November 5, 2018 Council Minutes
Once approved, a link to the official council minutes will be at the bottom.
COUNCIL MINUTES
November 5, 2018
St. Clairsville City Council met in Council Chambers on Monday, November 5, 2018 with the following present:
Tim Porter, Council President Terry Pugh, Mayor
Perry Basile, Council 1st Ward Cindy Henry, Finance Director
Mark Bukmir, Council 3rd Ward Richard Myser, Law Director
Linda Jordan, Council-At-Large Tom Murphy, Planning & Zoning Administrator
Beth Oprisch, Council-At-Large Jeff Henry, Police Chief
Frank Sabatino, Council 2nd Ward Jim Zucal, Service Director
Mike Smith, Council-At-Large Don Smithberger, Director of Services
Jim Velas, Council 4th Ward
The meeting was called to order by President, Tim Porter
MINUTES: Minutes of the October 15, 2018 meeting were distributed to Council. A motion was made by Jim Velas and seconded by Mark Bukmir to approve the Minutes of October 15, 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:
There were no Citizens present who wished to address Council.
REPORTS:
Service Director, Jim Zucal:
We did apply for an Ohio Public Works Commission Grant for the sanitary sewer issues on Bellview Avenue. We did not score high enough at the State level or the County. The Mayor and I talked and we are looking at other sources of funding whether it be grants or loans. We will consider doing that project we just have to come up with a plan B. So we will keep Council informed. We did have a small grant application in with the Ohio Department of Resources in their Nature Works Grants for the tunnel and stairwell portion of the Biketrail north of the tunnel. We did not receive that also. We are looking for alternate funding to continue with that project also.
We talked about paving alleys this fall. It seems like we went from summer to fall rather quickly. The weather has changed, we cannot work it out with the Township. We were going to work in a partnership with them and could not make that happen. Several of the asphalt plants have already closed for the year. We are dedicated to work on the alleys, the Street Department continues to grade, we have our Dura-patcher out most of the time when we can. We are going to patch the alleys the best we can and get the paving done in the spring when the weather breaks.
We have done several storm sewer projects lately, one on South Sugar Street. We installed some catch basins across the street where we had some water and flooding issues. We also worked on St. Clair Avenue, we continue to be dedicated to the storm water issues in the City.
The crews are busy picking up leaves now. We encourage our constituents to get the leaves out where they are accessible by the crew or in paper bags, no plastic.
I have two issues before you in legislation, one is we did open two bids for the water tank improvement project and we had one bidder for the oil and gas lease for the City.
Mayor, Terry Pugh:
Police Report for October, 2018
Arrests 22
Calls and Complaints 327
Special Teams Call Outs 0
Accidents 12
Parking Tickets Issued 74
Traffic Stops 93
Miles put on Cruisers 6,570.6
The Police Department has been busy and I just want to thank them for all that they do for the Citizens.
We handed out to you a memo which I wrote to all Council members asking for your help. A couple weeks ago I spent a day with Tom Murphy going out and looking at problem properties in St. Clairsville. We sent out summons, we had a special court hearing last Thursday and brought people into court on problems within the city on maintenance and upkeep of property. What concerns me is we have more and more rental property in St. Clairsville and a lot of the areas we went to turned out to be rental property. We have talked about looking at rental property and what I would like to ask each one of you is if you know of rental property in the city or you know of parking problems. This gives us the perfect opportunity, if you can get this back in my office by the end of December we will contact these owners. We will have a town hall meeting and have everybody in to discuss any policies or ordinances that we need. We all hope that the cracker plant comes about but if that happens it is just going to continue to compound the rental property issue in St. Clairsville as well as other places. We need to address it now. Perry Basile: How do you identify them as rental properties? Mayor Pugh: Well I think a good start is if you see a bunch of pickup trucks out on the road, there might be a rental property somewhere. We do know some of the larger renters in the area but I am just asking for your input and we will take all of this input and put it together and try to find these people and try to get them together and try to discuss these issues. Perry Basile: Is there a limit to the number of cars that can be on a property? Tom Murphy: There is no limit to the number of vehicle they can have on their property. Ideally according to code, they should be parked appropriately.
In less than a week we will be celebrating Veterans Day. The American Legion is going to have a program on the 12th at 11:00 at the old Sherriff’s residence, in conjunction with the American Legion. If you look at the sign on the east end of St. Clairsville you will see the brand new flag pole lit with the American Flag out there. The city put up the flag pole, the Electric Department put on the lights, and the American Legion kindly donated the flag. Next year we are going to expand on that with the POW flag on one side and the Ohio Flag on the other side.
Police Chief, Jeff Henry:
On the 14th at the High School at 8:00 a.m. there will be an active shooter drill, there will be a lot of law enforcement and fire department around there. The school will be sending out a call.
The Christmas Parade will be November 18th at 4:00. We will be blocking Main Street off at 1:00. The tree lighting will follow the Christmas Parade.
Finance Director, Cindi Henry: No Report
Planning & Zoning Administrator, Tom Murphy:
The Planning Commission had a meeting tonight. One of the items on the agenda was Laroche Development. That is a vacant lot in front of the Knights of Columbus they were requesting final site plan approval from the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission did approve their plan. Their plan is for a 4,000 sq. ft. structure and 33 parking spaces. That was reviewed and approved. The second item is an address for that property. The address of 301 Main Street was assigned. Right behind that the Knights of Columbus does not have a real address so for public safety concerns they were assigned 303 West Main Street so that if emergency services were called for some reason. They had an old five digit non city style address which they did not use.
COUNCIL COMMITTEES:
Finance, Mike Smith: No Report
Utilities, Frank Sabatino:
Don Smithberger: No Report. Frank Sabatino: Utility met tonight, we had a lot of issues. We talked about the East end, we had some procedural issues that were thoroughly discussed.
Police, Mark Bukmir:
We will have a Police Committee meeting after the Council Meeting.
Street North Side, Jim Velas: No Report
Street South Side, Beth Oprisch: No Report
Safety, Beth Oprisch:
There is a Safety Day on November 16th at Belmont College.
Building and Grounds, Perry Basile:
I finally received some information on Historical Data on the Depot. I was given some leads on where to find some better information. I am trying to put a package together so we can get some money for that. It is going slow but we are making ground. Also that street sweeper is gold.
Planning Commission, Mike Smith: No Report
Recreation, Linda Jordan:
Bantam Basketball signups continue until November 12th and on November 19 we will have the scheduled meeting at which the Coaches will hold the selection of their teams.
Park District, Linda Jordan: The next meeting is next Monday, November 12th at Home Savings Bank Offices. The meetings are now down to one per month due to the cool weather.
Fire District, Frank Sabatino:
Throughout the Country all Departments recommend that with the time change it gets darker a lot earlier, a lot of people are contained in their houses all day and with decorations going up very shortly we recommend that they change the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. The next meeting will be Wednesday, November 7th at the Main Station.
ORDINANCES & RESOLUTION: Law Director, Richard Myser
We have no legislation to be passed tonight but we have two ordinances to take a look at for the first reading. The first one is Ordinance No. 2018-32. We had bids regarding our new Reservoir Improvement Project. We had one bid, Contract A for the tanks and contract B for construction. We will be reading that for the first time this evening, there is no emergency language in this legislation and it need not be passed tonight on an emergency basis.
The next one is Ordinance No. 2018-33, this is an ordinance accepting the bid for our oil and gas lease with Ascent Resources-UTICA, LLC. There is emergency language in this particular ordinance, if Council so wishes you can suspend the rules and pass this tonight. Ascent was the only oil & gas company that submitted a bid to us.
I did have a request for us to go into Executive Session tonight to discuss personnel matters. That would be under Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22 (G) (1) to discuss personnel matter if Council chooses to do so.
There was presented and read to Council on its first reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-32; AN ORDINANCE DETERMINING THE LOWEST AND BEST BIDS FOR THE NEW RESERVOIR IMPROVEMENT PROJECT IN THE CITY OF ST. CLAIRSVILLE AND AWARDING THE CONTRACTS TO DN TANKS (CONTRACT A) AND TO FERRI CONTRACTING CO, INC. (CONTRACT B).
There was presented and read to Council on its first reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-33; ACCEPTING THE BID FOR THE OIL AND GAS LEASE WITH ASCENT RESOURCES-UTICA, LLC AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. Beth Oprisch moved that the rules requiring Ordinances and Resolutions to be read on three separate readings be suspended and declaring an emergency; Linda Jordan 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 on its third and final reading by title only, ORDINANCE NO. 2018-33. A motion was made by Jim Velas and seconded by Linda Jordan that Ordinance No. 2018-33 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. 2018-33 was declared adopted.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: A motion was made by Perry Basile to go into Executive Session per Ohio Revised Code Section 121.22 (G) (1). Mike Smith 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
Perry Basile requested the Clerk and the Finance Director leave the room.
RETURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION: On the direction of the Law Director, Richard Myser a motion was made by Linda Jordan and seconded by Jim Velas to return to regular session. Roll call was not taken.
President Tim Porter adjourned the meeting.
The Next Council Meeting will be Monday, November 19, 2018 at 7:30 in Council Chambers.