City Council - Regular Meeting

It is Tuesday, September 15th, and we are going to call the meeting to order. Teresa, would you like to call roll?

Mayor Tiffany Hollis. Here. Ryan Green. Here. Donnie Barnard. Here. Matthew Huggins. Here. Kyle Cook. Here. Jeff Barr. Present. Nicole Shook. Here.

If everyone would stand for tonight's invocation. Ms. Shook, do you want to do that for us?

Thank you. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together tonight for the community we are blessed to call home. In recent weeks, we have been reminded just how deeply people care about the future of Johnstown. Even when we disagree about what the future should look like, may we recognize the good in people becoming engaged, asking questions, having conversations, and wanting their voices to be heard. Let this be a time that brings our community closer rather than pulls us apart. Remind us that we are neighbors first and that different opinions do not have to make us adversaries. Give those of us entrusted to lead the wisdom to listen, the humility to learn, and the courage to make thoughtful decisions to both the people who call Johnstown home, sorry, and the generations that will call it home tomorrow. May we move forward with grace, respect, and shared love for this community. Amen.

First item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Would anyone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Next, we have a presentation by the Licking County Humane Society. Thank you. Yep, podium.

Good evening, Mayor Hollis and members of Johnstown City Council. My name is Jane Tomsic and I am the new executive director for the Licking County Humane Society. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here tonight. I'm here to discuss our humane agent services agreement with the city of Johnstown and to respectfully request an adjustment to the city's monthly contribution beginning January 1st of 2027. LCHS has a long standing relationship with the city of Johnstown and we value the opportunity to provide humane agent services to the community. Our humane agents play an important role in responding to animal welfare concerns within the city. This includes investigating complaints involving animal cruelty or neglect, responding to situations involving animals in distress, and assisting with animals that require intervention or removal. When an animal is seized or otherwise comes into our care as a result of one of these cases, LCHS also assumes responsibility for that animal's care. That means providing housing, food, enrichment, veterinary care, medical procedures, vaccines, and other necessary care while that animal is in our custody. Over the past several years, the cost of providing these services has significantly increased. Today, the average cost of caring for a seized animal is more than $500 per animal. I want to emphasize that this figure represents the cost of caring for the animal itself. It does not include staffing costs associated with our two full-time humane agents. The city's current Memorandum of Understanding, which was last signed in the year 2020, provides LCHS with $100 per month or $1,200 annually for these services. I also want to put that amount into the context of Ohio law. Ohio Revised Code Section 1717.07 establishes minimum compensation for Humane Society agents, which went into effect March 31st of 2021. For a city, the statutory minimum was established at $125 per month, with the statute providing for a $5 increase beginning January 1st, 2020, and another $5 increase every five years thereafter. I do have a copy of that statute if any of you would like to see that. That means the statutory minimum for the city of Johnstown. $130 PER MONTH. OUR CURRENT AGREEMENT PROVIDES $100 PER MONTH, WHICH IS BELOW THAT STATUTORY MINIMUM. WE ARE ASKING THE CITY TO INCREASE ITS CONTRIBUTION TO $200 PER MONTH BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2027. THAT WOULD BE AN INCREASE OF $100 PER MONTH, OR $1200 A YEAR, BRINGING THE CITY'S TOTAL ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION TO OUR HUMAN AGENT SERVICES TO $2400. We believe that this is a reasonable adjustment that better reflects the actual cost of providing these services while continuing to give the city access to trained humane agents and the infrastructure necessary to care for animals involved in these cases. We also recognize that the city has many competing priorities and responsibilities and our request is not intended to place an unreasonable burden on the city's budget. At the same time, LCHS is absorbing significant costs associated with providing the service, particularly when animals require intervention and ongoing care. Our goal is to maintain a strong and sustainable partnership with the City of Johnstown. When a resident has an animal welfare concern, we want to make sure that there is a qualified professional available to respond. And when an animal needs our care, we want to make sure we have the resources to provide that care appropriately. We appreciate the City's partnership and the support Johnstown has provided LCHS. As the new Executive Director, I am committed to strengthening our relationships with the communities we serve and making sure our agreements are sustainable for both the municipalities we partner with and the Humane Society. So tonight, I am respectfully asking City Council to approve this increase to ensure that LCHS can continue to sustainably provide humane agent services to the City of Johnstown. Thank you for your time and for your partnership with the Lincoln County Humane Society, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Teresa also asked me to kind of give examples of some calls that we've received. So in 2025, just some examples of what we've received in Johnstown. So we had one call of an owner yanking the dog off leash by the ground and hanging it basically. So we did respond to that. We had some kittens found by a dumpster. We had a dog living in a trailer with some cats with no air conditioning and had been suffering. We also responded to a case where a woman had 30 cats and needed to rehome those cats and needed help with that. So nobody needs 30 cats. We also responded to a case of goats in distress. So we are helping with those farm animals as well. And then another example is just when we responded to an apartment where a tenant moved out and abandoned their two cats. So we were able to take those cats into our custody. Yeah. Happy to answer any questions you might have for me.

That answered a lot of my questions. I was going to ask about the cat colonies. There's a few neighborhoods that have quite a few.

Yes. We are actually looking at providing TNR services coming up in the new year as well. So there will be opportunities for that as well. Spay-neuter and trap-neuter release is what TNR stands for. I'm sorry.

So the statutory dollars compared to what you're requesting, I'm assuming other... is it just cities, or is it, for example, Village of Alexandria also pay this fee, or is it just cities in Licking County?

Yes, so we are asking all of our municipal partners to make an increase. There is a, it depends on, so for, I'll pull it out, so for Village, It's not less than $25. City, $125. It's not less than that. And then for the county, not less than $150. And so there are municipalities. It just depends on the call volume and how much we're servicing that community is what we're basing our increases on.

Appropriate formulation across the size of municipalities and villages based on population, not just that. we're a city of X and another city is X that we're paying the same fee?

So it's, according to the code, if it's a village, a city, or a county, it's dependent on that. However, the increases that we are asking for our partners across the board are dependent on the amount of call volumes that we've received during our contract tenure.

So, for example, city of Zanesville, city of Newark would pay more than a city of South Zanesville or Johnstown.

Correct, because their volume is much higher. That is correct.

Well, we had five confiscations last year, which would, if you said a minimum of $500 for taking those animals in with treatment, that's just a minimum, the $500. Correct. That's $2,500, right, that you spent just the five that you took?

Yes, ma'am.

Does anyone else have any questions for her?

No, I know this past year we've worked with the organization to do, I think, free spade and neutering and some other welfare programs here with you. So we'd like to continue to do that if we can.

We would absolutely be very much willing to do something like that.

It gave opportunity to people who can't afford some of the basic care for their animals to be able to bring them and take care of them.

Yes, we absolutely want to make sure that we're keeping pets in homes with the people who love them.

Thank you so much. Thanks for coming in.

Thank you all for your time.

Next we have an Eagle Scout presentation.

Yes, today we have Eagle Scout Jonathan Grable. You can come up here to the podium. Him and his mom contacted me to talk about a project at the dog park. The dog park right now, if no one's familiar with it, Jonathan has a dog park. It's quite large. But we have a lot of... Lawn chairs there for people to sit in. And those get torn up. They get moved around. And so one of the projects he talked about, we're building some chairs and more seating for people so that we can get rid of those chairs and it'll look nicer. So Jonathan?

Yeah. Good evening. My name is Jonathan Grable. I am part of Troop 25 based here in Johnstown. I'm currently working towards my Eagle Scout. So to be able to obtain my Eagle Scout, I actually have to do an Eagle Scout project. to get it because that's basically you're trying to give back to your community. So also doing these community projects also shows you your leadership planning and learn throughout my journey as a scout. So, like, over time, a scout, you're basically – Learning how to show leadership also helps you further in life, I guess you could say, in leadership. So this brings me to what I'm wanting to do for our community. So I've talked to Mr. Bernard, and we have noticed that our local dog park has a need for new chairs to sit in. The majority of the chairs in our local dog park are like the patio furniture. So over time, like I guess during the winter and stuff, those materials are made of fibers, and they slowly rot away, and I guess you could say deteriorate. So they break really easily. So first, I would like to propose to build two Adirondack chairs. If you look, I believe, at page three, that's what the Adirondack chairs will look like. And if you look at the... I think the second page on the top, that's where those chairs will most likely be placed. So those will be made out of treated wood, and I was going to build them out of two-inch thick pieces of wood, so two-by-fours instead of one-by-fours, because on the blueprints, I didn't print them out fully, but they suggest doing one inch. I'm doing two inches so they can last longer and provide more sturdiness over the years of being placed there. Also, I would be putting hooks on, like utility hooks on the back of them so people can actually place their items so they don't get wet or anything. Also, I'll be putting a bucket on one of those chairs and putting dog toy balls inside of them so they actually can play with the dog balls if they want. That's a great idea. Yeah, I'll be drilling holes on the bottom of those buckets as well so water can actually drain out of them. And I'll be using the rubber ones. I guess, do you know the chuck it balls? Yeah, I'll be using those ones because I guess regular tennis balls can mold, and it's probably better to use those rubber ones. So on page four, I have a bench that wraps around a tree. And also on that page with the dog park, the second page, there's that bottom picture has a tree on it. I'm going to try to, Mr. Bernard and me, we're talking and we brought up to your attention that lots of people like sitting under that tree when it's hot out because it causes shade. So we've came up with an idea of building a wraparound bench so you can sit under the tree and it will cause you to have, you can have shade, but also we'll be putting gravel below it so it can cause it to be sturdier and it levels the ground for the bench to sit so it's a lot sturdier. So overall, I'm asking for full permission to build these items so I can proceed to get my Eagle Scout project done. I can get my Eagle Scout. So thank you for your time, and if you have any questions.

I think you thought of everything.

Yeah, you've got it pretty well covered. Yeah, I'm very impressed.

So this will not cost the city any. We're going to raise some funds for them to get the wood and stuff to build this, but this will cost the city nothing just to be able to do this. Thank you.

Love it.

Jeff, can I make a couple suggestions from experiences? Number one, get away from the treated wood and find recycled plastic materials that you can at Home Depot, Menards, et cetera. It will definitely last longer because, as we know, that area floods. And even though it's treated wood, recycled plastic will last much longer. And in doing so, don't buy wood screws or deck screws. Get stainless steel screws so that they last longer as well, too. It'll add a little more to the budget, but if you're fundraising, it sounds like it's not that much more expensive to upgrade those two building materials so that the project will last even longer.

Actually, I've actually gone through that, and I guess... interject, but I've went through it. For one chair, it's about $500 for one of those. If I'm building two of them, on the back page it actually has an estimate of how much it will be cost in total. So one chair would actually almost cost the entire project. So I thought of it, but also the wraparound bench, they don't really make things for those. And I've also researched the plastic, like regular boards you can buy. They only make decking versions of it. They don't actually make full-sized planks. So it's one of those things you actually have to get customly built.

I'll try to put you in touch with the people that supply. You're going to build these, right? Yeah. That's awesome.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah, good job. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Here's your form.

Thank you so much. I'm very proud of it. Great job. I look forward to seeing you again.

Next, we have a presentation by American Structure Point for the OPWC.

If I may, Mayor, I'll just give a brief intro. Take it away. Before Mike starts, Mike Murray with American Structure Point is here tonight. We have an opportunity to submit an application here in 2026 for OPWC funds for the William Street project from Pratt to Maple. And you all should have a kind of a map that outlines the project in your packet. There should be something. And Mike will go over this a little bit. I do want to let you know, tonight is just information only. Actual legislation would come back in October if you're interested in proceeding, which We see this as a very favorable project, and Mike will talk about some of that this evening. So, Mike, without any further ado.

Thank you.

Have at it.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Thank you for having me in tonight. Like I said, I'm Mike Murray with the American Structure Point. We've been working for the last several weeks with Mr. Liggett, Mr. Sheridan, and now Mr. Emery, identifying an OPWC project, Ohio Public Works Commission. It's a grant loan funding program, annual program centered around infrastructure. After some consideration of a couple different areas, we focused in on William Street, starting at Douglas all the way to Maple. And then we did some initial cost estimating and determination of what hazing could look like primarily. It pretty much worked out by block, but it was based off the stormwater outlets and outfalls as we've moved forward. We kind of landed on the north end between Maple and Pratt, tying into the anticipated 6237 intersection project, as well as some improvements happening at the park, the Hannah Park. So it seemed like to be a good continuation of the momentum that's happening at that end. Our infrastructure projects are based around repair and replacement, not exactly expansion or new. So we identified infrastructure that's aging, getting close to the end of its useful life, both underground and surface. So it's the first phase. We broke the initial project into a couple of phases. This is the first phase, and then we looked at north of 62 and south. identifying sanitary sewer, water main replacement, as well as some sidewalk and curb and gutter drainage improvements and pavement improvements. That's where we stand tonight. Tonight was to introduce you to the project. The schedule would be to return October 6th to get legislation for approval to apply, certification of funds based off the estimate that we've prepared, and then a submission date of November 6th. with the goal of hearing shortly after the first of the year if the project's been funded and then moving forward. This would be around 40, fiscal year 27, which will be July of 28 funding, but we're actively looking at getting this project moving now to obtain some funding. With that, if you have any questions, I can answer those.

There's actually a project funding breakdown on the information you have as well. If you have any questions on that, I'm sure... David would answer those. It was before Finance Committee tonight. So in the timeframe, I tried to push it a little bit, and Mike and I had a conversation today. There's not probably too much of an opportunity to try to get it, the project, earlier than mid to late 2028, unless some other projects fall off in the process.

And I think it'll work well.

I mean, we're going to have everything else happening downtown. We're going to have enough upheaval in this area, I think, anyway, with a traffic light moving in there. So I think 28, I think, is going to work out.

And just for the finance, for those people who weren't in the finance meeting, we have a match portion that we have to pay up front of $441,000. Then we'll take a loan for $764,000 to do this. The city has already saved over $700,000 towards this project that we can use towards this project. So the loan would be much less than initial. So of the $1.2 million, we've already got $700,000 of it taken care of.

And the loan portion is a 0% loan over the duration of the loan.

What is the, may I ask, what is the duration of a loan?

It's the 30 year loan.

30 year.

And in your estimates, this is a project that is gonna be likely to be accepted?

There's no guarantees, obviously, but we've pre-scored it and compared it to the previous couple years, and it scores very favorably. We obviously don't know what anyone else in the area is doing, but we feel it definitely meets all the criteria of the OPWC application. We're strategically selecting the local match and some of the percentages and things like that to enhance our scoring opportunities, so we feel pretty good that we're bringing the best application forward that we can.

For the debt service on the 30-year for that $765,000, what's the debt service payment per annum?

I'm not sure on that one.

Because it's for 30 years? $20,000?

That sounds about right. $25,500.

So that's a commitment of $26,000 a year for the next 30 years. Just FYI. Thank you.

Does anyone else have any questions for him?

For our next finance committee, I think it would be... good to know what our debt service is on this loan and any other loans that are still where we're at just to get a report where we're at what we have what's coming off etc so we can kind of see what we're obligated to on a uh well for this point in time a 30-year projection because we're going to take another 30-year loan out because i believe we still have some on the books, correct? Yes. We can get that.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Appreciate your time. Thank you.

Next we have citizen comments on matters not on the agenda. Did you have any speaker slips?

I have two speaker slips, both by Mike Rush, but he said they're totally different topics.

Thank you for your time, Council. Spare me a little time. I have three soccer teams called me today. I had zero refs in the schools, and I thought I had another commitment. So there's three games out there potentially don't have any refs, and one of them could have had me. First subject I want to talk to you about, and I've talked to you guys a couple times about, the construction next to my land by leaking rural and collogics and the water issues we've had. The first plan they had, they were going to dump all the water on the surface of my property. I worked with them in EMHT, and we've tapped into the underground system that was there prior, and it's working great. Next thing that happened is we had some rains, obviously rains in the spring like we always have, and my land flooded in a hardcore way, and I went and talked to them, and they The relationship is really good. I have open line communication to executives at LRE, Layton Construction, Collogix, and Turner. And they came out, we looked at it, and they said, you know what, Mike? One of the pilings for the electrical substation, we drilled right through the tile. That's why your land's flooded. So much to their credit, they came out and rebuilt the entire system with modern tile, and they rerouted it, and it worked like a dream. My land drained in hours. Then promptly thereafter, a contractor came in and ran underground conduit from the power station working up to where the data center is going to be. And they went right through the path where my tile drains because it goes from my yard over into their property and hooks in. I took pictures, made a note. I did send it to you guys a while ago. I said, let's watch it and see what happens. So we had massive rains the beginning of August. I was out of town, so I didn't know exactly when the rain stopped. But the water was on my land. My vegetation died. The smell came back and everything. But it kind of drained out really slow. So me and the LRE guy talked about it. He says, all right, we'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Let's watch the next rain when I'm home and I can tell you exactly. So we had rains over this weekend. Everything flooded out there again. Every piece of land of mine drained out except for where my drain was. Even the spot that's slow draining was gone, but my land was flooded. I sent pictures to LRE with three inches of water over my drain itself and says, this is the proof we need. So right now, It's kind of getting kicked around. LRE is saying no, it's Turner, and Turner is saying maybe Collogic. So they're all three talking. I'm very confident we're going to get a solution here, but I wanted to bring it up to you guys so if something doesn't work out, I'll let you know that there's issues out there. So far, everything these companies have done has been top-notch, great communication, and they actually give a damn about the neighbors, which is really, really refreshing. So that's topic number one.

Oh, thank you. That was amazing. Some positive feedback. We appreciate that. Thank you.

So the second one, I just want to talk about, you know, what everyone's talking about, Cologics.

Is that good news, bad news?

No, no, absolutely not. Absolutely not. So the second thing is Cologics, all right? So on April 1st, Cologics held a meeting, and they invited everyone on Duncan Plains and Clover Valley that was going to be greatly affected by this. They took a lot of questions. They took a lot of hard questions. They took heat. Miss Mary, you were there. Their executive team stayed until the very last person left and answered every single question that was there.

And it was cold.

It was very cold. Oh, it was freezing. Your executive was awful. During this meeting... It brought their attention to Crabtree and Williams House, the two houses that were split, that got in between, that they kind of got a raw deal on the whole thing. The neighbors really expressed it to them. And Collogix has a leadership group that actually listens and they care. They really do. I've talked to them a lot. They went out and bought the Crabtree and Williams house at extremely fair pricing that the standard market probably wouldn't bear. They went above and beyond because it was the right thing to do. And it's awesome having a corporate partner in town at least doing the right thing. It's absolutely amazing. So this isn't really for you guys, this is more for the audience that's watching this and all of our Facebook warriors out in town. The initial phase of CoLogix is a $900 million investment. When CoLogix is built out, we're gonna have 300 employees on this campus. Plus countless contractors and technical teams will be working there, all paying taxes. Initial phase will generate $40 million in additional sales tax to the state, county, and local areas. Warrant taxes, property taxes, Building 1. Absolutely they have some abatements, but there are taxes still involved in there. They're gonna pay $270,000 a year. When Building 2 goes in, it's gonna be $360,000 a year in property taxes these people are gonna pay. When the full build out happens at Collogix, it's gonna be over $2 million in taxes and fees that are gonna be generated from that complex going to our local community. The city will receive 72.5% of all municipal income taxes generated off that property. This revenue stream is one that will only grow over time. Water and power. Ecologics is an air-cooled center. Their water usage is for their bathrooms, their coffee makers, their sinks, and landscaping. Half the power from phase one is going to come from a fuel cell plant using natural gas. Its byproduct is water. I got crucified on Facebook for this, but I looked it up. The carbon footprint of this plant is about one-third of what a regular natural gas power plant is and about 200% less than a coal plant. Yeah, it generates carbon. I generated carbon driving here, but this is about clean energy You can get that plants going to be able to expand up to a hundred megawatts. I Live in a township Annexation I have a choice why annex into Johnstown? Do I annex into New Albany? It's not given that I come to Johnstown And with this ballot initiative going on, it ties the hands of the city to be able to come out to the township and do fair annexation for the best kind of development possible. The tax base is either gonna go to Johnstown or it's gonna go to New Albany. We want this southern end of Johnstown to come into Johnstown. The residents don't wanna go to New Albany. But this referendum to my local citizens is pushing the tax revenue the other direction. We have a choice, we can have clean technology out in our community, or we can have warehousing and manufacturing with smokestacks. The noise that data centers make, I've read tons of stuff about this. So Sunday night, no construction, 11 p.m. I left my house and I drove down Beach Road south of 161 where all the data centers are done and they're running. Crickets were noisier than the data centers. I didn't even see the Facebook data centers because their lighting was so dark around it, the ambient lighting. It was great. What was lit up was the Amazon warehouse with hundreds of cars in the parking lot and trucks moving around from dock door to dock door. That was noisy, and there was lots of traffic there. To my neighbors and friends in the community, if we vote on this referendum, the traffic on our roads isn't going to disappear. The fields aren't going to come back. That ship has sailed. Saying no is not a strategy. We need to work with this council and our local leaders to shape what's going to happen in this community. Representative Miller, our state rep, is out. He has a bill in front of the House that if the roundabout on Duncan Plains costs $8 million and they funded it for $10 million and there's $2 million left over, but another project runs $2 million over, they can transfer that money, make the projects faster and smoother and more efficient. Right now, that $2 million has to go back to the state. The project that's $2 million over has to be rebid and it slows down. The money's there. Senator Schaefer is now introducing a bill from the shock that happened to this community that if something like this is gonna happen again, his bill is gonna say the roads and infrastructure go in first before all the other stuff happens. This is good leadership. This is leadership that deserves our support in working inside the system versus around out. I don't know anybody that's come to this council and talked about data centers before this referendum happened. Why not? Come talk to you guys, and let's shape our future. Last thing I got to say is, again, saying no is not a strategy. It ties people's hands, and it's going to push the revenue away from this town. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Mayor, I just wanted to follow up with that one healthy, mature tree absorbs 48 pounds of CO2 per year. So when you talk about the fuel cells, there is an equation that landscape architects put into those things. So just... putting that out there, what trees absorb.

Absorb. And they're going to have lots of trees.

Yeah, our current zoning practice requires a 150-foot setback from those areas that have to be surrounded by trees with mounding and grass. So you're going to have quite a bit of that.

Okay, next on the agenda, council committee reports design review board met on, they did not. Sorry. Cancel that one. Okay. Planning and zoning did meet on September 8th. Kyle, you want to give an update on that?

We did. We had a lot split in the PD district lay down site that we'll see today. And we further discussed fees and applications as well as responsibility of staff.

Anyone have any questions? Finance met tonight. Mr. Barnard?

We discussed a lot of different things. We gave approval for them to go ahead with the retainer versus legal fees. The price came in at a good point. So for the rest of this year, we'll have our legal retainer. And there was just a lot of little things, but that's about it.

Okay. Safety and service will meet again on October 6. Director reports, Chief Smart.

Yeah, Ms. Mayor, I don't have too much this evening. I will say that our department was busy. We had nine arrests last month, which is a lot for our agency. We also, with that, had 15 accidents, which is the highest as well for our months. And of those nine arrests, we had four warrants, two OVIs, one obstruction. some domestic violence and assaults. So we were very busy. Nine arrests compared to all of last year is more than half of what we've done. So just like accidents, it just kind of hit whenever they hit, and we just have to handle them and take care of the dispatch runs. And I don't really have anything else.

Where were most of the traffic crashes at?

Most of the traffic crashes are going to be on your main – 3762. No real intersection is the issue. It's just a matter of they were kind of all over. I think at one point we had a number just in one day. So I think it was like three or four just in one day. When we get dispatched, we have to go. There's not one real problem. It's just kind of how it falls sometimes. I am in the process with the grant. The mayor helped me with the signature today. I was supposed to have everything done with that this Friday and I plan to have all my pre-award information done for the state of Ohio and federal government for that grant. That's for teasers.

Anyone have any questions? Thank you. Next on the agenda we have a temporary use permit application. For one one nine four three Johnson Utica Road. We have staff report and the permit in here. Does anyone have any?

Nothing really further. I think it was Reviewed thoroughly and it was before safety service. I believe so And And so I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary here.

Yeah, and I mean all the traffic, the lay-down site, it says it's on Johnstown Utica Road, but they're entering through Enterprise Drive there, so it's not going to be an increase in traffic.

So across the street from Collagix? Correct.

Yeah, and they're already really utilizing it. They will return it back to what it was before once they're done, and they will be putting up temporary fencing.

Will it be contiguous on the way around?

What's that?

Contiguous, the fencing?

The fencing, yes.

Yes, okay. And then I think the only other thing they needed to change was the reference to City of New Albany to City of Johnstown.

Yep, just the two conclusions.

We do have a representative here if you have any questions.

Does anyone have any questions? Good.

No, our big thing is late night sound and runoff and screening. That's our big concerns.

And if you don't do it, Mr. Rush will let us know because he's right there. He's right there, yeah.

If you don't mind, can I elaborate on a couple things? Sure. Because it's nice to hear.

Can you come up to the microphone? Yeah, if you can come to the microphone. Then we can put it on recording.

Yes, I'm sorry.

So we work in the industry where I'm Guy Carpenter with Ohio Valley Excavating. Appreciate you guys passing that through. We work in an industry where we are the bad guy. No matter what we do, we hear it. You know, everybody sold their property. We're usually the next people to come in and place the conduits and everything. And it's nice to hear that there is people that do back it up and do understand the revenue that it's going to bring. So the future of the children, the future of the people that live here is going to be not, impacted in such a bad way that everybody seems to think so. You know, with the understanding of it's being air-cooled, a lot of people are worried about water. You know, I heard as much as 50 million gallons used a day. You know, so it's... We could take some of that water from up at Rusty's property. I know that because we built down his road down Green Chapel. We had a lot of conversations late night and early mornings. He had very good reasoning. We was doing everything we could to make sure that the drainage in flat areas, we were trying to get the water away from it. Tough times. It was hard to do, you know, because some of the systems were, you know, dug through already per Mr. Rush's comment. You know, a lot of people go through and they don't care and they just move on. Well, we want to be a partner as well. with, you know, City of Johnstown, City of New Albany, you know, Cologics, Metta, and a lot of times we're the ones that get to hear, you know, the bad. So I just wanted to say it was nice to hear the good. It was nice to hear the understanding, and this is a very well put together council, I see. One thing I would disagree with, though, is I wouldn't do the roads first. because a lot of the times when we do the construction, we do the permit, get a design put together, and we have to do road crossings, or we have to go under the roads. But that's the only thing I would differentiate from. I know New Albany likes to put their bike paths, their white horse fence is what it's called, I believe, and all the trees in first. For them, it's just more obstacles have to be removed a lot of times and then put back. So it's a lot of... wasted money, in my opinion, you know, which that doesn't mount the hill of beans, but in the construction industry, it's a lot. And we appreciate, you know, everybody listening. And that's all I had to say. I thank you for your time and thank you for the permit. Thank you so much. Thank you.

If you have any issues...

Do we need to take any action on this?

So, yes, you do. Our code for temporary use, once it's passed, so planning and zoning, as Mr. Emery said, made a recommendation and forwarded it to council, and then it says the council may approve, approve with conditions, or deny the request for the temporary use. Now, planning and zoning had two recommendations that they've We're at the end of the staff report.

So I will make a motion to approve with the conditions that it be returned to its original condition and the references where it says City of New Albany is updated to reference the City of Johnstown. I'll second.

Mayor Hollis? Yes. Kyle Cook? Yes. Jeff Barr?

Affirmative.

Nicole Shuck? Yes. Matthew Huggins? Yes. Donnie Barnard? Yes. Brian Green?

Yes.

I'll get that signed and sent to you. Is that something I need to redo? I'll get with you tomorrow.

Yeah, thank you. Next we have public hearings of legislation, Ordinance 17-2026, an ordinance to amend Chapter 1147 of the city's codified ordinances. We had a public hearing on September 1st. Do you want to say anything this time? I think we had a couple questions for you, I think, last time, if you have any clarification on those.

So my name is Rebecca Mott with the Plank Law Firm with an office address of 411 East Town Street, Columbus, Ohio. And I don't know if you do have any other lingering questions. We did take some questions at the last hearing. So, of course, I'm here to answer any of your questions.

I think the only thing we had, and I don't know if we got clarification from Yaz on accessory uses. I vaguely remember an email about it. That was the only thing I think that we had concern about.

I asked him the question.

At least how we have it defined in our code. think the question was you were like wondering like what's the worst case scenario I think yeah and I well and I remember we didn't know exactly how it was defined in our code what accessory uses was I think we have it as buildings like accessory buildings you were asking about the pharmacy

Remember that came up.

Yeah, it's a lesser use of the principal use. So it's just an accompanying use or affiliated use of the principal use, but it's lesser than the principal.

So our definition of accessory building use or structure means a building use or structure on the same lot width and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use.

Pharmacy, yes.

Accessory buildings and structures include those attached to or separate from the principal structure. Shall be applied consistent. Goes on, but he said, I have to say what the worst could be, but in the context of assisted living, you could potentially have a second building for offices or storage, maintenance shed, onsite maintenance, gathering house, club, visiting family members. He said, however, that would still be conditional use that it says that these would still be conditional uses such that council could place conditions and limitations on the primary and accessory uses.

Does anyone else have any questions?

Yeah, I think that was the only thing we were looking for clarification on.

This will still have to go through your design review? Yeah.

Do we need to define those in order to, I guess, put guardrails on there or say that any accessory use has to come back before a board?

We will be, we have a conditional use application that we filed as well as a variance application, so we will be going before planning and zoning for those approvals.

Okay. We wanted to get it, see how, you know, if this grew, obviously, and then your intention is the conditional use, which would go to planning and zoning.

Right.

Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion on this ordinance?

I'll make a motion that we pass Ordinance 17-2026 as written. I'll second.

Donnie Barnard.

Yes.

Brian Green.

No.

Mayor Hollis. Yes. Kyle Cook.

Yes.

Jeff Barr.

Yes.

Nicole Shook. Yes. Matthew Huggins.

Yes.

Motion passes. It'll be effective in 30 days.

Thank you.

Thank you. Take care.

next we have resolution 2026-39 a resolution appointing members to the johnstown new community authority board of trustees um this is introduction and we'll open for comment as well if anyone has any comment like none council um i know we talked about this a little bit last meeting uh and jamie's not here to go further into it, but we were hoping to appoint Mr. Emery, if you're amenable to that, to appoint you to that seat for the city. And then we did confirm with Mr. Kessler he would like to maintain his seat as well, if everyone wants to do that. What is everyone's thoughts on this?

Yeah, I agree that I do want... Mr. Emery as the city seat. I think Donnie is someone that's of value to be on the board. So we have to appoint two now.

So currently, Jesse Koppel holds one seat, and Mr. Kessler holds the other. Terry in for Jesse. Because Jesse's seat is the city seat. So are these two, correct?

Well, this seat is to represent the city. It was specifically designated like someone who's affiliated with the city.

Local government representative?

That's why Jesse was on it, because he was on zoning at that time.

Understood. So Ms. Blankenmeier's seat, I think we open that up for the public to apply.

Have we asked Jesse officially if he wanted to stay on?

I have not communicated with either applicant.

If we open the seat, he can apply for that if he wants to.

Can we direct a point, Jesse? I think we should open it up for the public.

Yes.

Well, then why don't we open up this other seat for Mr. Kessler?

Because he's returning to the same seat. We had to replace Jesse with Terry, and he's going to Denise's. Denise's seat is the seat that's opening up.

Well, I mean, technically, Johnny's is opening up, too. I'd be okay with putting both up for application, Johnny's and Denise's, and appointing Terry, too. I want to get all three on, is my...

I think Chessie is a conflict of interest because the NCAA can represent both the school and the city, and according to the Ohio Revised Code, they can represent the school, and with him being on the school, has he got the school's best interest or the city's best interest in mind?

I respect the opinion, but I disagree with it.

Yeah, I don't question Jesse's

ability to represent the city as well but I do I don't think anybody here I don't think about your questions that I just think the perception is 75% of what people see and I don't think that we I think that we've met we've all had discussions about transparency and I just don't I don't I don't question Jesse's ability to be able to do it but you know when he was appointed he was on plane and zoning and now he does hold a school board position and I truly believe that Why would we want him to have to recuse himself if that ever comes about with something that involves the school? That ORC 3-4, I can pull it up here.

His elected duty is to prioritize the school district. It is. That's exactly it. Just like ours is to, you know, represent the city.

So there's actually an ORC code?

It's a code that where the school can, where the NCA can do deals with the school and about the school.

Like when the NCA is deciding where to disperse that 9.75, they can do things for the schools, spend money for the school, you know, they can allocate things to the school district.

Maybe I misunderstood, Donnie. I thought he was saying that the code prohibited... No. Okay, so it doesn't prohibit somebody that's on the school board.

It's ORC 349.06M.

It allows the NCAA funds potential to be school-related, whatever that may be.

I think we're all in agreement that we want Terry to be the city seat, right? Correct. So we're really down to do we...

Can we break this down into different motions, Teresa? Sure. Okay, so we can make a motion to appoint Terry Emery to the representative of local government on the NCA board, and I am making that motion.

I'll second. Okay.

I'm sorry, who was the second? Donnie.

Okay. Mayor Hollis? Yes. Kyle Cook?

Yes.

Jeff Barr?

Yes.

Nicole Shook. Yes. Matthew Huggins. Yes. Donnie Barnard. Yes. Ryan Green.

Yes.

So now we're down to do we open up both positions for application or?

Well, we're only dealing with this position tonight. Okay. We don't have to worry about it. No, we don't have to do the other one yet. Yep. I mean, it'll be probably in the next meeting or two that we'll be trying to do that. Okay. So we just have to make a motion on the other representative.

No, the way we understand it.

No, the way we understand it. We don't have two. We can. We just have one. Okay.

Yeah. So, yeah.

I thought we couldn't leave. Kessler's term is up. Yes. In two days. In two days. So we cannot leave that board position open?

We can. We have plenty of other boards where we haven't asked anybody and their seats are already expired and they're still serving.

I think the NCAA is a little different. I'm going to make a motion to appoint Donnie Kessler to represent interest of the present and future residents and employees of the authorities district. I'll second. Put it to a vote.

Can we have discussion?

I already made the motion, but I just put it to a vote, and if you don't want to vote for it, you know, vote however you want.

I would just like to have a discussion about Ms. Blankenmeier's.

So this is a vote on one of the seats that are expiring, so are you Good to go ahead with a vote for that. And then you can discuss Denise's seat, because hers is not expired.

I mean, the motion's been made and seconded, so.

I'll call roll. Thank you. Mayor Hollis. Yes. Kyle Cook.

Yes.

Jeff Barr.

No.

Nicole Shook. Yes. Matthew Huggins. Yes. Donnie Barnard. Yes. Ryan Green.

Yes.

So you made two different motions. That puts resolution 202639 with John Kessler in section one for the representative of present and future residents and employers of the district and Terry Emery under section two. as the citizen member appointed as a representative of the local government. So if you could make a motion to pass Resolution 2026-39. Sure.

A motion to pass Resolution 2026-39 with John Kessler in Section 1 and Terry Emery in Section 2.

I'll second.

Hollis. Yes. Kyle Cook. Yes. Jeff Barr. Yes. Nicole Shook. Yes. Matthew Huggins. Yes. Donnie Barnard. Yes. Ryan Green.

Yes.

Thank you. Okay, Jeff, do you want to discuss that now or do you want to discuss it in other business?

I would like to find a way that not at formal council meetings that we work these things out in a workshop with... Sequencing, Ms. Blankenmeier, I feel like it was, I don't know, she has an effective date. I know she's planning to move and she kind of threw it out there.

She has officially resigned. She said they will be moving out of Johnstown. I read through the NCA originating documents and it says that a member will serve until another is appointed.

So could I make a motion to appoint Jessie Koppel to her vacancy this evening?

The seat is not vacant. I mean, but you will want to put somebody in there. I mean, you can make any motion.

Did I understand you correctly that she has resigned?

She did. But she's required to serve. Like if there was a board meeting called, she's required to serve. It can't stay vacant. So she's required to serve. her term until someone else is appointed.

So we don't have to remove her. We can appoint Jesse to her position.

Yeah.

There was a majority council. So can I make that motion to appoint Jesse Popple to replace Ms. Blankenmeier's resignation?

Are you concerned at all about the school?

No. I'm putting to a motion. I'm just one person. That's all.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

You have a second?

I'll second.

Bless you.

Bless you. Thank you.

Sorry, I'm just writing a motion. Give me one moment.

Okay. Jeff Barr.

Yes. Nicole Schuch. No. Matthew Huggins. Yes. Donnie Barnard.

No.

Ryan Green.

Yes.

Mayor Hollis? No. Kyle Cook? No.

Can I make a motion that we open it up to residents?

Motion to appoint Jesse Bales. Just clarifying.

Can we go ahead and advertise it?

Yes. Can we also advertise the Parks and Rec position that's open and any of the other positions that are currently open at the same time?

I will keep advertising.

There's a member on Parks and Rec that's currently overstayed, so we need to fill that one as well.

I don't think that's our, is that our appointment to make? I know we talked about this the other day. I think it's the school. I think it's the school's appointment to make.

The city has two positions.

Yeah, we have two. School has two.

Monroe has one. Do you currently know who's up?

I do. In one second I will.

But I also want to say that that doesn't mean that Jesse can't apply when we open this. He can still apply and go through the process like everyone else.

So the last notes that I had for... Greater Johnstown Park and Rec. The city appointees are Ashley Kuzner. Her term does not expire until next year, 2027. And Nick Hubble. Oh, he is the one that's expired. I think we talked about that. So if the city desires, they would need to reappoint or choose someone new. The schools, looks like the school terms are Frank Sia, and he's good until next year, and Daryl Warnett until next year.

When does next expire?

I am showing... He took over Nicole's unexpired term. Mm-hmm. when you went to council. So that would have expired August 15th this year. Okay. If you want to advertise, you can, or you guys can decide. I can get legislation ready to reappoint or appoint, however.

Yeah, I think we should advertise all the positions. We have personnel board review as well. I think there's some on there, and then the charter review as well. So if we could do all those. I thought charter review would just...

We didn't have enough. Oh, there's some people missing. Yeah.

I think there's only two of the five left now. So that's one we should take a look at.

It might be a good time, too, once we're revamping the website and stuff. It would be a good thing to add just for information, if nothing else.

We need people. We need people. I can re-advertise. I'm excited for the new website. We should have that coming up another month or so. I feel like it'll have better, more appropriate spaces for .

Would we be able at some point to have the person who designed that to come in and just do like a presentation to council just to show how easy it works by chance? Yeah? Thank you, thank you.

Okay, introduction of legislation, ordinance 19-2026, an ordinance authorizing and directing staff to obtain and utilize a cloud-based platform to manage the city's financials and budgeting. This is introduction only, and this was Mr. Huggins' little baby.

Just a real quick review on this. This is just a first reading on this. This is to establish an actual ordinance instead of just directing staff to... have an opportunity to get with professional services to put all of our financials in the public space on the website, meaning the budget, checkbook, whatever. In the ordinance, I'm not – we didn't – I don't want to say I. I mean, I know Yaz and I – You worked a lot on it. We put this together. What this ordinance is not saying is you have to buy these modules within the software. This ordinance is not saying you have to use clear.gov.com as the only thing. It says a cloud-based software because clear.gov.com, which is the one that we researched, may be the best choice today. But four years from now, it may not be the best choice. So this just establishes an ordinance that no matter which staff members, whether it's Mr. Emory or whoever, is in that office over there, it's not an option to use a public-facing financial software. It keeps the city very, very transparent, allows the citizens to see where our money is going. And so it would be up to Mr. Emory and Mr. Delandy to decide what modules they want to do as long as we can allocate the funds for.

I like that because they're the ones, in three years they find the different softwares better, they can switch. Perfect. It gives them the, it gets us out of it.

Yes. It just says that they need to make sure it's out there.

And Mr. Emory, you have experience with this type of platform.

Yes, we actually use ClearGov in my previous community. So I have a positive experience with it, but I do like the fact that this is open-ended so we have the ability to evaluate others as time goes on.

And this wasn't your recommendation. This was what Mr. Huggins said. That's correct. I want people thinking you're throwing your...

Does anyone have any questions?

No, I appreciate Matt spearheading this and taking a look at it.

Yeah, you did a lot of work, Matt, and it didn't go unnoticed.

I talked to a lot of people who said that their community thinks this is a really good investment. I think it's awesome.

Okay. Did you have anything else to add, Matt?

Not on that.

great job okay moving on to other business uh miss shook um oh you caught me off guard um no you're fine um let's see farmer's market tomorrow night it's the last one of the season it's um where local crafters are there as well so it's our crafton market so i would love to see the community support that as well um I don't think I have anything else. I do want to ask, do we have to decide tonight for the Licking County Humane Society?

It'll be in the budget.

Decided, or how does that work?

I let her know. We talked about that, that it would probably be discussed in Finance Committee during the budget.

Okay, great. Just want to make sure we weren't leaving something out there.

I wrote it down to go into the budget discussion.

Okay, great. Thank you.

One of the things I was thinking, and while you're here, I'm not trying to... it's my take I want to say I love dogs and cats only have one dog but it's one of those things I believe that what they do is a very very thankless job in our County and she's just given a couple things that they do but being around animals my whole entire life and knowing where I'm from how much problem that animal shelters coming from it's my recommendation to this council and to that we don't do the 200, we just make it an even $3,000 a year. because I don't think that's going to affect our budget much as a city. It gives them a little bit more. You've heard her talk, and I know that's true. If you look at any of the animal shelters, any of the humane societies, they're all begging for donations. They're all begging for cash. They're all needing help. I think it's a small thing that we can do, because when they have to come out here to Johnstown, that's a lot farther trek for them. So I just think it's a good partnership to... Offer a little bit more. I know we're not huge on it. We don't have a lot of money here at town, but it's another $600 a year, $50 a month.

What's the alternative? Like, you know, if they can't come out here and get the pets, what's the alternative? Exactly. I'm like, so Rusty has to go get cats, and we don't want Rusty to go get cats.

My recommendation is that we... Yeah, we go ahead and do this for them.

Exactly. I totally agree.

I just wanted to kind of put that out there before it goes to finance so you guys can give everybody... NOW MATT'S GOING TO WIN THE FAVORITE HUMANE SOCIETY PERSON OF THE YEAR AWARD.

YOU'RE NOW GOING TO HAVE A PICTURE DOWN AT THE HUMANE SOCIETY.

I DON'T. PLEASE DON'T PUT MY PICTURE UP. I DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR SELF-GRADUATE. I DON'T. WHAT'S THAT? I HAVE ONE CAT AND THAT'S ENOUGH IN MY HOUSE.

HE DOESN'T SERVE A PURPOSE. I DID NOT. THANK YOU. IT'S ALL YOU.

OTHER BUSINESS.

ME?

YEAH, YOU.

I don't have any other business. Should I even bring up the thing with the as in the amendment? We were going to have another amendment tonight. It was just the NCA amendment, but we kind of put a hold on that, as you guys know, just to see if there was a simpler way of doing the NCA amendment, because there was a lot of concerns about the way the NCA was done. So I spent some time writing up an actual amendment for it, gave it to Yaz, gave it to Mayor Hollis, gave it to Mr. Emery, let everybody kind of redline it, look through it, because I'm not the smartest guy in the room. So it's just kind of gathering what some of the concerns was. I think everybody's on board with the spirit of it, including New Albany Company and everybody else affected by the NCA. So hopefully by next meeting we'll have something to look at for that amendment.

Good deal. Thank you. Anything else?

I'm done.

Done. Mr. Barr.

September is the, if I'm saying it correctly, National Suicide Prevention Month, so I just want to raise awareness to what September is. Good call.

Anything else? Got any sports updates? The championships?

None. None. I'll leave the Suicide Prevention Month and give it its due diligence and calling and recognition.

Okay. Mr. Barnard?

Nope. I've suggested a proclamation. Hopefully we go through a proclamation on the next council meeting. That would be fantastic. I agree. It would be a surprise for everybody.

I agree. That would be a fun one. Mr. Cook?

Fall Fest and Cooper Classic this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday?

Saturday and Sunday. Fall Fest Saturday, Classic on Sunday.

Mr. Green?

Kyle stole mine, so I don't have any.

Stealing the thunder again.

Adult softball still going on down at JYA ball fields on Sundays. So if you feel like playing and possibly getting injured, come on down.

I'd just like to say my condolences on the Browns.

I'm sorry. Yeah, the Browns Backers Club is off to a rough start. So come on down. I don't think it's going to get any better this year. Yeah, yeah. According to Jeff, maybe they picked a good month. I don't know. But yeah, so here we go.

I don't have anything other than, Mr. Emery, you have completed one week. Thank you so very much. And do you have any words?

Today is one week. You know, everybody's been really, really good. And it's tricking out of a fire hose right now. But I've said this before. I appreciate the opportunity. And I think this community's got a lot to look forward to. And so I'm excited to be a part of it. So thank you.

Well, thank you. We're proud to have you. With that, make a motion to adjourn.

I'll second. Sorry.

No, you go.

We're all in favor. Aye. Aye.