City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Okay. It is Tuesday, February 3rd, 6:39 p.m. We're going to call the meeting to order. Teresa here. Tiffany Holland here. [cough] Ryan Green here. Johnny Barard here. Matthew Huggin here. Kyle here. Jeff Bar present. Nicole here. And tonight's invitation will be given by Councilman Bar. If everyone would stand.

Let's bow our heads. Gracious God, we thank you for the community of Johntown, its people, its history, and the shared responsibility we carry for one another. We are grateful for this town we call home, and for the opportunity to serve it with care and integrity. As we begin tonight's meeting, we ask for wisdom, patience, humility for our council members, staff, and all who participate in these decisions. Help us to listen well, speak honestly, and seek the good of the whole community, especially those whose voices are hardest to hear. We thank you in our per in our own personal way for your strength and comfort. As our own first as our own family [clears throat] walks through difficult matters, like many families in this room and throughout our town, we carry private burdens alongside our public duties. Please grant healing, clarity, and peace where it is needed. Remind us to extend grace to one another. Let me repeat that that we extend grace to one another. May our work this evening be guided in fairness, compassion, and a genuine love for Jontown and its future. Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.

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. Okay, we'll move to approval of agenda. [cough] Anyone want to make a motion to I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second. All in favor? I changes and action on minutes. Uh, can we do this in a block or do we [snorts] need to Everyone was here for both.

Yes, if you want to make that motion that would be fine. A motion to approve. I'll second. All in favor of I posted. Uh, next we have um correspondence from the Department of Commerce. A notice for a liquor license. And I believe this is just changing the um provider or holder from the horseshoe to uh Elray. Is that right? Yes. And we don't have to take any action on this unless we want to um oppose it, we would have we could go to a hearing or something. So as long as everyone is okay with the transfer, we don't have to take any action.

I'm good. Good. No. No hearing requested. Um, next is citizen comments. Uh, matters not on the agenda. Did we have any speaker slip? I did get one speaker slip and Tony Ryan and Terry P. The dynamic duo [laughter] your timer. Start that 3 minutes clock. Yeah, you got 3 minutes. You're on a buzzer.

Oh, no, no, no. It's Trust me, it's not going to take that long. We have not given up on the Brigadier General Perry Miles Trust in the land. 176 acres [cough] 2 miles out of town. About 2 months ago, um we got stirred up again about it. So, I contacted Lincoln County Parks who was supposed to have gotten the property. They still have not gotten the property. So, I contacted the attorney general's office again and they are understanding that it was given to Licking County Parks. I waited another month, contacted Licking County Parks again. They still have not received the property. So since there's news board members we thought and um Perry Miles died in 1961 for the new members and it was given to the village of Johntown the 177 acres. It has been then transferred into a trust in 2007 which that's a whole different ball game. We thought was illegal but it happened. So there's a management group. Now, as it turns out, on the management group is the mayor of Johntown. So we're requesting that we have representation at the next meeting. No offense, Tiff, but

don't had a meeting in two a year and a half to two years. As far as we know, and we went to a meeting and we were asked to leave. Yes. Yes, because it we get very emotional because it's been in our family for years. My mom mom was a long well we went out there as kids, you know, so it's still there. It's still sitting there very bad. Yeah. The house needs to be torn down and all that. So anyway, we've made a Terry Terry has made a package. So if you want to read over the information, I still have my old one. [laughter] I still have it. to Teresa and she'll I do I have mine [laughter]

Oh yeah, just following rules. Yeah. So that's all we have on that. On another item um we requested last year when you have at 62 and 37 you have the um Congressman Ash Brooks play and and Donnie Jay's whatever. So, we were wondering um since we have a Brigadier General, we requested possibly that at 62 in Oregon, we could put up Brigadier General home or whatever way or whatever. I do remember that conversation. I do.

I don't know if we dropped the ball or if we're supposed to do something. So, we we did the legislation and you guys need to apply for it. Okay. All you got to do is to change the name. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Okay. We can do that then. We didn't know what we're supposed to do. So, so we got a Do we have a form that we need to have will handle it for you? Okay. Okay. Next on our agenda is I walked the bike. That's okay. One more thing and then we'll Okay. The Mastadon um little QR codes. Um there's nine of them. Only three of them work. And since you all know this year is our big maston birthday party, it'd be nice if we could have those working and everything.

Yeah. And I didn't know if that's yours or Monroe does that. You know, it's probably a joint project with TJ Evans. Oh, just to clarify, so the you're talking about the interpretive trail that's down by the bike trail. So that is on city property. Um, if it's the path, I believe the QR codes were installed by the city. So, it would be the city's obligation to talked about this. I I don't know if the city did it or No, I think it was the store. I think it was the historical society. I can look further into that. Okay. Okay. Okay. It's just that they're faded.

They might Three of them that have been in the shade are perfect. The others that have been in the sun have faded and nothing comes up. So, and last fall, the the street department, we we cut everything way back. We cleaned it up. We put more stone down in there cuz the the swamp had got out to us out there cuz we had had that lot of rain. But, uh, yes, I'm I'm relatively sure, and I think we just confirmed it, the historical society had charge of the QR codes. That'd be great. Our president, he's running, but don't call me out. You're on [laughter] there, too. Yeah,

we will we'll bring that up in safety and service next meeting. If not, was it not a resolution? I think it was Terry. Yeah, really. Yeah, he did. I think it was actually Cindy Reeves that did it. Oh, really? I think so. Well, it sounds like a historical society. Well, I thought she was on the Cornell thing. She is. She's not on our group. No, she's not. Okay. Thank you. Just so you're aware, going back to Miles estate as mayor when I represented the thing, I did ask for a full accounting of all the finances. Yes. For the Miles estate, the other four board members didn't were not interested in doing that. So, just so you're aware, yeah,

um they feel they're doing the money fine. So, we did ask about the money, what was left. I appreciate you saying that and you were the one that let us know about the meeting that we got picked out of, too. So, thank you. Yeah, that might be why I haven't been at another meeting. [laughter] He won't answer my phone calls. Yeah, it's all right. Thank you. It's a thorn in our side and we would appreciate anyhow. Thank you. Okay. Because it belongs to the city supposedly. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um next we have a presentation by MKSK for Johntown design guidelines. Take

Can I tee this up a little bit? Great. And I think he's getting some things ready. So that'll give me a quick moment to buy some time. So what we have tonight is an KSK presentation on the design guidelines. As you recall, we had a joint meeting uh a month back with the [cough] committee that was formed by the previous council and uh we have come to kind of the end of that process. And so walking through this tonight, um how this will unwind and you'll have some legislation. It's on item number 13. In order to do a text amendment, it can be done one of three ways. Uh the quickest is the council to initiate uh the text amendment. So that's going to be with item 13. So I'm kind of cheating and skipping ahead a little bit, but this will save the explanation uh down here. So item 13, there'll be there'll need to be an initiation by council to move forward with a text amendment. Once we have that resolution from you all, it will then have a 30-day notice before the first actual hearing, which will be in front of council. And then after you have that hearing, like with any ordinance, you'll have a second reading. Um, and then you'll vote on it at that particular meeting. So before we had you vote on initiating it, uh we thought it would be wise to have MKSK come in and give us a nice recap. Uh if you would like to have them at the first public hearing, we can certainly request that from MKSK. But uh in order to give you feedback and all of the nuances that have happened over the last 6, seven, eight months during this process, that is the purpose of tonight's and then if you want to move forward, uh we can then act on the resolution uh before you. So I think

just to clarify yes for all of council what we're voting on tonight doesn't actually initiate any it's just to initiate doesn't actually enact it.

That's correct. You'll have a formal hearing on the ordinance 1187 in I would say 45 days. There'll be a 30-day public notice period depending on when your next meeting falls. Could be 7 days outside of that. And then you'll you'll have that hearing. Uh and then 2 weeks after that, you'll then have the actual vote on it. And then there's actually two parts to this. There's 1187, which is a text amendment, but then there's also the design review guidelines that are an accompaniment to it, but they're not going to be locked in as a codified ordinance. There are guidelines. Okay?

And so what we have done is we would like to pass these in tandem. One can be done by a resolution, the other needs to be done by ordinance. We could do the resolution tonight, but without having the ordinance to support that other piece, uh, we have elected to hold off. You'll pass them both in the same night if you so choose, and then they'll be locked together. And without further ado, we have Trevor from MKSK and Chris, whom you don't get to see quite as often from MKSK here to support. And Trevor's been with the entire process on this. So,

thanks for the tea up, Sean. Yeah. Um, so as Sean said, I'm Trevor. I'm with MKSK. Uh, we initially kicked this before I jump into it. Um, we initially kicked this project off in late late in the year in 2024. We began the process by holding a series of public meetings to gather things like uh what people prefer for colors, materials, building design in general, things like that. And so we took a lot of that information uh over the beginning of 2025, assembled a report or this set of design guidelines and have worked kind of since about August with the design review board. We probably met with them six or eight times to discuss various pieces and parts um that culminated in the design workshop uh at the end of last year. And this is as Sean pointed out kind of the culmination of all of that in one package. So, um, I'm going to walk through the design guidelines document and then Chris and I are happy to try and answer any questions that you'll have. So, the purpose and goals behind these, uh, the current the city's current design guidelines don't do, uh, a great job of giving the design review board enough kind of teeth to accurately review things. there's a lot of subjective calls that have to be made because the current design guidelines just have things like general materials and they have no color guidelines, things like that. So, the designer view board really is put in a position oftent times to make a reaction based on their subjective opinion uh when items come before them. So, in order to rectify a lot of that, the goal of this project was to provide clear guidance uh set a clear expectation which in this in this case is consistent and in a quality aesthetic throughout the city. Um, and these guidelines will also allow the design review board to give consistent and clear feedback to applicants when they come in. The goal with that is to reduce the number of times applicants have to come in and hopefully to make it clear to anyone that's proposing improvements to their structure exactly what they need to do in order to get that accomplished. Um, the diagram on the right there illustrates kind of the the various scales of development

standards that jurisdictions can adopt. Uh, zoning standards are your very basic level. Almost every city has that. So those are things like your building has to be set back 25 ft from the street. Basic things like that. Um design guidelines are a step above that. It starts talking about things like what colors can building be? What materials can you use? What roof what should roofs look like? Um but it doesn't get into specific architectural styles like you would see in New Albany or or potentially Dublin, places like that. So this definitely elevates you from kind of where you're at today, which is just above having your basic zoning standards to having a good set of design guidelines that you can build on in the future. and and amend those as needed as you use this tool and the design review board gets more uh familiar with it. I'm going to breeze through this because Sean did a great job. There's multiple parts to this. The design guidelines document, that's what we're primarily going to talk about this evening. There are also some um amendments to chapter 1159, which are the LM zoning standards and then chapter 1187, the design review board um roles and responsibilities, things like that. So, we're going to focus on the design review guidelines this evening. The document itself is broken into three sections. Uh the first introduction is fairly self-explanatory. It ties itself establishes why the document exists and also references back to the codified ordinances just to create a good link between your regulatory like your legal documentation, your zoning code and these design guidelines and how they work together. The second piece is really just a Johntown p the Johntown perspective. This is a short summary of what we heard during the public input process. So what people want to see in the city and also what people would prefer not to see more of in the city. It it's very succinct and short, but it just is a perspective statement. We like this, we don't really like this sort of thing. And I'll go through that in a little more detail. And then the third piece is is the designer view district. So there's maps, the guidelines themselves, photos, other other things like that to help the design review

board make decisions as they um are asked to review documents or proposals. So to start the Johntown perspective, the document is the organizing principles that you see up there in the upper left. These are repeated throughout the document in every design district. That's basically how the document itself is organized. uh the designer review board helped us come up with th with those five topics and um they felt that that was a good way to organize the overall document. It made sense to them and how they would apply it. So this is the perspective piece. So highlighting pieces and parts of downtown that you like. So things like good sidewalks, having street lights, having some open space like the look the park there at the corner of 3762. Um and then also a street view of what what makes good urban buildings. So having big windows, having some awnings, you know, making making things look lively and welcoming for um for anyone visiting or living here. We can follow back up on this and and I'll go through an individualized map with each district review, but this is overall how the districts are laid out. There's four total uh historic downtown. The bright blue that you see right there in the middle follows uh Main Street and Koshakton. the red which has been dubbed the commerce corridor. It basically kind of starts at the old at the post office building and heads south on 62 until you get kind of to the Kroger complex and out towards is that Ace Hardware out there?

Um then the yellow is neighborhoods. That's fairly self-explanatory. Primarily residential development areas. Um and then the fourth is industrial which is all of the lands out there on and around Commerce Boulevard. So, getting into the historic downtown, this is the first district, and this covers, like I said, primarily the originally established parts of the city. Uh, the two different blue colors, the darker blue is commercial and mixeduse properties. The lighter blue are residential properties, and there are separate standards for each to reflect kind of how those properties are currently utilized. Those two categories, uh, the commercial and mixed use subdist here. Again, organizing principles, all the same there. All of these districts have um sorry, I talk with my hands. All the districts have a three-dimensional model that has that points out what we're talking to of the different organizing principles. It includes these topics. These are carried throughout all of the uh design review districts. And then photography to help again just provide character and context to what the expectations are. Um most of these photos were voted on through the public engagement process. So we pick the ones that were most well liked generally. Um [snorts] throughout these again the organizing principles on the left more illustrations that get into specific building design and what we'd like to see. So for example in the commercial mixed juice subd designation large windows making sure that people walking by the sidewalk can see into the building and vice versa. Um including details on buildings like cornises, awnings, simple things like that. And then recommending some basic colors. There are far more in the color palette. This is just a small sample that we use for just kind of a high level overview. Same goes for residential sites. You're starting [clears throat] to see the pattern here of how this repeats over and over. And the reason for that repetition is this is a technical document. It's meant meant to be applied evenly across all these districts. So

keeping the structure generally the same helps in that helps everyone be able to understand a little better. Um including the designer view board and the public who will have to review this. Um again 3D model illustrating those various components of the organizing principles. Uh the guideline topics scale, building orientation, transparency and windows, building details, building materials and color palette. Some photo photography again providing context um and just overall guidance for when new residential properties are either renovated or uh developed within that downtown residential district. Same here again. Um, trying to really reflect in the residential site in downtown, trying to really reflect the traditional character, including sidewalks where you can, front porches, trying to set garages further back from the street. Really trying to relate to the existing building stock that's there. Again, color palette down there. In both the mixed use and the residential areas of downtown, the color palette's fairly muted. Uh, the designer review board recommended using like uh Benjamin Moore, Sherman Williams, like their historic pal architectural palette. So, most of the colors, there's certainly color in there, but most of it's fairly subdued. Um, and the design review board will have input on what those colors are when a building color is either changed or a new building is proposed. So, moving from downtown onto the commerce corridor, again, there again, the post office site down kind of the city limits south on 62. Um these are primarily looking for ways to better utilize commercial sites and also if you get a proposal to include some residential that's becoming more and more common with these uh types of sites [snorts] some guidance as to what would be appropriate there. Generally everything in this district is three stories or less. Uh that was the height that most of the public and the design review board felt comfortable with here. That's a little bit higher than downtown. In downtown, we've kept everything at two stories or below just to reflect and respect the current um built uh

environment down there. The model in the lower left is kind of uh visionary in terms of how some of these sites could happen. And the goal is to get more of a com like an actual street along these commercial buildings so that the storefronts actually are appealing to walk adjacent to parking is generally tucked back behind uh the commercial buildings. And then there's resident opportunities for residential and how that should be integrated in that 3D model in the lower left. The guideline topics are the same in this category as they were in the uh downtown district. They're again consistency making this easier to understand and implement and again more character photography. there. Again, just trying to make this and as easy to implement and understand as possible and give the designer voboard as as much guidance um as we can. Similar here again, individual building 3D models that talk about things like detailing, how corners of building should be activated, potentially even having two doors, things like that, building details. Uh the color palette on this is is a little more vibrant, but there again the design design review board recommended going with a like I forget the specific color palette that was referenced in the design review guidelines document, but there is a color palette that's established by a major paint manufacturer. There again gives the design review board something to uh base decisions off of or at least provide guidance to applicants if things are going a little ary. The neighborhood district is more focused on new development than it is on existing development. And what I mean by that is if a new uh development came in like similar to the one that PY built behind tractor supply and that before anything starts being developed there. The design review board would have to review and approve the layout of the subdivision. So how the streets are arranged, how the lots are arranged and also an architectural package for the homes. You know, generally there's six or eight different floor pan plans and facade you can choose from. Those would be agreed to with the designer view board up front. And then from that point

forward, it would be a staff level review. Trying to trying to make sure that everyone understands the expectations right up front rather than on a case- by case basis. And then kind of letting staff just review the individual homes as they're built rather than having the applicant come back to the design review board every time just to build basically the same thing. Um there are a few um guidelines in there about things like re-roofs on existing structures. So trying to trying to get away from or trying to push people toward you know color appropriate roofing materials, things like standing seam roofs, other things like that. Just trying to create some consistency throughout the city. Sorry, I got ahead of myself. That's most of what's on this slide. But there again, 3D model on the lower left hand, trying to trying to again promote the front door being forward to the street, setting garages back slightly. U just trying to make things feel more like a traditional neighborhood. One of the things that we heard loud and clear through this is that people really like the aspect and character of the more historic homes near downtown and would like to see that replicated elsewhere where possible. So that's what we're trying to do here is trying to make the homes speak for themselves and minimize the appearance of automobiles and driveways and things like that so that it's more comfortable to walk in just more aesthetically pleasing. Here again similar setup um talks about you know facade treatments windows having where building should be located. The recommended colors in this are much more kind of an open book. uh they're much there are more vibrant colors, but there again the design review board will have input on that before anything starts being painted or built in for that matter. So that colors will be determined beforehand and not just willy-nilly be able to place on um on a building. Lastly, the industrial district. Uh so again, the gray area on the map there, most of what's on Commerce Boulevard out to the city limits to the east. Um, so these are basic guidelines that are intended to be adopted into the zoning

code. And these are things simple things like making sure that screening is opaque and you can't see a bunch of storage being had on site. Trying to locate offices near the front of the buildings that are closer to the street so that you don't just have like blank walls and things like that adjacent to your streets. and just trying to make them look more like a commercial development and more aesthetically pleasing while understanding that people need outdoor storage and just big sites to to do storage or manufacturing and things like that. Um, and so those are a little more straightforward, but the designer review board felt it was necessary to include something along those lines just so that no part of the city is being left out. I'm not going to go through this line by line. We did that at the the February or sorry, not February 15th, December 15th meeting last year. So these are the review roles. So anything that's considered a major or in let's see if I this works. So anything in the major category would be reviewed by the design review board. So that any any major in any of these districts will be reviewed by the design review board. Anything in the minor category will start at the staff level and if staff is able to make an approval, meaning it's very clear what the design guidelines say, yes or no, they can do that. If staff is unsure, the what this allows for staff to do is to elevate that to the designer review board. So there's always there's always an option if staff's unable to make a determination or if an applicant is unhappy with staff's decision, they can then basically appeal or go to the designer review board and have the board make that decision as needed. um kind of at a high level, most of what's in downtown is going to be a major uh a major modification and will be reviewed by the designer review board. Things like um changing a sign or repainting a building the exact same color that it already is, that can be approved by staff, but those are very minor changes. As you move across commerce corridor and neighbor, many

more of those items are able to be approved by staff. The thought process there was the designer review board were trying to minimize for example like um individual property owners like a single a single home owner do they really need to come in to the designer review board for every single thing that they're trying to do their home or can we try to let staff review some of that. So moving from left to right you'll see that things that a lot more things are in major in downtown than they are in the neighborhood district for example. Um, and this reflects the discussion that we had last uh last year. And so I'm going to end on this map. I'm happy. I know I just gave a lot to you at once. Uh, I'm happy to try and answer any questions, go back over anything that you like. But as Sean said, this is kind of just a first opening discussion. Um, and I know understand that you all need time to digest this question. Thanks, Trevor. Appreciate it. Trevor,

thank you. Uh hopefully there's been an absorption tonight and uh we'll get back with you whether we need to have you do another presentation at the first council reading of this should they choose to move forward with it. Sure. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. A lot of time and hours, but good times. These same design guidelines apply to the PD district or the NCA or is that a set have its own set? So, I'm gonna let Trevor unpack that. I can answer it, but it won't be as eloquent as what Trevor will probably uh capture. Uh he can compartmentalize it a lot quicker. So, did you hear the question?

Yes. Um in short, no. They do not apply to the PD district. The reason for that is that uh that district when it was adopted has its own architectural standards and we felt that trying to mix [clears throat] those two would probably just cause more problems. And it was because those design guidelines in the PD district, they're actual architectural standards. So, it's in the zoning code itself, meaning there's not much room for subjective review on that. It's kind of yes, it looks like that or no, it doesn't. And that's why [clears throat]

Thanks, Trevor. Thanks. [cough] [snorts] Okay. Uh, moving on, we have council committee reports. Uh, planning and zoning did not meet. Did not meet. Did not meet. They were canceled on January 27th. Next meeting is February 10th at 6:30. Um, design review board did meet on January 27th. Do you have an update? They uh finished review of that design guidelines draft and recommended it to council. Okay.

Um, and safety and service met earlier tonight. Um Ryan

Yes, we had a great presentation on the flock security cameras there that our police force will be using. Um so take a look at that if you have any spare time. Um those will be going into action soon. Um so also we had our street updates and discussion that'll be an ongoing discussion as we go forward here this spring on how best to uh update our roads, do the most we can with the budget we have. Um we had a brief water and sewer update. Um, we had an update on our no through trucks. Um, new legislation that went in and is now being enforced. We'll be getting some more signs and trying to do more to make sure that the large trucks are not making their way through the downtown the neighborhoods um since that's been an issue. Um, Caswell Road, Chambers Way, there will be a new stop sign going in uh to protect the safety there. And uh that was it.

Anybody else? answers. Uh no, no, nothing from that committee. Okay. Uh finance committee did not um meet tonight. They will meet next uh February 17th at 5:30 in council chambers. Uh our school district liaison committee has their first meeting on Thursday. Thursday um at 5:00 p.m. in council chambers. Facilities committee met on January 23rd. Um, and that is an as needed committee, but does anyone have an update from that last?

Uh, during that meeting, uh, city manager Sean Stannard kind of gave us an inventory of what the city owns as just brainstorming, not that it's definitive of properties that are potentially owned by the city that could be a PD or city hall location. Um, we got a little bit of an update from the about the um, American Legion lease as it relates to the city. Um, and I think that's all I want to share from that cuz the others I don't think we want to share at this point. Right. Right. U, not that it's any information but just a lot of brainstorming.

Yeah, a lot of brainstorming. Thank you, mayor, for that uh, summary. Um, next we have the parks and recck leaison committee. Uh, met earlier this month. Are you

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just one thing did come to mind that I did review the lease that we have with the school board um and its timeline uh because uh just to kind of refresh everyone's memory of where we're at. But part of that discussion was that you know we have an initial five-year and then a one three-year period extension to that. But what we wanted to see was in that initial fiveyear that we have a a location determined. We we had some talked about some benchmarks that were important to have so that that three-year second lease back period um was really to start design engineering construction plenty of time to move in um and give ample opportunity for us to to get out of existing building and new and into new facility whatever that may look like and wherever it may look Um, parks and recck leazison committee met in January. Forgive me, Nicole, I don't remember the date that you said. Um, do you want to

It's the last Thursday. Um, so Parks and the Greater Johntown Parks and Rec District meets every Thursday. I'm sorry, the last Thursday of the month. Um, they meet here in Chambers um about um around 6:30. Usually lasts for about an hour, an hour [cough] and a half. This was the first meeting they had of the year and this was a full board for the first time in a couple years. Um, for those of you not familiar with uh how this is set up, there is a um board appointed uh from the school district, a board appointed from the city, a board appointed um from um Monroe Township, and um I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. Um and oh, I'm sorry. So there's two from the city, two from this uh school and one from Monroe Township. Bylaws were changed and um they had they had a great meeting. It was a great discussion. They went over some just rules of order and um they are currently working with some fireworks collaboration and looking to reapply for their 501c3 to become a actual nonprofit. So their next meeting is the last Thursday in February 6:30 here in Chambers. Did you say that they were looking to renew their 5013C?

Well, they Yes. Because they reapplied for it or they applied for it and in order for them they would have to um they were given a letter from the auditor, I believe. Sean, is that where it came from? I'm not certain. There's there's mixed discussion on that, Jeff. There's some members that want it, some members that don't. Yes. But they're already a nonprofit organization. I'll follow up with the with the group. They're not an essential 501c. They don't have their own 501c3. So, I understood. You have anything else for? Okay. Miss Hall or Mayor House? Um, can we go ahead and schedule a rules committee also?

Yeah, actually, I was going to I was going to ask that also. Um, I believe [cough] it's Mu, Matt, and is it Jeff? I'm on Ryan. Yeah. Okay. The [snorts] three of you on rules committee. When you guys have some time available after five any day. What do you think, Matt? Um I can pretty much do after five. Okay. Um I would I would ask um the sooner the better preferably

I can meet on Monday at 5. Um Oh, do we have something? Yeah. [clears throat] John, the board of education has their meeting in here on Oh, there already. It's not a huge committee. What about Thursday next week? Use admin. Use the conference room. Yeah, use the one. Yeah. And then attendees committees typically Teresa needs to be there for uh minutes. Um do you need myself there? Rules has sometimes operated without me in the committee meeting and sometimes they haven't and you don't have to answer tonight. Just let Teresa know. So you want Thursday at 5? Thursday or Monday? Whatever. If you do it Monday, you can do it in uh the conference room. Thursday won't work for me. So Monday.

Okay. Monday it is Monday in the conference room. Yeah. I was going to say school district leaison is Thursday. So, so Monday the 9th [clears throat] 5:00 and we're going to meet in admin counsel or um admin conference. [snorts] Okay. And one of you will let um Sean know if you want him to be there. Yeah. Just they're council rules. So yeah, they're really your rules. I'm not going to tell you what to do. So whatever you come up with is going to be what you come up with. So, okay. Was that all you had, Donnie? Thank you.

Uh, director reports, uh, service department, water, sewer, street, Jack. Uh, basically, there's is there any questions on any of the reports that you received? I do not have any questions. Does anyone else have anything? Do you guys mind if I get with Jack on layout some of the reports afterwards? We don't have to do it. Oh, yeah. There's no data changes. Not nothing else. Okay. And so if if none, I'll move straight into the service director's report.

Um item one there there's a number of things I do want to get into just a little bit tonight. Uh item one, the water plan update. We had our weekly meetings on the 7:15, 22nd, and 29th. Meeting the 29th was a very long meeting. We covered proce operational procedures for the plant. We covered the SCADA system and most importantly with the design of the plant we have many bid packages. Uh some of them are for the electrical work, some of them are for the well work and um some of them are for ground uh earth moving. So there there are many different packages. those package bids uh came in and we're starting review on each one of those bids and we're investigating to see because as you know we had a guaranteed maximum price from the contractor but we are seeing some uh day same day bidding reductions. We're get we're getting some uh better prices on some things. Um unfortunately uh we are also having some expenses on some things where where the price is up. So these packages are being reviewed right now and [snorts] uh actually have meetings tomorrow to go through those packages. So more information coming there but the 29th was a very good meeting cover procedures plant equipment and uh different bid packages. Jumping it jumping into item two, the wastewater plan update. Uh I have received the 90% design plans on the sewer plant. So that's a good thing. We are going to meet with Jacobs and page by page. So this will be another all day meeting covering each uh facet of the plant and equipment and controls. The next step for this will be you can't get to a 100% set of plans until you send these plans into the EPA. Then they

will review the plans and send back their comments, any deviations they think there are or u changes or or items they don't like dealing with loadings or flows going through the plant. So to get that done, we have to send those in for PTI review. So I'm going to get with the manager, discuss if we're ready to send those in, but I do want to let you know we we can't get 100% finished design plans until we send those in. Now, if you get PTI approval, then the clock starts on the plant. However, you don't have to start the plant for 5 years after the PTI approval. And I think that'll fall well within the time frame we're probably going to want to start construction. So, understand it's not complete construction. It's just starting construction in five years after the approval. Now, this PTI review from the EPA will probably take six to eight months. So there there's another almost year uh included before we'll get the PTI approval. So we actually anywhere from the PTI approval 6 to 8 months out up to 5 years before we have to start the facility. So now if we exceed that 5-year period then we have to start the process of PTI over again. But I think where we're sitting probably that plant will begin construction before that time frame. Um, moving on down, just keeping you up to date on leaks. We had one major leak at 62 and Duncan Plains. An auto flusher line froze and broke. We were able to get it shut down. Um, we do not have it repaired yet. Grounds frozen. Does not affect any of the residents out on that road. So, we've just got that shut down till it warms up a little bit to work on. Item number five is very serious uh situation. At our current water plant,

we have wells J1, J2, and J3. It takes two of those wells to operate the plant uh to to uh supply our water supply and for treatment. And we have one as backup. Number two, J2 is our largest uh operating well currently. It went down the other day. Um quit pumping. Pumping flow dropped off from 600 gallons a minute down to 200 gallons a minute. called in a well company, Moody's Pump and Repair, and they pulled the pump. The pump was bad, but we investigate why did that pump go bad? That pump's not that old. It appears we have holes in the casing and screens. So, that's going to be a major repair. We're going to have to put liners in there probably to make those repairs. That well is planned on at an increased rate for the new plant design. the new plant design. Each one of the three wells, well, J2, J3, and new J4 were each to pump 900 gallons a minute to the new plant. So, we're we're doing a couple things. We're we're getting a price on what it's going to cost to line and rescreen that well versus moving 20 ft over and drilling a new well into that aquifer. Now, all of those wells are 33 years old, so it's not like they're brand new and they're going down. They they have served the wrong purpose. But [snorts] my plan is if we can get the screening repaired and get the casing lined, that'll probably be the least expensive way to go. But when you line something, as you know, you take the ID and it shrinks it as I'm putting the liner in it. So, our next problem is to see if we can get a 900gallon a minute pump that will fit down inside the casing because we're going to reduce the size of the casing. Now, I'm not going to get

technical at all, but I am saying it's a serious situation because if we would lose J1 or J3, then I don't have enough flow to operate the plant. So, I've got uh Moody's working on a very fast, furious pace to get this done. J4, which is our new well, is drilled, but there's no pump and it's not connected to the system yet. So, I've also asked Bowen to look at stepping up when that well will come online and be brought into the system so we have an additional backup. So, since that was a lot to unpack, are there any questions on that or can I explain anything any better?

Is there a time frame on it being fixed? Like an idea? Um, I'm I'm hoping uh we we've got a two-phase right now. We've cleaned the well. We've banned a bunch we have bailed a bunch of sand and gravel out of that well, which again indicates we have holes in the either the casing and or the screens, but we bailed it down far enough that my hope is Friday or Monday, I'm pushing for this Friday to drop a well, a pump and motor back down in there so at least I have it as a backup. Then I will bring bring pricing back to council and to the finance committee. The two options either new screen and lining the well or moving over 20 ft and dropping the well into the existing aquifer. But if that pumps in there and it can deliver me at least 400 gallons a minute, I can make that work until we make the decision on the bigger.

We may have J4 online by then, too. Well, J4 is another part because I got to have electric and so J4 probably couldn't get it online for 6 months, but I'd rather get it done in 6 months than 24 months because my concern is all these wells are the same age. They were all drilled the same year. So, if we're having screen and casing integrity in J2, we might have that in J1 and J3. Except for J4, that's the new one. J4 is brand new. And is there a way to check that?

Well, what I'm what I'm saying before we what I plan to do, which I'm going to bring up in my meeting tomorrow before we just drop new pumps in J3, I'm going to have that well camera to make sure to check the screen in casing. Hopefully, we can roll all this into the loan. I have to get EPA approval to do that, but that is our plan. We may have to pay for it upfront out of the enterprise fund, but then we can reimburse oursel and then pay it over time. That is the goal.

And the last item is no surprise to anybody. Six uh low temperatures, heavy snow. Um we have had a tremendous amount of overtime. Um [snorts] I'm I I know everything's not perfect, but I want to say I'm very proud of that crew. They worked many many hours trying to keep the roads open and that I haven't seen that much snow since 78 and a lot of you don't even remember. 78 [laughter] but [clears throat] I'm going to tell you what you remember.

I am telling you it just would not quit and the guys stayed right at it. I do know you know maybe there are certain areas that could have been a little better but I am proud of the effort and the work that that the street crew and the water crew jumped in too. They said the [clears throat] street crew could could sleep during the day. I took water plant employees and put them in trucks with plows on them. Not as experienced, but got out there and got the job done and kept our roads open. So, thank you again. Thank you for that. Jack was in the truck as well. I was just going to say it was like Jack was in the truck.

When um do they plan on going back out because I noticed a lot of the roads are a little bit narrow because of snow. Do they plan on pushing the snow back further or is that just going to wait for melting? Uh, actually we if we wait till melting, it's going to be spring. Yes. Um, but it looks like we have another snow event, not nearly as bad coming this Friday.

I've instructed the crew to try to do a better job of getting over to the mailboxes and not hit the mailboxes, but but get over to the mailboxes and get get closer to the curbs. The chief and I are working very well together because one of our biggest problem is we have an ordinance that says if we're going to receive 2 in of snow or more, you're not supposed to park on the street. That's something because we haven't had snows like this in so long that we really haven't pushed or enforced. Um it's very hard to get to the curbing when the guys are have to sweep out to go around two or three vehicles and then sweep [clears throat] back in. So, yes, they're going to be directed to get closer to the curbs. Uh to do it now, I started that a little bit. It causes problems because most of our residents have dug out

Mhm. to the road. So, when I go through and push back to the curb, now Teresa's phone doesn't stop ringing until we plowed the end of the driveways closed. Right. And of course, our crew, you know, anybody that's pushed a plow truck knows you can straighten the blade out a little bit to eliminate some, but you're always going to put a ridge of snow in there.

So, I'm going to wait till the next major, not major. Hopefully, we don't have another major, but another snow event when all the driveways aren't shoveled out to the road, and then I'm going to push everything over. Uh the chief is going to do his very best and it looks like we're [clears throat] going to get that 2 in or above to let cars know to try to get them out of the way so we can run straight down the curb line instead of uh sweeping in and out. And to the best of my knowledge, we've only had one mailbox injury and it was fatal. [laughter] It was. And it's funny who it was. Yeah. You can ask us afterwards. I saw I saw that one. It's not funny for her, but it's it helps.

And uh we have met no cars up close, so that's another good thing. So, they are being cautious trying to stay wide, but uh to your point, uh Councilman [clears throat] Barard, we are going to try to get that stuff closer to the curb. I I thought you did a great job. I just noticed some neighbors have said something. Are they going to move it closer? Mail boxes and stuff like that, but to go back now, we're going to fill a bunch of end of driveways and I'm not sure that's a I think that's a great idea. How

popular move. So, one question that I had, um, well, it might be a couple part question. So, over the next couple days, we're going to get some sun. We're going to get some higher temperatures. Um, you know, we have salt down. All the roads have been treated with salt. They have seen a plow. They have seen salt every road at this point. Um, we use just a standard rock salt across the board. Correct. Or do we have any? No. Um there there's refined salt and rock salt, but what we were into the other day was, as you all know, salt's been tough to get, right? Um I have 150 ton coming from Saudi Arabia exotic [clears throat] able to find. It's like Himalayan

the finest exotic salt for John. Fancy spreadersh poured into Maine today. Today and then it's going to be shipped down. Now, [clears throat] now this isn't cheap salt, [laughter] but this this is what what we're getting. And and I think it's a salt calcium mix, what I believe it is. But I'm taking any salt I can get my hands on. When you and I talked the [clears throat] other day, I was able to get 50 ton. Somebody denied a load or something. There's 50 ton of just straight rock salt. We don't normally use straight rock salt, but I was taking any salt I could find. So, we were into the rock salt the other day. I think we're going to have more of a calcium mix, which works better, right,

than just the straight walk salt, right? So, and from my limited knowledge, so the the rock salt is go down to about 15° and then if you have calcium, it goes a little further. Goes a little further. Yeah. Yeah. 15°. You're correct. I would have said 16°, but it gets pretty [clears throat] pretty peaky there. To to actually work at that point, you got to have cars driving over the road. The tires cause friction against the salt and it heats it and that's what causes the melting. That's why your side roads, even though they're salted, don't clear near as well as your main arteries because of the more traffic generates heat on the road, which helps the salt to activate. And with the temperatures that we had recently with the type of salt that we had, it was it was not going to cause that.

We're not having much activation on the side roads, right? But I did a town drive today thinking there would be talk. I [cough] agree with Councilman Barard that we need we need to try to curb back further, but I do want you to understand that event was tough. The guys were just doing well to keep the middle of the road open. Um, so we are going to curb back, but I see black top

everywhere. But right out here, we get to our parking lot last. We try to do roads first. Well, I got drove over drove over and I I got that hard pack ice on there. So, I did ask the crew to try to come up and throw some salt on here. Hopefully sun tomorrow, a little warmer temperature temperatures. We'll get this slushed up and pulled off of our parking lot. But I do believe we can black top on most of our roads. I saw post office alley I need to do some work on. There's some of those very small side roads we still need to work, but I think I think we've come a long way. I also want to thank publicly ODOT. Uh after the last event, we had again Trist put in many phone calls. I put in phone calls trying to find salt. They said they did let us have 50 ton of salt if we could deliver it. And I want to thank them publicly for giving us that 50 ton of salt. It's just that scarce. Well, it's the first time I ever got salt from Saudi Arabia. So that's [laughter]

that's that's something to say that our salt storage is it's not just us. Everybody is sure. Yeah, you're right. It is. All right. Thank you again. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions, Jack? No. Thanks for all your hard work, you and your team. And I will let the team know cuz they were tired. They worked hard. Yeah.

Okay. Next is tabled legislation. And there's none. Um public hearings of legislation. We just have a resolution 2026-10. The resolution is initiating amendment to the zoning ordinance chapter 1187 which we heard the presentation on earlier this evening from MKSK. Does uh council desire to move forward motion to approve this? So again, just to be clear, this isn't this isn't anything that passes any legislation tonight. This is just a an approval to move forward with what we have. Correct. So in your ordinance uh for text amendment can initiate the process one of three ways. One is through an applicant citizen uh they can initiate it. Planning and zoning can initiate the text amendment change or council can initiate the text amendment change by res by resolution. So this is merely a resolution to initiate the change. This does not put the change into effect. There will be additional hearings and additional legislation that would then change the text as well as adopt the design review guidelines. So, um, tonight you would want to for a resolution, um, have discussion, open up for public hearing, close public hearing, and then if it was the desire of council, make a motion to move forward with that initiation, second, and then a roll call.

All right. Does anyone have any comments? [cough] If not, we'll open to public comment. Any public comment matter hearing? None. What is council's desire? All right. I'll make a motion to approve as written. I'll second. Okay. No, he seconded. [laughter] Oh, I got Ryan Green. Yes. Mayor Hollis, yes. Kyle Cook, yes. Jeff Bar, yes. Nicole Shook, yes. Matthew Huggin,

yes. Barard, yes.

And we have uh no introduction of legislation, so we'll move on to other business. Um Miss Shook, do you have anything? Oh, yes. Um, I just want to congratulate the uh Johnston High School choir. They um their solo ensemble participants. I did not get exactly how many uh were in that, but they all received superior ratings. Um I think it was January 17th, which was um I don't think ever done before where they've all received a superior rating. So um the choir program by um Miss Warner over there is a spectacular program. Anybody who's ever been to the musical can attest to that. musical is again in middle of March, so look out for um sales for those tickets. Thanks, Charlie.

And Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Um so um I just want to say a big thank you to um Miss Warner and the great job that she does with the uh Johnson High School's choir and musical production. Anything else? No, thank you. Mr. Bar, um just want to thank uh all of city staff and through our storm last week and everyone's involvement what you did to uh keep our city safe and operating. So, thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] No. Uh Mr. Huggin, nothing. Thanks.

Again, just to echo the thanks to the staff. They did a a good job under the conditions and everything. And uh with all the snow, I want to thank everybody else who jumped in to support with the school and the townships. And uh I'm really glad to see everybody in this region working together. Uh yeah, I'm going to You have something, Jeff? After you're done, maybe. Okay. [laughter] Thank you, sir. I think you're going to cover it. Yeah. And if one of you wants to

No, go ahead. All yours. Um, I'm just going to reiterate like on the snow removal, obviously our street crews, um, Jack, everyone did a phenomenal job. I think everyone was in survival mode at that point and we were just, you know, doing [clears throat] the best you can at that point. And, um, and I think that goes for every community in Ohio. Um there was a lot of efforts, volunteer efforts made from whether it was, you know, Main Street area that that volunteers came in and um brought equipment and moved things out just to support our crews in different ways. um the effort from the schools with the sidewalk clearing, but I really want to read all the kids' names that that made um I think it's great that the adults step in, but for kids, especially now to step up, I just really feel like they deserve to have their name called. So, I'm going to go through that list of names. And is everyone okay with that? Cuz I might take a Okay, there were a lot. And it's I mean, it's amazing to to know that we have that kind of kids in our community. Um, so the softball team we had Abigail Wood, Kendall Dub, Cameron Bowlinger, Lucy Edwards, Madison Freley, Emma McGee, I hope I said that right, Reese Lions, Lucia uh Addie Hall, Violet Wel, Sophia Haley, Addison Larrison, Avery Molinar, Jaden and Alexis King, Lena Carpenter, Lucy Schaefer, Jaylen Bobble. Uh, middle school players. So, we even had middle school kids, Maria Smith, Vivian Anderson, Violet Hall, Payton Carter, London Spadero. Uh, softball coaches Mike Triplet, Steve Stonic. Parents of softball players, uh, Dan Carter, Robert Moore, and Billy Bolinger. Baseball players Jackson Ryan,

Landon Larrison, Evan Hannah, Zayen Molnar, Jackson Balman. And our football team, we had Jackson Bender, Alex Colulbertson, Ryan Ballard, Chase Potter, and his family. Cyrus Bennett, Matt Basden, Chase Flowers, Chase Freilley, Grayson Venel, Zaden Molinar, Jackson Balman, Hayden Norman, CJ Ortman, Henry Schwarz, Dexter Schwarz, Christian Dorson, Hunter Wheelen, Kaden Carpenter, Aiden Braza, James Dub, Caleb Pennington, Coach Dan Carter, and Coach Mike Carter. And I do know that there are two kids on these lists that also volunteered and shoveled by hand a lot of the sidewalks in front of all the businesses on Main Street. And that's Cameron Bowlinger and Caitlyn Carpenter. And they did that when it was - 10° outside. So these kids uh really deserve a round of applause. They did a amazing thing for the community and I'm proud of them. And that is all I have. Did you have do you do anything else? No, you're good. Okay. Um Okay. So, next we're going to move on to executive session to prepare for conduct or review a collective bargaining strategy to include our city manager and our labor attorney Dave Reapenhoff. Um do we need and all of council

and and police chief? Police chief. Yes. For this one. That's right. I'm sorry. Um police officers. Can we go through all of these individually or do we need to come back from I believe that [clears throat] I know we need to call them out individually but I wasn't sure

jump in. So what you could do is go into it then come back out then go into it come back out and that's probably the recommended path. However, with that said, I think we're looking for some closure so that audience members can leave or staff can leave uh so that they don't have to stick around for some of the nuances uh that we'll work through uh with with your permission. So, we could work through the first one. Um we could take a 5m minute break. Um, but if there is no action afterwards, that will allow me to instruct much of the staff or the public to leave or if there is action afterwards, um, we can have some of the staff stay and the public can stick around as well. So, your your decision.

Um, I don't believe there's action to follow. Mr. Reapenhoff, can I? Okay, we're good. Okay. Um, yeah. So, I think we can just go ahead and so that everyone can go home. Sure. So take a uh go into the first one just maybe mention no action after item [snorts] 18 so it will move into adjournment and then uh we can take that fivem minute recess. Um so we need a motion to go into executive session to prepare for conduct or review a collective bargaining strategy to include our city manager, labor attorney, and our police chief and all of council.

I'll second Ryan and Jeff. Ryan Green. Yes. Mayor Hollis. Yes. Kyle Cook. Yes. Jeff Bar. Yes. Nicole Shook. Yes. Matthew Huggin. Yes. Donnie Barard. Yes.