City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Would you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you all for being here this evening. Jody, could you call the role, please? Jay Dennis here. K. Dennis here. Elliot here. Harold here. Holland here. Musgrave here. Odicio here.

Okay. Um before we get started tonight, um you know, we we all received word recently of the uh passing of Sandy Wixs. And uh Sandy served on uh Bowling Green City Council. But I think even more important uh than her service on council was probably her presence in the community. and uh uh whether it was uh entrepreneurial starting businesses or whether it was promoting uh the vitality of our our downtown area, our festivals. Um she left an indelible uh mark on uh the community and uh was always a voice for uh social justice and uh uh lifting everybody up and uh so I just before we started with our business this evening, I just wanted to uh acknowledge uh her passing and uh say that all of share in the uh the loss of of the Wix family. So, all right, with that uh the minutes from our January 20th meeting were distributed to you for your review. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes?

Hearing none. Do I have a motion to approve? So, moved. Second. properly moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. I.

Oppose. Same sign. Okay. Um, we have a special recognition this evening. Uh, Lindsay, if you could please come up and Hello, I'm Lindsay Joe Douglas. I am here tonight as chair as chair of the human relations commission to present the honoral award to Esther Knuckle. Uh the honoral award applauds individuals, organizations, and local businesses who work to promote diversity to improve the well-being of persons in need and to make the Bowling Green community a welcoming place for all people. After a long career in public service, Esther Ngle is a pillar of volunteerism for the Bowling Green community. Following her 2009 retirement from her career as a librarian, she turned her lifelong passion for helping others into a dedicated retirement mission. Since 2016, Esther has been a vital part of Wood County area ministries, serving alongside a small committed team to provide emergency financial assistance for housing and utilities to those in need. Her leadership extends throughout the county, having served on the Wood County Homeless Coalition and acting as a lead coordinator for Project Connect, an initiative that links residents with lo essential local resources. When she isn't busy advocating for her neighbors, Esther enjoys life in Bowling Green with her husband, Jean. Together, they are proud parents of two married sons and the grandparents of one granddaughter and two grandsons. Thank you for all you've done, Esther. [applause]

[applause]

All right. Thank you very much. That brings us to correspondence. Do we have any correspondence this evening, Joe? We do not. Okay. Lobby visitations. Do we have anyone signed up for lobby visitations? that for this evening.

Okay, that brings us to the introduction of new legislation from the finance committee. I have an ordinance providing supplemental and/or amending appropriations for the current expenses and other expenditures of the city of Bowling Green, Ohio [gasps] during the fiscal year beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2026. Official reports, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening, council. Just a couple of uh quick items. It was one week ago today, the city was still in the process of digging out from a pretty significant uh snowfall. Um actually the largest snowfall in some time when the city implemented a snow emergency on Sunday when the snow started flying. Um that was the first time that that had occurred in 3 years. So, the reason I bring this up is I want to take just a moment to highlight the efforts. Actually, I asked the public works director today what was the official snowfall measurement in Bowling Green and I was told that it was 10 in. So, that's quite a bit of snow. I don't think we received that much at one time in quite a while. So, for that reason, I wanted to take just a moment and highlight um the efforts of our public works department. I'm sure that you'll agree with me that they worked diligently throughout that storm to clear the streets, make them safe for our first responders, and then once the storm passed to make it safe for all of our residents. So, I hope you will join me in expressing our appreciation for all their hard work during that storm. And then secondarily, um I wanted to talk just very briefly about um a recurring [clears throat] um series of articles that um the most recent article appeared in the paper just um in the last couple of days. Um it what it is is the uh the the Bowling Green Historic Preservation Commission's historic building of the month. I'm sure the number of you have seen those articles. Um the most recent one um uh was on the uh state savings and loan building on South Main Street. And I just wanted to take a moment um and and um express my appreciation for the work of those members of the um historic preservation commission that work so hard to provide the research which is the basis for those articles. um

primarily Jeff well I shouldn't say primarily because I know it's a group effort but Jeff House is actively involved in that I think he's been involved in nearly every one of them and I just think the work that is being done on those articles and other efforts on that the historic preservation is is working on are making a difference and I want to encourage everyone if you haven't already um taking the time to read that article um and maybe take a little bit of time to go back and read some of the others in the that have been appeared in the series. Those articles when they're released um are highlighted in the city's e-news and I know that Jan and the folks over at BG Independent Media um are very consistent with printing those as well. And I just think it's really important work that's happening to highlight these historic structures in our community and the work that is being done for my view is just terrific. I mean I've lived in this community my whole life and familiar with many of these buildings in some way, shape or form. Um, and every time I read them, I learn something that I didn't know before. Um, and so I just wanted to take a moment and express my appreciation for the work of those responsible. It's really important work to help chronicle the the um this historic portion of our community and I'm really grateful for all the work that they're doing and I hope that you'll, like me, um, go back and take a look at some of those other articles and anticipate the ones that will follow in the future. So, that concludes my report. Subject to any questions that you may have. Does anyone have any questions for the mayor this evening? Okay, thank you very much. Municipal administrator, Miss Treader.

I have no report this evening. Does anyone have any questions for Miss Treader this evening? City Attorney, Mr. Brown. Good evening. No report. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Brown this evening? public infrastructure director, Mr. O'Connell. Uh

good evening. Um uh so back in uh end of January around January 23rd, uh we did send three linemen uh to Franklin, Virginia for a mutual aid call to another public power system in in Virginia. This was due to the the large snowstorm event that was blowing through the country at that time. Um they had uh Franklin Franklin had called for um some mutual aid support in advance of the the storm. We typically see that for um places like in Florida where they get have hurricanes coming in. They'll pre-stage crews um at a northern state and get them ready to move in. So, uh we did send three linemen and a a truck down. Um they were there for maybe 3 or 4 days. Uh the storm wasn't as bad as they had anticipated it was going to be. So, they didn't uh I thought they were going to be there for a week or longer if it was if it was really bad. but uh they were able to help out get some things put back up and uh restore some power to some customers down there and then make their way back home. Um we do make sure that um our customers are supported and serviced uh and we have additional or or adequate linemen and trucks and equipment here locally uh to make sure we can cover any of our our needs back home if a outage would occur. So we don't put our own customers in jeopardy of you know experiencing longer delays than necessary. Um but we do try to help out when we can. uh if we don't require linemen to go. We ask for volunteers if they're available to go and so a lot of times we can't get you know two or three guys that are interested in and traveling. Um but they did return safe and sound and um they're back uh back here working now. Um I will say too this winter has been you know through the the colder spell we we've seen this year. Uh we normally see more water main breaks than we had this year. So this it's a good thing that we're not experiencing the the number of water main breaks we've had in past years. Um, and in some cases the snow cover does help to insulate the ground a little bit from that. But, um, I thought that we would had a few more than what we had this year. So, that's a good thing. And just as a reminder, um, we do use a 247, uh, call center service. Uh, it's called

CRC for emergency outage reporting. So, if customers have any kind of an outage for utilities or need some kind of help from for water, sewer, or electric services, um, there's 800 number that people can call 24 hours a day. And that number then um they'll they'll call or contact our um our DAN that's on call and they can respond those outages. That information is um on the website how to contact our outage uh 24/7 um call center. Um yeah, so just just a reminder just in bad these bad conditions obviously responding to utility outages can be um can be quite severe if it's you know power outages and the heat's out that type of stuff. So um that's all I have unless you have questions for me. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Okonnell this evening?

All right. Thank you very much. That brings us to council committee reports. Mr. President, Mr. Harold,

just to let everyone know that uh there was a sustainability committee meeting uh prior to this meeting where we had really really good uh committee input and uh that'd be helpful. We will have a follow-up meeting to uh hopefully finalize our list of sustainability committee related goals for this year. And uh so that's that's update. Okay. Are there any other uh council committee reports? All right. I will uh take a moment to uh we have uh tradition of having quarterly financial uh updates and uh some dates have tenatively been set for that. Um the first one is set for April 20th. Um the next one July 20th and then October 19th. And these will all be uh prior to regular council meetings and will be uh set for 6:30 p.m. So if there are no other council committee reports, Jody, could you lead us in the reading of legislation? Legislation for first reading. Ordinance 9342 for first reading. Ordinance providing supplemental and/or amending appropriations for the current expenses and other expenditures of the city of Bowling Green, Ohio during the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2026 and ending December 31, 2026. I move to suspend the rules and give

ordinance 9342 its second and third readings. Second. Okay. Properly moved and seconded. Jody. K. Dennis? Yes. Elliot? Yes. Harold? Yes. Holland? Yes. Musgrave? Yes. Odicio? Yes. Jay Dennis? Yes.

Okay. The rules are suspended for ordinance 3942. Ordinance 9342 for second and third readings. Ordinance providing supplemental and/or amending appropriations for the current expenses and other expenditures of the city of Bowling Green, Ohio during the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2026 and ending December 31, 2026. I move that we adopt ordinance 9342. Second. Properly moved and [clears throat] seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Jody Elliot, yes. Harold, yes. Holland, yes. Musgrave, yes. Odicio,

yes. Jay Dennis, yes. K. Dennis, yes. Okay. Ordinance 9342 is adopted. [snorts] Or

legislation for second reading. Ordinance 9335 for second reading. Ordinance authorizing the municipal administrator and the utilities director to sign an LPA agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT, and to request qualifications and to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for design, engineering, right-of-way acquisition, construction, and other services related to the Winter Garden sidewalk project and declaring an emergency. Mr. President, I move. Mr. Dennis, I move to suspend the rules and give ordinance 9335 its third reading.

Second. Properly moved and seconded. Jody Harold, yes. Holland, yes. Musgrave, yes. Odicio, yes. Jay Dennis, yes. K. Dennis, yes. Elliot, yes.

All right. The rules are suspended for ordinance 9335. Ordinance 9335 for third reading. Ordinance authorizing the municipal administrator and the utilities director to sign an LPA agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation ODOT and to request qualifications and to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for design, engineering, right-of-way acquisition, construction, and other services relating to this winter garden sidewalk project and declaring an emergency. Mr. President, Mr. Dennis,

move to adopt the emergency clause for ordinance 9335. Second, properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? [clears throat] Jody. Halen, yes. Musgrave, yes. Odicio, yes. Jay Dennis, yes. K. Dennis, yes. Elliot, yes. [clears throat] Harold, yes. Okay. Uh, the emergency clause is adopted for ordinance 9335. Mr. President, Mr. Dennis, move to adopt ordinance 9335. Second.

Properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion [clears throat] hearing? None. Jody Musgrave. Yes. Odicio. Yes. Jay Dennis, yes. K. Dennis, yes. Elliot, yes. Harold, yes. Holland, yes. Ordinance 9335 is adopted.

Ordinance 9336 for second reading. Ordinance authorizing the municipal administrator and the utilities director to sign an LPA agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT, and to request qualifications and to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for design, engineering, right-of-way acquisition, construction, and other services related to the Conat sidewalks project and declaring an emergency. Mr. President, Mr. Dennis move to suspend the rules and give ordinance 9336 its third reading. Second. Okay. Properly moved and seconded. Jody Odicio. Yes. Jay Dennis. Yes. K. Dennis. Yes. Elliot.

Yes. Harold. Yes. Holland. Yes. Musgrave. Yes. Okay. The rules are suspended for ordinance 9336. Ordinance 9336 for third reading. Ordinance authorizing the municipal administrator and the utilities director to sign an LPA agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation ODOT and to request qualifications and to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for design, engineering, right-of-way acquisition, construction, and other services related to the Conat sidewalks project and declaring an emergency. Mr. President. Mr. Dennis,

I move to adopt the emergency clause for ordinance 9336. Second. Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? Jody, Jay Dennis, yes. K. Dennis, yes. Elliot, yes. Harold, yes. Helen, yes. Musgrave, yes. Odicio, yes. Okay. The emergency clause is adopted for ordinance 9336. Mr. President, Mr. Dennis, I move to adopt ordinance 9336. Second.

Properly moved and seconded. Is there uh I will note just uh for the audience that uh the reason for the expediting of uh both this ordinance and 9335 has to do with a timetable scheduling with the Ohio Department of Transportation. So that's the reason for uh accelerating this legislation. Jody K. Dennis, yes. Elliot, yes. Harold, yes. Holland, yes. Musgrave, yes. Odicio, yes. Jay Dennis, yes.

Okay. So, ordinance 9336 is adopted.

Ordinance 9337 for second reading. Ordinance authorizing the utilities director to advertise for bids and enter into contracts for the lease of certain municipal property for agricultural purposes. Ordinance 9338 for second reading. Ordinance authorizing the utilities director to sell vehicles and equipment no longer needed for municipal purposes. Ordinance 9339 for second reading. Ordinance amending and adopting changes to sections 38.02 and 70.41 of the codified ordinances of the city of Bowling Green, Ohio regarding classification of civil offenses and storage of recreational vehicles at residences.

Mr. President, Mr. Harold.

Um, in in looking over this uh ordinance, um, I just want to let the rest of the council know that there may be uh a few changes. I I'm wrestling with the uh the limitation the the specific limitation of RVs in uh in driveways. And it seems every every year that I go out doortodoor, I encounter [clears throat] one or two individuals that are that have recreational vehicles. And it seems that the time is that that they can have that for storing, replenishing, etc., um is is rather limited. And so I I haven't decided what to propose, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up that I the the the wording and I'm hoping that I can meet with the administration prior to this, but the the the limit uh I think needs to be adjusted in some fashion. So I just want to let you know that might be coming.

Okay, Jody. Ordinance 9340 [clears throat] for second reading. Ordinance amending the zoning district map of the city of Bowling Green for approximately 4.979 acres on West Newton Road, parcel number B 08510 400 0 1 06 from IE innovation and employment to I institutional zoning. Ordinance 9341 for second reading. Ordinance amending the zoning district map of the city of Bowling Green for approximately 5.8 acres at 1168 North Main Street. Parcel numbers B 075118 000000800 02 and B 07511800 08003 from C commercial to IE innovation and employment zoning. I just want you to know I was counting and you did not miss a single.

You didn't row. [laughter] Thanks for double checking. That ain't nothing. I didn't count, Jody, because I knew you wouldn't. Ah, thank you. There you go. There you go. Um, is there uh any other business to come before council this evening? Hearing none. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So, move second. Properly moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I I oppose. Same sign. [clears throat] We are adjourned. Thank you all very much.