City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening and welcome to Athens City Council today is June 1st 2026 we are starting our regular session tonight with two public hearings and one committee meeting prior to regular session our first public hearing is going to be on the expansion and five-year review of the Dora the designated outdoor refreshment area You'll find going around in the audience to sign up sheets. We have two public hearings tonight So if you can be sure to sign both those both of those just showing that there were people present for the public hearing And for the Dora public hearing if anyone would like to speak or has anything they'd like to share on it Please step up to the podium and you'll have three minutes

All right, we'll see if I can do this. So, I'm Rob Delich. I live on 124 Morris Avenue here in the city. I'm also president of the Athens PorchFest board. And I think mostly I want to speak in capacity as the PorchFest board president. We just conducted a an event in Uptown, the Dora Kickoff event this year. It was in cooperation with the Uptown Business Association, I think that's what they're calling themselves nowadays, or the Tavern Association. And so Dora was obviously a part of the reason for that event, but we tried to re-envision how to better emphasize the Dora aspects of the event. with busking activities that were organized busking, instead of focusing all the attention on a single stage or a road closure, but to try and drive business around Uptown by having performers all over the place around Uptown, including the Armory and 11 other businesses around the Uptown area. And I think that we had a successful event. The Athens Business Association has already talked about trying to do another busking event like it later in the summer. That would not require a street closure, potentially. There's some issues to address there, potentially, though. But all in all, we had a successful event. And I wanna speak in support of the DORA program in particular, in general. Let me catch my breath for a second. So I want to speak in general of support of the DORA program in that it does seem to be successfully supporting the businesses, especially uptown, although we have DORA businesses on Stimson Avenue and potentially next year with an expansion on the west side. Those are all good steps in the right direction, I believe as well. For the Porch Fest event last year, that was just Near East Side Neighborhood, and then the Near East Side Neighborhood portion of that this year on Sunday, we also were able to leverage the DORA on the Simpson Avenue on Sunday, so that we have several businesses that were involved in Porch Fest, hosting bands at Athens Hot Glass, Rise and Grind Coffee, Bobcat Bikes, and then Jackie O's Tap Room. So people could get Dora drinks at Jackie O's and walk up the street with them and go to these other venues or come from uptown even with a drink too, since it's all connected. I think this has been a wise application of the Dora program and would like to see it continue and expansion also continue. As far as Porch Fest goes, We're focused in our event in May at this point, but I still, I don't want to say maybe this is a personal statement, would still encourage further expansion of the event, maybe as a pilot to expand and test what it would be like outside of the summer season, potentially with maybe a September pilot to test that next year, possibly, to see if we extend it into the school year just a little bit and try out with an event or two Maybe a Fall Fest event, for example, that's been run as part of Brew Week could maybe leverage this as an idea and conduct a pilot to see how it works. But I feel pretty strongly based on the experience of other cities that are similar to Athens with large campuses adjacent to the downtown that they have had no issues with a 365 day a year DORA and I think we should also continue down that road and try it out. Thank you.

we have anyone else who'd like to speak on this public hearing all right seeing none we will close this public hearing we will move on to the second hearing tonight for the community development block grant same as the previous hearing you'll have three minutes if you'd like to speak please come to the podium and please make sure you've signed sign-up sheets

I guess I'll come up first because I'm with HapCap and I have to read out the public hearing notice here if that's okay. I'm Jeff Jenkins. I was here last time. I'm a Community Development Coordinator and we do the CDBG Fund. I'll go ahead and read this out real fast. The City of Athens intends to apply to the Ohio Department of Development Funding under the Community Development Block Grant Small Cities Program, CDBG, a federally funded program administered by the State of Ohio. The CDBG program can fund a broad range of community improvement, planning, and housing-related activities. The activities must be designed to primarily benefit low- to moderate-income persons, aid in the prevention or elimination of slum and blight, or meet an urgent need of the community. The City of Athens is eligible for the program year 26 this year. CDBG funding, approximately $150,000, and allocation funds providing applicable program requirements are met. On May 18th this year, the City conducted the first public hearing to inform citizens about the CDBG program and how it may be used, what activities are eligible, and other important program requirements based on both citizens' input and local officials' assessment of the City needs The City of Athens is proposing to undertake the following activities for the program year 2026, and that is sidewalk improvements at the intersection of West State Street and Court Street, including the installation of curb cuts and accessibility ramps to make that area ADA compliant or more so I should say. But that's all I have. Unless there's questions. If not, I can let other people come up.

When you say program year 2026, when do those funds need to be spent?

They're on two-year cycles, so it'll have to be spent in program year 28. Typically, it's in August. So the way it works is it's actually due next week to apply. The state, once they okay it, they okay it around the fall. Then we do an environmental review and most likely would start construction next year, hopefully, and then have to have it wrapped up by 28. But, you know, that can shift a little bit if we need to do an amendment to ask for more time. The state normally will allow that. So, yeah. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Do we have anyone else who would like to speak on this hearing tonight? Go ahead. Yeah. Mr. McNally.

Hello, yeah, I'm Davey McNally. I live at 10202 Alderman. So I had heard about this. I think maybe Rob had let me know, but can everyone hear me okay? Okay, great. I just want to make sure that there's a plan to, while making the curb cuts is important, right now they're very dangerous and out of compliance. I know some people have tried the Court Street Challenge there. and gotten stuck on the curb cut itself. I do want to say as well, there has to be a plan to fix the actual crosswalks as well. The bricks, when the new curb cuts go in, end up sinking. Then you have to grind down the concrete, so the concrete that you just poured, ends up being at too steep of a slope to be able to use safely. And that's what happened at court and union recently. So I want to just say, you know, it's something I support, just like I supported the one on court and union, but then nothing's happened to finish the work on accessibility. So it's still dangerous. It's still not ADA compliant there. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else would like to speak on this?

Rob Delich, 124 Morris Avenue in the city of Athens. I speak in support of the use of these funds for this project. I think it's the needed, badly needed. I think the results of the Court Street Challenge that the Disabilities Commission has led in the Walk, Talk and Roll events the last two years have demonstrated that it is inaccessible at that intersection and it is high importance to repair it and it's a great use of the funds. I'm glad to see the city has found a way to use these funds for that because normally it's limited to a block a block group that has a need based on the metrics that the state's provided, and they're able to broaden that use here for, I think, a general use to address this intersection in particular, which is a good move, I think. So I just want to speak in support of this and agree that this is an important project and want to see it move forward as soon as possible. Thanks.

And I'll add, I think as we get into the first reading on this, we can probably get into some more details or questions regarding immediate use. Do we have anyone else who would like to speak on this hearing? Seeing none, we will close the second hearing for the night.

Oh, I'm sorry. The meeting tonight is not working. I don't know if there's anything that can be done.

Ryan, did you happen to pick up on that? Apparently the the YouTube broadcast tonight's meeting is not No, all right, we will work on the technical difficulties All right moving on we'll move on to a committee meeting we have for tonight for Finance and Personnel Committee That committee all just asked everyone could stay at the dais, but we'll focus at the members of the committee our members taser member would myself and member Claude Felder and we have actually two items that will be on this committee tonight the first is a request for funding for the July 4th 250th Association from the History Association event and they are asking for funding of seven thousand five hundred dollars to go towards the stage the lighting and the closing band let me start with see if administration has anything they'd like to add on that no it was monitors treasurers I do have anything from the public on this and from the committee I sent out information on this yeah yeah ordinance yeah I don't think

we it will be on the appropriations ordinance that we already have going we would amend it tonight if it goes out of committee to add it to that got it my questions do we know well one I looked online to find any information about the closing act and can't find any who the band is mm-hmm do we have a contract for them we don't have background on why these numbers they seem very round numbers I'm curious if it's going to be a union contractor doing the sound will be a you know where is the lighting and stage number come from it's just a lot of vagueness in this thing I'm also curious if we've ever done anything like this before as far as paying for such an event. It seems like a lot of money for a one-night deal that we don't know much about.

So this email I forwarded talks about some of this. This is not the city doing this. This is a committee organized by the Southeast Ohio History Center. which deputy service safety director chicky and member swank are both a part of and so they're organizing the event in concert with some other folks tavern Association Visitors Bureau I'm not sure who else but those two for sure plus SEO and so they're doing the organizing all of that those would be questions that we could ask member swank if we want to put this really we could just mean go out of the norm but right now we're in committee or we could put it in to first reading and amend and discuss it there to get full is that making sense full member discussion I don't have any really additional funds on that is the budget that they sent forward and that Andrew chicky sent forward so I don't know where their numbers have come from it shows all the breakdown of everything in that Excel, her little Excel sheet.

Yeah, I mean, I've got it up. I'm just not... And I'm not going to read it out. Because... Yeah. It's just very vague, and without knowing any information about it, who the band is, what's going into it, who we're paying... Yeah, I'm just not keen at throwing...

$7,000 is a thing that we don't have any of this information about Okay, anyone else from the committee number five Potter I share some Forward so we can find out at first reading here in a few minutes And then if you don't like it, we don't like it we can vote accordingly

Then we would be voting against the entire appropriation bill and because we were this is an amendment right to amend the entire appropriation bill so then we would have to either reamend the appropriation bill and start that over again I believe or we would have to strip it out again.

I think we could we would move to amend and discuss the amendment and if we don't approve the amendment then it goes stays as is unamended. would have to vote to amend it and we would have to vote on the amendment that correct and then if that did not get approved the existing ordinance states that the reading it's at and is unchanged if we don't approve the amendment because we're not voting on the ordinance tonight but does that make sense So the amendment could be voted down at first reading, and we've done that before. And so if it doesn't pass the amendment, then it continues on unamended in existence.

Does anybody else have a name? So given the discussion, you know, do we...

agreement on this moving forward or do we want to take a vote there's someone want to move to go you know yeah does anyone have objections to this move I was just gonna say I mean I wouldn't be opposed to moving this off so that we can get everybody else's opinion on this okay it's some more information all right so that seems to be the majority

So we will move this to that item when we get to that in the regular session, and we can further discuss the amendment and get more details then. Okay, so that will end Finance and Personnel Committee for the night. Oh, I'm sorry. We got so wrapped up in this. So we have a second item for Finance and Personnel that came in. It's going through Finance and Personnel because it's... change to an appropriation but it wasn't originally a city and safety service item and this is regarding the salt water softening salt contract and and the need to increase the appropriation on that and I'm gonna kick that over to director stone who has the full explanation for me

Sure, thank you. Yeah, this was a last-minute ad that I found out about on Saturday. And ultimately, it's an increase in authorization. And so that's the item. In the beginning of 2026, Ordinance 02-26 was a request for authorization for $230,000 for the annual bid for water softening salt. That passed. Subsequently, another ordinance passed, Ordinance 02-23-26, that reduced that authorization to $217,000 and a little bit extra. That passed as well. So currently the city has a authorization for $217,000 expenditure on water softening salt for the year. We subsequently bid the water softening salt, and this isn't a construction project, so you don't have an engineer's estimate. You basically just put it out to salt vendors, and they choose whether to bid or not, and then they submit a unit cost for the quantity of salt that we use in a given year for water softening. The... If you do the math based on the unit cost, the total expenditure will be $277,000 roughly, slightly more than $277,000 for the year. Right now, I can't sign a contract because if you extrapolate out the cost associated with that bid, the low bid, times the amount of salt that we need, it's more than I have authorization for. I cannot purchase water softening salt at the moment, and we're running out for this year. I can't purchase it under the new contract contract. unit cost amount, the low bid amount at this time, because I can't sign a contract because I don't have authorization to do it. So I'm asking you to consider increasing that authorization to the amount that we need, which is roughly $277,000, and I think some change. I think perhaps Clerk Walker has the exact amount. That's the request.

Thank you.

Anything from the Auditor's Treasurer's Office?

The only thing that we talked about this afternoon was just sort of the need to get this done soon. Because as Director Stone said, they need to be able to buy the salt. We're getting closer to recess, and the sooner we get this done, the better. So we definitely agree that there should be an emergency clause that would go into effect. And then we just like to see if it's going to be the first reading tonight to suspend and pass and get it done. Just knowing that everybody's, we're getting close to recess. Suspensions take plenty of council members to do it. If anything would happen and people wouldn't be here and we can't get this done from a financial standpoint, it wouldn't be good. Because as Director Stone would tell you, that he would have to probably buy salt on what I would call the open market, so to speak. And that's going to be way more expensive, buy some salt to get us through. That would be way more expensive. if we didn't have this contract in place as soon as possible. So if you're moving forward with this tonight, again, we'd like to see it suspended and passed this evening so we can just kind of get this done.

Do we have any questions from the public on this one?

And members of the committee? Just if someone could refresh my memory, what account would this extra money come from?

Water. 740637. Yeah. And again, it's an authorization. Okay, thank you.

And again, that's the water. This isn't general fund money. This is coming from the water fund.

Okay, thank you. Do we have any additional questions from committee? Do we have any objections to moving this forward to the first reading? Now we'll close finance and personnel. We'll move on to regular session. we will call to order and establish a quorum all members of council are present tonight we'll move to approve the agenda the item just under discussion to the agenda all those in favor of amending the agenda all right the agenda has been amended Moving on. Disposition of minutes. We need to approve minutes from regular sessions of council May 4th and May 18th. Can I have a motion to adopt?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Moving on to reports and communications from other elected officials.

Thank you, Protin. Jessica Thomas, I will start with an announcement commemorating the work of the Government Channel and the City of Athens. We're excited to announce that the Athens Armory Rebirth of an Icon video has recently received an award, the Silver Telly Award, a national award honoring excellence in video and television across all screens, judged by leaders from video platforms, including television, streaming networks, and production companies. Some of this year's many other winners joining the city of Athens include Fox Entertainment, NBC Universal, ESPN, and locally, Ohio University's College of Fine Arts. The Athens Armory Rebirth of an Icon documentary, which celebrates the rich history and rebirth of Athens Armory, can be viewed for free on the City of Athens website, the City YouTube and Facebook pages, as well as the City's Roku and Amazon Fire channels. It can also be seen along with the City's meeting coverage on the City of Athens streaming app, available free in the usual mobile app stores. I'd also like to commemorate that this is the first regular session that we've had since we've had the appointment of our interim auditor, Josh Thomas, and our interim treasurer we have for the first time with us, Jason Schrauer. So I'd like to welcome both of them in their official capacities. And if you'd like to say a word, I'll ask the auditor to introduce our new treasurer.

Sure, I'd say everybody here kind of knows me, I've been coming for a while. But yeah, today is our first official days as acting auditor since Auditor Hector's retired. And since I moved in that position, Jason Schroer has become our acting city treasurer. So he's been sort of shadowing with me for a little while just to get an idea of what we do, and today was his first day.

Members of the council one communication tonight and My deputy Ashley asked me to bring this to you for your situational awareness So you likely will see a media story coming out soon about conservation cemeteries And I want to give you a little background information related to how we're approaching this within the city some may not know but We don't have two cemeteries in the city of Athens that we own and maintain. We actually have three. You may be familiar, a few years ago there was a significant settlement with pharmaceutical companies that resulted in the One Ohio Opioid Fund. and a settlement that went to local subdivisions around the state as well as the state of Ohio to help with combating the opioid epidemic. The city of Athens is getting a little bit of that money, not a huge amount of that, but a little bit of that money over a 20-year period. The restrictions on use of that money are pretty tough. You can only really spend it on certain things. One of them is enforcement. For instance, equipment related to narcotics enforcement and that is an option, but really the intent of this I think is to try to help people that are in recovery or to try to help curb the opioid crisis, look at the demand side of the problem. to a certain extent. And so what we kind of put together is our plan to spend our OneOhio funds working through Athens Hope, which is a kind of a coalition of experts here in the community that work in this area. We came up with the idea of letting an RFP for a workforce development program that would employ people who are in recovery to do useful things so that they can both gain job experience as well as do work for the city that would benefit the public. Our first project that we're going to do is related to conservation cemeteries. We had one submission under that request for proposals, and we haven't signed the contract yet, but we're close to, and that was the Gathering Place. where they will submit and have a work crew supervised by a lead worker, then ultimately reporting to city staff to do a trail building project in land that was purchased off of Hope Drive a number of years ago with Clean Ohio funds. This trail building project will provide access to the Mansfield Cemetery. Some of you may be familiar with the Mansfield families. We recently rediscovered that the Mansfield Cemetery is on city-owned land in that tract, that roughly 80-acre tract that was purchased with Clean Ohio funds. Those Clean Ohio funds place conservation easement limits on what that land can be used for, but hand-built trails are one of the things that we can do, and certainly this is an existing cemetery that we have an obligation as a political subdivision to maintain, and so our first effort with this endeavor is going to be to build trails to get to the cemetery and then ultimately to restore the cemetery or to get to a point that we can restore the cemetery. And then what we'd like to do is reactivate. the cemetery for conservation burial purposes. You'll see a lot more information about what a conservation cemetery is when this report comes out and certainly Deputy Service Safety Director Chicky would be able to talk for an extended period of time about what conservation cemeteries are and how they're done and how cemeteries operate, but this is our ultimate goal, is to reactivate the Mansfield Cemetery and make the land that is in the immediate vicinity of that function as a conservation cemetery, which we think is something that would be sought after by both members of the Athens public and the people from the wider surrounding area, and it is in line with the conservation easement that is on that land. So we think we're scratching several itches. with this initiative, and you may see a newspaper story about it, and I want to make sure you heard it from me first before reading about it in the newspaper. Thank you.

Do we have any other communications?

We've got two members. Oh, sorry. If you do talk to Andrew Chicky, ask him to explain mushroom soup. Fascinating. I'm terrifying at the same time. I have two communications. One is I want to let the public know, I don't know if you're aware, the governor proclaimed June 6th, which is this coming Saturday, as Community Health Worker Day in the state of Ohio. Community health workers operate in our community, working with the Athens City Public Health Department, with Hawking Athens Paracommunity Action. And a number of other organizations, community health workers do amazing work in our communities connecting some of our most at need community members to the services they need. And so if you know a community health worker, make sure on Saturday of this week that you congratulate them and thank them for the work that they do, which is often underappreciated and certainly undercompensated. But community health workers are amazing. Full disclosure, Operate a program for a co-op that administers community health workers, but I'm okay to be biased on that issue. The second issue of communication I wanted to raise was that You know, as the chair of the City and Safety Services Committee, I am aware that there is a continuing issue of concern to members of the community about the use of technology, surveillance technology, and civil liberties concerns that that raises. In the past, in communications, I've mentioned positive conversations with the local ACLU chapter. ACLU chapter and other members of the community those conversations remain ongoing I've also had communications with the city administration on this topic and that is one like keep the community updated that that is not a topic that the city is dropping or is ignoring. Our hope is to move forward with an ordinance in the city governing the use of surveillance technologies, hopefully to have an ordinance ready for committee after the recess and then to go through the three readings in regular order, hopefully passing something by early August. So I just wanted to put that out there to the community to be aware that we are working on that issue.

Yeah. Three things to share. I'm going to go in weird order. One, this weekend there was a fundraiser in Amesville for a group that put on Athens County Sponsor Circles, which was founded in part by my dad, to raise money for trucks to go to the effort in Ukraine. We've raised money for five trucks at this point. The mayor came and so I wanted to thank him for coming as part of that. A number of notable Athens folks came. Obviously it's something that the mayor cares deeply about and has been really involved with. He's meeting with folks about it right now and his travels as well. So I really appreciate that. We've raised enough money for five trucks at this point. And I'll be spending the July recess as part of the team taking those trucks from London to Ukraine. So I want to share that and thank the mayor for his support. Second. We've gotten a number of messages in support of the playground, three or four about that. Wanted to note those have been heard and received. And thirdly, Davey is here, but we all received a note from Davey McNally. I need a number of points that I really wanted to, uh. Share where we've heard a lot about the 88 transition plan, which is top of mind for those involved. Um, and. Continued, uh. request for information around the crosswalks as well. And I think that that is very notable. Davey also flagged that we might be lacking a person right now who is our ADA coordinator, which was news and I think is very notable. And he also attached a number of Facebook comments from other concerned folks, parties as well. As somebody who who did attempt the the crosswalk challenge and failed miserably it's been really humbling to know that this is ongoing and I think that our community has flagged that and It'd be creative More details about those issues as well Those are my three things.

Thank you Anyone else tonight? All right, we'll now move on to ordinances for third reading. The first is an ordinance amending Athens City Code Title III administrative provisions section 3.07.50 establishment of the Athens Municipal Arts Commission introduced by member Isherwood.

So this is an ordinance that amends the changes, the makeup of the Athens Municipal Arts Commission and allows for at least five members of the commission to be electors of the city. It increases the overall membership to nine members. At least five members of the commission should be elected of the city and four members may reside outside the corporate limits but within Athens County. I move that we pass ordinance 44-26. Second.

Any discussion? Anything from the administration? Anything from the public on this? those in favor of passing adopting 44-26 all right 44-26 has been adopted all right next I'm going to read through the ordinances for second reading I will check to see if there are any amendments or changes or comments we need from council members on these if not I'll move on to the next First is Ordinance 45-26, an ordinance designating Lasher Hall, located at 43 West Union Street, as a local historic landmark, introduced by Member Swank. Ordinance 46-26, an ordinance amending Ordinance 36-24, the Athens Uptown Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area expansion and hours of operation and declaring an emergency, introduced by Council Member Swank. there ordinance 47-26 an ordinance approving the continuation of the uptown designated outdoor refreshment area introduced by member Swank 48-26 an ordinance authorizing renovation of the pre-k playground located behind the community center project number 394 introduced by member Isherwood members bank

Yeah, over the last couple of meetings, we've had quite a bit of discussion on this topic. And as Michael mentioned, we've received multiple emails in the last few days in support of the project, which I am fully supportive of too. But that discussion's kind of revolved around four issues. The first was need. And as Michael so clearly showed us and his friend Maya told us, we need to replace this. He showed us some very detailed photos of rusted areas where a vertical section and a horizontal section are literally coming apart. And as Director Stone said, we don't want to get in a situation where with a state inspection says, We can't use it. We don't have a playground. We don't want to be in that position. So I appreciate those pictures. I did not see those when I took pictures. You must have a better camera than I do. The second thing we talked about was the crumb rubber, the fill that goes into it. The fill that goes into the turf. And there are, as we all know, lots of studies on this, both that say that it is potentially a carcinogen and some that say that it's very, very safe. There is one concern I have about that, and hopefully our staff is doing that. If we go in this direction with young kids, two to five years old, who tend to be on the ground, and who tend to have hands and feet touching the surface when they return to the Child Development Center at the center before eating to make sure, and all studies do indicate this, before eating that their hands are thoroughly washed before putting anything in their mouth. A third concern was about the $10,000 contingency. And what this boiled down to was essentially among the members of council, and I respect these opinions, is a difference in fiscal philosophy. I don't think that's anything to get hung up with. That's something we can continue to discuss. And as representatives of the city, I'm sure there are differences in fiscal philosophy across the city. But the fourth issue is the one that I'm kind of hung up on. Not to stall the project, not to prevent the project from going forward, but to amend the project. On Sunday, I was running some errands and decided to stop by the Southside Park to see what that turf is like, the green turf there. There are three different turfs over there. One's a mulch, one's a green surface like we're proposing behind the rec center, and the third is a poured surface, I believe. And I went on the green surface, and I got down on my hands and knees, and it was sunny. It was about 130, and I put my hand down on the surface, and it was very hot. I said, well, this is interesting. So I went over the bench, took my shoes and socks off, and then proceeded to try to walk across the surface. It was like going to the Outer Banks at high noon in August. You're diving into the weeds. It was extremely hot. I had no idea how hot it was. So I went home. And the reason I went home, I went home to get this little device right here. This is an infrared thermometer. Now the reason we have this is we have a wood-fired pizza oven in our house, and I use this to make sure that we get the stone exactly to 650 degrees, so that the pizzas get that nice thin crust on the bottom. And I took over to the park, and I got in the middle of that green area, and that's what I saw. 154 degrees. Bare skin on that surface at that temperature in two to three seconds will burn. Two to three seconds. And that's why the people I saw on the green area were to the far left and the far right in the shade. In my mind, to put that surface or something like it on the playground behind the rec center without appropriate shade would be irresponsible. Young kids, I just had one in my house for ten days, three year old, my grandson, like to play on the ground. Even if there's play equipment around, they like to play on the ground. And having had a wife who was in the child development space for 36 years. I know young kids, when they get outside, one of the first things they like to do is take their shoes and socks off. I would like this project to go forward, but without some sort of appropriate shade structure. And the ideal structure of trees, but we can't grow big enough trees quick enough, would be trees, is to have this thing not amended tonight, because as Member Isherwood told me before, we don't have numbers yet. But we do have a third reading coming up in two weeks that we have the numbers on what it would cost to add an appropriate play structure, because 154 degrees is hot. And with that playground at the rec center, which any of you are welcome to visit, is in full sun all day, every day when the sun shines, not last week.

We can't really do comments from the public right now. Let me go around the yeah. All right, all right game Any other comments from members of council?

I Agree, I think this should absolutely go forward. I'm very supportive the idea full disclosure. I have a daughter who uses this playground equipment and Very regularly, she's going to be at summer camp there next week and uses the after school program at the community center. So full disclosure, I have someone who would love this playground to be renovated, very close to me. But I do think that this, and I completely understand Member Swank's concerns, that number is concerning. Temperature is concerning and I will hopefully hand it over here to Director Stone and see if he can add any information. But what I would say is my understanding is this playground will not be constructed to the fall at the earliest. So we would be out of the hottest temperatures that would still allow time for us if we cannot get the numbers between now and our next meeting to move forward with the understanding that we would look to appropriate funding to add that needed shade structure in the spring before we get to hotter temperatures. But at that, I would defer to any other members of the committee or council who want to talk.

Anyone else from council? Anything from the administration or any other additional information?

I was just going to ask Director Stone to inform Council of the implications as Member Isherwood was implying of amending at a later time. I believe Member Swank mentioned some construction logistics, some height requirements, those kinds of things, but since we know it's the administration's, the executive branches, power to propose these projects and Council has the responsibility for approving the expenditures financially. I was just hoping that the Director of Safety Services could inform us of any implications of us proceeding with a potential amendment at either third reading or in the fall.

Sure. Thank you, Member Kerry, President Kerry. First off, let me say that I 100% agree with Member Swank that sun is hot. Our experience is that port-in-place surfaces that are dark are even hotter than turf surfaces that are green. In the vein of that, and we've done some tests on ourselves to say that port-in-place can get even hotter than those surfaces. I do think that an accessible surface is essential. to our playground equipment, particularly in this particular area. We need to get an accessible surface in and the two options you have for that that meet the fall requirements really are pour in place or turf. Our preference is for the turf. That's why we were going forward with turf. Not to say that it's not hot because it's hot. I agree, but it's easier to repair than pour in place and allow us to maintain over time. Secondly, I'm 100% committed to installing shade over this location. If not within the amount of money that we have available for this particular project, shortly thereafter, finding funds in a different location either seeking an additional appropriation, replacing it in the 2027 budget to install a proper structure over the area to eliminate that threat during the hottest times of the year. So that's all I have.

Anything from the auditor's office? Do we have any other comments on this from the public? If you just would like to state your name and address, and you'll have three minutes. Sure.

My name is Dr. Emily Guzman. I live on Riverview Drive. I'm a mother. I'm an Athens resident. I am a member of the Recreation Advisory Board, so I've discussed this at length at our Recreation Advisory Board meetings. I also hold a PhD in Pediatric Exercise Physiology, and I am an expert particularly in children's physical activity, and so I wanted to be sure to weigh in on this playground in that sense as well. I am very in support of the requested appropriation to replace this playground. You guys have already acknowledged that the playground is in disrepair, is not safe in its current state. The fence is in disrepair. All of these things need to be replaced for our children to be able to play safely at that playground. Early childhood is a critical period for development of fundamental motor skills. These include running, jumping, climbing, and we know that children at this age need help from their caregivers sometimes in order to be able to learn to move their bodies in that way, in a way where they feel safe and supported. That means it needs to be an accessible surface for children and it needs to be an accessible surface for caregivers. So, as already discussed, that kind of brings us down to a turf surface or a pour-in-place surface. I actually have data on the temperature from infrared thermometers today. comparing three different locations in our city, different surfaces. On the Richland Avenue Park today, the rubber pour-in-place surface in the shade, now granted it's not as hot today as it was this weekend, this morning in the shade pour-in-place was 77.9 degrees Fahrenheit, in the sun was 111.9. At the community center, the pour-in-place that's currently in this place that we're talking about was 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and 112.4. in the sun and the turf surface at the Richland Park was 79.8 degrees in the shade and 100.3 in the sun. It was hot, but it was a full 11 to 12 degrees cooler than that rubber surface was. Again, not as hot today, not as sunny today, but I would expect that a hotter, sunnier day with more solar radiation, that darker rubber surface is going to get even hotter. I think these are really important things for us to think about. To think about how we can best support our children's physical activity, our youngest community members in this place. It's the only fully fenced in playground that we have. It's the safest place for them to play. And we should make sure that they can safely do that so they can develop to their best potential with our community's support.

Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak on this?

Hello, I'm Allison Holman Thrasher, I live at 34 Elmwood Place. I'm a mom of a two year old, and if you have that age range of child, you are probably as tired as I am right now. We need ways to entertain them, particularly as summer and fall are coming. There are not a lot of options for that age group that are really safe. I can go to bigger playgrounds, but I am very nervous about those with him. He is a climber. So I just want to remind you of that human side. Parents need a safe place for their kids to be. It's also an opportunity for parents to connect with each other. That's how we meet each other, is hanging out at these playgrounds, and there's not a safe... playground for that age group. So I just want you to keep that in mind as you're making this decision. I'm also concerned that if we don't move forward now, that we may not move forward later in the fall. So I would really like to see this go forward today, even though we don't have the sunshade quite figured out yet. I feel like we can work around that. We can keep their shoes on, Alan. I promise. I can do it. But I would love to have a place for him to play where he can climb and do all the things and go down the slide that he can't do in a lot of the other playgrounds in town. So thank you.

We have one more.

I'm remembering keeping my daughter's shoes on insofar as I could. Hi, my name is Dr. Mary Kate Hurley. I am an English professor here in Athens. I live at 39 South May and I am the mother to a seven year old. I live on the east side and have used the playgrounds at the rec center. My daughter would often play on these playgrounds, particularly when she was younger. And I wanted to be clear that rehabbing a specific playground for younger children is incredibly important. When my kiddo was younger, she's never met a stranger. Those of you who know her know this. She wanted to play with the big kids on their playground. And this caused a challenge because big kids are in fact big and might not notice a smaller kid toddling around trying to do everything that they do. And it's also hard for me as a parent to keep up with her. in a bigger space, particularly when she gets out of reach and then I'm in the position of having to go on a structure that isn't really meant for me. I'm an English professor, so if you'll allow me, I will offer you a quick simile. It's a little bit like the fact that we used to have one big dog park. My small but very fast pup got hurt several times, not because she was doing anything wrong or anyone else was, but because she was in the wrong place when a big dog came through. We now have two dog parks, one for small dogs, one for big dogs on the east side, and it's a lot safer for my pup. It seems obvious that kids should have a similar safe space as small dogs. Finally, the service proposed for the rehab playground would be, I understand, the same as one of the services at Richland. And my child takes after me, exuberant in movement but somewhat clumsy in execution. The surface that's proposed will simply be safer. She falls a lot, as do I, and it will keep her safe, not to mention it will be accessible for her friends who have differing abilities and for their parents. This is important. This is good for everybody because a safe place to move joyfully is important to every child.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else who would like to speak on this? I have a question for Director Stone. Yeah, Member Spank.

Director Stone, going back to the shade and what you were talking about there, could you outline a possible process and timeline to be able to get to that commitment to have shade at that spot?

Thanks for the question. I haven't delved into it in super detail myself. I know that Katherine Jordan, the director, has already started looking at shade options. We haven't worked through exactly how we do it. I'd like to get it in this year, honestly. I really would. We discussed... A couple different options, one of which was a couple large steel poles in the building and a shade sail that allows rain to go through but blocks sun. Obviously, you've got to put it in the right spot so you catch the sun at its hottest point during the warmest months. Depending on how big you make it, that would be it. We had to design that properly and get it in the right place. I don't think we want to build a roof. I really don't. I mean, we want it to be outside. So I really think rather than a roof, I think just something that blocks sun, doesn't block hail, doesn't block rain, doesn't block snow. But that's kind of what the direction we're leaning. Like I said, if I got the funds, I'll try to get it in with this project. If I can't do it with this project, I'll try to get it in this year within the budget. And if I can't, I'll get it in the budget for 2027.

The reason I ask that, and please accept this for my true meaning here. At the federal level, we have seen promises to do things and to discuss things. And I would very much like to vote for this, because I am a firm believer in this. And I've seen what shade structures have done for the Child Development Center up on the ridges. There is precedent for shade structures in the city. We have four of them at the West State Street ball fields on field one and field two for those who are playing to sit under the shade, generally in the evening on those fields. Those used to be the adult softball fields. Not only do we have the direct sun at this location, We also have radiant heat from a building that is made out of stone. And for any of you that travel on Utah by the Zinner House, know that the Zinner House has great difficulty planting and maintaining plants between the sidewalk and that stone wall because of the radiant heat. So this is a hot spot. Not only the turf, but the reflection from the building. So I really, really, really would like us to figure out a way in the wording of this ordinance, and perhaps we need to defer not tonight, Jesse, but to you and Lisa, that in this ordinance that we etch it in stone that this will happen. And with that assurance and the verbiage of an ordinance, I will enthusiastically, when we get to that point, move to pass it and vote in favor of passing this. So Jesse, I throw that out for you and Lisa's consideration between now and two weeks from now. If it's appropriate and if it is, how we can put that into the ordinance. Because at the end of the day, the legislative body decides how to spend your tax dollars. We get recommendations from three places, from the administration, from the community, and from fellow council members. But at the end of the day, The ultimate decision is the seven of us and no one else. And you all remember that, your government class, when we talked about the three branches of government.

Thank you. Well, I appreciate Director Stone's good faith effort, and I believe him. But also I was wondering, I absolutely agree that we need to put in a shade structure of some sort immediately because of the heat. It seems like average temperatures around here are going up all the time as they are everywhere else. But I just wonder if more long-term, if there's any potential to plant some trees and or shrubs around that playground that as they grow would provide more shade to the playground structure and maybe to the area where the parents are as well.

Excellent. Yes.

Thank you, and so I wonder if that could be part of the goal for this to immediately get a shade structure I have absolutely I'm absolutely in support of that but also to invest some funds in Maybe planting some native trees native shrubs That over time and yes, it will take a while but over the years will provide more and more shade to that area as temperatures probably keep getting hotter and

Yes. Thank you. To expand on that and based on Member Swank's comment, I don't have a firm number. If you increase this appropriation by $20,000 and pass it, I will get a shade structure built with the thing. I try not to spend it all, try to get something high quality and not spend it all, but that would be a way that we could get it across the finish line, I think. It would be a separate purchase, obviously, but it would be concurrent with the same authorization. And if you want to stick a line in the amendment that says, and $20,000 towards the shade structure, then that's fine.

Member Isherwood?

I totally understand other members of the council want to question the conversation about the number but that is a base of my conversations with director Castor and Jordan that is the ballpark of the number we're talking about for this it's a little bit more complicated with then the shade structures on the west side ball fields because it's not covering a seated area it has to cover a play area the sale has to be eight foot higher than the highest the total structure so you're with the climbers like tall structures it's got to go eight feet above that which raises concerns as well because it is in the shadow of a building you have to deal with all those other issues and I know Catherine and Jordan our parks and rec director has been doing a lot of work on this has been reaching out to a number of different Vendors about various different options She I spoke with her today was unable to have a final number, but is working towards something that would be to present to direction about what would be make most sense there and I can't speak for her, she did not say it, but she would have that in two weeks. But I think if we did appropriate $20,000, it would, I think, go a long way to covering those costs. If in the two weeks between now and then we were to hear from the administration that it was going to be more than that or needed to be more than that, we could always amend in two weeks to increase that appropriation. But that would get us to where we need to go. If members of council are uncomfortable doing that, I would say don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let's get this playground built. This playground will not be built until the fall, basically putting the vendor out, getting the equipment, the install process. So the highest temperatures will be largely passed by then, but I agree to have that ready with the sales structure for next year would be ideal. And members, I totally agree, we can appropriate the money. We could in the fall here when we come back after recess write an ordinance to appropriate specifically we're going to build a sale over the playground if we need to do that. And I'm sure from the comments from Director Stone, he'd be very happy to accept that appropriation and take on that project. But I leave it to the members of council to discuss.

Member Spank? So back to Member Isherwood's commentary. That's very refreshing to hear, and I appreciate that. I would ask this. Members of Council, is there anyone who will not be here in two weeks, at our meeting in two weeks? Reason I ask that, if we were at that meeting to amend this ordinance, it would drive it back to first reading. And with seven members here, we would have a full complement of council members to vote to suspend the rules because it takes six. If there were only going to be six members here, one person could derail the project. So I ask again, everybody going to be here in two weeks? Okay, I think it might be wise then to find out what additional information we can get in the next two weeks. If it ends up being 22,000 or 17,000 or 25,000, that gives us a more accurate number to put into the appropriation.

As chair of the committee, does that sound- Absolutely, that sounds good to me, and I have no doubt that probably watching at home, Director Jordan is going, I'll do it, I'll get it to you.

revenue any other discussion on this item all right we'll move on to another ordinance for second reading 49-26 an ordinance authorizing a water meter upgrade project 395 introduced by member Isherwood ordinance 50-26 and ordinance amending ordinance 74-25 to increase the authorized expenditure for a new restroom facility at the West State ballpark project number 349 introduced by member Isherwood ordinance authorizing ordinance 51-26 an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a 2026-2028 partnership agreement with the Athens County Commissioners as applicant and grantee if funded for submission of an application to the office of Community Development Ohio Department of Development for the community housing impact and preservation program and declaring an emergency introduced by member Isherwood Ordinance 53-26, an ordinance amending Ordinance 09-19, credit card policy introduced by Member Thomas. No updates. Ordinance 54-26, an ordinance amending Ordinance 14-23, authorizing an increased expenditure for the West Washington sidewalk and safety improvements, Project 335, introduced by Member Cloudfelder.

No updates.

now move on to ordinances for first reading first ordinance will be 55-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 121-25 authorizing 2026 staffing levels introduced by Finance and Personnel Committee as we discussed last week in committee this is due to the retirements that we had in the incentivized retirement we are reducing Environmental lab technicians from two to one due to retirement and that will be split among code water storm sewer and sewer This is just also removing one parking enforcement position due to retirement from five until four and Removing one water meter reader due to retirement and retaining one position supported by the water meter upgrade technology Do we have any discussion or questions amongst council members from? Member Swank.

Just a quick question. I was stopped by a local citizen in the checkout aisle at Aldi Saturday and wanted to know if these are permanent reductions. In other words, are these positions disappearing?

think they're for now in the interim I know the parking enforcement we discussed at a finance meeting that they would check for impact at the end of the year on the revenue impact but we will go to director stone for any more answers on that sure Thank You Thomas so there are some positions that are retiring that I'm not immediately filling but I'm not asking you to reduce the number of positions on the books there are some positions that I'm asking you to reduce the number of positions on the books And some of this just has to do with being able to see and understand ourselves well. When the position is on the books and we build the TC100s for the annual budget, the auditor's office must fund those, at least our rule of thumb, basically, it'd be bad practice otherwise, must fund the TC100s to the full amount of people who could be hired. Whereas if we reduce the position on the staffing ordinance, then they don't put money in the TC-100s for that. To the ability to see what is remaining beyond what is in the base budget for the various transaction classes, reducing a position is a way to better see yourself if you don't intend to rehire it sometime. I can't say that we'll never come back and seek a fifth parking enforcement officer. In fact, I had a discussion today with the police captain where he made his case about why, and I just didn't buy it for now. But at some point, as Athens grows in the future, if we add more areas of paid parking and have a greater demand for enforcement, we absolutely could place that position back on the books. And at that time, I would ask you, to add a position. We do that regularly. We'll say, hey, can we add this position or can we subtract this one? I thought it was prudent given that we had quite a bit of uptake with the retirement incentive program to go ahead and bake in some of that savings by actually reducing the positions on the books. Does that make sense? Yes, sir. Thank you.

Any questions or comments from the auditor's office?

pass the income tax ordinance we still feel the need over the next year and a half to still live within our means and continue with some of these things that we talked about you know so we still feel it's prudent to pay attention to these and you know if there's positions that we can not fill for the temporary then that's what we need to do right and do we have anything from the public on this item

right moving on to the next item first reading we are at 56-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 122-25 2026 non-union compensation authorized pay grades introduced by the Finance and Personnel Committee this is changing the designation of both lag lab technician positions moving from pay grade 7 to pay grade 6

these are the non-union benefits yeah you have any questions from council on this or anything they'd like clarified anything from director stone was in this that capture positions that no longer exist as well as establish the pay grade for the environmental cool our environmental technician position which is also a pay grade six thank you

suddenly got brighter in here right sure it's not just me I do have any comments on that from the auditor's office all right and you have any questions from the public on that item all right much brighter all right moving on to our next item Ordinance 57-26, an ordinance amending Ordinance 117-24, a fringe benefits package for non-union personnel within the City of Athens introduced by Finance and Personnel Committee. This, as we discussed in committee, is the removal of how double time is paid for lab technicians positions in the city and remove some old language on classes that no longer exist class levels that no longer exist and it's highlighted in the ordinance under number 2a do we have any questions from members Council anything from director stone and I said that the last one I see that there's split between two ordinances so yes to just repeat that what I said before Do we have anything from the Auditor's Office? And do we have anything from members of the public on this one? We'll move on to Ordinance 58-26, an ordinance amending the 2026 Ordinance 120-25, introduced by Member Thomas. This is the one we are going to discuss the amendment of adding the Fourth of July discussion. So first we'll need to have a motion to amend.

and a second and then any discussion so here's where we can discuss the amendment remember what yeah so who's the man and who are they at the facilitating do all the things I said an hour all right and

member swing do you have answers for any of that since you are on the committee yeah I'm sorry follow the rules all right the band is the Eagles that's the heck of a deal for $4,000 so can we vote on I'm sorry No, it's not the Eagles. So here's the deal. I'll try to make this as short as possible. Two months ago, there were no plans whatsoever for a 4th of July celebration in the city of Athens. And I made a comment during a council meeting. I can't remember what I said or when I said it, but David Cornwell heard it. And a member of the Tavern Association was talking to David Cornwell, and David Cornwell said, well, call Alan Swank. Well, he called me. We had a meeting, and we immediately went and contacted the History Center. Got them involved. Then the Boy Scouts got involved. Then... Andrew Chicky joined with us, and then members of the board of the Historic Society got together, and we began planning as a citizen organization a 4th of July celebration on the 4th. In terms of the expenses, I think all members of council, or at least the budget committee, got a list of the proposed budget that... Jessica from the History Center sent, and it included things like kids' water bottle and medals. One of the first things we're going to have is a kids' bike parade on the old OU homecoming parade route, which is going to be kind of neat. We also have identified and are procuring old historical games that kids used to play. We're talking about 1776. That's before my time, too. I'm not sure what they are, but it's going to be in the spirit of games through history. We have posters that we're going to be displaying in all of the stores, not only in Athens, but in Athens County, and we're also going to encourage the uptown businesses or any business that wants to participate in decorating for the Fourth of July. I turned 21 on the bicentennial. That was 50 years ago. This is 250. I doubt if I see 300. So this is going to be a big deal for the city. We're also looking at possibly having a 250th birthday cake and beverages to go with it. Not door type beverages, but more traditional picnic beverages. We're planning a picnic on the college green. Originally, it was going to be from 5 to 7, leading up to the community university band presentation, which we were told by the OU administration was July 4th. When checking on Friday, we found out it's July 2nd. Imagine that. So we do have permission to use the college green. We are in the purchase, and Rob, you'll be happy to hear this. We are in the process of trying to hopefully find some people from the porch fest lineup that would be willing to perform for short periods of time on the portico there at Memorial Auditorium. We're going to have Kids Bouncy House. And then we get into something that Mr. Wood's interested in. We're going to have an opening band who I do not know what they're called. The second act is called Memphis Rundown. And the third band, the headliner, is not the Eagles. There's a group by the name of Bon Journey. Kind of a spinoff of those of us from that era of Bon Jovi from New Jersey and the band Journey. This is a band out of Pittsburgh. It just so happens that a member of the Tavern Association has a connection with this band, and we were able to get them for $4,000, which will include the lighting, which includes the lighting, $4,000 plus $1,500 for the lighting. The stage is going to be provided by- This type is kind of small here. It's going to be provided by Sam's Gym in Gloucester and a group out of Portsmouth. They're going to be doing an old-time historic boxing exhibition. If you'd like to sign up, they have a couple of weight classes still to be filled. So that's where that total comes from. So the closing band, Bon Journey, the stage, and the lighting, that's what we have. If we need contracts, a lot of this has been done through email because this was thrown together very, very quickly. We should be able to have all that documentation tomorrow. And while we were discussing this, I was contacting the chair of the Taverns Association, and he kindly responded with all of that information. So there's two ways we could look at this. The total budget is $15,000. The three items we're talking about tonight are $7,500. The other 7,500, we could easily just have funded those and not worried about funding the band, that and the other. Where's the rest of the money coming from? The Tourism Bureau has put up $1,000. The History Center will be kicking in some. They're not sure. Their board has not had an opportunity to authorize that. And the rest will be coming from the Tavern Association for the $15,000. So there would be city tax dollars. There would be... tavern Association the tourism Bureau and the whom I forgot the History Center now in terms of the city where is it coming from we have a fund in the city called the Athens enhancement fund as of the last set of numbers we got from your office there was $69,000

unencumbered funds in that account so it had already been budgeted and if we approve the full seventy five hundred that will still leave sixty one thousand five hundred dollars in that fund so I did reach out to the auditor's office on that last week that fund is not the fund that they think is the appropriate fund for use that has specific it will contain who money once it's fully deposited and What else did she say? The auditor would probably know. But did send that she thought the appropriate line would be 101-120. I've got to find it. Yeah. Yeah, 101-120.

But there is money in there to cover the $7,500.

If approved.

Yeah, if approved.

And what is that line right now? For those of us that don't speak line numbers?

it's general general fund yeah administrative okay so that's the that's the number so hopefully that's on journey stage lighting we're all coming from remember Clyde federal set

Thank you, Member Swank, for providing those details. It sounds like it's going to be a really fun event, and I'm glad that we're really going to recognize the 250th birthday, if you will, of our nation. I am curious, though, as Porchfest admirably demonstrated, we have some really excellent local bands. who would not require $4,000 to play. I'm just wondering why it's necessary to bring a band from Pittsburgh when maybe we could have some sort of friendly competition who wants to play for this and why or something, because otherwise how would you pick? We have so many good bands, but see who would genuinely be interested in playing, and we would probably pay them, but I think we could save a lot of money if we got a local band.

Well, as I said, two months ago, there were no plans whatsoever for this. And this group of volunteer individuals came together and said, what can we possibly do? And we were calling in every connection that we had to do this sort of thing. And that's how this came to be. For the events such as Brew Week and all of those, it's not uncommon at all to bring in bands from wherever. Halloween, the same thing. And while I certainly like the idea of doing that, again, we put this together as quickly as we could using those connections and people willing to say, at this point in time, I think it might be a bit of a problem if suddenly we were to tell these groups that we're coming here, that we don't need them anymore.

Yep. I guess I just feel a little uncomfortable using general fund money for something that we could have gotten much less expensively locally. If it's set in stone already, that's set in stone. But for any further such events, I hope we could try to think creatively about how to get a really excellent local musical group.

Well, that's why I suggested that we use the Athens Enhancement Fund, which we use for the Arts and Music Festival in August over in front of Jackie O's. So just to follow up, the stage is from Sam's Gym? Sam's Gym and cooperation with a group out of Portsmouth. They're renting this stuff and bringing it up here. I'm not going to take the thing out in Gloucester and bring it down here and set it up.

Yeah. I mean, the budget there, I'm not going to take it apart. We're effectively kicking in. There's $1,000 for the cake. There's 500 for the thing. There's 800 for the just it's very back of the envelope and I guess my other question is why aren't the You said the History Center hasn't been asked yet and the Tavern Association hasn't been asked yet Why aren't they covering no they are the History Center's board has not allocated the number amount of funds that are going to Contribute to this

And at the end of the day, what doesn't get covered, the Tavern Association is basically going to pick it up.

Great, so why don't we have them cover the 7,000?

You know, we have the 250th anniversary of this country once a year. I mean, once in a, once, period. Once period, once period. I mean, you know, if you go back, I really want to say this. 5 million people in this country were aghast that we would not open our meetings by saying the Pledge to the Flag. Can you imagine if Athens City Council doesn't want to contribute to a celebration, the 250th anniversary of this country?

I don't think it was 5 million.

I mean, that's a made-up number. And we talk a lot about fiscal responsibility. I don't see anything in this that gives us the compunction to do it. We don't fund these things normally.

We do the Arts and Music Festival. We kick in money for the Halloween celebration. Do we? Yes.

Security.

Yeah.

Trash collection. That way.

But we don't pay for the acts and entertainment and the actual event?

No. Not for Halloween, I don't believe. Arts and Music Festival, I am not clear. I don't know if Director Stone or the Auditor's Office has more details on that.

We donate to an outside group that compiles money and then uses it to fund the operation. To say that this dollar goes to this use and this dollar goes to this use, I can't say, because it goes to an outside. But we don't do a contract with the Eagles directly for Arts and Music Fest, if that makes sense. And I think that's the intent here.

If the money would go to the History Center, the History Center would then distribute the money to the various obligations for the services provided.

One thing that occurs to me is if we're going to be paying these outside musical groups and there's a desire to have local groups play on the portico, we should probably have some funding for the local groups, too. I don't know how it would go over if we're only paying outside groups but expecting local groups to play for free. Makes sense. So maybe we don't need quite $1,000 for a cake. Just wondering. It seems a little high.

We want to increase the appropriation to cover the cost of local bands.

So I think that gets into the weeds of the planning more than council really normally does. Yeah, that's not really, we don't plan events. What are we on here? We're on first reading. We can have more discussion on this. This is whether to amend tonight's meeting. We can vote on whether or not we amend it and move forward and see if there's more details next week. We have a special session. Member Stacer.

I have a question. Maybe it's my lack of experience here. This is supposed to be July 4th. This is June 1st. We're supposed to go through three readings. Isn't this going to...

before we actually get this through three readings this is first reading if we amend it tonight it will stay at first reading we would have a special session next week for a second reading and have a third reading on the 15th and then there's a it's immediate because it's an appropriation so it doesn't have a 30 days attached to it Member Wood?

I dislike making the ordinance for the police a Christmas tree bill that we throw on other things, too. I mean, if we're going to do this, it should be a separate thing. It should not be part of the police funding that we're talking about. It just seems like a, I mean, that's the classic term for it, is it's a Christmas tree bill where you just hang other money on it to get people to vote for it. I don't think a bill should be used that way.

so that would be my other objection to having it as a amendment to this particular thing for the funding for the for the vehicles okay what so the appropriations when we do an appropriations it's generally for sometimes a variety of different things but I understand what you're saying on this is you think it should be its own ordinance and not what our standard appropriations of city workings okay just making sure we got all the got all the details there Well, Member Spank?

Originally, we took a look at the Athens Enhancement Fund and saw that there was budgeted $76,000 give and take. Approximately 7,000 of that has already been encumbered, which left a balance of $69,000. When I say we, the committee asked for $7,500, period, to fund infrastructure services and the like related to the 250th anniversary. And this was going to be discussed last Tuesday at committee, but the request came from the administration for So detail was provided. And when that detail was provided, then we started to get into the weeds. We'll fund X, Y, and Z, but not A, B, and C. When in reality, the request was simply for $7,500. to help fund, in conjunction with the History Center, the Tavern Association, and the Visitors Bureau, Athens' 250th celebration of our nation's history.

So I understand all of that. The request from the Finance Committee for more information was because there just needed to be more clarity on what we were funding. I would also say, and I'm sure the Auditor's Office has more thoughts on this also, outside groups and council do not choose the funds from which we appropriate funds that's that is not outside groups Lane and is not councils Lane we can approve deny and discuss but we don't choose the funds because we aren't working within those budgets so while the enhancement fund made sense to an outside look We don't know the plans for the next four months or five months of what's planned on that. So I think that's one part just to set aside. And I don't know if the auditor's office has additional funds outside of what the deputy auditor had sent.

I don't. I just only have the same information that you have that what the deputy auditor sent in terms of where they felt was more appropriate, which fund was more appropriate. Now, again, this is at first reading, so we could revisit that. I don't see why we can't revisit that and see if there is another fund we want to pull from. From my perspective, the only thing I would caution council on, as you mentioned earlier, Member Swank, you guys have the power to approve spending. This, to me, we have traditionally always funded Halloween, and we've done the Athens Music Festival. Those have been our two traditional things that we have done for years, right? Now we want to add the 250th. Now, maybe this is a one-off, that it's 250, so we want to do it. I would just caution Council that, again... We've just talked to the public about how we are going to be watching what we spend for the next year and a half at least. Even really beyond that, even when we do receive more income tax money. I would just caution council that this is one group. What do we do when the next group comes? And the next group, and the next group, and the next group. So again, it's your decision on how you spend on spending. That is your decision. But I would just provide that little bit of ounce of caution. Every group that comes to us may have an important cause. And unfortunately, at some point we have to say, well, what can we fund and what can't we fund? I understand the detail part, but I also think what we're really trying to just say is it's $7,500 and it goes through this pot of all these things that are happening. Because we're not writing a check to the band. We're not writing a check to the stage. We're writing one check to one organization. that will then spend the money however they want. But again, that's just my two cents on it as we move forward. If you determine as council that this is a 250 celebration and we should support this this year because it's very important, the community thinks it's important, that's your decision. I would just caution next 4th of July when people say, well, we've got another big event coming we really want to do, and we've got this other thing we're going to do. It can always be important. There's always a reason to make it important. You've just got to decide how you want to spend your money.

Yeah, I think that's a key distinction that has been brought up, is we're not paying for the band, we're paying for the whole thing, which then does mean we're paying $1,000 for cake or $800 for tchotchkes. I mean, we've already agreed to close the streets and things, which is great. Party sounds great, cool. Great. Do the party. We're donating police and things to that. Excellent. I think the thing that you also said that's really important is what we don't cover, the Tavern Association will cover, and they have the money to do so. That's kind of the quiet part out loud, right? They stopped doing those. They used to do them every month. They did the little shutdown Court Street. They stopped doing them because nobody came. I don't know that a ton of people are going to show up with less than a month for the cover band and the other things. I think we've done our part by approving the street closures. We're donating police services to that. But again, as you've said, they will cover the remainder and they have the money to do so. That's their job. We've done our part in my view.

And also in the financial mix is this question mark of a contribution from the history connection. Maybe they will be generous and that would make it unnecessary for the city to put in money. I personally would rather wait until we know how much the history connection is going to contribute before, certainly before voting on this.

I have a question I think for Member Stone. Do we typically put money, or Director Stone? You're really a part of our group.

Do you want me to remember this august body?

For the 4th of July typical years, does the city put, and how do the fireworks work? Is that something?

So an outside organization does it. The Plains Lions Club historically has been doing it. We give money to them towards the fireworks.

So there's other contributions going on for the community? so where we're at now is we've discussed the amendment we have a first and a second we can vote whether or not to amend if it does not get amended there are two more readings so do we really need to go two more readings and have a special session or do you just suspend the rules to get three readings you'd have to yeah or you'd be suspending on the second and no guarantee of a third

Right.

Because we've run out of weeks.

Yeah, that's why I said, because I asked earlier if anyone would be absent next week.

Mm-hm.

So I guess I will move that- Well, we need to have a vote on the amendment. That's what I said.

We have a first and a second on it. Do we have a first and a second? Yes.

Okay, who did that?

It was a while ago. Okay, all right.

So we do have a first and a second on allocating $7,500 for the Athens 4th of July 250th celebration. Yeah. Okay.

All right. All those in favor of amending, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed?

Nay. We need to show hands.

Can we have a show of hands for the ayes or the nays? Nays. So that does not get amended tonight, and then we do have next week and the following week.

So we could reconsider this next week?

We could. All right. So for the appropriation, the ordinance. So for clarity.

For reconsideration, I would be interested in hearing from the other members of council what information they need so that not sitting here next week texting to get the information at the last minute.

I would like to know the amount that the History Connection is going to contribute.

History Center? Yep, and if- Wait, wait, wait, let me write this down. Okay.

And if the Tavern Association is willing to contribute more than they've currently offered.

As noted, $1,000 for cake is nuts. And so where those numbers come from, Men at Men does posters way cheaper than that. None of those numbers make sense to me. So if we're just contributing to a general fund for this thing, I feel like the, again, the cake number, the posters number, why we're paying $800 for tchotchkes, again, Yeah, where those come from, none of those seem like real numbers to me.

So let me ask you this, going forward when the administration brings us proposals to fund things, are we going to ask how much every bolt, screw, and screwdriver cost? Because that's what you're doing right now.

This is not the city asking, this is an outside group asking for city money.

yeah so I think it does but we contract with someone to do something that's an outside group we're paying a vendor no Avengers has a RFP I mean I think we're getting a little off the rails of what we're now at which is just this regular ordinance and we could submit any additional information requests to member swank in email throughout the week and then have that ready so that he has time to reach out to this group

And to that point, Alan, we have just spent a lot of time questioning that with this playground. We have just spent a ton of time questioning every bolt and every shade cover. So we do do that.

We were talking about safety and health of our youngest two to five year olds. As we should.

And therefore, I also ask why we're paying

You know, I I think the the general consensus is more as to what their real budget is What is a necessary budget if they're asking for this much from the city and getting more clarification on that would be helpful Make some skin yeah some concessions on on budget perhaps I right moving on just to ordinance 58-26 an ordinance amending the 2026 appropriation ordinance 120-25 this is in for free in for first reading we had this in committee this is an appropriation that is moving $30,000 that was in the general fund police 101 207 transaction class 500 capital and moving that to general fund police 101.207 transaction class 300 professional services do we have any questions among council on this ordinance any additional details from the administration auditor's office and do we have any questions from the public right 58-26 been read for the first time ordinance 59-26 an ordinance authorizing the service safety director to enter into an LPA federal local debt project agreement with the state of Ohio Department of Transportation for major rehabilitation of the state route 682 33 project and declaring an emergency introduced by member cloud filter

So this was something that we discussed in committee for anybody who, well, probably most people didn't hear that. So an LPA, that acronym stands for a local public agency. Clearly that is from the perspective of the Ohio Department of Transportation. So this is a local public agency, that being us, project for major rehabilitation of State Route 682-33. That part of 682, the part of 682 that's under consideration for this, was built around 1960 with the expectation that the road would last for 50 years. So it's been about 56 years now that That road was well constructed. It has performed well. But our city engineers have noticed some parts of that road that have started to fail. And apparently when a concrete road starts to fail, sort of the decline of its condition can go down pretty quickly. So it doesn't mean we have to do something tomorrow, but we don't want to put this off. So this is a project that is planned right now. Still ODOT, to my knowledge, has not finalized their details about this, but we believe it will be conducted in 2027. The city—usually such projects are split 80-20, with the state government funding 80 percent of the cost of the project and the city funding 20 percent. I don't know if it was Director Stone or the mayor or who did good negotiation, but we are only going to be paying 7 percent of this project. It'll still be a hefty amount of money. It will be $498,764, but that is 7% of the total cost of a project that'll be about $7 million when all is said and done. So this 5926 ordinance, the key part of it is that the service safety director is hereby authorized to enter into an LPA federal local let project agreement. the ATHSR 682 project, PID number 116811, for major rehabilitation using full-depth pavement removal and replacement on State Route 682 in the City of Athens. A copy of the agreement and a map of the work area is attached here too and incorporated herein by reference. Director Stone, would you like to add anything?

The only... This is a great description, Member Klotzfelder, is that... This is atypical that you're dealing with a non-primary route that's all concrete in a city. Typically, we've participated in this before through a thing called the Urban Paving Program, where ODOT will come to the city and say, hey, we intend to repave State Route 56 inside the city so long as you commit 20% under their policy for that. By law, there is... technically, the state doesn't have to do any major rehabilitation to state and U.S. routes inside a municipal corporation, but by long-standing policy, because they do get the lion's share of the state and federal gas tax revenue, they do that both inside and outside, and they have a policy where they split those costs with local government. In this particular case, because it's such a hefty project and is a big ask, asking 20% would be too much for the city, and so that's why they only came and asked for that 7%. Construction window will be next year. I don't know if you spoke last week about the you know The way I proposed going forward on paying for this You know, obviously the appropriation will be a separate ordinance to do this And there is a program called the state infrastructure bank loan, which we've used before To fund some of the the work a portion of the work on both a recent West Union Street project as well as the Stimson Avenue improvements project that The program traditionally is a 3% loan for a 20-year amortization period. There's another newer aspect of that program where you can do a 0% loan but only a five-year amortization. In this case, I'm going to recommend when it comes time to appropriate that we participate in that program, we take a five-year. 0% loan and then we pay it back $100,000 a year over a five-year period in order to meet our share But at this time, the only thing you're considering is the authorization for us to participate and then you know Later in the fall probably I'll come forward because ODOT will come and ask for their money upfront For the appropriation. Thank you.

Thank you Do we have any questions on this from council members? Any additional things from the administration? Anything from the auditor's office? And do you have any questions from the public on this one? All right. 59-26 has been read for the first time. Ordinance 60-26. An ordinance authorizing the service safety director to advertise and accept bids where necessary and enter into contract for the construction of Westside Sidewalks 2024 CBDG Project 396. Introduced by Member Claude Felder.

Okay, on this one, Director Stone, I would appreciate it if you correct me if I am not quite accurate on this, but I think what this one is talking about is using some money that was left over from a 2024 West Side sidewalk project to... improve more West Side sidewalks now. And it is related to our CDBG fund monies. So it's not city money that we still have around. It's CDBG federal funding. But we hadn't, I think we hadn't spent it all. And sort of, I don't know. Feel free to jump in.

Sure, not entirely. I know some of this stuff gets confusing. Tonight you passed, I think we had first reading discussion on the 2026 allocation funds that we discussed, the West State and Court Street. This is the 2024 version of those funds. Every two years, we get roughly $150,000. that's considered allocation money that must go to the City of Athens so long as we have a qualifying project. 30,000 of that goes to fair housing and admin and another 120,000 is used for typically infrastructure projects in low to moderate income areas. Back in 2024 when we submitted for this program, we submitted a west side sidewalk repairs project on several different streets on the west side, and ultimately we just haven't gotten to getting it done yet, and this is the appropriation and authorization of that money to get it going.

Do we still have access to that unspent 2024 money? This is that, yeah. I mean, so we won't be spending extra now?

Correct. Okay. This is that. It's just the authorization to allow us to do it. We did it back then. You did the application, you know, like you passed tonight for the 26, but we just hadn't gotten it done yet ultimately, and so this will allow us to move forward.

Okay.

And ultimately, I mean, as a caveat to that, you know, as, you know, a couple of years ago, there was a pretty substantial effort made by a group of citizens under a subcommittee for bike and pedestrian access that identified prioritization areas in the city. And so this entire project were areas that were included in the section of that report that prioritized locations that we should apply efforts to repair sidewalks. Right. We use that work by that citizens group to create the scope of this.

Okay.

Do we have any other questions from members of council? Any additional information for administration? Auditor's office? And do we have any comments from the public? Mr. Delache knows the drill.

Rob Delach, 124 Morris Avenue here in the City of Athens. I served on that ad hoc committee and also on the current Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force is the short name I use for it. That's currently under City Council. that's also paying attention to these kind of issues. A detail I'm not sure about here is there was a project like this that was West Side sidewalks that improved West Washington Street and then also North Schaefer three or four years ago. I'm not sure if that's completely separate from this. That was separate? This is another project that I think what I thought I heard was State Street sidewalks on the West Side. Is that correct or do we have any specifics about that?

particular streets but I would love to know what they are if it's been decided.

I would request that we hold on those specific locations tonight, and I'll get you information prior to passing it. The reason I say that is because when I submitted this, I submitted a $350,000 project in 2024 money with the expectation that we would contribute a significant amount of local funds to that. Obviously, with the inflationary pressures that we've all felt, as well as the budget pressures, I'm not certain that we're going to commit Local funds to it. So we're going to decrease the footprint of that. I have to build Replace the sidewalks in locations within the footprint that we submitted because that what was that was what was cleared under the CDBG environmental review process To say that it's West State Street. It's probably true. But give me just That's acceptable, thank you Anyone else from the public that would like to speak

could state your name and address and you'll have three minutes Paul Cameron 152 South Sugar Street st. Clairsville candidate for state representative for district 95 I just want to let you know that when I was canvassing in Athens in the month of April several of your residents did mention concerns regarding sidewalks so all right thank you

anyone else all right 60-26 has been read for the first time ordinance 61-26 an ordinance amending ordinance 31-26 authorizing the service safety director to close streets in the uptown area for 2026 special events and to change requested dates or cancel the events as necessary introduced by member Cogfelder

propose that we amend ordinance 61-26 to add in one change for the 4th of July celebration do we have a second two changes any discussion or further discussion I would be happy to say what this is for the 4th of July celebration previously as part of this ordinance street closure was approved to close Court Street from Washington to Carpenter Streets. Now, because as Member Swank has described, the plans have kind of grown for the footprint of the July 4th event, there are two parts of two other streets that they are requesting to have closed. One is Washington Street from the parking garage, so the parking garage would remain open. It would be on Court Street side of the parking garage to Congress and also West State Street from court to Congress kind of where Casa and Tony's are and that is the only change that has been requested requested at this point since the rest has been approved just to clarify clerk Walker has helped me out we don't really need to amend this as its first reading and it's already in there so we really can just discuss as All right, I withdraw my move to have an amendment then. Thank you.

We saw red in there and we all thought we had something we had to do. Any further discussion on this one? Member Swank?

Yeah, the purpose of these two requested closures on Washington Street, the Boy Scouts are planning an old fashioned soapbox derby. And when we look back at the budget, the money requested for that is for some infrastructure including hay bales and the like to make sure that everybody stops one way or the other before they get to the parking garage. the other the other closure over on West State Street is because there will be events on the steps of the History Center which is located in that block and that's the reason for the request for the additional street closures the additional questions or discussion from Council members of the administration members the auditor and anyone from the public

Alright, we will move on. Ordinance 61-26 has been read for the first time and moving on to ordinance 62-26. An ordinance authorizing the mayor to submit an application and enter into an agreement with the Ohio Development Services Agency for any eligible community development block grant program funds for program year 2026 and declaring an emergency introduced by member Isherwood.

So this is the subject of the public hearing we had earlier and Jeff from HapCap spoke on this issue. This would be authorizing the Mayor to submit, as Member Thomas said, an application for the CDBG block grant programs for program year 2026 and these funds will be used to repair the sidewalk and access around Court Street and West 8th Street and East 8th Street, I believe, is that junction area. And I move that we pass this. This is just first reading. I think we should just pass it.

Do we have any additional questions or discussion from council? There will be six people here next week to pass this. I believe so. You said everyone will be here next week? Well, it would be suspension of the vote, so we need six people. June 10th.

June 10th Yeah, so I'll ask the same question next week members of council that will not be here Anybody next week?

There's the deadlines June 10th, right?

So we can do it next week and we're good. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean we can We could do it tonight if everyone's in agreement on that or does that make a To me this does not seem controversial we're letting the city submit a proposal to a grant program that's

great we hope we do I hope they do more of that you know and keep doing that based on that I would move that we suspend the rules this evening second yeah although any discussion all those in favor any opposed all right those have been suspended I would move that we council passed 62 26 second all those in favor all right any opposed

See, I told you we were going to pass it.

Peer pressure.

Why do you do that earlier in the evening?

All right. One more.

The salt.

That's right. We have amended the agenda and we will now have for first reading ordinance 63-26.

So this is the amending the ordinance previously passed to change the amount authorized for the purchase of the water softening salt to $277,706. This is from Water Fund Plant 740.637 for that purchase. Alright.

Thank you. Discussion from members of council? Member Swank?

Based on, and I'll defer to him, but based on Director Stone's comments tonight, this seems of some urgency. Therefore, I would move that we suspend unless Director Stone doesn't feel that that would be in the best interest of the city.

I wish you suspended everything.

Therefore, I will continue and offer to suspend.

I will second that.

Okay, any discussion on the suspension?

Member Wood? I was just going to add to Alan's point and Beth's point earlier. It doesn't seem particularly controversial. I can't see anything changing and, you know, why leave it to chance if somebody's sick or something in a couple of weeks? So, yeah, I'm on board.

All right. All right. Any other discussion? The administration? Auditor's office? And anyone from the public? All those in favor of suspending for ordinance 63-26? Aye. Any opposed? The rules have been suspended. Can I have a motion to adopt 63-26? Second. Any additional discussion? All right. All those in favor of adopting 63-26? Aye. Any opposed? 63-26 has been adopted all right now moving on to announcements and other business I have one item under other business on May 11th we had a committee of the whole discussion and we had a consensus vote to move forward on rule 20 council rule 28 regarding committee procedure we all agreed upon moving forward with option C or mostly agreed with moving forward with option C the proposal amended language has been sent out is as follows at the conclusion of the discussion of an item that comes before a committee for the first time the committee chair shall ask is there any objection to this item moving forward for first reading if there is no objection the item will be placed on the agenda for first reading at the next session of council if there is an objection a vote will be taken to advance the item and a majority vote of the committee shall be required to advance the item to the next regular session of council Lacking a majority, the item will be placed on the agenda for the next committee session for further discussion and consideration. At the second committee meeting where the item is under consideration, a similar procedure shall be followed. Should the item under discussion lack a majority vote to move it forward, the item will be then considered by Committee of the Whole at the next committee session. At the conclusion of the Committee of the Whole discussion, the same procedure will be utilized for consideration for advancement to the first reading with the majority vote of members present required for advancement. As examples, is there a motion to adopt this amendment to Council Rule 28? Sorry, I'm moving ahead of my own notes. President McCary's notes to help me with here. Is there any discussion on this? This would be strictly for Council to discuss and to vote on. Member Wood?

I know I'm the one person that has decided on this role. I caught myself. I understand that the feeling of the council is that we don't want committees to kill things. will flag the thing about the way this is written if we're gonna defang committees this way the thing that's gonna happen in this language is gonna kick to the committee to the whole if we have a situation like we did tonight where one person or you know we have a block then it would have to have another emergency meeting of the whole to then move it to the first discussion to then do the next thing. I think it's well-intentioned and I understand that people don't want committees to kill things. I think the solution of having it sent to the committee of the whole will then automatically add weeks of work to everything we do. So if we don't want to kill things, that's fine. I really think that kicking it to another... committee to then vote on it again we'll add weeks every time we want to do anything and uh but we don't have anything in there for a situation like we had tonight where a thing would have possibly failed in in that that committee discussion and then what do we do we create another committee the whole tonight to do the amendment to do the thing like it just It's well-intentioned, and I understand that people don't want that to be a block, but I think the solution is worse than the current situation. That's all I'll say. Okay.

Do we have any other comments?

Questions? I have one question for Acting Mayor McCary, if I may. Are we meeting tomorrow to further discuss this?

This will be unrelated to tomorrow's council working session, which is also on rules But tonight we're currently only discussing rule 28, which was discussed at a prior work session. So Nothing that will happen at tomorrow's publicly announced work session will impact tonight's vote Is there a motion to adopt this amendment to council rule 28 so move All those in favor, is there any additional discussion?

I Sorry. All those in favor? Aye.

Aye.

And all those opposed?

Nay.

All right. Council Rule 28 has been amended. Do we have any other items for announcements and other business? Member Swank.

Other business. Last week we were handed a document that showed a rendering of the, and this is for Director Stone, it's not a hard one. We were handed a document of rendering of what the home for Ohio housing would look like at the end of Hudson. Question is, Director Stone, it looked great and you showed me that months ago, something like that. Where are we in that process?

Thank you, Member Swank. Nothing is as easy as it sounds when you first start, right? So what we wanted to do, what I wanted to do was move forward with two minor lot splits with the two parcels that exist down there, the one that's the city parcel that transferred and then the one that's the Red Cross parcel that transferred. The trouble is when our code, there's a lot of very specific... Minor lot splits are just that. They're minor, right? Anytime you add a level of complexity, like two parcels served by an easement, easements for public utility extension, that triggers being a major subdivision. And that requires going through both planning commission and Council as a major subdivision. So there's that that path. I was trying to get it through just do my lot splits, but we have to extend sewer service. We have to extend water service and then beyond that, you know, the complexity of how we would do that and and makes me think when we look at... My goal ultimately is that these are... You're getting way into... I'm sorry, I'm getting way into the weeds. I really want these to be fee-simple lots. The whole purpose with this is that somebody gets the chance to buy and own a house. They're not part of a condominium. They're not part of a shared wall. It's not multifamily housing. We really wanted standalone houses on separate lots. The... The only way we can make all this fit, there'd be a variety of variances to the existing bulk controls as well. You got probably a major subdivision and BZA. What we think the appropriate way forward is to do this as a planned unit development. If you look in your code under that portion of the subdivision regulations, there's a process for plan unit development which goes to planning commission and council but allows you basically to modify the zoning which is the bulk controls in this particular thing so we can get it across the finish line of the fastest way possible. As far as where we are, We're working through design with the utility extensions at this point and the developer. I think that they'll be in a place to get it to Planning Commission hopefully during the recess and so that when you come back, you'll be able to see that PUD come before this body and we can get this started along the way.

Just one follow-up question for a PUT. Does that require a public hearing? It does. So I'm just trying to think of planning and development or schedules so we can expedite this. Absolutely. Because I don't think there's a person in this room that would object to the idea of eight... individuals or families being able to own their own home. And that's the ultimate goal of this project, as you pointed out. Right.

And, you know, I want to also be clear that Welcome Home Ohio is in order to take away barriers to homeownership. One of the recent media stories made reference to low-income housing, and ultimately that's not what this is. There is review of a person's income to make sure that they don't make too much. But at the end of the day, a $180,000 mortgage is substantial. You've got to have an income to be able to make that mortgage payment. So this is not that. So I just want to do that clarification. This is housing for people who otherwise a home would be out of reach. to get a chance to buy a home. And they're going to be great. I mean, they really are. Very high quality. Thank you.

Do we have any other items or announcements of their business from other members of council? All right. We'll move on next to opportunities for citizens to speak on legislative items and city services not covered on the agenda.

Mary Abel, 48, Strathmore. One of the things that council has not discussed this year as I look back through my notes is there has been no discussion about the street repair for summer. Since we do have a dedicated stream of money through a tax levy for that, I wondered what the status of having streets repaired this summer is.

I don't think we've answered questions at public comment, do we?

We can.

We can?

Yeah.

We've kind of avoided it, but I don't think we're doing street repair this year.

I think we're taking a year off. Would it be possible to have an answer? Because you'll be going out of session in July, and I would hope that the administration would be able to tell us as citizens which of our streets are going to be repaired this summer.

I believe it's not being done this year that they're taking a year off, with the constraints on the street fund, and especially with the not knowing if the income tax would pass and planning out the next 12 to 18 months.

I can appreciate that, but we do have a tax levy that was passed for the repair streets that doesn't end until 2030, if my information that I looked up on the city is correct.

We can probably get more information up

I think the citizens would appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Do we have any other? Mr. McNally?

This is Davey McNally, 10202 Alderman Road. I was under the impression that there'd be more of an ADA update during tonight's meeting. Is that not true? That's kind of why I sent that letter to kind of ask I would like to get a more formal ad a Transition plan update from city administration from director stone from the mayor Soon another A couple of comments. I hope this is okay, Joe. But Joe and I came up tonight. I drove up, and Joe said that he was planning to meet up here another day with me, but got stuck because there weren't curb cuts or ramps to be able to get here. So we drove up here together tonight. And another... Yeah. Again, we just need to fix all the bricks uptown for crosswalks. Crosswalks should not be brick. It's unusable for people with mobility and wheelchair disabilities. And whenever we pull it up here to park, I can't park in the parking garage anymore because there's, like, a thing where you have to put your hand out and get a ticket, which isn't accessible for me. Okay. It's just like, you know, more things that have been done that just make the city more inaccessible.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you, David. Would you like to speak? Yeah. Would you just like to give your name and address?

Sure. My name is Joe Brumfield. I live at 31A Lorain. And I just would like to piggyback off of what he said, having a point person, somebody that looks at these kinds of things, kind of like the device that's been set up at the parking garage. When something like that gets set up, then you find out it doesn't work. And then you have to go through the whole rigmarole again. And I just think it would be good to have that point person here to bounce these ideas off of before they're seen to completion. Thank you all.

Thank you. Do we have any additional people wishing to speak tonight? All right, can I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

All right, all those in favor?

Aye. Aye.

We are adjourned.