Here are the details from last night’s meeting:
- The Mayor recommended his appointments to the SKiP Playground Committee, the recommendations were for the 9 current volunteer playground committee members. Based on the legislation for the council approved committee, 3 of the members have resigned from the arts commission to sit on the new SKiP Committee. We did not receive this information or the applications for council appointments until we were at the actual meeting so council agreed to review this after the next meeting once we had time to review. the information.
- The city currently owns a 55 acre piece of property in Franklin Township. This site previously had a well on it an the city purchased it as an backup for a potential water supply. The issue is, the property is landlocked and surrounded by other properties. In the past, a neighbor allowed the city access to this site in exchange for rights to use the property for recreational and hunting purposes. Based on legal changes in our city code, this would no longer be allowed. It was suggested that maybe this property be sold, however, we would have to review our obligations under our contract with the City of Akron where we get our current water supply before we could do this. Right now, this stayed in committee so the details can be further reviewed.
- Mr. Lowdermilk met with the administration to discuss the items approved by the Board of Control between $9,000 and $15,000. Majority of the items that were in this range were blanket orders for ongoing purchases made throughout the city. This item is still be reviewed to see if there is a better way to address the concerns but allow the administration to function without waiting on council approval for basic items.
- We head a presentation from the Akron-Summit County Energy Special Improvement District. This district would allow for commercial property owners to make energy improvements to their properties, which would be funded by the special improvement district and then repaid through a property assessment with their property tax. This is also a program that could expand to commercial properties in the future. I had a resident reach out and ask me about this several months ago so I researched it then and it is pretty low impact to the city and would allow for commercial owners, and potential residential property owners a way to fund energy projects for their homes without incurring additional debt. Other council members wanted time to review the information presented so this also stayed in committee.
- Car storage lot on Route 59, we had a second reading of this item last night. I had asked the law department to review the allowable uses in the I-1 Industrial District and we did not receive their opinion back on my question until late afternoon before the meeting so many council members did not have the time to review it prior to the meeting. I have looked it and do have a few additional questions I will be sending to the law department. This item will be voted on next council meeting.
- At the end of September the police department had the resignation of a police officer reducing our force to 41 officers so the approval to hire one officer and return our police force to 42 officers was approved.
Our next council meeting will be October 26, 2019. The public hearing for the Fox Den Golf Course will take place at 5:30 PM on October 26, 2019. I hope to see you there!