City Council - Regular Meeting

Poll meeting on July 13th, 2026.

Time is 7 p.m. Mr. Ott, will you please call the roll? Member Pierpont. Here. Member Oren. Present. Member Weirich.

Here.

Member Matheny. Here. Member McLeister. Here. Member Pratt. Here. Member Stocker.

Here.

Seven present. Excellent. First on the agenda, item 3A, it's an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of North Canton to enter into an agreement with the Stark County Commissioners We accept and utilize the Stark County Community Development Block Grant Program for federal fiscal years 2027, 2028, and 2029, declaring the same to be an emergency. This is grant money that Mr. Graham and our engineers greatly appreciate every year. We are doing this under an emergency. Our county commissioners provided us this request this month, and they require an answer by the end of this month. We definitely want to participate in it. The grants have always been good money and helped extend projects. Any questions from council? Would an admin like to add to any of this?

I think you covered it well. We just need council's approval so that we may go out for those much needed grant funds.

Any questions from members of council? Seeing none, I will make a motion to move item 3A to the council agenda. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next up, Finance and Property Committee, Mr. McLeister.

All right. So this is just a regular old appropriation we talk about quite regularly. Just making some changes here. This is for fire personnel, for weather costs, some overtime costs, and some previous park donations.

And I'm going to let Jim give you the message. Yes. So the fire and the mess, we have a Unemployment claim funds, so we're asking for $1,025. So, oh, I guess we need to, we need to spend $1,025 on the two funds. Then Fire EMS, they got a grant, about $5,000 for safety, $2,725, so. As you know, the winner of the office is pretty rough, and so we should be subpoenaed. We went into overtime quite a bit, so we want to allocate $23,000 for the street fund and sewer fund, according to split community funds. And then we have our parks capital fund. We had a fund balance left over from last year of $19,260.25. So we want to go ahead and update that fund balance for parks. We talked about over time. But also. Any thoughts on this item.

Seeing none, I would make a motion to move item 4A to the council agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Opps.

I'm curious. Next up, Parks and Recreation's committee, Ms. Wander.

Yeah, so we have an opportunity to apply for a grant thanks to our new parks administrator, Mike Elkins. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Mr. Elkins, if you can tell us a little bit about what you're asking for.

Sure. This is just a typical protocol, if you will, for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, our nature program authorized in the mayor's office here in to apply for grants for nature of funding. Specifically, we're looking to rebuild the tennis and basketball courts at Price Park in 2027.

All right. And we're asking for this on emergency because July 15th is the deadline for the application to be submitted?

That's correct. July 15th is the deadline. The application has to be postmarked by the 15th.

Okay. Any questions? Okay. I will make a motion to move item 5A to the council agenda.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I will make a motion to adjourn. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? We are adjourned. I would just like to cover with council before we move on that. We do not have a court reporter for tonight's session. We are doing we're not doing verbatim minutes. We're going to do summary minutes. Mr is going to be taking those down. I ask everybody to. Speak clearly, speak loudly, and make sure that we don't speak over one another so that he can take care of coming up with those suffering minutes for us. Okay, tonight's opening prayer will be delivered by Deacon Bill Lambert, St. Paul's Catholic Church. Please rise and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

God of all compassion, You call us to love one another as you have loved us. In this time of year, help us to see our sisters and brothers as truly beloved children of God. Help us to move away from incivility and practice your love for each one of us. Help us to move from discord and focus on the knowledge that you have created each person in your own image. Help us to move from fear of those with whom we disagree and receive the joy community brings us. Help us to move away from assumptions and listen deeply to the stories of our community. Lord, our God, be with us in this time. Lord, help us turn to you as the source of our joyfulness and our first giver of life. Amen.

United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I will make a motion to approve as presented the quarter two 2026 finance reports. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Recognition of public. We do have some people signed up.

Mr. Otley, please read the preamble. At this time, members of the public who have signed up to address City Council will be called to do so. Each speaker will be given five minutes. Speakers shall be called in the order they signed up. During the session, comments shall be limited to legislative items appearing on this meeting's agenda. The rules for speaking and the speaker's time will appear on the screens. After you have finished speaking, please remain at the podium to answer questions from the officials at the dais. Thank you.

First on the list is Miriam Baum. Start with your name, address. There is no microphone. Speak loud.

I am requesting the resolution to accept the North Canton Parks Recreation and Open Space Master Plan. I read on page 91 of the plan that residents over 65 are currently 25% of the North Canton City's population. And by 2030, we'll be nearing 30%. There is only a very minimal mention about seniors on this 129-page master plan. Shame on you for overlooking, ignoring, and forgetting and making 25% of the residents of North Canton an important part of this plan. To mention a few, Canton, Reeve, Canal Fulton, East Canton, Hartville, Marlborough all have senior centers and active programs. North Canton has no senior center or active program for seniors other than four hours two days a week, sponsored by the library. There are no bus trips, no special meals, no ice cream trucks, no guest musicals to name a few. I've read the City of Green's Parks and Recreation Plan. Seniors are specified throughout their plan with plans for many programs and activities. They have a designated senior center that also doubles as a city DVX rental and a calendar of programs and activities. In the best news, the former director of the City of Green Parks and Recreation is now the director of the North Canton's Park and Recreation. He has the experience to provide a vital program for our seniors. Many seniors cannot ride long distances, so they love bus trips. Seniors also love to eat with others and love meal activities. And how about a bench such as toenail cutting clinics, blood pressure clinics, vintage and new programs, carpools set up for those who can't drive, and on and on and on. Keys may be senior programs, a part of the North Kent City Parks and Recreation Department, rather than partnering with the library, which only provides a very minimal program. Again, we are so lucky our new Director of Parks is the former Dean Parks Director and already has experience. The library could never have a senior program like the vibrant program the city would run. The current EMS building could be converted to a senior center and also used as an event rental. A city-run senior center should not cost much. We already have an experience director and seniors are talented and can run their own programs. Seniors can self-pay for special events such as bus trips and special meals. Again, please table this resolution, fix it, and give seniors who are 25% of current rentals their rightful place at the table of the master plan.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Next on the list is Melanie Rowland.

Melanie J. Rowland, 308 Thornton Street, Northwest, North Canton, Ohio. This evening, Council will move Form 16-2026, Regulations Governing the City and Business District, to a public hearing. At the June 22nd Council meeting and the July 8th Planning Commission meeting, I ask that the new classification, Neighborhood Business, be removed from this ordinance. There have been no changes to Ordinance 1616. O'Shea is the North Canton City District. In 2003, North Canton City Council changed the zoning code ORDINANCE 5003 AFFECTING THE CITY'S POOR FROM RESIDENTIAL SINGLE FAMILY TO RNFE RESIDENTIAL MULTIFAMILY. THAT ZONING CHANGE AFFECTED THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE AREA WEST OF THE CITY SQUARE. INVESTORS TOOK THAT OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MANY OF THE OLDER TWO-STORY HOMES INTO TWO-UNIT rentals. In less than two years, Council saw they had made a mistake with that zoning change. In June 2005, Ordinance 9405 was passed to revert the zoning of these neighborhoods to residential single-family. However, the rental properties were grandfathered. And until each one of these properties are reconfigured to a single-family use, the two-unit dwelling remains. I have witnessed what happens to neighborhoods when ill-advised zoning changes occur. Again, I am asking the Zoning Classification Neighborhood Business to be stricken from the proposed Chapter 1137 zoning update. Thank you.

On the list is Dave Rossetti.

My name is Dave Rossetti, 183 Applebrook Street, Fort Dease. I guess my public agenda here is regarding property or um i guess i'm not familiar with all the past history with the pool or recent history i guess there's been a transaction of property between the school system and the city of north canton within the last couple months i don't know how true all that is um i was at the pool today it's uh I'm retired now, so I have time to do fun things like that. There's a lot of other retired folks there as well. There's a lot of families and children that are really enjoying the pool. It's a fine facility and they do a wonderful job maintaining it. There's a bit of order and everything seems to be having a good time. Because I'm a resident sitting in my canteen and I'm a senior citizen now and Being on a senior citizen, I get silver sneakers, and I have a number of them alive. My membership cost is only $27 a month for the season. And I just want to thank the city for keeping such moderate pricing. It's just amazing that today you can have a membership such as a fine quality pool, like that, outdoor, and seeing families enjoy themselves. But unfortunately, a lot of people there feel that the fate of it has already been decided that the property next door with the new school being built is wanting the property for whatever purposes they may find, which may be much needed. But my opinion is the city really could use, you know, they have a fine park across the street, but it would be a shame to to bulldoze down such a fine facility like . And if there's anything that can be done to save the poor, which I don't know if there's already a fate of the poor or not, but if there's anything that can be done to save the poor, I think it would be appreciated by senior citizens, families, children, and anybody else. And it's a good thing to take advantage of. And I encourage anybody just to go by and see all the happy faces. Thank you. Thank you.

That concludes the first part of our public speech tonight. Moving into old business. Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 25-126.

An ordinance authorizing the mayor of the City of North Canyon to enter into and execute an agreement for the exchange of real estate with the North Kent City School District in authorizing the transfer of property owned by the city in exchange for property owned by the district and decline the same to be an emergency.

Okay. Well, this falls right along the lines of that land swap. Mayor, administration, do you have things you would like to add to this final reading?

I mean, I can start it off and then I might engage our law director a little bit, but basically, the only change to it was in the land swap agreement with the school district. Rather than leasing back the pool to 2030, the city would keep the property and not transfer it until the end of 2030. So I don't know if Brendan wants to speak more to that, if you have any questions on that.

Yeah, just the newest draft has been a really good concept altogether. The proposed timeline is November 2030 for the schools. We're looking at the final language on some access because I think they certainly like without the unit to access the parking lot. The parking lot. Yeah. Circulation. I think that works for both parties. That's the last concept that's available to everyone. Probably the last piece would just be the access mechanism. I don't think that's necessary. And then by the end of 2030, it would slot as part of the slot.

Is that become problematic that we should work on the contract and we're voting on this? Because I realize we're up against the government, which is because they're doing this in what, two days?

No, the legislation allows for edits to the document that are approved by the mayor and the law director, so all these counties can actually do that. Would they want to be able to walk away? I don't know. Hey, guys, can you speak up? I can't hear you. Would the school be able to walk away after we execute the agreement? Well, we made a change to that. There was disagreement between the two parties. Oh, no. So the final document would include that change, and that would be binding on all the parties. If there are. Generally, if there are like massive material changes that aren't anticipated with council votes on it, we have to. Like, if we were redoing the financials, we're talking about our properties. Um. But with this understanding of this is the last remaining edit that the property is not going to transfer until 2030. Really? We're just working out the. But yes, once it's fully executed.

What happens? We know we have one year left on the line. What happens if there's big repairs and the city wants to close down the pool before 2030? Would the schools take it then?

I don't know the answer to that.

I mean, it's quite possible that could happen.

obviously we would discuss that and you know we'll come back to you put something like that in the agreement no because we would still own it so they wouldn't have any like worry about liability on our side i think that's part of the reason that they proposed that to us

So when that remains their asset, are we, this might sound really stupid to ask, but are we paying property tax on that property since we own that? We're exempt.

We're exempt, thank you.

Perfect, thank you.

Yeah, we would remain the owner of the pool. Right, correct. Owner of the property.

The pool was to fail, we want transferred early or anything. That concept is not in this.

It was still transferred. That would be a totally separate decision.

We'd have to bring it back to council.

Right. If that doesn't foreclose something, though, in like 2028, 2029, if the parties need to amend it, that's always an option. But this, the current proposal is to have whatever that property looks like transfer hands into everybody.

Mm-hmm.

if we amended the agreement it would be back before you so just a statement more than a question we're about to go on summer recess here on council so we won't be back within those 30 days so if there is a change can we still receive that have adequate time to review that if we would need to call a special meeting and have that ability in front of us yeah

I mean, if there are something that is not contemplated in the authorization, it would have to come back to you.

Okay, thank you.

In your legal opinion, this is not altering the contract. It's just a slight variance. We are adding this. This is the last change that the school proposed like a week and a half ago, maybe two weeks ago. We haven't worked out the final exact language yet tonight between myself and the attorney. But the concept that will be in there is the transfer at 2030, no lease, and then some form of access to the park floor. And that's the last piece of that. If there are any additional material changes to that, that would be something that we would have to do with that, because that's not contemplated in the authorization.

And the first one is essentially the same thing. And in fact, if We talked about that for a dollar a year. This actually saved us $4.9 million. That's great.

Do we anticipate they will go ahead and approve this this week as well, barring any changes that are material after that same concept? I haven't heard anything otherwise. Okay.

Any other questions from members of council?

Thank you.

I will make a motion to adopt the third reading of ordinance 2025-2026. Can I get a second? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 31-2026?

An ordinance establishing Chapter 372, Mobility Devices of the Codified Ordinances of the City of North Canton, thereby establishing provisions for the use and operation of mobility devices within the city.

Mr. Pratt, this is Ordinance and Rules Committee.

put in legislation around e-bikes, something that this would give direction to those operators, how they're based, how they can be operated within the city. This is now for Dirt bike style e-bikes. There's an existing legislation that looks for that. This is specifically for the e-bike portion. It also gives more ability to law enforcement for impounding if necessary. And it's really just bringing our code to far with what's available. what's out there as far as in the preparation world, bikes, scooters, and other devices. Anything else?

Yeah, I think you said it very well.

It gives us the same coordinates that brings together the e-bikes, the scooters, the one wheels, and has technology involved in the development of this device.

and this is based on a timeline um you know it's the second reading tonight um with us going on recess here and kids being out still before they go back to school um i would like to propose meeting this board on an emergency basis We'll see if we can try to pass that sooner. I don't know if anyone else has any thoughts on that, but I'm open to suggestion.

I think we mentioned this earlier. The council did amend it. I just didn't have it here. Yes. You can do it under suspension of the rules.

Great. So I will make a motion. Well, we've got to adopt first. Yep. We've got to adopt the reason first, and then we can suspend the rules. Okay. Okay. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I will make a motion to suspend the rules of counsel requiring the three readings. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? That motion carries. And then is there a motion to adopt Ordinance 31-2026 under suspension of the rules?

Second.

Okay, it's moved. Can we get a second? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Pratt, for bringing that up. We did discuss that in previous readings. It's a safety call. All right. Ms. Papp, will you please read the title of Resolution 32-2026?

A resolution in support of accepting the 2026 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan.

I want to read the rest of this. Just for the record, the proposed legislation expresses city council's support for accepting the 2026 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan. The plan was developed through a comprehensive community-driven planning process led by Brand Steffert Carroll, Inc. The plan reflects resident input gathered through multiple opportunities for public engagement. It is intended to guide the city's parks and recreation system over the next 10 years. The legislation indicates Council's support of the administration's acceptance and use of the plan as a strategic planning tool, while clarifying that such support does not commit Council to fund or implement any specific recommendations. The resolution also requires that a copy of the plan be maintained by the administration department for at least 10 years. Mr. Mayor, I think you have some things that you would like to add to this.

I would, yes. in the spirit of collaboration and using this plan to its full use. I've had conversations with everyone here and I want to make sure that I explain this properly. The legislation is not directly related to the plan. However, it is part of it because we must accept it somehow. In that spirit, I would like to suggest that we, and this will be the discussion point, that we add a note to two of the points very specifically that something that this to affect, and this is where I need your input because it's administration that has to make the change on the plan. So the caveat would be, I would like a note to be in front of these two sections that I'll read and the note would say something like, At this time, we do not believe that this part is viable. And we can discuss the terms like it was cited in the collaboration that we had and the discussion that we had. And that leading to, there's two parts specifically that I would like to add that note to. One is the Little League Fields, and it's the section where we're talking about rectangular fields on Little League Fields. Long short of it, that property was given specifically to the Little League Property. It wasn't given to, it was given to the city for Little League Properties. because we had to replace the previous farm. And everything, everybody that I've talked to shares the same opinions. We're not going to put rectangular fields on that. So I'd like to add that note on that. And then the second is the section in Arrowhead where it discusses bringing it down to a nine hole golf course. Again, we've had discussions on the floor. It's not a viable option. So I'd like to add the notes to those two things very specifically. The third part is, I believe, for going forward, when we look back at this plan, this should be a plan that we refer to for multiple years. It did omit the name of the stakeholders that we had discussed. And my concern is some of these groups change over leadership every two years. So six years out, if we're going to contact a group it would be nice to have reference. I don't know whether that needs to be put in a plan or if we just mentioned the stakeholders specifically talk to you on the record, but some way we have to look back and be able to find that. That's gotta be accessible information in my opinion. And then the fourth, I want to end the debate on how the surveys were done by adding the disclosure that we did not hire brand center two conduct a random sampling that makes the data statistically viable. And I want to make sure that we say we specifically did not pay them to do that, because that is the plan that we approved. And I think that will help limit the divisiveness on the data points of that. So the note that I want to put in front of those two very specific topics, the little fields, and the uh arrowhead part that's where i need your feedback so i would like to put something like after collaboration with council and the administration we agree that this is not currently a viable outcome do you like that would you like me to put something further than that is that good enough i think it's a start and i'd love to

kick off discussion on our side if i could so first i want to thank you well okay let's let's limit it to that first because we're going to go around and then i'll have dave like i i don't want to take over your video well then i guess i'll just add in um i think we should strike the liberty discussion entirely take that out but i like your suggestion for adding that for the topic of heroin And I also want to add in for the discussion for the data. I like adding that subject while I don't remember discussing whether or not it is what it is at this point. My contention has been that we have used data from people who do not live inside the city of North Canton. In fact, almost 30% of the respondents did not live in the city. And my concern with that is, is that we're allowing people outside the city limits to dictate how the residents of this city expend their tax resources. So in addition to what you said about the data, if we could add the chart, I know you're not going to take the data out, but if you could just add the chart from the appendix and bring that into the data, that reflects and shows that the data, including almost 30% of people, did not live in the city. But I'm happy with the changes, and I really appreciate you bringing the data forward.

on the little league topic i would agree with what you just suggested um and this may be additional so we can come back if i need to but outside of that section and i don't have the page number i can find it there's just a reference in a couple places i think even in the strategies that say the overall reduction of diamond ball fields i think it said from 10 to 7. i would like to strike that i don't think at this time that the city is in a place to be reducing the number of diamond ball fields

I understand what you guys are saying about striking it.

We can say it's not a viable option. Right.

That's where I struggle on it. I get it. I don't want it in there. But maybe down the road, it does become viable at some point. And it shows a reference that that is thought of. I'd like to strike it. I don't know if that's the appropriate thing to do from... what we've received for a consultant. That's why I kind of introduced it.

It sounds like nobody supports it, so why on the world would we have it in there?

And that's a good point, but there are things in the regular master plan that we did not fully approve of. It's receipt of the work, in my opinion, is what we're doing. We're just putting the notes on it that it's more of a collaborative response from our discussions. That's my take on it. My ultimate goal is to make this usable for the community benefits for it. So Mike uses it. And it's not usable, in my opinion, if it's divisive on your approval of the simple receipt of it. So my goal is to get it done and collaborate right now so we can use it for the benefit of everybody.

Okay, so...

I would just like to say that, well, I'll just get to what I wanted to say. What's sort of being lost, I feel, in the discussion about the Little League property is that it is close to 20 acres of city-owned property. And I am aware of the history that the fields that the area where the ball fields were was deemed not safe or appropriate. And so therefore, we needed to have new property. And so that property, where it exists now, was given over to the city for the express purpose of a little room. And that was done in what year? Late 90s. And so what I feel has kind of been lost a little bit in some of this large and almost rambling discussion is the fact that Branstad or Carroll produced a report and consulted with our soccer, football, and lacrosse folks as well. And when you read the appendices in there, which we now all have, They are all very uniform and in unison saying we do not have enough football across soccer. We don't have enough rectangular fields. And I know that at first this might seem like I'm conflating issues. But the point of the matter is this is 20 acres of city property that we lease to the Little League. And while at this time, I can't actually personally imagine any of those baseball fields going away. And I cannot say that strongly enough. I personally can't see it. I feel like we're almost forcing this discussion into something that's going to make that property sacrifice. We're never going to look at it again. That we're not going to take into account the demographics that Superintendent Walker is talking about. On the floor of council, there is a decreasing student enrollment. Students. plates, youth sports that could be alarming for Little League. I will also hearken that the appendices in the report talks about Little League is not forecasting any expansion of their league at all. And I will tell you that in a personal conversation with one of the North Canton Little League leaders, I know this for a fact. The numbers are out there somewhere. Their youngest group of rookie players is smaller. It's decreased. And that's a little bit alarming. That could all change. Student enrollment could go up. Little League numbers could go up. All of that. The point that I'm making is that right now, today, no. I don't want to take anything away from Little League. But to strike it to... to strike it entirely, which were the words that you used, I feel is radically inappropriate. And I feel like we as stewards of the city and representatives of all of the citizens, we need to have all things to be considered. And I'm not asking to break any leases, but literally, I don't even know how long that is, but I just think that

striking things or removing references entirely to 20 acres of city-owned property is wildly inappropriate okay so what i was just going to say to the mayor was is yes and i lost my place in here as i listened to a number of stocker over there so let me find it again surge This indicates Council's support of the administration's acceptance and use of the plan. I guess I just want to say that this is not merely accepting it, and that is just my concern. This is us saying, yes, use it as well. So I just wanted to make that point because, yes, I can certainly get behind you accepting something. I don't necessarily agree with it. Some might say that I'm being divisive or combative. I am just simply trying to put in here what I think is right from what I'm hearing from people in the community. But when you add in supporting the use, that's where I'm coming from.

So this is where I trust the mayor, the administration, and our new parts administrator to use it where it's deemed appropriate. That they're not going to use things that don't make sense for the community. So I trust that they're going to use it appropriately. They know And then we will be telling them and the residents will be telling them and our parks administrator will be reaching out to stakeholders to make sure that the use of this is appropriate. That use being two days from now in applying for a grant, you know, having a plan gives them more power to find their submission for a grant. having all the options in there, choosing those that are best for the community. I think the trust needs to align with the administration.

And to add to that, the use comes back to you for approval funding regardless. So you guys approve the use?

Well, yes. Not in theory.

Anything over $50,000 absolutely comes to you by ordinance.

But it also talks in here about, and I forget the exact wording, about possibly talking about the status of the lease. So that would require a funding expenditure. That would be alarming. I can get behind your changes. In the spirit of Collaboration, which I think is all I was ever asking for, was collaboration. While I don't love leaving it in there, I'll support what you want. I'll support as long as we have a footnote in there and we can come up with whatever verbiage, but where I really am going to be stuck on is back to the data. Forget talking about statistically significant. I would like that chart from the appendix brought forward and put in with the data, included with the data, and even a footnote there that says that a large portion of the respondents didn't live in the city.

I just want to reply to Mr. Stocker at the end. It is not a land thing for me personally. If you had taken the time to read the full appendix, there are alarming recommendations in there And they jump off the page at me. So yes, I believe their lease expires in 2033. So I don't think we'll really be talking about touching that between now and then. We may not be here, right? But there are suggestions in there about revenue sharing with them and how things that they do today could dramatically and drastically and negatively impact that program. Those were the reasons why I questioned how did all of this get in there? Because surely it didn't come from a conversation with one member of the board of directors of the Little League. It came from our steering committee, and so there were no other opportunities to have that conversation. So that's why it's coming up now. By the way, it's not divisive. That is us doing our jobs by asking the questions about the things that are in the book. I just am tired of hearing that word. That's all. I support the suggestion of putting that comment in that section. I just want to make it very clear and on the record, I guess we're not really on the record, but this is where some of this concern is coming from. And I feel like it's well-founded and there's valid and genuine concern behind it. That's all.

Can I? I'm sorry. Question for legal.

Is there anything that we're doing here that's not going to pass legal scrutiny? No. Okay. You're discussing a resolution on a non-binding plan. So the resolution would just be that whether council's agreeing with the acceptance of the plan. Yes. I WAS GOING TO MAKE A MOTION THAT WE ADOPT THE FIRST READING OF RESOLUTION 32-2026, ALLOW ADMINISTRATION AND THE MAYOR TO MAKE THOSE CHANGES THAT HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED, BRING IT BACK TO COUNCIL IN

given enough time to review those changes and make sure that they're accurate and then move to the second reading any changes or corrections need to be made but that would give administration and the mayor enough time to put in these recommendations and put it in place and opportunities for council members to make sure that it's in place before we have a second reading so maybe you'd be willing to hold that since i remember perhaps if you get something yeah well before we get a second normal Robert's Rules of Orders, it's motion, discussion, second. So what would you like to add?

I just thought I'd mention that I think that the turnout we have tonight, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right, but this was the first time that the public got to really see the book plan. And, you know, obviously the first time you look at it, has their own mind, their own thoughts, their own questions, their own concerns, or maybe they think some of it's great. But I think what comes across probably concerning the folks is the fact that it says it is the master plan right on the Titan. And I think that it's really not a master plan. To me, when I think of a plan, it's something that we're implementing, that we're doing, that we're going to follow, almost like a roadmap. And I think what we have is a book of ideas. So maybe we need to call it just that, the European Parks and Recreation and Open Space Book of Ideas and Thoughts. And maybe we even put a disclaimer that says that this is a non-statistical study that the city paid for. It gathers thoughts and ideas that could be useful for decision-making. but not necessarily the decisions. I just think that would probably calm folks and let them know that we feel the same that they do, that it's ideas, it's maybe some guidance and some thoughts and pros and cons that could come with doing certain things or not. I don't think it's everything in here is not bad, but I think there's a lot of stuff that doesn't represent maybe

We can turn that over to the mayor and administration to bring back to council in August the revised version of this draft.

And I think that also, and forgive me for not bringing this up earlier, I think Mary spoke earlier about senior programs. I think that's a That's maybe a mess. And so it'd be nice if maybe something like that could be I would agree with that.

But right now we don't have programming. We have no recreation. We don't have that. So I understand why.

Yeah, absolutely. So in the master plan on page 47, I'm going to read from Branstetter Carol's plan. While the city's current recreational programming is limited primarily to seniors library based initiatives and specialized one time programs. Expanding offerings will be essential to meet the diverse recreation needs of the community, speaking of seniors. When the Parks and Recreation Department is ready to offer its own programs, they should be chosen based on community achievement from this master plan or future engagement efforts. Based on current engagement results, new programming should be focused on community events, festivals and concerts, other potential new programs could include, goes on the list. I think the reason that senior programming may be absent from this plan is because there's no Department of Parks and Recreation, and that's one of the reasons that I'm brought into North Canton, is to help build that senior program. That makes perfect sense.

I'll add part of the plan was to evaluate, should we have recreation programming? And that's big. That's a big ask. That's recreation staff. That is recreation planning. We don't have that. Years ago, we did. We talked about this. We don't anymore. We have a park department, but we do not have recreation. So that is a whole other area that we would have to evaluate the cost of. Yes, you bring in revenue. You can bring in revenue, but then there also are a lot of expenses with hiring the staff.

Cool. i'm looking for a motion i'm looking for well i'm not done with discussion because i do have a couple questions if i may okay so on that topic that was helpful because i looked that up and read it right there with you um i guess the only concern i do have and i think ms bowman's comments tonight were very much relevant because the data collection did not go after our senior citizens and so when it says that we may use you know, this plan, being mindful that, again, we said we apparently agreed that it's not going to be statistically valid. I just would like us to say we're going to commit to future engagement with that population and truly seek their needs on it. There were a lot of great recommendations, not just we want to go and have fun events, but things that are very helpful to our senior citizens in general.

Yeah, go around.

Mr. Wang would like in.

Right on time.

Chief work to get in. That was the first for me.

I've never had the repository knock on the window.

I do want to reiterate, and I believe I said this in my first meeting here, is that this plan is not successful, whether it's in North Canton or anywhere else that plans are implemented without public engagement. So these plans cannot be implemented in a vacuum. It will involve engagement with the senior community, with our youth sport organizations, with North Canton local schools and other partners, the library, the YMCA. This is a comprehensive plan for the residents of North Canton, not just the city, it's all of our partners and stakeholders as well. So it's a fluid plan, to Mr. Stocker's comment earlier. It is a fluid plan. It will change over time as leaders change, as folks that sit in your seats change, budgets change, opportunities change. So I just want you to know that I'm all about building community and building relationships through engagement. So if there's any angst or anxiety, I'm promising you that I will reach out to the community.

Mr. Elkins, I read the City of Green plan, and it brought me a great deal of comfort knowing that you were involved in that. And so the only other question I'm going to ask you is, you know, we just are approving the ODNR grant, and I know that we need to have this plan on file to be able to push for future grants as well. Is there any amount of concern? I read five or six different municipal reports in all of my spare time this week. All of them, and some of them did come from the same consulting firm State in multiple ways, it was a statistically valid plan. Ours does not have that language in it. We're talking about maybe putting something that says to the contrary. Is there any concern? When we go to apply for grants that that would be in there.

No.

Okay.

No, because the data is still valid. That is still valid. Yeah. And there's still going to be that public engagement piece that I keep referring to that when we go to grants. That is a requirement. When you apply for a NatureWorks grant or any state grant, there's a requirement to what is your public participation. And so, obviously, I cited this plan as part of a NatureWorks grant that's going to get grant application that's going out Wednesday.

There's a motion on the floor. Can I get a second?

Can you restate the grant?

So, the motion is to adopt the first reading of Resolution 32.326.

But I think we had a caveat that the mayor makes the changes that he discussed.

No, we're going to.

Oh, so you don't want to make any changes that we just discussed?

Do you remember my comment earlier when I said this gives the mayor and administration an entire month to put in all these corrections and bring it back for the second? Thank you for listening. You're welcome.

Second.

Okay. Mr. Ob, will you do a roll call vote for this? Yes, sir. Member Pierpont.

Yes.

Member Orr?

Yes. Member Weirich?

Yes.

Member Matheny? Yes. Member McLeister? Yes. Member Pratt?

Yes.

Member Stocker? Yes.

Moving on to 7D. Mr. Opp, will you please read the time of Ordinance 33-2026?

An ordinance authorizing the city of North Canton to enter into a natural gas program agreement with the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council for the purpose of establishing and implementing the natural gas aggregation program within the city and declaring the same to be an emergency. Mr. Stocker, this is Utilities Committee. It is, thank you.

So this is the second reading, basically, with the city of North Canton entering into an agreement with NOPEC for the purpose of gas and aggregation. We had two public hearings today in reference to this, one at noon, one at 6 o'clock. I had the opportunity to gather a lot of information directly from your next representative. Jim, I don't think there's any changes really at all, are there? So with that in mind, I would make a motion to adopt the third meeting.

Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 34-2026?

An ordinance approving the plan of operation and governance for the NOPEC Natural Gas Aggregation Program for the purpose of jointly establishing and implementing a gas aggregation program as a NOPEC member and declaring the same to be an emergency. This is the second half.

Yes, the second half. And it's essentially the same. This is technically what's referred to as the plan of governance for the program. So there really are no changes.

So I would guess that I would make the motion to adopt the act of 30, ordinance 34-2026. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving on. new business, I'm going to make a motion to suspend Council Rule 23 to allow for consideration of all items from the Proceeding Committee of the Whole Meeting. I give a second. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Ott, will you please read the Title of Ordinance 16-21-8.

ordinance repealing chapter 1139 industrial district regulations and amending various provisions of chapter 1137 business district regulations of the codified ordinances of the city North Canton to update modify and clarify the regulations governing the city's business districts so this came back to us from the Planning Commission we need to set a public hearing for this to get input from the public

And we're going to set that for August 17th, 2026, at 6.45 p.m. And I'm going to make that motion for the public hearing on 16-2026.

Are we going to have discussions at all, or are we going to say discussion until after the public hearing?

After all the public hearings, after all the input from the public, and then we'll have a full discussion. That's traditionally how it goes. We just set the hearing. Motion on the floor. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And I will make a motion to postpone consideration of Ordinance 16-2026 until after the August 17th, 2026 public hearing. I give a second.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? And that motion carries. Mr. Opp, please read the title of Ordinance 35-2026.

ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of north canton to enter into an agreement with the stark county commissioners to accept and utilize the stark county community development block grant program for federal fiscal years 2027 2028 and 2029 and declaring the same to be an emergency thank you under community economic development we talked about this in the committee meeting we need to do everything possible to allow mr graham to get as many grants as possible

especially those from the Stark County Community Development Block Grant Program. Any other questions or discussions? Okay. I will make a motion to adopt the first reading of Ordinance 35-2026. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. Can I get a motion to suspend the rules of council requiring three readings?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And finally, can I get a motion to adopt 35-2026 under suspension of the rules? So, can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Mr. Ott, please read the title of Ordinance 36-2026.

An ordinance authorizing appropriations for current expenses and other expenditures for the period beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2026. Mr. McLeister.

Yes, sir. All right. Can I imagine there's any changes? No. Oh, okay. There was one there. So, no. So, seeing no changes, I would make a motion to adopt the first meeting of 4-3-6-2026.

I will second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Is there a motion to suspend the rules of council requiring three meetings?

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And I will make a motion to move out 36-2026 under suspension of the rules. And I give a second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Moving right along. Mr. Hodge, will you please read the title of Resolution 37-2026.

A resolution authorizing the Mayor of the City of North Canton to provide the information and documentation necessary to apply for funding assistance of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works grant program and declaring the same to be an emergency. Member Wyre, Parks and Rec.

Yeah, so we just discussed this. Mr. Elkins needs this approval to get the grant application in by July 15th. Anything else to add?

All right. I wish Mr. Elkins good luck with the very first grant that the city worked out. Thank you. Thank you, Strauss.

All right. I will make a motion to adopt the first reading of Resolution 37-2026. Is there a second?

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I will make the motion to suspend the rules of council requiring three readings. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And is there a motion to adopt Resolution 37-2026 under suspension of the rules?

So moved.

Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Recognition of public topics under city authority.

Mr. Haag, would you please read the preamble? At this time, members of the public who have signed up to address city council will be called to do so. Each speaker will be given five minutes. Speakers shall be called in the order they signed up. During this section, comments shall be limited to items reasonably under the city's authority. The rules for speaking and the speaker's time will appear on the screen. After you finish speaking, please remain at the podium to answer questions from the officials of the day. First on the list is Catherine Wilhelm.

Hello, I'm a resident at 616 Harm Street Southwest for the last 26 years. I'm going to echo some of the sentiments of my fellow residents. Having spent a couple, two or three times now in council meetings, I appreciate the feedback I've gotten from Mr. Haught, and Jim, I'm sorry, the donor's last name, resisted everything for Treacher and Holly, our council at large. As we recognize the people that are here that love our city, love the green space. And so the master plan is of a concern to us because We like the open spaces. We like the feeling that we can bike, we can walk, we can hike, we can jog. And I think we attract a lot of attention for our open spaces. I think a lot of people here, there, the park, they'll park at the high school, get on the trail. So the master plan to me maybe doesn't offer an appreciation for that open green space or ecological friendly. We take care of our green space as well. And to that point, as I was looking at the map of our city, we're a small community bordered by Pittsburgh Avenue, Market Avenue, and 55th Street. So contained within that corridor are citizens that are seniors. I myself am one, still a wage earner. We are families with school agers, and we are moms at home. raising young families. So all this green space and all these beauties and attractions that we offer help the citizens live a very high quality life. My husband and I moved from Firestone Park in Akron 26 years ago because of the education, reputation here, and the beauty that is here. So with that being said, I recognize the challenges from a business standpoint. I was a financial analyst for many years of my career. And we talk about unit price versus number of units. So I went into a deep dive in the financials for Dogwood Park, Arrowhead Country Club, some of our other facilities here. And I really want to understand from the council, and these are just questions. You don't have to answer them right this minute. Have we done an analysis of how we can bring these facilities up to a profit? profit-burningly status that makes everybody comfortable. We all know things about Brisbane over the last few years, I don't care what you talk about, gas, cars, commodities, all of that. Well, when I just take $90,000 of the loss for Dogwood Pool in the year of 2025, I said, okay, how can we bring that to an even point? Well, it would take $10 for 100 people per day. If we increase the population in Dogwood Pool by 100 people and increase the unit price that they pay by $10, well, people might complain about $10 and the same thought process for Arrowhead. That is one of the very few public courses, as we know, Tanahom Closed, or Tanahom Closed, Sanctuary Closed, Seven Hills is closed, and you all can call out more of them. If we could please look at a way of preserving the attractions, the amenities that we offer our citizens, improving upon what we have, making it profitable. It's all in numbers. And when I sit in here, that's the thing that I find lacking. I hear emotion. I hear strong opinion. I hear a lot of ambition around some of these projects that are in this plan. But nowhere is it discussed. how it compares financially to what could make it successful. And so if we could offer that to the residents, I think we'd have a more comfort level of, hey, this actually looks great on paper, or it looks really bad. We're all sensitive to numbers when things affect our own pocketbooks. And in summary, I wanted to ask the question, when we do the swap, is the school board equipped to understand how to take care of real estate, to provide the infrastructure to take care of those properties. I've lived near the middle school. It is a concern. You know, I just have a question about that. So again, I'm just offering questions. I want to make sure I quickly get to all my questions. Oh, the last thing. Mr. Ott was very, very factual. And this is, again, an echoing of the sentiment of a resident here tonight. The crisis, I will call it a crisis in our rental unit. Compared to the number of residential units. Oh, I'm so sorry. That's okay. It's 20%. That's all I'll finish with. 20%. Yes. I have a numbers gap. Thank you for that. Thank you.

I'm Ryan Ford. I'll give it to yours.

Well, I'm a city council newbie, so I found myself in the wrong spot. I probably should have done this before. You're fine. Can I assure you I'm not trying to do the dead horse? The parks plan is certainly on our minds for North Canton Youth Softball. So I'm Ryan Ford. I live at 7727. I'm sorry to put it that way. In North Canton, I serve as the commissioner. for the North Kent Baskets Association, which is our softball program, which is sort of who I played at Dogwood Fields and occasionally at Ricewood Park at Snead. You know, I guess I'd start by first thanking the council, the administration, the Parks Department for putting this plan together. I do think a book of ideas is probably a better description than I read through it. And I've only had it for 24 hours, so it was a brief read. But I think it was clear that a comprehensive effort was put together A lot of people were considered public input planning. So we appreciate that the vision is coming together and over the next decade, and we just want to be a part of it. Certainly also appreciate the help and support that North Kent Little League and the city gave us when we found out the Dogwood project was literally going to start the day that our season began this past spring. So if we didn't have that help, we probably would have not had a season or at least the chance that we didn't have a spring season. The goals outlined in the plan, I think, are important to be as a board i'm here they Bradford's here she does our fundraising. We have a board of seven we think it's really important to invest in our parks, recreation quality of life, the benefits to our entire community. The plan emphasizes improving Community access addressing service gaps and making strategic investments that will serve more candidates for years to come. I would like to offer one perspective that I believe deserves additional consideration as the plan. sports implementation. As I reviewed it, I noticed it does a good job of keeping inventory of facilities and recreational assets. But from the perspective of youth softball, the challenge isn't simply the number of fields. It's whether those fields are available and usable. On paper, North Kent appears to have enough diamond fields for softball. However, some are dedicated primarily to baseball. Some have permanent baseball mounds. Some must be reserved for months in advance and we have to pay for them well in advance. Some require additional volunteer time where we have to prepare for every single game with people that are taking time out of their day. Some have drainage and scheduling limitations and the future of Dogwood for youth softball remains uncertain. So availability, not simply field count is the challenge for us right now. Further reducing the field count as the plan suggests, which I know we're talking about striking that, It would put more strain on our organization and certainly our girls. So our organization loosely participated in the planning process. We appreciate having that opportunity. Candidly, we've been more focused on talking to the school about Dogwood over the years since we found out that it could be a project as it's our historic home. As I review the final plan, I noticed that several other youth organizations received detailed stakeholder interviews that captured their operational challenges and long-term vision. For youth softball, we certainly have challenges that I can go over another day and get through this. Those operational challenges aren't always evident in the facility inventory, but they significantly affect the experience of over 100 girls and their families every single spring to fall. We'd love to have the opportunity to have that more detailed discussion specifically about youth softball before the plan is finalized. We've won eight state championships in the last 30 years. That success does not start at the high school level. It begins with young girls playing softball, having a love for the game, developing a passion for it. If we want that tradition to continue, we need to ensure the foundation remains strong. So I'm not here to criticize the master plan. I think it's a really good start. I'm just here to ask for youth softball to have a bigger voice moving forward. And I hope that everyone appreciates that. Welcome to the opportunity to have those conversations. We're not asking for special treatment. We just want to be a bigger part of the conversation. Thank you. Thank you.

A couple of questions. You said it's about 100 girls right now?

Yes. In the spring season, we're typically at 100 to 115 girls. And then we also have taken over fall program that we run through playing. which is maybe half of that. So we have girls that have interest in the college club.

And from what age group to?

Yeah, we have 8U all the way through 12U. So that's roughly, you'll see girls that are 6 all the way through 13. 14U, we've had some attrition. A lot of girls move to travel, so we don't have a 14U program.

And then basically, how many fields do you have with your own?

Right now? Yeah. Because college is here. You know, again, Little Leap was awesome. They offered us basically three of their fields. And there was a fair amount of availability that really saved our season. And, you know, Price and the Parks Department did an awesome job helping us do that, too. But we do have to mine those fields, so there's an expense. And it's not even about the money. It's the time commitment and trying to get over there.

So it goes by plot to plot. Exactly. Just real quick. You kind of touched on it. There's really only three fields at the Liberty Complex right now that are actually usable for softball. It's really two.

It's really two. One of them has the field one. Otherwise, it's Price and Whitmer. Whitmer also has it. The question is, what is going to land a dog, we haven't heard a straight answer, if they're going to put a playable field, a game playable field, back at dog production. Aerial views, like sketches, but we haven't really heard a straight answer to that.

That's disappointing if it goes that way. Mr. Elkins has passed his business card on. I can guarantee that Dr. Earl's softball will be part of the conversation.

I wanted to chime in real quick. One of the other unique situations that they faced was I know Little League could have offered more either dates or something, but the trick became parking. That while they were functioning in their regular Little League season, they were like, well, we could give you this field at Friday night, but we don't have a place to park you. So another element to consider when we have those conversations is Maybe we could get more use out of existing if we had another place to park. Just those are the little nuances I'm working on. Parking's always been a little, like, fear.

It's a good problem to have. I just want to add that my daughter's a Hoover softball player, and North Canton Fast Pitch Association certainly helped create a lot of the game for her. So thank you for what you do. I'm sorry to hear about your plight and struggle for fields, but I just want to say that if it wasn't for the North Miami Bassetage Soccer Association, she wouldn't be able to do it.

Yeah, I appreciate that. We're honestly really proud of what we've accomplished recently. Like the eight-year group, the numbers have increased. We had the most in the ten years. So we're trying to start it at the lower level because travel has just consumed girls. It pulls them out of the system. But we need to give the girls that don't want to play travel an opportunity. Travel is watered down quite rapidly and expensively. And not all students want to do that, and they shouldn't have to do that.

Sounds like an amazing program. Thank you. Thanks for sharing the challenges that you face with your organization because, you know, this is kind of a new issue for you guys now that those fields are going to be retained with the school system. So, you know, we're used to hearing about retaining their fields, and that's a concern of mine. And now this is one more. So, I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very good. On to Department Reports. Mayor Stroy.

All right. Thank you all for coming out. Thank you, Council, for your time. First of all, I spent a lot of time talking to all of you this week. And your willingness to collaborate and compromise. I mean, that says a lot about it because this was not totally popular with all of you. And, you know, we'll work on this. We'll make the changes. To me, I think it's very important to have a fully supported parks plan that we can go back and look to. And with what we talked about, it's really not changing that much. It's just kind of... putting a little, yeah, some adjustments on what we like and what we prioritize. And I reread the plan, and ultimately, I think it's a fantastic plan. There's a tremendous amount of work that went into that, a lot of public feedback. And I appreciate it, and it's our first one. There was nothing before this. And I will never expect a consultant to come in and know our traditions and little idiosyncrasies that are in our community. We know that because we've lived here. We've been through it. So we'll make those edits and bring it back, and we'll have it for use for Mike, and it's going to benefit the community. So what you guys did by compromising is just a benefit to everybody here. So I appreciate that greatly. Events coming up, you know what, I'm going to skip the events. Someone will talk about that. But the one thing I will say, Jeff Stocker and I ended up going to the Daughters of American Revolutions, their dedication to the Liberty Tree for their Jacob Gaskins chapter in honor of Jacob Gaskins. And again, I'm not going to go into the 20-minute history lecture or anything like that that I can do. But he is a very underappreciated man. And if you get a chance, if you would search Jacob Gaskins or go to the Heritage Trail panel that sits next to CSB Bank, you can learn more about him. But it was an honor to be there. They had a great dedication. And it was very warm that day, I will say. But I think that's all I've got. I'll let everybody else cover everything. Rector of administration.

All right. I think I'd like to say great conversation. And I'm so glad so many people are here. And just I want to speak like a little bit to everything on this, if we can go back, you know. You probably all remember when we were having the conversation when our former parks superintendent slash water distribution superintendent was retiring. And I was making a case that we really need someone to lead our parks department. We need someone who wakes up thinking parks, who thinks strategy. You know, I know we're talking about the parks master plan and that that. you know, was also approved by the prior council, went out for the RFD, selected Branstetter, started going into it. Has it been perfect? I think we have found, no, we don't, you know, this is new to us. We're not perfect. You know, we're trying to do the best we can, but a parks master plan was something we knew existed. Other communities do. People that want to be strategic and thinking about their parks and beyond just cutting the grass and keeping them nice looking. We wanted to say, How do we do more going forward? Listen to our community. What do they want? Because we hear it all the time anyway. We want this. We don't want this. Can we have this? This community has more pickleball. This one has, you know, we hear all of this. And, you know, as you know, I kind of, it fell to me sort of as the defunct planning director when I embarked upon the Dogwood, you know, adaptive playground program. And it was amazing to me at that time that in speaking to our previous superintendent, I said, what is the last park development, the big park playground knew that we had done? The last thing was in 2000, and it was when he did some things at Price. And now we're talking, this is like 2017, 2018. And when we finally cut that ribbon, it was 2021. No, 2022, because I kept saying inclusive fun coming in 21 and then COVID happened. So it was 22. So we went 22 years while we all saw some city. to the North green, we saw Jackson, we saw people travel and they're like, this city has this, this city has that, you know, and it was, you know, they would come to us and why don't we have this? Well, it takes a lot, takes a lot of planning, takes money, takes funding, takes strategy. So I think step one was like this parks, maybe master plan, maybe we should do something like this. So we entered into something like that. Then, you know, I came forward saying, you know, when Brian was leaving, Brian Hill, we need this position we discussed so much about how important this position would be because you know it aside from you know having just people like we said operationally and keep things nice there's there's you know there's no plan there's no recreational staff for all the things that people want we know we have a lot of amenities and We know people want a lot of programs as well. So, you know, I'll say, you know, thank you to Miriam for coming in and talking about the senior program. You know how that came about was saying that we know seniors want something here. But again, we have no staff. But we had space. And when the library said we might have some staff to do this, and we said, oh, we might have some space, we put them together. So this was a no-cost option to the city because we weren't going to go out and hire. We didn't have it in the budget to start up. a senior rec programming staff. So the library came about, we began it, you know, we began offering that. Mr. Ford, I hear your challenges. And I mean, I've always said our girls softball team, when you're sitting in that gym at Hoover High School in UCLA, state champion, state champion, state champion. And I know things have changed so much since my daughter played for Greentown Athletic Club. I don't even know if they're around anymore, but that was her softball. And, you know, this battle comes, and again, I was always sort of, the defunct administrator in the middle trying to help figure this out where people say is this the school's responsibility or the city's and you know we both we we both love the students and the athletes and the families that are in our community but it falls to whose responsibility is it you know at one time sitting in a meeting with the school you know as far as youth sports go not just softball we're talking all the youth baseball football all of it you know it's like well you know at one time Years ago, the city had a rec department, and I think they did work more with the school, but we all know that that isn't the way it is today. And it was sort of like, well, you know, isn't the school saying sort of like, this isn't our responsibility? And then the city's saying, but is it our responsibility? Because to your point, they don't start out high school champions. They start out when they're young. So I know that that was, you know, a real issue when we talked about those fields going away. And, you know, talking about she just left, but Catherine Wilhelm talks about the numbers. That is so true. When Mr. Rossetti, the first speaker, went up and talked about he pays $47 a year for a membership. That is because that is a preseason senior membership, which is $65 discounted, 25% for being a YMCA member. That's $47 for the whole season. I mean, that's like $15 a month. If you get at least 50% of the days for the three months, that's like a dollar a day you're paying. So, yes, good point. But, you know, we do have to look and we have to look at the costs. We have to look at the user fees and we have to manage that up. Right. We haven't had anyone to do that. And so we now have somebody to do that. And that's what the plan is. And I mean. I hear there's criticism on the word plan, but I'll quote like Rob Graham always tells me, plans are called plans for a reason because it's what you plan to do. But sometimes, you know, things don't always go. But, you know, it is, I think it is at least the start is what I'm saying is, you know, at least we're thinking that way. And it's a great conversation, you know, and we tried to talk to everybody, lacrosse and soccer and, you know, football, and were we perfect? Did we hit everyone? Did we hit everything? No, but it was a start, and this is good. It's a start, and I like where we are now, and we can add more, and we've heard how everybody does feel, and we'll keep going with it. There's a lot on Mr. Falcon's plate, and I think he's the man for the job and up to the challenge, and I thank everybody for all that we have gone through to get to this part, and we're just trying to do good and do better. That's all. That's my speech. I'm sorry.

Thank you. Deputy Director of the Ministry. So I'll build on that a little bit and start by saying that I'm going to be glad when Mike is no longer known as the former Planning Director of Green. And everyone around us is saying, look what they've done in North Kent. And I do believe that that day will come. Maybe sooner than you think, Mike. On the master plan, I won't reiterate what Catherine said, but I just wanted to point out it's in the nature of formal plans that you take some things and you leave others. I think it's also important to point out that, well, good ideas and bad ideas sometimes can come out of plans. They can come straight out of a person's head, whether you have a plan or not. So I think in our form of government, in our administrative, in our legislative, in our budgeting processes, any ideas that come out of this plan or any plan, they're ultimately always going to be examined individually on their own merit. So I just wanted to say that hopefully to encourage everyone to keep that in perspective when we continue to discuss the master plan. I think our consultants have done a good job. As Catherine said, there are things that we need to tweak as the mayor pointed out, and I'm confident we'll do that. I'm very grateful to council and everyone who was involved that we got this legislation passed on the land swath. Mayor Catherine both side, I think it's a transformational opportunity. We're acquiring 20 acres and 2 key locations next to city parks. I don't have to tell all of you this, you know, better than me for an older and largely landlocked community. We're not in the same situation that. Jackson township or greens and. Uh, lands at a premium here, and I really think this land is going to give us. A lot of opportunities in the future to engage the community. Going back to planning comprehensively conduct a land use planning process. Uh, it both of these sites, and I'm confident that we, you know, both the administration and city council or our successors, because it could take some time, um, are going to thoughtfully engage the community community strategically plan for new land uses, whatever they might be. and i think we'll serve the people at north kent well and we'll be able to put this land back into productive reuse so again i wanted to thank you it's an exciting opportunity it's not every day um that the city comes into 20 acres in our some of our most key neighborhoods next to two of our most key parks so thank you parks administration

I don't know if I could add anything that Catherine said. Thank you for passing the resolution tonight so we can get the grant application in. I can tell you that I'm really excited about the future direction of North Canton Parks and Recreation. It's going to be a fun 10 years.

Thank you. Did you just commit to 10 years? Let the record reflect that Mike signed on for 10 years.

Deputy Director of Finance. Yes, so I'd like to just show a little halfway, more than halfway past the year or so.

We're just in pre-financials here in the state of Oregon. We started with income tax. We are currently sitting around $7.2 million in contracts so far this year. So you're still watching out on the others. I wanted to go over the general fund cash balance currently. Approximately $11.76 million versus $10.84 million last year at this time. And then we'll go over some investments here. The city has approximately $39 million invested. Obviously, about $15 million has been fire station proceeds. The fire station construction. Yeah, we have approximately 12%. Turn on our investments. So we keep on going on. Oh, sorry. Interesting. And that's something that we like to look at is numbers since we were leaving a couple years ago. So comparing the damage in this year to last year for paperless buildings, we're up close to 1,200 individuals or people. We're at about auto pay. It was up 377 people. And we have 17 in our commission this time. And then Gina, obviously, has sent a little budget meeting request coming up. So we're looking forward to that. We need to set up a budget here shortly, because we've got a bunch of work. We're excited about that. So I'm excited to get you guys to think about it. And thank you all. I appreciate it.

Thank you for coming to see me.

New report, just want to wish you all a merry summer recess coming up. So we'll see you back in August. Merry summer recess.

Let's start off the council reports, please.

A lot of new faces here tonight. So thank you to those that came out. A lot of you, I think, have been in touch with any number of us on the parks plan. So your interest and care about that is very valuable. So continue to talk about those things. No one mentioned it, but I think before we come back is the Main Street Festival. I think it's August 15th, right? Isn't that crazy to think it'll be over before we come back? That's kind of weird. So that's a great event. If you've not been to it, be sure to go. Lots of great vendors, food, organizations are there. It's just a good community day. So pray for good weather. That's all I'm going to have tonight.

Thank you. Mr. Pratt.

Thanks. I guess real quick on the Main Street Festival. I'm just thinking how we ever thought about going back to more than just one day.

I think the same all the time.

I just think one day in the final weather is unfair. You have to talk to the chamber. One of the other things I thought about I had some concern over on the Jonathan Street area. I think I mentioned it last meeting. So yeah, made some progress. Wanted to thank, I had a meeting with the mayor, Catherine, Jason, Gina, Jim, and Rob from We're basically trying to get a small section of sidewalk on Jonathan to make walking from Eberhard to down Jonathan safer. It's kind of a, there's a large intersection that kind of is in the middle of that street. So we're going to, one sidewalk ends and then another one starts kind of way further down. So we're going to try to bring one up to the other across the street. and then get the folks across the sidewalk with a crosswalk. So it's in the works. Obviously, it's not been fully approved and appropriated, but it's in progress. And I just wanted to thank them for the time that you're going out there and seeing . One of the things that makes it doable is the fact that it wants to be government property, which would be the Arrowhead golf course. So that's probably always going to be a cut-through road on Jonathan for folks that want to skip two or three lights going down Main Street to Eberhard. I used to take it myself years back, and I've gotten out of that practice. But anyway, so thanks for meeting with me. Is that something that we could get the grant money for seniors now that we have you on board? I would like to think that there's got to be a grant for seniors, you know, aging population. And, you know, I personally think it's great if we can keep people in the area, in their houses longer. They're an asset and I'd like to do what we can for them. So I guess I just, I think the grants, I know that, you know, Right now, but we just haven't planned for that. I guess. I had a couple of questions. Parks parks master plan. You know, I know that's fine. So I don't want to be a Monday morning reporter, but I do wish that you would have had is there out into place first and then I think it would have been critical.

I think it would have been very helpful.

So I'll just say that. I'm glad he's here now, for sure. I do look at this more as a book of ideas than a, quote, master plan. I think that we have been paid for a more expensive, slightly more expensive data accurate plan I think then we can call it a master plan. I think we all have been part of that plan. I think we could have done it, I think, being unfair to call this our master plan. It's like, you know, Kathy pointed out, you know, she's very, she means well in parts. You know, they're very important to her, and I understand that. I appreciate it. But my concern is, you know, Just like all of us here, I've said it before, we're only here for two years. Mayor, council, folks, I'm more worried about this plan getting, this actually getting implemented as planned by someone else. That's my concern. You know, as Catherine said, you know, we plan because we plan to do things. And that's what I'm afraid of. We plan to do this. And I have a problem with that. at least in its entirety. I'll just say that. And again, I want to thank everyone for coming in. We've had some new faces. It doesn't happen that often. And I appreciate the feedback from the public because it does make a difference. There's only so many people that come to these meetings. So when we hear feedback from folks, the slight blip, you know, higher concentration of value because you don't hear that much that often. So it does mean a lot to us and I do appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you to everyone who especially spoke. There were a lot of new faces. There were also some that are trying through regulars here as well. So I appreciate everybody that came. I think it's a worth noting that we did probably have some additional folks here because they in fact were very interested in the parks discussion and i would just point out that those are probably the exact same folks or reasons i should say reasons that people replied in surveys about the parks in the first place because they're engaged um as the uh the chair of utilities um i would like to thank all the residents and the institute parties who attended um either of today's public hearings Not the greatest of attendance, but at least we had some folks that showed. This was involving the gas aggregation program that we talked about in November. And I'd also like to thank Ms. Fargo, NOHAC, for her presentations. They were very informative. They were also remarkably transparent. Ohio is a deregulated energy state, which makes it sound like it's the wild, wild west. I guess in some ways it might be, but she did a very nice job of explaining to the council members in attendance and also the residents and the administration folks in attendance about some of the guardrails that are put into place to protect consumers. So for example, I don't think I realized this, but NOPAC or any gas or any aggregation company, they're not permitted to contact residents who are not who are not with them in the aggregate. They're not allowed, in other words, to solicit people that are outside of the aggregate. And that's, again, kind of designed to protect people. The vast majority of folks, they're not very aware of utilities. It's frankly incredibly confusing in some cases. So aggregates are really designed in large part to provide people with peace of mind and also assurances and stability. So thank you. as the mayor mentioned, he and I did participate with Jacob Gaskins, the daughter of the American Revolution, Freedom and Free Dedication. Just to fill in a little bit more, I'll spare everybody the long history, but Jacob Gaskins was a former enslaved man who became a landowner, voter, and underground railroad operator. His property was what was once known as Plain Township. His property, part of it at least, is now sitting on what we call So, therefore, that's why the tree was placed there and the members of who were there, there was a lot of emotion regarding the fact that that that the city administration. City parks department, they, they didn't just say, yes, they said yes. And there was a vision behind it. So thank you to the administration. Thank you to the shanks and parks. for getting back here and placing it right there. And it's in a very prominent spot. The next time you go, it is right by the front door and it is right by the black. So perfect location. Very, very quickly, we celebrated America 250. I wanna also point out that we should be celebrating the North Canton Playhouse on their 50th anniversary. Most people are very aware that it's in the North Canton Keywood Campus, but it actually started

1976 and a 32 seat building on power street property that was leased to them by the so there's your district thank you thank you thank you to everyone who showed up tonight i talked to many of you this week uh thank you for the administration matt thank you um council thank you We worked it out. We came together and we passed that plan. It's going to be a great thing for us. I want to bring up again, I talked to a lot of people in the fourth ward. Everything's going pretty good. But I want to bring up to the administration once again, annexation. That's where we should be looking at. Annexation. And that's how we're going to grow. And the borders seem kind of really I don't even understand them. But we've got to talk about annexation. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Number one, Barbara.

Yeah, I'm glad that we were able to get the first reading of this plan passed. And I think, you know, as far as a plan, A lot of it is a plan. I would say, I don't know if it's the second half or last third, is list all of our parks. List the improvements and repairs that are needed. List what's needed to be done to implement ADA access, improvements needed in that area. And when I've spoken with Mike Elkins, we've discussed that That's the part that he's going to and looking at, and that's his checklist. So I feel like there is a lot of value in the work that Keith and Nancy and their team from Brandcenter did to put that plan together. And I mean, the plan has options. You know, I think I've stated before that when we first got the plan, the first draft a long time ago, it had just the one option for arrows. And we said, no, we don't even like this nine hole option. Give us more options. And that's why we now have four options. No one, you know, because it's listed in the plan as an option doesn't mean that it's happening. So I guess that's, you know, related to the plan. And then I would also say that I think part of how we attracted Mr. Elkins was because we were investing in this master plan. whenever we were interviewing, I think it was very attractive to someone who has worked master plans from Brandcenter Carol that we were working with them, that he was, you know, comfortable and confident in their work. I don't mean to keep speaking for you, but I don't know that we did it backwards. I think we, you know, that may have been a bit of a selling point to you that we were moving toward. You know, it's been a lot of time up here when parks doesn't have anything on the agenda. And so the fact that I now do is really exciting and that's because we're starting to really kind of prioritize this. So I guess as we come back from break, I just feel like we have a lot of opportunity and we'll have a lot of decisions with the land swap and we have the parks administrator now and we've got the fire station going up. Like we're doing good things guys. And I'm just hopeful that we can come back and have a good rest of the year.

I do not have a report this evening. And Member McLeister is asked to close out. All right. All right.

So the next 20 or 30 minutes. First, I wanted to give thanks to those who reached out in various forms, whether in person, phone, or electronically. Also, thanks to the people who came this evening. So Um, no, I mean, Ryan, I'm inclined to agree with, uh, which I shared this evening and Miriam, I think there's some fantastic ideas. So thank you all for speaking. Um. As far as minutes go, so, uh, I think Dave, you, you mentioned here. We are now on summary minutes, and I think it's unfortunate. I mean, I think it kind of is what it is. Um, and there's information for tonight. Um, it'd be my hope that we can try and find a way to go back to. full-on verbatim minutes, whether it is through another agency or whether it is through some sort of AI program we've talked briefly about. So something like that would be nice if we could go back to that. Or, and I know we have India YouTube, if we can't go back to verbatim minutes, I think we should consider investing in better audio equipment so we could actually audio record meetings. Because I don't know that we'll mind fully on YouTube and While the owls might be great, they're far from perfect.

We'll be talking about that with everybody after break.

Okay, cool. And then I will touch on this again at the very end, but the moose sounds might be top of mind again. Bike radio. This is one of my favorite events this year. I'm a cyclist myself, so just giving a shameless plug for the bike radio this Saturday. Where are we? Down here, over, or wait, where are we? Yeah, over at Zion, Zion Lutheran Church, over on Twitter, times again on Saturday. They're on Facebook. They're on Facebook. And come out and see, you know, over the past couple of years, we had to take last year off because of my vacation schedule. So the chief and I are going to do a slow race. So that's one of the things I look forward to. So looking forward to seeing you Saturday morning. board meeting. I had a board meeting over this year, and I invited Council Member Frack to join me. Actually, the Inzettas let us have it over at Mama Gazzardi's, and it was a greatly attended event. I have nailed down September 15th, which is a Tuesday, I'm going to have a board meeting. I've asked Member Pierpont to join me at that meeting. I do not have a location just yet, but I wanted you guys to put it on your calendars. So what is a board meeting? The board one meeting is specifically meant for residents of board one. It is not a campaign speech. It's not a stump speech. It is simply just an opportunity to have an in-person conversation through concerns and thoughts. From members of residents of not generally not really people from other words, and this is specifically me as the boardroom Council person looking to hear from residents and whatnot so put it on your calendar Tuesday. And we'll have a location that we come back from. Next thing I want to talk about. You guys bear with me, I did type it. I've heard it said before, you never forget the kids you grew up with on your street. I grew up on Willoway Avenue, southeast of North Canyon. I can remember them all. Still talk to a couple, sad that some are no longer with us. A small few have been bartered in life. Brandon Schmidt was my younger sister's age. Her best friend, and man, he was a friend to everybody in the neighborhood and a regular presence in our house. After graduating from high school, Brandon changed something later. He joined the Marines. In fact, I can remember the day that he left for basic training. Brandon went on to see multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Brandon was not great for training. You see, Master Sergeant Brandon Michael Schmidt was a member of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, or MARSOC, also known as the Marine Raiders. For those who may not know, the Raiders are an elite special operations unit of the United States Marine Corps. The Raiders are often tasked with specialized missions, including direct action, counterterrorism, special reconnaissance, unconventional warfare, and foreign and internal defense. Over the course of his career, Master Sergeant Schmidt Through his courage, leadership, and sacrifice, he earned five Navy Commendation Medals with the device, a Navy Achievement Medal with the device, and a Purple Heart. Master Sergeant Schmidt honorably retired in 2023 after greatly serving his country for 20 years. 15 of those years were in Special Forces. I wanted to commemorate his story here for a while. I think it's most fitting to do so today. because we have just passed a one-year anniversary of his passing. While he was a loving husband to Nicole, the father to Jordan, Brandon had a mistress, as I think I once heard it described, skydiving. Someone like Brandon wouldn't be content with a relaxing, low-key, yet well-deserved retirement. So after leaving the Marines, he took some of what he learned and became a professional skydiver and skydiving instructor. is even credited in helping to create MARSOC's skydiving program. In total, Brandon had almost 3,000 jumps. Sadly, a mid-air collision during one of these jumps on July 9th, 2025 took his life. It is my most sincerest hope that by telling you all about North Canton native, Master Sergeant Brandon Michael Schumer, in meetings here tonight, that this true hometown hero live on in his hometown's council minutes, the city of North Canton's reported history for all time. Today, Brandon can be found, today, Brandon can be found among this nation's greatest heroes in our international ceremony. His parents, Mike and Cheryl, can still be found on the roadway back to the southeast. If you know Mike and Cheryl, give them a hug. If you know a veteran, to thank them for their service and sacrifice for this great nation. More importantly, if one of those kids, one of those kids we freaking grew up on became a truly incredible person, a true hero, take a moment to tell them that she's not crap. So I want to do this before we went to summary minutes. Liam, I would like to email this to you in hopes that you can include this in this entirety in our minutes for this evening's meeting. So thank you. Okay.

Final call for new business? Seeing none of the meeting's calendars, we are moving to summer reset. And now on August 10th, our next meeting 17th, starting with the public hearing, and then the whole. And the city council meeting. So we're going to be packed full at 6.45 for the public hearing, ongoing at 16-2026, followed by the committee of the whole and the city council meeting. Seeing nothing else, I will make a motion to adjourn. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.