City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, welcome.

I'd like to reconvene finance. Is there a motion to adjourn finance?

Motion to adjourn the finance committee.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay, now I'd like to call this July 13, 2026 council meeting to order. If you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Simmons. Here. Simpson. Here. Coyne. Here. DiSalvo. Here. Hare. Here. Isabella. Here. Hamm.

Yes, here.

Reading of the minutes.

Mr. President, I move that the minutes from the June 22nd, 2026 meeting as prepared and submitted by the clerk be approved. Second.

Any discussion on the minutes? Will the clerk please call the roll on the approval of the minutes?

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

Reports of standing committees. The finance committee met prior to council this evening. We will meet again in six weeks. We have a break. We're very exhausted. So we need a break. We'll meet again when we come back. Health, safety, and sanitation. Mr. Simpson. Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting is scheduled. Nothing to report. Public properties. Ms. Hare.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have nothing to report and no meeting scheduled.

Special legislation. Mrs. Salvo.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled. Going forward with looking at reworking the deer ordinances, which is going to be addressed, I believe, today.

Streets and sidewalk, Mr. Isabella.

No meetings, but we do have a couple of items on our agenda today. Water and utilities, Mr. Simmons.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled and nothing to report.

Emerging technologies, Mr. Lamb.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled. Nothing to report.

Requests for council action. We have several. We have 26137, advance request. 26138, budget amendments. 26139, expenditure for Heritage Pool MCRC. 26140, expenditure job creation grant payment to Carlyle Brake and Friction. 26141, purchase of a 2026 F350 pickup truck for the street department. 26142, PURCHASE OF A 2026 MAC SANITATION TRUCK FOR SANITATION. 26143, AMEND SECTION 16112 INCOME TAX BOARD OF REVIEW. 26144, MOU WITH MMHA RESPONSIBLE PARTY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW. 26145, EXPENDITURE FOR GOVERNMENT JOBS CIVIL SERVICE FINANCE AND I.T., 26146, AMEND CIVIL SERVICE RULE 5D, FILING OF APPLICATIONS, 26147, AGREEMENT WITH T&M ASSOCIATES, BROMFIELD GRANTS, SOUTH ELMWOOD LOT, 26148, 2026, 2027, MUNICIPAL DEER CONTROL PROGRAM APPROVAL. 26 149 cooperative service agreement usda 26 150 increased po wind throw construction railroad repairs 26 151 design discussion north huntington street sidewalks 26 152 grant application ohio public's work commission engineering 26 153 increased po from fritz rummer cook company engineering 26 154 sanitary sewer easement 1101 wadsworth road

26 155 grant airport runway light replacement design and 26 156 parking lot funding agreement south elmwood parking lot reports of municipal officers mayor shields thank you president coin bear with me i have a lot to go over tonight i'll try to be as brief as possible but i want to start with our july 4th weekend events um My first thank you is to our parks and rec staff, our rec center staff, fire, police, streets department, all the time and effort that goes into making that weekend so special. And I'm lightheartingly saying that we started July 3rd with events. finish on july twenty six because of the weather and friday night and sunday we've we've extended everything here but that's how we do it but it was just a great weekend wanted to take a moment to talk about the spirit of seventy six festival at old town cemetery want to thank chet simmons who also uh... appeared as george washington that day I wanted to thank Denny Simpson for being one of the speakers that day and then Medina Municipal Clerk of Courts Mike Kovach for emceeing the entire day as well. Extra special thanks to the Friends of the Cemetery, that committee for organizing this event with just an unbelievable amount of gratitude to Theresa Merkel who heads up the Friends. She came up with this idea probably 18 months ago. literally had a meeting regularly for 15 months of getting this organized and pulling it off and it was it was just a really really special day and very very meaningful and I know we've tracked the people that came to it there was people there lots of Medina residents but from all over the country that were there that day too and so many great events so there's some pictures of that up there I want to shift to the parade on July 4th I want to take a minute and and share with you about Captain Frank Hutchinson. There's a picture of Captain Frank Hutchinson right there with his, there's not a picture with his wife Kayla, but children Frankie and Stella, and they all live here in Medina. Captain Frank has been deployed overseas in the Middle East since August of 2025. He's the captain of an engineering unit. He was originally supposed to be home prior to July 4th, but his return was pushed back due to the current situation in the region of the Mideast. You may have noticed yellow ribbons on North Broadway Street. Those are in honor of Frank. Captain Frank's return here. But we wanted to do something special for Frankie and Stella because they were just so disappointed that their dad did not make it home in time for July 4th. So when it was brought to my attention, I said, well, what could the city do to help them? And it kind of turned out that we offered lots of different things, but Frankie really wanted to meet a police officer and see a police car. I talked to Chief Kinney and he immediately suggested, why don't we invite Frankie and Stella and their mom to ride with us in the lead police car in the parade? So there's Frankie waving. We had lots of people along the route asking, why is Frankie there? What's going on? And why is that family in the backseat? So I kind of wanted to tell everybody about it. But it was such a special day to the family and a true honor to help take care of Captain Hutchinson's family until he returned back to Medina. Thank you, Chief Kinney, for coming up with this idea and for all the Medina neighbors. We have a couple of them here on Broadway that kind of brought it to my attention. But I know that six-year-old Frankie, wanting to meet the police chief and ride in the police car, it was a dream come true for him that day. And we're just thankful to be a part of it. And the best news of all is his dad is now home here in Medina. So, yeah. uh... moving to the fireworks that were rescheduled this past saturday night july eleventh and just wanted to thank again madonna township montville township city council and murray and suvanna for all making donations of making this the largest show that we've ever had in medina it's also the first time in twenty nine years that it didn't go off as scheduled on july third but The rec center staff was amazing We had that fireworks festival going and you've never seen a scene of wind coming through intense flying and I'm thankful that nobody was injured But everybody on the rec center staff responded accordingly. We got everybody inside the rec center that night to keep them safe and then because of the vendors who were there that got cut short the at the fireworks festival we invited them back for Saturday night 7-11 that we just had this weekend and all those food trucks several of them came again and we also had a DJ there that night so they kind of they planned a really great event on July 4th and then had to redo it here on July 11th but I think people really enjoyed it I've heard nothing but positive comments about the show and the size of the fireworks and how much people enjoyed seeing them. So lots more to still go. Don't forget we have our rescheduled car show, which will be July 26th. It will be over at the administration parking lot. It benefits, it's a $10 admission fee, and it benefits Medina County Historical Society. So that will be our official last event of the July 4th weekend. Coming up this weekend is Art in the Park. It runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. There's over 130 artists, and the attendance is usually between 7,500 to 10,000 visitors that will be on the square this weekend. So please, if you get a chance, stop up there. Just amazing artists. I know Mr. Lamb's wife was probably one of the lead people in Art in the Park, and it's just a great event. It's really some great talent that's up there. Okay. Mr. Coyne, you're gonna like this one. I wanna share an update on a community effort being led jointly by the city of Medina and main street Medina regarding square holiday decorations. So consider this, uh, maybe, uh, Christmas in July here that we're starting to talk. So main street Medina who oversees the candlelight walk and holiday square decorations as a subcommittee focusing on the square decorations for the holiday, the committee is planning for this year's decorations while also coordinating a plan for the future. developing a coordinated long-term plan for uptown park the square and the broader district the goal is to create a warm and welcoming holiday experience that reflects medina's historic character and can be enjoyed by resident visitors families and downtown businesses the committee is creating an overall design that will be implemented in phases over approximately four to five years and at the conclusion of each design cycle a new coordinated plan will be developed So there is always a thoughtful plan in place to guide the future holiday improvements. People love our square at Christmas time, but there's so much that goes into it. They continue to tell me that they, how can they help? So what I want to talk to you about tonight is that to help support the effort, Main Street Medina is launching the Medina Holiday District Sponsorship Program. Donations of any amount are always welcome, but there will be sponsorship opportunities that begin at $250. They're open to businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. It is now live on Main Street. It just went on their website, where the chance, if you really wanted to be involved and help make sure that we are able to do this year after year. And what you're seeing here are some of the ideas that the committee have come up with. Try to bring the picture on the one side there along the walks as lighting to try to brighten up some of the dark areas. Those of you who have been around Medina a long time, we used to have these placards on all four sides of the square that had Victorian images. Those are, I'm sorry, Jarrett just went backwards. Jarrett, those are gonna be banners just like the America 250 that we're gonna incorporate. instead of doing the placards but they're all Victorian themed and wishing everybody happy holidays from Medina and if Jared if you go back to the previous slide the the arches we haven't had those up for a while but we have those being remade where the the extension on the arches on the four corners we're also talking to places like Old Phoenix and the county and the library where Just kind of a theme where we can decorate their buildings and have garland on those buildings and just really try to bring it all together. And then the goal is to keep moving outwards. So we're having great conversations with the county about the administration building. We're having conversations with the library about increasing the number of lights on that building we're going to talk to garfield at one point here too and just we just want this to continue to be the place to visit at the holidays so anybody that's ever asked any of us that how could they help how could they contribute we now have a way and we've been very fortunate the city main street has provided funds for this we've had a gentleman that left money in his estate but we're looking to start having the residents, if they love what we do every year, and if they would like to see this continue to grow and make sure that we can replace things and keep it in good shape, the sponsorship program is an opportunity for them to do that. I'd also like to thank the members of the Holiday Decoration Subcommittee. A couple of them are here tonight. Carrie Kelly, Andrew Dutton, Michelle Nichols, Katie Heinz, Julie McNabb, George Sam, Roger Smalley. They have met every single week since January. Um, they have an inventory room. They've been inventorying every item, every. ornament every strand of lights uh it's just been amazing the amount of time they put into this and their their design uh carrie is a project manager and a task master like nobody's business so we have a uh i don't know it's probably 25 pages step by step of how this is all going to play out for the next few years but it's really amazing so again a little bit of christmas in july here and good things are coming and it's just going to keep getting better and better every year And then finally, I just want to take a minute tonight to publicly extend our thoughts on behalf of the city, our thoughts and prayers to the city of Ripman regarding the three shooting deaths, including Ripman Police Sergeant Scott Rice. Our city and county had many connections to this tragedy, including four of our officers responding to help on Sunday, July 5th. In the days that followed, including that night, Chief Walters with Medina, Fire Department Chief Kinney with Medina PD along with several Medina police and Medina firefighters assisted in the services this past Thursday and Friday. It's just a reminder of what our safety services go through every single time they respond to a call and not knowing how quickly things can change. So our hearts go out to everybody in Ripman. I just want to send them our thoughts and I appreciate our safety services that assisted that night and were in harm's way as well that evening. I'm sorry there was three lives lost, but just keep Rittman and the people of Rittman in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Durham, Director of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. President. I mostly just want to echo what the Mayor said on the July 4 celebrations. I want to thank everybody, particularly on the Friends of the Cemetery Committee that contributed to that. My family had a great time. My kids loved the scavenger hunt and making rope and everything else they had for them. It was a great event, so thank you.

Mr. Hubert, Law Director. Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report. Mrs. Marshall, Economic Development Director.

Thank you, Mr. President. Our next round of ribbon cuttings is scheduled for Friday, July 31st. And as of right now, we have one event scheduled for a new business called Five Below, which is going to be in the Meijer Shopping Plaza. The address is 1163 North Court Street. That will be held at 10 a.m. and this is a collaboration with the medina chamber of commerce and main street medina and we hope that you'll be able to attend thank you thank you chief kitty police department thank you mr president thank you mr toast lst director uh thank you mr president through june the life support team responded to 1889 calls for the city of medina

For all three entities, we responded to 2,991 calls. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Frey, Director of Communications.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. JUST A FEW ITEMS, AS THE MAYOR MENTIONED, JUST GREAT ACTIVITIES HERE THE LAST TWO WEEKENDS HERE IN MEDINA. IF YOU MISSED ANY OF THEM, YOU CAN MAKE SURE YOU CAN TUNE IN TO MEDINA TV. WE HAVE REPLAYS OF THE PARADE, THE FIREWORKS, THE SPIRIT OF 76, AS WELL AS THE WRECK FESTIVAL, SO YOU CAN CATCH UP IF YOU MISSED ANY OF THOSE EVENTS. YOU CAN STAY UP TO DATE WITH THAT. AND WANT TO THANK THE COMMUNITY FOR SHOWING UP AND GREAT TURNOUT FOR ALL THOSE EVENTS WE HAD AND ENJOY THOSE AND CONTINUE TO WATCH THEM. THE WEBSITE, WE CONTINUE TO APPROVE THE WEBSITE DAY IN, DAY OUT AND MAKE IT BETTER FOR OUR RESIDENTS AND WE LIKE ALL THE INPUT WE GET FROM EVERYBODY TO IMPROVE ON A DAILY BASIS AND WE'LL CONTINUE TO DO SO. and I'm very excited for some projects we'll be working on while you guys are on break so a little tease kind of teasing for the fall season here as you guys come back so looking forward to some things that we have on our slate that we're working on and otherwise uh hope that Council has a good break and that's all I have thank you Mr Gladys building official

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. I HAVE NO REPORT.

THANK YOU, MR. PACOLI, SERVICE DIRECTOR.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. REAL BRIEF, THE STREET STAFF MARKED OFF THE PARKING STALLS ON THE SQUARE WHEN WE WERE TALKING ABOUT PEDESTRIAN SAFETY. I KNOW COUNCILMAN LAMB WAS THERE FOR SOME OF THAT ACTIVITY, BUT WE MARKED OFF WHAT WE SAID WE WOULD CHANGE, AND THAT WAS FOR TEMPORARY MARKINGS. I SEE JARED HAS THE PHOTOS UP. BUT THAT'S BEEN DONE, AND THEN I KNOW THE EFFORTS ARE CONTINUING WITH THE DIALOGUE ON WHAT TO CHANGE UP THERE ANY FURTHER. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. MR. PATTON, CITY ENGINEER. THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. UPDATED ON A COUPLE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS. THE U.S. 42 RESURFACING, THE INTERSECTION WORK AT VARIOUS INTERSECTIONS ALONG NORTH COURT IS CONTINUING. THE ASPHALT WORK SCHEDULE WILL START IN EARLY AUGUST. MEDINA STREET BRIDGE, THAT PROJECT WILL START NEAR THE END OF THE MONTH, APPROXIMATELY 60 DAY CLOSURE OF MEDINA STREET WHILE IT GETS DONE.

Thank you. Mr. Dutton, Planning and Community Development Director.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report. Thank you.

Confirmation of Council interim appointment. We have one for the Income Tax Review Board. Todd Fisher.

Move to approve.

Second.

Any discussion?

Clerk, please call the roll.

Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. Salvo? Yes. Thayer? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

Notices, communications, and petitions. We have one liquor permit not to object to the issuance of a new D5A duplicate bar permit for Riley Concessions Legacy LLC to Legacy 257 South Court Street.

Not to object. Move not to object.

Second. Not to object.

Any discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.

Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

On unfinished business, we don't have any introduction of visitors. Members of the public, we've admitted the opportunity to speak on any issue or concern which pertains to the city in a portion of the council agenda. Devoted to induction of visitors all comments should be directed to the chair and a reasonable time under five minutes will be imposed if there's a group Please appoint a spokesperson speaker should approach the rear microphone and state their name and address so it could be entered into the minutes Members of the public will be afford the opportunity to comment on other portions of the meetings determined by a chair Or by a vote of the majority of council members present. Is there anybody that wishes to address council at this time? I

Hi, Tammy Kirby, 246 West Friendship Street. I just want to do a shout out to the Friends of the Cemetery and Teresa Merkel for the event that they put on for the Spirit of 76 at the Old Town Cemetery. And all the other people that volunteered and participated to put this together, and especially the community for showing up and having a good time. I got lots of feedback, and everybody wondered why we didn't do this year after year that they had such a good time. So...

and the fireworks were good as usual so thank you thank you anybody else that wishes to address councilman hello um i my name is jessica karis and i live at 870 smoke rise drive on that small private lake that you've probably heard about in the news um behind the community pool on Guilford Drive. My teen-year-old son was one of the two people that were pulled down into the drain when they were trying to clear debris and the drain rusted and gave way and he was pulled down and then pushed through all the way through the dam and burst out the other side along with the neighbor. My daughter was watching from the yard and she jumped in the water and swam over to try to rescue him. And luckily there were neighbors that stopped her. Um, are there wise, like just a few circumstances, a few little changes and I'd be sitting here, not a mom anymore, like a few little circumstances and I would have lost both my kids. Um, And so I don't think anyone here needs to be informed of the dangers of inaction if we do nothing to the dam outlet. We've known for years it's beyond obvious now. I don't think caring and understanding has ever been part of the problem. And probably most of you know that the problem was seeded decades ago when the lake was permitted for construction by the city without provision for a lake owner's association for its maintenance. You probably know that the community pool on Guilford owns the parcel with the outlet and they do not have the resources to maintain it. I collect voluntary money for for algae and weed control. And I've even stopped asking them for a few hundred dollars a year. They just don't, they don't have the money. Um, we as neighbors have tried to become a lake association. It's really hard after the fact legally to try to do this. Um, but the other reason that there's been an action all these years is because we've been counting on the city for help because we've been promised help. I HAVE HERE A 2004 REQUEST FOR HELP FROM THE CITY COUNCIL BY PATRICK PATTON WHERE HE NAMES THE REASON FOR CITY ACTION PRECISELY BECAUSE OUR LAKE IS PART OF THE MEDINA CITY STORM SYSTEM AND HE REQUESTED THAT THE CITY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAVE HERE CITY ORDINANCE 12705 FROM 2005 PROMISING THAT THE CITY OF MEDINA WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR. the latest in on again, off again, on the record, off again, you know, record assurances that help was coming. Um, the city told us that we were next in line after it finished helping the citizens that lived on forest meadows lake. And I don't know the whole story. I know the problems with the contractors was a mess and that this council was recommended that they not take on that heading and liability and again, break its promise to help me and my neighbors. And I understand that. But I just want to make one more appeal to this council that we are also the city that's citizens. My son and daughter, a child that could be playing in the ravine when the standpipe finally breaks off. My neighbors who, if the lake drains, we will be stuck in homes unable to sell them. Our greater subdivision, if there is a stinking mud pit of a drained lake, Our home values will collapse and theirs will tumble because of that stinking mud pit in our own home values that will pull everybody else's down. They're the city too. And we need your help. We cannot do this alone. We need your help with financing because we have no means of collection. We need your engineering help because we don't have expertise for adequate and safe dam repairs Expect plans to know if the contractors we hire are expert enough in their work or if they're doing it right. As a private citizen, I don't have the resources, the knowledge to take responsibility for the integrity of the county wastewater sewer line that runs through the dam. It could be compromised if the work is done inappropriately or even if the water breaches the top and the next big storm that could compromise that line and the next big storm we don't even know what we're gonna do if the dam becomes clogged I'm not sending my son over there to pull debris off given the current state of it three people almost died we don't know what to do we don't know how to do it and I just want to ask one more time for help and partnership between city as citizen and city as government most of my neighbors we want to be responsible we want to do our part but we need help to do so and so i just ask just one more time that you please reinstate the plan already enacted for forest meadows lake promise for our owns with plans already drawn up where we pay back the city through a 20 year property tax assessment, but rely on your expertise and resources for it to be done safely and properly for the judging and repair. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else that wishes to address council? Okay, introduction and consideration of ordinances and resolutions. At this time, I entertain a motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings on the following ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance 106.26, 107.26, 108.26, resolution 109.26, ordinance 110.26, 111.26, 112.26, 113.26, 114.26, 115.26, 116.26, and finally, resolution 117.26.

Mr. President, I make a motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings on the following ordinances and resolutions.

Second. Any discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.

DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Ordinance 10626, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to approve a change order number three, GMP number three, with the ruling company for renovation work at the Medina Municipal Courthouse. CHAIRMAN BRYANT.

MR. PRESIDENT, MOVE TO APPROVE.

SECOND. DISCUSSION, MR. PATTON. THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. THIS CHANGE ORDER COVERS THREE ITEMS, A ROOF ON THE SMALL INTAKE AREA, SOME I.T. ADDITIONS, AND THE LETTERING ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. I WOULD POINT OUT THAT WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDS. ALL THESE ARE MONIES THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY ALLOCATED.

We like that. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll. Heer? Yes.

Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes.

Ordinance 107-26, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to run into an construction agreement with Brookdale Park LLC regarding the addition of a turn lane on US 42 Lafayette Road.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second.

Discussion? Mr. Patton. Thank you. Brookdale Mobile Home Park is planning on a phase two, a big addition. As part of that, they will be required to install a turn lane on Lafayette Road. This is a construction agreement between the city and the developers where they promised to put it in and fund it.

Thank you. As full disclosure, I'd have to abstain on this vote since I represent the developer. Any further discussion? Please call the roll.

Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Abstain. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Ordinance 107-26 passes, 6 ayes, 1 abstention.

ORDINANCE 10826, AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO RETURN TO A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH SHAGRIN VALLEY ENGINEERING, CVE, FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN SERVICES FOR JOB NUMBER 1189, STATE ROUTE 3 NORTH.

MR. PRESIDENT, MOVE TO APPROVE. SECOND.

DISCUSSION, MR. PATTON.

YES, THIS IS A PROJECT SCHEDULED FOR 2028 TO RESURFACE STATE ROUTE 3 WITH BASICALLY WAYMOUTH ROAD. ODOT IS CONTRIBUTING $494,000 TO THIS. WE WENT THROUGH A SELECTION PROCESS IN RECOMMENDING SHAGRIN VALLEY ENGINEERING FOR THIS WORK.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.

Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Ordinance 108-26 passes 7-0.

Resolution 109-26, a resolution adopting a tax budget of the City of Medina, Ohio for the fiscal year beginning January 1st, 2027 and submitting the same to the Medina County Auditor.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Durham. Thank you, Mr. President. This is the first step of the state's budget process, and there's a rather extensive memo that we'll talk about at the end of the agenda regarding this. For discussion, please call the roll.

Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb?

Yes.

Resolution 109.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 110.26, an ordinance amending Section 3102B15 and 3105 of the Salaries and Benefits Code of the City of Medina, Ohio, relative to the new Teamsters contract.

Mr. President? Ms. Hare? Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Who's handling this? Mr. Durham? Who's handling this? Nino? Anybody?

Is this Nino?

Teamsters contract?

I remember Nino addressed it as housekeeping issues to clarify the Teamsters contract.

All right. Thanks, Mr. Bercouli.

Any further discussion? He's shy today.

He's kind of a shy guy. Clerk, please call the roll.

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Herr. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Ordinance 11026 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 111.26 and ordinance repealing ordinance number 162.22 passed November 7th, 2023 and replacing section 505.11 of the chapter 505, the codified ordinance of the City of Medina creating a Medina comprehensive deer management program and authorizing a nuisance abatement initiative for both short-term and long-term control and reduction of white-tailed deer population in coordination with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and contiguous to joining political subdivisions and opt to adopt a similar plan for nuisance abatement.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Ms. Hare?

The emergency clause has been requested and I move to add it at this time.

My second includes emergency clause. Discussion on the ordinance and emergency clause. I guess I could discuss this. I submitted this back in January just to modify the current deer ordinance that we had, abatement ordinance that we had on the books. This is a more comprehensive look at it. We are changing many different things in the ordinance. Some of the highlights related to the ordinance would be we are still maintaining the archery program that we currently have in place. that were able to harvest over 100 deer last year. However, the car deer incidents are still winning. They did about 142 deer were killed by cars last year. This ordinance also adopts a sharpshooting program that will take place after the conclusion of the archery program at the end of the year. between the months of January and March with anticipation to harvest an additional 200 deer during that period of time at selected times in selected areas throughout the city. It also implements a notification periods where people that want to be notified when hunting's occurred, they can send emails in and get notified of when the huntings will occur so that they can keep track if they would like. It also provides that we will be looking at different types of signage throughout the city where there are active deer crossing areas to alert the public to be on the lookout so they don't hit them with their car. AND EVERYBODY IS MADE AWARE OF THAT SO HOPEFULLY IT CAN BRING DOWN THE DEER CAR INCIDENTS IN THE CITY. ALSO LOOKING AT TRYING TO REPLACE THE UNDERSTORY THAT WE HAVE THROUGHOUT THE CITY BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW IF MANY PEOPLE KNOW THIS BUT SINCE WE HAVE SO MANY DEER IN OUR CITY THEY ARE DESTROYING OUR ECOSYSTEM, RIGHT? THEY'RE EATING ALL THE PLANTS AND ALL THE STUFF AROUND IT NOT ONLY IN PEOPLE'S YARDS but in the park areas which are destroying some of the native plants which then in turn affects the other animals who feed off those plants so it's kind of a a domino effect so to speak and so we have to try to address all the issues we can so we're going to try to make it as more comprehensive as possible and i'd like to thank you know it came through natalie's committee and bill lamb was involved in this

i don't know if you guys have anything to add to that or just that the um so i spoke with and i'm not going to remember the young lady's name but she was at the bee park opening um she worked for medina's county odnr division um and she was talking about how in fact she can walk into the woods around here and she can see her sight line she can tell where the deers have completely destroyed things and additionally there are very specific insects that are pollinators for very specific flowers that are only come up in the undergrowth when it's available there and supported by the rest of the flora and fauna and with that gone there's specific caterpillars specific that turn into moss there's specific bees that only go to one I think it's believed that's called a Ohio carnation which only blooms at a very specific time but those are the kinds of things that are being destroyed by the overpopulation of deer, and I think it's really important that we get on board and work to make sure that this happens. Thank you.

Mr. Lang.

Thank you. I think we learned a lot over the past couple of years. We've had many debates about the program. We had some success. We didn't have some places we really didn't have much success. Um, work in progress for a couple of years. I think what, you know, I appreciate the work that, um, the president council's done to get this, this, um, to initiate this so that we could have a comprehensive program. And, um, over the summer, we spent lots and lots of time looking at what other communities do, trying to, um, establish what we need to do in this community with the number of deer that we have so that we really can have an effective program and bring the numbers down to a maintenance level so that we can appreciate the deer that are here. but the deer will be a minimal number. And as the President of the Council was speaking and Natalie was speaking, We want to also accomplish other things in this process. And we couldn't have done this really without the cooperation of the administration. I spent a lot of time with the parks director, looking at other communities, great learning process. The police chief was helpful, the mayor, so that we can do this in a cooperative way and have a good result for the community. It'll take some time, we recognize that. in order to bring the deer population down to a maintenance level, it's five, six, seven, eight years.

of this work and so we've committed to that council's committed to the funding for this in order to have a successful program this year which truly is a comprehensive program yeah thanks and i'd like to thank you know with what's happening with the archery program you know still gonna be run through the uh... police department they're gonna check out the location still private property uh... there's gonna be public property involved so it's still the same kind of process we're just adding more to it and uh... changing a few things around with regard to it so hopefully This year, you are also going to have a website that's going to ask if anybody would like any deer carcasses, because deer meat, if you want some, when the USDA comes out and harvests it, you can be put on a list and they will give you some deer meat if you would like to do that. I don't know how many people are interested in it, but if you like deer meat, there's an opportunity to obtain some deer meat that will be available, not only for the city residents, but also for whomever else in the county or elsewhere who would like to come pick up to have that meat now that meat is not taken of course we would have to process it and then make a donation to either feeding madonna county or a county home or some other place where that food could not go to waste it'll be used wisely uh in a productive means so hopefully that'll occur but uh again you know this process we're starting it's going to be that's going to be a process that'll be looked at through a committee that's formed under the ordinance that will keep an eye on it and make recommendations as an advisory committee so that we can make sure that we're still moving in the correct direction and making sure that's a successful program. So all that will be happening over the fall and next year. Anybody else have any comments on that? Mayor, any comments?

I do. I just want to thank everybody as well. I know that people sometimes feel like we are not addressing this issue, but it couldn't be further from the truth how much time and effort has gone into this. This is another huge step in the process. And we always talk about a comprehensive deer management program. This is the closest we've had to a comprehensive plan. I think especially all of council but Mr. Coyne, Mr. Lamb, Mrs. DeSalvo, all of your support and help and I could not have done it without Jansen and Lieutenant Markham, Chief Kinney, service department keeping track of all the data. But I promise the residents of Medina, you're going to start to see a difference here, and just give us time because it will take a while. We have a serious deer issue, and it's going to take a while to start reducing those numbers.

And we heard from Mentor it took them eight years. Yes. And they had a very detailed, aggressive program too.

Tonight we take a big step toward addressing it. So thank you, everyone.

ALSO, WHEN YOU GET YOUR WATER BILLS EVERY MONTH, THE CITY REGULARLY PUTS INFORMATION INTO YOUR WATER BILL THAT IS WORTH READING. SO MAKE SURE THAT YOU LOOK THROUGH THAT ENVELOPE AND LOOK AT ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION THAT THE CITY IS PROVIDING YOU, WHICH WILL ALSO, AS WE GET TO THAT POINT, WILL INCLUDE INFORMATION ON THE DEER AND WHERE YOU COULD FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND TO BE INFORMED. THANK YOU.

Quick, please call the roll on the adoption of the emergency clause. Coyne? Yes.

DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

Quick, please call the roll on the adoption of the ordinance.

DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. Ordinance 111.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 112-26, an ordinance authorizing a finance director to make certain fund advances.

Mr. President?

Yes, sir. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Durham. Thank you, Mr. President. This is an advance for the Brownfield grant.

Questions?

Clerk, please call the roll.

Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Ordinance 112.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 113.26 and ordinance remending ordinance number 218.25 pass December 8, 2025 amendments to the 2026 budget. Mr. President. Ms. Hare. Move to approve. Second. Discussion. Mr. Durham.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mostly this is things over in the court because they changed some account numbers.

Any further questions? Clerk, please call the roll.

Simpson?

Yes.

Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Ordinance 113.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 114.26, an ordinance of repealing the existing Chapter 905 of the Codified Ordinance of the City of Manoa, Ohio, and replacing it with a new Chapter 905 entitled Sidewalks, Curbs, and Gutters.

Mr. President.

Yes, sir.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion.

Mr. President. Yes, sir. Emergency clause has been requested, and I move to add it at this time.

My second includes emergency clause. DISCUSSION ON THE ORDINANCE AND THE EMERGENCY CAUSE. MR. ISABELLA?

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. THIS IS THE CULMINATION OF OUR WORK IN THE STREETS AND SIDEWALKS COMMITTEE FOR MOST OF THIS YEAR. WE'VE MET SEVERAL TIMES TO DEVELOP THIS PLAN, AND THE GOAL IS TO BUILD ON WHAT WE HAVE HAD IN THE PAST IN THE CITY TO, WELL, IN PART, WE'VE we've not you know completed or we haven't really accomplished what we've been looking to do um as far as you know keeping our sidewalks maintained and repaired so part of this is to systematize it make it so that we have a better system in place make sure that we're working and identifying the sidewalks that are a problem fixing those sidewalks and then making that a continual annual investment as a city to make sure that we're keeping up with that so hopefully that we get to a point where we have kind of a consistent year round you know we identify our problem areas and we you know repair those sidewalks so um I want to thank uh the council president you know the members of the streets and sidewalk committee and the uh and the rest of the uh the city administration that's uh you know helped develop this plan so um that's uh that's what we have for it so far

Yeah, and the biggest change that recurred, the current ordinance provides that the resident is supposed to maintain and repair and replace their own sidewalks. After further discussion with that, you know, we thought that it might be a good idea since, in my personal opinion, sidewalks are a public benefit. It's a public asset to the community, and everybody in the community uses a sidewalk, so it should be responsibility to the city to pay for and replace those sidewalks. So that's the biggest change in this ordinance is putting that responsibility on the city to do that, which I think will benefit a lot of people because right now we have a lot of different sidewalks and a lot of different states of disrepair or shifting, let's call it. Some of them are less than an inch. Some of them are more than an inch. There's going to be some things that will be ground down. We have grinders now that we're going to go out and do some grinding through. Mr. Piccoli's service department to try to see to eliminate those small trip hazards and the larger ones of course which caused by the trees the street trees we have in our city will have to be maintained and taken out and the roots ground down and those replaced but overall it's going to be a long term process again because we have I think Mr. Pat mentioned over 200 miles of sidewalks within our city boundaries. And those sidewalks are actively used by not only kids going to schools, you know, people just taking a walk, the elderly walking, people getting from place A to B, going to the stores. These are very important things that need to happen. And it's another mode of transportation. It's called walking rather than driving. And we just want to make sure that it's safe when people go out in the community. And I think it would help the community and the value of our property and the quality of life of our community by making the sidewalk safer. So that's kind of the goal that we talked about is try to get that to happen. So this is another process to happen. Now this doesn't mean we're gonna shovel your sidewalks in the winter. You still have to shovel your own sidewalks. And you can't leave toys on your sidewalks. Those are things that you as a homeowner still have to be responsible for. But damaging sidewalks, as we learned throughout the years, probably a majority of the time your sidewalks are in disrepair as caused by trees, storm sewers, or other utility lines that make them uneven. Usually they just don't happen on their own. So we kind of recognize that, and we want to make sure that they're safe for everybody. So that's kind of what the goal is.

Does anybody else have any comments?

You know what?

You know I do.

Yes.

Yeah. Mr. Huber provided us with ordinances from 18 different communities on sidewalks for us to review and just to compare. And what we found out was that it was very important that the city work with residents to assist with reconstruction or repair of sidewalks. If you only have two or three panels of sidewalk, it's impossible to get a contractor. So you need to partner up, you need to team up. We learned that in the case of shade trees, Um, they're beautiful. I welcome them, but yes, sometimes they can, the tree roots can push up on the sidewalk panels. And what we found was that most of the cities take responsibility for those and do repair those. Um, but I have a hard time and cannot accept that the city would pay for sidewalk repair and replacement now. and forever on down the road. Sidewalks are an expense that's, you know, weekly you've got to mow your yard, every couple years you've got to paint your house, periodically you have to replace your sidewalks. And I just believe that that's a resident responsibility and not something that the city should buy into from here and forever on.

appreciate it that's why we have seven members see we have difference of opinions this is this is what we're about we everybody got to bring your perspective so that's good he's right there's all these difference of opinions and it's not you know this is what we have and we make a determination that's why we're elected so we appreciate the input that's i like that anybody else have any comments all right please call the roll on the emergency wait we have much class on emergency class coin yes

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons.

No.

Simpson.

Yes.

Motion passes, six yays, one nay.

Will the clerk please call the roll on adoption of ordinance.

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons.

No.

Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes. Ordinance 11426 passes, six yays, one nay.

Ordinance 11526, an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to enter into a professional services agreement with T&M Associates for consulting services to implement the Ohio Department of Development Brownfields Remediation Program grant.

Mr. President.

Ms. Herr.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion?

Mr. President. Ms. Herr. The emergency clause has been requested and I move to add it at this time.

My second includes emergency clause. Discussion on emergency clause and ordinance. Mrs. Marshall.

Thank you, Mr. President. This request is to authorize the mayor to enter into a professional services agreement with T&M Associates for Consulting Services to implement the Ohio Department of Development Brownfield Remediation Program Assessment Grant for the South Elmwood Parking Lot Project. The agreement has been reviewed and approved by the law director, and the grant total is $242,360, so it's not to exceed that. with this particular grant there are no city matching funds because this came out of the one million dollar set aside that was allotted for medina county and um we had put in for 300 and Another project got a little bit more so they cut ours, but we should be okay The emergency clause is requested so that we can get started on this work right away as we also are trying to redevelop this lot hopefully for the You know in conjunction with the with the folks from the hotel, thank you.

Thank you any further discussion Please call the roll and adoption emergency clause Yes.

Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

Clerk, please call the roll on the adaptive ordinance.

Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Ordinance 115-26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 116.26, an ordinance proposing and providing for submission to the electors of the City of Medina, Ohio, at the general election to be held on November 3rd, 2026, an amendment to Sections 161.01, 161.03a, and 162.013a of the codified ordinances of the City of Medina, Ohio, to include sidewalks as a restricted use of the 0.25% of the total income tax that is currently allocated for streets, stormwater, and utility construction, maintenance, repair, and improvements.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion.

Mr. President, the emergency clause has been requested, and I move to add it at this time.

My second includes emergency clause.

Discussion on the ordinance and emergency clause. Mr. Huber.

When Mayor Lever was mayor, she organized a request to the city of Medina electors to asking for an increase in our income tax collection and specifically asked to set aside 0.25% of the overall 1.25% increase for use on streets, utilities, and stormwater. In 2006, the electors approved that. Specifically, the issue as to sidewalks was not included in that 0.25%. The 0.25% is generally referred to as the 108 fund. It's earmarked specifically for streets, utilities, and storm sewer repair. The City Council would like to speed up the program with respect to repair sidewalks given the condition of sidewalks in the city and so this ordinance will ask the electors permission to use the 108 fund for streets storm water utilities and sidewalks which frankly accompany the streets and would allow, specifically allow, that earmarked money to be used for these repairs that I think are gonna be taking place in the near future. So the income tax will not be increasing at all, the collection, it'll still be 1.25. This request simply asks permission from the elector

to allow the 108 fund to be used for sidewalk repair thank you and keith just uh refresh i think mr huber's close i think the 0.75 percent increase back in 2004 voted on 2006 was where the 0.25 came from so it's probably was it three and a half million i can't remember

So I think it was 2002.

Yeah, it was 2003 it was approved. It took effect in 2004. And yeah, it was at that time that it was a 0.75% increase from half a percent to one and a quarter with that 0.25% restricted to this. And it's $3 million, $4 million. It depends on how well it goes.

Right. And we have some debt service for the road repairs and stuff. So again, this would only allow sidewalks to be included within that. so that we have an avenue where we can maintain, because we consider it a public right-of-way, and that's kind of what the whole 108 account is for, is repair of public right-of-ways. And so that's what the electors, you, will be asked to do in November is to vote, do you believe it's important enough to include sidewalks to be used out of the 108 account to be the monies to be generated and restricted to those particular purposes? So you'll be asked that in November. So study up on it so we can make it certain.

anybody else have any questions on it comment yes yeah i this is a you know finite pool of money and uh the numbers we talked about were 400 000 for sidewalk repairs what i think you mentioned during committee meetings, and I know that we had set aside $800,000 for street repair, concrete street repair. So I'm guessing with this finite pool of money, does that mean we cut our sidewalk repair program in half to accommodate the sidewalks?

I THINK PATRICK IS IN CHARGE OF THE 108 ACCOUNT, SO HE'S THE GUY WHO HOLDS ALL THE KEYS RIGHT THERE. I DON'T KNOW IF WE'RE ABLE TO SPEND ALL THE MONEY IN THE 108 ACCOUNT EVERY YEAR BECAUSE IT'S JUST WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MANPOWER RIGHT NOW TO USE THAT FUNDS TO ITS FULLEST EXTENT EVERY YEAR BECAUSE WE JUST DON'T HAVE ENOUGH EMPLOYEES TO SPEND THAT MONEY. AND PLUS I DON'T THINK THE PUBLIC WOULD LIKE US TO SPEND ALL THAT MONEY EVERY YEAR ON THE ROADS BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE SO MANY ORANGE BARRELS OUT THERE there's enough already, it would be tough to get around. But Patrick, I assume we always have a balance, and I don't know what that is a year. I don't know if it's like a million dollars that we're unable to spend because we can't spend all that money every year.

That's true. We do have a balance every year. Keith would probably know better than I, but we are going to have to budget things. I don't know that it's a big concern, but we do have a lot of very expensive projects coming up, so just something we're going to have to keep our eye on.

Yeah, and I think we used, when we borrowed money for a few years ago, we borrowed $10 million for the roads because the interest rates were so cheap, and we used the 108 account to pay for that, and I think it was a third. So it was like $900,000 or something, I don't recall.

Yeah, it was set up to be about a third of the revenue would cover the debt. The revenue has since grown, so it's less than a quarter now. Right. And the rest of it's in that fund. The amount that we spend on a per-year basis can be a little bit misleading sometimes. because it kind of varies based on what projects get finished up and also what grants are out there and available. If we get an offer of a big grant for a project, we'll take it, spend a lot more money this year than we bring in, but then next year we'll spend less and so forth.

Right. Yeah, so your point's well taken, but I guess I don't know the answer to that. And the program, on a per-year basis, it just depends on the identifications of the sidewalks that need to be replaced and bidding those out to see what it comes at and then make a determination of how much could we afford there in that year to fix the sidewalk. Because it's just going to be a continuing process. And hopefully, since we have so many sidewalks that need repair now, over time, it'll go less and less. But the trees are still growing, so we're still going to have tree roots pushing up sidewalks forever.

So, Chet, this is something that the council can look at year by year in determining what project direction you're going to go with respect to streets as opposed to what's pending for sidewalks. So you do have control over how you're going to make those adjustments. The only other... The thing I would ask is that you pass this subject to my approval, because there's a few things in this ordinance as it's currently drafted that I would like to adjust. OK, thank you. Mr. Shields?

I was just going to say, too, we touched on it. We've been very fortunate with grants, which really has lessened the impact on that 108, stretched it a lot further. I'M CONVINCED WE'LL CONTINUE TO BE SUCCESSFUL GETTING GRANTS.

I THINK MR. DURHAM ALWAYS MENTIONED THIS IN OUR GENERAL FUND WE USUALLY LOAN OURSELF MONEY FOR THE GRANTS AND IT'S ABOUT $5 MILLION WE HAVE OUTSTANDING AT ANY ONE TIME IN OUR GENERAL FUND THAT PAYS FOR GRANTS. AND THEN YEARS LATER THE GOVERNMENT PAYS US BACK. BUT THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT GOES. SO WE'RE ALWAYS LENDING MONEY TO DO PROJECTS AND THEN WE GET PAID BACK OVER TIME. BUT, YEAH, YOU'RE CORRECT. IT'LL DO THAT.

ANYBODY ELSE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

This is subject to the law director's approval, the motion is. So will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the emergency clause.

Lamb.

Yes.

Simmons.

No.

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Herr. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Motion passes six yays and one nay.

Clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of your ordinance.

Simmons.

No.

Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Ordinance 116. 26 passes. 60 is one name.

Resolution 117.26, a resolution supporting the finance director's letter to the Madonna County Budget Commission regarding the City Emergencies Medical Services EMS Fund.

Mr. President? Yes, sir. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Durham. Thank you, Mr. President. For many years, the county budget commissions have been basically a ministerial function. They haven't had really any oversight. There's some new legislation that was passed by the state that gives the county budget commission a bit more of an oversight role over these local budgets, and I'm sure you are all aware of the controversy surrounding that in the early part of the year when they were reviewing school budgets. Anticipating that we may have some of the same issues when they review ours, I crafted this rather extensive memo with a lot of supporting documentation to explain to them the purpose of our balances i'm also trying to address their concerns because one of the things they asked the school districts was if the school if the legislative body in that case the school board had considered reducing the tax rate based on the balances we have the balance that we have in our lst fund for the reasons that i laid out in the memo and i just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and there we go i think people don't understand when you pass a levy

you have a lot of money in the first couple years, and then the money starts dwindling down because the expenses go up, but the revenues don't go up. So that's why there's a levy every 10 years, and what they want to try to do is say, we're going to lower that, and then we have a levy every other year. So that doesn't make a lot of sense. So I'm not really sure where they're going with this, because I've heard that we're one of the few counties that are doing this. There's not many out there that are aggressively pursuing reducing all the levies that have been passed. So I mean, I don't know. It's just kind of strange. We work so hard because we have a five-year budget in the city, so we plan way ahead. So if they make these changes, that's going to mess us all up because we're going to have to think, well, how are we going to fund something five years from now if they cut the revenue stream that's going to fund that? So it's very disheartening a little bit to know that we could lose some money in the city, and we don't want to go back to the taxpayer, but they may force us to, and we don't want that to happen.

We'll see.

All right. Any other questions? Clerk, please call the roll.

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Resolution 117.26 passes 7-0.

Council comments. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just a couple things. One to tackle on what Mayor Shields said about the city of Rittman and their tragedy that occurred there last week. I'm not going to go on. go on about how tragic that incident was, but I will ask every resident, we should do this all the time, but when you see a police officer, and we all do, whether in the parks or in the grocery stores, you don't have to say much to them, but just say thank you. They deserve it. They're out there to protect us. We want them to know that they're in our thoughts and prayers for this incident, but they're in our thoughts and prayers every day they put that uniform on and go out to protect us. So please keep that in mind. The other thing, and I also want to tack on to what Jim said, the mayor said about all the festivities over July 4th weekend. It was just amazing. The Friends of the Cemetery and the cemetery committee that put on such a phenomenal event at Old Town Graveyard. And we keep calling it Old Town Cemetery, but I believe it's actually Old Town Graveyard. And we honored actually three Revolutionary War soldiers that's buried there. It was pretty impressive. The whole day was just, and again, Theresa Merkel, Just a phenomenal job. When somebody said we should do this every year, I think she'd probably disagree with that. She enjoyed doing it, but it was a lot of work. The other thing I just want to briefly just talk about is I don't know how many people realize that in Medina County we have a free clinic of Medina County for healthcare. This is not for people that qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. It's for people that, for themselves and their families that are working that can't afford health insurance. This is operated by, the director is Dr. Kim Bowen. He's a retired emergency room doctor. And he's got a whole staff of physicians that volunteer their times and nurses that volunteer their time to help people that are in need. They're working, but they can't afford the rising cost of health care. So I was hoping the Gazette would be here tonight so I could give them one of these. I've only got a few of these, but I'm going to leave them on the desk down here. If you know somebody that needs this, Nancy Peacock is the executive director. The phone number's on here. Even if there's not enough here, you can jot this number down. It's a worthwhile organization. Their office is in the North Medical Building at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital. It's really a worthwhile organization. So that's all I have, except to be kind to one another, please. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to thank the administration and the department heads and their employees for all the things that they do. There's many times as I'm driving through the city with my full-time job and other things that I do on a regular basis where I see city employees out on the street doing their job. I think twice in the last week I saw the service department out there fixing water breaks. So I just want to remind the residents to be aware of your surroundings and as you're driving through our community, pay attention. We want to keep everybody safe. With the high temperatures, I used to love the sun. I used to love the heat. I can't do it anymore. And not everybody has air conditioning. Pay attention to your neighbors, check on them. Not everybody has it. Let's make sure that our neighbors are safe, and if we can help them, let's please do. And let's just be respectful to one another. Thank you. Thank you.

It just can't be said enough. Teresa Merkel, she started over two years ago with Friends of the Cemetery in America 250 and involved so many of us here today in that program. And just what a wonderful event that was for our whole community. And the other thing was on July 8th, I attended a party in the parks at Mellert Park, put on by Bedina Rec. And they had music, DJ, games. Sponsors were schools, Live Inspired, Armstrong. It was just a really nice event. It was well attended. So just so thankful that Mellert Park was one of the locations, and it was so well supported.

Thank you. Mrs. Settle?

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. THE CITY DID A GREAT JOB. IT WAS WONDERFUL. WHAT I WANTED TO TOUCH ON BRIEFLY WAS AS A YOUNG STUDENT IN HIGH SCHOOL OR GETTING READY TO GO IN HIGH SCHOOL, I babysat. And during those years, Saturday night was a big night for couples to go out, so I made enough money to get some clothes. But one of my all-time favorite things to do when I was babysitting on Saturday night, if I got the kids to bed, was to watch the TV show, Emergency. And just a little bit background briefly. One emergency started in 1972. There were only 12, 12 paramedic units associated with fire departments in the country. Now it was changing, but the admin of this TV show really brought to light the need for this. And now we have our LST. We got the report on how many calls were made. And I just wanted to recognize that Randolph Mantooth passed away this past week, and he, of course, played Johnny Gage on that TV show. So I want to thank our LST. I know Denny's very involved in that, but that just brought this all back to mind, especially with the discussion that we had in the budget meeting about how many calls are expected to be coming up in the next few years. So I just want to thank our LST people. So thank you.

Mr. Isabella.

Thank you, Mr. President. Something that's come up to my attention through residents, we've had folks, you know, contact us with concerns regarding, you know, flock cameras or license plate identification systems. I just wanted to let everybody know I've been seeing those emails. I've talked with our chief of police, Ed Kinney. He's told us that these are, it's a very effective system. It's making our city safer. And from the information I've collected as far as concerns relating to PEOPLE'S IDENTITIES OR HOW THAT INFORMATION GETS SHARED. I HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE IN OUR CHIEF OF POLICE THAT IF HE TRUSTS THIS PROGRAM AND THIS SYSTEM, THAT I SUPPORT IT. SO IF ANYBODY HAS ANY QUESTIONS RELATED TO THAT, PLEASE TALK TO ME, TALK TO THE CHIEF OF POLICE IF YOU NEED TO. BUT OTHER THAN THAT, AGAIN, GREAT JOB BY EVERY CITY EMPLOYEE FOR THE WEEKEND. WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN THE FIREWORKS, BUT MY PARENTS ON DAMON DRIVE SAID THEY WERE ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS THEY HAD SEEN. SO THANKS.

Uh, thank you. Um, whether people notice or not, I mean, really in the past six months with the, with city council and the administration, we have done some very large things, including which include the sidewalk program and the comprehensive deer program. Uh, two things that were are complicated. Um, the sidewalk program. some communities do it but most don't but the recognition that we have this issue with sidewalks however it all came about to do those two things in six months i think is really an important accomplishment i also think it's important to recognize that we are legislators and legislators come up with good ideas i think by debate and by disagreeing and then coming up with a good solution and so i have been in a position last time i was on council where i was frequently the person voting one way and six people voted the other way but that's healthy and that's good and for councilman simpson while this process went on, he actually dug into information about sidewalk programs and had a reasonable, certainly had a reasonable reason for his vote. That was not illogical. Makes sense. It's the way things have been done for quite a while. Um, and that's how you do, you get you, you do that. And if you don't debate as councilman Simpson did, if we never debate or we don't talk, We don't know where everybody is. You can't just all go along with something because everybody did it. And so that's what people here, I think, were supposed to do. But we did accomplish a lot. And I'm just going to leave you with a few things that I'm working on because we did sort of discuss some of them, particularly with the deer. And included in the program that we put together with the deer is the issue of the understory, the loss of native plants, the great growth we have in the park of invasive species. So working with the parks director, this year hopefully we'll put together a program to begin with two test cases of establishing native plants in a prairie. It's more complicated than I thought it was, but things generally are. And it's not cheap either, but I am working on that so that we can start to restore those areas in the parks. We have more parkland per capita in Medina than any other city in the state. So we have a lot of parkland, but it's good to start. Simply, same as we are with the deer. We begin now to reduce the population. It'll take time. It'll be the same thing with the understory that's in the park. One of the other things that I'm working on um, related to deer is, are the signs. So I had put together a list of a different kinds of warning signs because one of the issues, the big issues that we have are the vehicle deer accidents. So while we work on, on the calling program and we work on the bow with bow hunting, where I'm going to work. I have these assigned plan so that at places where we've had the most issues with deer vehicle accidents will rotate different types of signs to see which signs are most effective for people driving to see and will reduce their speed or make them aware. Um, so that's the other thing that we'll put in place prior to the beginning of prior to the beginning of the hunting season. WITH THE EXPANSION ON WEST WASHINGTON STREET, THE NEW CONSTRUCTION ON WEST WASHINGTON STREET, RATHER THAN THE HISTORIC DISTRICT. I DON'T KNOW IF ANYBODY IS SEEING THE PROGRESS GOING ON THERE AT THE BUILDING. THE HISTORIC DISTRICT IS NINE BLOCKS. IT'S AN AREA WITHIN NINE BLOCKS. BUT IF YOU LOOK AROUND THE NINE BLOCKS, THERE ARE PORTIONS OF IT THAT HAVE NEVER REALLY BEEN FULLY RESTORED THE WAY THE CENTER PART OF THE CITY HAS. AND WEST WASHINGTON IS ONE, THAT ONE BLOCK WHERE WE HAVE ALL OVERHEAD WIRES AND WE DO NOT HAVE HISTORIC STREET LIGHTING. So I'm looking into what it takes to at least begin to address that so that that portion of the historic district looks similar to the rest of the historic district with overhead wires and no historic street lighting. The landscape planning. I know somebody that I used to live by who had a place in their yard where they had a kind of a habitat area for bees and insects that was not their lawn. And I have been looking at communities and I was surprised at how many cities have an exception for the lawn mowing ordinance of the inches of the lawn mowing that if you do it correctly and it's regulated and you define the area, you can create a native planting area and it's exempt from the lawn mowing ordinance. As long as it's defined, it has a setback. It's not by the public right away. It's not by sidewalks. It's so many feet from your neighbor. It's not an area that would feed deer, but it's an area that you can purposefully grow. You can't just let your yard grow, but you have to plant it, and it has to be native, and it is something to benefit birds, helpful insects, bees, butterflies. So that's another proposal that I'm working on. And, um, while we're on break and the last one I have been looking into that we looked into a while ago was the quieting of, of the railroad horns. And what I've been looking at is not what we looked at, but, um, it's called a wayside wayside horns. That's cheaper than changing the gates and putting up the barriers in the middle of the, of the streets. So people can't drive through the gate. And these horns don't blow out so that you can hear them citywide, but they blow at the intersection at the traffic at the intersection. And from what I've read, they are supposed to be much quieter than the horns that we, that we hear now. So it looked to me because we, when you hear some of the horns in the city, because we are crossings are so close together that sometimes it sounds like they start the horn and it just keeps going and going and going. So this idea of these wayside horns I thought would be an interesting thing. Whether they're practical or not, I don't know, but it would be an interesting thing for us, a good thing for us to look at, particularly because there are many people here, many neighborhoods who are very close to the railroad tracks. So that's kind of a summary of what I'm doing, but I think... The council and the administration have done a really amazing job the last six months and directing most of what we're doing, I think, to the people that live here in the community, trying to make the community safe and a wonderful place to live. Thank you.

Thank you. And last comment, I'll let everybody go. I THINK, REGGIE, YOU FORGOT SOMETHING. WE HAVE A GREAT ASSET IN THE CITY. IT'S CALLED THE MEDINA COUNTY FAIR. THAT'S COMING UP, I THINK, ISN'T IT?

ABSOLUTELY. LET ME GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO THE MEDINA COUNTY FAIR. FIRST DAY IS AUGUST 3 AND RUNS THROUGH AUGUST 9. THERE ARE ATTRACTIONS, FREE ATTRACTIONS EVERY DAY THERE. We have a main concert on Wednesday evening. You can get tickets online, or you could come into the fair office. That's 720 Smith Road, and buy your tickets there. You can buy them via cash or credit card. But it is looking to be a really nice and exciting fair this year. Thanks.

There you go. And with that, enjoy the summer, and we'll see you at the end of August. Meeting adjourned.