City Council - workshop

Jordan, you ready? Okay.

Good evening. This is the call to order for the Kanawha and Chester City Council appeal hearing for Monday, August 17th, 2026. The first item will be the administration of oath. Mr. Box.

Thank you, Mrs. Amick. All persons intending to provide testimonial or documentary evidence, please stand. If you are able, raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony and documentary evidence to be presented to this council is the truth, hold truth, and nothing but the truth, subject to the pains and penalties of perjury, which you shall answer in the affirmative by saying, I do? have the record reflect that the appellant and Mr. Moore and Terry have taken the oath.

Thank you, Mr. Boggs. The next item we have is the council acceptance of documents, which is the documentary evidence must be submitted at least 72 hours prior to the hearing to be considered. I believe that we have everything in our packet this evening. If a party wishes to introduce documentary evidence at the hearing, such evidence shall only be admitted upon a motion and affirmative vote by city council. We'll begin the appeal hearing with item one, which is the Planning and Zoning Commission's denial of variance application VA 26-015. The case presentation by city staff. Mr. Moore.

Good evening. In your packets for tonight's council meeting, you'll find a copy of the applicant's variance submittal to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The request was for a variance from the rear yard setback to do an addition on the rear of the home. The staff report has been provided in that packet. To summarize the staff report here quickly, The property is a quarter acre on Charleston Court. The existing home sits approximately 31 and a half feet away from your property line. The applicant was requesting approval to do a 14 foot deep addition on the rear of the house that would primarily function as a screened-in porch. That addition would sit approximately 23.3 feet away from the rear property line, which is in the 30 foot rear and setback. Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the application. that was presented before them and they denied it. One to three, one in favor, three opposed to the variance application. The staff report reflects the details for primarily the conversation and really might be able to answer any questions from either the appellant or city council.

Quick question. I mean, I don't know if this is a question for staff or the appellant, but the structure that was going to be installed is over an existing patio, correct?

Yes. It's a brick, kind of like DIY idea that they had installed prior to us purchasing it.

OK. What's the? Do you want to correct the mic?

Say again? Do you want to correct the mic to answer these questions?

Oh, yeah. Actually, I can wait till it's your turn. That's fine. No, it's OK. I didn't know if Andrew could answer that question. He's not playing by the rules. Yeah.

I'm already picked that one. You're fine. No, you're good. So the question. Mr. Moore, if you want me to answer it, is there is an existing impervious area in that location. The addition on the rear of the house would replace it. More or less, if you look at the site plan, the sizes are pretty comparable.

So is that that impervious surface surface. Thank you. Uh, also out of variance.

No. So we permit patios to be in the rear at setbacks. So that rear setback, um, figure is for the principal structure. So the house. Okay. Thank you.

I have a question. Mr. Moore is the variant, the 30 foot setback variance. Is that only for the Westchester

development in that area or is that citywide the answer is i don't want to make it more complicated that's what it needs to be but that property was zoned under the 1990 zoning code the 1990 zoning code has a rear setback of 30 feet today i would say that almost all of the residential neighborhoods in the city have a 30-foot rear setback with the exception of ashbrook village asterisk for decks the house can't be within that 30 foot but decks can encroach up to five feet so different developments have different standards the majority of our community is a planned district which has its own specific rules and regulations the specific road regulation for the 1200 homes in the villages of westchester is 30 feet for the rear and setback okay thank you

Mr. Moore, I went back and listened to the planning and zoning conversation that ensued around this particular property. And what I took from that was that there have been other Westchester residents that have perhaps sought a variance for an attached structure that did not meet the requirement of the 30 feet. And none of those have been approved with the exception of one for some sort of I believe the word was forgiveness. of some sort. Is that a correct statement?

So the conversation at the planning and zoning meeting was a little hit or miss on the topic. There was kind of floating discussions between different types of variances for that community. The most common one that the commission sees is for lot coverage. So that was referenced a couple times if you listen to the minutes. The setback variance is not one that is often sought because it is a very definitive, understandable line. It's a solid distance from your house to the property line. In the 11 years I've been with the city, there has been one that I can recall that was approved as a forgiveness case. This was an instance where a property owner had done work over the two decades they lived in their home every two or three years and did something on the back of it. Never got caught until like year 25 and then all of a sudden had to get approval for all this stuff that had existed for decades at the back of their house. the applicant or the appellant did provide i think in your packet a list of properties that they felt were also in violation of this i went back check this this morning for city council if you want i can go over that list if you want to wait and have that be a question i'm more than happy to do so as well but i did go back through our records today and at least tried to put some information for the list that was provided by the appellant

I'll leave that for someone.

Yeah, that was going to be my question. Actually, there are five properties that have structures that were built in the setback. So my question would be, did they have a variance for that, or what did that look like? Yeah, so I went back and I looked through our records.

I want to go through these one by one just because it's set in a table. It's really easy to follow up. So the application for merit in court That project got approval for their sunroom in the year 2000. I could not find any record on that approval and who granted it or why. I was unable to locate our planning and zoning minutes for agendas from the years 1999 through the end of 2000. They have to be somewhere. I just couldn't find them today. But that one did have a building permit, and the building permit did specifically state that the sunroom was 15 feet away from the rear property line. uh the first address in the list on old creek no permits were filed for that sunroom edition looking back through aerial photography the oldest frank county auditor goes is 2005 without specifically requesting older historical aerials in 2005 that sunroom was present but in their building permit file we have the certificate of original construction which did not include the sunroom and nothing ever since so no permits from our records were filed for that address wilford court the 2007 aerial on the auditor picked it up as it was added between the end of 2006 middle of 2007 no permits were filed for that the galston court looking at aerial imagery it was added in the beginning of 2022 we don't have any permits on file for that additional rear of the house And the following four are different topics than what the experience request is related to. Patios don't have the same setbacks as the principal dwelling as we just discussed. Barclay Court, that's a new build. Their actual survey shows it's 30.1 feet away from their property line. The one on Groveport Road is an accessory building, so it's a totally different topic. And then Porter, the last in this column here, it is a patio and a pavilion so it's detached from the house a pavilion has different setback standards than the primary dwelling and that one also have permits so that one is okay mr shea if they detach this

What would the setback standard be? Just curious.

Because I heard that and I was like, wait a second. So that was a scenario I ran through at the appellant, was that they have a very tight house to their rear property line. They do have the ability to do a detached structure, a pavilion, pergola, gazebo, whatever you want to call it. The setback standards for a detached structure would be that structure needs to be 10 feet away from the dwelling and 8 feet away from the rear property line. Given that dimension, I think she had around 12 to 18 feet to work with to place a structure kind of in the middle of the yard so that was an avenue that i provided the appellant after the pnc denial mr moore no go ahead go ahead oh mr bennett mr morgan

From what I understand, it sounds like we have, the appellant has highlighted a few cases where no variance has been granted. I guess my question to you, somewhat hypothetical, but also given that previously we've taken mercy on people who haven't followed the process As their list shows, there are more than we maybe know about. I assume we would potentially be reaching out to these people. Are we gonna ask them to comply to the process? And then do we perceive that we may not take mercy and make them take their structures down? I guess, can you project?

So city council has, I think, directed code enforcement as complaint-based?

Mm-hmm.

I have not received a complaint about these three properties to follow up with enforcement action. Okay. If there is an issue, but based off of what I saw today, I can tell you that none of those three have permits through the building department for that construction.

Okay, so let's assume I'm the appellant. I lose this case. I am for sure potentially, I'm gonna hypothetically, not you guys, somebody else. If I were to file a case and I lost, I'm sure I probably would go nuclear and probably tattle on everyone that I submitted on this list. as an anonymous complaint. So if I filed anonymous complaint because it's a complaint based system, then I guess then I'm going to ask you, what do you on your experience with planning and zoning? Do you think our planning and zoning department would have mercy on these folks and give forgiveness? Or do you think we're going to seek those to be remedied by removal?

I will hop in here for Mr. Moore and advise not to respond with regard to particular properties and enforcement action that may be taken for particular purposes.

Okay, so I guess my point of view then potentially is if I were sitting in front of this group, I wouldn't be sitting here if I had not followed the process and just added an addition onto my home. because our system is complaint-based. And maybe our code enforcement practices will change in the future, but as I sit here today, it sounds like if I had added on, it would have been, someone would have had to report me and caught me. Instead of, it almost sounds like we're punishing someone for following the rules. A little sentence.

So if I may respond to that. I think that the question before council this evening is whether- I know it's not that question.

I'm just stating a personal opinion that I probably shouldn't have stated for the record.

Thank you. For anybody who thinks about maybe building or adding on to their structure and hoping they don't get caught, that's a risky game because the city, without commenting on any of the specific examples that appellant has provided, the city has the ability to pursue that up to and including requiring a demolition of non-permitted structures that are put in, not to mention the trouble it can create upon potential purchasers getting financing or insurance questions if somebody breaks their leg in a non-permitted structure who covered, you know, So for all the kids watching out there, don't try it.

Don't try and beat the system. Good. Good call on Mr. Box. Play by the rules.

Mr. Moore, with the complete understanding that the new zoning code is a work in progress, it has not been presented to council, nor has it been adopted by council. Our residential setbacks addressed in the new zoning code that is in a draft form.

So again, to a similar question that Mrs. Dettweiler asked previously, this property is a planned district. So these setbacks were set in 1991 when the planned district went into effect. So for the villages of Westchester, there's nothing that the zoning code could do to change any regulatory process. For new development, absolutely. The zoning code update does take a look at setbacks differently depending on what kind of district you're going to be located in. But for any of the planned districts that the community has, which again is, I would say, the super majority of all residential housing stock in the city, it would not affect that in one criteria. So the way to explain a planned district, and I know this is not the city council's expertise, a planned district is basically setting your own zoning standards for the neighborhood you're wanting to create. Those standards are locked in for the life of the development unless there is a developer or some kind of community organized referendum, I guess, to change the standards for the entire neighborhood but that is the standards that are set to be achieved and so no administrative process that the city can do to alter that because it was an agreement between the city at the time of the development and the developer that was wanting to create those standards so in another neighborhood the setback might not be 30 feet it could not be okay i would say for most the city it is

Mr. Mr. Moore. Okay, I'll get you next. Go ahead. Mrs. Dettweiler.

So this is for Mr. Moore, but Mr. Boggs might be helpful. Is a realtor required to tell a purchaser of a home that their property might not allow them to make an addition? I'm just I'm looking at some other properties on the street and I'm using Google maps. So, you know, it could be wrong, but it looks like a couple of these other homes don't even have 30 feet behind them for a setback. Who knows why, but would those buyers of those homes be told, Hey, you just won't be able to make an addition if you want to, like, is that required?

I can't answer what a realtor is legally required to do. I'm not a licensed realtor.

Okay.

I'm laughing because there's a licensed realtor. I have one more question, Mr. Moore.

In the planning and zoning meeting, Mrs. Bell asked you what options she had. And you told her that she could appeal to city council, which is why she's here this evening, or different types of relief. And what I heard tonight was the detaching option that you presented to them would be a kind of a type of relief so that a variance would not be required. Were there any other relief options identified?

So in the planning and zoning meeting, I believe you're talking about towards the end of the discussion, that vote was cast. So that was more tailored where the appellant was wanting to know what optimal path she should take to get, I'm assuming, the product that she wanted. Outside of that meeting, communication with the appellant was, you know, what are my options? And just to kind of explain the process that staff had outside of the planning and zoning meeting, the applicant asked, you know, if it wasn't a screened porch, could it be a covered deck? same issue with the rear setback you know if it wasn't a covered deck could it be you know a different structure attached to the house so part of the discussion after the planning zone meeting was really trying to educate the appellant that it's an addition onto the house that's creating a rear setback issue i think leading to that planning zone meeting there was some confusion about patios accessory structures pools you know these things exist in this 30-foot rear setback That's for your principal structure, not for these extra things you have. There's a different language for what you're constructing. So that discussion led into you could build an accessory structure that is separated from your rear property line in your house. If it meets standards, you could have something floating in a patio. You could make your patio bigger. There was a lot of discussion on what the options could be. Ultimately, I think the appellant decided to pursue the screening porch, which they felt was more appropriate for their property than what zoning options and alternatives there were.

Last question. If you took the structure and put it in that eight feet back from the setback on the property line and ten feet away from the house. Could that same exact structure be there? Screened in, covered, everything.

I suppose it would be up for a design professional to see if they could construct it the way that the applicant wants, but if you're hypothetically talking about a floating pavilion with walls um they'd have to go to the hoa board for approval i know the hoa restricts accessory buildings so i don't know if they've considered a building if i had walls to make a screen deal again just riffing on your question from a zoning standpoint it could be possible okay that's all i can answer from you know all the logistics of hoa review board and things like that perfect thank you um

If this is a stretch, but if you have a 10-foot breezeway. That's attached. It's attached. But is that considered one structure? Yes. trying to look at options.

Looking at what the applicant had based off of their physical limitations of their property, if you look at my staff report, I have to mention in there where the property sits. It looks like there's maybe a fireplace or a bump out in the back of the house. That is the physically closest portion of the house to the property line. Based off of my measurements, I'm at 31 feet 6 inches. Where she wanted to put in the screen patio is 37 feet 4 and a quarter inches. So she could do an addition that's 7 feet deep on the back of her house. half of what she was looking to do. Obviously a totally different, probably functional characteristic, but there is some ability to do something back there. Again, it's just a matter of is that something we don't desire that the applicant has.

Is there an option to increase the width instead of the depth?

Yeah, the maximum depth based off of my measurements here would be seven feet and four and a quarter inches, and your width could be up to the big foot easement located on that side. So you gain three feet in width, but you lose seven feet in depth.

Okay, are there any other questions to staff by council?

I have one more.

Okay, Mr. Shea?

Mr. Moore, behind that parcel, what's behind that parcel? A residential home. Another residential home? On what street? I'm sorry? Do you know what street that is?

Old Creek, maybe? Snowberry? Snowberry? Okay. It's kind of that core.

Thank you.

Okay, anything else for Mr. Moore?

OK, hearing none, we'll now have the case presentation by the appellant. I don't know Mr. and Mrs. Bell. Mr. Bell, can you raise your hand, please, so I know? OK. Sorry, I just didn't know who you were. OK.

This is Bill with the Ohio Exteriors, and would he need to be sworn in as well?

If he plans to testify, yes. So would you mind standing up, please, Mr. Boggs?

Do you swear or affirm that the testimony and documentary evidence to be presented to this council is the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth, subject to the pains and penalties of perjury, which you shall answer in the affirmative by saying, I do? He's been sworn.

OK. Mr. or Mrs. Bell, or both of you, if you would take to the podium, please.

OK, I'm Megan and I appreciate you guys letting us come in. There was one address I wanted to check on. This was sent later to Jordan, but it's actually our next door neighbors, which is 7218 Charlton Court. They actually have a screened in porch and I don't know if Bill wants to come up here as well, but I think it is also in the setback line. So I don't know.

It is. It's actually in one of the pictures you provided. Okay. Showing your property, looking into the neighbors and you spill out the screened porch. One thing I would like to say is the measurements that the gentleman from zoning gave for the setback and where the porch is going are incorrect. When we scaled it out there, I think we are 24 feet

23.3 feet.

23.3 feet from the back property. So, yes, we're approximately seven foot into it. But the neighbor right there is at 24.5 feet. I think he did give a few examples where permits were issued. One thing that I find odd is that during the zoning war we hoped this had been taken care of Unfortunately, he did not have any information and said most of it wasn't available for the for the addresses we provide said that Zoning records were not available from what point? the year 2000 think it was before the year 2000 not sure if something happened in canal or I Something happened with all the zoning records. So he wasn't able to go through and tell the zoning board that some of these did have permits. So that, I don't know if that swayed the board somewhat. And he also brought up a comment that people build screened porches so that they can later convert them into finished space. Why was that comment made? Did that sway the board? to turn it down so there's some things that just don't seem consistent when there are some permits that have been issued some variances the screened porch is not an oversized portion of the home it does fit nicely in a portion of their home that has a recess area So I'm not sure what the objection is when there are so many other pervasive screened porches, decks, covered decks and things like that within the subdivision. And I just don't know if it would have originally been passed by the board if some things were not expressed or not, you know, the information given at that time.

Okay. The other thing that I just said about our neighbors is We bought this house actually almost just a year ago with the intention of adding a porch to address about the realtor. It's nothing. We're basically saying check your deed restrictions. We did check our deed restrictions. There's nothing about not building in a setback line that's going to discourage someone from purchasing something. We also respect everyone's decision. As a family, my dad's been in here when he was alive for the last 50 years. My brother runs the business now. Now, my husband and I bought a building three years ago, completely remodeled it. So anything we're doing is not junk basically so us adding a screened in porch what ended up happening after the zoning meeting i did talk to andrew he explained how our lot is placed or how our house is placed on our lot which because our i think the layout of our house is bigger so it doesn't give us a lot of room But we started checking into pricing about adding a patio, adding a brick patio, and it was almost more, I think, than just adding a screened-in porch. So that's why we ended up filing the appeal to appeal it. And I really, that's, I don't have anything else to say.

Thank you. Now we would have questions from counsel to you, if it's OK. Sure. Mr. Moore?

Yeah, actually, Mr. Moore, can I come back to you for one more question? I apologize. I like to bounce around and not follow rules, apparently. If they would have voted three to one while they were there, that motion still would have been turned down. Am I correct in understanding that? Yes, that's correct.

Okay. The current rules for planning and zoning commission is for a simple majority of the full commission.

So regardless if the commission is there or not?

they would have had to have a for a vote yes and that is something that our chairman tries to announce anytime there's less than six members at the meeting yeah he wants to make sure all the applicants know that it's a minimum of four that would they have the ability to either self-table the application for members to be present for we'll see the vote yeah thank you

Anything else for the appellant? I have a couple questions. I'm sorry, Mrs. Dettweiler.

So Mrs. Bell, would you have purchased this home if you knew about the setback issue?

No, absolutely not. Okay. Because just to go in on that, my husband knows I'm kind of like, this is what I want to do, blah, blah, blah. We knew buying that house, that's what we wanted to do. Yeah.

And then have you talked to your neighbors about wanting to put this addition on, like especially the people who live behind you? Have you?

Yeah, we one of the neighbors wrote a letter that's kind of directly behind us. The ones beside us do have a sunroom. The ones on the left of us, he didn't understand what it was. And then I explained it to him. Then there's people kind of cat a corner that have a sunroom or a screened in porch.

I guess I'm asking, especially the people who live behind you. Were they concerned about you encroaching on their space? No.

And there's a fence there with pretty big pine, I mean, probably 40-foot pine trees.

Yeah, there's a huge tree line, according to the aerial view on the Franklin County Auditor's site. There's a huge tree line that would block. I'm speculating it would block even the view of your backyard. Probably, yeah. Would be my guess.

That's all I have. Thank you.

Ms. Goh, I have a question for you. So my question for you is the capacity of a licensed realtor, not as the homeowner. So adding a sunroom or, I'm sorry, a screened-in porch, what does that do for a property value? I'm assuming it increases it, right?

Probably I would say between 20 and 30,000 Yeah, it's adding like people want a covered space so that's part of it too Mr. Bennett a question for mr. Boggs actually mr. Boggs if the

Appellant's request was granted for the appeal and the setback was allowed to, you know, this building's allowed to be built. Is it strictly for this particular structure in this specific instance, it doesn't necessarily grant them the opportunity to just, the variance isn't going to allow them to, I guess, potentially. Once we go past the 30 feet, is there any concern, like are they allowed to just go any distance in or is it,

It would be limited to the plan that's presented for approval here.

And if I can just chime in on that, that was one thing that after the meeting, I had contacted an attorney and he said, well, if you do get it approved, there can be a variance written in that you can't finish the space fully and stuff. You'd finish it making it, you know, like a river. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm not sure what Mr. Moore's intent was. And I guess that's what I was trying to get at. It was like, once the variance is granted, can the structure then be converted? Does it need to be very succinct that it says, if the appeal is granted, does our response have to be very succinct? It is just, in this instance, never to be anything other than

Right. If you wanted to make it a condition that it couldn't be further finished out to be an enclosed living space, then that could be a condition of granting the appeal. But granting the appeal, the appeal wouldn't allow further encroachment into the setback. But if you wanted to limit it to a screened-in structure that is within the variance that's granted, you would have to add that condition.

Because if we granted the variance, it means that any part of, like, it could be completely finished at some point, right? Right. Because we've allowed the, we're not dictating that it always had to be a sunroom or a screened-in porch. It could be whatever because the variance is for the extension into the setback, correct?

That's right.

Okay. I just want to make sure. all my legal standings on this one didn't get too far off base.

Mrs. Bell, the the current ground there is paper bricks and some landscaping. Is it your intent then if you if this were to be overturned, that you would make that same size the concrete pad for the sunroom, the sun porch, I guess we should call it. So you'd concrete that in, right?

Right.

When Mr. Moore gave you some alternatives, was it the size of what you would have to give up and that did not seem like a reasonable alternative?

It was the size. And then also, which he's correct, I didn't understand. Pools are different, patios are different, but when you walk out our back door, you basically have a foot and a half and then you're in the setback line. So making it smaller, because we even discussed putting it on the other side of our house, well then you'd be taken out a window and it's just getting from a cost standpoint, it doesn't make sense.

Any other questions from council to the appellant? Okay. Do we have any questions for, I assume that the contractor would be the non-appellant. Do we have any questions for, I'm sorry, sir, what was your name again? Bill. Bill. Do we have any questions? Your last name, Bill? Thompson. Thompson. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Thompson?

Okay.

None.

I came all the way here. Okay, hearing none, we will move on to, do you have anything that you would like to refute that Mr. Moore said?

Okay, all right, thank you. Let's move to council deliberation and we have the option to take this into a closed session or leave it in open discussion.

Is there a motion on the floor to move to a closed session?

Okay.

Hearing none, we'll have our council deliberation openly at this time.

So David, Hannah, just for reference, we've done some behind closed doors. We've done some out here. It's the few that we've heard. We've done both.

I think what makes this challenging for me is when I look at the aerial view of the court, and the fact that your neighbor has a very similar size sun porch. We've run into this before where people who don't follow the protocol and the process enjoy their sun porch. People who do follow the process have to modify or come up with some other alternative. We as council, we took an oath that said that we would uphold the codified ordinances of the city of Kanawha and Chester. So that's kind of where I am struggling right now with this particular case that's in front of us. Mrs. Stettweiler?

Looking at, again, the very official Google Maps aerial views and doing the measure distance tool on Google Maps, it looks like a couple of the other homes don't even have 30 feet behind their home, whether there's an addition there or that's just how the home was placed. So it makes me wonder, like, would it even be possible for some of these homes to do any addition? And I don't know if that, again, is because people put additions on and it went into the setback or it you know, the measurements didn't add up or if it's just that was a rule that the plan development made, but they were inconsistent in enforcing it when they built the homes. And so that's something that makes me question, you know, whether this is a hard and fast rule from the plan development on purpose or just because it's there.

And I guess my thought is, I guess a couple of things. I mean, rules are rules. I get it. We also have variances in place to when I think, when we get to use, I don't know, I want to call it common sense or logic instead of just following black and white rules. The fact that the possibility, we don't know for sure because I don't know the HOA engine that helps at Westchester Village, but the possibility that she could or they could build the same structure eight feet off the house, which I mean, in my mind would look like an eyesore and not bring up property value. And I mean, almost be like a shed, but maybe you can get away with it because you call it something different. Or you can connect it to the house and you can be 20, three feet away and we've put seven feet, 23 feet away from the setback line versus 30. Um, this is just one of those things where, you know, I feel like that's why we have variances in place to make these common sense decisions. Um, you know, I, I talked to Joe, who's the chairman of, of PNC. I mean, I know he voted yes for this in very similar reasons is he just said, this is one of those things we do it for pools. We do it for this. And just because we're going to call it something different, we're going to say no. Um, So I just, I don't know how much common sense that makes, but I also understand that rules are rules.

I'd just like to point out that there is a property on Meridian that sits 15 feet within the setback that was granted a variance. And I know that was a long time ago, but one was permitted.

Was that, does that address ring a bell with you, Mr. Moore, that that was the one that requested a forgiveness kind of situation or? On Meridian?

Yeah. Yeah, let's take. All right.

I think it's important to, when we're talking about variances, we look at the individual case in front of us, and there is a natural barrier between properties and the setback as well that supplies privacy that didn't exist prior to that. So I think that's important to consider.

My only rebuttal to that, Mr. McLaughlin, is that trees do get diseased and they do end up coming down. We've had a lot of this in our neighborhood. The one on Cheney Mill Way and Hawking, big huge tree, all diseased, gonna have to come down. There's a line of oaks that are by me that are coming down. The historical society has to take a tree that's been here for almost 200 years down. That barrier is there now. we can't say that it'll be there in 10 years from now. So natural barriers. Now, if you wanna write it into the variance that it requires there to be maintained a natural barrier between this property and the next, I don't know if that's possible, but if we can say, Condition of granting this is that it has to always be a screened-in porch. Could it also be a condition of approval that you always have to maintain some sort of natural barrier?

I know, Mr. Peoples. You don't have to make that face at me.

I'm making up rules. This is what, listen, we're trying to find, I mean, everybody I think here wants to find a solution. My other question is, does it have to be 14 feet deep? I'm not saying it's seven, but you know, is there a,

Something in between.

Is there something in between? Like, can we split the difference a little bit? Like, could we get to 12? Could we, I don't know if two feet matters. Seven feet. No, I agree. Seven feet. I laid down on seven feet. Like, you're not getting that. But, I mean, how far, what are we, we're seven feet in? I don't know. Maybe it doesn't matter. If you're in, you're in, I guess.

I mean, I would agree with, I would, I like your point if it was 25 feet in, or 20 feet in, and we need to come back 10 feet, but I mean, what are we gonna do, say go five instead of seven?

I get it. I know. Listen, I'm just spitballing solutions, which I probably shouldn't be doing, because I'm supposed to be deliberating. But my deliberation is, I think if we're interested, I also, I guess, agree, there is, For me, I would be okay with a variance in this case with some conditions. At least one of those conditions is that it maintains a sunroom or a screened-in porch or whatever the official product name is. That would be a condition of approval or the variance. I would also potentially include, and this is up for council debate, that a natural barrier probably should be maintained. There is one there now, which wouldn't require anything, but if those trees were to ever have to come down, and I don't know how enforceable it is, it may never be even enforceable, because it's a complaint-based system. And so if the trees came down,

that's that's your point yeah that would be my word of caution with the with a condition tied to maintaining a natural buffer um the next house with the sunroom right hey man hey man that's that house ain't here i can't

Why do they? Oh, OK. OK. Got it. Got it.

Can I just make one quick comment? I know there's a lot of discussion on how to view the variance application. Just as a reminder, there's criteria for approval for how to. We always come up with that. Is in your packet. I was coming back reference. Please always if you're going to get appeals for things, look at the rules and how you're supposed to look at it. Just best practices. There's criteria in there that council created for how to review it. So that applies to both the Planning and Zone Commission and City Council on a field basis. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Moore. Pleasing, thank you. It makes my life easier understanding why you're making decisions. Special conditions.

I think the other part of the conversation deliberation might be the precedence. So homeowners in this neighborhood that where the homes have been there, you know, 20 plus years, the homeowners have they've settled in. It is likely that a screened in porch would be a nice addition for anyone in this community. Right. And so Are we setting a precedence? I don't know if anybody has any thoughts or feelings about that.

Yeah, I guess my concern is the potential influx of homes we're going to have to mitigate. Again, I think we could see, like, do circumstances or conditions exist? Yeah, there are other structures that potentially have already violated this. without following the process. How are we going to remedy that now that these have been brought to light?

One of them was permitted, and that was on Meridian. You talked about precedents.

So one thing about variance applications is that they are intended to address unique circumstances on individual properties. So one of the reasons that you have the criteria that are laid out in the code, and it's not just Canal Winchester that does this, and it's not just for residential setback variances, but it could be for any of a number of development standards for all kinds of different uses, is applying those standards to the unique property question in front of you helps to mitigate the concern about have we opened the floodgates and it also helps to you know helps staff helps future councils helps the planning and zoning commission understand as mr moore was saying why a particular decision has been made in a particular case

So Mr. Boggs, can I use this illustration just to make sure I understand what you're saying? There is a home on that court that has a pool. And I don't know, and I'm not trying to judge up that case at all, but I'm saying that they have a very peculiar shaped lot. So at some time, they may have had to come to seek a variance. Is that what you're calling the unique circumstances? Would that be an example of that?

It could be. Now a pool is going to have a different set of development standards in addition to the principal structure, but it can be perhaps you have an oddly shaped lot, perhaps the grade of the lot is such that building options are limited. Perhaps soil structure is such that building options are limited. Those are the sorts of Those would be examples of the unique characteristics that wouldn't be the fault of the applicant that might inform that criterion. Okay.

Okay. Any other council deliberation?

Okay.

Hearing none, Mr. Boggs, I always need to, because this always trips me up, if you want to grant a favorable appeal, you vote.

Right. You would be looking for a motion to grant the appeal. and it would be a motion to grant the appeal with any conditions that council would want to include, and then the vote would be yes to grant that appeal or no to not grant the appeal.

Okay.

Hearing that, is there a motion to grant the appeal Okay, and then Mr. Boggs, do we go straight to a vote then? There's no motion, so we just vote?

Well, did someone make a second motion?

No, there was no motion made to grant the appeal. I will. Second. Okay, I'm sorry, who made it? Mr. Shea. Okay, so motion was made by Mr. Shea. Second. by Mr. Bennett to bring it.

If I may, Mr. Shea, do you want to add a condition that it be maintained as a screened-in sunroom? I'm not opposed to that.

So, Mr. Shea, since you made the motion Is that a yes, you want to include a condition?

I will accept Mr. Bennett's addition to the motion.

Okay. And yours is that it must be retained as a screened-in porch.

So if you want to have that condition, my suggestion would be that it state that the variant shall be limited to approval for the screened-in porch proposed and shall be void if the screened-in porch is enclosed. All right. But if somebody complained about it, then it would be void.

Okay, so would you like to go on record with?

I'd like to use those words that Mr. Boggs just used and insert them into the record for my words, and that is my motion.

Okay, and then if you were upholding the denial, you would vote no, correct? That's correct. Okay, now do I call for a vote at this time?

Yes.

Okay. So we're going to move to item E on the agenda, which is the council vote. Again, yes, if you're voting in favor of the motion, no, if you are upholding the P and C decision of denial. Roll call.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Statweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin?

yes mr moore yes mr payne yes miss amy yes the motion has been uh approved and you may move forward thank you so if i ever need a place to stay i can't bring my bed to stay at your place I'd like to thank the Bell family for patience as we move through the process. I'm sure you can see why these are never easy for counsel. But we appreciate the time and effort that you've put into your appeal. So thank you very much.

Do we need a motion to adjourn?

We do.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion made by Mr. Bennett. Second. Second by Mr. Moore. Roll call, please.

Mr. Bennett? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea? Yes. Ms. Amick? Yes. Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes.

Thank you. Time out of appeal hearing is 626. Council will begin at 635. I'm sorry, work session will begin at 635.

All right, this is a call to order of the Canal and Chester City Council work session for August 17th, 2026. Can I have a roll call, please?

Ms. Amick?

Present.

Mr. Bennett?

Here.

Ms. Setweiler? Here. Mr. McLaughlin?

Here.

Mr. Moore?

Here.

Mr. Payne?

Here.

Mr. Shea?

Present. also in attendance we have sergeant tj strong construction services director bill sims city administrator matt peoples mayor joe steger somewhere and law director thad boggs and development director lucas hare first we'll move right into reports for city staff mr sims thank you mr moore

The work is continuing on the headworks project at the water reclamation facility, continuing to pour concrete, bringing the walls and floors up toward the finished grade. Still a fair amount of work to do. It's surprising how long it takes to get to this level. I mean it's really more than 50% of the job. It literally is getting the structure up to this point. But it is progressing well and we're on track schedule wise. McGill Park is continuing. The rain has been really difficult out there to deal with over the last two weeks. Been fighting to get the parking lot, some asphalt down on that. Also, we had the intent, we started working on the stream restoration and that's been kind of hit and miss here as with the weather conditions. Probably take a couple days to dry out at this point given the rains we had this afternoon. So they are continuing to work on the shelter. We'll be pouring the floor for the shelter this week. And there's some activity on the baseball field. Fence posts are up for that work. And path construction is still happening. And hopefully we'll be back on the parking lot here toward the end of the week. For the private world, we still have Kroger. Probably been by there. The structure is up. There's a lot of interior work to do, but from the exterior, the parking lot is paved, which is a big plus from a soil erosion standpoint. Gas stations under construction as well. Work is continuing at the high school. Utilities were started there. They did make their trips and installed the public portion of the water in a sewer. They're still working on the private portion of extending those into the sites where they need them. But things seem to be going well there. Velocity on Hill Road is underway. If you've been by there, you've seen they've set their concrete panels so the structure is now right there for you to see. They still have water and sewer to run for that project, but that should happen here in the next two weeks. Lock Point Village as well on Hill Road is underway. They're continuing mass grading or anticipating starting utility work around the end of the month. There will be a couple months worth of sewer and water installation required before they start building roads. Also, Malto Building C, which is at the end of Robinette or off of Bowen Road, depending on how you approach it. So that building, they are probably starting to work on foundations at this point. Masquerading is complete. Utility installation is still several weeks out. and the site on bixby road canal crossing mass grading is underway on that project as well in half of the site closest to rager road they seem to be concentrating on that at this point I'm anticipating a pre-construction meeting for that project here in the next few weeks. They have extensive water and sewer extensions, public water and sewer, to the site and then through the site. So there will be many months of work on utilities for that project. And from a right-of-way perspective, there's the miscellaneous gas service work, cable TV type oriented items, and you've probably seen Nelson Tree in town working on trimming for South Central Power. Any questions? Okay. Thank you.

We got off easy tonight. We'll move into requests for council action. First up, we have Resolution 26-034. Clerk, will you please read?

A resolution approving the mayor's appointment of Ryan Knight to serve the remainder of an unexpired four-year term as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission expiring on December 31, 2029. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. Mr. Knight is an attorney, knows he's been following the planning and zoning online for several months and both Andrew and I interviewed him and spoke with Mr. Donahue on planning and zoning and we came to the conclusion he was the best candidate for this seat at this time. If you have any questions, I will take them.

I'll move to forward resolution 26034 to full council. I'll second it. Motion made by Mr. Shea, second by Ms. Amick. Roll call, please.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Amick? Yes. Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes. Thank you. Next up, sorry, we have resolution 26-035. Clerk, will you please read?

A resolution approving the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council for the Franklin County tax abatement areas within the city of Canal Winchester.

Mr. Hare. Thank you, Mr. Moore. This is a resolution that comes to council each year. The Tax Incentive Review Council met for Franklin County on June 18th. They reviewed all the existing CRA areas that are pre-'94, the post-'94 Route 33 Community Reinvestment Area, the Route 33 North Community Reinvestment Area agreements, and then also the TIF agreements. Their recommendation was to accept the reports and continue all the agreements for the coming year. There is a bit of a change this year. I typically provide all the information associated with these agreements, jobs, payroll, all of those items. This state passed an amendment to the Ohio Revised Code that exempts that information from public records. And so if you would like to learn any more of that information, we would need to do so in an executive session. So if you have any questions about any of these, we need to convene in an executive session to discuss.

Are we allowed to ask when they expire in public? Because that was one of the things that was always on that handy dandy sheet. It is.

I think that would be ... I think I can answer that.

I think that was a public record, wasn't it? Yeah.

It was listed on the auditor's website still, so it shouldn't be ...

Right. The agreements themselves, it's bad provision of law that thankfully the General Assembly has gone in and has already passed a replacement for. It just isn't effective yet. it's any information submitted by the recipient of the economic development assistance that is confidential. So the actual data that TURC was considering in terms of jobs and payroll created, we can't discuss in here. It would have to go into executive session. But the exploration of the existing What agreements would be?

I just remember some of those are very close to rolling off, like either this year or next year, and some of them were fairly substantial revenues, if I remember correctly. Are any of them?

Do you have any specific questions about them?

Yeah, which ones are rolling off in the next couple years?

There's three agreements that are, this is their last year. They're all... within the Old Town area. So they're all associated with the kind of high and water loop intersections.

Okay.

Thank you. Can I, I don't know if, I guess I could probably ask this question. It won't be an issue. Were there any that we said are not following and that we have to remove from?

No, everything was found to be meeting the terms of their agreement. Okay. Thank you.

I'm just curious. What do you know, and can you speak to the reason why that wouldn't be made public record? Those entities made agreements with us to meet certain provisions. Do you know why that would be considered not public record?

Well, I've heard a couple of different stories as to why this provision was included in the budget bill. None of which were, things that should have resulted in such a broad confidentiality provision, but the way that it was in fact drafted in the black letter of the law is very broad. Information submitted by a recipient of economic development assistance is confidential. So it was a whoopsie by the General Assembly to get us to where we are today. Anything else I have would just be speculative.

Okay.

Thank you.

The future, like I said, has been amended since that set. So in the future, will we talk about it again next year?

Just this year. This year it's a secret. Motion to adopt, or motion to move Resolution 26-05 to full council. So moved. Second. Motion made by Ms. Hamick, second by Mr. Shea. Roll call, please.

Ms. Hamick? Yes. Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Ms. Dettweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin?

Yes.

Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Great. Next up, we have Resolution 26-036. Clerk, will you please read?

A resolution approving the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council for the Fairfield County Tax Abatement Areas within the City of Kanawha and Chester.

Mr. Hare? Thank you, Mr. Moore. Um, same resolution. We have, uh, we're obviously in two counties. We have incentives in each county. And so there is a pre 1994 CRA, a post 1994 CRA, which is the route 33 community reinvestment area that has two agreements with the Molto canal point. And then there are two, um, TIF districts, the Daly road TIF and the green gate TIF that are in Fairfield county. The Fairfield County Tax Incentive Review Council met on June 18th and made a motion to accept the report and continue the agreements for all the properties. Perfect.

Any questions for Mr. Hare? Do I have a motion to move Resolution 26-037 to full council?

So moved.

Second. I'm sorry, 36 to full council.

So moved.

Second. Motion made by Ms. Amick, second by Mr. Bennett. Roll call, please.

Miss Hamish?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett? Yes. Miss Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea?

Abstain. All right. Next up, we have Resolution 26-037. Clerk, will you please read?

a resolution to adopt the five-year capital improvements plan maintenance of effort for the calendar years 2027 through 2031 for the city of canal and chester ohio mr peoples thank you mr moore uh this is our annual cip update um just some maybe some highlights or

before I get too far into it, we talked about fact sheets for this. We are working on those. We're gonna put hyperlinks into these as we get the public work staffs working on those now. We're hoping to have that back in about a month. And it will have much more detail as we go into that. You can pick any project, click on it, and it'll go directly to that fact sheet once we get it online. and up and running so I Think most of you guys have seen this previously This is just our form used by Ohio Public Works Commission This is required to be included in our in an application for the funding that we're doing on Hill Road and it as I Every time we present this, this is very much a working draft. It changes constantly. There's a lot of projects for next year that we have on there that Mr. Simms is currently working on. Not all of those will make it on to next year, but some of those are kind of a two-year planning effort with that. I don't know if you have any questions on any individual projects. I'd be happy to ask that or any general questions on the form.

Mr. Peeples, the wayfinding signage and the kiosk, I know the wayfinding signage goes out till like 2029. Is there any possibility if funding would become available, we could have that ready for our bicentennial?

I'm not saying that it cannot. That project, we need to identify it. I think it's been on there for a very, very long time, and we need just a little bit better definition of what that could be, but I think that could be added. Okay.

And the same with the kiosk. My interpretation of the kiosk is the flashing sign that's out.

No, that's actually an additional project. The kiosk is something that we're looking at for Stradley Park to be able to replace the banners that we put up during the summer. We're putting them up and down three and four times a week, it feels like, with the guys. So just to have that information there. They put one in... Hilliard station it was very popular down there. We met with the folks from Hilliard And it was a rather easy installation I'm actually working to get some some cost for that to put it in the next year Just as it came up. I think it's very interactive in in Stradley and then we moved down that I thought the wayfaring sign was or the Winchester Boulevard or Waterloo. I'm trying to figure out where that is in there.

It's number 64. West Waterloo Message Board.

There you go. Message Board. That's an unidentified location as well. We don't own any property out there. So there's been a couple ideas floating around. So that one we wanted to kick back a little bit as well.

So just if there's a possibility to move those in time for the Bicentennial, that would be Pretty amazing. So the other question that I had was about the roads or I'm sorry, in the infrastructure listing at the top of the report. I'm sorry. Yes. So the if it's in poor condition, I'm assuming it hits the top of the list for repair. Does this funding cycle or this funding number only affect poor items, or would we do poor and then if we have money left over, we'll move into the fair?

A little bit of both. Mr. Sims can talk a little bit about the pavement condition ratings that we do. It goes out and provides an analysis of every roadway in Canal Winchester. Do you want to go ahead and jump in on that?

I think kind of the logic of road rehabilitation and gathering these evaluations of the pavement conditions is to put your money's most effective on a road that's not completely lost. So we actually put most of our money into the good roads and the fair roads. A road that reaches a certain point that's very poor for instance you know it's very expensive to fix you know so we work away at our kind of we have those colored as red basically within our system you know so we work away at the red things you know but we don't just go in and concentrate totally on all of those first because we're going to get a lot more value we cover a lot more surface area of road with maintenance items and where they're in better shape so we you know when we first paid them and they're excellent for that first couple years we want to we want to expand that time as long as possible and then when they're in the good phase we want to keep them there and it doesn't take near as much money for a square foot to maintain a good road as a good road, whereas we're sinking tons of dollars into a failed road. Obviously, we don't want them to be unsafe or terrible to use, something of that nature, but we don't have many in that area, obviously.

That's what I was going to say. It looks like we're doing a pretty good job. There's only 1.7 centerline miles

The bulk of that, at least on the, I think this is the most recent one, is Winchester Pike. And I could always argue that it's not as bad as, you know, it's on the high end of the poor, if you will. And then also, those those footages are done at the beginning of the year um and from just to collect a calendar year type of thing uh so one of the other roads on there was was trying street from the railroad tracks north we've just done that this year uh east fairfield street was in a is in a fair uh condition we we redid that uh and then a couple of the alleys um the one behind the pool we did that this year um And Oak Street along the railroad tracks, which is a very difficult road.

Yeah, I think Lori and I were the ones that got to sit in and watch kind of how you guys did that with the program and all the camera work that goes along with that third party. It's really cool. It's obviously helping because, I mean, I would say overall our roads are pretty solid.

Yeah, I think, you know, our poorer roads, most of them are super low volume, right? So, you know... We'll get to them. We can work away at them, but we don't want to dump all our money there. We need to really concentrate on keeping good roads good. Really, right now, it's the most economic way to do that. And so we have a good average. You're usually in the low 70s each year. We're just going to let it creep up. We're never going to have an average of 92, because we can't put enough money into it to maintain that.

in the good, yeah.

Yeah, the process, I agree with Rick, Mr. Moore, the process is pretty sophisticated. It's not like you guys just pick a road and say, we're gonna work on this one. It's a very sophisticated methodology that is put into that, so I appreciate that.

Yeah, when we used to kind of do it, Just, oh yeah, this road needs it, this road needs it, and going out and looking at it, but the system we have now, it makes it so much easier.

And we still do, and we don't, it's not just a number crunching thing, and that's what we do. You know, we still sit down and think about, you know, we have a lot of first-hand personal knowledge of how the road is used. You know, what, you know, we want to hit a certain number of more major arterial-type roadway works as well. You know, we don't want to just go and work only on subdivision stuff, and we don't want to only work on just Main Street. So there's a balance to that. You know, I mean, folks that live here, our residents, want to see their roads fixed too, you know, so we can't just concentrate on a certain type. So, you know, there's a balancing act there, and it gets a lot of input from a number of people.

If on the fact sheets, like I saw one line, it said Westchester sections 11 and 12, that means nothing to me other than it's Westchester. Well, the fact sheet lists the specific road, so okay, great. Mr. Shea, any other questions?

I did. Further down that same summary form, we get into hard utilities, water distribution, stormwater, wastewater, and such. And the one that kind of stuck out at me was, is that 5,000 linear feet of just poor pipe? Is that something that's on that fix down below? Is that one of the sections there?

It is. It's very difficult for us to go in and assess the condition of a pipe while it's in the ground. So we use some of the data if we have breaks, service line issues, water quality as well, and we'll assess the pipes that way, especially the water line. We can get inside of the sanitary sewer lines, but that's also a major undertaking. It's very expensive as well. So we put those a lot in the age category. Our oldest lines in town are about 50 years old now in the first section of Winchester Village over by the car wash and then Washington Knolls across from the high school. Those are the two oldest that are 50 years old. They're in relatively good condition with low maintenance being done on them, especially emergency repairs. We are going in and replacing, we're talking about just going in and replacing the hydrants and valves and that type of thing in there because the pipes are still good. They were built in a time where there's very quality materials being used and just fortunately have not had the problem back there. We are getting ready in Washington Knolls. We do have some projects in the next couple of years. We don't want to pave over top of old lines. So especially there's a couple of cul-de-sacs in Washington Knolls. We want a few court north and south that have a smaller line in there that we've done a repair on previously. So that might be something we go into a very small project before we get in there and start paving.

usually we let we wait for the gas company to go get into brand new asphalt we don't want to be the ones that do it ourselves gotcha thank you any more questions for mr um mr peoples what did where did you say that east oak ranked on our list of ratings did you say it was in the poor condition east oak yes is in a poor condition but it's not scheduled to be addressed until 2028 is that what i'm saying correctly line 70.

Yes. That one, we would have to discuss that one a little bit further. There are some restrictions that we have there.

Yeah, railroad.

So we have worked through that previously.

I just know there's sort of a rejuvenation happening over there on that street in general. There are a lot of homes that have, you know, recently sold for a high dollar figure and a lot that are being rehabbed as well over in that area. And while I'm not saying you have to prioritize the street based on home sales, I'm just saying for a street to rank poor and then for us to try to maintain property values in the neighborhood.

Just an FYI, we did do some maintenance work on East Oak this summer.

yes the train tracks there and i don't know and again i know that's not our responsibility won't fall on this list but the tracks they're trying are deteriorating at a rapid pace i forwarded that on to to sean mr sarcher and he uh they'll address that um uh with some maintenance efforts yeah i didn't know if we were allowed to make maintenance at all not the tracks we cannot yeah work on the trip yep i didn't okay understood

Thank you. One more. I saw the Ashbrook sewer thing on here. Do the fix that we did out there on Zweyer Farm with that easement, did that help with all this rain this week? We've not done that project yet.

We were hoping that it would be about this time because this is the drier season, but with 11 days of straight days with recordable rain, that project's a little tough. Our crews go out there and check that. A lot. They were out there yesterday. I'm sorry, this morning before anything got going. They had cleaned off the inlet area. I've driven by there myself and we've not seen it come over like we had in the past. Yeah. Retention upon flooded today, but... I think that gets clogged up with cattails and stuff. It was in the road?

It was in the road, but not like we're obstructing traffic. But I mean, we also got three and a half inches of rain today.

In 2017, I got a carpet off the roadway that was about that big, came out of it. I threw it back in.

Throw your back out?

Yeah. Mr. Payne?

Mr. Peebles, Washington Knolls rehabilitation phase one, does that include curbing and that?

Yes, that's why we split it up into two phases. We're looking at replacing all of the curbs in that area. They are significantly deteriorating. 20 years ago, I believe, and then started doing spot repair on the curb and it definitely helped, but there's much more spots that have come up. It was difficult for us to do 20 years ago to try to figure out what to do and what not to do. Thank you.

This is just a has nothing to do with any specific item on the sub list, but on the socioeconomic characteristics, when I look at the census data of unemployment, 8%, I look at the current unemployment for Cal Winchester at 2.1. That's a beautiful story. My question is, is that because it was COVID, which could very well be why it was so high, or is it because we really have brought that much industry and jobs to our community?

Uh, the, the, the 20 census information, it was actual. So, and it looks like around that time it was, uh, there was some COVID related, uh, into that. The, uh, the current, um, uh numbers are projections um morpsey does provide the population and total households um it's sometimes a challenge for i i was able to find some some numbers on the unemployment so again those are just projections but um that's a it's a good feeling to have but yes mr hair's uh work here is uh yes i would agree

All right. Do I have a motion to move Resolution 26-037 to full council? So moved. Second. Motion made by Ms. Amick, second by Ms. Detweiler.

Ms. Amick? Yes. Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea? Yes. Mr. Bennett?

Yes. All right. Last, we have Ordinance 26-017. Clerk, will you please read?

An ordinance to accept the dedication of real property from South Central Power for use as public right-of-way.

Mr. Hay. Thank you, Mr. Moore. South Central Power has proposed a new power substation on Hill Road. This is directly behind the Meyers store. As part of that site development plan approval, we've required them to dedicate additional road right-of-way. This will help us accomplish the future hill road widening that's going to happen there. So it's five additional feet of right-of-way across the frontage of that site, and then converting what was a highway easement into actual road right-of-way, which the city would own. So it's a little over a quarter of an acre that would be dedicated to the city along this frontage. this was something we knew was coming for quite a while correct yes so it's something we require each time you know someone develops we look at our thoroughfare plan and say what does the future hold for you know what we think this classification of roadway is and what would be the extent of widening that what right away we would take and we ask them to donate that right away to us as part of the project perfect any other questions for mr hare i have a motion to move ordinance 26-017 to full council

So moved. Second. Second by, or first motion made by Mr. Bennett, second by Mr. Shea. Roll call, please.

Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Emig? Yes. Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes. Great. Next, nothing on old business on the agenda. Do we have anything for new business?

I'd just like to add something. I guess you can consider it old business, but... Our legal director and his firm sent me information today on mobile mobility law changes and additions throughout central ohio as long as well as some more information and i think at the next meeting we're going to have a full discussion uh with council i just wanted to bring that up and put it on people's radar that at our next meeting not that community of the whole but our next official city council meeting we're going to have a discussion thank you mr mclaughlin anything else yes sir um

for tonight but for future consideration during that hearing we talked about how you had to have four votes for planning and zoning approval or to get through committee I understand that sometimes there's challenges with attendance on there do we want to look at expanding the number of people on that board to have more people present or look at attendance requirements just something for us to think about as we go down the road

Mr. Shea, do you know if PNC has a rule book like we have? Because ours says you, I think it says you can't miss more than two consecutive meetings. Do you know if they have anything like that?

They do.

They do?

Yeah, we are addressing that in the zoning code rewrite.

There's more to come next meeting. Thank you. If nothing else, do you have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All right. Motion made by Mr. Shea, second by Mr. Payne. Roll call, please.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Mr. Payne? Yes. Ms. Amick? Yes. Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore?

Yes. All right. Motion adjourned. Ms. Amick would request that we start council at 7.15.

Good evening. This is a call to order for the Canal Winchester City Council meeting for Monday, August 17, 2026. Our Pledge of Allegiance this evening will be led by Mr. Shea.

Mr. Shea was fast on me.

Thank you, Mr. Shea. Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

Ms. Samick.

Present.

Mr. Bennett.

Here.

Ms. Setweiler. Here. Mr. McLaughlin. Here. Mr. Moore. Here. Mr. Payne. Here. Mr. Shea.

Present.

Thank you. Next, we have the approval of minutes 26-030 for the August 3rd work session minutes. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion made by Mr. Moore, second by Mr. Bennett. Roll call, please.

Mr. Moore?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Amick?

Yes. Thank you. The next would be the approval of Minutes 26-031 for August 3rd City Council Meeting Minutes. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Motion made by Mr. Moore, second by Mr. Bennett. Roll call, please.

Mr. Moore?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Sattweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Samick?

Yes. Next, we have communications and petition. The first communication is communication 26-05. 22 in your packet we have the Madison Township police statistics and then earlier this afternoon or later this afternoon miss Alexander Sent in your email a couple of police and fire data sheets Did everyone get a chance to see those since they came out sort of late? Okay, if you don't have them, I believe there are hard copies back on the table there. I Um, at this time, I'd like to invite, uh, Ms. Brooks to come to the podium. Thank you.

Susan Brooks, administrator at Madison township. Thank you for having us. Um, I did want to bring to your attention and we passed them out and I believe, um, Ms. Jordan had already presented those electronically, but our 11th nine 11 service that is coming up, um, on September 11th at Mott's military museum. I know many of you have, uh, staff also haven't attended previously. I want to invite you back. Um, it's a public event for residents and everyone starts at 8 AM. Um, and, um, you're free to share the flyer with whomever you'd like, whether that's electronically or by paper, we've been starting to send out social media invites, uh, invitations to other dignitaries and things such as that. Um, also, as you're aware, we're here tonight, um, because the Madison township board of trustees did approve two resolutions in the month of July. to move forward with putting both a police and fire levy on the ballot for November. Chief Robinson and Chief Boyd are going to share some of the information, talking points, if you will. We are primarily at this point today focused. We've been to the Grove Court Council meeting. We're here for your council meeting. We have already met with several of the council members. We welcome any of you or any residents groups that would like to meet with us in the future we'd be happy to schedule meetings we will actually be scheduling specific meetings in public locations and putting that information out as we get a little bit further along but we're happy to answer questions whether it's one-on-one or like i said it's a smaller group or you know maybe 25 people or something that people want to invite out at different locations so I am going to turn things over to Chief Robinson, and then he will turn things over to Chief Boyd, and we're happy to answer questions.

Thank you, Ms. Proof.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. Good to see you all again. Thank you for the opportunity this evening. As Ms. Brooks alluded to, we have met with some of the council members prior to this meeting just to answer some questions and kind of get some information out. Certainly open to meeting with anybody else that would like to do so. So thank you for that opportunity, for those that were present for that. Basically, as Ms. Brooks alluded to, I'm just going to give a little bit of history of how our township operates when it comes to property taxes and fiscal management, share a few things here from the fire data sheet that I shared, and then Chief Boyd, I called him Chief York at the last meeting, so Chief Boyd will be coming up to talk about the police department, and then obviously any questions you have during the presentation, we'd be happy to answer as well. As far as the township itself, you're probably aware that a township is not able to impose an income tax at this time. That's by state law. So what that means is we have to find our revenue from other sources. One of the main sources of that revenue is a property tax. So taxes based on the value of your property. Those funds are collected in the rears and then twice a year we get a paycheck and that's usually late spring and early fall and then we operate on those funds throughout the year. Other sources of income that we do have, or revenue, would come in the form of grants. For us, EMS billing. And then, basically, small money that we get from permitting and inspection fees through our Fire Prevention Bureau, which is very, very small, something that we're looking at working on changing as well. But the main source of revenue, nonetheless, is our property tax. Our last property tax was May of 2015, so 11 years ago. We have seven levies on the books dating all the way back to 1976. What happens with those rates is even though we have a voted rate of 19.75 mills for fire, our effective rates as you can see here currently are only 6.72 for residential and 9.97 for commercial. And the reason for that is, is that property value goes up, that rate fluctuates so that we cannot collect above our cap when it comes to the actual dollars, not the millage. So right now, for example, our valuation is 1.399 million per mils. When our last levy was passed in 2015, that valuation wasn't that high. So as that valuation goes up, we still stay plateaued with our earnings. So that roughly the same amount of money that was approved in 2015 for our revenue is roughly the same amount of money that we're bringing in this year. There are a few caveats to that. if a new neighborhood comes in, we are able to capture that new tax dollar. But when your home value goes up, we don't see any of that additional monies. So again, we're kind of plateaued. So that's why, since after 11 years with the increasing cost that we've had, with the fact that, you know, that money has stayed pretty stagnant, we're getting to a point where eventually our expenditures are going to be more than our revenue that we're bringing in. And that's where we need to have a voted levy that would then allow for those additional funds to come in. Again you know sometimes people might come to a Madison Township meeting and hear that the fire department has six million dollars in the bank right now. And they're like why is the fire department coming for a levy if they got six million dollars in the bank. Well depending on when you come to that meeting if it was right after our spring draw and that money went in the bank Much like you and I live, when our paychecks go in the bank, we got a lot more money that week than we do two weeks later. Same thing for us. You might come to a meeting in late spring, and here we have $6 million, but that $6 million then needs to get me from late spring until late fall, and that's all the money I've got coming in to utilize. So we also have to have some money to carry over into the next year, because since we don't get that money until late spring, We have to have money to operate from January 1 until late spring. So that's why we have a cushion there with that carryover. So with all of that being said, the fire department is coming to the public this November for a levy of 4.89 mills. And what that will do is raise our level of revenue up to allow us to basically keep things status quo, if you will. This is not going to bring any new additional staffing. This isn't going to build another fire station. This is just to keep operations moving the way they are. That's not to say that we won't change operations as we go out through this levy cycle because we're constantly evaluating data. We're constantly looking at our response needs, our equipment needs, our personnel needs. And if we need to adjust, then we have that flexibility to make those changes. But overall, this is not going to build a forestation somewhere or add additional trucks right off the rip. The question was asked at the last meeting, what happens if it doesn't pass, Chief? Well, fortunately, we're not in a situation right now where we're redlining and we would have to lay people off or shut stations down. What it would mean in the short term is there are some areas that we would have to lean down, spending, training, equipment. Our equipment replacement schedule maybe gets drug out a little bit more. So those are the areas that we would focus on first to try and make up for that shortfall. But quite honestly, we would then come back probably the next levy cycle and try and pass it again with some sort of adjustment. To kind of give you an idea where we are financially, to make a levy last 11 years is pretty good. If you look around the communities that surround us, they're usually running levies five to seven years. We've made it 11. I don't want to steal the police's thunder, There are almost 15 years. Fiscally, we've been responsible throughout those years, but we've gotten to a point where, again, just the cost of things and how they're escalating is getting to a point where we are going to need to adjust our revenue stream. Just to give you an idea of some of the things I've pulled off. An ambulance in 2020 that we purchased with $300,000, today it's $450,000. So in six years, it's increased $150,000. Are we buying medics every year? No, not every year, but we do have three frontline medics, so they are on a rotation. So there are some years that we are buying one right after the other. Turnout gear which each personnel has two sets of turnout gear because if they go in a fire and it's dirty We can't expect them to put that right on for the next run without cleaning it because then we're talking about cancer We're talking about spreading those contaminants into people's homes and contact so they have two sets of gear in 20 that was a twenty one hundred dollar set of gear today. It's forty one hundred dollars So again, we've doubled in almost five to six years our EMS equipment or supplies They're going up about eight to ten percent a year on average And these are all things that we need to operate so, you know the utilization of grants We've had almost $1.5 million worth of utilization of grants in the fire department for staffing and equipment that we used. That's again a burden that we haven't had to pass on to the taxpayer. We do use the EMS billing revenue process that all of the other fire departments in Central Ohio are using where we are able to, if we transport a patient, We bill their insurance company. Whatever the insurance company pays, we accept. And then if there's any residual, we don't go after any hard billing or anything of that nature where we're sending someone to collections or we're making them pay for those services. That strictly comes from from the insurance companies. And for us, that's anywhere from $1.5 to $1.8 million a year, again, in savings that doesn't get passed on necessarily to the taxpayer. And when you think about a million plus every year for the last 11 years, do the math, that's $11 million that we've been able to utilize from the insurance companies as opposed to people's pockets. You know when it comes to ambulances instead of spending four hundred fifty thousand dollars on a new ambulance we're looking we've taken one of our ambulances and we're doing what's called a refurbishment on it where they take the back box off and they put it on a new chassis and we're able to do that for $160,000 now. That's a huge savings for us. Again, always kind of looking forward and trying to be responsible with those monies. But the bottom line is we have come to a point because our revenues are flat and our expenditures are continuing, just like any business, we've got to be able to have those monies to sustain our operations. And so that's why we're coming to the voters in November for this levy, 11 years later, and asking their support for that levy. So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, fire department related.

Chief, and since, well, 10 years ago, 11 years ago, your guys' runs have doubled, correct? Correct. Yeah, and that's just going to keep growing as the township keeps growing.

Yes. The fire service in general has seen a huge uptick and increase in runs. I liken it to a very simple logic and that is we're the first people that are called or we're the last people called. And what I mean by that is if it's a 911 emergency and you've been in an auto accident, you're having a heart attack, your house is burning down, you call 911, fire department, you want them to come. We're also the last people that are called because When you've got a basement full of water and you've called everybody you can think of, from plumbers to ServPro to everybody else and no one can come, they feel like if they call 911, they'll know who will show up and we'll do something for them. And that's what we're here for. We're here to serve the community, don't get me wrong. But we get calls now that we weren't getting 10 years ago. And it is changing. And as the population grows, as our communities grow with new neighborhoods, new businesses, new apartments, our runs will continue to go. And you know that they have doubled in the last 10 years.

Thank you.

Are you sensing any opposition to this request for additional dollars?

I don't sense any opposition as far as, I don't believe there's any groups out there that will form an opposition, if that's what you're asking. Do I think there's general opposition for anybody that has taxes and doesn't want to pay more taxes than they already are? That's the toughest pillar for me to swallow. As a leader of the organization, I know what it takes to run our organization. I feel like we do a very good job of it. We're fiscally responsible. We're highly trained. I think we provide a great service to all the communities in which we serve, but that comes with a cost. Knowing that that's our main point of revenue, it is tough. Unfortunately, it's a reality where we sit right now with that being our only main revenue source. I I don't think you know and again maybe we're just getting started with this um and you know there's already been some you know a few negative posts on social media but I haven't heard anything of significant opposition and I think as we go through this process and the weeks go by and we have more informational meetings and we have sessions like this where we can educate and sell our story we'll find out real quick but at this time I don't know of any

Thank you. This is an excellent fact sheet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

I just want to thank you for coming out. Um, I was one of the ones that was lucky enough to sit with you already and listen to this and there was a lot to take in. And I mean the, the fact sheet here, I hope, you know, is shared with as many people as possible because, um, It makes a lot of sense when you sit down and read this and look at it. It's not just about asking for money. There's a legitimate purpose behind it.

There is a purpose behind it. The fire service and law enforcement, it's one of those things, you look at it like an insurance policy. Maybe you've never used it in your entire life. You might ask the question, I don't want to pay more taxes for something I don't use. But when you need it, it's sure nice to have it, just like insurance. And we don't know. When is that emergency going to strike? There's a lot of things that we can do that are safe, but there's also a lot of acts of God and health and things that can happen that you may have never used us in 60 years, and then one day you need us. And so to me, obviously, it makes sense because it's my profession. It's my livelihood. It's all I've known my entire life. And so it is tough to ask people for more money, but I think the more that we can educate, the more that we can share our story and people understand what it is that we do, then I think it makes it a little bit more understandable and hopefully a little bit more palatable.

I appreciate the illustration of what something cost in 2020 to what it costs now. And I think the average person has felt that in every aspect of their life. So it's something that's very relatable. I think people get that wholeheartedly.

It is. And I think, you know, again, it's not to say, hey, look at us. And it's not to say that I buy a $1.1 million fire truck every year. I don't. But those are the realities of during this period of time. That's what we had to do to keep our apparatus up and running to be able to make those calls of service to get to you and provide the service that you guys need. There was one other thing I was going to say, and it completely slipped my mind. So I don't know if I think about it.

I have one more question or thing to say. Even though you're in Madison Township Fire Department, Canal Winchester has several townships inside of it. But because of mutual aid,

cover all of canal winchester virtually i mean you may be in madison township but you could be running um to any of our residents at any given time and you're the closest to fire department for a lot of them or for almost all of them i would assume yeah and that goes that goes all three ways if you will right so so the the portions of canal winchester that violet covers if they're tied up we're certainly probably the next closest companies and we would be responding because that's the goal is to get the closest appropriate vehicle and You know remedy to the scene as possible with us a fire truck or an ambulance And then vice versa if if our portion of canal Winchester is unprotected because we're tied up on a call then violets there And that's the beauty of the mutual and automatic aid agreements You know are they always fair and equal no, I'll be very honest with that and very transparent with that But the bottom line is is all of us no matter what department we work for we took an oath to protect and And our job is when we're called, we're going to go out and we're going to perform our best. And some people might say, well, what if you're serving someone in Columbus instead of us and I'm paying your taxes? Yes, that's true. But I could also be going to Columbus on an auto accident that's a Kenai Winchester resident. They're just driving through Columbus, right? Right. And they can come and Columbus can come here. Do we go to Columbus more than Columbus comes here? Yes, that's a fact. I won't deny that. But those are mutual and automatic aid agreements that have been in place a very, very long time. And the bottom line is not to create a turf war. Our bottom line is to get service to our residents as fast as we can. And if it's not a Madison patch on the shirt, the person that's having a cardiac arrest doesn't care that it's a Columbus patch on the shirt.

And for people that care about the mutual aid argument, Columbus or any of the other departments, they don't only offer services in Madison Township when needed. But Columbus has some equipment that Madison Township doesn't have that they're providing. So whatever disparities there, it's a lot less than with the number show, right? Because they have the ladder truck and et cetera.

Yeah, there are definitely, you know, we're trying to be as self-sufficient as we can be because we want to provide that service to our community. But there are still some things that Columbus can provide to us that we utilize. They're taller, longer ladders. They're heavy rescue trucks. They're bomb squad. They're boats. We also have the capability that they dispatch for us. They're a 911 center for us. And that is a huge significant cost savings for us. If Columbus Fire said, hey, we're no longer gonna dispatch for you today, probably the cheapest I could go find it for is about $600,000 more a year. That's maybe the low end. While Columbus maybe doesn't provide me as many trucks as I provide them, they provide me over a half a million dollars a year in savings for dispatching. Again, how do you look at it? Most of our calls that go to Columbus is an ambulance with two people on it. When they're sending me ladder trucks and rescue companies with four on it, and you want to start counting heads, maybe it starts to balance out a little bit more. But these are agreements that have been in place a very, very long time. I've seen parts around the country, I've heard stories around the country where turf wars have developed and fire departments sit on their front ramp and watch someone else drive by to get to a cardiac arrest that they could have been in four minutes, and this company's taken 12 minutes to get there. And that's not what we're in the business to do. And I get that some people maybe question why am I paying you guys so much money for fire protection and you're going to Columbus all the time. And I guess my answer to that would be that if I turned off services to Columbus tomorrow, I would not decrease my staffing. I would not decrease my trucks and I would not decrease my stations because those stations, those personnel and those apparatus are strategically placed to protect this township and to get to key points within the four to five minute response times that we're trying to shoot for. So the amount of money that residents are still paying for our services wouldn't change. I would lose all the revenue that I'm getting from EMS billing from Columbus. I could potentially lose the $500,000 to $600,000 I'm saving a year in dispatching. Again, it's about sharing the information. It's about telling the story. It's about knowing that whatever the closest piece of equipment is to anywhere at any point, that's what they're getting. Time is muscle in a cardiac event. Fire doubles in size in every minute. Those are the stats. And I'd rather have someone come into my house from seven minutes away instead of 14 minutes away if either of those events are occurring.

I say all this just to finish up by saying I really appreciate you guys at the fire department. You saved some of my family members and friends over the years. Thank you. I'm a big supporter of you guys and appreciate you guys. Thank you for coming in to explain this to us and the public.

Well I appreciate that and you know that's what we do. We have a lot of respect for this community. We think we have a great partnership with Canal Winchester as well as all of our partners. And it means a lot to all of our firefighters to serve this community. And we're thankful for the support that we do get from the residents, but also certainly from you all and from staff. So we appreciate it. Any other questions for fire department?

Thank you very much, Chief Robinson. You're welcome.

I'm going to have Chief Boyd come up and talk.

Thank you, Mayor.

He discussed all the information and stuff with you. I'll just get to the point with the police levy that we're running. We are running the 1.99 mil levy is what we are asking for, which would be about $70 per 100,000 of house value. Our last levy ran was in 2011. We haven't had anything since then. And then it was, we received 1.3 million. That was about 15 years ago. This new 1.99 mill ask would generate about 2.7, a little over 2.7 million additional. You know, we continually evaluate our budget and try to use close monitoring of the monies, make sure that we're physically responsible for everything we do. And I think we've done a pretty good job with that, not having to go back to the public in 15 years. In the last five years, which we had no idea in 2011 that we would be having to buy body cams. We had voice recorders that we used to carry back in those days, but there was no thought of a body cam picking up everything that an officer does on the scene. But the citizens and communities expected we had to do it. So we come out and we had to buy the new Axon equipment for the body cameras and all the cars and everything for each cruiser. And that was $172,000. 471 that was taken out of the 2011 budget monies. Then it was never even thought. We had no idea. That was something that was going to be asked of us to do. I've got some numbers here, the same as the Chief. As you can see on the sheets in front of you, you know a new Cruiser in R11 was $23,500. Now it's $50,000. Equipment to build that car, because it just comes a shell. There's nothing inside of it at all but some seats and a gear shift. It's $22,500 to build that car today. Body armor, which we have to replace body armor on our officers every five years. Back in 11, it was $600. Now it's somewhere between $1,500 and $1,800 to outfit an officer with body armor. We, again, we've been physically responsible with the money that we got back in 11, but, you know, things are funding out. We need money, as all of you have it. In your families, you see the cost increases and everything for yourselves. It doesn't cut us any district here, you know, so. We're asking for some help, and that's really about all I have to say. Do you guys have any questions for me?

Chief Boyd, kind of in fairness to the questions that were asked of Chief Robinson, if your levy does not succeed, what is your backup plan?

Our backup plan will be, for now, we'll be able to keep things even below, keep things going, but we will have to go back in the spring and try it one more time. You know, we've got... We've got a 2016 cruiser that is still on the road today, and if anybody knows anything about equipment, it's got 16,870 hours on it. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But that's what we do. We spread it out and try to get the most out of our equipment and, you know, the bang for our buck. Things like that would have to continue. Officers will have to drive them cars because we don't have a choice.

And what about your opposition? Are you hearing any opposition to approving the... No, I'm not.

I mean, you're always going to have those naysayers out there. It's unfortunate, but in the business that I'm in, police work, you've got people that just don't like police officers.

Yeah, I understand.

And it just is what it is.

And one more question. You do not have to convince me, because I already know the answer to the question, but what I hear is, well, I never see a Madison Township police cruiser. I know what you're doing, but maybe for the record, talk about that just a little bit.

Right now, we have... There's 18 of us. There's myself and I've got a commander, and we have three SROs. We've got an SRO here in the Canal Winchester school system, and then we have two more in the Groveport school systems. So that leaves us with 13 people that we put on the street, and that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Those people, someone in that is gonna be on their days off. Someone's gonna wanna take a night off and go spend it with their family. So we're always cut down to usually about two cars on the street, no matter what day, what shift. Now there's days that there'll be more and we're fortunate for that, but we try to get down here. I'll be honest with you, most of the time our call run volume is about 82-83% up in Black Lake states. We start making it down here either on 33 or Winchester Pike, something blows up up there and we got to take off. I know whenever the sheriff's office calls, we try to get here as quick as we can if we're not already here. You know, our officers like coming here, to be honest with you. As the same as Groveport, it's a reprieve from being up there and dealing with that. So we try. We can't always make it, but we try.

Thank you. Other questions for Chief Boyd?

Just thank you again for being here.

Thank you. Appreciate your time.

Thank you, Chief.

Do you have anything else, Mrs. Brooks? The meetings, we'll be seeing social media and whatnot posts about that.

We'll get information out, and then once we have our, so to speak, meetings that we've set up, Okay, thank you these fact sheets tell a very powerful story So I would encourage you to get these anywhere and everywhere that you can I don't know if Anything else from previous to the meeting started we are going to be updating the fact sheets after tonight from being at both council meetings and We also have a little bit different format that we're going to be putting them in for our public meetings and that. So you are welcome to share the information, but we will have additional, a new look, you might say, also coming out with some additional information. And again, we'll have those available at our upcoming meetings and stuff. Thank you.

All right. If anybody in the public, I'll just speak for myself, but if anybody in the public that you run into has any questions specifically for the fire department, they can certainly call the main number and ask for a meeting.

I'd be happy to meet with them and talk to them.

I'll echo the sentiments of my peers.

We appreciate all that you do in keeping our community safe. Anything else, Mr. Bennett?

I think, Ms. Brooks, when you have that information updated, I know we have sort of like office hours. We call them Council Connects. and even if you can't make it just having the information available with contact information at least might be a nice you know way for us to spread the literature on your behalf is you can't be everywhere so and then you know even if it just had information for them to reach out to even have those one-on-ones we'd be happy to distribute that information that you know share out as much information as we can I think

Thank you all. The next communication we have is communication 26-023. It is a liquor control letter for the Kroger on Diley Road. That is in your packet.

Excuse me. Are we getting a full liquor store or just... What was my question?

No, this is just for the carryout and then the Sunday sales is what they've applied for.

So beer and wine?

Yes. Thank you.

But if there's no request for a public hearing, we would just need to know that so Jordan can return their form. It just helps accelerate their timeline. And their timeline is aggressive in opening. Fingers crossed.

Love to see it open.

Next, I would like to acknowledge that we have received Some public comments, 26-004 from C. Patrone. We also acknowledge the receipt of public comment 26-005 from D. New. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to have a public comment time?

I don't know where Kay went.

OK. All right, moving on, that takes us to the reports of city officials and staff. Mayor Steger.

And thank you, Ms. Amick. If you look at the mayor's court report tonight, you will see that the Revenues are real similar, pretty normal business there. So look at that. If you have any questions, let us know. I also wanted to report that, as you all know, in the last week we've had quite a few storms. Matt and I are in contact with a lot of our area city managers and mayors just because the organizations weren't in the context that we're trying to keep and we had a request last week to help from the city manager of Upper Arlington. His name is Steven Shoney and he called all the area managers and city officials looking for help. They had a lot of downed trees in the storm last Tuesday. We have a new chipper. We have a crew going to help the city of Upper Arlington tomorrow. The city of Grove City had two crews there last week helping them. Quite a few trees down in that community, as our law counsel here could probably tell us. He lives in that community. So we're gonna be up there helping them tomorrow. We also had a call from the city manager of Westerville, Monica Dupree, asking us if we needed help after the storms this weekend. So a lot of community support going out for each other during these summer storms. Just wanted to let you guys know about that. We're sending our crews out, but we're also having people contact us and see if we need help. a good community effort here in Central Ohio, we feel, and we're good to be a part of that. I know that Susan talked, or Ms. Brooks talked tonight about the 9-11 ceremony at Mott's Museum. This will be the third one I've attended this year, and it's really a great event, guys. I know it's on a work morning, but if you can get away to honor our first responders from 9-11, that is really a great event. speakers that were there at Ground Zero, firemen, police officers speaking with their thick New York accents. And these guys, you know, they're really, it's really something to hear their stories. So if you can make that, I would recommend that event. I have nothing else for you. If you have anything for me, I'm open.

Is there a motion to approve the Mayor's Court Report?

So moved.

Second. Motion made by Mr. Moore, second by Mr. Shea. Roll call, please.

Mr. Moore?

Yes.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Amick? Yes. Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. King?

Yes. Thank you. And Mayor, please extend our thank you to the staff that's going to these other communities to help out. We very much appreciate that. It's been quite a week, the storm. And I'm very thankful that at least from my observations, Mount Winchester has seemed to fare pretty well from what I've been able to observe. Mr. Peoples, do you know of any major things going on?

Today it caught up with us a little bit. We had a couple reports of some localized flooding in a couple areas here along where we replaced the line. One of them we're hoping is just a grading issue across the street here. And then But, I mean, we've got almost five inches of rain in the past 30-some hours. It did finally catch up with us. We've had, I think I said earlier in the, or at the earlier meeting, we've had 11 straight days of measurable rain. And then, in addition to that, we're going on one of the wettest Julys on record. Like I said, we talked about being able to do a stormwater drainage project in a farm field that usually floods and um this was the target month for that and uh still just not able to do that so uh yeah just it's uh i was talking today it's almost like it's winter and it's uh everyone loves the snow when it first comes and then everyone gets tired of it i think that's where we are with the rain just just absolutely tired of it takes some burnout grass yeah yeah

Yeah, I can't imagine what you guys go through on a daily basis. You come in with an idea of what your day is going to look like. And then boom, we get five inches of rain.

So so thank you for the raindrops with mowers and everything else. So it packs us up a little bit with that.

Yeah. All right. That takes us to the report for the city administrator, Mr. Peebles.

Thank you, Miss Amy.

I'm sorry, Mr. Shea.

Yeah, we do.

You motioned.

Yeah. It's been a long night. I'll wake you up in a minute.

Okay, so Mr. Peoples.

Thank you, Ms. Amick. Just a couple items from my written report. The Hill Road OPWC project, we are having that public meeting on Thursday at 6 o'clock. I'll check that and I'll update. I believe that's what it is. So just to get a little bit more feedback on that project. And then our cemetery management, we've had Oakleaf for the last 10 years. They were the original. They have decided they've got a lot of workload going on and they're not able to continue with the contract that was expiring at the end of this year. We have reached out to a contractor a company that manages some other local cemeteries. I have a lot of experience in that. So they seem very interested in just working through some details on that. So what it looks like right now, I don't know. It's a combination of a lot of things that just hopefully they can dig the graves. So that's right. A lot of those important things.

Thank you, Mr. Peeples. Any questions for Mr. Peeples this evening? Okay. Hearing none, moving on to Fairfield County Sheriff, Sergeant Strong.

Good evening, Council. You should have my written report in your packets, and I don't really have a whole lot other than We just got hit with a few garage break not break-ins open doors left overnight That's about really the only thing we had major last week that happened here in the city. What about the New River? Oh the New River electric also keeps getting hit so to speak so Again just the typical things we're trying to get a cap on. And also, Mr. Peek was kind of hard going into the weather. We didn't really have, we kind of fared here in the city as far as on our end of things. We didn't respond to a whole lot of weather related calls. So I think the city's pretty fortunate in that aspect. Having last week, I spent a couple of days down in southern Perry County, they sent a group of us down. It's pretty sad what's happening down there to see stuff I've never seen in my 28 years here. So we spared pretty fairly.

Questions for Sergeant Strawn?

Sergeant Strawn, we had a community meeting on Saturday, kind of Council Connect. Some residents were asking about, you know, just crime in general at some of our retail locations. Meijer, Walmart, Kroger, the big box stores really. I guess, how is that coming along? Are we seeing an increase, decrease? Is it steady? Is there anything they're doing to help? mitigate that?

So I would say it's kind of where it's at. It hasn't increased, hasn't really decreased. A lot of it also depends on those locations that they have, like loss prevention officers working to catch the individuals. We did find ourself, when I took over this position, we were spending a lot of time, I felt like, in the retail stores filling out paperwork and the report of the summonses or whatever we were doing. I try to mitigate some of that, try to speed up some of that process, but we're having the LPs kind of fill out some of the paperwork, too, to speed that up. I wouldn't say we spend a whole lot of time. We do get them. However, I know today, or over the weekend, I think I took about eight different summonses over to the clerk here over the weekends for a theft out of Meijer, a few from Walmart, I believe. So I would say it's about the same.

Do we have any read on how the, I mean, I don't know, is the new Kroger going to complicate that? Are they taking any measures to, I guess, get, do we expect that's gonna be a bigger Kroger than the one we have now? Do we think we're going to have more problems out at the new Kroger? Or are they, I assume it's gonna be the same, probably, loss prevention plan they have at the current Kroger.

So I can't really answer that yet, but I will tell you when they do open up or before, I will reach out to their loss prevention to sit down and have a conversation with them.

That'd be great. It's good to know that we're working ahead on that. Thank you. You're welcome.

Anything else? Thank you, Sergeant Strong. I would echo the same thanks to you and the people that were down in Crooksville trying to help all those residents. So The news coverage is pretty horrific, so thank you for what you've done there. Next is the law director, Mr. Boggs.

I don't have anything new to report to council this evening, but happy to answer any questions you may have.

Anything for Mr. Boggs? Okay. Hearing none, the next will be our finance director, and she's... not with us this evening, but on her behalf, I'm just going to remind that we have some contracts that will be coming up at the end of the year. We have the JRD, Canal Winchester Human Services, and I have not personally talked with the Chamber, so I don't know if they're going to... Their last contract gave them the option for a one-year extension. So you might want to touch base with those organizations if you're the liaison and have them... We've got ideas. I'm sorry?

We've got plans.

Okay. Lots of plans. Great. All right. Next is Development Director Mr. Herrick.

Thank you, Mrs. Zamek. The zoning code rewrite update that's taking place, just a couple items on that. We do have a steering committee meeting taking place on Wednesday afternoon to review modules two and three of that. We'll take that back and make edits based on the steering committee feedback we get. And then the goal is to hopefully have a draft code ready for that committee of the whole meeting at the end of the month. We'll have that code in a draft form at that time and then highlighting the major themes of changes that are taking place in that code at that meeting. Then the goal is to have that on Planning and Zoning Commission's agenda for their September 14th meeting. And then Mr. Sims gave an update on kind of all the private development projects that are happening. There is a lot happening in the city currently. A lot of it's been going on for quite some time. So if you need reminders about what any of those projects are, what they entail, please just reach out. I'm happy to provide any updates on what's happening there. We do have a lot of industrial buildings that are under construction now. We are getting a lot of activity on those buildings and interest in leasing those buildings already, which is a really good sign.

Thank you, Mr. Hare. Questions? Okay. Hearing none, we will move on to the resolutions for the evening. The first item is Resolution 26-034. Could we read the resolution, please?

A resolution approving the Mayor's appointment of Ryan Knight to serve the remainder of an unexpired four-year term as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission expiring on December 31, 2029. Okay. Any discussion?

Any discussion? Thank you. The sponsor is Mr. Shea.

I move to adopt resolution 26034.

Thank you.

Roll call, please.

Who is the second?

I will be the second. I was confirming Patrick's. Sounds like a question. Mr. Shea? Yes. Mr. Moore?

Yes. Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Ms. Samick? Yes. Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Settweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin?

Yes.

Thank you. The next item is Resolution 26-035. Clerk, will you read the resolution, please?

A resolution approving the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council for the Franklin County tax abatement areas within the City of Canal Winchester.

Thank you. Discussion? The Chair is the sponsor, and I move to adopt Resolution 26-035. Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Mr. McLaughlin. Roll call, please.

Ms. Samick?

Yes.

Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea? Yes. Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Kettweiler? Yes.

Thank you. The next item is Resolution 26-036. Clerk, will you read the resolution, please?

A resolution approving the recommendations of the Tax Incentive Review Council for the Fairfield County tax abatement areas within the city of Canal Winchester.

Thank you. Any discussion? The sponsor is the chair, and I move to adopt Resolution 26-036. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Moore. Roll call, please.

Ms. Amon?

Yes.

Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea?

Abstain.

Mr. Bennett? Yes. Ms. Setweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes.

Thank you. The next item is Resolution 26-037. Clerk, will you read the resolution, please?

A resolution to adopt the five-year capital improvements plan maintenance of effort for the calendar years 2027 through 2031 for the City of Canal and Chester, Ohio.

Thank you. Discussion? Okay. The sponsor is the Chair. And is there a second?

Second.

Second by Mrs. Detweiler. I move to adopt resolution 26-037. Second. Sorry. That's all right. Yeah, got it. Okay. Roll call, please.

Ms. Amy? Yes. Ms. Detweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin?

Yes.

Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett?

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you.

Just trying to see how long we can make this go.

Moving to ordinances. This evening we have a third reading ordinance 26-014. Clerk, will you read the ordinance please?

In ordinance authorizing the mayor, city administrator, and finance director to seek financial assistance from the Ohio Public Service Commission for funding of the Hill Road widening project and declaring an emergency.

Thank you. And the sponsor is Mrs. Dettweiler. Is there any discussion? Sponsor is Mrs. Dettweiler.

Motion to adopt ordinance 26-014. Second.

Second by Mr. Bennett. Roll call, please.

Ms. Stattweiler? Yes. Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore?

Yes.

Mr. Payne?

Yes.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Ms. Damon?

Yes. Next is a second reading for Ordinance 26-016. Clerk, will you read the ordinance, please?

An ordinance to accept the dedication of real property from Velocity Hill Road, Parcel 1, LLC, for use as public right-of-way.

Thank you. Discussion? Sponsors, Mr. Shea.

Second reading only.

Thank you. The next item is first reading for Ordinance 26-017. Clerk, will you read the ordinance, please?

An ordinance to accept the dedication of real property from South Central Power for use as public right-of-way.

Thank you. The sponsor is Mr. Bennett. First reading only. Thank you. Moving on to council reports. We have a committee of the whole meeting Monday, August 31st at first. Sorry. Kidding, kidding. At which time we hope to have a preview of the new zoning ordinance or the zoning laws. Next will be a public hearing Tuesday, September 8th at 545 related to 5593 Hayes Road Canal Family Farms. And then the next following that will be a work session council meeting on Tuesday, September 8th at 6 p.m. The next council connect meeting is September 16th, Wednesday at 6.30. And that will take us to our first report. Mr. Shea, Human Services.

Human Services has their annual meeting this Thursday. Is that open to the public? Sure. And it's open to the public and it's at 6 p.m. I think.

The meeting starts at 6.30.

6.30. So arrive at 6 to make sure you can get a seat because there will be limited seating. All right. Community Food Pantry July 2026 stats were 431 people were served a total of 5,877 meals. the senior transportation outreach for july one-way trips provided were 308 257 of the 308 one-way trips were canal winchester city residents and they drove 2 661 miles thank you have a wonderful evening and try to stay dry thank you mr shea the canal winchester industry and commerce corporation i have nothing new to report our next meeting is september 30th at 11 30 a.m here in council chambers

Next would be the joint rec, Mr. Bennett and Mr. Moore.

Thank you, Ms. Amick. We had a rather lengthy meeting last Tuesday. Tuesday? Yes, Tuesday. Just fine-tuning some after-sport wrap-up processes that we've added to better understand how each sport went instead of looking at just a big picture. Also, registration for fall sports has went out, so... lots of opportunities to get your kids enrolled in the programs coming for this fall.

One highlight was I think at one point we'd met with the schools and city key leaders and the school treasurer shared a report about some fiscal concerns, projecting a shortfall for this year. I would just like to report that that didn't happen. We actually ended up year over year over projections. But we are trying to fine tune our fiscal reporting to make sure that we are, because there are some things that certain reports that Nick runs, I think where he's trying to pull in salaries, but there are other reports that don't sort of factor some of that in. So we've got different reporting happening, so we're trying to align on one strict reporting structure, but the cash balance year over year was up, so.

That's wonderful news, thank you. Yep. Next up is Destination Canal Winchester, Mr. Ping.

Thank you, Ms. Samick. Planning's kicking off next week for booze and brews, reindeer games, and the winter's farmer market, so stay tuned.

Thank you. And the Canal Winchester Chamber of Commerce, Mr. McLaughlin.

Mr. Payne, I was curious, is there an app for this nation, Canal Winchester?

I'm glad you brought that up, because there is. If you haven't already downloaded it, please download it to keep you up to date with everything that's going on within the city. Thank you.

I think Steve Buskirk would just be so proud of you.

I'd like to highlight a couple events coming up for the chamber. First and foremost is the Sunrise Social on Wednesday, September 2nd from 730 to 830 at Coffee on High. Our own city development director, Lucas Hare, will be there to give a development update. It's free to attend and includes a free drink. Register in advance at canalwanchester.com. The next Young Professionals event is a LinkedIn Lunch and Learn, and that is on Thursday, October 15th at a local cantina. And lastly, registration is open now for the 10th annual Running Scared 5K. This costume-themed run and walk event is on Saturday, October 24th at Hanners Park. Early bird savings are available through August. Before and after the 5K, explore family-friendly activities and wellness vendors at the Canal Winchester Wellness. And a little note, make sure that your costume has proper ventilation. I made that mistake two years ago and it was a long 5K. Welcome our newest member, Penny Squish in Soap Shop, LLC. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLaughlin. And the Sustainability Commission, Mrs. Dunweiler.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 2nd, and it looks like we are planning another cleanup day for the fall, so stay tuned for more details on that.

Great. Is there any new business anyone would like to bring up? Okay, hearing none, is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second. Motion made by Mr. Shea, second by Mr. Bennett. Roll call, please.

Mr. Shea?

Yes.

Mr. Bennett?

Yes.

Ms. Stettweiler? Yes. Mr. McLaughlin? Yes. Mr. Moore? Yes. Mr. Payne? Yes. Ms. Zahner?

Yes. Timeout, 8-14.