EASTLAKE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MAY 13, 2014
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. D’Ambrosio at approximately 7:04 p.m.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
ATTENDEES
Members of Council in attendance were Mr. Hoefle, Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Mr. Evers, Ms. DePledge, Ms. Vaughn and Council President Mr. D’Ambrosio. Mr. Licht was absent and excused. Also attending was Council Clerk Mrs. Cendroski.
Those attending from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Law Director Klammer, Finance Director Slocum, Service Director Rubertino, City Engineer Gwydir, Police Chief Reik and Fire Chief Whittington.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Regular Council Meeting with adjournment into Executive Session – April 22, 2014
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to approve the minutes of the Regular Council Meeting with adjournment into Executive Session of April 22, 2014. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. The minutes were approved.
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COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Mr. D’Ambrosio
Meetings Scheduled
Mr. D’Ambrosio: We put up the flags this last weekend at the Blvd. of 500 Flags. There was a huge turnout and we probably did it in 24 minutes. It went really smooth. Our
Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Rydzinski was one of the leaders as far as putting the groups together and it worked out great.
The next Council-as-a-Whole Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. The Regular Council meeting will be convened immediately following the adjournment of the Council-as-a-Whole Committee meeting.
COMMUNICATIONS & PETITIONS
A communication was received from the Administration regarding the Corporation Creek Watershed Study. This was referred to Finance Committee.
A meeting request was received from the Administration to discuss the Lake County Storm Water Management Program. This was referred to Service/Utilities Committee.
A communication was received from the City of Willoughby regarding an amendment to the WPCC Joint Agreement. This was referred to Finance Committee.
A communication was received from the Administration regarding the purchase of an SUV
for the Fire Department. This was referred to Finance Committee.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Mr. D’Ambrosio: A Finance Committee meeting was held.
FINANCE COMMITTEE – Ms. Vaughn, Chair
Ms. Vaughn: The Finance Committee met on Tuesday, May 6th with all members of Council except for Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins who was absent and excused. In attendance from the Administration were Mayor Morley, Finance Director Slocum and Service Director Rubertino. We talked about the re-appropriation legislation which appears on this evening’s agenda. Mr. Slocum?
Mr. Slocum: The one thing we are going to be doing that we have not done in the past is to utilize Fund #620 for capital expenditures related to recreation. As a result we will be taking $12,000 out of the General Fund expenses and transferring those expenses into this Fund. With the $12,000 we are freeing up in the General Fund we will be able to hire two summer help for 10 weeks at 40 hours per week. The other thing we are doing is in the Street Construction and Repair Fund – we are putting $100,000 additional in for road repairs. This year we will be doing some of the road repairs out of this fund instead of just the Road Levy fund. In addition we will be using $10,000 out of this fund to help fund some overtime so the crews can actually work longer to repair the roads and we are increasing the appropriation for the snow removal overtime by about $41,000. We will need that at the end of the year. I am open for questions.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: To clarify, did you say that we are going to use the recreation fund to purchase roadway repairs?
Mr. Slocum: No, I said the recreation fund will only be used for capital recreational expenditures. For example, the one expenditure I do know we will be paying from that is a fence at Jakse Park which we anticipate will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to $12,000.
Ms. Vaughn: Thank you, Mr. Slocum. We were going to have a budget review at that time but our information was not up to date so that will be at our next meeting which is scheduled for May 20th at 6:00 p.m. At that time we will also be discussing a communication from the Administration regarding the Corporation Creek Watershed Study, the communication from Willoughby regarding the amendment to the WPCC Joint Agreement to increase funding and also the SUV purchase for the Fire Department. We also discussed at the May 6th Finance Committee meeting a Resolution of Necessity to place on the ballot a Fire Levy. This must be completed and into the County before July 8th. Considerable discussion followed regarding fund raising for the City to get us through next year. I call it fund raising – we are not going out and selling raffle tickets by any stretch of the imagination – although it may resort to that. We are talking about a variety of options to go to the residents to try to continue the services we are providing. This concludes my report.
Mr. Slocum: I am going to be publishing the Tax Budget for 2015 this week. I would like to have that added to next week’s Finance Committee agenda.
Ms. Vaughn: We will add that to the agenda.
HB 9 Representation
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to designate Councilman-at-Large Kimberly C. Evers to represent Councilman-Ward 1 Joe D’Ambrosio, Councilwoman –Ward 2 Donna Vaughn, Councilwoman Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Councilman Ward 4 Jeff Licht, Councilman-at-Large Ken Hoefle, Councilwoman-at-Large Laura DePledge and Mayor Dennis Morley during his attendance at the Ohio Sunshine Law mandated H.B. 9 Training at Mayfield Village Civic Center on Friday, May 23, 2014. Mr. Hoefle seconded.
DISCUSSION:
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Can we edit that to take my name out because I have already attended this three times?
ROLL CALL AS AMENDED: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Mr. Evers is designated as the HB 9 representative.
Eastlake Port Authority – Ms. DePledge, Liaison
Ms. DePledge: Last month I attended the Port Authority meeting and Mr. Tim Kaselonis who has been a member of the Port Authority for seven years and is also the Treasurer and CPA for the Port Authority tendered his resignation effective the end of December, 2014. So, the Port Authority is looking for a new member – preferably someone with a financial bookkeeping background to replace him. If you know of anyone who may be interested you can contact me or the Mayor or Mr. Sima who is the Chair of the Port Authority.
ORDINANCE COMMITTEE/SAFETY COMMITTEE – Mr. Hoefle, Chair
Safety Committee – Mr. Hoefle, Chair
Legislative Recommendation
Legislation No. 05-13-(05)
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to add Legislation No. 05-13-(05) to the evening’s agenda amending Section 501.14 “Costs of Confinement; Reimbursement” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation No. 05-13-(05) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Legislation No. 05-13-(06)
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to add Legislation No. 05-13-(06) to the evening’s agenda authorizing and directing the Director of Public Safety to advertise for a Public Auction or the sale of various items deemed no longer usable by the City of Eastlake. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation No. 05-13-(06) is added to the evening’s agenda.
Economic & Community Development Council – Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, Chair
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: Before our next Council meeting on May 27th we will have our ECDC meeting at 5:30 p.m. and at that meeting we will have First Energy’s Director for Economic Development representing our area to tell us about how they may be able to help.
There were no further comments.
RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC
Mr. D’Ambrosio 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.
Ted Taubert, 371 Northcoast Pointe, Eastlake
Mr. Taubert: I am a condo owner at Northcoast Pointe condominiums where we have had a lot of bad cases of flooding. I would like to ask the Mayor and Service Director what action, if any, has been taken to address this problem. I as an owner have had no information from our Condo Officers for months – they said they were studying this information and talking to the Chagrin Watershed Association. I would guess that the value of each unit has gone down over $30,000 and maybe more because of the flooding. That is near a half million dollars for sixteen units. I am not sure if I put my unit up for sale whether I would even find a buyer. It seems like something could be done. The ditch along the railroad is badly jammed up and Corporation Creek needs attention. If the ditch along the railroad were cleaned it would help a lot to keep the water moving – it is just stagnant water that sits there and it does not drain out because it has probably never been cleaned in 50 years.
Mayor Morley: I talked with Mr. Taubert this week and I am trying to get in contact with the Association. As he said they have their own Association and it is private property. We cannot go into that creek. I have met with Mr. Gwydir and we are trying to get in contact with them because he has information as to who they have to contact at the railroad to go into the creek. My last discussion with the Association – they also have their own attorney so some of the questions I send to Mr. Klammer and he has had correspondence over the last few months. Again, they have to contact the railroad to go into the creek which they told me last time they were going to do. We have made an agreement with First Energy to go into Corporation Creek on the side of the road – the opposite side to where you live – once we can get into the creek our Service Director will work with his crew and First Energy to start cleaning out that end of Corporation Creek. I have had this discussion – I cannot answer for your Association. I know you are having issues with them but…
Mr. Taubert: I think they are totally incompetent. That is my opinion. There is a lawyer – a brother of one of the officers. There is an engineer – a brother of one of the officers. And, I have not heard anything for months on what they intend to do.
Mayor Morley: I will try to contact the Association President again and talk to her and tell her you have talked to me for the last few weeks. That is what I can do. I can try to contact her to get you more information.
Mr. Taubert: I cannot believe the railroad would complain if we went in and cleaned the debris out of that ditch. I don’t think they would even know about it. I don’t think they care.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: It is still private property. We would have to get permission.
Mr. Taubert: That has probably been there for sixty years.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: I am sure it has. But, it is still private property. I think the property goes from the center of the track in each direction.
Mr. Taubert: It affects our property.
Mayor Morley: I will try to get in touch with the Association again. They were going to send me a power point. I have sat down with Mr. Gwydir to get information about the railroad and I will make another attempt.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Thank you. I am sure the Mayor will be in touch and I hope your Association will try to work with the City to get that resolved but it sounds like our hands are tied.
Mayor Morley: When you are home the Service Director and I will come down to see.
Rich White, 1233 Jakse Drive, Eastlake
Mr. White: At your convenience reference ordinance 1155.07(d) and under general conditions 1161.03 lines 3 and 4 as well as 1147.07(b) as they cover most of my concerns I will express today. 64 restaurants – that is how many Rally’s are operating in Ohio at this time. Out of those 64 exactly 1 operates outside of the normal business plan of late night operations – that store is located in Sandusky and it only stays open until around 9:00 p.m. and it is located in a huge parking lot. But, here in Eastlake we have a Rally’s store that is backed up against a residential neighborhood and despite assertions during the review process of remaining open until 10:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. we now have a store that follows the brand business model of operating until 1:00 p.m. seven days a week. The design of Rally’s as promoted by them is a shining light beacon in the night – which essentially translates into very bright, highly illuminated. The majority of the exterior lighting remains on through the night even during closed business hours. The traffic flow is a bottle neck design – cars that end up stuck in the drive thru with their head lights ending up shining directly into the windows of residents. You have ambient noise from the speakers, the traffic, the patrons – all of this is essentially disrupting residents’ basic right to enjoy. I own property on 340th and 342nd and both have been adversely affected – 342nd due to frustrated motorists just speeding down 342nd looking for a way out – 340th is affected by all the things I referenced per design. I have been told – assisted by the Mayor in fact – that the owner is interested in trying to do some things to help and I would like to address a few ideas. One would be the speakers for the drive thru – that is a matter of flipping the switch to nighttime mode to quiet it down. As far as traffic is concerned I discussed possibly erecting some type of construction to block lights from entering into the residents’ windows. And, the excessive amount of lighting can be resolved by just reducing the lumens emitted by the lights or possibly during down time hours just reducing the number of lights that are actually on. The egress – possibly a right hand turn lane off of 340th onto Vine to keep cars moving and possibly widen the access drive to the restaurant because it is pretty narrow. Cars coming off Vine get backed up on Vine and cars trying to get out cannot get out. Those are just a couple of different scenarios that may be addressed. Essentially, the ordinances if any of them are currently being violated to address them as soon as possible. Otherwise, the things to restore some enjoyment to the residents surrounding that can be done within a reasonable amount of time or as soon as possible because as I mentioned to the Mayor we are approaching the one year anniversary of the problems that were introduced with WalMart. The introduction of this restaurant is just compounding the issues. I thank you for your time.
Mr. D’Ambrosio: Thank you very much. Mayor, did you want to comment? I know you have looked into the traffic.
Mayor Morley: I have been discussing this with Mr. White and also emailing him and his wife the last few weeks. I spoke with the owner of Rally’s about some of the things discussed tonight. Today, we gave C.T. Consultants the okay to start a traffic study from East 337th to East 343rd. I have also talked with WalMart again. They had their surveyors out last Friday so hopefully they will be starting their project and I have asked the engineer that maybe we can have a sit down and try to correlate some ideas. Mr. Gwydir, do you know when they will start the study?
Mr. Gwydir: I notified the traffic division today and they were going to put it on the schedule. I should know something tomorrow or the following day.
Mayor Morley: When I find out I will email you or give you a call. Ms. DePledge and I were out Saturday night. I have been at Rally’s two or three times a day since it has opened. I understand some of the issues and have sat down with the owner. I am trying to get in touch with the person who owns the plaza regarding a fence. I spoke with Mr. Gwydir today about him and me going there to see if they don’t want to put up a fence if the City can put up a fence on the 12 foot area – the easement. I know a lot of these things should have been looked at last year. We are working on things to try to get them solved. I appreciate the time you have spent with me and the good conversation we have had.
Mr. White: If any of my input could be helpful in the future I will be right there.
Mayor Morley: I appreciate it very much.
Ted Beres, 36706 Lakehurst Drive, Eastlake
Mr. Beres: I was also going to speak about Rally’s but it seems that Mr. White has a real front row seat to the problem there. But, it is an obvious messy situation – the traffic. I know the Mayor is trying real hard to improve the image of this City and bring in businesses – but, businesses that don’t task our Police force – the problems with shoplifters at WalMart and now the problems across the street with Rally’s. But, despite all this I am optimistic that things will get better because we are all working together to make Eastlake better.
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins, 35953 Lakeshore Blvd., Eastlake
Mrs. Quinn-Hopkins: The last couple of weeks there was an article in the paper about the Belich’s suing our City regarding the cabaret and strip club. And, I want to say as a resident that one of their claims was that none of the residents or very few residents said anything against that so as a resident I am saying I am against that and I think it is appalling that they would consider putting that into our fine City.
There was no one else who wished to speak.
LEGISLATION PROPOSED – First number will be 2014-023
RESOLUTION NO. 05-13-(01)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution recognizing the broad duty to Sponsored by: Council Affirmatively Further Fair Housing in the City of Eastlake Lake County, Ohio, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-023.
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RESOLUTION NO. 05-13-(02)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution authorizing the Mayor and Sponsored by: Council Director of Finance to File an Application with the Lake County Planning Commission for Funds through the Competitive Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), for the term of October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-024.
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ORDINANCE NO.: 05-13-(03)
Requested by: Finance Director Slocum An Ordinance to re-appropriate for the expenses
Sponsored by: Finance Committee of the City of Eastlake, State of Ohio, for the period beginning January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2014, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-025.
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RESOLUTION NO.: 05-13-(04)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution declaring it Necessary to Renew Sponsored by: Council an Existing 0.5-Mill Tax Levy for the purpose of providing Fire Apparatus, Capital Improvements and Equipment for the Fire Department and Requesting the Lake County Auditor to Certify the Total Current Tax Valuation of the City and the Dollar Amount of Revenue that would be generated by that Renewal Levy, pursuant to Section 5705.19 of the Revised Code, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Ms. Vaughn moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-026.
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ORDINANCE NO.: 05-13-(05)
Requested by: Administration An Ordinance amending Section 501.14
Sponsored by: Ordinance Committee “Costs of Confinement; Reimbursement” of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Eastlake,
and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to adopt. Mr. Evers seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Ordinance No. 2014-027.
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RESOLUTION NO.: 05-13-(06)
Requested by: Administration A Resolution authorizing and directing the Sponsored by: Council Director of Public Safety to advertise for a Public Auction for the sale of various items deemed no longer usable by the City of Eastlake, and declaring an emergency.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to suspend the rules requiring separate readings and
reading in full. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
MOTION: Mr. Hoefle moved to adopt. Ms. DePledge seconded.
ROLL CALL: Yeas unanimous.
Motion carried. Legislation is adopted as Resolution No. 2014-028.
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LEGISLATION PENDING
There was no Legislation Pending.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
There was no Unfinished Business.
NEW BUSINESS
There was no New Business.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS:
MAYOR/SAFETY DIRECTOR – Dennis Morley
Mayor Morley: Thank you to the residents for coming out tonight to our meeting. Thank you for the re-appropriations. As you hear in Mr. Slocum’s report we put another $100,000 into the roads. This week we went out for bids for eight different streets and intersections to be done in concrete. We are estimating the cost at about $300,000. We would use the rest of the money to start doing some of the asphalt road repairs and road repaving. We are looking right now to see what roads we are going to repave. Mr. Gwydir also is looking into some grants for Willowick Drive. We have acknowledged that Willowick Drive is the worst street in the City at the moment. We are doing everything we can to repair the potholes – that is part of what we are planning on using the overtime for two weeks – so we can knock out Willowick Drive so we can get to the other streets. Right now we are basically doing Willowick Drive and doing the others on complaint driven basis. As a street is called in – like Shelton – we will fix that hole. But, right now we are trying to get Willowick Drive done so we can move on. The other issue we talked about was the fence at Jakse by Waverly will be repaired – I spoke with the residents that inquired about that. We continue to discuss the options for the pool. Right now the City of Willowick has agreed to do swim lessons at a reduced price and the YMCA has also agreed to do that. This will be on the website and my news article in the Gazette. I do not want to jinx anything but Ms. Vaughn and I have been meeting with the YMCA and some corporate sponsors. We will start discussions tomorrow about trying to get the pool open with some corporate sponsorships and the YMCA. Ms. Vaughn, Law Director Klammer and I are meeting with the YMCA tomorrow. I don’t know if it can happen for sure but we are going to give it our best shot to try to get this done. If it does open it would not be until mid-June or the beginning of July but with the constraints we have right now we are going to try to do something. I am not promising but we continue to work as a group to try to get things done. That is what we are going to continue to do. We have a City Open House – the Fire, Police and Service Departments on May 24th from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Bring out your families and take a look at all the equipment we use and what your tax dollars go to. Just so you understand more of how our City runs. We are trying to do that more and more. If you read the Gazette I asked the Directors to write an article each month to try to make the residents more aware of what we do here. The Memorial Day Service for the VFW and American Legion will be Monday, May 26th at 11:00 a.m. The Captains Day for the City of Eastlake is Sunday, May 25th for the $2 at the stadium or you can go online and order them – just put in COE as a discount. Obviously, we talked about Rally’s and WalMart. We are looking at a few other things. I have been getting calls about people who believe we are putting a sidewalk up the hill on the other side of City Hall. That is a Blvd. of 500 Flags project. R.W. Sidley has donated 60 yards of concrete for nothing and H & M Concrete has done all the work for nothing. Everything else with the Blvd. of 500 Flags is volunteers. I will let Chief Reik talk about Safety Town – what a great fundraiser that was. We already have one of the buildings put up and the rest will come. We have a good start for Safety Town. This concludes my report and I am open for questions.
Mr. Taubert: The water from Lakeshore Blvd. keeps coming onto our property. There is no curb.
Mayor Morley: We are hoping the study we are going to do with Willoughby will curtail some of the problems on Erie. We have no discussed curbs.
There were no further questions of Mayor Morley.
POLICE CHIEF – Larry Reik
Chief Reik: I would like to point out that I was lucky enough to attend a Law Day breakfast the other day and Law Director Klammer is the President of the Bar Association. Typically these functions are not very exciting. He actually gave a very rousing speech and it is nice to see people – even lawyers – be so comfortable with what they do. He inspired people to find out what your dream is and go after it. As much as I like to jab at Mr. Klammer he did a real nice job at this speaking engagement. As the Mayor said Safety Town is June 9th through the 13th. I believe our morning sessions are filled up. We do have an afternoon session. I believe it is on the City web site and we post it periodically on Face Book. We are trying to have 100 kids – 50 in each class. We have the cars purchased. The shed is up. We have prepared and painted the fence and the area will be blacktopped and restriped. The Service Department has helped us out. A lot of this money came in through donations that a number of our people went out and got. We had a raffle that was well attended and they got a lot of money through the Chinese Auction and the dinner itself. A lot of the people that contributed the food and everything at the very most did it at cost so more profits went to Safety Town itself. I believe with all the construction we are doing this year we will still have a little surplus to carry over. I am looking forward to it being a well run event. On the somewhat negative side as far as the act itself – as most people know we did have a murder last week. Without getting into particulars of the incident being as a Chief – and I know Chief Whittington can say the same – when something that big happens there is like immediate calls and people are flying in from all over – County resources, other cities. When you sit back for a second and look it is like 50 people on an ice skating rink – all intertwined and no one running into each other. It went as well as it could go. We used as much of the resources that we have available as well as the training our guys have. Obviously the Fire Department helped us out a lot as they always do. To the Department – they did a really nice job putting everything together. I am hoping that goes forward as quickly and painless as possible. I have nothing else to report and am open for questions.
There were no questions of Chief Reik.
FIRE CHIEF – Ted Whittington
Chief Whittington: I want to thank Council for approving the legislation for the Fire Levy. We will start working on it right away and do what we can to make sure it gets passed. Part of that will be with the open house. I think it is a chance for the residents to come in and see exactly how we use the monies and what equipment we use and how we use it. It is a good opportunity for all residents to find out where their money goes. When you came in this evening you probably saw a car covered with a tarp. We will be conducting our mock crash this year at North High School. The Fire Department, Police Department and Mayor’s Office have all be working together to make this an event as we have had for two years. It is presented to the juniors and seniors at North High School. We usually have an alcohol related incident but this year we are trying to focus in on distracted driving with text messages and things along those lines. North provides us with students who participate in the event. We use makeup to make them look like they are injured. The kids who are involved in the accident will actually be away from school for the rest of the day to try to see if we can impact the rest of the kids without having them there. We usually have good results and will be doing it this week. The News Herald had an article today about how we are going to start administering at homes the antecdote for heroin overdose. I have a lot of personal feelings on it but I will say to anyone who read that – the anecdote works only in cases where a person is found in a timely manner. If a person goes a long period of time under the influence of heroin the anecdote will not bring back someone’s heart beat. It does not make them breathe again. It counteracts the heroin in someone who is viable. We have had cases in the past where grieving families expect our anecdote that we have to bring people back to life. It just does not do that. I think they did not do a fair assessment of that in the newspaper. I bring this up as something the community needs to talk about. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Chief Whittington.
SERVICE DIRECTOR – Nick Rubertino
Mr. Rubertino: We are continuing with the road repairs. Willowick Drive is close to being as complete as it possibly can be. We are putting approximately 8 tons of asphalt per intersection and trying to get the repairs more permanent repairs. We are doing other areas as well. We have the new hot box – they had training on it yesterday and anticipate that Monday when we get the two bigger intersections of Willowick Drive done we can have the hot box out and running. We continue to cold patch. Mr. Taubert, we do have a storm basin on Lakeshore Blvd. and we have flushed it and try to keep the leaves out of it. On our end of it we are trying to do as much as we can to alleviate the issue from Lakeshore Blvd. but at this point in time we are kind of tied until we get something resolved the other way. I do appreciate the comment on it. I have nothing further to report and am open for questions
There were no questions of Mr. Rubertino.
CITY ENGINEER – Tom Gwydir
Mr. Gwydir: I have nothing really to report other than that we are following up with the initiatives of the Mayor to control traffic and try to stop flooding as best we can in the areas we can stop it in. I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Mr. Gwydir.
FINANCE DIRECTOR – Mike Slocum
Mr. Slocum: I just wanted to give Council a heads up on the tax budget I am working on – the preliminary results are very consistent with what we talked about last week and the shortage I am going to be projecting for next year. I will be at the Finance Committee meeting to talk in much more detail after you have had a chance to review it. Once you get it if you have any immediate questions you can always give me a call. I am open for questions.
Ms. DePledge: If you know, and I am not trying to put you on the spot, what do you anticipate the approximate deficit to be in 2015?
Mr. Slocum: Let’s assume there is no health care increase. If there is an increase it will probably run $125,000 to $150,000. My current amount is at about $770,000 in the red.
We are at $770,000 and last year at this time I was projecting $180,000. There are some things you can do but our options are dwindling.
There were no further questions of Mr. Slocum.
LAW DIRECTOR – Randy Klammer
Mr. Klammer: Chief, I appreciate your kind words. It is good to know you could follow along. I did the best I could – I used small words and short sentences. But, in all seriousness it is easy to lead an inspirational life when I am surrounded by inspiration every day. Like the rest of the people on Council and probably most of the people in the audience I start my day asking myself what would Larry Reik do today? If whenever I am challenged with difficult decisions I come back to that and the clarity is immense. We do have the Belich lawsuit. There is nothing to be bothered by that. It is sensational because it involves a strip club but it is a law suit like everything else. We will handle that and there will likely be insurance coverage for it so we will have that additional defense along the way. I have been working with the Mayor on the pool. The first thing out of his mouth is usually Rally’s. I know he is working on that too full time. Other than that I am open for questions.
There were no questions of Mr. Klammer.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:50 p.m.
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JOE D’AMBROSIO, COUNCIL PRESIDENT
APPROVED: __________________________
ATTEST: _____________________________
DEBORAH A. CENDROSKI,
CLERK OF COUNCIL