City Council

THE CITY OF Zanesville 401 Market Street • Zanesville, Ohio 43701 Council - Mayor Phone(740)617-4875 Government E-mail: council@coz.org Zanesville City Council Public Safety Committee Agenda Council Chambers, 401 Market Street, Zanesville, Ohio Monday, December 1, 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 Public Safety Committee for review as follows: 1. Roll Call 2. Approval of Minutes of September 2, Z025 ORDINANCES 3. 2025-000 - Introduced by Council -An Ordinance prohibiting the operation of farm machinery (when not used for farming purposes) and grass-cutting vehicles or riding lawnmowers on city streets. DISCUSSION ITEMS 4. Additional Stop Signs at Myrtle & Locust S. Speed Control on Dresden Road 6. Increase Speed Limit on Northpointe from 146 to Brandywine Next scheduled meetings of Public Safety Committee of 2026: Monday, January 5, 2026 Monday, May 4, 2026 Tuesday, September 8, 2026 Monday, February 2, 2026 Monday, June 1, 2026 Monday, October 5, 2026 Monday, March 2, 2026 Monday, July 6, 2026 Monday, November 2, 2026 Monday, April 6, 2026 Monday, August 3, 2026 Monday, December 7, 2026 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  PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MEETING - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2025 The Public Safety Committee met at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 in Council Chambers at City Hall, 401 Market Street, Zanesville, Ohio. Mr. Ballmer: Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Zanesville City Council Public Safety Committee meeting, Tuesday, September 2, 2025 at 5:00 here in Council Chambers. Billie, could we have roll call, please? Committee members attending: Councilperson Mark Ballmer, Chair Councilperson Joey Osborn Councilperson Karla Frye Committee members absent: Councilperson Ralph Hennessey Others in attendance: Jeff Bell, Fire Chief Amanda Perkowski, Budget & Finance Austin Colopy, Firefighter Mickey Smith, Nationwide First Responder Grants Billie Corns, Clerk of Council John Taylor-Lehman Shawn Digity, TR Reporter Daniel Vincent, President of Council Lisa Hittle, IT APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 2, 2024 and MAY 5, 2025 Mr. Ballmer: Hearing we have a quorum, we need the approval of the minutes for December 2, 2024 and May 5, 2025. So, let's handle those separately. I'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes of December 2, 2024. Mrs. Osborn: So moved. Ms. Frye: Second. Mr. Ballmer: Having a motion and a second, any discussion on that? All in favor of approval of those minutes, aye. Any opposed, nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: That motion carries, thank you. I'll entertain a motion for approval of the minutes of May 5, 2025. Ms. Frye: So moved. Mrs. Osborn: Can I second if I was not here? Ms. Frye: I don't even know if I can move because I wasn't here. Page 1 of 22 Mr. Ballmer: You're here now. Technically if that's the case, then we'll never be able to approve those minutes because I'm the only one that was here. President Vincent: Go ahead, and I'll check with the Law Director. Mr. Ballmer: Okay. M rs. Osborn : Okay, second. Mr. Ballmer: A motion and a second, thank you for bringing that up, and we will check that to be sure we're okay. Is there any discussion? All in favor of approval of those minutes from May 5, 2025, signify by saying aye. Any opposed, nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: That motion carries as well, thank you. RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES 3. Resolution No. 2025-94- An Ordinance declaring "Beggar's Night" also known as ''Trick or Treat" for the City of Zanesville. Mr. Ballmer: Committee, what questions do you have? Joey, I know you have something you'd like to bring. Mrs. Osborn: I would like for this committee to amend or send with change or how you would like it, but I got a history lesson from the Mayor t hat Beggar's Night is t he 30th traditionally. However, several yea rs ago, I fought pretty hard to have this changed to a Sunday. I know we will never do trick or treat if the 31st falls on a Friday because of football traffic; that's unsafe. But, I have found that working parents have brought it up to me t hat it is very difficult to get off work at 5:00, get home, feed the family dinner, do homework, and get kids dressed and out the door by 5:30 or even 6:00. And so, I think we should move this to Sunday, October 26. I know that parents st ill work on Sundays. I know that we'll never find an ideal day and time for everyone, but I think it would be better for a lot of people. Also kiddos that are involved in youth league sports, it takes place whether there's trick or treat or not, and so kids would have to make a decision. I don't like that either. Mr. Ballmer: Are you okay with the same t imeframe, 5:30 to 7:00 on Sunday even ing? Mrs. Osborn: Yes, I don't think it gets too dark by then. That wou ld be the only consideration. Ms. Frye: It's usually dark about 6:30'ish, but usually the little o nes, I mean just from all the years, but usually the little ones aren't out by 6:30 anyhow. And they're with parents. Mrs. Osborn: Yes, unless you want to do 5:00 to 6:30. I don't know. I don't know what everybody's t houghts are. That way everybody would be in by dark and we wouldn't have any stragglers. Page 2 of 22 Ms. Frye: Would it throw people off though since it's usually 5:30 to 7:00? That'd be t he only thing I would worry about. Mr. Ballmer: Maybe we could make the first step to change the day to Sunday and leave the t ime alone and then see how it goes and then next year... At this time there was technical difficulty with the WebEx. Mr. Ballmer: We>II get that taken care of. Mrs. Osborn: Because I know we have had it on Sunday in years past because that was a big battle of mine to change it off of the weeknight, probably five years ago maybe. Mr. Ballmer: If it's okay with you two, then let's change the date, leave the time, see how it goes, and then if we need to change just the time for next year, then we can do that. All right? Mrs. Osborn: I'm good with that. Mr. Ballmer: October 26, Sunday, and then 5:30 to 7:00 on the time. All right? Mrs. Osborn and Ms. Frye collectively agreed. Mr. Ballmer: So, I'll entertain a motion then to do that. M rs. Osborn: So moved. Ms. Frye: And I'll second. Mr. Ballmer: Is there any other discussion on that? All in favor then of recommending this for passage to Council for trick or treat being on Sunday, October 26th, 5:30 to 7:00, aye. Any opposed, nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: That carries, and we'll recommend that to Council. Dan, do we need to stop and wait until she gets done? The committee members took a 4-minute break while the WebEx program was restarted. Mr. Ballmer: Sorry for the technical difficulties. We're back online now. For those watching on line, I just want to recap. We are going to recommend to Council Resolution 2025-94, the one that is declaring beggar's night, also known as trick or treat for the City of Zanesville. The date of that will be Sunday, October 26, and the time will be 5:30 t o 7:00. We will recommend that for acceptance at the next City Council meeting. 4. Ordinance No. 2025-99-An Ordinance establishing a fee to be charged to any public or private medical facility, healthcare facility, or individual who summons the Zanesville Fire Division to provide lifting assistance. Page 3 of 22 Mr. Ballmer: I know that this has been an ongoing situation, Chief Bell, for you. Is there anything you'd like to share please with us? Chief Bell: I'm just here to answer any questions and stuff that the committee may have. As you said, Mark, w e've been talking about this for probably almost a year on the EMS Committee. It is a nationwide problem that we're seeing more and more departments kind of overwhelmed with, and when we say emergency assist, these are nonemergency lift assists. Th is is, you get a call, I don't want to go to the hospit al, I j ust need someone to get somebody off the floor, which then goes into like home healt hcare. So, we had agreed to kind of take some of the burden off of Community Ambulance a few years ago. And some of the things that we agreed to take on was jail calls. It makes sense. Our medic is right there most of the t ime at the Safety Center. It's quicker and easy for us to take any calls at 332 South Street. Two was home hea Ith checks, which we usually get about two a month and lift assists. At the time we t ook those on, we were doing about 19 to 20 lift assists a month, of t he nonemergency kind. We're not talking about, just in the last weekend, we probably had 4 or 5 people fall with a broken hip or a gash or something else, where that's an emergency, and t hey need to be t ransported. The calls we are talking about limit ing are the nonemergency transports. So, just to give you some of the numbers, so far this year between our regular runs that w e do, whether it's fires, car accidents, everything else, added to our Medic 1 calls, we've done about 2400 calls, two-thirds (2/3) of the way through the year. Fourteen (14) percent of our calls or 336 have been nonemergency lift assists. And at least a quarter (1/4) of those are what we would call our "repeat customers," I guess you would say. And t his is something we're having nationally. You know, when you look online and you look it up, Fire Engineering just had an article. California, they go from the very first one, there are cities and stuff out there 1 $500 if you want us to come and pick you up, $500. Now, if you re going to the hospital, that's part of emergency care. Probably one ofthe largest offenders of this we've had has been in t he last month. We had a gentleman who had called us 19 times in the month of August. And it got to be where at one point, his nephew called. And these are people, his nephew lives in the house. And he called and said, can you t ake my uncle and take him to the bathroom for us? He needs to go to the bathroom. So, it's not that it's just an inconvenience for us, but it's the problem that these people need to be living in someplace where they are getting the care that they need. If we're having to come and we get called for home healt hcare type of things, can you lift my husband up so I can change sheets and stuff like that. That's our lift assist. We understand sometimes there are things where you get on the f loor and I'm not injured, and I need back up. So we've built into t his ordinance is that in a rolling 12-month period, we understand things are going t o happen. You' ll get three that we don't bill. My goal from this is that we never send a single bill out. But, we need to have some ki nd of encou ragement to get the care that t hey need. Right now we use the Agency on Aging, and we try to get them hooked up with that, if they can help in any way. Adult Protect ive Services, t he thing is, Adult Protect Service comes in and they've been great with us. But they have t o convince the party, and they have to convince the family that they need to go to either a 24-hour caregiver in the home or they need to go to a nursing facility. Or maybe some people, they just need to be there until they get physical therapy and they can get up on their own and work on some of that, where maybe t hey can come back home. But if it's not abuse or neglect, they can't enforce anything. Page 4 of 22 So, like I said, we had this one gentleman called 19 times in the last month, and just like, hey I fell again, can you come? Hey while you're here can you go get that for me? Hey could you go get this for me while I'm here. You call, and oh we're not going to take you to the bathroom. Then two hours later, hey it's an emergency, I need you to come, I fell. So what we're trying to do is get them and we've been working with Genesis, Community Ambulance, and their paramedicine program. We talked about it this morning, and I think this individual finally went to a nursing home. But it took us a little over a month and 19 trips. We're wanting something that facilitates that a little faster, that we shouldn't be your first call. And they don't see it. We've talked to individuals that would call and they'd say, hey I need to be staying upstairs. Well no, upstairs isn't good for you if you're a fall risk. Well, I don't want to be downstairs, I didn't get along with everybody. You're trying to help them get the ca re and be where they need to be, but sometimes it's money that is that incentive. Like I said, I hope that we don't send a single bill out, but there has to be something to not abuse the system. We're sending trucks out there all hours of the day, sometimes several times a day. Because oops I fell again, can you come back? Or I want to move from my recliner to bed or from my computer chair to the recliner and stuff. rd 1h Like I tell our guys, once the tones go off, we're going to go, we'll figure it out later. Usually after the 3 to 5 , I make a home visit and say, what is our plan? Some families work with you, and some individuals work with you and say okay, I need a plan. Who am I going to call first? Who am I going to call second? Or maybe I need healthcare. Some of them just say, well I'm a taxpayer, and you'll come as many times as I want. But it pulls the firemen and emergency services off on nonemergency things. And they're sitting there a lot oftimes living in feces, living in conditions that because they're afraid that once they go in the nursing home, they'll never go back home. So you're fighting that, what's best for them against their own fears. But we need something to kind of push them in that direction to get the kind of care that they need. So what we did come up with was after three, it would be a $250 bil I that we will send them. Mr. Ballmer: Are there any questions from the committee? Mrs. Osborn: So, how are you going to let folks know? Do you have a letter you're going to deliver when you make these house calls? Or how are you going to tell them? Chief Bell: Well if we would, and like I said we do not have everything worked out. We do our medical billing, which is through insurance through PNMG. This is something we would be doing on our own, that we would have to keep track of, and we would have to go out. We're going to have a letter and a home visit when something comes first and say, listen you need to. Because one thing that I've noticed as we started taking this over, it never ends well. If you've fallen 6 times, and I'm not injured, the 7th time is when you have stitches and you never do come back home. Or you break a hip or something like that. So they're delaying, when early on, maybe intervention would be helpful. Mrs. Osborn: And they could get back home. Chief Bell: They could get back home or we could put something in place to help them. They're like oh no, I'm okay, because they do not want to leave that home. Or they don't want to leave their pet. But no, it would take a home visit and a letter and stuff like that. And once the word gets out, I don't want to be real strict on it, but we would probably work something together where everybody gets to start fresh. And we say, hey this is fine, do you want to go to the hospital. If you don't, let them know what our policy is going to be. Page 5 of 22 Ms. Frye: So, I guess I have a question about charging. It sounds like additiona lly we'll charge if it's determined the request was for services that were not lift assists of a medical or emergency nature. I mean, that implies that that's not, you don't get three times. Like the first time we come out and you determined that it's not medical or emergency, there's going to be a charge. Is that correct? Chief Bell: That's not the intent of it. You know, we want to look at it. What we also want to, we had a female, and this has probably been 7 or 8 years now. Community stopped going to 450 Baker because she would call and say, I need you to get my medicine, and I need you to do this. Well that's not even a lift assist. You' re not even, but she called family members and they'd stop. You know, you have someone call and say, my son is upstairs and he won't answer the phone. Can you guys go up and get him? Ms. Frye: I guess I'm thinking of a couple of situations t hat I or someone I know. We brought my Dad home from the hospital with Alzheimer's. They put him in the car and a wheelchair and didn't point out that at this point he couldn' t walk. And so we're out in the driveway and he can't get out of the car. I have a relative who has a husband with Parkinson's, and sometimes he can walk and somet imes he can' t walk. That situation has gotten to the point where other things are taking place. But I guess I'm thinking of a situation like that where if you have Parkinson's and you're not really ready to go, but things happen. Is that considered medical? Like the fourth time someone falls in a year, because... Chief Bell: What we try to do and say because we've had those instances where somebody calls and says, hey I need t he truck to come up here because my wife needs to go to The James. Okay, we send them up there. They get her loaded into the car. I'll go up because I heard the call, and I'll say okay do we have a plan to bring her home? Well yes, we're going to call you guys again. Do you have any other plans? Is there anything else you can do? Well, I guess I could call my nephews and they could meet us here. I say, that's plan #1. We want people to start thinking of other options and stuff. If it's an emergency and they have to go down, of course we want to help move in and out. But when we become the de facto and part of the thing that's written in here when you say facilities and stuff, and Mark's been in these meetings and I've talked to other Fire Chiefs t hat are out there. And it will be coming to us. They're getting to the point where dialysis centers, other medical places like that, o r we have our nursing homes and stuff are not wanting to put their staff in BWC claims, back injuries. I want to protect them from back injuries. So, you start going, hey I got a person at dialysis, call the Fire Department. And this is going on throughout the state to EMS whether it's private ambulance services and us. The'( re saying we don' t want our people to hurt t heir back and protect our staff. We're going to call the Fire Department to come because the Fire Department always comes. We want to be helpful, but that's why the facilities. We haven't had a lot of that yet, but it is in the state. The reason we wrote that in is it is coming. Ms. Frye: That makes perfect sense. I mean that's their job. Chief Bell: That's why we say if you need it, then they need to have either more staff or get equipment or something like that. But to your case, we want to help where we can, but we don't want to become t hat default. If you're calling me on a Tuesday and say can you guys come on Thursday and put so and so back in? I'll be saying, have you checked on everything else first ? Check everything else first. If we put this in, for me that would be one of our, hey we' re coming and it is nonemergency. We' ll come do it, and we' ll give you three. And then that kind of gets you thinking, well what else can I do or how do I think? Because most people are very reasonable when I talk to them, putting a plan together, but you have that 5 percent that will say, 10-20 times a month you'll come and do whatever I want you to do. Page 6 of 22 Ms. Frye: Yes, that's a completely different situation. I'm thinking more of an aging population that their children aren't in the area and things like that are going to happen, where they don't have a nephew to call. Well someone's going to have to pick that guy up off the floor. Chief Bell: And this is something we'll have to work through as these things come up, you know? We're trying to think of everything, but we can't always. 1 Mr. Ballmer: Chances are, you re not going to abuse the system. If you bring your father home and he falls in the driveway, somebody's going to come. 1 Ms. Frye: Well that was really the only time. And that's just because my 6'3" husband wasn t available to call him up. Mr. Ballmer: Yes, it's more of a checkpoint for abuse to try to back things off. Chief Bell: And sometimes people just don't think. I mean, we get so centered on, if I need help, which is wonderful, we call 911. Do I need help? Yes, so I'm going to call for help. We had a young lady call. She needed to get her mother to Columbus. This was another one to a doctor's appointment. We showed up. I showed up with the crew. We got her down the steps and everything. I stopped to talk to her, hey before you come back, do you have anything else going on? By that afternoon before they got her back from Columbus, they actually had people at home building a ramp. That's all they needed was a ra mp! Or we can get t hem wit h the Agency on Aging and say would a ramp change all of this for you? And it was life changing. There was another gentleman that he just wanted somebody to care. We went up there, we'd been helping him with his wife. And he said you know what? I'm just waiting until the insurance comes through with a wheelchair. We went straight to the Carr Center and said, just go to the Carr Center and you tell them. They will get you a wheelchair. He said, that's all I wanted, I just needed a little help. I just needed someone to point me in the right direction to help me a little bit. I don't think he has called back. He has plenty of family helping. But he was kind of stuck, and that can be overwhelmi ng and depressing. So, yes we want to work with people. I hope that we don't send out a single bill, but we want them to think, as soon as we start out, let's get a plan. Let's get a plan together and get you the best quality of life we can, whether that's in the nursing home or whet her that's with home 1 healthcare or you re moving in with family or we're doing something. Sometimes they want the help of family, but they don't want to be a burden. Sometimes if they can call up and say the Fire Department is going to charge me after the third time, what do you want to do? Well now l m motivated to say let1 s make a plan for 1 Mom and for Dad and what can we do? Mr. Ballmer: Thanks Chief. Is there any other discussion or questions? Mr. Vincent. President Vincent: Just real quick. Chief, as far as will this be like EMS soft billing? Chief Bell: Well, and that's something we have to discuss. The one thing I will say with soft billing, the people that are abusi ng it, once you tell them it is soft billed, and they will say I don't care because you1 re not going to come after me. It has to have some teeth in it. EMS we soft bill because it is a service that we provide. We provide EMS to the city. We do not provide home healthcare. So I would suggest we hard bill it simply because 1 if someone's going to abuse it and they say you can send me all the bills and I don t pay them and there's no Page 7 of 22 consequence whatsoever. I'll let them stack up. But no, the taxpayers pay us for emergency services, that's EMS, Fire, something like that. They don't pay us for home healthca re. President Vincent: And then have you had instances where you're out providing service like t his and an emergency call comes In and it's a delayed response? Chief Bell: Yes, because once you're designated to something, that's something you say oh that sounds like that's more important or something. We can't really go off of it because once the call comes in, you're dedicated to that until you finish it up. Sometimes you can rush it along. But yes, there have been times where there's been a delay, whether it's a large incident or even something as simple as you have an emergency that is right down t he street from the Fire Department, and you're over here. So the next thing I have to do is I have to have somebody come from another district, which slows down. Firefighter Colopy: We had a structure fire on the mid 500 block of Sheridan Street and 3 had to go clear to Richvale and Northpointe to a retirement communit y for a lift assist. And we had a working fire on division two of a house. It worked out for us downtown. We were first due. However, they could have gotten there a lot quicker, being in their district. But they had to go do a lift assist for how many times out that way. President Vincent: Okay, thank you. Mr. Ballmer: I'll entertain a motion then that we recommend this for passage to Council. Mrs. Osborn: So moved. Ms. Frye: Second. Mr. Ballmer: All in favor, aye. Any opposed nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: All right, that motion carries, and we'll recommend that for passage. S. Ordinance No. 2025-100 - Introduced by Council - An Ordinance establishing fee structure for the Zanesville Fire Division for repeated fire inspections and for speclal events such as fireworks. Chief Bell: So, this is something that we've kind of been working on. We have Chad Janes, Assistant Chief, who is just an amazing asset for the city. He is widely respected throughout the state, the State Fire Marshall's Office and their inspectors. He's been invited to a lot of other counties and places because they revere him that much. He is our one inspector. So, I was just pulling for the last 6 months, he works a 40-hour shift, so 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. In the last six months, he has completed 545 inspections in the last 180 days. I think today he had 10 scheduled that he did. When we say an inspection, he's going into businesses. We always try to do the high occupancy ones first. So every year he makes sure that the schools have their inspections, make sure the churches, the shopping areas and stuff w here we have a lot of people in, and he does those. He has State Fire Marshall come down. And they're in charge of hotels and stuff, and they call him in to be the local authority having jurisdiction and they go through with him. He does that. On top of that, he does a lot of Page 8 of 22 our training and stuff. Plans review, any new business t hat comes t hrough, he has to look at and works with the Building Department. We have tried to do things that we can to simplify his job. We got him a printer that goes in his vehicle so when he does have violations, he can go out to t he vehicle, put it in his iPad, print it up for them and hand it to them there for some of the facilities that don't have an email that he can't email it to them. What we're t rying to do is just kind of help him along. Our process right now is if you do the initia l inspection and you have any violations, we give you 30 days to address your violations. We come back and we do a re-inspect. If you don't have all the violations fixed at the re-inspect, we give you another 30 days and we'll come back then. That's at 60 days. If you don't, we do another re-inspect and at that point they get a letter from the Chief saying we're going to be turn ing t his over to Code Enforcement since you haven't been able to work with us, the next step is Court and fines and stuff. We don't want to take it to that. Very rarely, Chad has a very high completion rate of getting people to cooperate. What we're trying to do is lessen the number of times he has to go back, not the first t ime. We have t o do the first one. We have to do the second one. We' re trying to lessen the number of third and fourth inspections w e're doi ng. Now having said that, we're giving him the freedom to say, if I come into your facility, and I say you had an exit light out, you're missing some covers for a couple of your outlets or somet hing, and you need to get your hood system inspected. And we come back and you've done everything but the hood inspection and said, I have Sileo coming down or I have somebody coming and working on it. We' re not going to charge anything for t hat because you're doing your part. You can't control when the company's going to come there. But t he ones where he goes back and they haven't done anythi ng. Or they said, well we had a different manager there, so we' re going to start the thing all over again. We're just trying to get him to be able to be as efficient as he can and not have as many re-inspects. There were some other things. There's other communities that we looked at su rrounding cities and stuff, Lancaster and stuff. They have pages of stuff t hat they charge for. They charge for their plans reviews. They charge for all t hese other t hings. We believe that's part of what fi re protection is. We don't want to charge people. We want them to welcome us in, and we want to bring business in and we don't want to put charges on t hat for those things. But we also want to, again, encourage. I hope we never send a fee out, then somebody become uncooperative. But it's that little bit of thing where a lot of times we'll have people that are in these businesses say I called corporate and they're not really cooperating with them. Once you tell corporate, t he next one is $50 and the one after that is $100. All of a sudden, they're sayi ng just call t his person. We'll get maintenance down there right now. So it's helping some of these people that are trying to get the ball rolling on their end in t hat. So, t hat's what we're looking at. We looked at some other things. One of the things that stuck out with us, this last spring, I attended a training. The State Fire Marshall is now looking very hard since the laws changed and everything on fireworks that is making them more accessible. We're doing more shows. As of March, t hey started and as of August 1st, they will not accept paper copies for our inspections anymore of firework shows. So, to do a firework show, we have to be there from when they set the first firework down there, and Dan can help me out. That might be a couple hours by the time you're setting big shows or something? Everything is set before you start firing? President Vincent: You start when you start loading? Chief Bell: When they start unloading, we have to have an inspector on scene. Page 9 of 22 President Vincent: Unloading fireworks? Chief Bell: Yes. Once they get there. So, we have the inspector on there until the show is over and we do all th the cleanup and everything like that. So, they're putting more pressure on us. The ones we had over July 4 ' a week after, we turned our stuff in. I got a call, and they said there were a couple boxes that weren't checked 1 in here. I said, do you need us to fix it? They said no, we're just educating you, but come August l5 . So, it's something they let slide in the past. They haven't been inspecting them. We try to cover it with on-duty personnel. But the commitment to it and what they're expecting from us, we're going to have to kind of have to fit that in to pass that cost along so that we can have an inspector. Whether there's a fire or whether there's anything else, they're dedicated to that show, and they have to stay there. In the past we've kind of done that as we're the city. If the Mayor and city comes down and said we want to waive those, we're fine. I'm fine with going along with that, but we want to set it in there just so we're covered. Mr. Ballmer: Are there any questions from the committee? Ms. Frye: How many times in the summer, like how many places would do, and this is just curiosity, how often would you find yourself in that situation? Where you were inspecting? Chief Bell: I mean, July 4th is a big one. We have two shows July 4th - Other than that, it would be usually about football season, like this time of year. In the past, Rosecrans has had it. When Rosecrans had it, I just went up and did it. I went up and did the inspection and sat there with my wife. We sat in my fire vehicle just outside of the thing. Every time Rosecrans scored a touchdown, they fired one off. And then we did the cleanup and did all the paperwork, turned it in. So, not very often. Zanesville a couple years ago. This is just kind of putting it in place a little bit for the future because the State Fire Marshall says it is coming. Now that they've eased up and we're doing firework shows and we're doing all of that, there's going to be more of a demand and more of them. Ms. Frye: Well, honestly, even though I'm new, and I should be keeping my mouth shut, I have to say I'd probably up this re-inspection fee, and I'd probably knock $50 off the home people and add $50 to this. Especially if people are like, we have to call corporate or we have to whatever. If you can't get something done in 60 days, and you have a business, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy. I mean, I think $50 they're getting off easy. But it's a good idea! I agree that you need to do it. Chief Bell: Oh yeah. And we've looked at different, I mean we tried to be fairly onboard with some of the things that are going around. You know, we didn't just say, we're inventing this. We pulled many what we thought were like-sized departments... Ms. Frye: And is that what they charge? Chief Bell: ...that are doing some of the same things. And it's always a progressive thing. Some of them start a little bit higher. Like I said, you go to California. First time it's $500. You know, that's something that we're like we don't want it to be a shock, but we want to be a little bit of a, hey I need to hurry this along. Mr. Bal Imer: And I think that this being the first time, it's kind of the same thing Ii ke we talked about with trick or treat. We can work it, if it needs adjusted, we can easily adjust it. Page 10 of 22 Chief Bell: W e'll take any input. The first thing that we looked at, we were going to do, I'm backing up a little bit. But we looked at the lift assist. One of the things w e looked at first was we said, a lot of them say you get two in a rolling year, and then it's progressive. So then it's two and then $100, and then $150, and then $200 or $250, and then from then on out it stays that higher amount. We kind of looked at that and talked a little bit about a year is a long time, and we thought, you know what? Let's set it one consistent amount. So when we're sending it out, we don't have any argument about, wait that was my thlrd t ime, not my fourth time. Keep it one consistent, w hatever we decide that is. If we decide that's $200, I'd be good to entertain that. Talking to administration and people that have worked on it with us, I would entertain that. But I think if you keep it one rate, there's no arguing over, that was on ly my 4 th and should have been my 5th . We thought it was important t o give t hem a 3rd in a rolling year because you don't know what's going to happen. You know, we don't want them to not call when you need us. We just don't want to be that crutch. Ms. Frye: Right, oh agree with that completely! Chief Bell: Like I said, anytime that they would go to the hospital or there's an injury or something like that, this does not count toward it at all! We just want them to start thinking about other options. Now let's get back to the fees. Mr. Ballmer: Okay, you good? Ms. Frye: Yes, I'm good. Mr. Ballmer: Mr. Vincent. President Vincent: Mr. Ballmer, if I could please? Mr. Ballmer: Mr. Vincent, yes. President Vincent: With that, if Council, if you look under section two on this ordinance where it says, "Adjustments to the fee schedules will be communicated from the Mayor or Safety Director to City Council." If Council wants to know about this or have a say in as far as the increases, I think we're going t o need to add wording like, "increases approved by Council" or something to that effect. If Council wants that, or if they just want the M ayor or Safety Director to go make those raises on their own and just let you know about it. It's something to consider as far as, and we'll bring that up during Council then. So with that, you had said they would be dedicated like the fireworks t hen. They would be dedicated? They would have to be there the entire time? Chief Bell: So, we would be calling in overtime. Right now, we try to cover with on-duty crews. Sometime if it's an Assistant Chief, I would come in July 4 th and cover the runs while he's dedicated down there. But what w e're trying to do is just in some instances it is not going to cover your whole cost, but it offsets a little bit of our overtime in that. Kind of along the same lines of we looked to maybe expand a little bit, but we're not ready at this point. Let's say you're throwing some kind of festival or somet hing down there in the Secrest. And you call ZPD and say I' m going to need three officers. They say, well your rate is $50 an hour for officers. We'll put the signup sheet up if anybody wants to come. So it's kind of like that except t he fact that the city would be collecting t hat to offset the overtime going out. We're not ready to do the other where you would Page 11 of 22 have a non, there's other entities out there that provide fire watch at like $75 an hour. If your system is down, they say well we don't have employees that we can leave overnight. They'll say well it's expensive, but you have to have somebody walking through and checking the system and checking the doors and checking everything every 20 minutes. There are departments that do that, but the rate is about $75 an hour. President Vincent: Okay. Chief Bell: So, that's why we're looking at it that way. President Vincent: So, anyone committed to a fireworks display would be out of service then? They would be dedicated? They couldn't leave? Chief Bell: Yes, they would just be there, and once it's over, they're clocked out. President Vincent: Okay, and with that, I'm trying to get a better handle on this to understand things. Looking at Ohio Revised Code, it seems to me that only one person really needs to be the inspector is the only one that's absolutely needed at a fireworks display to inspect before, keep inspecting and watching during, and then after cleanup then too? Correct? Chief Bell: Yes, unless they change that, it will just be one inspector. Some of the language we had in there had to do with some municipality saying crews. And that's whatever they have on theirs. But we would do whatever was required. But I think a lot of theirs are again, they're using on-duty personnel I believe. President Vincent As far as inspectors, who can do that? Chief Bell: Anybody that has completed the State of Ohio Inspector Course and pass the test. So, anybody that can do fire inspections could be also. President Vincent: Is that quite a few people at the department? Or is that a limited to leadership? Chief Bell: All of our officers are and then some of our firefighters are also. President Vincent: So, it would be you, as Chief, Assistant Chief... Chief Bell: Lieutenants, and then we have other people that also are officers in some of our surrounding departments that have taken a lot of those courses and stuff. So, we have a lot of knowledge, skills, and abilities that we could have people in to provide the service. President Vincent: I'm sorry, the last part was just some of the firefighters have it also? Chief Bell: Yes, some of our firefighters are officers in our surrounding departments on their days off. So they're bringing a lot of that education and experience into their shift days for us. President Vincent: Thank you, appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Page 12 of 22 Mr. Ballmer: Mr. Vincent, just so I'm clear on section two there, if we're reading it correctly, basically the Mayor or Safety Director could go ahead and adjust the fee schedule, and they would just let us know? Is that how you're reading that? President Vincent: Yes, that's how I take it. We can get input from the Law Director. But I think they make the adjustments and then just notify Council. Mr. Ballmer: Okay, so Council doesn't necessarily have to vote on the new adjustments. They would just be made aware that adjustments have been made? President Vincent: Correct. So, if Council wants some input into that, we would need different language. Mr. Ballmer: Okay, is that how you're reading it is in section two now. Does section two need to be reworded for perspective? President Vincent: Yes, I think I would like the Law Director's input on that as far as how to word it, what he feels is best. But, I think yes, some additional wording there to that it would come back to Council for Council's approval on any increases to fees. Mr. Ballmer: Okay. Committee? We clear on that? Affirmative responses from Ms. Frye and Mrs. Osborn. Mr. Ballmer: Okay, we can work on that language and get that ready for the next City Council? President Vincent: Yes, if the committee recommends that or it can go to Council and someone from Council can recommend. Mr. Ballmer: Okay. Just want to leave it as it is and recommend it to Council? Or do you want to go ahead and reword it now? Mrs. Osborn: I would move that we recommend itto Council with the language approval by the Law Director? President Vincent: That's it. Mr. Ballmer: Okay. President Vincent: Or for the purpose of Council's input? Mrs. Osborn: Yes, for the purpose of Council's input and approval of the fees. Ms. Frye: Sounds good. Mr. Ballmer: So, we're good? So, Joey you'll recommend that? Mrs. Osborn: Yes. Page 13 of 22 M s. Frye: And I'll second. Mr. Ballmer: All in favor of that, aye. Any opposed, nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed . Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: That will carry. We' ll recommend that with t hat changed language into Council for passage. 6. Ordinance No. 2025-101- Introduced by Council -An Ordinance authorizing the proper cit y official to advertise for bids and enter into a contract with the lowest and/or best bidder for labor and maintenance of the City Fire Department apparatuses and declaring an emergency. Chief Bell: If everybody remembers, we came to you to look for an outside vendor to work on our fire apparatus. We wanted to get people w ho had certifications and people that see it every day that you can diagnose. I think that's one of the biggest things. There's a lot of things that, out o_f my personal life, there's some knowledge, skills, and abilities I have, but sometimes like as a mechanic, I can replace a part, but the diagnosis is the hard part. So you want somebody that sees this all the time and has certifications for pumps and ladders. We've had great success over the last year. Atlantic was the winner of the bid, and we had their mechanic comes up one day a week. And whatever is most pressing, that is what he works on. When we first got into it, there were a lot of things t hat we didn't know. They see it all the time. But t here are t hings like, well there's a grease fitting there. Well, we've had this truck for 10 years, and there's never been grease in that grease fitting. Or there was a filter that was between a couple things and we were wondering why it was not running like it should. And they go, well that f ilter is the original filter, and that was supposed to be changed out on a regular basis. So we've learned a lot with it as he's come in. I've been here 23 years, and I think this last week, we had our pump t esting. I think it's the fi rst t ime that everything passed pump testing the first time through. So every year we have to have ladders tested and we have to have pumps tested. And there's always something where there's not enough pu ll on this or there's a gauge not working. This time they came and did pump testing, and everything passed the first time. So we didn't have a fix-it list to go back. What we did was we started looking because it is a service contract for labor, but it is right near that $75,000 that you're looking at. So if we go over that, then they start looking at that, the Budget & Finance team. Amanda was like, you know we really put ourselves in a thing where it could look like if they come In and audit our books, if you're trying to play something. So t he best thing is to start back at the beginning and let's reintroduce this as a bid, and then it's open to everybody again. So it doesn't look, if they come back, and go, well you ·went $80,000 or you went this over the contract. So we just wanted to do it so there's no questions about it. Amanda, was there anything else you would like to add on it? We've gone back and forth with t his from t he talks that we've had. Amanda Perkowski: Right. The Auditor's Office expressed a concern about competitive bidding threshold. So it was my concern, making sure we get an accurate reflection of services being provided. So, if this shou ld be approved, the Fire Department is going to put together a scope of services, just making sure we're being compliant. Page 14 of 22 Mr. Ballmer: Okay, questions from the committee? How does the cost of this relate t his year to what it was in the past year? Chief Bell: It's going to go out to bid, so I don' t know. When At lant ic came back, they gave us the same rates when they were renewing. They said, you've been a customer with us, and they will tailor it however we want and work with us on what we want. But as far as the hou rly rate, he said the contract last year is the same as what we have. So, your hourly rate will be the same. But, now that it's going out to bid, I don't know if that's going to be what their bid package is or who else is going to bid and what they're going to put in. But we look for lowest and best. When we looked at them even this year, one of the things we looked at was the number of hours you're paying for. So we had a couple bids in there. One of them got us an extra hour plus a day of service, even though the hourly rate was a little bit more. So when you start breaking it down, t he working period is less because there's some travel costs and things in there that they include. Amanda Perkowski: If I may, this was a very, we'll say a big estimat e. We're not quite sure if these services put out to bid this second round will be the same as the first round. So it may not be apples to apples. We' ll have to wait to see what the Fire Department presents. It may not be the same. Mr. Ballmer: I do know that very specific equipment that needs very specific intention and grateful we can do this to keep everything in good working order. Are there any other questions? Then I'll entertain a motion to recommend this to Council for passage so we can get this moving. Ms. Frye: So moved. Mrs. Osborn: Second. Mr. Ballmer: All in favor then of recommending to Council for passage, aye. Any opposed, nay? A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed . Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: That carries. Thank you. DISCUSSION ITEMS 7. Grant Writing Contract Presentation by Mickey Smith Mr. Ballmer: The last item is the discussion item, the grant writing contract presentat ion. President Vincent: Mr. Chairman, if I could please? Mr. Ballmer: Yes. President Vincent: My apologies. I didn't think of this earlier. I didn't look at all my notes. Back to the fireworks displays, I talked to the Mayor originally with this, and my concern was doing this, the Jaycees volunteer and they work to raise a lot of money for fireworks shows. And they put these on, and the City gets credit even though it's a Jaycees event. We get praised for it as far as the City. And it's a public event and open. But with that, I'm just concerned, is this going to cost the Jaycees more money as far as to have an inspector onsite, Page 15 of 22 and he said no. He said they would be excluded because it's a public event versus a private event. So, I'm going to talk to the Law Director hopefully Friday, and we might need to include some language in then about that to distinguish between private and public events. Private events like Rosecrans would be for their school. Country club is the other one, the big one for their members only, not a public event. So, just wanted to share that to plant a seed in your mind. Thank you, my apologies. Mr. Ballmer: Very good, thank you. Chief Bell: So, tonight one of the things that we're looking at, we're always tasked with, we know that we have large ticket items that we get. One of the things that came to us we've been thinking of for several years is our air bottles and air packs have a finite life to them. And when we get them, it's not like our gear where we can say, well we're going to buy two this year and we're going to buy two next year. And we're going to do it over a thing. When you get them, you have to get them all at once because one, the compatibility. Anything that is new and that is out there right now, the buddy breathers and everything else that are incorporated in ours wouldn't work. And also, when we're training our firefighters, you don't want them to have to learn on a lifesaving device like your air pack and stuff to think well I'm at this station on this truck, so I have the old pack and this is where this is and this is where that is. You want it to be automatic. So when we make the change, it has to be all at once. Well, that is a large expenditure. We're looking at all the bottles because they get tested and hydrostatted and then we're told that's the end of their life. And then we have wonderful people, Firefighter Austin Colopy is here. He does our masks and he does our packs and everything else and works with our vendors to make sure that they're running. But more and more we have to send more and more packs out as it is. So, we're moving stuff around. We have fewer reserve packs. That's our big item right there that we have to have to do the job that we do whether it's for hazardous materials, whether it's for car fires, structure fires, or anything like that. So it's an expenditure we're going to have to make. So how do we help ourselves? We get the people that are the best at what they do and say, ca n you get us some money and soften that blow? The guy I'm going to introduce you to is the guy that softens the blow for a lot of departments outside the state, and he'll be very happy to answer any of your questions and all that. This is Mickey Smith. Mickey Smith: Guys, how are you? At this time Mr. Smith disbursed pens and other promotional gifts. Mickey Smith: I am Mickey Smith. I am the president and CEO of Nationwide First Responder Grants. I've been doing fire and EMS and law enforcement grants for 20+ years, give or take. I've been in business since 2014. I'm a retired Firefighter/Paramedic myself, 25 years. Since 2014, we've done about $110 million in awards. Now, with the addition of this round of awards that are coming up now, which should be delivered this week, we should eclipse $120 million, give or take. Now, a little bit about the company and how things work. We work directly with the Fire Chief or his designee. In this case, it's going to be Austin. But, the whole goal is to reduce the amount of financial strain on agencies. You know this as well as I do, everyone has got the budget, and we have to stay within a reasonable price. Because we can't keep going back to taxpayers and asking for more money, especially in these days and times. So where I come in, I come in and I assess agencies to see whether or not they are a reasonable fit for the grants. In other words, just because the Fire Chief says I want this does not mean that I'm going to do the Page 16 of 22 project unless it has a reasonable chance of success. Reasonable being greater than 51 percent. I do not take it on simply because I don't want to waste your money or waste my time. When it comes down to success rates, you've heard the dollar figure. This is a firefighter's grant project which has been in place since just after 9/11. To be considered successful, we need a 15 percent success rate. Annually, we eclipse 67 percent. Depending upon what specific area, we go up to 90 percent. One of the areas that we intend to excel in are SCBA's. The goal is with the program is to get a reasonable number to replace what's on the trucks to get the guys outfitted with what they need to keep them safe. The whole goal is to make sure that everybody comes home after their shift. And in doing so, even if they go home, we want to make sure we send them home and they're not injured. So this program provides that equipment at a fraction of the cost that you have to pay if you just bought out of pocket. In fact, for your population which is right around 24,000, give or take, the federal government will give the equipment to you at 10 percent on a dollar. So you're looking at a dime on the dollar. So, for projects such as his, I mean I would have to go back over the numbers, but I think we figured somewhere in the area of $17,000 - $18,000 for out of the city versus well over $200,000, okay? So, in addition to the air packs, we're looking at PP washers, okay? Because the whole point of it is, is to keep these guys safe, right? So we want to make sure they don't want to go home with anything on their clothes that is going to hurt them. Well, even if they have fire gear on, they still will get stuff on them if they don't shower before they go home. So the whole point is to make sure that they are kept as clean as possible. Because the last thing that you want to do is have secondary contact with your family. We learned this through COVID. We brought it home. Unfortunately I was one of them. It's kind of why I sound as gravelly as I do. But additionally with the air handling and air evacuation devices, exhaust removal, what we're doing is we're trying to cut down on cancer rates on firefighters because if you look at the numbers, we are one of the highest employments that get cancer. It's unavoidable, but it doesn't have to be completely out of control. So by doing these projects, we are providing a service to the City. God willing we get everything awarded that we ask for, they're going to be done at a minimum to the taxpayer, okay? So at least 15 years' worth of service is what you're going to get out of your investment, if you're awarded, okay? Now, you have to understand that the award process itself, there's a finite amount of money, and it is for all SO states and all of the territories. Again, given your size, given the number of stations, given the number of calls that you take, you are a very reasonable fit for the program. And you're going to score reasonably high. Is that a guarantee of an award? It is absolutely not a guarantee. There is no such thing as a guarantee besides death and taxes. However, what we want to do is we want to try to put yourself in a strategic position to where we can free up some dollar figure so that we can either hire more firefighters, we can get other equipment that the grant wouldn't cover at a very bare minimum expense. The whole point is we want to have a return of cost benefit that is reasonable for your taxpayers. So, I could go on for an hour, but I'm not going to. If you guys have got questions, by all means, ask. Mr. Ballmer: Are there any questions, committee? Ms. Frye: How are you paid? One of the most basic questions. Mickey Smith: Okay, so your first project would be $3000. Your second project would be $2500. Your third project would be $2000. They specifically will drop by $500 each. That is paid out of city funding. That initial Page 17 of 22 investment is out of city funds. Now, I do not take any funding up front. I don't believe that's correct in doing this. So what we do is we, once you approve a contract, we start the process. Once we get the process done, that's when we get paid, okay? Now, you have got a 10 percent match that would be due if you're awarded, but not at the t ime of the award. It would be at the time that you take delivery of whatever that you are awarded. Because the myth is that everybody gets scared that oh my God, we awarded $300,000 in equipment that we have to choke out $30,000 to the federal government. That's not how that works. For ease in firefighter mat h, let's just say you get awarded $100,000. They're truly only going to give you $90,000, and you make up for t he 10 percent out of pocket, okay? Now, on the backend, my company, we charge a bonus percentage that we let you pick what you can afford. At no point in time am I going to walk into your house and demand this is how it has to be. It's what you guys can afford. The reason I do it that way is simply because I started out in the volunteer fire service. I took my first run in a '79 LaFrance open cab pumper. Five years later, I got that truck replaced on a grant. So it's very personal for me. I know what it's like to run on a shoestring budget and keep trucks together with bale and twine and duct tape. That very truck, we had to shove a dime in the f use box to get it to start. So, I get it. It's not quite that bad here, but it's going to prevent things from getting that bad. Is there anything else? Mrs. Osborn: I have a few questions. So, is the $3000, $2500, and $2000 and so forth, is that whether the grant is awarded or not? Mickey Smith: Correct. Mrs. Osborn: Correct, okay. And the 10 percent match, is your fee part of that counted in the grant as part of that match? Mickey Smith: No, the 10 percent fee is established by the federal government. It's based on your population . Mrs. Osborn: Okay. Mickey Smith: The remalnder of the fee, if you are awarded, comes out of the Fire Department funds. It cannot come out of the award itself because that is illegal. Mrs. Osborn: Okay. How is the system for submitting these because when I successfully wrote New Concord's and Dresden's in 2001 and 2002, we had to get on at 2 a.m. in order to be able to submit anything! Has that improved? Or do you get in at 2 a.m. as well? Mickey Smith: Yes. I usually stay awake for about 24 hours at a time doing the projects in front of me. Mrs. Osborn: They're terrible. Mickey Smith: Yes, they are. The old system, the Legacy system that you're speaking of has been taken out of service. Mrs. Osborn: Thank God. Page 18 of 22 Mickey Smith: You don't want to deal with the current one. But anyway, the new FEMA GO system is now what we're using, and it handles all FEMA grants across t he board. Mrs. Osborn: Okay. Mickey Smith: It's tricky. It's kind of a work in progress, but it does work for the program. There's a learning curve there. And for people that have never done it, you know what it's like. I worked on the Legacy system. It is easier, but again it's got its own intricacies. Mr. Ballmer: Okay. Mr. Vincent, got anything? Chief, is there anything you'd like to add real quick? Chief Bell: Just to kind of give you a few more numbers and stuff. Mickey came up and was talking about projects. I would just like to say when we were looking to get a rescue engine and we came to Council to get that, it wasn't the first call I made. I started calling some other Fire Chiefs, and I kept hearing Mickey's name. You do! You say, we got this, and they say you need to call him. He got on the phone, and the first thing he said was give me all your information. And he said, I'm not taking your money. When you look at the age of your equipment and everything else, I'd be taking your money because you're not going to get it. And what we look at, and I' ve had conversations with chiefs around and stuff. The way the system is set up right now, is the way it should be set up, is your funds should go to the tip of the spear. It should be the people that are providing the service. But, they don't look and say your truck is going out 10 times a day for runs, and it is 15 years old, you don't get one. But there's a truck over here that's 10 years old and it goes out for a parade and two times a month in a township. But by gosh they need t o get one because we're looking. And it's not apples to apples. So the second thing I did on that was call Mickey, and he said, yes we don't. He said, but let me know if something else comes up, and he started talking. I said, well I know these air packs are going to be a big cost out to us and how do we pay for that? So I called him, and he said yes, that's something that fits in our thing. I think we can take a good swing at that. And while he was in there, I said, well is there anything else because they are always saying, look for money, look for money, and that we' re going to do it. He goes, these are two other projects. So he gave us three projects. Air packs had to be a must. The other two projects he said down the road you're going to pay for this. Do you want to pay for it all now or do you want us to go look for that money? I said, well give us what the cost is. Austin, do you want to? He's been our numbers guy. Did you give him the numbers on, what are we looking on the air packs for the number of air packs and bottles and stuff we wou ld need? What is that cost going to be? I think I know it off the top of my head, over half a million. Firefighter Colopy: It's over half a million. However, when you have projects like t his, they will work with you on numbers and such. It's at $551,580. That is for the air packs, bottles, and masks. Chief Bell: Project number two, which is the station modification exhaust. Firefighter Colopy: For Station One, it is $78,000, for Station Two, it is $42,510, and for Station Three it is going to be $82,863, for a grand total of $203,451. Our third and final project is for our gear extractors and dryer, it was $48,101.50. Chief Bell: And we had bought one on our BWC grant on the cycle that we were available for it before, so we had one. But t he last one we bought, we had to pay out of pocket. So when he started talking about, I can get Page 19 of 22 t his at a discounted thing, it's a good investment for us. Because like you said, you're looking at a 15-year investment especially on the bottles and packs. As far as some of the other numbers and stuff as Mickey was saying, the fee for them to submit it and monitor it, that's going to be about $7500 total on the three grants. w e· have to come up wit h the 10 percent from the government to match. And he's sending me texts because we have to fix, how do you guys want to do it? But they give you an audit of whatever we get awarded could be 7 percent. That would be a normal percentage. I say something like 7 percent. So whatever we're awarded, not what he goes out to get us, whatever we would get from the federal government is, what fee do you call that? I' m sorry. Mickey Smith: We call it a bonus. Both Chief Bell and Mickey Smith were speaking at once, making it difficult to hear. Chief Bell: You know, 7 percent is a good number on something like that. Mickey Smith: And that's only the federal amount, not the entire project value. Because if we're doing it on the entire project value, I'd be charging to use your money, which is inappropriate. Chief Bell: I just wanted to get those numbers out there just so you guys can kind of get in your mind so you know what other questions to ask. Mr. Ballmer: Dan, wit h t his, do we have to have an ordinance for this? Or because it's a contract, can it just be awarded? President Vincent: The original concerns talking about that, under $7500, t he Mayor felt it was fine under that. But again, I want t he Law Director, put on this because we've had problems before as far as not having things put in place, Council approval, with grant writers. So we want to make sure we have everything correct so it doesn't cause problems for you or for us then. Mr. Ballmer: I agree. If we need to get that moving forward because again I helped with the second truck we just ordered, and I know the team did a great job. There's a lot of work that goes in. They need the best equipment they can so when they roll up on something regardless of what it is, they can do their job properly. We need to get this going. President Vincent With that, I may call on your help with t hat, as far as talking with the Law Director because I couldn't quite hear everything. So t here's some stuff I'm missing here. With t hat, one question, we applied for a grant in the past, and I forget who that was with. The only thing 1 can remember is to ventilate the stations, the exhaust, and we didn't use that then and it went back. Does that have potential to hurt us any? Mickey Smith: I don't know where that grant came from, first off. President Vincent I don't know off the top of my head. Mickey Smith: How long ago roughly? Chief Bell: It would have been early 2000's. It was under Chief Lacy at that time. Page 20 of 22 Mickey Smith: Chances are, then no. President Vincent: Good! Mickey Smith: Since it's past the Legacy system. President Vincent: Okay, t hank you. Mr. Ballmer: Are there any other questions or thoughts? Thank you for taking the time. Mickey Smith: Yes, sir! Mr. Ballmer: We appreciate it very much. Is there anything else for the good of the order? Mr. Vincent? Yes, Mr. Colopy. Firefighter Colopy: I just want to say thanks for Mickey Smith coming down. We really appreciate it, and we hope to use your services. Chief Bell: I had one question. Because, and as Mrs. Osborn knows, there's a cycle for these things. What is our deadline to get in for you to apply in this cycle? Mickey Smith: Good call because I forgot to mention that! So, the FY24 awards, they are about to be dropped this week. So, as everybody knows, a calendar year and a fiscal year run one year apart from each other. The FY25 program, to t he best of my knowledge, is supposed to be opening in or around October. So, we really do not have a lot of time to play with it because the amount of information that I'm going to need for this is extensive! So, just a thought for you. Mr. Ballmer: Thank you. Is there anything else? Dan? President Vincent: Do you want to recommend this committee moving forward with this as far as getting an ordinance? Mr. Ballmer: Yes, I think we recommend that we get this in motion and get all the details worked out and get t he ordinance ready so we can try to get in way before the deadline as best we can. President Vincent: Okay, do you want to go to make a motion and make it official? That way we got it. M r. Ballmer: Let's do t hat. Make a motion that we get t his to Council as soon as possible. Ms. Frye: So moved. Mrs. Osborn: Second. Mr. Ballmer: All in favor, aye. Any opposed, nay? Page 21 of 22 A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: All right, that carries then. We'll get that going to the Law Director so we can get it taken care of. Very good. President Vincent: Thank you, appreciate it. Mr. Ballmer: If there' s nothing else for the good of the order, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Mrs. Osborn: Move to adjourn. Ms. Frye: And I'll second. Mr. Ballmer: All in favor, aye. A voice vote was taken with all being in favor. None were opposed. Mr. Hennessey was absent. Mr. Ballmer: Thanks everybody for coming. Have a great evening. The meeting ended at 6:13 p.m. Mark Ballmer, Chairman Billie Corns, Clerk of Council Page 22 of 22 law Director David Tarbert ORDINANCE NO. 202.5-000 INTRODUCED BY COUNCIL AN ORDINANCE PROHIBITING THE OPERATION OF FARM MACHINERY (WHEN NOT USED FOR FARMING PURPOSES) AND GRASS-CUTTING VEHICLES OR RIDING LAWNMOWERS ON CITY STREETS. WHEREAS, Zanesville City Council finds it necessary to promote the safety of motorists and pedestrians within the City limits; and WHEREAS, Council further finds that the operation of farm machinery upon city streets when not used for bona fide agricultural purposes creates unnecessary traffic hazards and obstructs the normal flow of vehicular traffic; and WHEREAS, Council further finds that the operation of grass cutting vehicles or riding lawnmowers upon city streets also creates unnecessary traffic hazards and obstructs the normal flow of vehicular traffic. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Council of the City of Zanesville, State of Ohio: SECTION ONE. The following Section shall be added to the Zanesville City Ordinances: 337.32 OPERATION OF FARM MACHINERY, GRASS-CUTTING VEHICLES, AND RIDING lAWNMOWERS A. DEFINITIONS: For purposes of this ordinance: (a) "Farm machinery" shall have the same meaning as defined in Ohio Revised Code §4501.0l(U), and includes, but is not limited to, tractors, combines, agricultural harvesters, tillers, and similar equipment primarily designed and used for agricultural operations. (b) "Farming purposes" means the use of farm machinery directly in the cultivation, harvesting, or transportation of agricultural products or supplies t o or from a farm. B. PROHIBITION: (a) No person shall op·erate or permit the operation of any farm machinery, including tractors, upon any public street, road, or highway within the City of Zanesville unless such operation is directly related to farming purposes. (b) It shall be unlawful to operate on any roadway, street or highway, shared-use path, sidewalk, or within a public park any grass-cutting vehicle or riding lawnmower.  ORDINANCE NO. 2025-000 C. EXCEPTIONS: This section shall not apply to: (a) Operation when directly crossing a public street from one field or yard to another for purposes of performing services thereon; {b) Governmental operations; (c) Participation in a parade or public event authorized by permit; or (d) Emergency situations as determined by law enforcement or public safety officials. D. PENALTIES: Anyone who violates this section commits a minor misdemeanor. If, within one year of the offense, the offender has previously been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of this Section, violating this Section is a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. If, within one year of the offense, the offender has committed two or more violations of this section, then a violation of this section is a misdemeanor of the third degree. SECTION TWO. This Ordinance shall take effect upon the approval of the Mayor and from and after the earliest period allowed by law PASSED: - - -- - - -- - - -~2025 ATTEST: Billie Corns Daniel M. Vincent Clerk of Council President of Council APPROVED: _ _ __ _ _ __ _ __ _, 2025 This legislation approved as to form: Donald L. Mason Law Director's Office Mayor