City Council - Regular Meeting

for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Call the roll, please, Mayor Bailey. Here, Vice Mayor Bateman. Mr. Goodyear. Here. Tamlin. Here. Mr. Hart. Here. Ms. Hazel Baker. Here. Mr. Berenik.

Here.

Welcome, everyone. Note that the Vice Mayor is present remotely. With us tonight, we have our Director of Finance, Mark Medler. Assistant City Manager, Chris Weinitz. Clerk of Council, Misty Clark. City Manager, Dave Kennedy. City Solicitor, Joe Braun. Police Chief, Michael Gabrielson. Public Works Director, Scott Wisby. Assistant Public Works Director, Sean Hurtness. And former Councilmember, Todd Osborne. I think that's the only one here. Which brings me to who is quite obviously missing from us tonight. I think I'm sure everyone has heard or most that former council member Kent Blair passed away Sunday, two days ago. It was my honor to appoint Kent to council in early 2018 and run with him along with the vice mayor in 2019 and serve together for six years. I think we all know his love for the city and its residents was contagious. Kent certainly served with integrity, honesty, humility, maybe mostly humor. He had a unique perspective that I thought was valuable to the city and to me. Certainly when I was as mayor, to hear what he brought to the table always made me think of things a little differently. He, after council, shared his talents on the CIC and also was a valuable member of our finance commission, bringing his many years of banking experience to the commission, to the city. He also shared his woodworking talents along with former council member Neil Laurie and making those wonderful Adirondack chairs that you see people enjoying daily. And before council, I think he really kind of started his foray into public service as a board member of the Amazing Race and he served on that board for many years, volunteering with that organization. So quite clearly Kent's passing is a big loss to the city and this community. But I think it's certainly a bigger loss to those of us who knew him and called him friend, which I think is pretty much anyone that Kent met. This unique way of giving his friendship and his love freely and without restraint or reservation. He must be one of the most loving, caring, kind, generous men that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. On a personal level, he was certainly my friend, my confidant. He was there to kick me in the pants when he thought I needed it, which was fairly often. Certainly, I'm going to miss him and all of that, his friendship and love, and probably his hugs most of all. Please keep his family, especially his son, Tommy and Nate, and his longtime companion, Patty, in your thoughts and prayers, along with his many friends. He truly was a gift to the city and to all of us that were lucky and privileged enough to know him. And he will be greatly missed. I think we all would agree with that.

Thank you.

All right, with that, let's do something more uplifting. Sorry, Coco Muse, but you have to follow that. All right, so let me call on Council Members Jernick and Goodyear, please, and Jessica and Derek, if you'll join them at the podium.

So tonight we're announcing the 2026 Business Enhancement Award winners, which is the Coco Muse and the Ties here behind me. So I'm going to start this by reading the nomination that was provided for them to receive this award. The Cocoa Muse is a fantastic candidate for the 2026 Loveland Business Enhancement Award due to its outstanding contribution to the local business community and its role in enhancing the West Loveland business corridor. Located within the Loveland Gateway Center, the Cocoa Muse stands out as a highly attractive and thoughtfully designed business that has helped elevate the overall character and appeal of this area of Loveland. The Cocoa Muse has created a visually striking and inviting storefront that significantly enhances the appearance of the Loveland Gateway Center. Its design and attention to detail contribute to a more vibrant and polished business corridor along West Loveland Avenue. The Cocoa Muse has become a welcoming destination for Lovelanders and visitors. Its warm, inclusive atmosphere encourages social interaction and strengthens community connections, making it a valued gathering place within the city. As part of the businesses of West Loveland Avenue, the Cocoa Muse plays a key role in supporting surrounding businesses. Its presence contributes to continued economic activity and reinforces the momentum of development and revitalization in this important area of Loveland. The Cocoa Muse's clean, modern, and highly attractive appearance has made a noticeable impact on the visual quality of the corridor. It serves as a strong example of how well-designed businesses can elevate the overall streetscape. The Coco Muses' commitment to quality, community, and enhancing the West Loveland Business Quarter makes it a highly deserving recipient of the 2026 Loveland Business Enhancement Award. I just want to congratulate both of you on winning this award.

Thank you so much. Hold on. You're allowed to say a few words.

Can't get away that easy.

This means a ton to me. I don't want to say it loud because I'm going to start crying. is a lot of hard work. We put in a lot of hard work every day. My whole family, my kids are all involved. Derek's involved. And I just, I'm so grateful for this city. I love, we love Loveland. We love the community. We love the city. We love the leadership here. And I'm just so grateful. Thank you guys.

Congratulations. We need your picture. We need a picture with you.

Oh, okay. I'm up here. Congratulations, guys.

So thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council. I do want to add on Kent Blair. It was an honor to know him and missed based in the community, that's for sure, to say the very least. But tonight we're here for Chris. Chris has been with the city for about seven years, give or take. He once applied to be a mechanic about, I'm guessing, nine years ago. That'd be close enough, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

Dave will dispute that fact. But anyway, about nine years ago, he applied. We went a different route, but he really showed us something in the interview. And it was a tough decision not to pick him originally. And that's no discredit. It was just... what we were trying to build upon and what we were looking at. So shortly after we had a, uh, opportunity for a maintenance position and we spoke to Chris and he, he was, he showed a lot of eagerness to do that. So with that, he came on as a maintenance leader or a maintenance, uh, uh, person. And, um, so with that, we've got seven years experience. So you kind of got a degree. So he, uh, he learned all the, okay. So prior to that, he was a mechanic for roughly 15 years, give or take. Um, stepped outside of his comfort zone, came to work for us. He's learned all the aspects of water. He shows up for water main breaks, aspects of streets, parks, does all the maintenance in the city. There's not a job that I don't believe that Chris doesn't know. So we were very lucky to have the redundancy that we had in the maintenance or in the mechanic position so that if we were short a mechanic or we were short you know, vehicles, we had another guy to fill in. So after talking to Chris, we did go through the interview process. Chris shined far and above anything that we saw out there. And Chris was willing to accept it. And I'm glad and I'm honored to have him. And this will be a good step up for him. He filled into the role immediately when we lost our mechanic last year. And I think from the outside looking in, you don't see it. We didn't miss a beat. So, excuse me, he filled straight in. and hit the ground running, so to speak. And again, we don't have to train him on everything else. He already knows it. But, you know, his position will definitely be backfilled. We've been short staffed for a year. Like I said, outside looking in, you don't notice it, but Scott notices it. You guys may notice some things, but anyway, he'll do a great job and happy to have him. So with that.

All right. I state your name.

I, Chris Rose.

Solemnly swear that I will.

I solemnly swear that I will. Support the Constitution. Support the Constitution.

Of the United States.

Of the United States.

Constitution. The Constitution. State of Ohio. State of Ohio. And the Charter. And the Charter. And Ordinances. And Ordinances. Of the City of Loveland. Of the City of Loveland. And will obey the laws thereof.

And obey the laws thereof.

And will faithfully discharge.

Faithfully discharge.

The duties of a mechanic maintenance worker.

the duties of mechanic maintenance worker.

Upon which I'm about to enter.

Upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations. I've been here going on seven years this January. When we lost the other mechanic, I worked side-by-side with him. I've gotten to know, like Scott said, a lot about the water and everything that we do and I like the variance at work and everything, so I'm just hoping that I could keep up what we lost prior to. So keep our vehicles going and the city going.

All right. Thank you. Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

Congratulations, sir. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, get back here.

Brain fried.

All right, next is open forum. We have Jack Parlin.

All right, good evening. Thank you very much to the City of Loveland Council for having me this evening. My name is Jack. I'm with the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati. If you haven't heard about us, I'm usually over in Avondale in the City of Cincinnati. at a nine-acre public park that was donated to our organization back in the 50s with the goal of preserving nature and educating people on the importance of nature in an urban setting. Tonight I'm out here in Loveland, which is a little far from my home, but I'm very happy to be here. I'm here because With the Civic Garden Center being Cincinnati's resource for education and classes and support around gardening and all things urban agriculture, we've got the lovely Loveland Presbyterian Church community garden, which is a part of our network of over 60 gardens in the greater Cincinnati area. So that's why I'm outside of Hamilton County tonight. We go all throughout the greater Cincinnati area. And out of those 60 gardens each year, we choose eight that we feel are really exemplary of community building, education and integration of those lessons into their physical space. And the Loveland Garden is a very good example of all of those practices coming together, so much so that we want to show it off to the rest of our network of gardeners. So when we usually talk about this program, this hub program is what we call it, this sort of special group of gardens that we've collected for the year. What that includes is it's meant to be celebratory. It's meant to recognize all of the hard effort that these coordinators, all of them are volunteers, do to help build their community, this garden in particular. is coming up on its 10th year in operation. And Jeff Jamison has been growing there for a number of years and also donates a lot of his produce. He's got three beds. A lot of his produce goes to the live food pantry here. in the area, giving back directly to the community that supports him. So we just want to recognize that. And that distinction comes with its perks, right? So being a garden affiliated with the Civic Garden Center, you get access to all of these classes and resources and support. You can send your gardeners to a lot of our events for for reduced price or for free um for hub it's kind of like the premium uh membership of civic garden center so we will actually like i said most of my stuff is um way down the road in avondale uh for hub we are bringing the education to the community so um we will be hosting a class a healthy harvest class which will be a harvest demonstration. Jeff will be giving some of his produce up for that class. We'll harvest some food in the garden there and prepare it for class participants to educate people about how to grow healthy and eat healthy and cook healthy. That class will be occurring on Saturday, July Saturday, July 18th from 10 to noon. It is a free class. So a lot of our classes are either priced very low or completely free. This one's completely free to the public. I would definitely encourage, I want to see a lot of community faces in that garden. I'm talking about this class and many of the similar ones all throughout the city. So we might have some outside of Loveland visitors, which I love to see, but I want to see a lot of community support out there as well. So make sure to get the word out. If you need my information, I'd be happy to share some of that marketing information and other sort of stuff with you guys. The week before that, Friday, July 10th, will be a little volunteer cleanup. So it's kind of prepping the house for visitors, shall we say. It's looking very good right now. We just came from that garden and it's already full, which I didn't know was possible at this time. My garden doesn't look like that. But those dates, again, July 10th for the volunteer day and July 15th, 18th for the class. Our website, Civic Garden Center, we have a calendar where all of those dates are readily available to view. Do you have any questions? That's me done, right? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Randy Campion.

My name is Randy Campion. I live at 220 South Riverside Avenue. I've lived in Loveland for 31 years. I worked as an inspector for the city for 13 years. I've served on. I'm coming here tonight to talk to you about the excessive loud noise that's coming out of the bars downtown. I live right across the river. My neighbor Dave lives next to me. We can't. watch TV, you have to turn the TV up, we can't sit on our porch, and we can't enjoy our own music. Last Thursday night, I know they have a permit to play until 11. At five minutes to 11, I called the police. They said they would send a police officer, but he was busy. And 11.15, I called back. 11.20, the music stopped. At 1130, the music started back up again. They played until 1150 when I called the police again. It's so loud. It's like it's a nuisance, and it's not being enforced. I know the police can tell somebody to turn the music down, but when you call them, they say they can play till 11. So they're not enforcing it until after 11. I checked with other cities. Glendale, Springdale, Sharonville, which I work for, they don't allow any outside music. You have to be in a building. If you go to Nashville, you go to New Orleans, there's a band in every single building. And as you walk away from that building, the music dies down, you hear the next band. Now I've got Cappy's and... And Cindy's kind of competing with each other for who can be the loudest. It's just, it's deafening. So anyway, I'm here to appeal to you to fix it. I think you've created this situation, and I think you should fix it. If you want me to help you fix it, I'm available to do that. But I've supported you guys. I've put your signs in my yard. I've contributed to your campaigns. I live here. I feel like a new person shows up and you just give all your interest to the business people and you don't think about the people that live here. I go to a party, anybody that's lived here for 25, 30 years, they don't like what's happened downtown. I've defended you guys to that group of people saying you gotta have an open mind and see what happens. But I want... I want you to think about it. I want you to do something about it. I don't want to hear loud music anymore. I want to get the loud out of downtown. You know, I can listen to a band that it isn't cranked up and it's not offensive. You know, it's usually a band that can't even play and they just crank it up loud. You know, that's that's the thing. Tonight, there's only myself and Dave here. But it wasn't that long ago when citizens were angry with what was going on at council, and they filled a room full of people, and none of those people are on council anymore. So I want you to address this issue, and I hope you do.

Thank you, Mr. Campion. I actually think there was a meeting about it just last week. Was there not in front of law and ordinance? We're trying to beef up our and figure out along with the police department, the police chief, get our ordinance in place so that we have what we need to do what we need for you. We're aware of it. That's what the whole meeting was about. So we're moving in that direction. We just need to get our things in place. And I don't know when the next meeting is scheduled. 20 seconds. So there's another meeting already scheduled. I don't know if that'll wrap it up or not.

No. They asked for a couple more samples. They wanted me to communicate with Milford, and they also gave us some other direction. And after the next meeting, they'll start mocking up based on the samples that were proposed. It would appear that most people are, most communities are getting away from the decibel ones. It's too difficult for anyone. If you look, It was pointed out by the law and ordinance, a lot of the older ones were the decibel versions and a lot of the newer ones, Mason, Blue Ash, Kettering, are all leaning more towards the word that is called reasonableness. And that seems to work better. I actually spoke to the Milford police chief today about theirs. They have one specifically just for their downtown district. So we're just flooding them with information so they can begin crafting it, crafting the actual ordinance that will come back to council.

Who's going to correct?

Yeah, all the law and ordinance meetings are open session.

Yeah, it's the law and ordinance committee, and all those meetings are on our website. It tells you when they are, and anyone's welcome to attend those. If you're going to talk, you have to be at the podium. That's fine. Nobody can hear you.

Brandy, if you could...

It's just gotten progressively worse.

Well, we understand. And then so that's why we're trying to fix it. We just need to get it in place. So, OK. Yeah. We agree with you.

Yeah.

We just, we don't feel like we have the tools we need at the moment to do it the right way and we want to get that in place and then we'll take care of you. I couldn't agree with you more. All right.

Thank you.

All right. Next is review and approval of minutes from the May 26, 2026 meeting. Any changes, additions to that?

Move to approve as written. Second.

Call the roll, please.

Vice Mayor Bateman. Yeah. Mr. Goodyear. Yes. Ms. Hamlin. Yes. Mr. Hart. Yes. Ms. Hazel Baker. Yes. Mr. Jernick. Yes. Mayor Bailey. Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Mr. Kennedy.

The resolution for council would be allow for the submission of a NatureWorks grant and commitment of a local match for the Phillips Park restroom project. The NatureWorks program, which has been in place for a while, has been a very successful program for Nisbet Park. It is a per county allotment. We are recommending that we leave Claremont County this year and apply within the Hamilton County. Phillips Park restroom is the last restroom that needs significant renovations. As you know, we did Lever. We did McCoy. We're currently doing NISBIT. And this was submitted for a state capital budget, and it was not funded. But we think it would be competitive, just like any grant program they enjoy when it – benefits even outside of the people that are applying. This one benefits an extremely large population because, and I'm not going to put Misty on the spot, but the total number of sporting events at Phillips Park in a given year is hundreds from communities all over. And we'll reach out to CIMS. We'll ask CIMS to pass us a resolution of support. And we feel this would be a good competitive project. So, like I said, this is just allowing for the submission and committing of the required 25% local match.

Thank you. Any comments or questions?

Ms. Hamlin? Yeah, I just wanted to point out, I think a couple of folks caught this. The photo that is shown in the packet is of Phillips Park, but the text underneath it, but it is the right picture.

It is the right picture.

Is that it? Mm-hmm. All right. You want to read the resolution, please?

Resolution authorizing the city manager to submit and execute an Ohio Department of Natural Resources grant application for the Phillips Park restroom renovation project.

Thank you. Call the roll, please.

Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Ms. Hamlin? Yes. Mr. Hart? Yes. Ms. Hazel Baker? Yes. Mr. Janik? Yes. Ms. Bailey? Yes. Vice Mayor Bateman? Yes. Resolution 47 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Ms. Clark? I think Mr. Kennedy put this all together, but. He told me to boot it to you. I'm happy to do it. With the new fire station opening, we are expanding cleaning services to that location. So we brought to you a resolution to amend the previous cleaning contract that we had to add cleaning for that station. And if I remember correctly, I think it was $140 per clean. Yep, $145 times 30. $145, okay.

Any comments or questions? All right. We'll read the resolution, please.

Resolution amending Resolution 2025-108 to include janitorial services for the Chief Otto J. Huber Fire Station. Call the roll, please. Ms. Hamlin?

Yes.

Mr. Hart? Yes. Ms. Hazel Baker? Yes. Mr. Jernick? Yes. Mayor Bailey? Yes. Vice Mayor Bateman? Yes. Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Resolution 48 is adopted of... by a vote of seven to zero. Mr. Medler.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council. For you, we have three ordinances for utility assessments. This is for unpaid utility assessments. I'm sorry, unpaid utility bills throughout the city. There is one for each of our three counties. The last quarter, there were 12 overall. This quarter, there's 13 overall. As is typical, we ask for this to be passed as an emergency.

All right, anybody have any questions about things you do have a red line version of the. Hampton County one at your table. I want to go ahead and read the first ordinance.

Ordinance assessing needs for unpaid utility bills on the city of clearing an emergency call the roll, please Mister Hart, yes, Miss Hazel Baker, yes, Janet, yes, Mary Bailey, yes, vice mayor Bateman. Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Ms. Hamlin? Yes. Ordinance 49 is adopted by a vote of 7-0.

Read the next ordinance, please.

Ordinance assessing liens for unpaid utility bills on property in Claremont County owed to the City of Loveland and declaring an emergency. Call the roll, please. Ms. Hazel Baker? Yes. Mr. Jerenick? Yes. Mayor Bailey? Yes. Vice Mayor Bateman? Yes. Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Ms. Hamlin? Yes. Mr. Hart?

Yes.

Ordinance 50 is adopted by a vote of 7-0.

Last one.

Board is assessing liens for unpaid utility bills on property in Warren County owed to the City of Loveland and declaring an emergency. Call the roll, please. Mr. Jarenick? Yes. Mayor Bailey? Yes. Vice Mayor Bateman?

Yes.

Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Ms. Hamlin? Yes. Mr. Hart? Yes. Ms. Hazel Baker? Yes. Ordinance 51 is adopted by a vote of 7-0. Mr. Kennedy?

I think we're on councilmatic, right?

So, this would be council's first update on city council. Chris and I are just going to jump through, highlight some of them. And as you can see, we've got the future dates. These, we don't typically deviate. Under the Safe Routes to School Travel Plan, the grant was submitted. We reached out to ODOT. We should be notified soon, actually any day, whether or not we were funded for the school travel plan. And as you know, that will set a trend, put the city in place for significant sidewalk funding. In terms of complete all Nisbet Park improvements, the amphitheater is under construction. Funding is in place for the remainder of the walking trails and the restroom renovations. are to begin this summer um under access design and improved safety we modified the sign when you approach uh and and if we receive the build funding then that would be uh put the city in a position to do considerably more uh bigger picture items uh continued transportation improvements city acquired under broadway for traffic and pedestrian improvements to five point the streetscape funding. We submitted an ARC and Appalachian Regional Commission application, and we will be submitting an OPWC. We feel that the city is in the best position we have been in a long time to commence the streetscape next year, phase one. We're working with the Metropolitan Sewer District. They are very anxious to do their portion of it. We've been working, actually, Chris and Kelsey and I and even Cindy Kloppenstein, trying to come up with every avenue where we can get additional points. We feel like next year would be the absolute best year to finally peel off and begin the streetscape. Under the chestnut, we did ask the contractor to sort of widen the range of uses to maybe consider mixed use on the chestnut. Under the preservation of city-owned facilities, city council created the position of facility managers. We begin interviews on Thursday. And the last one that I have is Mark. We will be presenting, hopefully at the next Finance Commission, some amendments to the reserve policy. Chris. Thanks, Mr. Kennedy.

Continue advancing Loveland-Maduro Road business corridor revitalization phases. As you have seen, phase one is under construction with the utility relocation ongoing with the construction of the sidewalks to follow. Phase two, the right-of-way acquisition phase is underway. And phase three, we have RFQs that have been reviewed for engineering services. That's the middle section once again. that those will hopefully be in front, that contract for engineering services will hopefully be in front of council next meeting. The Riverside Drive project, as we briefly touched on prior, that is on a brief pause due to the funding, from the federal funding. They did not, basically they did not release the funds to them that they had anticipated. So it's being pushed from an advertised date of July 2027 to potentially early 2028. And then the PFAS update, as I give those quarterly also, but right now we're at 60% design complete. And recently we sent funding request letters for construction up to our state and federal legislators. And then develop strategies to strengthen and diversify city revenue streams to maintain service levels. This was kind of bore out of the fact that the property tax issue at the state level. So we had Warren County Auditor Matt Nolan in recently to address council on that and kind of give some perspective on where all that stands. In the proposed zoning code that will be at a public hearing this week, We're looking at short-term rentals and addressing those and also the income stream that's related to those. So you'll see some updates through the zoning code for potential income streams there. And I believe that is all I have.

Thank you both. Any comments or questions on any of that? All right. To City Council reports. Registration is now open for Loveland's 4th of July parade as we celebrate our city's 150th anniversary. New this year, a float contest with cash prizes. Anyone wishing to participate must register in advance, not just for the float contest, but even to be in the parade. So visit the city's website for details and parade rules. Registration deadline is June 19th. The city of Loveland's household hazardous waste collection program will be held on Saturday, June 20th at Loveland High School, One Tiger Trail, providing residents with a safe and convenient way to dispose of household hazardous materials. The city's 150th anniversary vintage style baseball game has been rescheduled to Saturday, June 27th at Phillips Park. Join us for an afternoon of family fun featuring a vintage baseball game, local celebrities, touch a truck, complimentary refreshments, and a flyover by the right bee flyer. First pitch is at 1 p.m. Get your raffle tickets now for the Loveland Sims Firefighters Association's commemorative 150th anniversary bourbon raffle for a chance to win a special limited edition bottle. Tickets are $60 for one or $100 for five tickets. All proceeds support the city's anniversary celebration. And the second of three drawings will be held Saturday, June 20th at 9 p.m. at Cappy's. Tickets not drawn will automatically roll over into the next and final drawing on 4th of July. Anyone have any other reports? All right. Can we have a motion to adjourn? To adjourn? Second. Call the roll, please.

Mayor Bailey? Yes. Commissioner Bateman? Yes. Mr. Goodyear? Yes. Mr. Hamlin? Yes. Mr. Hart? Yes. Ms. Hazel Baker? Yes. Mr. Janik? Yes.