Council - Regular Meeting

everybody and especially councelor Cummings to your first work session. Thank you. Um we uh are going to it looks like the first thing on the agenda and I'll just jump right into this. Well, before we go through all the legislation, I guess we'll start with the election to council officers. So, the four offices that we have to decide tonight are president, vice president, uh chairman of the finance committee and um parks and recreation committee. Um I will say that I have enjoyed being president for the past year and I would like to continue in that if anybody's willing to nominate me in that role. Um and then we can go through the rest of the rest of these. I'll nominate you. Okay,

I'll second it. Thank you. um for vice president. Um obviously we have to pick someone because u Vinnie's no longer on council. Anybody want to nominate anyone for vice president? Nominate Matt. Okay, I'll second it. Um for finance. Um I would actually like to nominate Matt as well if you're interested in that. Um yeah, they didn't vote last year, right? [clears throat] And then um sucker. [laughter] Um and then parks and recreation commission. I mean I'd like to stay on this property.

I think everybody was expecting that. We have new um director. You know, I have a lot of experience with them. So I'd like to help uh keep it going this year. If nobody else wants to, I'll nominate. Anyone want to second that? I'll second it.

Okay. Second. Okay. Um, I'm going to pass the committee assignments out. I thought these were we were going to do these after uh legislation, but what I did is I went through the committees and looked at where some vacancies were going to be caused by Vinnie's departure and then dropped some names in to those positions. One of the things I did is I put you in the building and zoning committee because you come from uh BCA BZA. I thought that was a a good fit. Um does that one mean No, I I don't believe it does unless something comes up that's going to require it to meet.

Um and then um for the cemetery committee that is we're actually in an off year. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. So, even though you're on the committee, um you there aren't the city isn't technically on it, but you can still attend it. Um in in the past, um the law director has encouraged us to fill that even in the years that we're off. Um if nobody objects to these, I can make a motion tonight on the floor to adopt these and [clears throat] uh we can go with that. Let's do it. [clears throat] Will somebody let me know like by email or about the cemetery? We'll get you in touch [clears throat] with uh Mr. Snell. Okay. Oh, Jeff. Jeff Snell.

All right. So, the first ordinance is 88. Oh, hi. I didn't see you. Hi. Uh, ordinance 88. Yes, she um this is um 85. 85. You're right. I Thank you. It is 85. This is an ordinance that was started by uh Mr. Ventura before he left and um councelor Ferraro reached out to me and said he wanted to work with the law department on an amendment. So do you want to talk to that?

Yeah. So um [clears throat] we uh we ended up working on an amendment. [cough] So the way it was written before was um the the existing ordinance says no more than three dogs and it didn't mention cats. And so the the original ordinance um proposal was uh no more than three dogs, no more than three cats. And so I've asked it to be amended to um no more than six total animals between dogs and cats. So you can have six dogs or six cats or any combination thereof. Um I figured that was more fair relative to um other cities around us. It's actually a little bit more liberal than other other cities around us. Um and um

a lot of the cities around us don't have any ordinance whatsoever like Hudson though so but the other ones uh [clears throat] dense cities that have them but the ones that do have them typically it's it's three or four. Yep. And the um experts on on cats and dogs typically say especially on cats typically say no more than six in a household from health reasons for the cat and the individuals. So, um, it seemed to make sense. So, I was going to motion to amend it. We don't, you know, it's it's still on first read anyway. Um, so we're not going to vote on it theoretically. Um,

I I have a quick question here. So, I saw last was amended like 25 years ago 01 and there were no cats added. Is there a reason why cats are are being added? Is there is it just uh [clears throat] I'm not what prompted the and what prompted the looking of at the at the ordinance? So So I I didn't originally propose the ordinance. I don't know if anyone else is there to we've had a number of different incidents around town where there's been an exorbitant number of pets and it's not just one but one was cats and it was it was a lot. Okay.

It was it was a lot. I don't want to get deep too deep into it, but it was excessive. Okay. Okay. But we've had more than one. There was people that had bred dogs and kept all of them. And the neighbors were obviously getting upset because there's, you know, 12 dogs running around the backyard and going into the yard and doing their business and things like that. So, that's what prompted a lot of this complaints that we got. And I think um well, you picked that one up, right? That you started this legislation. Yes. of ve other complaints of residents

and we had already covered we had [clears throat] already covered some time ago was it last year Miss Brand of uh feeding feral cats and we we we've covered other areas con conserving animals right in the neighborhood

I just said no if it was like a everyone you're looking at the legis you know all the ordinances or something prompted this and I'm not aware of um you know so I I'm just curious as to why it came up after because I would say a lot of stuff like this is derived from either residents coming to us and saying they have an issue like with the leash law or um residents coming to us because of people doing what the mayor alluded to having a inordinate amount of animals that cause a nuisance. That's usually what c and it's usually why it's like a surgical thing that just touches one little area of an entire chapter in my opinion. Um if we amend this Mark, it would be second read or

so if you want to you would need a motion if you want to go with Mr. Far's uh proposal, a motion to amend the ordinance to conform with the most recent version distributed to council. That can be seconded and then from there you can decide whether you want to move it to a second and or third reading. Okay. I would advocate to keep it at first read since it's new. I don't know. I'm okay with that. Can we do if we if we amend it would you could just amend it and put it still. So would I make a motion to amend then? Yeah. So is that before I ask for the title to be read [clears throat] or after? You wouldn't read the title at all. You're not reading the title because it's going to stay at first. We're not doing a reading. Oh, right. So you're just going to make a motion to amend ordinance 85 like okay with the verbiage that

Got it. And then I I'll second it since I'm already there as a second. Okay. Any other questions on tax? All right. Um, ordinance 86 is um legislation related to short-term rentals. I know that um this was derived from um Mr. Ventura, but did you want to say anything on it at all? I don't want to hear that one to the water.

So, I believe this was introduced obviously in December. The thought [snorts] process at the time was get it out there, give council an opportunity to review it, give residents an opportunity to review it and provide any feedback. I haven't personally heard any feedback. I don't know if council has. Um, so it's really up to you all, you know, whether you want to move it forward, vote on it, make amendments. I would suggest because frankly we haven't done a deep dive research-wise um into what might be most suitable. If you're looking at passing the ordinance as is, I would recommend maybe leaving it on first read for now and law department can do a deeper dive into it if that's the desire of council unless everybody has any specific proposals for amendment. I I think the chances of anybody realizing we have this on our agenda over the holidays are probably pretty slim. I have no objection to keeping it at first reading.

Yeah, I think I think it it needs some kind of community feedback. The gist of it is, just to get it on camera, the gist of it is that prohibits short-term rentals, Airbnb. So, um yeah, I wouldn't mind hearing uh more from residents on it. Anyone have any other questions on it? So then we'll go down to resolution number one. [clears throat] Um and this is for bids for the road. Yes, absolutely. This is our annual road program uh which you guys are familiar with. Roads to be paved this year are Vernon, Harper, Cherry, South China, Firestone, and North Spring Hill.

Thank you. Why is why is it just North Spring Hill? Well, you just um cuz at the at the bottom of Spring Hill, you know, it's pretty messy there by the post office. Are you just going to keep hatching that until until it gets until it's up for complete resurfacing? Okay. But there's a stark difference between north the north end. Oh, the north is much worse than the regular Springville, if you will. Okay. Yeah. The same thing happened to Firestone from Ledge to wherever it ended and that's and now we're catching up with the other half of it. Correct. Yeah. So, can we do one, two, three on this? We like to get our road program going. Yeah, this is just going for bids. I'm on 123.

Um, okay. Resolution two, [clears throat] Shepard Road. Yes, this is for resurfacing Shephard Road from Route 82 all the way to the bridge over I480. Uh, and this is a joint uh project with the city of Twinsburg. They make up 20% uh of the portion of that road. So we have a cooperation agreement in place with Twinsburg. Uh and we are the lead agent, hence the reason the legislation reported here today. And this is just for bids, right? Uh yes. And I would ask for one, two, three, please. I was about to suggest that. Are we getting any grants for this? Yes, this is OPWC funded, correct? Yes, we were successful with that grant application last year.

One, two, three. Yeah, one, two, three on number two. Well, that's different than a grant. Yeah. Just so you know, it's a loan, not a grant. Okay. I'm in the habit of saying grant application. This actually was a loan. A loan was granted. A loan was granted. [laughter] Now we got it figured out. 0% loan. Okay. 0% loan. Yes. There you go. They're always 0%. All right. Any other questions on number two? Okay. Well, number three is going to be really controversial. Would you like to talk to that? So, we have time with the vacation vacation [clears throat] of the seat. Uh, I'm nominating Mr. Ferrar to take the jet board seat.

I guess we'll go into unless anyone objects. Okay. And then, um, I'll make the motion to adopt the committee assignments that we discussed in work session. Um, I gave us a very lengthy work session thinking we were going to have more deeper discussions some of these. I apologize. Anybody have anything you want to talk about. They're too long or they're too short. Yeah. And I wasn't sure how quickly we would get through um the committee assignments and I didn't know if we were going to go over the road program in here. So, sorry for the extra time. If you want to watch it twice, we can do that. Watch it now. Yeah. [clears throat] It's the same.

He verbalized it. Watch it on video here. Thank you. So please

thank

Here we go. Good evening and welcome to the January 9th, 2026 council meeting. It is 7:30 p.m. Mr. Hoover, will you please call the role? Miss Brand. ETH. I'm sorry. Correction. ETH. Here. Miss Cummings. Here. Mr. Furrow. Here. Mr. Finley. Here. Mr. Garvis.

Here. I ask Chap O'Brien to this in the invocation. If you'd all please stand. [clears throat] Let us pause at the start of this meeting to welcome our new member to council, Miss Sue Cummings. As we reflect with gratitude for the opportunity to serve our community, we give thanks for the residents who place their trust in this council and for the city staff who work diligently each day and for the shared commitment that brings us together for the common good. May we remember that the decisions made here this evening affect neighbors, family, and future generations. We ask for wisdom, patience, and clarity as deliberations begin. May this council be guided by integrity, mutual respect, and a spirit of cooperation. Grant that different viewpoints be met with open minds and every action taken tonight be grounded in fairness, compassion, and a sincere desire to strengthen our city for all who call it home. Amen.

And now, the honorable mayor Nick Folar will lead us in our pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, [clears throat] Captain O'Brien, and happy new year. Same to you, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Next on our list is the approval of minutes. Mayor, I'd like to uh move that we approve the minutes from the Thursday, December 11th, 2025 regular council meeting. Second. All in favor? Opposed?

Okay. Next up is election of council officers. And I will start with president. Do I have any nominations for president? I would like to nominate u Mr. Garvis for president. I'd like to second it. Thank you. Any other nominations? hearing none. We will uh do a roll call, please. Miss BR, yes. Miss Cummings, yes. Mr. Ferrar, yes. Mr. Finley, yes. Mr. Garvis, yes. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you everybody for your support. And next up is uh vice president. Do I have any nominations? I'd like to nominate Matt Ferrar for VP. I'd like to second that. Any other nominations? Hearing none. Can we have a roll call, please? Miss Brand. Yes. Miss Cummings.

Yes. Mr. Ferraro. Yes. Mr. Finley. Yes. Mr. Garvis. Yes. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you. Look forward to working with you. All right. Next up is finance chair. Do I have any nominations? I'd [clears throat] like to nominate councelor um Ferraro for finance. I'll second that. Any other nominations? Okay. Roll call, please. Miss B. Yes. Miss Cummings. Yes. Mr. Ferraro. Yes. Mr. Finley. Yes. Mr. Garvis. Yes. Congratulations again. Thank you. Last but not least, Parks and Recreation Commission nominations, please. I would like to nominate Councelor Brandt for Parks and Recreation Commission. I'll second that. Thank you. Any other nominations? Hearing none. Can we have a roll call, please?

Miss Brennan? Yes. Miss Cummings? Yes. Mr. Ferraro? Yes. Mr. Finley? Yes. Mr. Garvis? Yes. Congratulations once again. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Okay. Next on our list is public comments. We have one this evening. We ask that you come to the stand, give your name and address, and we have Miss Daryl. Welcome. [clears throat] I I guess I don't have to bring it towards me, right? Do I? A little bit.

I don't want to break it. [clears throat] Hello everyone. My name is Rita Daryl and I'm your Summit County Council representative here in District 1. Um here tonight because I'd like to um give uh u Mr. Benur a proclamation from the county. We are um we are very pleased to um um I'm very pleased to be here tonight um in this new year and uh uh council is uh not in session in December and I apologize. I could not you know get this proclamation in time. Um but um Vinnie Ventura to me um I've watched Vinnie for many many years. Uh and uh and I admire him. I uh I think Vinnie Ventura has done um great things here in Macedonia. But not only that, Vinnie, you've done a lot of things throughout your life for Nordonia itself. And uh just your your your public service that you have given all these years is just tremendous. Um [snorts] if you could, I'd like you to come on up here, Vinnie, and I have a proclamation for you. And I'm going to read it if you don't mind. It might be over three uh five minutes or whatever. You can hold on to it.

You know what? I can thank you. First of all, you spelled my first name right. Hold this and I'll go on and read this for you. I got to have my glasses. Yeah, I need my own.

If you want to read it along, that'll be great. Um whereas Vinnie Ventura whereas a member of Macedonia City Council since 2018, Vinnie Ventura has provided focused leadership and commitment while faithfully serving his constituents and working cooperatively with his colleagues to enhance quality of life for all residents of Macedonia, Ohio. Whereas Councilman Vinnie Ventura has known for his per is known for his personal approach and dedication to putting residents first on issues of vital importance, including keeping businesses and industry in the community, maintaining great service and recruiting cooperation, looking looking to move more to expand their companies in the area.

[snorts]

He also worked along with the city administration and the northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to address storm water issues and demonstrated an ability to work collaboratively with the colleagues from different backgrounds and perspectives to fairly represent the citizens of Macedonia. Whereas throughout his two terms on council, Councilman Ventura served as vice president, chaired the finance and safety committees, and served on the streets and highways committee as well as the Jed board of directors. Prior to election to council, Mr. Ventura was a member of the Macedonia Civil Service Commission and whereas Councilman Ventura is a Bedford High School graduate, attended the University of Hawaii. I'm jealous, by the way. and graduated from the Ohio State Patrol Academy. Military veteran and retired police officer, Councilman Ventura has an extensive background in a numerous areas of law enforcement which included being a certified police academy instructor in peerdriven cert critical incident stress management specialist. And whereas in addition to his service on council, Councilman Ventura is very community serviceoriented. Very true. He has volunteered at the emergency assistance center for several years and has been on their board of trustees. He is he also serves as vice president of the North Summit Lions Club. And whereas Vinnie Ventura has earned the utmost admiration and respect from his colleagues on council throughout his per um per uh personal I can't even say that word right now. person personalism and dedication and prior propriatorizing the safety and health and the community above all. Now therefore be it known by all and declared by the council of the county of Summit, state of Ohio, but

that this council commends Councilman J. Vinnie Ventura on his service with Macedonia City Council and we wish him the best for his future endeavors. We urge all to join in honoring him on this 8th day of January 2026. [applause] If you don't mind, I would like to respond to this. Would you like to come to Can't hear you on the video unless you go to the microphone? Okay. Thank youelcome. Thank you so much.

Okay, I I I I definitely need to respond to this. No one person can achieve what I have without an exceptional support system. I must credit my family, friends, and colleagues in this room. And that's all he is. It's everybody sitting here. [clears throat] And last but not least, the residents of the city of Macedonia. It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve the city of Macedonia and Summit County. Again, thank you all. [applause]

Got a camera. You got a camera. Thank you. Here she comes. We got time for a picture. Oh, I'm sorry. [clears throat] Hi. I keep pushing my glasses up even after I take them off. I was going to say, turn this around. Let's turn it on. We got to get it right. Thank you. Thank you again. You're awesome. Thanks everyone for letting me come. [clears throat] Thank you.

Sure. You have to stay. You can't leave. No, I'm not. I'm going to go sit with you. [laughter] I don't I don't think I want to be in. I don't blame you. All right. Next up on our agenda is correspondence from the clerk. Yes. I won't read them all, but to put a bow on the holiday season, uh the service department read a num received a number of compliments for the holiday lights throughout the city. Uh as well as just um compliments to the service department staff for the phenomenal job of cleaning up the streets with all the winter storms. That's it. Thank you. Okay, moving into pending a new legislation starting with Well, I'll let you guys kick it off. Easy to make your amendment.

Ordinant. Yeah, ordinance number 85. So, I make a motion that we amend uh the proposed ordinance number 852025 to its latest revision. Second. Can we let the public know what that revision is? Yeah. So, the uh revision here, so the original uh ordinance proposal was to add um no more than three cats uh in in a household. And so the amendment takes that and um makes it a maximum of six uh total cats or dogs and or any combination thereof. Thank you. Any further discussion?

If if any uh resident has would like to weigh in on this, um everyone in council is open to you can contact us. He'll contact the clerk and he'll let us know what you have to say, but we'd like community feedback on this. Thank you. And what is your pleasure? Uh, you already made it. I'm sorry. You already made it. Do we have a second? Yes, second. [clears throat] Okay. Or um, all in favor? I opposed. Okay. Amendment passes. Um, resolution number one. Do do we want to at least mention 86 because we'd also like feedback from the public. Yeah, it probably makes sense.

Yeah. Um, so we're going to keep it at first read, but ordinance at 862025 is um an ordinance that seeks to um limit or prohibit short-term term rentals um such as Airbnbs in the city um due to recent events that have happened in in the county. Um council is very interested in the public's feedback on support or opposition to this or ideas on how to adopt it. So, if you're watching this on YouTube or if you're in the audience and you have ideas, um, same thing as what councelor Brandt said, we'd like feedback either directly to the members of council or you can go through the clerk. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Resolution number one. [clears throat]

Mayor, I'd like to offer resolution 2026 for its first, second, and third meetings by title only. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Resolution authorizing the city engineer to prepare plans, bids, and specifications and further authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids for various roadway improvements for the city's 2026 road improvement program. Director Gelati. Yes, this is our annual road program and for the record, roads to be paved this season are Vernon, Harper, Cherry, uh, South China, Firestone, and North Spring Hill. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none. What is your pleasure? I move that we pass resolution 1226 and post the same according to law. Second.

All in favor? I opposed. Resolution one carries. Resolution number two. I move that we offer resolution number two 2026 for its first, second, and third reading by title only. Second. All in favor? Opposed? A resolution authorizing the city engineer to prepare plans, bids, and specifications and further authorizing the mayor to advertise for bids for the resurfacing of Shephard Road. Director Gelati.

Yes. This is to repave Shephard Road from Route 82 all the way north to the bridge over I480. It's a joint project with our neighbors, city of Twinsburg. We will act as the lead agent and uh this project is funded through a 0% interest loan from Ohio Public Public Works Commission. Thank you. Discussion hearing none. What is your pleasure? I make a motion that we adopt resolution number two uh 2026 [clears throat] and post same according to law. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Resolution two carries. Resolution number three. Uh yes. I'd like to um propose [clears throat] resolution 3 2026 for its first, second, and third reading by title only.

Second. All in favor? Opposed? Resolution confirming the mayor's appointment of councelor Matt Ferraro to serve as member of the board of directors of the Northfield Center Township Macedonia Joint Economic Development District. This one's pretty self-explanatory. With the vacancy of Mr. Ventura on the board, I'm asking council to support Mr. Ferraro to take his seat there. Any discussion hearing? None. What is your pleasure? I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution 3 2022. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Resolution three carries. Any other motions or legislative actions? Sir, I would like to make a motion to adopt the committee assignments as discussed and proposed in work session earlier tonight. Second.

Roll call. Miss Brent? Yes. Miss Cummings? Yes. Mr. Ferraro? Yes. Mr. Finley? Yes. Mr. Garvis? Yes.

Thank you. Motion carries. All right. We'll move right into the mayor's report. Uh, the mayor's court revenue for December was $43,695.37. I want to wish everyone a happy new year. I think we had another successful uh holiday season. Uh, as was alluded to earlier, our our Christmas lights seem to be a very popular thing. It it always kind of warms me when other communities call and trying to emulate what we do. And I think the the joy and all the things you bring to the children that drive through there and all that, it's just awesome. I mean, even my kids, I mean, one's getting a little bit older, so she's really not into it, but my 11-year-old loves it, and I I think that's awesome, and we enjoy it. He's 12 now. Correction. I'm sure my wife is watching, shaking her head at me. [clears throat] He just turned 12 on the 26th. Um, but anyways, it's an awesome thing, but it takes a lot of work. I want to be very clear that our service department puts a lot of time and effort in. I want to thank them for all that hard work because in in on top of collecting leaves, uh, all the early snow we got this year, the bitter cold and putting all those [clears throat] lights up and all the other things we deal with, they got it done and there's always problems with it. We had a lot of rain, a lot of things shorted out, but I think it was a quite a successful thing that we did there and and I'm I'm very proud of that. So, thank you. Uh, the service building is is up and running. if you've driven by it. Uh today I drove by. We have a lot of earth being moved around. Very very happy to see that taking place. Um a lot of the utilities will be getting we will be prepared for the spring for when they actually get things going to go upward. So um I'm happy to see that movement and very excited to get that building going. Uh next on my list is the road presentation. So I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Gelotti for the presentation.

Sure. Thank you. Christie, will you display the PowerPoint, please? All right. Excellent. I knew you had it. Thank you so much. All right. Um, this is our annual uh road pavement conditions PowerPoint report for everyone. And I'll try to keep it a little bit brief because many people in the room uh have seen this presentation before. But I think it is important for us to take a small amount of time to go over this each year. Uh roads are probably our biggest uh investment here in the city. Uh and this also helps us to track uh our progress uh and our response to the vote for issue three uh all those years ago back in 2017 that makes all this possible. So uh what is pavement condition rating? It's a uniform system created by ODOT. uh it's a mathematical scoring system that you can apply to each road and it allows you to uniformly grade each road uh so that you're comparing apples to apples. You take the guesswork out of the system. Uh Christie, if you could flip to the next screen, please. Uh it's a 0 to 100 scoring system, so it's very intuitive for everybody. It makes perfect sense. ODOT also uh created this color coding system here uh to help you uh understand some of the information a little bit better. Uh red is very poor and dark blue is very good. You see all the other uh ratings there in the middle. Uh more to come on that in a moment. So I always use this slide uh to reference where we began this journey. 2015 was the first year that Macedonia uh ever did a pavement condition ratings report. Back in 2015, the average rating uh around the city was 73.2.

Today, that average rating has increased to 87.7. So, that's an increase of 14 a.5 points, which is a tremendous increase uh here for us in the city. So, something we all should be uh happy and proud of quite honestly. And back to the color coding. This is simply a piraphph to compare where we began in 2015 to where we are today. Piraphph on the left. Uh you can see that there's some red and some orange. Uh red and orange is is very bad. Some of us remember the condition of those roads years ago. You could barely drive down those roads. On the left pigraph, you see we have a very small dark blue. Um, that's not great. Piraphph on the right, you can see the red and the orange is gone. The yellow is almost gone. And the chunk uh representing very good roads. Dark blue is much much larger. Uh, so that equals smoother roads for everyone in our community to drive on and enjoy. And this one's a little hard to see on the screen, but it gives you the exact same color coding data just in a map form. Uh so you can see it on the map. You can pick out your road or whatever road you might be interested in. And again, left is where we began in 2015. Right hand side is where we uh exist today. Uh I like this slide. This is our preventative maintenance um slide, I guess we'll call it, or effort here. All the roads you see in the green are roads that have either been crack sealed or we've treated with our rejuvenator uh spray sealer. Those are lowcost preventative maintenance items that we use on our roads that are in good condition. Uh the idea is to extend the useful life of those roads and to keep our good roads good for as long as we

can. This way we don't have to pave them for a long long time because repaving is expensive. And this last slide is the uh the hard data numbers here for us. You see the dollar amounts uh that we've spent each year from 2015. Also the corresponding uh lane miles of road that we've resurfaced in each year through 2015. It's a total of 86.2 miles. Uh for a little bit of context, the piece of information that's not on the screen, we have 135 lane miles uh of road here in the city. So we've paved more than half the roads in the city uh since we began in 2015. And I believe that's all we have. Thank you all.

Happy to chat about it more if you'd like uh here or offline later if anybody has any thoughts or questions. Do you know off the top of your head when the streets that are on the list for this year are done what the rating would go to? Uh I don't know but it would nudge up it would nudge up a small amount. Yeah. You mean the average? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So just to point out when I was on council we didn't even have a road program

let alone a preventative maintenance program. So it was it was a daunting task to get us to where we're at. Obviously, the passage of the levy to help fund the cost of the roads, which is one of our highest costs that we have to get us where we're at today, is a big deal. So, it's nice to see us moving and progressing into a a community that has roads that are drivable and not a bunch of potholes and uh terrible. So, thank you for all your help with that. Absolutely. Last thing on my list is don't drive distracted. Please put the phones down. And my new one this year I'm going to add to it is when you're driving on the highway, the left lane is for passing. It's a state law. I don't know if you guys know that. It's kind of a thing. So be aware of that. Thank you. It is state law, mayor. It is state law. That's why those signs say keep left or keep right except the pass. Thank committee reports.

Parks and rec commission will have their January [clears throat] meeting, the first meeting of the year on Wednesday, January 21st at 6 o'clock. That's it. Okay. Department reports. Director Wilson.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, we currently have a open full-time maintenance worker position. So, we are in that process. Once again, we had someone move up and and uh out to bigger and better things. Um, I want to echo everything everyone else said about the lights. The guys do an amazing job. It really is incredible that with a handful of people what they come up with. I mean, it it's amazing. Um, we had 29,921 cars come through

from December 5th to January 5th. I I I don't know that. To me, that number is So, that's just cars. Hey, Dan, it's probably about half that cuz I counted them in and out. Sorry. I I should have put that in the Oh, we have them both because it's going to pick them up. [laughter] That's still a lot. There's eight people. per car. You figure that two people per car. So good. I can't tell you how many people on average 2.4 people per car. [laughter] That's a lot of people coming through. Is that a Ford that has the point4 person in it?

Anyway, um so yeah. Um snow. We had 15 inches of snow in December. The normal average is 12.2. So, we're up just a little bit and we've gone through about 2,000 tons of salt. So, um we uh used a lot of salt so far, so hopefully we'll be all right. Um but we will. That is all I have. Let me add to that. We normally use 4,000 tons of salt in a season. We went through 2,000 already. That should tell you an awful lot about the the weather this year. It's not been great. I'm not stressing. I'm worried. [laughter] I'm not stressing. You are. I am a little.

Director Gelati. Yeah. Uh thank you to council for the passage of uh resolutions number one and two this evening. Otherwise, I've had enough microphone time. No further report. Thank you, Director Echenorf.

Uh yeah, just want to uh again echo um and thank Director Wilson and his team um for making Longwood Park look great. Uh hopefully everybody either had a chance to join us again at uh our Winterfest back in early December or had a chance to drive through and see them. Um it's great to be a part of um the other uh side of things and being able to see everyone's enjoyment. I got lots of compliments to either pass along to Director Wilson um or and his team um or they mentioned them to me in person while working out at the wreck. So again, thank you to his team. Um we have officially transitioned the senior center programming um over to the parks and recck department. Um so we are uh excited to have Leah uh join our team up there in the office and um you know look to uh you know put our heads together and see how we can begin hosting more activities at the wreck. Um our team is in full planning mode uh for 2026. Uh that includes events, programs um both land, aquatic, sports, everything like that. Um we are also uh deep in the heart of um capital planning for projects. So um you know looking into the future and seeing where we can you know continue to improve. Um and finally um a little bit of an update uh for those who have been in the building um and wondering about the renovation going on in the family locker room. Um we are looking at an early February uh opening for that. So we're excited to be able to open that door finally and show everyone the great work. Um, I've been through there pretty much on a weekly basis. Um, it's a very zen feel in there. Um, the colors and the tiles and the lighting, everything. It's it's a great space and I can't wait to be able to show the uh residents and the members of the wreck. End of report.

Thank you, Director Varys.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to let everybody know we officially hit the 2025 close button on the VIP software this afternoon shortly after 4 o'clock. Um, amazing to be able to do that. Uh, and Lisa was out last Friday sick. Lexi was out yesterday sick. But it it just bodess to how they uh perform uh throughout the year and um I thank them for for everything they do. Uh, we have not received our first municipal income tax refund yet because they can't start until February. Um, so I will keep that part of my report for later.

You just included it. Well, I didn't actually say the [laughter] the complete deadlines and etc etc. and um happy to hear that the ground broke last week in 2026. End of report. Broken 25. Thank you, Director Collins. [clears throat] Uh thanks, Mayor. Uh beginning of the year, I basically uh set up our first round of uh um uh renewals on all of our uh software licensing. So, I find ways to spend John's money. Thanks. End of report.

Assistant Commissioner Allen. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'd like to announce that we have a new hire in the building department, new administrative assistant, Samantha Maziano, and um, she'll be assisting Susan and helping there. And also, we uh, started registering contractors in new iCloud program. We're not fully implemented yet. things got to be, you know, uh, put in by Susan right now, but by summer, we ought to have the, uh, public be able to register and get permits online. So, the whole purpose is to try to go totally paperless, and that'll help us out tremendously in the office as well as help the public. And the last is that uh we're starting to look into the key in at 311 East Highland and the uh it's been an isore for a lot of years. Been a problem with the police department and the fire department. So we sent out a violation letter to the owners to try to get a start on that to see what we can do there. and the report.

Just to add to that, the new hire is a replacement for Rachel Gambit who worked here for many years and we we do dearly miss her, but uh she had her first child and she was a little cutie and and we miss her dearly and I know she's spending time with that little girl and uh we wish nothing but the best. I did get calls about the Ken all the time. I want to be very clear, people drive by there, I drive by there, it makes me cringe. I can't stand it. This [clears throat] is something that we've been working with the law department for quite some time to get that issue rectified. It is tied up in court. We have been going through many proceedings to get that building into something that's suitable. Um, my personal opinion. I want to see the thing come down. That's that's kind of where I'm at. We know doors are open. We know windows are broken. We know people are going in there. We're monitoring that with our police department. It is it is condemned. You're not allowed to be inside of there. The whole thing is a big problem, but it's tied up in court and we're working through it. So, I want to be very clear. This hasn't been ignored. This has not been something that we just willy-nilly let it happen and let it get to that point of deterioration. It's no different than the BP building across the street from there. We're going through the same process with them. So, when you see these things, it's frustrating. I'm frustrated with you, but I have to follow the letter of the law and we're working through it. So, know that that's something we've been working on for quite some time.

Okay. Director Smith.

Thank you, Mayor. [clears throat] Um, in 2026, I'm concentrating on training. As most of you know, that Patty um is retiring and she's also been out for a while. And I was able to utilize our broker Fideli and JV and I are meeting with AOLA next week. We're concentrating on training the girls in FMLA, benefit administration, uh the system payroll with uh in order to get the girls um going this year and get them truly acclimated so that we can improve upon our um productivity in HR. End of report, sir.

Thank you, Chief Ripley. Thank you, Mayor. Uh the fire department responded to 4,934 calls for service last year across all the communities. About 55 to 56% of them were in the city of Macedonia alone. Uh and just for numbers sake, in 2016 when all this work was done for the consolidation, the estimate at that time was there was going to be 3,200 calls. So, we're greater than 50% above what our estimates were 10 years ago. Uh, other than that, I'd just like to welcome Mrs. Cummings and look forward to working to her with her in the future. Thank you. Thank you,

Chief Yakapoich. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, we're currently have a civil service test open for entry level police [snorts] officer. The test is being administered through the National Testing Network and information can be obtained on the city's website on how to apply. I also just want to let the service department know and Dan and I kind of have a running joke. He thinks I'm messing with them when I say way to go Dan. But literally what they're doing with the streets makes our job a lot easier. You guys have done a great job this year. Keep it up. Way to go Dan. [laughter] And number four, director Gdetti,

just to add chief sentiment at the end, I've had and I normally don't get any feedback from individuals I know, whether they're residents or people traveling through the city, but this year in particular, I've had a number of people come up to me and say, "Whatever Macedonia is doing differently, even on the days where it snowed really uh intensely, they've complemented the condition of the road." So, I would just echo that. So, nice. Way to go, Dan. Way to go. [laughter] It's not me. Well, we've changed our processes. You get some kudos there, too. So, thank you. Uh, unfinished business, new business. I'd like to add, I'd like to welcome Mrs. Cummings to the team here. Uh, happy to have you and look forward to working with you.

Thank you. Happy to be here. Okay. Motion to adjourn. So moved. Seconded. All in favor? I opposed. We are adjourned.