City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 7 o'clock and I am going to call this meeting to order. Uh welcome. Good evening ladies and gentlemen, council members, city officials. Welcome to the May 11, 2026 regular city council meeting. We are meeting at 26 South Paint Street, Chilikathy, Ohio. And I would ask the clerk to call the role. Thank you. President Shoemaker Bennett present. Payne here. McCort here. Barnes here. McKver here. Dement here. Preston Dunn here. Creed

here. Uh would uh would would Miss Preston lead us uh in the pledge of allegiance, please?

To the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Uh the minutes from the last meeting uh were not distributed and not available this evening. So we'll have to take those up at our next meeting and uh we'll uh we'll read through those and uh take up the uh minutes from that meeting as well as the meeting that we're holding this evening. So we'll do that at our next meeting. Um the next order of business is um we will need a motion to suspend the rules because we're going to have to amend the agenda. Uh and I would ask for a motion uh to amend to add legislation was read for the first time uh at the last meeting but has not shown up as a second uh reading on this particular agenda. So it would be added as um the eighth item on our agenda. And uh I will accept that from Mr. Creed as a motion and ask if there's a second. Uh Miss Dunn and the clerk will call the role relative to the amendment of the agenda.

Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCort, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dun, yes. Creed, yes. The additional item will be added to the agenda and now we'll move to reports of committees. Um first development committee uh Mr. Dement.

Thank you President Shoemaker. Development committee met earlier this evening uh to discuss 26032 um which is a 90-day moratorum on uh downtown um unified development code enforcement. um we we decided as a committee to to table that assignment um due to a resolution between uh the administration and downtown uh representatives. Um so so that was tabled. Um, and then on tonight's agenda, we have item number four, which is a first reading of a resolution authorizing uh the mayor to enter into a partnership agreement uh between Chilikathy and Ross County and the Ross County Commissioners uh for the application and administration of uh 2026 community housing impact and preservation um program if funded and declaring an emergency. And that concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. Engineering Committee Miss Dunn. I have nothing on the agenda and uh nothing to report. Thank you, President Shoemaker. Thank you. Uh Finance and Technology Committee, Mr. Creed.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have two items on the agenda. Number one, it's a third reading of an ordinance um submitted by ODOT to resurface portion of State Route 104 High Street um from Main Street to the northern limits of the city city and that will be done next year just so everybody's aware of that again. Um not something that we're going to be doing this year, but that is a project that will happen next year. Um so at the appropriate time appreciate everybody voting for that. Um next is item number two. It's a first reading and it's an ordinance accepting and appropriating $5,25.50 um for RDC. Um this is money that's coming through us and we have to do this to pay off a a mortgage to release a mortgage and uh they're wanting paid so it's appropriate time I'll ask to uh add emergency language and wave the three read rule on that as well. Um, we also had a committee meeting earlier this evening had two items 26-031 and this is to repay funds from downtown redevelopment district number four to the county auditor. Um, these funds are funds that we just hold and this is uh the Adena bought the carile building and they're nonprofit. So they requested not to have to pay property taxes as a nonprofit. So, we owe them some of that money because they went back to a couple years when they did that. So, we have to make that payment back to the county auditor so they can uh get that money to Adena. So, the committee voted to move that forward. So, we should see that on the next agenda. And then 26-033 is a request to um money for traffic lights to finish up at Payton Fifth and Bridge and Sceni Road. Uh something that we started last year, but the money wasn't carried forward. So, we did vote to approve that as well and hopefully we'll see that on the next agenda as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Human Resources Committee, Miss Payne. Thank you, President Shoemaker. We do have one item on the agenda and it's item number seven. It's an ordinance accepting and adopting the updated Federal Transit Administration's Title Six program for the Chilikathy Transit System. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Parks and Recck Committee. Uh, Mr. Barnes.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have nothing on the agenda, but I would like to report that Malberry Street is now open. So, that's one street down and one big one to go. And, uh, so enjoy it. It looks amazing. So, try not to tear it up. And that's it. Thanks. So, you're suggesting you can actually get to the park. Well, uh, we've closed some other streets, but that's all right. We'll we'll work through all this. Um, next, safety service committee, Miss Preston.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. Safety services has one item on the agenda this evening. It's item number six. It's an ordinance appropriating $174,400 to fund one additional police officer and one additional firefighter for the remainder of fiscal year 2026 and declaring an emergency. And at the appropriate time, I'll ask to wave the three- read rule on this item. Uh, this was taken out of the budget and we are putting it back in. I would also like to announce a safety service committee meeting for May 18th at 6:30 p.m. here in council chambers. I did send an email about that, but I wanted to go ahead and public the announcement. And that is all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, utilities committee, Mr. McKver. Thank you, President Shoemaker. Utilities has nothing on the agenda for tonight. Uh we did have a committee meeting earlier on uh assignment 26030 for the transfer of funds from various obsolete sewer funds to uh sewer cash account. Uh the uh utilities committee voted to approve it and move it on to the law director's office for process. That concludes my report. Thank you. City services committee. Mr. McCquort.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. Uh we have nothing on the agenda tonight. I did have three uh city services meetings today. Um for assignment 26023 appropriation of funds to transit reserve fund. Uh 26029 appropriation of funds to the capital reserve fund for refugees and recycling. And 26035 appropriation of funds to replace fuel dispenser at station chocoly transit. All those were being moved forward to the agenda and that's all I have to report. Thank you. Thank you. Community affairs committee, Miss Bennett.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. We have one thing on the agenda tonight. Item number five. This is an ordinance supporting city community yard sales the weekend wavering the $5 fee for the participants and declaring this an emergency. And at the appropriate time, I'm going to try to wave the three read because this starts at the end of May and people are anxious. That's the end of my report. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now move uh to reports of uh city officials. I know Mayor Feny uh had hoped to be here, but he can't make it this evening. So, we will move to Auditor Spentel.

Um I do not have anything to report tonight. Uh next we'll move to the law director's office. Mr. Manasi.

Hi. Uh so from the law director's office uh we're busy working on a lot of different pieces of legislation. There's uh sounds like some of them are moving along here today. Uh but there's uh more to be done. U more we're uh working on and awaiting in some cases recommendations. We'll proceed accordingly at that time. uh say all three assistant law directors in the municipal court have uh busy dockets and preparation is key and that's what we're working on. That's all we have from the law director. Thank you. Thank you. Um next we'll move to audience participation. Any person wishing to address the council must first provide his or her name and address. Comments shall be limited to five minutes and I'll give you a warning when there is one minute remaining. All right, I think I got it all figured out over here. Not used to this. So, um, my name is Mike Throne. I'm president CEO of the Chilcathy Ross Chamber of Commerce, 45 East Main Street, also a Chilikathy resident, 68 me drive. Uh, I want to thank you for the opportunity to address you tonight. Um, as you know, I serve as the the president and CEO of the chamber with more than 700 members and uh those businesses have invested in our community uh on Bridge Street, downtown, Western Avenue, High Street, and in every quarter in our city. Uh, and I'm here today because many of them are hurting right now. And I know that you know this. Um, but I also believe that this council has the awareness and the will to help. Um the businesses operating across Chilikathy's construction corridors are facing a compounding set of challenges. Access barriers are reducing foot traffic. Perception problems. Customers that assume that businesses are closed or unreachable when they are not are spreading faster than the construction themselves. And revenue losses now are starting to

pile up. Double-digit losses for some businesses year-over-year. And that pushes our uh even most committed employers to make decisions that no one wants to see them make. And they're not abstract numbers. They're jobs, their families, uh their storefronts that give our community its character and its economic foundation. So the chamber is not waiting for the conditions to improve on their own. Uh we have developed Chilikathy Resilient which is a comprehensive citywide business initiative built around a campaign called bridge the gap. That premise is very straightforward. Shop here, eat here, stay here, invest in our businesses, invest in our future. We believe this to be a coordinated communitywide campaign to sustain uh foot traffic, stabilize our revenues, and strengthen the long-term business identity of our districts, not just through the construction period, but uh for every challenge that our community faces going forward. And I guess we've had a few of those lately, haven't we? Uh so our plan uh contains the following things. a coordinated digital and social media campaign featuring uh weakness weekly business spotlights rotating across every affected quarter. Uh monthly rotating district events from Bridge Street to other places that will help bring visitors and d uh residents directly into those business quarters hopefully creating a community habit not just a one-time mo moment. uh a business directory on our website uh where it can be a signal destination where consumers can find every participating business with directions, hours, and so on. Peer support cohorts so that way folks can uh feel like they're at least working with someone to get these things done. Uh direct resource navigation uh through our partners at the Southern Ohio Employer Resource Network, Economic

Development in downtown Chilikathy. Uh we're also actively engaging with funding partners including ECDI and OA OVRDC to uh establish a a direct relief fund for affected businesses. Um the chamber is committed to uh working this effort and we're already investing our own funds to do so, but we should not and and cannot carry it alone. So tonight I want council to consider three things. one, continue to keep the the effort moving to get improved and consistent temporary signage across all active construction zones that directs uh drivers and pedestrians clearly to the businesses that are open and ready to serve them. It's a lowcost, high impact step that can immediately change uh customer behavior. Second, um clear and regularly updated construction timelines for every project. Um this is information that our business owners can then share with their customers and that uh limits the uncertainty around the stress of getting places. And then uh the third one is one that I want to raise very respectfully because I know you're thoughtful about how you spend public resources. Um we would ask you to explore whether a capital investment in form of a business belief or stabilization fund is within reach. Uh we did this during COVID obviously uh $675,000 that the the chamber um administered for you and um you know we've seen this work before uh and cities that have faced this kind of construction disruption I think particularly uh Gross City and a couple other places have made that kind of investment and seen it returned many times over return retain jobs preserve tax base and businesses that are still standing when all the barrels are moved again. Uh we're not prescribing a mechanism or a dollar amount to that. We're just simply asking that you put it

on the table and give us a chance to work on what that could look like for Chilikathy. Um in closing, I'll say this. Chilikothy's bridge gaps before. We did it last year. Um it's not just marketing language. It's not just some thing that you say. It's the history of the city. You know, I said last year during the uh the runup to the closure of the paper mill that this place had survived fires and floods and economic downturns and all those all those things are are true. Um but the businesses around operating in these quarters right now have earned their place in this community. They've built something real and this community has every reason to show up for them. Construction ends. It's finite. The identity that we build around this moment does not have to. So if we exe execute this plan well together, Chilikathy will not just recover from this period of disruption. It will emerge stronger and with a better sense of who it is and a clearer commitment to the businesses and the people that make it worth living in. So we're ready to lead. We're asking you to sign stand alongside us. Um I have a a copy of our plan that I'll I'll distribute to all of you and I thank you for your time. Thanks.

Thank you. David White, 179 Church Street. Um, I would suggest that the council consider providing money to our schools as the failure of the recent levy is now going to lead to significant cuts with the the school district. I don't think we should be adding money to Chamber of Commerce coffers. I don't think we should be adding additional police and fire departments while we're cutting and making significant roll backs to the education of the children of the city of Chilikothy. I think that's where our priorities ought to lie. Thank

Good evening. My name's Heidi Carter. I live at 182 Legend Drive Coffee. Um, I just have a question for you guys or I need clarification. I need to know about downtown parking on south of uh Main Street. Um, if it's a reserved I just want clarification from you guys and I just wanted to put on the record. Thank you, ma'am. None of those parking spots along uh South Main Street are reserved for anybody. Five there.

Thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I My name is William Eric Hill. I live at 231233 North High Street. Um what you see there on that sheet is a representation fairly uh accurate to scale enough for purposes of the 200 block of High Street. I'm not going to waste any time trying to explain to anybody how bad all the traffic is everywhere. what Bridge Street, the closure of the 35 entrance off of virtually, I would say at this point 95% of the traffic coming south into the city is coming down our beloved High Street, one of the most beautiful streets in this city. Um, that's something we all have to deal with and it's just a consequence of progress in my opinion. But I'm here tonight to draw your attention to what I believe is a really serious and dangerous situation that needs to be studied, analyzed, and addressed. If you look at Chestnut Street in the bottom right corner there, if you're not really familiar with it, Chestnut Street is a staggered intersection. You can't go straight across High Street. You have to jog a little bit to the left there as as you make that jump. Um the alley marked B is the alley behind the residences there in the 200 block. Uh also Summer's Body Shop has their parking lot back there. The alley on the left goes all the way to Park Street. I have felt for years and still do even more so now that the intersection of High Street and Chestnut is probably one of the most dangerous and accidentprone

in the entire city. You have parking on one side. You have traffic coming at, shall we say, sometimes regularly over the posted speed limit coming in in both directions at it. It's a bad bad intersection. Chestnut Street narrows significantly as it crosses High Street. So folks, what's going on right now is that horrible, horrible intersection is now on steroids at certain times of the day. And unfortunately, people are doing number one illegal and number two really asinine things trying to get out of that traffic. Once you get past Mil Street and you're past that first alley on the left there, it becomes obvious, you can see all the way to Maine that you're stuck in traffic. And what's the quickest pressure relief valve that they can get to? Chestnut Street. People are passing into the northbound lane, going distances of 200 feet or better in the northbound lane to make a quick turn on Chestnut because they cannot wait that long to get to Chestnut Street. Turning from Chestnut going eastbound northbound onto High Street. You are taking your life in your hands. Twice. Twice already. I have turned left going northbound onto High Street from Chestnut and I've got somebody in my lane coming the wrong direction. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. Uh

folks, I'm not a traffic engineer and I don't even play one on television, but I know a real bad situation after 72 years of life when I see one and one that can be corrected in one way or another. I really think this intersection needs a hard hard look from city engineering. Now, the mark I placed there as A on the northwest corner of Chestnut, please. Just a simple big sign that says do not block intersection. You would think most people know that, but that's compounding the problem as well. Uh I and I'm I'm trying to get some action on this knowing full well that you may make decisions that negatively impact me timewise, convenience-wise. I don't care about that. I don't want anybody to get hurt and somebody is going to get seriously hurt. I was messaging with my council person, Mr. Barnes two weeks ago about the fact that I was planning to come in and the very next day what happens injury accident intersection Chestnut and 11:10 in the morning wasn't raining wasn't anything I mean people are still doing exactly what they're doing they're driving with their phone in their hands they're not paying attention now I I only have recommendations Like I say, I don't I don't know how to figure these things out. It's above me. But the alley and chestnut in question, especially the alley marked as B is the only way we can get our vehicles in and out of our garages. Back on the corner of the south end of that alley is a shed and a fence which means

you cannot see anything coming down Chestnut going eastbound trying to pull out of that alley. It's impossible. You got to get your vehicle out this far before you can even lean up and see. And folks, like I say, people are driving at a speed I can only call obscene down that narrow little street. The same thing with the alley. And if these folks don't know that that blind spot is there and they're not being cautious about it speedwise, I think some some serious bad things could happen. On that point, all I can recommend or suggest to you is consider the area bracketed in C the alley and chestnut street. Folks, we have speed bumps on Watt Street. I think at least temporarily through all this construction, a speed bump in the alley and in Chestnut to slow things down at the very least. Uh, I had even thought, well, maybe you need to close Chestnut off right there. Everybody that needs access would still have it. That's going to make a lot of people upset. And who who knows what other things that it might bollocks accept. U,

are there are there any um on that on the the eastern part of Chestnut, the the narrow part you're talking about, are there any I can't I think it goes directly into Yakangi Parkway. Is that correct? Where? No, sir. It goes to Park Street first. Oh. Oh, okay. So, stop. Right. So, are there any stop sign there aside from this 215? Are there any other residential um like homes or on that part of the street right there on on Chestnut? Uh on the opposite corner there is a business. I believe it's a tutoring. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.

They they have a parking lot right there. Uh or Mc Chestnut one way. So, or ban left turns off of southbound high. Folks, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. But honestly, somebody is going to get hurt if this doesn't get looked at and fixed. And I don't want it to be my sweetheart. I don't want it to be me. I don't want it to be any of the kids that go across that intersection constantly when especially when school gets out. Uh, and you know, when school does get out, we're also going to have more traffic on the roads with all the kids that'll be out driving. Um, there is,

as you can tell, as you can tell, I'm a bad timekeeper, but I wanted to let you get everything in, but uh, we will be talking with the administration. Oh, specifically about this, and I really appreciate the map because I think that's helpful to to try to explain that. and and you know a greater more frequent police cruiser presence would be thank you so much.

My name is Malcolm Stoki and I live at 384 Eastwater Street, Chilaki, Ohio. Bear with me. I wasn't planning to say anything tonight but then after hearing everybody else I wanted to first say thank you so much to Mr. Throne in the chamber. I was a little afraid of what the response was going to be and that is an incredibly wellthoughtout response. Um, as a mom who's had to struggle financially, I understand that the city's coffers are finite and everybody here is bringing up very legitimate concerns. The school, the construction zone. Mr. throne spoke to the business aspect of what's happening on Bridge Street, but I want to speak to the human aspect of it. I know waitresses that are having their hours cut because there's just not enough business and line cooks who are being sent home early and people are selling their plasma already in our community to make rent. It won't matter how much we fund the schools if the parents can't put food on the table. You guys are all individually, I'm sure, very invested in doing a great job. I'm sure of it. Um, I'm not here to criticize in any way, shape, or form. But I do want to say I I wonder why we're not getting ahead of things a little bit knowing that this construction's coming. Knowing that all these things are coming up, it's probably better to get ahead of them and start rolling out things like what the chamber did at the start of the construction. But who am I? I'm just a citizen. Wanted to point out the human aspect of it. Um I think that we can support the schools, the businesses, and support the workers at the same time, but we do need to start treating these issues as connected. Um because the people in

Chilikothy are living through them and they're experiencing all these things at once. Um so that's it. Just thank you guys for your thoughts and I just wanted to share the human aspect. Thank you.

Uh if there is no further audience participation, we'll move to old business. Is there any old business to come before the council? Uh two quick things I'm going to say is that our next meeting will be May 18th because of the upcoming holiday. So we've moved it up. So that means next week will be our uh meeting. And on the 19th, the the nonprofit funding committee will be meeting at 5:30, uh, in this location. Um, and so, um, we've sent out notice about that, uh, to everyone. But I did want to make those two announcements so everybody can check their schedules and calendars and make sure that they recognize, uh, that the, uh, meeting has been moved up one week for the council and, uh, the next night there will be the nonprofit funding committee that will be meeting. Is there any other old business come before councel? Hearing none, uh, I will now move to petitions and correspondence.

Thank you, President Shoemaker. I've not received anything.

Is there any new business to come before council? The only thing that I would mention is that the city um has put out uh a notice that does deal with some of the traffic around the uh park. Now, um uh you know uh Malbury is open, but uh uh there have been some closures around there. And so please take note that uh the city has put out information and tells exactly what's been closed, when, how long that's going to be. So I would uh just encourage everybody to try to keep up with those changes. And hearing no other new business, uh I would now move to uh the reading of ordinances and resolutions. Thank you, President Shoemaker. This evening, we have eight items on our agenda. Item number one is the third reading of an ordinance consenting to the proposal submitted by the Ohio Department of Transportation to resurface a portion of State Route 104 within the corporation limits of the city of Chilikothy establishing the city as a local public agency.

And the clerk will call the role. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dun, yes. Creed, yes. Ordinance is adopted. Uh, the next ordinance, item number two is the first reading of an ordinance accepting and appropriating $5,25.50 50 cents in program income from the Ohio Regional Development Corporation and for recording costs associated with release of mort mortgage. Mr. Creed,

President Shoemaker, I'd like to make a motion to add emergency language to this ordinance. Do you want to also add the waiver of the three read rule?

Second by Ms. campaign and the clerk will call the role relative to the addition of the emergency language and the waiver of the three read rule. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dunn, yes. Creed, yes. The ordinance is amended and the three read rule has been waved and the clerk will now call the role relative to the amended ordinance. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCort, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dun,

yes. Creed, yes. Ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance. Item number three is the first reading of an ordinance appropriating $10,200 to cover costs associated with the city's participation in the Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission 2026 local government internship program. Ordinance will move to the next agenda. The next resolution

item number four is the first reading of a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a partnership agreement by and between the city of Chilikothy and the Ross County Commissioners for the application and administration of the PY 2026 community housing impact and preservation program if funded and declaring an emergency. The resolution will move to the next agenda. Next ordinance item number five is the first reading of an ordinance supporting the city's community yard sale weekends and waving the applicable yard sale permit fee of $5 for participants and declaring an emergency. President Shoemaker, Miss Bennett, I'd like to make a motion we wave the three uh three readings.

Seconded by Mr. McCquart and the clerk will call the role relative to the waiver of the three read rule. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCquart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dunn, yes. Creed, yes. The three read rule is waved and clerk will now call the role relative to the ordinance. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston, yes. Dun, yes. Creed,

yes. The ordinance is uh ordinance is adopted and we'll now move to uh the next ordinance. Item number six is the first reading of an ordinance appropriating $174,400 to fund one additional police officer and one additional firefighter for the remainder of fiscal year 2026 and declaring an emergency. President Shoemaker, Miss Preston, like to make a motion at this time to wave the three read rule on this item. Second by Miss Bennett and the clerk will call the role relative to the waiver of the three read rule. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCquart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston,

yes. Dun, yes. Creed, yes. The three read rule is waved. Clerk will now call the role relative to the ordinance. Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver. Yes. Dement. Yes. Preston. Yes. Done. Yes. Creed. Yes. Ordinance is adopted. Next ordinance.

Item number seven is the first reading of an ordinance accepting and adopting the updated Federal Transit Administration Title 5 program for the Chilikothy Transit system. The um ordinance will move to the next agenda. The u final ordinance item number eight is the second reading of an ordinance making additional appropriations from unappropriated balances for current expenditures of the city of Chil city of Chilikothy Ohio for fiscal year 2026. Uh the ordinance will move to the next agenda and uh is there any other business come before councel this evening? Hearing none, I would accept a motion to adjurnn. Miss Bennett, second by Miss Dunn. Clerk will call the role.

Bennett, yes. Payne, yes. McCart, yes. Barnes, yes. McKver, yes. Dement, yes. Preston. Yes. Done. Yes. Creed. Yes. We are ajourned. Thank you so much.