The Finance Department selected Jamie Twigg, the current Payroll Specialist in the City to fill the open Accounting & Records Supervisor position. Congratulations to Jamie on this promotion. This means the Finance Department is now looking to hire a Payroll Specialist in the Finance Department. Council also approved the hiring of a new Deputy City Engineer, Trevor Simpkins, who previously was an intern in the City of Stow before joining the Army. Trevor is finishing his degree in the next few weeks and will join the City full time after this graduation with a focus on stormwater projects.
The Police and Fire Departments both are currently recruiting candidates to fill open positions within their ranks. More information about the open positions can be found here: https://stowohio.org/employment-opportunities/
Council also confirmed two appointments, the appointment of Lynn Clancy to the Planning Commission representing Ward 1 and Elizabeth Kinsella to the Commission on Inclusion. Both had excellent backgrounds and I believe will be excellent additions to these boards and commissions. Congratulations to both Ms. Clancy and Ms. Kinsella!
Council also approved the purchase of a replacement snowplow for the City that will be replacing a 20 year old truck we currently own. These types of items are typically long builds, but it is expected we may have this one before next snow season based on a cancellation in the schedule by another purchaser. There has been a commitment by this Council to make sure we are planning for and making capital investments in vehicles and by replacing an older unit, the City will operate more efficient with hopefully less down time because of necessary repairs needed on older equipment.
And last but certainly not least, an update on the 2021 and 2022 road paving program.
The remaining 2021 road program items were being worked on this week, including Wyoga Lake and Bayside Lake. The 2021 program should be wrapped up in the next few weeks.
The 2022 road program for both concrete and asphalt were warded to Perrin Asphalt and they are expected to start working on this years program in early May. This is certainly the earliest the road program has started in recent years and it has been a priority of both Council and the Administration to be more proactive with our budget and bidding process to ensure that our road program is started early enough to be complete in the same year. The program this year requires the paving to be completed by September 2, 2022 or fines will occur for not meeting the deadline. The sidewalk program that was put in place last year is also expected to be very large this year and hopefully will clear up a lot of the backlog of heaved and damaged sidewalks in the City. The focus next year for the sidewalk program will be working on specific areas that need replacement, and hopefully to begin working on some areas were we have smaller areas missing sidewalks. Finally, before we put together our budget for 2023 the roads in the City will have undergone evaluation and receive updated ratings. This will allow the service department to prioritize the roads in worse conditions for the next year’s project.
Council will next meet on Thursday April 28th with Committees starting at 5:30 PM and Council to follow. Also, mark your calendar for Thursday May 5, 2022 at 6 PM at Council Chambers for the presentation of the Parks Master Plan.