Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

Oh, yeah, I do. I think I know what I'm going to say.

That always makes me nervous. I was meeting for April 9th. Please call the role. Rio present. Coffee here. Young here.

Baron. Bioca here. Herman here. Palman here. Do we have a motion to to excuse the absence of uh Councilman Barrett? I make a motion to excuse the absence of Mr. John Bar. All in favor? Yes.

Mr. Barick is excused. Uh tonight's prayer and pledge of allegiance will be led by Ward 2 Councilwoman Kelly Coffee. Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, thank you that we can come to you in this public forum to pray. Um we are so divided as a nation and as a state and I pray as a city that we can be united. Not um that we need to agree on everything, but I pray that we can be united in our mission to do what's best for the residents in Stow. Um, you say in Matthew 12:25, "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and any household or or city divided among itself will not stand." Um, we have the National Day of Prayer coming up in May. And I pray that we will be a city that seeks you. 2 Chronicles 7:14, you say, um, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land." I pray that for Stow, I thank you for all the wonderful people in Stow. And I pray that you will bless them as we seek you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. 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. Before us, we have the minutes from our March 12th meeting. Do we have a motion to approve? Move to approve as circulated. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes.

The minutes are approved. Now we have our public comment period. Oh, sorry. Uh we skipped the very important proclamations uh that the mayor is ready to present. You look about exactly be in here pretty good. Well, in the right.

Okay. So whereas firefighter Joe Ansley's passion for the fire service began long before he ever put on turnout gear when he and his twin brother Jim were very young. Their parents would chase fire trucks. Do you remember that? Okay. And ambulances around the town and even on family vacations just so the boys could see them. Whereas when their dad traveled for work, he would sometimes take them along, making a point to stop at fire stations wherever they went. Those visits sparked a lifelong fascination. And over the years, the brothers visited hundreds of stations across many countless cities, photographing thousands of fire trucks of every make and model. And literally, whereas before joining Stow, Joe worked at the Talmage Fire Department beginning in 1986 where he enjoyed driving the manual transmission Mac fire trucks.

That is true. That is true. Wow. You are pretty old then, aren't you? In fact, one of his favorite memories from those early years in the fire service was riding the open canopy cab engines at both townage and stozing in the winter then rewarded with great warm breeze in the summertime. It's the kind of experience that stays with you forever. And whereas in 1999 2000, Joe attended paramedic school at Akran General and soon after joined the Stow Fire Department. Best decision he ever made. For us. For us. Seriously.

Shifting his career from art and advertising to full-time firefighting. A leap that happened just before he and his wife welcomed three children to their family. And whereas throughout his career, he's been driven by two passions, firefighter health, fitness, and a rush of interior firefighter. In recent years, he was a member of the truck committee, putting his knowledge and experience to use as he helped with the design and construction of squad one. So now therefore, I, John Perbonic, mayor of the city of Stowe and the Stow fire department, congratulate you, firefighter Joe Ansley, on your incredible career in wishing you the very best in retirement. Congratulations.

Thank you so much. So, uh, council members, I do want you to know that, uh, everything that the mayor said about him is very true. And he has a passion also for clean trucks. And he hated my old Dodge truck that was, uh, always dirty. That is true. And he offered to uh, paint the wheels because it drove him nuts how how bad they were. He would say, "Uh, you just park it there. I'll I'll take care of it. I'll I'll paint them and make them look better." But we do appreciate him. I appreciate his passion. He was part of our relay team. Uh I don't recall if you were part of the team the year that we won. Oh yeah.

Okay. That was the year I did not run and uh when we were competing against the police, but we also have a 25-y year uh recognition for him that I want to give him and uh we started doing that this year and uh we want to uh thank him for his 25 years of service and his positive outlook on the career that he has chosen every single day he came to work. So, I do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to thank you, Mark, as chief. It's been a pleasure working with you for 11 years now. You've led our department uh very well. And also, Mayor Pvonic, for your uh service to the city, also all the council members. Obviously, you weren't here when I got hired, but thank you because I know a council position is very thankful. It's a it's a rewarding position, but it's also a thankless position many times. So, thank you for uh serving the city. Um, thank you all my brother firefighters and uh especially my wife Stacy, my parents, and our youngest son Dawson. Thank you for our for your support over the years and uh it was a true pleasure working for the city. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Get a picture real quick.

Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. It's always great to see really the camaraderie between both fire and police. Um because of course they knew this was all going on tonight. So as I was looking out the window during the council meeting, I see this dog run by and I told Nick, I go, "Oh my god, there's a dog." Of course, the police had to go ahead and show some presence tonight out there. They were training one of our canines and whatever. So they they're there in full support outside of you there. So, okay. Next up, we have Mr. Jim Everly. Okay. Whereas Jim Everly began his fire service in March of 1993 with the Coventry Fire Department. And then five years later on March 13, 1999 he joined the Stow fire department where he spent many years serving on the A shift. Whereas before entering the fire service, Joe worked in farming and carpentry, two trades that translate directly to the hands-on problem-solving nature of firefighting and rescue work. Those early experiences shaped the practical skill set that he would carry throughout your career. And after arriving at STO, Jim began sharing his EMS knowledge by instructing the local United States Coast Guard auxiliary flotillaa in first aid, earning a letter of commendation from the flotillaa commander for your efforts. Got the right guy, right?

Okay. Good. Okay. Then in 2005, Jim received a Star of Life. You got to have a heart award from the Ohio chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians for your role in saving the life of a 68-year-old male in cardiac arrest. And in 2020, firefighter Everly transferred to the fire prevention bureau where he not only conducted inspections and plan reviews, but also investigated fires and documented his findings. This is an area where his attention to detail combined with his construction and carpentry background proved invaluable to the bureau and to our community. And whereas firefighter Everly committed himself to developing a high level of investigative competence, attending advanced fire investigation courses, and then in 2022 earning his international association of arson investigators and fire investigation technician designation. So, as you can see, he never stopped learning, and that is that's phenomenal. Whereas throughout his time in the fire prevention bureau, he investigated numerous fires at all hours of the day and night, consistently showing up when needed and dist in demonstrating unwavering dedication to the mission. So now therefore, I, John Perbanic, mayor of the city of Stowe, and the Stow Fire Department, are truly grateful to you, firefighter Jim Everly, for your many years of service. Outstanding service. It is to the Stove Fire Department and to our community. Thank you, Jim. Enjoy your retirement. CONGRATULATIONS.

And we have also for Jim uh 26 years of service with the city of Stow, although he does have 33 years of service in the industry altogether. I do want to point out one thing that um not everybody knows, but I don't. Uh for one thing, he would be a great guy to bring the cabinet because he has a wealth of knowledge that you guys would really appreciate. He's kind of right there with me and uh but he's also a beekeeper and uh so I've actually learned a lot from him talking to him and if I go down that path, I get, you know, we'll talk for way too long. Yeah.

So, But uh all that allaround knowledge that he brought to the table really helped out with our investigation and uh and he found a really good home in the fire prevention bureau. I wish we would have gotten him there sooner and uh but we didn't discover that till late in his career that he was uh very talented in that area. But I do appreciate all the work that you've done. Yeah,

I appreciate it. Uh, I've enjoyed my time here with the, uh, city. I want to thank you guys for, you know, putting up with me for 26 years. Um, and the opportunity to work here. Want to thank my wife for also putting up with me for a lot longer than that. And the guys and the gals that I worked with. It was truly a privilege to work with you guys. Thank you. Oh yeah. Thank you and congratulations. Uh now we will move to our public comment period. If anyone wishes to speak, please raise your hands. Seeing none, uh, we will move on to the mayor's report.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Herman. If you have not heard, there is a lot of excitement buzzing in the air for a lot of reasons here in the city of Stowe. Uh, Stow is always a great place to live and we prove this each and every day and I appreciate everyone support on council. If you didn't see, we are now in the top 20. finalist for the all-American city. That is phenomenal. And as uh Mr. Riley pointed out today, we're the only one this year in Ohio. Where's the closest one then, Mr. Riley? Do you remember? Putting me on the spot. If you give me one second, I can find out.

But anyways, this is very, very exciting. And we can all be very proud. And that's why I said all because it takes a whole village to make the city what we are. And it is a tremendous city. And I know we're uh there are 10 awards given out of the 20. And uh as I was telling a news reporter yesterday, I am certain for as good as our city is and people want to emulate our city, we're going to come back with that prize. So again, it's really an exciting time. Mr. Drew.

Well, I I don't have my my by miles, but it's either River Forest, Illinois, or um uh Bowling Green, Kentucky. Okay, it's close, but there's nobody really close. It It really is amazing. And like I said, when you figure all the cities in our country, um 20, we ranked in that top 20. And like I said, we're going to bring home the gold, aren't we, Mr. Riley?

Yeah, we are. So, with that excitement, uh, this Sunday, we have the groundbreaking of our new AMP. And, uh, this is very, very historical and groundbreaking. And again, that's from 1:30 to 3. We are going to do groundbreaking. There'll be a couple things from popups and so forth. There's also a schedule online right now on the website of all of our popups this year are going to be held at the uh AMP site. So you can look at that through that schedule. And again, it's we have a lot of great things planned, a lot of fun activities. Um if you look out on the uh grassy area out there, not only would you see our canine running around, but you see three large ducks. This ties in with the entrepreneur class with the six district compact here uh that the six uh city school districts joined together and I have got the opportunity two times to meet with this group and they are phenomenal and when I look at the young people today and the talent they have and the drive um I'm truly amazed. So again, uh you'll have that opportunity to buy those ducks. There's all kinds of packages. They will also be uh there Sunday up by the amp uh from 1:30 to 3 selling the ducks. And again, it's a it's a great group of high school students and I couldn't say more than enough. They've learned so much off of this and I'm very proud of them. Uh, last but not least, we all kind of say that with um I guess tongue and cheek. Uh, and I don't think that we can say this enough. Um, we have

different fiber companies coming through our city. Okay, it hasn't always been a pleasant experience and it probably won't be, but I want to make it very clear as far as being in charge of this administration and also too with city council, if you're running into issue from your constituents, please reach out to us, okay? There's very little we can control with this. this has run through the state. But what we can do is make some wrongs right and return it back to normal. So it's one of those things that technology is moving full speed ahead. In fact, Mrs. Coffee was watching her son on her phone uh playing baseball and uh it's it's interesting how technology is coming. So we need to have that technology. We need to have that technology as far as even competition. Um, when we were talking about Metronet and us using them as a secondary, um, I'll put now, now that I put Mr. Riley on the spot, I'll put Miss, uh, well, I'll put Angela on the spot. How much are we actually saving from the original? Do you remember we were talking about if going with Metroet? Do you remember what that figure was?

Oh, of course AJ's not here. Um, I do not remember the figures, but I can say that um, you know, what I think that what we pay with AT&T is, you know, upwards of $40,000 a year and Metroet would probably be less than a quarter of that.

So again, competition is good. We do know that there's issues out there. There's probably going to be issues for the next I I I hate to say this, but it's something that has to be addressed for probably the next 5 years. Okay, it's not something that we want to hear. It's not what the residents want to hear, but again, we're here to support our residents. So, make sure that you reach out to us. Let us know. We will follow through to the best of our ability to make things whole. Okay? It doesn't mean that it's always going to be perfect, but again, we want to make sure uh that our residents are satisfied uh when they are in the rideaways. So, the rideaways are their territory and uh like I said, it's a it's an inconvenience we know. But again, please make sure that you stay in contact because we will uh go ahead and make sure that all companies are treated fairly and uh their feet are held to the fire to make sure our residents deserve the same quality that our service uh people, our service staff does. And really our entire administration and staff does every day to go ahead and make Stow the place that we love to live. So again, please, it's one of those weird things. Make sure that you tell them to reach out. So we'll follow through. Thank you. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for the mayor, Mr. Feldman? Just a comment, Mr. Mayor. I mean, I'm I'm reading here key aspects of the recognition, the all-American city. I mean, it says, "The award emphasizes how well residents, government, businesses, and nonprofits work together." That's a tribute to you. I mean, it's a tribute to all of us. You being a leader of of all everything we're doing in this city. So, thank you and we're grateful for your leadership. And uh So, again, we're going to What is it, Mr. Riley? June 26th through the 28th. Yeah, June 26th to the 28th is the and we've got some really exciting plans of how we're going to win this thing and uh we met today and

we'll also prov provide more information but the presentations are actually livereamed but we have some plans for that as well. Big surprises, neat surprises. So, very good. So, thank you. Any other questions for the mayor?

Seeing none, is there any old business for council to return to? Seeing none, we have two items for new business that came out of our executive session. The first is 2026-91, an ordinance uh to uh an ordinance confirming the mayor's appointment of uh actually should the clerk read the title? Yeah. 2026 091, an ordinance confirming the mayor's appointment of Brian Ashhurst as plans examiner one of the building department of the city of Stowe, establishing compensation for set appointee and declaring an emergency.

I make a motion to suspend the rules. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Mr. Riley, we haven't created the plans examiner one position yet. Ah, okay. Oh, we have to go back.

Good point. So, we will hold this until the end of our agenda. Um, the but we should be able to go on with uh item B. Uh, so yes. Uh, will Mrs. Will the clerk please read item B by its title? 2026-092, an ordinance approving an employment contract between the city of Stow and Brian Sydom as assistant general manager of Foxden Golf Course beginning April 23rd, 2026 and ending December 31st, 2028, establishing compensation and declaring an emergency. Now I make a motion to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended.

Move to adopt. Second. Uh, will the clerk please call? Oh, yeah. Disc any discussion. Uh, will the clerk please call the role?

Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Vioa, yes. Herman, yes. Bman, yes. that uh motion that ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Disposition of ordinances and resolutions. Will the clerk please read item A by its title? 2026-83 an ordinance to approve current replacement pages to the STO codified ordinances and declare an emergency. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes.

The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Uh, any discussion? Will the cler please call the role?

Real. Yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Foca, yes. Herman, yes. Spellman, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Item B. Will the clerk please read MB by its title? 2026-84, an ordinance amending chapter 115 COS entitled personal policies, procedures, and payroll and declaring emergency. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Mrs. Coffee.

Um, I just want to say I I will be supporting this. Obviously, I tried to amend it. Um, but because I do support the plans examiner one and the level of pay and everything for that. Um, and we obviously operate as a democracy and the first version went through. So, I will be supporting. Thank you, Mrs. Coffee. Any other discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Real? Yes. Coffee? Yes. Young? Yes. Vioa? Yes. Herman? Yes. Bman? Yes.

That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item C by its title? 2026-085 a resolution granting signed variance approval to William Yishik applicant on behalf of DGT Holdings LLC owner on the property located at 3781 Daryl Road parcel number 56-17362 I move to suspend the rule second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion?

Will the clerk please call the role? Real, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Thea, yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes.

That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item D by its title? 2026-86, a resolution granting conditional zoning certificate to Regginal Lewis, applicant on behalf of HD commercial condo owner on the parcel on the property located at 4272 Hudson Drive, parcel number 5617799. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion?

Will the clerk please call the role? Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Vioa, yes. Herman, yes. Belman,

yes. That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item E by its title? 2026-87, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an enter into a professional service contract with Soul Soul Harris Day Architect, Inc. for the design services for the AMP without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency. I move to suspend the rule. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Real quick, thanks, Mr. Uh Mr. Ren or Mr. Mayor, who So, who's the general contractor again? I forget. But I think you've told us once

Dawn Incorporated. Okay. So they're working with Soul Harris, correct? Yes. And our construction manager. Yep. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Any other discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Bioca, yes. Herman, yes. Felman, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item F by its title? 2026-88, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an enter and associates DBA BSNA software for financial software without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency. I make a motion to suspend the rules. Second.

All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. Vioa, yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes.

That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item G by its title? 2026-89, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entry into professional service contract with Derek Kula DBA Studio KGK for design services for the AMP Bike Spur without the necessity of public fits and declare an emergency. Move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Second. Any discussion? Mr.

Real quick, Mr. Herman, I know we've got a couple grants out. Uh we just approved this ordinance for 50 grand. We don't know what those grants are, but we have an opportunity not to have to pay for this whole thing. Correct. We do have a grant out for the spur that would potentially um if we were selected to move ahead with that grant um from the committee we applied through would potentially cover this. Yes. Yeah. And and we applied for two, didn't we? We applied for two. We haven't heard back on the second one yet. Okay, great. Uh yeah, the first one's a kind of prelim a prelim um where we were recommended. Great. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Feldman. And any further discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Rio, yes. Coffee, yes.

Young, yes. Fioa, yes. Herman, yes. Felman, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item H by its title? 2026-90, a resolution granting use approval to Brad variance approval to Brad Ruth, applicant on behalf of EFI Companies LLC owner on the property located at 3657 through 3661 Fish Creek Road, parcel number 56-19 um 144. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Real? Yes. Coffee? Yes. Young? Yes. Fioa? Yes. Herman? Yes. Yes. That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Now we return to uh one of our items from new business 2026-091. Will the clerk please read it by its title? 2026 091 an ordinance confirming the mayor's appointment of Brian Ashhurst as plans examiner one of the building department of the city still establishing compensation for set point and declaring an emergency. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended.

Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Real? Yes. Coffee? Yes. Young? Yes. Fioa? Yes. Herman? Yes. Felman? Yes. That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Next, we have our bill listing. uh to move move to pay the bills. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. The bills will be paid. Next, uh we have are scheduling outstanding committee meetings and or council announcements. Do we have uh anything that anyone wants to bring up? Looking forward to future meetings or uh any announcements for the good of the cause.

Uh Mr. Herman, you know, I just Thank you. Apologize. Um I know I mentioned with you on mention rest of council. Um, I've asked Mr. Riley and Mr. Hudin to look into uh on roads and safety. So, we'll schedule a meeting with ebike safety helmets and some other discussion items. So, not sure if legislation will be presented, but we'll get some discussion items on that. Thank you, Mr. Feldman. Uh, anyone else? Okay. Uh, seeing none, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Yes.

We are adjourned. Good job. Thanks. We're out.