MINUTES FOR
THE REGULAR SESSION OF COUNCIL
April 4, 2006
Council President Glen
Stewart called
the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
ROLL
CALL
Ward 1:
Robert
L. Valentine
Present
Ward
2:
Robert M. Valentine
Present
Ward 3:
Ruth
Detrow
Present
Ward 4:
Paul
Wertz
Present
At-large: Glen
Stewart
Present
Note:
Throughout the minutes, Robert L. Valentine and Robert M. Valentine are
designated
as to their ward representation, W1 and W2.
March 21, 2006 Regular
session
Moved by Valentine W1 and
seconded by
Valentine W2 to accept the minutes.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Valentine W1
Abstain:
Stewart
(a)
Downtown parking problem:
Denis Fox, 33 West Main
Street, “Kid’s
Kountry”
Fox explained that he was looking
for the proper avenue to resolve a problem that has been ongoing for at
least
ten years, and that is the parking situation on Main Street: employees
of
downtown businesses and offices are parking in the two-hour parking
spaces,
staying within the letter of the law by moving their vehicles as
necessary, but
violating the spirit of the law. He has
talked to Councilwoman Ruth Detrow and also referenced a letter written
about
the situation ten years ago by Police Chief Bill Miracle.
Discussion centered on aspects of
enforcement.
Stewart asked about a
downtown
merchants’ group that meets on a regular basis and was told that
there is none
any longer. He suggested meeting with
Mr. Fox and Detrow to try to work out something that might not require
additional legislation and yet would drastically diminish the problem. He and Detrow would be in touch with Mr. Fox
within the next week.
Ord. 37-06
Item (a) AN
ORDINANCE
AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO ADVERTISE FOR BIDS AND TO ENTER
INTO
CONTRACTS FOR THE PURCHASE OF EQUIPMENT FOR THE ARBORIST DEPARTMENT,
PARK AND
RECREATION DIVISION OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO; AND DECLARING AN
EMERGENCY.
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by Detrow
to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution
of this
Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a
further
reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Comments:
Park Superintendent Tim Clingan told
Council that since their 1987 bucket truck was put out of commission at
the end
of last year, they have budgeted for a replacement truck, including a
new cab
and chassis with a 65-foot bucket. They
are asking for a 2006 model with a 6-cylinder diesel engine and 250
horsepower
capabilities. This is needed to
maintain the street, park and other trees on City property.
Last year 23 large trees were taken
down because of liability. Without a
department bucket truck, that work was contracted out last fall at a
cost to
the City of $14,000. It is quite expensive
to use outside contracts take care of those trees.
This piece of equipment will allow the City arborist to do those
jobs.
The finances will come from the park
arborist account, capital outlay, and the source of the funding is the
Capital
Improvement Fund. The truck will be
delivered in about 60 days at a cost of $90,000 and will last 15 to 20
years. This is not a state bid item as
they could not find what they needed under that program, and after
doing
research they feel bidding is the best way to go.
Stewart asked if the specs were such
that more than one manufacturer could bid this, and Clingan said it
absolutely
could be. He added that it would come
to them as a completed unit; there are five pages of specs, but those
specs are
such that several suppliers could bid it.
Moved by Detrow and seconded
by
Valentine W1 that the Ordinance be passed on the first reading.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by Detrow
that the rules requiring the reading on three separate days be
suspended and
that the Ordinance be passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Stewart and
seconded by
Valentine W1 that the Ordinance be passed.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Motion carried.
Ord. 38-06
Item (b) AN
ORDINANCE
REQUESTING THE ASHLAND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO PETITION THE OHIO
DEPARTMENT OF
DEVELOPMENT ON BEHALF OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND TO DESIGNATE ALL OF THE
CURRENT
AREA WITHIN THE CORPORATION LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND AS AN
ENTERPRISE
ZONE; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by Detrow
to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution
of this
Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a
further
reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Comments:
From the audience, Jim Hair asked
what the ramifications were of declaring the entire City an Enterprise
Zone;
what does it do, how does it help?
Mayor Strine responded that the whole City already is an
Enterprise
Zone, done some time ago. This ordinance
includes the parts recently annexed.
Stewart listed the areas: the Daisy
Hill Veterinary Clinic, S.R. 60;
the Graffice property on George Road; Assembly of God Church, S.R. 60
and S.R.
511; Hospice of North Central Ohio, Mifflin Avenue; Halls Trust,
WalMart
development; and the Riley farm, the new industrial park.
Those are properties annexed since 2002 and
are now being formally added into the overall Enterprise Zone.
Interim Economic Development
Director Evan Scurti clarified that it is a housekeeping item making it
cleaner
having the whole City an Enterprise Zone.
Still, under state law, Enterprise Zone tax abatements cannot be
made to
residential or retail; it is a program just for manufacturing, research
and
development or additions to such companies.
Moved by Valentine W1 and
seconded by
Valentine W2 that the Ordinance be passed on the first reading.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by
Valentine W1 that the rules requiring the reading on three separate
days be suspended
and that the Ordinance be passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by Detrow
that the Ordinance be passed.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Motion carried.
Ord. 39-06
Item (c) AN
ORDINANCE
AUTHORIZING CERTAIN LAND BELONGING TO THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OHIO, TO BE
SOLD
THROUGH THE COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION; AND DECLARING AN
EMERGENCY.
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by Detrow
to invoke Section 113.01 of the Codified Ordinances as the distribution
of this
Ordinance has satisfied the requirements of said Section and that a
further
reading be dispensed with at this time.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Comments:
Scurti explained that just like in
the past when the City has sold land in the Garber-Ford Industrial
Park, the
CIC would be the sales agent for this sale.
They will sign the purchase agreement with the buyer.
He clarified that Wisio,
LLC., the name
in the ordinance, is not a manufacturing company coming to Ashland;
that is
just the name of the investors buying the land. Those
investors are part of the company, but the name will not be
revealed until everything is in place.
With this ordinance in
place, they can
come in as early as tomorrow morning to sign the purchase agreement. They are waiting on final state responses to
their application for loans to make this project happen.
It is the way manufacturing works today, keeping
their name silent until the deal is actually 100% sure.
Law Director Rick Wolfe added that
the money will eventually come back to the City, and this is the
process
through which the City sells property through the CIC.
The City has to authorize it, and the CIC
negotiates the sale for the City, as has been done several times in the
past.
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by
Valentine W2 that the Ordinance be passed on the first reading.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Wertz and seconded
by
Valentine W1 that the rules requiring the reading on three separate
days be suspended
and that the Ordinance be passed on the second and third readings.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Moved by Detrow and seconded
by
Valentine W1 that the Ordinance be passed.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Motion carried.
OLD
BUSINESS
(a)
Water development update:
Cooper explained to Council about
the development of water and gravel assets on the Riley property north
of
Ashland on U.S. Rt. 250. The gravel
found there will have to be removed either by paying to have it done or
on a royalty
basis by a contractor; a reservoir then can be developed between the
two forks
of the stream there. There are about
eighty acres in that location.
Test borings and some field digging
to a depth of about 20 feet or so have been done to see what kind of
gravel is
there; they have taken four 50-pound samples from various locations for
testing; it looks like the material is very good for sand; it
doesn’t meet ODOT
specs as it is but could be blended to meet that. So
there are definite possibilities for bidding and getting a
royalty type basis for the material. To
do that would save the City one million plus dollars.
In conjunction with this developing
a reservoir as had been planned, they are working toward getting a
consultant
to give the City a whole approach toward developing that land at a
later date
for housing or industrial or a park, however Council chooses to go
forward with
that. When the reservoir is developed
on the full 80 acres, it would provide around half a billion gallons of
water. There are other areas that may
be developed in the future for additional water. But
this reservoir would be over four times right there what the
old reservoir would have been had the City proceeded with it. The million dollars plus that was encumbered
for the old reservoir can be utilized as needed in the Riley property.
Stewart questioned Cooper as to the
Riley property on U.S. Rt. 250north of Ashland, the east side of the
road: the tests show it can be a reservoir
development, that it can hold water and possibly give a little income
off the
gravel. However, it was a possible well
field that has proven not to be a well field?
He asked if that is accurate?
Cooper stated that
assessment is very
close to being accurate: the geologists
are going to do three more monitoring wells to make sure there
isn’t enough aquifer
to put in wells. That will not be
wasted money if there is not enough aquifer to put in wells, because
they still
will go to bedrock, finding how deep the gravel goes and where the clay
layers
are. That will be valuable information
utilized when bids are sought for contractors to do the work, as it
will give a
verification of the area and the type of gravel available.
Stewart reported that he was asked a
question about the City having enough water with all the condominiums
and
potential building going on around the City, and Cooper affirmed that
the City
is in fine shape. Mayor Strine stated
it needs to be emphasized that what is being done out at the reservoir
is long
term, not because the City has a shortage of water today.
It is looking down the road twenty or thirty
years. Stewart added that the City
is
losing a major user of water from an industrial point of view, so a
significant
amount of water the City processes today for consumption will diminish
over the
next twelve or fifteen months from an industrial loss.
Valentine W1 asked just exactly
where the land being talked about is located?
Cooper explained that this farm is across from the cemetery on
U.S. Rt.
250 north of Ashland. Two forks of Lang
Creek meet at the middle of the property, where there are about 80 to
90 acres
along C.R. 1104. A large, kidney-shaped
reservoir could be put there. Across
the north part of North Lang Creek is another 80 acres out of the total
363
acres owned by the City. There is
special gravel over there, a little deeper, all Canadian gravel of a
fine
quality; it’s just a little deeper. All
the results so far look quite good.
Cooper continued and explained that,
as to the wells, there is another well on a property off SR 58
according to
paperwork of a geologist from Ohio Drilling.
Apparently that well is about 300 feet deep, and if the casing
is still
there and can be located, the City would like to pump that well. If there are good results and everything can
be worked out with the landowner, it could give the City another
significant
well very close to the City’s distribution lines, an inexpensive
way to get
another nice well.
Stewart asked if this well
is in
another aquifer, and Cooper said it is.
The City has only two other wells down beyond 270 to 300 feet,
and this
one is far enough away that there would not be a disturbance between
one and
the other. The City will be looking for
that.
(b)
Building permit process:
Cooper handed out copies of the building
and zoning permit guidelines for one, two and three family dwelling
units and
for commercial and residential. He
indicated
that they give a step-by-step procedure showing the permitting process. One thing that might be done would be to add
some timelines to the procedures based on their criteria and the code. He asked if there were any questions and
pointed out that Building and Zoning Inspector Roger Gordon also was in
attendance for questions or explanation.
Stewart asked if the building contractors
and developers are doing OK with the permit process as it stands today;
is this
list a change from anything that the City has been doing?
Cooper stated it is his understanding that
the Building and Zoning Department has been handing these process lists
out for
quite awhile. Gordon added it is more
of a clarification, taking the public code and putting it in a more
direct
one-two-three fashion rather than having the applicants try to pick it
out of
the code.
Valentine W1 noted it simplifies the
process step-by-step, and Gordon responded it eliminates about 20 pages. Cooper stated that if anyone wants to make
comments or suggest modifications or clarifications, they’d be
glad to do
that.
By way of background for this
discussion, Stewart explained that at the beginning of the year,
Council met to
prioritize twenty or so items that they wanted updated or worked on. They identified the top six of those, and
next Tuesday night will be the last of the six scheduled for attention. Council has already covered the top six
prioritized items in work sessions, regular sessions or special work
sessions
from the list identified back in January.
The list is longer, and Council will
sit down and establish some additional dates to cover the next four,
five or
six items on their priority list. But
this is the way Council brought the various division heads in, worked
with the
Mayor and his group and others to keep Council informed and updated as
to how
things are going. That is the reason
for bringing these things to Council in a public format.
(a)
Tuesday,
April 11th
work session:
Stewart
explained the special work session scheduled for next Tuesday night: at
7:00
p.m. in the Economic Development Conference Room, a number of invitees
will sit
around a common table. Council has
invited the City Planning Commission, Milton and Montgomery Township
Trustees,
County Commissioners, the County Auditor and Engineer, City Finance
Director
and Engineer and the Mayor to sit in on this meeting.
This is a first in Stewart’s years on City Council to
bring these
entities together. The idea is
to
define this community get together by those that share physical,
contiguous
boundaries.
There is no
pre-planned agenda though three or four items have been identified that
may be
areas to discuss, and if there are common threads affecting all of the
people,
perhaps there may be some good dialog.
Hopefully, there will be twenty-four or twenty-five people
around the
table plus any audience attending.
Stewart expressed his feeling it is a tremendous idea to share
communication, and communication was one of Council’s priorities
going back to
the January priority establishment meeting.
Stewart
invited everyone to participate. It
will be an hour and a half meeting, ending at 8:30 p.m.
Meetings like this can go on and on, so
there is a proposed closing time.
Mayor Strine
added he thinks it is fantastic about this meeting; he would like to
stress,
however, to the public that the City has been communicating with all
those
people for the last five or six years, only never all together at the
same time
in the same room.
Stewart
emphasized that is a good point; the communication process has improved
dramatically, and it is through the efforts of a lot of the people who
have
been asked to participate. It is not
unusual to communicate with them; the unusual is the common meeting.
Valentine W1
also noted it seems that all these entities are much more
interdependent than
they used to be. It doesn’t mean
that
the rest of the county is being left out; it just makes sense where it
is being
started. It is a good idea.
(b) Request
for liquor permit hearing: (Transfer)
From: Ports
Petroleum Company, Inc., dba Gas Mart 750, 421 Claremont Avenue
To:
One Stop Gas, Inc., 421 Claremont Avenue
Law Director
Rick Wolfe noted there have been no particular problems with this
license, and
there would be no reason to request a hearing.
Moved by
Wertz and seconded by Valentine W1 to request no hearing.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
PUBLIC
HEARING
7:10 p.m. Alley
vacation, Eastern
Avenue:
Request
to vacate an east-west alley located off Eastern Avenue; beginning
between Lot
Nos. 636B and 175A, South Ashland, and ending between Lot Nos. 632A and
618,
South Ashland
Moved
by Detrow and seconded by Valentine W1 to move to the public hearing.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Stewart introduced the hearing and
gave the description of the alley in question.
He opened the floor for public comments. There
were none.
Proponents:
None
Opponents:
None
Moved
by Valentine W1 and seconded by Wertz to close the public hearing and
return to
regular session.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Stewart asked about requesting
legislation, and Wolfe told him they could entertain legislation any
time
Council wants.
Stewart asked for a motion to
request legislation for the next meeting.
Moved
by Valentine W1 and seconded by Detrow to present legislation at the
next meeting.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
ADJOURNMENT
Moved
by Valentine W1 and seconded by Valentine W2 to adjourn.
Ayes:
Valentine W2, Detrow, Wertz, Stewart, Valentine W1
Council adjourned the regular session
at 7:55 p.m.
Submitted
by
Elaine
C. Hootman
Clerk of
Council