City of St. Clairsville

September 17, 2018 Council Minutes

Posted on October 2nd, 2018 by

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

COUNCIL MINUTES

September 17, 2018

St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Monday, September 17, 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                       Cindy 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

Mike Smith, Council-At-Large

Jim Velas, Council 4th Ward

The meeting was called to order by President, Tim Porter

MINUTES:  Minutes of the September 4, 2018 meeting were distributed to Council.  A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Mike Smith to approve the Minutes of September 4, 2018.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                          Yes                              Sabatino                      Yes

Bukmir                        Yes                              Smith                           Yes

Jordan                        Yes                              Velas                           Yes

Oprisch                       Yes

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

CITIZENS HEARING: 

Dan Balgo:  I appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to come in today.  I am a candidate for the November 6th election for Belmont County Judge.  As most of you know that Eastern Division Court with Judge Davies being elevated to the Common Pleas Court is now up for election.  There are three candidates that are running.  I am one of them.  I just wanted to introduce myself because obviously I will be out campaigning going door to door having signs out.  I just wanted everybody to know who I am if they see me out and about.  I have been in Richland Township since 2008.  I own and operate a general practice law firm in conjunction with the law firm, I have a title agency called Showcase Title.  We do title searches, issue title insurance, prepare and assist buyers and sellers in real estate transactions.  I have done that now for ten years here in Belmont County.  I am licensed to practice in Ohio and West Virginia.  When I first relocated back to the Ohio Valley I did do Court appointed work and things like that.  Once again I just wanted to introduce myself and let everybody know I am going to be out there campaigning.  Thank you for your time.

REPORTS:

Service Director, Jim Zucal: 

The good news I have tonight is that the long awaited use of the dry chlorine system, the Accu tab system as of today is functioning at the Wastewater Plant.  It is safer for our constituents as the Mayor and I promised to do for the community.  We are excited about it, we think it is going to be a great safe practice for the city of equal cost roughly compared to the gas system.  Our goal in the next couple days is that the gas cylinders will be taken off city property back to the supplier so that will be a safe environment in the area of Legion Road.  I appreciate Council’s patience and co-operation and I thank the Ohio EPA for giving us this permit.  I believe it is the first in this area and I hope others follow our lead.

The workers are out every day, they are doing some great things in the City.  I see great things happening.  Our street sweeper is out we are sweeping and they are patching pot holes.  They are doing a great job, I want to be sure the community shines and is polished the way it should be.

Mike Smith:  There was something in the paper about the Commons Mall Crossing opening.  Jim Zucal:  Originally September 15 was the target date for ODOT to allow traffic to Buffalo Wild Wings and the Residence Inn off of U.S. 40 because they were going to do a portion of Mall Ring Road to the south which would require all of that asphalt to be taken out so there would be no access from the south.  They are behind.  We talked to the engineers with ODOT and they are probably two or three weeks behind.  When that does take place it will be two or three weeks to do what they need to do then the road will be open.

Ray Dobbs:  That ditch work you are doing by my place, they are really doing a nice job, it is making a big difference.  I want to mention to you, on down the road there is no place for the water to go.  In the winter time that might freeze over.  Jim Zucal:  I will be glad to come out and look at it and bring the right people with me and we will see what we can do.

Mayor, Terry Pugh: 

Police Report for August, 2018

Calls and Complaints                               333

Special Teams Call Outs                              0

Accidents                                                  12

Parking Tickets Issued                              41

Traffic Stops                                            134

Miles put on Cruisers                            7,035.3

Gasoline Used                                      782.8 gallons

We had a problem at the Efaw lift station which required Total Equipment to bring in a piece of equipment, a diesel engine and a pump to take care of the problem until we could get a pump fixed and put back down in the lift station.

At the same time they were finishing up that project we were told that we had a problem at the new lift station at Commons Mall Crossing.  That was on Wednesday of last week.  Our men went out there, they got the pump going again and all of a sudden we sprang a leak about 100 feet up the road.  Because of the rain there was quite a bit of water going down in there.  We contacted the County and they agreed to let us bring that same diesel pump out there and we were able to pump it into one of their smaller lift stations.  We definitely want to thank Kelly Porter and the Commissioners for allowing us to do that.  Then on Thursday morning we found out that the problem actually was that South Central Power had a contractor in boring to put electricity in and they hit our force main which is right up by Route 40.  When we dug down we found that our force main was 12 feet down in the ground.  All I can say is our men all of them in the Water/Wastewater started working on that project about 7:30 Thursday morning and they finished at 3:00 Friday morning.  I can’t say enough good things about them really going over and above the call of duty to get that done.  I appreciate the County for helping us out and Total Supply as well.  The guy who was the leader of the whole project from the city standpoint was Don Smithberger.  He just keeps going no matter what the problem is.  I take my hat off to all of them.  South Central had a representative there and they realize it is totally their problem.

Police Chief, Jeff Henry:

The American Legion Post 159 gave the Police Department a $1,200 donation to buy equipment.  As soon as the Finance Director gets the money put into my account we will be purchasing some equipment.  Hats off to the American Legion Post 159.

Finance Director, Cindi Henry:

I wrote to the County Auditor to have that money certified today.  It will probably be about a week before I can get it back and I will be doing resolutions at the next meeting with emergency language so he can go ahead and use the money and purchase what he needs.

Reminder that I have Mike, Beth, Tim & Jim signed up to go to the public records training on Friday from 10:00 to 1:15 at the Yorkville Fire Department.

There is Legislation for tonight No. 2018-28, it is a lot of transfers inside the funds and transfers from fund to fund.

Planning & Zoning Administrator, Tom Murphy: 

Heather Slack is preparing an Ohio Star Tax Credit application for 165 East Main Street.  You may recall that the owner wants to renovate that structure for a pizza parlor and residential purposes.  I have been assisting her, gathering information from the cities prospective relevant to that application.  The property owner won’t find out I think until maybe December whether or not if that application is successful.  It will be $200,000 potentially so it would be a great application if successful.  He still plans on proceeding with the reconstruction of the structure early next year.

An approximately two acre parcel on Walnut Avenue there are thoughts of subdividing it to single family development.  It is in the very early stages.  That would be a possible benefit to the City.

On Tuesday, September 25th the Board of Zoning Appeals will meet.

COUNCIL COMMITTEES:

Finance, Mike Smith:  No Report

Utilities, Frank Sabatino:

The Mayor had a nice report about the work done at the East end.  The guys need to be commended, they were there under Don Smithberger’s leadership.

Police, Mark Bukmir:  No Report

Street North Side, Jim Velas:  No Report but I would like to talk to Jim about some alleys after the meeting.

Street South Side, Beth Oprisch:  No Report

Safety, Beth Oprisch:  No Report

Building and Grounds, Perry Basile:

Last week Jim Zucal and I met at the old Depot building on St. Clair and Sugar.  I know you guys have been discussing what to do with it so I got a hold of the Tourism Office and they directed me to the Ohio Heritage Office and I spoke with Dave Mertz.  Barb at the Tourism Office is going to put together a historical evaluation of that building.  If it was up to me I would have knocked it down but I understand we have an attachment to this building.  It is the oldest building in St. Clairsville.  As of now the Bellaire Depot is the only other one standing and it is in bad shape.  If we have the only one standing we should be in good shape with the Ohio Heritage Office for looking at grants to move it and rebuild it.  We got some volunteerism from Dave Mertz and his class who are willing to step in and help us to try to keep the cost down as much as we can.

Planning Commission, Mike Smith: 

What is on the agenda for the Zoning Meeting?  Tom Murphy:  Whiteside of St. Clairsville, they have their body shop on Newell Avenue.  They have purchased that lot to the west.  They would like to establish an accessory parking lot there.  If approved by the Zoning Board their final site plan will go before the Planning Commission.  It could be as early as October 1st.

Recreation, Linda Jordan:  Flag football started yesterday.  There was a good turnout for that.  Bark in the Park is October 6th starting at 11:00.  Registration starts at 10:00 we can always use volunteers.  The next meeting is October 15th.

Park District, Linda Jordan:  No report there was no meeting.   There will be a meeting on Monday, September 24th

Fire District, Frank Sabatino:  Regular meeting this Wednesday at 3:00

ORDINANCES & RESOLUTION: Law Director, Richard Myser

We have four pieces of legislation this evening.  The first one is 2018-23 and Ordinance authorizing advertisement for bids to lease some of our land for oil and gas.  This is up for the third reading.  The second is 2018-25, this is an Ordinance to approve the printing of our Codified Ordinances.  It is up for its third reading.  The third piece of legislation is up for its second reading.  It is Resolution 2018-27, this is the Resolution supporting the St. Clairsville-Richland City School District Board of Education building endeavor.  The fourth piece of legislation is up for its first reading.  This is the one that Cindi explained to you.  It is Ordinance No. 2018-28 for inter fund transfers.  This is an administrative type of ordinance and I think Cindi would like to have it passed this evening.  No one has come to me with an Executive Session issue so we will not be going into Executive Session tonight.

There was presented and read to Council on its third and final reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-23: ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS TO LEASE OIL AND GAS OWNED BY THE CITY OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE, OHIO.  A motion was made by Jim Velas and seconded by Perry Basile that Ordinance No. 2018-23 be passed by Council.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                          Yes                              Sabatino                      Yes

Bukmir                        Yes                              Smith                           Yes

Jordan                        Yes                              Velas                           Yes

Oprisch                       Yes

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

Ordinance No. 2018-23 was declared adopted.

There was presented and read to Council on its third and final reading by title only; ORDINANCE NO. 2018-25:  AN ORDINANCE TO APPROVE THE 2018 REPRINTING OF THE ST. CLAIRSVILLE CODIFIED ORDINANCES; AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.  A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Jim Velas that Ordinance No. 2018-25 be passed by Council.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                          Yes                              Sabatino                      Yes

Bukmir                        Yes                              Smith                           Yes

Jordan                         Yes                              Velas                           Yes

Oprisch                       Yes

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

Ordinance No. 2018-25 was declared adopted.

There was presented and read to Council on its Second reading by title only, RESOLUTION NO. 2018-27; A RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE ST. CLAIRSVILLE-RICHLAND CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION’S ENDEAVOR TO BUILD ITS NEW EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS.

There was presented and read to Council on its first reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-28; AN ORDINANCE TO MAKE INTERFUND TRANSFERS AND REALLOCATIONS (SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS) WITHIN THE FUNDS FOR THE NORMAL EXPENSES AND OTHER EXPENDITURES OF THE CITY OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE PERIOD JANUARY 1, 2018 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2018.  Jim Velas moved that the rules requiring Ordinances and Resolutions to be read on three separate readings be suspended and declaring an emergency; Mark Bukmir seconded the motion.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                          Yes                              Sabatino                      Yes

Bukmir                        Yes                              Smith                           Yes

Jordan                         Yes                              Velas                           Yes

Oprisch                       Yes

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

There was presented and read to Council in its third and final reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-28. a motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Jim Velas that Ordinance No. 2018-28 be passed by Council.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                          Yes                              Sabatino                      Yes

Bukmir                        Yes                              Smith                           Yes

Jordan                        Yes                              Velas                           Yes

Oprisch                       Yes

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

Ordinance No. 2018-28 was declared adopted.

NEW BUSINESS: Mayor’s Report

The Mayor’s Collection for August 2018 is $5,855.40.  A motion to accept the Mayor’s Report was made by Beth Oprisch and seconded by Perry Basile.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                           Yes                              Sabatino                       Yes

Bukmir                         Yes                              Smith                            Yes

Jordan                          Yes                              Velas                            Yes

Oprisch                        Yes

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

Trick or Treat:  Trick or Treat in the City will be held on Wednesday, October 31st from 6:00 to 7:30.  A motion was made by Jim Velas and seconded by Perry Basile to hold trick or treat on October 31st.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                           Yes                              Sabatino                       Yes

Bukmir                         Yes                              Smith                            Yes

Jordan                          No                               Velas                            Yes

Oprisch                        Yes

Roll Call Vote:  Six (6) Yes                   One (1) No                  Motion Approved

CORRESPONDENCE: 

The Clerk read a request from the Tri-County Help Center to hold a “March“ for Domestic Violence Awareness on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.   Jeff Henry: It takes three officers to direct traffic.  We close the street while they are walking to the Courthouse and while walking back.  A motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Beth Oprisch to allow the “March for Domestic Violence Awareness.

Roll Call Vote:

Basile                           Yes                              Sabatino                       Yes

Bukmir                         Yes                              Smith                            Yes

Jordan                          Yes                              Velas                            Yes

Oprisch                        Yes

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

The Next Council Meeting will be Monday, October 1, 2018 at 7:30 in Council Chambers.

Beth Oprisch: Does that gentleman want to address Council?  Tim Porter:  Do you want to address Council?  Bill Brooks:  I live in St. Clairsville, I have been here ever since I was in 9th grade.  I haven’t been to very many meetings because I think this Council has been doing a pretty decent job.  We have this issue here on the School issue for St. Clairsville and I would like for Council to look at the hardship it is going to create on the senior citizens.  You have already got them splitting pills because they can’t afford their medication.  We have people who are not senior citizens working two jobs and this is going to put a hardship on them also.  I would like for you to look very hard into yourselves and say do we need this.  It is just too much money.  Swimming pools and football fields are nice but we can’t afford it.  I appreciate council’s time listening to me.

There being no further business to come before Council a motion to adjourn was made by Mike Smith and seconded by Mark Bukmir.

Council passed a motion to approve the Minutes of September 17, 2018 at the October 1, 2018 Council meeting.

September 17, 2018 Council Minutes