Council - Regular Meeting

all right welcome to the west mountain council meeting for june 9th stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all

God, I thank you for the gift of good government and the ability for us to come together, and I ask for wisdom and guidance in making the right decisions, and I thank you for this amazing village that we have. In your name I pray, amen.

All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Can we get a roll call, please?

Mayor Satters?

Present.

Mr. Fogel? Mr. Todd?

Present.

Ms. Gregory? Here. Ms. Metz? Here. Ms. Richardson? Here. Dr. Francis?

Here.

All right, next we'll excuse any members absent. I think that was just Fogel, right?

He's not really absent if he shows up.

No, last meeting, last month.

Oh, has he missed the whole thing?

Which one did he miss? He missed the meeting, right?

I think there was one he missed.

It's for excusing members from the special meeting, the workshop, the council meeting.

Yeah, so there's two on the fourth that need to be excused.

So I make a motion. Can I do them all at once? To excuse all absent members from council special meeting, council regular meeting, council special meeting, and council workshop.

I second. I think you have to do names, though.

Oh, I do? So I motion we excuse Mayor Sodders and Mr. Todd from the special council meeting on May 4th. Do you want to second?

I second.

Roll call. Mr. Fogel? Mr. Todd?

Abstain.

Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saders?

Abstain.

OK, that's it from all of them.

If we do Vogels?

No, we did that last time. OK. Thank you for that, Casey. At least you're keeping track. I did it last time.

All right. Next, we have approval of minutes for the May 4th special council meeting, May 12 regular council meeting, May 18 special meeting, and May 26 council workshop meeting.

I motion we approve the minutes from the May 4 special council meeting, the May 12 regular council meeting, the May 18 special council meeting, and the May 26 council workshop.

Second. Roll call.

Mr. Fergal. Mr. Todd.

Yes.

Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. And Mayor Satters?

Yes. All right. And then do we have any correspondence to council?

No, Mayor. We don't have any.

All right. Next we have the West Milton Celebrations July 4th Committee comments.

Dr. Ginn, I want to offer you my condolences and my apologies for lying to you as to why you came here tonight. And I would ask Joy to come up and join us. You are not being recognized for your years as a coroner, even though I appreciate you as a coroner. But Joy has something she'd like to talk to you about. Okay.

I'm not good at speech, really. good evening mayor council members members of the community as president of the west milton community celebrations committee i have the honor of appointing our next grand marshal this is one of the most traditional traditions meaningful traditions and they know parade this honor is reserved financial individual exemplifies the spirit and community throughout their service leadership dedication and commitment to making our city a better place Tonight is my privilege to formally appoint the Grand Marshal of this year's parade. This individual we are honoring has demonstrated exceptional dedication to our community and is truly deserving of this recognition. This individual has coached militant union volleyball for 20 years. When he retired from that, he became a volleyball official. He has done stats for militant union football, girls and boys basketball. He's been a Miami County Coroner for 12 years and has practiced medicine here since 1983 and do the math on that. We will celebrate his 70th birthday on July 25th. At this time, it is my honor to appoint Dr. William Ginn as the Grand Marshal of the 1926 July 4th parade.

Dr. Ginn, do you accept? I accept.

Please join me in congratulating and thanking him for his outstanding service and commitment to our community. Oh, thank you.

Who's going to sit in my regular seat at the parade? I've sat in the same place for 42 years.

Your wife is welcome to join you, too.

Thank you so much. This is much better than a piece of paper. I agree.

I agree. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Awesome.

We're not going to stay. We've got to come up with some ice cream. Hey, now you've got to find a convertible.

Oh, I got that taken care of.

Are you driving? Who knew this?

Hey, Chuck will drive you on his Volkswagen.

Thank you. That's awesome.

All right. Next, do we have any comments from citizens regarding tonight's legislation?

Good evening. My name is Mike Kraft. I wanted to speak on a little bit on the the resolution CM 26-40. Let's see. Rather, I thought I had it. Here we go. Resolution CM 26-45. Opposing elimination of all property tax. Taxes in the state of Ohio. Property taxes in the state of Ohio. That confuses me why this council is even addressing a statewide issue that has no bearing on the outcome of what citizens actually want. The council can take a position, I think, on some things, but taking a position against or for something such as this on a statewide ballot that really has nothing to do with West Milton. This is a property tax, so I I guess maybe somebody can explain to me how you get a cut of property tax and why you would take a stance of pro or against it. I'm just confused about that. I think you ought to let it just go to the citizens as to whether they want to stand up for it or against it. So for this body here to say that you're pro-tax, I understand we have to have some taxes, but in this time where people are definitely hurting, and some are hurting bad, there are people in this community that their homes are falling apart. Their sidewalks are destroyed. People are parking on their sidewalks, their own sidewalks, rather than parking on the street or in their own driveway or garage. Those are issues maybe we can address rather than opposing and potentially just going siding with ever-increasing taxes for the sake of ever-increasing taxes. We need to take care of our community first and spend money wisely in a responsible manner rather than just willy-nilly saying we need taxes. and ever-increasing taxes. There are people that I just mentioned their homes are going into foreclosure and so forth. I think it's because they can't afford to live where they're living. I mean, we've got houses and people that are hurting. Their businesses are hurting. and you guys are looking to increase taxes. Let's look at ways to be more fiscally responsible.

Mike, we're not looking to increase taxes. This is opposing the elimination.

People are against. I understand. I'll sit down. I don't want to argue. I just made my point. And I understand what you're going to say now. And I know it's not what you're about ready to say. But don't get me wrong here. But go ahead. I'll sit down.

something that is, there's a petition going around with signatures to get this on the ballot. This has not made it to the ballot yet. It needs to get a certain amount of signatures by July for it to get on the ballot. We're just saying, and we're in lockstep with the township, the library, the school. This will affect things negatively across the board with the funds that all entities would receive. If the property taxes are ultimately eliminated, if this made the ballot and it passed, it would affect the services that we provide would affect the services that Union Township provides, the school, the library, across the board. The library was the first, I believe, organization within the community that established a resolution similar to this, opposing it and giving the reasons and the information as to why and how it negatively will ultimately affect us and others. I know the school is going to follow suit with what we're doing. Union Township has already done so. They've also worked up a resolution and I don't know, I believe the Senior Citizens Center might look into that as well because that's how they get all of their funding is through the property taxes through a levy that they have. So I don't know if there's anybody else on council that wants to piggyback on that. But I think that's ultimately our position of why we are just saying that we oppose the elimination that this getting to the ballot of how it's going to affect all the different entities in this area negatively.

Well, I knew you were going to say those things, and I appreciate that. I think as far as places like the library, people are happy to pass a tax for the library. That levy always passes. Nobody ever has a problem with that. The property tax, however, is getting out of hand and people are hurting. And I don't think you heard the part where I said people are hurting.

Oh, I understand.

And just because you guys, you know, people in the school district or people otherwise who are doing quite well, actually. There's nobody hurting financially. They can't find a way to cut back. They can't find a way to save money rather than ever increasing taxes. And aside with the ever-increasing tax side, it just shows how tone deaf you are to the plight of people hurting.

Well, I think we're all looking at some type of tax reform that needs to be looked at.

No, you're looking at an ever-increasing tax. That's what this is.

I do understand that there's a school of thought.

People are hurting. There are people with houses here in this town. Their houses are falling apart.

I do understand that there's a school of thought that elected officials don't pay the same taxes as everybody else, which is incorrect. I mean, we all work. We are paid a very minimal amount for the amount of work that we put in as elected officials. If you pay attention to what's going on at a state level with what the state representatives are doing regarding property taxes they are working to lower this we as a village when it was mayor metz we lowered the inside the millage with the help of the auditor's office and the county commissioners the state has made several changes regarding property taxes it is Nobody's saying that it's not a problem, but eliminating them. And I mean, you can go to different kinds of meetings and you can do that research and find out exactly what has been done and what the potential effects are of eliminating property taxes. We all pay property taxes. We all pay all the taxes that everybody else here pays. So they are working on them at a state level. So if you go online and do some research and ask some questions and email your state representative, they can tell you exactly what they're doing to work on the property tax issue. Because there is no doubt that people are hurting their eye.

I talked to our representative Newman. I talked to our representatives um uh we're getting warren davidson back here i understand so um you know i i and i go to the republican men's club meeting and um you've been there several times i don't know why but um i i have been there and i talked to other individuals there as well I just think that we ought to be looking at way in more ways as you were just saying you you decided a couple of instances where you have tried to mitigate some of the burden on citizens. So look for more of that and less of ever increasing taxes. And especially in an area where, you know, just because you're making up a resolution to oppose elimination of all property taxes, man. Thank you. It just speaks volumes. Thank you, Mike.

You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks. Are there any more comments? All right. Next we have the Pride Awards. Sarah?

So I'm not going to go down there because I don't think anybody's here. But they were invited with handwritten notes. So this is the second month we've done the Community Pride Awards. And I am excited. We have a property at 614 South Miami Street. And I spoke to the owner on the phone today. And she's a lovely lady. And her grandpa, when he was born, came home to that house. And it's been in her family since 1920. And her uncle was selling the house. And she took over and just fixed all the things and has made it beautiful. She actually told me that there were some rotten trees that Ben helped work with her on clearing up. And I think that's amazing. And it's a beautiful home. It's 614 South Miami Street. And then the next one is another doctor that we have, 248 South Miami Street, which is where Dr. Medding's office is. And he and his wife have done an absolutely amazing job at taking that house and fixing it up and making it home. And it shines and stands out in the community. Then my other one, we have a commercial property. So we're doing two residentials and one commercial. So our commercial property, Lori Studi owns the salon on Miami at 11 South Miami Street. And she participates. And she is a village, an active member of our village. And when we did the retail strategies, when they came in and we did a walk downtown, she was along for the ride with us because she cares about our town. And they had mentioned that she had blinds closed and nothing outside the building. And she's in between two vacant buildings. And when she repainted it this beautiful purple color, and when they said that about having blinds open, the next day the windows were open. It just made such a difference. She put a table outside that's open for everybody to sit on, go to Cafe 19, get a coffee, and sit on her table. She just is doing an amazing job at taking feedback making it happen and making our downtown even better than it is so i will hand deliver these tomorrow um but i just i really appreciate everybody that is taking the time and effort to put into their homes and their businesses and the people sending referrals and if you have any recommendations i'm happy to take them my email is on the website so congratulations to everybody that received the award thank you

All right, next we'll jump into resolutions. First we have CM-26-40. Would anyone like to waive that reading since we do it every year?

I motion that we waive the reading.

Second.

Roll call.

Mr. Feigl?

Yes.

Mr. Todd? Yes.

Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Satters?

Yes. All right. Oh, OK.

It's a resolution authorizing and approving the submission of an alternative tax document for the fiscal year 2027.

I'll make a motion to approve CM 26-40. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Fogel? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Satters?

Yes. Next we have CM-26-42.

It's a resolution authorizing the municipal manager to enter into an amendment number one to the existing contract with Wessler Engineering Incorporated for wastewater treatment plant improvements. Whereas the municipality previously entered into a wastewater treatment plant improvements agreement with Wessler Engineering Incorporated for a preliminary engineering report on July 14, 2025 upon the passage of Resolution CN-25-47. And whereas the municipality now desires to proceed with the design of improvements based on Alternative 7, new bio-loop style oxidation ditch on existing site as recommended in the preliminary engineering report dated September 2025, but with a greater peak flow capacity expansion as listed in the attached agreement Exhibit A. And whereas Wessler Engineering Incorporated has agreed to provide said services that will also include design, land acquisition, permitting, and bid phases of the project at a cost not to exceed $2,120,000. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Village of Westmilton, Ohio, that section one, the Westmilton Municipal Manager is hereby authorized to enter into an amendment number one to agreement between Village of Westmilton, Ohio and Wessler Engineering Incorporated for wastewater treatment plant improvements to provide additional services to the municipality in an amount not to exceed $2,120,000. Said agreement is attached here to you as exhibit A and incorporated herein as a fully rewritten. Section 2, this resolution shall take effect and be in full force upon passage.

Any discussions? Any motions? I'll make a motion.

Go.

Go ahead. You're good. I yield.

Motion we accept resolution CM-26-42. I second.

All right. Roll call.

Mr. Fogel? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saunders? Yes.

All right. Next is CM-26-43.

It's an ordinance amending section 76.04A parking prohibitions of the code of ordinances for the municipality of West Milton, Ohio. Whereas the municipality of West Milton has previously enacted section 76.04 parking prohibitions and whereas the municipality now desires to amend section 74.04A to add language prohibiting parking a motor vehicle in front of a mailbox during the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. and whereas the council has determined that the parking of vehicles in proximity of mailboxes has the ability to negatively affect public health, safety, and welfare if not properly regulated. Now, therefore, be it ordained by the council for the village of Westmilton, Ohio, as follows. Section 1, section 76.04A of the Westmilton Code of Ordinances is hereby amended to read as follows. Section 76.04, parking prohibitions. Section A, no person shall stand or park a vehicle except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or to comply with the provisions of this title, or while obeying the directions of a police officer or a traffic control device in any of the following places. One, on a sidewalk except a bicycle. Two, in front of a public or private driveway. Three, within an intersection. Four, within 10 feet of a fire hydrant. Five, on a crosswalk. Six, within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection. Seven, within 30 feet of and upon the approach to any flashing beacon, stop sign, or traffic control device. Eight, between a safety zone and the adjacent curb or within 30 feet of points on the curb immediately opposite the ends of a safety zone, unless a different length is indicated by a traffic control device. Nine, within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing. 10, within 20 feet of a driveway entrance to any fire station and on the side of the street opposite the entrance to any fire station. Within 75 feet of the entrance, when it is properly posted with signs. 11, alongside or opposite any street excavation or obstruction when such standing or parking would obstruct traffic. 12, alongside any vehicle stopped or parked at the edge or curb of a street. 13, upon any bridge or elevated structure upon a highway or within a highway tunnel. 14, at any place where signs prohibit stopping. 15, within one foot of another parked vehicle. 16, on the roadway portion of a freeway, expressway, or thruway. 17, within 10 feet of a mailbox between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, excluding federal holidays. Section two, all other subsections of 76.04 that are not specifically modified herein remain in full force in effect. Section three, this ordinance shall become effective from and after the earliest date permitted by law.

There's a correction that needs to be to this. In the second whereas, it says 74.04A. It should be 76.04A.

Can we still pass that list?

It's a first reading.

It's a first reading.

All right, next we have CM-26-44.

The resolution approving the placement of a decorative artwork mural upon the exterior east facing back wall of the building located at 102 North Miami Street in the municipality of West Milton, Ohio. Whereas, in honor of America 250 and as part of the municipality's downtown beautification efforts, West Milton Council, in partnership with 102 North Miami LLC, desires to place a decorative artwork upon the exterior east-facing black wall of the building located at 102 North Miami Street, West Milton, Ohio. And whereas Flawless Signs and Wraps LLC has agreed to install the mural at a cost of $3,600 of which 102 North Miami LLC shall be responsible for $1,800 and the Municipality of West Milton shall be responsible for $1,800. And whereas Council believes that placing the proposed mural upon the building located at 102 North Miami Street, West Milton, Ohio would honor America 250 and enhance the beauty of downtown West Milton for the residents, as well as providing a warm welcome for those who enter the municipality, thereby contributing to the welfare of the citizens of the municipality. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Municipality of West Milton, Ohio, that Section 102, North Miami, LLC is hereby authorized to place a decorative artwork mural upon the exterior east-facing back wall of the building located at 102 North Miami Street, West Milton, Ohio, in collaboration with the municipality upon the execution by both parties of the Mural Maintenance and Access Agreement and public art easement attached here to you as exhibits A and B, respectfully, and made a part hereof. Section 2, the decorative artwork mural shall be substantially as set forth in Exhibit C with the municipality name changed, attached here to you and made a part hereof. Section 3, the municipal manager is authorized to enter into an agreement with 102 North Miami LLC and or Flawless Signs and Wraps LLC for a payment not to exceed $1,800 for the municipality's share of the cost of the decorative artwork mural. Section 4, the installation of the decorative artwork mural, is found to directly benefit the welfare of the residents of the municipality of West Milton, Ohio. Section 5, that this resolution shall be effective on and after the earliest date permitted by law.

Anybody want to talk about it?

I can. So go ahead.

Sorry, I had just a couple questions. Is that the Hamler Insurance Building?

Is that correct? Yes.

So that's the wall that's facing the parking lot?

Facing Washington, the alley.

Oh, facing the alley.

That's fine.

Yes. Oh, is it really?

Okay. It's almost like an addition on their building, if you look. It's block, and it's not the red bricks. It's painted block.

Okay, okay. Gotcha. And what exactly is the mural that's going to be? Do we have a picture?

So it's the America 250 logo.

Okay.

And then underneath, because that's the Ohio America 250 logo. And underneath we'll say West Milton established 1807.

Okay. And is this like a vinyl wrap that it's going to be? Is that correct?

It's not. So flawless, recommended.

Ah, very good.

A vinyl wrap, he said, would not withstand the weathering and the test of time. And it's going to be installed on what he called panels, like aluminum or a composite material of some sort. I don't exactly know the material.

That's more durable.

That is durable and can be moved. So it will be in, I think, three or four panels that cover the entire area. But if need be, it could be removed and moved to a new site.

And from what I read, this is supposed to be completed before the 4th of July?

4th of July, yes.

OK. All right.

Yeah.

OK. Thank you. So our portion is $1,800. And Hamlet Insurance is picking up the other $1,800.

Yes. And we have a pending grant to cover our portion. So we don't know until July should we receive that grant funds. But Sarah and I sought out the opportunity and applied for it. And yeah.

Awesome. I know. Thanks for doing that.

You're welcome. So double fingers crossed.

Thank you, Casey, for doing that. You've worked so hard on this. It is a lot harder to get murals than anyone thinks. It's like, just put them up. There's so much that goes into it in so many steps. And Casey's been working hard for at least six or eight months on this.

I know. And it was another Downtown Strategies recommendation, just like small things. This seems small, but it's been kind of large. But that can just make a big difference in overall appearance.

Very good. Thanks for working that.

You're welcome.

All right. Do we have any motions for it?

I'll motion to pass CM 26-44.

Second.

Roll call. Mr. Fogel? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Satters?

Yes. All right. Next is CM-26-45.

It's a resolution opposing the elimination of all property taxes in the state of Ohio. Whereas the West Milton Council represents residents within municipality of West Milton ensures the essential services are provided to the community. And whereas property taxes are a major source of funding for these services within West Milton, as well as the primary source of funding to support primary education within West Milton and surrounding communities. And whereas property taxes support public libraries, public schools, programs serving senior residents, as well as police, fire, and emergency services. And whereas eliminating this funding would result in severe reductions to our community's budget and corresponding services, including public safety, communication, recreation, and public health. And whereas the municipality of West Milton and surrounding communities would likewise experience a dramatic impact on schools, as well as services for seniors, children, and vulnerable residents. And whereas a loss of property tax revenue would likely require a significant increase in income taxes, sales tax, or other statewide taxes shifting the burden rather than solving it. And whereas while property taxes are a serious concern for many Ohioans, eliminating them entirely without a responsible alternative is a reckless and unsustainable approach. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Municipality of West Milton, Ohio that Section 1, Council hereby opposes the elimination of property taxes in Ohio as proposed by the Committee to Abolish Property Taxes. Section 2, this resolution shall be effective on and after the earliest date permitted by law.

We don't want to talk about it anymore, or just go to motions?

I appreciate Fogel's work with the township and the school. That was another extra meeting. I know we have multiple extra meetings.

No problem.

And that's one that's going to continue, so it's not done.

And the school asked us if we could send them a copy of our resolution, because they are going to piggyback what we have done, what the library has done, and what the township has done with our position for opposing this. You know, like we mentioned, we're all for some type of tax reform. But this is, in our opinion and the other entities that we have been working with, this is a drastic option, totally eliminating all of property taxes and how it will affect us as a whole within our entire community. So I don't know if anybody else has any other comments, but I'll turn it over to you.

i would just like to piggyback on saying i believe that abolishing the property taxes overall is not the right solution i do agree that we do need property taxes to scale back because i mean learn as we pay enough in them but abolishing them and completely getting rid of them doesn't solve the problem because all that's going to do is shift the burden from property taxes to income taxes or to a higher sales tax so And we can agree to disagree on that one all day long. But that's ultimately what's going to happen. I mean, even in Florida, when they're getting rid of property taxes for residences, they're raising the property taxes on commercial properties, and they're raising the sales tax. So if we're to follow suit, which we follow suit a lot, and Florida does, that's probably what will happen. So I mean, getting rid of property taxes just completely would put a

how to put it not fix a broken system it just make it even more broken okay great with that i wanted to remind everybody in the audience um our guidelines for decorum number four says please do not interrupt discussion between council members at any time reserve your objections concerns until the appropriate time and the floor is open

I would also just like to point out, as it affects our local residents, we did reduce the millage to our property taxes. I think everyone here on council takes very seriously the fact that there are a lot of people struggling with inflation. Costs are continuing to go up. I think we can all agree that reform is necessary. Over the last decade or so, with the significant increase in property values, taxes have gone up with little reform to them. So personally, I think some reform is in need, but I'm supportive that we do not abolish property taxes as a whole because it's shifting the burden. I would also just like to point out that Miami County, so for our local residents, our property taxes are a lot lower than many places in the state of Ohio. That doesn't mean we can't do better to create more reform, to reduce costs, but I think that we need to find other solutions to alleviate the burden on residents versus completely abolishing property taxes.

Well said.

I make a motion we pass resolution CM-26-45. Second.

All right, roll call.

Mr. Fogel? Yes. Mr. Tye? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Siders?

Yes. All right, next is CM-26-46.

to resolution awarding funds from the first responder grant program for the year 2026. Whereas, Council for the Municipality of West Milton, Ohio established the first responder grant program through the passage of resolution CM-25-24 on March 25, 2025. And whereas, the grant committee has reviewed all applications for the year 2026 and has made a recommendation to Council as follows. $12,500 to the West Milton Police Department. $10,638.68 to the West Milton Fire Department. and $10,209.98 to the Union Township Life Squad. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Municipality of West Milton, Ohio, that Section 1 The council hereby awards the first responder grant as follows. $12,500 to the West Mountain Police Department, $10,638.68 to the West Mountain Fire Department, and $10,209.98 to the Union Township Life Squad. Section 2, the council hereby directs the finance director and the municipal manager to distribute funds to the amounts stated above. to the proper entities from the separate expense accounts for said grant. Section 3, this resolution shall take effect and be enforced from and after its passage.

I'd just like to thank the Finance Committee for keeping this going. Last year was the first year that we did the first responder grant. There was $50,000 in that account. The police, fire, and Union Township Life Squad All put in applications for that. They were all awarded. I believe it was really close to that 50K threshold. This year, it's a little bit under that. So we're $18,000, I think, or $17,000 and some change under the budget with that. So that's good news. It helps out all three entities, which is what we're trying to do and why we established that. So kudos to the committee to keep that going.

All right. Any motions?

On motion, we approve CM-26-46. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Fogel? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Yes. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Satters?

Yes. Right next we have the manager's report by Chief Wright.

So Mr. Heron left me a couple things to talk about. You'll notice on the website, and I think we put this on the Facebook page, but we received notification from the Electric supplier that they're moving from .095 cents per kilowatt up to .1086 effective June 1st through May 31st of 2027. And it says as a reminder our new aggregate contracts with Dyna-G started in December of 2025 runs through May of 2028 and they're fixed at 0.098 kilowatts that's about 13% savings over the next year for customers enrolled in the aggregate program so that information is on the website I believe Megan put that on there and it's also been put out on the Facebook page that we got this also as you're aware on the south side for the Stillwater Crossings. There was an approval recently or a contract agreement between the developer and Irwin gas station. So they're going to be building. They come to an agreement. They've signed that agreement. The planning board heard on June 3rd a lot split that was needed for this new business to come. They passed that. Irwin Brothers today submitted their permit to the village and we're kind of waiting on They're not in a rush at this point. They do want to get started as soon as possible, but Megan reached out to them today, and we're going to wait until Mr. Henkelman gets here and let him actually take this project on and work with the Irwin brothers.

That's great.

That is amazing.

enjoy that one question with that because the way I understand things is come in to Rachel Ann Boulevard off of 571 this gas station fast food restaurant marketplace area is going to be to the left when you come in at the corner that's a corner okay so from your perspective or from what you've heard from discussions, I'm assuming that there's only going to be one entrance to get in there and it's going to be off of Rachel Ann or will they try to?

I don't have any clue.

Will we have any input?

Yes, that'll be something that I think Mr. Hankelman can definitely work with them on. I definitely would not channel them down into the plat. I don't think that would be your best method if at all possible. I think they should come in and off of 571 if we can because that would be a better entrance and exit for them and they could be one that goes off onto hitting potentially as well. So they could have a couple entrances there. But I'm not familiar with what that plan is, and I have not got to see any of the plans. So this is in the early stages. There's just an agreement that has been signed between the developer and Irwin Brothers. So at least it's in a positive mode that we're finally getting some movement on the commercial side of it. And that's going to be something we'll see. later this year from what I understand so Mr. Heron and I had not really spoke about this too much but in the information I got through Megan Mr. Heron he's only going to be back a week before Mr. Henkelman starts so she reached out today and said that our new city manager was starting at the end of the month and they said they would be willing to wait on him to come in so I think instead of us starting something prior to him coming it doesn't make a lot of sense Yeah, sounds good.

Sounds good.

And I believe that Ben was trying to look to see if the developer would be able to come to the workshop to Yes, I do know last week, Miss Grice and Mr. Heron met with the developer, Ron and with Jason, both of them. I was not in that meeting. But I think a lot of information that we hadn't heard before, that maybe didn't get passed on like it should have. came out in that meeting. And I think that they're more than willing to come and be as open as possible. I do know that this piece of commercial property that for them to sign this agreement helps to free up the funding so they can start other things on the north side. And it potentially is going to draft in with some more commercial on the south side to fill in that section along 571. Okay. And I know you've been talking to at least a food vendor since the beginning that is interested in having a brick and mortar place there. And I think that still is an active talk. There's no signed agreement, but I do think that's an active talk. And this may spawn a little bit of that action. Excellent.

i didn't i did pull up the map i know this one might not be as it's hard to see as accurate but up here in the corner is where the gas station is and there's an entrance on 571 and on in fittings that is not the entrance to uh just letting you know that's what this one's showing okay because i heard

differently at one point yeah i i myself and of course you know how much they're going to value my opinion as a police chief but i i personally would not want to see the traffic come on to rachel land and go into that to be honest with you especially since they're going to be on the corner um yeah eventually i think when we have the north side developed we're going to have to look at a traffic signal a turn lane and the whole construction of the roadway is going to have to take a different design than it currently is because we'll have traffic on both sides of the roadway that we currently don't have to deal with.

Do you want me to email that to all of you just in case you don't have it? Yes, please.

Thank you. Jill, do you know which of that part was the lot split that the planning board did? I'm sorry, what? Do you know which part of that is the lot split that the planning board did? Agreed on. I know that's what I was curious about.

Oh, I don't know. That's something that I, she can talk to Megan Hall tomorrow and she can email that to you. That's not a problem. She could send that at the same time that she sends this picture here.

Yeah, or I can wait.

I don't know what they split. I have not looked at it, so I have no idea.

And I'm with you. When I heard them, and I don't know who this came from, if it was Irwin or Ron or a different gas station I was looking, but talking about the entrance being on Rachel Inn and not on 571, and I'm no traffic expert. I don't know. But that's a divided road anyway, so you couldn't.

yeah yeah it would be very tough and i think you'd find people having to go all the way down to the roundabout to come back and get in there which is going to disrupt the people that live there at that intersection i i wouldn't want to live there and have to deal with that it'd be you know it's going to be bad enough having that gas station behind you but if the back of it's to the homes it should not be as nearly as bad if you've got the pumps and everything out toward 571.

Another question. You may not know. So this is Rachel Ann in 571, not Ittings in 571.

It's at the corner of Ittings and 571 is where this development or this place would go.

Not Rachel Ann in 571. No. Got it. Dan's got it now. That makes sense.

Yeah.

Well, luck asks. That makes sense. Hey. Do you have any insight, Dan? It's on me.

He does. He's passing around the actual lot split. Yeah, you guys can take a peek at it. You'll get to see that. But I won't be here tomorrow. Obviously, you know why. But Jill will talk to, Ms. Grice will talk to Megan. And when she emails these other things, she can mail that to you. Email that as well.

No, thanks.

That's all I have for the man. All right.

Do we have any old business?

I just had a question for Troy Beatley. I know it's a lot of work. And I know you have a small committee. And we try to raise this up every time that you're here. I'm sure you're probably always looking for new folks to help out with the 4th of July committee. How many members do you currently have on your staff that are working the 4th of July committee?

More active, myself, Travis, Judy Baxter, and Sarah.

So another plug out there. If anyone is interested in helping out with the Fourth of July committee, it's our largest event by far that is put on within the village. It's July 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I know this year they're doing a concert in the evening on July the 3rd that's going to be on the

up on the hill washington street somewhere in that area right so it's on washington street um we're closing the road down right right well you've got the permit um we're closing the road down there's a guy named blake robert coming to play and it's like he's country music it's going to be fun i think we're going to be in the area of jim starver's building great good so right by the city parking lot yeah yeah that'll be great and joy can tell more i think there's gonna be food trucks there so it's it's gonna be cool to be have stuff going on on top of the hill and in the park i think that's gonna be really cool and it's because it's america 250.

Gotcha. So if anyone out there would like to help out, contact one of us. Contact Megan Hall here at the city building or contact Joy directly. Joy and her group runs the parade, which is a huge effort in itself. I confirm that the Air Force Honor Guard is good again. So they just told me to send them a reminder a couple weeks out. So I will do that to make sure there's no conflicts. So I'll follow up with you with that. But yeah, they can always use some assistance. So if you have some time, that's your passion, and you want to help out with the village's biggest community event, touch base with one of us, Megan or Joy.

and I know from Ben's announcement I believe the pond in the park is closed for now for the fishing derby so anyone that's looking to go fishing wait till the fishing yeah a little bit about what happened with that is that

Mr. Morrison, who actually runs the fishing derby every year, had contacted, he told me seven different vendors to provide fish and the only vendor that he could get that would be willing to come and provide them is the same vendor apparently he's used many years in the past. And that gentleman was going to have surgery this week and be not available to deliver. So he had to deliver last week or we were not going to get any fish. So that's why it was a little bit earlier. I know it's an inconvenience for folks. I've told the officers just to drive through and remind folks. It's off limits. If they see someone fishing, just ask them to leave because we want it stocked for the kids when they show up at the fishing derby. That's the Saturday, the 27th of June. I think it's 7 a.m. is when that starts. Usually there's about 100 or so kids that show up every year. Mr. Morris does a great job. He and his buddy work that together, and he gets a lot of donations, and he puts it all right back into the fishing derby, and every kid that shows up usually gets a fishing pole to take home with them. So kudos to him and great job there. So that's the reason it's closed. That's awesome.

I would just like to say thank you to Sarah Gregory for putting on such a great Veterans Day appreciation on Saturday.

So thank you.

We also need volunteers for that next year, because we're going to do it again. Thank you, Dr. Francis, for speaking. His talk was incredible. And I appreciate your vulnerability and being willing to be out there. I have other old business. everybody else you're so exciting things happened last week and I survived and I'm proud of that um we had Heritage Ohio come and do which I've been talking about that for a while they came and did the dart assessment the dart assessment is a downtown assessment resource team and they walked downtown and we made strategies and we made plans and it was awesome so they have To tie it into retail strategies, retail strategies came in, and they're like doing ICU, keeping us going. Heritage Ohio and retail strategies have an amazing relationship. And they gave us a lot of great tools. Counselor Todd was there. And we formed who's going to be on the executive board for the Main Street, which is amazing. And then the people that are on the executive board, we're going to work to find volunteers for committees and board chairs. it's very structured and very organized and one of the biggest parts for me that I took away was it's really about the economic fatality of downtown and the cool thing about this was this didn't cost any money it did cost money it was five thousand dollars so I wrote a grant I used my time and talents my education for free to write a grant to It was Detroit Foundation's called the Impact Award. And they gave us $5,000, which paid for that DART assessment. And they're working with retail strategies and creating a plan. And when we have the new manager in place, there's going to be some work to make just one good cohesive strategic plan for our village. But there are action steps. they're very detail oriented and i think it's going to be a really good thing for our community it works in tip city it works in troy it works in picua and i truly believe that if we follow the course and do what we're told to do by the people who have done this before and made it work that we're going to have a really great downtown is it going to happen in 2027 no but we are going to see things changing and i think it's i think it's what's best for our village

Thank you. That is a lot of work. You have been working your tail off. It was a lot.

But it was a good time.

Do you have any comments to say?

Because I really appreciate you. I mean, Levi, I want to say Levi and I both used vacation time to take two days to be at these meetings. I mean, it's a lot of sacrifice. to be here.

Yeah. So I felt like it was very valuable, very educational. I think that there are a lot of people that thrive in the organizational structure side and bringing things from nothing into something. And then we talked a little bit about it before the meeting. I get very bored of meetings about meetings, but I'm excited to have meetings about things that need done and can be done. So I think that this gets us ever closer to that goal and it should be a net positive. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for coming and taking time off work. And something I took away, I was there just like for a second. From that and retail strategies, when we're asking for volunteers or just people to do things, they said it well. Like people don't want to just volunteer with no indefinite term. And so some of these things... have a timeline. So it's, you know, hey, I'm willing to do said project from A to Z. Should take nine months and then you should feel like you've done your commitment. So when we ask for things, don't feel like we're taking your time forever, but we just want a little help.

I have been approached by a handful of folks in the community thanking us for trying to do something to work out our issue with State Route 48 Miami Street from McDonald's to the north end of town towards Pleasant Hill, Covington. So I did see that Ben put together a paving estimate. One was for milling and adding asphalt, and the other one was for the micro seal that he talked about before. The difference of milling and doing the full asphalt was about 15K. So I think it would be great for all of us to have this on the agenda at the workshop to really talk through that to see what we can work. I think it would be terrific for the entire village, all the folks that live there, the people that come in and out from that end of town. So if everybody else is supportive of that, I think we should definitely add that to the agenda to talk that through with Ben and come to some type of way forward. The other thing, I have been working on the village manager performance evaluation specifics. So I will get that out to everyone before the next workshop. But I think, I know we all love executive sessions, but I think we probably should take a little bit of time in an executive session to at least sit down and talk through that to make sure that we're on the same page because Once our new village manager gets here, we want to have some time to sit down with him very soon after, you know, he starts to go through this. So we all know where where things stand. So if we can put that on the agenda for our workshop, that would be great.

That's it.

Thanks.

Yep. I'm in agreement. Any new business? Any new business? Any comments by citizens?

Hi, Don Dorman, 605 South Main Street, West Moulton, Ohio. I just wanted to, I think that's supposed to be our format, isn't it? We're supposed to say where we live and all that so people know we're really from here. Just what an awesome resource Doc Ginn is, the community, how great it is that we're honoring him. i mean if you didn't have him growing up as a doctor or a team physician for the football team maybe your kids did grandkids did just been doing a long time so what an awesome honor um i was hoping sarah could go down the list of the vendors that came to the veterans day thing i know dennis all ball did the pa set up an awesome stage um county sheriff recovery services The VA was there.

The VA was there. The Air Force Museum was there. Quino's Church was there with a bounce house and Bibles, my favorite. Tri-County Board of Mental Health was there. The Miami County Sheriff's Office was there with their dog. I don't know if you got to pet the dog.

He was just making rounds. It was so cool.

He was the best dog.

And nobody was arrested, for the record.

No.

I just thought it was, although I'd love to see it attended by more, and I don't know how we get the word out, but it was a really cool time, really something that we should grow. And thank you, Sarah, for putting that on. And apparently I have to take my shot later.

yeah thank you for helping and we also had the VFW in Union donated $1,500 and King cold provided all the meats for pork sandwiches and potato salad I definitely this is definitely something I feel like I want to see happen again I feel like the people that were there are gonna make a great team and we can delegate thank you for getting tables and chairs and Fred for rescuing me with pork butts and we had food all over the refrigerator I mean Jen had potato salad in her refrigerator and the pork had a slumber party in Fred's garage I mean it was a whole it was a whole community event it was really cool to see that and I look forward to doing it again and I'd love to see more of our veterans come out and fellowship share that time and thank you Fred for your your

I guess it was a speech, but I don't know how to describe it. It was awesome. It was shared of his journey as a veteran and very meaningful.

It was amazing.

Thank you guys.

Thanks to Stillwater Tree. Clark's Pizza. We're also there. And another huge thank you to Tom Beck. Tom doesn't get enough kudos. He was out there broadcasting live as well. So that was great. And Mr. Newman was there as well and spoke. And Glenn Kendall with the pony.

Yeah, there was a pony. That was cool.

Yeah, yeah. Worked out.

There was a whole pony.

Better than half of us.

All right.

Do we have any more comments by citizens? All right. Any motions for adjournment?

I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Joy, I have a .