Vob Committee & Council - Regular Meeting

Sure.

Six. Mhm. All right. I will call the rules committee to order. Whatever. I I don't have my phone, so I don't know what time it is. It's six o'clock. Um, can we have a roll call, please? Shaveer. Present. Carol. Yes. McClean,

here. Also in attendance, we have fiscal officer Brian Bibbler, village administrator Matt Nheiser, police chief Brett Rogers, village solicitor Jeff Beo, Mayor Relis, and council members Gar Phillips, Rick Foreman, and Brandon. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes from March 23rd? Uh, I move to approve the minutes from March 23rd's meeting. Roll call. Mlean, yes. Carol,

yes. Chaer, yes. Ron, do you have anything for rules committee? All right, we can skip down to old business, looks like. So, we have the C U Jeff Looks like Jeff has prepared a few more um resolutions to the inconsistencies in the codes. Yes, I have. Um several of those I've forwarded to planning and zoning because they need to review those. Okay. Um for their input and I'm working on several more that I should have finished here shortly. Are we sending this to council now then or wait until it comes back?

You can wait till Sounds good. Did anybody have any I mean we didn't discuss him but did anybody have any issues with what he did? All right. Okay. Proposal to amend chapter 80 804. This is for Oh, this is about the peddlers and solicitor. Okay. So, last meeting you had me Jeff had mentioned that you were going to research this. Did you have a chance? I'm sorry. What took to do that? This is about the solicitors and Yeah, that's one of the ones I'm I'm I'm still working. Okay. Gotcha.

Yeah. I have a draft started of an ordinance to amend our current ordinance. Okay. All right. So, that'll stay on the agenda for next time, too. If I might add, we um Jeff sent me um or I'm sorry, Brian, one of one of them sent me I think we were both on the emails. Um the sample ordinance language from Lancaster, Pickerington, Reynoldsburg, and Canal. That would have been me. Okay. I sent that. All right. And you sent a response. Yes. Okay. This was regarding the 804. Yes.

So, okay. Gotcha. And then the final item on the agenda is sidewalks, but you I think Phil wanted to Yes. I don't know the correct procedure if I need to make a motion to withdraw or if I just withdraw, but I would like to withdraw this topic. Wait a minute. Okay. Is that just That's fine. He's Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. It's the sidewalk. The sidewalk. Oh, he brought this to us and he just I don't think it even the water heater. I'm withdrawing that, too.

I I I think with all of the discussion that we're probably going to have on the building department, it's a good idea for me to withdraw these right now. um and then bring them back withdrawing possibly. It'll be in the safety. Oh, I got you. Yeah.

So, I mean, I don't think there's a motion needed. I mean, you brought it. We never voted on anything, so we can just say to take it off the agenda for next time. That was a quick one. Does anybody have any new business? Any other old business or any new business they'd like to discuss with rules? Okay, that being said, the next meeting will be on the 4th Monday in May, May 25th at 6 PM. Well, caution needed. Caution. Yeah, that's Memorial Day. That's Memorial Day. Oh, so your next meeting won't be till June 22nd. I'll be sad about that. June 22nd. May

25th is Memorial Day. So, the next meeting won't be till June. Rules. Just rules. Okay. Rules. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Yes. All right. Um I guess we have to adjourn. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? I'll second that motion. Roll call or not roll call, but uh all in favor say I. I. I. Hold on.

I think give me time. Okay. Okay. So, with that, we'd like to go ahead and start the safety committee meeting. So, roll call, please. Mccuri, present. Schaer. Schaer, present. Carol,

here. And in attendance, we also have R mayor Rick Alice, the VA Matthew Niheiser. We have police chief Rick Rogers and the fiscal officer Brian Bibler as well as we have Jamie Carol Gar Phillips. And we also have Phil McLean. And we also have Mr. Foreman here in attendance. And we also have our solicitor, Mr. Feo. And we have one visitor in attendance, Mr. Bibler. Um, I'd like to seek approval of the minutes for March 23rd. I'll move to um approve the minutes of March 23rd. Do we have a second?

All right. All in favor? I I um Mr. Bibler, do you have anything you'd like to say? Okay.

Yes, sir. I sort of like when I go into Carol I see electronic signs all the time tell me I notic we got one down here in a month or two parts on order

all right thank you all right as far As far as the 2026 goals, we still have zero workplace accidents. I believe we're continuing to meet that. Uh zero fatal accidents. Definitely continuing to meet that. Hopefully. Believe it stays that way. Um reports. EA. Uh I don't have anything to add. Okay. Police department.

Um just uh everything's rolling along pretty much. We're really hitting the training building hard. It's getting really close to being finished. We got some electrical work to do and a few other odds and ends, but we're definitely down to punch list items. So, uh I would say we hope to be using it by the end of May. Great. Perhaps. So, it's going. Okay. Great. Thank you. All right. Old business. Uh first on our agenda is the building department.

Yeah. Just wanted to add that I did hear from Mr. Camp uh this week. He's informed us that he is not interested in the job and asked that his name be removed from consideration. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions? Okay. Also on old business, uh, water heaters. I think that's what we were kind of going to wait till kind of what Phil said we were going to take that off and talk about that. Yeah. with the other stuff. Yeah. Which which you're right. It's coming down. It's going to come up, but it will come up when when we're all Is this when we're talking about the building department?

Yes. Yeah. I mean, whatever we decide in safety, and I'm not on safety. Yeah. I think is what gets recommended to council. Well, do we have another do we have somebody else in mind to do other than Mr. Camp to do any of this stuff? I don't um I'm going to take recommendations. We can always look into stuff. Is that what we are wanting in lie of is that the conversation? Well, I'd rather descertify personally, but my position's never really changed on that.

I'm Mine hasn't changed either. I'm totally not in favor of getting rid of everything. I'd be in favor of this descertifying as well. So what do we take that to council?

That's what committee's recommendation is. So someone needs to make that motion then. Okay. Well, I I think I'd like to kind of write revisit why was it voted in favor of um the safe bill. So there's been a sudden change. I guess I'm trying to understand better understand. I realize you voted the same way. The timeline the timeline starts way back when we created a building department in the first place. So we've had a building department for probably 10 years. We just haven't had anybody to implement our building department, which is what the issue became.

And so the state of Ohio basically threatened us and said, "Hey, if you're going to claim you have a building department, you have to actually have one." Mhm. And so in an effort to try to implement a building department, we started looking at different options and we've gone through a few different various options during that 10 years, none of which have worked. And now the latest is safe. Is that working? Uh depends on whether you uh want to remodel your house or buy a fixer upper or build a house. You'd have to actually go through the process to understand what the question was. It is it working would depend on your your opinion based on what you do

depending upon the perspective. Right. Right. So from from my perspective would be very different than from your perspective. Yes. You know the only person that I said I was going to talk to that I didn't that has had and he's had to deal with them and I'd be curious to what Mr. Jude has to say about it because he does a lot of building and remodeling in Baltimore. With him, too. What's that? Jonathan Armstrong. Yeah. But he he also told me that he paid Safe Build $10,000, but he neglected to tell me that $8,000 or $9,000 of that was for tap fees. You're asking the guy that speeds if he wants to speed limit. So, yeah.

Well, I know, but I'd like to see what what Jude has. Reasonable, though. Yeah, he is. You Yeah. So, asking him and he's done several and I haven't done it. He's done a bunch of the implementation of I would like to talk to him if you guys don't mind and we could table this and just see what because he's done I can think of six duplexes how I mean he's done and just see what he says and get his opinion on it if you guys don't mind. Maybe ask him how much or if it changed the cost of his project. Yeah, that's a good No. Did you not just have your house all redone here a month a couple years ago or a year ago, whatever before before St. Phil came in? Yeah. Um I am

sighting windows. Yeah. The tree on my house. Yes. Do you know how hard that process would have been with safe bill and all you was doing was minor exterior fix up stuff? So with you know all the permitting everything that's that they're wanting or we have to do whatever that just throws your your timeline into a longer period and raises cost and raises the cost.

People doing the work have to get all this additional information to them. Well, I guess what so a couple things in response to that. I guess I've never seen the actual requirements because I mean you're saying that just to put siding on I would need a permit after the roof. The siding the roof. Yeah. Well, I understand the roof. Windows. I mean everything. It's they're requiring permits. Do we have a like a do we have the requirements? Yeah, we would have we'd have a list of requirements. A lot of that would be reflected in the fee schedule the council approved. The only reason water heaters even came up was because that seems like like the trigger the smallest, you know.

Yeah. Well, that's just we're not Well, but but like I say, that was just cited as this really simple thing, right?

Literally takes like an hour to change and there's nothing to inspect and nothing to certify, nothing to test, but it gets wrapped in. It's to me it's like changing a light bulb. I know it's not like that to you, but to me it's as easy as changing light. And and and so that that became sort of the poster child of this just goes too far. It goes too far in many many many other ways as well, but that that just became the the easiest lowest hanging fruit. Well, let if you guys would be so kind to let me talk. And the only reason I keep bringing up Bob Jude is because he's done so much work in the last four years. And can you ask him if he'll come in here and talk to everybody?

Yeah, that's a that's a great idea, actually. That way, could we could we set that up? Everybody can be Yeah. can hear it once. No, no, no. I agree with you. Yeah. Yeah. cuz if he said if it's not hurting anything, it helps him or or it doesn't, it's a bad situation, then um you know, I

I'm just going to say this because I've been thinking about this all week and um I was thinking about, okay, so we're going, like I said last time, we're going to have all these new houses out here. All these new houses out here. We're not going to inspect them. We're going to just say just do what you want to do. And I'm going to tell you what happens. It's not how this works, but what happens to a poorly built subdivision is it becomes a rental subdivision and we're going to have the state is going to regulate subdivisions full of rental people. I I promise. Well, no different than buying a 100-y old house. You still get the permits and you go in and you do the work. You can still do shoddy work and it's going to get passed.

I My point is hundreds of houses, hundreds of houses and we're and we're not going to inspect them. I think that I do not want I I don't know about you you but I do not want I I I I don't think anybody really understood. I think a couple of people understood what I said last time. As far as the water department is concerned, we had an administration that did that saved money, put band-aids on things, probably was the the reason we got a water uh the previous administration was a waste a waste water plant that was not appropriate,

right? And that's their legacy and I don't want subdivision rental subdivisions on each side of town, right, being my legacy. And that that's so so so I I I would agree with what you said. I I guess what the way I feel about the development on the uh the north end of town is at 350 to $500,000, those would be some pretty expensive rentals. But I I don't want shoddy. I with that because they they won't be worth that much if they're shoddy.

But banks inspect these houses and home inspectors inspect them for the people buying them. There are already checks and balances on the quality of construction. Yeah. I mean, that's the big thing is is the home inspectors that have to go. But but I like I said, I say we bring in a a guy that's a contractor that he's going to say and and we talk about it some more. I'm not I agree with you. I think we should talk about it more. Mr. Mayor, you you asked us last week during the council session for all of us to go back and come up with ideas on this. Yeah. And um I would like to have that discussion during council um out of the safety committee.

Um that way we don't have to wait. We can move this along a little Okay. faster because we can have council sessions every two weeks as opposed to a safety committee once a month. Yeah, because as we just stated, there's not even going to be another safety committee meeting in May. Yeah, we could we can move it. Well, then let's move it up to council then. That's fine. Okay. Well, if we're going to do that, so um I have one more question. it is we're using safe built right now and um is somebody is anybody unhappy with safe bill other than the fact that they're too thorough apparently or

it's not that they're too thorough they just they have they are implementing the entire code to the letter of law and a lot of it is absurd. All right. So I will move um that we see how we frame this. I will move that we remain with safe built. Put that out there for and and then we can take it to council if I'll second that. Okay. And um and then I recommend or I move that we then take this to council this evening.

Okay. And there it is. It's in council. Yeah. Yeah. It's out of safety and in council. That makes sense. I think we're voting. We are moving up our discussion regarding safe built. We haven't voted on this motion yet. Okay. Oh, yeah. We haven't voted on this. Oh, I didn't even vote on the first one, did it? The the motion is to retain safe build safe and send them and take to council. Okay. So, we need to vote on that. remaining with safe built. First was Debbie. I seconded that. So we need to vote. Okay. Schaer. Yes. McCra. Yes.

Carol. No. Okay. It goes to council. Yeah. Okay. So there's no more discussion on No. Not a council. It's in council now. Yeah. It'll be the council. That That's the best thing to do. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, we're moving on to Are we going to continue then? We don't need to continue the discussion on water heaters. Correct. That's No, it's all wrapped in together. Okay. No new business. So, our next meeting according to my notes will be June 22nd after rules if

if necessary. You And anyone going to move to adjourn? Oh, I will move to adjourn. Sorry. I'll second that. Go ahead. I had Okay. Oh, that's fine. I'm like didn't hear you. Sorry. Okay.

Our Father, who art in heaven, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I get a roll call, please? Brian Carol here. Foreman McCree present. McClean here. Phillips here.

Schoffner present. Can I get an approval of the minutes from April 13th from the last council meeting from someone? Yeah, I'll approve. Second. Can I get a roll call or discussion on that? Can I get a roll call on that, please? Uh, Phillips, yes. Foreman, yes. Carol, yes. Mlean, no. McCree, yes. Joffler, yes.

So, can we get an approval on the agenda? The agenda as presented. McCra second. Uh, Foreman, yes. McCreary, yes. Carol, yes. Phillips, yes. McClean, yes. Yes. Okay. I notice there are obviously visitors in the galley. Uh, is there anyone that would like to talk first? Brian, I don't know how you have it listed. That would beick. Rickett Rick real Rick. Okay. I was like it's been a long time

good evening. Um I'm here. I live at 511 East Water around the corner going out town. I got a lot. Um we're at uh Matt told me we were at 60% now developed. I was at 40 apparently and about six years ago I did a little add-on on the back and the front and that was approved. So that must have put me at the 60%. Um I want to do a little add-on and it'll look just like the house. It have metal roof, gray siding on it. It'd be nice and neat. Uh the gutters be tied in. The water go to the street. Um but I need a couple more bedrooms and another bath. I got two grandkids that don't have any place to put them when they come over. That's nobody's problem here. It's mine. But, uh, I'm just here to say I need to expand and and I know there's, uh, the bylaws and everything in this town. You know, you guys are discussing it, but, uh, that's why I'm here. I just I I kind of need it, but if you know,

we take that to zoning. Well, I think well, Mr. Mr. cricket could apply for a variance, but I think he's specifically speaking about uh impermeable surfaces, which is an issue that several council members have brought up. The only thing preventing him is the impervious surface limitation. Absent that, he could go ahead and build. And I think this is a great opportunity to revisit whether or not it serves any productive purpose. doesn't sound like it serves a productive purpose in this situation where he's trying to just add on to his house and make it nicer and and you're penalized for having a small lot. I mean, if he lived out on hold road, he could build on a massive room addition,

but because he lives on a small lot like I do, um you're very limited as to what you can build. His house is considered the actual street, right? Yeah. I don't know how that come about, but your property Yeah. goes across the street both to the corner and back to my lot. Streets on RVs come I don't know how that come about. Yeah. But it's been like that forever, I guess. Yeah. When we're counting the impervious surface on his house, are we counting the rock garden on the back, too, or? No, just the just the concrete driveway and rooftop. Is I think your entire driveway is concrete, right? Uh some of it is. Half of it is.

Okay. Yeah. memory, but that issue's been sent to their agenda. Y so it's being reviewed. Being that I'm on planning and zoning, I can kind of speak to this, but we've had numerous conversations over a span of time in regards to maximum lot coverage and impervious surfaces, etc. So, it's something that we've talked about extensively looking at surrounding communities and a lot of it had to do it's with the runoff water. I mean, that's the whole reason that conversation has been brought up and we covered it. So, I mean,

when you catch it in a gutter, you can put it where you want it to go. When it falls in your yard, it's going to go where it goes. So, you can better control rain water or runoff. Well, mine would be going down and out to the road anyway to the rocks down the road. So, be going over the hill or and I'd still have some I still have some yard right both ways if I add on the little add-on I want to do anyway. Mhm. But that's why I'm here. So, we bring this up in the service meeting. Yeah, it is. And that's when we send it to planning and zoning. When's the next planning and zoning meeting? We just had one, didn't it? Uh, it's May 14th, I think. second Thursday. Do you have a plan or anything?

We have a we have a I would suggest that the planning and I'm not trying to make you come to meetings just to make you come to meetings. Right. But I'm just saying I feel like as a village this is just one guy's opinion. It there has to be some ex we we have to take this on a case by case basis and this sounds like a case by case basis that we obviously I would encourage you to find the variance and come to planning and and present just tell us what you said tonight. I do. What's the cost of the variance? Where would I get the variance? The cost of variance is 350. Yeah, but if you if you reach out tomorrow, I can get you a copy of the

Okay, man. If it's denied, you don't get the 30 back. Correct. Well, can't we just talk about it? Yeah. Pling and zoning. I I just hate to make this always have to go through the variance process, you know, when it's Mr. Prriet could just come and present his case to planning and I think start as a citizen. I don't want him to pay before we start the variance process. I don't want him to pay anything until we figure out if we can do it or not. And I I would call Matt tomorrow and and we'll let you know when that is and just come and then we'll we'll have a conversation about it. Well, Matt's been great. He come out to the house twice and I showed him the plans I had and I just feel like that's something I'm hoping everybody agrees that we got to take case byase basis. You can

Absolutely. Um yeah, so that is May 14th. May 14th. May 14th at 7. Yep. Right here, sir. Yep. Right here. Yep. I just I just plan on that and then we'll do I need No, you get some more stuff going. That's okay. No problem. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Y Okay. Next is is Andrew. Andrew. Yep. You're up, Andrew.

All right. Well, my name's Andrew. It's really wonderful to meet all of you. Um Matt and Jeff have I can come in and speak to you about some of the tools you're you're looking to uh utilize development space. Um my colleague Jeff Harris who cannot be here tonight. We've been retained a special village and uh we work with Brook and Wyatt and we work in this space and do this all the time. So I'm happy to kind of talk to you guys about a couple tools you are looking at potentially using. As I go through kind of a highle slide, please feel free to interrupt me at any time if you have any questions. I also have some questions and answers allotted at the end of the presentation if there's not any but just let me know and I need you to speak up too. Yep.

That mic is just recording. It's not doesn't make your voice louder. Yes. No worries. I didn't want to scream at you. Yeah, it's okay. Step it up.

I got you. Okay. So, just a very quick Who are we? Like I said, I work for Bricker Grade and Wyatt. We're a full service law firm. 325 attorneys. We represent a lot of different industries. In particular, my team, we focus primarily on public sector. We represent a lot of communities, school districts around the state. In particular, I myself serve as special counsel to one of your neighboring communities, Millersport. You know, I work with them all the time. I'm I'm work as council to Fairfield County as well, the economic development department. So, I know your community and your county very well. Um, so what we're going to address today very quickly is just a high level. Why incentives? What are they? and we're going to talk about tax increment financing or tiff and then new community authorities or NCAs. So first why incentives? Um, very broadly, you know, incentives are constituting your ability to use and intervene into the private markets to strengthen your own local economy, to grow your tax base, to address any perceived market imperfections, and really use these to your advantage to shape your development of your community and how you would like to see it be in the future. Why? Because as easy as it is to say, "Hey, we want to do more housing. we want to have manufacturing, whatever it may be. It's more difficult to make that a reality and this helps you make that into a reality for your community. So, there's a lot of different ways that this can take forms. You know, you have state level incentives, you have low to no cost financing, property tax abatements, all of that good stuff. For our purposes, we're focusing on those last two bullets today. the diversion of tax revenue, which is what tiffs do, and we'll get into that, or special purpose entities that increase your effective tax burdens in the form of an new community authority or an NCA. So, first, tax increment financing,

TIFF. So, very generally, TIFF is a tool that counties, municipalities, and townships can use to create this structure. It allows you to redirect property taxes on up to 100% of improvement value for any property for up to 30 years. Now, we like to say there's a trick. In one fell swoop, you'll pass legislation at the end that exempts the tax and then assess as a pilot. I understand when you hear exempting tax, you immediately think no more property taxes, but not really the case. What it does and instead of just taking that property tax and getting rid of it, it allows you to essentially put it into a separate fund called a TIF fund, which is very similar to an escrow and allows you to take that and use it to reimburse for expenses that the village may have incurred or if you have a developer, you can go, you know, work an agreement for that for private private improvements and for public infrastructure. It's got to be specifically public public infrastructure. So which can be something like road work or culverts or sewage. Um it can be a very very broad purpose but is specifically for public infrastructure. You also have ability to if the village ever needed to issue general revenue bonds you can secure these bonds with pilot revenue. So you have two basic types of tiff. The tiff staff chew statute if you really care is 570940. Um, we care about 40B, which is the partial statute, and then 40C, which is an incentive district. The parcel tiff, as its name suggests, is going to apply to a specific parcel or maybe a handful of parcels, but generally speaking, it's going to be used on a commercial property, you know, a manufacturing site, something like that. It's very, very limited in what it can be used for. Whereas an incentive district tiff, that's where you can actually use it for

residential housing. And the way the incentive district tiff works is you will identify a contiguous boundary of no more than 300 acres and it has to exhibit one or more characteristics of economic distress. Um the statute lists several different characteristics and there are ways to make this work and make sure that your specific parcel that you would like or parcels that you would like to include in this can be included and meet that definition. Now, it does have a couple of key issues in terms of you have to make sure it hits. It can't be and it cannot represent more than 25% of the overall value of property in the county. You do have to have a public hearing. The incentive district tiff requires a pretty lengthy process, but it's it's not too bad, but it's just because of the overall impact that it has in the community. it want they want to make sure that you have the opportunity to be heard if you would like to have any objections to the actual district itself. Um it again the public improvements must benefit or serve that district. So if it's a residential housing development, the streets, the roadways, the sewers, it's got to actually benefit that. And then it also allows real property owners, should you actually be within that square, you can opt out. You do not have to participate if you do not want to. Um, it allows you that ability and generally speaking, like I said, it's normally just used for single single family housing. That's what we've done all across the state. It is a very, very common tool that has allowed communities to take advantage of the tax revenue and redirect it for public purposes. Now, the TIFF creation process, like I said, it's a little lengthy, but you start out under the incentive district tiff. You pass a resolution. That resolution identifies that the parcels

that you are that in the area that they meet the requirements. Then you will set out the parameters for the exemption rate and the duration. You're going to determine the base year as of January 1. So you'll file a DTE 24 form which identifies when you were going to start for the base year. That essentially locks in your base value. Anything above that base value becomes what's called the increment and that's what we use to identify and calculate what the actual property tax will be diverted into the fund is. There must be notice given to school districts. uh the county must be notified and there are certain scenarios where the school district can actually say no or they must or they can require compensation because obviously school districts their main form of funding is property tax and they want to make sure that they're still getting proper revenue to them. So how long can it be? It can be up to 10 years without the consent of the county or the school district. It can be up to 30 years with the consent. Um, and as I noted earlier, that's where the counties and school districts have the right to object. Same idea with the percentage. If it's 75% or less in 10 years, you do not have to have to get school district or county consent. If you want to go beyond those parameters, you do have to, it does require that consent. And that's when the school districts would typically enter into a compensation agreement with the community or the developer to make sure that they are being made whole and still receiving some level of revenue. And that's because generally speaking, if you're doing some type of development that requires a tiff, you're probably going to have increased population. The school district still needs to get revenue to support that increased population. And that's where we get into with service payments. Like I mentioned earlier, these pilot funds, they're really just service payments. That's based on that increment of the increased

value. And I really think that the best way is to just kind of see it visually. You have that existing tax base. That's where it starts typically land value, that incremental tax. That's what you're going to be using and that's what will go into that tiff fund. Now once that 15 10 whatever the term is of the tiff agreed or the the tiff is once that term is over that new tax base is the entirety of the land and that all just converts directly back to regular property tax revenue. Going back just one slide these are again just a not a an exhaustive list of what it could be used for but it gives you a sense of different items of public infrastructure that it may be used for. So like I said the public roads Percussion pilot stands for what?

Payment in le of taxes.

All right. So, the main benefits you might be asking yourself, why not just, you know, take the property tax revenue and do it your as you see fit? It's really because this allows the village or the community that's actually implementing the tiff to control that the entirety of that tax revenue. So, it's not going away. it's just being redirected in the villages favor so that they can control it. Um, now I will say although the school district will still be receiving payments, the other taxing jurisdictions will be impacted as well. So no fire, EMS, they may not receive any in a 100% abatement tiff. It would not generally receive any unless the village decided to provide that actual revenue to the EMS. So that's where it gets a little bit different. The school district just has a higher level of priority under the statute. So it also has a very strong collection enforcability. Your property owner cannot just not pay it. They have to pay it. If not, it then goes onto the property as a tax lean. So that was tiff. I know I said a lot really quickly. Any questions or should I keep going?

That is just on the houses that we're building. That's not on any existing houses. I want to make that very clear. Y it only really affects the increased value from what it is today versus what it is after it's built. That's correct. So So all that base that's there now stays right the way it is. That's correct. So the existing land value or any value that's currently there, you will still pay property tax on that just as you normally would. It's just that increment above that existing value, that's what then gets shifted into the TIFF fund. Yes.

All right. And then new community authorities. This is one of my favorite topics. I talk about it far too often. It's a really novel tool. Um, before I joined Bricker, I did economic development and site selection at a national firm and worked outside of Ohio. And no other state has a tool that is as novel as an NCA in my opinion. So what an NCA is, it's a separate body corporate and politic, which means that it's its own separate political subdivision. It operates independently of the village although the village still has a massive play in it. U it typically includes partnership between a developer which can be either private or in this case the municipal corporation that either owns or controls the leases of 75 years and an organizational board of commissioners which in this case would be the village. It sounds a little wonky saying that the developer, the statutory developer is the village, but then the organ organizational commissioner is also the village and that's intentional. Oftentimes you'll have private developers want to come in. Generally, I recommend to my clients that when they can, the village, the community, they should do both because that allows you to control it. that allows you to control the revenues and you don't have to give seat a seat at the table to the private developer who may have opinions or desires for that revenue to be used in ways that are not completely aligned with the village. You would hope they do, but sometimes they don't. So, this allows you as a community to completely control the NCA because of the way the board makeup works, which I'll get into in a little bit.

One second. I think your microphone turned off. Might be might be batteries.

For the thousands of people watching on on YouTube, everybody loves to hear me talk. Awesome. Thank you so much. What's our battery budget like, Mr. Mayor?

Well, I just charged them and replaced them last week. So, Okay, so the next is just a high level of the formation. It's a pretty, you know, step-by-step process to get one of these formed. You start with a petition that's filed with the organizational board of commissioners. This will outline various items that are within the statute, which is chapter 349. Um, this will be filed by the statutory developer. So if the village would like to the statuto developer would be the village. So either Matt or the mayor would be the one signing it and officially submitting it to the organizational board of commissioners which is you folks as the village council. That petition or that initial resolution the petition includes you know like I said the plan for development. It then gets approved if you guys desire to go forward with this and that's called the resolution of sufficiency. The first resolution just says, "Hey, the petition that they actually submitted, it's sufficient. It meets the requirements." Within 30 to 45 days after that initial resolution is passed, there will there will be a public hearing that must be held that allows anybody in the community to ask any questions, uh, set forth any concerns, all of that good stuff. Then after the public hearing, that's when you actually would pass the final approval resolution or ordinance and that's when you formally form the NCA itself. Um that's when you would start kicking off and that final piece of legislation, you would identify who's going to be on the board. And I'll get into the board in I think the next slide or the following. Um, but the board itself, generally speaking, you'll have

seven members. The the village council would appoint three, the mayor would appoint three, and then there would be one local government governmental rep. That could be, you know, someone here, it could be the county. It's really up to you guys as the organizational board how you would like to determine that. Um, those members will serve one to two-year terms depending on how that depending on who's chosen for what. It's generally one two-year term, one year terms for each of the three and then the local government rep will serve a two-year term. Those can be renewed or replaced. There's all the all of those procedures are set forth in the petition and then the co-enziding bylaws for the actual the NCA. What can they do? Why do you care? Why do you want to do this? The biggest item is that they can levy community development charges. So community development charges are a lot like a tax. They are not a tax technically, but they act like one. So it can be in the form of a real property charge, which can be, you know, up to as many mill charge as you would like, a sales charge, a bed charge, or any type of other fee. It's very, very flexible. Now, what I do want to note is oftentimes people see this and they get very concerned about I don't want another tax. The important thing about an NCA is that the property in the NCA is not in it unless the property owner consents to it. So, if you live in the community and the community for whatever reason came and said, "Hey, we would like you to be in the NCA," you can say, "No, you don't have to." Generally how we see this work and what I think is such a great purpose for NCAs and a development tool is villages will say you know hey you want to come do

business in our community that's great but we'd like you to join this NCA we'd like you to consent to this and consent to having this additional charge on your property or in a housing development you know an additional five or six mills however much you want it to be and that's what we do in exchange exchange for other incentives. It's a bargain for exchange and that's generally how it's used. Now, those charges then go into a fund. The NCA board can identify what's called community facilities that they may invest those charges for. It's the same idea as a tiff, a little bit more flexible with what you can do with the funds, but it's generally public infrastructure or if you want to build, you know, if you wanted to build a public facility like a, I don't know, a gazebo or you want to build a gym, you could do that. If it's if it's supportive of the community, you can build it. And that's generally how that functions. Again, community facilities. So, same like I just said, roads, streets, sidewalks, all that good stuff. Why it's in why is it beneficial? It's because of the ability to use this additional charge revenue that the village may not actually have access to without imposing it on the existing citizens of the community. It basically works as a paytoplay for developers who may want to come in. Um because again they don't have to. They can say no as well. They don't if this is just an ability for the village to use this to their advantage if they so desire. Yeah. So could the charges generated from the NCA be used anywhere throughout the village or only in that that district

if it so the district can be small but it can be used throughout the village if it benefits the district. So if you can make the argument and say hey this benefits the district at large then yeah you absolutely could. If we were working on the sewer plant or we were working on water main lines, we could use it for it benefits the whole community. Yeah.

Yeah. It benefits the whole community. So, you could use it. Um, it's a very flexible tool. There are obviously parameters and guidelines and rails that you have to stay inside of, but generally you can make an argument that so long as it benefits the district as well as the community at whole, you could use it. So, I know I went over this very generally again, powers and advantages. This is, you know, seven members of the board, four appointed by the village council, three by the developer. They can levy charges, all of that good stuff. Um, just a couple ideas. The real idea, the concept is this is what it would look like without an NCA versus with an NCA. It allows you to invest in the community and just make it a little bit more nice or, you know, beneficial to a commu. Just building an overall community versus your standard neighborhoods. It allows it to look a little bit better from a general sense of what these look like. The central Ohio region has a large number of NCAs. it it very much is the leader of the state for these types of authorities. We're starting to see them grow more and more to the northern part of the state, to the southern part of the state. This is potentially a little dated. I'd love to see what it looks like now, but over the last couple years, it has just grown exponentially. And a couple examples, at least here in central Ohio, is, you know, like Birkshshire Landing. This is in Delaware County. This was an NCA that they put into effect. My team has and some colleagues have worked on this. They decided that their best use of the charges were going to be a half a percent sales charge on the mall that was there, a four mill property assessment to benefit the school district and then variable millage in

the northern areas to benefit to the statutory developer who in this in this specific NCA was a private developer but then also to fund funnel money as well to the township. The biggest one is Bridge Park. Uh, Bridge Park is obviously a massive, massive, beautiful environment that has been completely revitalized over the last 20 years. And the NCAA is a big tool for that. They've used four different charges, assessed value, debt service, retail, hotel. There's a lot of different avenues that you can use and you can get very creative for the charges and how you would like to use it. The board makes the decision. Um, like I said, they operate as a separate body politic. So, when that board is appointed, it is all up to the board. They decide and if they want to assess the charge on this property, they can. If they want to not assess it, they decide that they want to make a deal with a different developer and not assess it on theirs, you don't have to. Everything that is to be done and the powers of the authority itself will be in that petition and the initial declaration of covenants and restriction and that that essentially operates as your guiding principles and you can go within those parameters as much as you would like. Um but it's up to the board and like I said that's why I generally like to have the village be the statutory developer because that board has so much power. Now the village has all seven seats at the table and they can functionally work together to advance the village's goals to the best of their ability. So and that's all I've got. All right.

There's not going to be a quiz for you. There might be questions. I mean this is just for new developments. It's not anybody that lives here now is not going to be a part of all this unless they wanted to be a part of it. They certainly could opt in, but well, but I I just the one thing that I was surprised that you said is everybody in the new developments have have a choice on it. Why would anybody say yes to another tax? Developers who say yes, the people who buy the houses are already on. The developers that we've been talking to over the last two years have been rather embracing of it. They feel like it makes a better community. That's correct. It does.

It's all the goal of it all is to make a functionally integrated community. So to your point, the developers generally before the parcels get split and all of the, you know, individual parcels are sold to homeowners, they will commit their individual development in and they'll do it all at once. And then because the original parcel was in it, all of those people who bought it, they are now in it and they will pay it and it will be on their deed. So it's not a secret. They will know. It'll be fully disclosed. Correct. Correct. It's up to them and they will know. Um it's part of the cost of their house because they will be our residents.

Right. Exactly. It's part of the cost of the house and the develop it's on the developer and the community to all to together say like, hey, like this is part of it, but they they will know it's part of the house. And and I mean earlier it was mentioned about these new developments turning into rental communities. I mean, there aren't very many low-end rental communities that have these NCAAs on them. are mostly higherend developments. That's right. Because it raises the cost. That's right. Okay. I mean, I feel like having one agreement for any not just for the next five years, but for the next 20 years, one agreement is is an ideal situation for the village because it's just

modify it. like we could start out with this and then modify it as

moving forward if generally the way it works is when you when you put it together the NCA you'll want to put and think through everything that you want in it at once because when you put it in that initial petition once you start adding property owners to the community authority it's going to take 67% of property owners to actually amend it. So once once they're in, it's very very tough to amend it. But you can be very broad in how you'd like to do it. You can set these parameters because just because you say, and I'm just for examples purposes, just because you say we're going to do up to a 10 mil charge, that doesn't mean you have to assess a 10 mil charge. You can assess no mill charge. You can assess a 2 mil charge. You can negotiate that with the developer in exchange for joining the NCA and to consenting to joining the NCA and then the board the board of the NCA can assess it. They will pass individual resolutions. They will have public meetings that they will actually pass resolutions to decide how you would like to use the tool. So villages will use it like your own. And like I said, I just helped the village of Millersport put one together, you know, last month. And that's the goal. It's to potentially use this for long-term economic development.

Okay. Can we have a Can we get a copy of these slides? Yeah, I'll send that to you, Matt, and we can send them out tomorrow. Thank you. Yep. Cool. All right. Anyone else? Okay. Well, thank you all so much for your time. Thank Thanks for coming. Absolutely. Thanks. You're welcome to stay for the rest. I appreciate that. Or you can have your life back. Who's next on the list? Bri. Okay. All right. Well, um

we will go into Wait, is there still more? No. Anybody else want to speak? So, we're into administrative reports. Yeah.

Uh as far as administrative report from me, I really don't have anything. I think we're going to talk about everything that I would be willing to go into that we've or that we've talked about in the small community. Um there are u um I know that the state is paving actively route 158 and we are having to replace a few sidewalks and stuff like that to do in conjunction with them and we're doing that. Um, I think the paving through town, I want to say done within 45 days. They're going to try to do within 45 days. Um, that's really the biggest thing that we have going on other than uh we are still waiting to final approval on our money for the water replacement lines.

Uh, and we should have that in the next couple weeks. Correct.

Hopefully. Y and that's a pretty big water project that won't be done until fall, but we will be doing that. Um, does anybody else have any questions for me? If not, we'll go to the things I wanted to highlight for my report. Fire hydrant flushing began today and will continue until that is finished. That just helps with water quality. uh residents may find some discoloration while it's being done. Uh but there was an a Facebook post and a website post about how to handle that and what to expect. So if any residents uh speak to you about that, I would encourage you to send them there or have them call the office. Also, uh our uh pre-application for the CDBG critical infrastructure grant was moved to the next level. So there's a public hearing next week. um Assistant Chief Farmer and I as well as a representative from our engineering firm is going to be at will be at that public meeting to answer any questions that they might have specifically about our project. So, um although that's not a promise for funding, that's

it sounds pretty good. It's a it's a it's a step in the right direction. Yes. So, more water lines fixed. Yep. But other than that, I have nothing to nothing to add. Okay. Mr. Fiscal Officer, uh we got nothing. So, we did get we're going back to the whole iPad tablets, whatever. We got an updated quote from ABC and we can get new tablets. Whoever wants them for around $447 each. So, well, I what I would do is whoever wants one, they just should let Brian know we should get them. I mean, is this a one using them? Mine's fine. Now, you switched mine out. It's working fine for now. Okay. Okay. So,

well, it had quit and you gave me a different one. I know, but that was going to die before long, too. So, you want I don't think any mine Well, I So, uh I mean, mine's currently working. Currently working. So, are you saying I need to say now? Yeah. I mean, like if it needs later, we can do that. We're going to have the same. I mean, it won't be that much of a difference. Ask them. It should be good for at least six months. Do you need one? No, I need to take five minutes and call the guy and get my computer fixed. But I I'm fine with my last Phil. Do you need one? Did you call? I did not call.

Same reason. But if you guys feel like you need one, then get one. I understand that. I'm I used the laptop when I had it and Okay. It's been a lot more difficult without it. We can order that. We I would say purchase a couple for sure. I definitely want one. Like I'm not one who's going to I do not want to use my Yeah, I think Jamie's right. Four or five of them do that. No, no, I No, because it's No, I just would. It's under Yeah, it's what I would do, too. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Solicitor, do you have a report?

Couple comments. No first readings, no readings. Um there are several ordinances on for second readings. Um and there is one tabled ordinance that can be detailed and voted on this evening. And then um Brian, with regard to the cyber security program, that can go to another reading, correct? Yeah. Okay. um does carry emergency language because it needs to be implemented before the end of June. Um and then um that's it. That's all I have. Okay, let's go to village uh council committee reports finance. Yes, mayor. We didn't meet tonight and it doesn't sound like we're going to have a meeting until June the

22nd. We have a meeting in May. We have a meeting in May. I thought that was the meeting that fell on Memorial Day. No, that's rules and safety and Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. What What date is that? May 11th, I believe. Uh our next meeting will be May 11th. Yes, sir. At uh 6 PM service, we did not meet. Our next meeting will be May 11th. Uh safety.

Yes, mayor. We met this evening. Uh we had a relatively in-depth conversation about um the building department and we're going to continue that conversation here in council. Our next meeting will be June 22nd. and rules. Um, rules did meet tonight. Um, I was thinking you said something that was in yours. Um, I'm trying to remember. Jeff had prepared some he's got working on some things and it'll we'll talk about next. Okay. And maybe again uh not until June 22nd.

Yes, ma'am. Um, did the chief have to excuse himself? Yeah, he had to step out. Stuff's still here, so I'm assuming. No worries. How about uh Jamie, anything from the Nothing. Okay. Quiet. Planning and zoning commission? We meet again. It'll be May 14th. We know we have something to talk about now. Mhm. Uh the impervious and I and my opinion on that is we take a case by case basis and try to figure out the commission tree commission. I was looking at you. Okay. Yes, sir. So, we had a tree planting yesterday to honor Arbor Day

here in the village and um two tree plantings. Yes. The tree planting. Well, one was over at Johnson Park. There was another one as a memorial over at Bryson Park. And then um we also I believe the trees have been finishing up the trimming of the trees. I know there was a company in town. Are they Have they been back to finish up? Coming back. Yeah, they'll be back May the 11th. Okay. They had to pull off the work because the just how saturated the ground was. Okay. Okay. And I know Steve made some purchases for trees. So, did you didn't you get some trees that a few were those? We did, but I those were all the trees were donated that we planted.

Okay. Yeah. Yesterday they were who were who donated those? I wondered about that. Um, the uh, Hoisington family and Michelle and Nathaniel Smithline donated the two at Johnson Park and the two at Bsentennial Park were in honor of the retirement of the executive director and assistant executive director of the Ohio chapter of the International Society of Aboriculture. Uh, because Dixie Russell lives here outside Baltimore. So, they planted them here, but the chapter the ISA chapter donated both of those. Nice. Yeah, they they look very like they were very nice trees. know which money was spent. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, records commission, anything? Just waiting on dates from Jeff. Yeah,

waiting on dates from Jeff. I had it on my to-do list, Brian. Meant to call you this morning. We're going to go right into motions. Uh, we have no first readings. We do have some second readings. The tabled ordinance. Did we skip through motions? Well, he did raise it. Okay. Sorry. I I was going to make a motion that we cancel our contract with Safe Build. Okay. Um so do we vote on that then? Well, it needs a second discussion. I'll second it. Second now discussion. So he seconded it and uh discussion. I also think don't we have uh we had a motion from

there was a motion that we brought this up to council and we're in council and he made a motion to cancel it but Debbie made a motion to bring it up here to keep it. So there has to be discussion I believe. Yeah that's what he just said discussion. Yeah. So what I'm saying is he just countered what she made a motion to in a previous meeting. So, I guess if there's any discussion, let's let's hear it.

I've said my piece. Um, I believe and I I just don't want this to be my legacy. I just think it's too many too many houses that are coming into this village. They need to be good houses and we need to we need to protect the oncoming generations. 100% agree. 100% agree. But and these these added these added uh tax revenues are going to do a lot more to that end than some person who could care less rush for this.

There's no rush. We've had them for a year. Have we had them for a year? Yeah, we've been in contract with them for a year. They've we've only been active since probably I think it was the beginning of the was when we pulled the trigger. So I I obviously to get things going, you know. Yeah.

So I just feel like we have varying perspectives here and from my standpoint, I am not from a business standpoint, which you are. Um I just want to make sure that our community is safe, including the residents, making sure that we have quality work being done. And I think there's a very gray area here. I do not think it's black or white. So, it depends on where you're standing. And I feel like we need to keep it. I also feel like there was a certain part of that that makes it more efficient for individuals who want to be able to apply for permits and such. Um, so I'm going to stick with that. Any other discussion?

Yes. Um, so there was one thing we talked about previously, which was to look at what hiring the other communities like Pickerington or Lancaster, their building department to do our inspections. They won't do it. They won't do it. They're too busy.

Okay. Um, so then I guess I need to be straightforward about where I stand. Um, I'm looking at this fresh. Uh, I wasn't here for the prior vote um, year ago or whatever. Um, but I do see it differently. Um, the question to me is whether the the village should be in the business of charging our residents for a safety check that the market already takes care of. Um, so when you finance a home, the lender inspects. When you sell the home, the title company and the buyer's inspector can can catch any unpermitted work. Um, the residential code of Ohio exists whether we do an inspection or not. So it is the law. Um so if a contractor ignores the RCO, they face a civil liability. That's another check that we already have on the system. Um when a claim is made from insurance companies, they'll investigate. So they're doing a check as well. So we have all of these things that make our building department look redundant. Um so those those mechanisms exist regardless of whatever we do. Um, so I think we're inserting ourselves as a middleman and we're charging a fee for it. That's what an HOA does. That's not what a government does. So, just wanted to put my thoughts out there.

An HOA does not they tell you what's where your storm door has to be. They they get down to that much of a degree. They don't do structural inspections or anything like that. Can can I ask how do we know surrounding municipalities of a similar size? Do we know what the percentage of those surrounding municipalities that have some type of um building company?

Well, department that's been contracted out or they have an independent that's doing the job. We're in the position, right? We're a village, but we're larger than most villages in our area. So, Pickerington and Langster of course do. Thirsten does not. I don't know about Miller's Port. Lyopoulos does, who we've worked with in in bringing Safe Built on board. Um, but you know, communities like Sugar Grove, but we're talking significantly smaller communities. That's right. And thank you. One other I'm sorry. Um, can I Yeah. Yeah. you mentioned the liability.

So, and and then you said it could go up if we had a building department that was not certified, but if we descertified and didn't have a building department, then we I guess we wouldn't even need that kind of liability coverage because we're not sure. So that statement was in regards to if we have a residential if we have a certified building department but we're not but we're picking and choosing what portions of the code to apply. Okay, that becomes becomes a liability issue. If we descertify but then try to create an independent um village building department that increases our liability.

Okay. So if you if you were to descertify then issues of liability go away. Uh if we have a building department and we are being consistent with state minimums liability is is decreased because we are being consistent with that. So those would those are would be my answers to those those are multiple scenarios. Yes I understand. Yeah. Any other discussion? All right, cancel the What are you going to do with the building department?

Well, I I feel like it has to be done in two steps. Okay. I mean, isn't that I guess I was thinking that one motion would do one thing and the next motion would do the other thing. So, I guess it I'm just thinking out loud. Did we create? Yes, we did. If we take that step, Yeah. So at this point, do we vote on abolishing? Well, at this point, we'd be be voting on whether or not we continue our contract with Safe Build. Yeah.

So, we have two motions. The first motion, which is to continue the contract, Rick's motion to terminate the contract with Safe Build. We just need to clarify how the voting I don't know that does my mo I mean, I made the motion in committee. So, to bring it to council and then I made the motion in council to not renew, right? That's what I'm saying. that I made it in committee. So my motion was not made in there's only one motion before council. That's fine. That's now Okay. So you you you also realize that we have a contract and we have to honor that contract. Yeah. We we have to give them 90 days. Absolutely. Contracts this month, right?

Plus they have extra time that's already renewed. Uh, plus they have extra time to um finish up whatever work they may have going on. But but we only pay them if we use them. Correct. Yeah. I mean it pays I mean if that were to happen we just would not issue any more right building permits. So at this point finish out the ones we have on the books at this point. We need to have a vote and this is to vote to abolish to terminate the contract with St. Bill according to the terms of the contract. Yes. Okay. Foreman. Yes. And Phillips. Yes. Schoffner.

Not. It's not going to be on my watch. No. Mccuri. No. McClean. Yes. Carol. Yes. Motion passes. Okay. And then for makes a motion to draft legislation to descertify and eliminate our building department. McClean seconds. Well, you all know what that means. So, if there's no reason for discussion, I would go right into the voting on that to move things along.

Uh, Foreman, yes. McClean, yes. Sher, no. Mccuri, no. Phillips, yes. Carol, yes. Carries. Okay. So, that one's going to go be drafted and go for three readings and need to be voted. I'll prepare. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, now we're going to go into ordinances and resolutions. There are no first readings prepared as of now. Uh the second reading is sponsored by Mr. Mccur. This is the the animal ordinance. One of the cleanup. Yeah, it's the clean ordinance. Citizens audit.

Yes. Yeah, that's a good way. Citizens audit. Yeah, it was. It was. That's good. Um, ordinance 26, 2026-12, an ordinance amending the section 618 animals of the codified ordinances. Uh, next second reading is about the adopting the cyber security. Hold on. She she might want to vote on it. Okay. on which the f the the animal-12 no that one can go the sponsor usually just usually usually the sponsor says okay this is what this is you know what this is it's can just stay on for a third reading

no this is going to stay on for a third reading okay so the next one I'm going to read is uh Jamie uh sponsored it and it's about adopting a cyber security policy uh and did we make that the decoration of emergency. That's just so goes in effect right away, but it can go for a third reading. Okay, that's up to Mr. Carol. Well, I'll read it and then Mr. Carol could tell us what he wants to do. Ordinance 2026-13, an ordinance adopting a cyber security program policy and the declaration of emergency. Mr. Carol, are you okay with that going to another reading? I'd just like to make a motion to adopt it now and get it over with.

Okay. So, you have to you have to suspend three readings first and that takes five. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion to suspend the three readings and then I'll second that motion. And that has to pass by three4s. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Foreman. Yes. Shuffner. No. Muri, yes. Phillips, yes. Passes. Yes. Did we have discussion? Well, you can make a motion to adopt. Okay. Make a motion to adopt. Well, I mean, I guess I'm too late, but I mean, why was it an emergency?

I mean, yeah, that my question is going to be it needs to go into effect by no later than June the 30th. Okay. And it was like, why wait? Yeah. And if by chance we don't have a quorum for one of the meetings, we're still held to that deadline by the state of Ohio for that policy. I know Memorial Day falls on one of them. Yeah. Great. I No, that's good. I just want to make sure we don't get in the habit of suddenly start pushing things through. No, I prior years ago we had conversations about not shoving things through. Yeah. And mainly it was with discussion when it affected money where this one really doesn't. We went to meetings on that. The importance of not shoving things and pushing things through that don't need to be. Right.

All right. This particular ordinance doesn't fall in that category in my opinion. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. To the next ordinance. No, we have we have now we need motion to adopt motion to adopt. Foreman seconds. Okay. Carol. Yes. Foreman. Yes. Mccuri. Yes. Yes. Phillips. Yes. Software. Yes. That's the only reason I asked that just get it over with. It don't No, that's fine. It's got to be in by June 30. Just housekeeping prior. That's just cleaning it up a little bit. There were conversations about making sure that we weren't Oh, I agree with that. If it was anything other than housekeeping, I'd have to vote too. Okay.

All right. So, the next ordinance is uh sponsored by Miss Schoffner. This has to do with you skipped one. Oh, the trees. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. This Miss McCur ordinance 20 26-14, an ordinance to amend chapter 1004, trees of the Baltimore codified ordinances to delete this chapter.

Yes, I believe this is another one of the cleanup ordinances that through the audit. So, thank you. With this, we'll move on to third reading. Any other discussion? Okay. So, now I'm going to go to this is the uh the Oh, the parking on Company Street. And this is the second reading for this. It's a good idea to read it. Okay. Ordinance 2026-15, an ordinance amending section 452-16 of the Baltimore codified ordinance, parking permitted on certain streets.

Prohibited. Prohibited. Thank you. And the traffic control map to provide for no parking on the portion of Company Street at the declaration of an emergency. Um, this is uh simply a measure to help the fire department. They're having problems getting through that area and so we would like to have no parking there so we don't the street. So, any other discussion on that? So, you go third reading then it'll go can go for Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Because Brett's not here too. Maybe he has an opinion, but I'm sure he's going to be in agreeance on that. Okay. Okay, I'm going to read the next ordinance and then we'll Rick can explain what it is. Um, it was a tabled ordinance. Ordinance 20265, an ordinance approving the pre-annexation agreement with Cherry Lane North LLC in the declaration of emergency. Okay, this is an ordinance pre-annexation agreement. I believe this is the Lona property on the south side of 256 where they move the house.

Um, and this has been through three readings. is the only reason it has emergency language is so it'll take effect immediately. Um, so we're going to untab this or do I need to make a motion to unt this. So for makes a motion to unt this ordinance. I'll second it. Any discussion? It's one of those deals where we do this or somebody else annexes or there'll be a thirsten village limit sign outside. Yes, there will outside Jamie's house. Yeah. So we have a choice there. That's That's the only choice unfortunately. So then we can roll call the untabling. Yeah. Uh let's see. Foreman. Yes. Carol, yes. Mccuri, yes. McClean, no. Phillips,

yes. Schoffner, yes. Okay. Form makes a motion to adopt.

Okay. discussion. That's This is it. I think we can let Thirsten be the bad guys. We don't have to do anything, but and let them take the revenue from it and lose the water. I mean, we we have we have water pipes that are 90 years old. If if there's going to be that's this whole thing, if there's going to be somebody making money, it should be this village so we can fix the infrastructure that we have. have more say in what gets built and what the level and quality of it is too. Yeah. You could end up with You have a voice in it if it's in Baltimore. You don't have a voice if it's in Thirstston. Yes. Okay. Foreman. Yes. Carol, yes. McCra, yes. Phillips, yes. Chner,

yes. Queen, nope. Okay. So, that we pass that on emergency. It has emergency. It has 550. Okay.

Okay. Is there any old business anyone would like to talk about? Uh new business. Uh Steve is here and Steve has do you have a second Mr. C talk about the signage? if you are ready.

Yeah, absolutely. This is uh Steve and I talked about this a long time ago and we're talking about getting donations to uh do some sort of signage for the opera house and somebody agreed with Steve and donated some money. So, we're going to gear up and try to figure this out. But Steve had some samples Uh, looks like everybody was actually able to get the little report we put together. So, there's some new faces here. Let me start by introducing myself. I'm Steve Cthrell. I'm on the tree commission. I'm also the director of the nonprofit that's been renovating and programming the opera house upstairs, the Baltimore Downtown Restoration Committee. Um, and I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to the village and to the council for the investments you've made in the building envelope in the last few years. You know, the the tuck pointing, the windows, uh, the roof repairs that are kind of ongoing at this point um are all greatly appreciated and really important to maintaining the the space inside the building. Uh we're also very excited about the prospect of new front doors and one of the things as the mayor mentioned that we've also talked about is some kind of exterior signage to identify the building again. We just had an event about a week and a half ago and again as we hear every time people say you know I've been by that place a million times

don't know what it is.

No idea what was in it. Don't know what it is. Don't know what goes on there. and we'd like to keep changing that situation. So, uh, this report shows you three different styles of historic marquees or signage that adorned the outside of the building at one time. Uh, the Victoria name that we use now came from that blade style sign on the corner of the building. Uh, we don't know exactly what years these different signs or marquees existed, but you can kind of guess by looking at the photos. Um, but it's been a long time, at least 30 years since anything has been on the outside to identify the space. And it wasn't that important when the space was just holding village stuff. But at this point, as the mayor mentioned, we we did receive a significant donation toward this project as a result of our gathering we had a couple weekends ago. And the mayor has told me he is ready to help us fund raise for this. Uh, and I have to say he had a pretty good track record when we uh, needed some money for the bsentennial. So, I'm happy to turn him loose and see what he can shake loose himself. We don't have a specific design or budget at this point. So, it's a concept. Uh, you know, there are some some concept designs in this report, including a traditional sort of trapezoid shaped marquee over the front doors. Uh, that can come either with LED programmable screens or the old-fashioned change out the lettering by hand kind of thing. There are significant differences in price as well as maintenance with those two concepts. And then there's also some photos of a another blade style sign on the corner

of the building which could be seen from Main or Market Streets. Uh and then uh just to show you the the options that are out there nowadays, there's also a corner mounted double screen option shown in the report. Uh that obviously looks very different. uh not nearly as traditional as uh what the trapezoidal shape marquee would look.

So at this point uh you know what I'd like everybody to do is look at these think about what you guys like down the road have a discussion. We know he's kind of got, you know, a sort of an estimate of what some of these cost and uh I really feel like um if we could come up with if we could pick one out, we'll go after it. Is it is it out of place to ask what you've got so far towards it or do you It Well, I I'm I'm not ready to identify the donor, but we received a $10,000 gift. Yeah.

Which was very generous. And I feel like I feel like I could get the rest of it to so we could have a sign up there. I mean, we just got to picture. Well, we got to figure out what's what you all think is the best specific sign that you have in mind. Well, I'm kind of a traditionalist. I like the marquee over the front doors. In my dream world, I could program it with my phone and change the message, you know, in the blink of an eye, but ads consider more expense. Yeah, I like the corner.

I think there's so much pretty on the front door with the round top and the the date that the marquee would would conceal and that the the one corner one that said Victoria is really I think a throwback to that's that's a handsome option. The the only thing that one lacks is the ability to light up promote programming and events. I I guess the location and the the sign I guess it's more about where it's at. I would think we could get the same sort of programmable sign that would switch like Victoria Opera Opera House but then go to upcoming events and then go back to Victoria Opera House or something like that.

I I would imagine given that you know they show two very different shaped corner screens. I would imagine they could incorporate a blade style sign in addition LED changeable programmable. I like the corner signs just because you can see it look good all angles and it looks it looks traditional. I'll walk out in front with a sandwich board on it advertising. I think that's a good idea which is not so It would be nice like you're saying if it could have like a revolving kind of message maybe that Steve and I said though too is because that corner sign is kind of affordable

say we did that corner sign the traditional one and there's lights around it. There's nothing saying that down the road we couldn't do now that I when when when you said what you said Rick about the door as I'm looking at it know there's new doors putting a marquee over that that I could see that but we could do maybe something different at the bottom of this sign like a marquee sign I mean we don't have to if we if we could come up with one of these signs for the corner and and that's 35 to 40 grand blade would be awesome because you could see it if we could get messages on it because you could see it then it from both sides clearly

because so many people and I know they've said this is Steve we didn't even know what was in there. You I mean I mean it's and that's a waste to not know what's in there cuz it's beautiful in there and I don't I don't sit out here at the corner very often and just watch traffic but although that can be very calming. Yeah. Um, I'm sure there are a lot of people who go through this town every day and they're either on Market Street or they're on Main Street, right? And that's it. So having the corner sign would allow it to be visible from both directions. Okay. And you know, so again, we're talking concepts right now. We would certainly come back to the council before we actually

pitch a specific design. Well, could you is it possible for go ahead and get a presentation on a blade with a changeable message? Yeah, I've been I've been talking to a couple different companies to get these concepts so I can ask them if they could show us a couple of options that incorporate both of those and maybe like a long a long one and then at the bottom a rectangle at the bottom so you could see both sides or I don't there's you know it just would look nice and it's not going to cost the taxpayer. It's not going to cost taxpayer any money. This would all be uh donations. Um all donations. So, you know, I mean, you you you're off to a great start already. Yeah.

But I feel like we could this is something we could do and have done maybe yet this year. Yeah. And I really think, you know, one one of our goals with this opera house forever has been to make it kind of an economic engine for the downtown, right? and letting people see what the building actually is functioning as I think would help even if they're not coming to events here. Yes, we know anecdotally from the the concert we had two weeks ago that big groups of people went to the Pint House and went to Papedos, right? Probably went to Port of there was an impact. If we can get the building into more Well, we might be able to rent it out more for more events and stuff too.

We we do rent it out. We have one wedding booked so far this year, right? I'm just saying there's lots of stuff we could do if people knew what it was. Yeah. So, well, if you could come up with another concept, that would be fantastic. I'll get back to you with some revised drawings. If I haven't said it, I really appreciate Thank you. everything you do, Steve. That's for sure. Thank you, Mr. C. Good evening. Okay. All right. I'm gonna get back to my notes here. Okay. Is there Anybody else that would like to speak? Yeah, a couple questions. Sure.

Um, out the clan farm, all that stuff going on out there. And I called the pipe SDR35, but that's usually a gravity feed. I don't know what all they're doing. And you all talked about having it engineered. Is that happening or because Oh, yeah. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. It's all engineered. Okay. That's not some build incorporated yet. I don't know. No, it's not. Well, yeah. Clampford. Yes. Incorporated. All going gravity to a lift station. Yeah. Okay. But it's all in the drainage and the storm water is going to be done. Here. Here's what I'll tell you about out there. And this is the way that we told any of those guys and all of those guys.

The drainage obviously has been poor out there. And we're going to we're going to have to fix it if once it's in the village. And we'll be doing those people that live out there already a solid by fixing it. And the same as the aer farm. Yes, sir. So, okay. It's all got to get to the creek and they got to get it there. Yep. Okay. What do you do with the existing stuff that's in there? What? Nothing. Tie it to the new will it? They won't, but the people who whose property it's on should be able to.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. Um, anybody have anything else? The next meeting will be held the second Monday, which is May 11th at 7 p.m. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to journ. I second. Okay. All in favor? I Yeah. Brett Shook didn't shoot anybody, did he?