City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, welcome.

I'd like to call this August 24th, 2026 council meeting to order. If you please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Coyne.

Here.

DeSalvo. Here. Hare.

Here.

Isabella.

Here.

Lamb.

Here.

Simmons.

Here.

Simpson.

Here. Reading of the minutes.

Mr. President. Ms. Hare. I move that the minutes from the July 13, 2026 meeting as prepared and submitted by the clerk be approved.

Second. Any discussion on the minutes? Will the clerk please call the roll on the approval of the minutes?

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare.

Yes.

Isabella.

Yes.

Lamb?

Yes.

Simmons?

Yes.

Simpson?

Yes. Yes.

Sorry, coin.

I was waiting for that. Okay, reports of standing committees. The finance committee met prior to council this evening, and it was a marathon, an hour and a half. We'll meet again in two weeks or three weeks. One of those three weeks. Health, safety, and sanitation, Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have no meeting scheduled and nothing to report.

Okay, public properties, Ms. Hare.

Mr. President, there's nothing to report and no meeting scheduled. Thank you.

Special legislation, Mrs. DeSalvo.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled at this time. I believe that we are reviewing the whole deer ordinance and revamping that and what that's going to be happening in the next few meetings, I believe in three weeks, if I'm not mistaken. Thank you.

Okay, streets and sidewalks, Mr. Isabella.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled and nothing to report.

Thank you. Water and utilities. Mr. Simmons.

Thank you, Mr. President. No meeting scheduled and nothing to report.

Thank you. And Emerging Technologies, Mr. Lamb.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have nothing to report. I had thought I would have a meeting scheduled by now, but it's not been scheduled. I have a list of a number of issues and changes to discuss about the city website. So as soon as I get the meeting scheduled, I'll get the agenda out and get that to everybody.

Okay. Thank you. All right, requests for council action. We have several for the Finance Committee. 26-157, a then and now for American Fireworks. 26-158, increased expenditure to HSH Excavating for the Service Department. 26-159, 2026J, grant application and acceptance. 26-160, increased expenditure to Rocco Masonry for the Service Department. 26161, 2026 City Auction. 26162, Accept Grant Funds for Veterans Treatment Court. 26163, Budget Amendments 2% Wage Increase. 26164, Budget Amendments 26165, Fund Transfer Request. 26.166, Resolution Random Acts of Kindness Day. 26.167, Repeal Ordinance 9826, Replace Planning and Zoning Fee Schedule. 26.168, Bids for Job Number 1136, South Elmwood Avenue Parking Lot Reconstruction. 26.169, Increase PO 260395, Davis Tree Farm Forestry. 26-170-406 South Broadway Street, Discussion. 26-171, Accept Donation for Junk Playground. 26-172, RFQs for Junk Playground Replacement. And 26-173, Spring Grove Cemetery Calibrium Wall, Phases 4 through 10. Reports of Municipal Officers. Mayor Shields.

Thank you, Mr. President. Bear with me tonight. We've been gone for a while, but I've got a lot to get through tonight. I'll try to move as quickly as possible, but I want to start tonight with our America 250 Kids Fitness Challenge. The Kids Fitness Challenge began in June and ended on August 15th. Children aged 10 and under completed 25 fitness challenges, and each time they completed the 25 challenge per month, participating children turned in a challenge card. There's 25 events on the back. There's a lot to do. At the Farmer's Market on August 15th, I pulled out two completed fitness cards, one for one boy and one girl. Tonight we have both winners with us. I'm going to ask Claire and Chase to come up, and I'm also going to ask our community outreach and education manager, Courtney Hudson from Akron Children's Hospital, to join me.

She wants to come up here. Come on up here.

We have you come around this side so that everybody sees you.

Mr. Hudson, if you'll join me then, too.

Okay.

Yep. All right. Yeah.

Well, how about in between us here, Chase? And then look out for pictures.

Look this way so everybody can take your pictures there.

All right. As I said, we have Courtney here, our community outreach and education manager from Akron Children's Hospital. The City and America 250 Committee want to thank Akron Children's Hospital for sponsoring this challenge and for covering the prizes for each of our two winners. Each child tonight is going to win a $500 gift certificate toward a new bike at Spin Bike Shop. And we're really excited about that. You're going to be able to get the bike of your dreams here. I ALSO WANT TO THANK RAY WAGNER, OWNER OF SPIN BIKE SHOP LOCATED HERE IN MEDINA. COURTNEY IS GOING TO GIVE EACH OF YOU YOUR GIFT CARD AND WE HAVE A PIN CELEBRATING AMERICA 250 IN THE CITY OF MEDINA THAT WE WANT TO PRESENT EACH ONE OF YOU TO. Claire, do you want to say where you go to school at?

Ellicannivan.

Excellent. You know who else went to Ellicannivan?

Me.

Mary Shields, yep.

Chase, how about you? Medina Christian Academy.

Medina Christian Academy, very good. Well, two fine young students here that did. What was the hardest thing for you to complete? What did you think was the hardest challenge of all those challenges you completed?

The jump roping.

run around the house three times chase i think you have a lot of siblings here you could have changed or chased around the house probably is that well we're really proud of both of you and good job for doing this and committing to it and courtney again our thanks to akron children's hospital for being a part of this in the america 250 committee so how about another round of applause for chasing And I just want to let everybody know coming soon for the month of September and October, we did children. Now we're going to do fall and I'm using fall two different ways here. Fall prevention fitness challenge for those 65 and over sponsored by the America two 50 committee and the Cleveland clinic Medina hospital. So we've got Akron children's on one end and now we've got Cleveland clinic Medina hospital on the other. So, uh, those, those cards are going to be available. They're not big. Somebody said, Jim, did you make those, are they big so that people could see them and read them compared to the student? But this is a poster that will be up. But you'll be able to go to the rec center here at City Hall, Medina Hospital, and you can sign up for this next challenge that's coming, the senior center here in Medina. So stay tuned.

Where do the seniors get a wheelchair?

They actually are going to have gift certificates for Second Soul for new shoes. So this works out well. The hospital has a program right now. They're focusing on falls, and we're having it in the fall, and we're going to make it a fitness challenge here to help with balance and prevent falls. I'll sign Bill up. More to come.

You're older than I am.

All right, I better keep this moving here. Jared, I'll just stick with the microphone since I've got one more presentation. But let me... go through a couple things here. One, we're gonna move on to the Falls Hollow Fest. These are some pictures of, on August 15th, Black Cat Books and Oddities hosted their annual festival celebrating, I hope I'm okay to say this, Gilmore Girls series, because there's a little trademark issue going on here, but it's all taken care of. This year was, again, was an overwhelming success with an estimated 14,000 visitors. visiting the square between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on August 15th. Overall, there was 14,300 visitors. Peak attendance was at 5 p.m., estimated at 8,900 visitors. Median stay was 61 minutes, 9% from Medina, 91% outside the 44256. It was just an incredible huge success. Um, we have already met with black cat books and add to these Alicia and her planning team, because we realized this is becoming as big as the candlelight walk. It's as big as the, uh, ice festival. So just as we do with those, we're going to have several planning meetings. Um, she's open to a lot of great ideas and we've already had one meeting and we're going to continue to meet to kind of plan for this for next year. But, uh, talk about a lot of people come into Medina. It was just a really, uh, pretty amazing evening. But we're going to help her, and this is good, and the businesses were very happy uptown, I will tell you that. All right. The next thing I'm going to try to do, I'm going to try to tell you everything that happened on break. And I'm going to do as quickly as I can here, so bear with me. You're going to see some pictures here. We're gonna talk with the selection of an architectural firm, Bowen out of Cleveland, Ohio, for the PD City Hall and Munich Court feasibility study. We've already had one meeting. Mr. Coyne joined us as the council rep. We're off and running there on our feasibility study. We had the America 250 second story tour. Huge success. Different places around the square that people got to see what happened on the second and third floors of buildings. Completely sold out in just hours. Really a great day. The next thing I wanted to talk about was Art in the Park, the annual Art in the Park. I want to tell you, if there was a Mount Rushmore for Art in the Park, it would be these two people right here, Elaine Lamb and Henry Ettinger. They were involved almost from the very beginning of Art in Park and have been there every year. So that was a great picture I wanted to share with everybody. The next thing I wanted to let you know, when we talked at the Fourth of July, I told you about Frankie and Stella and their father. being deployed and did not make it back. I have great news. This is the family is reunited. He is back here in Medina and enjoying a little downtime. So just to follow up on his deployment, and we are glad that he's home safe and sound and back with his family. So there's a picture of Captain Hutchinson with Frankie and Stella. The next thing I wanted to tell you about during break, we had the Kiwanis 50th wedding anniversary. Every year Kiwanis celebrates anybody in the whole county that's been married 50 years and they receive a free pass to the Medina County Fair for their lifetime. After that, I wanted to, so keep that in mind, we're always looking. We had Jazz Under the Stars featuring Medina students bucket drumming, so there is a photo of that on the square. Collin Cares Cures Cancer Foundation Annual Glow with the Flow 5K Race at A.I. Root Middle School. It was the largest crowd ever and their most successful fundraising effort. We also covered the repaving of the Fair Road and the Medina County Fair. So we had a couple photos there of everything that happened during fair week. I know Councilwoman Hare, that was her entire life up to that point. We had a grand opening of Five Below. And I did some research on Five Below. Their target audience is tweens and preteens. When we got there that day, it was the biggest crowd I've ever seen of probably 9, 10, 11, 12-year-olds waiting to get in that store that day. I couldn't believe how many they know their target audience because they were all there for that ribbon cutting that day. Our next photo should be of the one-year anniversary of ACME. We celebrated that here just a few weeks ago. We had the opening of a new event space at Foundry Social. They invited us over. That's the grand hall where they are going to be able to host weddings up to 350 people. That's the bridal suite. That's that other picture, but pretty amazing. If you get a chance to stop over at Foundry Social, stop and see this new space they've got open now. We talked about the rec center. During shutdown week, they replaced the tile flooring. It's just amazing what they were able to do as far as that week, as far as pulling everything out. and putting in the new floor. Everything is done except the new desk. There's some construction issues there, but that will be in in just a few more weeks. Construction, construction, construction. Court Street paving preparation has been going on. You'll see that almost every day as you drive up and down Court Street, but we're getting closer and closer to that. Our crew's been working on the catch basins. Cocosing has already started on the intersections, and paving is coming soon. There's a Medina Street bridge project that is wrapping up while the Prospect Street bridge is just starting, and we have our concrete street repairs that will be starting soon here too. So it's going to be construction season all the way through the fall here. I wanted to let everybody know the Federal Reserve has a really unique program where they have an outreach where they come and visit cities that are within the area of the Federal Reserve and they chose Medina and had a great conversation. Andrew Bennett who oversees that office came down and we met for the day. We visited the hotel. We visited some coffee shops, some other small businesses just for the Federal Reserve to kind of get a feel of how things are going with the economy and the region. It was a very interesting meeting and they could not have been nicer as far as the information they gathered. He took all kinds of notes about what's going on here in Medina. They were very impressed with that. The next photo is I wanted to follow up at the Falling Oaks homeowner's lake there. The sand pipe drain grate has been fixed and completed by the city. That was work that was done so that there's no way a body could get through there ever again. It's a much bigger issue. I know the residents and everybody's wondering what to do. It's gotten a little complicated with some legalities of how the properties are owned. We're still looking into that, but I at least wanted the public to know that we took care of the standpipe so that nobody will slip through there again that happened the previous time. I want to thank our mechanics, actually. They came up with this design and did the work and just did an amazing job. Just for a couple hundred bucks we got that taken care of for them. So some good news there. We had a fair on the square. The next one would be Let's Make a Difference. I wanted to tell you we had a great day with Let's Make a Difference, a back-to-school jam. There's a photo of Drew Joyce, who was LeBron's coach at St. Vincent St. Mary. He came and talked to the kids and got them ready for school, and there was all the school spies you could ever ask for. We also have this Sunday another picnic going on at Ray Mellard Park that I know we'll send you out our invite for, too, a reminder that that will be another opportunity for kids to come and gather at Ray Mellard Park. The next is the Friends of the Cemetery. The bottom picture is where their concert was going to be held. We had a little issue with Mother Nature again. It's kind of been the theme of my first year as mayor that if it can go wrong with weather, it's going to go wrong with weather. We pivoted and it ended up on the performing arts, the middle stage at the high school. It was an amazing concert and it all came together, but it would have been beautiful to have it out there at the cemetery. So next year. Let's see, dedication of the construction trades building. There was a second for the construction trades. This one focused on electricity and HVAC. uh we had that last week it was done literally the the first day of school but just another amazing facility for our students to learn construction trades and again it was this one was funded with a gift from the ken cleveland foundation of three million dollars toward that project uh it's been back to school for medina and buckeye students are all back in there as well as the career center I wanted to talk, the next thing that happened was we swore in three new police officers. Left to right there is Vinnie McBride, Brad Delfia, and Mike Papish, just really three strong candidates. Two of those filled retirement positions. The third one was an extra space. We had such a great class of candidates We weren't looking to fill that third spot, but we didn't want to pass. These guys are going to really do well. They started this morning at 6 a.m. at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy. They've been on my mind all day. But really going to be impressed with them when they join us here. Friday we had the Serenite Restaurant reopening, which was a ribbon-cutting. I wanted to thank Denny and Reggie and Chet for being there to support that and their mission. And then also on Saturday, we had the South Town Music Festival, and guess what happened? Lots of rain. But while it was going on, we had lots of people there. It was great. I wanted to thank Main Street Medina for putting that together. It was a great event. And then on Saturday night we had Medina Meow Mix who does great work for the city and taking care of our feral cats. I know John and Bill were at that. I wanted to thank you for that. And that's their fundraiser that helps us with the cats that they rescue for us. And then the final thing that I wanted to mention was yesterday we got to celebrate 4-H or Logan Lettner at Keller Meats. Natalie, Dennis, and Chet were there. I appreciate you showing up. Logan, he just graduated from Buckeye High School. He had an issue with his steer at the fair. And he ended up in the hospital that day with some injuries. Still made it back that night to show his steer. Keller Meats purchased it. They cooked it up yesterday. They invited all of counsel, and it was great. It was really an impressive. And Logan is such a nice young man. He's going to be studying criminal justice at Baldwin Wallace here and playing football. And I already talked to him about making sure he wants to be a Medina police officer in four years. But it was a really nice ceremony there. And just a little plug, if you want some 4-H, locally raised beef. It's for sale now down there at the market. So thank you for bearing with me on that. But those are just some of the great things that happened in Medina during our break here. Okay. One last thing here, which is supposed to be a surprise. So I reviewed several events with you tonight that took place while council was on break. I want to go back to an event that occurred just before break sponsored by the Friends of the Cemetery. The Spirit of 76 event held July 4th at Old Town Graveyard. Planning for this event began in early 2025 and the first I heard about it was as chair of public properties last year in 2025 when I received an email from Theresa Merkel that read, the friends plan to sponsor hosts and fund an event on July 4th, 2026 at old town graveyard to honor and celebrate the three revelationary war Patriots buried at old town. I really had no idea, as I think most of the 60 individuals that end up being on the committee knew what an undertaking this was going to be. I do want to thank all of the friends. I know several are here tonight. Paul, Chet, Andrea, Mike, Karen Thorne, Dan Fenn, Vicky. It's just so many. All of you, I appreciate everything that you've done, Cynthia. But the real person that we want to honor tonight Every successful major undertaking comes down to having a great leader in place to bring the event off successfully and seamlessly. That person was Theresa Merkel who led this incredible effort. Tonight we would like to recognize her by planting a frontier elm tree from Davis Tree Farm at the north end of the town graveyard with a plaque identical to the plaques at Spring Grove Cemetery. The Spirit of 76 Committee took up a collection and we also, besides the tree and the plaque, We donated a book to the library, Declaring Independence, Why 1776 Matters, by author Edward Larson. And Teresa, if you would come up for a minute, we want to present the book to you and also a replica of the plaque. We did not have the plaque yet, but we just want to thank you for all the work that you've done. so the pla hopefully you like that choice of a tree for old town graveyard and we'll have you double check that the location's in the right place but it will be there and it says theresa merkel for her vision leadership and service medina's america 250. thank you would you like to

Thank you, and thank you for everybody that showed up that helped. I didn't do this by myself. As Jim said, there were 60 people that helped. I had no idea about this, obviously, or I wouldn't have been dressed like this tonight. But when my husband walked in and my kids and my grandkids, I thought, what in the world? Why would they be here for the council meeting? But anyway, thank you so much. And it was a great honor to do, and we had about a thousand people that showed up. So I think it was a good thing for the community. So thank you very much. Thank you all.

All right. Thank you council for indulging me. Lots of good things. And I know we have a lot going on tonight, but that completes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Durham. Director of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report, but there are four items at the very end of the agenda. So if anyone at home stays through the end of the meeting, I'll be back.

Mr. Huber, Law Director. Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report. Mrs. Marshall, Economic Development Director.

Thank you, Mr. President. So just a couple items to note for council this evening. We did submit our final report to the state of Ohio on the former Yosinoco gas station site, and once that report is approved, then our reimbursement request, which has also been submitted, then they can go ahead and process the payment for that. That will wrap that up, and then... then we can work on having the property transferred over to the city, so then we could start a plan for redevelopment. So stay tuned for more on that. And then we also did receive the grant for the South Elmwood parking lot, which is just an assessment grant. We're going to hold off on doing anything with that until we know where we are with the bids and what we're going to do moving forward. Because once we start on the assessment, that will tear up that whole parking lot. It would be rendered unusable. So we've got to kind of wait and see what happens if we're going to move forward with the project. And then we can decide what we want to do with that grant. um the mayor already mentioned our ribbon cutting that we had for serenity so that went really well great turnout um there will be no ribbon cuttings in september and then we'll pick back up again in october with several new businesses coming into the city a lot of great stuff happening in the industrial park but we can't talk about it because of uh confidentiality law 9.66d thank you chief kim please department thank you mr president i have no report

Mrs. Lightner, are you there to give a report for civil service?

No report.

Oh, come on. You're sitting at the table.

She does have an item on the agenda, though.

Oh, that's why you're here. Okay. I'll give you the opportunity to speak if you like. Mr. Fry, the Director of Communications in the back room.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just wanted to bring a few things to our residents' attention, and that is on our city website. I know in finance we discussed some of the DEER program, and Jansen and I have been working closely that you can now go to the city website. There's a multitask here. Go to the homepage, you can click the residence section. Once you go into the residence section, you will then see the deer management page that will have the updates as we get them through council. We'll have those all on there. And right at the very top, you can currently then sign up through Constant Contact to receive emails and keep up with the latest news as we have it here at City Hall regarding our deer management program. So just wanna make sure all the residents knew that they can find that there. and take advantage of that. And then we also want to bring it up that we are going to start a program now that if you have a question or want to know the answer to anything that is happening in the city of Medina, we now have an email address for that. You can go to askmedina at medinaoh.org. We will take those emails and go directly to the sources to get those answers for the residents to help them out with any questions they might have. So please take advantage of that. Again, that's AskMedina at MedinaOH.org. And that is my report right now. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Gladys, building official. Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report.

Thank you.

Mr. Worley, Parks and Recreation Director. Thank you. Just a couple updates for the public. The memorial pool is currently only open on Saturdays and Sundays. Now that most of our staff has returned to school, we'll continue to be open on the weekends through Labor Day. The splash pads will also continue to be open through Labor Day. and i wanted to thank council for approving the wage adjustments for our seasonal employees this year we had a great group of kids adults students most of them have returned to school there's a few that are hanging on but they were very appreciative of that that helped us fill all the positions that we need and through the end of the season evaluations a good majority of them are planning on returning so That makes it a lot better for us to get work done, as well as keep some of that institutional knowledge here to continue to grow our workforce moving forward. I also wanted to thank our patrons at the rec center for their patience and our rec center staff for working tirelessly through what's normally our shutdown week to clean everything. But the last few years, it's been also our week to do all the renovations. This one was exceptionally bad because we had a lot of dust with our tile. Um, for those of you that haven't been there, um, I invite you to stop back in. Most of it's complete except our front desk. Um, we also extensively cleaned our, our pools, our competition pool, our leisure pool, our spa. We installed ultra violent filters in the pools and spa to reduce the chloramine smell. So when you walk into the leisure pool, you don't get hit with that chlorine smell. That'll help save money as well as, uh, reduce corrosion in the environment that the pools are in so that rolled out today so we're looking forward to that change and we also completely renovated our aerobics room we at the rec center also wrapped up another successful summer camp this year we had over 125 children that participated with the furthest driving from mansfield to come every day We received a really good review from that particular family and they're actually gonna be potentially looking for jobs and homes in Medina because of their experience. That was really good for our staff to hear. We also started a teen camp to try and keep the individuals that age out of our Discover camp engaged at the rec center. And every week that we had, we were able to utilize our new van and do trips with teenagers to specific points of interest that they might like. So we're looking to continue to grow that. And I thank our rec center staff for continuing to push forward. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Patton, city engineer. Thank you, Mr. President. Mayor Shields alluded to it. I thought I'd give an update on the 42 resurfacing project. The entire project stretches from just north of Homestead to Lafayette. The first phase was the concrete improvements at intersections starting at the northern half, which would be Friendship right here at the corner to just north of Homestead. That work is complete. Today they started on the landscaping for that section. Next phase, the concrete crew return to the city sometime the first week of September to do the intersection improvements in the southern half, which is Friendship down to Lafayette, including the square area. Second or third week in September, we'll see our first bit of asphalt work. They'll be milling the existing asphalt and following that up with the intermediate course of asphalt. That, unfortunately, is going to be quite intrusive to a lot of motorists. We won't maintain traffic, but it is definitely going to be a delay. We appreciate everyone's cooperation, and maybe it helps that that goes pretty quickly. That whole thing should be done in five or six days, that first section. Thank you. Chief Walters, Fire Department.

Thank you, Mr. President. The 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony events for 9-11 will take place on Friday the 11th at 10 a.m. beginning inside the fire station at Station 1. That's at the corner of Reagan and North Huntington by the movie theater. And then we'll conclude next door at the memorial. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Dutton, Planning and Community Development Director. Thank you, Mr. President. I have no report. Thank you. NOTICES, COMMUNICATIONS, AND PETITIONS. WE HAVE TWO OF THEM. A LIQUOR PERMIT. NOT TO OBJECT TO THE ISSUANCE OF A STOCK LLC D5 PERMIT TO SUEN CORP. HOUSE OF HUNAN, 18 PUBLIC SQUARE, MEDINA.

NOT TO OBJECT.

SECOND, NOT TO OBJECT. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE ROLL.

Chair? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons?

Yes.

Simpson?

Yes.

Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

And a second liquor permit not to object to the issuance of a new D5L permit to Boss Chick and Beer, LLC 117 Public Square, Medina. Ms. Hare?

Move not to object.

Second not to object. Any discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.

Isabella.

Yes.

Lamb.

Yes.

Simmons.

Yes.

Simpson. Yes. Hoyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Motion passes 7-0.

I'm finished business. We don't have any introduction of visitors. Members of the public, we've made this opportunity to speak on any issue or concerns which pertains to the city during a portion of the council agenda devoted to introduction of visitors. All comments shall be directed to the chair. and a reasonable time limit of approximately five minutes will be imposed. If there's a group, please appoint a spokesperson. Speakers should approach the rear microphone and state their name and address so it could be entered into the minutes. Members of the public will be afforded the opportunity to comment on other portions of the meeting as determined by the chair or by a vote of the majority of council members present. Is there anybody that wishes to address council at this time? First meeting back. This is your time. Can't get anybody to do it. Okay, introduction and consideration of ordinances and resolutions. At this time, I'd entertain a motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings on the following ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance 118.26, 119.26, 120.26, 121.26, 122.26, 1 23 26 1 24 26 resolution 1 25 26 ordinance 1 26 26 resolution 1 27 26 ordinance 1 29 26 1 30 26 1 31 26 and 1 32 26. mr president mr i make a motion to suspend the rules requiring three readings on the following ordinances and resolutions second any discussion on the most suspended rules please call the roll

Lamb?

Yes.

Simmons?

Yes.

Simpson?

Yes.

Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella?

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Ordinance 118.26, an ordinance authorizing the expenditure of $12,000 to Banana County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, SPCA, for animal-related services for the year 2026. Ms. Hare?

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion. Mr. Simmons, you met with the SPCA and Can we talk about that?

Yeah, we just had some email dialogue back and forth. We have supported them for many years, starting at $2,500, and it's going up to $12,000 now for their work with abandoned and injured animals in the city.

so we'll continue that support and i believe they gave a list of the animals that were taken from the city you know a list of the animals to make sure that we verify the addresses i think we got to keep up on that and make sure that that is accurate in the future i know paul rose used to do that when he was here so we just want to make sure that we're we're getting the proper information from the sbca is there any other questions the list that we looked at that we got from the sbca if my memory's correct were they all were they all cats

I think they were all cats on this list.

That doesn't seem, I mean, we voted for it. I mean, we brought it up to, we voted it up here. But it doesn't seem possible to me that the whole list would just be cats. Where were the dogs?

Well, that's why I think we have to reevaluate. I think the service is fine, but we have to double check that the information we're getting is the correct information.

Remember they were also the pass-through for Medina Meow Mix. I felt like that was the list of the Medina Meow Mix that they used our money to pay for. Maybe I misunderstood.

That's why I said we've got to get the accurate list.

The list that we've gotten every year has been a complete list because that's why we donate the money because it saves us a lot of money because we don't have to hire someone to do that and have a vehicle. And so we pay them, and they do the cats and the dogs, but that list didn't seem right to me because it was just cats.

I noticed that too, and that's why I thought it was the other pot of money and not the pot of money we pay them for their services.

I'm not objecting to it. I just think that we need to take a look at that next time and not just make sure we have them all.

They have helped us out with dogs as well.

I presume that they did. The list we saw, oddly enough, only had cats.

Yeah. I'm certain over the past year that they've helped us out with dogs. And that service replaces what would be an animal control officer for the city.

Any other questions? Clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of your ordinance.

Simmons.

Yes.

Simpson. Yes. Coyne.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Ordinance 11826 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 11926, an ordinance authorizing the purchase of one 2026F Ford 350 4x4 pickup truck from Montrose Ford for the street department.

Mr. President? Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. President, thank you all. Mr. Piccoli is on vacation, but he left me a note here that as presented, the budget process purchase for a replacement vehicle in the street department utilizing the community university education program, this purchase will be made through Montrose Ford.

Any discussion? Clerk, please call the roll in adopting the ordinance.

Simpson?

Yes.

Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Herr? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons?

Yes.

Motion passes. I mean, ordinance 119.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 120.26, an ordinance authorizing the purchase of 120.26 MAC front load sanitation truck for environmental equipment for the sanitation department.

Mr. President. Yes, sir. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion.

Mayor Shields. Also, from Mr. Piccoli's notes, this is a purchase of a 2026 MAC-TE 28 cubic yard front load sanitation truck from Environmental Equipment Sales and Service utilizing the source well purchasing program. The truck will not be available, they wanted to note, until sometime in 2027. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Please call the roll. Any adoption of the ordinance?

Coyne.

Yes.

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Ordinance 12026 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 12126, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Medina Metropolitan Housing Authority to act as the responsible party for the environmental review pertaining to the project the Lafayette located at 881 Lafayette Road. Mr. President. Yes, sir.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Dutton? Thank you, Mr. President. Medina Metropolitan Housing is currently constructing a multifamily residential building, the Lafayette, designed for individuals at risk of homelessness on Lafayette Road. They're currently applying for project-based voucher contract assistance, or PBVC assistance through HUD, for rental assistance for those units. PART OF THAT APPLICATION, THEY MUST CONDUCT AN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE SITE. AND THIS ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW MUST HAVE A RESPONSIBLE PARTY. THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO BE THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY. THE CITY CAN BE. SO THIS IS AN MOU FOR US ENTERING AN AGREEMENT TO ACT AS THAT RESPONSIBLE PARTY FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. WE'VE DONE THIS IN THE PAST AND THE LANGUAGE PROTECTS THE CITY AS MR. HUBER WOULD ATTEST FROM ANY POTENTIAL LIABILITY ASSOCIATED WITH ENTERING AN AGREEMENT AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL SPONSOR, SO TO SPEAK. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll. Any adoption of your ordinance?

DeSalvo, yes. Hare, yes. Isabella, yes. Lamb, yes. Simmons, yes. Simpson, yes. Coyne, yes. Ordinance 12126 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 12226, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to turn into a cooperative service agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, for assistance with debating and sharpshooting a portion of the white-tailed deer management plan of the city of Medina.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second discussion, Mr. Worley. Thank you, Mr. President. This is a cooperative services agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture, Animal, Plant, and Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, to do targeted deer removal for the city, which will run in conjunction with our hunting program, the completion of the hunting program. Uh, the plan work plan is to allocate, um, or remove up to 200 additional deer, depending on the success of the hunting program. So that number could change the budgetary number that we have is not to exceed in the contract. Uh, this also includes processing costs to, uh, uh, process the carcasses in which the meat will be prepared for the city to pick up and distribute to either the feeding Medina County or another local food bank. This will run again in conjunction with our pickup program. If there's residents that are interested in picking up the carcasses that will save on this contract. Uh, so there's a little bit of flexibility within this, but this is the agreement that we need to get in place so that we can get, uh, on their schedule, uh, for targeted deer removal, uh, come the beginning of January.

Thank you. Any discussion on that? Yeah, this is, yeah, this is from January to March. I think it is. Uh, it's not every day, so it's going to be certain times that that'll occur because if, uh, if everybody remembers that, you know, we have a tremendous amount of deer, and even if we hit these numbers that we talk about, maybe three to 400 deer are harvested throughout the bow program, the sharpshooting program, and unfortunately the vehicle program that we automatically have somehow. That will not even be enough to manage the number that are being born each year. So it's going to take some time, as we talked about, because there's just so many out there that even if we hit that many this year, you may not notice a significant decrease next year just because of the number of fawns that have been born. So with that, with a quick please call the roll.

Chair? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Liam?

Yes.

Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Ordinance 122.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 123.26, an ordinance amending Section 5D of the Civil Service Rules of the Regulations of the City of Madonna relative to filing of application. Mr. President? Yes, sir. Move to approve. Second. Discussion? Ms. Leitner, that's why you're here.

That is why I'm here. Thank you, Mr. President. The Civil Service Commission is requesting an update to Rule 5D. It pertains to how applications are submitted. This request comes as we're working to implement new software that's going to streamline the hiring process for applicants and our hiring teams. The commissioners wanted to make sure that this rule reflected the electronic filing process, and we asked Mr. Huber for his opinion. And the new language he advised explicitly includes electronic filing of applications, which we need to make this whole thing work.

Yes, and Mr. Huber likes electronic filings. So I'm glad I looked at it.

Anybody have any further comments or discussion?

Clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of your ordinance.

Isabella. Yes.

Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes.

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Ordinance 123.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 124.26, an ordinance authorizing the increase of expenditure to Winthrow Construction for the Engineering Department.

Mr. President. Ms. Hare. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion. Ms. Hare.

The emergency clause has been requested. I move to add it at this time, please.

My second includes emergency clause. Discussion on emergency clause and the ordinance. Mr. Patton.

Thank you. Yeah, we have experienced additional maintenance due to emergency repairs to our railroad. We are still well behind last year's kind of record pace. But in June, we had two broken rail repairs to be done, as well as an FRA-mandated repair to a railroad crossing surface. We hope that this will cover us for the rest of the year.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll on adoption of emergency clause.

Lamb.

Yes.

Simmons.

Yes.

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella.

Yes.

Motion passes 7-0.

Clerk, please call the roll on adoption of the ordinance.

Simmons?

Yes.

Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Hare? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Ordinance 12426 passes 7-0.

Resolution 12526, a resolution authorizing the application of grant assistance with the Ohio Public Works Commission, OPWC, for the 2028 Miscellaneous Asphalt Street Resurfacing Program.

Mr. President? Yes, sir. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Patton? Thank you, Mr. President. This year we will be in line to receive $585,000 from the Ohio Public Works Commission. Evaluated a bunch of different projects and the one we're recommending we're calling it our mrs. Miscellaneous asphalt streets resurfacing There's seven streets within the city North Broadway Broadway Abbeville Bowman branch east north orchard Lane and prospect That need to be resurfaced. They have been resurfaced in at least 20 years So we'd like to move forward with that as our project for this year's round. I

Thank you. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll on adoption of the resolution.

Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb.

Yes.

Simmons.

Yes.

Resolution 12526 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 12626, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to accept one sanitary sewer easement on Wadsworth Road.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion, Mr. Patton. Thank you. The developer doing the housing development on Wadsworth Road across from fire station number three has granted a sanitary sewer easement to the city. This is just us accepting that easement. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.

Hoyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Ordinance 126.26 passes 7-0.

Resolution 127.26, a resolution authorizing the application of grant assistance with the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, and the Ohio Department of Transportation of Aviation, ODOT, for the runway edge lighting replacement project at the Medina Municipal Airport.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion?

Mr. President, the emergency clause has been requested. I move to add it at this time.

Discussion on the emergency clause and the resolution. Mr. Patton.

Thank you, Mr. President. The existing edge runway lights at our airport were all installed in the 80s. We have almost very much difficulty, almost impossible to find replacement parts. The FAA is open to us designing a project to replace those edge lights. This grant will provide 95% of the funding to do that design so that we can later do the project in 2028 or 2027, I mean. The city is also eligible to submit a request to the Ohio Department of Transportation, Department of Aviation to cover the 5%, which would be 100% of the cost.

Thank you. And the emergency clause is not necessary since it's a resolution. Oh, I'm sorry. Emergency clause is required. Hold on. You don't need one in a resolution. So we're overzealous up here. So you guys are overzealous out there, too. So we'll remove the emergency clause because it is not necessary. Is there any further discussion on the resolution? Yes, Mr. Huber.

I just wanted to add that these lights will be LED lights, which is what the federal government is moving toward. They're way more reliable. We've had real problems with the conventional lighting system that's there.

Good. Thank you. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll on adoption of the resolution.

Chair? Yes. Isabella? Yes. Lamb? Yes. Simmons? Yes. Simpson? Yes. Coyne? Yes. DeSalvo? Yes. Resolution 127.26 passes 7-0.

Now, Ordinance 128.26 is going to be put on hold. So we'll move on to Ordinance 129.26. In ordinance of the City of Medina, Ohio, certifying that when a municipal obligation was incurred, sums were lawfully appropriated into funds to satisfy the obligation, and sufficient sums currently exist to satisfy this obligation.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion?

Mr. President, the emergency clause has been requested. I move to add it at this time.

My second includes the emergency clause.

Discussion on emergency clause and ordinance. Mr. Darn.

Thank you, Mr. President. This is to cover the upcharge for the fireworks because they were moved to a different date, and I do need the emergency clause because the work has obviously already been performed.

That darn weather. Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll on the Adoption and Emergency Clause.

Simmons.

Yes.

Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Herr. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Emergency Clause passes 7-0.

Clerk, please call the roll on the Adoption and Ordinance.

Simpson.

Yes. Coyne.

Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Herr. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons.

Yes.

ORDINANCE 129.26 PASSES 7-0.

ORDINANCE 130.26 AND ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NUMBER 218.25 PASSED DECEMBER 8, 2025 REGARDING A 2% WAGE INCREASE AMENDMENTS TO THE 2026 BUDGET. MR. PRESIDENT, MOVE TO APPROVE. SECOND. DISCUSSION, MR. DURHAM.

THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT. WHEN THE BUDGETS FOR 26 WERE DONE DURING 2025, WE BUDGETED BASED ON 2% RAISES. WE ACTUALLY ARE DOING 4% RAISES, SO I NEED THE DIFFERENCE.

And the difference equals $1,155,000 for those of you keeping track out there. So that's kind of a big hit to the budget over the next three years. So just keep that in mind. Any further discussion? Please call the roll on the adoption ordinance.

COIN. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson.

Yes.

Ordinance 130.26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 131.26, an ordinance amending ordinance number 218.25, passed December 8, 2025, amendments to the 2026 budget.

Mr. President, move to approve.

Second. Discussion, Mr. Durham.

Thank you, Mr. President. This one, two major components. One is there's a grant that we get, the municipal court gets each year, that the fiscal year for the grant starts in July, so we always have to do an adjustment mid-year when the grant comes through. And then the rest is fuel adjustments. Fuel is more than it was when we were planning and budgeting last year.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Please call the roll and adopt your ordinance.

DeSalvo. Yes. Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson. Yes. Coyne. Yes. Ordinance 131-26 passes 7-0.

Ordinance 132-26, an ordinance authorizing a finance director to make certain fund transfers. Mr. President. Yes, sir. Move to approve.

Second. Discussion, Mr. Durham. Thank you, Mr. President. One transfer is from the unclaimed monies fund to the general fund. After a set amount of time, that's what happens to unclaimed money. The other two are to reimburse the funds that paid interest on the court project. The interest was paid to us. We lent money to ourselves, and we are not charging. We have to charge ourselves for audit purposes, but we're reimbursing it because we're not charging it.

Any further discussion? Please call the roll on the adoption of the ordinance.

Hare. Yes. Isabella. Yes. Lamb. Yes. Simmons. Yes. Simpson.

Yes.

Coyne. Yes. DeSalvo. Yes. Ordinance 132-26 passes 7-0.

We do have an executive session this evening, but we'll do council comments first, because when we come back, we're taking no action in an executive session, so everybody will be gone.

So Council comments. Mr. Simmons. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll just keep this real short since our meeting is once along. We have an executive session. I just want to welcome everybody back. I hope everybody enjoyed their time off. I know I did. The only other thing I want to say, be kind to one another. Thank you. Ms. Sarah.

Ditto. Mr. Simmons.

On July 18th, as Mayor Shields mentioned, we had an America 250 event. I'd like to give a shout out to the business and property owners who assisted with that, as well as the guides and the hosts who did the speaking. We had a wonderful day. The weather was extremely hot in the first part of the day, extremely windy and rainy in the last part of the day. But shout out to the Engine House, Huntington Bank, Medina Hardware, the Odd Fellows, and PJ Marley's. It was a great day. The other item is we have this Sunday coming up at Ray Miller Park, the fourth annual Family Fun Day, put on by Reverend Wilson and friends, and the Community Alliance Project. So I invite you to attend Ray Miller Park this Sunday.

Um, a couple of things.

Um, I went, I was able to attend both the affair at the square and art in the park. I missed the Gil, I'm sorry, not the Gilmore girls, the, uh, all stars hollow event. Um, but, um, what, what a great event that, that, uh, we are able to put on for the people. Um, and I know for sure at the all-stars hollow, there was someone from the four, four Oh seven Oh, which is Canton, by the way. My Canton crowd was up here. Also on the 12th of September is the Medina Band Show. So anyone who wants to come out and enjoy our fabulous Medina Marching Bees, I'm sorry, Musical Bees, that is on the 12th of September. Thank you.

Mr. Isabella, uh, best wishes to all of our students going back to school, uh, this fall and best of luck for the school year.

Thank you, Mr. Lamb. He just asked me a question about the ward meeting. I think it's the ninth or eighth.

Okay. So the eighth, the eighth is on the eighth is the, um, ward meeting for board four and ward three. So.

Where's it at?

I have no idea. Ellicannabin. Is it at Ellicannabin?

Yes.

Do you know anybody that went to Ellicannabin, Mayor? There. Oh, okay. That's right. Yeah, so if you're in those wards, great. And if you are... Not in those words, you're welcome to come as well and ask questions or listen and ask questions. It's always great to hear from people. And not to delay this at all, but thank you to the Friends of the Cemetery for all you do. Spring Grove is actually a jewel for this community. The historic reason that it's called a cemetery goes back to when they decided to have park-like places for burial, and you have done an amazing job at upkeep and expansion and taking care of it for this community and for generations that will follow us. So I appreciate all you do. Thank you for coming tonight.

Thank you. And with that, I think we have the motion to recess into executive session. What time is it?

8.29.

Ms. Hare.

Mr. President, I make a motion at 8.29 p.m. to have counsel go into executive session for two purposes, to meet with the law director of the city to discuss disputes involving the city that are the subject of pending or imminent court action and to review negotiations with employees concerning compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. And this is to include the mayor and the law director. Thank you.

SECOND, SORRY.

MR. SIMPSON IS NOT GOING TO ATTEND THE EXECUTIVE SESSION BECAUSE THERE IS A CONFLICT, SO HE IS GOING TO REMOVE HIMSELF FROM THE EXECUTIVE SESSION. WILL THE CLERK PLEASE CALL THE ROLL TO RECESS INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION?

KOIN.

YES.

DESALVO. YES. HAIR. YES. ISABELLA. YES. LAM.

YES.

SIMMONS. YES. SIMPSON.

YES. NO. SORRY.

MOTION PASSES 6-1.

WE'RE GOING TO RECESS IN EXECUTIVE SESSION, DISCUSS THOSE ITEMS THAT MS. HAIR MENTIONED. WE'RE GOING TO CONVENE THE COUNCIL MEETING TO ADJOURN FROM COUNCIL, BUT TAKING NO ACTION OF ANYTHING DISCUSSED IN EXECUTIVE SESSION.