWATER SUPERINTENDENT Tucker Randles: Good afternoon, everybody. So, the sewer department had another good year in 2024. The treatment plant treated 2.3 billion gallons of wastewater. The treatment plant has processed 1200 dry tons of land-applied biosolids. The treatment plant received 2.8 million gallons of septage waste. On a great note, one of our wastewater operators passed his Wastewater III EPA license test. And our first person to go through the OIT program, which is an Operator in Training, somebody that doesn’t have a license when they’re hired. He also passed his Class I Wastewater EPA license test. The treatment plant itself passed the EPA compliance evaluation and inspection. We had no violations, and the EPA felt that the treatment plant was well-maintained. We also, at the treatment plant, passed its EPA biosolids inspection. The treatment plant accomplished 100 percent bio reuse. By that, I mean we went to land applying our biosolids instead of going to the landfill. The sewer separation project was finished in May 2024. AECOM is currently working on finalizing the Long- Term Control Plan with the EPA. During 2024 approximately 220,000 feet of sewer line was cleaned in the city. This allowed us to meet that 20 percent cleaning of the collection system that is mandated by the EPA. We had 14 manholes uncovered, raised to grade, and concrete put in place. We replaced 10 manhole lids. We had 109 catch basins replaced or rebuilt. We did 13 culverts by cleaning them out or replacing them. We had 129 east end tanks pumped out and cleaned. We replaced 29 E-1 grinder pumps. We sent out one to two crews all over the city for one to two days a week cleaning out catch basins and checking out flood-prone areas. Currently we are working with CTI Engineering on design improvements for the capital improvements needed at the wastewater treatment plant. We hope by the end of the year to have construction plans and blueprints that we’ll be able to review. We are also working with CTI Engineering to have one of the digesters at the wastewater treatment plant cleaned out. Also this year, the Homewood Sewer Lining Project is a goal. This project will help line sewer lines in areas that have a lot of root ball issues and will also with that project be able to rehab several manholes that were affected by H 2 S. We greatly appreciate the approval of this year’s budget, which helps the wastewater treatment plant continue to operate. For this year, we hope to purchase a water truck. The current water tanker truck is from 1995. Also we would like to purchase a Mongoose trailer mounted jetter. This jetter will allow us to clean out smaller diameter lines more efficiently with less water usage. This also includes cleaning and discharged lines from the grinder tanks and allow us easier access to areas that are hard to get to due to the terrain. I think that’s all I had. Mr. Roberts: Thanks Tucker. Are there any questions from the committee? Mrs. Osborn: Mr. Chair? Mr. Roberts: Mrs. Osborn. Page 15 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mrs. Osborn: Where do we stand with a replacement of the grinder pumps on the east end? Tucker Randles: Yes, great question. So, Scott and the guys, they had started a 5-year project to try to get to all the E-1 grinder pumps and get those replaced out. So, every year, we’ve had a goal of purchasing close to 50 pumps. That way we can keep that project of replacing, but we also have on hand backups for any emergency situation. Scott Brown: Yes, we are able to proactively replace some before they break, and then there are some that let us know beforehand that we need to get out there and replace them. So it’s an ongoing process. And then unfortunately sometimes we replace some and then they only last so long, and so we got to go back and replace them before they really should be replaced – some under warrant and some not under warranty. It just depends. But it’s an ongoing active process. Probably when we get done, it’s never going to end. I would say that is a good and a bad part of that system. They work well, but they don’t last forever. So you’re always in the replacement cycle. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I got a question. I’m not really sure what we’re talking about here, the grinder pumps. Mayor Mason: So, the east end of the city, they never had sewers. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: The ones that are going into Putnam? Mayor Mason: No, this is different. So, because of the various grade in the east end, people just really drilled shafts into old coalmines, and when they flushed the toilet, everything went into the coalmine. A lot of times that would seep out. We had a lot of health issues in that area. The court and the Health Department decided were based on that, so we got a fairly large, I thought it was $4.5 million grant and $1 million at 2 percent loan to put around 900 variable grade… Scott Brown: Yes, so, there are two different systems we have. About 50 percent are septic tanks that instead of having a leach field like you would have in the county, they’re hooked up to a sanitary line and then would just transfer to the sewer department. And there’s about 50 percent of them instead are in a, what they call a grinder pump, and the reason is that where they live or where this system would be at is below where the main line is for the sewer. So you have to push it up to where the sewer is. And so, depending on whether it could flow by gravity or whether it had to be pushed dictated what system you were going to have at your property. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: Thank you. Mr. Roberts: Any other questions? All right, Scott. Do you want to finish it up? Thanks Tucker. Tucker Randles: Thank you. SCOTT BROWN, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SERVICE Scott Brown: So I think first up would be the airport. We have one capital project that we’re doing at the airport. It’s an $850,000 project. That project will be funded by the FAA at 95 percent. So, the city will pick up 5 percent. We had to pay about $45,000 in engineering and then $42,500 is what our contribution to that Page 16 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 is. There are two different types of funding at the airport right now. There is an AIG, which I forget what the acronym is, but it is a pot of money that the FAA gives to all airports. It’s $250,000. They call it an entitlement, which means you get it guaranteed every year. You’re allowed to carry that money over for up to four years. So you could have as much as a million dollars sitting in the pot before you have to spend it. Then when we went through the bilateral infrastructure bill about four years ago, some of that money was given to the FAA. And then the FAA created their own BIL, and that was a separate pot of money as well. That money was only good for an “X” number of years, and it is a use-it-or-lose-it process. So this project is a combination of AIG funds and BIL money that we need to spend in order to use it or lose it basically. So that’s where the money is coming from. Now, historically DOT in each state would contribute money to aviation. What has happened is that the FAA’s grant dollars have grown to an amount that the Ohio Department of Transportation can no longer offer a 5 percent match because they don’t have enough money to equal 5 percent of what the FAA’s 90 percent portion is. So, across the board, Ohio’s DOT has taken the stance that they will contribute zero dollars to all airport projects going forward. The FAA has agreed for this year, 2025, to fund 95 percent instead of 90 percent. But going forward, there’s no guarantee that the FAA will continue to fund 95 percent, which would be that our local match would then go from 5 percent to 10 percent. We’re not there yet, but I will let you know when we find out. We have no plans of purchasing any equipment at the airport this year. So we have no additional capital costs with regards to that. We have a fulltime employee, Jim, and then we have a fulltime employee whose name is Larry. Larry is the Airport Attendant I think is his title technically. And then we have one seasonal. So we have a total of three employees that are at the airport – two fulltime and three total in the summer. The majority of the time in the summer is spent with keeping up with all of the grounds. We have several hundred acres there. We lease out about 85 acres for farming. The rest of it then we have to mow and weed eat, and that’s what the majority of the employees that are out there take care of. Mr. Roberts: Do we have questions for Scott? Is that everything, Scott, or do you still have Parks & Cemeteries? Scott Brown: Parks & Cemeteries – we hired a new superintendent. And the person, today was when they did their background check. So, provided everything goes good there, the person will then give their two- week notice and then we’ll be able to onboard. That’s the only reason I’m not bringing up the person’s name. It’s just for their benefit. They haven’t given their employer their two-week notice yet because they wanted to wait until everything was satisfied on our end as far as the background check goes. But, rest assured, in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be onboarding a new superintendent. I think the person is very qualified and is going to be a nice addition to the Public Service team. Everything else as far as Parks and Recreation go, the only major project is the additional pickleball courts that are at Riverside. That area has been graded and leveled and compacted. It needs to be compacted a second time. As soon as the asphalt plants open up, we will pave those courts. They have to sit for 30 days. We’ve contracted with a company that will come in and do everything to make the pickleball courts, from painting them to installing the nets to all that kind of stuff. The last step then will be fencing. That company gave us a quote to do the fencing, but it was much higher than what our local contractors could do it for. And so we will instead hire that out locally. So once the pickleball courts are completed, surfaced, and the nets are up, then we’ll have a contractor come in and put up the fencing, and they’ll be ready to go. We used to have three pickleball courts, and then we grew to nine. And now we will have 15. Page 17 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025 Mr. Roberts: And they’re all well-utilized. Kade Haddox: For public information, too, just so people know how expensive those are, six courts is about a $100,000 investment. Mr. Roberts: Good to know. Mr. Taylor-Lehman: I’ll pass that along. Mr. Roberts: Are there any other questions from the committee for any of the administration or Scott? I’ll entertain a motion to adjourn. Mr. Ballmer: So moved. Mrs. Osborn: Second. Mr. Roberts: A motion and a second, all those in favor, aye. Opposed same sign. A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Roberts: Motion carries. Thank you, all. The meeting ended about 6:01 p.m. Regular scheduled meetings with the next dates as follows: Monday, April 21, 2025 Monday, July 21, 2025 Monday, October 20, 2025 Monday, May 19, 2025 Monday, August 18, 2025 Monday, November 17, 2025 Monday, June 16, 2025 Monday, September 15, 2025 Monday, December 15, 2025 Billie Corns, Clerk Andrew Roberts, Chairperson Page 18 of 18 Ways and Means Committee Meeting and Public Service Budget Hearings 3/17/2025