The highlight of the meeting for myself on Thursday was the approval of the rezoning of the newly purchased Hanson Property, also the location of the Fox Den Driving Range from residential to an O-Conservation district. I believe this increase of additional Conservation land in our City is important and one thing I have heard repeatedly from Ward 2 residents is that they do not want to see more residential development. This property will continue to house the driving range which will undergo improvements in 2022 along with have potential for other recreational purposes that are still in discussions and review. The rezoning passed unanimously.
We had a decent conversation about the City’s process for emergency alerts and what system the City uses. Ms. Nahrstedt, the City’s Parks and Recreation Director is heading up a project to evaluate a new software system/program that would integrate with our website and would allow residents to sign up for additional notifications via text or email. Apparently this had been under review in the past, however nothing has been decided on at this time. The City previously used a system called CodeRed, though at our meeting no one could tell Council members when that system was eliminated and when the City began to rely on the County-wide reverse alert system. It was expressed by several Council members that the current system is not adequate and that social media should not be our method of communicating with our residents. Based on the number of followers on our City social media platforms it is clear that it is a very small number of residents who actually follow those pages and it should not be used as the sole method of disseminating important information. The key to note about any of these systems, even the County wide reverse alert system, is that residents must subscribe and request to get communication from them. The City can’t just put people’s contact information into the system without the approval or request of the residents. Council has asked that the Administration review this information in an expedient manner so a better system can be put in place that our City can manage.
Council also approved a new business that will be operated by a Stow Resident called Jimmy Beers Golf on McCauley Road. This business will be a facility used for golf lessons using simulated golf machines. It is a different take on the current type of simulated golf businesses and looks like a great addition to our community of Stow that embraces golf.
We also approved the re-assignment of a community tax sharing agreement to DHL who recently purchased a new building on Allen Road and will be re-locating their current operations to this new and improved location. DHL estimates that this improvement and investment into their own facility will create an additional 60 jobs by 2023.
We also heard from Mr. Leppo our Planning Director and Mr. Costello our Finance Director relating to open positions they have within the city. Mr. Leppo said his position closes Monday and he had a decent pool of candidates, Mr. Costello said his open billing clerk position was lacking applications and that it will be extended for an additional week. Open positions within the City of Stow can be found at: https://stowohio.org/employment-opportunities/
Council will meet again this Thursday, January 20th at 6:00 PM for an additionally regular scheduled meeting. There will also be presentation of the fire safety poster award winners for 2022 at 6:30 PM.