City Council - Regular Meeting

I live at 420 Cherry Hill Lane in Courtland, Ohio. Um, and the reason why I'm applying is I work at the 77 credit union and I work in the commercial lending department and we are looking to expand um our market and to move out into the Kent market. And so this opportunity came up as an as an ability for me to use my skill set to help out the community. So it was actually our CEO, John Demler. He uh said, "Would this be something you're interested in?" I do this um in our local market as well. I work for uh or not work for but I volunteer for a local CDC uh doing financial literacy. I'm in um schools and classrooms talking about business credit and um entrepreneurship. So I think this was just a great extension of that and for the ability for us to support the communities that we serve.

Thank you. Thank you. Does this person have to be a resident of Kent or uh work in the Kent area? I I don't I don't believe so. I I think Eric will know the best. I think this is one of the positions that we can go outside the city.

Yeah, I can answer that. This question came up with our uh last applicant, too. She was outside of a Revent branch. Um as long as they're a commercial lender, attorney, or real estate agent that serves our market, they're okay to be on board. Thank you. Further questions? No. Thank you, David. We'll be making our decision at the council meeting on the um 21st, I think. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for coming.

Okay. Now, uh we have council organization for the new council people. This is what we do every two years. uh we reorganize council and we assign council people to different um committees uh to uh lead the discussions during the committee meetings. Um usually what we like to do is have the senior council be the chair and then co-chair the uh newly elected people because that way you have a little learning curve there. So So let's start off with community development. The ch the chair was Gwen Rosenberg. Oh, that's right. President Prom. That was me, but I'm no longer prom. I'm now the mayor. So, we need somebody. Yes.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor. I'm pleased to nominate Jeff Clapper as president prom. Okay, I second. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, Joe, I'll abstain. Okay, good job. Okay. Community Development. Uh the old uh chair was Gwen Rosenberg and vice chair was Jeff Clapper. I would like to nominate myself for that role. Okay. Second chair. Second. Second it. Any discussion?

I just said I would like to I you know I've been on council now for 18 years and I would like to be chair of an active committee. Um, I see my role evolving on council as uh helping uh new voices be heard as well as uh the public to be heard. So, I I would like to be on this committee because it is a very active committee and I'm passionate about community development. Thank you, Heidi. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, great. Heidi uh the vice chair or co the vice chair co-chair any nominees.

Yeah, I'll just nominate myself. Okay, I'll second. Okay. Any any uh comments? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Finance committee like to volunteer a chair. Okay. So, the old chair was Mike. Now it's going to be Melissa. Any comments? All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, good. Vice chair, I'd like to nominate myself. I have interest in this area. Second. Second.

Okay. Seconded. Any comments? All those in favor? Okay. Um, health and public safety. Yes. Like to nominate myself for the chair of health and public safety. Okay. Second. Comments. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. The vice chair. Anybody have a can do it. Okay. Jeff, do I have a second to Jeff? Second. Jeff. All the Any comments? All those in favor? I

I opposed. Okay. The land use committee. I'll nominate myself for it. Second. Okay. Jeff seconded. Any comments? All those in favor? Opposed? Vice Chair. I'm happy to stay. Vice Chair. Okay. Chris, do we have a second? Second. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Health and public safety was Chris and Jeff.

Streets and sidewalk utilities. Nominate Tracy for it. Tracy second. Okay. Comments. All those in favor? I opposed. Vice chair. I'd be happy to if we need a person. Does Sarah have a position? Not yet. Okay. So, Ben's nominating himself. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Is she too? All those in favor? I. Okay. How many are left? Uh, Jack? Um, I think that's about Yeah, we have the other stuff.

There's Oh, there's there's other things here, too. Okay. Okay. Um, let's go down to the um, so Jeff or Jeff is president prom board of control. I volunteered to be on that. Okay, there's a second comments. We need two people. I know. All those in favor I would you be interested in being on the board of control? Um I think that I'm going to wait for a little Okay. Okay. Anybody? Ben be a good nominee for that.

It's Yeah. Actually, it might be a good place for you to start to learn it. It's It's not that complicated. But uh is there additional time? No. No. Five. It's five minutes before the meeting starts and you get the report a couple days ahead. So if you have questions, you can It's pretty straightforward. Okay. Pretty straightforward. I can try that out for two years. Okay. Okay. So been uh nominated by Melissa and then seconded by Jeff. Comments? All those in favor? I opposed. Board of health to nominate Chris.

Second. Okay. comments. All those in favor? I I Okay. Parks and Recck board. I would like to nominate Sarah. Second. Thanks. Okay. Seconded by Jeff. Any comments? All those in favor? I. Okay.

The other board, the Treasury Investment Board. I don't even know if that exists anymore. Uh, and I, uh, so, um, it was on the in the sheets when I inherited this from Jerry, so I'm not sure if it exists anymore. So, we'll come back to that if it does and we can assign somebody later. Yeah. And then the final one is, well, not the final one, but the Standing Rock Cemetery to nominate Jeff. Jeff, do I have a second? Yes. Second. Okay. Comments. All those in favor? I Jeff? All right. The next thing we want to look at solid waste. Solid waste.

We don't nominate Tracy, please. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. I'll second. Okay. Rapid fire here. Any comments? All those in favor? I I Okay. What's the city KSU liaison committee? I I automatically sit on that.

Um, anything anybody now we go to this uh council standing rules. Is there anything anybody wishes to change or add to the standing rules? And this we could do at a later time too. I'm not even sure we all know what the standing rules are. So maybe it'd be better if we came back to this if I provided you with some standing rules. Yeah. And the other ones are uh that's also we'll come back to that. So I think we're done.

All right. Also under committee the whole are staff updates and I will call up Mr. Eric.

Welcome for the new members. I just want to let you know that this was something council asked to be kept more informed of some I don't know hot things in the community, whatever, for lack of a better phrase. And so we we set aside some time really no more than five minutes uh for each person if there's particular updates. So um this is what we try to we've done so far and it seemed to be well received. So that's what we're doing tonight. Eric's kicking us off. try. Okay. Evening, council. Uh, tonight I'd like to just give a brief presentation of the last six months review of economic development here in the city. It's not all-encompassing, just kind of like some highlights. So, for our new business activity, we had the Nutouse Grill and Pub. They took over the space that Paninis used to occupy right across the street at the corner of Haymaker and Water. And they do some upscale barf fair. They did a rehab of the interior space, just kind of cosmetic changes. Main Street Memorabilia, that space was actually owned by Tom Simpson. It had housed Defiance Tattoo that was on East Main Street. So, they now sell memorabilia out of it. So, sports apparel, uh, TV posters, music related. It also serves as the box office for the stage. Then, Silver and Sense. Silver and Sense had originally been in Acorn Alley, moved to Ravena, lost her space in Revena, came back. So she is now in space that the chamber used to occupy on East Street, just across from the hotel. So directly adjacent to the chamber, 2011B East Street. We have Leaf Home and Blooms. They rent space from Cass at McKay Breaker. So Cass is easing into her retirement. She leased a lot of her retail space to

leave home and bloom. uh home decor, floral, and they have a presence in Akran. I believe they start in Highland Square. GG's Restaurante and Market, they just opened a couple weeks ago. Uh had their grand opening ribbon cutting. They are in the form of Brio Space at the corner of Depister and Erie Street. They're run by Taproot Cater, I'm sorry, not Taproot Catering, but Taproot Hospitality Group, which is out of Northeast Ohio, Shagrin area. And they have a couple other concepts. Grin Aurora like northern portage county. They also do some prepared foods as well. We have for the birds and more. So this is uh an oddity shop with art classes and some other eclectic things. They moved into half the space. It's Sue Nelson's business is she also eases into retirement. She's still doing some of the embroidery from home. Um so they opened up another relocation from Revena. Matalena's. This is 252 North Water Street. They opened had a soft opening early last year, a grand opening in Ribbon Cutting in November. Italian Food and that was in the city own building that council uh chose to sell to Matalinas. This is 365 Holdings. The address of this property is 1510 Magador Road. You probably remember it as Madcap Brewery. Madcap. um moved on 365 relocated two businesses that they have from Akran to this property and it's reverted back to manufacturing. So, one line of business makes, think of it as like the survival kit meals, right? You need a 100 day supply of food, they make that. They also do pre-fermented kits. So, if you want to make kimchi or sauerkraut at home, they do that. But it's all, I believe, online retailbased sales. LeAngelos, they relocate in space that

they sublet from Madcap at 1510 Magador. They took over the former space that was occupied by Pit Stop Pub then Flashes Fried Chicken and Wings Spot in University Plaza. You said that Mad Cap moved on. Does that mean they went to a different space? No, no, they they closed. Oh,

we have a handful of closures. Paninis, which we just discussed that space has been leased already lightly toasted. That was the vape shop in the Welsh Sherman house. There is some activity that's going to happen with that property that I'll be able to probably update you when I come back and talk here in a couple months. Drug Mart out on 59. So that's right there by I believe it's 6 and 59. They moved to the Kent Broomfield Jed which is down on 43. They built a new facility right in front of the schools, right in front of field local schools. It is still an active jet participant which is a bonus. Uh we're working with the realers there. They're willing to subdivide that space and I know that they just showed that space today. Somebody interested in a concept to do out there. Um closed their shop, rebranded. They're operating out of Revena. That space has been leased. Um and I'll have an update on that here in the next couple weeks as well. RA aesthetics. They were on the other side of silver and sense. We left to go into shared space in Hudson. That space is currently available. Madcap, we just discussed that a little bit. Battleground. They closed the concept. That restaurant space is going to reopen as another restaurant. I'm not sure what the concept of that is going to be. It hasn't been shared with me. Pyramid Molden Machine. the owner retired. That property is available. And that's down in the area of Martineell St. Clair, south end of Franklin just before you get to 261. Working with the realtors and trying to get somebody in there because it's probably the only industrial space that we have that's above 10,000 square feet actively available. Uh Family Dollar also closed. Uh what happened there was parent company Dollar Tree sold it to

private equity last year. the whole family dollar as a whole that got closed. That space is actually owned by corporate. So, we've reached out to them just trying to figure out what's going on with that space because it's s it's vacant to the state. Well, what's going on with Paninis? Because they were always so busy. Not sure why they chose to to sell, but that's the nut house now. So, I'm I'm really not sure that wasn't shared with me. Good question. Yes. And there is a another business in Acorn Alley that's closing. Um Indie I've I've heard that. Yeah. But they didn't let you don't know.

They haven't told that to me for certain. I've heard that anecdotally. Um and I think that that was just today that I heard that. Um but I will get an update for you on that. Yeah. So we have some projects in process process progress. the two Clayven projects. Uh for those new to council, they're located, well, you probably know where they're located out there on West Main Street, but council approved two CRA two agreements with them last year for expansions. One's new Lincoln dealership. One is the expansion of their existing uh Ford service center expansion. Both those are in progress. Another CRA agreement that was recently approved by council was Enterprise Renar. They're moving from the south side of Main Street across to the former Longitanos that's in process. Rascal House, they are delaying construction until spring, but they're um going into where the old Arby's was out on 59. So, they actually demoed that. They don't own that parcel. They lease that, but they're going to construct a new facility. At least that's what the submitted plans were for. Also some projects that we're just still working through um build out and construction process. Thunderruck Donuts which is out on uh 43 in the area of Carthage and Stiniff in that plaza. Shaw Halal Foods they're going in where Clench was at we have Ted off Golf that's a golf simulator concept going in where Boost Mobile was in Mark's Plaza. The Sheets, they're just rebuilding for a new concept that's going to be opening soon. Domino's, they've relocated from Water Street out to the old, I think it was uh Fred's Automotive across from the university. Blacktail Events. They purchased the Firefly Hookah Lounge space. So, they're going to have an event center there. And we also have the Speak Easy Barn restaurant

concept that's going in um plan planning commission approved it. And that's going to be in the old Bistler building over there at the northeast corner of Maine and Goggler River. Some other business news, Pen Automation is under new ownership. Primal Screen is under new ownership. Uh they've rebranded as Primal Screen and Stitch. They're out on Mason. And real quick, um Ken Automation is over on Dodge. Game Day Coffee is under new ownership. They're going to rebrand and reopen as another coffee shop. Ronal Molden Machine is under new ownership. Hazel made excuse me they relocated from um can't remember the building the name of the building but where Main Street Kent and Daisy Pops is they occupied space on the second floor and they are now in the old Century 21 offices. Eric does data was located on Martineel. They closed their brick and mortar location but they're still operating remotely. be happy to answer any questions if anybody has.

Are there any questions for Eric? No. All right. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Eric. Yep. That's great to see when places uh leave us that new places want to come in and that's very heartening, right? Okay. Next person that would like to talk to us is Mr. Nick Cecil. What? Wait, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. Jim. Jim. and then Melody. Then Melanie Nick's got his own show.

H good evening. Um so Dave asked me to come here this uh evening just to let you know as we talked about in the capital update in October uh after our next council meeting we're going to have a short workshop on uh as Dave's words were hopes dreams wishes and crazy ideas normally I call that problems and needs but frankly I like his description better. So, uh, we're going to be doing a a large project that's necessitated by sewer issues, as we've brought those up before, and it's going to be located, the work we're going to be doing is going to be between the Kaiger River and Water Street, east and west, and then Fairchild Avenue, Crane Lake, and Water, and Summit and Stow Street to the south. So, we're going to be working in that entire area. But after the next meeting, but before we really get started, we really want to find out what all of those wishes, dreams are because over the years, we've heard lots of great ideas in that about that area and before we start to invest a lot of money into putting infrastructure and we'd like to make sure we set it up for those wishes and dreams and hopes that we can do. So, uh, after the next council meeting, we're going to have a short workshop. I'll give a very short presentation. and we'll break into groups. And so if you can over the next two weeks, think about what you've heard for that area, what things you wish could be in that area, what things you like in that area. If there's things that you don't want to change, make sure you let us know and uh that'll start our process moving forward. So uh we're also going to have a lot of uh public involvement on this. There's going to be a second meeting really tailored to the public. Same agenda. It's going to happen on the 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM and it's going to be here in the council chambers. The public's invited to the first meeting, the public's invite, you guys are

invited the second. It's open to all. So,

yeah, I'm going to jump in just because uh pretty excited about this project because it's sort of like if you if you step out maybe the 10,000 foot view, it's really sort of downtown redevelopment phase two at the aerial level. I mean sort of the geography. Yes, there's been some investments including our own. We did three and a half million dollar investments on the north side of water street but and there's been individual like Magdalinas and and some of the other properties but this is kind of more along the lines where we tried to really look at the infrastructure and the amenities um pedestrian friendliness etc. And and frankly, you know, Angela finished her master plan and one of the sort of priorities coming out of that is integrate more stuff like Dan Smith Park in the downtown. And you know, we sat we literally he, you know, we kind of had the planning meeting for the workshops and I think uh it was literally like oh years ago we did a whitewater park concept for this stretch in the river. Oh, let's throw that in there. We did the community better block project where the community identified things that they wanted to see on Northwater Street in particular. We've got uh a new owner of at the book end on the far end at where Stow Street where Franklin te's into Stow Street uh Copen Enterprises now is going to be redeveloping that property and part of the deal is what can he do at the end there to help support the farmers market as well. So, even the farmers market is, well, what can we do to do better for the farmers market? What could we do? Is this a time to talk about a downtown splash pad? Is this a time to talk about a misfound? We have drawings and schematics on most of these things. That's really amazing. It's just we've never taken all these parts and pieces and said, "All right, this is we have a reason to do this now. Let's figure this out." And I know a couple of you have said, I know Heidi in

particular has been like, "When can we do more downtown redevelopment?" And for the most part, I felt like we were kind of stuck as far as geography. But as this thing kind of percolated and we had time to think about, I'm like, this really is that. So, um, you know, I think if we get it right, it's another one of those legacy projects. And, um, as Jim said, we've already had conversations. He's got meetings on the books for the residents and businesses down there, but I know we've had conversations with some of the the business owners, particularly as you head closer to Summit Street, that side, Stow Street. They're really excited. I think they feel a little bit off the beaten trail down there. And they uh Jim's already got another project down there working with the county on the bridge replacement. and he's already had ideas about how to better integrate connectivity between the hike and bike trail, the farmers market downtown. So, I guess my point is we've got a lot of of potential opportunities here, and there's probably some we didn't think about. Um, our point is if we're going to spend millions of dollars on sewer relocation, which we're going to have to do, don't ask me how we're going to pay for it yet. So, that's we're not going to talk about that first. You know, we didn't know how we were going to pay for downtown redevelopment either, the first phase, and we didn't know how we're going to pay for East Main Street either, but we got there. So, we're going to follow that same process. We really kind of roll up the sleeves, work with you, the community, businesses, staff to kind of come up with a a smart sort of strategic next step for the downtown to really finish what we started. And I'm excited about it. And uh I'm sure Jim's like, "Here we go." So, yeah, that's coming. questions. Heidi?

Yeah. Does this project have a working title to it or name? No, I think it's evolving right now because because of the nature of what we're talking about. We're early in the planning stages. We don't know everything as part of it. The sewer part is the Kaiser River sewer relocation. Um, didn't we say double down on downtown? That's another one. That's a good one. We did say that. Yeah. So, uh, I think that's all part of the process is to come up with that name. They they do evolve over time. Further questions, sir. What's the timeline for it? Well, that's goes back to where the funding is coming from as well, too. Um, do you have an idea?

So, not really. The earliest I can see getting it done like the sew, like if we just took the sewer out is probably 2028. start the construction. Okay. But we are we are so early in the process. We don't know exactly what we're going to build yet. And that's why because of where this is at, we really want the community to have a say and to help direct us in that. And then that may dictate when it gets done, how many phases it gets done in, um where we get the funding from. It all sort of pieces together and we work at it over time. Uh just to give you some idea of perspective um for a project like East Main Street, we started in 2017 2018 and we're going to finish construction in 2028. The downtown started before we got here.

Um in 2006 you were here, right? I was here. Okay. So it started in 2006 and we finished in 2013. One of the things, one of the good news is some of these pieces that we've thrown out there like Jim's bridge project and the Copen project piece, some of these other pieces already are kind of in the queue. So, it doesn't have to be we won't necessarily roll up with a check for $20 million, but you know, we might do three million here and a couple million here and five million there. And then by the time we turn around, look back, we're like, we just did a $20 million project. So, I almost envision it kind of like East Main Street to did a little bit of that. Yep. Right.

And quick question, Jim. So, just trying to frame in my preparation for coming with ideas and what's possible. I've always understood that the one of the larger lots, which is the gravel lot that the farmers market meets on, is railroad owned. And yes, that's obviously dictated by the railroad, but then there's some use uh allowability, but that's a big piece of the connection. And so, do we feel like that's even within the realm of consideration like uh uh having full say over that specific parcel at this stage? Yes.

Okay. And when Dave talks about hopes, dreams, wishes. Yeah. Don't hold yourself back by what you feel are restrictive things. We'll during this process that will take time. We'll evaluate. We'll talk to the railroad. We'll reach out to them. Uh if there's something that's an absolutely like no, this is not possible to do like relocating the rail lines. We'll let you know. But, you know, trying to get the farmers market paved, I hope there will be a lot of people that speak up about that. We've heard about that over for so many years. And then even more at the moment. Yes. The moment. Yes.

And honestly, Ben, some of the uh there's been some preliminary just conversations with the road like, "Hey, I mean, what do you guys think?" And they've been open to the conversation. I can't say they promise anything, but for that's kind of a change honestly. That's why I'm more optimistic now than I've ever been that they'd be willing to work with us on something in that stretch. And um you know, there's other private property owners down there too. You right across from the farmers market. I'm visualizing the big green area. Charlie Thomas owns that. And you know, we've had different conversations with him at different times. I hope he'll be involved in this to see if what role he could play in that. And I you know, you probably most of you wouldn't have had reason to see it. But Jim did a really nice redesign of the parking lot that the free-for-all parking lot. That's gravel on the other, you know, not where the farmers market is, but across the street there behind like the law, you know, the college. Yes. Thank you. Um really nice. Uh it was sort of predicated on the building of the Hawi building which you have seen and it is going to eventually finish hopefully this year but there was also a second building apartment complex that was going to go in there and it became a victim of the times with COVID and all the interest rates and that has not been resuscitated yet. So Jim was you know like most of our projects we can't really swing them just on our own dime but if we pull enough other dimes together we have enough. So that kind of took the air out of that, but the idea and the drawing is still there. So there's really some wonderful pieces that we could do in this stretch of the downtown that again would have a pretty dramatic impact visually, quality of life. I mean, the goal is very much to make the downtown more livable space, more enjoyable space, not just where to park my car. and we'll provide you everything that we've that's been done today like he mentioned with that parking lot. At the meeting, we'll have handouts so that people can see what was done and also know that that next meeting is not the

beginning and end of the idea generation. If something comes up in three months, six months, nine months, that all can be part added to it and looked at the process. So, further questions for Jim?

Thanks Jim. you had one last issue if you don't mind. Uh I was asked to let you guys know uh during the winter time we have a lot of water breaks typically. Um for those on council in 2002 when the water tower failed up on Fairchild Avenue uh there's been a postfailure investigation and we've learned quite a bit uh about our system. uh and we've learned there's some operational and infrastructure risks that we can manage better. So just to give you some idea during that time period when the tower failed we were having an average of two breaks every nine days for four months in the summer. Okay. um over this investigation uh with working with the water plant and the distribution people we've been able to learn some things and this year we went from April 10th for 220 days without one water break. Okay, so I want to say kudos to our water plant operators who are making this happen. And just to give you an idea, the breaks that were happening were basically taking large pieces of the pipe and blowing them out. Okay? And they've been able to control those things. So, I'm really happy. That saves a lot of our staff's time. The same staff that's doing pothole repairs and street maintenance. This last year, thankfully, they weren't dealing with water main brakes at the same time. So, just wanted to pass that along while I was up here.

Thanks, Jim. Hey, Melanie. That was a great segue. Thanks, Jim. Um, so I wanted to just take a few moments of your time tonight. Um, I did this a few years ago and I think it's something that it's really good to do about every other year. Um, but with our new council people, it's always difficult during these months when we're snow plowing to understand exactly how we're doing it, why we're doing it, and nobody's ever happy, right? Um, I'd like to say that I think our crews have done a great job. We got snow very early this year in the season. Typically, we're not doing those until January, but we had a couple pretty large storms. But basically, um, what this map, I passed you a map out that shows you our snow removal routes. Um, we divide our roads into three roads. There's primaries, collector streets, and residential streets. Our primary roads is where you're going to see the majority of our trucks most of the time because those are our main arterial roads that go through town. They're very important to our commerce, to the fire department, the police department, safety, and getting people from one side of town to the other. Your collector roads, which are those in blue, are also kind of our secondary roads that we feel are um extremely important as well to get that connectivity. The green roads, which is the majority, is our residential side streets. Those don't get hit here nearly as often. And typically in a very heavy storm when we're getting snow about 4 inches an hour, which we do see often, those trucks aren't going to be seen but once, maybe every four or five hours. So, this is just giving you guys kind of an overview of how we do this. Um, we do have several different routes. If it's very light or icy, you'll typically see one truck out on bridges and intersections. That's where we'll start. And we can blossom all the way up to six trucks on a route. During the days when we have the large trucks out, we also have smaller trucks out doing some of

our culde-sac streets and smaller roads just so that we can stay caught up with those storms. The last two storms we've had have actually been long days because it doesn't just go for 24 hours, but the last storm was 72 hours and headed in into a fourth day. So that means around the clock we had crews here. Typically during the week crews are working 8 hour shifts because we work 7 to 3, 3 to 11, 11 to 7. On the weekends, we'll move to 12-h hour shifts. You'll never see a driver in that truck. We always try to get them out at hour 12 because we feel that their sensibility. Their CDLs allow them to be in there for 16 hours. That's an awfully long time. I have a policy that when you start beginning to think snowflakes or other things, you need to come in and take a moment. Um, most of them are very good and have done this for a long time, but we have a very young crew coming on. They're doing exceptionally well learning this, but it is kind of a tiring process. If you'd like to do a ride along, we're happy to take you out. We always try and christen you by saying you have to be on call between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. So that's your first job. I'm just kidding. You can come anytime, but um it is kind of a feat kind of a good feat to see. Um again, the other kudos that I'd like to give our team uh you might have noticed over the years we've kind of changed how we approach our storms. Uh I feel that we are meteorologists in our second life. Dave always texts me says, "What's going on with the storm?" I'm like, "Give me 30 seconds." Um, the three of us watch four different um webcasts, newscasts, and we actually do underground weather. Uh, we are constantly monitoring those when we know a storm is on its way. There's actually a group out of Berke Lake Front Airport that will monitor us for us. Um, and they'll give us a call and typically I've seen them be within 5 minutes before that storm will hit us. So, what we try to do is we try and gauge those and plan for those. So, if we think it's going to hit us somewhere between 10 and 12 at night, we're going to bring some crews in at 10:00. We give them the

opportunity to go out in the trucks, make sure the roads are fine, gauge those temperatures, and then be able to hit the roads ready to go. We're not always ahead of it, or sometimes we're ahead of it, we're on it, and then all of a sudden they come in and two minutes later we're completely inundated again. That's the uh fun part of dealing with mother nature because you never know what you're going to get. Uh but we do do our best to be out there for that. We've had some beautiful weather here, too. So, I would be remiss not to mention, as Jim said, we're also out during this nice weather filling potholes. So, you might have seen we had three crews actually out today all over town trying to get ahead of some of those smaller holes so that they don't become larger holes. That's kind of our new goal this year if we could be out more um to do that. And we're hoping that with Jim's record with water main breaks, we won't be taken away for those kinds of things so we can address those issues a little bit better. I know one other question that came up today and I want to make sure that you guys understand we are not done leaf collecting either. Um while it seems we should be uh when those piles froze we were unable we were actually hurting the equipment and damaging it more than we were doing good. So we always put it off for a while until it gets warm like this. So you not only saw um pothole crews out today, but you also saw leaf crews. We'll continue that until we hit the freezing temperatures again. We're almost there though. one of our record years of making sure that we got around the town at least five times. So, I have to say my calls I think I've only had three. Dave, I don't know if you've had any in your office, but that's pretty good for me. So, um if there's any questions on how we do that, um I'd be happy to take some questions.

I would just add as in the first 15 years of my career, I had the fun of being in charge of snow operations and I was so glad I don't have to be that person all night. Um, but I can tell you as someone that's done that, uh, it's not easy. And like you said, the variables are so many from the weather to this what's happening on the street to water main breaks to crews getting sick to trucks breaking down uh, to just what traffic is doing at any given time. And I am super impressed. I will say I think Melanie has taken a page out of Joan's book with the preventive health. She kind of practices preventive street maintenance. um snow clearing, pre-wetting. I mean, she didn't get into that details, but they've always been very interested and willing to experiment with uh natural chemical I say natural chemicals uh natural products to pre-wet and and make our own brine and

so I don't know if you want to mention that that's makes a difference.

So, yeah, we um do not use any additives or chemicals other than salt. Um we are experiencing a little bit with what's called beet juice and it's a natural uh byproduct of beet canning. Um it actually lowers the stability temperatures from 20° to 0 degrees and we can get still get salt to work. If we can get that brine down before the storm hits and then our first trucks that go out typically on our main routes, we're pretty good in not getting ice to adhere to that and then we're able to keep those streets cleaner faster longer. Um, so that is something that we're going to try a little bit more next year, but we're doing right now to experiment, especially on our bridges. If anybody knows Fairchild Bridge, we try to get there long before that first wind comes in. And typically, we're not fast enough. And if you've ever been there, at the top of it, doesn't matter what direction you're going, you're sliding down the other side. So, uh, we do our best to try and get out there to to prevent those things from happening. Um, and Oh, yeah.

Go ahead. Yeah, just question about you know part of your process now is doing the sidewalks on the state routes and it would be interesting to explain that and how that fits into clearing the streets with your for the new for the newer people. Sure. So, we do have a sidewalk program that's actually uh run and maintained under the parks and wreck.

And so, typically they try to come out when we have 2 inches or more snow. And they try to do it during the daytime hours because uh once it gets dark, it's a little dangerous for them to be on the sidewalks. But they start they do all of State Route 59 uh north to south and then uh east to west uh they do um I'm sorry, east to west is 59, north to south is 43. So they do those state routes and clear those sidewalks. Some of our sidewalks are kind of tiny with the equipment that we have. So we can't always get all of it, but we do our best to try and get it clean because unfortunately we have seen people with um disabilities out in the road trying to navigate during the winter months. It is extremely dangerous and so we do try to make sure that we're out there to avoid that. And again, I think we've been able to keep up with that this year.

For the question, Tracy, you said you started experimenting with beet juice. Have you used it at all yet? We have not. Um, we're getting it in. We're trying to figure out how to mix it. It's supposed to be an 8020 with our salt brine. Um, but we have not had an opportunity to get that and roll that out, so to speak, yet, but we're working on it. Further questions for Melan.

Just one more anecdote. I'm sorry, but it's kind of fun. Um it's it's a great testimonial to the value of the pre-wedding that optimizing your salt use and that translates into Melanie reminded me uh heading into this year we've had our salt supplies are really good. We do a good job of keeping the the shed full so to speak, but we also use our salt very strategically. Yes. And we use techniques to optimize that salt. And and what I would say to you is it it doesn't surprise me maybe that though Telmage and Streetsboro all ran out of salt and they borrowed from us.

And I would argue that some of that is just a reflection of kind of best management practices of your salt. And I know it sounds a little crazy, but you spend a fair amount of money on salt every year. So don't talk to me. So it it it translates into savings. So the it's kind of the best of both worlds. We're optimizing safety of the streets, but we're also being as cost effective as possible.

And that's a really good point because sometimes you'll see our plows just plowing. If we're plowing the snow, we're not going to salt if we're plowing that salt right off. So, yeah, it doesn't look like we're doing our job to 100% full, but those drivers have to make that decision when they're out there because if they're going to go down and be right back down that main road in 20 minutes, we're just pushing the salt off. So, that's kind of a waste of it. So they do a very good job engaging the storm, the speed, how much is coming down, when we need to get it down there once we get to wet uh pavement. They try to keep it at that. Um so yeah, it's a it's a fun little game. Other questions, Chris?

Yeah. Um I was in West Virginia a few weeks ago and learned that in this certain part of the state they use gravel. Yeah. Um and I think that's um that's because of the environmental impact that extra excess salinity has on the ecosystem. Wondering if that's if you've done any analysis of the that that issue.

So we have looked at gravel before. One of the downfalls for us is we have a great percentage of storm water. All of that gravel and silt ends up in it. So then that's a bigger problem for us to cleaning it. And what you don't um what happens once it gets in there, it becomes hazardous material for us. So everything that we clean out of a storm sewer has to go into a bin that's removed as hazardous material. Gravel, depending on what you use, can also actually be more slippery than it is an aggregate that will slow you down. We don't feel that that's actually a good application in our particular um zone and region and location only because we don't have the ability where there are multiple ditches where it could roll off be segmented and then be filtered out so that it's not necessarily causing harm to the environment. So

so no concerns about the salt runoff.

Well, there's always concern for that because where does our storm water go? Directly to the river, right? So that's why we've been trying over the last couple years to come up with different ways and different additives to add so that we can use less. Again, putting the brine down on the streets has allowed us to lose about 18% of our salt usage. And that's been a pretty big savings to us. Now, yes, it's very corrosive to our asphalt. So now we're trying to figure out what's the better way to handle that, right? We spent all summer fixing roads. Um, so again, it's it's a ying and yang, a balance trying to figure out what those are, but we're constantly trying to look at new things um, and keeping us healthy and as natural because our main runoff goes to that river. Further questions?

Perfect. The final closing thing, just so that you guys can gain a magnitude, we have almost 200 lane miles of road that we maintain. Thank you. Thanks, Melanie.

Okay. Uh, Dominique. As Dom makes her way up, I will say we had a really good meeting. I I thought it was a really good meeting with Leslie and Main Street Cat. And I think most of you know Dom both in her personal life and our professional life has been involved with Main Street for some time. So, she's kind of our liaison to Main Street. And in the spirit kind of carrying forward what I had said already in terms of making our downtown more than just a place to park is trying to create that experience the quality of life lifestyle amenities that kind of is Kent's unique capabilities being this great kind of quirky college town. One of the things that fits really well with that was public art and we've been really proud of what we've been able to work with Main Street. we sort of partner with them, I guess I would say, and uh they've got some new things that they're wanting to roll out and I said, "Yes, bring me more." So, this is kind of uh one of the things and Dom will talk about kind of their latest initiative on public art.

Yes. Okay. So, we'll look at that in a moment. It's coming around too. Um but you guys are invited to March for the Arts. Um so with Leslie spearheading this, um it's a partnership, it's a new partnership with the city schools, specifically Davy Elementary, Walls Elementary, Stanton Middle School Art Club, and Roosevelt High School. Um, art students will be creating in their art classes artwork that focus around what Kent means to them, what home means to them, and then um around town for the month of Art March um 17 businesses will display that artwork. And so we are lucky to do a kickoff um sort of uh reception um for the kids and the families here at city hall. and that is going to be March 13th from 5:30 to 7:30. We would love to have you guys here um and uh help us welcome all of those families. Um with that, we will be unveiling, I guess you could say, this um artwork here in the atrium. Um this is artwork created by Danny Lyar. He's a local artist. Um and so we're really excited to bring to life start to bring to life um the atrium that you that people walk through to come into uh council chambers. Um does anyone have any questions about that?

Questions? Yeah, sir. Is it too late to get the other schools involved in that particularly long coin?

Um so I don't So Leslie, she was the one who kind of took over that. Um I think it was more so obviously we'd want every child to participate but it's lack of space and just making sure that um we can do something with all the all the artwork that does get submitted. This is a first year so I mean who's to say next year can't we can't switch up the schools. Um something that is really cool too though they are letting me keep all the artwork. So, we will have um we'll be able to display that throughout the year, too. But I I would assume I don't know. But do you have a process for choosing the schools or that is Main Street?

Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I'm I'm assuming she does, but I don't know. Okay.

Um so, yes, we're excited for that. And then just a side note, um Kathy or Jack, they're going to be sending out a survey to you guys. Um when you walk in upstairs, you might have noticed those um shelves that are in that breezeway. They're empty right now. It's in between our big plaque that says like the council members. Um we're going to start utilizing those monthly. And for the first month, we want to highlight you guys. So, they're going to the you'll get a survey um with some basic questions um and I would love for you to fill that out so you can be included. And please send me a nice picture or I will find a picture.

That's up to you. That's on record. What's up? Not our council. You can do that. Do is that somewhere? I don't think is that anywhere on the website or anything yet? It is. She's saying no. We're doing all the pictures. Okay. Well, send me a picture. They complained I look too young. Send picture. That is all. Thank you. Thanks, Tom. Okay, Nick.

This was the item that he prepped you for last month. Just said this is coming. He's finalizing it. Um the cyber security plan. And uh now that he's kind of got it done, we kind we want to finish it off, get it approved, adopted, so to speak, and he can check that box in his to-do list. Yep. As Dave said, and as I told you in my informal staff update, um per the Ohio Revised Code, the change through House Bill 96, we are now required to adopt a cyber security policy and plan as a response to a lot of the cyber security concerns and breaches and incidents that have happened in smaller municipalities throughout Ohio. So that's what's before you now is this collection of policies. Okay. You guys have any questions? Questions?

We covered this all. Yes. Yes. Second by Melissa. Any discussion? All those in favor? Thank you. Thank you. Um oh

thank you. You might recall um last year, I don't it was probably what four months ago, five months ago, I came to you with a recommendation from um the civil service council um requesting that um the police chief position at um be open to the outside um if there was ever a vacancy. You all agreed to that. And then what something else you also agreed to was um when we went through the the fire department process of hiring a new chief, the civil service commission allowed Dave as city manager to have interviews with all the candidates and they each and um Dave got 10% of the total um civil service score. Um we also asked civil service to recommend that change as well and and you did both of those things um over the last few months um with some of the changes going on in the police department. I wanted to um take a look at that section, compare it to some other sections to which I I apologize. I should have done that before, but I I just wanted to double check to make sure that everything was covered and there was an an instance where there might be uh contradictions. So that's why I came up with this um these changes where I took out the reference to section uh 5.08. Um the reason I did that is that section also refers to the lower ranks in police and fire uh where they talk about seniority and uh how long you're supposed to be in the lower rank and what happens if if there's not enough members in the lower rank to um that want to take the

position. So I took that out to make it um uh more understandable uh so that you don't have to go to 5.09. Then I added that um the I made it very clear that the the the commission shall determine the determine the type of the test that will be given. Um it was already in there that no credit will be given for seniority or efficiency. So those are the changes that um I requested to um civil service commission. They um unanimously passed that on December 15th meeting. And so now I'm here to you to ask you to um to um accept their recommendation.

Any questions for hope? No. Do I hear a motion? I'll move to approve with emergency. Seconds. All this in favor? I opposed. Okay. Passes. Okay. And I think Melanie's already talked to us, right? On the list. So, let's go to streets and sidewalks. And now Tracy is the new chair. So, run this meeting.

You I guess I let the cat out of the bag in a way. I already mentioned this project, but good news is I said it's already in the queue. Some of the stuff is already in the queue. This is a good example one in the queue. And uh Jim's trying to get your approval tonight to allow an agreement to kind of get the design work going. So Jim,

sure. Uh I'm going to start a little bit back from a history since we have new council members here. So um in 2023, we began a collaboration with Portage County uh in the area of Summit Street and Stow Street uh near Tannery Park to downtown. Uh there's some structural issues with the bridge and in that area we have pedestrian connectivity issues as Dave mentioned earlier when the farmers markets in and people trying to cross Summit Street or busy evenings downtown that overflow parking is used. Um so uh 2023 we entered into an agreement with the county to do a planning phase so initiate planning and try to find money. Okay. Um and that phase is pretty much complete except for finding all the money part. Um so we need to move to the design uh of that project. And then the last section would be the construction. So uh what you have before you is an agreement for us to collaborate coordinate with county engineers office to complete the planning and the design of the project. It also includes coordinating with the railroads both CSX and ABC. um and also to help to acquire the remaining funding um that we can. So the current agreement for the design requires um a net city cost of $25,000. We've been able between the county and ourselves to obtain grants to pay for the bulk of the $450,000 from other agencies. So, um, we're requesting your approval to execute the provided agreement with the county, uh, for the summit street area.

Questions for Jim? Jeff? Not really a question, but since we're talking about the St Street Bridge, I saw that you did get the new signs up, so thank you. You're welcome. Now, it's the county. It's the county's bridge, but I'm glad they got it up. ID. So, do you have somebody on board for design or Yes, the county does. So, this is the county does this in this project. We are actually

the county's leading. We're participating. Normally, it's the other way around, but they're leading this project. So, they're applying for all the grants with our assistance. Sometimes we've applied for them. uh we review all the plans and they've we've selected a consultant together to start the design. Great. Thanks.

Quick question. Um Jim, so does this agreement lock us into the parameters of the project or does then the design then um establish what will fully be accomplished with the project? So the initial planning phases set the general concept. Those general concept is replacing the bridge on the south side adding um minimum of an 8 foot shared use path to go from Tannery Park

to downtown have a crossing uh to Franklin. the generalities, the actual specifics, while that sounds very specific, that can still be uh changed and modified. That's why I said we didn't complete the planning phase. We've initiated it. We've had several public meetings, not specifically about this job, but uh about active transportation, safe rout we've shown what's being proposed. So, okay.

One follow on if I may. Um, we've talked about the uh the main railroad crossing here, the lower the lower tracks in the past because I've heard from many uh community members that are that are interested in converting that crossing to a silent crossing um that since we're going to be redeveloping this small piece and it is that actual crossing that it's um very loud in the summertime, especially when the windows are open. Um, this time of year you don't notice the blaring horns, but in the summertime it surely is noticed. And I've just I've had many conversations. So, I I I hope that that that may be in the realm of consideration as the project moves forward with the county.

Okay. Thank you, Katie. Yeah. So, you talked about a crossing. Um, are we going down to the intersection of Franklin and Stow or is there going to be a crossing prior to that intersection? We're talking about having a cross uh crossing of Summit Street. Yes. Summit. So, Summit Street at Franklin. Okay. And they'll be crossing Mador too at the intersection of Magador. Correct. And Summit. Yes. All those are good. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Questions from council. Chris,

Jim, for pretty much just for my elucidation, can you share basics of why the county is so involved in this project? Why the county is so involved? I mean, I know you said they own the their bridge. You say what does that mean? It's their bridge.

What does that mean? Um, so it means basically they're responsible for the structural maintenance and replacement of the structure. The way the state law is written is fairly may not seem straightforward, but any roadway that's not a state route that goes travels through the city, the county owns the bridge. uh if it's a state route and it can something to do with overwater too. So for a railroad be different. Um state routes are owned by the state. So we still plow it. We still do those other things but they're responsible to find the money to replace the structure. When they went to replace the structure though we got involved we asked to be involved basically to widen the bridge to add the pedestrian bike facilities that were the desire of the community. So, it helps that the Forge County Engineer is an avid cyclist in this regard. So, did I answer your question?

Yes, I did. Okay. Any other questions from council? I actually have one. Is the cost not covered by grants? Is it a 50/50 split? That's a very good question. Um, so yes, between us and the county, the cost is a 50-50 split. Yes. Well, that's good. Anything else? Any questions from the audience? Okay, back to council. I would like to move to authorize this contract with the emergency class. I'll second. All in favor? I I I

All opposed. Okay. Next.

Thank you. Um the next item is a similar uh collaborative project. this one with the Kent City School District. This is in the earlier phase. Okay. Um for those who've seen the Lake Rockwell Trail concept, uh the Lake Rockwell Trail would go through the middle school high school campus area, uh we're going to be building the first phase of the Lake Rockwell Trail with State Route 43. And so in those meetings with the schools as we're working on that project, to campus with uh Tom Lin and Jim Sawyers and Justin and discussed their concerns that they have with pedestrian connectivity on their campus. And as we talked about that, we saw a potential uh win-win if we can build a share juice path through their campus that then helps them connect all their facilities. And really the big thing is getting access to federal money to build said uh Trey all shared just pass through their campus. So um from those discussions uh it's not a simple I concept of how to get it from one side to the other. So uh we talked about hiring a consultant to help lay out different concepts and that we split that cost. The cost is 10 grand. We would pay half at 5,000. Then school district would pay half at the other half 5,000. So we're requesting your approval to execute that agreement with the emergency as well.

Questions from council audience. Any questions? Okay, back to council. I'll move to approve with emergency. Second. All in favor? I opposed passes.

Jim, thank you. Um, so the city received a petition uh from 14 of the 16 properties on East Grant Street, which comes off of State Rock 43 between 43 and the Kaga River. And they asked to extend there's there's permissible parking on the north side. They asked to expend extend the no parking zone from 43 about 30 feet to 70 feet to give them more room uh to prepare to try to get out onto 43. Um TENS uh reviewed the request and we have no objections to it. So we're we're bringing that here for council approval to change section 353.02 in the code.

Questions from council? Any questions from the audience? Back to councel. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Thank you very much.

That's it.

Motion to adjourn. You just Yeah. Say, "Okay, we're done." So, so, so don't forget to when when somebody makes a motion and they second it, good. How are you? But you did a great job. Just saying. All of a sudden, I hear this voice over here and I go, "Okay." Okay. Sure. Yeah, very happy.

Second time is a charm, right? Oh, that was a fairly painless council meeting. There's coffee