Council - Regular Meeting

It is 630. I'll call this meeting in St. Mary's City Council in order. Roll call, please. Buck. Here. Lund. Here.

Slater.

Here. Buchanan.

Here.

Fitzgerald.

Here.

Clara.

Here.

Dillon.

Here. All rise. Please join Pastor Harris in a brief prayer.

Father, it is with much appreciation and gratefulness that our harvest order would gather as a community of leaders just to present the needs of this community before you. Thank you that you've given us the opportunity to just come together and collectively have a desire to see improvements in a peaceable community where families are appreciated and your name is lifted up. I just pray, Father, giving you thanks for each one that's here who is on this council Lord, I pray that as the decisions are considered tonight, Lord, that you would just lead and guide them in each step of the way. We thank you for your sovereignty. We know that your word declares that man prepares his heart and you ordain our steps or orchestrate our steps. So, Lord, we just pray that there would be a peace and rest over every decision that's made. And again, we just thank you for this nice facility and each one that's gathered here. It's in your precious name I pray.

so I can testify to their accuracy. I forgot, I'm sorry. Okay. Okay, thank you. Motion passes. Next on the petition's communications, first on the agenda, we have Mr. Gavin Shaner. Mr. Shaner, do you have authority?

So for that project, we're going to be stowing the bank, repairing, replacing the dock, adding hand railing according to OSHA guidelines, take fish habitats, add concrete pads for benches and trash cans, restock the fish, and put up a map of the pond. The projected cost for this is $8,000. To get this, I will ask for donations. and there will be donation plaques on the back of the map. I'll have assistance from family, friends, and my troop. That's about it.

Okay.

Any questions?

Council have any questions? Yeah, when do you hope to start?

As soon as possible.

And have you collected any money in donations yet?

Not yet. I just got the okay for it last Thursday.

I see. Okay. Good luck to you. Thank you. I already talked to him a little bit before the meeting. There's a few community-minded groups in here that he needs to talk to. Sure. Of course, I can tell you one thing about Rotary. Yes. If you want money, you're going to be a speaker. Any other questions for council? Thank you, sir. Next on the agenda, we have Mr. Derek Dunlap. Mr. Dunlap.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me. As James said, my name is Derek Dunlap. I am teaming up with Community Relief out of Lima to bring a night event here to St. Mary's. And what an Ignite event is, is it's a missions trip here in our own backyard. We will provide food, we will provide tools, we will provide resources to anyone that volunteers to go out and serve the people that they live with. We want to send them out and kind of be God's hands and feet to all these individuals and provide love and care and conversation to all these people that we all live with and interact with from day to day. Things that we're doing, right now we're actively going out and taking project requests from various people. We have projects like replacing rooms We have a request to put a fence up. It's really, the projects we will work on, it's anything. Anything that anyone really needs help with, we're willing to send someone out there. We don't take any financial background checks or anything like that. All we need is you to reach out and say, hey, I need you to come and help. And we'll go out and listen to you. We'll evaluate your project. And we'll put it on what we call a job board. And hopefully someone takes that project and comes out during our event. And for the event, it's a three-day event. It's June 18th, 19th, and 20th with an orientation dinner on the 17th. And all of that will be held out at Grace Church on Holly Street. So yeah. And like I mentioned, we're feeding all the volunteers and homeowners. So we'll do a breakfast, lunch, and dinner most of the days, except Saturday we're not having a dinner. But yeah, everything's fully provided by the event for anyone that's volunteering. Do you need anything from the state? We do have an opening for a breakfast if someone on council or a group of you guys want to come together and offer to cover a breakfast or provide a breakfast, a meal. We do have an opening for that. Okay. i'm eric just one other thing to reiterate there is no cost to the homeowner for these projects to be done correct correct yep and i don't if a homeowner can't afford to do the project but they just physically can't do it we will come and we will do the work for them and they can cover the cost if they choose to do so and to contact somebody for if somebody wants to get a hold of you to get something done is that through grace church or um they can contact grace church but everything is ran through communityrelief.net there's a form specifically for i can help or i need help and you just select saint mary's and the form will get filled out and i'll get notified about it how many communities have you done this um the first one i ever did was in lima So this year there's four. There's one in Lima, one in Van Wert, one in Dart County, and then St. Mary's is the newest one. I've participated in all of them. Lima for two years, Van Wert one year, and Dart for six.

Any other questions for council? Sir, those two ladies sitting behind you, you may want to talk to them because they are the Mr. Harris, I'm going to sign the decision. The property owner hereby requests the vacation of a portion of Plum Street right away by the city of St. Mary's and being more specifically described as follows. Being all that portion of road right away of Plum Street being dotted on the east by the west line. in East Edition Block 11, being bounded on the north by Lock 1 in East Edition Block 11, and being bounded on the south by Lock 7 in the J.H. and D.A. Barrington subdivision of Outlock 61 in the City of St. Mary's. The triangular-shaped portion of Plum Street Railway lies between Pine Street and Perry Street, west of the line of a 16 and a half foot alley extend. Any questions for council? If not, may I have a motion to send this out to the Planning Commission? Mr. Buck, Mr. Walms. All those vote to move along the plan. All yeses, thank you. Next on the list, Ms. Buchanan, do you have an announcement?

Yes. So these past few months have been an amazing experience. It's been so much fun. Just speaking with everybody in St. Mary's, specifically the fourth ward. But at this time, my family has purchased a home outside of City Limits, so I will be stepping down. So I want to thank everybody. May 31st will be officially my last day.

next time i'll report the city official the honors report mr easel are there any questions or comments from council if not then we have the prejudice report any questions or comments from council next we have the director of public service and safety report mr foxhole uh mr harris i have nothing to add in my report but i'll be glad to answer any questions

question about the Aquatic Center. How is that determined, or who makes the decision when they're going to close early? That's the school manager. There's no real, is there guidelines for it?

There are. You know, when you're supposed to open Saturday, the water temperature was not fit to open, so they postponed it a day. They were there to take

um she she has the authority to close it yes and i know like sunday it was open i believe 45 minutes and they said they were closing due to low attendance at two o'clock i just didn't know if there was any guidelines of number of people to be in there what happens if somebody came in a half hour before that and they paid their five dollars is there a refund on any of that i can check with her dave i don't know but i know that we we allow her to make that decision okay

Typically, they won't open if they feel like they're going to close very soon after. Sometimes with Ohio weather.

Well, and weather is understandable if you get stormy thoughts coming through.

I think it would be unusual for them to close in 45 minutes because of low attendance.

Any other questions or comments? Yes, sir.

For general services, number five, very, very exciting, I guess. AI is a good resource. Can you tell me anything else about this? They went to a seminar in Dublin, using it in the near future to help out, help the city flourish. Is there anything?

I have not because I haven't talked to the superintendent about that. I'm aware of it. I'm not sure what they picked up on it.

And then I just have one other thing that the engineer never said. Just to see, it's been on our packets here the last few times. Has there been any headway by Mr. Bennett on that? There has been some movements.

Obviously, this is going to be a privately funded project. So there's not a real timeframe for it. I mean, we have to have the money. And I think Mr. Noble was in charge of that. My guess is he'll be the one that donates to it and pay for it. I mean, we've talked about that. If he finds folks to donate to it, that's wonderful. So we are moving forward. There is a plan in the engineering department and Craig Noble.

Any other questions or comments from council? Is the mill still on target for June?

Yes. It might not there will be some unfinished items if you remember we talked about city funding those i forget the dollar amount but we will we will use all the grant money we will meet that deadline but it won't be completely finished but we still plan to take a tour through it before we have a brand opening any other questions or comments from counselor

Personal comment, police department does a heck of a job. Really good coordination. I was very impressed how quickly they got that resolved.

Well, now the work starts because you've got to prep it for trial.

Yep. Okay, moving on. If there are no reports from committees of city council. Under Readings of Ordinances and Resolution, under Resolution 202607, an emergency resolution opposing Andrews and Cass Ohio's request to increase distribution rates and requesting that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio deny the utilities request. I did send an invitation out to have them address council. They said that they have prior commitments tonight. So, that's what this council's wishes. This is the third reading. That's for passage. Do I have a motion to pass, please? Mr. Buck? Ms. Slater? Council vote to pass, please. Under second reading, we have ordinance number 22606, authorizing and directing the mayor to enter into a partnership agreement with Alvarez County, Ohio, for the submission of the county's fiscal year 2026 community housing impact and preservation CHIP program grant application declaring an emergency.

We have requested this be passed under suspension of rules. The first reading didn't have enough people, so we are requesting this money.

Any questions or comments from council?

uh quietly recommended too we've we've worked with derrick over the last several weeks going forth with the mayor and very worked very closely together i think we've identified some properties but i believe they've declined our offer so we have two programs you can you know maybe tackle here any other questions or comments from council if not we have a request to sustain the rules where's council's wishes

Mr. Buchanan. Motion to suspend? Motion to suspend by Mr. Buchanan. Do I have a second? Mr. Quarrel, council vote to suspend. All yeses, that being the case, may I have a motion to pass? Mr. Luns, Mr. Quarrel, council vote to pass. All yeses. Thank you. Next in the new legislation we have order, ordinance number 202607. May I have the motion to read, please? Mr. Sherrill, Mr. Gilliland, council vote to read, please. All yeses. Ordinance 202607, the ordinance authorizing the execution I'm in agreement with Clemens, Nelson, and Associates for employee relations work. This is a manageable thing.

Well, thankfully, it's not. The last time we had an increase was 2024. Everyone knows we've used Clemens and Nelson for probably the last 35 to 40 years. We don't use them, but we don't need to if there are certain matters that are

sample time uh three or three times okay okay i know they've been here since i've been here you too yeah okay okay next we have resolution 0.2608 may i have a motion to read please All yeses. Resolution 202608, a resolution imposing a temporary moratorium on the establishment conversion of other structures or building into a data center, including the development and construction of any building, structure, use, or change of use that would allow data centers for a period of 12 months from the effective date of this resolution in order to allow the city administration and city council time to review applicable federal codes, Ohio statutes, codes, and regulations, along with the city's codified ordinances relative to such activity in declaring an emergency. I guess that's up to you, Mr. Farrell.

Yeah, we based this on some other moratoriums that have gone around the state of Ohio and been passed by other areas. It seems like the majority of them have been 12 months. There's no bright line, though. do 18 but you can't do 12 or you can't do 12. so i was comfortable with 12. and keep in mind council can rescind this in the future or extend it if they would wish to so we just need a reminder in a year that that's what we need to do so let's get your side it it will give us time as you know the technology with these are changing all the time the concern with the the amount of water that you use in the

that they use are more self-contained now and they're using less water. But I think the 12 months just will give us time to feel more comfortable about it. Again, I don't know that we have any place in town that would be appealing to them because of the acreage, it's very limited. Although the water supply source that we have is very incredible, that might interest them. But the 12 months will just give us some time to do our due diligence.

Okay, any questions or comments from council? there was a time when archer dan daniels was looking at putting a plant between saline and st mary's and they were going to tap into the phase and then there was great concern back then about that so we weren't sure what the council's wishes were to pass it tonight the council asked for the moratorium is there a way to be passing it tonight I think three readings should be fine. Depending on what comes to us. Between now and then, we can always. Oh, sure. We can always delay them. Absolutely. Okay. So let's be back for a second reading at the next meeting. I'm expecting Ms. Lane's business is closing. Mr. Fox will be in committee. I know, sir, I do not. Is there anything else coming to full council? Mr. Puff. Motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Mr. Puff. Second by Mr. O'Reilly. All those opposed to adjourn please.