City Council - Regular Meeting

United States of America the republic that they represent a nation under God indivisible with freedom and justice good evening everyone and welcome to the meeting of September 15 of the municipal council of ashland to our three spectators at home thanks for coming to us to the members of our public Il primo punto all'ordine del giorno di questa sera sarà l'approvazione del verbale della riunione dell'1° settembre. La prima ordinanza di questa sera sarà un'ordinanza che trova la domanda di incentivo fiscale per l'area di reinvestimento comunitario per Third Street Ashland L.C. all'interno della città di Ashland, Ohio.

Well, in the last few weeks people in the whole city have seen the corner of, I'm sorry, the corner of, I talked about many corners, the corner of Third Street and Orange Street, see a lot of activity. In particular, I know that it has been widely reported in the news and certainly on social media, that the old building of the prosecutor's office was demolished. That would have been found diagonally from the National City Bank or the current headquarters of the PNC Bank. And of course, we all looked at that building coming down. It was in rather bad conditions, as well as some of the surrounding buildings. Well, now that that corner has been cleaned, the owner is ready to re-qualify it. And of course, this is an important part of the Pump House District, right there, in that corridor between Union Street and Orange Street and Orange Street, near the corridor of Fort... and tonight I present you a request for a tax incentive for the area of ​​community reinvestment the owner would like to build a commercial building of 2200 square feet with 1000 square feet of seats to sit on the roof so this will be a wonderful complement for the new activity that hopes to install in this position for the entire area of ​​the pump house now the request is for an easing of 50% for 10 years on real estate taxes. And this is in line with what we have provided to others who have carried out revitalization projects in the center. Now I have talked to him about the project and I will be very direct with all of you. This is a project led by Matt Worcester. And if you don't know Matt Worcester, he is the person who restructured the building that we now know as South Street Grill. He is also responsible for donating the land to the city for the Foundation Plaza, which today we all appreciate for various community events. And it is also the man who cleaned the old shop Napa Auto Parts, which had been declared ineligible in Main Street, by installing the Ohio Fire Pizza instead. So, he continues to make very important investments in our city center. Recently I told someone, do you realize how different our story would be if it had not been for Matt Worcester's decision to invest huge sums to clean up those buildings and not only, then finding someone new to take care of them. Because the reality is that much of the traffic in the center, in Main Street and in South Street is generated by restaurants. Restaurants and bars, places where people can eat, drink and dine. this is what really pushes people towards our center and now Mr. Worcester would like to proceed with another project in the corridor of the Pompadour I think people will be enthusiastic when more details will emerge on what he intends to do in this space but certainly with an explanation like this you can have an idea of ​​what there could be 2600 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor 1200 square feet of seats to sit on the roof should I therefore ask the Council to consider the approval of this fiscal incentive for the area of community reinvestment, which, as the name suggests, is exactly what this is for. Revitalize an area that once was alive but now needs attention to come back to life.

I hope this is just one of the many projects of a similar nature, because now with more people who live there, I think there will be more places to eat, more places to have a coffee, more places to spend time, so to speak, in that area.

I'm not sure. I think he was involved in some development. Domestic savings don't have anything to do with it.

Essex, Essex house?

Absolutely.

It is the owner who instilled new life in the Essex house.

Absolutely. And it is an important project.

It is too early in his project plan for an estimate on the creation of jobs or something like that.

He gave us an idea of ​​how many jobs he thinks can be created on the site. At the moment, they predict that, let me clarify that, unlike tax incentives for frank areas, CRA tax incentives do not depend on the creation of jobs. If this were an agreement for a frank area, then there would be a requirement to create jobs. The CRA is designed simply to generate more economic activity in an area that is no longer vibrant. And that's why we're using it in this room. But he wasn't supposed to do it. I see that they could be created.

Just to clarify. Nothing official.

But it's not the requirement of this thing.

Other discussion. There is a motion for approval.

For the next two seconds.

With the approval of that C.R.A. agreement, we can predict that the construction will start in October of this year and the project will be, we hope, completed in the spring.

And by the way, for those who were interested, since I am receiving many calls, they expect to start renting a house in November. So that's going well too.

Next, we have an ordinance that authorizes the mayor to stipulate a contract for the purchase of equipment for the Aquera EFLU division in the city of Ashland, Ohio, eliminating the formal legal advertising of the auction.

This particular order concerns the purchase of a Ford Transit 250 of 2026 equipped with closed circuit imaging equipment and technology. This equipment is used by our department for water refueling and we currently have a similar vehicle purchased in 2015. The truth is that immediately after the purchase you started having problems with both the technology and the vehicle itself. In fact, our director of the Water Treatment Center has been doing this for more than ten years. In the last seven years alone, we have spent almost 74,000 dollars in repairs for the vehicle. But it is too important equipment to not have one that we can count on, that has more recent technology. Now, for those who do not understand what this vehicle would do, it is basically a vehicle equipped with a variety of different cameras in order to be able to send them through our phone lines. These cameras are very expensive. I know that the advisor Jason Caio has emphasized that only cameras with imaging technology exceed $ 200,000. But these cameras can also be dropped into the water to provide photos in the colors of what is happening, where our system has been compromised, where there could be a freeze, what it is about, and so on. In fact, the director of Aquareflue told me that not only can they pass the camera from one dome to the other in the funnel line, but this particular technology allows them to examine each of the links. So it really offers a vision that nothing else can give this new technology. So, with this in mind, it requires that we buy this vehicle, Ford Transit T250 of 2026, and the expected cost is about $420,000, $420,000. And of course, let's admit it, most of that expense concerns the computer technology, the camera technology, not the fact that it is a Ford Transit vehicle, but it will be completely worth it. And by the way, I think the council knows it, but maybe those who follow us from home don't know it. The EPA requires that we, in the next 5-10 years, basically, I was about to say, scan, I don't know if it's the right technology, to resume all the foils of the city to have a picture of the conditions of all the lines. We know it's coming. The director of water and reflux believes that this is an equipment that we will use in the future. he would like to keep the current vehicle as a reserve because we use it very often and he said that if we had to encounter more problems or if it made no sense to keep it after a while we would wait to sell it on govdeals

The problem is to suspend the rules for three separate readings. Let's hope to receive the vehicle.

So let's hope to have it soon.

For the units behind the Luteran Piste, I received a request from someone who is interested in purchasing it.

They should contact the Hansinger Builder located in Mansfield. I think it could be an address in Lexington, but it's pretty easy. So, Brandon Hansinger Builders are receiving calls. In fact, as I said in a recent meeting, they have received so many calls from the inhabitants of Ashland, who say they have never experienced anything similar, where people want to buy the lotto before the condominium. But as a result of all those calls, they completely renewed their plans. Originally they should have had a certain number of duplexes, I think some triplets. They discovered that in our city there is a great demand for single-family condos or single-family units. So they went back to the drawing board and they practically turned them all, not just all, but many of them, into independent condos.

I would just like to remind everyone that the school has restarted in a couple of weeks, so be careful with the speed, especially in the morning, in the afternoon, when...

Yes, it's something I learned this week after five years or down there in the council, I didn't know, but if you have a tree in your garden that is on public land, it is a tree. create problems, call the farmer, they will certainly take a look, prune it, cut it, in short, whatever is needed, but do not cut it down, because it is not good. You must have permission to cut it down. Each is different. You have to check the cadastral map of the county to see how far it goes. the property, especially in neighborhoods without sidewalks, those trees remain the property of the city. So it's something I've learned.

Okay. I just have a few points I'd like to draw your attention to. One of the first is probably the most unpleasant to talk about. I want to let everyone know that in the next few months we will evaluate the increase in the rate for urban cleanliness. This is the rate we pay for the collection, waste and recycling services we receive here in the city. We have very competitive rates compared to the private sector, which provides the same service to many residents of the county of Ashland, but costs continue to increase. So, to keep our financial situation stable regarding the Department of Urban Cleanliness, we will most likely suggest increasing the rate from the beginning of the year or after the first of the year. and even with the suggested increase we will still be below how much you would pay with one of any of the main suppliers of services of urban cleanliness so we are doing our best to keep all those costs low and participate in the most possible increases but I just wanted everyone to know the next thing I would like to emphasize and some will be very enthusiastic about it I did not know if to share it tonight or not but I think it will be of interest to people The use of fluorine in our city water should be interrupted on Friday. And the reason is not that a great decision has been made to eliminate it from our water network, it is because we are unsupported and we cannot find it. It has been said that due to the situation in the Middle East, It was difficult for suppliers to make sure of the amount needed, so we expect that our savings will end on Friday and from then on we do not know what will happen. We are contacting the various state agencies just to inform them that this is happening. First of all, for anyone who is watching us, this does not mean that the quality of our water is compromised in any way. Indeed, today many people ask us to remove the fluorine from our water. The idea is that it is particularly beneficial for our young people and prevents their teeth from deteriorating rapidly and causing damage. This is why it was added years ago and some communities have removed it completely from their water network. We have not made a conscious decision to do so, but it seems that it could be taken for us, at least in the short term. So I just wanted to let you know, and perhaps requested by the State, you could receive an official notice in the post or on the water bubble. So stay tuned, but now you know that it should stop on Friday because we will run out of water. I was told that it will not affect the taste of our water and that people should not even notice it. Now you know. I also wanted to let you know that now we have a salt contract. This is the good news. We have a salt contract, all the 6,000 tons we need. However, it will not be available until January 15. So pray for hot and sunny temperatures for all November and December. Now the good news is, even if I say it as a joke, I think you should do it. Pastore, I think we should pray for this. Lodot has agreed to give us the salt, if we need it, except to return it, as soon as our contract has been satisfied. Here is the news, not really positive. Last year we paid about $ 58 for a ton of salt. This year we will pay $ 91.45. So we will have a sales account of half a million dollars in balance immediately after the beginning of the year. It is a significant increase. So in the winter we will have done.

I mean, we could have a little, but we don't have it.

All right, all right. and let me see just for information of the advice if you pass in front of the city park you will see a lot of dust in the air because they are completely redoing this means that they have emptied it they are knowing the critical points repairing everything that is needed and then they will repaint it so it will be ready for this is what is happening in the city parks I also learned that we have a contract, an agreement for the road on the US 250. It's a multi-use route. It's the Smith Paving and Excavating. Smith Paving and Excavating. And we don't have a start date yet. To communicate to the public, but we should have it. and finally the transit building the construction of the transit building should start soon you should see activities in the construction site but a new building that is a sort of prefabricated building a pre-engineered building should arrive in november november will be here before we realize it I think these are all the points I have for you tonight if you have any questions ask them matt would you update everyone on the project that will not go on

I'm glad you mentioned it.

I think I lost track of time, but I think a year ago the council agreed to stipulate a purchase contract with a company to allow the construction of accommodation in what many call the Seiler factory, right? The Seiler factory behind the Sheriff's Department of the County of Ashland. I don't know if you know that area, but if you search it on Google you will see that there is a large open area behind the sheriff's department that extends from the back of the department to Hillcrest Drive. And at that time this particular company was considering building accommodation in that area. as it happens for each purchase contract there is always a period of two pre-established diligence and working with them in the last few months they have decided that they are no longer interested in building accommodation on that site but they have in mind another piece in another area of ​​our city so what mr miller wants to share with you tonight is that for those who were concerned about the development of that area at the moment that project seems to be abandoned so it remained undetermined Let's see what will happen. It's an interesting area, the one back there. There are many high-voltage electric lines that cross it directly. And even if that shouldn't have been an obstacle, even I sigh with relief because they should have stooped many houses in the middle around those electric lines. I could, I shouldn't say it because I'm not an expert, but it seems like it's not a good idea to occupy a space so close to those electric lines in the long term, but...

Having said that, we will immediately move on to the comments and questions of our audience.

If there is anyone here who would like to turn to the council.

I don't see anyone. Approved. I would like to. I would like to. The seat is taken, but before going I would like to thank Matt Stollings again for guiding our call this evening.