Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

I call to order the Stow City Council public hearing for February 12th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? Feldman here. Real present. Coffee. Bare neck here. Fioa here. McIntyre that's an old that's an old list. Young young is present and Herman here.

Uh we have one business item on the agenda for this public hearing. 2026-00002 uh zoning map amendment for Menota Properties. Mr. Cowan, uh would you like uh to add uh any additional information or presentation in addition to what has already been discussed in previous meetings?

Uh nothing to add. I just threw this up as a refresher. As a reminder, this is this property is zoned R2. Um they applied during the old code. The new code has been effective since Monday. So since they applied before that uh they wanted to reszone to C2 again under the old code uh with the new one this will be incorporated as a C1 commercial district but happy to take any questions. Thank you Mr. Cowan. Any questions, comments or discussion from members of council. Mr. Feldman.

Thank you Council President Herman. Mr. Cowan, I'm going to go back to the notes and I appreciate our minutes. I love them. um planning committee held on Thursday, January 8th. And it says, "I asked you, Mr. Feldman, asked Mr. Cowen if the reasonzoning application for Marsh Road had been discussed by the planning commission if any residents had commented and if the change would benefit economic development." That's pretty much what I asked and I'm going to ask it again. It says, "You said, Mr. Con responded that no residents had attended the planning commission meeting and that the commission had recommended approval. He stated he believed the resoning would benefit economic development by enabling more commercial uses for the property. Is that still your answer today?

That is still my answer. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Tum. Thank you, Mr. Feldman. Any other comments, questions, or discussion? Mrs. coffee. Just going back to the previous application when I spoke with Miss Odin Weller about this um when they had previously applied for I think C4. I think this makes a lot more sense um just because permitted under this is um health care and administrative offices which is their desire. So I think this application makes more sense and what you're saying makes sense Mr. Cow and I'm in favor of it. just my thoughts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Coffee. Anyone else? Seeing none, uh we will now move to our public comment period. Anyone wishing to speak on this legislation, please raise your hand. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to second. All in favor? Yes. We stand adjourned.

I'm Kim Young, chair of the planning committee. It's uh 5:15 and I call to order the meeting of February 12th. Can the clerk please call the role? Young here. Herman here. Real present. Feldman here. Next, I'd like to approve the meeting minutes from January 8th planning committee meeting that Oh, go ahead. Move to approve. Second. All All in favor? Yes.

Yes. The minutes stand approved as submitted. Next is the planning director's report. Mr. Cowen, do you have anything for us? Uh just uh as I mentioned in the public hearing that the county uh zoning code has been effective since Monday. So we're getting our first few applications in to review under that. Uh got all of our permits updated to reflect the code. So so far so good. Uh but other than that happy to take any questions. Any questions for Mr. Cowen?

Any other further discussions from council? All right, we'll move on to the next item uh which is the consideration for business items. Could the clerk please read 20 2026-052? 2026-052 a resolution granting signed variance approval to Holly Lyken applicant on behalf of Summit Akran Solid Waste Management owner on the property located at 1201 Graham Road partial number 56-19732. Any questions for the planning director

or for is the applicant here? Planning director can give us Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Um, I don't see the applicant here yet. Um, they might show up.

Um, this property is at 1201 Graham, right at the corner of Route 8 and Graham Road. Uh, the property that the sign will be on is on the highlighted area. The sign is for Reworks which is right next to it. Uh this is for a sign variance just for the height of the sign. As a reminder, Reworks, they're develop uh redeveloping their property. They recently just built their collection building. They're working on their administrative building behind that. Um but so far back from Graham Road that they're just requesting a variance uh for basically their directional sign. It just have the addressing. Uh the max height for our directional signs, again this is under the old code, is three feet. This one's proposed at four and a half feet. Um it'll be located at the rivalry line, which is about 40 ft back from Graham Road. And there's also a slight grade change, which is why they're requesting a higher height for the directional sign. This was also recommended by the fire department just for a clear identification the location of the property and the addresses that are back there. Uh there was a condition of approval on this application that the right of way location shall be staked and inspected prior to sign installation to verify compliant setback. Um but again this will be right line with the rightway line about 40 feet back from Graham Road from the edge of the street and this is just a simple variance for to exceed the sign height by 1 and 1/2 ft. Happy to take any questions.

There any questions for the planning director? Uh are there any concerns about the sight lines between the two signs that are there blocking each other with the one from the church being there as well? No, that was uh discussed at planning commission and the sign will be far enough away from the church sign and the church sign has plenty of height where that won't be having direct conflict. Thank you. Yes, Councilman Feldman. Thank you, Mrs. Young. Um so they're moving their um headquarters here, right? Reworks.

Uh they've been at this property for a while. They've just been operating out of that small building in the back of the property. So, they're just redeveloping um adding again they added that collection building and they're adding a new administrative office building behind that. So, so this administrative office, not their headquarters, not that it makes a huge difference, but yeah, this is their primary location. Um but they're just expanding their operations here. All right. Thank Thank you, Miss Young. Any other questions from council? Is the applicant here and want to speak? Okay. Any other further discussions or motions?

Um, move to move 2026-52 to tonight's council agenda. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Yes. that will be added to tonight's agenda. That is the only item that was on the planning committee meeting agenda. Next is public comment period where we ask for comments from the audience. If you would like to uh make a comment, please raise your hand and we'll call you forward. Please come forward, state your name and your address and also that you are willing to tell the truth. You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Okay. Steve Cheetwood, RC Concrete Leveling, 1069 Macccau Road, Ohio. I've been uh an A-rated business for about 40 years somewhere in that neighborhood. I've since I've been in business, I've I've donated well over $50,000 in goods and services to the surrounding community from LeBron James kids out there, the First Promise to um the police department in Ka Falls, like some psycho head-on guy intentionally a few years back and I did thousands of dollars there. I just it's the right thing to do. So, I'm about community. And for the last four years, I've been trying to to start uh a uh new business and it's tiring, but we're get getting there and every day closer. And I want to appreciate Kyle Feldman. Mario, you guys have currently been working on, you know, to get us water back there and and Kelly Coffee certainly heard her share of uh stuff. And so, I want to thank you, John Baronet, Kyle Herman, uh Matt, all of you. And I did invite uh Miss Young to come out and have a look at what we have going on at some time that works for you. Be wonderful. And uh uh I'd love to be able to get to some conclusion this year so we could open up for business this year and we could start using all the local vendors and it's going to be a great thing for the community and I just want to thank you guys so we can get this to a head and get some sort of conclusion this year. That's it. And thank you very much and then you can come you get to enjoy it too because it'll be part of the community. So, all right, you guys have a great evening. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Cheatwood. Is there any other one that would like to come up and make public comment at this time? Not seeing any. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Yes. Meeting adjourned.

I call this public improvements committee meeting of STO city council to order. I am chairman Matt Reel. Vice chair of this committee is Kelly Coffee. Other members of this committee are Councilman John Barneck and Councilman Mario Fioa. First up is the approval of minutes from October 9th. What is your pleasure? approved. Second. Second. Moved and seconded to approve. All those in favor, please signify by saying yes, yes, nos, abstensions. Those minutes stand approved. Service directors/chief of staff report. Mr. Ren. Thank you, Mr. Real. I have no report. I'd be happy to answer any question. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Ren. Mr. Fioa.

Um, Mr. Ren, uh, with the weather we've had since our last meeting, could you give a little bit of a report on the just sort of salt situation? And I know we've gotten a break recently. So,

uh, sort of a break. Um, so it got so hot so quick, it melted the snow so quick and then that night it froze it again. So now there's ice dams everywhere. But and we're having issues in culde-sacs because they don't get enough traffic to break up the ice dams. So that the main roads and through roads are pretty clear at this point, but culde-sacs are still an issue. We went out and installed it again today, but um it's going to take a while for the call culdeacs to thaw out. As far as salt, we have an order for 2,000 ton in right now. We have uh not been told when that will be delivered yet. Um we're facing the same problem as everybody else. The trucks are up there sitting for three or four hours at a time before they get loaded. Um, some changes were made up at the uh up there at the mine on how they're allowed to store this all. So, that's slowed down the operation immensely. So, right now we have um about 1,500 on site here and I believe about 1,200 out at station 2. So, we're good for the next couple storms, but it looks like we're warming up next week. So, that should help the situation and hopefully allow for us to get a little stockpile going before the next big storms hit.

Just out of curiosity, for that last a storm like we had a couple weeks ago that uh dropped close to a foot or a foot of snow, like how much salt would we go through in a storm like that? I mean, how many tons all together? over 3,000 3,000. But if we get another storm like like that then and northeast Ohio be in trouble. So might be time to hibernate if we get another one of those. Thank you. Further question. Um and you Thank you. And you said um they're salulting the culde-sacs.

They did today. Um but like I said, they just don't get enough traffic. They you need that friction of those tires to help the salt activate. And so that's why the a lot of culde-sacs are still snow covered because there's just not enough traffic to help it. Yeah, I actually heard from residents yesterday in Culdeac saying that yeah, they were slipping and Yeah. So, thank you, Mr. Felmore. Thank you, Mr. Roller. I'm not on this committee, so I appreciate your consideration, Mr. Ren. Um, is that a gas line going in on a call road or is that Okay, because I'm getting confused now on fiber and gas. That's gas, right?

That's gas. That's for to switch over the clubhouse to gas and get off propane and to heat the building at the driving range so we could be open year round.

And just a quick followup, Mr. Real. So, Mr. Mr. Jones, when we get a complaint about fiber and they think the resident, we've explained to them the utility right away and they think that the contractor is not in the rightway. What should we do? I would say the first line would be the the direct contact through that utility company. Um they're familiar with those utility easements. Um the the main you know public leaison for that company. Um whoever that main contact is depending on the company. Um but second line of contact would just be contact engineering department. U we're very familiar with the easement. So, uh, if there's an issue with a resident, they could always call an engineering department to verify the the leng the depth of that utility easement, and we could send our inspector out there just to verify they're within that.

So, the one complaint I got this week, I sent to you. That's the right thing to do, and you sent somebody out. Yes, sir. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. R. Further questions?

All right, seeing none, we have a robust agenda with five business items. First up is the annual parks and recreation annual report. Oh, there we go. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Rio. Thank you, public improvements committee and all of council for allowing me to present tonight. Um, you all have my annual report and if anyone would like me to autograph it later after the meeting, please, you know, come by and see me. I'd be happy to do so. Um, I want to give you some highlights. All the information is there in the booklet and I'm sure you'll read it page after page after page, but I wanted to go over some key accomplishments and capital improvement investments. Um, so I'll focus on those few highlights this evening. uh where we've made progress um where we're investing in our infrastructure and what's coming next. And it in the back of the report you'll see a number of pages that it really is a deep dive on the numbers on our programs, attendance, everything that we've offered. So that should be a nice reference for you because I couldn't possibly talk about all of it this evening. Um I'd like to start by bringing up the community and senior center. our one year of impact that what has quickly become one of our most active and impactful facilities. Um we've moved beyond simply opening the doors to intentionally building programs and partnerships that serve all ages. I'll just flip to that page real quickly. The center supports senior programs, fitness and wellness classes, enrichment opportunities, and community gatherings. We're continuing to increase usage and expanded programming with growth in programs across all sectors. The center

has become a hub. It's intergenerational. We've developed partnerships and along with it a lot of flexibility. Um, the stats are in the book, so I won't go over all of those details, but I would just mention that last year we had 750 senior memberships. 750 members joined the center to partake in our senior programs and this year we're already over 500 in the first six months of 2026. So, it's looking good. An example of a long weekend that we recently had at the facility on a given Thursday afternoon, we had about 45 seniors participating in bingo. That same Thursday evening, we had a yoga class with 45 adults attending. And then that the next day on the Friday evening, we had a wine and design night with 35 adults participating in a one-niter craft class. Shoot to Saturday morning and we had a bunch of youth participating in LEGO day and that's what we like to see at the facility. It's truly community and all generations. Once the facility opened in January of 2025, we continued with physical improvements with the retention basin, parking lot upgrade, and additional outdoor lighting. some other capital projects that we are investing in for safe and modern parks. Um, so playground was part of our capital budget last year and it'll move it'll continue into 26. Um, this was a very necessary investment to ensure safety and accessibility at that playground. It's a $200,000 project to replace the surface. Um, we bidded out last year, selected the vendor, and we've entered into a contract with them. So, as soon as the weather breaks and warms up and stabilizes the vendor, DW DWA Recreation can get to work. Another project that we're funded for this year in the capital budget is

Heather Hills Playground Replacement, a $130,000 project. This is a neighborhood focused improvement, and we've added community engagement to the planning process. We recently sent out a postcard to over 1,000 residents in the Heather Hills area so that they can um link to a survey. Um we've already received about 55 results when I checked today and a lot of it is information we already know um that we need to do there, the improvements that we need to make, but it also gives us ideas of what people really want to see. And it's so basic that it always comes back to swings. that's like the number one thing that people mention for playgrounds. So, we're trying to be modern and inclusive and yet we're we're going to have swings for sure. So, with your approval of that um going out to bid tonight, we'll get proposals out um hopefully next week and then we we will receive those proposals back in in mid-Marchch and hope to award by the end of March. And Heather Hills is a great example of reinvesting in neighborhood parks. Um, some other things in the survey that were brought up was that folks liked that it was a little bit of a hidden gem. Um, the other thing that was mentioned was access to the park and we are working on having a sidewalk from the road and sidewalk out front um, back into the park. On to Oregon Trails Park. Um, this year we were approved for $150,000 project for a shelter and restroom addition. Um, with council's approval this evening, we're prepared to move forward with the purchase of a new shelter. Uh, the shelter will be a kit, and that's a $42,000 plus expenditure. Um, it will be a kit that will be built by our own staff, which and that'll allow construction to begin soon if we can get that ordered. The restroom building will follow as a subsequent

phase of the project. This investment will help round out Oregon Trail Park. As you know, we implemented a pickle ball complex there in 2024, and usage of that park is very heavy with the organized sports that we have going on there, as well as pickle ball and the playground. So, together, these improvements enhance the park's functionality. Um, another couple of our oops, a couple of our um, other capital improvements that we will see in um, 2026 are the community center HVAC replacement and the community center roof replacement. Those are both needed. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the bus and the acquisition of the new community bus in 2025. And of course, that um, capital project goes beyond for the next few years as we pay pay that off through the lease. Um it we we do we did receive the bus and you saw how beautiful it was. Currently we are installing aftermarket items such as a reinforced rear bumper and a 360 degree cameras for added safety. We expect the maiden voyage to take place next month. And then also the amphitheater is a project that is big in our capital budget. Um and after a long and deliberate planning process, we're excited to move to be moving closer to construction on the amphitheater. Um a project that will serve as a signature community asset for new a new home for events, performances, and so on. With Mr. Ren leading the effort, the parks and recck department is actively planning for future programming opportunities um while we while we thoughtfully consider economic development for that area, placemaking, public art, and cultural enrichment. Um, I want to move on to our events. Uh, we our our special events can continue to be some of the most visible and impactful ways we serve the community and I know you're all very familiar with

them. Um, but I will mention our signature events summer sunset blasts sto fourth of July parade and glow with Stow and these consistently draw strong attendance with thousands of residents and visitors and creates shared experiences that bring residents together. Um, we not only provide entertainment, but this also strengthens our community identity. And for this year, we have a full and active year ahead with all of our signature events returning in 2026. Um, we we will also have our popups in the park, our hayride, our bunny trail hop, and other seasonal favorites are already scheduled and in motion. We will continue to grow newer program offerings, including our wine and design craft series and our connect with nature collaboration with the Stoman roalls public library. Together, these events and programs reflect a balanced approach, maintaining beloved traditions while thoughtfully expanding new opportunities for community engagement. I did want to mention marketing as well um since that is still under the parks and wreck department and let you know that you probably already know this that we um redesigned and launched the city of Stow website this p in 2025 the fun and stow website in 2025 and then we created the AMP website this is the new I'm sure you've already seen it but this is the uh new phone and Stow website. Uh I think I might have there's the city council page on city of Stowe website. Here's the homepage. Um some of the features that are a little bit different like on this we've really separated events and meetings. Two different calendars. You want to know when the events are, you're here. Want to know when meetings are, they're here. And then on fun and stow um one of the items

that we think is really cool um we typically haven't populated our senior programs on the website um because they they have seniors tend to be very paper oriented but really trying to move away from that um from our published newsletter which we still do for seniors but they are registering more online now it's about 50/50 we've got um fun and stow website separated for events and then active active adults 55, a special calendar just for those programs. And then the amphitheater um website is not visible yet to the public as the framework is there and we are still working on um the content which will come as we go. So we've got some work to do there, but this is just a start of what that will look like. Our upcoming events will be there, the main concerts and so on. And then we'll have the again the two calendars, the concert series, you know, the 10 10 big events and then the other events that parks and wreck will have and any anything else we do there as well. Everything I shared tonight is supported in more detail in the book as I mentioned before in the annual report. Um, I appreciate you all taking the time to go through it. Um, I would just like to thank my staff for everything they do because I have such a great team and I am so fortunate and these programs and events would not come to life without without that team. And I I also would like to thank the mayor too. He's always in the forefront for everything parks and wreck for everything we do. And thank you city council for your support of what we do and for approving funding for where it is needed. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Questions or comments? Miss Copy. Um both I have a comment and a question. Thank you. That was a wonderful presentation and thank you for all you guys do. I think your department does an amazing job. Um question I saw in 2027 um ballfield upgrades at Silver Springs Park. Um a resident reached out about ADA compliance with that. Will that be done at that time? Do you want to answer that, Mr. Ray? Uh, I don't we haven't put together the full plan yet, but we can certainly address that as part of those plans. Great. Thank you. Further questions.

Thank you very much for that report. Thank you. Item number B or item B uh is Mr. Feldman's. It's a water mane breaks report.

Thank you, Chairman Real. appreciate you allowing me to get this on the public improvements uh not being on the committee, this uh item on the agenda. So, thank you. Um I want to start with Jeff Smith, our water superintendent. Um I've given everybody a picture photo. Um and while you're getting ready up here, Jeff, I sent Jeff. I'm sure you know I get tired of getting the emails of water mane breaks. I think we've got two four. I think we had Klein and Samira and Conwell, Binmar and Norman, Stow Road, Conwell, Darrow Road, Kent Road across from the Kent State airport. So, um I know a number of council meetings ago we had Raph tell us and they they uh had a recommendation and I was out on an island on that and I get that no one likes a a water rate increase. But I I guess what I'd like to do is just very quickly, Chairman Real, if I could talk a little bit about these water lines, water main breaks, and council's plan on what we're doing because we're not keeping up. So, I'll start with you, Mr. Smith. um to give us uh the condition of our water system that we own. What do we need to do to make sure our residents have water? Right.

Essentially replace water manes. Um we've got a good portion of our system. Mr. Doulson sent you a list. We've got roughly $14 million worth of water manes that need replaced. 1956. Uh that's where majority of our breaks have been. Uh we're we've had 17 this year so far. Uh last year we had a total of 98. Uh at last year was a rate of 3.7 days per break. Now we're at 2.5 this year. So 2.5 breaks a day.

Two and a half. Every two and a half days we have a water man break. Two and a half days. Okay, keep going. Um, you know, you're losing you're losing money on water loss. Uh, every time you have a break, we're paying for the water and it's just going on the ground. Uh, last year alone, we spent without restoration cost roughly $500,000 just on repairs. And that does not include asphalt and concrete. And this year, didn't we hire another subcontractor to repair besides Campbell? Yeah, if if needed.

If needed. So, when we look at this diagram, and you're the expert. Is this because of tower work? I I get the freezing thawing. I understand that. But when I looked at the diagram you sent me on December 29th, sorry, I emailed you right around the end of the month. But this I'm I was looking for concentrations, right? This is all over the place, right? Correct. Uh mostly condensed in what's that? W three and between Graham and 59 and one.

So water lines that are oldest water lines installed in 56. Mhm. Which is really what this focus is, right? Yes. The ones more towards, you know, out west is, you know, from the water tower being down, the pressure surges, but the concentration of just the older condition of the lines. So, the water infrastructure has a life cycle. Yeah. Uh, unlin cast, which is the 1956, has a life expectancy of 75 years with an average of 63 is what the average life expectancy is. Is the system underfunded?

Absolutely. Mr. Toppen, parts parts alone, I mean, we haven't had a rate increase in 20 years. Nothing costs the same. Everything's gone up. So, our last rate in increase was 20 years ago. And Mr. Top, if I will, don't go anywhere, Mr. Smith. Um we uh Rafelis recommended and what did they say when they did their study?

Uh Rafelis provided or was here I believe in March provided their study and PowerPoint presentation. Um they pre provided that uh it looks like what they for they they for each volume rate improvement fee admin fee and a blended rate the increase for admin fees over the next four years would go up 9% 9% 4% 4% 4%. The improvement fee would go up 50% 40% 30% 15% 7%. The volume rate would follow the admin fee at 9% 9% 4% 4% and 4%. Now if I can Mr. Felman to answer that just some communities around here which we already mentioned in the study town in the next four years every year is raising their water rate 15% 15% 15% 15%. Kyoga Falls has almost doubled their water rate going the next four years. Um what Raftal Rafelis proposed for us seems quite a little low compared to what our neighbors are doing but um yeah that's what they they are proposing uh and like I said Mr. Smith, Graphelus, they're the professionals. They know um what the water rates, you know, what it's going to cost and and that's his projects probably aren't even taking into in consideration that price he gave you any projects. I know down the road they said water meters, you know, a water meter program that's going to run probably

somewhere, I don't know, Mr. Smith, correct me if I'm wrong, 5 to7 million. So yeah, between 6 to 8 million. Okay. So you got to look at that. They re uh recommended a second water tower coming down the road to be built and that could be upwards of 20 million. All right. Let me let me interrupt you. I don't want to Yep. No, that's fine. Let me some time back to the chair. I appreciate you uh allowing us to. So um the water system is an investment. Correct. Absolutely. And we're responsible for that investment, right? We need some system sustainability. Correct.

Yes. No. Elected officials like the last percentage increase. And I understand that talking to residents, nobody wants a rate increase. But I guess what I'm getting at is we have to do something, don't we? Maybe it's a little too high, but we got to do something. We have to invest in our water system. We have to replace our infrastructure.

Infrastructure has a lifestyle, right? Um, all right. I I just get tired of getting emails that we have a water main break. Then I see Mr. Doulson's water lines need replaced and I look at the capital plan and we're not replacing enough of them. So, I I just wanted to throw it out and Mr. Real, I appreciate you uh Mr. Herman letting me get this on public improvement. So, um, thank you and I will yield the rest of my time. Thanks. Uh questions or comments? Mrs. Scofy?

Um just questions. I've asked for a lot of information from Mr. Toppen today. So, thank you. Um and so our revenue that's generated um is about a million dollars a year. Is that correct for waterline? Most are talking about the water capital. Yeah. So it's in one of in one of the spreadsheets it says that we have about a million dollars, but it looks like the fee generates about 800,000. Is that correct? Yeah, the fees roughly for the water capital fee or improvement fee generates about 800,000 roughly a year.

Okay. And on the list of water lines that need replacement, um it says our funding level is 1 million per year. So, is there is there another source of revenue or is it just the $4 fee? It's just the $4 fee for the the water capital. Okay. And then our um our expenditures range from 1.2 to 2 million over the last since 2021. Yes.

Okay. Um and then um paving is included in that. when we did 91 this year and did them simultaneously, the paving and the water line. I think that made a lot of sense. Could we do that? I mean, obviously there are emergencies that come up and it can't always be done, but I guess this is probably more for Mr. Ren. Can we do that? Do those more in conjunction, the paving and the water lines. So that and then the the paving funding, could that come out of roads instead of out of the waterline instead of the water capital budget? Well, we coordinate with engineering and service on to make sure that we're not going to go do a a paving job on a road that is scheduled for a water line. So, we already coordinate that. Um, and we know where Jerry's going for this project. So we generally follow the next year with the paving um the paving for not the entire street but a portion if there's a water line if the water line was replaced a portion comes out of the water capital but the vast majority already comes out of the road program.

Okay, that was my question. Okay, so if we're generating about 800 and and typically spending a little over a million and I would assume we can't spend a ton more than that just because isn't Mr. Doulson um doing all of those projects with his team for the waterline replacements. We're not outsourcing those. Correct. He's designing them. Okay. So, and he's probably pretty maxed out with what he is. That around the same I mean around that level that 1.2 is probably what we can do per year. We could we could do more. Okay. Just so that Yeah, we we could do more but we can't because we don't have funding.

Okay. And so each dollar out of the our bill, the $4 bill, each dollar generates about 200,000. Correct. If if $4 generates 800,000, each dollar generates about 200,000. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Thank you, Mr. Real. And thank you, Mr. Smith, for coming back to council. Uh last time you were here, I I think I remember you saying that we have some pipes that are more than half full of mineral deposits. Uh would you be willing to show share uh photos that you have of the state of our pipes uh with council? And

also uh are you able to um you say with confidence that our tap water and stow is currently safe to drink or absolutely. Okay, that's very good to hear. Absolutely. Um because I I'm also aware that uh the EPA has concerns about potential environmental implications. Do you have any uh concerns about those as well if we don't fix the pipes? No. Um I mean last year we we did over 2500 water samples last year. So actively sampling daily. Thank you. Thank you, M. Thank you, Mr. Real. Thank you. Further questions, comments?

Thank you. So, real quick, thank you for taking the time for being here, Mr. Smith. So, yes or no, water mane breaks are not random events. They are indicators of aging infrastructure. Yes or no? I mean, majority, it's an indicator, right? And we need to do something. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. All right. Uh, seeing no other questions or comments, thank you so much for coming and answering questions. Item number C or letter C, urban forestry update. The

Thank you all for You just push the button. Sorry. No problem.

Thank you all. Um, don't want to take up too much of your I know you guys have a pretty big agenda going on today. Um, but my goal today, um, just wanted to go over a little bit about the Urban Forestry Commission. Um, a little bit about what we've been able to accomplish in the past year and some of our goals kind of moving forward, um, in 2026 and beyond. Um, we've, uh, we're always grateful anytime we can come in front of you guys to, uh, discuss what our mission is, discuss what our passion is, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have at this time. Um, and if there's anything I can't answer or, you know, need to get a little more information, I'm happy to get back to you, you know, as soon as possible. So, um, Zach's doing me a solid, doing me a little control right now. So, um, our mission statement, um, it's posted on our website on our tree management plan. Um it it's pretty, you know, boilerplate for a lot of mission statements in terms of some of the language that's used, but um you know, environmental, economic, aesthetic, social benefits have a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people, but to us um maintaining a healthy urban forest for the city of Stow is an extremely important thing for residents on each of those scales. um to talk about exactly what an urban forest is. Um the best definition that I'm able to find that a lot of us use comes from uh this book, urban forestry, planning and managing urban green spaces. Um it's an educational book. It's almost like a college textbook that's used. The Arbor Day foundation is the one who basically stands by this statement. So it's a good b uh it's a good baseline for everyone else to use in this sense. So, um, all woody vegetation that is within our municipality makes up our urban forest. That's public and private property. Now, we're obviously going to only be able to do what we can do with public property, but we also have a role in educating and encouraging people to manage their own urban forest on their own pre pieces of

property. Um, the benefits of an urban forest you hear a lot of times. I don't want to focus too terribly much on them for the whole presentation because we could talk about it all day long. But um these are kind of the main points that a lot of people will discuss. Um when it comes to heat um roughly a tree that provides shade and cooling through evapot transpiration can lower the temperature by about 2 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Um when it's a fully grown mature tree that provides enough shade in that instance. Um, for homes in the summer it can reduce your air conditioning cost by up to 30%. And in the winter it can actually help reduce your heating cost by about 20 to 50%. Now that reason in the heating is not so much that it's just allowing sunlight to come through. A house without a tree isn't going to is going to allow the most amount of sunlight to come through to heat your home. It's actually breaking wind. That's the biggest thing is it's preventing wind from coming off, pulling that heat air away and increasing your heater to keep up with that uh loss of heat. Um property values, the University of Wasing did a study of in Portland, Oregon that found that values went up by um just under $9,000 for um homes that had an increase of trees on their property. um pollutants, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, CO2, all these things are things that are removed by having a healthy urban forest. That's kind of the number one thing I think a lot of people will talk about is, you know, removing carbon dioxide from the air and runoff. Storm water is becoming more and more of a talking point between, you know, municipalities and individuals. Uh healthy trees will reduce runoff by about 15 to 20% of the annual rainfall that you get. um removal of street trees can actually increase runoff by a volume of about 4%. So that's just focusing on street trees that you have in the tree line. Um that that just those itself

removing those can increase that by a significant noticeable amount. So um our urban forestry is made up of supposed right now six members hopefully soon to be a seventh. Um Bob Branch is our chair, Andy Bang is our vice chair. Um John Bberg, Jeff Salsman, Laura Root, who in this photo, thanks Kyle, um uh just got her third term REM re renewed. So she's serving on a new three uh third year or third five-year term. Uh so that's really cool for Laura. And then um me, I'm the newest member, joined uh three about three years ago now. So I'm going into my third year um with the committee. Um, we had a seventh member, but um, unfortunately our seventh member left us to become our new landscape arborist. That's Jeff Neowski here. Thanks for coming, Jeff. Um, couldn't be happier for him to help out. It's great to have somebody that was on the committee now coming in to help serve the city and having that shared mission and value. So, um, just a quick summary of kind of what our 2025 was. Um, half the year we were without a landscape arborist. So, um, you know, Mike here in this photo was doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us since with Sue's retirement at the end of the year. So, a lot of it was a little bit of kind of patchworking it together. Um, and you know, they did a great job with what they could without a, you know, without a main source of leadership. But, um, these numbers we hope to have improved in the years coming, especially with Jeff's leadership. Um, I want to focus on with this summary the tree preservation provision that was passed with the new uh uh building and zoning code. Um, it's going to be something that we feel that is going to be super helpful for us whether it's going to be encouraging new development to preserve trees on their property or at least being able to reclaim some of those funds to then reinvest into our urban forest should they choose to clear them out. So, we're excited at the possibilities that that could potentially create for us. um based on some of the trees that were planted. Um just wanted to kind of give you a little

bit of numbers on how that broke down. Um last year in the spring um 25 trees were planted. All 25 of those trees were through our um tree planting program where basically residents are able to provide a fee and we'll plant a tree either in your uh front yard or in your uh tree lawn. And then in the fall 54 trees were planted. Um 10 of them were for the program. The rest of them went to engineering, cemeteries, Foxden, and the senior center. So, numbers that we hope to get up higher. Something I want to hit on kind of at the end of this presentation, but um still numbers that we do track. Um after our upcoming meeting, um in March, we meet the second Monday of every month. We're going to be hopefully passing or approving our final tree management plan for the year. Um, we spent February doing a working meeting on it, made a lot of updates, shortened it down, made it easier to read. Um, highly would recommend everybody, you know, taking a look at that, asking us any questions you might have based on it. Um, so, uh, just kind of a small brief summary of what was going on in 2025 from a stats point of view. Um, going to hit on a few highlights here. Um, first thing, Earthfest. Um, we've loved being a part of EarthFest. It's a lot of fun. I think the parks department does a very very good job of putting it all together and we're looking forward to being a part of it this year. Um last year we gave away a 100 sugar maples um saplings to anyone who um was able to basically fill out a little um like a pamphlet almost like a little stamp collector. Go to different stations, collect stamps, tournament at the end of the day and uh it was really fun to see a lot of kids happy and enjoying it. Um that last photo I showed was the buro that we had planted on the property. So that's there now. If you could see it, um you know, see it bloom out in the spring, see the growth that's gone on it. Um we try to focus at this a lot of education on pruning, proper

mulching, proper planting. Um just to ensure that any tree that's being put in because it's an investment, we don't want it to be set up for failure. We don't want it to be, you know, you put five years of the worth into it, you're excited to see it grow, but because it wasn't put into either ideal conditions or even good conditions that it dies after that and it just can be very demoralizing for people. So, that's something we've tried to really focus on. We've um done a really good job, I feel, in the past year focusing on updating some of our handouts. Um, our tent that you'll see in the next one of the next slides has a QR code on it so people can just scan it, go straight to our web page, find some of our handouts there. Um, it's been education has kind of been a big focus in the past year. Um, the next photo that you'll see here, just a couple kids that got some of them at the end. Um, found this on the fun and stow page. Thought it was cool, wanted to include it. Pop up in the parks. That was a big big thing that we've been excited to be a part of as well. Again, another thing, thank you to the parks department on that. Um there were uh three parks that we were at this year. Uh Oregon Trail, uh Wetmore Park, and Sherwood Acres Park. Same kind of similar thing with um uh the Earthfest. We don't have any saplings to give away at these events, but we do have the handouts. We do have some like magnets and pens and just small little stuff to give to kids that they like to play with. But again, the idea is just hopefully passing out things that will make people think of us, make people visit our page, maybe even attend a meeting hopefully um to give their input on that. So, Pop-Up Pop-Up in the parks has been to us a great success. We're looking forward to doing it again this summer. Um you know, if I hope you guys would attend if you haven't already. They're it's cool to see everybody in those neighborhoods come out and talk to them. Um, another thing we've been doing, um, now is for a couple years, this the big tree contest. These are the results from this year on who the

winners were. Um, this year we specified specifically evergreens. So, we had less submissions than the previous year. The previous year we had focused on basically any tree, so we got a lot more people coming in. Um, with this year with Evergreens, it was a smaller pool, but we still had some good um, participation from that. And these are just highlighting some of the names on who won this year. Um, kind of cool, fun. We're looking forward to doing it again. We haven't decided on exactly what we're going to do for a theme this year, but it's something that'll come up in one of our meetings that we'll talk about for sure. Um, another thing we've done, this is now the second year we've done it. Um we participated in the Akran Children's Hospital holiday tree auction where we'll submit a tree under the urban forestry name for um fundraising money to donate back to Akran Children's. Uh this year our theme was the urban wildlife theme. So kind of hard to see, but there's like some raccoons and some birds on there. Um we were able to raise $600 from this tree this year. There were some gift cards that were be given on by some local businesses, so it was very nice for them to donate it. We're learning a little bit e each year. The thing we've learned this year is the more you can put on it, the more you'll get. So, we're going to try to pack this up as much as possible. If you guys would like to help out with anything, um, you know, come see us during that season. We'll we basically will create a list of ornaments that we're looking at getting. You can buy one, put it on there, give you an update kind of on what it ends up selling for. But we were very happy with the 600 this year and and hopefully with some of the lessons learned, we'll be able to increase that going into 2026 and beyond. Um, and then finally, the highlight that I wanted to point out, uh, we decided to do something cool this year. Um, tree cookies are like a, uh, small cross-section of, uh, basically a tree. In this instance, the small one would be like a limb or whatnot. And they can be used for educational purposes, but also one of the things they can be used for

is design. So, one of the ideas we had was um Laura Root actually brought a whole bunch of tree cookies down to Woodland Elementary and uh the kids decorated them. So, they put their name on them. They uh tied little things through them and then we hung them up in city hall for them to see. So, during glow and snow and during all that or that stuff, you could come in see them and then at the end of the season when everything was taken down, they would be given back to the kids for them to keep, hang up on their tree through the rest of the year. Uh we want to do that again this year. We're thinking about what school we want to do that for. We're talking about that as well. But we were very, very happy at the turnout for what that was, the excitement. They did a phenomenal job. I It's hard to, I know, see in that photo, but they were some really, really cool ones. Very well done. And Laura said that the kids were very excited about the opportunity to do it and even coming in and pointing everything out. So, looking at 2026 and moving forward, um, this kind of goes into the revisions that we've made with our tree management plan. Um we're hoping to increase our tree planting uh this year. Our management plan has a goal of basically planning um 120th of the available planting sites each year. Um part of that is the goal of having a proper urban forest is to have a fully stocked forest. But you also don't want to plant that up all at once. If you plant everything up all at once, everything grows up at the same time. You get this baby boom where everything needs maintained at the exact same pace. By staggering it, you prevent that from happening. Um, we're hoping to reduce the current pruning cycle that we've been on for the past couple years. Um, to down to a six-year pruning cycle, um, hopefully alleviating a lot of complaints that we were getting from citizens on lowhanging trees because that has been a kind of a failing point for us in the past years of just not being able to get to them in time. Uh, we're hoping kind of now and with working with Jeff that this is going to be a goal that we're able going to be able to hit. Um Jeff's got a great team underneath him. A lot all certified

arborists, all people that are very knowledgeable, very hardworking. So we feel pretty confident about this as a goal moving forward. And um in the talks of pruning, young tree training is going to be something that we're going to try to really hard focus on. Um young tree training is a specific type of pruning where these newly trained, these newly planted trees need to be trimmed properly on a little bit more frequent cycle. So, the goal would be three times within a 10-year period. The idea is investing in these trees early, helping them create a strong structural base as they start to grow will save you in the long run. Invest in them early, you have a much more controlled tree that limbs that are maintained, that's going to grow straighter, that's going to grow more controlled. You don't have to go back and cutting it more frequently in the future when you go to proof. Um, it's a well doumented concept. ODNR has a recommendation on how to do it. So, it's uh basically something that we're going to try to implement hopefully to uh just reap the benefits of it future. And the open gov asset management. We used to use a program called treekeeper that's been switched over to this new GIS program. Very powerful, very cool. Just lots of data points on every single tree that's on public property that we own that you can basically go in and look at. You can filter through on sizes, on species. So, it's cool that we're using that now and looking forward to kind of getting to play with that a little bit more. Um, and lastly, I want to kind of lean leave off of some ideas that we're having for the future. These are big ideas. These are things that we would want to be working with council, with representatives on. These aren't things that we're just coming up with and saying, "Hey, these are the new rules." But just to kind of give you a mindset of what we're thinking right now. Um, the number one thing that I wanted to put on there is the way we do our tree lawn planting. So, kind of going back to the 2025 idea of, you know, how many we planted. The current way the street tree program works is, and I'll use my street as example,

a high-risisk tree is found to be dead, dying, you know, at risk of falling, which is a liability to the city. Something happens, it's on us. So, it's a high priority to remove that tree before anything happens to an individual or their property. So, that tree gets removed, we come around, then later grind out the stump. Now, you have an open site for planting. Ideally, especially if you're a homeowner that like that tree, city's going to come back and plant it, replace it. It's not necessarily the case with the way the rule works right now. The way it would work is if you wanted a tree, you would fill out an application and pay $125 to us to have that tree then replaced. Now, that is a tree that is going on the city's tree lawn that you are not allowed to prune, that you're not allowed to really maintain whatsoever. Basically, it's ours, but you're going to front the fee for that. Um, it's a good program. It's a great value. $125 for the trees that you get. Comes with a gator bag, which is basically around it for water, you know, keeps it filled, keeps it water, so you don't have to go out every single day. And it also has a deer guard around it to protect it from, you know, deer rub on it. No one's arguing that it isn't a great value. The problem is what we found is it just doesn't get a lot of buy in. And so it's really hindering we the goal for us to really establish that that urban forest, hit that 200 a year goal, hit that one hopefully 4,000 trees in the future kind of idea that we dream of. Um it's just become something that when we do turn it into people of hey this is what you can do, we're kind of met with push back on it. Little bit of a nose to why do I have to pay for a tree that I don't own? Now, the program does allow you to buy that same tree and put it in your front lawn, in your front yard. So, now you own the tree. You can do whatever you want with it. You don't like it in five years, you can cut it down. That's on you. We won't maintain it, but you can pay $125 and get it from us and get a beautiful tree in your front yard that basically you're never going to get a better deal than that. So, we feel like there might be a happier balance between

keeping that program alive for people to plant in their yard, which is the part of the urban forest that we don't have much control over, and then opening it up to the city's ability to then go out and fill these open planting sites without having to basically get the opt-in from the homeowner that won't actually own the tree. We've discussed the idea maybe instead of an opt-in with a fee, it's just an opt out. Hey, I don't want a tree there. I don't like a tree there. That could be something that we discuss. This is something that would be a council project. This is something that we talk about in meetings. This is something we'd want to bring to you guys for feedback. It's it's a big idea, but it's something I think a lot of us, we've over the years of talking, have just started to feel really passionate about, and it's kind of become a bit of a hindrance to what we feel like the urban forest for the city of Stow could be. Um, quickly going through this, I don't want to take up too much more time. The new environmental commission, I'm just excited to see what we can kind of collaborate with them on. looking forward to some of their ideas and what they can bring to the table that we can help out with that. I'm really looking forward to seeing how that goes. Um, we want to start inviting council out and citizens and members of the public out to do some walk-in talks, whether it's in the parks or whether it's just local trees in the streets. Um, kind of just give you a feel for what a good tree is, what a good pruning is, a young tree versus an old tree. Just give some education so that when you guys go talk to your constituents or if members of the public just want to come learn, they can do that. We've done it in the past. It's kind of something that's been suspended from us just over the years with turnover and whatnot. We kind of want to bring that back. So, that's something we're talking about. And then this one that I support, that's Jeff's idea that I know he's passionate about, the calorie pair replacement. Um, for those that don't know, um, calorie pairs are, uh, species of tree that have become very, very popular in people's yards for landscaping. These are what's in the photo right now. This is a springtime calorie pair. beautiful tree in the spring. Has a very, let's say,

unique smell to them that you may have noticed. Um, but beautiful tree in the spring. They stay very compact when they grow. They don't require a lot of pruning. So, they're very, very popular with people's home landscapes. Um, and were basically one of the most popular trees sold in uh, home and garden centers over past decade. um problem was the species or the type the cultivar of pear that was sold was a type called Bradford pear. The purpose of it was it was sterile. It wasn't supposed to reproduce. So you have this beautiful tree that gets white flowers in the spring, full green in the summer, produces fruit that holds through the winter and the cycle repeats. problem is the Bradford pair was ending up being fertiliz being able to hybridize with other pair cultivars and even the Asian pair and becoming fertile again. That became in uh January 1st, 2023, it was no longer legal to sell, plant or grow uh calorie pair in the state of Ohio because of how invasive it had become. Um if Zach, if you flip to the next one. Um this is an example of exactly what happens. So all of these are calorie pairs in that were not planted. Um invasive species are a problem that probably a lot of people have heard of. Um different levels of education on what they basically are, but they're a non-native species that has basically come to our ecosystem, out competes local um local flora and fauna and basically creates monocultures in their area. There's tons of famous ones. This has become the newest one that's the most famous. There's a lot of calorie players that pairs that are planted throughout the city of Ohio because like many municipalities, we were one of them that thought this is a great street tree. And it is for the most part. It's not a bad tree in a nutshell. But in the whole ecosystem that it is, um it's a very very problematic tree in the state of Ohio and one considered one of the worst

invasives we have in the state. Part of the idea would be potentially either using some of the money from the uh tree preservation fund to eventually replace some of those trees with norative trees that are more controlled, that are more desirable for people. Um, obviously there's still going to be people that are going to love their trees for them. I can't argue with that. You know, as much as I can say the ecological impact, but I can't fight that. Um, but this isn't a new idea. There's plenty of examples of buyback programs. Uh Madina County is one of the most recent ones. They um have started doing a buyback program between the parks department and the soil and water conservation district. Um Pennsylvania started doing some stuff. Virginia started doing some stuff. And I'm not necessarily suggesting a buyback program, but we're talking about the idea of maybe going through and starting to replace some of those trees with native alternatives to to help combat some of that problem. Um, again, these ideas are definitely dreaming big. They're something that we're talking about now that's not fully fleshed out yet, but they're ideas that keep popping up and ones that we're pretty passionate about. So, um, as far as the calorie pair goes, when spring rolls around this year early, I'd advise everybody just keep your eyes open for those white flowers. When you notice one, you're going to start noticing hundreds. Um the first one that comes to mind is the uh the intersection of uh 91 and Fish Creek right behind where the vet is in that undeveloped lot. It's 85 90% calorie repair pair and it's just white. Route 8's the same way. It's it's a problem. So we want to try to do something to help benefit the ecosystem in that matter. But um with that uh that basically concludes my quick presentation. Um thank you for the time. Hope to see you guys at some of our meetings. Feel free to shoot us an email, ask us any questions. We just want to kind of try to be as much of an involvement in our community as we can. And we feel like this is a a good thing for everybody whether they um are aware

of it or not. It's something that benefits them, you know, even subconsciously just having a well-developed urban forest. So, thank you all. Thank you very much for coming in. Questions or comments? Is this coffee? Just a comment. Um, my husband and I were out campaigning and I asked Joe some tree questions and we learned how knowledgeable he is in this area and learned a ton. So, I would highly recommend if you have any tree questions, he is definitely your go-to person for urban urban forestry. So, I appreciate all the information. Thank you. And I highly recommend if I don't know it, ask Jeff. Further questions or comments?

Thank you so much for coming. Awesome, awesome, excellent presentation. Thanks to all members of the commission for serving. It's a very very important part uh of our city. We have two ordinances. Um I believe Miss Nard. Yes. Um requesting approval to go with RCP shelters for the purchase of the shelter kit. There any questions, discussion? Mrs. Coffee, does this include I know the restroom is in the plans, too. Is Is this just for the shelter? It is. Not the restroom. This is just Okay. Thank you. Further questions or comments?

I will entertain a motion to assign a number to this and move it forward to tonight's city council meeting. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying yes, yes, nos. Abstensions. That item will appear on tonight's agenda. Miss Nardstead. All right. Requesting your approval to go out to bid for the Heather Hills Playground to the tune of $130,000. Thank you. Discussion. Seeing no discussion, I will entertain a motion to assign a number to this and move it forward to tonight's city council meeting. So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying yes. Yes. No abstensions. That item will appear on tonight's agenda. Now comes a time in the meeting where we ask for comments from the audience. Should you wish to make a comment or have a make a comment about the parks and rec director's report, water main breaks, urban forestry, or the island's piece of legislation, please raise your hand. You'll be recognized by me. You'll be given up to three minutes to speak. Anything you do say will become part of the permanent record. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to make a comment at this time? Awesome. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Move to adjurnn. Second.

Moved and seconded to adjurnn. All those in favor, please signify by saying yes. No abstensions. This meeting's journed. the finance committee for February 12th. And have the uh clerk please call roll.

Here. Dman here. Herman here. Young here. Okay. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the minutes for the January 22nd meeting? So moved. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Again, substance. Those minutes are approved. Finance director's report. Mr. Toppen.

Thank you, Mr. Baron. Just a couple things to report uh this evening. Um, as council's aware, uh, through your email, we finally did receive our audit back from the state of Ohio just, uh, yesterday for 2024. Um, we received another uh, there were no findings on the audit. Um, they did make one recommendation to a process, but other than that, the audit was smooth. We got a good report and look forward to seeing if we re continue to receive the GFOA and the uh auditor of states awards. Oh, and also I'm sorry about that. Um just so you keep this in mind or in the back of your mind for now, uh tax time will be coming up. Um, our tax department will again this year have uh a couple evening hours and I believe some Saturday hours, but we will get that um information out to you probably early March um for those tax hours. But

thank you, Mr. Tin. Any questions for the finance director? Seeing none, we'll move on to business items. Mr. Ren, thank you, Mr. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Barneck. This is for Janco Janco Cleaning Services or Cleaning Services at the Court. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on to council? So move. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Against abstensions? That moves on to council. Mr. Ren B.

Thank Mr. Barneck. This is for reports petroleum for Foxen Golf Course. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren on item B? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this onto council? So move. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Against extensions. That gets moved on to council. Uh Mr. Ren. Thank you, Mr. Barack. Ports Petroleum again for the fleet. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren? This item. Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on to council? So moved. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes.

Yes. Against? Abstensions. That gets moved on to council. Uh Mr. Ren, item D. This is for Verizon communication um for our cellular and data service for the year. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren on the service? I have one. Um the cost is quite a bit higher than the last couple years. Do we have that many more phones and and devices that require that or is it just rate increases from Verizon? Um it's a combination of more not more phones but more devices and rate increase.

So and obviously it's our goal not to have to come back a second time to council to to make an amendment. So hopefully we come in under that number. Any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on to council? So moved. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Against? Abstensions? That moves on to council agenda this evening. Mr. Ren, item E.

Uh, if you can believe it, this is for one mower um from Jerry Pate Turf and Irrigation. This is for a rough mower. We have about 90 acres of rough at the golf course and driving range. And this replaces a 2013 mower that we purchased used. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren on this item? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on the council agenda? So moved. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Against abstensions that gets moved on to council agenda this evening. Mr. Rey.

Um item F 2026-053, a resolution pursuant to codified ordinances of Stow 119 uh.06 06 entitled progress and closure of capital improvement projects, closing all completed projects and redirecting remaining funds and declaring an emergency. Any questions for Mr. Ray? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on the council agenda? You have a question?

Yeah, apologize. So, Mr. Rey, I'm looking at the document, the exhibit. I get it. So I see a bunch of storm water projects that are a couple. So I I guess let me make it simple. Are all the projects that were closing not all of them are done? Correct.

Anything you see that is complete next to it is done and over with. So for example, three physical host servers. We only purchased two. They were too expensive to get three. when the comes to all of our um road program things like sidewalk, concrete, uh asphalt, those are going to continue on because of course bills do come in in the beginning of the year fe it's kind of actually early to close out capital projects. Um in terms of of what's come in for bills, a lot things will carry over. um when you are talking about um like uh Daryl Road and Edgewood for instance um work has been done but Jerry is really good about trying um to get to these funds last uh and so in my conversation with him we just hadn't touched these particular funds that were designated yet. It's not that there wasn't work done on Darrow Road um for water lines. So there could be more to come. Um yeah, so anything that's there uh that says it's complete, that will be over and done with vehicle purchases, things like that. Um but if it's in progress, those that those are the funds that'll be redirected uh and potentially used in this year.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bernard. I have a quick question. You So the the numbers that are showing remaining, are those carried over to from last year to this year? Yes, all of them. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this? Oh, sorry. Just quick question with the 14.2 million number that um does not include any grants, but that includes the bond for the roads for 91. That 14 million is your budgeted amount for all of the projects for the year. That has nothing to do with the revenue side of it right now. Okay. And that includes um

but some of those projects, yes, were out of their own individual um capital funds. So, some of these came out of our 799 general capital fund and some come out of their own capital funds. So, for 2026, out of 799, we've got a little over 6.6 million budgeted. Um, and then we've got some other projects that will also be um attended to that are going to come out. So, water capital projects that would maybe come out of water capital fund. So, okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this on the council agenda this morning? Make a motion move resolution 2026-053 on tonight's council agenda. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor?

Yes. Against? Extensions. That gets moved on to council agenda. Mr. Ren, item G. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Barneck. Excuse me. This is for a tandem dump for the water department. Um, this is just for the chassis itself. We'll be coming back with the body build. uh cost in the future. Um and this replaces a 2008 dump truck. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Red on this one? Seeing none. Do I have a motion to move this on the council agenda? So moved. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Against? Abstensions?

I think I move on to council agenda. Mr. Ren, this is a single axle uh dump for the street department. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren on this one? Seeing none, do I hear a motion to move this on the council agenda? So move. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Against abstensions? That one gets moved on the council agenda. Okay, we're on I Mr. Rent.

Thank you, Mr. Barneck. This is for two uh Chevy Colorado pickups for the engineering department. Um, one is a replacement vehicle for one of our uh, vehicles that got into an accident. Not our fault. Um, and we received about 13,000, I believe. Yeah, just under 13,000 for that. So, we'll be picking up about half of that. Yeah. So, happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren on this one? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move I on the council agenda? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor?

Yes. Against? Obstensions? Thanks. It's moved on the council agenda. Chief Stone. Thank you, Mr. Barneck. This is for a 26 Ford Explorer to replace a 18-year-old Ford Escape that we use for a chase vehicle. Uh, be happy to answer any question. Any questions for Chief Stone? Seeing Mr.

Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Can I pivot from Chief Stone to you, Mr. Ren, real quick on this one? And I saved it for last. So G, H, I, and J are all vehicles. Water department, street department, engineering department, and fire department. I get it. Let's get the vehicles replaced. So this isn't an adversarial request, but in budgeting, do you ever say we've got $359,484 in vehicles? Do you ever look at department heads and say, "No vehicles this year. We're going to do a couple more waterline projects.

Well, it's a balancing act between the two. I mean, certainly the number of vehicles you see isn't the number of vehicles that were requested. So, we try to stagger them as much as possible and spread that money throughout not only projects, but anything else that were would happen to come up. So, this is the number of vehicles you're going to see is probably less than half of what was turned in out of request. So, we do that already.

Jeez, tell those department heads to stop requesting vehicles. I'm kidding. I get it. In ' 08, I I get it. But I'm just saying, you know, one time no vehicle year, it's 400 grand. Maybe we can do a couple other things. I'm just, you know, it's hard to say it to one department and not another. So if you do it collectively maybe, you know, I don't know. Yeah. The only department that gets them every year is PD just because they put so many miles. They're always Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I get that. So all right. Thank you. Thanks for entertaining my question. Oh, great.

So most of those water repairs are going to come out of the water capital fund itself, not the 799. So the point of the whole water system that we run here is that it is self- sustaining. So, can we sometimes take funds from 799? Yes. But to put other projects aside to do it if we do it on a continuum still means that we are still not meeting the requirements of those water that water department fund being self- sustaining. Just so you know, because that's why we use water capital to do the capital projects and water. Not being argumentative, just making a point. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, do I have a motion to move this one on the council agenda? So move second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes.

Yes. Against abstensions? That passes and will be on council agenda. Uh I have a motion for Mars Electric. Mr. Ren. Thank you, Mr. Barneck. This is just uh electrical equipment for various projects around the city. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Ren? Do I have a motion to approve the motion? So moved. Second. Have a second. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Yes. Against extensions. That motion is approved. We have a motion. Uh Miss Narstead, we have a motion on the floor for Civic Plus.

Yes. I'm requesting authorization to expend 23 up to 23,824 with Civic Plus. This is for our three websites for the hosting uh security and notification systems. also the design. Um I do want to clarify that the set the fourth sentence down in the memo about emergency mass notification system is incorrect. We that is not a part of this package and we do not have that. Thank you. Be happy to answer any questions. Any questions for me?

Seeing none, do I have a motion to approve? I make a motion to approve Civic Plus LLC's for up to $23,824.76 for Civic Engage and the Civic Ready annual renewal. Second. Move and seconded. All those in favor? Yes. Against abstension. That motion has passed. This is a pointed time of the meeting where we ask for public comment relating to any finance. Uh if you have uh you have a comment, please approach the microphone, give us your name and address, and you'll have three minutes.

Hello, Angie Charles, 3447 Saratoga Boulevard. Um I don't have a comment. You guys are doing a great job. Um, I have a question related to Mr. Feldman's questions about the water mane breaks and how they get paid for. Um, I guess the question is for Mr. Riley. Um, the all the tiffs that have been established, is there any opportunity for any of that money to be used for water main breaks when they occur in the vicinity of the locations of the tiffs?

There is a potential for that. What I would also say is we haven't started generating funds on the tiffs yet because you pass them in one year and that's when they become operative. You actually have to collect the fees for the next year. So it's potential in the future. Um but it's not something that the administration has looked at yet. Um but it is it's something we could use them for. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, do I have a motion to adjurnn? Second. Move and seconded. All in favor? Yes. Against abstensions, we are adjourned.

And my discretion will take a five minute break uh before our committee the whole. Thank you.

Sto City Council Committee the whole for February 12th, 2026. Will the clerk please call the role? Barin here. Here. Herman here. Belman here. Real present. Coffee here. Young here. We have before us two sets of minutes. The first is from our January 8th meeting. Uh do we have a motion to approve the minutes as circulated? Motion to approve as. All in favor? Yes. Uh the minutes are approved. The next are minutes from January 22nd meeting. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes as circulated? Move to approve. Second. Second. All in favor? Yes.

Yes. Those minutes are approved. Mr. Riley, the law director's report.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just two quick items real quick. Number one, I sent it out to council earlier today um just notifying you of the 2026 Summit County Township Official Training. And I know it's entitled Township Officials, but I was assured by prosecutor Kolkovich that any city employee or city official is invited to attend that. Um some of the uh topics covered in that will be directly relevant to members of council including sun sun sunshine laws and uh soil and water conservation. Um you can ignore the building code enforcement section on that because the county has their own building department but if you uh I just wanted to send that out so you had that aware. Breakfast is included by the way so I just wanted to uh make sure you're aware of that. Um, and then also for members of the public, um, I've said this many times, I'm going to say it one more time because one week from today on February 19th, uh, my quarterly law talk, uh, at the senior center uh, is going to be, uh, at 1:30. Um,

what day? Next week, there are still, it's 1:00, sorry, not 1:30. Uh, there are still spots available. The topic is trusts 101. We did a uh estates 101 presentation with the Summit County Probate Court uh last year. Um and because of popular demand uh people were asking about trusts. So this is geared specifically towards trust. Again, there are spots available still. So please sign up for that uh 100 p.m. next Thursday at the senior center. And apart from that, happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Riley. Any questions for our law director? Seeing none, we will move on to our business items. Uh, and the first item, uh, Mr. Riley, that's why I didn't turn my microphone off. Uh, all right. So, this, uh, piece of legislation, uh, comes from my prosecutors. Uh, and what we talked about at one of our staff meetings earlier this year are some of the issues we run into when we we look at the the statutes on animals and fowl. Um, so there are four main changes. I can walk through all four of them at once or I can walk through each change and then we can have questions at that point. I'm happy to do it however you want.

Go ahead and if anyone has questions as you go along the way. Uh please raise your hands.

All right. So the first two changes deal with our animal at large uh section. Um the first part of it is I will say a correction of an odd uh um drafting choice is how I'll describe it. This was brought to me by our police department, not by our prosecutors. But if you see in the current statute, the uh our leash statute requires all male dogs to be leashed and female dogs when they are in heat. What I will tell you is none of our police officers and none of our prosecutors are checking the sex of the dog or the status of them being in heat. So this first correction is just to eliminate that differentiate. So, all dogs have to be on leashes. Um, and we accomplish that by just deleting in that first section the reference to female dog and and when they're in heat and then taking out the entire second uh paragraph so that it just applies to all dogs. Any questions on that that drafting change? All right. Um, then the second change to our um, leash uh, statute is also one of those odd drafting choices again is how I'll describe it because it's the only time I have seen this in um, in a dog at large statute and I've looked at a couple other cities. Our dog at large statute is what you call enhancable. So the first time you're charged with it, it's a minor misdemeanor. second time you're charged with it, it can be a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, that sort of thing. So, it it basically enhances if you are guilty of it multiple times. The uniqueness of our statute is that it requires that it is the same dog, not the same defendant. So, not only do we have to prove that the person has been charged with a dog at large or animal at

large previously, we have to prove that it was the same animal this time. And we've run into instances where uh an owner has had like four golden retrievers and unless they admit that it's the same dog as last time, we cannot charge them with the enhanced offense on it. Um so this just corrects that and says that if it if the defendant has been charged with a animal at large previously, it's enhancable. Any questions on that? Okay, moving along to the third one is about the cruelty to animal sections. This was asked because we get the these calls all the time from people complaining about uh leaving the neighbors or someone leaving their pet out during extreme weather events. Um we already have in our statute sections about um how you have to uh provide access to shelter from heat, cold, wind, rain, snow, excessive direct sunlight. The issue becomes uh how easy is it for us to prosecute that and show that it's a situation where there's an extreme uh extreme weather whether or not we reach that. So you'll see this is a a drafting choice uh that we've thrown out there that primap it's primmaaccia unlawful. So for the non-legal uh members of the public and council out there primapacia just means that it is a clearly established if certain criteria are met automatically reaches that. We don't have to convince a judge jury or a magistrate. It's just this is it meets the bar basically. So what we're saying in this is that it's primmaaccia unlawful to uh not have shelter or not uh lock your dog out or other uh companion animal if a uh heat or cold

advisory has been in issued by a local state or national uh authority or if there's another severe warning weather warning issued by a local state or national weather service. So, it's just another ability for us to prove uh cruelty to animals if you are leaving your animal out in an extreme weather event. Any questions on that? All right, moving right along. Finally, uh this is a quick amendment to the rooster section. Um council remember last year that uh you guys voted to ban roosters from the city of Stow and one thing that we did not include on that is uh the enhancibility. So what we're seeing and what we have seen is someone who is charged with harboring a rooster is charged with a minor misdemeanor which for the again the non-legal audience out there a minor misdemeanor is only enforceable of a fine up to $150. Uh, so what we're seeing is people will be charged multiple times and saying, "Yeah, I'll just pay the fine. I'm going to keep the rooster." If we make it enhancable, the court sometimes has some ability to say, "All right, and we're going to confiscate the animal or order you to confiscate the or rehome the animal." So, this just gives us an ability to better prosecute and come up with a solution to our rooster uh ban because I don't think the intention of council I don't want to speak for council, but I don't think the intention of council was to just find people. It was to try and stop roosters from being harbored here in the city. So, that's what uh our the law department's proposal is to make it a uh fourthderee uh misdemeanor for every subsequent offense after the first offense. So happy to answer any questions on that.

Mrs. Coffee, thank you. Um and this um roosters are complaint driven, correct? So that's the way that is enforced. Yeah, it's similar to the like how our zoning code and any other police department matter would be. It's called in by a complaint. Thank you. Uh any uh further uh discussion, comments from anyone? Yeah,

I I would just leave it up to council whether or not they want to pass this tonight or let it go three readings. Um as you can see, most of them are clerical uh fixes as opposed to major changes to law. But uh I would be happy if you guys would uh wave the the requirement for three readings, but I would understand if council wants to read let this go for the three readings. So, just wanted to throw that out there. Thank you, Mr. Riley. Any further discussion from council? Do we have a motion to move this on to tonight's council agenda? So moved. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Any opposed?

Uh, this will appear on tonight's agenda. Next item B, uh, chapter 737, amending solicitor permit. Uh, who from the administration would like to present this? Mr. Hooton.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Herman. Um, as I'm sure council is aware, um, I'm sure your mailboxes are often full with complaints about solicitors in the city of Stowe. Uh, one of the methods that we use to try and, uh, neuter the solicitors is that we require for commercial solicitation a solicitor's permit that they have to come in and apply for with the city. Uh there's a fee, there's a background check, uh they have to wear a big unwieldy uh placard on themselves so that people can know that they are indeed a licensed commercial solicitor with the city. Uh this request is to up what the fee currently is from $45 to $100. Uh the only reason for this is that the background checks that are required for the um the solicitor's permits, the basic federal background check as it stands is $75 and we also pay per state and per county that the person has lived in. So obviously $45 is already less than 75. So, we are just trying to make sure that the city is not footing the bill for these commercial solicitors to come in and solicit and ruin our Saturdays. Uh, happy to answer any questions on that, but fairly innocuous.

Any questions for Mr. Hooton? Uh, seeing none, any further discussion or motions? I make a motion move ordinance 2026-054 onto tonight's council agenda. Second. All in favor?

Yes. Any any uh nos? Okay. Uh this will appear on tonight's agenda. Item C uh was actually introduced uh by me and it is uh for the city of Stowe to apply to become an America 250 Ohio community as it's consistent with uh many other cities throughout Ohio who have been asked by a commission at the state level to join them in celebrating the semi-quintial aka the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Uh and uh I also want to note that Mrs. Young uh independently reached out to me about it before uh because she had noticed that Hudson and other cities around us had already signed on. So this is basically the template that the commission requests cities to use in order to join and uh then cities can become eligible to uh coordinate with the commission, use their logo and uh sponsor events uh such as our Fourth of July parade in the spirit of the semi uh semiquincentennial. Uh but yeah, happy to take uh any questions or or hear any comments or discussion.

Mrs. Coffee, are there any specific plans or is it just kind of what we usually do? Uh so I consulted with the mayor and and he uh said that our Fourth of July parade, for example, and celebrate Stow Week will be incorporating uh the theme of the 250th anniversary. And so that that is this is just a natural way for us to join this the state initiative. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, motions? Move this on the council agenda. Second. All in favor? Yes. Any nos? This will be on tonight's agenda. Item D. Uh,

sorry. Who from the Mr. Rally? Thank you, Mr. President. Uh this one actually is uh just an oversight that we noticed uh especially when we were looking at uh drafting the legislation for the environmental commission. Um the commission on inclusion has existed uh since 2012 u but not in codified form for whatever reason and it is the only uh standing commission of the city that is not codified in our codified ordinances. So this statute just uh incorporates the three ordinances that created, amended and increased the size of the commission on inclusion, codifies it into a single location and puts it in our codified ordinances by creating chapter 187. Again, nothing is changed from the ordinances that created and established and set the uh amount and the duties of the commission on inclusion. This just codifies it and puts it in our codified ordinances. Um, again, it was I think it was an oversight when it was originally passed, but um, we're just trying to clarify that and put it in the um, codifies with the rest of our commissions. Happy to answer any questions on that, though.

Thank you, Mr. Riley. Any questions, comments, motions like move to move 2026-60 on the council agend. All in favor? Yes. Any nos?

This will be on tonight's council agenda. Uh, next item is uh the amendment to our recently passed uh environmental commission. Uh, and I could take this one just to give the context that I met the mayor invited me to meet with him about the applications we received. Uh, which were 16 for the five uh, spots on the commission. Uh so uh he requested that we amend the commission to increase the number to seven seats in order to take advantage of all of the citizens who uh want to volunteer their time and talent uh and and and also to adjust the the staggering of the terms. Any questions, comments, motions? to move to move 26 2026 uh 061 on the council agenda this evening.

Second. All in favor? Yes. Any nos? That will appear on tonight's agenda. Next up, we have a motion for a liquor permit uh for sheets. Uh, I believe we need to get the language correct in uh, sorry, I don't see the full title in me. I make a motion to direct the clerk to send the notice to the Ohio Division of Liquor Control indicating no request for a hearing. Thank you, Mr. Felman. I'll second that. And then I believe we have a roll call for the motion regular voice.

Oh, just a voice. Okay. Well, all in favor? Yes. Any opposed? The motion carries. Uh we have another Okay, the rest uh next we have a uh motions for appointments to boards and commissions. The first is a motion to appoint Will Gendrazac to our BZA. Um any discussion? Uh I will make the motion to appoint Mr. Gender Act to BCA. Second. All in favor? Yes. Uh, congratulations, Mr. Gender Act.

Uh, the next is a motion to appoint Andy Bang to the newly formed Environmental Commission. Any uh discussion? Yeah. May I? Oh, yes. Yeah. Are you going to be determining the length of the terms? Because that was a discuss discussion item. We do not have the term like like who's got what term

right? Thanks for the reminder. Uh so in keeping with the fact that we have not yet passed the amendment to the uh commission to increase the membership. Uh after we have appointed five of the members in in committee of the whole uh we will move two of the members to uh new business on our council agenda. uh so that we can return to that after we have passed the amendment to increase the number of members and then we will leave it to the discretion of the mayor to assign the term lengths as is consistent with the legislation if that is acceptable to everyone. Okay. Thank you. Uh in that case I will move to appoint Indy Bang to the environmental commission.

Second. All in favor? Yes. Uh, congratulations, Mr. Bang. Uh, the next uh is a motion to appoint Marcy Crest to the Environmental Commission. Any discussion? Second. Okay. Yeah. So, so, so moved and seconded. All in favor? Yes. Um, congratulations, Mrs. Crest. Next, uh, we have the appointment of Brian Prunty to the environmental commission. Second. All in favor? Yes. Congratulations, Mr. Prunty. Next, we have the appointment of Carrie Orus to the Environmental Commission. So moved. Second.

All in favor? Congratulations, Mrs. Orus. Next, we have the appointment of Dennis Marola to the Environmental Commission. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? Yes. Congratulations, Mr. Marola. And uh at my discretion, we shall move the or do we vote to move the let's let's vote to move items M and N to uh the new business on our council agenda? So move. Second. All in favor? Yes.

Uh those items will be moved to our council agenda. Now we are at our public comment period. Uh anyone wishing to speak uh must abide by the rules uh which in section 7.3 for conduct of speakers. Each speaker must provide their name and address for the record and shall state the subject of their comments which shall be addressed to the presiding officer. All speakers shall observe all roles of decorum. No debate, no disrespect, obscenities or threats of any nature shall be permitted and each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Uh would you mind helping? Uh yeah. Uh and uh as is uh done in uh our commissions uh you will also be asked uh to pledge that you will tell the truth and observe all rules of decorum. So would everyone who wishes uh to speak during our committee the whole please raise your hands.

Okay. Thank you. giving given the numbers who plan to speak. If everyone who plans to speak, please uh stand up and raise your right hand. Stop. Do you pledge to tell the truth and obey the rules of decorum?

Thank you. You may be seated. Uh and we'll begin here. Good evening, mayor and members of the Stow City Council. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Cindy Biladoo, and I'm here on behalf of Say My Child's Name Child Loss Group here in Stow, Ohio. A group formed not out of convenience but out of heartache. This passion, this project, and this memorial come directly from listening to grieving parents week after week. Mothers and fathers who wake up every morning carrying the unimaginable loss of a child. These families live here. Their children went to school here. Their grief lives here too. One of the most common things we hear are things uh there is nowhere for my child to be remembered. The remembrance memorial at Adele Durban Park is being proposed because this community needs a place of peace, comfort, and reflection. I want to be very clear, this is not a cemetery. There will be no burials. This is a park-like setting designed to be light, peaceful, and comforting. a place where families can sit, reflect, breathe, and feel supported. We also want to assure the uh the public that this memorial is intended to blend respectfully, excuse me, um into the park, remain open and welcome to everyone and enhance, not change, the way Adele Durban Park is enjoyed by the community. This memorial is not about tragedy alone. It's about love that never ends. It's about giving parents a

a space for uh to say their children's names without feeling invisible. It's about siblings, grandparents, and friends having a place that acknowledges loss while still honoring life. Adele Durban Park already represents beauty and togetherness. A remembrance memorial there would not change the spirit of the park. it would enhance it and quietly say that Stowe is a city that shows compassion when families need it the most. This memorial has been asked for by grieving families, some quietly, some through tears for many years. It is wanted and for those carrying lifelong loss, it is deeply needed. Our goal is to have this memorial completed by the summer of this year. We are committed to doing so responsibly, thoughtfully through donations and sponsorships from businesses, organizations, and individuals who want to give back in a meaningful and lasting way. Tonight, we as a group respectfully ask for your support, not just in approval, but in partnership. We ask for your help with the connections to corp corporate businesses, organizations, or individuals you feel would want to be part of a project rooted in compassion, healing, and community care. Together, we can create a space of peace, remembrance, and hope that will serve the city of Stow for generations to come.

Thank you for coming to council and providing the information. Uh, anything else? That's it. Thank you, Mr. Oh, uh, a question here. Yes, Mrs. Coffee, just a comment. Um, Miss Billy also has, um, bumper stickers and information. So, I I have one on my car or I will again. And I found one in my bag, so I got one for you. Thank you. I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Who would like to speak next?

Yep. Um, Elizabeth Piltz, 3588 Highwood. Um, I have a question about um 5A, the animal noises, um, and some concerns. I I hear that you're talking about roosters. Unfortunately, it's lumped in with dogs, and I have questions. um because it's going to be an escalating thing. It with a rooster, there's typically only one in an area. With dogs, there are several in areas. How are you making sure that the dog being cited is actually the dog that is making the noises? When um when you're notified that your dog is making noises, there's not a set date or time that those noises happened. So, the owner doesn't have a way to prove if it was or was not their dog making those noises. So, I guess I I'm concerned that you're going to have escalating um misdemeanors on something that may not be able to be proven.

Typ typically public comment period is not a time for back and forths. Uh, but that's I was just going to say I was going to give her my business card and she can and I'll be here after the meeting as well, but Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh, who would like to speak next? Mr. Jundy. Mike Jundy. Uh, 2258 Alton Avenue. Um, I remember the last time I was here and we were in such a a a mire of nonsense because we had city council members that were arguing about private property parking spots and which direction they were in. I want to congratulate you guys on not doing that. So, what I came to say here briefly is that I I wanted to recognize Stow leadership. the engagement, the thoughtful debate, the questioning. I love it. Um, and you're still acting expediently to get things done. I love that, too. Um, and and what we have here are the mechanisms of a shared government that are dealing with difficult things and serious things. And we have civic-minded individuals in position of leadership that are acting in the public good. Thank you. Um council's willingness to deliberate and then move forward. It reflects that shared commitment to responsible stewardship in the city. I want to recognize Council President Herman for continuing to outreach and and be emphatic about communication and I I want to commend him on it because when we're in the public discourse, so much of so many things can be so fragmented um that visible e uh efforts to engage residents and encourage constructive dialogue is a symbol of leadership grounded in service. and I appreciate it. As an educator and a librarian, I spend much of my time encouraging people to think critically

about information and the ways that it becomes knowledge that shapes our decisions. Strong communities depend on both informed leadership and engaged citizens. And we have to hold each other accountable, but we also have to engage and appreciate when the good things happen. I encourage all members of city leadership to continue the collaborative work of being bringing clear actionable outcomes for the greater good of SOE and its citizens. When communication remains transparent and focused on shared goals, it strengthens and shapes a reflection of service to others that we should all recognize and try and emulate. Thank you for your combined efforts, your service, your continued commitment to moving our community forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jundee. Uh, who else would like to speak? Uh,

okay. I have a question.

Uh, microphone and and please uh the microphone if you press the button so that the green will show and then uh Okay. Thank you. And please begin stating your name and address. Um, John Sigman and I live on King Drive and that's what I wanted to ask basically. But so on King Drive, my question is, is there any plan to replace the water lines on King Drive because we've had about 45 breaks on the street and it's not a very long street and just had another one the other day and it's kind of getting ridiculous. There's probably no more than 20 feet that hasn't been broke on it. So, I don't know if that's can be answered or whatever, but that's a comment

in the need. Thank you, sir. Uh, public comments typically aren't a question answer, but we did have a conversation about the breaks that have been happening uh earlier if you want to rewatch our committees and and we can ask our uh service director to uh get in in contact with you uh to address your street specifically unless he has an answer already with our engineer. Yeah. Okay. Go. Yeah. So, our water distribution engineer produced a list of water lines that uh we'd like to see replaced. These are the old 1956 lines and King Drive is on there from Dar Road to Stow Road. So, it's on there. It's just waiting to be funded and programmed accordingly. You just got to

Yep. Thank Thank you. Thank you for the quick response. Uh who else would like to speak? Yes, Julie. Good evening everybody. Excuse me. Hi. As you know, I'm Julie Mlan. I'm the executive director of the Stoman Falls Chamber. I live at 43 Luden Avenue in Monroe Falls. Um, that being said, I wanted to let you know tonight about our upcoming signature event that we have um here uh with the chamber. It is called the Elite Business Awards. It is going to be taking place on Wednesday, March 4th at 5:30 p.m. And this event is our signature event for 2026 and is a celebration of business, commerce, and community here in Stowen Monro Falls. This is a signature event of the chamber. Um but it is managed by our economic development committee of the chamber which is made up of um representatives from both the city, the schools and our chamber members. So they are the committee that um puts this together. As part of this event, we are planning to award 11 elite business awards to standout businesses, community leaders, um, uh, community organizations and emerging young leaders here in Stow and Monroe Falls. So, I would like to invite you all to attend this event. Again, it's a st it's a stellar and standout event in the community and we really want to celebrate and support these uh leaders here in our community. Um that's really all I have to say, but I

look forward to seeing you there. Tickets are on sale now and I hope that you will attend. Um we would love to have you. Thank you, Mr. Baron. Uh yes, where is it being held at? Uh, it is going to be held at the center in Stow, the old Y SB Hall. Okay. Yep. Up on Hudson Drive. Any other questions? Thank you, Mrs. McClan. All right. Thank you. Uh, would anyone else like to speak during our committee the whole

Mr. Sheen? Hello, student or student council, city council. Um, I'm going to direct this to council president Kyle Herman and we meet again. Uh, I've lived in Stowe for 25 years. I look for my elected nonpartisan city government to provide through my taxes, police, fire, roads, commercial improvements, sidewalks, parks, prudent tax spending. You get the idea. Council President Kyle Herman, nowhere do I see where an elected official on a nonpartisan city council needs to advocate against ICE, President Trump, against the Constitution, or anything else that isn't helping all of the taxpaying citizens of Stowe. Council President Kyle Herman, many of the citizens of Stowe voted for President Trump and believe in what he is doing. There are 3,368 registered Republicans and 2, uh, 259 registered Democrats in our city. Council President Kyle Herman, you want to advocate against President Trump, you have your First Amendment right to do that, but don't do it in your role as an elected official on a nonpartisan city council. Think for a moment that you represent the entire city of Stowe, not just your own personal political views. How many of the citizens of Stowe are excluded? Those outside our community see actions and might not buy a house here. They may want they may not want to start a business here because they feel that they are not included. That affects all the citizens of Stowe. You need to think

about that when you're posting your long chat GBT rants and telling us how terrible things are. Keep your role as an elected city councilman on a nonpartisan city council and your personal agenda separate. As an elected official in a nonpartisan council council, do you think it makes sense to share your personal political views that isolate and exclude some of the citizens in Stow? Do you believe it's okay to attack, shame, embarrass residents who oppose your liberal views? Are you looking to silence everyone who disagrees with you? Do you want to alienate or exclude or cause a business owner or a Godloving Christian family to look elsewhere when they're looking to buy a home or to start a business in Stowe? Is that smart business? Is that good for everyone here in the city of Stowe? So, in closing, I want to ask the rest of the city council, does any of this make sense? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Sheihan.

Hey, my name is Jeff Capen. I reside on Gangle Drive in Stow. I'm not going to read all of this because Mike just shared most of what I want to say. This is directed at you as well. Um, President uh I I would like to ask this entire panel to read President whatever you Kyle Herman's uh posts on social media, Facebook, Instagram X and see if you all agree with everything that he is saying as a as a body because what Mike was just sharing is true. You've called me in bad faith. You've said things to my wife. It's you're disrespectful. You don't have you you claim to be partisan. Whatever the words are, you're not because you obviously have something going on that you you even attempted to apologize tonight. And then you started attacking in the same post. Please read what he is posting and see if you agree with what he's saying. as a body that doesn't belong on there. At least just take your president of city or stow off of there. Doesn't make any sense for you use that title in the way that you do. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Capen.

Good evening. Dave Bombberg, 378 Snowshoe Circle, Stow, Ohio. I've been a resident most of my life. On Sunday, February 8th, 2026, so city council president Kyle Herman used his council president Kyle Herman Facebook page to post information about his ICE watch training. On Monday, February 9th, 2026, I then emailed the Sto City Council members and the mayor requesting the council censure Councilman Herman for posting under his council president Kyle Herman Facebook page information to the community that potentially could be legal illegal. Interfering with federal law enforcement officers is illegal. I did not get any response from council or the mayor. I did immediately receive an email from Herman. This is what he stated. Please give us a heads up if you plan on bringing a disorderly mob with you to council on Thursday so that we may prepare and enlist baifts. Really? Come on. Then later that day on fe on Monday, March February 9th, 2026, Herman copied and posted the email I sent to the Stow city council and mayor on the Stow Monro Falls Democratic Club group page. nonpartisan, right? He also made the following accusation in that post. His post started off with Bombgardner emailed this to the mayor and all the city council asking them to censure me and he CC David Ki in parenthesis another troll and Jeff Viola in parenthesis who I do not know. He also stated, "For your information, the Republicans seem to seem intent on turning Stoke City Council into circus because they want to censure me for defending public safety and response to ICE." If you're available at the 700 p.m. this Thursday, you're welcome to sit in the council chambers during our meeting to

show solidarity in case they come to cause problems. No need to speak or even pay attention to the boring parts of our meeting. Feel free to scroll your old phones. Just showing up can keep the light outshine the darkness. Then he stated, "Gwen, Gwendith Jones, Bombgarnner, and Condi have made veiled threats implying they carry concealed firearms. I hope and expect they will not turn violent, but they have previously pushed conspiracies and made extreme derogatory comments about Democrats and basically any groups who aren't straight white Christians." So, I would be cautious not to provoke them. Do you see any concealed weapons? It's crazy. Based on Herman's actions, we may have Ohio public records law, Ohio ethics law, first amendment/government speech doctrine, potential misuse of office/position, local council or board rules, violations, and slander issues as well. and what boasts about his nonpartisan approach. What hypocrisy. Again, at this time, I'm requesting to council centure Herman for his inappropriate behavior as a council president and ask him your resignation from council position as president.

Thank you, Mr. Bombgardner. Would anyone else like to speak during our committee to the whole? Mrs. Jones. Good evening. My name is Amy Jones. I live at 3510 Derrick Road. I wanted to address all of council tonight on an issue that I feel is important. I believe that no matter what, it is important to exercise our First Amendment right, especially when there is injustice and an imminent threat to communities. The threat that I am speaking of this evening is ICE. Whether we want there to be or not, there are immigrants who live in the city and who are afraid for their safety, the safety of their families, and the safety of their friends. Community members are also afraid for their immigrant neighbors. There are many citizens who fear being attacked by ICE like we've se seen in Minnesota. Now that ICE is being sent to Ohio, ICE is an in imminent danger and threat. I want to bring to attention Akran City Council's recent resolution regarding the city's opposition to ICE that was voted 12 to zero on Monday approving the res resolution that expresses disapproval of the propo proposed legislation in the general assembly regarding ICE. My ask this evening is that council and our mayor consider following suit to Akran's resolution against operations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Jones. Uh would anyone else like to speak? Yes. Hi, my name is Taylor and I live on Call Road. And I don't want to I don't want to like beat a dead horse here with the buzzwords of Trump and ICE and everything, but I do think it's fair for me to say this. Um, Kyle, you did kind of bring it up in your post and I feel like you're trying to radicalize Stowe. Um, you know, I I think these points were already made, but you attended an ICE watch training and you were relaying to the community what you learned and how we can in a sense surveillance federal officers. Um, you're telling us to pull out our phones and to blow whistles and to call hotlines. And the reality is we really don't know who they could be arresting and why. Um, you're calling these officers unofficial. I think you said par paramilitarial or par I don't even know. But that's a lie. They are official and you're really just causing kind of a divide in the community when we're very um blended as far as politics go. Um, also you said Portage County is a hostile jurisdiction and not to trust calling 911, which I suspect has something to do with the sheriff signing agreements to work with immigration officers. Um, you know, do I think we're going to have like a big influx here with ICE? No. But if something did happen in a parking lot, you know, I think the best message to relay is just to trust that the officers handling the situation have our best interest and we need to just let them do their job. Um, what else? you just don't really seem to

be considering that residents in Stowe and the surrounding communities have family members who work in federal law enforcement and this could create a major divide and conflict of interest which is something you really need to think about because you don't know who our family is and what they do every day. Um, and is my time up? Uh, I just wanted to say one more thing about you publicly posting that email that was sent to the mayor and to city council. Um, if I were to email you guys like a complaint, do I, you know, do I have to be fearful it's going to be publicly posted if you don't agree with my opinion? And sadly, I think the answer is yes, because you informed the community today that our emails sent are fair game and you can post them on Facebook if you'd like to. So, I don't know. I think you're radicalizing Stow. Um, and you really need to stop tattling on citizens. It's unprofessional and that's just my opinion. So, thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak? Yes. Hi, I'm Sarah Sigund. I live on King Drive and um I just want to say first of all um as far as ICE goes, I I know that if to interfere with a policeman or a federal officer of any kind, it is a felony. So, we don't want to do that because we don't know what they're doing. And you know, I know also they have names and addresses and specific people they're trying to get off the street for whatever reasons and crimes they've committed or um whatever it is. And yes, we have first amendment right. I participated in a um protest in front of Suma Hospital when they were trying to fire my fellow nurses at the time and we you know stood on the sidewalk with a little sign and and um we didn't block traffic. We didn't interfere if we didn't do anything wrong. We had permits to do that. It was all organized and legal. My friends got fired anyways. But anyways, um lost a lot of good nurses. But the thing is, yes, we can have differences of opinions, but our country is based on laws. Our city has laws and ordinances we all have to abide by. And um if we don't want to, well, you might end up in jail or arrested. Um, and if we don't like the laws, we have to go through steps and get the laws changed or get new laws added or, you know, we have to be a

civilized society or if we aren't, we just have anarchy and then, you know, we're no better than a third world country. So, we have to show some dignity and and respect. the the policemen and the uh law officers, they're doing their job. I mean, if if I were a dishwasher and somebody's stopping me from doing my job, then you know, that's not right. I'm doing the job I'm paid to do. And in all good conscience, I'm sure those people, I mean, even military, they have to follow orders whether they agree or not. That's what they're taught. And it falls on the people above them um who give the orders. So anyways, that's just my opinion on on the situation. Um I'm not going to stop any um anybody from doing their job, following their orders. Um I try to be a good citizen and follow the law myself and I have my kids follow the law and my husband. If they weren't, I wouldn't be very happy. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh would anyone else? Yes.

Hi, I'm Susan Meerchek. My address is 1507 Mac Drive. So, I've been listening to all the comments and I want to say, you know, I fully support the actual mission of ICE, but I also support citizens and non-citizens, immigrants in the process, everyone learning how to protect their own rights. You know, if they were going to come here and exactly follow the law and their actual mission, sure, we wouldn't need to keep an eye on them. But we know that in Minnesota they have not been following the laws and they have not they've been breaking car windows and dragging people out of their windows. Citizens have been detained for months. People that are here on illegal asylum process have been detained and some have been deported. Kids have been separated from their families. Some of them we don't even know where they are right now. Okay. So, they're not following the law. And if you know it, even if they were, it's still our legal right to tape them, to watch them, and to um you know, follow along at what they're doing. That's our legal right. It's within our rights. As long as we are not um keeping them from doing what they're doing. So, I fully support the ice watch training and I hope a lot more people go to it because I think that it will help uh hold people accountable to the jobs that they're doing and help us all feel more safe and secure and it will make for a better community because we want to work together on these things and you know I don't know my grandparents came from Slovakia you know through Ellis island.

And my dad was the first person in his family to get a degree and a master's degree. He did that after he got back from World War II fighting for four years. And I feel like my story is also an immigrant story. We're all not that far away from being immigrants in this country. And unless there's any indigenous uh um peoples that were originally here, we're all immigrants. So all of us made this journey at some point. We need to be respectful of that. And of course, we need major reform on that all those policies. But for a start, we need for ICE to follow the law. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Yes,

I'm Ted Lindon, 3582 Charing Cross Drive. Uh, and uh, I'd just like to uh, say thank you uh, President uh, Herman for putting that information out and putting it on that page I think is certainly appropriate that you use bring out the information about the training uh, that was going on uh, that that you had mentioned. You're just trying to get out that information to as many people as possible. Uh, and using that page to do that, I think, is 100% acceptable. You're just trying to do things to be helpful to the people of Stowe. And I commend you for it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lynon. Anyone else?

Going once. Going twice. Our public comment period is ended for our committee of the whole. And I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. All in favor? Yes. We are journed. board of education decides when the board of education decides to come

Baron here. Pioca here. Herman here. Belman here. Rio present. Coffee here. Young here. I recognize our council vice president, ward three, councilman John Barinck for our prayer and pledge of allegiance.

Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we pray that you will guide us will guide this city council as they meet and discuss matters with regard to our city. We pray they shall choose to do that which is moral and rational. We pray that their motivation is everything they want to do is good for the public and not their own. Amen. Amen.

Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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.

Before us before us, we have uh two sets of minutes. Uh first from our January 8th meeting uh do we have a motion to approve those minutes as circulated? Move to approve. Second. All in favor? Yes. Those minutes are approved. Next for our January 22nd meeting. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes as circulated? Move to approve. Second. All in favor? Yes. Those minutes are approved.

Now we have our council public comment period. same roles as the previous public comment period. If anyone wishes to speak, please raise your hand. Seeing none, we will move on to the mayor's report. Mr. Herbonic.

Thank you, Mr. Herman. Uh kind of a short one this evening, but I think it's very important because it always showcases our city. And I'm talking about first of all the play that's coming up this uh Friday and Saturday and Sunday at the high school. uh the the uh play clue. So if you're available to go ahead uh it is both nights uh Friday night and Saturday and there's a matinea on Sunday and as I always say I watch you know maybe too many of the Dancing with the Stars and and uh American Idol and I can tell you we could perform and win each one of those contests. So, I invite you to go ahead and check out the talent in our schools because it truly truly is amazing and the great things that go on in our schools. That being said, also too, a week from this Saturday, uh we already had Lego Day about a week ago. This u not this Saturday, but following Saturday, we have princesses and pajamas. So, if you're comfortable in pajamas and want to hang out with the princesses, uh please sign up. It will be at our new uh Stow Community Center. As Ms. Narstad said, we're opening it up a little bit more to where we're doing some more different programming and it's running great. And uh this is always a fun program. She's been doing it about 3 to four years now. And uh so I invite anybody who's interested in that. So with that being said, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for the mayor? Seeing none, we'll move on to old business. And I'd like to recognize uh Mr. Feldman. Thanks, M. Councilman Herman. I uh I want to pass this down real quick. I do have some old business and I will I'm asking Mrs. Matum. Let me have one.

Sorry. To uh entered in the record, too. And I asked the mayor and uh President Herman if I could uh talk about this. So, in the spotlight, which is a local news, um for Stoman Falls on January 22nd, um they ranked the nation's top 50 best cities. Let me say that again. They ranked the nation's top 50 best cities for high salaries and low cost of living. Stow was ranked number nine, right? Um, and this was a technology company that did this ranking called Money Lion. And I handed it to everybody and I'd like you to put it in the record. I I think Mr. Merritt, it's a tribute to you, council, uh, working together and getting things done. Right. Number 10 on a list of the nation's top 50 best cities for high salaries and low cost of living. um uh med how did they measure this median household income, average home value, average monthly mortgage, and annual cost of living. So I read this and I immediately thought of the administration, my colleagues, my elected official friends, our residents, our people, and I I just thought it was worth getting in the record. We're working together and getting things done, which I hope to continue to move up, but this was pretty impressive. So, uh, I appreciate you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Herman, letting me, uh, talk about some good news. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Feldman. Always appreciate good news for our city. Uh for new business, we have the two motions that we moved over from committee of the whole, but uh let's hold those until after we have uh gone through the relevant uh legislation. So we'll just u move on to our uh third reading of the uh zoning map amendment that uh was subject to our public uh hearing. Mrs. Motum

2026-002 an ordinance enacted pursuant to section 1137.08 08 COS entitled amendments to provide for the amendment of the zoning districts map and zoning districts by recclassing from R2 residential to C2 limited retail of 3 365 and 3625 Marsh Road parcel number 56-14141 in the city of Stow Ohio authorizing amendment of the zoning district's map.

Thank you. Any discussion for on this uh zoning code? Uh seeing none, do we have a a motion to adopt? Move to adopt. Second. Uh well, yeah. Now, any discussion? Okay. Will the clerk please call the role? Barack? Yes. Bioca? Yes. Herman? Yes. Bellman? Yes. Rio? Yes. Coffee? Yes. Yes. Yan. Yes.

That uh passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Now we move on to first readings. Uh item B. Uh will the clerk uh please read it by its title?

2026-44. An ordinance amending certain sections of chapter 505, the codified ordinances of Stow entitled animals and files, particularly section 505.01 entitled dogs and other animals running at large nuisance. Section 5.05.071 entitled cruelty to companion animals and section 505.09 entitled animal noises. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. Uh the rules are suspended. I move to adopt. Second.

Uh any discussion, Mrs. Coffee? Just a question for Mr. Riley. Um from that um resident's comments, do you see any problem with the subjectivity of dogs barking or even I know Mr. Herman and I tried to amend the roosters for people with acorage. So that's obviously a concern of ours. Um but do you see any concerns with that? So I I imagine it would be the police officers enforcing and checking all of that. But

yeah, what I and I will just briefly say that I spoke with the resident in between the committee as a whole and and explained uh to even charge uh issue a citation, we have to we have to have more than probable cause and then once it's been charged, we have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt. So this is not something that we're willy-nilly uh charging and trying to take to trial. Um so I don't have that concern. um because our officers work very very closely with our prosecutors to make sure we're meeting those standards before charges are issued and then even after charges are issued while we're going through the court uh court side of things. We are constantly reviewing. So I I don't have a concern of subjectivity. Um this statute also is very similar to our unlawful noise statute um with requirement of proving that we are breaching the peace of the neighborhood. So we're not talking someone's b a dog is barking for a minute or two or it's we're talking about breach of peace and establishing that. So I don't have any concern about the subjectivity on the animal noise section. I don't want to comment on council's uh carving out for acreage requirement because that that's really a council decision not and that's why I didn't broach the subject again. Um these are just issues that we saw that needed corrected while we're uh prosecuting these cases.

Sure. Thank you. Uh seeing no further discussion, will the clerk please call the role? Baron, yes. Bioca, yes. Herman, yes. Elman, yes. Real, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item C by its title? 2025-45, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make and enter into a contract with Danco Service Industries for cleaning services for the Stow Municipal Court and declare an emergency. Do we have a motion to suspend the rule? I move to suspend the rule. Second. All in favor? Yes. Move to adopt.

The rules are suspended. Sorry. Move to adopt. Move. Okay. Second. Uh, any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Barneck? Yes. Bioca? Yes. Herman? Yes. Felman? Yes. Real? Yes. Coffee? Yes. Young? Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Item D. Oh. Will the clerk please read it by its title? 2025-46, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entry to a contract with Ports Petroleum Co., Inc., a state Ohio vendor for the purchase of unleted and diesel fuel for the use at Foxen Golf Course without the necessity of public bids and declaring an emergency.

Rule second. All in favor? Yes, the rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Real quick, Mr. Yes, Mr. Yeah, Mr. Ren, would this be are the new border of control limits in effect? Because this would not be on our agenda if they were. Isn't that correct? Correct. Well, Mr. Riley, am I right? Yeah. So, you'll you'll actually see at the next council meeting. Yeah. Uh some legislation that wouldn't be before us, but it doesn't take effect until, and correct me if I'm I'm wrong, uh Angela, it's later this week or I feel like the 22nd. It was 30 days the way your vote went for it. It was 30 30 days 23rd. So the way

I'm not interested in the dates. I'm just saying this would be removed as soon as the board of control limits are in place. Correct. Correct. So yeah. And so that explanation is you will see one or two more because they were submitted before take effect. And it's based on when they go to board of control, not when they go to council. Understood. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herman. But you are correct. Uh uh Mr. Barick. Yes. I too. And with the border with the border of control uh you have uh porch petroleum twice. So you have to combine those and make sure that they fit within that. So if these would go over that maximum, we would still see them on on council agenda. Understood.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Uh any further discussion on this item then? And will the clerk please call the role? Marin. Yes. Vioa. Yes. Herman. Yes. Belman. Yes. Real. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes.

That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will a clerk please read item E by its title. 2025-47. and an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an enter into a contract with ports petroleum co inc a state Ohio vendor for the purchase of unled and diesel fuel for use by various city of stow departments without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency move to suspend the rule second. All in favor? The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Baron, yes. Bioca, yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item F by its title? 2026-48, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an enter to a contract with Verizon Communications, Inc. for cellular data services for calendar year 2026 without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barack. Yes. Vioa. Yes. Herman. Yes. Spellman. Yes. Real. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item G by its title? 2026-49. An ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entrance to a contract with Jerry Pay Turf and Irrigation Inc. for the purchase of a grounds master 4000D mower for the use by Foxden Golf Course without the necessity of public bids and declared emergency. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Feldman.

Quick question. Mr. Ren, do we get any money back for the trade in on the 08 or whatever year that is? 13. Uh, we're sending it to auction. Send it to auction between 10 and 15. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. You have an opportunity to own it yourself. If anyone wants to buy uh yeah um no see no further discussion will the clerk please call the role. Baron yes. Bioca yes. Herman yes. Bman yes. Real yes. Coffee? Yes. Young? Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item H by its title.

2026-50. An ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entry into a contract with CRCP Shelters, Inc. for the purchase of a 30 foot x 52 foot shelter for the use at Oregon Trail Park without the necessity of public bids or declaring emergency. I move to suspend the rule. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Baron, yes. Vioa, yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes. Real, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes.

That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. And those of us who grew up playing Y soccer at Oregon Trails Park will appreciate seeing that improvement. Uh, will the clerk please read item I by its title? 2026-51, an ordinance authorizing the director of public service to advertise and solicit bids on behalf of the city of Stow for the replacement playground at Heather Hills Park. Authorizing and adopting plans and specifications prepared for by the city of city of Stow, therefore, and authorizing the mayor to make an entrance to contracts related to documents for said services so long as proper authorization is first obtained in accordance with section 173.05 COS and declare an emergency. I move to suspend the rules.

Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barin. Yes. Yes. Herman. Yes. Felman. Yes. Rio. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. And congratulations to the residents around Heather Hills Park in Ward 4. Will the clerk please read item J by its title 2026-52 and res resolution granting sign variance approval to Holly Lincoln applicant on behalf of Summit Solid Sal Summit Akran Solid Waste Management owner on the property located at 1201 Graham Road parcel number 56-197 32

I move to suspend the rules second all in favor the rules are suspended amended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barck, yes. Yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item K by its title? 2026-53 resolution pursuant to COOS 119.06 entitled progress and closure of capital improvement projects closing of completed projects and redirecting any remaining funds and declaring emergency. Move to suspend the rule. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to approve. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Baron, yes. Yes. Herman, yes. Felman, yes. Real, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That resolution passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item L by its title? 2026-54, an ordinance amending certain sections of chapter 737 of the clified ordinances of Stow entitled pedlers, solicitors, and vendors. particularly section 737.04 entitled registration of credentials for commercial solicit solicitors application fee. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor?

Yes. Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barack. Yes. Yoka. Yes. Herman. Yes. Felman. Yes. Real. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item M by its title? 2026-55. An ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an enter to a contract with Cleveland Freightlininer, Inc. for the purchase of a 2026 Freightlininer M2106 plus Tatum axle cabin chassis for use of the water department. without this necessity public pits and declare an emergency. Move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Verick, yes. Bioca, yes. Herman, yes. Felman,

yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item N by its title? 2026-56, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entrance to a contract with Cleveland Freight Liner, Inc. for the purchase of a 2026 Freight Liner. Just read that. M2106. You're on the next one. You're okay. Okay. M2106 plus single axle cabin chassis for use of the street department without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency. Move the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt.

Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the rule?

Barin. Yes. Fioa. Yes. Herman. Yes. Bellman. Yes. Rio. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item O by its title? 2026-57 ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entrance to a contract Matros Astrabula LLC for the purchase of two two 2026 Chevrolet Colorado cab crew cab or W trucks for the use of the engineering department without the necessity of public bids and declare an emergency. Move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt.

Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barin, yes. Bioca, yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes. Real, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item P by its title? 2026-58 a resolution of the city of Stow supporting the Ohio Commission for the United States Semiquin Tensennial American 2020 2250 Ohio. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Barck, yes. Yes. Herman, yes. Belman, yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Yan, yes.

That resolution passes and the city of Stow looks forward to being recognized as an America 250 uh Ohio community to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence. Uh, will the clerk please read item Q by its title? 2026-59, an ordinance authorizing the mayor to make an entry to a contract with Saronian Ford, Inc. for the purchase of a 2026 Ford Explorer for the use by the fire department without the necessity of public bids and declaring emergency. I move to suspend the rules, second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second.

Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role? Baron, yes. Fioa, yes. Herman, yes. Felman, yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. And congratulations to our fire department. Will the clerk please read item R by the title? 2026-60, an ordinance establishing CO chapter 187 entitled Commission on Inclusion. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt.

Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barack. Yes. Yoka. Yes. Herman. Yes. Spellman. Yes. Rio. Yes. Coffee. Yes. Young. Yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. Will the clerk please read item S by its title? 2026-61, an ordinance amending ordinance 2026-25 to increase the number of members for the environmental commission and make formatting consistent before chapter 185 is published. I move to suspend the rules. Second. All in favor? Yes. The rules are suspended. Move to adopt. Second. Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role?

Barc. Yes. Yes. Herman. Yes. Felman, yes. Rio, yes. Coffee, yes. Young, yes. That ordinance passes and will take effect in accordance with the rules. And now that it has, we can return to the motions in our new business for the final two appointments to that commission. Uh beginning with uh the motion to appoint Patty Spring to the Environmental Commission. So moved. Second. Uh all in favor? Yes. Congratulations, Mrs. Spring. Uh next, uh we have the motion to appoint, uh Robert Miss Brener to the environmental committee. So moved. Second.

All in favor? Yes. Congratulations, Mr. Miss Brener. Next, we have our bill of listing approval. I make a motion to pay the bills. Second. All in favor? Yes. The bills will be paid. uh scheduling of standing committee meetings or any other council member reports.

Uh so I would like to invite the rest of council to wear orange at our next council meeting on February 28th. if you would like to join uh along with uh any other uh city uh officials who would like to join us to show uh unity as the mayor has asked for us to do. Uh we uh this council was was sent an email along with city staff uh about how Summit DD's inclusion day uh will be celebrated by city hall on Monday, March 2nd at 11:00 a.m. for any who are able to join for a group photo. Uh but I would also like to invite our council because many of us work during the day and can't be there. uh and and anyone who attends our February 28th meeting to also wear orange uh because uh the uh summit DD is working with the Akran Zoo from February 28th through March 2nd. Anyone who wears orange will get free admission to the Akran Zoo and and so uh just think this could be a cool uh team thing that we could do together. The unity and community.

Put the unity in community. Thank you, Mrs. Young. Uh so does any other uh announcements or reports by council members? Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Yes, we are adjourned.