City of St. Clairsville

October 17th, 2016 Council Minutes

Posted on October 17th, 2016 by

Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.

COUNCIL MINUTES

October 17, 2016

St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Monday, October 17, 2016 with the following present

Jim Weisgerber, Council President Terry Pugh, Mayor

Mark Bukmir, Council 3rd Ward Jim Zucal, Service Director

Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Jeff Henry, Police Chief

Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator

Jake Olsavsky, Council, 1st Ward Richard Myser, Law Director

Frank Sabatino, Council 2nd Ward Cindi Henry, Finance Director

Mike Smith, Council-At-Large

David Trouten, Council, 4th Ward

The meeting was called to order by Council President Jim Weisgerber

MINUTES

Minutes of the October 3, 2016 meeting were distributed to Council. A motion to accept the minutes was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Jake Olsavsky.

Roll Call Vote

Bukmir Yes Olsavsky Yes

Jordan Yes Sabatino Yes

Oprisch Yes Smith Yes

Trouten Yes

Roll Call Vote: Seven (7) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved

CITIZENS HEARING:

There were no Citizens present who wished to address Council.

REPORTS:

Service Director: Jim Zucal

The paving on Oak Drive is complete where the water line replacement was. We also paved Fair Avenue, the portion that belongs to the City with a proper speed bump in place. We also repaired Route 9 South on Marietta Street where the water line break was, there was also a bad spot in front of the Fire Station. All of that has been done Lash Paving was the contractor and I went out and looked at it and I think they did an exceptional job. I talked to some of the constituents in the area and they were happy with all of that.

On Legion Road we had a slip on the street. It affected a sanitary sewer line and actually caused the line to buckle, we had a leak there and had to bring Theaker in last Friday. They came in fixed that temporarily. There are some gabion baskets, they are those stone filled wire baskets along the edge of the street that had slipped and caused the pressure on that line. So that is repaired now,that is temporary. I did talk with the Mayor and we followed up with the Ohio Public Works Commission. I am filling out the initial emergency application for grant monies if we can get that. I have to work with an engineer and have a certified engineer’s estimate but that paperwork is all being processed. We are going to forward some pictures and get that to the office in Columbus and see if we can actually fix that permanently. That is my intention.

The water line project we are working on currently, we are getting the line checked with the camera and cleaned from the reservoir to the plant. We have had some obstacles there but it is actually working out the contractor is FeeCorp. The do a lot of that kind of work. Scott Brown our Water/Wastewater Superintendent told me that as of yesterday the intake into the plant has doubled since cleaning that line. We also found out that there is an area of an old retention basin that was actually connected that was affecting our water quality. We stopped that. It was an old mixing tank for lime at one time but there was some nasty debris in there and it was still connected to our intake line.

The sanitary sewer wastewater plant project for the RBC’s is progressing well. All five new RBC’s were put in last week. They are bringing the equipment in tomorrow to test the bearings and the caps and seals so it is progressing very well.

Everything is going very well and we are bringing our utilities programs into place.

Mayor, Terry Pugh

This last week was a good week for us. The Chamber of Commerce had their awards dinner. I was not able to attend but Kathy filled in for the City. We did receive the 2016 Community Improvement Award. We also received letters of recognition from Representative Bill Johnson, Governor John Kasich, and Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor, Ohio Secretary of State John Husted and from the Ohio Senate. Senate President Keith Faber and Senator Lou Gentile. It was a great honor for the City. There were a total of three awards given so it was a great honor.

Back in February I was approached by Junior Sports about moving the girls’ softball field from the present location which believe it or not was the old dump. They suggested moving these two fields up to the Junior Sports Complex. There was a soccer general use field at the complex which has not been used hardly at all. High School soccer would use it a couple of days a week. It was not even lined this whole year for soccer practice. What they want to do is bring everything under one umbrella which makes a lot of sense. They will actually construct two softball fields up there. One of them will eventually turn into the girl’s high school softball field. We started talking with the School and my question to them was why don’t you go out to the Capstone soccer complex? Their answer was if the kids drove themselves they did not want them driving down Airport Road. It made a lot of sense. When the new football field was being constructed the school used the 7 acre piece of land across St. Clair Street that was the overflow parking for the County Fair. There is room to put a soccer field up there but it does need some work. Last week we had everybody involved around the conference table. We had people from the School, Junior Sports, The Recreation Dept. and Jim Zucal and I. It was a great meeting. Everybody only wants the best for the kids in St. Clairsville. What came out of this meeting was that it is going to be a collaboration between all of us. That will permit the Junior Sports to go ahead and make their soft ball fields and then to construct the soccer field. The first thing the school is going to do is to talk to Jeff Vaughn and have it surveyed and get the levels so we know what we are really talking about because you can go from low to high expenses but it is doable at a reasonable cost. In fact Jim is going to look into some grant money through some different programs. The City can help, Junior Sports is willing to help construct the soccer field and the school is also willing to help. If you want any more specifics we can talk about it or go look at these fields. What we are hoping to do in establishing this field over there that is going to be an extension of our Central Park and the Recreation Center can use it in conjunction with the school. At our next Council meeting I would like to have a resolution of support for these actions and I would ask you if you could pass it on an emergency basis.

We had a news release go out about leaf pickup. We are starting paper bag pickup only November 1st and November 7th will be the start of the loose leaf pickup. We ask everyone to rake their leaves to the curb but do not put them in the street.

Next Monday we are having a city auction in the old 4-H building across from the Recreation Center. We have worked with all the Superintendents asking them to get rid of things that are just laying around and not being used.

Police Chief, Jeff Henry:

The dog car is broke down right now. It is in the shop getting fixed. It is burning oil and has like 120,000 miles on it. We might be able to sneak through until next year with it.

Finance Director, Cindi Henry:

I gave all of you copies of what was distributed to all the local entities. It is a reflection of the local government funding that we will be receiving this year. It shows the actual dollar figure they are anticipating we will be receiving. This is one of the budgetary tools I use with the city budget.

Earlier this month we were fortunate enough to hire Lee Ann Pytlak, she is a retired State Auditor. She will be working part time with my office to prepare the bank reconciliations and to assist with payroll and any other thing that goes on in my office. We are quite fortunate to have her. She is a 30 year employee of the State Auditor.

David Trouten: What determines what you get from the State? Cindi Henry: It is my understanding that there is a statute that determines how it is dived up. There are two or three Counties in the State that do their own formula Belmont County being one. It is up to the County Auditor where this money goes.

Planning & Zoning, Tom Murphy

The Board of Zoning Appeals did meet last Wednesday regarding a proposed electronic message center sign for Domino’s. Our code requires that is a conditional sign. That means that goes before the Board of Zoning Appeals. The Board unanimously approved the sign as proposed so you will probably see that start going up soon.

There is a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting set up for November 16th at 6:00 p.m. We have one definite item on the agenda already that is the Computer and Cell Phone Hospital at 107 S. Sugar Street. They will appear before the Board for conditional approval. The second possible item is a variance for a garage but I am still waiting on that application.

There may be a Planning Commission meeting set up sometime in November or December. Many of you might have seen some of the heavy equipment has been dropped off on the Commons Mall Crossing for the St. Clair Commons. Dovetailing what Jim was saying they are moving forward with the Senior Living Facility. They are going to be setting up their final plan approval on that. We are starting to review what they have submitted. Things seem to be progressing along pretty well out there.

COUNCIL COMMITTEES

Finance, David Trouten: Not able to attend the meeting. Mike Smith: No Report

Utilities, Frank Sabatino:

Jim summed it all up and once again we appreciate all that Jim has done.

Police, Mark Bukmir: No Report

Street North Side, Jake Olsavsky: No Report

David Trouten: I had a Citizen who lives on Barton Road in the City limits who said a lot of cars go by there pretty fast and wondered if we could put up a speed limit sign there. There is really nothing that shows the 25 speed limit. Jeff Henry: There are two signs unless they have been knocked down. Jim Zucal: We will be glad to take a look.

Street South Side, Linda Jordan:

In regards to Locust Lane, I don’t know about anyone else but I have some apprehension to the no parking sign only because of the residents who live there. I understand it is only a two hour period but myself, we park on the street 24/7 and in that two hour period what is one to do? I would rather talk to the residents first to get their input. Frank Sabatino: That is your right, good luck talking to people. The storm door is open and you can hear people but they will not answer the door. If I could address Council on Locust Lane. It was brought to my attention in August the third day of school. I did go down there in the afternoon. There has been no parking on the West side. The East side which was brought to my attention seems to be a gathering point in the afternoon. Beth and I went down there in the morning the 29th of August. I went down in the afternoon and there were 8 cars. I sat there and I saw some safety issues. That is when I became alarmed. The safety issues are not only for the kids who live on the block but actually ones who wait on their children. We can avoid something tragic happening. The School has a designated pickup area. Chief Henry is there almost every day, we have two crossing guards. It doesn’t matter that the school has a designated area People still insist on going down Locust Lane. They cause an inconvenience in the neighborhood. They turn around in the driveways, I almost witnessed a youngster being loaded into a van with his mother and a car went past them and nearly hit the young child. It is a chaotic situation that has existed for years and if we do nothing it will exist. It is time to do something. The thing I am proposing is to either restrict parking or eliminate parking on the East side from 2:00 to 4:00 on School days. Beth Oprisch: Frank brought this to my attention after he was contacted by a local resident. He saw it as a safety issue so he contacted me. I observed it four times and I talked to at least two of the residents. I think that my assessment would be that in the afternoon it seems to get a backlog. The most reasonable solution I thought was to have the school send a letter to the parents of the elementary school saying we have a drop off area, please do not use Locust Lane as a first recourse. If the parents choose to not do that then there has to be a second step. Frank has talked to the Superintendent who said he is not going to do that and the parents are going to do what they want. Jim Weisgerber: If the school won’t do it can the city put up a sign saying no school pick up. Beth Oprisch: A sign may not work because they don’t think they are parking because they are sitting in their cars. Jeff Henry: Those two school parking lots are just as dangerous as Locust Lane. It is a very chaotic situation and there has never been a solution but putting no parking signs for those specific hours, there is no way we can enforce it because we are busy at those times.

Safety, Beth Oprisch: No Report

Building & Grounds, Mark Bukmir: No Report

Planning Commission, Mike Smith – No Report

Fire District, Frank Sabatino

October is Fire Safety Month and we always urge the residents to check the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and replace the batteries.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 25th at 3:00 at the Main Station.

Jim Zucal: I did talk to Chief Rice one time since the last meeting and as Frank mentioned there is going to be more information forthcoming. I do have a copy of the lease and I read that so here in the near future the Chief is going to get back with me and we will have more information for Council. The lease was drafted in 1990 it is for the land and buildings. The Fire Chief has gone through the US Department of Agriculture. They were told that they have to own the facility so we were going to talk about that more with Richard and see if the City could still own the land. We are still getting information.

Recreation, David Trouten: No Report

Park District, Linda Jordan

They granted Tom Sliva permission to construct a press box near the dugout. Vasco will be starting to put down the asphalt the first week in November. Theaker will tear down and replace the walls and put in a draining system around the pool area it will cost $75,000. They are going to start that soon. Next meeting will be next Monday.

ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS

Law Director, Richard Myser

We don’t have any ordinances or resolutions to consider this evening however, we will be going into executive session this evening for consultation with Counsel regarding pending litigation. That particular section of the Ohio Revised Code is 121.22 (G) (3).

EXECUTIVE SESSION:

A motion was made by Jake Olsavsky and seconded by Linda Jordan to go into executive session per Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22 (G) (3) for consultation with Counsel regarding pending litigation

Roll Call Vote

Bukmir Yes Olsavsky Yes

Jordan Yes Sabatino Yes

Oprisch Yes Smith Yes

Trouten Yes

Roll Call Vote: Seven (7) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved

A motion was made by Jake Olsavsky and seconded by Mike Smith to return to regular session.

Roll Call Vote

Bukmir Yes Olsavsky Yes

Jordan Yes Sabatino Yes

Oprisch Yes Smith Yes

Trouten Yes

Roll Call Vote: Seven (7) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved

NEXT MEETING: Monday, November 7, 2016 – 7:30 p.m. in Council Chamber

There being no other business to come before Council a motion to adjourn was made by Jake Olsavsky and seconded by David Trouten

October 17th, 2016 Council Minutes