Council - Regular Meeting

It is 6:30. I'll call this meeting to Mary City Council to order. Roll call, please. B here. Lun here. Here. Fitzgerald here. Aqua here. Dylan here. All right. Please join Pastor D.

Our father in heaven, we uh again come to to you tonight just praying that you would be with us in this meeting tonight. be with the uh committee meeting committee members that uh the decisions would be based on what's best for this community. I pray for uh that that you'd be in the midst of this meeting that uh you be glorified and again father we thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Please join me 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.

All received a copy of the minutes from the last meeting. Are there any questions or comments from council? If not, may I have a motion to accept, please? Mr. L, Mr. Canon. I'll go to accessories. All yeses. Next other petitions communication. I'm going to go out of sequence here. May I have a motion to read resolution number 2026, please? Mr. Aquar, Mr. Fitzgerald, please. All yeses. Resolution of appreciation to James S. Chrisman. Whereas, this council wishes to express its appreciation to James S. Chrisman for his years of service to the city of St. Mary's. I'll therefore be resolved by the council of the city of St. Mary's, Ohio, that Jim Chrisman served as counselor for the third ward in the city of St. Mary's for four terms from January 2016 through February 9th, 2026. Jim served on various committees including the solid waste, streets and sidewalks, water, wastewater committees of council. He also served on the Alaz County Regional Planning Commission, the CDBG housing loan review committee, and as a member of the volunteer firefighter dependence board. Leadership and service to the committee all play an important role in the accomplishments of the city and our example for those who follow. This council hereby extends a sincere appreciations to James S. Chrisman for his dedication and his service as a member of council of city St. Mary's.

Thank you for your service. Thank you very much. I do want to say that uh I was very honored to represent third ward in the city of St. Mary's and is going to continue to make the best decisions possible for this community. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next on a good another good note we have the swearing in Miss Josie Slater as the new representative of board. Mr. raise your right hand. I, Josephine M. F. Slater. I, Josephine M. legislator do solemnly swear affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States

that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio and the Constitution of the State of Ohio that I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially that I will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of the office as discharge the duties of the office as council member council member for the city of St. Mary's for the city of St. Mary's state of Ohio state of Ohio during my continuence and said office

during my continuence and set office thankless Welcome.

Thank you very much. and say something. This is petitions communication and at this time this is the opportunity for people of council to address people in the audience to address council. Does anyone in the audience wish to address council at this time? Here's one. Yes, sir. Stand right there.

Okay. Just My name is Charlie Stein Burner and I live on 1414 Nagel Street in St. Mary's. And I have a couple questions on the solid waste rates and uh I'll get to them. I don't want to take everybody's time and I might have it. You might have to figure out some of this. Uh, can you tell me why the city operates its own system?

We we do it for our customer service. We provide all the utilities for the for the citizens. Our water, sewer, electric, and solid waste. Uh, uh, doesn't Salina and P water and all that do the same thing? I don't know about cold water. I think saline has I think they're privatized, but I don't know that for sure.

Yes, I know Sal is I talked to one of the council uh because uh Selena has a bag thing which we did have and I talked to one of the councilman and Selena's had the hards. He said at least 30 years cuz he's been sliding for 30 years and the hard's been it. And presently they pay $120 a bag. No flat fee, just 120 a bag for garbage. 120 per bag for recycling and 70 cents per bag for yard waste. and he said that uh Mahar does a great job they have for all the time he's been on console and everybody he's talked to uh before he moved to Sina and everything and he said he's never heard any uh complaints about them and I used to have I used to live on the south side of the lake by Montazuma and I also had my heart no problem. And he'd always send us little tag at uh first of year and all he said we pick up except for Christmas day. So they was there every every holiday and everything. Buddy also put underneath. We pay our employees double time on holiday. So uh can you tell me what what year the city started going in the red? Well, it's probably been three years, maybe.

Three years. Three years. Charlie, I I just wonder I I know what I've seen in the paper. It said that, you know, the auditor doesn't want to want you guys running in the red and everything, which uh I realized by state law, you can't right. I know. I was a township trustee for 25 years. Right. You don't do that. Uh why did the city go from the tag or the bag thing to uh the present system? It is safer for our employees. It was what? It's safer for our employees.

Safer for Okay, I'll go along to that. Uh the uh I guess the question I have is when if you was in the red like three years in that you didn't have enough money to buy this truck, did you? Part of us going into the red was buying the truck and the towers. Yes. Right. Okay. So and

do you don't you uh I I know I read in the paper that from 1999 till then you didn't uh take any money or foresee anything and didn't put money ahead and everything which I I don't know understand why they didn't do it because uh I used to be on the fire department too in Mazuma and whenever you uh uh needed new truck, he knew ahead of time he was going to need it. So he always, you know, 5 years or 6 years or 7 years before he was going to get it, you laid that money so when you went to get it, you wasn't going to pay the full price for it or you wasn't going to get it or something. And I can understand uh the system of why they why they got behind here and red and everything.

Well, it was the purchase of the truck. It was the purchase of the towers. It was also the lost revenue on the sale of tags. We usually generated about $250,000 a year in the sale of our tags. And so when we stopped doing that because the process took so long to implement, it just caught up with us.

Okay. So, uh, I also volunteered out at the St. Mary's Township on the recycling thing. I took care of the bins and everything for the trustees. And what I was wondering is if Son pays a $120 a bag and they can stay out of the red with my hearts, why couldn't the city of St. Mary's raise, let's say, raise the bag to uh $2, which is, you know, 100% increase. $2 and then recycle. You know, recycling was uh a major thing, but it seems like everybody forgot about it. But when I was out out there at the uh township and recycling, you couldn't believe the people from St. Mary's was going out there and getting rid of their stuff and everything. And they was doing it because they found out if you take your cans and your uh glass and your aluminum and everything, well, you don't have as much trash. So, you don't have to put the thing out every week. So, instead of paying uh $2, you or a dollar bag, you didn't have to do that. But if St. marriage did that and we put uh bins behind the is that the general services building. If we put bins behind there and we put uh recycling back there and then we took that stuff and if we could work with the city or the county Scott Cisco and those guys and and get some revenue from that, wouldn't that couldn't we uh just for a

year see what what that brought in and everything before I guess I I I I I understand you said for the safety, but when you're in the red, I don't I don't see why you go and, you know, buy a truck. Uh, and there's, you know, there's a bunch of people that asked me the same thing. When you go and buy that truck, they knew they was in going to be in the red and everything. I said, I don't know. I said, I'm going to go talk to you and find out. So, that's why I'm here. And uh my I guess my question is is there a possibility of asking these uh people to do studies what about uh Mahar's coming here if and I talked to Mahards I haven't got back to he hadn't got back to me yet but I I told whoever if I think his wife takes care of the secretary stuff I said uh I I don't know if if uh if Mr. Mahar could do it or not because I understand St. Mary's got a is it an ordinance or a amendment or whatever that you have to uh join their system of uh sewer sewer uh garbage disposal.

Yes. What you know you asked raised some interesting points. So, I was going to talk about this cuz I've been around here a long time and uh for many many years going way back is the I always say it's the unofficial town historian. Uh we did have private uh when I was a kid growing up we had private trash hauler. We used to have a city dump down there by the paper mill. It was horrible. And then the city bought the landfill out north in in Noble Township and but they still had private pickup. And then in the early 80s uh it was broke down. Uh the employees of the garbage hauler came to city council and I will credit many people have forgotten her. Wendella Andrews was a council person at that time uh got together and and said the city needs to enter into another enterprise and and collect garbage and have it as a city utility. So because of that, we bought trucks and we took over the landfill and then it's been a city utility ever since the early 80s. Uh the bank system was developed later, I think. I don't know what the cost was back then. Uh but the other thing that this fund became so healthy at a couple million dollars is the city engaged in litigation. myself and the law firm in Columbus sued the county commissioners because they were trying to uh uh not do their duties regarded as a landfill monitoring and we got $1.5 million uh into the landfill fund and for many years the fund was very healthy. So I guess for that reason rates weren't raised and then when we started buying we have these two recycling trucks plus all the uh totes that reduce that amount

and that's when it said we need to adjust the rates to uh take into account and then also provide for for future purchase of uh trucks. Uh you know we have four enterprise funds. When we say enterprise, each enterprise fund is a business and you run a business, you have to charge enough to pay for the services plus replacement. Uh if you look around the country, you know, the only enterprise fund we h have that's could not be done by private enterprise is probably the sewer plant, you know, but you go around the country, there's private water that serves cities, private trash, and private electric. Many years ago, there was a big argument we should sell the electric to date power and light. That didn't happen. So, we have we're kind of a unique community and we have four enterprise funds and each one has to stand on its own. And uh I think I don't know about or whatever, but I guess city has to make a decision if if it's going to be a city utility as an enterprise fund,

then we have to charge the rate to keep the fund healthy. I guess you could make a decision. I'm not advocating that. You say we're going to get out of the trash business and and uh turn it over to private enterprise. Same as selling the electric system, the date power and light, you know. But I think the advantage of having our own enterprise funds is that if you have a problem with your collection, you go right over here across the street or come to this building and it'll be solved right away without calling some company out of town. So, it's a decision we made over the years to have a a enterprise fund uh as a trash refuge. So, that's kind of answered a couple of your questions here. Yes, if you're in the city, you have to get your trash through the city.

Charlie, a lot of things I hear from people been here for a long time is service means more money than what you think it does. A lot of lot of people like this service because if you pick up they'll be back the same day to pick up your trash for whatever reason. You don't have that with other ones. Yeah. And our all of our utility funds are like that. Water, sewer, they all do that. Service means a lot. And I and I know a lot a lot of people more than probably 85% say service they're willing to pay a lot more because of service. service.

Well, there's a lot of people that don't care about service now. They worry about dollars. The dollar and especially senior citizens and you can see where they're coming from. Like Mrs. Yale or whoever here the last time here she is. And she had a good point. you know, she she's only got a half a bag or something and you know, and they're charging her full price now. Well, they're going to they're we're talking about senior citizen discount. Yeah, I've seen it. I don't know what that's going to be yet. I mean, as you know, we haven't got to right.

They We're going to have a senior discount. We talked about that last time. It's what the committee's recommending. What's that? It's what the committee's recommending. Yeah. Okay. I'll update that. Yeah. Just

so is there uh I guess is there a a possibility of I know you got the truck down, but is there a possibility of doing the going back with the bag thing and then recycling St. Mary's recycling on their own? No, we're not. We're not going back to the past system. This is what's best for our employees. It's safer. It reduces turnover. It has accomplished what we wanted it to accomplish. We still pick up recycling. Yeah, I know. I saw you. Okay.

We don't make any money off that. We actually lose money recycling. So, the county is losing money, too, right? We lose city of St. Mary's lose money in recycling. You're losing money because it's going out there. Sure it is. They told me I asked people, you know, I I learn everything, you know, and people in St. Mary said, "Well, I don't know why in the heck they don't have it in town." I don't either. But they come out there to take your cardboard out there. You know, when I when I was out there, there's one bin cardboard. You know how many they got there now? Four. Six.

Six or eight. They got two bins of glass. They're getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I'm just asking, you know, seeing all that and I know what you said. Is there any uh has there been any discussion on uh with the recycling thing is and I haven't talked hard yet, but I'm going to find out what a ton of this is, what a ton of that is. And right now, doesn't that does a garbage truck take her stuff over to Mars? So, like a transfer station? Yes, absolutely.

I don't know. I I guess I I got questions that I just, you know, I was I was township and you know, you got people come up to you and they ask you, "Well, you go find out." I I I got the dollars coming in and I know you're you're the dollar thing and the revenue is less than okay expenses. We lose money. But you really haven't went to where you have the bins and the stuff to really find out.

We don't. Is there a possibility that uh the solid waste committee that's going to that's been going over this? Have any any ideas on that? You brought up Mahar for the recycling. We we don't currently charge anything for recycling. No. And do away with those things and not clog up their their trash. If Mahar was doing he said it's a$120 a bag to get rid of your recycling. So that's added revenue that they have that we don't look at that. And then we have we have recycling. We have vend set up behind general services. Right. And we still do curbside recycling. Yeah.

But see, you just said something right there. They make a dollar charge a$120 and they make money on the recycling. Well, I'm just going off what you said tonight. So that's that's why

that they charge a dollar. That's why I called them to find out, you know, some of these things that if there's a possibility of of uh not charging somebody $28 a month or something, maybe it'd be, you know, more uh reasonable. $28. I mean, you know, there's people uh don't matter if you make uh $12,000 a year, get social security or you make uh 75 or 80,000. They're not happy with paying that $28. And the other thing is it happen every year you're going to charge 4.6%. You want to raise it 4.6 every year. But 4.6 6 there's nobody that's getting a you watch the rages in the even in I think yours is what 36 or something there's nobody making over 4% uh wages you know increase every year there's nobody social security this year we got 2.8 eight. So you're just going we just keep going this way instead of so you're you're making uh life more rough for people. what's on fixed incomes and I don't know I that's why I just uh had these questions that and I was wondering if there's you know uh any any thought about looking into this here and if there isn't uh I guess we'll have to see what people say.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anybody else wishing for this council you sir please? I have compassion for you people who are new on this console. It looks like to me the storekeeper since 1999 to 2025 left you a bag of nothing here to deal with. And I realize we're bankrupt. There's got to be a cause for it. And I hope if you get your raise in garbage, you keep a sharp eye on it so this doesn't happen again. It looks like it was mismanagement to me all the way. Should have been gradual increases periodically. And if you're in the red, you don't buy a half a million dollars worth of equipment and add to the red. If I did that in my house, I'd have been bankrupt years ago. But I do feel sorry for you younger guys that had nothing to do with the past 25 years. You got a serious situation to deal with and the gray bar in St. Mary's speaking about his senior discount. Aren't going to forget that. That's all. Good luck. Thank you, sir.

Thanks, Paul. Does anybody else wish to address council?

Nobody. Okay, moving on. We have reports from city officials. We have the audience. Any questions or comments from council? Next, we have the treasures report. Mel, I have no changes in my report. Any questions or comments from council? Next, we have the director of public service and safety report, Mr. Fox.

Uh, Mr. Harris, if I could, please, just a couple things to note. We are currently trying to work on some dates for the spring drop off that we started a couple years ago out of the wastewater plant where dumpsters are set up and residents can come in and get rid of their unw unwanted items. So, as soon as we establish those dates, we'll get it out to everybody. Uh, we'll do a news release so that the public knows as well. And then our next council meeting, the mayor will be presenting his annual report to council. Other than that, I'll be glad to answer any questions anyone has. Any questions or comments from council? Mr. J.

That one, Greg. It's just probably just a correction. Um, but for under Mike's development county number nine, since we didn't meet, we need we need to delete that off of there. I see. Just a minute. other than that. Okay. Anybody else? Excuse me. Um, engineering number seven. I don't know if you can speak on that at all. Maybe you talk about it in the past, but uh,

Mr. Noble could talk about the water wheel. Yeah. Oh. Jeez. Um, we uh I guess it was more from was that included in the like is that additional cost on top of whatever else is going on or is that No.

Okay. We've been uh working on putting the water wheel back where the original mill. The water wheel was uh at the north at side of the mill. They discovered the slle that ran from the feeder to the m to the water wheel down in the canal. So we've Dan Bennett who is a used to work for the county for many years was has been working with Craig Boulder and trying to design a wheel that would be proper and reflect what was there originally as a historic item. Um, so it's not really that big a wheel because the wheel has to it's a top flowing wheel and if you do the uh math it probably only be about 25 ft in diameter and that's just the physics of water can't run uphill. So, you know, we know what the level of the mill race is and we've there's a ledge there where we the old slle was and the mill water wheel hopefully will be

constructed there. Uh we're still working on cost. There's been no money uh for the wheel. Uh I've kind of uh taken it upon myself as down the road to raise the money. it would be more private donations um through uh we might also ask for some uh state money which we got for the current project a small amount uh in the past city workers have built several items. The city built the canal boat, city built the bridge down here that was all done through city labor and donated labor. So that would be a uh public private project, but we would not really be looking for much in the way of city funds uh to do that. If you think um this would be a real historic area, I just actually was in linement today doing some research and found a neat book on waterhe. There are very few mills in Ohio that actually have a a water wheel to show. The water wheel was there originally. It later in about 1910 was converted to a turbine system and the wheel was removed. So this would be the way it was back in the 1840s which is the same footprint the mill has now. But it's still a work in progress. We need to develop Mr. Bennett's working on designing the wheel. You know what type of material would be involved? Uh maybe we'll get some donated that would labor uh fundraising and um possibly is capital ask in the state maybe small amount $50,000 something like that. Uh but that's yet to be determined. So still a work in progress.

We we think there's some educational value to it as well. We've talked about that what the wheel will generate. So

that was the first real business in St. Mary. First industry water wheels were a lot of them. There's one down by Greenville, but that's not there. There aren't many in the state. We would have one of the few in existence. It was up for um number two, you just have an update. When was that anticipated to go as the finalized? Um it will not bid I believe until what stage are they in?

What stage? Well, they're calling it stage three, but it's it's it's phase four of our project. So, it'll be from from the bridge all the way to the intersection at uh main to include the intersection. So, um Mike, you can help me. I always forget the bid date on it. I think it's next year. Yeah, it's it's no time soon, so we have a while.

Any other questions or comments from council? Charlie. Charlie. Sir, uh, as Mr. Fox said, we're getting ready for the spring off. This is where they take big hoppers, open dot hoppers, take them off to the solid waste plant. You go in, show them your your bill, proving that you're drop off what you want to drop off. So in the fall we have a fall pickup

and where you set it out on the curb and they'll come around and pick it up. That's at no cost, no additional cost to the citizens of St. Mary's, but our solid waste fund has to pay for that. There's no hazardous waste though. no hazardous waste but that those are some of the services that we provide that the heart does not

not without feed on my notes and I as add one thing I didn't ask or say is when I talked to gentleman from uh Salina that $120 was a bag there was no flat fee on top of that that they goes on your no5 service fee plus you buy the bags. They buy the bags. There's no $9.95 a month service fee. So, you know, on ours you got $9.95 or we were paying $9.95 then you was paying uh a dollar for each bag you got.

Yes. So Senos has got120 and that's it. And I'll bet you dollars to donuts if you can find a bag that was made 30 years ago and compare it against the bags made today, the bags made today are going to be smaller. That's what my mother went. My late mother went to Okay. They just I'm I'm just trying to explain to you. I I understand what you're saying, sir. Okay. Okay. Next on the list, we have reports of city committees to city council. We have saw ways, Mr. Gillow.

So, the committee met last Tuesday. Um, uh, we went over the numbers again and we came to a recommendation. Um, and then our our recommended our recommended rates were for for residents, $28 a month, $3.50 50 cents for an extra card for each extra cart. Um the senior rate, which would be 65 years or older, would be $20. Uh non-residents, the monthly rate would be $31. And then commercial rates would be increased at $225 across the board, which matches the inflation rate since 1999 to bring it up to 2026. Um, on top of that, we we chose not to increase the rates for the rest of 2026 and the calendar year of 2027. Um, that allows us a good year, year and a half's worth of data. And the plan is to re-evaluate at the end of 2027 now that we have accurate data or updated data um to see where we're at and and modify from there. It could be higher, could be lower. Um if we have the ability to go lower with, you know, newer data, I wouldn't see why not. Um but and that also takes into account uh leasing a rear loader truck over the next three years as well. So it also takes into account um that purchase and starting in June, assuming it would pass and begin June, the account from then going forward would stay green or in the positive. Um and then then on top of that, I mean

recommendation for the auditor and administration just be, you know, as accurate as we keep the numbers. Um, I don't know how it's currently broken down. We can re-evaluate. If there's a more detailed way maybe to look at some stuff that could help us at the end of 2027, um, you know, be a little bit more precise, you know, based on the numbers. Um, we can look at that as well.

Okay. Any questions or comments from council? I have something is the office will have to draft this and I don't want to say yay or nay on this but I the senior rate um that could be a slippery slope

that down the road is it going to be permanent you ever going to get rid of it and that would be an issue but how do you administer this so uh utility office is going to have to have some proof of age. You do get a break in your taxes for senior citizens, but it's income related. So, if you want a homestead exemption, you have to go to the otter's office to show your income in that. So, what about I I just I'm trying to think and I see a lot of different scenarios working with clients in this. So, you I understand what the head of the household whether it be the man or woman to be the age. So, say you have a 65 year old married to a 60 year old. So they get the senior rate I guess. Is that right?

I think we discussed whoever's name was already told to go. So okay, here's a s example. Somebody's 65. Next year they die and the widow is 61. So we get a letter from the city. Sorry for your loss. Your trash rate just went up $8 a month. I mean that would have to be monitored, right? How would you handle that? And those are logistics that we're we're trying to work through.

Yeah. it. I mean, you think through that or say the family that has a younger son where there's a lot of families now that have younger people living in the household who are employed, you know, they generate one trash bill. So, they get the senior rate even though they have somebody living with them who's employed. And then seniors, there's many senior, not all seniors are in the same boat. We have Mrs. Yale here who's on a fixed income, but we have a lot of seniors who in St. get married to go to Florida for 3 or 4 months. They do not pay when they're gone. They can get a a vacation rate and they don't pay any trash for that time they're in Florida. So, is that fair? I don't know. I'm just throwing these questions out. When you get the senior rate, you're going to have a lot of issues down the road and they're going to leave it up to the administration to monitor that to make sure are they still qualified? You know, that type of thing. and you're it's you're going to it's going to be difficult to say this isn't working, we're going to get rid of it. Then there'll be probably a lot more people in here uh protesting. I just throw that out there.

Well, they're good points, Mr. Nolan, because the consulting firms, neither one of them recommended the senior rate just for those reasons. It's very it's hard to administer and it could have some consequences that you're not going to want to hear. Plus, it reduces the revenue of the of the the fund. You What we mean what percentage is say say the percentage is 15 20%. Of how many customers are over 65 you might as well just reduce that amount. That's what you lose revenue. You don't really lose it. You're balancing the numbers to make

you lose it. You lose it. How do you gain that back? the residents are a little higher. You have to raise a lot higher for that. Well, that's what these numbers show. It's not 28. One thing I would also recommend um to help with that um maybe reach out to pick and pick their brains on the senior rate something logistics questions. Yeah.

Yeah. We're developing a plan for it because it'll it'll be a little little dicey to get it done. Okay. Are there any other questions or comments for council?

Okay. Moving beyond the readings of ordinances and resolutions. We have no third readings. Under second readings 2601 and Mr. Fox has requested that this be read under suspension of rules. Am I correct? That's correct. Yes, we wanted to pass it last meeting. We have enough folks. Uh the land application starts in March. We'd like to get with PC cats and get this done. Okay. Any questions or comments from council?

I know, Mr. Mayor. We're putting you on the on the spot here, but if that's uh the case, we have a request to suspend the rules. What is council's wishes? Mr. Fitzgerald.

I'll make a motion to suspend the rules of ordinance 202601. Motion to suspend by Mr. Fitzgerald, second by Mr. Gillan. Council vote to suspend, please. Oh. Yes. Is that being the case, may I have a motion to thank Mr. Gillan, Mr. Aero pass, please? All yeses. Thank you. Next we have ordinance 202602 ordinance authorizing the contract for the restoration of municipal swim leisure slide and play station structure to elect the taking of bids. U that's another one you've asked for.

Yes sir. Any questions or comments for council? If not, we have a request to suspend the rules on this council's wishes. Mr. Luns, make a motion to suspend the rules on ordinance 2026.

Motion to suspend by Mr. Luns, second by Mr. Buff. Council vote to suspend, please. All yes. That being the case, may I have a motion to pass? Mr. Aquarero, council vote. Pass, please. All yeses. Thank you. That concludes all the readings. We have no new legislation under scheduling miscellaneous business and closing. No, sir.

Is there anything else to come before council sidewalks resched? Ah, yes. Sidewalk sidewalk meeting. What's it for? The golf carts. We had stopped it last week because two of the members were gone. Mr. Aqua was the chair. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. We had to cancel it because we didn't have enough. Correct. Yeah.

Um I'm available to 16

March 16th 5:15 March 16th 5:15 at March 15th 16th I'm got that down. Anything else come before council?

Motion to adjurnn. Motion to motion. Second miss to adjurnn, please. Oh yes, we're done. Thank you.