Council - Regular Meeting

and the personnel board to adopt these changes or the changes to the personnel rules requested by the committee believes it to be in the best interest of the municipality to update chapter 32 of the codified ordinances to reflect current practices and state laws. Now therefore, be it ordained by the Council of the Municipality of West Milton that Section 1, Chapter 32 of the West Milton Codified Ordinances is hereby amended in its entirety as set forth in Attached Exhibit A, incorporated herein as if fully rewritten. Section 2, the ordinance shall be effective from and after the earliest period allowed by law.

any uh communications or i make a question to pass ordinance 26-37 second roll call uh mr fogel yes mr todd yes miss gregory yes miss metz yes miss richardson yes mr francis yes mayor saunders yes i just want to make one comment about this um this has been

long in the works, well, 16 months, 18 months' worth. I know that Lene Brosh, our law director, the chief, Ben, Jill, Megan Hall, I've all put a lot of time and effort into this to get this revised, updated. I'm sure when the new city manager comes on board, village manager, that he'll take a look. And who knows? There could be some amendments down the road. this makes things a lot easier for your day to day operations and what goes on with the personnel here in the village and like said it hasn't been updated since what 2015. So yeah, this one on 11 years or 11 years this year so.

I would just say one thing on behalf of the committee as I was the chair of the committee. I appreciate each of you taking a look at that. A lot of time and effort went into this. We met on a bi-weekly basis for a year in looking this over, but we didn't just take our ordinance or our personal rules. We looked at communities likewise in size. Some had much more extensive personnel rules, but we had a lot of lacking things. So we tried to bring it up to date. And then the things that are going to be changing, such as technology, we put those into an addendum so that it would be something we wouldn't have to continually come back. If things change, we could just update those to make the current changes. So I appreciate each one of you and your time you spent with us.

Thank you.

All right. Moving on to CM-26-41, a resolution to authorize the municipal manager to purchase real estate on behalf of the municipality of West Milton, whereas the Whereas the municipal manager on behalf of council for the municipality of West Milton has negotiated in good faith to purchase a portion of real property located at South Jefferson Street, West Milton, Ohio, currently owned by the Milton Union exempted village school district more fully described in the purchase contract attached hereto as exhibit A. And whereas the owner of said real property has accepted the negotiated purchase price of $125,000 for same, and whereas council for the municipality of West Milton is in agreement with the terms of the purchase contract and the joint facilities use agreement that accompanies the purchase contract, and whereas council believes it to be in the best interest of the municipality to purchase said property for the purpose of providing recreational facilities which are maintained open for public use including but not limited to basketball courts, tennis courts, pickle courts, and similar recreational facilities for the benefit of the residents within the municipality. Now therefore be it resolved by the Council of the Municipality of West Milton, Ohio that Section 1, the municipal manager has negotiated in good faith to purchase the portion of real property located at South Jefferson Street, West Milton, Ohio, currently owned by Milton Union Exempted Village School District, as described in the purchase contract attached here to as exhibit A and incorporated herein as if fully written. Section 2, the owners of said real property has accepted the negotiated purchase price of $125,000 for said property. Section 3, the municipal manager is authorized to execute the attached purchase agreement, Exhibit A, as well as the joint facilities use agreement attached here to Exhibit B. Any discussions? Because I need a break from reading.

Yeah, I would like to make a couple comments. One, we've been working on this for quite some time. At one time when I was first on council back in 2012 when Manager Klein was here, we worked with the school and we leased that land and the land across the street, which we were going to turn into a park. But things fell through. We were leasing it for $1. um a year we were going to have old school park we were had all the plans drawn up but we had to own it if we were going to be able to get any type of grants or do any type of work on that land We tried at that time to work it out with the school, and we weren't able to come to an agreement for that. We turned the old tennis courts into basketball courts. It's been terrific for the village. for the kids, for adults. It's used all the time. I don't know how many times I go by there in that area, that that is now a basketball court, that it's constantly being used. It's very well maintained. It still looks great. And we've talked about it. And we would like to do the same thing with the old tennis courts. And pickleball is the new big sport that is running across America. So it would be great to be able to turn those courts into pickleball courts. It's in the center of town. So it's a perfect location. to to do that I think we've already got some interest with local business owners and families we've got grant possibilities as well to fund that so you know maybe we won't have to put any more additional funding into it to turn it into pickleball courts. We did get some good quotes from the school looking at that at one time. I do just have one question for you, Ben. I know when we last left things, the maintenance director for the school, Mr. Brackman, was going to follow up with you about the fence behind the basketball courts that back up to the football field and there was going to be some work that was going to be done before the football season starts. Has he talked to you about that yet?

We've had conversations, and I think he had planned on getting with me about that, but maybe he's got some other stuff going right now. But I'll make sure we talk about it.

Okay. Yeah, because I know that they wanted to do something before the football season starts. But I think, you know, a win-win here. Great agreement with the school. Took a little bit of time to work out the legality and logistics with it back and forth between our attorneys and theirs. But I wholeheartedly support it. I think it's a great thing for the community and great working together with the school on a project like this. So that's good.

Anybody else? All right.

Roll call.

I'll make a motion that we accept resolution CM-26-41. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Fogle? Yes. Mr. Todd? No. Miss Gregory? Yes. Miss Metz? Yes. Miss Richardson? Yes. Mr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saunders?

No.

All right. Now we need a motion to exit regular session.

Mr. Mayor, I make the motion that we exit regular session and enter back into workshop.

Second.

Roll call. Mr. Fogle? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Mr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saunders?

Yes. All right. Next we have the wastewater treatment plant design from Whistler.

Yes. Ryan is here for us tonight. We're getting ready to look at amendment number one to agreement between West Milton and Wessler. I printed you guys some paper copies just to follow along. And I was just going to ask Ryan if he could skim through the agreement. And then if you have any questions, Ryan is the knower of all noble knowledge.

I can skim through, but feel free to stop me if there's specific questions you'd like to ask. As Ben noted, this is an amendment. We had an original agreement with you to do the evaluation of the plant options. And so this is an amendment to that contract originally to incorporate the following services, which include design phase services. And then we have lots of pages in here. Permitting. land acquisition support and then the bid phase and I can kind of I'll touch on each of those but. there will be a there will be a second amendment following this way in the future once we get design complete get permitting and everything in hand and actually have a contractor retained for the job there'll be construction administration support programming services and inspection services related to that so just know that that's coming but it's a couple years out So amendment 1 covers the wastewater treatment plant improvements projects. It is based around in a previous presentation. I've given a presentation on the different styles that we evaluated along with Ben Corey and the staff. but an oxidation ditch style plant located at the existing wastewater plant site so we're going to try and fit that in there it's a tight site as we explained but that's what this project covers the design phase will include meeting coordinations project management funding coordination which we've already started that to stay ahead of this this design is being funded through wpclf design loan We've been working with Jill on that paperwork to get that approved and so that's where the funds will come from for you on this. Those funds will roll into a construction loan ultimately as part of this project. We will re-nominate your project here in September for construction funding. And it should score well. It scored the highest points possible last year. Now that you're under design, you will have more readiness to proceed points, which is where you were short on the last nomination cycle. We follow 10%, 30%, 60%, 90%, and 100% deliverable schedules. So you can expect, at a minimum, we can come here at those intervals and give you updates as to the status of the project. But we're welcome to do that anytime you want to hear more about it. We also plan on providing monthly status update to Ben and the new village manager when he comes on so you can have that for your understanding of where the project stands in case you're asked by the residents. We'll start with topographical survey of the site, land coordination, and geotechnical borings because of the rock, and that'll give us our bearing pressures and all of that. So that's where we'll start. That process will take a few months to really get going. We'll really get into the design and layout stages probably later summer, early fall timeframe. There are several outlines of what we plan to include as part of this design, but it is essentially a brand new plant. There are a few components that we anticipate that we'll save, namely the administration building that's out there if you've been to the site. That's going to be the main piece that we plan to save and at this point the equalization overflow basin will keep that since that's already an excavated space. As of this point I'm not sure that we'll keep much else but that will be determined once we figure out the geotechnical and the hydraulics and some of the other pieces. If we can save and reuse some things we'll certainly do that the best we can. There's some good concrete out there but it also has to work hydraulically with the way the plant flows and so incorporating that into a future design may be difficult but we'll follow those steps um the are there any real specific details you want to know on design i'm happy to go through it there's about eight pages of it but um The land acquisition legal description, we do anticipate needing to acquire land for this. It's not a significant amount, but I think a previous exhibit I've shared shows a small portion of maybe three parcels at the bottom of the hill, and then perhaps one parcel, a portion of one parcel to the north of the plant to give room to both build and construct the new plant, but also to stage the materials where we're bound by the hillside and the river floodplain. So it's a tight site. And then we have the ditch plus drainage ditch to the south of the site that also constrains our work site Two contracts that will come to the village and Jill is aware of this Ben's aware of this In addition to this and that would be the land acquisition services Someone who's qualified to procure and negotiate land purchases on the half the village on behalf of the village in conformance with the funding requirements the other one is the geotechnical will be contracted directly through the village our professional liability insurance as engineers doesn't allow us to be drillers and so therefore it's contracted directly through the village so those are the two that you can expect to contract outside of this the estimated cost for those is still being determined uh we're once we have the signed contract here that'll be our first order of business based on a recent uh plant design that we did The geotechnical will be on the order of maybe $30,000. The land acquisition, I think we have it, I think as, don't quote me on this, but about $50,000. We're waiting to confirm that for a second quote. We'll present those to you all to make a decision on which company you'd prefer to work with. One is a firm out of Columbus. One is a person who operates more in the Cincinnati area. So we've worked, have an experience with that. one from the village the village manager or Ben or no one from our group will be involved in anything with the land acquisition at all they may be asked to accompany the specialist but the specialist will take care of it because there's a very specific order that you have to approach procure offer when you buy land that's going to be used when you're using public funds to do that. If we're outside of that, there are a lot less limitations, but because the intention was to use funds that are provided as part of the project, you have to follow their process. And so these are qualified people. They really follow ODOT's procurement process. It's multi-step. It can be very drawn out. That is one thing that we're unsure of as it relates to schedule, and I'll touch on schedule next.

But I believe, if I'm not mistaken, at some point the previous village manager had talked to some of those homeowners about the possibility of that. So at least they do know that that's something that's on the horizon. So I guess that's at least a positive thing. Yeah.

yeah we have just done this we had to go through this for some easements on a previous water main project up north and uh the village staff ended up being involved but it was at the direction of that person so a local phase coordination is always helpful when communicating and understanding that need so does that answer your question yeah Many permits will be required, EPA permits, floodplain permits, building permits, air control, wetland delineation, 401, 404 permits through the Army Corps and or wetland impacts if needed. We've incorporated those into this as well. bid phase will is just that that's us you you all advertising the project us being around to answer questions from the contractors reviewing the bids when they come in making sure they conform with the project and contract documents worth a couple years out probably at least one from that happening as it relates to schedule Well, actually, I'll go in order. Compensation is the one that people like to turn to first. The costs for the design, land acquisition, support, permitting, and bid phase is $2.12 million. big number I know probably likely the biggest engineering number you'll have ever signed and that is frankly normal for us to hear that and we know that wastewater and water treatment plants are often the largest asset one of the largest assets that the community owns but it does take a long time for us to do this and so that's reflective of the cost We are anticipating, from a schedule perspective, we have about two years planned for these services to take place. And it could take that long. I anticipate it occurring sooner. The big outliers are how long is it going to take for permitting and Ohio EPA coordination. That is, we have another project that's taken almost a year to get a permit. We have some that have received a permit as soon as three months or so. It really is hard to estimate. Also, the land acquisition process is undetermined at this time. Sometimes it can go very fast in a few months. Sometimes it could take close to a year. So that's incorporated into here. The reason that's important is that the term of the design schedule controls when you have to pay back the design fee. And so we anticipate if it is in two years, you have one year from the time of design completion before that loan would get rolled into the construction loan. By doing so, you are receiving a 0% design loan and there would be no payment made on this until it all rolls into the final construction loan if for some reason there was a delay between the completion of design and the start of construction if that was to occur a year and a day after there would be one payment due on this sum before so we've extended and tried to give as much grace within the schedule as we can to provide as much flexibility for the village certainly on our end we we work as quickly and efficiently as we can i'm hopeful that within a year to a year and a half we'll be done with design We do have one sub-consultant under us for this. That's Choice One Engineering, which you all know very well. We work with them frequently, and they're going to provide the total graphical survey for us on the site. They already have the coordinates, and they already know how our CAD standards fit with their work, so it's a very symbiotic relationship. That is a lot of pages very quickly, but I don't want to take up any more, but I'm also not here to skip over anything that you want to hear more about.

I have a question about that. This is an amendment. So do we have a contract? This is a lot. We've never built a wastewater treatment plant before. So I don't feel like I'm asking dumb questions. I've just never been a part of this. We have a design contract already with you.

No. The existing agreement.

Because you guys were here, and then you did the presentation, Right? The design services went out for bid?

That was actually. So we did the RFQs, the request for qualifications. And that's when we awarded Wessler. Our team basically appointed Wessler the highest, so they were awarded. So our initial resolution was agreement one was to get started so that Wessler could come to this point of the addendum one.

yeah so the original agreement that is the basis for this was the study that was performed it was submitted in 2025 the RFQ that you all did here in the spring earlier was to provide for select who is going to be the selected engineer to design this now that the study is complete that's when you all selected us for that design but that was just a resolution for selection of us there was no fee based on that those are non-fee based selections and so it's qualifications only so this is the follow-up this amendment is the follow-up to that and that we've kept this as an amendment to that original design contract so that the study the design and eventually the construction administration all those other related services are all under one umbrella so there weren't three individual contracts in the future and you're trying to trace which one was which so it does make you know there's a there is a previous document to this one that you approved probably in 20 22 or three or something like that this is a carry from that one and that's the whole point is to keep it all together

That makes total sense.

So this isn't like a change order, per se. This is not a change order. We didn't agree to $1 million, and then we're adding $2 million into it. OK.

This is a new scope of services. This is the next step of scope of services. So it adds on to the work that's being completed. It's a little tricky, but under Article 1, it starts with B, where it says design phase. under agreement the original agreement it's just task a study phase that makes total sense so that way it's i saw the word amendment and i was like what does this mean yeah and if you ever want i mean we can also work with lenay too i mean but uh we can consult you know at the close of this we can consolidate it into everything is in one packet it's choice whether you want that or not but we usually defer to whatever the attorney asked for but that's does that answer your question Sarah yes thank you sir yeah um just early on uh preliminary wise uh any concerns you see any not really we did a uh was it two weeks ago ben maybe three weeks ago uh we had uh the primary design team come in reviewed and sat down with ben and jill and ori and i think tim was there maybe um just to kind of talk through make sure you know it's been a while since we did the study part are we still on the same page we use that to make sure that our scope matched where we left things off and what was in the report uh so no no no surprises right now um the only concern i would have anything is just the volatility of construction costs uh have been and continue to be very hard to predict. We've had some projects bid recently that were right on point and we've had some that were high and we had one that was quite a bit lower. So we do our best to estimate knowing that this is two years probably out so we see maybe shovels in the ground. Who knows what's going to happen? We had a recent project bid with nine miles of water main. The price was changing weekly on them. And at 45,000 feet of pipe, $5 could make a quarter million dollars difference in just like that. So I think volatility of cost is one concern. And then the geotechnical limits. of the site are going to be very difficult. Just the rock is so shallow. So that's gonna be a hard thing to design around. Those are the two things that stand out to me.

Good, thanks.

So is the rock gonna be taken into account with the design?

Yeah, we'll plan around it, we'll plan through it. Part of our job once we get that, that's the geotechnical value is going to be when they bore. We'll know exactly what rock elevations are and then we'll try and size. This is more technical, but when we do these plants, we try and let gravity do as much work because then we're not pumping, we're not using horsepower, we're not using energy. Keeps operational costs down to a minimum. There's a limit to that, though, because we can only go in the ground so much. So the height of the structures will really be determined on the bedrock and how we can run the piping to limit costs. Also, rock excavation is expensive. I know you went through that once already on your interceptor job, and it adds a lot. So if we don't have to do that, we won't. It is nice that we have a site that has some flexibility, being that it's not straight visible. It's not like we're building a new city hall or something like that. So we have some options for using elevation and rock to our advantage. We'll see how that shakes out once we get the soil boring data back.

That's good information.

All right. Well, thanks. Yeah, I guess. I guess that's it.

I think you'll have my number if anything pops up at any time. I'm your person to reach out to. All right.

Well, thanks.

Thank you.

Before Ryan left, I just wanted to bring up he did mention that we got our kickoff meeting. So this is about When we did the RFQs, Wessler scored higher, but we've already saw that in motion from the kickoff meeting to meeting his team. We're going over funding, we're supplying plant data, sewer rate studies going on. His team's spectacular. They've set us up to make our job so much easier, and it's super helpful when it's people that know what the plan is what data they need they've got some they've got some great people there and i couldn't be more pleased that we got wessler to work on with this it's so far for an immense project it's been extremely smooth so it keeps going though i mean that's very kind but like you know it's i live in a town too you know so i mean i know what this means to you all you know it's there's impacts to rates there's impacts to users it's sometimes hard to see the

residents don't know where it's at or if they do you know they haven't seen it and we'll try and do a good job throughout this and getting drone photography and some of the other information that at the end of this we can do a you know kind of a share and i know you've got the digital and everything that we can share and let people really know what they've what you all invested in as a community most of these plants are as you know i mean even with their current one are going to be around parts will be around 50 to 100 years sometimes and so

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for coming out.

Have a good evening. Thanks, Ryan. You too.

Thank you. All right. Next, we have parking prohibitions blocking mailboxes.

I will make this extremely brief. This isn't a problem that we have a lot of. To be honest with you, I can only think of one or two times we've had the issue. The problem is when we do have the issue, there's really not much we can do about it. You know, there is a federal rule that basically, I'll let you explain that.

So we've had a couple, recently we've had a couple incidences where people have parked in front of mailboxes. The resident that had the mailboxes blocked talked to the person parking there and they didn't care. So they went to the post office. The post office basically said, we just don't deliver mail if the mailbox is blocked. For those that do the routes and vehicles, they don't stop and deliver the mail. And they don't really enforce it. There's nothing for them to do, nothing for them to sink their teeth into. So I came back and talked to Mr. Herron about it. The one issue I was able to resolve, because it was a work vehicle being parked there, and I contacted the company and spoke with them, and they corrected the issue. So it's no longer an issue for that one. But we did have another one that the same thing is occurring. And we don't have anything currently in the city parking ordinances. There's nothing in the higher advice code that prohibits you from parking in front of a mailbox. And our current parking regulations kind of mirrors what the higher advice code says. So this would be something to change and add to it. so that we could force people to not park there. We can put a limit there that's during hours that mail would be delivered so they could still park in front of a mailbox if it's after hours, which shouldn't be a problem. If you park in front of a mailbox after five in the afternoon, generally the mail's not delivered after five or on Sundays. So we could always make that part of this ordinance as well. But Mr. Heron and I did talk about this. And so the proposal is going to be for us to amend the parking ordinances to include not parking in front of mailboxes during mail delivery hours. Am I correct in that?

Yes, totally. And oddly enough, when I researched this from other communities, there's a large majority of these that have been passed in the last five years. So maybe it's just something that just is gaining an issue that's gaining steam. So I basically just took a copy of City of Riverside's and shared it with you and it pretty much says everything that me and Chief Wright had discussed as far as no parking within 10 feet between the hours of and council could decide what those hours could be and Really, it's just like Chief Wright said, it's just an addition to our current parking schedule. So I was just going to just wanted to bounce it off council for you guys to think about it. We can do a resolution pretty quick and put it on, but I didn't want to go any further until I kind of knew what council wanted to do with that.

I think that makes sense.

I think if there's other cities doing it, you've done the research, it makes sense to me. And I thought it was like common courtesy. You just knew not to park in front of mailboxes.

How was that enforced? Does that in the ones you researched, is it like a fine type thing? Was the penalty associated?

I think they whoever violates it, it's so I think in our rule or ordinance, I think it's section something point nine nine, which makes it a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, which is that a ticketable

Well, we normally would contact and something like that. We try to contact the registered owner of the vehicle. It's an educational type thing. If they continue to do it, then we issue them a summons. Treat it like we do any other parking. Like if there's an ordinance that you can't park across someone's driveway. You're not allowed to block the driveway. So eventually they become towable offenses, but that's down the road. That's not something we just jump to, to be honest with you. It's an educational thing. I didn't think so, but I just, you know.

First time they were in front of a mailbox, we're hauling them in.

No, no, no.

Do we do parking tickets?

We do. We do. Not very often, but we do. We have a few.

It looks like Riverside's a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, or what Riverside does. So that would be in line with what you just said for us.

Which is like a parking ticket, right?

And we have a couple options in this. We do have parking tickets that we try to keep it locally. If you get a parking citation, you pay it at the front office here to Megan. There's no record. Nothing shows up in court. It's just more or less a civil action is what it turns into. However, if that's not working, then we can issue a parking citation on a regular traffic citation and order you into the municipal court. So we have a couple options. We try to avoid the second one.

Question from your expertise and your thought process. So I think the big thing that we would have to decide as a council is the duration, the hours. So on this one, it's 8 to 5. Would we mirror that? Does that seem reasonable? Would it be more 9 to 5?

I would say that's reasonable, 8 to 5. Generally, you don't see the mail carriers out prior to 8 o'clock because they come in. I know they come in bright and early, but they're getting their mail routes prepared and loading their vehicles. So generally, you don't ever see them out delivering before 8 o'clock in the morning. So I think that's fair. Generally, they're done before 5 o'clock. I think you could add something in there that holidays and Sundays are excluded from this, that we're not going to do those on holidays, and you could park in front of it. Because on a holiday, you may have family over, and you need that extra parking, so there's no issues there. I think it's just during the times that we would normally get mail.

the mail service will be running i would wonder if we could add something to the effect too with the hours and also prohibiting mail delivery some neighborhoods you're very aware your mail comes early in the morning it's regular so i mean personally i wouldn't have a concern with the parking as long as it's not prohibiting mail delivery

Yeah, the only time we would, as a police agency, would respond is if we actually get a complaint. Yeah. Because I don't know when mail's delivered on the various streets in town. Absolutely. I see the mail carriers out all hours of the day, but I don't know what time they deliver on the south end versus the north end. So we respond on these type of complaints only when we get something from a resident. Yeah.

so i would be supportive to get this moving as quickly as possible since we've had issues with the rest of absolutely i would agree yeah we could have it drafted for the next council meeting at the next meeting um and then uh i'll tell you what in the memo um we'll go with uh eight to five and then we will add in holidays and sundays and prohibiting uh the hours and pro

Or prohibiting mail delivery. Yeah. Is that kind of what?

Yeah, that's what I'd love to see.

If your neighborhood gets delivered at 8 o'clock in the morning and somebody parks there at noon, I don't think that's a problem. Exactly. As long as they're not prohibiting the mail carrier.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I would agree with that. We're not trying to make a parking problem.

Of course. Right.

And you'll see it in your memo. So if there's something in there that I missed or that you don't like, just let me know. Perfect.

Okay.

Thank you, Ben. Yep, no problem. Thank you.

all right next we have problem sidewalks i did i wanted to put this on there because we've had some uh complaints about sidewalks specifically trip hazards and such um not that we can like do something you know right away and have letters out but we were just kind of wanting to get an idea of how council feels how we should approach this um I can tell you the last time that the entire village was done was when the manager that hired me, Mr. Vath, and Bob Sowers, the service director, was here. And they did sections of town. So we have what we call leaf sections, section one through four. If you guys would want to target the worst ones first or work in sections, just some guidance on what you guys would like to see um once when we can get going on this to have we identified kind of i think it was mr green brought it up at the last meeting have we identified any of the specific areas that are i owe mr green an apology he's not here he's not here but um we have it in a layer on our gis he was correct we do have the data i was looking at the wrong GIS file. So it's definitely there. I'm going to estimate there's a couple, maybe up to 150 to 180 identified spots that are considered like isolated hazards. Then there's a separate section for bad sidewalk. So so what would happen a letter would go to those people and then what would the letter have would it give you options of how to fix it or yeah we could i mean just tell them the how they would have to fix it and kind of decide what we wanted to do from you know an inspection standpoint a fee standpoint um Those were decisions we would have to make. And then I know there's probably some on that list that are over an inch is bad, but there's some out there that are four inches plus. I know there's some out there. I can't tell you exactly where, but I know there's some out there. So describe how to fix the problem, how to repair it. And a side problem to that is a lot of it's caused by trees. If you've got a heave sidewalk, there's a pretty good chance it's a tree root that's heaving it or that it's maybe a tree that was cut down and sinking. So that may be part of the problem is getting a tree, you know, taking up the bad sidewalk, maybe grinding the roots. But then I'm not an arborist, but I don't know if that kills the tree. I'm not sure. So these are just problems that we would have to face as we found them.

also curious and I know we talked about the sidewalk grant for a long time but if that's a possibility of kind of focusing it in that area the other question I have is if you have a four inch you know spot and somebody falls and hurts themselves isn't that the responsibility isn't that a civil issue yeah yes so I mean, I know that we have code enforcement, but if somebody trips on my sidewalk and falls, they're suing me, not the village.

Right.

So where do we... I'm all about the sidewalk rant, just to be clear. Like, I am all about it. I know our sidewalks are rough. I mean, I know what mine look like. And... but i'm just kind of curious like could we maybe reroute some of that sidewalk grant money if other council members want to talk about that if we split it in half if we do something because i know like i mean i walk every day and our sidewalks are not great but if i trip and fall it's on the homeowner not the village

yeah i think that's a good idea you know we'd already talked about moving our focus kind of towards 27 as far as the sidewalk grant program so we've already budgeted those funds for this year those funds still exist i don't see why we couldn't rework that in order to try to make things safer obviously It would not be our fault if someone were to fall. But I think that anything we could do to kind of incentivize people to take on that responsibility and fix that issue, I think would be able to move us.

And we have $100,000 because we didn't use the $50,000 from 2025.

Is that correct? I think we had 2025. That's right.

I'm pretty sure. That's right.

I think this would be a worthy use.

I don't foresee that happening in 2026. I personally wouldn't ask that. I feel like we're way too late in the game for this year. But if we have a plan for next year, I think that...

And I really feel like there's going to be a percentage that maybe they know it's like that, but it's just not something that's really at the top of their mind. So there might be some that get a letter that just says, hey, this is pretty hazardous. might just fix it, you know what I mean, without. So there's that possibility too, but we can certainly compile all the data because some of these we'll have to recheck and all of that. That's what I was thinking. That's been a while. We can get the data together at least so we know what we're talking about and then bring that to council and have a good idea on which one of these are you know an inch and which one of these are really you know heaved and then we could maybe go from there and see how you guys want to go from there yeah because i drove out after talking to mr green about the ladies that tripped and fell and injured themselves i went out and looked at the areas and

They're pretty rough. So it'd be great, I think, too, for us with council if we got a list of those bad sections, the ones that are the worst. We get out and walk it ourselves to check it out. And just so we're aware, but when folks do submit requests with the monies that we have set aside for the sidewalk program, we'll know firsthand, just like when people request the variances, at least we're knowledgeable of those specific areas. We got seven of us, so we could split ourselves up amongst different areas in town and have certain sections that we're out walking and checking in.

The good news on our GIS is we can download that data.

if we all split it up we could probably look at most of those pretty quick yeah that'd be great if we had a i think it's realistic to have all of our major problem spots identified by like the june workshop and then we would be able to kind of know the size of the issue we're dealing with and decide how to reallocate if any of those sidewalk monies i mean if we have a hundred and

by next year we're looking at 150 000 in the sidewalk grant money then we absolutely don't foresee it being that well received it wasn't the first time around so we will be able to be more flexible with getting this solved i think it was a different neighborhood too right so like my sidewalk i mean what if you know where my house is you know my sidewalk that's a whole disaster um but i know that that's gonna have to be fixed right if i don't have a sidewalk and then i put it and i think that we should have sidewalks but if i put one in that i have to maintain it so that's kind of i think that was kind of their issue is i don't think i was here for that whole meeting but i think that there there's two separate deals with

I think it's part of the comp plan too just the walkability of West Milton and where we're lacking that walkability that would connect different you know neighborhoods to a main corridor connector so I think there's a lot we can do with sidewalks whether the first is fixing the major issues I've walked and ran and strolled and scootered probably everyone in West Milton so I'm can tell you which ones are bad um but if that's the priority and we fix the bad ones and then second round we connect the outline whatever we take from the complaint i think to make it more walkable and safe but i think fixing the problems is a good a good start either one to me was a good start connecting the the ones without um but fixing seems like a good spot now maybe just identifying And we go from there and offer the grant funds if needed for those top, you know, if they're ranked one through five hazardous and we go with the level five hazards first and work our way down or something.

And it's going to be more cost efficient, right? By now it would be $10,000 to replace the sidewalk that people drive on. That's a pretty big chunk, right?

it's gonna be a lot cheaper right right and the key would be you know like working working that in with like our ad a ramps and our curb like pre pre paving curb repairs and stuff if you work all that in together then you're gonna get a better price so yeah I mean it could be one of those things it's a five to ten year project to get it completed yeah

Back to your original question, I would be interested to see a comparison between once we identify all of the really bad sidewalks, I'd want to see those quantified by an inch, more than an inch. It'd be interesting to compare that with doing geographical areas, because that's my concern, is if we're just looking to repair one sidewalk here, one here that may not be the best way to go about it so i'd be interested to see where the bad sidewalks are where they're located and then look at those different sections to determine which would be the best way to move forward

so when i share the data with you guys i can also make copies of the map that'd be great so you can see exactly um when i looked at them it's pretty spread out so i mean they're they're all over town so if in a perfect world we would go you know, area by area.

Yeah, I think being able to see that data, we can make a better decision on which route to go because I agree it makes sense to ensure that the worst sidewalks are repaired first, but I want to make sure we're going through it in a logical way. So I think being able to see that data compared will help us to make a decision on the best way to move forward. Sure.

You'll get them up too.

Thank you.

All right.

Next up is community pride award schedule. Is that Sarah?

I think this one's pretty quick. I had wrote down one thing, and then I think we talked about another. Are we doing community pride, is it monthly or every other month?

Monthly.

Okay.

So we have them, right? For next time. For next time. So would we do it...

the june meeting so we just need to email you you i have three or four from you've got a lot in between the last two well yeah i have three or four new ones on top of so we probably have six to eight i'm assuming somewhere in there that haven't been awarded and we still have the signs that are going in their yard is that what we're doing yeah okay yeah there's one at sugar leah they look awesome

I will email you tomorrow who we have so if you have a nomination email it to me my email address is on the website and we all get it included

Does that work? Is that what you wanted? Yeah, perfect. Yeah, I wrote down monthly and bimonthly. I don't know why. So I just wanted to make sure because we need to start working on the next ones.

I'll get it in the habit, I promise. We'll work together. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, then.

All right. Next is Ohio real estate property tax. I think Fogle had a.

Yes. We talked about this at our WEMUT meeting. The WEMUT meeting is a joint meeting that we have on a four month basis between Union Township, the school, and the village. We also invite the library, Union Township Life Squad, other entities, mayors from Bloodlow, Laura, Potsdam, that type of thing. so we got to talking about um the petition that's going around to uh abolish all ohio property taxes and so we talked about this we had a separate meeting because when we talked about it during the wemup meeting we said hey we need to kind of get a strategy between all of our entities to see uh what we need to do to get the word out on how this would affect all of our different entities, the school, the township, and the village. So I met with Dr. Ritchie and Mr. Diaz from the school, Mr. Mote, Ms. Cote, and Tony Hughes a week ago. And they provided a resolution that the library did with how this would affect them negatively if the property taxes are abolished. So we talked about it, and we thought it would be great if we all come up with something similar for a resolution for our three entities, so the village, the school, and the township. So Dr. Ritchie provided a really good website. It's Ohioans to Protect Public Services. It has impacts on public safety with police, fire, and EMS, how it would impact the schools negatively, and how it would affect seniors negatively as well. We have a resolution that the library put together. I think we could massage that and update that, get some assistance from and present that at our next council meeting, just laying out how negatively that would affect the village as a whole and the services that we provide on a daily basis. So I just wanted to throw that up to everyone, give you an update from the meeting that we had, and see if you all would support that. And if you do, I'll get some information over to and she can get it out to everyone to take a look at before it's read at the next meeting.

I would be interested in that. I think this is a very real looming issue that could be coming down the tracks.

And we agreed that we would try to meet in another month or so just to reconvene to see where everybody is at. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, the signatures have to be in by 1 July before anything would be able to go on the ballot. So we'll see where that goes, hopefully. Things stay the way they are.

but but yeah we'll get that in the works and we'll get that over to Lanae and then you all will see it thank you for doing that I think this is an important thing to stay ahead of sure I know that nobody likes property taxes but we have everybody in this room pays them if if you own a property or you rent you're paying them and our state representatives have been working at making changes reforming things and our County we lowered our inside millage last year Miami County I think most the auditor's office gave us some stuff to do and we lowered inside millage for us and so we are I mean we are trying to do what we can however I like to have roads to drive on and I believe I'm vote pro-life and I think our kids should be able to go to school so that's the cost of

Well, and that's one thing that we talked about. We're not against doing some type of reforming of our taxes and how that all works. But you've got to do it the right way. You've got to do it smartly.

Absolutely. It's important to educate. There's a lot of misinformation out there. I think, if I heard correctly, the accrual of signatures can continue. So even if they were to not make the cutoff for this year's ballot, it's still a real threat.

It's going to eventually hit the ballot. It's just whether it's going to be this year or next year, this November or next May, it's going to eventually be on the ballot. Let's not kid ourselves on that part. It's going to be a real thing. And one thing we've got to remember is not only does it affect... the village the school district the library but there's other sectors that rely on property taxes like mental health is huge that relies on on property taxes for that purpose and other parts like fire department, police departments, you name it, it's going to be affected big time. I mean, the governor's came out and said if this passes, we're talking about 25% sales tax. I don't think anybody wants to see a 25% sales tax in Ohio. But that's going to be the real thing that they're going to pass, and they don't need to put that to the voters to increase the sales tax. The state legislation can do that. So it's going to be something to watch out for.

So I think it's great that we're getting ahead of it now.

I appreciate that. Thanks. Thank you, sir.

All right. Any old business?

I just have a question for Ben. Yes. Parking lot behind the post office and the business is back there. Any other movement? Have you had a chance to talk to anybody? No updates yet on that. OK. No problem.

We have another one. There's two days left to purchase the Dayton Dragons tickets if anybody anybody still wants to go i can they can email me or any one of us really what are we up to with the sales so far 56. yeah it's improved i think it's still like 400 for project revival so oh good more than zero yeah better than zero very good any more old business i mean any new business

talk about I'm gonna try to go in date order but bless my heart I'm gonna do my best okay so as you know I am in the rotary and the rotary has a blood drive tomorrow you get a free bag when you donate blood I will be there donating hesitantly but I will participate and Let's see, June 2nd and 3rd, we have Heritage Ohio is coming into West Milton to do our DART assessment, which is the downtown shoot assessment resource team almost forgot what I was saying the downtown assessment resource team is coming on June 2nd and 3rd and we are having meetings at Abbey Credit Union there is going to be a meeting on June 2nd it's a community open meeting from 6 to 7 30 p.m. I highly encourage everyone to be involved We're going to discuss and get ideas and brainstorm about things we want to see in our downtown, how we want to grow. And I realize that we have retail strategies and we have the comprehensive land use plan. And sometimes it feels like a broken record. But all these groups are working together. Retail Strategies and Heritage Ohio have an amazing relationship. I actually spoke with Retail Strategies in October last year at the Heritage Ohio annual conference, which is an amazing experience to get to have. So they are all working together. Part of our comprehensive land use plan and retail strategies recommendations was to create a main street, which will basically take over Project Revival. Main streets also do downtown development. So they will help bring businesses in, which is what we really want, because we can do all the events in the world that Project Revival does. But we also want to stimulate our local economy by bringing in businesses, getting our buildings filled up. So I'm really excited about that. June 2nd, 6 p.m. at Abbey Credit Union. Then on June 6th, we have the Veterans Event. And our own Fred Francis is going to be a guest speaker. We're very excited. And he's going to do an amazing job. And there's going to be free pulled pork sandwiches brought by the VFW in Union. And it's from 12 to 4 PM. And then on June 13, we have our stories on the Stillwater, where we have our very own Chief Wright performing.

And we're going to be learning about the Quakers in West Milton.

And very exciting, the 4th of July is coming. And as we all know, it is America 250. We're an official America 250 community. We are having all the events, all the fun. And on July 3, this is really exciting. We are having a special person from Texas named Blake Roberts who is going to fly in, stay in town. We're shutting Washington down. There's going to be a concert in the road from 6 to 9 PM. It's going to be outstanding. There's going to be food trucks. There's going to be the carnival. There's going to be dancing in the street. And it's going to be an amazing time. Thankfully, dancing is legal in West Milton. And then July 4th, we have the 5K in the morning, then we have the parade, and then we have the carnival, and the fun, and the fireworks, and all the good things.

OK, we are always looking for murals, or for money, for volunteer.

I've got volunteers' mural money on my notes, all the things. So we're always looking for volunteers. If you would be interested in volunteering, send me an email, call me, come to my house, text me, knock on my door, send a spoke signal, send an owl, I don't care. Just find me, and I am very findable, and we would love to have you volunteer. And Casey has been working very hard on murals and finding places for murals. And there are these building owners all over town. But what we know is that a mural on a building doesn't necessarily help your revenue. So we are trying to find money for murals. So if anyone would like to donate, We are happy to put your logo just about anywhere if you would like to donate for your murals. We are very excited to have these in our community. They bring people in. It's just an exciting time to be in West Milton. And that's all I've got.

What time is that blood drive? Tomorrow. Did you say? And where is the blood drive? And where?

That's a good question.

Is that still at the UCC church?

It is. So the blood drive is at the West Milton United Church of Christ, which is on 108 South Main Street, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Everyone who signs up will get a $25 e-gifts card with the code SERVICE.

I have a flyer.

It's on the West Milton Rotary page also. And you get a bag.

Donating to murals. What organization would those donations be to? Like if you're writing a check or something. Project Revival. To Revival. Okay. Project Revival.

Thank you. Good question.

And I'd like to make one last update. Myself and Sarah and Jennifer and her family went to a Englewood Post 707 American Legion presentation. They had a ceremony. Our own mayor, Jeremy Saunders, spoke. He was the first one out the chute that spoke at this American Legion ceremony. I hadn't been to the American Legion Hall there ever, so it was nice. Dave Myers was the commander there and invited us, so it was great. It was a nice program, and Jeremy did a fabulous job speaking, so good job with that.

Thanks. Thanks. I'll add one more thing, if we want to talk about the park. Go for it. OK. So where the pickleball courts are going to go in the future, Casey and Mr. Heron and I have had a lot of conversations with a park design company. And they are working on doing a design to put a playground in the the area where the new park is going to go where the pickleball courts are going to go and we've been working on getting grants and we are submitting some stuff so that they can they have a team that will apply for grants for us and it's not at a charge to us um so they're working on that we've submitted a bunch of information i gave them a bunch of grants that i've written mr heron gave them a bunch of grants that he's written so Another place to donate, we can write anything. Tax deductible donations, we will be happy to help you with those. But we are working on that, and I just wanted to put that to make sure everybody on council is aware that we're discussing this and getting grants and working to build a park. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be for the little kids, because I didn't know this, but our park is apparently scary when you're a little baby.

do you have anything you want to say about it i think um no you did great and what scott said about the pickleball courts um you know working with the school to get that i think has been a long time coming i think you know when i'll echo that i was to say when i was mayor before we tried and they wanted a lot more money than what we got them for now so they won almost 300 so um so i think it's just a great opportunity we're expanding parks and recreation you know not only in the the park park but creating the one on um founders park on south miami or south miami um and then this is just something to expand our parks even more hopefully get the basketball courts more up to up to par um get the cracks filled get them resurfaced turn the two tennis courts into hopefully four pickleball courts and keep the one tennis court remaining as a singles tennis court, obviously getting that resurfaced and up to par and new nets and all that stuff. So I think it's just expanding recreation. This little pocket park, if you will, would be kind of behind the concession stand in that grassy area that once was a sand volleyball court, if you all remember that. And the fences, like we mentioned earlier, are going to get backed up. So the fence would go to more of the perimeter of the football field, leaving the recreation area more open. So this would be a sitting area, or you're playing pickleball and you have some kids that want to hang out. I've been asked if there would be a water fountain, so we could think about that. yeah just donations I've been approached about donating so if we could set something up too maybe um for people that are wanting to donate to the project yeah oh we do not yet that's a good idea

We had plans in the old school park when we were looking to get that from the school where the football field is at, the practice football field in that area. We had plans, water, splash pad, dog park, playground area. But, of course, because we didn't own it, we couldn't do that.

I'm just saying that because it seems that we were restricted.

I just know they have to be on leash, correct? If they're in the park.

Kind of the point of a dog park is to let them be able to run freely.

So I'm a dog mom. And I am all about a dog park. We're working on forming a parks committee. So if that's something you would be interested in volunteering for, that would be amazing also. We would love to have your help. But I am a fan of a dog park. It's just we've got some other stuff happening right now also. But we would love to have you on board with helping find I have some ideas of where it'd be cool to have one but I I'm on my dogs actually think it's a great idea also and so does day on stock their best friends oh and then thank you you and the crew the signs America 250 the hometown heroes looks amazing oh yeah so good some guys got them up in a day and a half oh yeah they were

They were really moving along. Awesome.

Do we have any added comments from citizens? Is there?

My name is Michael Schmidt, and I live in the William subdivision. And I have a concern about truck stops coming into town on Route 48. Having been in the trucking industry for 40 plus years, and those things are beasts and it would i don't think it would behoove this town to have one on 48 there they say there's enough room there's not uh you get a lot of trucks in there it would have to be a 24-hour thing there are subdivisions around i live at the end of north williams and i am forever picking up trash from the shell station that blows down there i've talked with ben about it they have cleaned up their act a little bit but there's stuff in everybody's yard that blows down there and if you multiply that by maybe 100 trucks a day that would come in or even a service station. I think the one up on Stillwater is sufficient because of the traffic up there and there's not a lot of things around. I know you live in the subdivision close by. But these are really, that would really be close. And I think we could find a better use of those properties that is possible to put a gas station there, which they're permitted. So it would take action on your part to put a stop to that. I mean, you know, we talk about streets and, you know, gross vehicle weight on a tractor trailer is 80,000 pounds. You know, that's a lot. You multiply that by 100 trucks. Wow, you know. And then when they turn, that makes it just that much worse. So that's something to think about. So I would thank you for hearing me and take that into consideration in the future. I know I talked to a few of you about it, but I wanted to get you all in one shot. Thank you. And Jen, if I could talk to you, I think it would be great if you could talk to the people at McDonald's to trim those hedges down a little bit so you can see that welcome to West Milton sign on the side of that building.

Yeah, I appreciate that input. I did notice that as well.

Yeah, I mean, like maybe a third of the size that they are, you know. Because really, if you're not looking for it, you can't see it, you know. I appreciate that. Okay. Thanks for listening. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Don Dorman, 605 South Main Street here in beautiful West Milton. Just wanted to piggyback on everybody's comments on the courts, as I like to call it. Just the idea of what's being done there and just the potential that's there. And also to thank the school who's, you know, when they moved the school out there and they built new tennis courts and they did all that, they didn't have to keep maintaining all that stuff. And they have over the years. And it's just really been a resource to the village of West Melton. And I think it's a wonderful time for West Melton to step up, take ownership, sink some money into it, upgrade it, and then continue on to be used by the kids in our village and surrounding villages. So I think it's a great idea. On the sidewalks thing, If we are talking about the CM-25-49 that we passed that enacted it, just to highlight that it says that it's to encourage those property owners who have yet to install sidewalks to install new sidewalks in order to connect existing sidewalks, and so on and so on. So it doesn't talk anything about being like repair or anything like that. So I don't know if that ultimately dictates how we use the money that's been allocated and not spent. But the original allocation, if you look at the what was passed, it does kind of outline what it's for. So I don't know if that would mean Things would have to be changed to use that money for something else. But the initial intention and what was passed, it was to put sidewalks in where there weren't existing ones. And all about fixing the ones that there's problems and everybody hears and thinks they got to rip out all their sidewalks. There's a lot of things that can be done where they can be ground down. One section get removed and a root pulled out and actually the same piece of sidewalk put back down sometimes. Every homeowner that's got some bad sidewalks that's panicking at home, bring somebody in, get some good advice on what to do, and take care of things before you get a letter so that everybody can walk safely in front of your house and we can have a connected village and people can be safe. So thank you all.

Thanks. Thank you.

Thanks, Dale.

That is a really good point. Glad you brought that up. So that would probably be some sort of budget amendment resolution that we could pass to reallocate those monies, if that is the path we want to take.

I just wanted to make sure that we remain focused on fixing the infrastructure here. It's been brought up in the past Mr. Dorman's been on council and Vogel's been on council all this been going on for years I don't know about Fred Francis but the the water main lines As I understand it, we've still got a lot of lines that are asbestos covered, right? Water main lines.

Asbestos, cement, or transite, yeah.

Yeah, so we've got a lot of asbestos covered, and I think you said, maybe I'm wrong about this, lead covering on the outside of them as well?

No lead.

No lead, just the asbestos.

Yeah.

Okay. So, yeah, I mean, if we're going to put our money to use for the community, put it to use in the areas where it's most important. And I think the quality of our drinking water and the quality of our wastewater lines... going to the new plant that's going to be built in what five ten years whatever it takes two years five years those are important things and not on some of the other frivolous things so appreciate your time thank you thank you

Step to the mic and tell us your names.

I've seen that.

I got it on my phone. You guys are showing this live. And so it prompted me to come over. And it was on the waterfront that prompted me. I used to work for Peterson Construction Company out of Wapakoneta. And they have a wastewater and a freshwater division. And I was a mason for them. And so they have multiple divisions. And I was just wanting to recommend them for any estimates that you guys are looking at doing on either one of those fronts, whether the wastewater or the freshwater systems. I worked for them for quite a few years. He was a union contractor and is one of the better contractors that I worked for over, you know, been a mason for 40 years. But I was in the trade for 25, 30 years. And I worked for them for probably about 10 out of that 30 year span. So we worked on a lot of very big projects, commercial as well as industrial projects. But they have a specific water treatment, freshwater and wastewater systems And they've been doing it probably, I think it's like 50 or 60 years they've been in business. So they're worth looking at and calling them. It doesn't cost anything to call them. That's what prompted me to come here today.

What's their name?

Peterson Construction Companies out of Wapakoneta.

Thank you.

Beth. Thanks.

any more question about what Mike said there's several people have mentioned that a truck stopped coming to the bowling alley area so what what real information do we know about that or I don't have any information on that whatsoever Do we know if the property was sold?

It was not. The deal fell through. Okay. I was in Abbey Credit Union a few weeks ago, and the owners of the bowling alley thought they had it sold to an individual. Don't know who that person was, but that fell through. It didn't happen.

What, if council is interested, what could we do to prevent said gas station or truck stop from going in that area, no matter who it gets sold to or purchased? Is there anything?

So we would just see what it was owned. And then the potential would be to possibly rezone it to something. I mean, it doesn't have to be non-business. You can just rezone it to a different type of business. That's really a Lene question.

Yeah. Something we'd have to confer with Lene about to see what our legal rights would be.

OK.

Thank you, Mike. You're welcome, buddy. I did talk with Jeff about this, and there was inquiries on some property in town from real estate agents. Is that zone for a gas station? Can I put a gas station there? And he checked it and said yes. I mean, so, I mean, if that's what it's zoned, that's what it's zoned. So that would need to be done. What is the word I'm looking for? Moratorium or whatever that is that these other cities are doing? You know, I don't know how that would be, but it's something I think before it turns into a point where we approve it and then change it and then the company that's bought the property to put a gas station there gets upset and then it's going to go to court and you know what goes on from there. So I just think let's be proactive instead of reactive. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate that, but we also want to be as thorough as we can. Obviously, like, we were a possible business for West Milton as a whole. We don't want to turn away opportunities to bring in business anywhere in the village that may be. So even if we have a very good reason for this one spot, we just got to take it through due process, make sure we're crossing our T's and dotting our I's.

Anybody else?

All right. Any motions for adjournment?

I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.