City Council - Special Meeting

And suspend the rules and get this moving and potential million dollar grants on the table. So need to think about that. It's now 530. I'm going to call this special meeting to order. And just to remind you, during a special meeting, the only thing that can be discussed are the things that are on the agenda. So we have three agenda items. Would you please call the roll?

Mr. Ruckman?

Here.

Mr. Miller?

Here.

Mr. Sepperns?

Here.

Ms. Keener? Here. Mr. Mahan?

Here.

Mr. Jacklin?

Here.

Ms. Hager is absent.

Okay, thank you, Ms. Wayne. We are in session, and we'll move to the resolution for first reading. Ms. Wayne.

A resolution authorizing and directing the safety service director to prepare and submit applications for the following PY2026 community development block grants, neighborhood revitalization grant, critical infrastructure grant, residential public infrastructure grant, and allocations grant, and declaring an emergency.

Mr. Mahan. Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and take Resolution 2026, Act 64 to its third and final reading. Second.

I move to second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension?

Yeah, I'm going to ask Quentin to kill two birds with one stone here and explain not only the reason for suspending the rules, but go ahead and explain what we're doing, and that way we can kind of knock it all out at once.

We can only discuss suspension of the rules if that's also on the table.

Okay, Quentin, could you please explain why we're suspending the rules?

Yeah, we're requesting the rules be suspended because this is the first hearing of this, and we have to apply for this grant on or before June 10th. And so my understanding is that the next meeting on June 8th, there will not be a quorum to suspend the rules, and we wouldn't have reached three readings by then to be able to pass it without suspending the rules.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, I think we're ready.

Ms. Swain.

Mr. Ruckman?

Yes.

Mr. Miller?

Yes.

Mr. Severance?

Yes.

Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan?

Yes.

Mr. Jacklin?

Yes. Rule is suspended. Mr. Mahan? I move to adopt Resolution 2026-64. Second.

I move to second if they adopt this resolution. Any discussion? Mr. Mahan? Quentin?

Sure. So I guess I'll just go through what these grants are for those who might not be familiar with the CDBG program. The first one here, the Neighborhood Revitalization Grant, or we call it the NRG grant. This is a grant where we hold public meetings. We get input from the public in a specific census tract that is eligible for CDBG funding. So a previous example of this would be the neighborhood grant that we did where we put in streets and did utility infrastructure and some new playground for the park. And then a project we have underway right now, which is the Riverside Park neighborhood, which includes improvements on West Sugar Street, playground equipment and pickleball courts at Riverside Park and some utility improvements as well. So this grant would be applied for in the Pleasant Street neighborhood, we're calling it. Essentially, it's the census tract from Pleasant Street north This is going to sound weird, but like north and west to Vernon View Drive or Sanitarium Road. So if you can kind of imagine that section of city limits, right, the northeast quadrant, north of Pleasant Street, west of Vernon View Drive, and parts of Coshocton Avenue. So we've spent over six months now holding public meetings, getting input from that neighborhood and what kind of issues they're having. AND WE DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IMPROVEMENTS WE'RE GOING TO DO. WHAT WE'D LIKE TO DO IS TRY TO SCOPE THE PROJECT TO THE GRANT FUNDING AMOUNT SO THAT THE CITY WOULD HAVE LITTLE TO NO MATCH IN THIS PROJECT. SO THE GRANT FUNDING WOULD BE 750,000 total, but only 700,000 of that would be for construction. So we'd be looking at doing various sidewalk projects. If you look at the map in front of you, this is the area that we're talking about here. In the black are the three areas of sidewalk that have been that have been discussed the most at the meetings. So on the bottom left, this is Pleasant Street School. So there's already a sidewalk on the south side of Pleasant Street. There's nothing on the north side, kind of right in front of the Curtis Mansion property. And so the students only have the one side to walk on the sidewalk on, and it's not a terribly good circumstance with the cars parking there. And as far as I understand, there's not a terribly easy fix for that at the moment, at least not on the engineering side. and then extending that north to Curtis Street to match the sidewalk that's on the west side of the street. The next one is on Beach Street. So again, we have sidewalk on the north side of Beach Street all the way from Siker to Vernon View. However, on the south side, that sidewalk comes west from Vernon View and it just kind of abruptly ends right before the bridge over Center Run. And we've had several people discuss that as a concern of not having a crossing there, having no way to get to the park when you live in one of those neighborhoods. And then another thing that I'm sure all of you have probably at least heard of once is bringing back the bridge across the ditch at Beach Street. We don't know if that's the feasibility of that yet. It has less to do with building a bridge and more to do with making sure that it's accessible and that it's in a logical place. We can build a bridge anywhere over anything, but we have to have a safe way on and off of the bridge on both ends of it, and it has to be logical. So that's where it gets kind of tricky there. And we also are cautious always of putting a mid-intersection crossing in unless we have those solar-powered rapid flashing beacons. We like to have people cross at a controlled intersection. So those are the three sidewalk areas. This blue area that you see that encompasses Hilltop Drive and Beach Street, we've had a lot of concerns of stormwater flooding and mainly just localized flooding and drainage issues. So we're gonna look at that. And then within Hiawatha Park, the number one project that they were in support of were improving the basketball courts. So whether that was just resurfacing the courts or doing an expansion. Again, we would look at scoping this to be right around that $700,000 construction mark to not only limit the burden on engineering and other city staff, but to limit the financial burden on the city to not contribute too much. We do not need to have any dollar match to acquire this grant. It could be helpful to throw in extra money, but our consultant says they've been very successful getting these grants without a match.

When you had these meetings, pros and cons from the residents?

Pros and cons from the residents in, you mean related to applying for the grant or? What's the feedback? What's the feedback that we're getting?

About this project and anybody have any pros or cons about the project?

So this project is from their feedback. So essentially we went to them and we said, we just listened at first and said, what are your issues? We didn't really present anything to them. And over time, we took that first round of comments and said, this is what we heard last time, presented that to the next group. And I think we did four or five public meetings. I'm not exactly sure of the number. I was only at one of them, the very last one.

I was present, I believe, at the first or second, and they met at Pleasant Street School, got residents around maps, had little focus groups. It was significant. They were really working to get feedback from the residents. I saw that. I was there.

Mr. President, if I may, one of the comments that we receive, frankly, not with just this project, but with any project related to a census tract, is the confusion as to Why this map? And Mr. Platt, can you explain not only to council, but to the media, the public that would happen to see this, where this map came from?

Yeah, so these tracks are identified by HUD, which is Housing and Urban Development. This is a federal agency. And they've identified these low to moderate income census tracks that are eligible for CDBG funding. So they do some economic magical math to determine which of these tracks are eligible for funding. And we can go and apply for CDBG funds outside of those LMI neighborhoods. I don't think that applies to all the grants. I'd have to check with our consultant. But to do that, we have to grant qualify the neighborhood, which we've been through that at least once since I've been here. It's a very tedious task to do. You literally go door to door and have to try to get income data from everybody in there and hope that the neighborhood income qualifies.

So long story short, This is a map that was provided to us by the federal government. We did not create this map. So when we get these census tracts and we basically choose projects throughout the area based on need and based on feedback from the community and feedback from internal needs, whether that be transportation, infrastructure, utility, community development, different things like that, or from members of council who bring up issues or priorities that they have. We build these based off of accessible funds that we know are gonna be accessible based off of these census tracts. The best thing that community members can do is when the census rolls around, make sure you fill out your census form. because you'll see pockets of neighborhoods that are on these things because that's where people live. Big open fields that nobody lives in, they're not listed here because that's not where the people are. So that's something that we hear a lot about this, and I think that just comes from a confusion where people are like, well, are you doing this because this insert community is in one community or this community? No, it's because this is a census tract that was given to us by Housing and Urban Development, an agency from the federal government. This is a designated census tract. And this would qualify for this grant or this grant. And it has a particular either utility need, a transportation need, or fill in the blank. And that's what qualifies. So now that's how we choose these projects. And we don't design this map. So I kind of want to get that out there so people understand that that's how we're making these decisions. But the best thing you can do at a citizen level is make sure you are participating in the census when it comes out, because that's where this data comes from.

I had one question. I know in the past on some of these projects, some of the work and improvements that the city had already been planning to do counts for points towards the grant. Do we have any work inside of this area that's going to help us out in this grant process at all?

So I know that the discussion of the sidewalk on Pleasant Street has been around for a while, trying to do something to improve walkability to an otherwise very walkable school that has a whole section within walking distance that can't walk there. The other ones, I'm not aware of anything that we had planned or had designed. Everything has been reactive to their input. That said, our consultant is very confident that we have a good chance of getting this grant.

I would note that we have acquired property for the sidewalk, for Pleasant Street. That will count towards it to help us with the grant.

I think, Ms. Keener, maybe the major project that you may be alluding to is that in this census tract, the police station will be built. Yeah. While we are building a considerable project, I don't know that that helps or harms the project. It just happens to be in the census tract. I don't know that that really weighs one way or the other. And I knew we had done some work.

I didn't know how far back it was at Hiawatha Park. So I was just curious. Thank you.

Yeah, I know that we have looked at other improvements at Hiawatha Park as well. I DO BEFORE WE STEP AWAY FROM THE NRG. I SAID THERE WERE THREE SIDEWALKS. I DIDN'T GET TO THE THIRD ONE ON VERNON VIEW DRIVE. WE HAD EQUAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE COME IN AS FOR THE OTHER SIDEWALKS AND SAY THEY'D LIKE TO HAVE A SIDEWALK GOING NORTH ON VERNON VIEW DRIVE ON THE WEST SIDE BASICALLY EXTENDING NORTH FROM BEACH STREET. SO THERE'S ALREADY A SIDEWALK THAT GOES SOUTH CONNECTS BEACH STREET TO CASHOCKTON AVENUE. but if you live north of there, there's no sidewalk. Unfortunately, the east side of the road is outside of this census, of the census tract. So it basically stops in the middle of the road, forces us to put it on the west side. It's my understanding that there have been talks of putting a sidewalk on the east side as well. It just would have to happen outside of this project. Potentially, hopefully with a future developer, although that's left to be determined, so.

I've heard comments about that sidewalk too, that people really like to have that sidewalk put in.

And that could be a project that the city does, not necessarily a match, but since if this is a project that we do, then the city could come in and finish that project on the east side of the road. That way you've got the west and east covered, and then there's walkability downtown getting vehicles off of Vernon View, which is another complaint that we hear.

Any other questions from council? I have one.

I'm not a huge fan of suspending the rules and the emergency clause because I think ultimately it kind of reduces citizen participation. Is there a plan to avoid this in the future, like putting us in this position?

Thank you, Councilman. I'll go ahead and answer that. One of the things that has become very apparent is that we need a checklist or a roadmap whenever these sorts of things come through. THAT OUTLINES, YOU'VE SEEN US PROVIDE THAT BEFORE ON DIFFERENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVES, AND SO I'LL BE WORKING WITH THE ENGINEERING TEAM, ALSO WITH JILLIAN FLOWERS FROM CDC OF OHIO, IN HAVING A CHECKLIST AND A ROAD MAP FOR EACH ONE OF THESE PROJECTS SO THAT WE SEE THE DATE, THE TASK, AND CAN AVOID THESE SPECIAL MEETINGS.

THANK YOU. ANY OTHER COMMENTS FROM COUNCIL? MR. SWING.

Mr. Ruckman? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Jacklin?

Yes.

Resolution is adopted. Good luck on this application. Next resolution is resolution number 2026, day 65. Mrs. Wayne?

A resolution authorizing and directing the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to make supplemental appropriations.

Mr. Mahan.

Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings. Take resolution 2026-65 to its third and final reading.

Second.

I move to second for the suspension of the rules. Any discussion on the suspension?

If I may. Mr. Brinkman, is this yours? It's mine.

Oh, sorry, Mr. Boren.

This case, this is part of the Knox Cattle Company dam work. We have been administering a fund of not quite a million dollars to do the work on this. We have been very specific saying that we will not use city money for any of this work. The receiver who is sort of running the company that now owns the dam as installed by Judge Wetzel tendered a bill to us for which we don't have the cash from the county commissioners of that. And so that was, oh, the bill was $22,000. We had about $7,000 left for that part of the fund. Judge Wetzel handed me a check. Well, the clerk's office did at Judge Wetzel's discretion, uh, direction for $20,000, which I handed to Mr. Brinkman so that we can pay the rest of this bill to, for work that the receiver has already done. When I found out we had this special meeting, I thought we could step up and get the, this person paid, it's not our money. It's money that came from the court to pay them. And the bill has already has been tendered to us. And I thought that we could move this along, especially since they were nice enough to hand me a big check.

Any other discussion on the suspension of the rules?

Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Miss Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline.

Yes. Rule is suspended. Mr. Mahan.

Thank you, sir. I move to adopt Resolution 2026-65. Second.

I move to second the adoption of this resolution. Any further discussion? Mr. Mahan?

I believe Mr. O'Brien has covered it.

Okay. Mr. Swain? Mr. Ruckman?

Yes.

Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Severance? Yes. Ms. Keener? Yes. Mr. Mahan? Yes. Mr. Jacqueline?

Yes.

Resolution is adopted. The final resolution is Resolution No. 2026-66. Mrs. Swain?

A resolution authorizing and director the auditor of the city of Mount Vernon to pay bills pursuant to section 5705.41d, then and now certification.

Mr. Mahan.

Thank you, sir. I move to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings. Take resolution 2026-66 to its third and final reading.

Second. I move to second for the suspension of the rules and a discussion on suspension.

Mr. Brinkman, is this yours? Yes.

Yes, I mean, this kind of goes part and parcel with the other thing that Mr. Boren discussed, and it's kind of an unavoidable then and now because there wasn't enough money in the fund for the cattle dam until we got the check. Usually on purchase orders, there's certifications saying money is there or in the process of collection. You can't really say that, the money's not there, and it's not really anticipated like ordinary anticipation like income tax revenue. So until we got the revenue, you can't really say that, so that's kind of a pure then and now, we'll call it.

Any other discussion?

Mrs. Swain.

Mr. Ruckman.

Yes.

Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Jacklin.

Yes. Resolution is adopted. That concludes the legislative portion of the meeting. I'll call for adjournment.

So moved. Sir, I think we just suspended the rules.

We just suspended the suspension of the rules. Oh, no, suspension. I'm sorry. Mr. Mahan.

So again, this is contract engineering costs for the cattle dam, just to be very clear.

Yes.

Okay. I believe Mr. Brinkman has now covered it. I move to adopt resolution 2026-66.

Second. Moved and seconded the adoption of this resolution. Any discussion? Mrs. Swain.

Mr. Ruckman. Yes. Mr. Miller. Yes. Mr. Severance. Yes. Ms. Keener. Yes. Mr. Mahan. Yes. Mr. Jacqueline.

Yes. Resolution is adopted. That concludes the legislative portion of the meeting. I'll call for adjournment.

So moved.

Second. And moved and seconded. We adjourn. All in favor say aye. Aye.