June 16, 2014 - Meeting Minutes
Brewster Village Council met in regular session with Mayor Mike Schwab presiding.
7:00 P.M. – CALL TO ORDER
Council Members bowed their heads for the invocation provided by Clerk-Treasurer Kris King followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mike Schwab, Mayor
Dale Fox, Council Member
Dave Godwin, Council Member
Tom Hilliard, Council Member
Paul Mackey, Council Member
Joe Strausbaugh, Council Member
Steven Tharp, Jr., Council Member
VILLAGE OFFICIALS PRESENT:
Kris King, Clerk-Treasurer
Al McCallin, Solicitor
Rob Pauley, Village Administrator
VILLAGE EMPLOYEES PRESENT:
Deb Cline, Utility Clerk
Joyce Cunningham, Asst to Village Clerk
Denise Rossiter, Police Sergeant
Jim Spivey, Village Technician
Ryan Swan, Lineman
George Radich, Electric Superintendent
Mike Radich, Lineman
MINUTES FROM THE JUNE 2, 2014 REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING:
Mayor Mike Schwab asked if there were any additions or deletions to the June 2, 2014 Council meeting minutes.
COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD and motion carried to accept the minutes. The vote: All yes.
PRESENTATION OF BILLS:
COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to accept the bills for the amount of $ 357,050.90. Council Member Strausbaugh asked what the Central Allied Asphalt was for. VA Pauley replied that it was used for patching throughout the town and there was still more to do. Council Member Hilliard asked about the Capital Projects expenditures. There were bills for exit lights, drawings for floor plans and electrical plans, Building Dept. plan review and building survey. Council Member Hilliard asked if the Village patched the hole in the alley beside the post office. Mayor Schwab stated it has been done as a courtesy to another government entity. Council Member Hilliard said that it is a good gesture but we turned down a resident that asked for gravel. Council Member Strausbaugh stated that the first thing we tell residents is that we can't improve private property but we patched that hole. Mayor Schwab stated if Council directs that the gravel be put down, he and the VA will make sure it is done. The vote: All yes.
AUDIENCE:
Peg McCune, no address given, is attending to discuss Joann Brown's gravel. Her parents lived in that house for 60 years and it was always graveled and plowed. She doesn't know why the Village isn't taking care of the alley.
Sean Kasler, no address given, accused Council Member Tharp of sending him unsolicited and offensive emails.
Becky Helmuth, 601 Dartmouth, she stated that she had emailed the VA and did not get a response. She needs a clear answer on whether she can build on a piece of property that she says that the deed says she can move, destroy anything to get access to it. She stated the last VA said she could build on it with the proper permits. It has been stated around town that it is land locked and she would like an answer. Mayor Schwab asked that the VA look into it and get back to her.
Joann Brown, 615 Dartmouth, stated that Davey Tree was in and cut down a little mulberry tree where the village is putting anchors for the new poles. She doesn't understand why the village can't put gravel in the road so the village has access. She has stopped mowing the alley behind her home. She stated it was over 8 inches so a village employee needs to go down and mow it. VA Pauley stated that right now the village wires are on a Frontier pole and will be moved to village poles.
Becky Helmuth stated to make sure not to put the poles in the middle of her access to her property. VA Pauley stated it would be in the village right of way and will also take a look at it.
Denise Rossiter, Police Sergeant and DARE Officer thanked council for their continued support of the DARE Program. This year was a new program and the kids really helped her to adjust. Council Member Godwin stated his son is sad that he will not have her next year when he moves up. Council Member Hilliard stated his kid loved it. Mayor Schwab thanked her and stated she did a great job.
Others in attendance: Ray Heitger and LaVonne, Jen Spivey, Cindy Mackey, Linda Taylor, Robert Brown, Clyde Simmerer, Kris Wilson, Judy Maybaugh, Anthony Frame, Ken Reed, Danielle Antonio, Kevin Whitlock, Sydney Radich, and Alyssa Morlacci.
CONSIDERATION OF ORDINANCES:
ORDINANCE 25-2014: An Ordinance Authorizing the Purchase of a 2015 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Vehicle; cost = $ 28,699 from Mullinax Ford; there will be additional $ 7100 to outfit the car after delivery was given third reading.
COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN and motion carried to pass Ordinance #25-2014 as read. Council Member Godwin stated this new vehicle is definitely needed. Council Member Hilliard stated the money had been put in the fund over the years and it was overdue. The vote: All yes.
ORDINANCE 26-2014: An Ordinance Authorizing the Renewal of Village Participation in the CDBG Program though the County was given second reading. Due to a 06/30/2014 submittal deadline, Mayor Schwab requested that Council consider passage as an emergency measure.
COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to suspend the rule requiring three separate readings and bring the ordinance forward for passage. The vote: All yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER FOX MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN and motion carried to pass the ordinance as read. The vote: All yes.
Second Reading: An Ordinance Authorizing a 2014 Amherst Street Improvement Project.
Second Reading: An Ordinance Authorizing the Application for OPWC Funds for a Park Drive Improvement Project.
PLEASE NOTE: Pending ordinances & resolution are drafts only and are fluid documents that can be modified during the Three Readings process until the final vote by Council.
MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENTS:
Fire Department: Chief Ricky Patterson(absent)
With Chief Patterson on medical leave, the Fire Captains will handle the physical duties while the Chief handles the administrative duties.
Police Department: Chief Harry Porter
Interviewing potential part time Police Officer candidates; Part time candidate Anthony Frame is in attendance if Council wished to ask any questions. Chief Porter would like to hire several more part time officers to allow flexibility in the department's scheduling.
Chief Porter reported on the "Wolf Pack". It was a group of departments including Brewster that worked OVI and saturation during the Country Fest weekend. The department was commended by the Sheriff.
Council Member Hilliard asked if the Chiefs would give their recommendations as far as cameras in the park were concerned.
SOLICITOR: Attorney Al McCallin (Per Procedures the Solicitor will be excused after his spot)
Solicitor McCallin is currently working on the bonding of Elm Street. This would protect not only the surface of the street from damage as an access road to the oil/gas well drilling site, but also the water and sewer lines that run underneath.
COMMUNICATIONS:
Renewal of the Village Gas Aggregation Agreement: Received a letter from Tom Bellish of the Buckeye Energy Brokers that recommends renewal with Volunteer Energy(VESI) for 10/2014-9/2016. It was requested that a renewal be enacted before a planned 077/25/2014 mailing to residents by VESI. Mayor requests that council have an ordinance prepared.
The Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District is required to submit a plan approved by 60% of the municipals and townships to the Ohio EPA; Mayor requests that council have a resolution prepared for ratification.
Village Clerk and Mayor have been subpoenaed to appear at the Stark County Court of Common Pleas on June 20th concerning the Walker litigation; large amount of documentation has been requested.
Massillon Cable TV has announced that there will be a rate increase on July 1st, 2014. Council Member Hilliard would like a letter of objection be sent from council.
VILLAGE ADMINISTRATOR: Rob Pauley
Administrator’s report for period 05/20/2014 thru 06/02/2014:
- Street department will be disposing of accumulated scrap metal including the old baseball scoreboard, miscellaneous sign posts, non-functioning hydrant, 10’ section of burst 6” ductile iron water pipe and old dump body bed (new dump body bed is being installed at Jones Equipment). Total estimated salvage value is less than $600.
- Public Power continues on extension of power lines along 93-South to corporate limits.
- Street department, with support from Wastewater, will be excavating Buckeye / Tuscarawas intersection to determine cause of sink hole and make repairs as appropriate. Sinkhole at Main/McKinley intersection will continue to be patched / observed. Inspection of the storm sewer lines do not indicate joint failure/separation.
- Sweetwater Pump Station project continues. Progress meeting #3 scheduled for Wednesday 06/18/2014 at the office trailer.
- The Mandatory Asbestos Awareness training session held on June 10, 2014 resulted in 32 village employees and elected officials successfully completing the session Thank you to those elected officials participating in the awareness / training session.
- Round 3 of the mosquito fogging was accomplished Thursday June 12, 2014. Reminder – fogging (adulticide) will continue on Thursday evenings as the need continues and weather permits.
- Village Hall electric quotes: Hilscher Clark $25,086
Murdocco Electric $26,956
Wood Electric $24,400
All companies received the same set of plans. All know it is in penalty. These are all worse case scenario. Will non-perform what is not necessary.
- Shearers has been very cooperative in fulfilling their plan of action promised at the 6/2 council meeting. They have also provided progress reports via email and visits in the past two weeks. Shearers has communicated with Heather Hockensmith who has provided updates for Facebook users.
VILLAGE MAYOR: Mike Schwab
Working on the three economic development proposals made by him on 06/02 meeting over the next several months: Tonight - Brewster Marketplace sign at two SR 93 entrances and possibly at intersection of SR241/93; first step - a quote requested from Wacker Signs to provide the sign structure and individual merchant signs; Wacker suggested a cedar structure and aluminum signs. Mayor plans to have a drawing and costs at the next meeting. If Council approves the prosal the second step is to contact local merchants.
State Senator Frank LaRose contacted the ODNR on behalf of the Village concerning the Oil/Gas Well to be drilled adjacent to Elm Street beginning July 1st, 2014. Mayor advised that the ODNR mistakenly believes that Village Council has approved a non-drilling lease for Village property with required drilling area. Council Member Hilliard stated that he felt council did everything they could do.
VILLAGE CLERK-TREASURER’S REPORT: Kris King
May Fire Department payroll = $ 5,465.72
Codification process: Jen Mohler has joined our codification team. We are well underway on the indexing of the ordinances. 1969-1999 remain to be indexed. Expect the lists of copies needed from those indexes to start in a couple of weeks.
I have been subpoenaed for the Walker case on Friday, June 20, 2014 at 10am. I have eight years worth of information to gather before then.
Sweetwater Pump Station project bills have starting coming in again. I will be working on getting reimbursements on eligible expenses. These bills are for construction management services, resident project representative services, and O&M manual. These expenses are estimated to be nearly $ 150,000 and will be part of our loan.
I will have estimates for adjustments to the permanent appropriations in the near future. Even though OWDA will be paying Kenmore directly for the construction costs, we will still need to run them through our system as memo expenses and revenues.
Treasurer's Training Classes: Internal Controls/Fraud Detection & Prevention - presented actual cases and safeguards that we could put in place to help prevent, Affordable Care Act Update, Investing, Ethics, and Public and Private Collaborations with Public Entities.
Council Member Hilliard asked about the time table for the codification of our ordinances.
Clerk will be sending a Canton City Resolution opposing Substitute HB5 and recommending the Village of Brewster do the same. This is legislation concerning municipal income tax.
"VILLAGE SPEAKS"
Suggestion from Tim Stith-recognition of Fairless track athletes that competed and excelled in the 2014 State Track Meets: Allison Simmons, Tyler Neff, Chad Bucher, Carter Casperd, Jeremy Mahaffey, and Dakota Olmstead and others as well as Coach Ben Russell and Asst. Coaches Brent Remenaric, Adam Amato, Wes Yoder, and Pat McMahon; Tim served as a State Track Official.
Request from resident to allow display of vehicles for sale on the village property at the corner of Wabash and East 4th.
Suggestion: A farmers market on the same corner.
Council Member Tharp stated residents thanked Adam Reicosky for mowing the vacant property at McKinley and Main. They wanted to know when the village would be mowing it. VA Pauley stated after it reaches eight inches the village can start the process. It took almost five weeks to get 144 West Fourth St. completely mowed working with the maintenance company and there is a legal process that must be followed.
COMMITTEE OR COUNCIL REPORTS: : *NOTE: The Goal of any committee meeting is to discuss an issue or proposal and to provide, by a consensus of the committee members, ONE recommendation to Council.
Economic Development Committee Work Session was June 2nd at 6:00 pm.
Employee Committee meeting to discuss wages was held on June 9th. A proposed wage ordinance was discussed.
Parks & Grounds Work Session was held this evening to discuss cameras in the park, at the recycling center and the substation. A presentation was provided by Matt Ashton of Intelligent Access Systems.
Mandatory Employee Training Sessions for Asbestos Awareness was provided by a consultant from Cardinal Environmental Services at a cost of $ 800 on June 10th.
Suggestion to the Tree Committee: If funds are available, an amount be appropriated by Council for any needed tree trimming in residential neighborhoods.
EXPENDITURE REQUESTS from past Meetings:
PROPOSALS PENDING:
Purchase of the American Legion building or sale of the land to the American Legion.
OLD/NEW BUSINESS:
COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER FOX and motion carried to the pay the Fire Department wages of $5,465.72 from the Fire Fund. The vote: All yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN an motion carried to draw up a resolution recognizing the Fairless Track athletes that excelled in the 2014 season and their coaches. The vote: All yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GODWIN and motion fails to send a letter of protest to Massillon Cable TV for their rate increases. Council Member Tharp stated council has no business telling anyone how to run their business. The vote: Godwin, yes; Hilliard, yes; Mackey, no; Strausbaugh, no; Tharp, no; Fox, no.
COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER MACKEY to draw up an ordinance for a 3% employee wage increase retroactive to January 1, 2014.
COUNCIL MEMBER MACKEY MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP to amend the motion to a 6% employee increase effective July 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014. The discussion included loss of income, Village Hall renovation costs, giving the new Village Administrator a raise after only 120 days, the committee meeting discussion, the reason the motion for the increase failed the last time, amount of work for the Clerk-Treasurer, running the Village as a business, whether employees are worth it, being responsible, working together, compromise, lack of growth, moving forward and making progress, and taking future increases to committee. The vote: Godwin, no; Hilliard, no; Mackey, yes; Strausbaugh, no; Tharp, no; Fox, no. Motion fails.
COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to amend to an ordinance for a 3% employee wage increase without retroactive pay. Discussion was on future meetings, what the consensus was at the committee meeting, the VA's increase which the Mayor stated had to be the same as the rest of the employees according to the agreement at hire, and when the raise would go into effect. The vote: Godwin, no; Hilliard, yes; Mackey, no; Strausbaugh, yes; Tharp, yes; Fox, yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER FOX MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to prepare an ordinance renewing the Village's Gas Aggregation Agreement with Volunteer Energy for 10/2014 - 9/2016. The vote: All yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER FOX MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to have an ordinance prepared in support of Stark-Tusc-Wayne Joint Solid Waste Management District's Solid Waste District Plan. Council Member Godwin stated he was not voting for it because he has not had the opportunity to review it. The vote: Godwin, no; Hilliard, yes; Mackey, yes; Strausbaugh, yes; Tharp, yes; Fox, yes.
COUNCIL MEMBER THARP MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HILLIARD and motion carried to instruct the VA and Mayor to put gravel in the unimproved street on Williams Street. VA Pauley stated there is an ordinance in place that should be followed. Council Member Mackey thinks this will open a can of worms, if you want to do it then take it to committee and change the ordinance instead of going against the ordinance. Council Member Tharp stated council has made a lot of exceptions over the years. It can use it's own discretion. Council Member Hilliard stated that maybe it should go to Zoning Commission for a judgement. Council Member Mackey suggested listening to what the VA recommends being that was why he was hired. Council Member Strausbaugh stated discretion was used for the pothole at the post office. Council Member Hilliard stated he was getting exhausted over $200 in gravel and wasting residents' time. Council Member Fox asked when the ordinance was passed and did it have anything to do with putting gravel down. The ordinance was 2013 and VA Pauley suggested speaking with the solicitor before making a decision. The width of the gravel was discussed. Council Member Fox asked if the alley adjacent to his home that was vacated several years ago that he uses as a driveway was going to be repaved by the village. Council Member Tharp gave the history of the situation. Council Member Strausbaugh stated that if the area on Williams had been graveled previously then a precedent had been set. Council Member Fox stated this would go against the ordinance. Council Member Strausbaugh stated this should not have taken this long. Council Member Tharp read the ordinance that pertained to opening platted streets and alleys. The vote: Godwin, no; Hilliard, yes; Mackey, no; Strausbaugh, yes; Tharp, yes; Fox, yes.
VA Pauley provided two proposals from Human Recourse Consultants, Barkan & Associates and Clemens-Nelson Associates, to assist with the development of job descriptions that would require the Village doing the majority of the work and the consultants providing review and expertise to the final product. He asked council to review the proposals prior to the next council session. He stated this is the first step in making the Village competitive in the pay and wage market.
COUNCIL MEMBER FOX MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to accept the Mayor and Police Chief's recommendation for the hiring of Anthony Frame as a probationary part time patrolman pending physical, drug screen, and background check. The vote: All yes.
Chief Porter asked Council if they are going to consider a police garage so the cars are protected and ready when needed in the winter. There will be a brand new 2015 and a 2012 vehicle with all the equipment sitting out in the snow when even the Boy Scouts have a large garage. Council Member Hilliard suggested looking at other departments to store the vehicles when not in use. Chief Porter stated the Village is spending money on buying a gazebo and thinks it would be better spent on a police garage. Council Member Hilliard stated much the gazebo cost is covered by a grant. Council Member Godwin said here we go again pushing the can down the road.
COUNCIL MEMBER FOX MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THARP and motion carried to adjourn the meeting at 8:54pm. The vote: All yes.
Respectfully submitted,
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K. Kris King, Village Clerk-Treasurer
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Mike Schwab, Mayor