July 16, 2018 Council Minutes
Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.
COUNCIL MINUTES
July 16, 2018
St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Monday, July 16, 2018 with the following present:
Tim Porter, Council President
Perry Basile, Council 1st Ward Terry Pugh, Mayor
Mark Bukmir, Council 3rd Ward Jim Zucal, Service Director
Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Cindi Henry, Finance Director
Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Richard Myser, Law Director
Mike Smith, Council-At-Large Jeff Henry, Police Chief
Frank Sabatino, Council, 2nd Ward Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator
The meeting was called to order by President, Tim Porter
MINUTES: Minutes of the July 2, 2018 meetings were distributed to Council. A motion was made by Mike Smith and seconded by Perry Basile to approve the Minutes of July 2, 2018.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Smith Yes
Jordan Yes Sabatino Abstain
Roll Call Vote: Five (5) Yes One (1) Abstain Motion Approved
CITIZENS HEARING: St. Clairsville Richland City School District, Walt Skaggs, Jim Cook & Gabe Hays
Superintendent, Walt Skaggs: I want to thank all of you for letting us come to the Council Meeting. I want to thank Chief Jeff Henry for working with us on the School Resource Officer. We take a lot of pride in having a school resource officer from the City. Officer Gazdik did a great job for us for 16 years. Mike Duplaga will be starting with us in August as our new school resource officer. On behalf of the School Board, the Staff and Students we would like to say thank you. We feel that Mike is going to be a great hire and we thank Jeff Henry for his help. Jeff Henry: We also thank you for the School’s support. It is a great asset for us to have an officer at the school. Mike Duplaga: I just want to thank everybody in the room for the opportunity and I am excited and eager to get started. I want to thank Mayor Pugh, Mr. Zucal and Chief Henry for selecting me from the get go.
Walt Skaggs: These are exciting times for St. Clairsville. We are looking at a building project. We are looking at upgrading all of our facilities Pre-K through 12 and enhancing the community. I think it is going to bring a lot to the community. Mr. Skaggs introduced two architects from McKinley Architecture & Engineering. They have been working with the School for over one and a half years on that project. Gabe Hays a local Architect has worked on the site plan subcontracting for McKinley. We also have Jim Cook, a school board member, Pam Jones, also a school board member both of them sit on the building & grounds committee and Amy Porter our school treasurer. Gabe is going to talk to Council about the rerouting plan that we are going to propose so that you can see what we are trying to do with security, with safety and we think it helps the flow of traffic around the school and in the district as opposed to bringing traffic right through the center of our campus. The images that you are seeing represent not only the new buildings that will make up the school district’s new campus but also the campus master plan whose goal is to unite the buildings of this school campus into one entity. (Gave overview of new buildings & roads) It ends up being a four to five year project. The High School will be built first then we will move the students into the new building and bring the elementary up to the old high school. We will tear down the old and build a new elementary and move those students back. The Natatorium will be a separate ballot issue. Mayor Pugh: This is the first time this information has been put out for the public. Mr. Skaggs had called me and said he would like to bring this to Council first. I know it is going to be a collaboration between the City and the School. I commend them for everything they have done, your city is only as good as your school and your school is only as good as your city. I personally support this 110% because somebody supported me when I went to school there. Jim Cook: The main reason we are here tonight is because of Norris Street. If you want at a later date we can spend more time discussing what we are doing with the schools. We are here to propose the relocation of the traffic from the North side of the High School to the South Side and to create an interconnecting campus between the elementary and the high school because one of the things the elementary school wants is to use the fine arts facility also and they want to be able to go there safely. Gabe Hays: It may also reduce the number of staff needed to control traffic crossing Guards and Officers. Chief Henry: Ever since I have been involved with the police department there has been a problem with the kids crossing, the school busses, parents trying to get there, it is very dangerous. For the last five years Walt & I have tried to hash thing out and try to make things better. There is just no way to make it better other than do what they are trying to do. I am in full support of whatever can keep the kids safe. Tim Porter: It was an awesome presentation and we appreciate you coming and getting us involved. Jim Cook: We have a hard deadline of July 31st to get this on the November ballot. Jim Zucal: We talked today, I think it is an exciting time for the city and I am prepared to help in any way that I can. The Mayor and I talked to the school group today about having a resolution of support and we certainly think that should be passed prior to the election. Let’s be positive and when it goes forward we will all work together as a team and get it done. Walt Skaggs: I think a resolution of support is important because it sends a message that we are all working together for this plan.
Ray Dobbs: The water valve, I looked at it this morning it was dry on my side. Thank you for fixing that. The other thing is the drains around my building and across the street. When the city comes through they throw the trees in the ditch. They are thrown in the ditch blocking the water flow. If I ask them not to put them there they say I have to talk to the Mayor and he doesn’t want to talk to me. Mayor Pugh: I will talk to you Ray. The night of the big storm, the guys were down there cutting trees and putting them in the truck. Ray Dobbs: I don’t know where these came from. The night of the storm the sewers were spitting out sewage and there is toilet paper on the ground down there. If the drains were cleared it would help even if there was a big rain. Jim Zucal: Ray I will go down and look at it tomorrow and we will have the crews take care of it. I am here every day, if you have a concern like that come and see me and we will take care of it, that is what we are here for. I know most people don’t want to hear this but that was an unusual event, we had 5 inches of rain in an hour and let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.
REPORTS:
Service Director, Jim Zucal:
The paving project is almost complete Shelly & Sands has done a lot of the asphalt application. We are still sealing some edges and finishing up the work. I am considering talking to Cindi about the possibility of working with the Township to maybe pave a few more alleys later in the summer or early fall. I did provide Council with the EPA letter that we received. I just wanted Council to know that our Water and Wastewater systems are getting better again but we still have a lot of issues to deal with.
Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. the Mayor and I are going to meet with constituents from Bellview Street to hopefully address some flooding issues there. If anyone from Council is interested we are going to meet in the area of 104 Bellview. You are certainly welcome to come, we are going to talk about the problems those folks have and see what we can do to help them. We have already talked to an engineer.
I did go to the Recreation Center and we looked at the restroom stalls and the damaged doors. Lindsay is getting two or more quotes to get those replaced.
Beth Oprisch: Have all of the emails from residents with damage been taken care of? Jim Zucal: As of today, all the immediate issues from the flooding have been taken care of.
Mayor, Terry Pugh:
I just want to say that we got 5 inches of rain. Something like three million gallons went through our sewer plant. Normally it is 700 thousand. The City workers stepped forward and were out doing their job. It also hit a lot of other places in the area. I commend the city workers that were
Police Report for June, 2018
Calls and Complaints 413
Special Teams Call Outs 1
Accidents 19
Parking Tickets Issued 40
Traffic Stops 175
Miles put on Cruisers 7,256
Gasoline Used 717 gallons
A thank you to the Police Department for being out patrolling and being active.
Frank Sabatino: Some of the recent Power Outages were they on our end or AEP? Mayor Pugh: It was AEP and the next meeting we are hoping to have an AEP Rep. here, and give Council an opportunity to ask questions. That is the reason for the surcharge that has started to appear on the bill because AEP and the rest of the power transportation companies are replacing their infrastructure and it is needed badly. The Friday when the power kept going on and off, they had a tree that was going across two phases and they couldn’t find the tree but they finally put a helicopter up and found the problem.
Police Chief, Jeff Henry:
As Superintendent Skaggs said we are happy to have Mike Duplaga as our School Resource Officer.
Finance Director, Cindi Henry:
We got our draft copy of our Audit and hopefully by next meeting we will have the actual report that has been filed with the State.
Planning & Zoning Administrator, Tom Murphy:
At a previous meeting I mentioned that I was updating what is called the census address list. I am working with the census bureau and they sent us a list and we compare that with our residential address. It is a lot of tedious work reviewing their addresses with ours to make sure everything is accurate. There are adjustments that need to be made if a house was torn down or a new home registered. We work to update their list and send it on. That work is being completed and sent back to them. The census isn’t until 2020 but they want to get the preliminary work out of the way.
Many of you are aware that the Newlin Falls Nature Trail did open. It is a great trail, we have had a lot of positive feedback on it. All told it is probably only a mile, you can do it in around a half hour if you enjoy walking. There are two water falls on the trail and there is a map at the entrance. The first falls is roughly a quarter of a mile from the trail head.
COUNCIL COMMITTEES:
Finance, Mike Smith: No Report
Utilities, Frank Sabatino: No Report
Police, Mark Bukmir: No Report
Street North Side, Jim Velas: Not Present
Street South Side, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Safety, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Building and Grounds, Perry Basile: Thank you for revisiting the Rec. Center. I did take a walk through some of our other facilities. I went to the water treatment plant and we all know that is going to be a separate issue. I also went to the City Garage on Reservoir road and it seemed to be nice.
Planning Commission, Mike Smith: No Report
Recreation, Linda Jordan:
Tomorrow is the Band Hit Play at 7:00. Wood Fire Pizza will be on site as well as a few vendors. The next meeting is the third Monday of next month.
Park District, Linda Jordan: Nothing except as Tom said the new trail is beautiful. It is a rough little walk, wear good walking shoes.
Fire District, Frank Sabatino: The Fire Board met in regular session on Wednesday, June 20th. Squad 238 is back in service. SCVA lines were inspected and tested and they met the guidelines with only minor repairs. The next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, July 26th at 1:00.
ORDINANCES & RESOLUTION: Law Director, Richard Myser
We have no legislation for this evening and as far as I know no one needs to go into executive session tonight.
NEW BUSINESS: The Mayor’s report for June, 2018 is $4,065.00. A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Perry Basile to accept the Mayor’s report.
Roll Call Vote:
Basile Yes Oprisch Yes
Bukmir Yes Smith Yes
Jordan Yes Sabatino Yes
Roll Call Vote: Six (6) Yes Zero (0) No Motion Approved
The Next Council Meeting will be Monday August 6, 2018 at 7:30 in Council Chambers.
There being no further business to come before Council a motion to adjourn was made by Beth Oprisch and seconded by Perry Basile.