City Council - Regular Meeting

places.

It is 7 o'clock. It's time to start our meeting. Amy, please call the role. Miss Blind, present. Mr. Q present. Mr. C, yes. Mr. Hower here. Mingle here. Mr. Leutus. Mr. Marmy, present. Mr. Neely, yes. Miss Newman here. Mr. Barker here. You like to stand for the invocation, please. Bow our heads. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank for this day. Thank you for all you've done for us. Thank you for the great state and city that we live in. Lord, we ask you to help us as we conduct business. We ask you Lord to watch and protect each and everyone as we travel home. Help us in our doings tonight. Help us to do this pleasing unto you. Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Uh next up on the agenda is caucus. Do we have anything to pertain to the agenda tonight, Mr. President? Mr. Marmy, I make a motion to excuse Mr. Leoo. Second. Motion by Mr. Marmy, second by Mr. Hower. All in favor say I. I. Same sign passes 10. Next up, minutes of January 20th, 20 26 meeting. Do I have a motion? So move. Second.

Motion by Mr. Barker, second by Mr. Hower. All in favor say I.

I. Same sign. Appointments. There's none. Uh, reports of standing committees finance service without with the exception will be received and filed. Reports from city officials Brandon Fox Water Administration. A list of properties being sent to the county property tax lean for past new water, sewer, and storm water bills. Total $6,44867. Communications. Ohio division and liquor. New liquor permit for TJ's Countryplace Incorporation, 1195 North 21st Street, North Ohio. Ohio Division of Liquor transfer liquor permit from Sudu Doobie. Uh 380 Sorco Avenue, North Ohio to Road Pops LLC DBA Road Pops Bar and Grill. Uh 380 Sorco Avenue, North Ohio. Next up, we have comments from citizens. Your opportunity to come and speak. ask for your name and address in three minutes. We have anybody tonight? Go ahead, sir.

My name is Arnold Friend. I live on 456 Soc. The area that's closed in Raccoon Creek um by the railroad bridge had cement divider on one end and the cement divider by Wilson Street. I've been myself and some neighbors have been picking that up and cleaning that almost making like a park so anybody could go there, right? And you didn't have to worry about garbage and razor blades and all that stuff. And I've been cleaning the river area there. Well, I'm kind of we're kind of beating our head against the wall because across Rockland Creek is leadeds on well and between leads fence and the railroad right there on the lead side the and I have nothing against the homeless but someone is going in there and I'm facing mainly out homeless as the tents. There's so much garbage coming down the hill and into the river I can't keep up with. And I mean I'm talking every week I'm down there getting two or three bags out of the river. And if leadeds is letting them back in there and someone needs to say something to somebody, whether it's leads or who to help with this garbage because it's getting down in the river and I can't catch all of it and I know that's going in somebody's drinking water somewhere. I talked to the EPA the when I explained to her and sent some pictures I had and they sent information on the US soil on conservation because it's going on the river and going into somebody's drinking water supply. So I'm looking for some help here whether

less is allowing them to do this. I think being they get public funding they need to be held somewhat accountable to help clean up better. maybe get someone to help clean up back there. I don't go on the lead side because I know that's private property and I don't want to start any trouble. But I'm doing this by myself with my own trash bags and everything. I've talked to Beth Blind quite a few times. She's helped out down there, brought people to help clean it out. But if you look over from the Wilson side by the machine shop and the back leads, you can see old tarps, old tents, garbage, you know, tin cans, pop bottles, everything else coming down the hill from there into the water. And I wanted to bring it up to you people to know this is an ongoing problem. I'm just a simple guy, retiree, trying to make a clean area where you could bring your son or daughter or I go down. I have two dogs. I walk down there and play Frisbee. A clean place that we can go is all I'm trying to do. But I'd like to see if I can get a level out some.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Anybody else? Well, I'm sorry. Paul Bruner, 419 South Second Street. Hope everybody had a good holiday this year. Um, what I'm here for is North used to have a parking ordinance and if you parked on the street for 72 hours in the same spot, not move, your car be marked and then be towed. If we still have that parking ordinance, why isn't it enforced? We know a guy on Isabel Road 215 to be a back. He parks big trucks there and trailers. I talked about this last year. He parks them there with expired tags and nothing gets done. Well, the big truck did get towed this past week. The trailer still sitting there with expired tanks. He took and moved it forward a little bit. So, if we don't have to have tags for our vehicles, well, at least our money will all drive on expired tags. I mean, that ain't right. And I have sent things to Nerk PD online. Uh, we've called last summer. I probably called 20 times. This guy gets by with doing everything. I don't know if he knows somebody or what, but he parks his vehicles out there with expired tags. He parks the big trucks and trailers out there. Makes it hard, real hard to get through. And it's uncultable that he's running a business out of his house. And that's not a commercial area. That's

residential. to run a business, it has to be commercial. Also, his property looks like a city dump. He's got all this equipment sitting all over his property, back and front. He cleaned it up last year once when some when somebody complained and now it's right back the same way it was. So, something needs to know at 215 because we got state law that requires us to register our vehicle. or we get impounded or something like that, the police need to start enforcing these laws and because it's not right when people's calling vehicles are still sitting there and nothing's being done. Why?

Thank you. Anybody else like speak? Okay. Next up is ordinance on the second reading thereundance meeting. Ordinance on the first reading 25-49.

Ordinance number 25-49 by Mr. Barker, Miss Blind, Mr. Cos, Miss Engle, Mr. Marne, and Mr. Milly. and ordinance approving and authorizing the law director of the city of Newark for the law director's designate to take all necessary steps to annex the property being 1.998 acres more or less known as 3131 Hornill Road as recorded in instrument number 20227002997 0.546 acres more or less located in the township of Newark as identified by instrument number 20249130 30016055 and 1.231 acres more or less located in the township of Newark as identified by auditor's parcel number 058-290796-00.0000 pursuant to Ohio revised code 709.16

25-49 will be held until our next meeting which will be Tuesday February 17th. Next up is 25-50. Ordinance number 25-50 by Mr. Barker, Mr. C, Mr. Neily, Mr. Marmy Mingle, an ordinance to assume maintenance responsibility for the full width of Hornill Road from Wildflower Drive until Hornsill Road exits the mun municipalities limits adjacent to 2250 Hornsill Road, Newark, Ohio, 43055 and to authorize the service director to enter into all necessary road maintenance agreements with the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners for the maintenance of Huntrol Road.

25-50 will be held until our next meeting, Tuesday, February 17th. Next up is 25 or 26-1 ordinance number 26-01 by Mr. Barker, Mr. Toss, Miss Blind, Miss Engingle, an ordinance changing the zoning classification of certain real property generally desri described as 483 Ridge Avenue, city of Newark looking county, Ohio, parcel tax ID number 054-192894-00.0000 00 from that of single family residents RH high density zoning district to TFR two family resident zoning district zoning code of the city of Newark Ohio

26 uh-01 would be referred to the planning commission next up is resolutions on the second reading there are none this meeting next up is resolutions on the first reading 26-01 resolution number 26-01 by Mr. Marmy Mr. Cosman Fle Mr. Barker Mr. She Mr. unveiling the single a resolution appropriating monies for current expenses of new municipal corporation 26-01 to be held to our next meeting February 17th. Next up is 2602.

Resolution number 26-02 by Mr. Barker, Mr. Cos, Mr. Marley, Mr. Shu, Mr. Neil Misingold, a resolution authorizing and directing the director of public service of the city of Newark, Ohio to enter into contract without competitive bidding subject to the appropriation of funds for the purchase of a replacement utility billing software, UVS for the water, sewer, and storm water departments. 26-02 will be held to our next meeting, February 17th. And our last one tonight, 26-3.

Resolution number 26-03 by Mr. Parker, Mr. C, ML, Mr. Marley, Mr. Chu, Mr. Ny, Missingold. A resolution authorizing and directing the director of public service for the city of New Ohio to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the licking county transportation improvement district and the city of Heath for the construction of certain improvements to the Thornwood Drive known as the Thornwood Drive FA drive improvements project phase 2 26-3 be held until our next meeting February 17th. That completes our resolutions ordinance tonight. Next up is your last opportunity for comments citizens. Do we have any city officials? Well,

good evening. Have a couple things. I want to speak to resolution 2602. Uh there's a couple questions that were raised at the uh committee meeting the last time regarding the uh security of that program. So, I did speak with Alink, which is the city's IT provider uh on the interconnection between the city and the um cloud-based software. Uh they have no problems or concerns with with the security of the system. Um they actually referred and said that it was very similar to how the uh the fire department uses their 911 alert system. Um so, no concerns there. Also looked into uh the the scope of services for that agreement that we have with Surprise Point. um had the law director's office run through that as well. There majors in that scope of service that actually um they call out that if there's a breach on either side of the city or on the other on the spry point side that that we have to notify them or they have to notify us within 48 hours as well so that we can both cooperate together to try to resolve those issues. So just wanted to share that I did follow up a little bit with that and and feel free to call in assistant happy to answer any questions that might be there. Um, secondly, want to shout give a shout out a big thanks to all the water and and sewer staff this week over the last 10 days since the snowstorm hit. Uh, treating water is hard enough. When it starts to freeze, it becomes even harder. So, um, the novel staff, the fuel crews to our water and waste water folks at the plants done an excellent job. We've had eight or 10 water breaks over the last 10 days. So, that's not fun. Uh, dealing with customers with frozen meters, with frozen water lines, all the things that come associated with it. Uh, and add to it, you know, snow removal. Um, we had folks that were out last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, uh, helping the street department remove snow. So, uh, and then we've been trucking snow out of downtown New York to try to help clear the path, uh, for the for for trying to get folks back to work. So, just want to give a shout out to them and tell everybody thanks for for their their hard work. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Well, good evening. My name is Mark M. I'm the department of development director and I just want to give you a quick update on the PCA project. That's the largest economic development project in Lincoln County. Um Corp is the current commercial manufacturer here in Newark. They've been here a long time. They're building that new site on Thornwood Drive all the way to the railroad tracks. And I had a chance to talk with my contact from PCA last week. He's happy to report. They are on time. They're on budget. Things are going well. They're pretty well under roof. They're pouring the deep areas of concrete where the really heavy manufacturing equipment is going to sit. They're doing that here this coming month. Uh they expect new equipment to be rolling into the site in March. They are going to have all new equipment at the site. They're not going to reuse anything from 21st Street. They also feel confident that they will have a new product rolling out early third quarter. So probably around August 1 is when they anticipate product rolling out on the streets. And so it's very exciting. They're really happy to be in Newark. They're really happy with all the coordinations taking place with the city, county, and the economic development since we were able to provide with our enterprise zone tax abatement. And so I just thought you should hear about that. If you want to see what it looks like, go to the top of Thorwood Drive right before you get to West Main Street and you can see what 525,000 ft looks like. It's an impressive site. They still have to get the railroad spur in the facility, but they're working on that. And uh we city of Newark have a roundabout built that forward drive and Fay Drive. That's going to be their

primary entrance in and out for their trucking traffic. And we also are going to be putting in a third and middle turn lane from the roundabout going south to the railroad tracks to accommodate the truck traffic, the employee traffic, and visitor traffic. So, a lot of work to go. We need some good weather. So, hopefully old man wait get this out of the system and we can move on with bigger and better things and better construction weather. So, just like I give you a quick update. Thank you. Thank you, law director.

Uh, thank you. Um, I will be following up on the lead's property. I know property maintenance is involved in that situation. Um, and Mr. I will also go again property at 2:15 to see property must be involved with that work if they are involved. So please see me after the next meeting on Okay, that'll pass. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I will pass this evening. Thank you, Miss. Okay.

Absolutely. Now, I want to thank um I want to thank our plow drivers. I had an opportunity to do a ride along uh during the height of the storm and it was good to learn um what they encounter and how they have to mediate situations and try to fulfill what is desired and in a timely manner and it's very difficult and uh but they did a great job. Uh there was obviously no one expected the snow that we had that we was we were going to get that much accumulation and our plow teams. They did a great job. And uh I'd also like to thank the second board uh snow shoveling teams. One is sitting amongst us. uh uh they did a great job to free residential driveways and sidewalks and they all made such a difference and it was a good time. Now uh there was a recent meeting with Armstrong and I really want to thank them. They have done so much to mediate community concerns in the south end and I what good community partners we have in our businesses. um they've taken complaints. They've really looked into them diligently to see how best they can help that community on Six Street and I really appreciate them. Uh Mr. Bruner, I agree. It's gone on far too long. I have seen accidents where the trucks and trailers have been hit numerous times. I reported them. Uh many citizens have reported them. and it has continued. Uh, but our choices is waiting to speak with you

after council and so I look forward to you having that conversation with him. Uh, Mr. Frank, thank you for coming. Um, any person can register a complaint, any person. And I appreciate the law director's uh intervention in this as well as property maintenance. Uh I do not know the licensing parameters for that leads but I do trust there are a lot of men and her wisdom in this matter. So thank you for coming and thank you

Mr. She. Thank you Mr. President. I'll just say um want to thank the street department for all their hard work in recent weeks and uh they're doing a tremendous job. We appreciate everything they're doing. Director Ed appreciate him. And with that, I will pass. Thank you, Mr. Cos. I also just want to thank anyone that had anything to do with the streets. I think given the the kind of weather we had, the amount of snow, and the incredibly low temperatures, I know how hard that makes it. and they just did a great job. Say thanks,

Mr. Elder. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll just uh thank Brandon, water team for all that work. I can't imagine trying to dig up water line that's negative degrees out. So, um thank you for all the work on that. That's tremendous. Thanks to the street department as well.

Thank you, Miss Single. Um, not only do I want to thank the street department, but I received several emails from folks or even just talk to people who said thank you that the street department did a great job. So, know that the people that are receiving the services are appreciating what you're doing, including the people in Park Trail. Brandon, thank you so much for getting the uh the road open and uh and really staying close in communication because that allowed me to be in communication with them and I appreciate that. But uh got several great responses that everything's open there now uh on River Road. So thank you very much for doing that and that'll pass. Second, Mr. Murman.

Thank you, Mr. President. Need to call a finance committee meeting for February the 17th. Um yes, Mr. Friend, I believe the law director has things as far as the property maintenance. I had noted here that it is a property maintenance issue and it should be addressed, but it sounds like they're already addressing it. Uh Mr. Bruner, some things about some of the comments that you had made as far as uh vehicles on the street. Uh that now is a complaint driven uh thing in the city of Newark. We do not just go around looking for those. It has to be driven by a complaint. So that does have to be um forwarded. So, someone will come out and mark the tire if it's sitting there. Um, I'm going to tag on and to something you stated at the end. Um, it is required that if a if a vehicle is parked on the street or even in someone's yard, uh, that it does have to have, uh, license plates that are valid. If not, is it is considered junk and it is not in Ohio. That's a Newark thing. So again, property maintenance would be involved in that because it's a junk vehicle and junk vehicles are not authorized. Um, as far as um let's see, uh, you mentioned trash and things that also is property maintenance. As far as running a business out of someone's home that is not zoned, that is a code of one of our code and that is done through the county now. So, you would have to go through the county for code enforcement as far as businesses. All right. Um, and then finally, I just want to thank uh all the city workers uh that did so much during the snowstorm. Our street department,

considering what we had, did a fabulous job. It it I mean, I was shocked at how quickly they got to it. I know Director Rhodess said that it might be, you know, up to a week, but they they really got at it a lot quicker. And they make it they made it safe first. That was the first priority. And then they went back and they cleaned some things up. And when I say safe first, I mean emergency vehicles wouldn't even be able to have responded to some of the locations. So, they did all of that and then they went back and especially in the evenings. Um, I also want to say that I had some constituents that said, "Thank you for plowing and blocking in the vehicles that are parked on the road." They appreciated it because those vehicles are not supposed to be parked there. So, um, and I also want to thank the water department. I know that we had a few breaks and things and just working in frigid temperatures and doing what they did. Um, really appreciate that. And, um, with that, I will pass. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mr. Neil. Can I thank Mr. President? I will just thank the street department, uh, the water department for all the work in the freezing temperatures and getting the snow cleared. Thought they did a great job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.

Um, I'll reiterate what said to all of the city workers. We've had to field phone calls with everything that has happened. I think it's been taxing on everyone. So, as a new council member, navigating the first big snow has been an experience. And I don't know if Mr. roads is still here, but thank you to him for his communication and how he gets that information out and about. Um, I also did just want to show that I did make good on the promise. There are R&M cookies in the box. Um, about half of them are gone. There's still some there for a treat from Ward 7. Um, and I also just want to thank Mr. Normmy for the historic Hudson um chicken noodle dinner last weekend. So, and also a big thanks to the historic Hudson Association who donated a large chunk of their leftovers to the streets department before they had to go out and do the first clearing. So, I want to thank the Hudson Association for doing that. And that'll pass.

Thank you, Mr. Barker.

Thank you, Mr. President. Going last is always fun because everybody's pretty much said everything, but I want to add a few other things. Uh not only did we have the street department out, but we also had the engineering department out in trucks, cemetery and parks and including some water out plowing snow. So at any time during this event, we had at least 25 people out between different departments working on this snowstorm. So I want to thank all of them and all those other departments for pitching in to help. Um I also want to thank Nerd Fire and Nerd Police. It probably was not fun to go out on some of those runs and calls you had, but you guys did it and you protect us every day and we appreciate everything you guys do. Um, water mane breaks. I had one around the corner from my house. It was about -20 that day when they were working on it and I walked down to see the guys and they were telling me about one story uh that actually Brandon had mentioned to me where they literally worked I think over 14 hours on one break uh here in the city. So, it's it definitely was a trying time and we appreciate all our employees and and everything they do every day and staying safe.

Uh, I need to call service meeting for Tuesday, February 17th. And with that, I will pass.

Thank you, Mr. Barker. Um, it is Black History Month starting yesterday. And as I always do, I always give a couple quick facts. So, um, tonight is the, um, first black lawyer. John Mercer Langston was the first black man to become a lawyer when he passed the bar in Ohio in 1854 when he was elected to the post of town clerk of uh, for Brownhelm, Ohio. In 1855, Langston became one of the first African-Americans ever elected to public office in America. John Russell Langston was also the great uncle of Langston Hughes, the famous poet of Harland Renaissance. And then the last one is uh Rebecca Lee Cromper. After working eight years as a nurse, Rebecca be uh began medical school at the New England Female Medical College in 1860. The school was the first in the United States to train female doctors. She graduated in 1864 and as the first black woman to receive the MD in the US at that time only 300 of the 54,543 physicians in the US were were women and none of them were black. After opening a medical clinic in Boston, she treated women and children who lived in poverty, often asking no payment for services. So just a little quick history, black history facts. Um our next meeting is Tuesday. Um because uh when we got president day is 16th. I have a motion.

Motion by Mr. Cost, second by Mr. Hower. All in favor say I. 21.