City Council - Regular Meeting

67 p.m. Tonight's opening prayer, Pastor Post, will you lead us, please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for each person here who is concerned for our community.

We ask that you guide the leaders to make decisions that promote the common good that would benefit those who live and work in our city. Bless their efforts with insight, understanding, and wisdom. and help them act with integrity of character and conviction and to work to create a strong and healthy community. Finally, Lord, renew in them the strength of your presence and joy of helping to build a worthy community. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Sister, will you call the role? Fair. Present. Member or here. Member Wyrick here. Member Mini here. Member here. Member Pratt here. Member Stalker here. Seven present. Excellent. Can I get a motion to approve as presented the minutes from January 28th, 2026 committee of the whole and the city council meetings? That would be January 28th and February 9th. Motion to approve. Second. All in favor?

Post. Motion passes. Okay. At this time, council invites economic development specialist Trisha Oscar tag to present on the city of North Canton's upcoming America 250 celebration. Thank you. Okay.

First of all, thank you for having me. Um, as member Matheni said, my name is Trisha Aste. I have been with the city for three months, lots of time. Um, and in those three months, I have gotten to know so many of you. So, thank you very much. Um, it's been great to be a part of the North Ken community. Um, in my first few months, I have been working on marketing, economic development, and of course, planning our big America 250 event. So, I wanted to spend a little bit of time today kind of catching you guys up to let you know where we stand and and how things are running and and hopefully uh we can all work together towards creating this amazing event for our our city. So, actually, America 250 is a year-long event. As you know, we are a American 250 community uh that has been designated by the state of Ohio. So, we are actually taking advantage of that and we're doing events that are going to last all year long. So, we have some really fun things planned that I'll tell you about. So, first of all, on Friday, May 1st, we are going to have an America 250 gala. And that gala will be held um at Arrow Hut. And the big uh the big ticket moment is Thomas Jefferson, a Thomas Jefferson impersonator, will be our guest of honor, who will be uh will be mingling with everybody and having fun and and we're hoping uh especially Katherine's hoping you all dress in Revolutionary War attire, right?

What was that date again?

It's uh Friday, May 1st. Uh that'll be our our our big event. So that's going to be dinner, dancing at Arrowhead. Lots of fun. And we're hoping to raise some money, too. So, we are going to have some silent auction items uh for sale and a raffle and all that kind of fun stuff. But really what it's about is getting together and having some fun for um for the evening. So, tickets uh will go on sale for that March 2nd. And there will be the opportunity for individual tickets, VIP tickets, and tables uh that people can purchase for for that event. Uh July 3rd and 4th will be our big one. It'll be a big weekend for us. So on July 3rd, we will have a movie in the street which is sponsored by the North Kent Public Library and it will be Hamilton. So for if you do not know what Hamilton is, it is a huge musical um that has taken over kind of the world whether you like musicals or not. Um is a great fun overview of the founding days of country. Um and it is kind of swept the nation. It's very very popular. So, we will be showing that on the street at 900 p.m. on July 3rd. Then on July 4th, we will have the YMCA race that kicks off at 8:00, followed by the 10:30 JC's fourth July fourth parade. And then adding to that, we are going to be a community that offers a community picnic, which is something that the state of Ohio has been um asking communities to do. So, we are going to have a community picnic on the uh what do you guys I call it the Hoover Lawn. I'm not sure what you guys officially call that, but the the hooperon. Um, and we will have a fivepiece uh brass uh from the uh Canton Symphony Orchestra that'll be playing for an hour while we eat. So, people are going to be encouraged to bring their own chairs, blankets, and their own picnics. Um, just kind of a a group fun event um for people to enjoy. After that, at one

o'clock, MJ Albetti, who is the former director of the Camp Museum of Art and a local history enthusiast, um is going to present a shortened program about Lady Liberty and his experiences um studying Lady Liberty over the many years. So, we will shut everything down for a little bit while we get set up for the five o'clock festival. At five o'clock, mayor will read a pro proclamation uh regarding, you know, the the day and we will also be awarding um our art and writing contest winners. At that point, we are having an art and writing contest and the prompt is what makes you proud to be an American and we are going to uh be taking those from kids from I believe it's ages 8 to I say 8 to 18 I think something like that. Um, and we're going to allow the writing contest winners the opportunity, they don't have to, but their opportunity to read their essays. At that point, we will then have a DJ um that'll play um until uh 7 o'clock and then at 7 o'clock we will have a live band. The band is a it is a all ages, top 40, sing them, dance kind of fun. Um have a fun party in the streets. So, we are looking forward to that. Um during the festival we will have the opportunity for the American marketplace which will be local creators um to be selling things. Uh we will have a food uh area obviously food trucks and then we will have a children's area that children's area which is um sponsored by the library and Mission View uh church. So we are looking forward to that. Um then the big thing at 9:30 is the drone show. So, we are doing a drone show um that is uh has been contentious over this past couple of days. People are very very connected to fireworks um and are disappointed we're not doing fireworks. But may I say this, I really hope that they're wowed. Um because I think they will be. Um I think that um

there are a lot of reasons to do and not to do fireworks, but some of the main ones we we deal with here in making that decision was um the area to shoot it off where you guys used to shoot them off of the JC's. it's not there anymore. Um, also they create quite a bit of uh debris. Uh, we have to have a lot more uh safety forces in place to have those. Um, also all of the concerns surrounding animals and veterans and and so on and so forth. The drone show will be super exciting because not only will it be something different and fun, but we can also put our sponsors logos in the air at a certain place and above. So it gives us kind of an added incentive to get some of those bigger organizations, those bigger businesses to support us. So we are looking forward to that. Um, so that wraps up that weekend. September 16th at Civic, we are going to have the longer version of MJ Alvisadi's Lady Liberty presentation, which will be free and open to the public. And then we'll finish up with October 28th will be the first responders dinner, which is presented by the Patriot Project. um that will be here at Civic um and it will be free to all North Canton first responders um courtesy of the Patriot Project and then a ticketed event for any of the outside community that would like to attend including their families. So those are some of the events we have planned. The other kind of uh year-long things we have are Hoover High School is going to be helping us with a project of history videos uh that are going to be promoting the history of the city. uh and they're going to be working with the North Canton Heritage Society to uh to put that together. So, that'll be fun as well. I want to recognize the committee members who have been uh who have been helping me with this. Um they are former mayor Steve Wilder, um Christina Hayrick, Bill Macker here, um Matt Roarboff, Olivia Rush, MJ Albetti, Joe Chevro, Eric Smur, um the JC's, Raven from the North Kenton

Heritage Society, and then city members include myself, Katherine, um Jennifer, and mayor of course. So I want to also thank to date our sponsors who have who have come forward. They are the North Ken Public Library, Mission View, the North Canton Rotary, the Patriot Project, the North Ken Lions, Walsh University, North Ken Collision, Walters's Twin Tavern, and Ellsworth Auto Body and Avid Electric. Two weeks ago, I sent out 320 letters um to the entire database of the North King Chamber um with opportunities to sponsor and we got our first ones back today. So, I would guess that that's going to start hopefully flowing in because we really, really need the community support. As I always tell people, if we can make this work, we can make more things work because if we can prove to the community that we can raise the money to do things like this, we can continue to do things like this. But if this fails, that gives us the temperature of the community, right? So, we want to we want to do the best that we can to show that we can come together to to make this happen. I will mention the last thing which is you've probably seen all over Facebook. We are selling flags. Um they are the America 250 logo with North Ganton, Ohio. Um we are selling yard flags, pole flags, and then banners to go on the fronts of your houses. I kind of got that idea from the Hall of Fame when you know Hall of Fame week. You see those circles with the ribbons and everybody's got them all over town. I really think it would be very cool to have some kind of collective um moment for the city. drive all over over the city um during the summer and you see these everywhere as a kind of a collective community effort. So that is my presentation and I am open to any questions if you are interested if anybody has any

all this in three months impressive.

Well, so if you do not know my background, I ran Canton first Friday for 10 years. Um I ran it from year four to year 14. Um, so that was 10 years every single month of growing it from about a thousand people a month to about 12,000 people a month. So this is my background. This is what I love to do. Um, when Katherine and Jason um, it first Christina first interviewed me um, that was this America 250 project is what I really latched on to and what I was most looking forward to. So I think it's a it's a community building thing. It's an economic development building thing. It's a it's a great moment to showcase our city. I will also point out um Alliance is do from what I understand Alliance is doing a small fireworks show that night, but we are the only community in the county doing a festival thing that night. Um they other communities are doing July 3rd, July 2nd, July 5th. Um we are the only one that's going to be doing this. So I think it has a regional possibility. Um I will also point out I've applied for three grants um from some uh two from foundations and one from Vizacanton to be able to fund this as well. Also, um, we want to make this a regional. Super fun. It's super cool.

Very nice. Thank you. Looking forward to it.

Okay. Um, next on the agenda, we do not have anybody signed up to speak on items currently on the agenda. So, we will now move on to business. Old business. Resolution 052026, third reading. Liam, will you please read the title? A resolution to renew the depo depository agreement with Huntington National Bank as the primary depository for active interim and inactive deposits of city fund for a period of 5 years beginning March 1st, 2026 and ending February 28th, 2031.

Okay. Finance and property. Yeah. I um had a lengthy conversation with Gina today and I can tell you that this came up for approximately about three seconds and we determined nothing had changed on this. So, I've got nothing new unless something has come up since we talked earlier today. Okay. That's a great relationship with the local bank. All right. Can I get a motion to adopt the third reading of resolution 052026? Motion. Is there a second? Thank you. All in favor?

I post and that passes. Okay. On to new business. I need a motion to suspend council rule 23 to allow consideration of ordinance 07206 of committee report. Motion to suspend. I get a second. Second. All in favor?

I motion carries. Liam, will you please read the title of ordinance 07206? an ordinance authorizing the mayor of the city of North Canton to prepare an application for safe routes to school funds for the construction of sidewalks on the north side of 7th Street from Brier Avenue to Woodside Avenue and to submit the same to the Ohio Department of Transportation and declaring the same to be an emergency. Okay, this is streets Mr. for um the only reason why why does it have to be an emergency because of the the time?

Yeah, I can speak to that on the timing. So, a prerequisite to apply for this funding is to have what's called a safe routes to school travel plan in place. And so, the North Canton City Schools over the last couple months had put together uh with the help of a consultant a safe routes to school travel plan. that plan just wrapped up um just in the last week or two and so we needed that to be in place to know some details about this project and um the reason why it's uh timesensitive is the deadline to apply to ODOT for the grant is March 6. Okay. So administration have anything else they want to add?

Mr. Graham's here tonight you're all about

these are always exciting times. I know in previous meetings that I've watched on YouTube, Jason's explained this schools and and school plan they were putting together. Uh that is done. And as you know, we've looked at many times in the past that north side of Seventh Street. Obviously, there's this from from Brier to Woodside. We don't have sidewalk. It's missing. With the new middle school coming and with the schools changing their policy on busing, that just was a natural fit. And so the state has this program out there. They'll cover 100% of the costs engineering rightaway acquisition. Schools did the plan. So we thought, well, get in here and talk to you folks, get the the resolution tonight or the ordinance and get that thing in. Worst they can say is no. Any other questions for administration or Mr. B?

No. Okay. Is there a motion to adopt the first reading of ordinance 072026? I'll make that motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Carries. Now we need a motion to suspend the rules of council requiring three readings. Second. All in favor? I I opposed. That motion carries and I will make a motion to agop ordinance 07206 under suspension of rules. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor?

And that motion carries. Excellent. Okay. Now, we're going to move on to recognition of public for topics under city authority. Will you please read the preamble? At this time, members of the public who have signed up to address city council will be called to do so. Each speaker will be given five minutes. Speakers shall be called in the order they signed up. During this section, comment shall be limited to items reasonably under the city's authority. The rules for speaking and speaker time will appear on the screens. After you have finished speaking, please remain at the podium to answer questions from the officials of the day. Mr. Roarball, you have signed up. if you'll start your name and address for the reporter. What reporter did you set?

Matt Rob Street, Southwest.

I I was only going to pass um but I signed up just in case I had something to say and uh so but um Trisha, she took all the fireworks. I couldn't couldn't do any more advertising. 250. I am very proud to be on that committee though as well and thank you for the shout out to all everybody in the committee. Um yeah, I mean the first time I walked into a meeting and I thought we were going in there just as first to start discussing, hey, what do we want to do? And she gives us this whole packet of uh what was that like eight pages and this packet of here's what we do here, you know, or the ideas I have. What do you guys think? So yeah, she's blown out of the water. She is uh um hit the hit the uh hit Main Street running so the tornado in tornado in North Canton there cuz you know if she if she does the actual economic development uh as hard as she's hit this committee might actually see something on Main Street. I was telling them the last meeting we had uh was last Thursday. Uh you know that I haven't I've never hesitated to hold back my feelings to Catherine and Matt and former mayor and stuff on Main Street and how it looks currently with the thing. I mean not not to all the people that are there because I pay more attention even to some more more small businesses. I drove down tonight from uh Apple all the way down when I came back from somewhere. Anyway, while I still decide to go ahead and stand up here and talk, Mr. Graham, um I know it's been a long discussion for years, even uh former President Peters used to go on, he lives around the corner there from uh Seventh Street Hill about that sidewalk. And I used to even question people, you know, because they talked about, oh, you know, the uh ease vent or whatever and getting people's yards, but I always comment the width of Seventh Street, that portion from Woodside down to the bottom.

I'm hoping since you said just the north side, that it seems like it's wide enough. It's still going to be more than plenty wide enough to put the sidewalk actually in part of the street, not even really have to go into their yards. We really haven't gotten that far with detailed design. We had at one time I had looked at it. We've spoken with some of the neighbors. I think member Mtheini and President Matheni you have as well. We did a survey back years ago when I was in this building. A couple of residents were adamant there's no way we're not giving you right away. I think ideally, especially as part of a safe routes to school plan, they like separation of a devil strip from your back a curb, a grass strip,

and then a five foot sidewalk. This is this is Matt's time. So, we can get into Matt's time.

I just uh I tape measure, but in my my visual terms, it's substantially wider than most. And when you look at like Wise is the main road with the buses coming in the new sidewalk there. It seemed like even if you put a sidewalk just in the road without even going into the yards that it would still be plenty wide enough wider than wise. Which leads me then to this grant. How limiting is it going to be limited? I guess you still have to apply. So you don't know totally just Seventh Street because you look at us. So Dogwood being now the 10th since they just have the straight runaway of the kids out or the the cars out there with no stop sign from at Dogwood. That piece of Dogwood there down to what was that hole at the end there? They don't have a sidewalk either. They're almost as wide as Seventh Street. Is that something considered too? I know Seventh Street's always been the bigger discussion for years, but it made me think that close to the school. I mean, there's probably many schools. You can look at the Claremont area and uh Sutton, Brier, Weber, I think they are

and none of them are and you know they're right there. We had Claremont for years and we never had sidewalks. But and the thing that's unique about all those Seventh Street, Dogwood, Brier, Sutton, and Weber, they're exceptionally wider than most people's residential streets. So maybe something else to think of if there's if this grant doesn't cover like those areas, obviously seventh is the big main project. I don't want to take away from that. And you're the bomb. I mean, I've been here plenty of times with the the grants you get. So, that's fantastic. Um, so I hope that you can, you know, blow this out of the water. Um, we're definitely on a good streak with grants. What we get that uh that mine grant $3,000 biggest million

for three million. Three million. Yeah, I guess 3,000 two dump trucks. But so, um, awesome. I'm rambling, but uh the sidewalk thing I just uh wanted to also think I started thinking about like dogwood right there since especially with that lack of stop sign that seemed like that would almost be as much of a concern as the center street. Anything? Thank you, ma'am. And thanking on the 250 committee appreciate community involvement. Thank you. Okay, that moves us into department reports and we would like to start with the mayor.

All right. Um, speaking of Seventh Street, growing up there and now living there again, I'm very much looking forward to having the sidewalks. I know a lot of the residents around that area are also pretty thrilled about it. So, I'm very happy about that. And that program is it's an ongoing program. So they're they do a study of all the streets that they think can be uh of of need of that and then we can probably reapply year to year as long as they keep it funded. So cool.

Yeah, that'll be that'll be nice. Uh Trisha, thank you for all that you're doing. Um you're doing an awesome job and I'm very excited about America 250 and I hope all of you are too. uh did TomTod with let's see Paulie Christina who else did it is that it um we got to interact with the uh middle school students and uh they asked some some fun questions back and forth very sharp kids um I don't remember being that bright at that time but uh you know whatever it's uh they're they're sharp so no jokes shut your mouth it's uh and I'm looking forward to the mayor Cup uh this Saturday. That's where Malone and Walsh play and uh Walsh is going to win. Swords up.

Thank you, Miss Bina.

Thank you, President. Uh just going to say uh Saturday Rotary did a great job at the Tilly Open. I sat there with some fine people sitting around this day as we enjoyed a great Saturday morning and uh always appreciate all that the Rotary Northc Rotary does for the community. Um, yeah, it was it was a good event. Nice to have that up at Arrowhead. They did a great job, too. And, uh, you know, the civic organizations like Rotary and Lions and all the groups, they've been waiting for it, Trisha. They have been waiting. They There's so many great organizations and individuals and businesses, and they have always, you know, wanted to have one person, you know, that can kind of coordinate all of this. Um, so her title is community economic development. So she does the economic development. There's a big piece of community in there. And when you hear about like this first giant project that yes, we hired her and then we were like America 250 and like in six months, you know, can you get going? And uh, you know, she has just jumped right on that. And and that's what community is all about. And hearing all the great things that we already have planned and you know, we've always done, you know, a race and a parade, but this is just going to be so much more. And the drone show, you know, there's going to be naysayers. there always are. Um, but to all the reasons that she said, it was made the most sense for us to have and hey, we're having it, you know, and I think if nobody's ever seen it before, they're really going to enjoy it. Um, sure there could be some criticism. You know, there always is. We're always, you know, everybody's entitled to an opinion. That's what makes it a free wonderful country that we live in. Um, but she not only has done this, uh, you know, organization for the big America 250, but she does help a lot with economic development. Um, you know, we have something coming up here where we're looking to meet with someone uh that may be wanting to purchase something from the city and you know, real quickly asked Trish to put a quick hitter together of all the facts that might go away. They have that after our meeting and just the talent is like amazing. So, she's passionate about what

she does and you can see it. Passion comes through and then it just it's effortless and easy and you know just looks like you've been doing it all your life. We're lucky to to have you on our team, Trisha. And then our team's back to 100%. We have Kyra at the front desk now. So, we have two uh admin assistants answering the phones and they've been answering a lot lately. Um thank you to Mr. Norball for the you know pothole pothole. He's hearing a lot on his end. So, we said let's get it out reminding people of how to place a work order. You know, going online and just saying there's potholes isn't getting that to our attention. So, we did put a post out on that. That's to you and your team and the academy that we went to and how to create work orders that we all the city leadership.

We had homework to create work orders. So Jeff and Holly and myself and uh many others that uh yeah it's like get out to let the people know that they can uh report their bottles.

We're in the pre-stall cycle. So and now we're back to snow again. So but soon as the few warm days came out, everybody was noticing, you know, what was underneath. And and then the other question has been the park uh the playground over at Dogwood, I mean over at Price. As soon as it hit 60 degrees, everyone was like, "It's time to go play on the playground." not quite ready, you know, just a few safety issues. They do still um you know, want people to stay off and of course we can't, you know, make that if somebody jumps on the, you know, swings. That's okay. But they'll have official opening uh once the you know, weather gets a little nicer. We're looking at like the last week of March to officially open it. So,

think that's all I have then. I I'll be brief, but uh since this is Trisha's first city council night, I'll just uh rip on the theme a little bit more and you all picked up on it, but I just wanted to acknowledge her hard work and uh when we hire her, we really hope to bring our events up to the next level and I think we're we're going up a couple levels. It's really great to have her experience on the team. And um one thing I think a couple of you touched on and we're excited about all of this is, you know, events are necessary but not sufficient for having a a revitalized and vibrant Main Street. And so I do think the events and you know serving our residents here but also bringing people into the community it dovetales and ties into some of our other economic development efforts where we're thinking about small business and people who are here um every single day on Main Street. So I just wanted to let you know that is not being neglected either. the the events are definitely additive, but we're continuing to work with a lot of our community partners on um having a more economically vibrant main street. And that resurfacing that Rob got us money for, it didn't hurt either. So, that was good to see.

Beautiful street. Thank you, Miss Allen. Finance.

Well, finance is winding down as far as finance goes, but we're helping the departments get their budgets going because now we're in the end of February. So, they are off and running buying their equipment and building what they're building and all the things they were requesting in their budget cycles. Um, our audit has also started. So, we are now back into the three-year budget cycle. We are auditing last year. We are in the current year and we have already in finance started planning next year. So, we that's the goal in our world. Um, but we're we're going to start at looking at um utility rates. We'll be bringing those to you before break for the starting in the 2020.

Mr. Chair,

yeah, first I guess I'll address a couple of your questions, Mr. Ror on the safe routes to school plan. It's exactly what it is that schools did, safe routes to school. So they had many recommendations in there in the whole area and the one that we like the most because we talked about it in the past. We've been here eight and a half years now and it was one of the first things we looked at when I was first here and so we like that seventh street one but there's others that we can look at and then that program uh ODOT will fund up to a million dollars and 100% of all project costs if we were successful. Uh that's engineering design, rightway acquisition to buy the rightway and then of course the actual construction construction and engineering and but they like projects to be closer to the half million dollar mark. So rather than doing all seven, we really looked at that north side since that's where the school is.

But yeah, if we're successful, we'll look at other going forward and if we're not successful, we'll probably throw Sab Street back out, maybe get some feedback as to why we weren't funded. But yeah, it's a route. So yeah, there's plenty more projects that that that the consultant had recommended and things that you know, right now things are pretty tight with, you know, having done a paving program last few years. So this would be great if we could be successful in this this program for us. And speaking of paving, one thing I wanted to update you on because it wasn't in the budget this year, but you may recall three, four years ago, we got federal funds to repave Apple Street Northwest in fiscal 2027. And that's just from kind of between Janet and Pittsburgh at the Corp line to the west edge of North Main Street. won't go through the intersection. That was in fiscal 27. Uh scats last month, the Star County area transportation study that oversees the federal funds wondered if we could move that to 26. And I said, you know, as bad as this winter's been, I don't know if I can hold that together with enough duct tape for two years. So, yeah, we'll do.

And we've got the grant at 754,000, but 90% of the project cost up to 754,000. I don't think it's going to be that much, but in talking with Gina, we've gone ahead and moved it our share maybe 60 65 grand. So, we have actually had that project out to bid right now. We opened bids on Friday, March 6th, and we hope to get that done by mid July. That's the completion date. So, it wasn't in the budget, but county us allocates us. They'll take it from us and give it to someone else. So that's why we always have these projects that are basically shovel ready that we can move right in. Paving fits that perfectly.

We appreciate you keeping us keeping us on the front side of those projects. It's beneficial to all the residents. So thank you for what you do and what your team concludes my report. Any questions? Mr. Uh nothing major. Just the same old song and dance of still looking for a spring intern. Uh if you're thinking about it and haven't filled out that application yet, we are getting on a real compressed timeline for a 12-week internship. Uh I already have candidates for the summer. So you're going to be butting right up to it if you start now, but uh I'm willing to do a compressed format, too. Uh so if you're interested in internship, again, been told that I'm great to work for, but starting to doubt it now.

Other than that, no report. Thank you. Moving on to council reports. Mr. stalker. Will you go first tonight?

Oh, wow. Okay. Thank you. Great. I appreciate that. I was getting very used to being called last. Um, I wanted to uh I want to thank Trisha uh first uh for uh the amazing amount of work that you're already doing and have done uh for America 250 and all the other um things that are that are going to be forthcoming. So, thank you. Appreciate the report as well. Um, Matt, I want to thank you for for speaking up again. It's always nice to hear that. Um, no, it really is. I know that uh we don't always agree on everything. Uh, we'll just say, but I do appreciate the fact that you speak up and the civil discourse is is is outstanding. Um, actually very very quickly back to the July 4th the the drone show. I appreciate our community's willingness to innovate and look at something that I would call that is sensory inclusive. Uh as someone who has had a unfortunately had a family member suffered from PTSD, I appreciate that. And I also know that there are lots of children in the community that fireworks are not their friend. Yeah.

So I I love the fact that we are willing to innovate and take that chance. Um I did want to talk a little bit about for my report um uh well the fact that every two years um we as Americans we kind of turn our attention to the Olympic games and of course this year was no exception. Uh they the Olympics concluded yesterday uh with some rousing uh performances, but we we celebrated the the gold medal success of the women's and men's hockey team. Uh the gold medal of um Elena Meyers Taylor. Uh she's a 41-year-old supermom of two deaf boys, one of whom uh in other developmental challenges. Uh that was incredibly heartwarming to to see. But now that the Olympics are over, we're going to turn our attention to local athletes. And while both our girls and boys basketball teams are poised to make what hopefully is a very long run in the local tournament, um I'd like to highlight another group of athletes. Um these athletes don't compete on Friday nights at Memorial Stadium. uh nor do they play between the lines at Good Pasture Stadium or Dick Miller Field. Um in fact, some folks might not even consider them athletes at all. Uh I do. Uh they're academic athletes. Um the Northgate Hoover Speech and Debate team is a proud member of the Ohio High School Speech League and the National Speech and Debate Association. Their leader and head coach is Miss uh Missy Sturksaw. uh she oversees the entire program and the speech speech the uh components primarily and her debate coach is u a 2021 Hoover grad Clark Formanic. Um the prep for a speech and debate season can often begin in the summertime uh and

it is often done at the student and family expense. Um speech season itself generally begins in October and it runs through March. Um the commitment of these academic athletes is actually quite impressive. They go to tournaments just about every single Saturday uh for five months. Those Saturdays begin with oftentimes a pre-dawn bus ride to wherever. Um six to eight hours of intense competition and then your big thanks is another one or whatever hour ride home on on the school bus. Um, last weekend, Hoover High School was proud to host the Eastern Ohio District tournament uh with students from over 20 high schools participating. Um, and I am I'm happy to report that Hoover won the the team sweep stakes for uh that. And for those that are not very familiar with speech and debate tournaments, um, winning the overall sweep stakes is a little bit like a track and field team winning a an invitational tournament where everyone's performance adds up to a team total. So the result of the big district tournament which is what speeches call it and I'm a former speechy um what we call the big districts the result of that was in addition to Hoover winning 28 Hoover students have qualified to participate in the state tournament and four Hoover students have qualified for the national tournament. So, um I just wanted to take a minute to congratulate um the coaches and also these athlet academic athletes as I call them for an outstanding uh season so far. And obviously, uh with the the state tournament is coming up in March, the the national tournament is in June. And so, uh there's some some work yet to be done, but I wanted to congratulate them

on an outstanding season so far. And I wanted to wish all of our um athlete athletic athletes good luck in their tournaments as well. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Stalker. Mr. Pratt,

thanks. Yeah, real quick. Also, thanks. Uh yeah, sounded like a lot has already happened to everything and lots of moving pieces. Thanks a lot. Uh Matt, thanks for speaking. Uh Seventh Street's definitely busy. Uh I used to live over there myself and uh I know it's a busy cut through. Um a lot of traffic gets diverted that way towards Marquort. Um and then obviously all the side side streets there. Um uh so yeah, any any sidewalk by school in in my book would be welcome. Uh and $548,000 that we don't have to pay for is also a big plus. Uh the potholes. Uh I've called a few in or reported a few. Um it's just that time of year, uh Mid East Ohio. Uh uh send your request in or uh reach out to one of us. We'll be glad to forward it on. Um and uh you I I try to keep notes as I'm out and about uh so that uh you know, they don't get missed because not every road gets traveled as much as the others. So unless it gets crowded by someone that reports it, it goes unnoticed. Uh since the engineers here, I was just curious, uh do you know off the top what other streets were paving this year other than that part of Apple? Any like bigger ones that you can think of? We're paving Apple Grove and then we're reconstructing 9inth Street Northeast and Weber Northeast. That last Norman block of Weber.

Okay. It's part of a waterline project. We got a grant for that. And then also West Maple Street right here from Lindy Lane to Whipple. Uh the wise we're going to totally reconstruct it was about 900 foot water line. We got 800 and some thousand OPWC monies to help with that. And that's going to be complete replacement of the curb and gutter and the whole pavement. As you see, it's totally blown up out there. Nothing to salvage. And and then we work with Jackson, the partner on the grant. They're going to pave the section within Jackson Township between Wise and L.

Okay. Is part of it. And then the Ninth Street project, we also applied for PWC funds. did the ordinance supply last last fall and at first we didn't think we were successful in getting that grant then we found out we did 241,000 to help with that. So do that. That's actually been sold. Uh we actually sold the project thinking we didn't have the grants. The state came back and said, "No, you do have it. We have more money than we thought." But I had sold it just ninth street only because the water line's got to get fixed.

So our contractor agreed to hold their price until the grant's in effect after July 1st. and we'll do a change order later on for Weber since we have the grant to help with that. But yeah, the long answer to the short question is West Main 9 to fallac and the last block was all rep. Well, yeah, thanks for that. Uh I think streets are probably on everyone's mind. So it's nice to know that you know all the planning is in Thank you. That's all I have there. Thank you, Miss Kerunt.

Well, I'd like to thank the people who called in the potholes on my street um because they were all filled in this week. So, thank you. Um so, Trisha, yes, like everyone else, thank you for coming tonight and sharing what what's happening with the America 250. I think it sounds exciting. I know it's really hard in this town, especially um to get away from the the mindset of fireworks. I'm right there with those people. But this sounds tremendous and I I echo a lot of what Jeff just said about u meeting the needs of our citizens in new ways and I think that we're going to do that. So that's that's an excellent um effort there and thank you to the committee members here um who I might be listening um for your participation in that as well. Um thank you for our guests that are here tonight. Um thank you Matt for speaking. Um I'm going to talk about Tom Todd for a minute. So Matt, our mayor touched on that. Um, Tom Todd is a program that comes into our North Camp Middle School in the seventh grade. There's a statemandated curriculum. Um, and that course is called a wellness class that they take. It's a semester long. I think it started with the kids that are in my grade and and Mr. Mcccleester's kids. Um and so once a week, um Tom Todd comes in and works with these students and they have this packet they go through and they they work from like a a place. It's like a problem-solving um community- based um thought process of not not just how to improve upon your community, how to connect with your community, um and how to feel good about your community and how to like inherently bring out the kindness of students and have that impact the community. And so they spent some time preparing questions for various people in the community. Um, and so so Matt was there and Christina was there and I was there and um, it was it was crazy because you and I were in seventh grade together and I don't remember being that smart. They did have amazing questions. Um, and I wrote some of them down. Um, some of them were kind of silly like, you know, what's your favorite sport? They were breaking the ice. Um, one of them was, "What's the correct way to eat

a cupcake?" Um, and I didn't get that right. Um but then they they talked about my role when they were asking me what do you do for the city and how do you help your citizens? So that was really um unique way to ask those questions. And then um one kid even asked me specific he's obviously a fisher. He was like what if we used all the money from fishing licenses to fill our ponds and reservoirs. I was like wow this kid again seventh grade thinking this way right. Yeah. And then it really also was eye opening because seventh grade middle school in general is a really tough set of years for students more so than ever. And it really highlighted for me, I had people asking me, "Have you ever felt anxious or depressed?" Um, "Do you think we're doing enough to stop bullying? And do you think North Canon is safe?" And so I gave really earnest answers there. I said, "Yes, I have been anxious and depressed." And no, I think we can always do more to stop bullying. Um, and more importantly, yes, North Canton's very safe. They called upon recent events in the city. They are paying attention. And I pointed to how we respond to those with our safety services. um to give the example of how safe we are. So they were some tough cookies um smart thinkers. I think in the city we could learn a lot from them. I think if we ever had an opportunity to have some sort of a format couple times a year, invite some students in, you know, get some ideas on how they would like their city to look and feel. One kid said, "We need more street parties and look what we're doing for America 250." So um great opportunity. Um I hope they ask us again to do it because I will jump all over that. So thank you to them. Um, I'm gonna move over to safety services real quick. I think it was last week he published the annual report for 2025. There's some great stuff in there. Um, there's a link up on the city's website. Go check it out. Um, you know, it talks not just about statistics. Um, there's a great org chart there. So, people who have moved around, been promoted, that's all up to date. Um, I will highlight it called out three uh service milestones achieved last year. So, Sergeant Sean Bates 30 years of

service, officer Patrick Lewis with 10 years of service, and officer Nick Kakulis with five years of service. It also highlighted the recognition of our officer of the year, and that was officer Adam Canam. So, go check that out um and see all the great things our department's doing. And that leads me to the most important part of my report tonight. And so, I have a prepared statement. Most of you that know me know I don't read from prepared statements, but this one had to be written so I don't miss the good stuff. I would like to take a moment to recognize and honor the extraordinary career and service of officer Michael Folultz upon his recent retirement from the North Camp Police Department. Uh Officer Folultz is a 1978 graduate of Hoover High School and in 1982 he began his journey with the North Camp Police Department as a member of the auxiliary unit. He became a part-time officer in 1986 and joined the department full-time in 1992 and what followed was more than four decades of dedicated service to our community. And for for 15 years, Officer F served as the department's DARE officer. Uh he invested in the lives of our young people, built trust between law enforcement and the next generation. During that time, he founded North Canton's Great Camp, which I think, correct me if I'm right, is gang resistance education and training. Um an exial youth outreach program that has had a lasting and meaningful impact on our community. In addition to all of his work with the youth, officer Folult served as a negotiator with the special response team and took on some of the most complex and high pressure responsibilities, I'm sure, within the department. And just last October, uh, Officer Pulse demonstrated extraordinary bravery and commitment to public safety during the active shooter incident. And so for his actions that day, he was recently awarded both the Medal of Valor and a life-saving award. And those recognitions not only reflect upon courage, but you know, a deep and unwavering commitment uh to protecting others here in North Canton. When I reflect on what 40 years of service

truly means, um I I personally can say uh he was serving this community nearly 80% of my lifetime. Um Officer Fos has witnessed tremendous change in policing and in our community and in our world. Um he served under seven of the 12 police chiefs that have been in this community to lead North Canton Police Department since it was first formed in 1920. And to put things into further context, when he took uh when he first started his career, the city of North Canton had only been incorporated for 24 years and he has protected the city for much of its existence. And that is a remarkable legacy. Uh we also recognize that service like this is never carried alone. His wife and family have selflessly supported him through a career that undoubtedly brought moments of concern and sacrifice, I'm sure, and we're deeply grateful to them as well. So, in closing, I'll just say there's not enough words to fully convey impact the value of officer's service to his community. um as chair of the personnel and safety services committee and on behalf I'm sure as my council uh council members here um we extend our sincere grat gratitude to him wish him all the best as he uh enters a well-earned and welldeserved retirement

so congratulations to him and that's my report thank you moment for that that's a lot to absorb that is a lot isn't it impressive very impressive your work a couple things um Trisha thank you so much. Matt, thank you so much for being on that committee. We need more citizens like yourself and the ones who show up here. Um,

Bill, thank you. Sorry. Um, Katherine, thank you so much. Um, back last week when we were celebrating what seemed to be a little spring, I saw the street sweepers out for two days and they were they were up and down Main Street and some of the other roads and

that was much much needed. So, thank you so much on that. Um, I had a couple calls from cons some constituents this week regarding a stop sign, but I think we're going to get that taken care of. Um, you know how neighborhoods go where there's no children, then there's lots of children, no children. Oh, they're back to having about 10 children in this twob block area. So, I think by putting a couple signs up there, that'll solve that problem. Um, it's kind of interesting when we take some calls from our from our constituents what they think they know and what they really should know. And um I'd asked this one I go what's the speed limit on your road? Oh, I don't know. 354 miles an hour and you're calling me about speeders. Okay. I go, no, it's 25 to 30 at the most. they don't know and we really have to do a better job educating them and I don't know if it's uh we used to have I'm dating myself now being the oldest member on council we used to have civics class and stuff of that nature we learned a lot about our city and it's great that you know Holly and um Christina and mayor you guys go to these different events like at the middle school they spoke here I think last year or the year before and it was quite an interesting uh uh we learned a lot that night. So um that's about it and the road crews did another nice job today and over the weekend uh hopefully this will be the last that we get on Thursday and we can get into potholes. So thank you so much. That's my report.

Um I will start with Trisha. knew I was going to start with you. Um, I've been so impressed from day one. I just, as Katherine said, all the organizations in town have been waiting for someone in that role and it really took getting the right person. And so, I am endlessly impressed and happy and just excited to move forward and keep working with you. So, thank you for all of the things. I hope you feel really good when you leave here tonight. Um, and then I just wanted to touch on the safe routes to school. I think I'm excited about that for a number of reasons, and I know we don't have the funding, but hopefully hopefully it comes. Um, but that will help us to work even more toward completing our pedestrian square, which was part of our 2023 master plan. So, it's um that was wise to 7th to Maine to Maple. Um, and so Wise is already done. If we can get some of Seventh done with some grant funding, that would be fantastic. And, um, hopefully we can continue working on kind of beautifification and, um, just making that more of an active pedestrian square. So, I'm excited for that. And that is all I have.

Thank you. All right. I got a couple things I want to excuse me talk about tonight. Thank you for what you shared tonight. Yeah, I'm excited to see this drone show come to fruition. I'm let our friends up in that are going to be able to help us out. So, I for one excited about that.

Oh, perfect. We can talk later because I want to I I for a number of years of the JC's signed the paperwork for the fireworks here in North Canton and I was able to pass off my contact and didn't know that they actually had a drone show and they've always asked me to go up there and visit the facility. I think I took a checkup once but I never took a tour but Trish and I said we might go for a tour. So, Um there's that. Um hard to believe that next week is going to be March and that means that the uh W one uh 206 ward meeting that I'm going to have on uh the 12th at 5:30 is coming up. So if you're if you live in Ward one uh hopefully you'll uh come out and have a piece of pizza, maybe share some ideas and some thoughts. Um Liam, want to thank you very much and uh you know you've helped me uh with a few things. have uh some had some residents reach out. Um I also want to thank you when I asked you a question multiple times and you uh very cheerfully give me the answer. So I think I asked you the same question a couple years in a row. So I am going to give out this answer right here. So street lights uh if you have a street light that it's out in front of your house unless you live on Main Street, it is a high likelihood that the city does not own it. So, for the second or maybe even third time that Liam has shared with me, um the website, if you have a pen ready, is www.ap Ohio.com/outagesprolight and uh it's a place where you can go and submit your out street lights and uh get a to repair as opposed to the city. So, um, lastly, I just also wanted to talk touch on, uh, officer boats. I think Holly and I had a conversation. I'm like I figured that I was going to go first and I'd tee it up for her. Um, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything. So, um, I'm blessed to call officer Boltz a

uh, a good friend for the past she's 15 plus years. um friendships formed while serving uh the community and raising money at the JC fair, not unlike the friendship that I share with uh with my friend she come. Um so plenty of fun stories late night uh at the JC fair. Um but 40 years of service to this community. I mean it's it's hard to wrap your head around it and you know how you did a fantastic job really you know exemplifying the length of time that he's been here. Um, so I I for one I'm going to miss uh my conversations with him. He was my he is somebody I talked to uh regularly if I had questions about the police department and but I do remember one call in particular and it was after the the shooting on Apple and knowing that he was the officer that was in there. I called him. I gave him about a day or so and I I called and said, "Mike, you know, you're coming up on retirement here and by this point we're counting days, not months." And I said, "I just wanted him to take care of himself." I said, "I want to my primary goal is to get you to retirement." And so, I can happily say that uh on the 13th, I was able to be there for uh for his last call. And um I wish him nothing but happiness as he starts his retirement. and certainly say again, thank you for for your service to city.

Thank you very much.

So many wonderful comments tonight, so many wonderful speakers, so many different topics. I'm not going to go back through all of them again, just knowing that there are that many great things that are happening in our city. Sister Tag, we're looking forward to any and all updates that you have for this program and things that are going on. Uh Mr. Graham, again, thank you. There's too many and I'm going to miss somebody if I start listing them off, so I'm not going to. And that will conclude my report and we will move on to final call for new business. Seeing none, we are going to move into executive session. I'm going to make a motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing with an attorney for the public body concerning disputes body that are the subject of pending court action as permitted by OC121 22B3. Mr. Rock, can we get a roll call vote?

Member Perpaw. Yes. Oh, yeah. Second. Sorry. Second. Thank you. All right. Member Perpaw. Yes. Member Ore. Yes. Member Hyrick. Yes. Member Matheni. Yes. Member Mccle. Yes. Member Pratt. Yes. Member Stalker. Yes. Seven in favor. Zero opposed. Motion passes. At this time, council is in executive session. Let the record request council will be joined by directors of administration, director finance, director of law, and clerk of counsel and the mayor.

I will make a motion to adjourn executive session. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Let the record reflect no action was taken. Okay. Meeting calendar. March 2nd, we'll have a committee of the whole. March 9th will be a city council meeting. March 16th, committee of the whole. And March 23rd, city council, we have a full schedule. Do we have items? This going to be the question moving in the future. We'll see. But as of right now, that is our schedule. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? No