Council - workshop

All right, welcome.

Welcome to the West Milton Council workshop for June 23rd. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Roll call, please.

Mayor Siders.

Present.

Mr. Fogle. Here. Mr. Todd.

Here.

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

Here.

All right. First, we have the paving discussion. Ben?

Hi everybody. Hey. So I'll give you just a quick recap of where we're at. So I finally found the project for the paving on the OGOT website a day after I called and couldn't find it. So that was odd. But so it's Miami State Route 48 and it's paving from Union, Ohio all the way through to Covington. And the plans are for them, I double checked all the mile markers listed, and that would include all of our 48 and the incorporated, and that is scheduled Miami pave at fiscal year 28. So they typically do their paving in anywhere between June and August of that fiscal year, unless we have a light winter, then it might be sooner. So in front of you, I double checked these numbers again just to make sure that we were close. We have the paving estimate actually came in lower due to the fact that this year's contractor is giving us yet another amazing price for asphalt. and micro seal which is a very it's micro seal like asphalt is hydrocarbon based but it's a liquid base and the pricing per square foot of the micro went up the other thing I didn't calculate previously is is we use 16 pounds per square foot on Calumet 48 due to the traffic volume would call for 22 which increases that liquid by a lot Which makes it around 94,600 to micro seal and the milling I just calculated the mill spots and so I think that's pretty close. So traffic control and all to mill those spots out in the micro would be around 95,000. to mill off an inch and a half and add an inch and a half of surface would be 109 say around around 109 110 and then lastly Jill isn't here tonight but and we kind of passed because I was out and then she was out so I didn't really get a good chance to talk to her but her questions one was when ODOT was scheduled to pave the roadway If the state plans on paving the road within the next few years, does it make sense? Mainly because the street funds are projected to lose 319,000 this year without the additional paving project, while the street construction fund is projected to have a remaining balance of around 340,000 at the end of the year. So as finance director and doing her job, she just wanted to make sure that council was aware of that street fund, which is typically one of our lower funds annually, and it has been for a long time.

and with that i'll just go back to council and see what you guys would like to do okay so 2028 summer of 2028 is when we're targeted right now on the calendar to pave all 48 from covington to union yes and that typically when it's assigned a number which it has been it's a pro it's got a project id number

It's extremely rare to get a project ID number and then have it not take place. But it's on the bubble before that PID, but once it gets a PID, it's almost a lot.

Okay. So from your experience being here, what, almost 40 years, what's your two cents? I mean, what's your calculated pros, cons? What would you do, you know, if you were sitting in our seat? Because I know it's bad. yeah it's been bad for over a year it's going to get worse over two more winters but in two years we're not going to have the cost right so we got to decide whether or not I would say, in my opinion, the mill and pave for 15,000 more would be the smarter way to go instead of the micro seal. But do we, with the way things are cost-wise, do we just wait it out for two years? What's your two cents?

So one, I was disappointed because the micro prices had climbed so high. But I wasn't shocked, but I was disappointed. I just knew when I saw the gas going up that when I got the final quote, it was going to be higher. Micro sealing it for that amount just seems really high. So I mean, on my end, I just kind of would almost X out micro. Just do the fact that if you're going to do anything for 15 gram more, you can have a new surface versus a micro sealed surface that's only rated for... on that stretch seven to nine years um kind of pushing it um i went back out there today because i knew we were going to be talking about this tonight and i'm not trying to like make this more complicated than it has to be but i'm just wondering if If we can deal with the valleys, the dips, if we could have them to just try to mill off the high spots when they're in. So they wouldn't be getting into base. They wouldn't really be damaging the pavement per se. They would just be milling off the high parts or the bumps. And it still wouldn't be perfect, but it wouldn't be like it is now. That's something I wish I would have thought of that sooner, but I was really kind of looking at something a little bit better of a fix just due to how bad it is. But I think that that amount that I did for the milling for the micro around 15 grand, I think it'd be that or less easily to go in there and maybe just try to, they've got the smaller mills that are on the Bobcats, just maybe try to plane those just a little bit just to make them not so rough. The other downside is that if we do this and ODOT is coming through, there's a good chance ODOT could skip it because we did it. It's two years old, and then ODOT doesn't do it, and then the next time they do it, we've already got two years of wear on it. That's another downside. No one will tell you if they will or not. I tried. I would lean towards they would probably skip it.

And that's if we were to do a full mill versus just that targeted, like you were talking about, that other option.

But if we just mill off the bumps and the high spots, and you think that ultimately could be an option, at least things would be a little bit smoother through there.

It would be better.

It would be better.

Yeah. And I mean, I'm like you guys. I can't stand it. It is bad. And I mean, I know everybody drives it, and I'm usually in a piece of equipment. I was running a trash truck down through there today. I don't like it either. But... You know, you want to be just thinking about financially and if we do mill it and fix it, usually ODOT has money written in for what's called like repairs. So if we're milling an inch and a half off and we find soft spot. then that's additional cost. ODOT typically, as long as it's, they always say, you know, we're putting in that extra 30%, and that 30% is for repaired spots that they may have to fix. So they would be doing those repair spots also. So that's yet another piece of information. I mean, me personally, I hate driving on it, but I would almost think that trying to make it smoother at this point and then let NODOT pave it, fix it, pave it, would be our best option.

Yeah. So you could ultimately, between now, let's see, our paving on J is going to be in August, correct? Mm-hmm. So between now and then, you could find out from them what it's going to be to just mill those high spots and get us a good estimate?

I would just use that number because I talked to her and that's actually every spot to mill so it would be around 15 or less.

My thought would be to go that route then that would at least I mean I would love to be able to do the mill and paving, but to me it doesn't make sense if you're going to do it in two years and ODOT's going to be coming through here and doing everything.

It's going to be a waste of money. Especially if it could jeopardize ODOT. Yeah. Completing that project altogether would be a lot more expensive than $110,000.

Yeah. What's everybody else think?

Just mill it. My question is also, like, schedule. Do you have the time to do it this year? I'm sorry? Do you have the time, like, to do that work this year? Yeah.

Yeah, when the other painting company do it when they come in to do J. Yeah.

Okay. They'll be right there, which also helps. And we were below budget, so we wouldn't be going over budget with that milling.

Well, that to me, that's a win-win too because we're still under our budget as well. So I would lean towards definitely doing that versus milling and paving.

Yeah.

Thanks for all the work. Yeah, no problem.

Digging in and finding all that out. Yes.

That's definitely the kind of information we need to make the right decision.

Absolutely. No problem.

All right. Next, do we have any old business?

I know you've been gone for a while, but any more movement with the parking lot behind Fox's, Edward Jones, the post office?

I did talk to one resident that actually has the rental side and he would be for it. And then I got a call from, and I don't remember which business owner he was, he was touching base to see if we were still planning on it. So there's two right there. One would be a new one because we weren't talking about the behind the old, I forget what it was, cleaning place. So that would be a new one that we've already got a verbal confirmation on.

and so um but that is as far as it's gotten right now okay um is is your thought that something could be done back there before the end of this calendar year or that's a stretch it's it's a stretch but it's not impossible Okay. Do we need, I think we probably would need to follow up with, and I can't remember his name for the life of me. I've been trying to think of it sitting here. Corner property. Corner property.

Mr. Pollard. Pollard.

Yeah. Yeah, Dave Pollard. I think we would need to have a conversation with him again and maybe the other folks just to make sure that everybody understands what we'd be looking at cost-wise. Yeah. It'd be great if we could get it done this year because it is,

oh it's just it's miserable back there and um the paper i think that's the sun mr pollard i did i did send him some notes earlier this year actually when i was working on some paving stuff and said we're still potentially interested in having you quote this this year and then we know what happened after that yeah yeah okay well

Maybe we can try to re-engage with the folks and the owners there and see if we can get something set up to talk about it again and what our options are in the post office as well. Because I think that's the other piece of the puzzle, too. Yes.

And the post office doesn't own that property. I believe it's owned by the works family. OK.

Thanks. Now do we have any old business? That was old business, okay. Any more old business? Any new business?

I have new business. So first of all, 4th of July is coming soon. And it is so exciting. I'm going to tell you what all is happening, to the best of my knowledge, because there are things that I don't even know about that's happening. So the Hoffman Church has a chicken lunch thing. And there's a sign out there. And there's a sign in front of the church. So the information's out there. I don't have all the details. The carnival is on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and July 4th. So on the 1st and 2nd, it's 4 PM to 10 PM. On July 3rd, it's 1 PM to 10 PM. And on July 4th, it's 11 AM to 11 PM. And on July 3rd and July 4th on Washington, that's going to be closed down from 5 to 8 on July 3rd and 5 to 10 on July 4th. There's going to be food trucks on Washington and that parking lot. There is going to be bingo on July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down in the park at the Lions Club Shelter. The parade is at 11 o'clock AM on Miami Street. And council will be there, except Freddie's going to be in the sunshine in Florida. At 8 o'clock in the morning on July 4, the Milton Union Alliance, which supports our schools and our students, is hosting the 5K. You still can register, but I think they're out of t-shirts. I think it's too late to register for t-shirts. But it's really important to support the Milton Union Alliance. They support our schools and our kids. And I vote pro-life, so I support our schools. And on the 4th of July at 10 o'clock p.m. is fireworks down in the park. And it's going to be fun and super exciting. And it's like one of the greatest days in West Milton. So that's what's happening on 4th of July. I did want to mention that Arbogast sponsored, oh, the concert. The concert on July 3rd. from 6 to 9 p.m. It is Blake Robert. We have a very special lady on council who stepped in and did an incredible job booking this amazing artist. And he's coming in from Texas. And it's going to be awesome on Washington on July 3rd from 6 to 9. So there's going to be a Futrax concert. So much fun. Most people are off work on July 3rd. So, like, there's no excuses not to be there. It's going to be a good time, I promise. That's all I have for the 4th of July. And I wanted to bring up another topic. And I have this in my yard, but I would like for council to consider these yard signs. I walk in the morning, and me and my dog, and there are plastic yard signs. everywhere and I don't know what a solution is I like them I like that I can put them up to like hey vote for our schools like I like that I can do that I like that I can put them up to pass out information but there are companies that place them every 10 feet and it just doesn't look super great like they just I'm willing to give up my signs just because they're so I mean it's just starting to get a little out of control and I don't know if anybody else has a thought on that or an opinion or what but it's just something I I don't know if we can make a code ordinance where it's like hey we're not doing this anymore are you talking about like back in their yard or in the right-of-way In the right-of-way, in the yard.

We have one for the right-of-way, and I actually call, keep right, maybe every other week, and have them call Joe's Lawn Mower Repair and say, you can't do this, because they're putting them up all over the place. So yeah, we try to keep them in check, but it's hard sometimes.

Oh, I know.

Weekends, they go out and...

Oh my God, walking down Miami by like O'Reilly's, there's a ton of signs out there. And I'm like, it just, it looks tacky. And I mean, I've got one in my yard for the concert. Like it's not that, I don't think that they're bad, but when they're up in perpetuity, it's, you know, and I don't know if it's, if you're putting it up for an event, it can be up for two weeks before the event or what that is, but they just, or we just don't have it at all. They just look, it looks tacky.

Maybe we can look at something that there's a certain time period where you can put them up. Because I think it's the same thing with voting signs or for election and stuff. You only can put them up for so long. And when it's over with, they're supposed to immediately be taken down and removed.

We will try to keep...

and even more control over them and it's just i mean are we allowed to take them out yeah right away okay so like if you're going down like miami like over by o'reilly's there's like four signs like in a cluster and it just like there's two of the same there's two of the same sign

We will definitely look at that.

Thank you. Sorry, Mayor. I had two things from old business that I forgot I had written down. Premier, the park pavilion, are we going to re-engage with those periodic meetings? I know we were meeting on Fridays to get the ball rolling with that again.

As manager Hinkleman starts, then we'll. Because we're at that stage now where we're making the decisions, like the big decisions start now. And we thought it would be better to have Wait till he gets here. Come in on board. Got it.

Okay. Sounds good. And the other one was sidewalks. I think that was another one that we're going to wait until he gets here and start talking about that in more detail.

Okay.

All right. Any more new business?

I got one question to ask you. I've been hearing you talk about paving, and I never heard any more about Stillwater Crossing. Have you got them paved up there, them streets?

Not yet, but they're, they had, I forget which company out there looking to see what to fill first. Milcon. Milcon, and then they're going to be covering the roads except The back road and the road that goes down to Story Point. Everything else will be paved in the next few months.

And I just, those people have just been bearing a long time to get that done and I hadn't heard council talk about it anymore, so you answered my question. Thanks.

It's at the front of our minds.

Yep.

I've been waiting five years for it, so.

Anybody else have anything? Sure.

My name is Cheryl. I want to give my address. I was here in the May council meeting. I was talking about the issue we have with our privacy fence being six inches away from our neighbors. And Ben sent us what the maintenance is required by the village. And it says the privacy fence must meet the same requirements and dwelling and out-dwelling appearance and maintenance. Therefore, any fencing on your property must be maintained to our code standards what i came to ask for is is there any possibility of getting a waiver due to this situation so that we can't be charged and fined because we can't i've got a picture from looking down between the two fences six inches it's impossible to get down in there we're going to try to stain it down as far as we can we want to stain the rest of it but If there isn't a possibility to receive a waiver, when we sell our property, we would like to be able to have this for the next homeowner so that they can't be charged either. But if there is no possibility of a waiver, I need instructions on how we're to do this because we don't know what to do.

Wouldn't this be something that would also fall under the whole variance request?

It wouldn't? No. I don't think it would fall under variance at all. Variances are for structures to be off of property lines, not fencing. The problem we have here is if you allow this one to become a variance, make them all variances. You can't deny the next one.

Because we set a precedence.

Yeah.

So what solution do we have?

You could remove that portion of the fence and connect it to the neighbors.

It's not connecting. It's next to it, and it's the whole side yard.

Yours is a unique situation that the two of you need to work out.

It's not going to happen. It will not happen.

I don't have an answer.

So you might fine us and charge us then? Possibly. We're going to do the best we can. We've paid $9,000 to have this fence put in. We had ours up first.

Let us talk about it, see what we might be able to do. Let us look into it a little bit further.

I don't want to waver not to take care of any of it. We want to stain every bit of it we can because it's wood. I just know that we have to be so very careful what we do and how we do it. And I don't want to leave this for the next property owner because we will not stay there. We will not stay there.

Ms. Grosh, do you have any thought for?

I know there's some space in between the two fences. Is that right?

Six inches.

Move it onto the property line is one thing, but connecting it would be the other thing. I mean, it's not really a village issue at that point. It's more of a neighbor dispute.

Yeah.

So it has to go into a civil dispute, and our hands are tied with that. Exactly. Nothing that we can do from our end.

You either abolish the law, or it stands.

sorry ma'am okay are there uh any more comments all right i had a quick let me just dive in quick um to go back to the paving and still water um I had a question, I don't know if we have an answer for it yet. Especially because the length of time it's been since the neighborhood was established and now getting final paved. Somebody in the neighborhood brought a concern to me as far as when the final paving happens, are they going to go through, is the developer going to go through and check for any possible damage on curbs and then... Curves and then any broken or missing water covers. They just want to make sure before they do that that we've taken care of any maintenance issues.

When we met with Ron and Jason, one of my biggest requests was when they do any kind of walkthroughs, we have myself or Tim or both of us are present and we're aware of most of the irons that are broke and we have some of the curb already listed but we will do they'll do a walkthrough with Milcon and then we'll do a walkthrough with Wagner I'd like to do it all at the same time and so hopefully we can work it out where Wagner or Milcon and Ron, Jason, me and Tim were there at the same time. But if not, we'll definitely be following up with each one through the process.

Perfect.

That's what I had.

Thank you.

We had another question too about, we've heard two different stories. Is the gas station going to be touching Rachel Ann or Ittings? I'm sorry? Is the gas station going to be touching Rachel Ann or Ittings? Do you know? Rachel Ann.

Yeah, it'll have a Rachel Ann address.

But is there going to be an entrance off of Rachel Ann?

It goes all the way behind. That's what I thought, and I heard.

When we talked about the last meeting, I had it backwards. I thought we were talking about the corner of Ittings and 571.

yeah you know what they actually that was the original location i think for this over the c store um but they basically changed it to rachel ann um or they basically moved it yeah that's what i thought yeah it was like a few months ago six months or i hadn't heard that that's the reason i if i misled you last don't matter because of that reason i thought they were still coming off of uh

East Tip and Ittings.

So that'll now be an empty lot on 571 and Ittings for now.

Yeah, it'll be the odd one out until somebody builds there. All right, any more? Oh, sorry.

Oh, no, I'm going to piggyback on that. Thank you for bringing that up. Ben, do you know if they're going to be putting in an entrance on 571 or if it's just going to be the Rachel Ann entrance?

Just Rachel Ann. Okay. We're trying to keep all the entrances off of 571 just because for traffic and safety. So, yeah. Wow, that's going to be busy there.

Yeah, another concern that was brought up to me, too, is the possibility of a stoplight.

Yeah, so the traffic study, they keep forgetting the name of Ron's business center.

Centerpoint? Centerstone.

Yeah, I keep wanting to say Centerpoint. So Centerstone basically hired Choice One Engineering, their traffic. They did the traffic study. So everything from the sidewalk around the roundabouts to intersection improvements will all be part of the north face.

Okay. To include, I'm sorry if you just said that, to include a traffic light?

I would say probably a traffic signal. I haven't seen, we haven't seen basically the next set of plans for the intersection yet, but the original design had a traffic signal.

So another question over there is because that just I had it written down, and I totally forgot to ask. The mowing over there, where that area to the left of Rachel Am when you first come in, it's still weedy.

That's all on StoryPoint.

Okay.

That's all? Everything on the left when you come in where that gas station is going to be at, is that Ron's or is that?

Everything to the east, besides that first lot that's been sold, everything to the east of that is still Centerstone's property. So it went from one lot to three. So a third of it at Rachel Ann is the convenience store, Irwin Brothers, and then the next two are still Centerstone.

Okay. Because I haven't seen that that's been mowed lately.

Those aren't as bad. The ones where StoryPoint, if they choose to continue building, the rest of those.

Yeah, they did mow. They did come in and mow part of it. But everything, my understanding, please tell me if that's wrong. My understanding is everything that's owned by StoryPoint hasn't been mowed. you're correct yeah yeah so can we get in touch with story point yeah to press them so the odd thing about that is i got a phone call a couple weeks ago and it was a gentleman that had come in to mo story points so i know he hit it once but this was oh he hasn't had one well he so you have like right where story point is but um like behind rachel ann all of that is all owned by story point right it backs behind my house so i'm very familiar with it okay none of it's been mowed Not this season at all.

Well, he called me and it was the maintenance person that was going to cut it. And he called me and asked, what all do I need to mow? And I'm like, well, who are you mowing for? He said CenterPoint. So I literally said, if you're standing there facing it, this is what you need to mow.

so i assumed at that point he moved it but i guess not oh from center points that would have been center points because i'm sorry oh yeah none of that back there where they're going to be developing the additional townhouses none of that's been okay thank you ben yep

Yeah, thanks, because it just does not look good coming into town on that left side of Rachel Ann, that whole corner, because it's just nothing but high grass and weeds and stuff sticking up. As far as the walkway on that side too, it looks great. I'd say there may be a, are they a bit ahead of schedule or are they on schedule?

It's been kind of rainy, but I mean, rain's good for compaction. So I guess that's one bright side. I think they're still, I mean, they're still on schedule, I think, to have it done by fall. So when we are meeting with them for the 4th of July, we've actually already kind of met and answered the police questions, I think, so... we're all set safety wise for that project versus the park i think we're good there so good yeah

All right. Any more new business? Oh, I'm sorry. Mike? I'm sorry. Yeah. I thought maybe he had to... No, go for it. If it's not the right time. No, go for it. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Thanks. Yep, Mike Kraft. Just wanted to recognize Wes Wertz. He was like him, love him, or hate him. He was a fixture in this community, and the family has a long history, and... I liked him. He was a good guy. Just wanted to recognize him. If they can put it in the record somehow that, you know, we pay our respects to Wes.

He's a good guy. Thank you.

Any more new business? Do we have any motions for a regular session?

Mayor, I'll make a motion we enter a regular session. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Bogle? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Ms. Richardson?

Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes. Mayor Saunders? Yes. Any motions for executive session?

Make a motion. We enter executive session to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, compensation of a public employee or official, or the investigation of charges or complaints against a public employee, official, licensee, or regulated individual unless the public employee, official, licensee, or regulated individual requests public hearing. yes yes we won't have any business after right here okay