City Council - Regular Meeting

which looks at the use of drought tolerant or native plant species. The implementation of sustainable gardening practices such as composting and water conservation, the inclusion of pollinator friendly plants, provision of habitats for wildlife, the strategic use of rocks or other materials to control erosion and manage rain runoff, and the consideration of other environmentally conscious factors. So with that, we will move on to the winners. So, first up is our beautifification residential um category and first is Robert and Linda Spitler of 465 Marpool Drive. So, [applause]

you want to shake Mary's hand and then Nicole has a gift for you. Come on down this way. There you go. That's good. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Beautiful ornament. Congratulations, my friend. Oh, it's nice. And then I'll get a picture. Here you go. That That makes it official. And then you guys all want to get together with with your picture in the background. Tim, go ahead and get in. Ready? Everybody look up here. One, two, three. Wonderful. Congratulations. [applause]

Beautiful. Oh yeah. And thank you for the tour of your beautiful garden. Is that like the hydrangeas? Yeah. Congrats. Gorgeous. All right. And next is Mara Lemon of 599 Rosemont. Congratulations. [applause] This is for you. Thank you very much. How many awards is this for? [laughter] Yeah. Four, five. [clears throat] Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah.

All right. If everybody can kind of get together. Ready? One, two, three. Thank you. Beautiful pictures on the screen. [applause and cheering] Next is Jamie Saraskki of 748 Lampkins. [applause]

Of course. Congratulations. All right. Thank you. Great work. [applause]

And for our businesses category, the winner was Lily's Flowers. Um, unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it tonight. Um, but Sunshine will be delivering her. [applause] All right, for our last category of native and sustainable, the winner is Terry Granoff and Jorge Desanda Branoff of 303 North Harris. [applause] [applause] Congratulations, my friend. Congratulations. Congratulations. [clears throat] Great job. All right, gentlemen.

Got it. All right, here we go. Ray, one, two, [clears throat] three. Awesome. Beautiful. Thank you. [applause] And then for the award winners, if we can go, I'd love to get a picture of everybody out in the hallway so that that way the meeting can continue and I'll I'll come back and join it and we'll come on out and I'll get a picture of everybody. Okay. Thank you. And with our parks commissioners, you can join us as well. Yeah,

we'll take a brief pause while council member Rice takes a photo as the council leazison to the parks commission. And again, congratulations to all of our winners, all of the nominees. And we appreciate the work of our uh parks commission and uh evaluating the applications and then deciding the winners. That's great. Good. [snorts] Are you have a good birthday?

It was yesterday. I know. Was it a good Did you have a good day? Yeah, it was a good day. That's go to Dan's for dinner. Yeah, I did. And sleep showed up too yesterday. Well, that's nice. How many cake do you need? I don't know how much. [laughter] Stop counting. Yeah. What' you have for dinner at dance? Oh, very good burger. Okay. Is that your go-to? Yeah. Yeah.

Go. need the clapper. Okay, friends, we will proceed with the uh the remainder of our agenda. Um, next up is the consent portion of tonight's agenda. The following consent agenda would normally be adopted without discussion. However, at the request of any citizen or council member, any item may may be removed from the consent agenda for discussion. Move is submitted. Moved by Gearbot to approve as submitted. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Lesh. Hearing no discussion. All those in favor of approving the uh consent agenda as uh submitted signify by saying I. I.

Post say nay. Eyes have it. Motion carries unanimously. We move on to new business and we have only one enumerated action item this evening. It is agenda item 25-180. Resolution to accept public roads for Maple Oaks Development. This will be a motion to acknowledge receipt and to approve or not to approve the dedication of land for public street purposes and to adopt or to not to adopt resolution number 25-180 for Maple Oaks Court. Move to acknowledge uh moved by Mayor Prom Dylan simply to acknowledge and seconded by council member Gearb. Uh city manager Swall, would you want to begin this evening or should we um hand it over to uh to engineer Humphre?

We hand it over to engineer Humphre. This is just the next step in the dedication of the road. So, fairly straightforward procedure. You've seen these before, but I'll turn over to the engineer. Very good. Thank you for your time this evening, engineer Humphre. And I do want to acknowledge we do have a number of residents from uh from the neighborhood president. We did receive a communicate from them uh I think earlier today, which maybe you can reference in your remarks. The floor is yours.

Okay. Yeah, I I'm city manager said this is just the formal dedication of the roads that were always intended to be public in Maple Oaks. Um this development, I think, got started maybe in 2017, so this is a long time coming. Um the residents have supported this um in a motion at their um HOA meeting about a year ago in December 2024. Um so again, yeah, this is just the next step in the process. So I guess I'll open the floor for questions. Very good. Are there questions for the city engineer? Mayor Dylan.

Thank you. Um Engineer Humphre just asking that I think there were some steps that we were waiting on. Were all those tasks completed in order to now accept the road? Um I guess I don't know what steps you're referring to where you had like the um it seemed like we had we had a list there were several items that they had not complied with the developers. Yes. Um so when I inherited the project, yes, there was an outstanding um punch list with um both the public and private infrastructure. Um all of the public infrastructure punch list has been addressed by the bill. Okay. Which is what this is referring to the acceptance of the public roads.

Thank you. And then one other question is do you know the status of the brownfield issue with that property? I can answer that. Go ahead. And I think you wanted to make a comment to uh per Mayor Pretend Dylan's first question as well. So please.

Yes. So, in terms of the brownfield, uh the the Washington County Brownfield Authority is still holding some funds because there are still some cleanup items on the site that uh are not fully complete. If you look at the parcel just to the north there uh beyond the railroad tracks, uh there was some spoil that was left there. And so, we have required that they do some testing to make sure that the spoils are clean as well as some fine grading uh of that area to make sure that that area is cleaned up prior to requesting release of the brownfield fund. So there's about uh 49,000 roughly uh being held by Brownfield Authority until that. And is there a time frame associated with that? Because I feel like that's been sort of

hanging on for quite a while renotified and provided by a letter from community development specifying what needs to be done prior to the release of those funds. Thank you.

Additional questions for city staff. Okay, we have a motion on the floor moved by Gearbox, seconded by um excuse me, moved by Dylan, second before I um uh proceed to to to take a vote. I actually do have a question. My apologies. Uh we have one resident here um who has experienced some um ongoing water issues in their their home. Um what is the status of um our our approach, which has been constructive engagement with the developer to see about getting those um issues um or mitigating those issues? Um I guess the next step in that process is a meeting with our attorney um that resident um coming here on in early December. Okay. But we are making some forward momentum. Yes. Okay. The plan

we are talking. Yes. Our attorneys are meeting. Yes. Okay. Very good. Just want to make sure that that ball is still in motion. Um we have a motion on the floor moved by Dylan, seconded by Gearbot to acknowledge receipt. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Post say nay. I have the motion carries unanimously. Is there a motion now to approve or not to approve? Adopt or not to adopt? To approve and adopt. Moved by uh Lesh to approve and adopt. And Rice, do you want to second that motion? Okay. Is there any additional discussion on the motion? Uh all those in favor of the motion signify by saying I.

I. Post say nay. Eyes haven't. The motion carries unanimously. We move on to the Thank you, engineer Humphress. We appreciate your time this evening and your leadership on the issue. Uh we move on to the discussion portion of our agenda. First up is reports um and other announcements including updates from boards, commissions, committees, and task forces. I believe at the last meeting I started with council member Harmout. So I'll begin this evening with uh with council member uh Leash and then uh council member Rice and I will wrap it up. Uh just the meeting coming up for uh arts and culture on Thursday. Very good. Mayor Pam Dylan.

Thank you. Um the cable commission uh just wanted to inform the community that we are still experiencing um an outage with our local cable access channel right now. uh they've identified where the fiber break is, the permitting is in place. So, they're just sort of working through the process to get that up and running. In the meantime, all of the the city's meetings, community meetings, and school meetings are on YouTube, and you can actually watch those on demand, so you can pick and choose what you want in your own time frame. And then also the urban county um committee met earlier this week and as the weather starts to turn they're going to be opening warming centers and there'll be some more information about that coming out. Um we are also still working through some of the aspects of changing the funding model for the funding distribution model I should say. Um, and we'll be getting some input from this body, I think, shortly. And, um, again, thank you to the urban county and the county in general for stepping out and coming into Seline to support the residents of Thornrest and offering them um some information about options available.

Very good. Uh, Council Member Gearb, reports, announcements, updates from boards, committees, commissions, or task forces. Um we had the only thing we um had met with asset management last Friday on a number of items we were discussing. Some of it mainly being the um issue that we're looking at a new type of software to help with the vertical tracking of um help me Dan um the vertical inventory of our assets and everything at the wastewater is the software we're looking at. that's uh basically designed for asset management to track all maintenance on uh equipment as well as you know other features and again it is more the vertical assets the equipment at the water and wastewater treatment plants.

Um currently our existing soft workflow software doesn't necessarily work for that at the wastewater treatment plant. So since we're putting in a new operations we want to be able to make sure that we have the best or hopefully this will be the software solution for it. Um the other thing is just to let council know um the administrative consent order will likely require an additional extension to it. So that'll be um Dan will be working with Eagle in order to get that moving forward um as the project nears its completion hopefully next year. And um other than that, I just wanted to let everyone know the historical society requested of the HDC this past week the removal of the existing deck that's on the depot. Um it over the years it has really deteriorated and from the perspective of it was never really original with the depot and because of the cost and the the kind of re renovation and what would need to be done with it would be significant. We're looking to have it removed so we can just maintain the handicap ramp to it and then hopefully in the next year or two um if through a grant we can put a better patio type situation on the back of the depot.

Very good. Council member Rice. Um over the weekend, um I volunteered to host a forum and I want to thank uh Police Chief Radzik and County Sheriff Alicia Dyer, um for um speaking with community members about knowing their rights and understanding their rights as it relates to immigration and interactions with the police. And I want to thank the Seline Library for opening up the community space for conversations like that. Uh if anyone um is looking for a great community space, the saloon library has an awesome new uh facility um that holds I believe up to about 60 people. So it was really wonderful for folks to take their time um volunteer their time to have those conversations with the community. Um and as the representative to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the city of Seline, um I'm always proud of us for hosting those kinds of conversations. Um and I look forward to um revamping that group um in the year to come to, you know, hopefully continue to have those types of conversations across the community. Um as for that, uh tomorrow are all of my commission meetings. um parks commission's continuing to work on um putting together a proposal of recommendations for upgrades to Mil Pond Park and the group is doing a fantastic job and really um doing some great research and um our onhand architect Jim Peters has done a great job of some some renderings for us. So really using uh all the skills that we have on that commission to put something together for council to take a look at um as we move to upgrade that park in the future.

Very good. Thank you. Um just two things. Mayor PM Dylan mentioned a meeting with Thorn Crest residents, a town hall that we hosted here on Saturday. I want to thank all of the participants, specifically our partners at at County. Um and I also want to thank staff um Danica, Dan L, and Chris and Chief Radzik Marlene uh for taking time out of their Saturdays to be here. I was also joined by a number of my council colleagues including council members um Gearbon and Harmont along with two council members elect uh Mr. Helsh and Mr. Deloro. Um the event was well attended and I hope it was informative and helpful to the the residents of Thornest. um the city manager, myself, the deputy city manager, council member elect um Helsh along with uh county commissioner Bean and um Derek Jackson from the county equity office canvas the entire neighborhood um of Thornest on Thursday inviting folks to attend Saturday's meeting and also leaving them information if they were unable to participate. Um if I'm not mistaken, city manager um Swallow will also have a one-page fact sheet that will be disseminated online and on our social media pages later this week, and we encourage council members to disseminate that as well. Um, and then last, we're getting to that time of the year where we're actively seeking applications for board and commission appointments from private citizens. Um, so if you're interested in any of our boards and committees, uh, please reach out to my office or any of my council colleagues or more specifically the city clerk who has the application. Uh, board and commission appointments are done in in January. We're always looking for good, passionate people to serve on a variety of committees, including parks, uh, environmental, planning, ZBA, etc. So, take a look at the list and if you have some time and interest, we would love for you to to serve. Um, last item is we're going to briefly revisit the rec center task force uh recommendations that were presented about a month back. Uh, city manager Swallow, would you like to begin?

Yeah, thank you, Mayor Council, and obviously uh, Director Lambert's here as well to help uh, assist in, uh, kind of an update of what we've been working on. Uh, but as the council will recall, the recreation task force recommendation included several parts with some initial occurring in the in the immediate time frame as well as those that are spread out over a number of months. And I want to focus on just what's what was projected in the first six months. So the immediate measures uh in the recommendations including uh some cost cutting measures. Uh for example, one of the things that's already being implemented is elimination of some of our printed uh brochures and going to more electronic or online uh brochures. Uh the other component that was more for immediate uh enhancements of this facility, making small investments in the facility and they've already applied for a grant for some new lobby furnishings to make that more of a a gathering space. The other uh item included uh new program offerings including uh various uh program enhancements and uh for example uh they're already implementing some new packages for personal training options uh at the facility. Uh next uh on the list was membership uh improvements and ways to increase memberships at the facility. Uh there will be a new membership drive coming up on December 14th. So there's uh already initiatives to try and increase uh outreach to the community uh for those uh for those increased memberships and trying to get our membership levels back a little closer to what they were prior to the pandemic. Uh second part of the uh first six months involved potential partners and reaching out to our potential partners uh as far as a more of a regional approach to the center and trying to uh regionalize also the funding approach to uh the recreation center. So we have had preliminary meetings uh with the Selen area schools Pittsfield Township and County. Uh no formal financial commitments at this point but I think there was a a very good discussion as well as some new ideas that came out of that. Um just one example is you know at the county we talked about uh they could potentially

assist us with financing if we got to the point of um capital improvements and things of that nature. And when I say fin assistance said you know they help sponsor a bond or something of that nature uh to help uh help with that. So uh there are some ideas that came out of that. Uh the next steps uh coming forward are you formal consideration of the recommendation. We want to bring that forward to you at your December 1st meeting. And then uh we've talked about probably uh doing some follow-up. Obviously, this is going to be a long-term process over six plus months, up to 18 months. Uh looking at a update in about 60 days, potentially having a work group work meeting with council in February.

Yeah. Very good. If I may, and then I'll turn it over to to council member Leash. Um the city manager and I spoke today, and I thought it would be advantageous to revisit all of these issues and get an update from staff and any and all stakeholders in about 60 days. So, I was recommending either the first or second meeting in February, which our meetings are back toback because of the holiday. So, that would be on either the 2nd or the the 9th. Um, I believe we'll also be meeting later this week, excuse me, because there is some desire uh based on conversations I've had with both the city manager and deputy city manager of continuing to involve some members of our rec center task force into an a new advisory panel um and and tasking them with certain responsibilities. So, we'll be discussing that on on Thursday and possibly coming to you with a recommendation for appointments um at our first or second meeting in in December. Council member Lash, any additional questions at this time, noting, of course, that uh a formal motion may be considered at uh at our first or second meeting in December.

N I just appreciate all the added work you guys are doing. Thank you, Mayor Prom Dylan.

Um as far as I I 60 days is a long time. We're in the midst of budgeting right now and you know, starting that process. So, I I'd like to have a clearer understanding of the funding source going into the next fiscal year. So, I I'm I think that this body needs to have a a clearer, more precise understanding of these potential partnerships and what's being brought to the table. Um, as far as with the county partnering with us on bonds, that's wonderful. except we still need the funds to pay the bonds and we need to kind of understand is this something that we are going out for a millillage because there's a lot of pieces to figure out in the you know moving forward. Um and so I I wish that we could accelerate that. I think 60 days is too long at this point. Well, I think that unfortunately we will not have, you know, final commitments from any of our potential partners within the prior to uh the next fiscal year budget. I know we've talked about that that, you know, that probably the funding won't come in the next fiscal year.

And so, at what point are we going to discuss what is going to have to be cut out of the general budget to compensate for the rec center? Because the number just keeps getting higher. And so, we're going to have to find offsets. We've I mean we've done some very you know some some minor things here trying to do membership. I mean every year we talk about the membership improvement. We're going to do a membership drive things like that. And our numbers are slowly getting there and I appreciate the efforts. It's just not going to be enough to pay the bills. And so kind of understanding where we're going to find a sustainable funding source in the near term I think needs to be priority one. Council Gearb.

Um I'm fine that you're moving ahead on some of these things, but again I was hearing some feedback that the schools weren't that supportive in us in terms of moving for a millillage. So um my bigger concern that we recently had the draft meeting for the audit and the rec center was approximately $700,000 in the whole before the contribution from fund balance to offset the cost of debt service leaving only approximately $98,000 for debt service for next year. So, um, we need to start doing something now. And, um, I'm going to continue moving on that comment and that statement. Um, the one that think you had mentioned about reducing the cost by not producing brochures. You had mentioned in your weekly memo approximately two weeks ago that they were still going to produce 5,000 brochures for the school. Was that part of the cut or is that something separate? That's a separate uh program guide uh that uh is the going to the electronic, but they're still producing flyers for the schools to distribute. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I can speak I can speak to that. So, um in the past, we have uh printed I think it was about 14,000 brochures plus the cost of mailing. So, we're going to save on um those costs of of going through the postal service. Um we still need to advertise our programs. you know, we don't we don't want to risk not getting the word out. So, a creative way that we can do that is to work with Selen Schools. We can get those um program guides out through prek through sixth grade um at no cost. Uh so, we we can directly drop them off, they go into um the kids backpacks, they take those home, and then we also um plan on getting those hard copies out around town. Not everybody accesses, you know, we do have a um we have a very diverse population of users at the rec center. Some people are pretty tech-savvy. Other people maybe are not as familiar. They still like that that hard copy. So, um from talking to some of our other colleagues and other, you know, departments throughout the state. Um for those who have gone away from mailings, they still like to have brochures on hand so that they can hand those out. That's it for me. Council member Rice,

my only request is that um as a member of the rec center task force and all the work that I put into it. If we could discuss this in the second meeting in this in December as I will be out the first meeting in December. So that's my only request. If we can make that happen, that'd be great. If not, um I can just provide my two cents prior to that. Fair enough. And I assume city manager for Mr. Mr. Gearb's comments or or anyone else if people have specific ideas on how we could save money or streamline operations, you would welcome those at any time. Absolutely. And uh certainly as we put back together the uh the implementation team for for the recreation task force, we'll be tapping that those groups as well.

Very good. Um if there's nothing further than to be brought up during the discussion portion of tonight's agenda, we will proceed with the second and final public comment period. Under the open meetings act, any person may come forward and make comment to city council. This public comment period will be limited to three minutes per person. Those wishing to speak are requested, but of course not required to state their name and address for the record. Please note, council will not be answering questions during this public comment period. Are there any citizen comments? Again, you'll have three minutes once you begin. We appreciate everyone's attendance this evening. Let me defer to the city clerk. Did we receive any written comments in advance of tonight's meeting in which the individual wanted their remarks at this time? Yes. Easy enough. Well, I wish everybody a blessed Thanksgiving and the chair would be happy to entertain a motion to adjurnn at 7:30. So

moved by Dylan, seconded by Gearb to adjurnn. All those in favor signify by saying I. Post say nay. I have it. Next meeting on December 1st. Thank you all.