The biggest item that was before Council for a final reading and vote on Thursday was the approval of the new proposed regional dispatch center and related council of government that will be overseeing the dispatch center. I supported this move to the regional dispatch center because I believe it is in the best interest of our citizens both as it relates to service and the financial impact. I look forward to seeing this project progress and seeing some other ancillary projects that will also likely grow from this collaboration as well.
If you want to dig into all the details of the project and its history, please see my separate Regional Dispatch post for full details.
Council also made the appointment of Matt Riehl to the Ward 1 vacancy. Mr. Riehl previously served as the Ward 1 councilman for 12 years from 2008 thru 2019. Council received 9 applications for the vacancy, one later withdrew their name from consideration. Council members were encouraged to reach out and discuss the vacancy with all the applicants as they felt necessary to decide their vote. I voted for the appointment of Mr. Riehl as he was both qualified for the position and most closely represented the values held by Mr. Altieri who was elected but passed away before he was able to begin this current term. The appointment of vacancies is detailed in our Charter and while I know some residents said they wanted a special election; Council must follow the process in our Charter. I extend a welcome to Council to Mr. Riehl and look forward to working with him again.
Council also approved a promotion of Mr. Mike Jones our Deputy City Engineer to Assistant City Engineer. Mr. Jones has been with the City of Stow for several years and has worked heavily in our Stormwater and Water systems and with this recent promotion will also be adding more work related to city transportation projects. Mr. Jones recently passed his test to become a certified professional engineer. I believe Mr. Jones will continue to be an asset to our city and congratulate him on this recent promotion.
Several equipment purchases for our Safety Forces also came up on Council, including the purchase of 4 new vehicles for our police force and the purchase of a new fire truck. A fire truck is a large purchase and the build for the new truck will take 16 months to build! Mr. Costello did advise Council on the most recent changes to the ARPA guidance that the money received from that area is available to be used on the fire truck. Use of ARPA money would allow us to purchase the fire truck outright without any financing which would give us an added 3% discount on the purchase. We also locked in a lower price and avoided a 7.5% price increase that would have been effective on February 1st. The police vehicles purchased also were guaranteed delivery in 2022 because we were able to commit to the purchase in January. The passing of our budget last year made both the guaranteed delivery and cost savings associated with the fire truck possible. Chief Stone also shared that Stow has yet to decide of what we will do with the two older pieces of equipment that the new fire truck will be replacing. Though we have not decided for this equipment and have some time before the new equipment comes in, our Fire Department recently was able to donate some old rescue equipment that we had replaced with new equipment to a rural community in Kentucky that did not have access to this type of equipment on their own. It is great to hear that we can find these types of uses and help outfit another community that maybe are not as fortunate to have the equipment and funding that we do.
Council also approved for the posting of two new positions within the City, a Deputy Planning Director and Project Manager in our Information Services Department. These were both positions that the administration had requested as we discussed the headcount needed in our 2022 budgeting process. The new position in the IS department will be primarily dedicated to support the Safety Forces such as our police and fire departments. The Deputy Planning Director will work with Mr. Leppo in our planning department and hopefully this additional staffing will help us get a start on reviewing our overall planning and zoning code.
Last and certainly not least, Mr. McCleary updated Council on several pending grant applications his department had submitted to AMATS for future transportation projects. The total estimate for these projects is $9.5 million which would be shared 80% by state and federal funding and 20% from our local city funds. The projects included paving of Darrow Road, paving of Graham Road from 91 to Newcomer, Darrow Road sidewalk project phase 2 (addition of sidewalks on the opposite side of 91), and the Veterans Trail project which would extend the hike and bike trail from Barlow Road in Hudson to Springdale Road in Stow. These projects will begin planning phases and will not be immediately completed, but they will take place in the next few years and is a huge investment to improve our infrastructure while most of the cost is funded from outside sources. This allows us to stretch our local dollars to improve infrastructure that the City is 100% responsible for. Thanks to Mr. McCleary and the engineering department for their work on these proposals, the AMATS process is competitive, and their hard work earned these dollars being awarded to our city.
Stow City Council will meet next on Thursday February 10, 2022, with committees starting at 5:30 PM and Council beginning after the committees are complete.