Council Meeting - Tuesday - 7/7/09

One of the lengthier meetings I've attended, the meeting was called to order by Mayor Joe Surace at 5:59 P.M. All Council members were present except Rosie Goss. Also present was Village Solicitor Andy Beech, Village Administrator Jim Saracco, WFD Chief Bill Smith, Fiscal Officer Dale Davis, Zoning Administrator Rick Williams and Animal Control Officer Leslie Dean.

Minutes of the June 16 Regular Meeting and the June 19 Special Meeting were approved as read.

Under the Public Speaking portion Mary Bucher of Center Street asked council why her questions about her grandson being bitten by a dog have not been answered. Noting that when this incident happened in May she made four calls in two days. Councilman Tony Cataldo advised none of those calls were logged. The Mayor said he will check with both the WPD & WFD Chiefs to see why they were not logged.

Covenant Presbyterian Church member Paul Waggle addressed Council on the continual vandalism taking place at the 18th Street playground and an unsafe swing set that is down there. Waggle noted the latest incident is a $100 picnic table he personally donated and spent another $40 to have repaired that has been destroyed. Vandals have broken 2X4s that the table was made of. Noting that the WPD is doing extra patrolling of the area the Mayor said it's like the vandals have look outs watching for cruisers. Councilman Joe Soldano said one of the problems is that they didn't receive a grant this year for playground supervisors. Waggle suggested placing gates at the playground entrances and will get prices for them. He is offering a $200 reward for the arrest & conviction of the first vandal caught.

The unsafe swing set mentioned is not anchored and the Mayor said, as required by state law, they have get a certified installer to perform that work. They are presently trying to locate one but in the meantime the swing set will be removed. If anyone knows of someone licensed to install playground equipment the Mayor asked that you give him or the Village Administrator a call.

For Administration Reports Jim Saracco advised the smoking of sewers has been completed and he now has a list of houses that have down spouts going into the sewer lines. Those residents will be notified and given a yet to be determined time period to comply with this EPA mandate. Saracco said all they need to do is to remove the down spouts from the sewers. Failure to comply will result in citations & fines.

Saracco also advised that they have found someone who hopefully can get the village street sweeper repaired. In the meantime village workers will be manually cleaning up the streets with brooms and shovels. While the workers are available they have two crews starting at each end of town working toward each other to accomplish the job.

Saracco also reported that the Sewage Department took in a total of $100,233.66 for the month of June. Of that amount $51,404.17 was paid against delinquent bills.

WFD Chief Smith said the Fire Dept. was happy the smoke testing has been completed noting that calls for suspicious smoke were up while this was going on.

Smith also advised that there are five dilapidated structures that looks like the county will approve to have torn down. Paper work on these five should be done in mid-July. There are another six structures on the possible list currently going through the administrative process.

During the flood wall exercise recently Smith advised they found several of the old timbers used for the gates in bad condition that need replaced. It was noted earlier they have corrosion of the metal plates in the ground that hold the steel beams for the frames. Solutions for both of these problems are being checked. Smith noted if any of those gates fail to hold up 90% of the village would be would be under water with any high flood waters.

Zoning Administrator Rick Williams had nothing to report advising that business is extremely slow right now with construction in town.

Animal Control Officer Leslie Dean submitted her monthly report to Council noting that calls are once again up for the last reporting period. Total calls were 49. She asked for Council to create a village ordinance allowing her to cite owners of unlicensed dogs and such. Presently she has to use ORC laws and those citations are referred to the county courts. With a village ordinance she can have citations handled through the village Magistrate Court with any resulting revenue for fines going to the village. Councilman Tony Cataldo made a motion that was passed to order in legislation for this. This recommendation was approved at a Ordinance Committee hearing not long ago.

Dean also asked for an ordinance for an Owner Redemption Fee like the county charges. That charge is $15 plus an additional $5 for any extra days it takes for an owner to pick up their animal. Money for this fee will help defray the costs of maintaining the Village Dog Pound Building. Councilman Joe Soldano made a motion that passed to order in legislation for this.

Dean advised Council that the pound facility will be painted inside and out with the help of the Alley Cat Aid Brigade volunteers once the supplies are obtained and a mutual date is set. Unfortunately the art work done by WHS students will be covered. Now is the time to get photos of the art. Hopefully, Dean said, the art students will return to create new paintings.

For the Mayor's Report Surace advised he has seven new names submitted to replace the resigned members of the Tree Board. Tree Board members serve for different term limits. The Mayor & the Fiscal Officer will get together to assign the term limits and will submit his recommendations for Council's approval at the next regular meeting. The new names submitted are Maurice Wyse, Nancy Gill, Jodi Johnson, Gwen Murphy, Joyce Howell, Greg Thrasher and Bob Marcin.

Under Committee Reports Joe Soldano, for Streets, said the deteriorating condition of the flood wall gate components were of major concern and discussed some of the various options being considered with Chief Smith.

Sewage Committee Chairman Randy Allmon made a motion that four invoices for sewer cleaning and the smoking be paid to LSW. Those four invoices totaled $28,140 and ranged from one for $3360 to one for $9,120 for the highest. The motion passed 4 - 1 with Don Brown casting the lone negative vote. Don Brown was quoted in the morning papers saying that since the total was over $25,000 he believed the job should have been put up for bid.

Property Committee Chairman John McMahon commended Greg Thrasher for the outstanding job he does maintaining the Phyllis Thrasher Memorial Park. That park was renamed for the late Mrs. Thrasher who was an extremely active village resident for just about anything that improved our town. Greg has taken it upon himself to do all the maintenance up there to keep it up. McMahon said his recent out-of-town guests commented on how nice it looks.

For Legislation two new ordinances pertaining to the method of apportionment of Local Government Funds were approved under suspension of rules. Fiscal Officer Dale Davis said this is done annually and requires new ordinances each time.

An ordinance tabled at the last regular meeting to amend the amusement license fees was taken off the table and approved. It was tabled to include the amount of the amended fees and the effective date.

Under New Business Councilman Joe Soldano publicly thanked the Elks Riverside Reunion folks for asking him to be their Master-of-Ceremony at this year's event. Soldano said he thoroughly enjoyed the festivities.

Councilman Tony Cataldo made a motion that passed to only hold one regular meeting for the months of August & September. Those meetings will be held on the first Tuesday for those two months.

Being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 6:53. Next regular meeting is scheduled for 6 P.M. July 21. Covering for vacationing Jo Ann Bobby Gilbert was newspaper reporter Jen Matsick.

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