City Council - Regular Meeting

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.

Good evening and welcome everyone to the May 19th meeting of the Ashland City Council. To our viewers at home, thank you for joining us. Members of council, Mayor Miller, welcome everyone. First item of business this evening will be the approval of the minutes from the May 5th meeting. If there are no additions, deletions, or corrections, ask for a motion to approve as submitted.

Move to approve.

Second.

Thank you.

Lawson. Aye. Workman. Aye.

Kayo. Abstain.

Wasn't here.

Miller.

Aye.

Woodward. Aye.

And it will stand approved. First ordinance this evening will be an author, uh, be an ordinance authorizing and directing the mayor director of public service to enter into contracts for the Lincoln park playground project within the city of Ashland, Ohio and declaring an emergency vote for non-reading and full second. Thank you.

Lawson. Aye. Workman. Aye. Kyle. Aye. Miller.

Aye.

Woodward. Aye.

Okay, this is an exciting project. For the last several years, we've talked about turning into a park, the old site where the Lincoln Elementary School once stood. It's out on Troy Road, and I'm not sure what that intersection is, what the road is there that's right next to the Masonic Lodge.

It's one of the 10th or 11th. Yes, one of those.

But it's the old Lincoln Elementary School site, and we actually acquired that site from the city school board here about two years ago, I believe. and recently we determined that it would be best to use our cdbg allocation our two-year our biannual allocation for this project and right now the information that is before you is asking you to authorize the city to enter into a contract to purchase and install 168 thousand nine hundred and eighteen dollars worth of playground equipment It's a wonderful state of the art playground equipment. I don't have any pictures to show you, but it'll be the most modern playground equipment we have in the city and it will be at this site. Now, that's only part of the story, though, because in recent months we have teamed up with the Rotary Club of Ashland and the Rotary Club is taking this on as a community project. And with their help and with some of their fundraising efforts, we are actually planning to install a dog park at this location as well as a pavilion. No doubt we'll have some benches and picnic tables and may even be some additional features as we get closer when we see what the budget numbers come in at and so on. But we're glad to have the Rotary Club's support and their help. And when this is done, this should be one of the most vibrant parks in the city.

Great.

Wonderful. I know the kids will appreciate it in that area.

If anyone is wondering why we're choosing to invest in that location, it is because when the school was there, when the elementary school was there, there was a playground there. And so all the neighboring children and young people could go hang out there and enjoy the playground with their families. When the school went away, the playground went away. And since then, there's really not a park that is conveniently located in that segment of our town for those young people to access. So I think it's gonna get a lot of use.

Or a dog park.

Yes, exactly. You know, sometimes these days people are getting more excited about having a second dog park than they are a playground. So it'll be a nice fenced-in area. We, of course, have one dog park out at Brookside West, but now we'll have one on the other side of the city. So I have a feeling it'll get a lot of use as well.

All right.

Any discussion? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve on the first reading?

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Workman? Aye. Kayo? Aye. Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson?

Aye. I'll move to suspend the rules for three separate readings, three separate days. Second. Thank you.

Kayo?

Aye. Miller? Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman?

Aye. Motion to approve the ordinance? So moved. Second. Thank you.

Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kayo?

Aye.

Ordinance 24-26.

Next, we have an ordinance authorizing and directing the Mayor, Director of Public Service, to advertise for bids and to enter into a contract for the U.S. 250 Pedestrian Improvements Project. This is PID 121930, ASD-250-16.26, in the City of Ashland, Ohio, and declaring an emergency. Move for non-reading and full. Second. Thank you.

Workman?

Aye.

Kyle?

Aye.

Miller? Aye.

Aye. Woodward?

Aye. Lawson?

Aye. This, too, is an important project that we've talked about for several years. And this involves installing a multi-purpose pathway out on US 250, the busy corridor where we have most of our retail and restaurants out between 42 and 71. and we've often commented that with the new apartments out in that area and all the growth that's taking place it's not uncommon to see people walking back and forth on the side of on the berm of us-250 carrying their grocery bags or their walmart bags and so on and that's a very very dangerous situation So we actually went after a grant to install this multi-purpose pathway. It would be 11 feet wide on the south side, the Home Depot side, and it'll be six feet wide on the north side, the side of Dr. Gupta's eye care office and the Cleveland Clinic eye care office. The path will start at Sugarbush, because we already have a sidewalk out to that location, Sugarboost, and extend all the way out then to the new Culver's. In fact, it's part of their plan. They're installing a portion of it right in front of their new franchise, and it will be on the opposite side as well with Taco Bell. So now people will be able to move to and from those places both on foot, bike, scooter, e-bike, and other motorized vehicles. Okay. will there be crosswalks yes that's an important part of the program is there will be new crosswalks with pedestrian signals and so on established throughout that corridor so really is aimed at making it safer for people to move about in that area and in fact that is the name of the grant the ohio department of transportation programmatic safety program grant So that is. Now, here's the good news. We don't think it's going to cost us anything. The grant actually pays 90% of the project, which is about, it looks like it's close to $1,570,000 of it. is what the grant will pay. Our share, our 10% of that, we actually, if you recall, we all went down to the state house, it's been what, three years ago maybe? And we proposed to our state representative that we needed a capital budget earmark to help us install this pathway and fortunately our representative melanie miller was able to get us that money and so i believe 175 000 of it will be covered with that earmark that we were able to obtain as a result of that visit so when you combine that with the state of odot's grant or odot's portion we think we'll probably have it all paid for So that's wonderful news. And this will be a paved pathway on both the north and south side.

I was going to say, was it paved or concrete?

It's going to be paved. Yes.

It is definitely needed. I just came from there, went down to Walmart and came back and there was a motor scooter running down 250. That makes me very anxious. Oh, it's very dangerous. They try to stay on the side, but it's just not made for that.

Absolutely. So I think those are all the figures, and if the media wants the specific figures, we can give them to you here after the meeting.

All right.

Will that be a this year project, or?

I do not believe it will be completed this year, but some of the work could get underway this year. And the way their funding calendars work, what they might call a 26 project actually ends up being a 27 project. That remains to be seen. But I believe the work will get underway this year, but we will not have a completed path this year. But maybe we'll be surprised.

Thank you.

Well, on behalf of the council, Mayor, I want to express our appreciation to the state of Ohio, as well as our representative, Melanie Miller, for helping facilitate this grant. So like Councilman Woodward said, it is truly needed out there.

Thank you.

With that, is there a motion to approve on the first reading?

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

Kyle?

Aye.

Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman?

Aye. I'll move to suspend the rules for three separate readings, three separate days. Second. Thank you.

Miller?

Aye. Woodward?

Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyle?

Aye.

Motion to approve the ordinance? Move to approve.

Second.

Thank you.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kayo? Aye. Miller? Aye. Ordinance 25-26.

Then we have an ordinance approving the community reinvestment area tax incentive application for Jewel Town LLC within the City of Ashland, Ohio. Move for non-reading in full.

Second. Thank you.

Kayo?

Aye.

Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman?

Aye. Well, by now, I think most people are probably familiar with Crown Jewels. Crown Jewels is a company that is located in what we formerly knew as the Times Gazette building in downtown Ashland on Second Street. That is a company that is owned by Karen and Marty Myers, and they do all sorts of fun products in that company. But recently, they have landed a major contract, multi-year contract, with Hallmark. and now they are going to exclusively provide their gift bags, their stationery, their plates, their paper cups, their paper napkins, their gift wrap, and just about everything you can print on will be coming from Ashen, Ohio. Not only will it be designed here in Ashen, Ohio, but it will be produced here and then distributed from this new location. So tonight, I'm bringing to you a proposal As you know, the city recently sold them 18 acres of land at the corner of Ford Drive and Wells Road. It's a prime site. And on that site, they are hoping to construct the first phase a 50,000 square foot facility for a cost of approximately $4.5 million. It will allow them to double their workforce, they believe, in no time. And if things go as planned, they expect within one year after the completion of this first phase, this first 50,000 square foot building, to add an additional 50,000 square foot building. So they are coming to us tonight and requesting that we will grant them a community reinvestment area tax incentive for 75% for 10 years. This is what we have done for all of the companies that have expanded in the industrial park that have a proven track record of providing good paying jobs here and contributing to the community. Incidentally, it might be worth noting, we don't often get all this type of information when we're doing these proposals, but they wanted to make sure that all of us knew not only do they pay a good wage, but they also have a bonus program, they offer their employees a 401 retirement program, and they pay for their insurance 100%. So these are good jobs, and these are a lot of very, very talented people. The company acts very quietly on Second Street. But in this recent year, they have hosted the senior vice president of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods. They have recently hired one of the top American greetings card officials I don't know the exact title but they've actually brought them on board with the company and they also have hosted the head of Hallmark here as well and they do tell me that they have pitched that they think this would be a great place to do a movie because it is the same Hallmark Group. You heard it here first. You could play the mayor.

Yes, that's right. I'll play the mayor. That's right.

They are just super people and a long time in business here. I'm excited to hear about this opportunity for them.

Yes.

It didn't come overnight. They've been working very hard, and they deserve it.

So, yes. All right. Any further? Just go ahead.

No, I was just going to say, so that is the request tonight for your approval of the proposed CRA tax incentive. All right.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve on the first reading? So I'll move.

Second.

Thank you.

Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye.

Kyo? Aye. I'll move to suspend the rules for three separate readings, three separate days.

Second.

Thank you.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyo? Aye. Miller?

Aye.

Motion to approve the ordinance. So moved. Second. Thank you.

Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyo? Aye. Miller? Aye. Woodward? Aye. Ordinance 26-26.

And it's important for people to note that right now we collect zero taxes on that land. Zero. Not a single dollar of tax is collected on that land. And once a new $4.5 million facility is on that land, we will then begin collecting right away 25% of the tax bill. And then at the end of the ten years, the full 100%. So during that time, we'll also be collecting increased income tax revenue and most likely with all the construction materials and all of the other expenses that they will have in their day to day operation, the county will collect additional sales tax. So it just once again, it grows the economy.

Great. Well, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Attorney Bush.

Good evening. Yeah, welcome. Thank you.

We have no resolutions this evening, no public hearing items or old business, but we do have some new business, and that is a liquor permit transfer from American United Oil Inc. at 342 East Main Street to Ashland Marathon, LLC, 342 East Main Street. So what we need here is a motion not to request a hearing by the state of Ohio for this transfer. Is there such a motion?

I move to not request a hearing.

Second. Thank you.

Watson. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Moving down through here, we'll go right to council comments. Mr. Lawson, if you'd like to go first.

I didn't have much to report on except for today. I was contacted with a complaint about... young kids throwing what amounts to be like pool table balls at moving and parked cars on Edge Hill and have done some personal damage. And so... Cue balls. Something, yeah, to the equivalent to that, yes. Very hard balls that are breaking glass and denting cars and things like that. So just be aware and let's hope the parents put a stop to it.

Yeah. I'm going to address many calls that I've received lately is regarding junk and grass. So we have to remember that we live in a city. We have neighbors. We need to be neighborly. They don't really want to see your grass over 12 inches and they don't want to see bathtubs and junk cars and unlicensed cars and broken mowers and toys that no longer work and grasses growing through. if we could just be a little kinder to our neighbors and pick up and mower lawns. And if you need help, maybe ask a neighbor to see if they can help you if your lawn mower's broke or whatever the circumstance. But I probably have had a dozen here in the last couple months, and it's not really right for the city to have to go out and mow your yard. So if you own a home, mow your yard.

All right, Mr. Miller? Be a Mr. Rogers.

What?

I don't know what the solution is but it just seems like lately there's been a lot more semis and large vehicles going through downtown so I don't I haven't seen if we put up any signage or anything like that but It's just getting ridiculous, especially going down Main Street. It practically cuts you off.

Well, and it destroys the pavement. Right now, the pavement has got entire paths all the way through downtown. So we have done just about everything we can legally do to stop them, and we have posted additional signage, and we have explored it, the legal routes with the police department and the law director's office, but we're not giving up. The challenge is those are state routes. And we've got three of them, 250, what is it, 250, 96, and? 60, yes. And so it's not as easy as you think to keep the truck traffic from going through there.

Mr. Kyle? This is my annual plea. to the citizens of Ashland to, if you do mow your grass, which is a great idea, please, please, please do not blow it in the street for two main reasons. One, it plugs the storm sewer up, then people get watered in their basements and the calls start. Well, if you don't blow your grass out in the street, that doesn't happen. Also, we have a very large population of motorcycle enthusiasts in this town, and that can be really, really dangerous for them, especially when you live on a corner lot and you blow it halfway across the street. Nothing specific, but it could happen. And it just looks better. And it looks a lot better. Yeah.

Keep the grass in your yard.

Keep it in your yard.

All right. With that, Mayor, I'll turn it over to you. Well, first of all, I hadn't planned to bring this up, but I will because you're talking about the grass. So a lot of people are very interested in what's happening to the Rite Aid building. The Rite Aid building located here on Claremont Avenue still has the Rite Aid sign up, which is unfortunate, but has grass that is probably knee high at this point or beyond. and i was finally able to get a hold of the owner's attorney once more which they have always returned my calls they are in another state but i will tell you that as of today i was informed that the building has now reverted back to the financed institution that held the mortgage to the building So ownership is changing this week. The group that will be responsible for the property is in Miami, and they're trying to get me connected to them so that we can figure out some plan to move that building to a local owner. There's lots of organizations that have been interested in it, nonprofits, churches, entrepreneurs that have thought it would make a good place for a restaurant but no one has been able to get any action and that's largely because the mortgage on the building was so extreme such a high number that no one would be willing to pay that amount And that's why the owner has agreed to basically sign over, give it back to the bank, because they can see that they're not going to be able to recoup their expenses in that building. So as soon as we get this building into the new, well, not we, but as soon as the building is in the new hands, we're going to try to work with that group to see if we can't get it repurposed here sometime soon in the meanwhile we are going to do our very best to get the grass mowed because it looks terrible we have a very clean town we have a very clean claremont avenue and that makes that stand out terribly so we'll try to get that taken care of here hopefully this week or next Want to remind everyone that Memorial Day is coming up. A lot of questions are coming in about the Memorial Day parade. Incidentally, our local veterans organizations are responsible for the Memorial Day parade. So that's usually handled by our American Legion. So if you have any questions about the details of the parade, you might contact the folks at the American Legion. As far as I know, the parade will be at 10 a.m. on Memorial Day. and it'll be the traditional route where they start at Union and then head down Main Street to the cemetery where there's a brief program. So there will be a Memorial Day parade 10 a.m. However, if you have specific questions, that parade is is directed by our friends at the American Legion. So you'll want to reach out to them with your questions. And then I want to once again bring to your attention that in less than just just Just a few weeks more than a month. What is it? 50 days? I think it's about 50 days until July 4th. And we are gearing up for quite a celebration for America's 250th birthday. The first thing I would ask, any business or church or organization that would like to be in the parade, the parade registration form is now available on the city's website. So if you go to our website or explore Ashland, you'll find a list of all the details of what are going to be happening on that special day here in America's history, our July 4th, 2026. But we would encourage you to enter the parade, deck yourself out and everything in between with red, white, and blue, and join us for the celebration that morning of July 4th. A lot of people will say to me, don't we always have a July 4th parade? We don't. We don't ever have a July 4th parade. So this is a rare occasion, so we hope people will participate. Number two, in the afternoon, at 2 p.m. in the afternoon on July 4th, we plan to dedicate our new monument to freedom. It will be located in the heart of the Pump House District, and you've heard my description before. It's a 50,000 pound piece of granite that will be etched with the words freedom. Behind it will be six pillars, each representing a different branch of the military, and surrounding the giant monument as you walk up to it will be etched in granite famous quotes about america's freedom really should be a very special place quite honestly once it's complete but at the dedication ceremony we would like to feature 250 veterans from ashland county 250 veterans or active duty servicemen and women we have a role for you to play in that dedication ceremony as we make history And what we're asking is if you would register online if you're willing to participate. And the reason why that's important is because we actually would plan that day to have you in a specific formation where you will be a part of the dedication ceremony. So we're going to do our very best to recruit 250 men and women of the military here that live in Ashland County. Or if you've got a friend outside of the county and they want to join you and they've served, we'll be glad to have them as well. but 250 veterans that's what we're trying to recruit so i hope you'll sign up if you are a veteran and if you're not hopefully you'll tell someone you know who is because it should be a very special day then finally of course that night we'll have one heck of a birthday party out at freer field it starts at 5 p.m expected to last until probably 10 p.m when the fireworks go off we'll have live bands food trailers lots of giveaways and it should be a pretty Exciting atmosphere. Still trying to figure out how we're going to give everyone birthday cake, but somehow we're going to sing happy birthday to America and try to get people cake.

Mr. Mayor, your mention of the Freedom Monument reminded me, I did have somebody ask about 4th Street. I haven't been through that area since last week, but

they were wondering about cleaning it up and getting it back into public use and do you have a timeline on that building stuff down there so next year is when all those projects should be complete in 2027 so we're gonna have to endure a little bit longer and in fact on July 4th it will still be a construction site but when you're having a 50,000 pound piece of granite delivered on July 4th you just can't set it over here until you need to move it it'll have to be lowered into place so the contractors have assured me that they will make sure that it is ready for us to install and i guess i'm just going to trust that god will give us enough dry weather and sunshine to make it possible so but in terms of the apartments and the hotel it would be in 2027 when they would be complete well they were more concerned about being able to use fourth street again I don't have a definitive timeline on that. Here's the deal. I've had lots of people express their concerns about not being able to drive on 4th Street. The truth is there's probably nowhere else in America they would have allowed that street to be open during that construction. If you've traveled up and down 4th Street any time in the last several weeks or the last several months, you are driving in the middle of a construction site. Heavy equipment moving every direction, piles of aggregate sitting out in the street, you are in essence driving through a construction zone. and in any other place in this america i am confident people would have said no way and they would have put up a fence and closed it off but we wanted to make sure that people at least had access to get to the laundromat so we've done our best to keep it open and i know it may be inconvenient but but it is a short-term pain for a long-term gain. And our streets are pretty well laid out that you can navigate them now that we've turned most one-way streets to two-way streets, that you don't have to travel too far to get where you need to go, even if you have to take a little detour a block or two away. We've got lots of complaints about closing union. It's by no means because we're eager to close Union. It's because during the midst of construction, there was big, heavy, yellow equipment backing across Union all throughout the day. And yet in the midst of that, multiple times, the police and the fire witnessed citizens getting out of their vehicles, moving the barriers, driving through, and leaving them unopened. So I appreciate people's... people's desire to see it be complete. We all want to see it complete, but it is a construction zone, and it won't last forever. So please don't frown. Just go around.

Yeah, that's good. Very good.

Very good. We'll get through it, though. Anything else? Not at this time.

When is there normal working hours? When is there normal working hours, though?

traditional business day from morning till night. So what, probably around 5 p.m., 8 till 5, 7 to 5? Can we open that up? Well, we have been. We have been.

And at one time, I went through there, and it wasn't closed. It was not open, but you could go through there.

On the other side, they had it closed.

I don't know what's going on there.

To allow access to the laundromat. I don't know where you're talking, but I would assume that because that has happened. You know, here's the deal. The contractor who is building the county office building has placed a fence the entire way around the perimeter of their construction site. You can't even easily find the entrance point or the exit point. In essence, this is a giant construction site and we've left it open. To the extent that we can leave it open, we have left it open so traffic can conveniently move through, even if it's a dusty, dirty mess. And that's my point. If we were to probably take all the precautions that we should be taking, it would have all been closed. That entire area would have been closed, but we're doing our best to be lenient and let traffic move after hours, sometimes even in the midst of the project. And so we're trying to make it work in a way that I don't think any other community would be making it work, quite frankly.

When I think what's happening as I travel that way all the time to my daughters is people are moving one of the barriers and then the second set of barriers are up. So I've seen cars go and then all of a sudden there's two that's stopping them and they're turning around. They're like because somebody else had moved that barrier.

We went out myself and then the Some of the other emergency forces were out there. We went out and sat there and watched. And in all honesty, it was unbelievable.

It truly was unbelievable.

People of all ages. So you can't stereotype. It was people of all ages would come up to the barrier where it says closed and would open it up. would move one of them just enough to be able to pull their car through, get into it, and then find that once they were into it, they couldn't get through, and then turn around and go back. The next vehicle, of course, the barrier now is half-cocked, so people come in, they come into the next set, and then this one might be a little bit more ambitious, so they go ahead and move the second set of barriers as well. And the contractors and the men and women that are in the heavy equipment are looking at all of us like, why are you allowing this? And I'll be honest with you, as I sat there, I'm thinking, why are we allowing this? This is incredible, because let's face it, most of us know safety standards are pretty tough. And the contractor and the city are being extremely lenient in this scenario. Because I honestly think that if the right people knew, they would say, no way, you've got to have all this fenced off.

Well, you have to remember, there's nails. They're using nails. It could be in the road. So if you get a flat tire.

Absolutely. Travel at your own risk.

Travel at your own risk, yes.

may get to a point where you need to drop jersey rail down there on the end of each street and then it's just closed it was suggested to us that we needed to place concrete barriers everywhere but again we don't want to do that we want to be able to have the flexibility that on weekends if they're not working we can open it up so it it's the least inconvenient for our people that live in those neighborhoods and travel those roads every day but unfortunately though if there's going to be people that continue to

overstep and move barriers, then they won't move those. They won't move those. And then we won't have a front end loader backing over the hood of somebody's car. Yep. And that is the fear. Quite honestly, that is the fear. I mean, that's real. That happens.

Yep.

So.

Also, I just got a reminder, and I forgot to mention this. Memorial Day weekend, the Myerses, Don and Jean Myers, have once again agreed to fund free mini golf for our customers. So anyone who wants to enjoy mini golf at our city-owned putt-putt golf course at Brookside, you'll be able to do so at no cost thanks to the Myerses.

All weekend?

Yes.

Okay. Great.

Memorial Day weekend. Yeah.

Excellent. Thank you, Mayor. With that, we'll move right to comments and questions from our audience. If anyone would like to address council, please step up to the podium. Now is the time. Seeing none, we are going to request a motion for executive session. Probably be brief. And this one will be for the possible purchase of property. Okay. For the possible purchase of property. So moved. Do we have any executive session? Second. Thank you. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

All right. No action will be taken upon return. So we thank you all for joining us.