City Council - Regular Meeting

Good

evening, and welcome to the City of Green Council meeting for Tuesday, 03/24/2026. I'd like to call this meeting to order. And let us start with the Pledge of Allegiance led by, Ben from Troop three thousand

three hundred thirty four.

Thank you, Ben.

Thank you, Ben.

Alright. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll of council members?

Sure. Mr. Brandenburg?

Here.

Mr. Noble? Here. Mr. Spate? Here. Mr. Nugibar?

Here.

Mr. Humphrey? Here. Mr. DeVitus. Here. And Mr. Maker.

Here. Thank you, ma'am. And now for council study sessions, we have two items. First is TMP 5,294, approval of the 03/10/2026, council meeting minutes. Motion

to approve.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Neugebauer? Yes. Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. DeBitis?

Stain.

And Mr. Mager?

Yes.

Okay. Motion carries.

Thank you, ma'am. Next is TMP 5,300 approval of the February 2026 financial I'm sorry, electronic financial report subject to audit. Motion to approve.

Second. We have a motion

and a second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll.

Mr. Nujibar?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg? Yes. Mr. Noble? Yes. Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. DeVittas?

Yes.

And Mr. Mager?

Yes.

All right. Motion carries.

Thank you, ma'am. And next on our agenda is a presentation from George Kemp, the Director of Construction Relations for Lumos Fiber, and he will be giving us a presentation on fiber installation and the process through green.

Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Steve Kristen. I'm not George. George is

going to come up in

just a moment. And we've got a couple of people here that I wanted to introduce. But on the way over here, I was thinking about 2009. 2009. What happened in 2009?

Recession.

The Indians did not win the pennant. The Yankees did. The Browns didn't win the Super Bowl. New Orleans did. But in August 2009, the city of Green took an innovative approach to the roads and put the first roundabout in. And I think about it now because I was here back then. I had worked in Corporal Woods Parkway, and I remember fighting the traffic on Masson Road. And how you were innovative when you took that concept that I think a lot of people didn't really agree with right away. And now what do you have? Twelve, thirteen, 14 of those?

Somewhere around there.

In fact, if you do the math, you guys are right behind Dublin. I think Dublin has 17 in the most roundabouts. And that's important because the city of Green is known for innovation. And so I want to transcend that into what we're talking about today with fiber. The world knows that fiber is the way to go.

And we can look at what Hudson's done with fiber, what Fairlawn's done with fiber. Even the CEO of AT and T in a press release in May said fiber is the best broadband technology out there. So it happened several months ago that we came to town. And what we wanted to do is talk to you a little bit more about how that project is going. It's a lot of good news. It's a good news statement. We've got about ten minutes, I think, Mayor, to talk, and then we've got plenty of time for questions and answers. I've got my business card. George is going to come up as the Director of Construction Support. And we also have Matt West with us.

Matt is our Director of Construction. So I'm going hand off to them and say thank you for your time. It's been a great build so far, and we're looking forward to completing more of it. So, George?

Sounds good. Well, really appreciate you guys letting us have the opportunity to be able to come tonight. Sorry that I wasn't here at the beginning. I probably should have come two or three months before we got started to be able to introduce us and let you guys know who we are and what you can expect. I I'm thinking that maybe Steve may have come, and he may have spoken to you guys.

Hopefully, he did to let you know that. But I want you guys to hear one thing from us. We've said over and over and again in every single city that we go into, and I want the the the constituents to hear this as well, is that when it comes to Lumos fiber, the number one thing that we get, and it may not always look like that, but in the end, hopefully, you always see that it is true, is that we understand that we want to truly show all of the residents, all the constituents that we care about you guys, and we're gonna take care of you. Because if we don't take care of you guys in the the the construction stage, restoring your yards, making sure that we have the best safety possible, they're not gonna want to actually take our service. You're gonna say, why why would we want your service of of of high speed fiber when you didn't take care of us and listen to us during the construction phase?

Why is it you didn't restore our yards the way you should have when you actually came in and and did the construction process? That's who we are. We care about you. You may you may not know about some of the other stories about some of the other fiber companies, some of the other big boys that are out there, that are building. We come behind a lot of them a lot of times. And the cities will actually tell us, you're gonna have a hard time because these other companies that have come before you, they have totally destroyed the city. They didn't actually restore the way they're supposed to. We cannot get in touch with that fiber company. Their contractors are actually gone now, and they don't care at all about us. But we actually show you something different.

We try to communicate over and over again upfront, sending a letter to your home to be able to let you know, this is who we are, this is what you can expect, here's some contact information that you can contact us if you have any issues. Then we have the yard darts, and then we have the the door hangers that we put in two weeks and one week before construction. We have the daily street sheets that we give to your your city folks so that you guys can know on a daily basis where are we. We want you to know. We wanna be transparent.

And then different than a lot of other fiber builders is that we actually have our own employees here in the city. Most of the time, if you even know that the fiber construction has started with the other folks, you go out there and take a look, it's just the prime contractor. Contractor. You You won't won't see see that other company's employees out there. But with us, we've got Matt West.

Matt, can you just stand up for a second so everybody can see you? This is the most amazing if I can tell you if we can actually duplicate him and put him in every single market, I would absolutely be just in awe because this guy is amazing. You guys can actually call Youngstown and Warren and Gerard and all those other areas over there where he started for us, and they will tell you the amazing job that he has done. He left us for a couple of months, and in that time, the people he trained to take his place kept right on going with the same great quality and the same great restoration, all of that that we would expect of of him. And he has now got the entire director position for all of Northeast Ohio, so he's gonna be watching over.

He wants to create that same exact team here. I do wanna apologize. You guys saw some frequency of restoration issues and some utility strikes that were happening here in the last three or four months that that that whenever you see something like that happening, what I've always tried to teach folks is that our folks need to make sure, hey. Look at the frequency, it better start decreasing. You you should always be trying to work on why are those things happening and what can we do to try and mitigate those.

And so that is something I'm always trying to hammer home. And Matt is one he and I go back way before this company together, and that is one thing that he taught his folks over there in the Youngstown area and did a great job with that as well. So I don't expect anything less of him here. I believe that we're going be able to see some of those utility hits and restoration issues not even ever show up again. So hopefully, that's what it will look like. Matt, do you want to say something?

Yes. There's a microphone if

you don't want

to stand a time.

No, but if you wanted to say something.

Hello, everyone. We had great success in Mahoning and Trumbull, it starts from the top. So the training that gets down to the contractors, even the subcontractors, has to start from me. So proper training from the beginning, from the top down, educating to minimize the risk and the strikes is extremely important. Nobody wants a strike. Even if it's not our fault, everybody sees Lumos. So I will get those I will get the strikes reduced. I'm over Stark Summit and Lorain Cuyahoga, like George said, Northeast Ohio. So, I look forward to working with you. I met mister Bridget.

What's that? The zoning engineer or the civil engineer.

Oh. Pickett. Mister Pickett. Oh, mister Pickett.

There you are. Sorry. I couldn't remember your name.

I met with him last

week with our construction manager. I also hired a second construction manager. He's starting Monday, so we have more eyes on crews. Like I said, it starts from top down. So that's all I got. Thank you very much.

Matt, do we have a percentage? Did you get an answer back in? So just to share with you guys as far as expectations go, we were originally expecting hopefully somewhere around early fall that we should be finishing up here in Green. That's what our expectation is. So Green should have high speed fiber to the home for your residents. And, you know, even the last homes that we hit, usually within sixty days or less, they should be able to have access to it. So as soon as our construction gets done in front of their home, within sixty days, they can actually be lit up and and ready with high speed fiber Internet.

Yes. Fall completion, I don't have an exact percentage right now.

Sorry about that.

Still fall completion.

Yeah. Any questions that you guys have for us? How can we help you guys tonight?

Real quick, sir. I would just like to ask, I know that you guys do have a one eight hundred number available to residents if there are any issues that occur during the process. Can you, just for the record, state that number?

I will. And then I'll also give you these cards as as they will go. And, actually, you've got a couple extra if I need a few few more. This card right here, all those pieces of information I shared with you, that letter that goes to the home, the the yard darts, all those things, it has the same exact information on it. So I wanna share with you guys. And and this is something I'm I'm proud of as well. We created these things after I came to the company because I realized the need to get these into everyone's hands. The number is 1809059017. If you call that number I mean, actually, I love this one. You're you've got an awesome mayor, and I'm not just saying that, but because we actually met with him the last time a few weeks ago, and he says, prove it.

And so we gave him the number. He got his cell phone out. He called it, and I was like, oh, boy. Please let it work the way it's supposed to be working. Because I hadn't tested it in a while. And he called it. Sure enough, he pulled it up. They answered, and they were so nice and polite. And he was just to let them know, hey, I'm just checking out to make sure that this is the real deal. And everything went really, really well.

So your mayor is actually even checking on y'all's behalf to make sure that this is what we say it is. And and one thing I'll share with you guys, I've got my own business cards here that I'd love to give everyone. But I'll tell you, at the end, if you were to come up to me and tell me you have an issue, I'm probably gonna forget before I actually walk out the door because I have so many things that people are talking to me about. I always give them this card, I tell them, if you call this, these guys are required, our call center, to open up a ticket. They'll open up a ticket, and it's not gonna be allowed to be closed until we know the person who called it in is satisfied.

Within twenty four hours, they're supposed to have a response from that homeowner, resident, city official, whoever it is, knowing that we totally understand what your situation is, and then we're supposed to take care of those within a number of one to two days. And let I'll let Matt actually tell you what his requirements are for his team. I actually have

stricter requirements. When a complaint, anything is processed through that construction support number, gets put into a tracker. I want that homeowner contacted within one hour. A lot of times it's just information. Hey, what are you doing in my yard? What you know, the who, what, when, where, how, why. A lot of those can be answered and completed within an hour. If it's a restoration issue, I want it completed within twenty four hours. If we're still constructing, end of week at the latest. If we have concrete issues, sidewalk, driveway issues, I want them completed in a timely manner.

Three weeks, month max. Sometimes we have restoration that we can't complete during the winter. Obviously, we have to work February, March when the weather breaks. But I take that very seriously, tracking, because we want good relationship with the homeowner because we want to be a customer. So I take those very serious, and I do track those daily.

Thank you. And to let you know, those items that he mentioned that may have to be put off because it's wintertime, they're still kept on that tracking list. It's still on there. And I'll tell you, the lady who's actually over that call center, I she knows I say this, but she's like a pit bull to these guys. She will not let go until she sees those items come off that list. So coming to the the the nice, warmer months now, she's gonna be getting on all these different markets saying, hey. You put these things on hold because of weather. It's good weather now. You should be able to get concrete. You should be able to get asphalt. Get out there, let's get these things done. So that's how we take care of folks. Any other questions?

All right. At this time, I'd like to open it up to counsel if you guys have any questions for these gentlemen.

Mr. Maker? Just a couple of things. So first, just thank you because it's a big investment for T Mobile and Lumos to put this in the city. With any large scale project like this, I expected a lot of issues. I am getting a lot of calls as a work council member, but it's actually less than I thought it would be. And I guess it's just a testament to the craftsmanship that you guys have employed in installing the fiber. Everything's resolved yet. And when I get a call, I basically say, hey, they're supposed to post a placard or some kind of thing with this number out there, I do believe that's been done. And I say, listen, I can pick up the phone and call the mayor to call you guys or you could just call them.

And then if you don't get a response, a satisfactory response or resolution, call us back and we'll go to the mayor and put pressure. So I know not every issue has been resolved. I know people have put complaints in. But frankly, in my experience, there's been a lot less issues than I was expecting this type of project. So thank you.

Thank you. We appreciate that. And I'm going to send around, a couple of extras

as well in

case I miscounted, some of my business cards. And I always say, folks, I don't I'm not a historian, I can't remember who actually said it. Wasn't it one of the Roosevelt's that actually said the buck stops with me? I've actually coined that phrase as well for myself. And so I let everyone know. Who was it?

Mary Truman. Mary Truman.

Was it Truman?

Yeah. Sorry.

See, I'm not a historian. Y'all y'all know that. I'm fiber builder, but not a historian. So Truman said, so the buck stops with me, guys. And and I say that even though some of these guys don't report straight to me, I've got the ear of the people that they all report to, and they all know that if they don't do what they're supposed to, I'm gonna make sure it gets done. So I'm gonna give you guys my card so you don't actually have to go to the mayor if if it doesn't if you hear it didn't get done. You come to me, I'm gonna yank the chain. But with him here, I'm not gonna have to do that now. But any other questions?

Yep. Mr. Noble?

So I haven't heard anything, by the way. I'm in Ward 4, so the Northwest Quadrant of the city. And so I think it's it's been a little bit slower to get over to my side. So I haven't had any things, but I know that there's been a number of things. So for the times when we're getting there's Facebook chatter and there's calls to the mayor, I mean, we have these yard darts, whatever you're calling on and whatnot, and you say it has this. Can you give a little bit of a what's the what's the situation where people aren't aren't just getting getting it that they need to call this and that they they're they're where they're just there's there must be a there must be at some point with some of these a breakdown of communication because they're still they're still confused. Right? Following you. Well,

door hangers go out usually thirty days prior to construction. Same with yard darts. Sometimes there's delays. If we're not started, you know where those go, trash can. So, I don't know if the city has anything posted for that construction support number on your website, for the build. Also, like I said, I hired another construction manager. There's some changes I'm making. So I can send a list to you with everybody's name, and feel free to contact me. I'm I have no problem giving out my number to the if somebody calls you versus the construction support because it's gonna come back to us. The thing we like about the construction support is it's logged and it's tracked. That way if there's issues Yeah. So

I will say that I don't the previous company that was in did a lot of stuff in my ward where they hit a bunch of gas lines. They tore through some AT and T lines. They did a lot of the things, right? And so I haven't heard that. And so you've addressed the issue in saying, hey, we got to get our hits down. We got to get our hits down. We understand the directional boring processes. It's a little bit of a thing, but to the point it's faster, it's less disruptive trenching. And we so I think we all get that. So I think the mayor and the administration is going to hold you to less hits, less hits.

Let's be more careful with this. So I appreciate that comment. Goal Is for this fiber to cover, I'm going to say, 100% of the citizens of the city? And when I say that, I'm going to ask a question. I live, like, on a street that doesn't we don't I live on a private road that's gravel, that only has pole access. There's right? And so what are we doing? Are we what is the plan? Is it is it really 100%? It's most? What what's

So one thing that you always have to remember too is that we have access to any public road. That's no problem at all. If the private roads are ones where we will actually have to find out who it is that actually owns the road, then we will have to talk to them to actually get an agreement to to be able to come down. So a lot of HOAs, if those are private entrances and roads and they take care of themselves, we have to actually those HOA communities, may not be able to go into those. We'll actually put our box up front. And while we're communicating with them, trying to negotiate with them to to get their approval to come in, it'll be sitting there ready for us to then just go right straight into their community. So, yes, we're going to every every part of the city. But the private areas, we've got to get permission first before we do that.

So in the case of situations like that, I mean, do you have any locations where you're going pole mounted and doing pole leases with FirstEnergy?

Yes. Usually, percentage is that we'd love to do eighty-twenty, where 80% is underground, 20% is aerial. Just because pole attachment agreements are now ranging anywhere between nine months at the minimum to twelve months, we we just can't get those pole attachment agreements fast enough to be able to build out the city. So usually, it's a 100% is all underground because just it it takes way too long to be able to do that. But if you're if you've got the electric utility on poles coming down your private road, we can always work with them to to get an agreement at some time to come down the road. Or if it's your private road and you own it, then we can get your approval. We can bore right straight down that road and and bring it to you. There's just a number of options.

Drop a box at the road and go aerial with a service drop.

So if somebody if somebody in the city, including me, wants to know if their house is in the plan to be serviced based on the current plan, how do they go about that?

Yeah. They can one of two ways. The construction support, it'll trickle down to us to see if service is available. I don't know if any other number we have for installation.

Yeah. I mean, so If they're serviceable, you wanna know.

Yeah. That's correct.

Yeah. If I'll get

you my number. If you have those questions, I can even investigate your private road.

Can you talk into the microphone? They're having a hard time hearing you.

Sorry about that. I'm bad at that. Yeah.

I'll I'll give you I'll give

you guys my number, give everyone here my number. I can research that. If construction support, if you put, is this address serviceable? They may route you to installation. I'm not sure how that process works, but if you see anybody out in the field, talk to them. We can get you that answer. Or if you give me an address, I can get you the answer first thing in the morning.

Okay. Thank you. I mean, I just we've had some previous conversations about competition and what it means to our consumers consumers in the area. And some areas will be, I think, more challenged than others. I think the hope would be that that competition exists everywhere and that will help drive the market. So I think in my case, for me personally, but there's other people that are in situations like me that would like to see a choice, right? And so we understand there's challenges with that, but we'd like to make that choice happens in a number of locations. So thank you.

Oh, yeah. Thank you.

Absolutely. And just to follow-up on your earlier question too, just so everyone can see this and everyone who's actually logging in online to be able to see the meeting tonight. The letter that goes out, we know that people will probably throw this in a trash can because they think it's just an advertisement. So on the front of the envelope, we try to write construction notice so they know maybe, hey. Maybe there's something coming. I need to open this and take a look at it. It's got all that information on there to get them started asking us questions. When he was talking about the yard darts, that's this little thing that actually is on a little stick that goes into your front yard. And then this one right here is is the door hanger. And they all have that same exact contact information on it, and and that's what you can expect to see.

And as far as the competition goes, yeah, I mean, I always give everybody advice. So if you've got some folks that are like my parents' age and and they say, you know what? I don't need high speed fiber Internet. I still tell them, hey. I wanna save you money on your bill. Now that you've got competition out there, just call your current provider. You tell them that, hey. I want to talk to whoever it is that's going to cut my service off here in the next month because I'm going to switch over to the fiber one. You've got to say something like that, then they're actually going get on the phone and they're going to tell you, oh, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. We want to keep you. And they'll reduce you down below probably our rate to to to keep you. So, but they may you may have to do that every so often because they'll try and continue to try and jack you back up again.

The difference is the product.

Yes. I can attest that did work.

I saved quite a bit of money. Yeah.

Mr. President?

Anyone else?

Yeah. First of all, think the communication plan is very, very good. I know when it came through my neighborhood, it kind of worked the way it was supposed to, and I thought it So was very that's very, very helpful, and I commend you for doing that. I'm glad that you're responsive because when people I think there's a lot of confusion that people have. When when somebody's in their yard, they don't understand that there's an easement.

And I think just the education process is helpful. I'm very thankful that our mayor has taken a proactive approach on this, helping residents work through these issues and kind of being an interface with you so that those things get addressed because the people feel very strongly about them. As you know, because you hear the complaints, they feel very, very strongly about them. And so we want to make sure that they get resolved. And the final thing I'll say is if you haven't watched the folks who are actually doing the work, digging the holes by hand, As I was out campaigning in the fall, I got to know a bunch of the people because I'm walking through the neighborhoods and I'm seeing the same people again and again.

But stepping back and watching these people work and seeing the hard work that they were doing, I was just in awe at the work that they have to do. And there's a lot going on where they're digging. So there's a lot in those rights of way. And I was just amazed at the hard work and how diligent they were about their work. And so I know we can get upset when people are in our yard or in these areas, but just watch these folks and really be nice to them because they're working really, really hard.

I appreciate that. Thank you. Mr.

Nuchibar? Yes. A couple of questions. How many miles of fiber do you figure you're running in City Green? Do you know that answer?

No, sorry. But we can get you that number.

Yes, I'd be curious. So the issue of bringing fiber to green has been an issue for probably the last ten years minimum. There was a model where Fairlawn brought fiber to their community. But I think the community probably needs to understand that they went out and got financing. They financed $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 to bring fiber service to their community.

They are 6.5 square miles. Green is 33.5 square miles, so over 5x the size. And so if you were to just take a comparison, dollars 15,000,000 for 6.5 square miles, perhaps that projection to do the entire city green, 50,000,000 to $60,000,000 on the same program that what Fairlawn did. So it was probably never a really good option for the city to bond and finance, bringing fiber to every home at a price tag of $50,000,000 And so we've had other companies do spot areas. AT and T has done some.

Mr. Noble, I don't know who came into your you're an AT and T community. So they've done some spot areas. But what's really encouraging, we tried and tried and tried to get somebody to invest in doing what you're doing now, because we know how important it is, but it was more financially than we wanted to take on ourselves. And so we're extremely pleased that you're bringing fiber to our community because fiber is really important for a lot of reasons.

It's going be more involved in health care as you see telehealth options, education, all the varying aspects of our life that it's important to. And so I'm thankful that you're bringing the service to every street in Green, maybe even some private streets. So I just wanted to make that point. And I think it's really going to serve our community. We do appreciate the effort.

So I always said, well, there might be some pain getting this. If you needed gas service, if you need electric service, obviously, they're going to tear things up to bring it in. So we appreciate that you're trying to be careful and responsive to our residents as possible because I think the benefit is great, but if you can minimize the pain, that's wonderful. And you're right, I've seen people mad enough at AT and T that I'm not getting service from them because they did this, right? So you understand that.

So we appreciate it. And the last thing I want to say is that I have I had residents when I sat in that seat, the mayor seat, that like, for example, on Killinger Road, where there's no there's nothing. Even spectrum doesn't go there because there's not many houses, right? And so they would get like a price tag to bring coax down to their house of like $50,000 right? So that's what they heard from a supplier.

So I just want to make the point. This is a fantastic thing that we're serving every corner of the city, every street, and this is really a positive. But thanks so much for being so reactive. And again, Mr. Mayor, appreciate you've been driving this. We know there is a lot of strikes early on, but seeing the continual improvement is really important to our residents. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Okay. Any other comments? Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. So a couple of questions that I know are on people's minds because I feel them. People are concerned that there are currently holes in their yards. What's the plan? Can you assure our residents you're coming back? And can you speak generally when that's going to happen?

So first of all, I want to see if Matt can speak to it, is that if they haven't already contacted that number that I shared with everyone and it's on that card, please have them contact that number so we've got a ticket for every one of those holes. Well, they can call it for their property. They don't have to call one in per hole. But as long as there's a ticket there, he's going be diligent right now to get all his tickets taken care of. He wants to get them all done and out of the way. But you can speak to him.

Yeah. And during the construction process, they want to bore down one side of the road then do all the cross shots. So some of the reasons you may see open bore pit, whether it's two by four over it or a cone over it, that cross shot may have not gotten cleared, they may not be able to locate gas. Those are a couple reasons why you would have those open pits. I don't like contractor to be on more than three roads. So that's one of the things I've worked on with Mahoning and Trumbull during my build. I don't want them on 10 roads with with a 100 pits open for that reason. I want flow. So I want them to build as they go. Those cross shots, I work with USIC Enbridge.

We have weekly locate meetings. We send out trackers with updates on where the priorities are to minimize that. It will get better, Mayor.

And so the for the record, the holes that are open, you intend to come back. Those are already on your radar screen.

Absolutely. Also, you have a sunken hand holes or a flower pot or when things settle, we have to go back in restoration. The contractor that works for us is on on the one year. We hold them responsible for it. After that one year, we're responsible for it. But everything's settling, construction, you know how that goes.

Residents are concerned about things like, you've dug up my yard. There's no grass in the area you were working. I see straw, but did you plant seed? Can you speak to whether that's already been done or do people need to call to make sure it's on the radar screen?

Seed and straw should be done at the time of restoration period. If there isn't seed and there's just straw, we know it's not going to work. If that person, whether you're speaking about a person specifically or hypothetically, have them call, put in a ticket. We will address that. But seed and straw, absolutely.

So the here's the thing I want to echo that people are particularly and rightly concerned about what happens in their yard, right?

Absolutely.

And so they hold us to a high standard when we're personally doing the construction. They're going to hold you to a high standard and that's an inherently sensitive issue. So I appreciate that you guys are on it. We're letting people know that if restoration isn't done, you're coming back. But I think what you're saying is the second part of the sentence is, if you're at all concerned, please call the number. Absolutely. And for the record, that number is (800) 905-9017. Call that number for any restoration concerns, right? Call it if the concern is, boy, you're it seems like you're digging deep into my yard. Are you sure you're in the right of way? If a resident is concerned about that, they should call you right away, right?

Yes. Anything construction related when it comes to our build. So if possibly out of right of way, bore pits left open, restoration issues, if somebody puts straw and it's not there's no seed and grass is not growing, anything that has been impacted because of our construction, call that number and we'll get it resolved.

The last thing I want to ask is, could you give us kind of a general approach to where you're going to be next and what it looks like going through the city throughout the summer?

We do have a build plan. I apologize. I'm ignorant. I didn't know I was going to speak tonight. We worked with that. We have a build plan. We're building from the light source out. So we have a plan. We also have a Google Earth Pro KMZ file that we can share, and we have shared. It goes month by month where we're building and where we're expanding. I can share that with you along with the percentage of footage completed, KMZ maps and any other questions. If we want to have a follow-up meeting to answer any questions, I'm here. I'm here every week. Mahoning and Trumbull is good. I've dedicated three days a week being in market Summit and Stark.

I guess the point I want to make to counsel is these guys have been responsive and issues have arisen. Mr. Mager is correct, anytime you have a construction project of this size throughout a city, things are going to happen. The thing I will say to you is, when residents have reached out to me and there's been any kind of pattern of concern, I've gotten you on the phone, you're in my office the next day, we're working through it, we're identifying issues and getting resolution. So thank you for being responsive.

What I want to say is and make the point, if residents are not satisfied with the number, I would send them to me because I want to know if it's one thing if there's a one off and a resident has one concern that is isolated. But if I'm hearing a bunch of residents saying the same thing, then I want to be able to call you back in and say what's going on, right? Absolutely. But I need to know from my councilman and residents where the concerns are. And so I welcome the calls.

If after reaching out to this 800 number, residents' concerns are not being resolved, I sincerely want them to call my office so that we can arrange the meetings that we've been having all along. So if you could bear that in mind, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Those are my questions.

Thank

you. Mr. Nugibauer? Yes. Matt, I'm going to do this for you again, terminology. So you mentioned flower pot. And

of course,

I know the industry. So why don't you explain to everybody here what you mean by flower pot because it's not the clay thing you have in your yard right now?

Yeah. All of our boxes are flush mounts. We have different size hand holes depending on what size fibers in there, how many splice cases are going to be in there. And then what I refer to as a flower pot, a little irrigation control valve box about this big. There's usually two holes in the sides. In our case, there's not. We go up and underneath, put pea gravel in. Everything's flush mounted. That's what I'm referring to when I talk about a flower pot.

Mr. Maker? Just really quickly, I just want to just anybody who's listening or here tonight, don't be afraid to go and talk to people working in your yard. I had a situation where they were coming down my road. I saw where they're putting the system, and it was outside of my other utility box landscape. I go, can you move this over a little bit? Go, yeah, no problem. So just talking to them, say me, having to call the mayor to say, hey, what's going on with this? It would've been too late. So go out there and talk to them is what my advice would be. Just again, I want to thank the new mayor for his ingenuity getting this thing done. I could please

Rob, point is if a resident

has Microphone. Microphone. Sorry.

If a resident has an underground fence, anything like that that doesn't get located, let us know. And I know I get calls on that periodically. Somebody has an underground fence with a dog or something. Those are things that don't get

located, we may hit it.

And if there is a hit, you guys will come out and address it? Yes. You will fix that problem?

Yes. In fact, some of our guys actually travel. I was talking to the installation manager. He actually travels with that equipment in his truck just in case something happens to just speed up the restoration work.

Thank you. And sprinkler lines Are you seeing the situation?

Does that apply to the sprinklers too?

Yes, it does. Yeah. I mean, the thing is always remember with all of these things, back to what I said at the very beginning. We wanna make sure we take care of the homeowners. So even if it was something that when we call in an 811 locate ticket, and it's a pub and it's not a public utility that gets notified, like a sprinkler system or a a dog fence that's underground, we're gonna take care of those things for you because we wanna make sure that you're happy at the end of the day.

But if you let us know ahead of time where you think they are or that you've got them out in the yard, more than likely, those things are not gonna be the depth that we're gonna be boring. So we can try and make sure that we just totally bypass those and and that we won't hit them. But if we know that you've got something like that and we're supposed to put something on the edge of your yard, more than likely, those items are turning and they're coming up the edge of your yard. So we might be able to pull up a little bit short or do something different to try and avoid hitting those.

Okay. Any further questions or comments? Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming in this evening. We really appreciate all the transparency and all your hard work and making

Thanks, Dave.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

All right. Moving on the agenda. The next item is public report. Has anybody signed in to speak? Then we will move to public hearings. We do not have one this evening, so we will go to the reading of correspondence.

Okay. We have the 03/18/2026, Planning and Zoning Commission agenda, the 2025 Civil Service Commission annual report of activities, an email from Melanie Detilio Detilio regarding some issues at Central Park, and 02/11/2026 Civil Service Commission minutes. And that is all.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up is new legislation.

Okay. We have 2026 dash r 10, a resolution authorizing the city of Green to accept a safety intervention grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation for the purpose of funding two dump truck vibrators and declaring emergency.

That will be referred to the Transportation Connectivity and Stormwater Committee.

Twenty twenty six R11, a resolution awarding a contract to ArrowMark Company LLC for the 2026 pavement marking project and declaring emergency.

That will be referred to the Transportation Connectivity and Stormwater Committee.

Twenty twenty six dash r 12, a resolution awarding a contract to Barbacus Construction Company, Inc. For the twenty twenty six resurfacing project and declaring emergency.

That will also be referred to the Transportation Connectivity and Stormwater Committee.

2026 dash r 13, a resolution authorizing the mayor to apply for a hazardous materials training grant from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, PUCO, to fund a hazardous materials training class for all fire department personnel and declaring an emergency.

That will be referred to the Public Safety Committee. Mr. President. Mr. DeVitus, The administration requested second reading passage on 2026 R13.

We did discuss this matter in our Public Safety Committee meeting tonight, and the committee did concur that we should bring this to a vote for a first reading passage request tonight. Basically, this piece of legislation, we did receive a synopsis of it from our fire chief. This is basically going to be a hazardous materials grant that will offset the costs associated with some of the recommended training for our personnel for providing hazardous material operations level training that would be applicable to all of our fire personnel. We've put in for this grant three years now. This would be the fourth year the Chief gave us.

The past two years were pertaining to first response scenarios for hazmat incidents, air monitoring in 2025. And then in this year, the grant training that they're requesting is pertaining to EVs and lithium ion battery fires, which are very relevant in today's day and age. And one of the kind of unknown, as Mr. Humphrey had put it, circumstances that a fireman could run into any day of the week when the when the belt strikes. So this class would cost about $9,750 and it'd be over it'll be three classes.

And the personnel would be able to train on duty, so there'd be no associated overtime costs or anything like that. I think in the first year, chief was saying we received 100% reimbursement for this grant. And last year, we got somewhere in the ballpark between 6070% of the grant reimbursed. So we're hoping for somewhere around there. But as Chief was saying, it's just dependent on how many departments request this grant and receive it.

So if it does go through, we'll be seeing this again for an appropriation at a later time. And Chief did let us know that no matter what, every year they do operations level hazmat training, but this would give them a little more advanced and new applicable knowledge as opposed to just the standard level stuff. So the committee as a whole thought this was beneficial and we should be doing our best to secure the money while we can. And we have everyone here and didn't want to deal with the later deadlines. So the committee did concur we should bring it to a vote. And at this time, I'm going to make a motion to bypass committee deliberations on 2026 R-thirteen.

Second. We have a motion and a second to bypass committee deliberations on 2026 R-thirteen. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. DeVitus?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg? Yes. Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Spate? Yes. Mr. Nunezhabar? Yes. Mr. Menger?

Yes.

Motion carries.

Make a motion to bypass the three reading rule for 2026 R-thirteen. Second.

We have a motion and a second to bypass the three reading rule in 2026 R-thirteen. Any discussion? Please call the roll. Mr. DeBetus?

Yes. Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg?

Yes.

Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Nunezebauer?

Yes.

Mr. Mager? Yes. Motion carries.

And lastly, I'll make a motion to adopt 2026 R-thirteen. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt 2026 R-thirteen. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. DeVitus? Yes. Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg? Yes. Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Nijeboer?

Yes.

Mr. Mager? Yes. All right. 2026 R13 is adopted, seven-zero.

Thank you.

Okay. We have 2026 R14, a resolution authorizing a municipal economic development grant agreement with Green Vision Care and declaring an emergency.

That would be referred to the Planning and Economic Committee.

And finally, we have twenty twenty six R15 resolution to participate in the 2026 direct settlement with six remnant defendants, Associated Associated Pharmacies, Inc. And American Associated Pharmacies, J. M. Smith Corporation, Louisiana Wholesale Drug Company Inc, Morris and Dickens Dickensons Company, North Carolina Mutual Wholesale Drug Company Inc, and United Natural Foods Inc, including its subsidiaries, Super Value and Advantage Logistics, six remnant defendants, and declaring an emergency.

That will be referred to the Public Safety Committee.

That is all.

Awesome. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Next is our report of council committees. The first committee to report this evening is the Finance Committee chaired by Mr. Humphrey.

Thank you, Mr. President. Finance did meet this evening. Myself and Mr. Nuegebauer and Mr. Spate were present. We have one item on third reading, and that is, twenty twenty six R06, as amended. This is a resolution modifying appropriations within certain funds in order to provide sufficient funding and declaring an emergency. We go through the normal budgeting process in November and December for council, and we come up as best as we can for an operations budget, for the city. But, of course, things come up during the year where certain things were not appropriated, certain things were not anticipated.

And so we either have to create funds where we didn't have funds before or appropriate money for unexpected expenses or things that exceeded the expenses that we anticipated. That's where this legislation fits into the city's finances. For this piece of legislation, the additional appropriation is $139,250 $24,500 of that is for repairs and maintenance out of the General fund Utility And Assets Central Administration Building. The second amount is in the amount of $40,750 That's for, leave sale for certain parks and rec, employees and also expenses associated with the core. Because the core, this is the first year that it's come online, We're kind of still feeling our way in terms of what the associated expenses are going to be with that.

And we had some additional bank fees because we're requesting people pay with credit cards that were not budgeted for or we didn't have an appropriate amount budgeted for that and also supplies and materials, for those additional appropriations. And then for the Parks Capital projects and reserve fund for a project at Creek Bond Park for the new restroom and some furniture and equipment for parks and recreation. That additional appropriation is $56,000 And then finally, for employees that are leaving the employment of the city, but they want continuation of their insurance benefits, they will pay 100% of those benefits as they leave the city. But we have to create a way for them to be able to reimburse for those expenses that are associated with the insurance that they're continuing, and that amount is $18,000 So the total for that additional appropriation is $139,250 This is on third reading, and I would move to adopt 2026 R06 as amended.

I second. We have a motion and a second to adopt twenty twenty six R06 as amended. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Ombrey?

Yes.

Mr. Neugebauer? Yes. Mr. Brandenburg?

Yes.

Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. DeVitus?

Yes.

And Mr. Maker? Yes. Green twenty twenty six R06 is adopted as amended, seven-zero.

No items of old or new business, and we adjourned at 05:03.

Thank you, Mr. Humphrey. Our next committee to report this evening is Environment and Parks, chaired

by Mr. Nudgerbauer. Thank you, Mr. President. We did have the ability to meet. All members were present. However, we had no items of legislation. We had no old or new business come before us. And so officially, we did not meet. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nuchibauer. Next up is Public Safety, chaired

by Mr. DeVitus. Thank you, Mr. President. All members of Public Safety were present tonight. We did discuss two matters, the first of which we just made a motion on and adopted at first reading, which was twenty twenty six R-thirteen. The second item was also on first reading tonight, twenty twenty six R-fifteen, and we did hold a discussion on that because administration had requested second reading passage. I'll just read it in and provide a couple of notes from that. It was the resolution to participate in the 2026 direct settlement with six remnant defendants, Associated Pharmacies, Inc. And American Associated Pharmacies, J.

M. Smith Corporation, Louisiana Wholesale Drug Company, Inc. Morrison, Dickson and Co, North Carolina Mutual Wholesale Drug Company, Inc. And United Natural Foods, Inc, including its subsidiary, Super Value and Advantage Logistics, six remnant defendants and declaring an emergency. Okay. So this is part of an ongoing settlement from the opioid crisis that we've been dealing with for the last few years. Basically, this is a request from the National Council to add six more pharmacies to the multi district agreement. We did receive in the notes attached, it's about I think it was $97,000,000 Where is

it? Yeah.

97,000,000 Around $97,000,000 is in the pot from these six companies, but that goes towards a proportional share to all the municipalities that have been affected. Our city finance director, Mrs. Goodrich, did provide us with the percentage, which was very marginal, as she noted. I think it was 0.00037%. It works out to I think it's under a little under $5,000 or something like that.

But we discussed possibly bringing it to a vote tonight. However, Mr. Nerjebauer did bring up the valid point that just with the nature of this legislation, there's a chance that that amount or the amount of municipalities could change. So we figured it was best to wait till second reading, as the administration had requested. Again, these monies are taken in by the city and have to go to our opioid settlement fund, which has been put towards many useful causes over the last few years, including scholarships for families that are impacted by drugs, suicide awareness programs, and much more.

So again, that was first reading item. We just had a brief discussion, and we will be requesting time.

Time has been requested. Time will be granted.

That did it for legislative business, and there was no old or new business brought to the safety committee, we adjourned.

Thank you, Mr. DeVitus. Our next committee to report this evening is Planning, Community, and Economic Development, chaired by Mr. Noble. Thank you, Mr. President. Myself, Mr. DeVitus and Mr. Humphrey were all present tonight. We did have a number

of items of legislation, so we did meet. The first item is Item twenty twenty six-three, an ordinance changing the zoning classification of approximately 2.76 acres of land located at 988 East Turkey Foot Lake Road from R1 single family residential to B1 general business. So this is a rezoning. There was a public hearing held on 03/10/2026, which was our last council meeting. This rezoning passed the Planning and Zoning Commission by a unanimous vote.

In the public hearing, nobody from the public spoke out against this rezoning. It is in the corner of basically at the corner of 619 And Fortuna Drive, just up Fortuna Drive behind the Ameritriprise building. And that it is adjacent to an existing B-one zone, so it basically would be expanding the B-one zone that exists there today. It is on fourth reading and eligible to be voted on it. And so at this time, I'm gonna make a motion to adopt twenty twenty six dash zero three. Second.

We have a motion and a second to adopt two thousand twenty six zero three. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. DeVitus?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Neuche Bauer?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

And Mr. Maker?

Yes.

Okay. Twenty twenty six-three is adopted, 07/00.

Thank you, madam clerk. The next item on our, we spoke of it was on second reading is twenty twenty six dash zero six, an ordinance adopting a planning department fee schedule, a zoning division fee schedule, a right of way fee schedule, repealing all former fee schedules that are referenced in the attached exhibit A and declaring an emergency. So the administration has made a request to update the fee schedules for, again, the planning department, the zoning division and right away related to a number of items related to fences, pools, a variety of things. So during committee, we had a long discussion. Each of the council members voiced their thoughts about the fee schedules that have been presented.

In those discussions, it was determined that each councilman will put their comments together and send it back to the administration to absorb. And at next council meeting, we'll have sort of a line by line in-depth discussion about any of the items that on the list that council persons had concern about. So with that, I'm going to request time on twenty twenty six-six. Time was requested. Time will be granted. That was all the items on the agenda, and we had no old or new business. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Noble. Our next committee to

meet this evening is Rules and Personnel, which I chair. Myself, Mr. Meager and Mr. Brandenburg were all present this evening. We did not have any legislation, so we did not open the committee. However, we do have some appointments that I am pleased to make this evening. The city of Green recently established a city of Green Tree Advisory Commission, and the mayor was given, two positions to fill. And filling those positions for a four year term was Mr. Phil Rael. And filling a three year term is Lucian Kailai.

And City Council did have an opportunity to fill a position, and we are appointing Mr. Robert Humm to the Tree Advisory Commission for a five year term. So at this time, I would like to make a motion to appoint Robert Humm to the Tree Advisory Commission for a five year term. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All right. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Mager?

Yes.

Mr. Brandenburg?

Yes.

Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Neugebauer?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

And Mr. DeVitus?

Yes.

Okay. Motion carries.

Thank you, ma'am. And congratulations to all the new appointees, and we're excited to see where this commission takes us. Okay. There was no old or new business to come before rules and personnel, and that concludes my report. For the next committee to report this evening is Transportation Connectivity and Stormwater chaired by Mr. Mager.

Thank you, Mr. President. All members of the committee were present. There were no items of legislation before us. However, we did, meet to take several reports. The first being from our city engineer, Paul Pickett, regarding the tree clearing on Arlington Road. So you can expect to see a lot more activity on Arlington Road as we start the project over there with the Arlington Road expansion or widening. We heard from Director of ValueX Carr regarding the pothole program. So if anybody out in the community see any potholes, make sure you go to the city's website to the report a pothole and put in that service request. So thank you, Director Carr and Jeff Noble, that reminder.

We also took a comment session from Ms. Karleski regarding her compliments to the service department, which I think several people echoed that. And despite her modesty, we do appreciate all the work that the ValueRiskR and the service department provides our residents. So after receiving those reports, we adjourn at 06:22 p. M.

Thank you, Mr. Meagher. Our final committee to report this evening is Intergovernmental and Utilities, chaired by Mr. Brandenburg.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Meagher, Mr. Noble and I were all available to meet. We had no items of legislation, no items of old or new business, but we did not.

Thank you, Mr. Brandenburg. Next on our agenda is the mayor's report. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. So last week, I visited Washington, D. C. To meet with senator staffs from various states across the country. This was an organized trip through our lobbyists to discuss the unified zip code for our city and others like it. I had a brief but meaningful conversation with Senator Marino. So I'm grateful that I was able to get his time in a time when there's lots of issues going at the national and international level. I also met with the new Executive Director of MAPS at the MAPS Air Museum, who is Keith Bucklew. Keith has a particular passion for helping veterans get hooked up with and associated with benefits, which is part of our Veterans Commission's mission.

So he'll be coming to introduce himself to that commission at the April meeting. I'm proud to share that the Arbor Day Foundation named the City Of Green a twenty twenty five Tree City USA in honor of its commitment to plant, grow and maintain trees to benefit its community. The City Of Green also received a growth award for demonstrating improved levels of tree care and community engagement. Steve Green is hiring, seems like we always are. Full time positions currently open in the city include a code inspector in the zoning department and summer seasonal staff.

It's that time of year to be leaning towards the summer. We need summer day camp staff, park groundskeepers and highway maintenance crew members. The City of Green is selling Veterans Memorial Park banners to honor local veterans through May 1 for $100 each. You can purchase banners at cityofgreen.org slash register under commemorative items. In honor of America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary this year, Green is participating in the America Heritage Tree Program by selling tree sponsorships for our new Heritage Tree Grove at Greens Veterans Park to be dedicated on April 24, Arbor Day.

The Grove will feature 25 trees. Tree sponsorships are two fifty dollars apiece. The deadline to be a sponsor is March 31. Call our Parks division to learn more at (330) 896-6621. And because summer isn't that far away, it's time to start thinking about Adopt A Spot.

Local groups, families and residents are encouraged to become Adopt A Spot stewards to plant and care for flowers that are on chosen areas for in our parks. Apply online and reserve your site by May 1 at cityofgreen.org. The City of Green's Drug Task Force is accepting applications for its twenty twenty six Drug Task Force scholarship for college or other continuing education for a Green resident graduating from high school. The criteria for the $1,000 scholarships includes residing in Green and has been impacted by substance abuse and lives or has lived apart from a parent or guardian due to that person's substance abuse. Upcoming events.

Mayor's morning meetup is this Friday, March 27 at nine a. M. At The Chapel, 1800 Raber Road. We'll gather for coffee and conversation at the Chapel from nine a. M. To 09:40 And then weather permitting, we'll be taking a walk around our newly paved walking path. No registration is needed. Please come with any comments and questions. We appreciate our partnership with the chapel and the amenities that they have available to the public. The annual Easter Egg Hunt and Breakfast with the Bunny is coming up Saturday, March 28. The breakfast is sold out. However, you can still participate in the egg hunt. You don't need to register for that. You can simply show up. Tickets again are required, but sold out for the breakfast.

If you have any questions, can call (330) 896-6621. There is the following week an adult egg scramble. This is the second year for this. It's a lively competitive twist on the classic childhood game, which is tailored for grown ups looking for nostalgic fun. The egg scramble is April 3 at 7PM at Central Park.

Participants will race around a designated area grabbing eggs stuffed with tickets to an amazing raffle prizes including gift cards to many local businesses, TVs, other electronics and more. For adults aged 21, tickets are limited. Purchase your city purchase your tickets at cityofgreen.org/ register. A six part wellness series beginning in April called Music and Movement is hosted by the Green Drug Task Force Mental Health Committee and Summit ninety three point one FM with support of the Summit County ADM Board and Arts Forward. The series teaches participants positive easy ways to relax and de stress with simple music and movement.

This is a free program, however registration is required because space is limited. Register for the one hour session or all of them. They're designed for all ages and you can register at cityofgreen.org/ register. Save the date for Change of Art, a day of wellness, art and mental health on Saturday, May 16 from ten to one. New this year will be a Strides for Hope One Mile Walk in memory of those lost to suicide in support of reducing the stigma of mental health issues. The walk steps off at 09:30 a. M. Mr. President, that concludes my report. Thank Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Is there any unfinished business to come before counsel? Under new business, I would like to announce that our summer recess is currently scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, and we will not be hosting a council meeting here on Tuesday, July 14. Next up is the adjournment. May I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Nudjivar?

Yes.

Mr. Maker?

Yes.

Mr. Brandberg?

Yes.

Mr. Noble?

Yes.

Mr. Spate?

Yes.

Mr. Humphrey?

Yes.

Mr. DeBitis?

Yes.

Okay. Motion carries.

Thank you.

We are adjourned.