City Council - Regular Meeting

Here.

Dennis Miller. Here. Angela Woodward. Here. Dan Lawson.

Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

Well, good evening, everyone. Welcome. to the July 7th meeting of the Ashland City Council. To our viewers at home, thank you for joining us. Members of our audience, we so appreciate your interest in our local government. Members of council, Mayor Miller, Attorney Bush, Director Paxton, welcome everyone. First item on the agenda will be the approval of the minutes from the June 16th meeting if there are no additions, deletions, or corrections. To those minutes, I'll ask for a motion to approve as submitted.

So moved.

Second. Thank you. Lawson. Aye. Workman. Aye. Kyle. Aye. Miller. Aye. Woodward. Aye.

Minutes will stand approved. First ordinance this evening will be an ordinance authorizing the issuing of a then and now certificate for the following attached expenditures for the city of Ashland, Ohio and declaring an emergency.

Second.

Thank you.

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

Good evening. Excuse me. The ordinance you have before you is standard items that the department should have issued a purchase order for. It's a little embarrassing since it's my own department. But I guess that shows that we're all human and even the finance director makes a mistake once in a while. So anyways, it is for the purchase of some meters so that we can continue to install some smart meters in some of our residents' homes as we can.

Very good.

Any discussion?

It says leak detector.

They are leak detectors as well as the meters.

You are correct. Yes.

Thank you for correcting. I appreciate that.

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

Move to approve.

Second. Thank you.

Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Miller? Aye. Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye.

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

Kyle? 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 36-26.

Next ordinance will be an ordinance authorizing the Director of Finance to amend appropriations for the calendar year 2026 and declaring an emergency. Move for non-reading and full. Second. Thank you.

Workman? Aye. Kayo? Aye. Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye.

This ordinance allows us to appropriate some money to complete some of the transactions that may follow in this meeting, as well as some block grant funding. We're not quite clear of the amount of funding that we would be using this year for block grant monies, and this does allow us to complete that process. The block grant is for $150,000, and the city has to also share a small portion in order to complete that project. The other is to complete the purchase of property.

Very good. Any comments or questions? Hearing none, 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. So moved.

Second. We got three. Thank you.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Miller? Aye. Ordinance 37-26.

And we have an ordinance authorizing and directing the Director of Finance to make the following transfers within the 2026 appropriations and declaring an emergency. Move for non-reading and full.

This is a little different than the previous ordinance you folks originally when you created the 2026 appropriations you appropriated this money and

It is now, because of some of the needs within the different departments, it allows us to shift some of the money that previously was appropriated in an effort to better meet the needs of those departments in the near future. All right, any discussion?

Hearing none, is there a motion to approve on the first reading? So moved.

Second. Thank you. Miller?

Aye.

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

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

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Miller?

Aye.

Motion to approve the ordinance.

So moved.

Second. Thank you.

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

Aye. Woodward.

Aye. Ordinance 38-26.

Item D is an ordinance establishing a debt retirement fund entitled Economic Development Debt Retirement Fund 306 for the express purpose of retiring debt incurred from issuing debt for economic development purposes and declaring an emergency. Move for non-reading and full. Second. Thank you.

Miller?

Aye.

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

Aye.

This fund allows the city, because of the financing of the purchasing of property through an economic development process rather than the standard debt structure that the city would have, it requires us to establish a different debt retirement fund. And as the city retires that debt, the money will filter into this fund, and then it will be paid out of it. It's purely just a debt retirement mechanism that has to be different than our other debt retirement funds. Sure.

Does each transaction, each real estate transaction have to have its own debt retirement fund?

Not normally, but because of this being a different financing mechanism, we've never done this type of debt issuing before. And because it is different and the funding to retire the debt comes from different sources than the normal debt retirement funds we have, we have to establish this.

Yeah, so they don't match, so you can't put the monies together.

It deals with the funding, the money, and where the money comes from to retire that debt. Got you. Thank you. That's all.

Thank you.

Very good. Any further discussion?

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

Move to approve.

Second. Thank you.

Woodward. Aye. Lawson. Aye. Workman. Aye. Kyle. Aye.

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

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

Aye.

Woodward. Aye.

Motion to approve the ordinance.

So moved.

Second. Thank you.

Workman? Aye. Kayo? Aye. Miller? Aye. Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Ordinance 39-26.

And we have an ordinance authorizing the purchase of certain real property located in the city of Ashland and declaring an emergency.

Move for non-reading and full.

Second. Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kayo? Aye. Miller?

Aye. All right, I think most of the council members will remember when we took action to replace the bridge just outside of City Hall here on Claremont Avenue. In fact, it closed down Claremont Avenue for quite a period of time. And during that improvement project, we became well aware of the fact that ultimately we needed to own the building across the street, Rosby Investments, because the bridge and the culvert, that building is literally built on top of all of that. And we at that time approached the owner. They were unwilling to sell, but we recently received a call from Mr. Rosby, and at this time he and his wife are willing to part with the property. So after some back and forth and negotiation, I am recommending to you that we purchase the property for $237,500. We would take ownership immediately upon closing. However, I have informed them that we would be willing to lease the space to them until we would need to take action on the building or on the culvert below. There is no rush to get rid of that building, but it makes sense for us to have it for future repairs that might take place here with this particular culvert. So I'm recommending that you support us as we seek to acquire that building.

Plus it's a good location.

Oh, it is a very good location. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So we're acquiring the building because it was sitting on the culvert. So we owned the culvert, but we didn't own the building. So we're acquiring the building that was sitting on our property.

Is that a way to... Well, I mean, we don't own the property. Okay. But that is our responsibility, the culvert. And... I don't know how you would explain it, Dan, quite honestly. I mean, that was part of the discussion. At that time, we actually inquired about whether or not Mr. Rosby was willing to make several hundred thousand dollars worth of improvements that might be needed. under his building and of course they were not in a financial position or what i have expected to want to make those improvements and uh... they weren't improvements that had to be made at that time but because we were going through all the efforts we were going to fix the bridge that's why we started the conversation and now of course Mr. Rosby's willing to part with the building, and we think that's best, period. To be quite honest with you, this is a better deal than having to rely on the owner of that building to fix any problems that develop.

Sure.

Now, like I said, though, that does not mean that in the next six months we're going to tear that building down and start a big project over there. But we will now at least have control of that property. And in the meantime, we'll still be able to gather income from that property so long as they continue to occupy it. Because the building's a nice building. They recently redid the inside of it. And Mr. Rosby's, I believe it's his son-in-law, I believe it is his son-in-law, has taken over the firm. So... They don't have any desire to leave there right away, but like I said, it gives us the ability to control that property when improvements are needed. And that's a month-to-month lease? We haven't even decided that yet because we haven't purchased it yet.

All right. Any further discussion?

Hearing none, is there a motion to approve on the first reading? So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

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

Aye.

Woodward. Aye.

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

Second.

Thank you.

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

Motion to approve the ordinance.

Move to approve. Second. Thank you.

Kyle?

Aye. Miller? Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Ordinance 40-26.

I definitely learned early in my time as mayor that when you get the opportunity to take advantage of some of these situations, you've got to do it, whether it was in your plan or not, because what we have found, when the city in the past has passed up situations like this, we end up in a heck of a situation in the future. where either the price is so exorbitant it makes no sense for us to acquire it, or it just absolutely limits what we can do in terms of new development. So I think this is important. So thank you for supporting that. Certainly.

I thought I would. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

At this time, we'll move to our public hearing item, which is the 2027 proposed tax budget. And with that, we'll open the hearing and hand it over to our finance director for summary explanation. Thank you.

It's hard to believe that we're halfway through 26 and we're thinking about 2027 already. That's kind of how government works sometimes. This is the 2027 tax budget. It's the beginning of the formation of the appropriations for 2027. We are required to produce this and then submit it to the county budget commission. which includes the auditor and the treasurer and the prosecuting attorney for their review. It really, the main purpose of this is to set the revenues and the millages in particular for the coming year for the property tax that the general fund and the park and the debt retirement funds and the police and fire pension funds received from that collection. It is also an exercise in appropriations and preparing for 2022. It establishes a estimate of what possibly the city may incur as far as expenditures as well as anticipated revenues. In doing that, really the main purpose of it is to establish those revenue streams, but it is also a exercise, if you will, in preparing for 2027 to make as smooth a transition as you can from one year to the next. It does hinge upon the year-end cash balances of the fund. So everything that you read in here is an estimate, if you will, of where we will possibly find ourself at the end of the year. But it is not... spending appropriations it is just a estimate of where we may find ourselves in 2027 it does cover the different funds that we currently have within our accounting system and I must it I must admit that I made a slight mistake in the advertisement I sent it to your worthy clerk and did not proofread it well enough. If you look closely at the legal ad, it says 2026, so apparently the finance director has made two mistakes tonight so far. But it is for 2027. That has been corrected, but unfortunately the ad did say 26, and we certainly apologize for that. It also includes the special revenue funds that currently the city does function with or within the accounting system, our debt, our capital projects funds, our enterprise, intergovernmental, and agency funds. Everything that we currently, what you see on your detailed trial balance, is a part of the tax budget as of right now. Again, it is an exercise in preparing for the coming year. It is not set in stone. It only begins the process for that revenue, setting that revenue. Once it goes to the Budget Commission and comes back, you will then have a ordinance accepting the rates that the Budget Commission has established so that they can then put that in play for 2027 for us. At this point, the budget is broke up by personal services, other, which is all the other operating expenses the city incurs, and then a total. Currently, and please keep in mind that there are substantial debt payments that are within this, but within this tax budget, it is estimated that the personal services of the city for 27 will cost about $28 million. the other operating expenses and we do operate a multi-million dollar operations uh... and in doing that that will cost about sixty nine million the total estimated cost of tax budget as we know it today is about ninety seven million dollars which is a little down from where it was last year because we had incurred some other expenses, some retirement of some of our debt and other items. So it has shrunk a little bit. You cannot compare last year compared to this year, but it is close at this point. Very good.

This time, if council has any questions or comments for Mr. Paxton during the hearing, you're welcome to ask. And then we'll open the floor to our audience if anyone here would like to pose a question or comment. It is a public hearing after all. So with that, Larry, we appreciate your explanation, and we'll close the hearing.

There will be another opportunity. We are required to have two hearings on this budget, or this tax budget. I'll get it right eventually. That's okay. But there will be another hearing at the next council meeting. I will be drafting legislation for your adoption as well at that meeting.

After the hearing, yeah. Okay, very good. All right. Hearing is now closed. Moving back to the agenda, we have as item F, we have an ordinance authorizing the purchase of certain real property located in the county of Ashland and declaring an emergency.

Move for non-rating and full.

Second. Lawson? Aye. Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Aye. Miller? Aye. Woodward? Aye.

Okay. At our last council meeting, the city council approved the acquisition of 115 acres of land known as the Becker Estate. along U.S. 42 between Mifflin Avenue and King Road. At the last meeting, you took the official action to move forward with the purchase, authorized the financing, and tonight here is another step, and that is approving the purchase agreement with the current owner. So tonight I ask you to approve the purchase agreement for 115 acres of land located at 1548 County Road 995 for a cost of $2.975 million. The purpose of the acquisition is to install a housing subdivision of single-family homes. There is no immediate timeframe, so anyone that might be wondering when that will take place, basically the acquisition is just the start. There still has to be a lot of steps and hoops to go through before we would actually be moving forward. on installing homes we know there are developers out there that are willing to work with us right away to begin installing homes but at this point we are just in the process of acquiring the land if you should take this step tonight the next one of course will be to have the closing hopefully we can do that here in the month of july and then we will immediately go to work to annex the land. We don't believe there will be any issues with that because we've already negotiated with Montgomery Township a revenue-sharing agreement, so that should go smoothly, but that will be the next step after we close.

Very good. Any comments, questions?

This is all just raw land, right? Yes, yes, undeveloped land. When I was looking at the aerial map, there was a home down in there.

Well, there is a home and a barn and several other outbuildings because it was an old farm.

On the southwest corner of it? Yes, yes, yes. I just didn't know if that was included in the property.

Yes, it is, it is, yes, yes.

Good question. Any further discussion? Hearing none, is there a motion to approve on the first reading? So moved.

Second. Second, thank you. Mr. Miller?

Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Miller? Aye. Woodward? Aye. Lawson? Aye.

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

Second.

Thank you.

Kyle? 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. Pio? Aye. Ordinance 41-26.

On this particular topic, it might be worth adding, yesterday we had a City Planning Commission meeting, and our Council President, Steve Workman, happened to be in the audience at that particular meeting, after the agenda items were addressed, one of those particular folks that was in attendance regarding one of the agenda items, who I believe is from Shelby, Ohio, and is an engineer who works with developers all around the state, he came up to me and he said, Mayor, I want to tell you, I read the story about your council approving the purchase of that 115 acres of land so that you could control the housing development that takes place. He said, that gave me chills. He said, I've been telling communities you need to do that because that's the only way you're going to get the housing stock that you're looking for. He said that he forwarded it to 20 different municipalities that he works with, saying you need to take a look at this because this is a best practice. So that was good affirmation for us because obviously this is the first time we've done it. And we plan to tackle it no differently than we tackled the industrial park. The city buys the land, we get it prepared for development, and then we go looking for the type of development that we want on the property, only instead of businesses this time, it's homes and single-family homes, not apartments, not condominiums, not townhouses, but single-family homes, because that is what we need here in the community. A study was done several years ago, and it revealed that we needed approximately 387 homes at that time to meet market need. Now, I put very little confidence in those studies because those same studies would have told you that we would not have had a market for all the apartments out in the district on George Road, and yet the results were just the opposite. They filled before they were even constructed, and the same developer is now building 200 more. So there is a demand whether people realize that or not, and single-family homes in particular are what people are desiring. Incidentally, just a little fun fact, since you all weren't at that meeting yesterday, and you were not expected to be at our Planning Commission meetings. The matter that came before the Planning Commission involves the development out on Smith Road of the condominiums. What is it, 160? 174, I think. Whichever, I think it might have changed. 174 condominiums. Many of those were duplexes and triplexes and other. The reason he came in yesterday was to revise their plan and create more single family, I'm sorry, single condominiums. Stand-alone condominiums because he said they've already got a waiting list. He's never seen anything like it. He said people are calling in and wanting to pick their property now and asking if they can have a stand-alone condominium so they're not sharing a building or a home with another occupant in a duplex. And so he revised a great deal of his plan, removing duplexes, making smaller lots, and adding single-family homes. condominiums. So that tells you there is a demand. And he confirmed it yesterday when he made his presentation. He had another, he had probably what, a handful of five or six folks that were here because they read it was going to be an agenda item and they're interested in buying one of those properties even before anything's being constructed. So I'm confident that acquiring this land is the right thing.

Absolutely. With that, Mayor, we appreciate that explanation, and it's nice to know that Ashland can serve as a model for other communities as well in this practice. So thank you. Moving then to an ordinance authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into a contract for the purchase of equipment for the police division of the City of Ashland, Ohio, obviating formal advertising and bidding, and declaring an emergency. Move for non-reading and full.

Second.

Thank you.

Workman? Aye. Kyle? Aye. Miller?

Aye.

Woodward? Aye. Lawson?

Aye. So it's probably been about three or four years ago when our former police chief, Dave Lay, came to me on behalf of our officers requesting that we consider buying an armored rescue vehicle or a tactical vehicle for the police department. They are not an inexpensive piece of equipment. And at that time, we talked a lot about it, but just didn't feel the timing was right. Well, our new chief, when he took over, one of the very first things he did was come to me with the research of his officers and to express the need for one of these armored rescue or tactical vehicles. Now, more specifically, they go by the name of Bearcat G3 Pro. And basically what it is is a vehicle that would be utilized in a situation where the occupants or the officers needed protection to approach a structure or a situation or quite honestly a shooting. Now what I find very interesting and tragic at the same time is The situation that was just experienced in Wayne County absolutely confirms the need for one of these vehicles. If you're not aware, just a few days ago in Wayne County, a Rittman police officer showed up at the site of a shooting and was hit. He fell to the ground and he was still alive. He was actually putting a tourniquet on himself and trying to move. It looked like he might have been hit in his hip so he may have been paralyzed already. The other officers showed up and sought to help him but couldn't get to him because the gun fired toward them and several of them were hit as well. So in that time, backup was called and they had to get an armored tactical vehicle just exactly like the one we are proposing that you purchase before they could go onto the site and get to the officer that ended up dying and to rescue the other officers and of course get close to the situation. I guess there's a prime example of why you need this particular piece of equipment. It wasn't that long ago in our own Ashland County, I believe it was in Sullivan, was it not? Where the law enforcement showed up and the person inside who had barricaded them inside had guns at all the windows. That is exactly when you would use this particular vehicle. It is not a tank, so it's not equipped with ballistics or anything like that. It doesn't have any guns or anything like that mounted to it, but it is instead an armored vehicle that allows our first responders to get to a scene safely without having to worry about being hit by gunfire or any other type of fire that might come their direction. Now, like I said, these are expensive apparatuses. This particular one is $435,300. And we know that that is an expensive figure. We do have the funds, however, in our police equipment line item, thanks to the levy dollars. We actually, after talking with our own police chief and our own police officers here recently about this, reached out to our sheriff, Kurt Schneider, and he too was looking at possibly moving forward on the acquisition of one of these particular armored tactical vehicles. And so we all sat down, the police chief, some of our representatives from the police department, our police officers, the sheriff, and the sheriff, some of his deputies, and the county commissioners took a look at this particular vehicle, what its specifications were, and everyone agrees that this would serve our county well. So the city would be acquiring it, but the county commissioners have said they would be willing to pay up to half of the total price tag. So that $435,300 figure, that's the total cost. But I do believe in the months out ahead, we will be able to access some additional funding from the county as well.

Can I question the $470,000 if you're saying $400,000?

Yeah, the $435,000 is what I thought it was now. They might have put that in to cover me. That's probably a round number.

The quote says $466,804.

But then the ordinance is for $470.

And it is just to cover. And I will tell you, I was going off the price that was given to me back when we were talking about this in March. So a little bit of time has passed. So that's most likely what that's about.

Shall not exceed is the way it reads.

Yeah.

You know the time. Steel goes up every month. That's exactly why we're bringing it to you today. The price of steel goes up every single month. I'm glad you asked because I forgot. It looks like it would not be available for delivery until 2028. All right. So it'll be built. And so for that reason, that's why we thought we need to get moving on it. And we'll work out the details with the commissioners. here in the future.

It's sad that we have to consider something like this, but it is vitally important that we protect our law enforcement officers.

Absolutely. And here's the other part of this. Look how often now we have large gatherings in our city in particular, whether it's the fair, whether it's the Christmas parade, St. Patrick's Day, July 4th. you just never know what might happen at any of those events. And so I do think now is the right time to move forward. And like I said, that unfortunate situation in Ripman just puts an explanation point on the need. And incidentally, most every city, our size around us already has one or their County Sheriff's department has one. So, so we're not stepping out into new territory by any means.

And it works equally as a deterrent. You're probably right. You know, it's going to, The potential to save lives is the number one, but secondarily, it makes a little bit of a statement that we're not monkeying around.

Exactly. Nope, you're right. So I'd appreciate your consideration.

Yes, absolutely.

If there's no further discussion, I'll ask for 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. Kyo?

Aye.

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

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

Aye.

Ordinance 42-26.

And on behalf of the police chief and all of our officers and the county sheriff and the deputies, thank you for moving forward with that tonight. Big no-brainer.

Yep. We do want to express our sympathy and our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out to the family and the city of Rittman for their loss. We take this very seriously. We support our police and fire... there is no price that can replace a life. So this is a very well needed and worthwhile purchase. With that we'll move right to resolutions of which there are none. We have no old business or new business unless council has something to bring forward. With that, we'll move right to council comments. Mr. Kyle, if you'd like to go first.

It seems like the weekend's festivities went off without a hitch. A big thank you to everybody involved through the city and the county. It was awesome seeing the police and sheriff deputies. They were out in full force, and that was awesome to see. And for the most part, it seemed like everybody behaved pretty well. So thank you to the residents of the city.

fabulous day start to finish I did get a complaint in the last week or so about a neighbor burning rubbish in their yard pretty much 24 7 and just want to remind everybody that burning rubbish in the city of any kind of rubbish in the city of Ashland is strictly prohibited and those who are doing it if they'd stop, don't stop, then they could be arrested. So just want to put that out there. Also, uh, went through the opening for Culver this morning and, uh, uh, it's just another excellent restaurant to be at that location. And in talking to the owners, uh, they just, RAVED ABOUT HOW SMOOTH THE PROCESS WENT TO GET ALL THEIR PERMITS AND GET THINGS GOING AND MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND THEY REALLY, I THINK THE RIBBON CUTTING WAS IN A FROSTY JANUARY AND HERE IT IS JULY AND THEY'RE ALREADY OPEN.

JUST THE OPPOSITE TODAY.

YEAH, EXACTLY. AND THERE WAS A STATE REPRESENTATIVE THERE, IT WASN'T MELANIE, BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER LADY, I DON'T REMEMBER HER POSITION, BUT SHE SAID ASHLAND IS GETTING A REPUTATION FOR BEING WELCOMING TO BUSINESSES, BEING BUSINESS FRIENDLY, AND EASY TO WORK WITH. SO THAT'S HOW YOU GROW YOUR CITY. the staff and everybody involved in economic development and the mayor and Shane.

They said that was the biggest ribbon cutting they've ever had in the history of their franchises. So that's good.

I also said this town is one of the most welcoming. The owner, I don't remember his name, he said I'll be coming to this Ashland quite a bit.

All my nicest people.

Yeah, that's great to hear. So I want to just say thank you for, again, all the city services that helped with the weekend. I know many of them were out there until late into the night cleaning up trash and putting barrels away. So thank you to all of them for helping, and the police for policing all of the events. I'm glad we didn't have any incidents. But mainly is grass. I want to talk about grass. So many calls. I've probably had a dozen in the last month of grass. We have to mow. You have to mow your grass. So please, if you don't have a lawn mower, see if you can borrow one from a neighbor or whatever you need to do. But you need to mow your grass. I think the ordinance says 12 inches, but you know. Mow, please, mow. I'd appreciate it. That's a good point.

I'm fairly certain your neighbors would supply you with a mower if you need one. Yes, they would.

I would supply any of my neighbors with one.

And as Amanda, Angela's council member, Woodward, has been getting lots of calls about grass in her ward.

And junk, grass and junk. So just clean it up a little.

Mow, mow, mow your grass. Be a good mower. I want to echo the sentiments about the weekend, and it was just absolutely fantastic. And I got cold chills at the dedication of the monument, and it was such a fantastic. Thank you for pulling that off the way you did. And the video that was shown and the comments that were made, which is moving, very moving. So I have talked to a lot of people who are thoroughly behind the idea of us acquiring that property. They thought it was a genius idea and it's going to be great for our city. They support it 100%. So it just underscores that it was a move, a good move. And to further underscore that, Steve, you and I were talking to a woman who bought a business in a nearby city but has intentionally decided that she wants to live in Ashland. because of the schools, because of the reputation, because of the city in general. So she has decided to move here and live in Ashland. She's renting temporarily, but she wants to buy one of those single-family homes as soon as she can. But I thought it was interesting. She could have lived in the nearby city where she acquired the business, but she's chosen to live here in Ashland, even though her business is in another county. It's wonderful.

I was so inspired by meeting her, and you could just see it in her face. She said, I'm so happy to be in Ashland. That's wonderful. And that's no slouch business that she's purchased either. This is somebody that knows the difference between towns, and it was really complimentary to hear and meet her. So, yeah, we just wanted to share that. It really is.

That I'll turn it over to you. Well, first of all, I want to thank everyone who helped with and participated with our 250 celebration. I think we definitely created memories that will last forever for those that were present, and certainly with the monument will forever mark the 250th birthday in a poignant way. Incidentally, anyone who came to that monument that thought it looked wonderful now, this is only just the beginning. Soon after the construction is all complete, that entire perimeter of green space will be lined with trees, equally spread out all around the perimeter, most likely there'll be ornamental light fixtures. There'll probably be poles, perhaps with veterans banners. I would love to see that eventually become Veterans Plaza. So that is just the beginning. The monument's very powerful, but I think when it's complete, people will really be impressed. But tonight I wanted to take just a moment to go through the list and name those who helped fund the celebration and the monument. And the reason I, of course, want to do that is because in the midst of all the celebration and with the music going and all the intense heat, If we left anyone out, we want to make sure that they are mentioned publicly. So first off, we want to thank the Ashland Elks Lodge number 1360 for being the premier sponsor of the celebration. They were the lead sponsor, so we certainly want to thank them. The Eagles Club came forward with a very generous gift. Culver's actually gave us $5,000 on the cold day of their groundbreaking months ago toward the celebration. I just mentioned it to them and he said, we want to be a part of that and gave us a check for 5,000. The Ashton County Community Foundation, they chipped in big. We're a prime sponsor of our parade. Ashton Main Street, of course, provided lots of volunteers for the parade and helped put that together. Ashland Monument, they have donated some of their services and some of their offerings toward the monument. So they did all those engraved granite pieces that have quotes on them. They donated those to the project. So we're certainly thankful for their help. Bob Simonson and Simonson Construction came through with a very generous gift. Bob Simonson came by the day before July 4th, drove by, he and his dog, and they looked out the window and he says, I am in awe. He said, I can't get over this. He said, this is so much more than I expected. And he said, you're going to hear from me. And sure enough, a few hours later, I got a text that he would be making a very generous gift for me. toward the monument. So thank you, Bob Simonson. Ashland University's WRDL radio. They, of course, broadcast everything, put together the musical soundtrack to the fireworks. The Rotary Club of Ashland, who did the fundraising for all of our fireworks again this year. It was a pretty good show, the biggest we've ever had in the county. Ralph Tomasi, Jim Cutright, Tom and Mary McNall, they all gave gifts towards different aspects of the celebration. So we want to thank them. Terry! Do you believe this? Terry, actually, I brought her, what, 10 or 13 buntings, individual flag buntings, and asked her, Terry, I know you sew. Could you sew these together? And she did sew them together by hand. So it looked fabulous. So thank you for doing that. She even steamed them, I think, by the time I got them back. The City of Ashland crew, Jason Counts and Dylan Counts Production for putting together all of the videos that people were able to see at home. And Zach Burgess, I want to thank him as well for help with the screens, the big screens, so that people could see that video at the dedication and at the fireworks. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Because it wasn't an inexpensive celebration, and I appreciate everyone's generosity.

Who did the drone?

Luke Walsh, Free Fly, Free Fly, Fry Free, Free Fly. Yes, Luke Walsh. He's the one that provided that. Got some great photos. And then I just thought I would close with this because I know people are, oh, you know what? I forgot. Bill Buckingham. Bill Buckingham, the man who gave the gift, the primary gift for the actual Freedom Monument, a 47,000-pound piece of granite and six pillars, each weighing in at 4,000 pounds. He paid for all of those. So thank you, Bill Buckingham. He and I are going to go down there one night when no one's around, he said, so we can read those together. So I have to make sure that we do that. Now, what I wanted to close with, just because there's always rumors out there, what's going where. As of today, there should be no mystery of what's going next to Dunkin' Donuts out on 250. It's Valvoline Oil Change. I know that won't excite all of you out there that are wanting some delicious restaurant, but that is what's going at that location. We had nothing to do with it. We played no role in that. That just is, they bought the land and they're moving forward with their project. However, next to Culver's, we have talked about in the past what was potentially going to go there. I can tell you now, Culver's is going there. seven brew coffee, a Hyatt hotel featuring 80 rooms, and that leaves one remaining lot. And at times at these meetings, I've alluded to what that might be, but I've signed a confidentiality agreement that prevents me for confirming what it is. I have heard in the last week or so that the deal was off, that the deal was on. I've heard people on the street say, oh, no, they know someone and it's off. Well, let me tell you, as of today, it is not off. And so if you can remember what I alluded to in the past about chicken sandwiches, I still think there's a bright future for chicken sandwiches out on US 250. So stay tuned. And that's my report. All right. It's always good to have something to hope for, right? That's right.

So then we'll move right to comments and questions from our audience. If anyone has anything they'd like to address counsel with, now would be the time. Seeing none, that leaves us to adjournment. And is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second.

Lawson? Aye. Werfman? Aye. Aye. Miller?

Aye. Woodward?

Aye.

We are adjourned. Thank you all for coming.