City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the Yria City Council meeting for Monday, March 2nd, 2026. Please turn your cell phones off or put them on silent out of respect for the council chambers. We'll have a moment of reflective silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Mr. Van Warmer, would you lead us in the

pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Clerk, may we have roll call, please? Yes, Madam President. Mr. Sarah, here. Mr. Van Warmer here. Mr. Armstrong here. Miss Rothgary here. Miss Davis here. Mr. Tlette here. Mr. Lipian here.

Mr. Oswald here. Mr. Doni here. Mr. Schneider. Miss Mitchell here. We have an excused absent from Mr. Schneider. They will not be attending tonight's meeting. Can I get a motion, please? Second. Moved and properly second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Mr. Clerk, do we have any public hearings? There are none. Can I get a motion for approval of the minutes as circulated, please? So move. Second. moved and properly second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried.

We'll now have remarks and reports from city officials. Mayor Brewbaker.

Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Just two quick reminders, I guess. Uh the state of the city is Tuesday, March 17th at LC3. Um if you have not contacted uh Annie, Miss Karsten to advise whether you are or not going to be able to attend, please do so so we can get that number. And also uh as reported in the Chronicle, and I think I said it before, the groundbreaking for the public works complex uh will be Thursday the 19th of March at 1 PM. Uh Director Strozac has um acquired 11 um hard hats, 11 shovels for, you know, the 11 the council members as well as law director Deiri and the finance director and myself. and we'll also be opening that up for others to do groundbreaking on that day. So, please contact uh Annie on that as well if you're able to attend that. And that's all I have, Madam President.

Thank you, Mayor. Are there any questions for the mayor, Mr. Libya?

Thank you through you, Madam President. I remember what I was going to say to the mayor about the Amtrak station. I believe that it is slated for 2028 when the station is officially going to move unfortunately from Ward One but to a very nice location downtown at the historic train station. Can you confirm if that is still on track, pun not intended? And second, can you tell us if there's any plans on what to replace the Amtrak station with so we can strategically plan? Uh the fad president. Uh yes, we are in conversation with the county uh transportation folks in regards to the Amtrak station being moved. The the plan appears to be they're going to try to move it to the transportation center which was on the docket many years ago um and couldn't get through uh then the commissioners due to some indemnification issues. That is their current plan. Um, and then if that is actually done uh in that time frame and we've been talking to Amtrak, then the Amtrak station up by the medical station area there will go away if we're able to relocate that at the transportation center. I know it is the um the goal of the county commissioners, the port authority and others at the county is to utilize the transportation center um moving forward due to the fact that they got a lot of dollars from the federal government. Um but that is the current plan. for you, Madam President. So, we're still on track for 2028. That's what I read in the paper last time it was reported on.

Madame President, as of right now, yes. Okay, great. On track? Yes. Like a train. Love it. Thanks, Mayor. Are there any other questions for the mayor? Safety service director Pineowski.

Thank you through you. Uh we today swore in new fire chief Vargo. Uh he's here this evening. Thank you. and a number of you attended the swearing in which I appreciate. Thank you very much. Um after 37 years of service to the city of Alyri Fire Department, uh Chief Pernestie retired effective on Friday and so uh Chief Fargo has has taken the helm and we're excited for his leadership and his initiatives and some of the things that we've discussed. Um he's got a lot of enthusiasm and some good ideas and I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table. Uh, next Monday we'll have another swearing or another promotional ceremony at 3 pm here in council chambers where we'll be promoting one captain, uh, the fire department and four lieutenants. So, if you'd like to attend, um, please do. And, uh, that's all I have for today, but any any questions, I'm here to answer them.

Thank you. Any questions for safety service director? Law director Derry.

Thank you. Good evening through you, madame president. Uh just briefly, the uh administrative hearing uh concluded this afternoon. Uh the beastro on Taylor Street. Um and according to the hearing officer, uh we are likely to uh hear back from uh liquor commission in approximately 45 days or so. Um, obviously each side has the right to appeal and I would expect depending on what the decision is that there would be an appeal. Uh, but I did want to update you as to um the status.

Thank you. Any questions for the law director? Finance director Pleski. Thank you, Madam President. No report at this time.

Any questions for the finance director? Police Chief Walsh. Thank you. Any questions for Chief Walsh? Fire Chief Vargo. I'd like to thank Administration. Thank you. Any questions for Chief Vargo? Vargo, I'm sorry. I'll get it. Thank you, Engineer Schneider. Thank you, Madam uh president. Uh one item uh a update. Lol Street sanitary sewer sewer has been completed as far as installation. Right now they're out there restoring areas. A lot of the the roadway has been restored. Uh and hopefully come tomorrow morning we'll have it opened uh completely. But, uh, the sewer portion's done. They still have some clean up to do. Obviously, grass to grow, things of that nature, uh, driveways to to repave, but other than that, the sewer is in. Uh, and that's a good thing. Uh, also, uh, not to put anybody on the spot, but I have, uh, two wards have given me streets so far out of the seven. Uh, if I could get those by tomorrow, it' be great. Uh this way I could have hopefully pricing for

anything you may have that you may want. Uh and uh it just might help expedite the the process a little bit. This way I can get some some numbers to you and uh hopefully uh get that out the bid earlier. Uh also I would ask uh from council uh that I uh a referral be made. Uh earlier today we received a notification from ODOT that we needed some more legislation for the state route 57 and 301 project. So I would ask that uh uh that would be placed on the uh the next uh set of meetings because they have a timeline that they'd like to have all the legislation passed by and if we don't do it tomorrow or start the process we won't we'll be behind a little bit. So I just ask that that be placed on the referral list.

So we'll make that referral to finance. Yes, we'll have it for the meeting on the scheduled meeting for the uh March the 9th. Okay. So we'll finance. Okay. Thank you. So before Mr. Snder answers any questions, two out of seven wards have turned their streets in. I'm one of them. So you guys need to [laughter] get me Well, you already knew that. Oh, you're one, too. Okay. Can you guys please get your streets in before Wednesday? I'll be checking. Any questions for Engineer Snider? Thank you, John. Thank you. Um, that's it. Okay.

President's referrals and rematises. Number one, community development. Number two, planning commission, community development. Number three, planning commission, community development. Number four, community development, finance. Number five, finance. Number six, finance. Number seven, finance. Number eight, finance. Number nine, utilities. Um items 10 through 11 place received and placed on file in the clerk's office. Petitions and remases from the lobby.

We have one madam president, Miss Teresa Shay to talk about the no pack grant. I stand corrected mad madam president. There are two. Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Shay. Please give your name and address for the record, please.

Uh Terresa Shay, 519 East Avenue, Lyrio, Ohio. This will just be short and sweet. Um to all who brought about it uh accepting and getting the NOEC grant for the repair of residents heating and cooling systems. I wish to thank you even before council votes on its acceptance and use. It will give many hope where there was has been no hope and help that is needed. What a wonderful program that will hopefully help me and others. It brings on wonderful energy to all and brightens the city of Valyria and its people. Thanks so much. It's just lovely. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Shay. We have Mr. Leon Robinson regarding uh rebranding of the Lorraine Nexus Hub to the Lorraine Liri Oberlin Nexus Hub. Mr. Robinson, please give your name and address for the record, please.

Um, Leon Robinson, 404 Furnace Street, Liry, Ohio. Well, good evening, mayor and members of the city council. For the record, my name is Leon P. Robinson III, founder and CEO of Ampair Twin. I am here tonight to follow up to my previous remarks to formally propose a transformation transformative regional partnership that will revolutionize the economic landscape of our entire area based on further strategic planning. I am pron pleased to announce we are rean rebranding this project from the Lraine Nexus to the Leo Nexus hub. The name change reflects our commitment to a tri city partnership spanning Lraine, Ayria, and Overland. The Leo Nexus hub is designed to unite the unique strengths of all three communities into a singular powerhouse economic zone. To be perfectly clear on our capability and pure twin is currently self-valued at 41.5 billion as the founder and primary stakeholder disposition my personal equity state approximately 1.8 billion to 2.4 billion on paper. I am presenting these figures to assure the council that our firm has the immense financial capacity required to develop this worldclass facility from the ground up entirely on our own. This is not a concept project seeking municipal funding. It is a private investment ready to move immediately. The Leo Nexus hub is designed to be a generational economic engine for our combined communities. Through this investment, we are projected to create and support over 10,000 jobs across the region. This include high salary engineering, tech,

and management positions as well as thousands of skilled construction and support roles during the development phase. Furthermore, this will generate substantial tax revenue for our schools, infrastructure, and public services without burdening the taxpayer. We are ready to move quickly. To do so, we need the council support in two key areas to help move this project forward. And that's one, establishing a regional enterprise zone covering the designated site to support the investment. And two, streamlining the permit process across the Lraine Lyria Oberlin municipalities to master accelerated pace of modern industrial development. In short, we bring the resources, we bring the 10,000 jobs, and we ask for your partnership to make this a reality. I have submitted the full proposal detailing the timeline and economic breakdown. I look forward to working with you to bring the Leo Nexus Hub to life. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Robinson. reports of standing and special committees. Uh, madame president, we do have um petitions or remarks from council members. We do have two, please.

Council member Andrew Lipian, 2026 street reservicing, fixing the worst streets first. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Council Clerk. Here's the simple question. Should we spend street money evenly or where the worst streets actually are? We paid for a street scan in Ayria. It tells us which roads are poor or failing. Not cracked, not worn, but failing. Here's how the worst streets break down according to that metric. Ward 4, 23% of the worst streets in Yria. Ward two, 20%. Ward one, 18%. W 7 14% W five and six are both 11% and W three 3%. We have about I understand $2.3 million fingers crossed for paving which is great and that's a credit to council president her commitment to paving the roads. If we split it evenly each ward gets 14.29% about 328,000. That sounds fair. We want to go for datadriven distributions. If 23% of the worst streets are in W 4, then 23% of the money should go there. If 3% are in W three, then 3% should go there. Equal money is not the same as smart money. When conditions aren't equal, equal funding doesn't fix the problem. We paid for the data. Let's use it. My proposal is to allocate the funds based on each ward's share of failing streets. Recalculate it after the next scan. Try it for a year. Fix the worst streets first. That's efficient and that's transparent. Now, that's how we stretch 2.3 million as far as possible. I ran this by W3 resident Gary Toutch this morning or sorry, this this evening. He's right over there. Uh he says it's a logical idea even though W three only gets 3%. So he says fix the worst streets first. So I appreciate that Gary and I'd like to bring a proposal to utilities committee to consider just a one pager and I would like to note for the council record that I'm finishing at

1 minute and 47 seconds. Thank you, Mr. Lithian. Mr. Cliffstein is sitting out there and he's my ward resident and if we're at what did you say six was 11% that means I would only get 11% of the money which that means some of the streets that are bad super bad in my ward would not get done. So it's a conversation we can have most definitely but anyway Mr. Just do it. Who else there? Yes, there is one more. Um, council member uh Matthew Van Warmer recognition to to the south park wreck central and parks and wreck for a successful youth basketball session.

Mr. Van Warmer.

Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, just wanted to take a m minute minute to shout out uh the parks and recreation department, especially uh Civil Roseboro for the wonderful six-week program that was in place for kids ages, I mean, I think it was five all the way up to nine or 10. And uh just to see members of the community out supporting these kids as they're learning the game of basketball. I was able to coach a team. Um, just very rewarding to work with kids and see the joy they get from getting better uh at the sport of basketball or anything. Um, so I just wanted to really let the residents know there are programs out there. There's a whole booklet out for all the programs available through our parks and recck department and the things that they're doing, the programs they're putting on are very worthwhile and worth every penny. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Van Warmer. That's all uh reports and remantises from the council members. Thank you, clerk. May I have the reports of of standing and special committees, please? There are none. Resolution's first reading. We have one, a resolution adopting the 2025 report of the Liria Tax and Center Review Council and declaring an emergency. Mrs. Roth Gary. Madame President, I move that this ordinance be passed on its first reading under suspension of rules and declaring an emergency. Second. It's been moved and proply second.

Question on the suspension. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. On the emergency, all in favor say I. I. Opposed. On the passage, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Resolution 2026-7.

That's all. Resolutions first reading. Resolution second reading. There are none. Resolutions. Third reading. There are none. Ordinances. First reading. An orance authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids and enter into contract for the Middle Avenue sidewalk replacement project. Mr. Total. Madame President, I ask that this ordinance be passed in its first reading under suspension of rules. Second. It's been moved and properly second. Any questions or further discussion? Call for the question on the suspension. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. On the passage, all in favor say I. I

oppose. Motion carried. Ordinance, excuse me. Ordinance 2026-27 sponsored by Community Development and Finance in order to authorize the mayor to enter a community uh reinvestment area tax incentive agreement with Buckeye State Welding and Fabrication Incorporated and declaring emergency. Miss Vosgary. Madame President, I move that this ordinance be passed on its first reading under suspension of rules and declaring an emergency. Second. On the suspension, all those in favor say I. I.

Pardon me. I'm sorry. It's been moved and properly second. Is there any further discussion? Question. Thank you, [clears throat] Mr. Oswall. Uh, just a comment. I just wanted to thank Buckeye Welding for investing. I think it was over $2 million and I think this was maybe a year ago they were talking about doing this and maybe they had to put it on hold. So that's going to help out that that area over there and they're going to bring some more people in. So thank you very much Buckeye Welding. Thank you. Any further questions or discussion? Call for question on the suspension. All in favor say I. I opposed on the emergency. All in favor say I. I opposed on the passage. All in favor say I.

I. Opposed. Motion carried. Ordinance number 2026-28. Sponsored by community development and finance in orders establishing the residential HVAC energy efficient grant program. Mrs. Rothgary. Madame President, I move that this ordinance be passed on its first reading under suspension of rules. Second. It's been moved and properly second. Is there any further discussion or questions? Question. On the suspension, all in favor say I. I. Opposed. On the passage, all in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Motion carried. Ordinance 2026-29. F by Community Development Finance, an ordinance authorizing the Yria Skills City Promise Program agreement with Lorraine County Community College for the calendar year 2026. Mrs. Roth Gary. Madame President, I move that this ordinance be passed on its first reading under suspension of rules. [clears throat] Second. It's been moved and properly second. Any further questions or discussion? Question on the suspension. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. On the passage. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Ordinance 2026-30. Sponsored by community development. An ordinance amending section 1305.01 2024 edition adopted. codified ordinances of the city of Valyria. Mrs. Ross Gary. Madame President, I move that this ordinance be passed on its first reading under suspension of rules. Second. It's been moved and properly second. Is there are there any questions or further discussion? Question.

On the suspension, all in favor say I. I. Opposed. On the passage, all in favor say I. Opposed. Motion carried. Ordinance 2026-31. That's all first ordinances readings. Ordinances. Second reading.

We have one. An ordinance authorizing an ordinance amending certain provisions of the LI codified ordinance part 11 planning and zoning code to be effective May 1st, 2026. I declare this ordinance has had it second reading. Public hearing is scheduled for March 16, 2026. That's all of second reading ordinances. Ordinance is third reading. There are none.

Committee calls. Utilities request committee members, mayor, law director, finance director, safety service director, and the engineer to meet on Wednesday, March the 4th, 2026 at 6 p.m. in council chambers. Committee development request committee members, mayor, the mayor, the law director, finance director, safety service director, and the engineer to meet on Monday, March the 9th, 2026, beginning at 6 pm. Finance Committee requests committee members, the mayor, law director, finance director, safety service director, engineer to meet on Monday, March the 9th, 2026 immediately following the community development meeting. Joint committee um CD and finance is request all council members, the mayor, law director, finance director, safety service director, engineer to meet on 39 2026 immediately filing the finance meeting. Strategic planning request all council members the mayor safety service director finance director law director to meet on 316 2026 immediately find the full council meeting.

Thank you Mr. Clair. That's all committee calls.

Thank you. Under uh miscellaneous and unfinished business. I have something. Um Mr. Armstrong asked us to ask this council to form a um EMS study committee, ambulance review committee, and we have gotten people for that committee. And I want to let you all know who they are. For the administration and safety service director Pineowski, law director Derry, and finance director Pleski. From council, it will be Councilman Bradley Armstrong, Councilman Jack Sarah. from the community it will be Mr. Larry Cliffstein and Mrs. Sharon Fukcon they are in the process of getting together when they're going to meet. Um so those meetings will be announced and forthcoming. The second thing is again I urge you all to get your street list into Mr. Schneider before Wednesday.

All or the rest Mr. What did you say? Did you all the rest of them? Mr. Pionowski, please. Thank you. Through you. I did get confirmation. I was just waiting to hear from Miss Furkron. It looks like uh next Thursday the 12th at 6 PM uh does work for everybody on the committee. So, we will plan to um put out notices and and and uh meet for the first time then. Thank you so much. Is there any Mr. Tlette

through you, Madam President? Um, I encourage all council members, we will be uh revisiting uh the city budget a week from tonight. Please, between now and Monday, please reach out to uh Director Pleski or Mr. Pharaoh with any questions that you may have. Um it's we need to pass our city budget two weeks from tonight. So, um, please reach out to, uh, Director Pleski. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Tot. Any others? Seeing none, Mrs. Davis. Seeing none, at this time, I make a motion that we dismissed from council.

Second. It's been moved and properly second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Good night, everyone. Thank you for coming.