Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the council meeting for Tuesday, July 14. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Can I get roll call, please?

Mayor Saunders?

Present.

Mr. Fogle? Mr. Todd?

Here.

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

Here.

All right. If you'd like to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

You guys remain standing. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to gather here this evening. We ask you to make your presence one of calming and clarity as we weigh the consequences and benefits of our decisions here. We ask you to make this day, as you make all others, an opportunity for a new start so that we may better serve each other and exhibit your love and compassion. In your holy name, amen. Amen.

All right, next we have a swearing in of the new police officer.

Thank you, Mayor, Council, and Mr. Henkelman for allowing me to hire our newest officer for the West Milton Police Division. We welcome police to the Police Division, Zachary Thomas Stevens. Step up here with me, Zach. Officer Stevens is a Wayne High School graduate and later attended Miami University, where he excelled as a baseball player for both schools. Officer Stevens is a second-generation West Melton police officer, following in the footsteps of his father, Lieutenant Jason Stevens, who has been with the police division for nearly 20 years. Officer Stevens most recently worked for the Miami County Sheriff's Department. as a corrections officer before leaving to attend the police academy. And Officer Stevens attended Sinclair Community College Police Academy, graduating with a silver medal for academics in June of this year. Is that correct, silver? That's correct. He took the state required exam to receive his peace officer certification on Friday, July the 3rd, and could not wait to call me that he had passed that. Officer Stevens brings with him TASER certification, CPR certification, crisis intervention. His experience with the Miami County Sheriff's Office will help him in a greater understand law enforcement as a whole and working with the Miami County. And all this will help in the next 12 weeks as he trains with a seasoned officer during his field training phase. Please help me in joining Officer Zachary Stevens to the West Milton Police Division.

step.

After today, he'll be more readily available.

Raise your right hand.

I, Zachary Thomas Stevens, being duly sworn according to law, say that I will The Charter and Codify Ordinances of the Municipality of

and my family can't realize it during my continuous and subtle obsession. Anything you'd like to say?

No?

Thank you for the opportunity.

So about the two minutes. The two minutes. Alright, so moving on, we'll just be doing regular city business, so I can give you guys a couple minutes if you want to stay, if you want to go.

We do a lot of fun stuff. I love how many people showed up. That is awesome.

Probably put all the chairs back now.

Good guy. Hey, guys. Mr. Green. Mr. Green. He's our comedian.

You can come up here now, Dayon. You don't have to sit all the way back there. You can come up here now.

Oh, I get it. Are we ready? Okay.

Alright, the next item is the consent agenda. This consent agenda includes items that require only a single motion to pass all of the items within the consent agenda. Tonight we have the minutes from the workshop on June 23rd, the minutes from the regular meeting June 9th, and the monthly reports. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? And if not, do I have a motion on the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the Village Council workshop on June 23, 26, and the minutes from the Village Council meeting on June 9, 2026. Second.

Roll call, please.

Mr. Vogel?

Yes.

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

Yes. Next, is there any public comment on tonight's agenda?

We also, as part of the call to order, we did not excuse anyone from previous meetings. So within the minutes, I believe there were people that were excused from previous meetings. I believe it was Casey at the which meeting? The workshop. The workshop. Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion that we excuse Ms. Metz from that meeting.

I'll second that. Roll call.

Mr. Vogel? Yes. Mr. Todd? Yes. Ms. Gregory? Yes. Ms. Metz? Abstain. Ms. Richardson? Yes. Dr. Francis? Yes.

Mr. Sodders?

Yes. All right. Now we'll have the public comment. I see none. So moving on to old business, a second reading of CM-26-43.

It's an ordinance amending section 76004A, parking prohibitions of the code of ordinances for the municipality of West Milton, Ohio.

All right. Any motions?

I'll make a motion we adopt CM-26-43.

Second. 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. New business. Next is CM-26-47.

The resolution to support the nomination of a census tract to be designated as a Federal Opportunity Zone 2.0. Whereas the State of Ohio Department of Development, in partnership with Ohio Governor Mark DeWine, launched an online forum allowing investors, economic development professionals, and governmental officials to nominate census tracts for consideration in the Federal Opportunity Zone 2.0 program. And whereas Opportunity Zone... commences on January 1, 2027 and expires on December 31, 2036. Applicable program guidelines and benefits are managed at the federal government level with residents, businesses, and investors. And whereas Opportunity Zones are census tracts that serve as an economic development tool to encourage investment in economically distressed communities with long-term investments made to job creation, infrastructure, residential real estate redevelopment, business and industrial development, and contribute to overall community and economic health. And whereas the Municipality of West Milton residents would greatly benefit from this vitalization program that will help create positive generational impact. And whereas the Municipality of West Milton will complete the online nomination form for Census tract 39109345000, West Milton Rural, and request formal support for this nomination from elected leaders throughout Ohio. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio, that Section 1, Council supports the application to the Ohio Department of Development and the Governor of the State of Ohio for Opportunity Zone 2.0, as described above, and supports the village manager in the application process. Section 2, this resolution shall take effect and be in full force upon passage.

i just make a quick comment on that so um as you'll see within the packet i i do have a staff report but i think it's important for the opportunity zone 2.0 program for people to understand in the public there are only a number a certain number of census tracts in the state of ohio that qualify not only do they qualify but the governor is going to select a certain number of them um not all of them we as ohio have more that qualify than will be selected the opportunity zone 2.0 program is an expansion of the opportunity zone 1.0 program not a super creative name but within the 2025 one big beautiful bill the federal government made this program permanent throughout the country so as part of that this is just a financial opportunity for a census district within our community the census district for our community is pretty much everything west of the river so downtown it's a pretty large census tract that goes to the west side of that river so it would allow an investor to make an investment into west milton and have tax benefits through the federal government again we are not guaranteed to get that, but it is a process and a hope that we would get that designation, giving us a benefit to be able to utilize that for anyone that would want to make an investment in our community.

And, sir, I think it would be very beneficial with retail strategies that that would, what we're trying to do with revitalizing downtown, that that would help our case in putting in for this? Absolutely.

And in the Opportunity Zone 1.0 program, a lot of developers found those census tracts and made developments in those census tracts explicitly. So again, it gives us somewhat of a marketing tool where we have an opportunity for someone that maybe a different community doesn't. So even those that we're not outright reaching out to, they may reach out to us and we may have a different opportunity because of that designation. Nice.

So when we talk about like investors and developers, is that residential and commercial and industrial?

Yes, there's no, I don't believe there's any limitations on the type of development. Really, to not get too detailed, but the Opportunity Zone, generally it's about capital gains and how you can defer that development or that investment for up to five or ten years and the percentages. There's a calculation. I don't believe there's anything there that would limit the type of development.

That's great.

awesome thank you all right do we have any motions for go ahead and make a motion that we accept cm-26-47 second roll call mr fogle yes mr todd yes miss gregory yes miss metz yes miss richardson yes dr francis yes yes yes all right next we have cm-26-48

It's a resolution to appoint members to the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, the MVRPC. Whereas the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, known as the MVRPC, requires that the municipality of West Milton have delegates for their technical advisory commission and their executive board. And whereas the municipality currently has previous village manager D. Jeffrey Sheridan and previous mayor Scott Hurst as representatives, both of which no longer represent the municipality. And whereas the village council wishes to remove D. Jeffrey Sheridan and Scott Hurst as representatives. And whereas the village council wishes to appoint Jeremy Sodders as the elected official representative with Kyle Hinkleman as the board alternate representative. for the MVRPC Board of Directors. And whereas the Village Council wishes to appoint Ben Herron as the TAC delegate and Kyle Hinkelmann as the alternate TAC delegate for the Technical Advisory Committee. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the Village of West Milton, Ohio, that Section 1, D. Jeffrey Sheridan and Scott Hurst are hereby removed as representatives for the Municipality of West Milton with the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. Section 2, Mayor Jeremy Sodders is hereby appointed to be the primary representative, and Kyle Hinkelman, Village Manager, is appointed to be the board alternate for the MVRPC Board of Directors. Section 3, Ben Herron, service director, is hereby appointed to be the primary representative, and Kyle Hinkelman, village manager, is appointed to be the alternate delegate for the technical advisory committee. Section 4, this resolution shall take effect and be in full force upon passage.

Kyle, can you explain that?

Certainly. So the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, if you're not familiar, is a regional planning body that almost all jurisdictions in our area are members of. We are a member. We've been a member for many years. Every year we appoint people to that board or we are supposed to appoint delegates to that board. There are two boards. The board of directors or executive body is elected officials. And usually there's an alternate that kind of goes to most of the meetings, but the elected official certainly has a right to. The village had our previous mayor and previous municipal manager, so we have replaced them with our current mayor and current municipal manager. The TAC, or the Technical Advisory Committee, is a subcommittee of that group, and what they do is they review roadway applications, funding applications, dealing with public works. uh so what we've requested is to have ben uh as our service director and a very knowledgeable person when it comes to our roadways uh kind of be our primary person and then if he's unable to attend i will certainly cover the gap if necessary all right thank you all right any more discussion on thank you for getting that cleared up i'm doing that i appreciate that any emotions

On motion, we approve Resolution CN-26-48.

Second. Roll call.

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

Yes. Next is the Village Manager's Report. Good evening.

I think it's on. I think we're good. I'm excited to be here. So thank you for everyone that I've met. I've been very, very lucky to have a lot of people come into my office over the last couple weeks. It's been overwhelming, honestly, whether it's residents or businesses. just coming to talk. I've had a great experience with that. I'm also so thankful for the staff that we have here. I think as I learn every day, this community is blessed to have such a great group of people that are willing to put their time and effort to make this community better. I'm very excited about that. What I'd like to do at every meeting is kind of give you kind of a recap of some of the things that are going on in the village, let the public know. If there's any questions that the public has about anything that I bring up, I'd love for you to stop in my office. Feel free to give me a call. We can definitely talk about it. First thing to say, obviously you'll see there's been a couple changes to the meeting, kind of just the way that we do that. We're posting village agendas to the website. We're posting as many links as we can to our Facebook to get people to be able to hopefully watch this meeting tonight, as well as understand the materials that are going to be on this meeting for your consideration. The goal with all of this is to be as transparent as we can. So if there's a way that we can do that better, please just let us know. We certainly believe strongly in that, making sure that people understand what we're trying to achieve at these meetings. A couple things just in terms of projects, just to cover so you're aware. We have a State Route 571 pedestrian improvement project, which is a really long name for that thing that's going on in 571 that connects us to the hill. It's on the right side of the road as you drive down the road. So that project is an expanded pedestrian pathway, whether that's bikes, walking. We'll figure out golf carts when we get there. You know, all of that is occurring. It is on schedule and on budget right now. So the schedule is to be completed by 930. So hopefully here by the end of September, we will have a road back without giant orange cones. But that is the schedule right now. We are on schedule for that. We're also working on a sanitary sewer trunk main replacement project. So that one isn't quite as visible to most people, but it is a really important project to the village where we are working to replace the trunk line that goes from the wastewater treatment plant north about 3,200 feet of it. It's being replaced as well as 15 manholes that are part of that. So I believe We're on schedule for that. When is it completed, Ben?

So they started the lining today or this week.

So I would say another couple of weeks probably on the lining and then reclamation.

Yep. So we're well on schedule. We'll be done this year. That's going to be a great program for us. A lot of just as you'll understand as we try to go through some of these other projects as we move forward a lot of what I understand some of the challenges that we have is the infiltration that occurs in these pipes so every time we do a project hopefully it makes us a little more efficient and our pipes don't leak as much which allows us to have a reduction in what we call I&I and that helps us get lower waste which is what we really want so That's a great project for us. We're also looking at some other projects here at the end of the year which will probably set us up for next year like the Haskett and Hamilton Roadway Improvement Project. If anyone has ever driven down Haskett at 7 a.m. or three o'clock uh there's some impacts to that it's it's a little scary when you try to make a left turn um and so we're looking at that trying to understand some of those improvements in that area um nothing planned as of now we're just kind of looking at that that is very likely to become a project though uh in 2027. uh and then i just wanted to throw out um two other things really quickly the village service center renovations began as you are well aware you approved renovations for the service center that is started on monday so we believe that should be done before the winter and so we're excited about that our service guys are certainly excited about that And then finally, Stillwater Crossing. The only update I can really give you on the development is we are trying to schedule a meeting with the developer. Unfortunately, he has been in Florida and had some other things go. So I've yet to have a chance to meet with him. But I am going to be scheduling time to discuss the project. And I will make sure to update you as I can every month. My goal with all this as well on any of these projects, we're going to put together a project page on our website so the public can see kind of where we're at in timelines, budgets, all of those things. Again, our goal is to make sure people understand all the great things that we're doing in this community. We are certainly doing a whole heck of a lot of them. Additional to that, just so you guys are all aware, the Village is working through our health insurance right now, so unfortunately, as I would imagine most businesses that are seeing, the rates are not as lovely as we'd like them to be. So we're probably gonna bring you back some information about that as that comes forward. But then I want to finish with the good news. The village has so many great things. If you were part of this village on the 4th of July, you saw it. You saw all the people come together and put together from the 5K to the parade to the carnival to the fireworks. It was an absolutely wonderful day in this community. We celebrated the 250th anniversary of our country, and I think we definitely did it proud. It was an absolutely wonderful day. I know there were some concerns about fireworks, which I think it's important to remind people the village doesn't put the fireworks off, but that was a decision that was made by the people that were in charge to do it a little bit early, very similar to what Englewood did and Troy did. It was a safety concern, and we certainly support that. decision that they made. I know it was beautiful and everybody enjoyed it. So I'm very glad. Last but not least, the fire department waffles on Friday has begun. So if you do not get those waffles on Friday, you're missing out because they're pretty stinking good. So that's all that I have for you, Mayor. If there's any other questions that council has of me, I'd be more than happy to address any questions from you guys. Yes, please.

I'd be right if I didn't have a couple. So when you talk to Ron and Jason Stillwater Crossings, could you see, they have said before that every few months they're gonna come to a workshop. If they could come to our workshop either in July or August to give us an update and the rest of the public an update. And please ask them about the high grass and weeds, because I'm sorry, I drive that every day. on the way to work, on the way home from work, and it's a terrible look coming into our village, I'm sorry. It's just, it's not good, both sides. Certainly. Yep. And I know coming up in August time frame, I believe, The Finance Committee is going to be meeting three members from Council along with all the department heads. I didn't know if we are targeting a time frame for that and who from Council might be interested in doing it. I know that I would think that Mr. Francis over there would be a good candidate. i would like to be involved this year if uh everyone else on council is fine that wasn't last year so i mean i'd also like to be on it but i'm okay if you want to rock paper scissors i yield you go ahead yeah so we're only allowed to have three correct uh and uh i know that that's coming up uh in the near term so i just thought i'd throw it out there was the october sir

oh i thought it was august yeah so what the time actually i uh had a good conversation with jill today about our timeline for budgets um i will admit to you that i am still trying to fully understand where we bring money in and how we spend money um but understanding the budget timeline we are working to keep what roughly what you said so We're going to be meeting with our department heads here at the end of July, early August, to talk through a preliminary kind of setup for that. You're going to get a little bit of a different budget process this year. I really believe strongly in a budget book that has a narrative and explains why we're doing what we're doing. So you can understand some of that, which takes a little bit more legwork, but I think it helps in terms of our transparency with the public and how we're trying to achieve our goals. We're going to do a little bit more setup. So that's going to take us probably at the beginning or middle of July here in the next two weeks. We're going to get then everything set up with kind of the general process. So probably by August workshop is when we're going to have our first kind of first conversation about that. And then we will have to, after that, meet with the committee to talk through everything to get it prepared for September. The long and the short of it is we will have it done so we adopt it in December, which requires us to have it on the agenda in November.

Yes, sir. Sounds great. And the last thing is the Founders Park. Any updates with Founders Park and where things stand with that?

Go for it, man. You got anything? Yeah, so we're surveying it because the property pins, we can't find them. I even sent Tim Schwartstrauber out when he couldn't find them. I knew they weren't there. So we're having a survey. Manager Henkelman asked me to go out for pricing, so we're going to get some survey work done. They'll reset the pins, and then after that, we're pretty much ready to go. on everything. The parking area in the back, I marked that out. Our crews for now are going to just dig that, put in gravel, and then we'll have to look at the fence contractor. He's ready to go. And then we've already got it set, the shade structure to go in. I think we're probably going to put it in a flat area so it still leaves us the rest of the park to grade.

In the future, that's going to be a large project and fairly expensive.

the trees that were there and that sort of thing. So at least we will have some tables, some shade, and then we can start working on the rest as we go.

And I will say, and I think I've spoken to most of council, I mean, my goal is to provide to you a park plan, something that shows kind of what we've got in our parks, kind of goes along with that facilities plan concept, shows each of our parks what amenities we have, and then shows, you know, priorities in each of those parks or projects that we have. So we can talk through those and make sure we understand kind of the impacts of whatever we're doing in each of those. So you can also understand the timelines, like, as you asked.

Sounds great. Thanks. That's all I have.

Any more council comments? All right. Any motions for adjournment?

Motion to be adjourned. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Why?