The Council Meeting on Thursday had a very busy schedule with 5 committee meetings and a lengthy legislative agenda.
- Council proclamation recognizing Sgt. Steve Miller and K-9 Kado–in August Sgt. Miller and Kado responded to a request for an assistance by Richfield PD to help locate a woman who had been missing several days. Kado’s training lead the officers to a ridge locating belongings of the woman, after that she continued on taking officers up another ridge where they were able to safely locate the woman. This is a wonderful success story and shows the value our K-9 officers and handlers bring to our police force!
- Approval of 3 new developments in Stow
- The first approval was for a Summa Medical office building on Fishcreek Road (across from the Aldi). This had a first reading last month and after Summa met with several residents and residents expressed their concern to council the legislation was approved with an amendment requiring a fence along the east property line of the new Summa property. I think the compromise of the fence makes this an acceptable development to the residents and balances both property owner’s interests. This passed 5-1, Costello voted no
- Omni Stow Villas received approval to build several more buildings adjacent to their current development along Hudson Drive. This is the Vitalia Senior Community that opened earlier this year. This project is very similar to their current design and is an additional $5M investment. This passed 6-0.
- The final item was for a United Auto Wash next to Sheetz on Hudson drive. This legislation passed 4-3, myself, Mr. Rasor, and Mr. Lowdermilk voted no on this. It wasn’t the issue of the business, but the issue of traffic control and safety. Based on the location of the lot, this would require that it share a driveway with Sheetz and cars coming to the car wash would have to enter and exit through the Sheetz parking lot. I believe this could be a big traffic and safety issue on busy car wash days and have concerns with how the traffic control will work.
- Many contract renewals for 2020–there was approval for the medical insurance contracts, utilities contracts, and cell phone contracts for next year.
- Amendment of our parking code relating to fire hydrants–this was an item I proposed to create unity in our code that it shall be illegal to park on the fire hydrant side of ANY street, whether public or private. The prior legislation only include public streets. Since the purpose of this is for the safety and access of the fire department to access the fire hydrants the location on private or public street really shouldn’t matter. We also added language about how this would work in a cul-de-sac which will make it easier to follow and when necessary enforce for the police.
- Hiring approval for several upcoming retirements–in 2020 there will be several city employees retiring which will create openings in the following roles:
- Utility Billing Clerk II
- Economic Development Coordinator
- Parks Laborer II
- Golf Course Superintendent
Some other updates around the city:
- The leaf pickup schedule was 3 days behind as of last week but the crews were working over and during the weekend to try to get back on schedule. They are planning on doing District 3 for the 2nd pickup next week and District 1 will have a 2nd pickup the first week of December. These might be a few days behind but they will continue to pick up until the weather does not allow.
- Several items discussing re-zoning occurred at the last committee meeting, including some to conservation, which did not get moved on to council just yet.
- City Hall is decorating and gearing up for the return of holiday decorations and lights! On December 5th at 6 PM to 8PM the City will have a tree lighting ceremony and celebration. If you cannot make it on this date the lights will continue to be on during the month of December.
The final council meeting of 2019 will take place on Thursday December 12, 2019 at 7 PM. I will not be able to attend this meeting due to a prior work engagement.
The 2020 Planning Meeting will take place on January 2, 2020 at 8 PM, just prior to this meeting the new members of Council will be sworn in.