City Council - Regular Meeting

meeting April 6. Will you call the role please? Member Perpaw here. Member War here. Member Wyrick here. Member Mini here. Member McLeister here. Member Pratt here. Member Stalker here. Seven present.

Excellent. Moving right in then. First item up is finance and property committee. Mr. So, this is item 3A. Make sure the right one. So, uh J can correct me if I'm wrong. So, this is kind of a neat scenario. So, we're creating a couple extra funds. Uh first one would be donations funds. And this is a situation where the city receives donations uh for something like uh in this case for parks. Maybe somebody wants a bench retreat to memorialize a loved one and we don't have the ability to spend that money because then they have to come they have to come to council and get an appropriation. This is kind of setting a ceiling as people donate money which by the way if you guys want to donate money talk with Katherine at the end of the meeting. She'll uh help you get uh something donated to um but this is just setting up so we can spend up to they can spend up to $20,000 and as we get more donations we will increase that uh um that limit. So think I explained that right Gina correct?

Y perfect. And then the other thing that you'll see on here is for the fire station construction fund and this is interest that we have received off the bonds and uh because of uh how the money was obtained that can only be used for construction or for repaying the loan. So, um, that's what we're doing here. So, I think that's I think I explained that properly, right, Gina? You can actually make donations directly online on our website. Okay. Hey, that's even better than seeing somebody here tonight. So, for all those listening at home. All right. Any questions or comments from anybody else? All right. Well, I would move that this item be uh in the council agenda. Is there a second?

All in favor? Motion carries. 3B is also finance property. This is just a simple transfer. We've done train of these types before going to donate a tree. I have followed this.

Um, so this is um, as I said, we've done transfers to and from the CIC in the past. Um, this is just simply bringing the property back to the CIC. It's the property on Stratavon and this is being brought back for the purpose of uh, doing the remediation for the grant that we had gotten for the mine remediation. So I think this is a pretty straightforward item. Anybody looking for looking for any additional clarification? Just putting our emergency so we can get it back into the city's hands so the grant can move forward with testing related to that process. I would move what items be on the agenda. Is there a second? All in favor?

Next item is ordinance and rules. Mr. press a resolution establishing a virtual meetings policy to allow boards and commissions of the city in accordance with section 121.21 of the Ohio Revised Federal basically in order to help keeping uh business moving forward in the city and forward uh plan to basically do remote meetings and whatnot if all members can't be present of a committee. Um it would uh allow them to be virtual. Anything else? One thing is it's only for committees. In other words, it's not for city council, city council meetings for the whole meetings. It's strictly boards and commissions.

Most of those boards and commissions have about five people. Correct. Someone five I think five to six. Five to six. CIC, CRA, planning, CBOA, uh, records and archives, name a few. So the clerk will always be the present, you know, to set up the appointment and stuff, but could we put no more than two or three people be virtual? Because I could see that being the clerk sitting here and there be everyone virtual. Yeah. Uh Liam has anything to add? I was going to defer to

our thoughts on it. Uh so is Brendan on the line, too? I believe so. Brendan, are you here? Came to us through Brendan on, you know, yeah, there's there's no prohibition on having hybrid meetings. You could do that if it was if it was needed. I think that the concern on that is let's say there's a blizzard and we don't want to jeopardize people's safety, but we still want to move progress forward. We don't we don't want to bring in two or three people or and and do that. I I understand the concern. We haven't had too many blizzards. Say this year. Wow.

We were discussing, you know, these like catastrophic emergency things. We did only say boards and commissions, but then we thought, should we say maybe emergency capital Emergency city council, we had to have a virtual meeting or had to have a few people virtual. Should we put it into it? Not saying you're planning to use it, but state law regulates the virtual side of council. Is that correct? Yes. It's been in the news lately. Yeah.

So, just to clarify on state law, sorry. You're a charter municipality. It's a matter of local self-government. You can determine so long as it doesn't conflict with your charter. You can determine how city council meets however you would like. And there's no prohibition in North Kane's charter for virtual meetings. So, we're deciding this now and crafting this now. So we just thought like you might want to have it there not to use unless absolutely necessary break class in case of emergency but you don't want to be in that emergency and you don't have it. Better to have it and not use it than not have it when you need to use it. You're only envisioning this in the case of an emergency.

Well for council and and and boards and commissions may not have to be emergency but those meet so infrequently. And take for example a zboa. We have a builder, somebody's coming along, wants to get a variance, and these are all volunteer people and they have jobs and some of them aren't from the area and they're rushing to get here. And say one or, you know, maybe even two can't make it, you have to cancel the meeting and that sets the the community back, the person that's coming that needs that board to meet that night. Whereas you could say, could you put them on virtual and we can have the meeting, we can keep the business moving forward,

which it can also affect the outcome of the vote, too, because if you only have three people present, you need all three votes. If there's one dissension of it, then it's like you still have two virtual three live. Yeah. So,

go ahead. If I may, because I still trying to make a point. Um, okay. So, I've served uh on the planning commission a number of years, then was the chairman for a number of years. I've also been on the other side of the planning commission. Um I don't like this unless it is only for an emergency. Um I like being able to see the applicants who are who at the time I'd like to be able to see the applicants who are in front of me and also being an applicant myself for a zone change and replat. I liked the ability of being able to have everybody in the room. And I get that life gets in the way. I mean life does get in the way. I'm actually not going to be here at the meeting next week because I'm going to be out of town for work. I mean, life does get in the way, but if we allow virtual meetings, I fear that they are going to be become more and more frequent. And I mean, let's be honest, we're in the people's business here. I think being here, being present for people is what's most important. Um, so the only way I would see going forward is that this is like for a state emergency, like there is a blizzard. Um, I don't want it to be because some so and so can't make it here and they're stuck on the highway driving back from Cleveland. I mean, there's no shame in somebody's season of life changing and then no longer being able to volunteer. I mean, I I would rather have people here in the building unless it is an emergency. Just my thought.

So, I guess I had some questions just for clarity. So, are we talking about declaring that a meeting be virtual or or are we talking about allowing members to attend virtually?

Allowing members to attend virtually. The meeting would still be held and the clerk we're saying, I think John brought that up. A clerk would be here in person. We would not allow the clerk to ever virtual in. We talked about that. A clerk needs to be there, read the faces, be able to control the meeting. The clerk can never be up on a screen. So a meeting would be held but if a member needed and maybe not always emergency but maybe it's circumstance you know like they are out of town on business but you don't want to hold up a meeting they can zoom in to a meeting and be part of the vote

that's why you have five members of say like a planning commission away but but back to your point and I think maybe you're catching the same thing that I thought the way that I read the legislation it was rather you could hold a virtual meeting it didn't say that Jeff Andy or Jamie would be absent make one single person come in. I read it as the entire meeting would be virtual. I I just wanted clarity because there was some discussion about, you know, patching in and and so there there to me there's a difference. I think it goes back to what Brendan said as a charter municipality, we can set this. This is why we're talking about what do you want? Yeah.

Well, so um I just wanted clarity. I will say that, you know, similar to Jamie, I've been involved with the board. I've not petitioned the board. I would say that, you know, I would have some interest in I guess being certain that if anyone does come to petition uh say for example ZBOA that they do make an appearance in person that I I might I might think is is important. So I I I agree primarily or mainly with you but with a slight variance. So you're saying applicants could not be virtual. I would have be here if Yeah. I think everybody should be here unless Well, I get that. I mean that that would be my preference.

I also think they can have their show upd. I think what you're setting tonight is just saying you know can we have this then you can put your parameters on and I hear what you're saying is you wouldn't want someone to use this and abuse this almost you know right like you're saying if you can't serve on a board because you can't be here you're regularly out of town maybe it's time you move on to someone who can be here. Maybe you have parameters and there's going to have to be some management of it. I think there's other considerations here too. So it's 96 hours to call a virtual meeting. So it's not going to be an emergency weather related. That's three days in ahead or 4 days, whatever. It's 48 hours

notice that type of thing. So is it really an emergency? And you've been on virtual meetings when you had co remember that.

How well how easy was it to be heard or to hear? And the delay creates a lot of communication issues. So, if we're going to go virtual or allow virtual, there's going to need to be some kind of an upgrade in the system so that people can hear. I was on a virtual meeting once and you can't hear, you can't be heard and there's a delay involved in it. I think it creates problems and issues. I think it can solve some, but at the same time, I don't know that we have the technology qualitywise to make a good virtual meeting. There's no camera pointing to the person that's speaking. So some concerns there. We are not that high-tech as some places.

I think I'm sorry. Go ahead, Andy. I think it makes sense to plan for emergencies. Yeah.

I just think that we need to be careful with how we correct the writing that it should be solely an emergency. Building burns down, pandemic, something along those lines. I kind of think more, you know, if someone's got too much going on that they can't make a meeting, but they can make it virtually, do they have the information to make decisions go away? They had time to gather facts and information and talk with other people, things like that. I I guess I seem to think like you know they miss a meeting and you know they vote fine but if it's a regular thing then you know maybe we need someone that's more available.

Um from a housekeeping standpoint this is a resolution correct? So is there something legal and binding about this resolution that prevents somebody from doing this going forward if we do not move forward with this? I don't know if that's for Brendan or So if you pass the resolution, if we do not question like what? So my question Brendon is if we don't pass the resolution, is there something stopping somebody from still being able to do this? If somebody on a whim just says as a board we vote to go ahead and let John Smith dial in remotely next week. Is there anything stopping that from happening if we don't pass a resolution?

Um I don't believe that boards and commissions can set their own rules for operation without city council approval. Okay. Um, so some and also state law for the virtual meeting policy does require a policy to be in place. So there would have to be something. Um, but it does not have to be the city's exact draft. Okay. So if it's council's prerogative to maybe not move over to this, but something else in the future, that that's definitely an option. That's helpful. I think that's a good point because we should look into that. Yeah. I think it's it depends on which board it would be.

Yeah. Yeah. So that that yeah doing that but the boards seem to have you know a little bit of difference across them right and then you know that was my next question is do any of them have an attendance policy today um if I am an applicant I mean I'm thinking we still have people serving on boards right now who may have been appointed by a mayor and still serving up to five years or something since then we've gone to this application process right and so the application process should be a citizen who says I want to be there and so that's my my feeling on that and I kind of echo others, but if there's not an attendance policy, what's stopping someone from saying, you know, for the first six months of the year, I'm just going to dial into my meeting. There's really nothing. So, I'd rather see a policy in place that has more teeth around it um that says here are the scenarios where this is applicable and um maybe we set, you know, some sort of guidance around that. Makes

sense. So maybe what I'm hearing is take this back and fine-tune it a little bit and represent point of good discussion. Yeah. Need to get your thoughts all in one room.

So you can go ahead and vote this one down if you'd like and they can workshop and reintroduce at a future committee if that's what you would like to do. Okay. So, is there a motion to move this to council agenda? Seeing none, I believe this one's died. That's complete. All right.

Capital 343 low speed and speed vehicles ordinances of the city order to establish regulations for the operation of low speed. speed tables on public streets in the city of basically this is golf cart and the ability to use them in the cities. However, there's some certain areas where they could be used um and um I guess kind of defining that it would be speed limit of the street is less than equal to 25 miles hour. The street is located within a platted subdivision approved under chapter 1107 of the North Cantoni ordinances. And the streets does not have a direct connection to a through street that connects to a roadway outside of its planned subdivision. This is not going to be crossing any streets that are 35 miles hour. Shall I kick us off?

Please.

Absolutely. Well, because I think it's my fault that we're here. So, um apologize to my colleagues about this tonight. Um boy, this would have been about last year maybe. I think I was driving down Apple and looked into the sanctuary and saw a golf cart and curiosity piqued my attention. Uh, I was thinking, you know, nostalgic fun thoughts of flying up to Putin Bay and hopping on a golf cart going get a hamburger and then coming home and drove back into the sanctuary. And what do I see? I see kids operating. So, most certainly unlicensed children driving an unlicensed motor vehicle that most certainly didn't have insurance on our public roadways. And that became an issue for me. And so, I brought it to the attention of uh city hall. I think initially they said that they had looked the other way because there was a golf course there and hey somebody's going golf and that's fine but again the kids thing bothered me and I I promptly told the person I talked to at city hall that my son was going to drive my car to middle school uh the following day which they said that was not a good idea but that's kind of why we're here today. So that is my fault. Um, frankly, council does not enforce our laws, but I'm just wanted to put it on record that I think whoever was allowing their kids to drive vehicles, unlicensed vehicles on our streets, should probably be brought up on child endangerment charges. So, I just want to put that out there.

So, this ordinance is addressing that. No one under the age of 16 that doesn't have a valid driver's license would not be authorized to drive that. So that is a concern, a safety concern.

And I think the other thing that I the other issue that I have with this ordinance is is I can get past golf carts. Although I would defer to our safety services. Um I don't like this because it doesn't evenly apply to the entirety of the city. I think I count maybe two allotments where this would be applicable as written. And so if we don't move from that, it's an absolute non-served for me. this is going to affect one neighborhood um in W one that I can count. So I think if we're going to be serious about moving it forward, we should consider changing that.

Can I ask again what would be what what are the restrictions or the limitations that you say it only affects two neighborhoods? Obviously. Yeah. So I'm believe it's four.

You can't go on can't go on to Apple obviously. So, with the way that I've read it and with multiple discussions with Liam, um, it says a platted subdivision, which I believe that the way that that is worded in here is meant to convey something else. I mean, we all live in a platted subdivision. Um, I pulled the deed for my house out of my safe, and, you know, it it is a platted subdivision. It just isn't a main neighborhood. But the big contentious factor is is that it needs to be a contained neighborhood that doesn't have a through street uh or does not connect to the fruit street. So whereas I live on a street that is a 25 mph street on it. Um there is not like a oneway in one way out containment. So the way that I read it is I would not be allowed to have a golf cart at my house nor would excuse me just about anybody in. But if you wanted that golf cart, you could move to

I guess. But I guess that would be the next part. Uh if I wanted a golf cart, I tried to do some research and it's funny that just about the only place you can get statistics is from law firms. So uh to talk about how they are on public. Yeah.

You know, we have over in Ward 4, we have a golf course. Several people have golf carts on the pillill and they cut across. But I I don't you know why do they want golf carts in the sanctuary? All right. I was told well the the grown-ups or the when the non-children are driving they go to happy out. Okay. It's still against the law to Yeah, they do. And the reason it was covered up is the mayor lived in that aotment, you know, not this one. Pardon?

Not this one. Not this one. Mayor, the former mayor lived in that mayor and previous mayor.

Um I I just don't Why is there a need for a golf cart? The sanctuary not that big of an allowment. You want to go to happy hour, walk, you know, or or whatever, go find the kids. The kids are always going to be having them. We can't ban residents from owning them, but we can ban streets they're off of. I mean, another option would be we could always vacate the streets in the sanctuary. They already have a homeowners association. If they would like to take on the streets, they could make their own work.

That would be agree. you'll see how fast they So part of the issue is just a life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, right? So the vehicle makes me happy driving to the pool. I'm on a 25 mph road enjoying life. I have my vehicle inspected. It's licensed. It's insured. There's no one underage. No one without a driver's license that's driving it. Why is that an issue? Because it can't be evenly applied to every single 25 mph street in the city as it is currently written.

Do we have any other ordinances on the books that apply to only certain neighborhoods in the city? I think the answer is no because I've done

I don't think so. Um so you know I think it was what a year or so ago when the city was entertaining the idea of um getting rid of the overnight parking ban that would have applied to certain scenarios maybe certain streets make it easier because certain streets it would not do I couldn't park my car overnight on Main Street for example and that did not make it out of committee and there were a lot of I think vague things about the way that was written so it didn't make its way out of committee. I would have a really hard time making this out of committee if that didn't. Um, but we don't have other ordinances that apply to specific neighborhoods and so I see an imbalance as well. Um, you know, I know that a lot of people built homes there, bought homes there when there was a golf course and it's unfortunate that it's not there any longer. Um, everything that I have heard and been told is that, you know, they like to throw their things in the golf cart and drive over to the community pool. That would be convenient. That could be fun. Um, I live about four or five blocks from Dogwood Pool. I live on a street that's not a through street. People can get to a through street from my street. There's a culde-sac at the end. I would not be allowed to put a golf cart golf cart together and take my kids and things to the pool because I don't live in a not I'm going to not use the word platted, but the not connected neighborhood theme that we're going with here. So, it's not applicable to all. And I don't think that this ordinance would be written with the idea that it would apply to all four of those neighborhoods. It's only coming to us because one neighborhood has a problem with it. The other three have not come to us, right? We've had nobody else come to us.

I think we had one meeting with one aotment but others. So, I think to add to that before our time on council and what I maybe chief, you might know this would have been what maybe 10 years ago, there was one gentleman who came it was in 2018. 2018. Okay. So, there's one other gentleman, but he just run, but he would somewhat close to me. I would argue the neighborhood has an ebike now. So,

you know, probably has a lower incident rate of accidents, I would think. I don't know statistically true over my own street. Um, but, you know, I did some research. I drove back there. Just wanted to see on an average afternoon when it was 75 last week, you know, are there folks out enjoying the weather and would this be something they could benefit from, right? And they're not opening the pool yet. So there's not that. But um as I'm driving around, you know, I'm thinking to myself, there are schools that drive buses back there and drop off kids. So there's large buses. Logistics company, UPS, FedEx, all their trucks are going through there. There's a significant amount of construction still going on there. Um at one point I was down to one lane weaving around construction vehicles and one person in a tow motor kind of pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes. So, I would argue it's not entirely the safest environment for anybody to be driving a golf cart on a regular street, much less a 16-year-old who just got his license. Um, and then there's the whole idea here that um, our chief of police would have to inspect these vehicles and um, I don't know how many we're talking about, but that becomes a process. Obviously, there's a fee that has to be associated. There's several things that have to be checked off for that vehicle to pass. So, I'm assuming that would have to be done on an annual basis or something like that. So now we got a new process we're introducing just for this one ask from this one neighborhood in our city. And so I'm just not really sure that it's necessary. And that's kind of how I feel about it.

Well, to to your point then maybe the idea is moving this to the council agenda and allowing the residents to speak. Those that are in those areas and those that are not in those areas, allow all the residents to speak. As we've stated more than once, we want to hear from the residents. And if the residents come through glaringly say, "No, we don't want golf carts or need to open it up to the entire city. We need to find a way to do that or there's just not enough input." Then council has heard from the residents. It's my understanding there's items coming before us because our city has met with those people. Yes. They wanted to find out what the legal path was, right,

to do their continuing to drive. They've been doing it for 10, 15 plus years. They wanted to find out what the legal path was vacation street. So that's where we are today is that legal path for them to have access to using golf carts in their neighborhood. I'm not confident that if I had 12 residents from that one neighborhood show up and nobody else, I would still change my decision because that would be a very small percentage of citizens making that decision for. So certainly but I do think that the city has met and had long discussion with them. So I do think the city has given them an opportunity to be heard and here we are. We're seeing this as a result. Am I correct?

Can I ask um so these vehicles would be subject to a a registration? Yes. This is the process. They would be they would be subject to an inspection. This is what the city or council have within our perview or your perview to set those fees? Yes. So, could the city potentially pass an ordinance that allows it, but these are set in such a way that it might be might be deemed as um incredibly um restrictive. I'm not saying that, but we have the authority to set the I just want to make sure I understand everything.

Correct. We have that authority. I don't know if that addresses the safety concerns, though.

I'm not saying that it does. I mean, safety concerns aside, I mean, people drive motorcycles and I mean, it is what it is. I guess my comments about safety was tongue and cheek, but my big sticking point is the fact that this is not applicable to the entirety of the city. It is applicable to one neighborhood. So, um, for your your comment about putting it on the agenda, I'm a no vote tonight because it doesn't apply to um it applies to what 1% of the population. Well, we may not have ordinances or or resolutions that pertain to one neighborhood in particular, but are there not um idiosyncr idiosyncratic uh concepts or a neighborhood is a little bit different and so therefore, you know, the rules and and regulations are slightly different. I mean,

I guess these are our 70 lots. I I have an R70 lot, but it doesn't apply to me or any of my neighbors, right? I guess I'm just talking about how how a neighborhood is configured in terms of connecting streets and so on and so forth.

Well, like a means those people, they have a golf course, they have the need to and there's how would we define that with this because to me this I'm not a lawyer by any means, but you know, I think of the 14th amendment, you know, equal protection under the law, you know, with Jamie, I think that it's it's if it's not for everyone, then I I don't see it there. And I don't know how we could craft something for people like you know neighborhoods that you're talking where are a little different the needs are different how do we make that fair where do we draw the line for you know other needs like the golf course the neighborhood around it with no you know what about if they but up to the city because we have areas around the golf course but up playing township

um you know does it have to end at the city line or does that constitute dead end that you can drive into that and it doesn't matter because it's not North Kansas's problem, right? Well, let's um let's even take your thought about over by that by arrowhead. Well, let's forget the sanctuary. Let's think about the arrowhead. So, the folks who live on pill, which I sorry, I'm calling it Pillville, but that's what everybody talk about. What's the straight

Deerfield? Deerfield would be one of the streets. So, like over there, that would be an enclosed neighborhood in theory, although it depends on what your definition of through streets because there's multiple different ways to get in and out of there. But I would think that maybe that would be an area that you could get a golf cart and is directly adjacent to the golf course. So, they could literally hop on the cart path, drive over, pay their greens fees, and there you go. But then if you go, let's go around to the front of the golf course. Um, those folks over there, the I see there's multiple ways in and out. There's through streets. So, you could literally be at the front of the golf course with a golf cart to go golfing and you would not be allowed to have it over there because it does not meet the definition of what's here. Let's keep going around the corner. I know somebody Andy does as well lives on Sway and I don't know that they're golfers, but how would they get the golf cart over there? So, it's it's kind of ironic that it the people that would actually use a golf cart for its intended purpose would actually not be able to under what is before us tonight. So the definition of all this though could be work in progress.

Correct. I mean there's not much defined there now is my concern. There's no streets listed. There's no specific neighborhoods called out. We're using the term platted subdivision or something to that extent. And that leaves all sorts of things to subjectivity. And we would need our officers on patrol to know, okay, I'm looking at this person driving it and am I on the street where that's allowed and I know I got to check it up against the lift. So, you know, I'm just saying there's not enough info here for us to be able to even apply it correctly. Mr. Did you have something on a map that didn't show the trees?

Uh, I mean, it would just be the main subdivision. So that would be Montichello, Sanctuary, uh, King's Court and Siri Hill would be the ones that this would presently apply to.

Those were the four identified. I think what we started with was saying how we met in November with the sanctuary aotment and we wanted to hear and and we wanted to give them a chance to speak and consider and Liam did a lot of research to say I think we all agreed citywide. No. Do we want golf carts going across Apple? Do we want them going down Main Street, East Maple? No. So then we tried to think, well, how could we? We heard the residents saying, you know, yes, there were times there were children on them, but they, you know, said that isn't everyone and they don't want children on them. They they're very concerned about safety. They said, you know, um that their golf carts, they they would agree to get them inspected, make sure they had safe, seat belts and windshield wipers and and you know, windshields and you know, all the you know, make sure they're licensed, licensed drivers, insurance, you know, we heard him say these are the list of everything they'll do to make sure everybody is you know, safe. And then we went further with Liam saying, you know, we look at speed and chief can speak to this. We've talked before that if it's a golf cart versus a car, the golf cart's never winning that that that battle there. So, we looked at the speed and we said, "Okay, what roads, you know, where what aotments would all have 25 mile per hour streets." And then further, we said we worry about aotments that do have the cutthroughs. So, you know, if you live in an aotment where people are cutting through to get through, that's where they're flying. Even if it's a 25 mileer street, they're going really fast.

So, those were the four we looked at. Um, you could say they go down to two because only two have one entrance in and one entrance out. And that would be Siri Hill and the Washington Square with Kings King's Court. King's Court.

Technically, both Montichello and Sanctuary have two entrances in and out. So, you know, but once you get in them, there's no way out except for their emergency access road, which has ballards for safety. So that's how we came up with we were trying to be we were trying to think solution based because there are some cities that do allow this and then those cities have chosen their parameters and we were trying to think like what parameters could we discuss to see you know what we feel. I think I'm hearing what you're feeling now.

I think we're in an unfortunate situation as this council sitting here because this has never been legal. It's never been legal to drive the golf carts on the streets in the city and you know former I don't people have looked the other way and allowed it and that's put us in this difficult position of correct now that it's come to our attention having to make a decision on it and that's a really hard decision. There are a lot of really good comments coming from the deis that make that a hard yes. So just I wish we weren't in this position, but this is the job that we have and here we are. Yes. Yeah.

And this references chapter I don't 1107 and the is it the property code? Is it that? Yeah. So it would be the subdivision right there. That's where it's using the terminology platted subdivision or whatever. But it's again it's it's pointing to something that's not specific for me enough to be able to say there's your go-to list of what's allowed to. So we're pointing to chapter 1107, but I don't know that we're doing that correctly the way that's written.

I agree because the what you listed as the neighborhoods that would be allowed did not include anything in Ward One. And I think there's a neighborhood off of Oran um was it Arnsby back there was I would think that that would be more applicable than sanctuary because it is one way in one way out. You can't cut through but that was not listed because it was not a platted subdivision which is I believe we're applying that term incorrectly. I mean we all live in platted subdivisions.

Um I mean I can tell you mine later but I mean we all have a platted subdivision. So, I just think that there's multiple flaws with with what's here. I don't even know that we could move forward. I don't feel comfortable moving forward as a work in progress because I want to see some language removed. And again, I wanted to apply to to the entire city if we're going to move forward with this.

I think we've heard from everybody. I think we can fix the the cladded issue. I think we can fix the the through street definition with help from the attorneys. I want to hear from the residents. I want to hear from as many of them that are interested or not interested impact them does impact them. I think that uh we owe it to the residents to get their thoughts on the whole situation. So basically be moving forward uh make a citywide street legal.

Oh god. No, because this is set up under platted. Mr. Glacer mentioned that Platt is a concern along with Mr. Pont and that maybe the definition needs to be changed. Well, he does have a fair question. So, are you going to recommend that we strip that language and still keep it with only named neighborhoods with no because because if that's the case, we could call the vote right now because I'm not going to support anything that's not going to apply evenly to to all neighborhoods. I mean,

yeah, I guess I just question if we could move it forward like what you're thinking, Dave. I'd support it, but I don't know how we can move it forward without affecting a lot of people that wouldn't be allowed to use it and only allowing it for a few. If your concern is letting the people speak, regardless of whether you move forward or not, they have an opportunity at every regular council meeting. Absolutely. An opportunity this evening to be here and speak on it at the end of city council's meeting, right? So that maybe they will still come. Okay.

There's an opportunity for sure tonight. I don't I understand where you're going with it, David. I'm not sure that you have consensus up here though that is feeling the same way. Um so I would not want to bring it back and have us go through another dialogue just to shoot it down again if it's not still um vibing with everybody as a necessity or a safety concern or any number of things. Right. Yeah.

There are cities near us that do have these laws. You can research. City of Townage does. You can see it's Google search will find it. All their rules are there and it's that's what they've decided for their city. We have to decide what we want to decide for ours. Well, I am going to make a motion that we move for B to the council agenda for that discussion to continue and to fine-tune that. Is there a second? I second that. Okay, let's do a roll call vote. Member Peron, no. Member or no. Member Hyrick, no. Member Matheni,

yes. Clester, no. Member Pratt. Member Stalker? Yes. Motion fails. It's good discussion. Out on the table. I think that's good. All right, I will make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I post opposed to break. You want to take a quick break before the classroom? I need to take a quick break.

46. Will you lead us in prayer? Please remain standing for pledge of allegiance. God of all creation, of justice and mercy, thank you for our community and all who serve it. This evening I pray for each person gathered here with a responsibility for doing good work. Give them a spirit of service. Guide them to be the leaders of your people need to represent all members of the community fairly and to make decisions that promote the common good. Bless their efforts with insight guided by understanding and wisdom. Help them act with character and conviction. Help them to discern your will and work to create a strong and healthy community. Lord, I pray for the agenda set before them today. Give an assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in our city. And finally, Lord, renew them with the strength of your presence and joy of helping to build a worthy community. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. I aliance 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.

Mr. Will you call the role, please? Member here. Member here. Member Wyrick here. Member Mini here. Member Claster. Member Pratt here. Member Stalker here. Seven present. We do not have anyone signed up for public speaks this evening. Consideration. Oh, I skip skipped ahead of yourself. I did. I read them. We should approve those. I will make a motion to present to approve as presented the minutes from March 16th, 2026 committee of the whole in the March 23rd, 2026 city council meeting. I get a second. Second. All in favor? I

opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. Now we will move on to business. Mr. Will you please read the title of ordinance 132026, please? An ordinance amending chapter 155 personnel regulations specifically subsection 155.04E 04E full-time schedule of compensation of the codified ordinances of the city of North Canton to add a full-time parks planning and development administrator and declaring the same to be an emergency. Mr. Perpont, that is under your committee.

Okay. Thank you. Um so this is our second reading. We've been talking about in committee and our first reading. This would be the addition of the new role parks planning and development administrator. We've talked about meeting the role to help us with the upcoming, you know, outcomes from the parks master plan. We're hoping this person can help us with writing some fantastic grants to make those things come true. Um, and so I think that, you know, I personally am in agreement that this is a role that probably can be a positive one for this city. I'll definitely be personally looking to it over the first year or so to see, you know, is this working the way that we had hoped, you know, but I'm I'm supportive of that. The question also tonight is whether or not to continue with this through a third reading or whether or not to go ahead and pass this evening uh on a declaration of emergency.

I'll add into that. Um since I was the one who I think initially raised concerns, I I've been contacted by one person and the person was indifferent. um no real thought one way or the other. So I'm comfortable with if we pass it this evening on the second reading. So, uh, I would echo your thoughts though that being that it has been largely touted that this is a position that this person would be responsible for grants, um, you know, I think that it would be certainly, um, important for us to evaluate the effectiveness down the road. Uh, in a not too down the road, I guess I should say maybe in the next 12 to 18 months, is this person doing the stated goal? Are they having a return on investment, bringing in grants, so on and so forth? But beyond that, I'm okay with moving it forward tonight.

Well, the person being responsible for grants and stuff could be completely different than what a parks and wreck developer, what director, what have you. I think it's almost two different roles.

Well, and I want to say maybe broaden the term. It's not grants, it's funding. There's sponsorship opportunities. There's naming rights. There is donations. we talked about earlier. Um it is um and grants and uh capital awards and um also management to over all of that. So actually maybe bringing in more revenue or finding management agreements that we're in that are not beneficial to us. So it's that whole development. It isn't I mean I'm sorry the whole planning side development is is the bringing in funding and even the bigger one. Do we need a parks levy? I can tell you preliminarily from the parks master plan that was one of the survey questions and and we've even surveyed that before on city surveys. It's over 50% of people that do say that they would support it. Now, you know, I know that environment is a little different and that could change, but it would be exploring that to say that if this community values this, you know, highly, this position would be responsible for mounting that, getting that together, getting the information, just like Plane Township did a few years ago. They never had a a parks levy, and it took a lot of communication to their community before they decided to put that out there and see what they would what they would respond with. And so that's where we'd be because we've never done it before. We've never asked for a parks grant or parks levy.

And it's also administration and followup and and working with those agreements that we had the city. Yeah, this was very helpful. Thank you. Because it does detail all the things that that person would be doing little snippet. Yeah.

And to that end, I would just add that um I think it's important to the grants are very important, but to see them as a means to an end. And so I think a lot of what this person would be doing is determining what are our needs, building on the master plan and deciding, you know, in consultation with the administration and other stakeholders. Is it even worth applying for this grant? So I don't want to imply the grants aren't important. They're very important, but I think the grants are a couple steps down the road from just what are the needs. Um, you know, what do we really need strategically to move forward as a city with parks and recreation? Why was it broke up? You know, why did we do away with that? You know, years and years ago,

years and years. That was after it was a reaction to the Hoover company and the loss of the income tax uh when the city made cuts in lots of areas. I think that was one area that they did cut back on, you know, and then the parks board was disbanded and stuff that time, not having somebody really overseeing it. It fell apart over time.

Yeah. And to something councilwoman Hyrick mentioned, we haven't been strategic in the past. And we've wasted money on oneoffs, ideas, you know, concepts shopped out at Main Street festivals of different parks that were going to happen before anyone thought of where's the funding going to come from because yeah, they're great pictures and people all said, I would love to have that, but we didn't have a plan on how we could do that. So that's to Jason's point, not putting the cart before the horse. We have to get someone in strategically go through all the recommendations because remember this master plan is going to be recommendations. It's not going to tell you what to do. It's going to say here's all your options on everything we've inventoried and looked at and then council will need to make decisions. So it's it's having that strategic

somebody those programs. Yes. Right.

Yeah. I think it, you know, this person will kind of take the the possibilities that have been outlined and prioritize those and look for funding strategies. And, you know, I think we have some big questions coming up and one of those, like you said, John, is how are we structuring recreation in the city moving forward? Um, we also have two fire stations that are about to be vacated. So, Katherine has mentioned that one is very close to Dogwood Park where our um our current facilities are booked all the time. So, what do we do with that? Um we also have some kind of long-standing ADA compliance issues in our parks that we have just not dealt with. Neglected is the word. Um so, I feel like this position kind of goes in and and deals with all of this. And right now, we just don't have a person who owns all of that, right? I mean it kind of falls to the administrator and deputy administrator who are doing all of the other things and so um I think having someone who owns that is going to be really important and helps us to figure out how to move forward and create the strategy around that. I think it's important that the city have a growth mindset and it's been brought to my attention uh pretty recently that a city of a s very similar size to ours uh in terms of population Aurora have a director but they also are searching for and I believe maybe they found an assistant director

right so we are all valuing the same things here but I think it's important that we we value the growth mindset um embrace this this new role, someone that's forward thinking. When we last met on the 23rd, we added in this meeting that we're having now. It was not originally there, right, to get this second reading in a little bit quicker? Are there any concerns about waiting until next Monday to pass on full three readings? Is there any major delay that that creates just in posting a position and you know scheduling the interviews and giving someone time to give notice? Um it just delays it. But

okay and we are down an employee right now. I you know that's I think that would be the concern that I would have with continuing to wait another week. Any other comments that in that person that new position they would would they oversee the golf course and both pools? They oversee the management contract. The people that are in the management contract have a little more oversight. Yes. And and who's currently handling that?

Who's overseeing the management agreement? Kind of split. I mean, we meet with them quarterly. Finance and administration meets on that side. We bring operations in um more not daily but weekly our ops teams are up there you know that would be Steve Shank his team you know that's kind of around but uh you know not he doesn't really look into the management agreement side and we're kind of just looking at the numbers that's how we're splitting it and that's that's the management um team at Arrowhead and then the other one is the YMCA that's the other management agreement and I get asked a lot about how much are we over there and how much are we asking about how they're doing things and

just the end of the year and I think that is a great question that if you just think about the complexity and the moving parts of a 100 acre golf course or of a very popular pool with a lot of needs those those two items alone take up a lot of bandwidth and that's parks right and 16 parks a lot and 10 pickle ball courts we're not going to get the agenda to the end of April. You mean the plan? The plan, the master plan at the end of April. So, if you're setting up interviews, you don't even know what the master

No, I gave you some of it on the steering committee have have a good idea of what's going to be in it. We don't have the completed uh pieces. As you know, going along from the time we selected them with an RFP in the fall to now, we've thrown a lot of changes at them. We've had some meetings and we've said consider this and think about this. Oh yeah, wait a minute now. How about this? Because we have a lot that the community has said. So we keep interjecting that to them so that they, you know,

if you think about what master plan is going to be about, it's going to tell you the strengths and weaknesses of the city parks and the needs. It's not going to say, you know, hey, you don't need a parks director or anything like that, right? You have to look at, you know, member stalker mentioned Aurora. You know, Aurora might be a similar side, but we do have 16 parks, two swimming pools, and a golf course. We we we should probably get somebody to focus on all that stuff.

And I think it's important too when you think of the master plan, it's not so much that there are surprises, at least on this one level. We know we need to think about the future of the pool. We know we need to think about the future of the golf course and all the parks. It's more we wanted to hire professional consultants to give us options and cost things out and tell us well you could do A but it would have this you could do B. So I think the what the master plan says is very important but it's kind of independent in a way of is there a need for somebody to wake up every morning and think about this golf course and this pool and all these other facilities and um not to beat a dead horse but you know we feel like that there there is that need. Uh-huh. I have felt historically as a citizen that there's been a lot of master plans put forth, right, with some really great ideas and suggestions that we've not been capable of carrying out. So, it's with my hope that this will help us achieve that, at least some part of it.

I agree. Agree. Other comments? Is there a motion to adopt the second reading of ordinance 13206? So much second. All in favor? I opposed. Seeing that, everybody's in favor. I will make a motion to suspend the rules of council requiring three readings. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I opposed. No. I believe it was

or in pure pont, but we could do a roll call if you'd like. So we had five in favor and two opposed at the four. Okay, back to hear all the voices. Okay, so motion still carries. Is there a motion to adopt ordinance 13 2026 under suspension of the rules? I mean, help me out here. What did I miss? You would need an affirmative vote of six to continue to carry it to passage. Oh, so if it doesn't pass, then we don't have the position. Yep. So your second reading pass, so it'll move to third reading next week. All right. Which is I say we move I disagree. I think when you when you vote on this part, it's saying you're you're allowing it to vote to emergency vote and then there would be another vote on that

and that the emergency vote would need these six. Is that what you're saying? Correct for procedural. The emergency vote is the one that needs the six. Yeah. This is under suspension of the rules. Then if it's sustaining the rules just requires a normal majority. Okay. So like okay it's whether or not it takes whether or not it takes effect immediately is the emergency part and that needs six votes. Okay. So then yeah it will move. So adopt under suspension of the rules is the next motion. So the the ordinance already has the emergency clause in it.

Yeah. So your motion is is there a motion to adopt under suspension of the rules? We need six for that one. The simple majority gets us to this point which you have in the 5 to2. Why did he have to read? Okay. So at this point then we're just going to move it to next week's for the third reading. We don't have six votes to pass. So, do they need six votes, Brendan, to suspend the rules requiring three or to adopt under suspension of the majority? They're two separate votes, then the next one need six votes for they need six votes to pass it as an emergency.

I don't think you need six votes to pass it in suspension of the rules. No, you just need the majority to suspend the rule. You just need the majority. Yeah. Right. Which means you could have it pass with less readings, but it would not take effect for 30 days, which is worse. Yeah. So now the motion to adopt under suspension of the rules will take effect 30 days from 30 days from when the mayor's sign. So it would be 30 days from today or 30 days from next Monday. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. Okay. It would be 30 days from when it's executed by the mayor. Got it. Thank you. Even though the original ordinance is written as an emergency,

the charter still requires six votes to pass something as an emergency. Didn't we pass that on the second reading? First reading and the second reading and then I don't know. And then we passed it under requiring three readings. So, would it be best to just let it go as an emergency ordinance on a third read next week? That's what I want to do. So, it would take effect on the 13th days, but we'd need six votes. So, you need six votes on the 13th of April to take effective immediately on the third reading. There you go. Got it.

Okay. the So, how do we walk that? No, the second reading already passed. Yeah, the second reading already passed. So, it can move on to third reading as But we passed the suspended three readings, right? We already passed that to a simple majority. So, you can put it to Brendan. It would be correct to put it that they could put forward a motion to adopt under suspension of the rules and vote it down and let it go to third reading. Correct. Yeah, they that could work. Or if that motion already happened, I suppose you could make a motion amending that to actually send it to the third reading.

That's what I suggest. Let's just make a motion to give it a third reading. All right. Yeah. All right. So, I will make a motion that we have the third reading of ordinance 15206 at our next council meeting on the 13th. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thanks for the procedural clarification.

Now, if we have other emergencies out there, should we redo, you know, like I really don't think this was properly, you know, we had the emergency in the original clause, but how we went to vote on it, you know. Okay. So, okay. Well, that moves us on now to recognition of the public. And Mr. Thought you said nobody had signed up for the second half. Second half. Apologies. Sorry everyone. I do want to clarify something for future.

I was trying to look this up on the fly. The suspension also requires six members. So it would so there's no clarification. Yeah. I know, but I just wanted to clarify that because I I said that it was five and the emergency clause as the legislation still stands correct that it will take immediate effect on the 13th. The emergency clause is a drafting thing and we need the votes. So if you get six votes on the third reading, then yes. Okay. Otherwise, if it passes a simple majority, we have to remove the emergency clause before it's executed. So, next week to allow it to take immediate effect, there will need to be six affirmative votes on the third reading.

Glad you're with us. Yeah, we all learned. Thank you. Will you start off the report?

Sure, I will. Um, thank you, Pastor Coke, for doing the prayer. Um, always appreciate the ministerial association because you're much better at it than we are. So, um I want to talk about the gala. So, um it is May 1st. Um tickets are selling pretty quickly. We're looking for more sponsors, uh gift baskets, and attendance. So, a table, let sure I get these numbered right. A VI table VIP table of eight is $500. An individual VIP ticket is $75. And an individual ticket is $40. So, this is going to be the party of the year. Telling you. So, don't miss it. Um, I I want to thanks thank you for the discussion on the golf course. Um, I I appreciate the detail that you guys put into it. I know that's not a tough decision. Um, regardless of which way it goes, but I appreciate the discussion. Um, I do want to reiterate the importance of of having a parks director. Um, and let me put it to be more clear. We've never not had a parks director. So, a no vote is voting against the position that we've had historically for our entire existence that I can remember. So, I want you to remember that next week when you're voting that if you vote no, we're not going to have a parks director, which if you would talk to your constituents, I do not think that that is a good look for our parks, which have become exponentially more popular since CO and we've put a lot of money into our parks, a lot of care. So, I want you guys to really consider that very carefully. I voted no only because of the emergency.

We need a park talking about next week. Like because not everybody's going to be here next week. So if there is a dissenting opinion, we are not going to have a parks director position. Period. Full stop. It's never happened. So I just want to put that very clearly out there. So um other than that, that's all I have for you tonight. I'm next. Okay. Um, just

going off the mayor said just the that the America 250 gayla is at Arrowhead Country Club May 1st. Tickets are selling fast. So if you want to go, got to get them. You can buy them online or you can stop at city hall with a check. So just wanted to put that out there. And again, if you're talking to people, you got business owners out there, people you know you need donations to to for the for the raffle to raise money. So, um I want to also Did you get my text? Okay. So, uh NOPEC, uh it may be in your mailboxes. Did you anyone get the NOPEC opt out letter? Um just want to make sure you know that you guys know if anyone's calling you. This is just simple. Um opt out. You don't have to do anything. This is only if you want to opt out of the city's electric aggregation program. Uh people who have questions, Liam has brought up the city website. to show if you go under services and look under electric aggregation. It's everything you need to know and more. There's a frequently asked questions. It explains where we are right now. Our rate January 20 uh 26 through May 2026 meter reads. We're at 9.399. And you know, if you want to check your eligibility enrollment status, you'll see that click uh view all FAQs. It's every question really. What is aggregation? Starting with what that is. Who is our supplier for our electric program? Who is NOEC? What is next extra? We get these calls. People will say like, "Do I still have AE?" Yes, we still have a This is This is They're still your supplier. This is just the aggregation program. And you always have the rights to go to the PUCO apples for apples and do comparisons and um just want to point that out. So, if anyone's calling you, the best place to direct them first is the website. Probably get their question answered there. And if not, if it's not on the website, then call us. you can answer.

Catherine, can I ask a quick question on that because I'll I'll ask it as a citizen. Um, if I am one of these person that shops my rates around last month, I picked a different rate. Do I now need to opt out? You Yes. If you went you went with something. Yes. If I just went through that exercise 30 days ago, I need to take those steps, correct? If I want to keep what I just did. Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much. I've had that asked. Okay. Thank you. And uh next thing I just had was um I thought you were going to announce, but I'll announce just uh that we moving along in a community project funding grant. We've been working to try to get some money for Seventh Street streetscaping. As you know, the middle school going in front of the high school. There's going to be increased traffic and you know, we do want to make that street look nice. It's a thoroughare. So, Representative Sykes is supposed to be putting out a press release. uh we've just been accepted as far as uh you know at this round for a congressional earmark and uh they will announce awards early summer. So I wanted to thank Andy wrote a letter. Thank you very much. And Holly was instrumental in helping me get some athletic um clubs, you know, that use Seventh Street for all of the athletic facilities over there. was trying to illustrate the amount of traffic, not just school traffic, but we also have all the events with the the football and the baseball and lacrosse, everything going on there and even the North Canton Playhouse and theater and everything. It's a busy street. So, um I I think we've talked to Sykes's office and they've said that they think it may score well. So, fingers fingers crossed we'll get some assistance to make that street look nicer for the community and safer. Um that's all I have.

Thank you, just briefly. Uh, I really appreciated the all the great discussion tonight and uh I think sometimes when we get so close to this, I appreciate the deliberative discussions we have back at city hall that all of you have here and that we hear from the public uh every Monday and throughout the week because these are tough issues and it's really great to be part of a team where people think deliberatively and thoughtfully about things. So, I'm happy to be here with all of you. That's all I had. All right. Thank you. Nine days to Kyle. Not listening. She's like got that look.

Very direct and to the point. Thank you. Council clerk. No report. Meron, will you start off the council report? Sure. Gina, it was like, have you seen Ferris Beer's day off? the principal has nine days.

That's exactly I'm gonna date myself. Um, okay. So, real quick, just have a couple of things. Thank you for everyone that came this evening. I echo what Jason just said. I appreciate the dialogue here. Um, I may not agree with you, you may not agree with me, but we had great dialogue tonight and that was great to see and hopefully the people saw that as well. And I really do want people to come and speak to us. I hope that that will maybe the warmer weather will bring them out. I don't know. Um, so thank you to that. Um, real quick, it's my understanding, I don't want to steal your thunder, but full passes went on sale today. I'll let you cover all of that. Um, but I do want to make sure that we cover that there has been activity happening and discussions happening that will give our citizens that live in the city limits a little bit more access than they had before. And that's an awesome thing. I've been thinking about that for a long time. Um, so maybe we can cover the details of that. Um, and then I don't know if I've seen some people asking questions on social media like will they be providing, you know, pool chairs that are not broken. I'm going to guess the answer is probably not a lot of money sitting around to replace those things, but bring your own share is probably the policy still.

Um, and the only thing I was going to add to the pool discussion was, can the city look at the bee problem this season? Um, it was an issue last year. Um, the bees are just in there's a lot of clover in the grass. It's more clover than grass, right? So, a lot of bees, a lot of kids getting stung when I'm there. I'm seeing it. I've almost been stung. Um, it could become a a health concern at some point. So, if we have an opportunity for parks to take a look at that, maybe add that into the conversation. Um, I'll move on to the parks master plan. So, a lot of dialogue happening with one of our youth sports organizations in town who is struggling with field space. And it comes on the heels of some changes that are happening with field space they've used and some things that the school district is doing and they're really stuck, really, really stuck. I can't imagine being some of these people who run this organization who have all of these young athletes needing a place to practice, let alone play games at, and they are literally at a loss some nights out of the week. And so they've been coming to a lot of different people and I've been part of those conversations, the mayor's been part of those conversations and probably some of you. Um, but I just want to reiterate when we look at that plan when it does come out, this absolutely has to be a continued conversation in this community because we're not gaining green space, we're losing it every year. So hopefully that's a big piece. Um, and I think that on that same leg, what I'm also finding is parking at our facilities is controlling some of that. Um, I won't go into details, but one organization would love to help out the one that needs it. Can't do so because we don't have enough places to put cars when they use it. So, it's kind of, you know, rolling downhill effect, but we need to consider parking at these facilities, too, when the plan comes out. So, just a lot of conversation and my eyes have really been open. Not that they weren't before, but I really feel for this individual who's trying so hard, right, for the for the young people in our community. And these are feeder programs, by the way, that service our high school programs, but we

all want to feed do great things. So, um, just two things I wanted to mention tonight. Thank you very much, Mr. Stalker.

Thank you. Um, Katherine did steal a bit of my thunder, but it was the utilities chair did want to definitely call out the fact that, um, April is opt out month foration program. Um, and obviously we're in a time of increasing utility rates and costs and such. So, I would definitely encourage everybody to be checking out uh NOPEC. Uh, not only do they have the aggregate uh that would be for the summer, they also have a 12 and a 24month program. And of course, check out uh the PUCO apples to apples as well just to make sure that you're making the best possible decisions for your family. Um, I definitely don't want to steal any thunder away from our our parks uh chairperson, but I did want to um call out the fact that there is some pretty amazing uh collaboration that I had a close close-up view of uh between our three council member, Miss Hayrick, um our city administrator, Miss Marina, our mayor, and representatives north camp wide. Um I I was, as I say, witness to kind of the back and forth discussions related to some of the um more equitable entry policies as it relates to our citizens. Uh frankly, a a rate schedule that made a lot more sense and once again was in recognition of our residents who who supported us and supported the city through the passage of issue four um last year. So um I just really appreciated the opportunity to kind of witness uh government at work and um member Hyrick will probably very humbly dismiss this as just what we do and while that is true um you know uh she along with the other folks that I've mentioned are you know servants and I appreciated the fact that this was able

to get done and um it's a very important issue to a very large number of people in town and I'm glad that uh we've got a nice plan in for for this year. So that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. War. Okay. A couple things. Um uh did you by by chance take a look at that flag at Bitser Park? No, I haven't seen it, but I believe with the high winds we've had this

the flag at Jitser Park gets changed before Memorial Day. Should look good. Um there's two roads. Uh, Cordelia, as you turn off Main Street, uh, there's a big pothole that needs to be uh, addressed. I reported that one a while back. Okay. Well, still done. And then on the corner, or not the corner, but the intersection of Woodland and Sutton, there's another one uh, that needs to be taken. Did you by chance find out about the roads? What are we responding? West Maple is not going to be paved till next year. So, I thought it was supposed to be this year.

No, that's next year. And so, we're definitely going to address there's some significant potholes down really. I thought last year we did the hill and then this year I thought we were supposed to do with Jackson Township. It's 27, right? We'll confirm. I thought Rob said today it's next year. Remember these grants are on fiscal years. Okay. July. It might be fiscal 27 which is started July 1st. But we are still addressing those potholes. Okay. Well, yeah. Once we find out, he said it's a very small amount of money when you talk about the asphalt that they throw into a pothole and just can't.

But there's so many streets that need just a small part of asphalt. And if we're going to re, you know, redo it, you know, put up two signs, rough road ahead. That'll keep them at 25er. You know what I Yeah, don't do it.

You know, I there are a lot of roads, you know, I'm being conscientious when I Well, we don't want to do that or this or, you know, be a little patient, you know, and stuff of that nature. Yeah. There's two large chuck holes going right into the park. So, um, I went over to the park on a, oh, when they got up to 80 degrees and there were so many kids on the playground, a lot of people at the park, a lot of local residents, a lot of residents from outside our area and it's really done a nice job. Maybe we can put another little section of playground equipment there or get another private donor, you know, or something of that nature. But they're really enjoying our parks. Um,

and what else? Uh, the mayor suggests we name one of the street sweepers after me. The 2000 3000, but it's gonna happen. The, uh, the street sweepers out. The streets are looking a lot better and they're they're doing great. I've seen them through W four and W three. I've seen them. So, they're doing a good job there. So, hats off to the street department there. Um, that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. President.

Yeah, thanks. Uh, yeah, just to echo uh street sweeper, I did have some concerns called in about streets uh north of Everhard um and they haven't swept. I was in touch with Liam and um he did tell me that they weren't backed out and our machine is just so everyone's kind of aware our machine is in and out of the shop a lot. Um, and so as a result, um, we have a a a deal with, uh, the, uh, I guess the sales person or whatnot, sell us a future machine that they're going to do two two full sweeps of the city. Um, this this uh, spring and then two more in the fall.

So, uh, there may be a different machine. Um that's why ours is out as much as it can when it can when it's working properly. Um and then there's there's going to be a future replacement that will get brought up later on as I think thinking. So they um really enjoyed this opportunity to test out what they're going to own. That's the the rental. They're renting the the one that they're purchasing and they really like it. They say it's much better. It loads right into the hopper. It's going to be so much more convenient. We're going to keep the old one. Even though it does go in and out the shop a lot, we're going to keep it and maybe that way we can run two on different sides of the city.

Yeah, I I like the idea of an emergency plan. I'm a big fan of having a backup. Um I think that's I think that's good thinking. Um I did get stuck behind a new one and uh I was thrilled to have the opportunity to be stuck and it was doing an amazing it was it was amazing. It looked like it was a new broke. That's what they said the suction power sprayer.

Anyway, uh yeah, thanks John uh for your remarks too. Uh the paving I'm I uh I have a lot of concerns too about roads and paving and I've also had some uh some other citizens their concerns about hardcore. Um and I've talked to Rob and he obviously just based on what he's told me, it sounds like next year Mark Fort may get done with grant funding. Um, nothing I can't say anything for sure, but it was a conversation that we had. Um, because I know Mark's bad, but getting that new paving grinding machine with the pa that we already have. Um, I think it's going to be super important that we're we're working on those those roads that are in a bad way. You know, waiting another year when those roads are as bad as they are. that's why we're getting this machine. So, we haven't seen the work of what uh it can do and what those guys can do with it. So, I look forward to that. Thanks for every everyone that's uh reported their concern. I'm glad to follow up on those. and um Holly the field space. Uh I also believe we need to do everything we can for the kids in the city. Um and and uh getting creative with what we can come up for them and parking. That's uh that's all I have.

All right. Uh Jeff, thank you for saying nice things. Um I guess You know, I want to touch on the parks position just for one moment and just kind of piggyback on what the mayor said. This position is filling a gap that we have currently. Um, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to uh take the steps we need to to move that forward next week. Um, and then related to the pool, since everyone brought that up, um, yeah, it it it's been an interesting few weeks of trying to kind of nail down how we move forward. And I can, you know, I guess I want to thank Catherine for even allowing me to have a voice in that because it's not something that's within council's purview. We don't set the rates. We don't set the policies on the pool. and um maybe I just, you know, spoke loudly enough that she had had to listen a little bit, but no, Catherine was great and so I've for years been trying to get some of these things changed and got nowhere. So, I really appreciate that we were able to do that this year. So, just kind of in summary, um the pool is obviously a municipal pool. It's uh owned by the city. It is funded in part by city tax dollars. our residents voted to increase their income tax uh last year and so I think you know even more than in previous years we owed it to them to make sure that they can access the pool on the the best days the weekends and the holidays and in order to do that the reason that they weren't previously was because of capacity issues. So the YMCA obviously they're they're the swimming people. They understand safety. They know um what's safe and what's not and what capacity is safe and what's not. There's not an actual capacity number

since an it's an outdoor space, but we have to lean on them to tell us what they feel is going to be safe. So, we what we did this year was to double the rates for non-residents, which includes our school district. So, that's not an easy decision to make at all. Um, but I think you know the best way to explain that and that's only for membership day day passes same rate doesn't matter if you're a resident or not but the best way to explain that I think is that you know the residents are paying that extra every month all year long every paycheck all year long and so you know the residents are making up that same that same cost really and have to have access to the pool. So, I'm glad that we were able to get that done. Um I know that we're going to have some unhappy people. I wish that all of our school district was within the municipality, but it's not. And um yeah, so that's that's kind of where we are. And I am hopeful that residents are very happy to have access.

What is a I saw the rating. What's a buddy pass? I didn't know what that was. It's constant. It's like six bucks or eight bucks something. If you have a family pass or maybe even I think it's only with a family pass you can have one it's for one specific person so like if you have like a nanny or something who you want to get them they got their buddy passes no but it's there just in case it's someone like that. Yeah. Thank you Mr. Master.

Yeah we have a couple things uh wanted to share this evening. Uh first and foremost I want to thank the uh North Canton Fire Department um our family without getting into specifics was uh found ourselves in need at a softball game a few weeks back and the firefighters came over uh very quickly and attended to the needs that we had. Um so thank you goes out to them. Also want to thank Katherine because uh they identified the fact that um we need to find somebody with a key to get into the back gate uh in order to get the firefighters in. Thankfully, we were able to find a key, but you know, I identified that, man, it would be better if we had a fire department key or lock on that gate. So, um, with Katherine's help, uh, who, uh, quickly reached out to the school, I think it was within 24 hours, we had a fire department lock alongside the school lock. So, there be no need to search for somebody with a key or cutting locks to get folks in. So, thank you very much for uh, for getting that taken care of. So, um, we're also throw out and I think somebody took brought this up. I don't remember which one you brought this up last or a couple weeks ago. Weather's getting nice. Um, actually Andy sent me a photo. Apparently, our two kids were riding down Main Street today on their bikes. Not in Main Street, I guess we should call it. But I guess the point being is the weather is really nice. I mean, I guess you wouldn't know from the weather today or the temperatures tomorrow, but uh, kids are out there. Just be careful when you're out there driving. Uh there are kids riding bikes uh young and old. Um you know we are out there on bikes so work both ways when you're going into intersections and um hopefully a message to the bikers would be for them to follow traffic laws as well. So all

thank you. So before we adjourn, I I want to thank my fellow council members, our city staff, residents that took the time to follow participate in tonight's meeting or follow online. I appreciate the thoughtful discussion, the care that was taken in considering the needs of our community. The work we do here, especially our commitment to responsible decision making and sound fiscal stewardship reflects a shared dedication to keeping our city strong moving forward. Thank you all for your time, for your service, and your continued engagement. I think we had a great meeting tonight. Call for new business. Seeing none, we'll move to the meeting calendar. April 13th will be a committee council meeting. April 20th will be the committee of a home. April 27th also council meeting and May 4th committee of the home.

Just as a reminder, my work will take me to sunny Florida. Not that I will notice sun because I'll be in a meeting but virtual meeting from the beach. Hey. All right. I understand completely.