EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES AUGUST 27, 2013
The Regular Meeting of the Eastlake City Council was held at Eastlake City Hall, 35150 Lakeshore Boulevard. The Meeting was called to order by Council President Mr. Morley at approximately 7:07 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins.
ATTENDEES
Members of Council in attendance were Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Licht, Ms. Vaughn, Ms. DePledge, Mr. Hoefle, Mr. D’Ambrosio and Council President Mr. Morley. Also attending was Council Clerk Mrs. Cendroski.
Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Andrzejewski, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, Service Director Semik, CBO McReynolds, City Engineer Gwydir, Police Chief Reik and Fire Chief Whittington.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Regular Council Meeting – July 9, 2013
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of July 9, 2013. Mr. D’Ambrosio seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas: Ms. Vaughn, Mr. D’Ambrosio, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Hoefle, Mr. Morley.
Abstain: Mr. Licht, Ms. DePledge
Motion carried. The minutes were approved.
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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Mr. Morley
Meetings Scheduled
Mr. Morley: The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. The Regular Council meeting will be convened immediately following the adjournment of the Council-as-a-Whole Committee meeting.
On Sunday, September 8th at 12:00 p.m. there will be a Never Forget Ceremony sponsored by John Kikol. He has been having this ceremony every year since 9-11 except for the year we held the 10-year anniversary. We hope to see a lot of you there.
I know most people are present this evening to discuss the flood. I spoke with the Mayor – we will hold our comments until after everyone speaks. I ask that no personalities be brought into the comments.
COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS
A liquor license permit transfer request was received from Zarko Duvnjak dba High Point Bar & Bar, 1366 E. 346th Street & Patio, Eastlake to Vlatko Corp. dba High Point Bar & Bar, 1366 E. 346th Street & Patio, Eastlake. Mr. Morley stated due to time constraints this matter would be added to the evening’s agenda. There were no objections from the Administration or Police Department.
A Conditional Use Permit was referred from the Planning Commission for WalMart, Inc., 33752 Vine Street, Eastlake. Mr. Morley explained that this was discussed in Planning Committee and would be added to the evening’s agenda as Legislation No. 08-27-(02).
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Mr. Morley: Planning Committee and Ordinance Committee meetings were held.
Planning Committee – Mr. D’Ambrosio, Mr. Hoefle, Co-Chairs
Mr. D’Ambrosio: The Planning Committee met Tuesday, August 20th at 6:00 p.m. with all members of the Committee and Council present except for Mr. Licht and Council President Morley who were absent and excused. In attendance from the Administration were Mayor Andrzejewski, Law Director Klammer, CBO McReynolds and Police Chief Reik. Two Conditional Use Permits were on the agenda. The first was for Rally’s which will be located at 340th and Vine Street. There is an internet café there right now which will be knocked down. A stand alone building will be built there – it will be a drive-thru. There will be no indoor seating but there may be some outdoor seating during the summer months. We reviewed the plans and the way traffic will be routed. The hours of operation will be from 10:00 a.m. to about 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. It will not go any longer than that. We spoke with the people involved and they were on board with that. It was their suggestion to keep those hours and not go any later. Also discussed was WalMart – this was for solar panels. A company called Dovetail Solar will be doing the installation of a 318 kilowatt system. Our Engineer reviewed this as did the Planning Commission. They referred this to Council. We think this is a good thing and will probably be a thing in the future for residential. Both items were moved forward and appear on this evening’s agenda. This concludes my report and I am open for questions.
Mr. D’Ambrosio made the following Motions:
Legislative Recommendations
Legislation No. 08-270(04)
MOTION: I hereby move to add Legislation No. 08-27-(04) to the evening’s agenda
retroactively authorizing and directing the Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a 2013 Market Development Grant Agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to administer the Ohio Environmental Education Grant to New Avenues to Independence, Inc., with said Grant amount total being Twenty Seven Thousand Four Hundred Fifty Seven Dollars and Twenty-Five Cents ($27,457.25). Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous
Motion carried. Legislation No. 08-27-(04) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Legislation No. 08-27-(05)
MOTION: I hereby move to add Legislation No. 08-27-(05) to the evening’s agenda authorizing and directing the Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a 2013 Market Development Grant Agreement with the New Avenues to Independence, Inc. to administer the Ohio Environmental Education Grant, with said Grant amount total being Twenty Seven Thousand Four Hundred Fifty Seven Dollars and Twenty-Five Cents ($27,457.25). Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous
Motion carried. Legislation No. 08-27-(05) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Legislation No. 08-27-(06)
MOTION: I hereby move to add Legislation No. 08-27-(06) to the evening’s agenda authorizing and directing the Mayor, Director of Finance and Director of Law, on behalf of the City of Eastlake, to enter into a Settlement Agreement with Martin Belich dba Ventura Properties. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous
Motion carried. Legislation No. 08-27-(06) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Liquor License Transfer Request
MOTION: I hereby move to approve and send back to Columbus, Ohio with no objections the liquor license permit transfer request from Zarko Duvnjak dba High Point Bar & Bar, 1366 E. 346th Street & Patio, Eastlake to Vlatko Corp. dba High Point Bar & Bar, 1366 E. 346th Street & Patio, Eastlake. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous
Motion carried. The liquor license transfer request is approved.
Economic & Community Development Council Appointment
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins moved to appoint Rhonda Y. Butler, 27600 Chardon Road, Willoughby, Ohio to the Eastlake Community Economic Development Council, representing the Willoughby Western Lake County Chamber of Commerce, to the unexpired term ending October 31, 2013. Ms. Vaughn seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous
Motion carried. Rhonda Y. Butler is appointed to the Eastlake Economic Community Development Council for the unexpired term ending October 31, 2013.
Ordinance Committee – Mr. Hoefle, Mr. D’Ambrosio, Co-Chairs
Mr. Hoefle: The Ordinance Committee met Tuesday, August 20th with all members of the Committee and Council present except for Mr. Licht and Council President Morley who were absent and excused. In attendance from the Administration were Mayor Andrzejewski, Law Director Klammer, CBO McReynolds and Police Chief Reik. We discussed the proposed new enactment of the Ordinance Chapter on scavengers. As Mr. D’Ambrosio did most of the research on this I will turn the comments over to him.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: One thing that triggered this was that I was on Freed Drive with some residents and we actually saw some scavengers going through garbage. They could care less what they did – they would just pick stuff up and throw it down. I spoke with Chief Reik – we even discussed this a few months ago – and asked members of Council for feedback if this is something we wanted to ban, regulate or permit? We also looked at what other cities do and came up with permits. The permits will be $15 and will be distributed by the Police Department. The Department will come up with some kind of plaque that will go on the dash of the vehicle so everyone can see it. We will know if they registered their vehicles. If you see someone without a plaque get the license plate number and call the Police Department and they will make sure there is a license. The license will be good for one year – it will not be retroactive and if you want to get it in July it will still cost $15 and will expire December 31st of that year. Also with permit will be set hours – from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. I have one copy of the legislation but I can get more if people wish one. Some other conditions are that trash must be disposed of in a sanitary manner – a nuisance must not be created – compliance with the rules and regulations of the City – the vehicle(s) shall be registered. I think we have this covered but if we run into things we can always amend the ordinance. We are going to try to get a better handle on this – it is at times crazy. One lady had problems with identity theft. I mentioned about shredding her papers. I put six pieces of paper through a shredder and was able to put it back together. It took about 2-3 hours but it was not that difficult to do. We figured we would try to do this. Chief, did I cover everything we talked about?
Chief Reik: Yes.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: This concludes my report and I am open for questions.
Economic & Community Development Council – Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Chair
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: After our enormous flood on July 20th I would like to thank our Service Department and Police and Fire Departments for the incredible job they did to get our City back to normal at some level. They deserve applause and worked very hard. I would like to welcome CBO James McReynolds to his first Council meeting. He is doing a wonderful job so far and I am sure he will continue. I am excited to have you on board. I will be scheduling an Economic & Community Development Council meeting for September 18, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.
RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC
Mr. Morley recognized the public input at this time; he reminded the speakers that there is a 3-minute limit for their comments; all comments are to be directed to the Chair and not include any personalities or individuals.
Peggy Ratica, 36270 North Riverview Drive, Eastlake
Mrs. Ratica: July 20th was a storm with devastating results, but what I saw on North Riverview made be believe in a reasonable cause to get signatures.
I started a petition from the damaging results from the storm on that day. The Corporation Creek came over its banks, went under a built-in pool, uplifted the pool on a resident on North, and went in their back door and out their front door of their home. Ironically there is a pipe the City had installed on North Riverview with a back-flow valve, taking the water from the street to the Corporation Creek. The end result was this – approximately 3-4 feet of water on the street as well as in their house. I wanted to start this petition to try to get this creek either engineered with a dike, much needed dredging to clean up the debris, widened and deepened. I understand the creek is intertwined with an easement. I was one of the founders. But, I believe this will not change the course of the creek.
Not only on North Riverview but destruction also hit on South Riverview from overflow of rushing water from Erie Road, as well as coming from DeMilta’s property, and residents were caught in the middle with more than 4 feet of water that had affected at least 10 or more residents. The residents’ property on Erie Road directly northeast of the creek ended up with a flooded garage, basement and 1st floor all due to the flooded creek. The properties south of the creek on Erie Road had floods in their basement, had to replace furnaces, hot water tanks, carpeting and more from the water coming from the overflow and backup on Erie Road. The residents on Carlton Road and Lakeshore Road also had 3-4 feet of water from the creek in the back and front yards. Also the residents that live in the condos on Lakeshore and Erie Road have had their share of floods – not due to the creeks but other problems. It’s a known fact that when the Chagrin River rises Corporation Creek runs backwards. Let me add, I am not an advocate for storm sewers. They will not work in our area being we are in a flood zone. The storm sewers on Erie Road did not help these residents and were spewing water in the air.
However, not every resident that signed my petition is in the flood plain. The Erie Road residents I believe are not classified as a flood zone. This has not only affected us once – this keeps on happening to these residents’ properties over and over again. There is already an abandoned house on Erie Road close to Lakeshore from the overflow if this creek as bad as it is – takes their property, basement and furnaces. I also was told the creek has appliances like washers and dryers dumped there and left to rot. I have seen rebarbed storm tiles buried in the creek and trees jammed up to the point that water cannot flow.
This Petition reads as follows: The residents of Eastlake have been affected numerous times by storms and flooding mainly due to the Corporation Creek. We enjoy living in this Community and have been loyal residents for years. However, the affects of the flooding and other damage is always a concern and we have to deal with it quite often. It is frustrating to know that this can all be prevented by dredging and other protective matters. Essentially, we would like to protect our homes and know that the City/Councilmen are doing their parts to protect us and our homes. In the past we have had support from Cindy Quinn-Hopkins (Councilwoman-Ward 3), Ken Hoefle (Council-at-Large) and Kim Evers. I would like to include and thank Dennis Morley for his support as well.
I have 76 signatures on this petition from angry, disgusted and mad residents. I implore you that something needs to be done now. The rainy season is coming. Thank you very much.
Mr. Morley: Everyone should have the pictures and emails that have been sent a back and forth from me and Mrs. Ratica who is in charge of organizing the residents on North and South Riverview and with whom we have been meeting the last couple of weeks. If anyone has not received that information let me know.
Janice Matteo, 382 North Coast Point, Eastlake
Ms. Matteo: On behalf of the fellow residents I want to make it known that we are expecting the City to let us know what their intentions are regarding the flooding issues. We are taxpayers, voters and want to be proud that we live in Eastlake. At this point in time we are tired of having to clean up after not 1 or 2 inches of water but 6 or 7 feet of water the third time since 2006. We want to see action. Not just hear words. And please do not tell us that the City is broke. Perhaps it is time to go to a higher source – the County – the State – whoever. We need help. We are not taking this lightly and we expect to hear a plan of action in a timely manner.
Ted Beres, 36706 Lakehurst Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Beres: I stood up here two years ago and said for the first 34 years we lived here we never had a problem with water backing up into our basement. Then it happened three times in five years. It happens to the same dozen or so neighbors around. Then I read that three years ago Willowick’s Service Director said that there is calcification in the sewer lines that is causing blockages. We know that the infrastructure in this Country is in terrible shape – bridges and roads are deteriorating. What is below those roads is also deteriorating. Now, what happened on July 20th was also caused by – what people are taking about – that these sewer systems are inadequate to handle large or heavy rainfall. The Mayor said he is going to improve storm water flow and replace pipes. To me that is nothing but election hype because the Mayor of Willoughby said that it would cost them about $400 million to replace their lines and we know Eastlake does not have the money. I really don’t see any resolution to this problem so I am just going to keep my mop and my bleach handy because I am going to need it. Now on Channel 12 the Mayor also suggested that instead of putting down carpeting to put down ceramic tile. Well, there is a cost difference between ceramic tile and carpeting and I think if you are going to furnish your family room you would rather have something soft underneath your feet – something that will not get cold in the winter.
Dennis Skinner, 36334 South Riverview, Eastlake
Mr. Skinner: The same thing – about the flooding. We have talked with the current Administration sometime ago. We have been before Council concerning the storm water issue on South Riverview. We have walked the DiMilta property – Mr. Semik and I. Current Council members have taken a look at what is going on there. Some years ago under different leadership the City of Eastlake filled in a ditch and put a sidewalk along Erie Road and that is contributing to some of this. Over the course of time that area has settled due to water sitting there and it is making itself a nice, clear run down to South Riverview behind the houses on Erie Road. C.T. Consultants some time ago has come up with some drainage plans and we did meet some resistance with residents in our area about the use of taxpayer money on private property. Public/private cooperation is pretty common. The City of Eastlake bears a little of this in my opinion because at one point some years ago they made some improvements to Erie Road and it did have an effect on a property owner – that property owner being the DiMiltas. There was a ditch there and it was draining a lot of that portion of that property. They don’t have the ditch anymore and it goes down to the residents on South Riverview and it is affecting the City street. It was like a creek – a big creek on July 20th coming down the street. I don’t think there is a magical answer or one answer at all. I don’t expect it will ever be high and dry. I know the area I live in. I think it can be better. I know there is a storm water fund and there is money in it. While the City has been good with helping us with the cleanup I guess in the future we should look at something a little more preventative – maybe multi. A lot of little things can make a difference. Me and neighbors with the cooperation from a property owner behind us did some small things and it was an improvement. It did not keep our building dry but it did make a difference. Just by that small example I am pretty sure with all the resources involved that it can be made better down there. I like the area – I like the street – I have good neighbors and I like the City. This is a storm water issue and I think it can be made better.
Thomas Lewins, Executive Director, Buckeye Industries, Curtis Blvd., Eastlake
Mr. Lewins: Thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. I am going to change the content and tone of tonight’s meeting just for three minutes. This has nothing to do with flooding. Buckeye Industries is a non-profit organization that specializes in employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and partners with business owners to help them in their business and make it more profitable in creating jobs for people with disabilities in a way that is environmentally sound and sustainable. The business enterprise in Eastlake specializes in processing Styrofoam to be recycled. In fact some of the crown molding in this building and some picture frames are made from recycled Styrofoam. We also do cardboard. When we started three years ago this month we started with four employees. Since then we have processed to over 300,000 lbs. of Styrofoam and about 420,000 lbs. of cardboard that would have gone into landfills but are now being used for other products. At the rate we are going thus far this year with sixteen employees we will probably recycle 120,000 lbs. of Styrofoam and about 250,000 lbs. of cardboard. That is one of the enterprises we have. We also have one in Madison and we specialize in document destruction. We are certified and do videotaping and not only recycle or shred but we recycle it and it is converted into additional products like recycled paper for the number of ventures we do. The truck we are getting through the partnership of the State, EPA and Eastlake and we also have coupled with two private foundations that will pay the other 50% of the truck and it will be a natural gas operated truck (Ford) that is built in Cleveland. We take great pride in trying to help local businesses create jobs and help the environment at the same time. We appreciate Council’s support. We appreciate the Mayor and all he has done to help expedite this grant. We appreciate Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins for coming out and visiting the location. We want to invite Council – we have had the Fire Chief out and others. Please come visit us and see what we are doing. The individuals we employ are paying income taxes to this City. I think it is a good thing for the City as well.
Mr. Morley: I have been out a few times when you have had your luncheons. It is great what you guys do there to help people who may not be able to find work somewhere else. I applaud you.
Fred Karaba, 36316 South Riverview, Eastlake
Mr. Karaba: Basically my thoughts and feelings are the same as everyone who has had this problem. I wanted to say something about a chapter I found in the City Ordinances – 905 “Culverts and Drains.” Maybe the Administration and Council should refresh themselves and read this and then you will know where we are coming from. These ordinances were written for a reason and obviously they are not being applied to anyone who lives on North or South Riverview or Erie Road or I should say anyone affected by what happened. Can Council and the Administration do that?
Mr. Morley: After everyone is finished speaking we will respond. You gave the Chapter to me when I was out there and I have given it to the Clerk. We will take a look at it. But, after all are done speaking we will hear from the Mayor, Service Director and Engineer.
Yvonne Marn, 272 Heather Lane, Eastlake
Ms. Marn: I have two questions – one is for the Mayor. It has to do with our Channel 99 with AT&T. We have not seen it – it says no signal after you promised.
Mayor Andrzejewski: It is so frustrating. Mr. Slocum will back me up on this. Just to tell you how frustrated we are last week I told the Finance Department to not pay Windstream another nickel until they fix it. I have spent hours of my own time in that room trying to get Windstream – AT&T to solve the problem and it is the typical finger pointing as is the same with some utilities. It is AT&T’s problem – no it is Windstream – no it is your box – no it is your camera. Believe me I have done hours of work on this and sometimes I was not very pleasant with the Windstream people. Today was my last conversation with them – I said I did not want to hear the finger pointing anymore – fix the problem. We are doing everything we can and it is supposed to be working. We got a new box AT&T said we had to get – they bring out fancy gadgets to say the signal is working here or there. We have shown them our signal is broadcasting from our digital camera to the box to a T.V. screen in our studio. That said 99 but it is not reaching the public. Therefore it is a Windstream T-1 line problem. It is very frustrating. I have lost hair because of it. We are not paying them another nickel until they fix it. Maybe now they will fix it.
Ms. Marn: Chief Reik, I talked with you on the phone about a month ago. We live in Brookside and we have had some overnight parking with some of our residents. I had brought it to your attention. We have our own bylaws but we are two streets – Heather and Marilyn – we are in Eastlake and pay our taxes and all that. I was wondering when we have these kind of things that are sort of a police matter – parking and that – you were going to check into it to see what happens when we have these parking situations and if we call the police and have them ticketed?
Chief Reik: I did send that to the Law Department. We are in the middle of trying to get this resolved because with a non-dedicated street the ordinance is not crystal clear and the question has never come up before.
Law Director Klammer: That was the issue – non-dedicated. Do you pay for a private plow service?
Ms. Marn: Yes, we do.
Law Director Klammer: I will have to get with the Chief but there may or may not be enforcement abilities that the Chief would have because it is not a public street.
Ms. Marn: If we had a murder there would be the Police Department there. Now you are mentioning things about scavengers so how about that?
Chief Reik: With any other crime within the City and State – with parking ordinances it is on a public roadway or in a shopping center for vehicular travel. Parking ordinances are designated by where it can be enforced. In this case being on quasi-private property – the way you can park in your driveway is different than the way you can park on a public street. If we are not comfortable with that we can discuss it with the Ordinance Committee and enact an ordinance that would cover it.
Ms. Marn: I was wondering if we had that because now you are bringing up the scavenger situation. We have a no trespassing there so really the scavengers should not be in the area and if we see them is this going to apply to our area also?
Chief Reik: Yes, that would apply as the same way as any other minor misdemeanor.
Ms. Marn: We have no trespassing – so they should not even be there. What would happen if someone called the police?
Chief Reik: Just like everything from a murder to drinking in public. It would be enforced because that community is part of the larger community.
Ms. Marn: So, if we did see someone in there scavenging and throwing things around we could call the police and something would be done because it would be no trespassing and they should not be in there?
Chief Reik: Yes. As I explained to Councilman D’Ambrosio the first thing we would do would be to let people know who are violating the new ordinance that the new ordinance exists. We would try to get a warning on record so we are not just out there issuing tickets. We want people to abide by certain rules and the Administrative fees for those licenses are pretty low. It is just so everyone respects the property they are on.
Ms. Marn: How can our residents know about this? Can there be something public – for condos like Brookside. Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, you live in a condo – do you have problems with scavenging?
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Not really, no.
Ms. Marn: You have bylaws? Do you have a no trespassing?
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Yes, we have bylaws but we do not have no trespassing.
Chief Reik: Mr. D’Ambrosio is putting something in the Gazette.
Mayor Andrzejewski: I think we need to clarify something. Chief Reik, what she is saying is through their own bylaws they have a no trespassing rule. The ordinance is going to say you can scavenge from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. She is saying they will call you even if they are there from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and you are to take them away. Is that what you are conveying?
Chief Reik: That is not what I said.
Ms. Marn: That is what I wanted to specify.
Mr. Klammer: It may be too much to try to accomplish today but you are right – we are answering one question and she may be asking another. Ms. Marn – you are saying we consider this private property and there is no trespassing.
Ms. Marn: Right.
Mr. Klammer: If we were to determine that it is private property and you have a no trespassing order or sign the Chief could look at it and say it constitutes trespassing for anyone to come on there. But, to circle back to your other issue that does not necessarily help your parking issue because you have declared it private property. I will get with the Chief and we will try to find some balance and if the Mayor approves it we will present some legislation.
Ms. Marn: I can convey to our Board members – because we have no overnight parking but you have specifics from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Mr. Klammer: Do you have a condominium association lawyer?
Ms. Marn: Yes.
Mr. Klammer: This is what they should do for you. If you have parking problems a lot of times those things are enforced by violations charged against the residents through the home owners’ association. Because it is presumably their guest sleeping overnight and they get charged. That may be the better place to start.
Ms. Marn: Sometimes they will say it becomes more City because the City will be higher over our rules when it comes to certain things in our condo areas. We went through that already. If we have someone making a lot of noise or burning something…
Mr. Klammer: I do a lot of land use stuff and may know your Association’s lawyer. If you want to have them call me we can try to flush some things out. It is different when you have bigger and smaller condominiums and Eastlake generally has smaller developments. Just have them call me. I do not think it is anything we can solve tonight.
Ms. Marn: Then the other issue of scavengers?
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Klammer is answering your question.
Mr. Klammer: We will flush it out. I want to make sure the Chief does not tell you something you are not asking.
Ms. Marn: I want to be specific because right now the way things are happening in our condos people are not listening to our rules…
Mr. Klammer: Have him call me.
Jay Barnabei, 35551 Freed Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Barnabei: Mayor, you had mentioned frustrations with finger pointing on the AT&T issue. My issue is our frustration – not just myself but a lot of our neighbors on Freed Drive with just the lack of concern by everyone. Mr. D’Ambrosio and Mr. Morley were kind enough to come out and hear our concerns – we had a little town hall meeting in our driveway and we had quite a few neighbors show up and they took our concerns to the rest of the Administration. But, I am not hearing anything. What I am looking for tonight is some answers. Specifically, do we know what the problem is and if we don’t what are we doing to find out? Once we find out the problem I think we would all like to know what the plan is to fix that problem. One of our main questions is why do some areas get flooded and not others? Kind of related into that the subdivision next to us – Valley Creek – they do not seem to have the flooding problem. I was wondering is there some way our system or part of our system could be diverted into their system. I do not know if that is feasible. One of the other frustrations – and I know you are trying to help – but we were told everyone should get a back-flow preventer. Well, if we don’t know what the problem is could the back-flow preventer create even bigger problems down the road? I think we were also told our storm sewers would be cameraed and I have not heard any status on that. I have not heard anything from anyone in a couple of weeks. Those are our concerns about the problem and what you guys may be doing to fix it. On the cleanup – we had expressed concerns to Mr. Morley and Mr. D’Ambrosio – we thought we were going to have to wait for Republic to come around and you did get the City out there. But, I think that effort fell a little bit short. It took forever for these guys to make their way around our neighborhood. I read in the paper that a lot of other communities called for help from other surrounding communities and they got that help. I would like to see – hopefully this will not happen again – that we have some sort of plan in place to look to our neighbors and ask for some help. Finally, with regard to the scavengers –Mr. D’Ambrosio, thank you for picking up the ball on that and running with it. What I did not hear and maybe I missed it – I know you are requiring scavengers to get permits and you are limiting the hours – both good things – but, what are the consequences if
someone without a permit is scavenging past 7:00 p.m.? I happened to wake up a few weeks ago and saw scavengers out at 2:00 a.m. This was right after the flood. What should I do? I am not comfortable going out at 2:00 a.m. to look at a license number. But, if I did do that what would be the response? Typically when you confront these people they continue to drive down the street. Will the police be out fairly quickly to pursue these folks?
Chief Reik: With any new ordinance we try to give a grace period to let people now the ordinance exists. If it is 2:00 a.m. and unfortunately a lot of people who do this tend to have cars with loud exhaust and creaky doors that will wake you up even more. I would say even if they are not scavenging and you have a vehicle driving slow around your neighborhood at 2:00 a.m. – call us anyway. Let us at least investigate it. We would obviously have cause to stop it anyway. We would at least document who is out and about and if they have not been advised of the ordinance they would be and after that it would be a minor misdemeanor. It is like a citation – a traffic ticket – a $100 fine.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Chief Reik, how does a minor misdemeanor escalate if you catch them the second or third time?
Chief Reik: Ordinances can be written to enhance with each offense. Most people with a $100 fine and Court costs – I don’t think they will keep coming out and violating the rules because there is enough time for them to follow the rules and still accomplish what they want.
Jack Parks, 36253 North Riverview Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Parks: I came here on the flooding but on the salvaging I hope this ordinance would not prevent someone – one of you even – from driving down the street and picking up something not in a box or something sealed for identity theft but if there is a hard item – small table or something that someone could use in their workshop or garage – and you just stop and take it – I hope that would not be an infringement on the law. What I am really here for – I have lived on North Riverview with my wife and raised a family for 40 years. There is a dip in North Riverview near the top of the street that is very deep – it is short but very deep. The City has put a drain or opened a drain under the street to drain water from backyards that extend over to South Riverview. This is fine. But, when Corporation Creek backs up the water comes into that dip and it becomes so deep you cannot drive through it. I am here strictly on a safety thing. As far as a dike and everything else we are talking large amounts of money. What I am talking about would be relatively cheap considering other plans. I think that dip – the roadway – should be elevated. It would have to have a culvert under it to let water go through. My suggestion is not going to change water levels – not this one – but it is safety – to get vehicles through. You can say the City safety vehicles are higher up than a normal vehicle. That is true. But what if someone – and it would be so easy to do – especially a stranger – comes down in that dip with their car – I have walked through it in past years when the water was up to here (pointed to side of podium) – and stalled out in that dip. Now, an emergency vehicle is called and has to come down North Riverview there is a car in the middle of the drive and the emergency vehicle would not be able to get through. All I am saying is I would like to see that roadway just in that short dip elevated. There are two houses whose driveways would be impacted. But, I have seen it in other communities where at the end of a private drive going up onto a roadway there would have to be an elevation to the drive to get up to the level of the roadway. And in both situations I think this can be accomplished. So, my thought is safety and probably the least cost of anything that would have to be done in general.
Bernie LeMay, 41 North Lakehurst Drive, Eastlake
Mr. LeMay: Listening to the proposed ordinance about the pickers – I think you may be addressing the situation because of the emergency that arose with the flood. But I believe our current ordinances for trash removal is that we cannot put out trash cans prior to ½ hour before sunset and cans must be removed by 7:00 p.m. trash day. Consider that – if I am correct.
Mr. Morley: We have received calls on that and Mr. Semik has gone out and given them letters – that has happened in the Freed area.
Janice Matteo, 392 Northcoast Point, Eastlake
Ms. Matteo: I want to make a comment to Mr. Klammer. Please, I feel the residents here – we living in non-dedicated streets which was not our liking because we have to pay to have our streets plowed and everything else – I did not appreciate that comment of you said to this lady that lives in the condominiums on Lakeshore Blvd. that living in a non-dedicated street – is that going to raise a flag. I hope that is not going to have anything to do with this flooding and if we are in a non-dedicated street Chief Reik then why do the police sit there and do radar? It is private property.
Mr. Klammer: I hope I did not offend you. The two are obviously separate in my mind – the flooding issue which we have to deal with.
Ms. Matteo: (as speaker was not at the microphone some comments could not be understood) I hope you are not … non-dedicated streets. That was not … when we first bought we asked…
Mr. Klammer: I was not even close to saying that, Madame. I am sorry if anyone heard me saying that. I was just talking about parking. Those are all issues – those are engineering and law. I don’t think there are any easy solutions.
Ms. Matteo: You keep talking about a non-dedicated street. Maybe there is going to have to be a lawyer to take care of that – non-dedicated street (as speaker was not at the microphone some comments could not be understood).
Anthony Vitiello, 815 Erie Road, Eastlake
Mr. Vitello: We moved here in December and have been flooded out twice already. I come from New York City. I am used to the Mayor walking the street – Rudolph Giuliani – the World Trade Center – I was there –New Jersey – Christie walking and helping people. Here I saw nobody. I saw Peggy and I saw Cindy. I have two twin girls. I moved here to make a life for them. I paid cash for my house. I have taxes that have to be paid. What do I do? I live five feet away from a stream. The box checked off when we bought the house said no flood zone. That means people lied to me. I worked hard for my money to move here with my kids. Talk is cheap. I am looking for a solution. If there is no solution I am going to get 40 trucks and fill in that creek myself because if the City doesn’t want to take care of it I will take care of it. Or I am going to get 40 trucks and put a wall of dirt on my property only which means the water will pass me and go to everyone else. I went around looking to help other people. People have to stick together. If the City does not have money raise the taxes $2-$3 per person or put in a donation or something. Even New York City cleaned up fast from Sandy. We have been flooded twice. I am through. From December to now I am already on the third furnace, third hot water heater, the third set of washers and dryers and this time it hit my first floor. That is getting a little close. It is not just the basement. The door was blown in. I have three pumps in the basement which I had the old owner do because of the problem with the sewer mixed with the regular water. But there has to be some solution. When I measured it last I am six inches shorter now. Today it went almost to the top. It rained hard today. What is it going to take – two inches of water to flood my house out? I want to stay here. Now we are looking at other areas but why should I have to leave? I put into the Community. I will do volunteer work. You get the machines – I have the ability to dredge. You have a volunteer. Maybe other people will step up. That whole thing has to be dredged out or widened. I will give you some of my property to widen. But, it is five feet from my house. I say I did about $20,000 damage on this one and I have no insurance to cover it. They covered $1,200.
Ted Gaubert, 371 Northcoast Point, Eastlake
Mr. Gaubert: If this was not a flood and the river stayed within its banks and the creek did not flood over the land why didn’t the City’s storm sewer system work to protect the condo properties when the river and creek did not go to flood stage? When is the City going to improve the storm sewer flow from my complex and from the creek across Erie to north of Lakeshore so this does not happen again at this high rain rate but still moderate and less than flood stage rainfall? Correspondingly, when is the City going to clean out and widen the creek north of Lakeshore Blvd. so this creek can now handle the extra water flow? This would need to be widened from Erie and Lakeshore to where the creek hits the Chagrin River. They do need to take the blockage structure near the west end of the Mexican restaurant parking lot out or add more pipes under the access road at this point. Last, when is the City going to correct the storm water run-off problem caused by this extra watershed forced through undersized pipes and creeks that are caused by the extra building allowed over the last twenty-five years?
Ken Enos, 369 Waterbury Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Enos: I built a home back in 1968. In the beginning there were not many problems at all. As the Community has gotten bigger – we continue building in Eastlake – a lot more businesses and more residents coming in – new homes. And we have not solved the original problem. This was a major catastrophe to all of us. We have marvelous citizens here in Eastlake – a lot in retirement stage and on fixed incomes – myself being one. I don’t think anyone of us in this room – whether young or old – can go through another problem like this. The problem has to stop not only in the beginning – the building codes – but the storm systems – sewer systems need to be looked at locally and up to the State level – if we have to go even higher to get these things corrected. I know many these storm drains are criss-crossed out here. That is what caused part of the problem. It goes even further and beyond. Just to make you aware of other things that have gone on in this City is dealing this past year with the Illuminating Company – the same thing. A problem they said did not exist turned into a major problem. We are dealing with a major problem for everyone here – not just me. I am asked to be the spokesman tonight just like these other people are. Everyone of these people have done that and I give them credit. But, you know what – the City and the Mayor need to listen to us. We are paying our taxes – something needs to be done. And then when you come to our home to take care of the issues of the cleanup treat us with respect. When the City came out we were not treated with respect. I will not tolerate that and I do not think any resident in this City should either. It is our home and our property. If they don’t like their job go to another place and get a job. My main concern here is getting this issue fixed. None of us can go through this again.
Mr. Hoefle, Councilman-at-Large
Mr. Hoefle: I have a statement and a couple of questions given to me by residents. I sent this email to Mr. Semik today to give him a heads-up. Is there a set schedule when the catch basins, culverts and creeks are inspected and cleaned throughout the City? When was the last time the sewer drains, catch basins, culverts and creeks were inspected and cleaned? Also, the statement was – I have been informed that the cities who surround Eastlake have schedules for inspection and cleaning of these areas. I did send this to our Service Director.
I don’t think he will have the answers this evening – he will look into this.
There was no one else who wished to speak.
LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2013-052
ORDINANCE NO.: 08-27-(01)
Requested by: Planning Commission An Ordinance authorizing the issuance
Sponsored by: Planning Committee of a Conditional Use Permit to Stallman
Louis, Inc. dba Rally’s, 34001 Vine Street, Eastlake, Ohio 44095, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas: Mr. D’Ambrosio, Mr. Hoefle, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Licht,
Ms. DePledge, Mr. Morley
Nays: Ms. Vaughn
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2013-052.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ORDINANCE NO.: 08-27-(02)
Requested by: Planning Commission An Ordinance authorizing the issuance
Sponsored by: Planning Committee of a Conditional Use Permit to WalMart
Stores, Inc., 33752 Vine Street, Eastlake,
Ohio 44095, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2013-053.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ORDINANCE NO.: 08-27-(03)
Requested by: Mr. D’Ambrosio An Ordinance enacting new Chapter 743 Sponsored by: Ordinance Committee “Scavengers” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas: Mr. D’Ambrosio, Mr. Hoefle, Mr. Licht, Ms. Vaughn, Ms. DePledge,
Mr. Morley
Nays: Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2013-054.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RESOLUTION NO.: 08-27-(04)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution retroactively authorizing Sponsored by: Council and directing the Mayor and Director of Finance to enter into a 2013 Market Development Grant Agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to administer the Ohio Environmental Education Grant to New Avenues to Independence, Inc., with said Grant amount total being Twenty Seven Thousand Four Hundred Fifty Seven Dollars and Twenty-Five Cents ($27,457.25), and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2013-055.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RESOLUTION NO.: 08-27-(05)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution authorizing and directing Sponsored by: Council the Mayor and Director of Finance to
enter into 2013 Market Development
Grant Agreement with the New Avenues to Independence, Inc. to administer the
Ohio Environmental Education Grant,
with said Grant amount total being
Twenty Seven Thousand Four Hundred
Fifty Seven Dollars and Twenty-Five
Cents ($27,457.25), and declaring an
emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2013-056.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
RESOLUTION NO.: 08-27-(06)
Requested by: Law Director Mr. Klammer A Resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor, Director of Finance and Director of Law, on behalf of the City of Eastlake, to enter into a Settlement Agreement with Martin Belich dba Ventura Properties, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2013-057.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
LEGISLATION PENDING (Placed in First Reading July 9, 2013)
ORDINANCE NO: 07-09-(01)
Requested by: Planning Commission An Ordinance authorizing the issuance Sponsored by: Planning Committee of a Conditional Use Permit to China Buffet Yu, Inc., 33550 Vine Street, Eastlake, Ohio, 44095, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. D’Ambrosio moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2013-058.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There was no Unfinished Business.
NEW BUSINESS
There was no New Business.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS:
MAYOR/SAFETY DIRECTOR – Ted Andrzejewski
Mayor Andrzejewski: Thank you, Mr. President and welcome to all the residents here. I may go back and forth to a lot of different things – so, bear with me. Our City Engineer will speak in a little bit and our Service Director will speak. I wanted to answer a few of the questions. You are not going to get the answers tonight – I think you all know that. This is far more than to sit here and give you promises and answers tonight. But, I will assure you this – every area – I know the areas of the City that have water problems – I have been to those areas. I know some people say – where was the Mayor? From 3:30 on that Saturday morning until about 4:00 in the afternoon I was in and around this City even though my own home was having water problems – taking care of business. I had to be home a couple of hours because I could not get out of my driveway we had so much water. For those of you who had basements flooded and family rooms flooded – I feel for you. I am there – 2006 we got flooded out and I had to replace everything in the family room and utility room. This is not to make you feel sorry for me but I want all of you who got flooded to know – I am there – it happened to me again on July 20th. If my neighbors and dog had not woke me up all the furniture would have been destroyed. As it was the whole family room, utility room, washer and dryer – same as everyone else. The furnace was saved and repaired – thank goodness. But, we are there. I also wanted to say that I have talked to residents and many residents had backup insurance. The one thing we got lucky about this time was that the insurance companies did call it storm water backup. If they had called it a flood you would not have been covered because they would have asked for your flood insurance. So, it was storm water backup. It was sanitary water backup. Now it does not sound good but my saying that a lot of people were able to collect on their $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 policies. So, I know a lot of people in this City even though I did not like what happened were reimbursed through their insurance company. Do we want that to happen again – absolutely not – because I know insurance companies will come to a point where they will not provide coverage anymore. I think we are good if it happens another time which I don’t want to happen. But, you have to understand that many people in this City were reimbursed for their losses at $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000. A gentleman mentioned that I said to replace pipes. I did not say that. I asked Mr. Gwydir specifically at a meeting and Mr. Morley was there – we met – we took action three days after the water problems. I asked Mr. Gwydir and Mr. Semik to come in. Mr. Morley just happened to be coming by the office and I told him he could sit in on it. We were discussing three days after this what were the areas most affected, what can we start working on to alleviate some of the water problems. We are not going to alleviate all the water problems. We cannot do it. I wish we could. So I asked Mr. Gwydir if we were to double the size of the pipes on Lakeshore Blvd. would that take care of the problems for the people bordering Lakeshore Blvd.. Mr. Gwydir, what was your answer?
Mr. Gwydir: No.
Mayor Andrzejewski: So, someone who said – the Mayor said replace the pipes – that was not correct. I asked a questions about doubling the size and if it would solve the problem and the answer was no. With that said, there are many areas we are looking at – can we put a retention basin somewhere along Lakeshore Blvd.? Can we use the one behind the condos on Lakeshore Blvd? Can we get with CEI and use the vacant property on Erie Road where they tore down homes when they were going to build scrubbers? Mr. Gwydir is looking at if we can install a retention basin somewhere. There is no one here from East 337th Street – they were hit hard. We are looking at what we can do on East 337th Street to help those individuals. I met with the North Coast Condo Association – we had a nice discussion. I would have been at North and South Riverview but I did not find out about the meeting until after it had occurred. That is the truth. I will meet with you anytime you want. Regarding North and South Riverview – Mr. Gwydir, did you bring the study?
Mr. Gwydir: The study is here on the Sergeant-at-Arm’s desk.
Mayor Andrzejewski: I heard a comment that the study was not given to anyone. When we had a meeting five years ago we did a study and spent a lot of money for Mr. Gwydir to engineer a solution to most of the water problems on mostly South Riverview – they were having the most problems. This was presented to the homeowners at a meeting in this facility. It would cost about $300,000. We applied for State Issue 2 money to try to get 40%-50% of that project approved – it was on the list. We had a meeting with the residents and they said to not proceed with the work. We were working with DeMiltas and homeowners in that area that were ditching. The residents told us – no, do not proceed with this. When it was not approved for the first round by the State we were going to resubmit it and after the residents said no we did not resubmit it so we could do other projects. We tried on North and South Riverview. The residents said they did not want their trees cut or any ditching or anything done there. Those of you who were at that meeting know I am telling the truth. I would be glad to meet with the residents to see if you want to resurrect it. The plans are here if anyone wants them but we did distribute those to anyone who wanted them at the time. It showed some solutions to the water problem. The City, the Engineer, the Service Department are going to try to find a solution – not to get rid of the problem completely because I cannot sit here and say we are going to get rid of all the problems everywhere in the City. We will try to alleviate as much as possible – North Coast Point, East 337th Street, North and South Riverview, Mondamin-Edison area. Mr. Gwydir and Mr. Semik will talk about things they are already working on. What happened on July 20th did not only happen in Eastlake. It happened in Wickliffe, Willowick – Willowick got it far worse than we did. It happened in Willoughby Hills, Willoughby, Mentor, Painesville, Madison – it hit everywhere. It was not just Eastlake that had water problems – it was everywhere in Lake County. So, does every City have pipes that are clogged – no. What happened was – according to the rainfall chart from the Willoughy-Eastlake Water Pollution Plant – it shows the amount of rainfall we had in that short period of time. The only one I can remember that was harder was in 2006 when we had 9 inches of rain. It says between 3:15 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in 15 minute intervals we had .55 inches of rain in a 15 minute period, .84, .49 and .34 inches of rain in 15 minute increments. It says we got 4.5 inches total in 9 hours – 5-year 9 hour event. We got 2.22 inches in an hour. What happened was an act of God. It was Mother Nature. I heard one analogy – I am not trying to make excuses – we are going to work on this thing – we are going to find some solutions – the analogy given to me is – if you filled up your sink with water to the top and added water to it what will happen – the water will overflow. The storm sewers were filled with water. The water had nowhere to go – it was going to the river and going to the creek. The river and creek was saying – back up – we don’t want you – take your water back. Here is the proof of what happened. As soon as the rain stopped about a half hour or 45 minutes later – I know North Coast Point was an exception – in most basements and family rooms the water was gone. The sewers got up and the water had a place to go and it was taken out – North and South Riverview may be an exception also. But, in most places in Eastlake who had basements and family rooms the water was gone as soon as the storm sewers caught up. That is what happened. The other analogy I heard was from Mr. Gwydir – he said when you design a system it would be like designing a road system in Surfside. The road system in Surfside is designed for a certain amount of traffic during peak periods during certain periods of time – the roads are not clogged and there are no traffic jams. If everyone on Surfside decided with their two cars to get up at 7:00 a.m. and hit the road at the same time those roads would not hold those cars. That is what happened with the water. It had nowhere to go. It just could not go anywhere. This City has two trucks – we have a storm sewer flushing truck and a sanitary sewer truck. They are out almost every day flushing sewers. Mr. Semik will explain how they flush them and the schedule he keeps. I hear talk that the City does nothing with the storm sewers and the sanitary sewers are all clogged. No they are not. We flush them and make sure they are open. If you can imagine – a 30 inch pipe on Lakeshore Blvd. is not going to be clogged. If it has a little dirt when that stream of water hits the dirt will be gone – it is not clogged. The storm sewers are not clogged – we check them. Every area in the City that is here tonight we will look at. We will get back to you and will try to find solutions. We are already working on a couple.
For my Mayor’s report – many people have asked me about WalMart. The WalMart redesign is being engineered right now – I just spoke with Mr. Gwydir today. We will put a cut-through in between the old and new WalMarts which will alleviate some of the congestion on Vine Street. We are also engineering – WalMart is paying for this – a new left hand turn off of Vine Street into WalMart and another right hand turn. The area by the WalMart sign was designed to be a right hand turn for people coming from Willowick. It was not designed to be a left hand turn. People turned it into a left hand turn. It was designed to have people go to East 337th Street and turn left. The message is not getting to the customers. There will be a new left hand turn accommodating everyone who wants to turn left and there will be two right hand turns. That should alleviate most of the problems. By having that cut-through people will be able to go to one of the two stop lights to turn left. Most of you have seen that Stevens Blvd. has been repaved. Both sides of Stevens Blvd. were filled with potholes. When Stevens was paved in 1999 a poor mixture of concrete was used. Mr. Semik, what did they add to it?
Mr. Semik: One was fly ash and the other was steel slag.
Mayor Andrzejewski: They added stuff to the concrete to make it cheap – we are paying for it. The only solution that was cost affective and viable rather than keeping on patching and using labor and materials was that we talked to the residents and for the most part everyone agreed to us grinding it down, fixing the catch basins and putting on a layer of asphalt. Stevens is now a much nicer road. That is your road money at work. We will do the same thing in the next two years on Willowick Drive – we can only afford to do half each year. Two new businesses on Vine Street – Rally’s and Advance Auto Parts is taking about 60% of the old Sears building. There are a couple of other things but I cannot talk about them until they come to fruition.
Anyone who wants to meet with Mr. Semik, Mr. Gwydir or just me call me – I am here – I am available to listen and try to find solutions. I empathize with you. It happened to me twice. And, it will probably happen to me again. The comment I made about ceramic tile – I said I put ceramic tile in my family room – I told my wife no more laminate flooring or carpeting – we now have ceramic tile. I know it will happen again. I know I will get water in there again. This time we will flush it down the sump pump and clean it with Clorox and be done with it. Hopefully, we will be notified by our dog or neighbors again so we can get the furniture out. I said I am adding ceramic tile – I did not tell other people to do ceramic tile – I would really like to be quoted correctly. Mr. Semik?
SERVICE DIRECTOR – Mike Semik
Mr. Semik: There were a couple of questions in regards to the flushing of the mains. We are currently doing that right now. It is a long, tedious process because as we flush them we also camera them to make sure they are clean and there are no tree limbs left behind or any broken pipes. I am talking about the mains – not the laterals. I know everyone would like to have it done tomorrow but that does not happen. I have three years in which to accomplish the cleaning of both the sanitary and the storms. We are working on it – an area at a time. The people on the west side of town – it may be a little longer before you see us. Today the guys were up on Riverdale – they were working that area before the flood and we went back to that area. We have not found anything unusual however I did receive a call from a lady on Riverdale wanting to know why the truck was sitting there flushing the mains. I explained this is what we are now in the process of doing – flushing the mains and video cameraing so I have a record and anyone who wants to see them after the three years I will be more than glad to show them to you. We have not at this point found anything which would have contributed to the flooding other than an unusual amount of water. So, we are working our way into all the areas of the City and we will eventually get it all cameraed. That information will be given to the Administration – the Mayor and Council will share that with you. If you have any questions feel free to come down and see me. I am there from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Also, as far as culvert pipes there was a question raised about whether they were inspected. The box culverts are inspected at least once a year. We do check them before a rain event. If we have some type of notification like today – we knew it was humid and they were talking about storms coming in from the Michigan area – I had the guys check them – there are nine major ones we check to make sure they are clear of debris. The people on South Riverview and Erie Road have seen us from time to time pulling out debris from in front of the grate. The grate is there because there is a sanitary main that runs underneath that culvert and it is our responsibility to make sure that does not get damaged. The material is put up on the residents’ property and they have accepted the fact that they need to get it out of there. Once it is dredged out we will haul it away for them. The Mayor and I met with the North Coast Condo Association and after that meeting I had a discussion with the Mayor and we obtained additional information and asked for elevation tests to see if there are some solutions. It is not a permanent solution and will not cure the problem but there are some things we are exploring. I continued to have conversations with Mr. Gwydir in regards to other areas. As far as South Riverview – we brought up the study – and hours into the afternoon and I discussed this with the Mayor – we set up a pump at 863 and 873 Erie Road to pump the water onto Erie Road and get it out of the backyards. Not to drain the backyards but to keep the water from going down South Riverview.
Mayor Andrzejewski: That is one of the hot spots – isn’t that one of the spots when there is a heavy rain where you set up a pump to stop that water from going downhill?
Mr. Semik: Well, we are now. This is something we did this time and it worked very well.
Mayor Andrzejewski: The City bought more pumps and we have set up a preventative plan for the future for some of the areas we know will get water. As soon and we get word we are having a heavy rain immediately the pumps will be disbursed to those two homes on Erie Road to stop the water from going down South Riverview, 3 will go to Galalina – the harbor area was hit also and the pumps will pump the water into the river and one will be at the Mondamin-Edison area. Those are areas we know water accumulates. The proactive plan is to get the pumps to those areas to help prevent something. Just because I live in an area does not mean the area I live in and my neighbors can’t get help. I have heard comments that – the Mayor lives there that is why the pumps were sent there. Not true. Mr. Semik makes those decisions. If my neighbors were here tonight and they heard that talk they would be very upset because the neighbor next to me got his house wiped out and across the street twice now their entire home was wiped out. It does not matter where I live or where Mr. Semik lives or where Joe Smith lives these are areas that have been identified as heavy rainwater areas and they deserve help just like any other resident in this City. I want to disburse that talk. It has nothing to do where the Mayor lives.
Resident: comments could not be understood because speaker was not at the microphone.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Semik?
Mr. Semik: No.
Mayor Andrzejewski: The water is pumped somewhere – where would we pump it to? I will listen to any suggestion – some may be good and some not. But, the water we are pumping in the harbor area is pumped into the river. From Mondamin and Edison it is passed under the railroad track to the grassland on Erie Road. From Erie Road it is pumped to a storm drain on Erie Road. We have to have a place for the water to be pumped to.
Mr. Semik: One of the other things that was mentioned tonight was the pipe that was put in on North Riverview. I went down there today after it rained and that pipe was working – there was a backflow preventer on it from getting back up to Corporate Creek – that was working and it did take all the water. When we had the rain on the 20th – I was here at 3:15 a.m. and did not leave until about 8:30 p.m. – I checked all the areas and everything that was installed and that we had improved on was working properly and was draining as quickly as the watershed would let it drain. With that being said I want to thank the residents of the City on behalf of my guys for giving them drinks while they were out there cleaning up that mess. Everyone is familiar with first responders – we automatically think police and fire – and typically that is it but in an event like this the Service Department is also a first responder and we are also the last responders. Once the event is over we get the cleanup – and, it did take us two weeks to do it. I have 17 guys who did nothing but cleanup the City and we removed over 360 tons of debris. That is about 20 tons per person. And that is by hand. We did not go down the street scraping it up with a backhoe and frontend loader. It was all physically handled by the guys. So, I comment my guys for doing a quick and thorough cleanup and I want to thank the residents who gave them encouragement and drinks when it was hot out there. They appreciated it and I wanted to mention that it was appreciated.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Semik and I were every week – sometimes twice a week – on a conference call with the County emergency center trying to get the number of homes necessary to declare it a disaster area. The County was unsuccessful in that. During that course in time all the mayors and city representatives were on that call – specifically on Friday after the flood. They asked if anyone else needed help. We knew Willowick was hit hard. So, I asked Mr. Semik how we looked and he said we were fine – his guys would finish it up in the next few days – we were after Republic to send us more help. We said to let them go to Willowick. So, Mentor, Mentor-on-the-Lake and a couple of other cities sent trucks to Willowick because we thought they needed more help at that time than we did. Willowick, Wickliffe, Mentor – everyone got hit. They were picking up their own debris. At that point in time we said we were okay – we could handle the rest – sent the help to Willowick. They need it right now more than we do. That was the decision we made and it worked out fine. We got all the rubbish picked up in a timely manner. That was in answer to the question of why we did not ask for help – at that time we did not need it.
Mr. Semik: That completes my report. I wanted to point out to everyone here if you have specific questions or there is something that is not clear to please contact me. I am in from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and I will be glad to see if I can help you. My job is to help every resident in this City regardless of whether it is a private drive, private condominium, North and South Riverview – wherever the street is at – my job is to find some kind of resolution to your problems. It may not be the best one – it may not cure it all. But, that is my job. I will be more than glad to work with anyone to try to lesson or minimize the effects of the problems we are having.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Gwydir, maybe you can talk about some of the things we have been discussing – some of the possible solutions for the areas we are looking at.
CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir
Mr. Gwydir: Since the flood we have been asked to look at a number of places and the causes of flooding both for possible short term solutions, mid-term solutions and longer term solutions. Those areas are North Coast Point, North and South Riverview for which we have already done a rather extensive study which we have resurrected, East 332nd Street which presently has drainage studies underway, Edison-Mondamin and the harbor area. In the near term I have been working with Mr. Semik and we have gone extensively around Northcoast Point and the drainage areas that come into that and are trying to look for possible solutions and we are going to expand on those. We have also been talking about North and South Riverview and the City implemented some of the items in the report that are outside and free for the taking. So, we are looking at those things in the short term. There are some things that we would like to do and are going to look at in the long term. There were some things brought up during the comment section – one of them was about dredging Corporation Creek. Clearly, nothing would suit me better than to clear that whole thing out to the river. There are significant hurdles to that with the Army Corps of Engineers to clearing any creek – there are very, very significant hurdles and if they can be crossed it is a significant amount of time. So, we are going to focus on some of the shorter things that we can do. The other thing I told the Mayor is that regardless of what we do at some point in the future it is always possible to have a heavy rainstorm that will overcome storm sewer systems. These systems were put in over about the last 80 years. They went from having no design standards to very modest design standards to what we have today. The sewers are not necessarily equipped to handle all these storms but there are things we can do and clearly as Mr. Skinner noted there is a need for public/private partnership work. There was some indication of people needing answers to questions about what you could do individually to help out your situation. The Mayor has tasked me with getting all that information and disseminating it to you folks.
Mayor Andrzejewski: I know you and I have talked about this various times. Did what happened in Eastlake just happen in Eastlake? You are city engineers for how many cities?
Mr. Gwydir: Twenty-five right now.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Did it happen in other cities – the same type of circumstances? I know that is a leading question but I had to ask it for everyone to hear.
Mr. Gwydir: It is a leading question but it did happen in a number of communities and very plainly published in the News Herald. There were a lot of people affected. And, the reasons vary.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Someone mentioned about new development – the last new development we had in this City were the condos right next to here that we tried to stop. The ones that are half built. The history on that goes back to about 15 years ago. There was a City-wide reassessment – what is the word? The people voted on it.
Ms. Vaughn: Rezoning.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Rezoning. When it was rezoned for whatever reason the area next to City Hall with the fly ash was rezoned LS-DD – Lakeshore Development. That opened the doors to condos. When I was fighting the people who wanted to build there Mr. Klammer told me I was going to lose because if they take the City to Court it is zoned for multi-family units. They cannot be stopped. Not only would they be allowed to build them but they would get damages from the City. That was caused by rezoning and was out of our hands. I wanted to stop that. That is the last multi-development I can remember in this City. Occasionally we get one home here or there but there is no more development – we are a suburb that is considered built out. We have no room for more houses and very little room for businesses except for off of Erie Road and maybe some other places that are smaller. You guys from Freed Drive and other areas – we will look at your area. We are not trying to ignore you. Those areas that are some parts of Surfside and other City areas – Mr. Semik will send the truck around to make sure the mains are clear – storm and sanitary. Then if you want we have a service we provide – we bought a camera truck and we will check everything. If you want it cameraed from where you tie into the main line to your house to see if there are any blockage we will do that for you free and give you the video to show if the line is clear or there is tree roots or something blocking the water from your house to the street. It does not happen all the time but occasionally they find some homes with tree roots. So for Freed Drive and some of those other areas call Mr. Semik and they will check the mains to be sure there is no blockage – nothing stopping the flow of water out of the area. Mr. Semik, would you follow up with Freed Drive and some of those other areas?
Mr. Morley: On behalf of the residents who have been working with City Council we have sent out numerous emails the last 2-3 weeks and none of them are getting answered through us or to the residents. The residents are all copied on the emails. That is the problem we are hearing from the residents. Some of the residents in the audience are frustrated. When you do start finding these solutions we would like to be included in those answers because right now we are not.
Mayor Andrzejewski: And you will absolutely be included. However…
Mr. Morley: Mayor, let me finish. What I am saying is just get back with us. I am seeing the heads shaking because all the people in the audience and the residents we have been talking to – we have been forwarding the emails and we are not getting answers either. So, that is all I am asking.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Mr. Semik, if you are on Riverdale right now when do you think you will get to the Freed and Grovewood area. The reason I am asking is we had a conversation and you were looking to do that the week of the 19th. I know you were paving and it did not happen but I kind of put myself out there and told residents this was the day we were shooting for and it did not happen. That is why some of those people are here tonight. When do you think Grovewood and Freed are going to get done? I think some of the residents want to be there when it happens.
Mr. Semik: Right now I am not going to give you a timeframe. I try and give you an approximate but with other pending projects that everyone is aware of – we fell behind by two weeks. The paving should have been done already – it has not been – I still have 3 streets to go. Stevens Blvd. was an add-on. I know these people were not aware of that. It took considerable time to prep that street. I understand their concerns and I appreciate them. However, I cannot go from one area to another and start hop scotching. That solves nothing. What I have done is to take a look at all the areas that were affected and take the hardest hit areas and work with that first. Once I have completed that area I will move on to the second hardest area. Everyone in here was the hardest hit area and I understand that – I’ve got that. Every area was hit hard. Some areas were hit harder than others. Valley Creek and Cliff View have two homes I was made aware of – right in the middle of Cliff View – no one else around them. Why? I don’t know. Do I drop everything to go over there?
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Where did the 19th come from in the first place? We talked about that and you said the week of the 19th and I actually sent out a massive email. Why did you come up with that? If you had told me you were not sure when you could get to it – you were going to other areas – that would have been fine.
Mr. Semik: I gave you an approximate – what I thought would be something that would be accomplished. However, we fell behind. That is all I can tell you. I am publically telling everyone now if you have an area you would like cameraed send it to me and I will be more than glad to take a look at it.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: You have the ones from me.
Mr. Semik: Yes. And I do try to get back to everyone’s emails. However, sometimes when I do have an answer I think is the correct answer I forward that on.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Whoever brought up about the dredging and widening of the creek – I do know you do have to go through the Army Corps of Engineers – it is a big pain even if they will allow you to do it. Mr. Gwydir, I am glad you touched on that. You just can’t take a backhoe and equipment and start digging in a creek. I think Osborne did that several years ago and got in all kinds of trouble. Mr. Gwydir, it was brought up about the backflow preventer. Can you talk a little bit about it – what it is and what it does? The quick version of it.
Mr. Gwydir: The quick version is a lot of people’s footer drains and the like are connected to the storm sewer by gravity. It is a pipe in the bottom of your basement that goes to the storm sewer. If the storm sewers, as in the case of this most recent rain, surcharges and is unable to take the flow – the manhole covers are dancing on the street. That means the water level is about the equivalent of the street. That pushes back up that pipe, surrounds your basement with water, and makes it like a boat in a bathtub. If you have any cracks in the walls, cuts in the basement floor the water will find its way in. You use the backflow preventer to keep the water from the storm sewer that is surcharged from entering up that pipe and coming back. That goes to the point I was making before. There are a number of things depending on how different houses are plumbed and how they were built there are different scenarios to use. Overtime we will provide information to the Administration about the various things people can do. You can put in a backflow preventer as an example. You can disconnect your footer drains and run them to a sump pump and carry the pipe from the storm sewer up outside of your house.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: There is no 100% fix.
Mr. Gwydir: There is no 100% fix. As I will tell anyone we design any drainage for – anything you can design for – a 500 year storm – a 1,000 year storm – it is statistically going to happen and you will flood but you can’t stop it, you can cut down a little below the frequency now but it will eventually happen. But there are things that can be done in the system. Mr. Semik was talking about that – keeping the system clean. There are things that private owners can do – backflow preventers, running the drain pipe out to the storm sewer and high in the basement. But, it depends on the way it is hooked up. I know a lot of folks don’t necessarily know how their homes were hooked up. One gentleman said he was looking for information about some things that he can do that we intend to provide – pictorial formats that someone can understand. Folks who are in the trades or plumbing know what I am speaking about but I would not expect everyday folks who don’t deal with this stuff to know what I am taking about so a picture is worth a thousand words. We will have those coming with complete information. Mr. Skinner said you guys can do some stuff and that is true. There are things folks can do to help themselves.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: So, you are going to provide drawings.
Mr. Gwydir: We will provide drawings and sketches and information. It is a whole approach to solve the problem.
Mr. Morley: Do you have a timeframe on what you are working on?
Mr. Gwydir: I will call that the short term stuff. Those are things we can get out fairly rapidly. When I say short term I mean in the next few weeks.
Mayor Andrzejewski: First of all I will share with everyone on Council – if you send a memo it will be answered. But, sometimes you send a memo and it is a longer answer with research required and sometimes you guys expect the answer next day. Sometimes the expectations are a little bit high for the questions you are asking especially after this water event. We cannot give you a quick answer because you will take that quick answer and come back to us later and say – see, you said we can do this. So, my view has always been when I give an answer to someone or Mr. Semik or Mr. Gwydir gives an answer to someone or now our new CBO – I want it to be the correct answer. And if that takes a few days or a few weeks I would rather have you guys a little angry at me then trying to give you a bad answer. I have also talked with other cities. What they have told me is over the years – and I talked with Mr. Semik and asked how this happened – apparently years ago down spouts from your gutters were put on splash blocks and directed into your lawn to be absorbed by the grass and dirt. Apparently some years ago the fad was to take the down spouts and pipe them into the storm sewers. That just adds more and more water to the storm sewers. Now Mr. Semik has told me that trend is no longer viable and the new trend is to put it back onto the lawns. That helps if people put their gutter or down spout water back onto their lawns because that will prevent more water from going into the storm sewers. So, if any of you have your pipes connected to the underground and you can without a big expense divert the water onto the grass or rain barrels – it will help.
Mr. Licht: I am glad you mentioned the rain barrels. I know there were specific areas hit worse than others within the City. Are there any suggestions from the Administration or City Engineer? I know you are advocating doing away with the down spouts – there is a concern of flooding neighbors just by everyone disconnecting their down spouts. Are their suggestions such as the rain barrels, vegetation strips, rain guards – maybe for the areas that were hit but not as significantly as these residents who are here? Is there something people can do to alleviate the storm water run-off which we all know has increased in the last 40-50 years?
Mayor Andrzejewski: I will get that information to you. Lake MetroParks is working on providing rain barrels to Eastlake and Willoughby residents. I know we had that announcement out there. I asked them to see if they could get me hooked up with one. If you go to the Lake MetroParks site you can find the information on how to create your own rain barrel. From what I remember it may cost you about $75 but it is not that hard to create a rain barrel. They are designed to help water flowers and gardens when there is a lack of rain – it is not just designed to catch water.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Mayor, as a suggestion with the emails – because I receive some extensive ones too – I usually email them back and advise that I will need some time to provide a correct response. This way they at least know I received their email.
Mr. Licht: I was wondering if the Administration knows how much this catastrophe has cost the City?
Mayor Andrzejewski: I think we submitted – Mr. Slocum can give the number. There is a rebate program we are working with the County and the State on to rebate the City 75% of the cost of the labor – overtime dollars – not regular work hours and for 8 or 12 hours use of our equipment to pick up the debris. What was the number we submitted to the County?
Mr. Slocum: I think it was roughly about $60,000.
Mayor Andrzejewski: That is what we spent on overtime. This also includes equipment. You really cannot put equipment in as a cost because the equipment is already purchased and it is a fixed cost. $60,000 is what this event cost us – of which we could possibly get 75% reimbursed.
Mr. Licht: My last question goes along with the assistance and requesting assistance. I understand Willowick was hit very hard. I think it is an insult to the residents of Eastlake to downplay what we experienced and make the decision you made to stay silent when assistance was being offered to other cities – Painesville, Mayfield Village, Mentor, Wickliffe, Willoughby, Mentor-on-the-Lake – all came to Willowick saying that we did not ask for help. I think that is absurd…
Mayor Andrzejewski: It is not an insult to the residents of Eastlake and I do not think they took it that way.
Mr. Licht: It took almost a week and one half to two weeks to remove garbage.
Mayor Andrzejewski: I conferred with our Service Director almost a week after the flood and asked for his opinion – “Do you want help?” and he said “No, we can handle it.” I will rely on my Directors and I will defend my Directors. That was a decision the Administration makes. It did not mean we did not know that we had a tragic event and had a lot of debris but at that time a lot of debris was picked up. We were just picking it up and putting it behind the Service Garage to get it off the lawns. I think we handled it very well.
Mr. Licht: I give the Service Department a ton of credit. I am not downplaying their role in this but from what I see I think the Administration made the wrong choice by not asking for help.
Mayor Andrzejewski: And I disagree with you and we will have this disagreement. But, that is our call, Mr. Licht. You know that is not a Council call – that is an Administrative call.
Mr. Slocum: I did participate in that conversation with the Mayor when he was on the phone. That offer was not made right away – it was made a week plus into the event. By the time the offer was made we had already had, in our opinion, sufficient work done at that time. I agreed with the Mayor’s and Mr. Semik’s opinion that we did not need it when it was offered. If it had been offered day one that would have been a different thing. No one was offering anything day one. People were taking care of their own cities.
Mr. Licht: What about the possibility of getting assistance in cameraing sewer lines? Was that every an option?
Mayor Andrzejewski: I do not understand the question.
Mr. Licht: Was there an option in asking for assistance with cameraing sewer lines? It sounds like it is a very long process and will take an inordinate amount of time.
Mayor Andrzejewski: I will leave that up to Mr. Semik. If he wants to contact other Service Departments and ask for help I am all for it. But, that is a decision Mr. Semik will make – he is the Service Director.
Mr. Semik: To answer the questions I do not think anyone – and I cannot speak for the other cities because it is an Administrative decision – but in talking with the Directors from Lake County – I am a member of the Lake County Services Directors Association – I think right now Willoughby, Wickliffe and Willowick are all concerned about doing the exact same thing. We have all heard and read where the Service Director in Willowick indicated he was aware of problems and now he is going to address them. We are addressing them – we are looking into them – this is something that has been ongoing. To ask other communities to come in to start videotaping and cleaning our system would put a burden on our adjoining cities. I am not too sure if we have the funds available to hire private contractors to come and do it. That would be something that would be looked at. We are looking at the finances of the City to expedite because right now this is the hot topic. We are on schedule and continuing to do the work that needs to be done and I think at this point in time it is my decision that we will continue down the patch we are going and we will address the areas that are hit hard and we continue to do so. It is no different than how I do the road program. I take the worst of the worst streets and those are the ones we pave. So, I am looking at the worst of the worst areas and we will move along.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: If we did hire a contractor to do some of the cameraing can we still submit to get reimbursed for 75%?
Mr. Slocum: I do not believe so. That is not storm cleanup – it is an abatement type issue.
Mayor Andrzejewski: It was for overtime.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: I thought you could submit structure damage and any other kind of work that needed to be done due to the flooding. I could be wrong. Who would we have to ask – the County?
Mr. Semik: The answer to one part of the question – the structural damage – I have not found anything yet from what we have been doing. I do now know if I am going to find something that we are going to be able to point directly to and say this was the correct cause of the amount of water we received. I am not too sure if that is allowed.
Mayor Andrzejewski: It had to exceed ½ of 1% of your operating budget. That was quite a bit of money. The State and Federal Government put a lot more restrictions on this event than the one in 2006. Specifically what they wanted from us to get reimbursed was overtime. We could only submit overtime over the 8 hour day. But we could submit 12 hours use of equipment and there was a schedule that listed so much per hour for a dump truck – so much per hour for a backhoe. So, we submitted all that and that is where the $60,000 figure came in. I was in on all the conference calls and I was not aware of anything we could be reimbursed for after that.
Mr. Morley: One of the reasons Lake County was not declared a disaster area was that the Federal government stated that basements were not living areas. Obviously the majority of the problems in our City along with everyone else were with the basements. The Federal government just changed that around because of the money they paid out the last time – that could possibly be it.
Kimberly Evers, 34137 Beachpark, Eastlake
Mr. Evers: I have heard a lot of talk about rainwater, creeks and everything else. I want to know why the sewage system failed. Three houses in my neighborhood did not have rainwater. It was feces. Total demolished basements – total sewage backups. It was not rainwater. To get it out of there we literally had to pull a toilet off the floor in the basement and get a squeegee to get it to go down. I want to know what failed and how it failed and why it failed and what is going to be done. When you buy or sell a house in Eastlake you must have a sewer die test. That test says that your storm and sanitary are separate. How did this get into the sanitary sewer system?
Mr. Morley: Mr. Semik, can you look into that – it is on Beachpark?
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: I want to clarify what the actual cost was because I had understood our actual cost was much higher than what you said, Mr. Slocum. You said $60,000 was our cost so far and I heard a much higher number.
Mr. Slocum: That was for the reimbursement.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: What was our actual cost?
Mr. Slocum: How do you want me to define it?
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Labor, equipment, Republic…
Mr. Slocum: We have not paid anything to Republic at this moment.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Labor and overtime for the Police and Fire Departments…
Mr. Slocum: For the overtime we were looking at roughly $60,000?
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Including overtime?
Mr. Slocum: Yes.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: I heard a really higher number then that.
Mr. Slocum: Where did you get it from?
Mayor Andrzejewski: This is from the Finance Director.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: I am asking a question, all right?
Mayor Andrzejewski: It sounds like you want him to say a higher number then it was.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: That is what I understood. I just asked for a clarification.
Anthony Vitiello, 815 Erie Road, Eastlake
Mr. Vitiello: beginning comments could not be understood as speaker was not at the microphone camera this – camera that. There were no clogs he said. So, why waste energy there. The question is what is going to be done in my area – to the creek. If there is red tape then what are you going to do about the red tape. If I sell my house do I give the Mayor my deed and just say goodbye? I don’t even care. Next time I flood I will hand him the deed and say goodbye. I am just leaving. I have no bills – it is paid. But, there is no answer here. They are saying nothing about it except that there is red tape. Water has to be moved from one area to another – it is now it has to be moved. I understand the pipes are not big enough – whether it was the storm or flood water. Today it went to the top – today was a regular rain. That is because it is not trenched. I have five to six foot more of dirt in there because it all pushed through. Instead of six inches of rain the next time it will be three inches. I will be ahead of you because if I have to do something whether I get arrested or not – no permit or nothing – I am doing my property because you are not doing nothing. That says I don’t need a permit – just do it – because no one is giving an answer here. You can say research has to be done. I talked to a resident who has been here 20 years – this has been occurring and occurring. No one has an answer so I don’t see an answer.
Mr. Morley: I have sent the photos of North and South Riverview to Mr. Semik and also sent photos of what First Energy owns over there so we can possibly get the answers you are looking for and a time frame for when we can either go in an dredge or clean. But I have to rely on our Engineer to give us those answers.
Mr. Vitiello: I understand. I know what I am going to do. I am going to get 30-40 trucks and will build a wall. If it is not my property and it is yours – oh well, come and take it away. But, I am taking my tax money and putting it into there. But, it did $20,000 in damage to my house. So, now here is my bill. As I stand no one said how much money there is to do anything. Everyone is talking about what was done. Forget about what was done. Pipes have to be bigger or the creek has to be bigger. I have heard things that there is no room. The Engineer may agree with me – you can make reservoirs where water collects and then moves on. If you do that then the water moves. Otherwise it will do the same thing. Today it was almost to the top. It was a regular rain today – it was a little hard. But what is it going to take for the next one – this week – the next week. I have two kids and I have one floor knocked down. I actually just put one room in. I am not doing nothing – the same thing with the Mayor – I am not putting rugs in – I am just leaving it empty right now. Everything is cleaned and I waiting to see if another one happens because what is the sense of putting in a floating wood floor or ceramic tile – it will get destroyed. It is more like answers here. I offer to volunteer to do things. If you have to put a machine there and dredge – whoever you have to go through – the Army Corps of Engineers – it still has to be dredged – it is higher than it was. Any engineer will say if you pushed this much in then you can take this much out. What is the red tape – clear it. We have a Mayor to do that. We have everyone here who is supposed to do it – the Engineer, Council are supposed to clear red tape. I don’t know what it takes to dredge. If it takes me to take my own machine and I am sitting there and a police officer tells me I don’t have a permit I am done already and I am happy. So, if it takes that and no one else will do anything then that is what is going to happen tomorrow. I will have 30-40 trucks there and will fill my whole property with dirt.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: I certainly sympathize with what is going on. It is difficult. Can’t we as a Council – we are here tonight – say forget the red tape. If we have red tape let’s cut it and do something. Can we say – Mr. Gwydir, do what you have to do and get the Army Corps of Engineers in here and let’s get this creek cleared out. I have been down there. I have seen it. It is ridiculous what is in that creek. It is unacceptable. It needs to be cleared out. Let’s just get it done. Do you want a Motion? What do you want?
Mr. Morley: We have to go through the process and we all aware of the process.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: I am just saying for us to do it.
Ken Enos, 369 Waterbury Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Enos: The News Herald said that because of this storm the sewage plant could not take all the rainwater at one time. They were given permission in 2005 to release the sewage into the lake and it actually came back into our homes – raw sewage. Some people just got rainwater. A lot of us like me got raw sewage. Now, if “this is happening” then I think these laws need to be changed. Some of this – the City has to step on the County for doing so. Myself and many of the residents here in Eastlake – I am contacting as many as possible – I have already contacted Congressman Joyce’s office. He told me the same thing. Get enough people from Eastlake to contact his office and he will have a mandate to take it out of the local EPA’s hands and take it to the Federal level to get this law changes. Something has to be done. Raw sewage is not only a damage to our homes but is a health hazard to the families.
Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Gwydir, you indicated that the Army Corps of Engineers has to be contacted to widen or change the course of the creek. Do they have to be contacted just to dredge it and clean out the debris and make it deeper? Why can’t we do that? We are not changing the course or anything?
Mr. Gwydir: Any work below the ordinary high water mark of that creek is considered work in a waterway of the United States and the Federal government has a number of rules – governing what you can and cannot do – the length of what you can work – you cannot go out en masse and dredge.
Ms. Vaughn: But if there are refrigerators and large objects what is wrong with taking them out?
Mr. Gwydir: Clearly the opportunity for anyone to clean things out above that ordinary high water mark are not impacted.
Ms. Vaughn: Then it is a judgment call where the high water mark is?
Mr. Gwydir: The ordinary high water mark is defined as the area of scour along the side of the creek – where no vegetation rises. If you look at a creek you will see an area up the bank that is scoured out – the high water mark – you can clear out above where the vegetation starts. Clearly, also that creek resides on a number of pieces of land not owned by the City but is owned by private citizens and/or corporations. It is not to say this cannot be done. And, I would like to say to everyone in here – sure, we can clean it out and push all the way to the river but I would be arrested tomorrow as well as everyone who approved that. It cannot be done. But, can some things be done? Yes. Can those things be approached in the long term – absolutely they can and will but if we are talking about changing the law in the Clean Water Act that will not happen probably in my life time.
Ms. Vaughn: Mr. Hoefle and I were down there reviewing the area and we could see debris and tree branches backed up against the culvert opening going underneath Erie Road. Can’t our Service Department clear that out?
Mr. Gwydir: Clearly in easements and things you can move those things out of the way, absolutely.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Semik, wasn’t that the one you were talking about? We cleared that one out.
Ms. Vaughn: We were there the day after the flood.
Mr. Morley: I sent pictures last week when I was there with Mrs. Ratica. Have you seen the photos I sent? There is still blockage – we were just there Wednesday. Can you guys take a look at those pictures and see what we can do now without affecting the area and give us a timeframe on when we may get down there to clean stuff up?
Mayor Andrzejewski: We will do that. Ms. Vaughn, if you tell me where the refrigerator is we will get it out of there.
Ms. Vaughn: Someone mentioned it.
Kim Evers: 477 Erie Road – about 150 yards in the back.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Have you seen it?
Kim Evers: Yes.
Mr. Morley: Yes.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Semik, we will go out there tomorrow.
Mr. Morley: I will show you where it is.
Mayor Andrzejewski: Mr. Semik, if there is big debris in there get it out of there. So everyone in the audience understands if Mr. Semik comes to you and asks to get a backhoe or tractor on your property you have to let him do it. That is the other thing we talked about – a lot of this is on private property. He may have to go through your backyard – you have to let him do it if you want help. If there are big objects in the creek we will get them out of there. You have to let him on your property.
Carrie Barnabie, 35551 Freed Drive, Eastlake
Mrs. Barnabie: I just have to say as a resident that has only lived in the Cleveland area for 10 years it is very disheartening to sit here and think that I pay taxes every month to Eastlake – I work at University Circle – I look at that area and come back and say I really like this area – it is a great place. But, when I hear the Mayor say to me at a meeting where I would like some answers about what happened and why my property has lost value and the response is – “Well, a lot of people got insurance money.” We were one of those families. We were fortunate to have insurance. But it does not lesson what we have had to go through for the past month and one half. And when I was at home today and the rain came I was terrified to go downstairs and wondered what I was going to find. It has been an arduous process and the fact that you think it is okay that it is going to happen again and we are not addressing it is not okay. We want to have value in our property. We have a great neighborhood – Freed Drive. And I know a lot of people have gotten what they feel is worse than us. But, our area got hit extremely hard. We are hard working, middleclass families that are trying to maintain a really nice standard of living in Eastlake and it is really, really disheartening to sit here and think that no one cares. And we were one of the emails that were sent. In my line of work as an educator if I did not respond to a parent for over three weeks – just completely disregarded it – I would lose my job. If my Principal came to me and said, “Carrie, why didn’t you respond to that parent?” and I said I needed to get more information he would have said I should have responded – “please understand I looked at the question and needed more time to get back to you.” It is not acceptable to just ignore people at a time when it was really, really devastating. We are fortunate that we are one of the younger families and we have some extremely young families and we are all excited that young families have moved back to our neighborhood but those families are not going to stay. And for those residents that are older – for them to have to go through this again and again and again and the fact that when they called a cleaning service they were quoted that it would be $10,000-$15,000 – that is their whole insurance claim. That has to be addressed. Someone has to address it. And insurance companies are not going to continue to pay storm and sewage. This is our second claim – we claimed it seven years ago. State Farm is not going to pay a third time. So, I really hope that the City Council members and the Mayor will really look at this and make Eastlake a City we are all proud to live in. It would just be a much more understandable issue for me and our neighbors if every home in Eastlake had flooded. But there were a lot of areas in Eastlake that did not flood. So, something is right in those neighborhoods and not correct in ours. And we just want answers.
Ed Robinson, 386 North Coast Point, Eastlake
Mr. Robinson: Not too long ago my neighbor and I took it upon ourselves to do our own study. We found about seven variables that caused us to flood – we live at the bottom of the hill. From what we saw there is a pipe that runs parallel to Lakeshore Blvd. – a 42 inch pipe that stops at the corner of our property. There is a 15-18 feet gap between that 42 inch pipe and the next pipe which is 24 inches. Why does a 42 inch drain into a 24 inch? That does not make sense. Also, back behind the swamp – the railroad tracks go back that way – there is a drain on the swamp side – there is a 60 inch headwall pipe on the opposite side. That headwall drains the swamp, Valley Creek and Roberts Road. Where does it go – behind 450 Erie Road. What is behind there? There is a ditch that is about this deep (speaker pointed to side of podium) and it is about 150 yards long. (Mr. Robinson showed photographs of ditch, debris and headwall) The headwall is 30 inches. The pipe that drains into that headwall is 60 inches. I taught school in North Phoenix for 17 years and worked at Nestle Print Graphics for 11 years. I can figure out that a 60 inch pipe draining into a 40 or 30 inch pipe is not going to work. Where does that water go? When that creek fills up it spills it banks and it floods the woods behind 450 all the way northbound up to where our condos are. Here is the swale (picture) at the base of the railroad tracks. That swale is filled with water and my neighbor sat there and watched the waters spill over into our yard and come towards his condo. Everyone in our complex can have backflow preventers – it would not do a thing. Why? Because when that creek overflowed the water came up against our condo – rose up to the basement block windows and flowed inside through the vent window. So, a backflow preventer will not do any good. I really don’t understand. The creek on the other side of Lakeshore Blvd. is overgrown with trees. When the leaves are shed in the fall where do the leaves go? They go down into the creek. We have lived here from Phoenix the last five years – the creek has never changed. There is a 60 inch headwall over there. The headwall is clear but the creek that winds through past the trailer park behind the Mexican restaurant and eventually goes down to the river – Mr. Semik gave me a paper that showed me the different sizes of pipe I just quoted you. There is a title to what everyone calls a creek – on that paper it is called the Chagrin River. If that was cleared out – at least the trees and leaves – so water can flow through that would do nothing but help the situation. Also, between our condos and about 350 feet southbound on Erie Road there are absolutely no catch basins on either side of the street. When the water flows off Erie and comes downhill there are catch basins about every 20 feet and then when you get to about 450 Erie Road the catch basins stop and there are no more until you get to the corner of Erie Road and Lakeshore – there is one on the east and west side of the road. So, when that water flows down there is no place for it to go into catch basins. It goes to our driveway and from our driveway to the catch basins on Erie Road and we had water almost hip deep in the middle of our cul-de-sac. These are the things that I identified. There are giant pipes flowing into pipes half the size. Everyone wonders why the water does not move – a 60 inch pipe has to go into a 120 inch pipe or a 40 inch pipe has to go into and 80 inch pipe – a 42 inch pipe cannot go into a 24 inch pipe – that is not going to happen. I just wanted to give you some information and show you the pictures we took – what we found. I don’t know what else can happen but I think clearing some of these creeks out and getting the debris so the water will flow – it can look like the Los Angeles River – I don’t care – at least the water will be moving.
Mrs. Ratica, 36720 North Riverview, Eastlake
Mrs. Ratica: Mr. Semik, when you came out and cleared up the debris on the west part of Erie Road – the east part of Erie Road by Corporation Creek had a big truck tire in it and debris. My question to you since you collected all that debris on one side of the creek why could you not take your equipment and clean out the other side of it – since you went west would could you not have gone east?
Mr. Semik: You are talking about the box culvert?
Mrs. Ratica: Right, you cleaned out that debris. Why couldn’t you take your equipment and clean out the other side of Erie Road – there was a truck tire in there.
Mr. Semik: Typically, we do clean just the one side. I do not send them on your side because what passes through the grate – and how the truck tire got on that side and through that grate – I would like to know how that happened.
Mrs. Ratica: That is the problem.
Mr. Semik: You have to understand the grate in front blocks about 90% of the debris. We will clear a good portion of that. We are not going to get the Styrofoam cups or the balls.
Mrs. Ratica: I am not worried about that.
Mr. Semik: I understand that. Typically everything that passes under that box culvert is nothing but water. If you looked at the grate the squares in it are very small. I would not expect to check on the other side because the only thing that should be passing under it is water. If there is a tire there – and dredging has been brought up several times – dredging and cleaning and who is responsible. I want to make it perfectly clear that properties abut that river. So, I if I own the house right next to it and you own the vacant piece of property on the other side we are responsible to make sure it is clean. That is our responsibility as property owners. If there is a tire there and you pull it out we will pick it up. Picking up washers and dryers – that is fine – I already have tomorrow’s work laid out – we are trying to move forward with other work. Especially in areas we are cameraing and we are doing some work on Erie Road. To pull these people off momentarily to start pulling these out of people’s private property – I have no issue with that but everyone has to realize there are property owners. We need to get all these people involved regardless of who they are – no matter what corporation they are – and get them involved to try to correct this problem. To answer your questions, typically I would not look on the back side of it because what passes through that grate is water. I am not looking for big trees or picnic table. When we dredge out in front of that screen I pull out hibachis, picnic tables, cord wood that people put on the end of their property because it makes them look countryish. But in the rain the creek comes up and washes it down and deposits it in front of the grate.
Mrs. Ratica: That is the problem we are trying to get at.
Mr. Semik: And we have to educate those residents not to put this stuff that close to a creek that is going to flood. If you are going to put it there move it back.
Mrs. Ratica: I believe the residents are educated. It is the whole idea that when this debris sits there the water backs up and it backs up on these properties. I believe these other properties will welcome you with open arms if you got your equipment and cleaned that creek out. Why couldn’t we send these pictures to the Army Corps of Engineers and show them how desperate we need to have this creek which feeds into the Chagrin River dredged or cleaned. Would that be a good idea? Because it is not getting any better. It is getting worse.
Mr. Morley: Tomorrow I will show you the areas that have been talking about.
Mr. Semik: I will be more than glad to look at it.
There was no one else who wished to speak.
Mr. Morley: I appreciate everyone’s patience. I am very happy how this evening went and that everyone was respectful of each other, the Council, Mayor and Directors. I truly appreciate that. This shows to me the class act of the residents who live here. Hopefully, we can get this stuff moving and done in a timely fashion and work with the Mayor and Mr. Gwydir to try to get the answers we need.
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer
Mr. Klammer: I have other things to report but if there is anything you think would be relevant for the Law Department – I would warn the residents as best I can – if you are going to have someone come in to implement some of the Engineer’s suggestions the run of the mill plumber may not have solutions to some of these problems. They may sell you a solution you do not need. A typical roofer may not be able to solve complex roof problems and a typical plumber may not be able to solve these. Being someone who ends up in lawsuits over things like this I would caution if you have any concern it would be probably be good to get additional advice from the Building Department in the City – do you need to have an engineer look at it. That is not to say it would not still be your expense but I hate to see people put investments into run of the mill plumbers who are trying to sell you solutions. The Mayor did talk to us about trying to adjust some things in the Republic contract – if not this time but next time around – having trucks on hand. But, they have to solve the same problem as everyone else – having enough trucks to respond to everyone at the same time. Mr. Slocum and I – even before the flood and since – have discussed what types of funds exist and how they can be used because we all know there are complications in that too because any solutions are going to cost a lot of money. We have to find it and be allowed to use it. That is the best the Law Department can do to address these things but I am opened for questions.
Mr. Licht: I know someone had mentioned the Fund and where the money might come from. Right now just to make everyone aware our Storm Water Management Fund is currently at an approximate $93,000 balance. That is about 3 years worth of savings. That Fund currently only generates about $30,000 per year. One of the things I am going to propose or suggest is that we take a look at that ordinance because right now the way it is billed is that we charge every property owner $6 per year – once a year. That is corporations, the giant WalMart, residents and that is different than how the County does it and regions do it. So, I am going to propose that we take a look at that and look at the impervious surfaces and maybe come up with a calculation that will generate more money in this fund.
There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.
FINANCE DIRECTOR – Mike Slocum
Mr. Slocum: We booked a Workers’ Comp refund last month of $146,000 into the General Fund. The State Auditor is requiring us to back off the monies that were paid from other funds pro rata so we ended up reducing the $146,000 by about $57,000 which was distributed to the other funds that paid the Workers’ Comp in 2011.
There were no further questions of Mr. Slocum.
CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir
Mr. Morley: Mr. Gwydir, is there any schedule of events for Erieview’s project?
Mr. Gwydir: The contractor is planning on starting on September 30th and completing on or about November 22nd. I would suspect that means some of the restoration would extend into the spring of 2014.
Mr. Morley: Will there be meetings with the residents?
Mayor Andrzejewski: Yes. For those of you from Erie Road I sometimes have to put things in English so everyone understands – because I don’t understand sometimes. What he means by restoration is the grass will be planted next year. When they do the work on your tree lawns be prepared that the grass will be planted next year because by the time then can plant the grass this year it would not do any good. When he says restoration it is grass.
Mr. Licht: Please copy me and let me know when the meeting is.
Mayor Andrzejewski: We have done it for South Lakeshore and Roberts Road. We know the process. Every person on Erieview Road will be notified and it will be held here at City Hall. We will fill them in on the schedule, how to park their cars, the timeframe, and we will copy you. Most of all the one message we always give is be patient because it will be a couple of weeks of inconvenience but at the end you end up with a brand new road. Sometimes the message you have to send is be patient with us but you will end up with a brand new road. The money – most of you know – is another one of those Issue 2 projects we submit to bring in 40% of the funding. 40% of that project will be paid for by the State of Ohio.
There were no further questions of Mr. Gwydir.
CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL – James S. McReynolds
Mr. Morley: Well Mr. McReynolds, how do you like our first meeting?
Mr. McReynolds: Very interesting, thank you. It is always a pleasure to see City Government respond to residents’ complaints. I can see they have some valid points. However, I understand being on the Administrative side how difficult it is to solve them even in a generation there are things that have taken that long to develop. It has opened my eyes to how good this government can be.
Mr. Morley: Thank you for the work you have done since you have been here and helping us on Council to get things done that have been able to. We appreciate that.
Mr. Slocum: When you brought up the idea of the project I need to report that they will be starting the resodding at the stadium on September 16th. That project is going ahead. The Captains are not in the playoffs.
Mayor Andrzejewski: We have arranged for the sod from the field – Mr. Slocum how many truckloads are we estimating?
Mr. Slocum: About 40.
Mayor Andrzejewski: The truckloads of sod will be placed by Woodland by the soccer fields for residents to come. I want to emphasize resident – not landscapers – not big construction companies. We want the residents of Eastlake to be able to use the sod. So if you want to come and take a truck full of grass or put it in your trunk – it is open to the residents of Eastlake to patch and fix up their lawns. You will have to come with your own shovels and trucks – whatever – and haul it away.
Mr. Hoefle: Will they grind up the sod?
Mr. Slocum: They are grinding up the sod. It will not be rolls of sod.
There were no further questions of Mr. McReynolds.
POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik
Chief Reik: For the people who live in the condominiums if you have specific questions and you have a meeting call the office or send me an email. I will either come or send a representative. Most of the laws are pretty cut and dry to correspond with everyone in the City. This is the first time the parking one came up. I will work with Law Director Klammer to get that settled and we will get an answer to Brookside. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Chief Reik.
FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington
Chief Whittington: I feel like the Law Director does. I feel that my report is somewhat trivial because of all the concerns here tonight. I was trying to pay attention as far as any questions that may have been director towards the Fire Department. I did not pick up on anything so I will open myself up in case there are questions or concerns from the residents or Council regarding the Fire Departments response on that day.
Ms. Vaughn: When are you collecting in the boot? I thought it was Labor Day weekend.
Chief Whittington: This weekend – Labor Day weekend.
There were no further questions of Chief Whittington.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:54 p.m.
______________________________________
DENNIS MORLEY, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
APPROVED: __________________________
ATTEST: _____________________________
DEBORAH A. CENDROSKI,
CLERK OF COUNCIL