April 16, 2018 Council Minutes
Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.
COUNCIL MINUTES
April 16, 2018
St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Monday, April 16, 2018 with the following present:
Tim Porter, Council President Terry Pugh, Mayor
Perry Basile, Council 1st Ward Jim Zucal, Service Director
Mark Bukmir, Council 3rd Ward Cindi Henry, Finance Director
Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Richard Myser, Law Director
Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Jeff Henry, Police Chief
Frank Sabatino, Council, 2nd Ward Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator
Jim Velas, Council, 4th Ward
MINUTES: Minutes of the March 19. 2018, April 2, 2018 & April 9, 2018 were distributed to Council. A motion was made Beth Oprisch and seconded by Perry Basile to approve the minutes of the March 19, 2018 meeting.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Yes
Jordan Yes Velas Yes
Roll Call Vote: Six (6) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved:
A motion was made by Beth Oprisch and seconded by Perry Basile to approve the minutes of the April 2, 2018 meeting.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Abstain
Jordan Yes Velas Abstain
Roll Call Vote: Four (4) Yes Two (2) Abstain Motion Approved:
A motion was made by Beth Oprisch and seconded by Linda Jordan to approve the minutes of the April 9,, 2018 Special meeting.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Abstain Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Yes
Jordan Yes Velas Yes
Roll Call Vote: Five (5) Yes One (1) Abstain Motion Approved:
CITIZENS HEARING: There were no Citizens present who wished to address Council
SERVICE DIRECTOR, JIM ZUCAL
I want to share some progress with lands and buildings and I appreciate Perry’s help. The old building on St. Clair Street that was a water department building has turned our very well. It is fashioned in good old St. Clairsville colors. It has new garage doors, a new man door, glass block windows, new soffits and a red roof. In the same vicinity there was an old red brick building that had an asbestos roof. The roof was removed today and taken to a properly controlled site. We knocked the building down and we pulled out some chain link fence, old barbed wire and some tree cuttings.
I want to share what the new glass lined water tank will look like out at the St. Clair Commons project. It is a modern state of the art tank.
We are being busy in all departments and I appreciate everyone’s cooperation including Council and we are getting a lot of things done.
Frank Sabatino: I want to compliment Mr. Zucal and the Mayor for that project on St. Clair Street. I would also compliment the administration and Don Smithberger and his crew, I see the Woodrow Avenue project has started and there is an issue over on Wellington Woods that we all worked on and it got taken care of. We appreciate all the work being done.
MAYOR, TERRY PUGH:
Police Report for January 2018
Calls and Complaints 293
Special Teams Call Outs 1
Accidents 22
Parking Tickets Issued 60
Traffic Stops 70
Miles put on Cruisers 7,346.3
Gasoline Used 720.7 gallons
Last week a full time officer was hired, his name is Andy Klotz. He is going to be a great addition to the Police Force.
I want to thank Donnie and the Electric Department. They completed installing all the LED lights along Main Street. This will result in a savings of electricity for the City and it brightens up the area.
POLICE CHIEF, JEFF HENRY:
Friday we took delivery of the new cruiser that was ordered the first of the year. It should be on the road by the 1st of May.
We have been getting a few complaints about open burning. In the City there is no open burning. Clean up day for the Township is Saturday, May 5th.
FINANCE DIRECTOR, CINDI HENRY:
Every year we get our 100% achievement award from the Safety Council which computes to about 4% discount on our account. Tim Porter: That is a pretty good deal. The savings is pretty nice.
PLANNING AND ZONING ADMINISTRATOR, TOM MURPHY:
I would like to talk to Council a little bit about parking on private property and on the rights-of-way. I would like to bring to attention of the Council something that is happening more recently and ask for your support. Maybe keep your eyes open in your own wards. In 2001 City Council updated the Planning & Zoning Code. Prior to that there were no real requirements for driveways or parking. Property owners were throwing down gravel in either their front yards or on the right-of-way in front of their property. They were not getting permits, there was no real process. In 2001 when the Council updated the code they established code requirements for new driveways, and new parking areas so that when a new driveway or parking area was established they were instructed that they did need a permit and it should be hard surface and it should not be in the right–of-way. If there was existing parking it was grandfathered in and they could continue as such. Beth Oprisch: Hard surface is not gravel, just so I understand. Tom Murphy: Right, hard surface would be concrete, asphalt, brick, etc. Prior to 2017 people who created new parking spaces by throwing gravel down, it didn’t happen a lot but we kind of jumped on it right away, it wasn’t a major problem. In the past year, for whatever reason, this started to happen more frequently. We are getting complaints where people are parking in the front yard, parking in the grass, maybe throwing gravel down. We are trying to get on top of that and try to contact the property owners. If you see it let us know. What makes it difficult sometimes is grandfathered spaces. Someone sees it and think they can do it. Sometimes with the aerial mapping I will drive by and think that looks new but I can go back to our aerials from five years or so and it has always been there. The purpose when Council adopted the ordinance was to improve the City. If you built a new home and you want to have some parking that is fine just make sure you follow our code.
There is a Board of Zoning Appeals this Wednesday, April 18th at 6:00 p.m. There is only one item on the agenda, it is a variance requested by Mike Osovich to be permitted to park on the city right-of-way at 148 Woodrow Avenue. You are welcome to attend the meeting. Perry Basile: Was the variance granted? Tom Murphy: The hearing is not until April 18th. Perry Basile: I didn’t know if he had spoken with you previously. Tom Murphy: Just through the application process. Any variance request has to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals that is how the Code is set up.
Perry Basile: Say you have a home and it has gravel in the front and they are not compliant with the ordinance. You are actually requiring a hard surface there and treat it as a driveway? I have been overseeing this community and I have been seeing things like where you have underground plumbing and pipes that go underneath houses. If there would happen to be a break wouldn’t you be better to just have gravel? Tom Murphy: You are right that would be easier and that is the case of every driveway in the city we have water lines that go underneath and sewer lines that is not unique to just one property. Usually what we request, say someone is putting in a new driveway and there is a utility line underneath it we always recommend they put a cut in the concrete so if the water or sewer line would go bad as little of the concrete is affected as possible. That is not an infrequent thing and there is a way to deal with that. Perry Basile: What you are saying is you have a neighborhood where gravel is common to a neighborhood in front of homes, if someone needs to put gravel down they can’t do it. Tom Murphy: The requirement is if someone has an existing gravel driveway and it was put in prior to the code being updated that could continue in perpetuity. If someone were to establish a new driveway to create some off street parking they would have to get a permit and it would have to be hard surface. Perry Basile: I am familiar with that code. I think that is the one I would like to look at changing. I think if we are going to be fair with residents in a certain neighborhood there is a certain continuity in the neighborhood. Tom Murphy: I guess the question would have to come before the whole Council and the question would be do you want to keep the driveways gravel or do you want to improve the neighborhood and have a hard surface. Perry Basile: I think households that currently have gravel they are not just going to change to concrete. Tom Murphy: They don’t have to. Perry Basile: That is what I am saying now we are going to have a mish-mash in the neighborhoods. What is going to be congruent with the neighborhood really needs to stay that way so if we could take a look at that ordinance and consider changing that. Beth Oprisch: Are there different requirements for different neighborhoods? Tom Murphy: No it has to be city wide otherwise it would be considered discriminatory. Perry Basile: Part of my whole plan is the whole point of being able to do it neighborhood by neighborhood isn’t discriminatory because in some neighborhoods it would be completely improper to put a gravel parking area in front of the house just because it is a newer neighborhood it’s got streets, curbs, sewers. Where I am currently at across the street that is not the case. So to have one ordinance to have every situation to meet that ordinance in every neighborhood needs to be changed. Tom Murphy: That might be a question for the Law Director whether legally you can do that because in zoning you usually can’t pick and choose a neighborhood necessarily. Perry Basile: It could be like a school zone. There is different ordinances for school zones. Richard Myser: We are not talking parking areas, we are talking driveways. Perry Basile: A driveway I consider pulling in from the street like a typical driveway but a lot of houses don’t have that ability to have that. There is no room between the houses. There is really no room to put it so people are parking in front of their houses, off street parking. Especially now days when people have more than one car. This town wasn’t built around a three or four car family with kids that have cars. We have a parking problem and the way to alleviate it is to have special zoning for certain areas in the city where it is permitted. I can see you having to get a permit for gravel so there is some continuity but the reality is you have an issue here and we need to find a fair way for the residents to be catered to. Jim Zucal: Mr. President, I think it would be prudent to assign that to a committee and I would willingly participate in the group. Tim Porter: We already have a committee. Jim Zucal: I think it should be discussed. My opinion in the realms of urban planning I would willingly participate in that. I think Council needs to take careful consideration of that because you have a beautiful community here and when you start parking in the front yard you can quickly turn into a blighted community. I think it needs to be given a lot of careful consideration and a lot of discussion and a lot of thought because with the weather events we have had this year, people pull in their front yard and it is muddy. If you just put down stone there is no way of regulating that. I also want to mention to council that we should recognize our landlords and have a landlord registration. In doing that we need to know which properties are rentals and which are not. We want to treat everybody fairly but I can tell you in my career I have witnessed areas where the front yard is encroached on by cars you are left with a muddy mess.
COUNCIL COMMITTEES:
Finance, Mike Smith: Not Present
Utilities, Frank Sabatino: No Report
Police, Mark Bukmir: No Report
Street North Side, Jim Velas: No Report
Street South Side, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Safety, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Building and Grounds, Perry Basile: Good job on St. Clair Street
Planning Commission, Mike Smith: Not Present
Fire District, Frank Sabatino:
The Fire Board met in regular session on April 11th it was pretty much a business as usual meeting. I would like to congratulate Daniel Grady, he is our new Lieutenant. Our next meeting will be May 30th at 3:00 at the Main Station.
Recreation, Linda Jordan:
No report, the Board Meeting will be held tomorrow.
Park District, Linda Jordan: No Report
ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS:
Law Director, Richard Myser
Tonight we have one piece of legislation to be read for its third reading. This is Resolution No. 2018-07, this is the Resolution accepting the annexation of 1.247 acres out of Richland Township and into the City of St. Clairsville. We will be passing that tonight and after it is passed I have the annexation plat downstairs. It has to be signed by the Mayor, the President of Council and the Clerk. I plan on taking it over to be recorded tomorrow morning and we will be done with that after tomorrow morning.
There was presented and read to Council on its third and final reading by title only, RESOLUTION NO. 2018-07: A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF 1.247 ACRES IN RICHLAND TOWNSHIP. OHIO. A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Perry Basile that Resolution No. 2018-07 be passed by Council.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Sabatino Yes
Jordan Yes Velas Yes
Roll Call Vote: Six (6) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved:
Resolution No. 2018-07 was declared adopted.
NEXT MEETING: Monday, May 7, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers
There being no further business to come before Council, a motion to adjourn was made by Perry Basile and seconded by Beth Oprisch.