City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Thursday, May 14th meeting of Zenaia City Council. At this time, we're going to have an EV invocation led by Pastor Al Refett from Victory Life Christian Center, followed by the pledge of allegiance led by Councilwoman Faith Sice. If you could please rise. Good evening everybody. Good evening.

Our gracious heavenly father, we come before you tonight. Lord, we thank you for our council members, our city administration folk. Father, we thank you for Madame Law. Lord, we're just so grateful to live in a wonderful community that we live in. And Lord, we invoke your blessing tonight upon these uh government officials and these that uh lead our city. And Lord, your word even encourages us to pray for them that we can live in a peaceful habitation and quiet lives. And and so, Father, we just ask that, Lord, you continue to give them wisdom, Lord, as they make decisions that affect our community. We pray, God, for strength when they come up against injustices. We pray for courage, Lord, when they face adversity. And Lord, we pray a hedge of protection around and about our community and all of our leaders. Lord, we just thank you that your angels, Lord, is just dispatched all four corners of our city and our county. that father things may go well with us and we thank you that this is truly a city of hospitality. In Christ's name we pray and amen.

Amen. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you, Pastor Al. Thank you, Councilwoman Sice, for that pledge of allegiance. We're going to call the meeting to order at this time, and we're going to ask our city clerk for a roll call, please. Vice President Crawford here. Councilwoman Sice here. Council Miss Gavage here. Councilwoman Huffman here. Councilman Rubio here. Mayor Reynolds here. President Smith

here. Um, next on the agenda is approval of minutes. These are the minutes from our April 23rd regular meeting. U, the minutes are before us. I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes as written. I'll seconded. Thank you. Seconded. Um motion made by Councilman Crawford, seconded by the mayor. Is there any additions or corrections needed noted on these minutes? All right, we'll accept these into record. Can I get a roll call, please? Vice President Crawford. I. Councilwoman Sice, I. Councilman Mscavage, hi. Councilwoman Huffman, hi. Councilwoman Rubio, I. Mayor Reynolds, hi. President Smith, I. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. We have an opportunity tonight for a special presentation recognizing the Zena High School baseball team. And I'm going to turn the floor over to Councilman Mscavage for this.

All right. Uh the team's at uh baseball game right now, but they did win uh the Miami uh Valley uh divisional title. Um so that was a great accomplishment for them. It's been a fun season. And um bragging my son, he had two walk-off RBI's which were exciting and earned him the right to get dumped in water. So um by the cooler. So um thank you for this opportunity and um that's pride in our town. It's good. Thank you. Very good. Thank you very much. And feel free to inter uh invite the team to a meeting when Yeah. they have an opportunity.

Yeah. I had that all set. No worries. Yeah. So, they're playing tonight and then what's their record right now? Uh, they're like two games over 500 for baseball. That's pretty good. And and for what they've were and where they are now is real exciting. Very good. Very good. Well, certainly appreciate that. Thank you very much. Does anyone have anything to add to that? All right. Great. We're going to move into audience comments. This is the portion of the meeting where anyone in our audience is welcome to come and address the city council. We do ask that you give your name and address for uh record for city clerk and we would ask you to limit your comments three to five minutes if anyone would care to come forward.

Hi there. Um, my name is Jared Murphy and I live at 1673 Arizona Court. And I'm here today for two reasons. Uh, the first reason is because I noticed that there was another vote on the recent ballot uh about uh trying to collect a road levy, but it was once again a income tax. And it, you know, we already have quite a bit of income tax. And I I just feel it would be more fair if we went for something more like a property tax for it. Now, I was kind of running the numbers and it looks like it'd be about $300 per year for a normalsized house. So, I don't know, maybe other people are looking at it the same way. So, just something to consider. But the other thing that brings me here today is I've had quite the negative run in with some of the utility companies in the area recently. So, um my my property, it resides right behind uh US 35 and there is an easement that runs right along 35 but on the residential side. And if you guys have ever driven down 35, you might have noticed that there's a lot of trees through there. Well, this utility company, which it seems like they might have picked the bottom of the bottom when it comes to installers because they dug outside of the easement for one, and they also cut straight through some of my critical tree roots. So, these are 6-in roots that have been severed, and the tree could potentially, well, several trees could potentially die because of this on not only my property, but some of the properties that go down

35. So, there's not much on a local level that can be done about it from my understanding, except within the public right of way. So that wouldn't necessarily help me. But if there was some sort of ordinance of sorts that was like, "Hey, you guys need to be respectful of trees if you're around the roots, like if you're below the canopy or um I was looking at some other ways that people uh word this in laws and it's like uh for every 1 inch of the tree diameter, you have to be 1 ft from that if you want to actually trench down versus using a water boring machine, which is a lot more friendly. friendly roots. So, um I have a draft here if you guys are interested in seeing it of a potential ordinance type deal. Obviously, it'll need some work and you know review from the law director and all that good stuff. But it could be something to start with and serve as an inspiration. But that is all.

You want to share that? You judge it. You're welcome to share that with Miss Fischer. Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely. Great. Here you go. Thank you. You're welcome. I also have some other copyright for an arborist.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for speaking tonight. We we do appreciate your comments. Um and we'll we'll take that into consideration um at the end of the meeting. Mr. Henry, if you want to maybe um answer some of those questions for him. Certainly would appreciate that. Anyone else care to come forward at this time under audience comments and address city council. All right, seeing no one else come forward, we're going to move on to old business. Our first item is ordinance 2026-16 titled a public hearing tonight amending certain sections of chapters 12224 1226 1228 1230 1234 1236 1238 1244 of the city of Zenaia Land Development Code. At this time I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Henry.

Yes, sir. Uh first I just want to remark uh if you'll allow me. Um a couple of us have been in DC the last couple days lobbing on behalf of the city and I just want to make sure that the the residents here know that uh the mayor specifically uh has been driving all night through some snafuss. Some some idiot scheduled his plane tickets uh improperly but um he missed he wasn't able to to to catch his flight. So he literally drove from DC uh to uh make it so he could be here today. So that's uh basically you know three hours of sleep in the last 48 hours to make sure he could be here today. So I think it's a pretty loudable thing that he wanted to be here for that tonight. Um but to the ordinance now um so these changes are based upon recommendations provided by the next plan document which solicited feedback of over 900 senior residents and stakeholders. And then in addition to this uh next plan uh participation process, the zoning updates uh for this year included nearly 500 participants. So it's been a lot of feedback, a lot of engagement. The goals of this year's uh proposed text amendments essentially amount to improving the quality of life, revitalizing existing neighborhoods, and encouraging greater housing choice. So, the zoning update for this year accomplishes these goals by rewriting and reorganizing the city's residential zoning districts and standards while making tweaks to standards for business districts, off- streetet parking, parkland dedication, and subdivision design standards. For any specific questions, we have our uh planning and zoning uh coordinator here, Mr. Brian Forsner, and I'd be happy to take a crack at him as well.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Henry. And any questions for um our assistant city manager tonight or for Mr. Forer on this item? All right. Thank you. At this time, I'm going to open the public hearing and invite anyone in the audience that would care to come and speak either in favor or against these amendments. You could do so at this time. If you could come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Limit your comments three to five minutes. All right. Very good. This time I'm going to close the public hearing. This item was introduced by Councilwoman Sice at the April 23rd regular meeting. Would you care to move for passage on that? Yes, I would. Very much.

Thank you. Move for passage by Councilwoman Sice. Do we have a second? I'll second. Seconded by Counciloman Muscavage. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll get a roll call on this item. Vice President Crawford. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. Councilman Mscavage. Hi. Councilwoman Huffman, I. Councilman Rubio, hi. Mayor Reynolds, hi. President Smith, I. Motion carries.

Thank you. Next on the agenda under old business is another public hearing. This is for ordinance 2026-17. This is amending the official zoning map of the city of Zenaia pursuant to the recommendations of the next plan, the cities of Zena's adopted comprehensive plan. And at this time, I will turn the floor back over to Mr. Henry.

Uh, yes. Sorry. Um, I don't know if I'm just allowed to say ditto basically for this, but it's uh basically the same thing as the first one we just passed except for this would change the zoning map. All right. Very good. Any questions for Mr. Henry? Right. I'm going to open the floor again for um public hearing and invite anyone that would be in the audience if they would care to come forward speak either in favor or against the zoning changes. All right. See no one come forward. We're going to close the public hearing on that. There you go. There's the official gavl and um this was introduced at our last meeting by Councilman Skavich. Would you um like to move for passage? Yes.

Thank you very much. Do we have a seconded by the mayor? Further discussion necessary. All right. Seeing none, we'll get a roll call on this item, please. Vice President Crawford, I. Councilwoman Sice, I. Councilwoman Msgavage, I. Councilwoman Huffman, I. Councilman Rubio. Hi, Mayor Reynolds. Hi, President Smith. I. Motion carries.

Thank you. Moving on to new business. Our first item is resolution 2026-30. This is authorizing the submittal of an application to the Ohio Department of Development to use the city's 2026 CDBG allocation grant funding for downtown safety crossing and concrete repair for the city's fair housing program and approving the use of the city's CDBG program income on the downtown safety crossing and concrete repair project. At this time, we're going to turn the floor over to Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. President. Uh so this one is going to be a little lengthy for uh especially for me. So in compliance with federal citizen participation requirements, the city of Zenaia must hold one public hearing to cover general aspects of the community development block grant which CDBG and one application specific public hearing before submission of any project applications to the state of Ohio. In 2026 grant cycle, we've considered a lot of projects and our allocation is 164,000. Uh it is the recommendation of staff that this grant be used for the downtown safety crossing and concrete repair project for maintaining the city's fair and for maintaining the city's fair housing program. So, the project itself will repair uh and replace uh failing concrete and curbing along the south side of West Main Street between South Detroit and South King Streets, as well as the addition of a dedicated pedestrian crosswalk approximately 50 ft long east of King Street aligning with the east eastern most portion of North King Street. This project also includes ADA ramps, a pedestrian refuge island, signage, and a rectangular rapid flashing uh beacon. Uh development service staff recommends 162,000 of this uh grant and um to be used towards the project and then 28,000 um of the program income uh balance to be used towards the project which has an estimated total cost of $45,000 900 uh45911. The remaining 2,000 of this grant will be reserved for the fair housing program expenses as the um city utilize that to help uh citizens in need of that program. And the remaining funds uh towards this project will be used from our fund uh 361. If you have any other questions, we have Mr. Baker in attendance who' be happy to answer those.

And Mr. President, just a reminder, as indicated on the cover memo, this resolution does require a public hearing. I know we don't usually do those on resolutions, but the CD CDBG process requires that. All right, very good. Are we doing that public hearing tonight then? Please. Okay, very good. Thank you for um explanation of that. All right, any questions for Mr. Henry? Yes, Mr. Henry. I was curious whether this grant included um speed crossings that we had discussed in other venues. It's a great question. No, sir. This uh this would be a totally separate project, totally separate matter. Uh those will be funded through our uh 361 I believe.

All right. Very good. All right. There's no further questions for Mr. Henry at this time. I'm going to go ahead and open the floor as a public hearing. Invite anyone that would care to come forward at this time. Speak either in favor or against this resolution. You can do so at this time. I'm going try to hold the c crowd back. Just kidding. Right. Very good. All right. We're going to close the public hearing on that. Thank you very much. And at this time, I will ask for a motion to um approve the resolution. So moved. Thank you. Moved by the mayor. And I'll second. Seconded by the vice president. There's no further discussion. I need a roll call, please. Vice President Crawford. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. Councilman Missgavich.

Hi. Councilwoman Huffman. Hi. Councilman Rubio. Hi. Mayor Reynolds. Hi. President Smith. Hi. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is item resolution 2026-31. This is establishing the downtown facade improvement program for the purpose of awarding matching grants to downtown businesses and b building owners for building facade improvements. At this time, we'll turn the floor back over to Mr. Henry.

Yes, sir. Thank you. This is an exciting one. This uh project came about through citizen engagement. and someone brought us a problem and we tried to find a solution and I think this this does the trick. So, as part of the city's commitment to revital revitalization of the downtown area, uh development uh services staff is recommending the creation of a downtown facade improvement program, which is currently in the budget already. This program is intended to offer matching grants as financial incentives for commercial enterprise and businesses to make facade improvements to buildings in the downtown urban core area. Matching grants may be awarded for qualifying building owners or tenants in the downtown um urban area and for exterior facade improvements that enhance and protect the in integrity of the city's downtown urban core. Individual grants may be awarded up to 50% of eligible project costs up to a maximum award of $50,000 per project. For this year, we have allocated $100,000 for this program.

All right. Thank you. Questions for either Mr. Henry or Mr. Baker. Thanks for being in the audience tonight. I just just want to say thank you both for this. I think it's a great thing. I'm happy to support this measure. Uh I know we talked about it last year, so it's good to see it finally come to fruition. It's going to help revitalize the downtown, I think. So, very good. Any other comments? I want to piggyback on that. A lot of times we take a lot of heat up here for the city is not being businessfriendly. Um, this is actually the opposite of that. This is actually helping businesses in our community, especially downtown, uh, which is vital for, uh, viability of our community to have a healthy downtown. So, um, any other questions? I

I do want to go on record and say that Madame Law Director has been very helpful with this process and, uh, I know it's been sort of aggravating for her at times because we're creating this from kind of from scratch, but uh, just really thank you for your your help. So, all right. Thank you, Miss Fischer, on that. All right, there's no other comments. We'll go ahead and entertain a motion to approve resolution 202631. So moved. Moved by the mayor. Second. Seconded by Councilwoman Sice. There's no further discussion. We'll get a roll call, please. Vice President Crawford, I. Councilwoman Sice, I. Councilwoman Miss Gavage, hi. Councilwoman Huffman, hi. Counciloman Rubio, I. Mayor Reynolds, hi. President Smith, I. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. Our next item is resolution 2026-32. This is determining that city- owned properties located at 414 East 3rd Street, 441 East 3rd, 491 East 2nd Street, and 499 East 2nd Street are not needed for any municipal purpose. And we are authorizing the city manager to use negotiations or informal competition for the sale of these said properties. So, Mr. Henry will please explain that.

Yes. So, development services uh staff recommends that council declare the following city-owned properties not needed for municipal use and authorize the city manager to make them available for sale uh in accordance with city charter so they can be returned to private and productive use. The sale of these properties will also relieve the city from maintenance, mowing, and liability costs. Um, if the city manager is able to negotiate for the sale of any of these properties, the sale will be brought back to council for approval as required by city charter and I am happy to answer any questions and again we have Mr. Baker in the audience as well. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Henry. Any questions for him? These were all taken by tax. All right.

All right. This time I'll entertain a motion for um the sale of these properties. So moved. Moved by the vice president. Second. Seconded by Councilwoman Huffman. There's no further discussion. We'll get a roll call, please. Vice President Crawford. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. Councilman Mscavage. Hi. Councilwoman Huffman. Hi. Councilman Rubio. Hi. Mayor Reynolds. Abstain due to my employment for the state of Ohio. President Smith. I. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Our next item is resolution 2026-33. This is authorizing the execution of a pre-anexation agreement with Central State University. So at this time, I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Henry.

Yes. Thank you, sir. So, the city of Zenaia has provided various municipal services to the Central State University campus for many decades.

Starting with supplemental water service and later sanitary sewer service uh to the early to mid 1900s, city's delivery has always evolved and expand in the ensuing decades. Um this includes exclusive water and sanitary se utilities for the university as well as fire rescue and EMS functions. While the extr territorial service delivery arrangement brought benefit to both parties, no updated water service or sanitary sewer service agreements have been have existed for some time now. Furthermore, the extr territorial agreement provided neither long-term certainty nor maximal financial value to either party. So after extensive evaluation and trust me extensive evaluation going back decades now both CSU and city administration leadership determined that the annexation of the campus could be lawfully achieved and was both practical and beneficial uh to both parties. So negotiations happened in earnest um I'd say over the last 12 to 18 months in particular and resulted in this pre-annexation agreement um which establishes certain conditions and commitments by all the parties that would otherwise not be addressed through stat through the normal annexation process. So all things considered annexation presents a solid financial win for the city. So, we're looking at probably a net total increase of an estimated $216,000 a year, but that the key thing to really focus in on is that about 445,000 would be put into our general or key operating funds, which allow us to to be a little bit more mobile with those funds. So, that could be used for uh public safety, it could be used for um uh streets, road repair, things of that nature. So, it's not just the the net, you have to look at which bucket of money this is going into, and that's a pretty big deal. Uh, and with all this, there's only a minimal uh increase in service demand. So, just to be clear,

this is a mutually beneficial um agreement for both parties, and it represents a true win-win uh for both CSU and the city of Zeno. All right. Very good. All right, Mr. President. Yes, sir. to to our clerk of council. Obviously, on three hours of sleep, I made a mistake on the last vote. I was reading ahead. Uh, can I switch my vote to yes on the last ordinance and abstaining on this ordinance due to my job. Sorry. 3 hours sleep messed me up. My bad. If necessary, I've asked that Chief Billen be on the standby with um some smelling salts. Yeah. Uh I I I feel a little bit like Mitch McConnell right now, not where I'm at. Gosh. What? All right.

All right. Very good. All right. So, um, thank you for that analysis and at this time I'll open the floor if anyone has any questions and I have a couple. So, madame law directors, so moving forward with this, do we need approval from county commissioners on this yet or is this just the the way the project will work? Well, a a couple things. This is just the pre-annexation agreement, but you'll notice I also included language in the actual resolution um to do another extension for the extr territorial utility service agreement because that runs out Monday.

Um and of course, no matter what we do, if an annexation gets approved, that won't happen before Monday. So, in this resolution, you're also authorizing an extension of that existing agreement for another four months. The process for annexation we already have scheduled on your next agenda. Um you have to introduce an ordinance approving annexation of stateowned land. So we would have the introduction at your second meeting in May. You'll have your public hearing and vote at your first meeting in June. We have to wait the 30 days for that ordinance to become effective. Um, under state statute, the council is to authorize if it's a village, the um, village solicitor. If it's a city, the law director, other person that you choose, um, it can be me or if you want to choose someone else, but once that 30 days is up, then I would file a petition with the county commissioners. Um, they have 30 days to act on it. If they do approve it, it becomes effective immediately. it does not come back to you for approval the way most annexations do. Um because unlike any other annexation, this is one that the city does actually file itself. Um I know a lot of people see annexation, they think that the city has filed those. We don't. We never do. It's the property owner. Um so in this this situation is unique. It will be us that files it. So this is the first step. Your next meeting will have the ordinance for introduction. Um, if you pass that ordinance, then at your first meeting in June, we'd be looking at July for the petition to be filed.

Right. Very good. For approval. At what level? At the final. It gets filed with the county commissioners and it's it's done. Yeah. All right. Very good. Thank you for all the hard work. This has been years in the making. Decades in the making, actually. This is a campaign issue 2016 or 17. I remember people I started in August of 2017 and it was my third day of work and Brent put me in front of the commissioners on the bike path annexation. It's been ongoing for at least a while and I I know it was many years before I I got here as well. So it's giving you some gray hair. Yeah. Yeah. These are all from you guys.

Gotcha. All right. Very good. All right. At this time, we are going to um open the floor up for any questions for either Mr. Henry, uh Miss Fischer. No. All right. And at this time, I'll open uh open for an adoption. Who would like to make a motion to approve this resolution? So moved. Thank you. Moved by the vice president. Do we have a second? I'll second. Seconded by Councilwoman Muscavage. And we'll get a roll call, please. Vice President Crawford. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. Councilman Missgavage. I. Councilwoman Huffman. I. Councilman Rubio. I. Mayor Reynolds. Abstain due to my job. President Smith. I. Motion carries.

Thank you very much. Next is um on the agenda is the appointed officials reports. We always look forward to these. I usually start with Mr. Duke. Would you care to enlighten us? Thank you, Mr. President. Uh I did just finish up the monthly report for the month of April uh this afternoon. Uh you should receive that in your mailboxes in the morning. So, you have that to look forward to. I know everybody's so excited to see those those monthly financial reports. Um, but that's all I have this evening. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you might have. All right. Thank you. Any questions for our finance director tonight? All right. Thank you. Moving on to Madame Law Director. What do you have for us tonight?

Um, just a reminder, um, in case Mr. Henry forgets between now and the um next meeting the city will be closed on the 25th of May for Memorial Day. So just a reminder that the courts and and city administration building will not be open. All right. Very good. Thank you. Um besides that, all I threw me off.

All right. Um if it's my turn now. Uh all I had to say was uh we do have the ham benchion on the fairgrounds this weekend. It's a huge um sort of temporary population driver for the city and uh it's been a tremendous success and so I believe it's open all most of tomorrow, all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday. So if you have a chance, go out there and have some fun.

All right. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Henry regarding city operations or the upcoming ham convention. All right. And we welcome the ham convention here in Zena. Um we get a little bump on that. I know it's frustrating for people if they travel, but I I think they've pretty much got it down to a science. Um do we know where um they're parking and transporting people through shuttles?

I don't have that off the top of my head. I know a good resource is the Green County Convention Visitors Bureau. They have a lot of this information out there. They help coordinate a lot of things. Um I will say in the next 24 months or so hopefully as the city adds to no two new hotels, I'm hoping fingers crossed that I think the the local businesses will see much more of a solid bump as people stay in the city and shop in the city for this event. So great.

All right. Very good. Thank you so much. All right. Any questions for Mr. Henry? And thanks for sitting in for Mr. Mayorman tonight and we appreciate that. And um do you want to um discuss the fly in or do you want um the mayor you're going to discuss that tonight? Thank you very much on those notes. All right. So, I'm going to move to um council comments right now and we'll start on my left with Council Member Muscavage.

All right. Thank you. Um, want a huge shout out to Brian Forer and his crew on the zoning reform. Um, last session, Faith mentioned the benefits for those retiring. There's also huge benefits for those starting off in life. Um, previously your only choice pretty much was an apartment or a house that was 2,000 square feet and the current prices of those are pretty high. So this will allow smaller houses for families to get started and on my mind is college tuition for my high school and college student and now housing. So I think this helps out a lot with that and helps uh encourage local builders and the one thing there's several things to learn on Facebook but one of the things I see quite often is people looking to rent from local landlords. And so I think this will actually encourage um local landlords and provide for us more housing in existing streets and water and sewer lines without additional maintenance costs which is absolutely fantastic. Congratulations Brian. Um all right couple events I've been to. I was able to meet with Paul Hoover who's the president of Soy Medical Center and Keting Health at Green Memorial um along with President Smith and Councilman Huffman. we got uh to take a tour of Green Memorial um and we get to see their plans uh to invest $40 million in Zenia both at the current hospital, the new um center at the YMCA and learn how um AI will assist in the hospital rooms um by um listening to the conversations and automatically doing the the uh charting

which will increase the uh patient time with the doctor and I think those are fantastic improvements um on the horizon for medical service. Um I also was invited by Zenia School's XStar gifted program. The fifth graders put together a very fun event of mini golf. Uh they had 18 courses and students worked in groups to um create mini golf um holes that were tailored to their interest. And no one wants to make an easy uh miniature golf hole. So they were full of uh challenges and my score reflected those challenges. But they were gracious to me with a very high level of pars. Um my kids went through that program. I think um really showcases the talents of our kids and our teachers there particularly Donna Shaw that leads that program. And that is all I have. Thank you.

All right. Thank you JD. appreciate that. Um, before I forget, while we move on, those of you that are in the audience, is the microphones helping, can you hear us better? Okay, good. It's a little weird up here. Am I right? I thought it was my hearing aids last meeting. And thank you for your honesty. All right. Very good. So, you know, that this is a request we we asked um and city staff has worked with it to help us with that. Um, we definitely want people to hear, especially people that are watching this online. So, hopefully this will help quite a bit. Yeah. If you're online and you like this, just give us a thumbs up right now. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Miss Fisher, can you hear me better now? What? That was good. That was great. All right, we'll move on. It does kind of sound like we're inside an empty locker room to begin with. The echo does. It is a little crazy up here. All right. Um, Councilwoman Sice, can you enlighten us? What do you have tonight? Yeah, just a few quick things. Um, we were invited to the dispatch and fire department's award banquet um on the 29th at the Green County Career Center and it was of course a very moving Yes.

and excellent banquet. They just do such a nice job in general and how they take time to recognize um everyone's individual efforts and then as a whole how they make everything happen and come together um for the good of this community. So we were really I think you know everybody tries to get to all these events and it's so hard but I was really happy that I was able to attend that. So, it was done very well. And then on the 30th, um I got to go to the uh metropolitan planning um meeting um and I think councilwoman

Yeah, Huffman was there. So, that was fun. We got to sit together. We had a good time and um it was their annual spring meeting. Um so, get to find out um what's going on in McGomery County and Miami and Green were all in that regional conference. So, that was nice. And then just this Tuesday, Green County Career Center had their annual senior recognition ceremony at the Nutter Center. It's of course not a graduation because they do graduate from their home school, but uh 448 students um were able to walk across and receive their passport for graduation and over I think $3 million was awarded and scholarships this year. So pretty outstanding. So very happy to get to attend that as well.

Very good. Thank you. It was great seeing you there. Congratulations to all the graduates. Also keeping in mind Zenius graduation's next week. I believe they'll have close to about 300 graduates at Nutter Center next Wednesday 7:00. So safe travels. Also keep in mind too there there's the route. There's I think New Germany Trayvine Roads closed. So you do have to uh consider a little bit more time if you're watching this. So um don't leave at the last second. New Germany trade line is is closed right now. But why? I have no idea. Okay. Yeah. Probably probably utility work, right? No, I don't know.

But uh who knows why but anyway. All right. Thank you very much, Miss Ree. I know you've been very busy. I've seen you at a lot of events. So thank you for representing the city. Um, Miss Huffman, what do you have for us tonight?

Um, just really a repeat. I mean, I don't want to blabber anything, but I was able to attend um the events uh that they were talking about. So, the Ketarine Health um tour at Green Memorial, that was great to see. I mean, I think that they're really um embracing a lot of newer technology and different um just maximizing um the limited pool of of doctors and you know practitioners that we are all experiencing in the health field. Um so I'm excited to see what they're going to be doing just um aesthetically as well to Green Memorial and um with the new facility. So that was nice to see. Um, and then I'll let Ethan um, really cover a lot of the flying, but I was able to go on behalf of uh, my company emerge, but I was able to kind of do a twofold thing where um, I could represent Zenia as well. My first time to DC, which was just amazing. I'm not a big city person, so um, I would definitely go back. I will go back. Um but just the privilege and opportunity to go and represent um was just incredible to me. Um and it it was a great time on top of that beautiful weather. And so uh I think that's it.

Very good. Thank you for going and representing Z on that trip as well and uh also at the green memorial tour. That was fantastic. So very good. Thank you. All right, Councilman Rubio, what do you have for us tonight? Um, roads. I see we've we we've started uh Thank you.

doing some patching uptown. Looks great. Great. Um, you know, I'm not a fan of the of the orange cones and and burrows, but it's well worth it. Um, do we have a start date for road work um on Hollywood or on our list? On our list? Um, I believe we're pricing some of that stuff out right now. I know Brian's been working with the city engineer. I don't know where we are currently. Are you street list or the Hollywood uh traffic resurfacing? Oh, this year.

Um, I know it's been we've got the bids. I think we're going through the contracting process, but I think we're I don't know when the start date is. We Yeah, it's it's change order was just executed. I think it'll probably be in the August time frame before they actually start the the resurfacing. May maybe July, but um but I don't think it'll be here in the next month or or two. There's a lot that goes into just being able to pull the trigger on it. We're we're well underway, but a little bit of this is subject to change, but I mean to Ryan's point, yeah, I think late summer is when you're going to see a lot of So, looks nice out there.

Thank you, sir. So, while we're on the roads topic, um 35 Main Street between Church and Orange, there was a lot of utility work in front of some of those restaurants and stuff. So, is is that the final patch or will that be smoothed out? That I do not know. I can get back to you on that one. You know what I'm talking about. Have you guys heard that? It's kind of like, wow. you know, and and I know it's progress, but it it seems it always

undermines the integrity of the street when there it's just that constant getting underneath and repatching it. So, um just curious on that one. We could get an answer later. That would be fine. All right. Anything for Mr. Rubio? All right. Thank you so much for your comments. Um Vice President, what do you have for us? I'm just glad to be here and I wanted to say I did attend the awards ceremony. Thanks to the chief. Um he brought up something interesting. I I generally when you see two departments being awarded together, you see just you sense a you sense the non-comamaraderie and I thought what was fascinating to see the dispatch being appreciated along with the fire the fire services the fire efforts the the ambulance um things that that all go and work together in unison. And I thought it was interesting just to watch it because I think so often we have we we compartmentalize and we departmentalize our lives and I say I'm here and you guys are over there and to see to see what was done at that awards ceremony. I for me I I got a chance to be somewhat I get inspired over small things like that. I you know I know there's a metric to everything we do. There's a metric to what you uh most of the city people or I should say most of our community is looking for us to manage control and handle. But but I will tell you you can't put a metric to wanting to work together and you can't put a metric to being appreciative for the city you live in. There's no metric for that. There's no metric for wanting to be in Zena. But I will tell you there's a good feeling for being here. Uh, and I've never ever have experienced that before prior to here since I've been on council. Um, and some of that has to go with I'm working with some clients out of out of state. They're looking hard in Zenaia. They're looking hard. I'm surprised. I mean,

people are out of state are hearing about Zena and I'm just serving them as a client. I mean, I'm serving them as a as a as a servant. So, uh, that that I want to leave that alone. And then um we had a BCA meeting um that Brian was leading. We had one we had one agenda item and I'm just I'm just going to do a top down. I can't remember the details. I left my phone in I left my phone somewhere but it's I don't have my notes but uh anyway it had more to do with the Garshack on on Belbrook. Can you am I correct Brian? And the concern was that the Garshack was too close to Belbrook and there was going to be congestion on Belbrook Avenue for those residences that live there. One of the things I thought was interesting and I you know um and we all chose to live where we lived. You know I live on I live well I live in two locations but I chose to live on the east side of Zenia and I knew what I was getting into when I chose to live there. And I put, you know, I'm just saying some of us live in busier corridors than others. And I'm I'm glad that the community that that came to voice their concerns, their concerns were addressed. And thank you, Brian, for handling that and and speaking to those concerns as well. Um, let's see. What is

I'm sorry, what was the decision? Oh, the decision was to approve uh the guard shack. the Garshack was being set back far enough and there were some questions that we couldn't answer and I know Brian were you able to do some research that took us any further that you wanted to share um because they were asking they were asking how many trucks were going to come and what what were the what was the busy times for that for that for that event. Yeah, you're welcome to come up. Right.

Yeah. So, this is 659 Belbrook. Um it's a uh distribution center that's going in there and the guard check is being proposed in the front for security. Uh there was a question asked about whether it's going to be a 24/7 operation and it is not. It will not be a 24/7 operation. Very nice. And they will they're aware they are very interested in not causing congestion on u on Belro and they don't anticipate that being a problem. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I I'm glad there's there's a new company wanting to invest again into our community in a business way. And thank you. Thank you again for your

Yeah, the variance was because the guard shack was in the front yard and we don't allow accessory building front yard. So that but they we approved it. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Brian. Thank you.

Okay. And then um I I just I I've attended a couple of charter review uh meetings and I want to just encourage council to be ears wide open. There's been a lot of work that's been done and we can anticipate some some interesting changes I think both make us more efficient and to make our community more efficient. And thank you, Miss Law Director, for you running that that situation as well. Um, but anyway, um, with that, I have nothing else.

All right. Thank you, Vice President Crawford. Appreciate that. Before we go to the mayor, though, I'm sorry, I I forgot we had a gentleman speak for that lived on Arizona court about um, workers bypassing the easement. It sound like it was in his property. Do you want to just kind of elaborate if a citizen sees Yes, sir. Um what the protocol should be,

right? And if I misspeak here or if I failed to eliterate on something, please uh law director. Um but essentially it it is the the right of and the responsibility of the individual resident to do that. That being said, I do have kind of a digital rolodex of contacts at most of these companies I've been kind of sharing. Uh so if do you know who the utility and you don't necessarily have to go on the record and say it, but maybe we can interface after this and if uh you tell me who the utility provider is if you happen to know. Uh I may have a contact pretty high up the chain that I can get involved with this. So uh I'll make that available to you. And then also just thank you for being involved and thank you. We trust me we get your frustrations. Um a lot of us are we're all residents of Virginia too and we're a lot of us are going through the same thing. So uh there's very little we can do but we are looking at everything within our power. So

well if this if we're not talking installation of microfiber if we're talking because a lot of times the electric company if there's overhead lines will come in cut trees clear things out. Any complaints about that can be filed with PUCO or the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and that can be filed directly on their website because PUCO does regulate the electric company and the phone companies. All right. Very good. All right. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to Mayor Reynolds. I know you've been very busy, so let us know what you got going on.

All right. So, I'll try to make this quick. Uh just outside of the DC flyin, uh Tony Dunie came, the former Colts coach came to Zena to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I attended that. I want to thank you, Council President, for doing the National Day of Prayer uh for us. I was there, but I had to leave early. Uh also spoke to Domes Elementary third grade class about what the mayor does. Um but uh this week we had the ability to go to the DC the DDC flyin, sorry. Uh so we I was able to set meetings for our staff uh myself and then Councilwoman Huffman to go meet with Congressman Turner. Um some so you know we talked with him about the 2 million requested for the community project funds that he has requested for us and as that makes its way through the house. Uh during that meeting it came up that he would like us to pass a resolution in honor of Gail Whitney the WH reporter for the renaming of the post office. He also is aware of the post office's uh inability to have uh uh folks with disabilities to get into that post office. So uh he he we did speak with him about that. Also met with Congressman uh David Taylor uh and spoke with him and then also Senator Houston. So it was great to kind of lobby on behalf of our city uh for you know getting those funds uh through the community project funds. It was good time uh great conference good lot great amount of people. Uh but you know, one thing I kept hearing throughout the time and especially from both Congressman Turner and Kerry was Zen is on the move. People know it. They constantly are talking about it. Uh there is, you know, the Phoenix is rising from the ashes again as uh as Congressman Kerry put it. So like we are, you know, making strides and I think it's excellent and you know, 2,600 new homes being built. Uh you know, uh base employment is high. So, and then obvious also additionally I don't have in my notes but the base uh is hiring 2,000 right correct additional employees this year that they want. So

uh which is huge. So you know welcome to Zena. So those folks that is all I have. Thank you very much. I'll concur with that. I I believe we live in a a great community. Yes.

Um Zena has been very blessed with safety. Uh we have great mix of diversity, um great mix of income, uh great citizens. We have 26 different neighborhoods in our community and um I'm proud to say that uh I would walk in any neighborhood in Zena and feel comfortable. It's just a great community and uh like to thank those that did come out and vote. Um we did have um voters that came and uh school levy passed. Our street levy did not. Um, so this council will continue to work uh in endeavors to uh spread every dollar that we have um to apply that in the right amount of money for certain budgets. So we are conscious of our street conditions and we're pledged to um work with a solution with what we have with the cards dealt to us. We have that hand to work with and we'll do the best we can with that. Is that a fair assessment?

Yes. Yeah. All right. Very good. So, unless there's anything else tonight, I will um accept a motion to adjurnn. So, moved. Thank you. Second. All right. Moved by the mayor and seconded by Councilwoman Huffman. All right. Exhausted first. Can I get a roll call, please? Wow. Vice President Crawford. Hi. Councilwoman Sice. Hi. Counciloman Mscavage. Hi. Councilwoman Huffman. I. Councilman Rubio. Hi. Mayor Reynolds. Hi. President Smith. Hi. Motion car.