City Council - Regular Meeting

The time is so p.m. Tonight's invocation. Please stand. Let's take a moment before we begin tonight's business. We gather tonight not just to manage the present, but to shape what North Canton will become. May we make decisions with the next generation in mind, not only the next headline. Give us the foresight to plan wisely, the courage to invest in what matters, even when the results take time, and the humility to build on the work of those who served before us. Let tonight's discussion move this community one step closer to the place we all want to be. We ask this in service of our neighbors and to North Canton's future. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,

One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I will make a motion to approve as presented in minutes from the June 15th, 2026 City Council meeting.

the June 22nd, 2026 Committee of the Whole and City Council Meeting. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Minutes pass. I believe no one has signed up for public speaks. Is that correct?

Yep.

We will move on. Whole business. If there aren't, would you please read the title of Ordinance 24-2026.

Ordinance amending various provisions of Chapter 927, sewer rentals, and Chapter 937, water rates, are the codified ordinances of the City of North Canton to set water and sewer rates for five years, effective with the billing cycle that includes January 1, 2027, through the billing cycle that includes December 1, 2031. Mr. Stocker.

All right. So thank you. This is the third reading, but I do believe that we have some proposed amendments that friends.

The rest of the factors, not just the race, but the thing. that are defining the rate structure. So those weren't in the first two units. Apologize for that. We've ever liked them enough. So two of those things in the water and in the sewer that we are adapting is that multi-units will be built based on number of units. And instead, with the new rate structure, it'll be based on two times just like every number of units. So removing those two items, Near regulation, there was a sentence in there that said, all new services shall be one inch or larger. And it really should have said, all new service lines. So that's not really changing anything, but we're clarifying the language. Then sewer rentals. One other, the outside city rates. In the past, they started out as calculated at 200% inside rate. The new rate structure will be at 170%. So not quite 200 we talked about, but they're equitable. So those are the only changes. the uh there's language changes on the penalty but we're not changing the penalty i think it's currently written as your bill is increased by 10 but if you pay within the first 15 days it's reduced and that's just i think hard to understand so your bill is what your bid is and if it's being passed within days we're not changing anything there as far as what we're doing we're just and then um as it relates to

The reduction from house customers outside city 200 That impact is not perhaps as significant as it seems, because our viewer. outside of the city customers?

Right, so outside city, we have 2,863 outside city water customers. No outside city sewer, just outside water. And we have over about 6,400 inside city customers for water. So it's not currently at 200%. That was the structure when it began, but because of the percent increases that varied over the years since the last rate study was done, I think this past year. So, yes, we just needed to realign that. Is it safe to say that the majority of our out of city customers are businesses? No. Okay.

So does anyone have any additional questions you'd like? It's still going to be one inch, but the verbiage didn't say service lines.

It just said only services. And it's listed under meter recognition. So we just wanted to clarify that.

Is there a motion to amend the ordinance 24-20-26 as presented by finance? All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Carries.

I will make the motion to adopt the third reading of Ordinance 24-2026 as amended. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Item 7B, Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 25-2026.

Ordinance authorizing the Mayor of the City of North Canton to enter into and execute an agreement for the exchange of real estate with the North Canton City School District and authorizing the transfer of property owned by the city in exchange for property owned by the district and declaring the same to be an emergency.

Okay, so there was a question that came up and legal has not responded with an answer yet. So I would like to make a motion to postpone consideration of ordinance 2026 to the July 13th, 2026 council agenda. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We move that to the 13th. Would that be after the school board meeting? No, it's on the 15th. It's on the 15th. Okay, thanks. Mr. Ott for 7C, will you please read the title and ordinance 33-2026.

An ordinance authorizing the City of North Cam to enter into a natural gas program agreement with the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council for the purpose of establishing and implementing a natural gas aggregation program within the city and declaring the same to be an emergency.

All right, so this is the second reading of the aggregation changes as presented previously.

Any other questions from council? Is there a motion to adopt the second reading of ordinance 33-2026? Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? 17. Mr. Ockey, please read the title of Ordinance 34.6.

An ordinance approving the plan of operation and governance for the NOPEC Natural Gas Aggregation Program for the purpose of jointly establishing and implementing a gas aggregation program as a NOPEC member and declaring the same to be an emergency.

Mr. Ockey. So obviously this is the companion. This is essentially the execution.

Are there any changes? Okay, so no changes. Is there anything? Any additional questions?

Seeing none, is there a motion to adopt the second reading of Ordinance 34-2026? Motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I will make a motion to set two public hearings for Ordinance 34-2026 for July 13th. The first one at 12 noon. and the following one at 6 p.m. on the same day. I give a second for that.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries. Moving right along, we're into new business now. Mr. Ott, will you please read the title of Ordinance 31-1226?

An ordinance establishing Chapter 372, Mobility Devices, of the Codified Ordinances of the City of North Canton, thereby establishing provisions for the use and operation of mobility devices within the city.

Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig.

Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig. electric skateboards, and similar devices. The legislation aims to improve safety for operators, drivers, and pedestrians. It defines the key device types, sets the requirements for lawful operation, including minimum age limits, helmet use for riders, and required equipment such as lights, reflectors, signals, and mirrors. The ordinance restricts where and how the device is used. such as limiting roadway use to streets with speed limits of 35 miles an hour or less, requiring adherence to traffic laws, and mandate safe behavior around pedestrians. It also outlines prohibitive conduct, including unsafe operation, unauthorized modifications, and improper parking. Like last week, this is basically terminating quite certain people on the screen are obviously like in our circumstances and we haven't caught basically rules of the road for those. This would help create that. It goes into as far as when we release them and tell one if they need to, and it also involves basically involving the parents when these calls aren't filed. Is there anything else that you think we can cover on it?

I think you just about covered as far as my end. I'll pitch it over to Chief Kemp if he has anything he'd like to add.

Thank you for dumping that long explanation on me. What this does is it encompasses everything under one ordinance course instead of being separated out like many of it is. And it's trying to build in that loophole because technology keeps getting ahead of legislation. So this should be technology-free for a bit. It also gives it an ability to hold the parents accountable.

But it gets confused. I think a lot of this is about the bikes. It's not about the bikes that are electric powered.

Well, this is very much pointed out. E-bikes are the vehicle to be on the road. If it does not have the pedals, then it's an electric motorcycle, which is required to be under the same licensure as a motorcycle by a licensed driver.

Otherwise, it's a dirt bunch and there's already state laws for that. And that's the avenue that we're going after.

And the whole purpose of this is because of the safety of the children. We want them to be safe when they're out there. It's unfortunate we don't use the set parameters, but it was demonstrated that without setting parameters, sometimes compensation

No one wants, no driver wants to experience anything negative. I think this is helpful in ensuring that people on bikes are operating like cars. Yes, I did have a question. So last meeting,

Remember the place you're very eloquently explained it to everybody, especially me about pedals and pegs. Let me just talk about that. I don't have pedals. That's a, that's dirt bike and that's off the road. So my question is more about pedals. Unless I missed it, I don't see anything that says that the motor assist vehicle with pedals cannot be operated on the sidewalk.

It does not prohibit from being on the sidewalk. Right now, sometimes it takes place on the sidewalk. However, there is a reason within that, I believe, that states that they're not supposed to be used motor when they're on the sidewalk.

They can use the motor, but they cannot be operating faster than a pedestrian walking pace is the language we finally settled on.

Yeah. If it's not a written law, then we can see somebody do something that you're drawing that's not going to look very courteous. Now it's just a little bit of legality to that courteousness.

To your point, Jim, I mean, I'm not a police officer. I don't want to step on the dirt if they have a cyclist. I can tell you, Tom, when I was doing a charity ride, this guy kept passing him like there's nobody that's passing him. So to that point, when somebody's simply pedaling, not just operating with their thumb, you may not know if they actually made that motion there. Now, if they're going significantly faster than they should be, that would be a new thing, unless you have any other...

The other aspect of this is not just the bikes. It's the one wheels that are floating around the community out there. It's the skateboards, the motorized skateboards. The technology on those just keeps going leaps and bounds, and it makes it feel... We want to have somebody to put some type of guardrails on it. And again, at the end of the day, it's not the important side of it. It's the safety side.

And I think you mentioned, too, that given these boundaries now with this ordinance, it also allows you an opportunity for education.

Absolutely. Our first step is to engage. Our first step is to engage. Most times, it starts with the kids. That doesn't take effect with leads to conversations with the parents. This also brings in the aspect of when you have conversations with the parents to become knowingly aware that the kids are doing non-faith practices on the road. We don't want to make the phone call. What it doesn't fix is a lot of times when somebody's kids run from us. We won't chase a kid on an electric road very far. My guys will turn, but as soon as they notice somebody's running from them, they don't chase them. Because that will be the blame when that child goes out into the traffic. My sergeants are very aware, my officers are very aware. Safety first and safety first.

Any questions for Chief?

I just had a housekeeping question for Liam. On this one, can we get through three readings but then pass one emergency to put it immediately into place? Is it a safety matter? I was asking if we can get through three readings on this and then place it into emergency to consider the safety-related matter to put the ordinance straight into effect. Is that a possibility?

That would require an amendment of counsel. If you would like to do that, to amend to add an emergency provision, you may.

I would prefer to add it. I feel like it meets the definition for an emergency passage. And what we're saying is not to rob three readings from the public to speak on it, but when we finish the third and prove it, it would immediately go into effect rather than wait 30 days. That's what I'm looking for.

Jamie, just put a motion on the floor. I will second that. And Holly seconds that. Motion to amend or add the emergency clause. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Well, then I will make a motion to adopt the first reading of Ordinance 31-2026.

As amended.

As amended. Thank you. As amended. Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries. All right. Lynn, will you please read the title of Resolution 32-2026?

A resolution in support of accepting the 2026 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan.

This is Ms. Myrick.

All right. We discussed this in committee. Council wanted to continue the discussion of the plan. So I think we're just going to open that discussion. Whoever would like to start is welcome to begin.

Why are we doing this? First of all, it's my point. We've never done it in the past. And all we are doing is accepting and receiving We don't have to do anything that's in the plan. We can do it all or not. I think it's, you know, we're going against what we've done in the past.

That's not true. When we had the last city master plan, we actually made adjustments and it was several months after we first got it. And so it was a lengthy process.

So we're just making, we really, what is it, acknowledge we received. That's all we're doing here is how I understand it.

It is written slightly different. So the previous one that you're talking about Jamie did say the word knowledge. This one does say except. Might I recommend that you change the language to it? that might be helpful because in my opinion, I was just talking about this to me before, a master plan is not written in stone. You're not accepting it to do the things in there. There's a couple of things I spoke very specifically about not liking. But that again, like John said, doesn't mean you have to follow it. You can choose to edit it. Administration can edit it at a later point. To me, you're accepting the work that has been done. And I think that's a slippery slope because you could be construed as contesting the opinions of the residents who we had over 600 North Canton residents participate in this.

That's not true. 27% were actually non-residents.

There were over 1,000. 60% were city residents.

We took what I saw, and again, I only had the appendices as of today, so over 100 pages, I wasn't able to read it, so forgive me. What I saw was that the survey was 613 respondents, and perhaps our consultant can confirm or deny that, and what I saw was there was 27% of those were non-residents. The largest responding group was non-residents. So it would not be 613 people.

So let's say it's 50. Are you going to not listen to the 50 residents who spoke and gave their opinions specifically and contest the data? That's the slip of your slip that I'm talking about.

Well, I think actually the consultant told us last week that it was not statistically significant data.

There's still the opinions of the residents, your constituents. Right. they're the ones that gave and participated in all this survey to tell you what they wanted to see to do. That's the data. So you could say it's statistically not eligible, whatever, but if somebody comes to public speaks and raises their voice, what's the difference on whether they participated at the podium or gave a survey to you? You see it in the appendices. It's still the direct conversation your constituents had with the people. It's all about the work that's done. It's not about the plan. We can edit the plan. I think your discussion should be, what don't you want to see in the plan?

I mean, we can get into that, but I think, I mean, I know that I had a few questions about this data. I mean, is it a problem that I'm pushing the data?

I don't think it is, but if you attack the data, you could be construed as attacking the residents. That's what I'm throwing out there.

I don't like the word attack. That's not what anything is. You shouldn't use that word here.

Dispute, disagree, I mean, contest. What word do you want to throw in there? Analyze. Okay.

Analyze. There's nobody here fighting it. We just want to get it right. So I'm just going to back up. I had requested a working session, and for those that were present and were aware of that, it didn't work out because of our schedules, and that's no one's fault up here. So we had agreed to have this working discussion this evening. However, shortly after that meeting, a few of us made a request for the appendices of this plan, and there's six of them, I believe, that were not provided to us until 4.15 p.m. this afternoon. And there are hundreds of pages. And so none of us had a chance to go through it. So I'm just going to motion at this time to table this.

I don't want to table this, but I would be willing to postpone this until July 13.

And I would need a working session because the information that I did see in the appendices is even more concerning than just the plan itself.

Why were the appendices so late? Actually, that's a good question. When were the appendices provided to the city?

Soon as I got them, I sent them to her.

And when was that? Today?

Yeah. You got them today? I asked for them on Friday, and they weren't ready. They said they'd be ready on Monday, and they were ready today.

That's concerning.

They're very large.

We had everything. Sure, but you can understand that as the taxpayers who are paying for the plan, and there is an item in the appendix that I thought today that jumped off the page of me, and it said the stakeholders who have reviewed this along the way included city council and that is not accurate and so we should have had an opportunity before the last meeting to have input on it we were not provided that opportunity the public should have had an opportunity to provide input on it prior to the last meeting and they were not provided that opportunity if you want to go back to 2023 in the master plan there were at least two sessions held throughout that time period where the plan came back and meetings were held at walsh for the public to attend and have that input and that should have happened here with both the public and city council. So that's really my objection is that the data is concerning. There's not been adequate time to review the materials sent to me. I cannot support it at this time. The way it was worded in the initial email about how we were going to go about this was this was a ceremonial acceptance of the plan. And I don't feel like I can ceremoniously accept it at this time. So you can delay it. But if you delay it, I am requesting a working session. We are approaching summer session. Schedules may be rough. So I'm going to motion again.

I don't want to table it because if we're tabling and it doesn't come back in the very next meeting, which is Monday next week, then it's dead.

So we can postpone it any time we want. But we're not finished with it, I guess is where I'm taking that stance.

Let me just ask on the stats you gave. I'm reading the email that was sent to me. It says the survey respondents, 73% were North Canton residents. 73% indicated they lived in North Canton, 12% in Plain Township, and 8% in Lake Township. So I'm not sure, where did you get the percentages that you said? I got it out of the embassy.

I'm reading an email from John that said... Well, even so, statistically, it's not going to change the overall results that are pretty much consistent across all of the plans that Brandstetter has put together. Right. And our parks are used by individuals that live outside of North Canton. Even though residents are supporting it, people that work in North Canton are supporting parks through their income tax also. So taking into consideration those that are outside of the city that wanted to respond to those parks, I would conclude that they've been to the park or two. So it's not bad data, it's just not good data.

I also want to say recommendations from the plan were not just from the survey and the engagement. Like we talked before, there were the stakeholder group meetings, the people that use the parks, the facilities, people that are in the sports world.

So can we talk about that real quick?

Yeah, go ahead, please. So first of all, I am not discrediting the people who responded to the survey. I appreciate the people who responded. In fact, if there's somebody from Jackson Township, Lake, or whoever who comes to our parks. I think that's fantastic and that speaks volumes to the work that you've done, Catherine, and that the other people on our staff have done to provide amazing parks. What I have a problem with is, is that there was a stat in there that said, and this is where they said there was no statistic significance, that there's 67% of the people would support a levy. And it was said when we discussed this last, well, maybe closer to 50-50. I get concerned about relying upon data from somebody who lives in another municipality. While I think it's great that they come here and enjoy the parks, they don't have the skin in the games that the folks in this room do who would actually flip the bill, whether it's through a property tax that I've heard mentioned multiple times or the taxes that they're paying now.

Well, can I just say, though, no one's being asked to support... No, but no one's being asked to actually support it. I understand that's a question, would you support it? But the city of North Canton at this point is not requesting that anyone actually go to the polls and vote and say yes. So I would say with respect to what everyone is saying, I feel like the discussion is getting a little bit far afield from the standpoint of, you know, Talking about a levy and talking about this, whether we were talking about accept or acknowledge, we hired a consultant. We hired consultants all the time to do a variety of things. We hired a consultant to advise the city of North Canton as related to our water and sewer rates. We didn't have a massive discussion about Ed's methodology. At that point, we just didn't. And I can understand that, you know, this is a big deal. I know that. But this is a resolution. It is simply saying that our partners who are experts in creating a park, this is what they've done. It was a year's worth of work. And now they're handing it over to the experts of North Canton, i.e. us. And we are to basically take a look at that report, decide what we like, what we hate, what's intriguing, make it better, or discard it entirely. So I feel like I know that the phrase statistically invalid was used, but I don't think that the presenter was referring to the entire study in a whole, I don't have time to go back and read the transcript to see exactly what she said. I don't, maybe it was your, your, your colleague, but like, I feel like we're hanging an entire weighted conversation upon one phrase that is being frankly given too much weight. We're, we're, we're, We're acknowledging, if that's a better term, great, acknowledging that our partner has done work that we're going to then use to help us. We can accept all of it, none of it, or some of it. That's all. That's all this is. So that goes back to John's very first question. Why are we doing this?

My thoughts on the statistic validity is not based solely on the comments that they hear. I mean, listen, I, in the medical world, I deal with situations, not that great at it, but to be honest, I'm not gonna lie to you. I look at them and I could tell that it's not . So the council who was here when we made this decision voted in favor of hiring

Brancitor Carroll to complete a plan that was not statistically valid. The council did not want to spend the extra money to have the statistically valid survey. We could have done that. We did not.

Can you elaborate more on that, please?

It, it would have cost more. I don't know how much, but it would have cost more. There were already a lot of questions about the money that was being spent. So, and the reason, so it would have cost more and it would have taken more time and we were on a time crunch, right? We had a pool decision coming up that we wanted information about. We, once we have this plan, we can go out and get grants for parks because we have something that says, Hey, we know what we're doing. We actually put the time in and like we have a plan here from professionals who know what they're talking about. The way, because I worked to sell to the previous council getting this approved. And one of the ways I did that is we had spent $164,000 between 2017 and 2024 on park assessments, architect fees for plans that we never did anything with. We were throwing money away. So now we've got something that at least says, you know, at least in the back of it says, hey, if we're going to make some repairs, here are the critical ones. This is what we have to do to get ADA compliance going. There's a lot of really good information in here. There's stuff that some people aren't going to like. Absolutely. Absolutely.

But this is what we paid for. We did not pay for statistically valid. To send a postcard to 17,000 residents, and I'm not saying that's exactly what should have been done, but that can be done for $2,000. So I don't know. This cost the taxpayers $123,000.

Could we possibly ask the folks that do this for a living how much that would cost?

It typically takes costs when we do that. We hire an outside consultant that does this statistically valid surveys. That's what's called a statistically valid survey as opposed to just a regular survey. It costs between $12,000 to $15,000 depending on the size.

But what I'm kind of getting at is a postcard that had just the link to the survey that was already created that people did participate in, whether it was at the dog board event or a 720 market. You know, like I said in the last meeting, we had methodologies. We could have put that link out to more of our residents for free on our side because We could have printed it on a water statement. We could have sent it out through the text message. So I'm just saying there's ways to get that out in more hands. It doesn't have to be a broader survey in my mind. It needed to go to a wider audience. That's what my concern is.

We did have a QR code, and we did push that out everywhere. It was in the letters and the newsletters that were mailed to homes. It was on the website.

It was on the Facebook page.

I mean, we did the best we could, not having paid that much money for a professional agency to do it. And we're not going to do it now. But we can go back.

It's too late, and that's the concern. So that's when you can say, oh, we're terrible. $30 million of recommendations in the booklet. If we were to put them all together and do everything it recommends, we would spend $30 million. Now we know we're not going to do that, right? But my point is, those recommendations are based off of that limited data, that very small number of people.

They're also based on some experts who came and looked and assessed our parts. Can I give an example? Yes, of course.

there's a picture in the booklet of a dugout of the little league fields. And it says, we need to put shade in these. Well, they took the picture, I think probably in the middle of winter or early spring before the season started. And had they actually had the conversation with the league, they'd understand shade is provided already. It is something that they put on every year. Before opening day so there's little things throughout this whole booklet that I just feel like we missed out on we talked about stakeholders. And the term is used throughout a lot of it is focused group and I spoke with at least five of the organizations that are referenced in this book and none of them. had a focus group. All of them were one individual, a 30-minute maybe Zoom phone call at best. There were no focus groups. There were no multiple people who use the organization spoken to, no parents that use them, no athletes that use them, no residents who don't use them. There were no focus groups. So I just feel like the language is a stretch at times, okay? But let me step back. The scope of the project was to allow me as a council person input on this plan. I have not been provided that yet. So that's where I'm at with it.

I'm sorry if you cannot understand that, but... Would you be better off if the wording was changed and amended to instead of accepting the 2026 Parks and Recreation spaces plan, but to acknowledging receipt of that. And then what we do with it once we have it, change it, adjust it, get more input, isolate certain things, allow Mr. Elkins to say, here's my priorities, here are the community groups that I'm getting involved with, and then we can get enough done with the existing perks plan that we have in hand and the things that need to be done for next year's budget. Budget season's upon us. We just got an email. When are those dates? August 1st. So if we want to be able to move forward, we could change the verbiage to say, acknowledge receipt of this plan.

So you'd be willing to move forward with an incomplete plan that we're not all in love with?

So are you suggesting that we get it back to Brandstetter and pay them more money to make it more complete?

I'm suggesting you're going to be done with some of the ideas we were expecting to talk about tonight. And we can tweak it. So you're willing to vote on it and accept it before we tweak it? Accepting receipt of it. What we do with it after we have it doesn't matter.

Can I ask Mr. Elgin a question? So let's just say that we acknowledge, or whatever the correct term in the last one minute is, this work. What would be your next step as director of the Parks Department? And what kind of a timeline would you imagine it might be to actually execute anything? with it. Anything, anything.

Well, it's going to be within a year. I mean, there are things that you have to do, like an ADA assessment and transition plan. That's a requirement for the ADA as a title two agency. So that has to be done. I'm currently working on a grant application to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. We will, as a matter of fact, legislation will be coming to city council next week, requesting authorization for the mayor's office to file for that grant through ODNR. Stark County has been allocated just over $82,000 through ODNR for next year. We're requesting funds to renovate the sport courts in Price Park. When you have a document such as this, and I cite this document in any grant application, it earns us points. Any grant application. If you delay this, and I'm not telling you what to do, this is just the reality. If this is delayed, the grant application is due July 15th. It's going to be postmarked by July 15th. If this is tabled, wrong word, Ms. Matheny, this is delayed until August. I wouldn't feel right referencing this particular plan if council has not acknowledged it or has, you know, just receiving it, if you will. So there is value to the plan. And dispute the data, the validity of the data. This is my third master plan I've been through in my career. The wants, needs, and desires don't change a whole lot between communities. There are certain components of a community that make it unique. So I would pool. And Arrowhead are certainly those two unique amenities within your community that makes North Canton much different than many other communities.

So if I could follow up. So you mentioned that you've had, you've been a part of three master plans. And I'm imagining that you have read and looked over other cities or municipalities plans, you know, probably, you know, something you guys do over coffee. I don't know. You're aware of what other cities are. How out of the ordinary, out of line is this report? Or is it basically within keeping of every other master plan you've ever seen?

The two master plans that I've went through in green, this is very similar. But I also want to reiterate something that I said maybe a little over a month ago, is that the administration can't do anything in this plan without coming to city council. There may be things that the administration comes to city council and asks for funding to do that isn't in this plan because things do change in the community. Dynamics change, politics change, council members change, mayors change, priorities change. So I think what is being discussed here tonight is healthy in that we're acknowledging the work that Brent Sutter Carroll has done in putting together a plan for the city of Thorpe County. It's a tool. that Catherine, Jason, the mayor and I will use to itemize priorities within the park system. I've already identified some of them. And we're working towards putting together budgets for those that will be coming to you for funding for next year. To have this accepted in a resolution by city council is advantageous when asking for grant funds.

Based on that timeline, we're at a disadvantage because you said July 1st, If tonight's the first reading and next Monday's the second reading. July 15th. Yeah, but if today's the first reading and next Monday's the second reading and then we go on recess, we don't come back to August for the third reading, it doesn't get signed. It doesn't go in effect until September.

What is the meeting in August? 17th is the first. Okay.

But it'd be okay to say that we have a plan in the grant application and by time that the review is.

And then once this is accepted by Or through resolution, I could send it to ODNO.

But again, they're a vendor. Okay. They did what we asked for and they gave their plan.

Yes.

So we should just vote on accepting this today.

Yeah. And I just want to clarify on the stakeholders. Yes, they were in large groups, but when you reach out to a stakeholders organization, you say send a representative that represents your organization. It may not ask every parent and every athlete and every person that's on the board. They have a representative that showed up. I didn't control that. I just said to them, we'd like to have a stakeholder meeting with you. North Canton Little League, North Canton Soccer, North Canton Lacrosse, North Canton Youth Football. Whoever they said they wanted to be on, and they were Zoom calls because they're more efficient. They were somewhere, we were somewhere, they were somewhere. and we had i think they were open-ended as long as it wanted to go so we asked questions that they asked questions or the consultants asked questions and uh they kind of just chatted back and forth what are your pain points what you know tell us about your community tell us about your league tell us about you know everything that it takes to run your you know organization and it ended when it ended so there wasn't any subscribed you know

To go back to the original question, would council feel better if it said a resolution acknowledging receipt of the 2026 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan from Branstad or Carroll?

I still have a couple concerns beyond the data, I guess. And we've talked about a couple times. I'm concerned about some of the things that are being asked in here as far as Little League goes. To my understanding, that property, and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, although I don't think anybody in this room was here at that time. It is my understanding that property was given to the city for the sole use of a Little League field. And here we're talking about upending a decades-long relationship. So I would almost like to see that section completely taken out. I also have concerns about the Arrowhead section. I mean, I'm...

I get it, there's concerns, but the question that I'm asking is changing the language, acknowledging receipt of this, not accepting what's in it, acknowledging receipt of this, that we sent out a contract, they fulfilled the contract, we received it. What we get to do with it, what's going to change with the Little League, the questions that we have with Arrowhead, all of that has to come to city council and because it's going to require budgeting.

So what meeting are you going to propose to bring it back for us to tweak it then after we acknowledge accepting it?

Once we accept it, then it doesn't need to have a public meeting to go through and discuss it. It's a matter of having meetings with the Parks Department. You could have a committee meeting if you want, but in essence, it's being utilized as here we have a plan. I'm expecting stuff back from Mr. Elkins saying, here's what I've prioritized in here. Do you think he's going to bring back changing little fields?

I don't think so.

That's just something that's going to be X'd out. So let's take it for what it is, accept receipt of it, and then allow administration or parks administrator to move forward getting grants, getting funding. and getting us the dollars, because August, we're going to decide what capital improvements do we want to do in 2027.

I'm going to oppose any negative impact on Little League's fields, and I'm going to oppose a nine-hole, under-3,000-yard golf course. I mean, I guarantee it.

Why is it in here, then, I guess, is the question.

It's just a recommendation.

Right, but again... One person, please.

The point is, what's in here... may or may not be utilized in its entirety. The idea is this vote, this resolution, it's not an ordinance, it's not a law, this resolution is accepting the receipt of advice.

Well, I would be acknowledging that I'm receiving a plan that did not follow the scope of the project, and I was not offered an opportunity, nor was the public to have input on it. That was the only thing that I would acknowledge at this point in time. I'm sorry. That's a fact. It costs $123,000 taxpayer dollars. We currently cannot pay streets in this community. So I just want to make sure they get their money's worth for it. And they're given that opportunity. And I'm given that opportunity as a voice of them. That's all I'm asking. So if it's a delaying issue and we're putting off grants, I don't want to do that. But I don't know that we're going to come back to the table and have the true working session opportunity we should have had, all seven of us together. to go through it. The appendix that was sent today is far more alarming to me, what little I've seen, than what was previously provided in the booklet. The little leak piece should have been yanked by now. Pending the conversation we had two weeks ago, as passionate as I was and maybe some others, it should have been missing from here by now. And instead I receive appendix F with this huge two-page system-wide recommendation that is very alarming. And I don't know why I'm still receiving that information if it's already been expressed as a council member. So input's not changing anything, apparently.

I did want to clarify the verbiage for the record that things like considering putting rectangular fields in the Hoover Complex or the Nine Bowl Golf Course are not actually recommendations. They're options. So if you look in the recommendations, So I just wanted to communicate that we can quibble over what that means, I guess. But I would characterize that as these are things for the city's consideration, not even that they're being recommended per se.

Yeah, I would agree with that, Jason. I think it also depends on what the topic is. Under Arrowhead, it does list it as options for sustainable community recreation. For Little League, it actually says recommendation. So the wording is a little different depending on the topic and the plan and the appendixes.

Can we change that word? Can we accept...

If you accept the plan, the administration can do whatever you guys want. It's the communication.

But if that word is the thing...

Most of us here are elected officials and serve at the will of those elected officials. if all of us are gone next turn, is someone else going to follow this book? Because I have a problem with that.

It still has to be voted upon. It is the plan of, I mean, technically, Liam can correct me, but procedurally, council appropriated the money and gave the authority to go ahead and seek these consultants to provide this. They've provided it. It is now the plan, it's the administration's plan, right? So can council, do they have the authority to make changes in the plan? Or is that more the administration?

No, you can ask it, but it's kind of a checks and balances. As a The contract was with the mayor's administration. The council's authority was just to appropriate the money for it.

And then we would come back. That's why, again, there would never be anything administration's going to do from the plan without the authority of council.

That's the checks and balance of both sides. I would also... I would think that we could change that.

I would also say that...

I don't think you have to vote to do that. I'm already telling you guys that's not going to happen. I'll remove it. I'm fine with that, but you have to acknowledge the receipt of it. I mean, it's the work that has been done. The legislation is not editing the plan. It's accepting the work that is done. That's a boyfriend conversation. If you think you're going to the point where if we're not doing it, then you would enact legislation to change it. but give us the opportunity to change it. I've said it how many times now? That's not going to happen.

Okay, so real quick, Holly, you brought to my attention two weeks ago, wasn't it said in the scope of work that they were to come to council and get our, I mean, it was referenced in here somewhere, I think it was on page C-17 of the appendices we got today, that they got the opinions of council. Well, they really happened because we would have nixed that before it came back for us to vote. Am I missing something?

Can I just speak about that for a second? So I may not be on the board of the North Kent at this point, but I have literally bled on those fields. And I respect beyond words that I can even state the work that President Jamarco and Mr. Meter have done. We all do, right? We all do. The fact that there is a report that talks about what could possibly happen with North Kent, literally, we can sit in the property. We can sit here and we can say that it's flawed, and maybe it is. But there's also some additional information that we're probably not even thinking about. And what I'm referring to is the fact that there is a beautiful new baseball field that Hoover High School just built. It's a full turf baseball field. And you know what's happening right now? They're installing lights. So why am I talking about the Hoover baseball field as it relates to the North Canton Parks Master Plan? Because there is a baseball field that's tucked at the very back of the North Canton Little League Complex that one of the tenants of that field is the freshman baseball team from Hoover. Do we even know if the freshman baseball team intends to use that field after The Hoover baseball field is open for lights and open for business, so to speak, for more hours. One of the other tenants is the Hoover or the North Canton Travel, whatever their name is. Once again, do we even know that they are going to utilize that? So I appreciate the concept that people are saying that the North Canton Little League Complex is sacrosanct. But I feel like there's additional information that's at play that might make a different use of those fields. I would also point out that we're not just talking about the stuff that's inside the fence. We're also talking about the parking lot. We're talking about the empty field that's next to the parking lot. We're talking about that entire parcel. So once again, we can debate even more about What the plan says, whether it's a recommendation or an option, it's simply accepting that a partner did some work. They had an idea. Some of the ideas are great. Some of them are bad. Some of them are in between. But they're all provoking. They're thought provoking. And that's where we come in. That's where the city administration comes in. That's all we're supposed to be doing. And if someone feels that it's not, fundamentally sound or whatever, then don't vote for it.

All right. Well, I'm going to make a motion to amend the title of the resolution to the following. A resolution acknowledging receipt of the 2026 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan from Branstetter, Carolina. Can I get a second?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? No.

Roll call.

We need a roll call, please. Member Pierpont?

No.

Member Orr? No. Member Weirich?

Yes.

Member Matheny? Yes. Member McLeister? No. Member Pratt? No. Member Stockard? Yes. With four opposed and three in favor, motion fails.

Motion fails. I was under the understanding, Mr. Orr, that you wanted to acknowledge receipt of this.

Well, not with the changes you made. You made changes on that.

You're going to make this die.

Okay, this is what they presented. Okay, if you'd like to vote for it. And I feel you're a vendor. The next time we do a Parks and Rec, I don't know if you'd want it or if we want you back, but this is what they gave us.

So the motion was to acknowledge receipt of what they gave us. You made some changes. That's the only change I made. That's the only change I made.

You made a change. You made a change. Point of order. Are you trying to re-litigate a vote that just happened? No. Really?

No, I think we... We did a vote. We did a roll call. Yes, we did.

I would also like to mention that as it is a contracted piece of work, regardless of council's approval, whether this is approved or it dies on the table... is voted down, the administration will still receive the plan. Right. And it goes in the file.

May I ask a question? What was the amendment that we just voted on?

Just to retitle it to acknowledge receipt.

So we're not talking about any of these possible changes, like striking the literally. We're literally talking about changing the word What was it? Accept. Accept. Acknowledge. Acknowledging the receipt. That was the motion. So I, with all due respect, I don't think that's re-litigating. I think it's clarifying.

He was badgering him over his vote. Yeah, they were badgering and we voted and then we took a roll call.

Just for clarity's sake.

Okay.

So the plan goes on file, correct? Correct. We can still postpone it.

We don't have to turn it over to Mr. Elkins to use for grant money. We can postpone it indefinitely. I'm not going to table it because tabling means it dies. Resolution is resolution in support of accepting the 2026 parks, recs, Recreation and open space is master plan.

But we did just hear that if it gets tabled and it dies here on the floor of council, the plan still goes on file at City Hall, correct?

We just can't use it for grants. Council's acknowledgement of it truthfully would have no bearing on... That's correct. This is not a legal and binding decision, a resolution. I don't know that that's true.

It certainly bears more weight if council would accept the resolution to accept or acknowledge the plan.

It's unfortunate. It is unfortunate because I think if we had had some tweaks, I certainly would have supported them. I support parks. I support a lot of what was in there. There were just some things that I had questions about.

And nothing in there. Yeah, that didn't matter as much. Why did we get it at 415 today?

That's how long it took to get it formatted.

You had a year.

So... So at this point, in order to move this legislation forward, we have an option. As counsel, we can postpone it, or we can take a vote and move it to the second reading.

What order? We just held a vote.

We voted on the amendment.

The vote was just to retitle. Just to retire now. The item itself is still in the books.

It wasn't to change the legislation. It wasn't to add anything. It wasn't to take anything out. So we're voting okay. So now we're voting on the original language of accepting.

May I add to the discussion?

Absolutely.

So what if we offered to remove the two parts that I've specifically repeated over and over and over? Would you be, and you don't have to answer, and I don't want you to answer, but thinking of it, would that make you more apt to accept the proposal?

What are the two parts?

The Little League fields being replaced with rectangular fields and the nine-hole air development under 3,000 yards.

Is that a disclaimer that the information is not statistically valid? It's already there. That's already in it. It's not written in there. I have no problem with that.

I mean, this is a discussion. I think it's very important to have this acknowledged so we can use it to get grants. If we have a better opportunity to get grants for parks for our constituents, I would want to do whatever I can to do that. And that's why I'm offering this discussion to you.

Let's try to make it work. I appreciate your willingness to have this discussion because moments ago it felt like it was... This way or no way at all. So thank you. That's not what I said.

Actually, I said neither of those things would happen. And if you would like to amend it, we can do it. But you have to acknowledge your seed.

Well, the thing is, it is very difficult to explain to a community that we received 100 pages of text at 415 today, which we've not been able to read. I mean, that's not an opinion. That's just fact. So it's very difficult to go on a matter when I've not had a chance to read much of that. So I'm not comfortable with that, and that's unfortunate that that's the timing that took place, but that's an undeniable fact. I'm sorry.

I was all in favor of postponing this, so there would be time to read this, so there would be time to place your edits involved there, but it pulls us out of the July 15 potential for any kind of a grant, because at this point, you can't even state that it's been accepted under the first reading. It has not been accepted as receipt of the product.

Do you want to do it, or do you want to do it?

Hey, Mayor Mapp. Yep. As far as... no promises of a location, right? There's no, you don't have a spot for it. You don't have to put it at the middle school. You don't have to put it, you know, at the city center or anything.

There's no promise of anything in this plan. Nothing is a promise.

I'm just making sure because these are the hot topics that are out there and people frankly deserve to know about the pool, about Arrowhead, about the Little League and anything else that anyone else can think of that's in this plan.

I think it's smart on things like that to take your time and get as much public feedback as possible. Where is the best location? I don't know. Let's find out. We have time to do that if we get the final opinion or the final resolution of the land swap. We buy time on that. I think you take time to do things right. Again, the land swap is a transformative opportunity event like we have to get that right but a big piece of that is going to be grants and that's going to directly affect your vote right now or whatever it is you can vote to postpone and that would buy more time to do it but in the long run not having it acknowledge this could potentially hurt grants it's that simple so president Matheny let me just seek clarification because this is getting overwhelming on the timing of things the possibility of postponing

to July 13th. What are our two concerns with that?

Your concern would be the only one I would know, and that would be you wanting that working session between now and Monday.

It does not impact his grant writing deadlines or delay any of that?

Well, if we don't have the working session, are we going to vote in favor of passing the first reading?

The answer for me is no, because I don't know where, and that's just a mechanical thing for me, by the way. I don't know where else I'm supposed to provide input. I can't email all of you by law, right? I have to do that in front of people, so I can't do that. So when and where am I supposed to provide my thoughts so that everybody can have that discussion on it? Am I supposed to wait until that reading?

So once we acknowledge receipt of what has been presented as options and recommendations. Nothing passed in stone as must-haves. Here's an ordinance, you have to do it. Only knowledge and receipt of this product. Then it goes to administration. It belongs to the mayor and administration. Changes to this can be done as a group with administration. Here's what we want to do. It still states in this copy that I have, it says draft. We could publish this later as a final list of here's our priorities. We took this and this is what we're going to do in 27 with our capital improvements. We can move forward with anything after we receive this.

But we've had a vote. It was 4-3-no as far as amending it to receiving it, correct? So we've already had that vote. That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking if we motion to postpone consideration of it to July 13th. What are the ramifications of that? That's my question.

The only ramification there is the vote on the 13th, whether or not there will be enough time to have a planning meeting that you want to edit this whole document.

That's six, seven days away, so...

You can talk about your schedules right now and try to get it to get a date. Mr. Elkins is deadline.

I'm still going to submit the grant application. It's still going to go in with or without a resolution of support.

Right.

There's just fewer points. I just want to reiterate real quick before y'all look at your schedules, what the mayor just said. This is not the end of the public process. We will involve the public throughout the entire implementation of the plan. I've already got meetings set up with the youth support organizations and other groups in the city. This is just the beginning. Just the beginning.

So the mayor made an offer to, you know, what if we remove the two pages or whatever of references to the building. So let's say that we did that. That doesn't preclude to open for anyone from a year down the road opposing something that has either a direct or even a tangential impact upon North Kent literally. That's not the purpose of this. It's just simply to say that our partner did some work. And we're going to take it under advisement. And we're going to take this back out to the public. Sorry. And we're going to talk some more about it. That's really all. And I do respect the idea that's that maybe some of the methodology hasn't been awesome and perfect. But I would also point out that the previous council was offered an opportunity to do it a different way. You're shaking your head no, but it seems as if that's the case. And the previous council said, no, let's do it this way. And I mean, I think on some level, it almost creates a precedence that nothing

And then we'll make the changes afterwards. Like, Michael wants to get this passed so we can use it for grants. It's the baseline information.

I'm not sure I followed him. Except this pending changes. Before we get a second for that vote, we need to determine when you want to make these changes, when you want to have this meeting to discuss this. That's what we're trying to figure out. The next step moving forward is this... Additional session of what you want to move from this or willing to accept the seat of what we could do that. Name the day but that's what we're trying to get to.

If we approve this pending any changes. Okay. It helps us with grants. Okay. And that's the main thing is more points on the grants. So we could pick a date in August and have that done. So maybe all this 24

We can do anything. I was just trying to come up with a date for.

It's also worth mentioning that, again, the administration will receive this plan. There is no obligation that that happens here as all seven of you. After the plan is on file with the administration, you are all free to meet with them ad hoc individually. That item is no longer appearing before council. And you can meet with him individually and share your thoughts and what he does with those thoughts from there or under his purview, since it is on file with his office. You guys can move forward with accepting the plan just so that it is on file and you can meet with him individually afterwards as well. Many options available to you.

I'm not the only person requesting this, by the way.

When would work for you?

This week I'm available on Thursday and Friday, morning, noon, night, at any time after that.

So you said this week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?

Thursday and Friday.

Thursday, Friday.

Wednesday we have planning commission in the evening.

John, you said you were available all week?

Yeah, with the exception on Thursday, it would have to be later in the afternoon.

You're planning to meet here? Well, there's an event.

We have this. He wanted a date. I gave him a date. Why can't we vote on?

Oh, I just want to let you know Wednesday there's an event here.

It sounds like Wednesday wasn't a possibility. Yeah, Wednesday doesn't work because planning commission's in here.

Yeah, yeah.

And then everything over there.

Not this week.

Is this going to be a three-hour meeting? No. Look, I'm just going to put it to bed. Go ahead and vote on it tonight. I don't want to keep you guys. It sounds like it's a big effort to have this that should have taken place in the first place. No, but we don't need to put a plan on file that is not following the scope. There's concerning items in it, period. I can meet with the mayor one-on-one. I can go through it. But then you're not part of that conversation and you don't get a say. You know what I mean? That's the whole purpose of this conversation. I was asking a valid question. I have an hour available here, three hours available here. How many hours am I looking at? An hour. I don't know. I don't have an answer for that.

I mean, you're all available right now. Yeah, I know. Discussion of this and added.

It was supposed to happen tonight, right? That's what we talked about. But we also had anticipated having the appendixes in our.

That's why it's not happening tonight is because you don't have all the information. You don't have all the dependencies to go through. Do you want to make your recommendations and then accept it tonight before you have a chance to read? the 100 pages you got at 4.30 tonight? No.

I'm not able to make any recommendations at this time.

Right. So we can't fix it tonight. We can't amend it tonight. We can't adjust it because we don't have all the information and individuals didn't get it until 4.30 that they want to read that. So moving forward... Liam, could they accept it?

You may accept that it exists, which is what this resolution would do.

And then we will give a promise or you can add a disclosure that I will amend it If you would so trust me to amend it, because I think, again, we are all on the same page with what we don't want in there so far. And continue the conversations of what we don't, because this buys us another week for the reading.

We have a committee meeting next Monday. Why don't we just postpone it and discuss it at the committee meeting next Monday?

It's already on the next council meeting. I'm sorry? You could delay it to the next council meeting. It has left committee been numbered.

Yeah, it's left committee. Well, can we make a council meeting next week?

There is a council meeting. You have to double up next week. Okay.

I mean, we could discuss it. And I think, and again, I do want to state that I appreciate Mayor Stroyer's willingness to remove those sections, the ones that I have contention with. I mean, we really could discuss this. I think it would come to common ground at the committee meeting next Monday, and we could move it to the agenda immediately following, you know, foregoing a council report and give a first reading next Monday.

So we would need a motion, Liam, to move this back to committee.

So functionally, what purpose does that serve other than just delaying? So just asking. So it already has a title. It has already been Read for first reading. You can delay that first reading to the next meeting and accomplish the same task. We'll discuss it in committee if we pass the first reading. You don't have to discuss it.

It doesn't have to be in committee.

You can discuss it at a regular council.

That's the question. Discuss it in committee.

Well, let's do it in council. That's fine.

So you may also approve the first reading tonight. And then on second reading, I believe the mayor is... I don't think we're going to have the first reading tonight. I don't think there's enough votes to pass it.

We're going to postpone it.

I'll make a motion that we postpone this item until the July 13th City Council meeting. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? 7C, Mr. Ott, will you read the title of Ordinance 33-2026? We're past that. We are on to second public speech. I'm on the wrong page. All right. Recognition of public. Nobody signed up for public speech. Is that correct?

That is my understanding, yes.

All right. Move on to Department of Reports.

There's joy already. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate the discussion. It's not an easy thing. But my promise to you is let's make it right. I think that's fair. I think we're all on the same page for that. So I appreciate the work. I do appreciate the time spent because I watched an engagement that happened and it was impressive. The community got involved. They stood and were very interactive with everything. So I appreciate the data. I appreciate the baseline that are provided because we've never had anything like this done. So it does give us a basis, an inventory, a tool to use for grants, a great tool for Mike. So I want to go on record saying that I do appreciate that. And I think you all do too. It's just the semantics behind it that we all need to get on board. So let's continue the communication and make it what we want to make it, right? So, all right. Some housekeeping stuff. So... I'll skip that part. We are continuing with the temporary relocation of City Hall. So everything is running as normal. We have technology to bridge the gaps of everything that we're not in person at City Hall. It's over here. So when the public has issues or needs to come in person, they come to the City Center instead. Timeline, this is uh bless you all because it's it's a small place for a lot of staff to work in and uh it shows that you guys really get along with each other it's it's impressive we will in all likelihood still be here when you come back yes but hopefully not too much longer after that yeah um We had an employee appreciation day where we cook food and we have fun for an hour and said thanks to all uh the city staff and everything and uh i want to give a special thanks for american 250 for uh fire police dispatch dms for working all hands on deck for all those hours uh city staff specifically i mean uh trisha was there for you know 16 hours on saturday same with me um it's that that was uh you know overall a great day we had a record-setting ymca race we had record-setting parade attendance and record-sending setting uh night attendance i won't talk about the drone show um could be better but uh yeah whatever i'm not going to beat a dead horse on that Summer concert series is coming up on July 16th at 6 o'clock. On July 18th, there's the Heart and Home Antwerp Market, and that's at the Civic Center. And then on the 23rd, there's also the summer concert series as well. And welcome to Ryan Koblitz, who got sworn in just before the concert. And I think that's all I have. yes yeah yeah and the makeup of uh hamilton would be there as well yeah yeah good call it's longer so you like i've changed the name it's officially legally changed now um

Yeah, everything Mayor said. Great America 250 celebration, a lot of people. And boy, what a day. I mean, we battled everything from scorching heat, as you all know, walking in the parade with the heat coming up off the asphalt and just cheeks were completely red by the end, to dodging the rain later as the vendors came to set up at two o'clock, the skies open, there was a lot of people and Chief's son let me know that that many people, we really didn't have any that significant incidents happen. So that's really great. And yeah, the drone show, we were at least pleased to see some balanced comments that some people did say, you know, that there was appreciation for it, 100 feet more, and it would have cleared the building and then everybody would have been able to see. So that, you know, was disappointing to people. And so, yeah, we're having a conversation with the company that provided it just to, you know, always learn from how things go and how they can be better. But yes, the movie is here. It's also the reading of the Declaration of Independence statewide. So everybody across the state, I guess, at the same time, or is it just the same day, we're all reading it. So it's gonna be outside on the gazebo. And then I don't have the details yet from Tricia, but the plan was to show Hamilton again. here, but I'm pretty sure it's indoors and not outside. That was all set up Friday night with a 60-foot inflatable screen, and then the winds came in and could have taken that to that door. So we pulled it down real quick.

But yeah.

is where we live now city hall services finances down in the executive session room out there in the card room we have the building department along with front desk of administration in front of the utilities and then the rest of us pretty much sit here all day and all night now in these seats and council chambers uh that's all i have mr secretary so following up on catherine's name change i'm pleased that you have two city administrators

Good Hungarian.

Hungarian now.

Yes, yes. She's honorary Hungarian. But in all seriousness, like we talked about with the city hall renovations, they are going well. It probably will be after you come back that we get back in there. But good change is happening on the first floor, both in the police department and in the lobby. We're putting a conference room and there's some restroom renovations that should be done. really nice. There's a lot of HVAC work going on behind the scenes that's proceeding well. Same thing on the fire station. No news is good news. They're moving along. You've probably noticed every day as you go past the site, it's a little different. I would anticipate the next couple months, it's going to look a lot different. And I think Beaver has been doing a really good job for us. They've been really communicative. We have a check in every Monday, sharing with our team where they are with the project, and onward and upward on that. So that was all I had to report. Mr. Hopkins?

Just to reiterate, next week you'll have legislation in front of you regarding the grant opportunity through the podium hour. And again, that's to rebuild tennis courts at Price Park and the basketball court. We're also looking to add pickleball striking on one of the tennis courts at Price Park as well. The courts are well beyond their life. They're really in bad shape. We believe that by resurfacing them, providing multi-use between pickleball and tennis, we do get a lot more visitation at Price Park.

Thank you.

So that will now go to the state auditor for peer review. And once that is released, then we'll send it out. Thank you.

Mr. Nothing major. Just wanted to say it was great to be a part of the American 250 parade with you all and to be a part of the dunk tank lineup. I had a lot of fun. I think most of you will speak about it that were involved. I think we all had fun. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Council reports. Mr. McLeister.

Yeah, I got a number of things. I don't have a prepared statement tonight. So please bear with me as I fumble along. First thing I wanted to just mention is, and I thank Catherine for this. I think last week or two weeks ago. She deserves another thank you about the sidewalk that was put in over there. I actually got to meet the wife of the resident who was in a wheelchair, and she was really excited that was in. You sent me a picture last week while I was on vacation, and I think that was one of the neatest things to receive while I was on vacation, just knowing that you were able to make a very small accommodation for somebody that would mean a lot for somebody with an addiction. So I believe you deserve a thank you again for that. So thank you so much. As for this past weekend, man, holy cow, what a Saturday that was, from walking in the parade Big thank you to the JC's. I am certainly biased as a former JC myself, as is my colleague Christina. Big thank you then. It takes a lot of work to put on the parade. So big shout out to them. And then to all the city staff members. And I'm not going to name everybody because certainly I don't know who all was involved. I just know that we really came together, as I said, not we, the professional staff. We get to do the fun things at the dump tank. Big shout out to Every single city employee was involved in Saturday, especially Tricia. I know how hard she worked. I thought it was a fantastic day. And no comments about the drum show, although I share what Catherine said, that there were some balanced comments on Facebook as well. So I thought it was just an absolutely fantastic day. As far as tonight, tonight was an uncomfortable meeting. But I want each and every one of them to know that I do really appreciate the conversation we were able to have. And, you know, I, for one, love and support parks. There are things that I have concerns about, and that's where my head is at the same time. But I guess I also want to throw out and just say that, you know, Christina, you know, forever and always, you're like less than, you know, I really cannot watch parks and recreation without thinking of you. Um, because of your passion. And so I know you've done a lot with this and I don't want you to think that my concerns are anyway, you know, I think you've done a fantastic job. So just thought it was important that I share that. And I'm very hopeful that on Monday, we can all have a, another, while it might be robust discussion, but hopefully it will be fruitful. We can move forward and we have a fantastic new parts guy, Mike, uh, the tools that he needs to get us some great money. So that's all I have to do.

Mr. Pratt? Yeah, I guess I'll second what you just said. I also appreciate the fact that Mayor Matt is also on board with some of those changes and areas of concern. So I'm glad that we can hammer those out as a whole and move this thing forward hopefully. I look forward to him being able to help us with grant funding and making things more affordable. Wanted to thank Kathleen for getting unmarked vehicles in the cities marked up with magnets. We had them for a long time, just me observing it, you know, living here forever, pretty much. I just noticed that they disappeared. Not everyone had them. I think that it's good to have transparency. If people see a slow rolling car, that it's not a suspicious car. It's a city car doing, maybe checking a ditch or a pothole in a project and then no cause for alarm. So I think that's good. So I'd like to thank her for that. Our guys are out working all the time. And it also lets taxpayers know what they're paying for. And to see them actually out there on the job. Otherwise, they're not getting credit. Their credit's due. I'm working on a project right now. I see if we can get some sidewalks possibly put in over on Jonathan. That'll be tomorrow with the administration in May. Mayor and Jason and Rob had already reached out to us. The next morning, they had already gone out and checked that. Regardless of their decision, I appreciate the fact that they are taking it seriously and are out there trying to see if we can help a group of citizens in that area walk safer. um there's a there's a gap on jonathan where there's basically no sidewalk in orchard hill going towards everhart and even though sidewalk's not all on one side it's kind of split um they don't really even meet if you can cross the street and join them so uh we're gonna see what kind of ideas maybe can come to light with that um tomorrow so thank you there um That was someone else that I've got to check out a section of Bumpy, Bumpy Serena works on her. She had talked to me and expressed her concerns. And another, I guess, topic just to share with, public as a whole another citizen and i'm not gonna you thought that it was appropriate to be disclosed the fact that we have flock cameras in the city and i told them that i had no problem letting the public know on the floor council that you can do in fact which is that uh we only have five um and uh they're mainly at entrances to the city So just for transparency, they do exist. You know, they use them as they need to. They're not everywhere. But, you know, like fireless fire, that gives them another tool to go after. You know, we have car break-ins or anything like that. It's a tool that they can run back on and try to solve crimes. And I also wanted to welcome Brian Koblitz to the police department. and the mayor had been asked to speak at the library with a group of concerned residents regarding the land swap. I guess it kind of went in some of the parts of the master plan. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for going there with me and meeting with those residents. That's all of the way. Thank you. as an instructor.

Thank you. So we also like to congratulate Officer Hovland on his soaring in, and thanks to the mayor and Senator Pierpont and Senator Pratt for joining us over at the library to talk about his proposed land swap. I did want to, I'd like to celebrate, kind of keep the, Independence Day in America to celebrate a true term can't pay for it. World War Two veteran Roland Hickman. He turned 101 on Independence Day, Saturday, July 4. So Mr. Hickman after graduating high school at the age of 17 volunteered for the Navy. He served primarily as a gunner's mate for USS Jenkins, a destroyer that was deployed extensively to the Pacific Theater. Jenkins received 14 battle stars for campaigns that included the invasions of the Solomon and Gilbert Islands along with the Philippines. So I would like to wish Stephen Hickman came away with a happy birthday. Thank you for the service. I would also like to thank all the city workers who did so much. And as Mr. Member of the police said, there's way too many to mention. And unfortunately, that's what we're doing. Trisha was the front and center, so we want to publicly thank her for her time, energy, attention, talent, and all her good work. And then, lastly, as we look back on this weekend's America 250 celebration, I would note that birthdays or anniversaries are the beginning. They're not the end. So Saturday's events here in North Canton showcase what we write about, what is good about our city and our country. All day long, we celebrate big, big concepts and ideas that oftentimes feel way too big, like democracy and freedom. We can make those big ideas, I think, a bit more manageable by calling them different names, such as respect and integrity. So we're living in a time, unfortunately, where a lot of people don't always feel as if they've been invited to the party. but if it doesn't happen, you know. So I just want to thank everyone who came to our party on Saturday. I had a great time and we'll do better.

So thank you. Thank you.

Okay, I have a random list of things to talk about. One, I noticed today that there's some curb activity happening on Howard Avenue. So that's pretty exciting. I know that when they were working on Pershing, they started to look at that as an opportunity. And so I'm excited about that and I appreciate our streets department And I know that those residents are probably going to be great support as well. Mr. Pratt brought up the flat camera topic. I did meet with a resident recently with similar concerns. And he really was not on the side that he just didn't want flat cameras. He just wanted to make sure he understood how the data was, the integrity of that. So great conversation. It was a great example of, me not knowing a whole lot about a topic and learning from a resident. And then he put in a records request and he provided that quickly and he was very appreciative of that. So that was a great experience. Thank you. I'll talk about America 250. I think that our city knocked it out of the park. I think that it started off with that parade Liam, you took good care of all of us. He hooked us up with everything. Mr. Bottles, water, Gatorade, all of it. But I don't know about the rest of you. I was going down that street and first of all, there was a really great flyover. I've never experienced something like that right over my head. That was pretty great. But there were so many people. And, you know, obviously it was a big momentous 250th anniversary that I think brought people out. But it was a tremendous showing in this town. And it was a moment where I felt like everybody was One team, like we were all just doing the same thing. Tons of people saying happy birthday, America. It was such a great moment. So I just wanted to comment on that. And that did carry on the rest of the day. Whatever event I was at, it was still that thing. Huge showing of people, same sentiment. It was just a really shiny moment in this city. Trisha did a great job with all the events. I was going to comment that Trisha and her whole family. They were here that whole sun up, sun down, probably the day before, probably the day after. Catherine, your husband was there. There were family members who are not paid to do any of this work who gave blood, sweat, and tears for these events. And that's amazing. And I want to give a shout out to them. I saw a drone show. And while my view may not have been perfect, the coolest part about it to me was I saw a Hoover Viking in the sky. That was the first I've ever seen of that. So that was great. um i did participate in the dunk tank i got very lucky that i went early on before the big crowd hit um i owe a big thank you to liam jeff your husband alan um they all made sure that i didn't break my hip they took good care of me so it was it was a little terrifying for me and i got through it because of them so thank you to them um I want to quickly give a shout out to Parks and Rec because I understand that there was some unfortunate mess made over here in Price Park on July 4th with some fireworks. I heard it was really quite messy. Our people show up and take care of that park and it looks beautiful again. And there may be some other things that they got to work on to fix. But as unfortunate as that is, our Parks and Rec guys are there to fix it right away and they do a great job. Again, welcome to Ryan Cohen, our new officer. And I do want to extend sympathy. I'm sure most of you feel the same way to the communities of Ripman for the loss of a police officer last night. And then as well as the community of homes, the recent loss of a firefighter. They extend their sympathies to them.

That's my report.

Okay. Thank you for everyone who took played a big part in 250. I wish I could have gone to more events, but the parade did me in. Jamie, thank you for the Jeep. It needs to go a little slower. It was a great, great, great time. One thing I want to bring up, I brought it up a couple weeks ago. I asked about garage sales. Garage sales still going up on Harmon Street. It's at least its 10th straight week. We need to do some investigating. I live on that street. I don't want a garage sale every week on that. We need to look at it because it might be a bit, you know, every Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Doesn't change the signs. It's pointing up there. If we can take a look into that. I had a call from a resident. a minister in the area at the Camp Baptist Temple. He complained it's on the corner of Furby and Glenwood. The gutter is sort of plugged up. It needs treated. And then his apron on his driveway got torn up by snow shovels. So he wants to take a look at that at questioning Most of our aprons are black, or not blacktop, but the asphalt's all, most of them are cement, but he has an asphalt down there. Another thing, as council and as city administrator, one thing we should be looking at right now, Canton just did a big annexation. We need to start annexing stuff. There's a lot out there we could do to make it a lot easier for folks, and we'll make some more money. Did anyone ever contact Palombos?

Yeah, we're following up on that.

We're following up about anesthesiates. We're following up on that too. Okay, because I think that would be a big, big thing to get. And then we have, is there something on Whipple? We are getting a proposal for some something we're selling on Whipple. So we need to start annexing. Canton is now annexed clear up to the Christian church up there, way up there, where Edgewood used to be. They annexed that and that's a pretty big chunk that they did. So we need to start doing that. some great healthy conversation tonight. We're off for the parks and recs, but it does need a little bit, a little bit, you know, some pending things. Other than that, that's about it for what?

Yeah, I'd just like to touch on the America 250 and the work that Tricia, Catherine, all of the administration did to make that happen. No, I plan events too. And I understand the weight of that. Oh my gosh, it's raining. What are we going to do? And just how heavy it is when something doesn't go off exactly as you planned for six months for it to go off. That's, you know, I get how disappointing that can be. But overall, oh my gosh, what a fantastic weekend. And I just felt really proud of all of us and the way that our community came together. That's all.

So as we close, I want to recognize what a success this weekend's American 250 celebration was for North Canton. It's exactly the kind of community pride, civic spirit that reminds us why the work everyone did matters. Tonight's legislation was difficult. The last minute changes required patience, flexibility from everyone at this table, but that's the nature of governing responsibly rather than hastily. Hard conversations like these are a sign of a council taking its responsibilities seriously, not a sign of dysfunction. North Canton's long-term future will be built the same way this weekend's celebration was, through collaboration, preparation, and people willing to show up for their community. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, nothing worth having comes easy. Okay, final call for new business. Seeing none, meeting's calendar. Monday the 13th, Committee of the Whole, followed by a council meeting. And then we will be on summer recess from July 20th to August 10th. The next meeting will be August 17th at Committee of the Whole.

I would ask if we can keep that every summer because the tax budget has been given to the county by August 20th.

Looking to amend the calendar. I will make that motion to amend the calendar to add a council meeting on August 17th. Second. All in favor? Aye. All right. Motion to adjourn. Second. Second.