Town Council - Regular Meeting

okay good evening and welcome to the july 20th 2026 akron council akron town council meeting before we get started i'd like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and your participation is your consent to be recorded and broadcast on the town of akron's youtube channel roll call jim saner here rich solano here tony ramirez here

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Will it be to order? The first order of business is minutes. The regular meeting of June 15th, 1.6. Do I have a motion to accept the minutes as presented? So moved.

I second it.

All in favor? Aye.

Bonnie Dunbar called me this afternoon and she had another thing arise. So she'd like to be pushed off until the August meeting. So she was just going to kind of fill everybody in on the food pantry and where things are at and what that looks like. So more of just an informal.

Okay, DCP claim number two CCMG project.

Provided in your packet. This is mainly for a lot of the concrete work that the sidewalks that's been completed. So the amount being requested on this application is $207,610.65. AND THAT HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY REVIEWED AND EXAMINED BY OUR ENGINEER. AND CORY DID SIGN OFF ON THIS ONE THAT WE CAN PAY IT OUT.

ANY MOTION? I CAN'T READ THAT NUMBER. 207-610-65. VERY GOOD. A MOTION THAT WE APPROVE PAYMENT. for uh dc construction services for two hundred seven thousand six hundred ten dollars sixty five cents i'll second it home paper all right next is our yoder pay claim number two the okra water improvement project

This one, Mark shared that this pay claim is for some valves and things that they purchased prior to the start of the work at the water treatment plant. So anyway, they're approving, they're requesting the payout of 12,301.38. Do we have a start date yet on that?

Hopefully this week. This week?

Yes.

It kind of depends on us getting the filter tank drained, but hopefully this week. Okay. It was supposed to be like today, but I keep pushing them back. Is that what we've had going on? Okay.

Is that the water service issues as far as for the community? Do they need to be notified?

We've tried to put out a post, but according to the people I've talked to about the phosphate we're using, there shouldn't be much of a difference. Okay. Yes, we'll see. There's really no way to know until we get there.

Public notification of water treatment plant.

Yeah. The app and Facebook. Keep phone calls down. We'll see. Okay. The payment due is $12,301.38. Motion to approve payment. UR Yoder construction for the water treatment plant. Payment about $12,301.38. I'll second it. All in favor?

Aye. Next is the Asher final pay claims, Oakland Water Improvement Project.

So

mark's signed off on it so this is the two water towers yeah we've already seen much paid off the north water tower this is just left from the south and the water line that they extended nope that's a different company okay that one's that was closed out last okay uh meeting okay very good so everything's good then with the south water tower now yeah we'll fill you in well with the contractor for payout unless they have three disinfected i don't know how that works but for the work that they have done yeah they're done they're done painting okay yeah and that's how much um 119 830.64 well before we make a motion on that

Go ahead and fill us in on that. What's going on?

So we, before we put the tower back in service, we have to get two samples 24 hours apart or more. And that has to pass before the tower can go back in service. So not this past week, but the week before that. We've got a sample Thursday and Friday morning. And the whole time is 30 hours. So they have to be in the lab. into the lab within 30 hours. The first sample, Asperry did not get it to the lab in time. The second sample they did. Both samples passed, but the first sample was voided because it didn't make it in time. So then I had to get another one that following Monday, so a week ago today, and it failed. So now I had to get another sample this morning. Hopefully it passes. It's not in service, so the public shouldn't be at risk or anything, but major headache.

Otherwise passed once and then didn't pass the next time. Don't get questioned.

What's the contractor saying? I haven't said anything to the contractor because I don't know yet that it's a contractor thing. Most water samples fail because of how you sample them. So I don't know if I'd have a little bit of splash from the ground or something. Um, cause I took it out of a fire hydrant.

Okay.

Um, what I ended up doing was putting a sample spigot at the bottom of the water tower. It should be better to pull a sample from as opposed to a fire hydrant, but. So they've gotten the new sample and we're waiting for results. Should have results hopefully tomorrow.

Okay.

So. And then we'll go from there. If it fails again, then I think we're going to have to turn it and have it re-disinfected personally.

They do the disinfecting?

The contractor does? Contractor does the disinfecting and then the inspector there inspects it. Is NARC aware of all of this?

You know, at this point, I would hold off paying this until we get a clear DISINFECTION REPORT. AND WE NEED TO LET MARK KNOW. CALL MARK TOMORROW OR I CAN CALL MARK TOMORROW AND LET HIM KNOW. AND AS SOON AS IT PASSES, I'LL MOTION AS SOON AS IT PASSES BUT WE'RE HOLDING US A BILL. YEAH.

NO, I DON'T DISAGREE. LIKE I SAID, I'M NOT AT ALL ACCUSING THEM OR ANYTHING, BUT I DON'T DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING.

i'm just afraid if we pay this off and then and it's their fault then there's no urgency for them to come back right right so yeah i don't disagree i think it's the same thing to do hold on now if we hold off and then it passes

What do we do then? Do we...

I have it written that pending a motion from you guys, whoever motions in seconds, that the ASHRAE final pay claim will be paid pending clear water samples received from the lab. Okay. So if that's how you want it, you can make a motion in a second. Yeah.

Okay. That will be my motion. Yeah.

All right. I feel like it's worth noting that there was no E. coli or fecal matter in the samples. Okay. That is very important.

Okay.

But for total coliform, it didn't pass. All right.

Motion to Rich. I'll motion. Sorry, I'm coming to you. Sorry. I'm sure I have the right people.

So you do the motion? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. and leave a voicemail for him or let him know what we did. If you have any concerns, call me back. All right.

Butler-Fairman and Siebert, 2027 TCNG agreement.

So I provided a list of potential last remaining areas i should say in town that the existing sidewalk needs to replace um so butler fairman cypher have been our civil engineering firm that's helped us in the southeast with our current project if we want to utilize their services so like i do need their assistance to get the estimates and everything for the grant application that's due September um so if we want to continue to use them this is the agreement that must be passed by the town council if not that's fine but we're getting into and they've done an exam and I will say the last two major projects they've helped us with

then it's i don't know that what we do without them i mean personally yeah yeah so that would be my impression as well so yeah i'll make a motion that um we continue to use about retirement and cypher um and continue using them throughout the 20.7 ccmg for the yeah 0.27 ccmg

I'll second. All in favor?

Aye. Justin?

You should have the incident reports for June. Fourth of July went very well. Very happy with everything. Wasn't looking good. Hope EMA wasn't able to send us anybody to help. but Sheriff's Department sent the reserves and sent a couple of full-time guys as well, four to help, as well as a top computer. Brought down four people to help out from the parade and then three for the fireworks. Ordinances are going well. Waiting on a couple items for Cork's uniform to get him up and running. We're waiting on a badge and a piece of equipment for his duty belt. We'll be here within the next couple of weeks. We will have the badge. It's coming from a company that we've used for years. So that's hard to say when exactly we'll get it. Other than that, everything's going pretty well. We can't complain too much.

Well, yes, he doesn't.

Thank you.

Hey. My report should be in front of you. I just already discussed everything at the top for the water department. Other than we pitched a water leak today down by down on Front Street where they're getting ready to pave. They tore up the concrete. and a val riser came with it. And I didn't know it was there. I didn't mark it. But I, we, it had been leaking since before that. So I'm glad you found it. But it should be fixed now. We'll have to, it's a little section of Maine there on Front Street. There's literally, from what we can tell, two services on it and one is only one is active, which would be the mill pipes. So we've got to draw samples from that since we killed the main there technically on a boil advisory. So we'll be drawing samples from there. Hopefully they come back good. For the sewer department, we had some problems with the State Route 19 lift station. Had to replace a motor and had to replace two pressure relief valves. The motor is running good. We haven't had a chance to hook it up yet. The air pressure relief valves seem to be working good like they're supposed to. The blue frog kept overheating and shutting off all the other dunes. Turns out, I guess it was overheating. There was a mouse nest in the box that it's in. So it was not only hot in the box, but it was insulated. So he blew it out with a leaf blower and it did pretty good. You said it would shut off again. It's sporadic now.

Before it was every day. So now it's the first time I'm probably... Well, plus they had that power outage too. Well, it was on yesterday. It was on yesterday.

So yeah, it's... I think we're pretty much good to go. It was scary because one of those VFD drives was outrageous.

I think what we're going to do is drill some holes in the side of it and put vents, covers on it to allow some airflow.

Drivers on it that way it opens.

Nothing can get in, but

He can get out, um, the sewer back is back and is so far working great to have to use it far more than expected. Um, but just in time, yes, literally just in time, um, street sweepers and, uh, did a pretty good job. Um, paving a started and then 4th of July came and went without any major issues. Um, I did my report a week ago, so I can't, I think that's everything, but my head's going all over the place.

Yeah.

Any questions? We've got another water leak that pikes that we're going to tear into tomorrow. Um, JD Parker is digging like right over the top of it. So while he's there, he's going to open it up for us and It's still possible that it's on pikes, but we don't know until they get down there. It's in the middle or on the road?

It's just coming off of a meter over by the steam houses or whatever.

The meter pit's full, so that kind of... Oh, so one of the steam pits there along Front Street? No.

No, on inside.

In the yard. Oh, okay. That could be... But yeah, so very good. Thank you, sir.

Yep. Real quick before we move on to the financials. um i had a lady stop by my office today and jake and i talked but i told her i would bring it up at the council um 828 east rochester street um they're at 14 and 114. i know that homeowner has already once trimmed the trees or somebody has trimmed the trees back because we had a bus driver contact us about not being able to see well he's also a farmer and drives semi and is mother was with him and she said like it is still a major I don't know say visibility issue she's like like he you cannot see to safely turn out in the bigger vehicles like if you're in just a personal vehicle but she's like what can be done I'm like I don't know I'll bring it to the council that's right at the corner yeah but it's on the property of the homeowner versus it's not a street tree yeah it's not even close to being No, it's all right.

Yeah. Super decent every time they talk. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I'm like, and that's why I told her, I'm like, I know it's been cut. Like, I know that Ron was out there helping do it. But.

Yeah, I don't even remember last time. I can't remember if they trimmed it or if Jay did.

I feel like Ron will help do it.

Yeah, they had several people come over to help. There's a lot of home riders and all kinds of stuff.

I don't know how long ago that was, but it was in the last year, within the last six.

Small tree, too, isn't it? Yeah, it's just... Yeah, it's just... Well, if there... I would be willing to say, as a town, let's take it out. Because it's a hazard tree, creating visibility issues.

I'm just saying, can we legally do it without it not being a street tree? Can I come onto your property and get it?

This is on their side of the sidewalk. It's not well into their yard.

Yeah. I remember at one time we kind of had this discussion with Andy about a dead tree somewhere. And he was saying that if it's at risk of damaging utilities, then we can force a homeowner, or make a recommendation to the homeowner to take the tree down. I don't know if we can do the same kind of thing. It's a traffic hazard. I don't know.

Well, how does it work? And I'm just saying it's on a state highway, which is not our jurisdiction. Is it a conversation to call NDOT and see if they have something that...

It's very possible. I'd love for NDOT to go down and trim all those trees anyways.

But I mean, all NDOT will hurt.

There, as you turn off of the thousand on the 25, there was a tree that was growing. You couldn't see at all pulling out there. And I'm thinking, why doesn't the homeowner trim that tree or cut it down? One day it was. I don't know who did it, but there was complaints and someone cut it down. It's not there anymore. So whether the State Highway Department did that You know, do we need to talk to them first or talk to the homeowner?

I'll call NDOT and see if that'll get anywhere tomorrow. I mean, I think this homeowners would work with us, but. Yeah. Yeah.

It's more of a. We've got to bring up every year.

It'd be nice to get NDOT involved, especially if you want to wait until I'm available to be with you. I'm fine. I'd like to get on them about the catch basins because they still have not been in catch basins out this year. We're there.

this beautiful rain we've had that's yeah we find the one up and oh my god there was so much stuff man yeah yeah and they're supposed to they are supposed to do the ones on state roads we do ours they are supposed to do that yeah you just get with me when you're done with your stuff tomorrow and we'll make a call right i only have a thing well ronda comes at one tomorrow so if you can't be up here make sure you have your laptop at least you don't mind um OKAY.

SORRY. THE 2027 BUDGET MEETING DISCUSSION.

DO WE WANT TO HAVE A SPECIAL MEETING IN AUGUST? DO WE WANT TO HAVE THE CONVERSATION AT OUR AUGUST 24TH MEETING?

We probably do it before, I would say. I think we've done it before.

Well, realistically, it doesn't have to be before that because I'm not doing any budget adoption until September. So as long as this meeting is sometime between now and September 1st, we're fine. Because most of the time, and I think I have my budget meeting with my DLGF rep August 31st.

So, I mean...

the biggest thing is i really honestly need to meet with department heads and just kind of get an idea of what their needs are for the next year um to put numbers into there uh biggest thing is like as far as are we looking at this can help me we can have a quick conversation here as i'm working on it um as far as salaries and raises are we looking at a three percent across the board um i i think i mean we did it this year where we did for the full-time employees where they just get the thing twice a year my opinion is just go ahead and give them the raise that they were supposed to get this year put it in and put in whatever next year and do that and try to control over time as much as possible i mean but there's just circumstances that prevail that from being possible so yeah super project's gonna have some bearing on that as well

on your budget for the year? I mean, possibly, but. So do we need to meet with Midwest and make utility first?

Well, and I'll be honest, the percentage of salaries that really come out of the utilities, I mean, yeah, there are some, but it's overall, it's not a ginormous percentage of that. There's a lot that comes out of general and then there's maybe 30% of the rest of Jake and Anthony and myself and Dora. Dora's 50 50 with hers, but everybody else is 20 to 30% of that comes out of each of the utilities. So I mean, I can work things up and show you what those would look like. As an example, I have no idea what insurance is going to look like this year. Becky and them are working on trying to find stuff. I mean, just across the board, insurance is becoming harder and harder to fund. And then we're such a small group on finding people that will fund us. So I don't know if we're going to have to get super creative on this. What? I mean, I don't know. So anyway, she's working on that and we'll, need to have that so we'd like to meet mid-august whatever y'all want to do i am i would prefer i mean i'm going to be solo the whole first week of august um i'll be back and i mean i'll be back with help the second week of august i'm out part of the third and then the fourth is council week so i mean

GOING TO BE AUGUST 19TH.

THAT WON'T WORK BECAUSE I WON'T BE HERE, SO YOU'LL BE GOOD.

OKAY.

YOU HAVE THE FIRST HALF OF THE WEEK, THE WHOLE WEEK?

I LEAVE EITHER THE 15TH OR 16TH AND I DON'T RETURN, I DON'T THINK, UNTIL THE 20TH OR 21ST. I THINK THE 19TH IS MY LAST DAY IN MICHIGAN AND I COME BACK, BUT I DON'T HOLD ME TO THAT. I HAVEN'T SEEN THE AGENDA.

WOULD YOU SAY THE FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST WILL WORK FOR YOU?

I WOULD PREFER NOT TO BECAUSE I'M BY MYSELF AND IT'S PAYOUT AND IT'S JUST KIND OF A SO YOU PREFER TO HAVE IT WE CAN HAVE IT ON THE 24TH OR WE CAN HAVE IT THAT WEEK I MEAN I HAVE TO HAVE MY LIKE BUDGET SUBMITTED FOR PUBLIC HEARING ONE TWO I have to have it submitted by September 10th. So as long as we could, we could have it the last week of August, first week of September for all I care. I mean, I do not use DLGF to, yeah, I do not use DLGF to upload any of my budget stuff. I input it all myself. There are communities that let them and do it for them. I don't, I don't do that.

So.

first week of september the last week of august yeah either one of those late late in the week

Honey, what days of the week is it best to avoid for you?

Thursday is auction day. Thursday. So any other day but Thursday. Okay.

Do you want to do Friday the 28th? Has anybody got anything on that?

Be good.

Intendably plan on that? Yeah. Boys?

Sounds good. And... Daytime or?

I would, I mean, I think ideally it would be daytime if that worked for everyone. Yeah, like that works for me.

Yeah, that works too.

In the meantime, though, if you guys know of certain needs your department I would prefer to have that much sooner than that meeting, because at that meeting, I would more like to go over, present it, and then we work backwards if we have to. And be respectful of your time and not keep you there forever. um real quick the other thing while you're looking at that i did give you the cha consulting agreement for midwestern cha is their new name um for the sewer project i think My recommendation is we do not move forward with this tonight. I think you need to have time to look through it. I haven't even had time to read it. I got it a little after five. I think Andy, I'll send it to Andy for his review as well. And then you can make a decision at August meeting or if we need to have a special meeting before then. But I don't I think until you've had time to read it should not be approved.

Anything else, Rebecca? Just financial stuff. Resolution 07-20-2026, transfer of appropriation.

Looks like a little money ring.

Yeah, because like the weather siren, whatever we like budget for that, it's usually like $1,500 for small minor repairs. Obviously, the siren is a lot more expensive. So the siren itself has been paid for. So that's what I'm moving right now to show that the installation costs I would probably pull from either rainy day or riverboat or something. um for the other half um hopefully here very soon but that whole entire because of it being a wooden pole they cannot reuse a wooden pole so that pole will have to be removed and a new pole installed which they're doing all of that um we did provide them that it's overhead power um that there was a meter there so I think as far as what we needed to provide to the installer they have it so I think Sometime in August, early September, the new tornado siren should be in.

Motion to accept resolution 07-20-2026 transfer appropriations as presented. Second it. All in favor? Aye.

as soon as the dockets and uh 176 552.25 and the payroll allowance document of 41 199 87. all right

just a reminder before we adjourn that the meeting is the fourth monday next month instead of the third instead of being drawn so august 24th at 6 p.m is our town council meeting oh good okay just so at least you're good i just wanted to make sure oh i like that an extra week um that's it um before we leave we'll be adjourned uh thank you

I'm not sure if Tony knows, you might know Tony. Um, the theater park in Akron has been purchased. Uh, they're closing the 29th of this month. They're going to start working in August. Uh, I met with, uh, Frank Shepard, who is the, uh, head man of the Thrive Communities organization. Uh, last Friday, we took a little tour around the trailer park and pointed things out. And, uh, They ask if the town could help in one area. And that is what they want to do. They're not going to take any, as far as I know, unless there's some really bad trees, they're not going to take any trees out. But they want to cut them to where they're 30 feet high. And that means on the north side and the south side. I asked him to get a quote from AR Tree Service, whom we use, and I would take this to the board and see if we could go half. And his quote here from them is $8,750 to do it. So I told him I'd bring it to the board, and we'd discuss it, and I'd get back with him.

So how many of these trees are on, like, overhanging maybe the road or something of that magnitude that's not on their personal property that they're purchasing?

I bet I don't know. Are they just trying to top them? They need to top them. They need to top them up 30 feet high. Is there a reason for that? Probably to bring their...

Pick up Angela's last time they were trained. What is that? Yeah.

Something with their... Yeah.

Well, I would consider it part of economic development.

In my mind, as I look at that, yeah, it's on their personal property, but we're getting a nice...

It should be nice to have a good working relationship with new owners. This might be a way to... We ought to have that since...

it was it was the best okay it was the best that i've ever dealt with it i talked to air tree services today and just told them that like i don't know what you guys are going to decide on whether the town will pay for it um but I did tell them that we can give them a spot to dump, whether it's chippings or whether it's limbs. So I did tell them we could help there, but that's all.

That's all I. Okay. And I said something to him about that. I didn't know for sure, but they appreciated that too.

So your recommendation, if this is a motion to approve it, we get paid from economic development funds.

Yeah. All right. So talking about half.

Yes. Okay. Which is 4,375. All the empty ones are going to all of them.

And like the ones on the north side, I'm sorry, south side, they're going to work with the individuals.

uh and they're going to help them if they need something to make it look nice we want to provide that we're going to work with them um they can't bring any new ones in right was there something with that like when they take out those they'll work with bza yeah the bz loves to ask for variants yeah yes and he's aware of this because he had to do it on the other side of the county in kiwana yeah

he's already met with falton county bca and he'll be meeting with atkins bca when everything so sweet looks better now i don't know who was in there doing anything yeah they're working uh okay um i'll make a motion okay make a motion yeah i'll make a motion that uh we pay half of the $8,750, which is $43.75 for the removal of, for the cutting of the trees down there. The trimming of the trees, I'm sorry. Trimming of the trees at the Akron tree. Yes. All right. All right. All right. I THINK THAT'S IT IF I HAVE ANYTHING ELSE ALL RIGHT I'LL MAKE A MOTION WE ADJOURN